on 2nd birthday
ON SECOND BIRTHDAY
Two years back, on this day jagriti was born. More than anything, it has been a journey, journey full of sacrifices, roadblocks, rebukes, rebuttals, snubs, rivalry, jealousy. But more than that, it has been a journey of my incompetent self.
This journey has made me strong. I learnt to take take risks.
To be honest i am not a born social activist. My notions of poverty and social structure can at best be labelled as average. Neither me nor anyone from my family is formally trained or for that matter inclined towards all this stuff called social service. Although during the last two years considerable time was spent in shuttling between Aligarh and Kairana, still i managed to keep a good record of happenings and incidents. Here, on the second anniversary of JAGRITI I will try to recall the most defining moments of the last two years. Point to be noted is that most of the events actually happened well after the formal establishment of JAGRITI. But we are still in our infancy as an organisation and I don’t feel any shame or reluctance in admitting that except the formation of core ideology we are still on a learning platform.
1. MEETING HARSH MANDER: MY HERO
For the beginners, Harsh Mander is a social activist working for minority rights, rights of poors and women. He also writes regularly on these topics and is a voice that is heeded even in government circles and bureaucracy. On 16 september, 2009 (2 months after the beginning) the bureaucrat (IAS, resigned after Gujarat riots of 2002) delivered a lecture at the Arts faculty of Aligarh Muslim university .the event coincided with the release of his book FEAR AND FORGIVENESS:THE AFTERMATH OF MASSCARE. The bald man spoke softly mixing English and hindi. By any standards he was an average speaker. I listened spellbound. the stories of widows of Sikhs killed in anti sikh riots of 1984 in delhi ,the behaviour and interaction of majority and minority community after the godhra riots and the cheap and narrow mentality with which people in power behaved and were behaving ,all that shook me. That day i decided to include COMMUNAL HARMONY in the domain of JAGRITI.
2. FIRST GBM: JAGRITI FORMAL INTRODUCTION
23 september,2009.It was a fine Wednesday evening .Only 11 people attended. and none of the co founders was there. Nothing significant happened apparently .but as they say a small step for man but a giant leap for mankind. Today when I saw the meeting attendance it gave a very satisfying feeling that 7 out of those 11 have played key roles in taking the organisation forward.
3. HOLI MILAN: MEETIING OLD PALS AND SENIORS
The party went on till late in the evening. I was the host and the gathering was characteristicallyJAGRITIsed , a careless mix-up of Hindus and Muslims. But there was something more than that-all of the presentees were professionals or students studying in different cities of India, full of energy and ideas. I FELT SUCCESSFUL FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!
4. ADMISSION DRIVE: INTRODUCTION WITH REAL CONDITION OF FELLOW CITIZENS
My notions of class, caste, poverty and richness took a sharp turn during those 7 days. It was summer and the toughest task was to go out every day to different areas of town, often on foot. That was a really difficult time for me. To be frank I had not expected such a degenerated scenario. There were rich unwilling people and there were poor willing people and there were poor unwilling and suspicious people. How will you ask a 20 year old widowed ,working, mother of four to get her eldest daughter admitted to primary school, when the rented house they were living in didn’t even have a properly covered room. The only furniture in the house was a cot and as we learnt later, even that was arranged for our visit.
Then there was the thatched hut of Manoj, a Hindu dalit in aldarmiyan area of kairana. His wife also offered a similar type of broken , disfigured cot, the only furniture that the family owned. Again the same difficulty: how, in what manner should I mention the word education for her 3 children Deepak , Sagar, and Vishal when father is terminally ill and unable to venture out. Deepak and Sagar would go to a brick kiln as a daily wagers with their mother and and 6 year old Vishal would stay back at home to take care of ailing father and a house without walls or any gate. Life was a bounded routine for all of them and there was no space for any new indulgence that does not yield bucks. For the first time, I FELT HELPLESS. I FELT LIKE CRYING.AND THEN I PRAYED. ALMIGHTY listened to us.2 of them are in school now obviously on JAGRITI EXPENSES.
5. JAGRITI WEEK: FIRST STEP IN CO-CURRICULAR
First of its kind in the town an inter school level of competition of this big magnitude was organised. And do you know how many were involved in the real field execution????Only 5 members,Hammad, Vandana, Gaurav, Saleem and Atif beside me. We were inexperienced, technically handicapped , financially compromised and physically exhausted. And believe me THAT WAS A SUCCESS!!! If getting almost 1000 entries for evaluation in various competitions like essay, quiz poster and debate WITHIN 4 DAYS is not success i don’t what is. It happened because we all believed that we are doing something selflessly something good.
TO BE CONTINUED...........
FARAZ BADAR
JAGRITI SEVA SANSTHAN
KHAIL KHURD, KAIRANA
