17th May, 2014
Finally the agreement between Me and the NGO, Educate Girls has been made and we are now ready to take on the journey together.
But as someone rightly said, its a long way to the top., well in this case bottom all the way to South pole. Jokes apart, we have decided to take this swim for a cause because I wanted my efforts to mean something to people who need hope to keep their dreams alive.And when i heard that out of 27 districts in India where girls have never seen the face of a school, 9 are in Rajasthan itself, I was completely taken aback.
The NGO is only 5 years old but they have gone door-to-door and have successfully enrolled so many girls into schools. But Delhi abhi Door hai. We are only talking about these students getting education upto 8th standard, what about higher secondary? what about colleges? There is not even proper infrastructure for all these things in most parts of our country.
But we can do what we can do. And what we can do here is to show we care. These children are not the responsibility of Govt. alone, they are the future of a place we so proudly like to call our nation. And if we want to see our future rotting in illiteracy, I don't see why we deserve the pride to be called an Indian. It pains me to see the amount of ignorance we all live in today's era of "information" and "technology". The pain and disappointment only grows when we approach people to discuss the project and the least we expect from them is a reply to emails or messages, but you won't believe how hard those are to come by.
Yes, we need money. we need money for the swim and we need money for the NGO to keep doing what they are great at. M.O.N.E.Y. then becomes the sole entity and people conveniently shut their eyes to the entire project. What i fail to explain to them is that it is not about the money. It is about all of our existence as a human being and the power with each one of us to bring a change. And sometimes all we need to do to make a change is to open our mouth and talk. OK I approach you to help me on this project and you are not capable, so all you have to do is suggest me somebody who is or talk to the people you know about it. If everybody starts doing only this much, change is inevitable whithin you and in the society. You don't have to be rich to help,you have to care to help.
I came across many people who have reached certain heights in theie personal/professional lives and now have become as unapproachable as the almighty itself. It pains to see that they have forgotten their own struggles and times when they needed someone's help. We are facing a hard time right now arranging this entire event and a lot of disappointments come across everyday. But we are not stopping, not yet, not ever. I always believe that you have to be a little crazy to do great things in life and being crazy means never giving up.
So if you think you have that elemnt of crazy inside you, please join hands with us. Spread the message. Dream with us and believe in it. There is somebody out there whose life you can change. You have the power, wake up to it!
Keep Dreaming!
