The greatest misery lies in being dependent upon others for our happiness

I was listening to a class 11th student of an English medium school. This boy was distressed at that moment of time and was seeking a solution to come out of his dilemma. His girlfriend was ignoring him since morning and that was causing anxiety in him. Well, it will not be wise to accuse this boy for his misery because emotional attachments do not listen to the rational logics and it does require a sheer will power to come out of strong emotions. The same boy  in his previous class had attempted to end his life due to a failed relationship. Can you as a reader somewhat relate to this story? You might not have taken a big step like him but how did it feel when things  did not go right in a relationship.

What are relationships? How many times did we pause and think about it?

Is relationship a transaction where I take something from someone and the other person does the same! Or , is it about adding meaning to someone's life?  How often did we think about adding meaning to someone's life? Moreover, what is meant by adding meaning to someone's life? Isn't it to find a meaning for our own life?   When we have a meaning and profoundness in our life, then we are not shaken to our roots by someone's acceptance or denial; even death of the dearest person does not shake us - on the other hand the separation and death help us to become more profound and deep. Out the depth of heart flows joy which overpowers every grief and rejection. A person with a meaning in his life is the most joyful and balanced man. Great Socrates once said, 'An Unexamined life is not worth living'. With this quote I want to leave the reader with a question -- Do you have a meaning and purpose in your life? If not, how do you think you can find one?

- Team Tvam India

Thanatophobia --- The fear of death

The fear of death is something that keeps on haunting almost all of us. The fear of losing someone who is very dear to us can really disturb us, moreover when we actually lose someone the challenge gets intensified all the more. Generally we tend to avoid this question by making ourselves busy with our day to day activities, but this questions is always lurking at the back of our minds. Does keeping our eyes closed to the problem solves the mystery? What we never stop and think is that are we really going to die? After all what is death? Is it really painful? Is it really horrifying? Here is a first hand experience of people who have seen death very closely. Do find some time to see this beautiful  video.

It is going to challenge our general perception about death and also about our life.

- Team Tvam India

Village Didsari - The Story on how it all began for Tvam - Continues - Few more steps..

The people of Village Didsari did managed to build a bridge on their own... but for how long.. The day finally arrived when their last hope finally got sunk in the river Bhagirathi - the temporary bridge which the villagers had made with great efforts collapsed on 9th May. A sad and unfortunate event for the village left all alone by our administration.

Interestingly, when these people made this bridge, the District Magistrate was concerned and was not willing to give his consensus to the villagers to build a bridge all by themselves. Oh dear Magistrate were you concerned about the safety of the villagers, according to you the temporary bridge might collapse and people using it might be vulnerable. But dear Magistrate did you ever bothered to help these people get a stable bridge? No.

Why were you sleeping for all this time? Natural calamity of June 2013 not only exposed the government and the bureaucratic system but it also exposed the maligned conscience of the people in authority.

Today when Harshit thought about these people who have maligned their conscience he wondered how they exist on this planet and moreover why they exist in first place. Harshit had no reasons to disbelieve that most of them must be having a pathetic family life.

The worst thing that can ever happen to a man is - 'living under fear'. By not fulfilling their responsibilities, government officials cause others to live under fear, however these officers are the ones who are under constant fear. What kind of life do they lead? After having worked so hard to acquire the position of importance they start selling their souls. Our entire bureaucratic system is designed to breed corruption..

After having lost their last hope the villagers continue to live in fear and in great inconvenience. The discomfort is extensive. Harshit went to this village once again, this time he had to take a longer trek. The purpose of this visit was to help these people know their rights, encourage them to raise their voice against the injustice. The night stay in this place is still vivid in his eyes. Stark dark and a starry night - with music of cricket and grasshopper falling in his ears from the jungle nearby. He was not allowed to move out of his room for a walk as villagers apprehended wild animals stalking near their homes.

Alas! these people's hard work becomes victim of wild animal attacks, just when the crop is ripe and is ready to harvest. He still recollects how at 1 am at night a girl fainted, she required immediate medical attention. She had to be carried on the back, for 7 kms in that dark night on a trek without street lights, without concrete and without mercy. This trek had a risk of stone pattering and is infested with wild animals. With what great risk, that girl was taken to the hospital. Is this the value of a citizen in India? He wondered..

To be continued...

Team Tvam India

Village Didsari - The Story on how it all began for Tvam - Continues further..

Village Didsari - The story continues further...

On his visit to Didsari Harshit realized that its time to make choices and either walk away or stand for the people in pain and he chose the latter. Realizing the limited means available to him in helping people he returned back to Dehradun and started work on a presentation to showcase the current situation of villagers. While he worked on his presentation and gather support for the village he got some good news from Didsari - The people of Didsari, Lonthro and Bayana manged to build a temporary bridge on their own. This effort relieved them from great inconvenience and discomfort though the relief was temporary. The bridge was one of the many things that needed attention in this area.

Harshit visited Didsari again in the middle of Jan 2014 and found that though the villagers now had a temporary bridge but it was nowhere safe.

Temporary Bridge created by Villagers

The bridge could collapse anytime and bring more casualties but right now this was all that the villagers had. Also apart from this bridge the villagers still did not had proper road or medical facility available nearby. It was a sorry state of affairs to see that the villages like Didsari, Lonthro and Bayana did not had a primary health care centre despite of whatever progress Uttarakhand government mentioned in news every now and then. With even the most basic necessities missing in this village, the only thing that Harshit didn't found missing was the determination, hope and a pure will of these villagers to make a difference.

For all the time that he spent in this village the question that kept on coming back to Harshit's mind was - "How can the so called officials appointed by the people of state to take care of their well being be so negligent about them?". India is a land where we all believe in the law of Karma but the question was - "Who's Karma is it that these people were in such a condition and what did they do to deserve such negligence?". After having a close encounter of their sufferings and sorrow all that Harshit strive to find was - "What is my Karma?. Is it a Karma to just be indifferent to the sufferings that lie right in front of your eyes, isn't it a Karma to do something and solve this and bring these people out of their sufferings and pain?".  Harshit determined himself and chose the latter and with great satisfaction.

On his short stay he spent most of his time conducting life skills sessions in a school in Gangori and then came back to Dehradun after taking few more interviews of locals and snapshots from that place. After returning back he made another video to confirm the change in village's conditions from Sep 2013 till Jan 15, 2013 and surprisingly the difference was... nothing.

It feels really sad to see that on one hand we all talk about progress and future while on the other hand our fellow citizens fight day and night just to cater their basic needs. How do we plan to progress when we have lost the very basics of humanity and seeing our fellow brothers and sisters suffer still cannot outrage us to do something good for them. We all must remember that we are no different than animals if we loose what we call as being human. We all have a heart that feels love but when did it turned into stone? In the race of earning money and lively comforts it seems we all forgot what it is to be human anymore and if that's so then we should feel sorry for ourselves.

Uttarakhand fought a battle of its Independence in past and finally became an independent state in the year 2010 to groom itself, bring equal opportunity and prosperity to its people but does all this sound anything like that?

A thought for all of us to think upon...

To be continued...

Team Tvam India

Village Didsari - The Story on how it all began for Tvam - Continued..

Village Didsari - The story continues...

After being tipped by a junior engineer in ITBP Harshit visited village Didsari to view an eye opening sequence of events. All that he could see was the heart wrenching aftermath of natural disaster. It didn't took much time to realize that It was the time to make choices - either to feel sad like everyone else or to stand for these people and moments later he chose the latter. With a camera at hand and a heart to help Harshit thought that the best he could do at the moment was to capture the true pictures of disaster and understand the situation; and so he started taking as many snaps of that place as he could and started interviewing the villagers. 

 After a detailed survey and having discussions with lots of villagers the fuzzy picture gradually started to clear. As he surveyed the place he discovered that most people were full of anger and resentment but at the same time they didn't knew how to solve their problem and whom to seek for help. Harshit at that time was not aware of the complicated bureaucratic system of his own country and hence did not have a concrete answer to deal with the situation. Nevertheless he had a very clear intention of doing something good for these villagers and give them a chance to bring change to their now almost ruined village.

 A bit of soul searching bought him to a place wherein he realized that if the intentions are true and pure then a way will be found.

 With not much ready-made help available for the villagers but a plan in mind Harshit left the place and came back to Dehradun to gather help for the helpless villagers. Once in Dehradun he never let go of Didsari village and his promise to be back with appropriate help and so he started working on a presentation to be shown on social media and while he was working on his presentation all that he could now feel was - that the unheard voices of these villagers should be heard so that the people in their comfort zone step forward to do something for their fellow citizens who were not as lucky as they were. 

 To be continued...

 Team Tvam India