‘Oh, it’s inky darkness.’ A scream from the dark.
Someone lit a lamp.
‘What an unbearable stink’. Another helpless scream.
Someone came from nowhere and cleaned.
All corruption’.
Someone blows the whistle.
‘I’m lost’.
Someone shows the way.

Who is this Someone?

A winged fairy from the Blue?
An Alien from the Vacuum?
None. That Someone is one among us.
They are blessed with immeasurable courage. Embellished with the commitment to serve the society. Endowed with the noble thoughts  to spread awareness towards cleaning the environs around them with their in genuine and innovative thoughts.
For every member of the society, it’s the minimum responsibility to honor these selfless souls. It’s heartening to know that
scores of Corporate bodies are coming forward to recognize , reward and respect these selfless souls.
Now that  with the starting of New year, let’s recall the services of some selfless souls, who strived to awaken us and paved the way for a better tomorrow.

The fearless traveler.

That was a remote village in the Warangal district of AP. Jyoti Reddy’s Parents were so poor that they could not afford to educate her. Jyoti, out of desperation, lied that she was motherless to get seat in an orphanage. She succeeded in studying up to High school studies. Then all her hopes to continue education further have come to a grinding halt.

She had to marry at the age of sixteen. Had become a mother at seventeen. Another child immediately followed. Poverty too laughed at her plight. No enough milk to feed her children. No money even to buy cow’s or a buffalo’s milk.
At this crucial stage, Jyoti contemplated to put an end to her life. But her helplessness made her more stronger. She decided to fight her way. With her confidence, she has decided to erase her limits and limitations.

With her two children held in both hands and a bundle of her cooking utensils, stepped in to the outside world.

Jyoti enhanced her educational qualifications in due course and earned a job. But , it has not satisfied her. Her deep rooted desire to achieve her goals, prompted her go up and up in her life did not desert her.

With a visitor’s visa, Jyoti boarded the plane to USA.
It took no time to realize that her present qualifications were of no use. She got a small job in a cassette selling outlet. At the
same time, she started honing up her skills. For that extra buck, Jyoti worked as a room cleaner in a hotel. Simultaneously, by
improving relations with others managed a job in a Human resources organization.

Her hard work and strong will paid her rich dividends over a period.
Today, Jyoti owns a firm that deals with Human resources.

‘My strong desire to win is the secret of my success’, says Jyoti Reddy.

Epitome of determination.

We see and appreciate a soft silk saree of its beauty. We think of its comfort who wears it.

We see a beautiful mansion and look at it with awe. But Sarojamma sees beyond the obvious. She sees and thinks of those hands which lent that extra zing to the outward appearance to a saree or a mansion. And she sees those innumerable hands big and small that work day in day out to add the glitz and glam to that particular object.

Magadi, a place located at 70 Kilometers from Bengaluru, Karnataka, is known for its silk industry. Amazingly that entire silk
industry is filled with Child labor. The children who work to earn bread and butter do not have any fixed working hours. They do not have even the minimum living conditions.And the wages, these children earn are less than meager.

And these atrocities towards these little children are taking place unabated with the knowledge and blessings of bureaucrats to political leaders. But no one opens their mouth. No one protests. Because it is a Mafia.

Seeing the plight of the children working at Magadi silk industry, who are deprived of their  bliss  of childhood, who are carrying heavy loads of silk bundles, who are supposed to have that shine in their eyes,Sarojamma, an ordinary woman was moved by the hardships of the tender hearts.

Sarojamma questioned the authorities. She questioned the unjustified exploitation of the children. She gathered the support of like minded people and fought with the strong and evil system.
Her agitations created ripples and tremors in the system. As a result, more than 100 silk manufacturing units were shut down. 3000 child laborers were freed from the clutches of bonded labor. But, who is going to look after their welfare after the children who were relieved from the clutches of bonded labor?

Chiguru Bal Vikas Sansthan.

In order to look after the welfare of all those children, relieved from the clutches of bonded labor. Sarojamma started an
orphanage.

Chiguru Bal Vikas Sansthan, has become a nerve center for fighting against the exploitation of children, children rights and abolition of bonded labor.
In this process, Sarojamma’s husband has become a victim of Mafia’s attack. But she never back tracked from her mission to
protect the children.
For Sarojamma, children are her world and everything.

Campaign against the chemical monsters.

With the increasing acid attacks over the innocent girls by sadists, a group named ‘Stop Acid attacks’ came in to existence to put an end to the dreadful attacks on the innocent girls.
In the present scenario of the society, where it’s not difficult to procure fire arms, there is no difficulty absolutely in procuring a bottle of acid. Nobody knows when an acid attacker pounces on a girl. It may be a bus stop. It may be in the college campus, canteen or even in a cinema hall. There need not be any reason for these ghastly and inhuman attacks which disfigure the innocent girls making their lives miserable as long as they live.

Stop Acid Attacks

An institution rose up to put an end to the atrocities perpetrated by the monsters in the form of humans.
It not only injects courage and confidence in to the lives of the acid attack victims, but also extends help from providing medical facilities to fight legal battles. With the advent of ‘Stop Acid Attacks’, the Apex court put a curb on the acid sales in the market.

“ we are not the accused. We are the victims. We don’t mind if we are not honored. But , please don’t hate us. Don’t victimize
us” said Lakshmi, a member of the ‘Stop Acid Attacks, ‘on the platform of CNN- ABN , that moved all.
 

Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, the first rural financial institution in India.

A woman’s sincere efforts to empower the women resulted in the formation of Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, a regulated cooperative bank run by the women for the women in the year 1997 in the state of Maharashtra.

Ideas born from distressing conditions.

Chetna is not a stranger to protests and agitations for just causes. She was born and brought up in Mumbai. As a student, she
participated and led many movements. After receiving her degree in economics, married a farmer from Maswad. Her fighting
nature did not diminish even after her marriage. Maswad is a village with very low rate of literacy. After her arrival, village
women used to approach Chetna for advice. Especially when the village women were in need of a bank loan or filing an
application in some office.To meet the financial requirement of village women, Chetna thought of setting up a cooperative Bank. The idea was welcomed by the poor village women. Village women, under the leadership of Chetna subscribed money within their capacity and made a fund.

With this collected amount,
Chetna applied to the Reserve Bank Of India seeking permission to set up a cooperative bank exclusively for women.

Thumb impression was the hurdle.

Chetna’s application seeking permission to set up a cooperative bank for women was flatly refused by the RBI. The reason was, one of the members, had put her thumb impression instead of signature. Stating this as the reason for the refusal of
permission to set up a cooperative bank for women, the RBI has returned the application.

This infuriated Chetna. She with the women went to the office of Reserve bank in Mumbai.

Illiterates, but not fools.

Chetna argued with the officials of the Reserve Bank, saying that the village women may be illiterates. But they are not fools.
The women are ready to face any test to prove that they do not lack intelligence, needed to manage their lives.
As said by Chetna, all the women who accompanied her tested by the officials of RBI. All of them answered instantly , what is a Kilogram ,all its related units their conversions and many mathematical calculations that they encounter in their day to day
activities.

RBI yielded at last.

The RBI was more than convinced with the arguments of Chetna. They had no other way but to accord permission to set up a
cooperative bank exclusively for women.

Efforts paid rich dividends.

Owing to the untiring efforts of Chetna and the village woman Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank came in to existence in the year 1997. It has not just restricted to financial activities only. With an objective of teaching the women, the ways to earn livelihood and to make them aware of different earning possibilities, 'Chetna Mobile Business school' was started.
This mobile school goes to different villages and impart practical knowhow about tailoring, ways to feed the cattle and making
of different handicrafts.

As a result, many women have started earning money on their own. Those women who want to buy property are provided the loan facilities with a low interest rates.
Women resorted to save every pie in a big way. The value of saving was fully digested by the village money. About 6000 women succeeded in acquiring their own property. About 2,00000 women have their own Bank accounts.
The efforts of Chetna paid rich dividends. Today, village women are no more depending on their spouses. They are not
distressed by their abject poverty. With self reliance and self confidence, these once helpless women started living a dignified
life.

A solid support to the farmer.

Ranjan Sharma, with his long experience of 27 years in the sphere of fertilizer industry had an opportunity to study the farmer from close proximity. Despite the fact that Indian farmer has all the requisites to grow rich crops, why he is failing to achieve its potential to the fullest ? This was the question that plagued Ranjan Sharma and prompted him to resign from his lucrative job. 

After studying the situation supported by several interactions with the farmers, he could find the reason for the bad plight of the Indian farmer. The reason was ‘the information divide’ in rural India.
He has decided to use the services of IFFCO, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperation and the cell phone services of Bharti Airtel. Ranjan Sharma added his thoughts, network and technology that resulted in the formation of IKSL. IFFCO Kissan
Samachar Limited.
Within a span of 2 years, IKSL spread to 19 states.

How IKSL, IFFCO Kissan Samachar Limited  works.

IKSL sends voice messages about the regional weather conditions, information pertaining to the cost of agricultural products, ways to save the crops from crop damaging insects, skills in cattle rearing, government policies pertaining to agriculture daily.
Besdes the above information, farmers will be informed about the availability of power and the timings of releasing of the water before hand.
For this facility, what all the farmer has to do is  fix a ‘Green SIM card in their respective cell phones. Voice messages will enable the farmers to get the information without any education or literacy.
In addition, a call center to clear the doubts of the farmers is also set up. The call center will take the help of experts in the field of agriculture. In some states where the government support is there for IKSL, farmers are getting the services free.

Where there is no such provision, farmer has to pay a nominal charge to get the services of IKSL.

A spark of fire.

In the view of many of us, there are two kinds of people. People with vehicles with a Red beacon light and people without vehicles without a bleeping  Red beacon light.

But, in the view of Haryana cadre IAS officer Rajani, there are two kinds of people. Honest and dishonest people. The government of Haryana issued a notification to recruit  about 3000 teachers. And conducted written tests. Rajani, the concerned IAS officer made a list of all the successful candidates and presented it to the government. But the politicos changed the list. Entirely a new list of candidates was made. The basis of selection was not based on merit, but on  parochialism and bribes.
The politicos were led by none other than, the son of the chief minister. But, Rajani did not yield to the pressure. She flatly refused to change the names of the candidates who were selected on the basis of merit .

Naturally the inevitable happened. Rajani was threatened with dire consequences including a transfer to a remote place. Rajani made herself ready for a transfer.

One day before her transfer, she  picked the list of successful candidates made by her, covered with a cloth and kept in her bureau  and locked securely.
Despite all her efforts, the politicos went ahead and selected their own candidates.
But, no one can suppress the truth. Somehow, the original list of successful candidates made by Rajani came in to light after some time.  The real eligible candidates took the help of court. After taking many turns, the court pronounced  the government as the culprit.

Today, the then chief Minister of Haryana and his son are counting the bars of the prison cell.

Modern Satyagraha.

For those who resign to the fate, ‘All the doors are closed.’
For those who dare to grapple with the situation and decide to fight, everything is open and the solutions to the problems will stand before them.
As a community responsibility  to do something good for the society, Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati came back to India
relinquishing highly lucrative jobs in foreign countries. They found that out of 100 rupees, the government is spending towards the welfare schemes of the people, not even 10 rupees are reaching the people.

The couple turned their attention to this disparity and decided to deal with it. For this, Ramesh and Swati selected Bangalore as their stage.

The couple decided to take the issue to the public and started working in that direction. The movement was appropriately
named as .”Prajagraha” or the ire of the public.
They considered each ward as a unit and turned their attention towards the expenditure on the roads, water supply, hygienic
conditions and other amenities. Corporators were made a part of this movement.

In order to make the youth as partners in this endeavor and to create awareness on the worth and value of ‘Vote’, a movement known as ,”Jago Re” was started.

A web site, ‘I paid bribe.com’ created by Janaagraha was made a platform for those who were forced to bribe to get their jobs
done. The aggrieved can post their grievance in the site.
Another website started by Janaagraha,’ I Change My City.com ‘ was made a platform for registering the people’s grievances.
Janaagraha will take the problems registered by the people to the concerned authorities and demand for a solution.

A Social Entrepreneur.

We know that People do business for making profits.  Vinod Khosla is different. He started a business with the sole intention of  solving the societal problems, through which people can be benefitted.  For this, Khosla devised a ‘Plan-B’for the Generation next. His business is finding an alternative to the traditional and established ways like Alternative medicine, Alternative fuel. Alternative energy sources etc.
Just think, how much we are spending for a Kilo of mutton. We are spending 7.5 Kilos of grainy fodder, and 7000 liters of water. This small example throws light on the losses we are incurring. Khosla asks us, ‘Can’t we produce such a cattle that consumes little fodder and less water?’.

Medical treatment should not always revolve around Doctors and medicines alone. The patient has to be provided with those products which create awareness towards the patient’s health and medicines. And Khosla adds, the patient should have the courage to ask the doctor the necessity of a particular treatment advised by the doctor.

Khosla dared to walk on the path where angels fear to tread.

To achieve his Mission, Khosla never feared to walk on the path where even angels fear to tread. He knows that he has chosen a venture ridden with risks. He has already invested Rs. 8100 crores in his ‘Khosla Ventures’ to find out alternative solutions for all the traditional methods. He Is fully aware of the fact that such ventures have a heavy risk of failure.

In his own words, ‘I don’t mind to lose my investment. Still even if I achieve just 10 percent success that helps bringing a change in the society, I consider myself as successful.’

Khosla’s Message.

‘Every problem should be treated as an opportunity. Fail at the earliest, so that you can have more time to explore other avenues. Think about those things on which you have faith and confidence. If you don’t have confidence and faith on your own beliefs, even the best of the thoughts will fall flat.’

Every cloud has a Silver lining.

Two Mendicants were cleaning their begging bowls sitting on a river bank. One of them has seen a scorpion getting washed away in the current of the river. The mendicant has carefully held the scorpion and dropped it in his begging bowl. The other
mendicant reprimanded him for saving the scorpion, knowing well that it is venomous and harmful.

But the first mendicant did not pay his attention to the first mendicant’s warning. The inevitable happened. The poisonous scorpion stung him and made its escape.

The first mendicant asked him. ‘Knowing well that it stings, you saved its life. What’s the wisdom behind it?’
‘Because, as a human, it’s my duty to protect helpless.’ the other mendicant replied

True. Because, we are surrounded in all directions by Bad, there is no use of not thinking about Good. Seeing the wickedness
in the world, it’s of no use to stop thinking about Honesty. It’s also true that there is an alarming increase in corruption and
sinister politics around us. But amidst these evils, there are rays of change also. As an indication to the arrival of Change in the society, some selfless souls are surfacing.
In order to enter in to the new year with hope, we have to see these Rays of change emanating from the blue. We have to see
them as the driving force to enter in to a new world of Hope.