My father, in the 90s, volunteered at an army cantonment area for health check-ups every Sunday. Once, as a kid, I even accompanied him to the Juvenile Delinquent center when he was called for a health emergency. These and other episodes in my childhood engrained in me the importance of community service. Globally, socioeconomic disparities are huge, thus, it is important to look after each other. However, our ambitions, personalities, upbringing etc. differentiate us from each other thereby making our communities complex.
Fast forward to the 3rd year of my college in Kanpur, my close friend asked me if I wanted to teach children from the Brick-kiln community. Parents of these children use to travel from one state to the other in search of livelihood, but an NGO in Kanpur made efforts starting in the late 80s, to reside their kids nearby Kanpur city and support studies. Only the founder knows the best! and since I had joined in 2007, a lot that went behind its journey was not known to me.
In 2007, I, along with a few of my batchmates, joined the NGO and started teaching kids different subjects such as accountancy, science, etc. which could benefit them in different ways. We use to miss our classes and go to construction sites near IIT campus to attend to many youngsters. This activity was also about breaking the inertia within, as I had to clear my mind to make them and myself feel at home. Soon, I also got involved in a volunteer-run health center that provided medicines to nearby villages at a low cost. How our mind works: When we distributed medicines for free, nobody accepted it. Later, we decided to sell for a small fee and soon the people started flocking in! We regularly segregated expired medicines from fresh ones to make sure that any service we provide, reaches maximally to the needy.
During 2008, I also came to know about the hostel where children use to stay. One of the children, from the NGO, had a hole in her heart and so tremendous efforts were made to make her live long. My friends helped get funds for her treatment and in the meantime, we wrote to various big hospitals across India for her treatment. Finally, we decided on one of the best heart hospitals in Bangalore. But, the catch was to take the child safely to Bangalore from Kanpur. We figured out that the best way is for her to reach Delhi and from there, fly to Bangalore. But since the child had no government id, there was no way we could let her fly to Bangalore. Thus, I don’t recall who, but someone suggested getting an official’s signature on a govt letterhead approving her for the flight travel. So through some sources, we finally got the approval letter and flew to Bangalore. In Bangalore, my sibling helped us stay for a day, following which we went to the hospital. It was a huge hospital with a lot of complexities, and so it took a while for us to accommodate. But, a friend of our NGO had a contact in that hospital who helped us with the initial paperwork after which we discussed her case with the cardiologist. Her operation went well and the girl who was then supposed to live for a few months, went on to live for another 5 years. I was in the US when my close friend shared the news that she had passed away. I don’t recall the reason, but it was a medical complication that had resulted in her fatality.
Being from the first batch of our department to graduate from IIT Kanpur in 2008, we also dedicated a scholarship to the students of our almamater. With input from our faculties, the scholarship scheme became a reality and is awarded to a few students from the 3rd/ 4th year of B.Tech. When the whole discussion of initiating the scholarship was going on, I was already residing in Hyderabad. Through my NGO at Kanpur, I found another NGO in Hyderabad where I taught kids every weekend. Once, I also collected loads of medicines (free of cost) from my workplace and gave it to the NGO for their usage. I was associated with the NGO until I moved to Buffalo, NY for my PhD.
I have shared my PhD experience at Buffalo in another blog, however, what I did besides science is something I am sharing here. The very next day after reaching Buffalo, I went to Roswell Park Cancer Institute for community service. It was an interesting activity, as many people were involved in identifying loopholes on the roads and sidewalks in order to assist disabled people navigate the downtown area. We walked around identifying mistakes and collected all the information on maps, which was then shared with the authority.
I was lucky to be in Buffalo as I started looking for NGOs around and found the very famous Association for India’s Development (AID) group. You can imagine the impact of AID by just knowing the fact that its founder was the inspiration behind the famous Shahrukh Khan-led movie “Swades”. The Buffalo chapter had been active for many years and I got to know some very nice people. I learned its functioning and proposed to add Kanpur NGO as a project. Infact, through contact in India I found out about an upcoming grassroot level US-based NGO, seeyourimpact, which helped sponsor the Kanpur NGO. This helped build a long-term partnership between AID and Kanpur NGO which still persists. Apart from volunteering for AID Buffalo, I also got involved in a couple of local Indian-american groups which helped us get more visibility in the coming years. Annually, we volunteered at Buffalo Reuse, Homeless Shelter, Republic Day event, Independence Day event, Farm-service, etc. It was a fun time along with my PhD, which gave me a feeling of being at home away from my home.
Fast forward to today, it’s been 8 years since I left Buffalo and although I am part of the Kanpur NGO online group but have stopped volunteering for NGOs physically due to various reasons. I still financially support child education and, currently, I am supporting an NGO in Hyderabad that works for the upliftment of disabled children and provides elderly care.