More than a month’s time had passed since nature’s fury hit parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It took some time for us to directly establish contact with people who knew villagers affected by flood, collect funds and decide on the place where our relief and rehabilitation efforts can be channelized. Our purpose was clear – choose a place, if there is, where even basic immediate relief like food and water has not reached and render our service to them. We came to know of a similar place near Gulbarga (600km from Bangalore) and so we decided to do our service there. After conveying the message to Mr. Mahaling, our contact person who would be assisting us in Gulbarga about our intentions, I set out, on behalf of Saktyavesh, on 06th November 2009, carrying Rs 34,000 in cash, in bus (VRL)
Day 1 - The bus reached Gulbarga around 9:30am. I checked into a lodge, refreshed myself, had breakfast and contacted Mr. Mahaling to know the time and venue for us to meet. We met around 10:00am in his office. Being our first meeting in person we introduced ourselves, our work to each other. Then we went to a super market to look for bed sheets. This super market is being run by Mr. Mahaling as part of his non-profit organization. Here women, who are left out by their husband’s are provided an opportunity to be financially independent by producing, marketing goods, mostly for women and also handicrafts
Mr. Mahaling and I sat down to make a list of items which can be given to the flood affected population. The food habits of the population in this part of the world are different and hence we were careful to incorporate those items as part of the package which we intended to give. We then visited a Wholesale shop for the purchase. We re-visited our list (list of items which we prepared) with the help of the shop keeper to know if there were any other food items which the local population would prefer. After listening to the shopkeeper we dropped out wheat and increased the quantity of rice. Our budget being Rs 34K, we asked the shop keeper to prepare 23 packages – each package containing 10Kg Jowar, 5Kg, Rice, a packet of Tea, little sugar, etc… We paid the bill, Rs 26,496 and took his assurance for the delivery of these items early next morning (07th November 2009) by 10:00am. We then contacted a person who had a carrier vehicle, checked if he could help us transport these items. He agreed and our next stop was the District Collector’s office
Time was around 5:30pm by now. It was the first time I was visiting a Collector’s office and I was apprehensive of the reception we would have. Mr. Mahaling knew a person in the Collector’s office and he took us to the Collector’s chamber and explained the purpose of our visit. The Collector, Mr. R. Vishal, then informed us about a village, near Javeri, approximately 70 km from Gulbarga where there was a similar need. We thanked the Collector and moved on. We were asked to provided a letter of our purpose officially. We got back to Mr. Mahaling office got the letter and returned to the Collector’s office. Time being 6:00pm, the Collector had left but luckily we met the Deputy Collector. We submitted our formal letter to him. The Deputy Collector looked at the letter, called the Tahsildar of Javeri, informed that the next day we would be visiting the place with relief. The Deputy Collector also gave the contact number of the Tahsildar of Javeri to us and informed that for smooth handover of relief materials the affected families would be asked to come to Tahsildar’s office and collect the relief. We collected the acknowledgement letter from him and returned back for the day, hoping for a smooth next day
Day 2 – Accompanied by another helper, I went to the Wholesale shop around 11:00pm where we had ordered for provisions and there the provisions were ready. We waited for the transport to arrive. It was not until 12:30pm that the transport, a TATA ACE goods carrier arrived. I enquired the reason for his being late and got to know that inspite of the agreement for Rs 600 for the trip, he was reluctant to come and hence made us wait. Not wasting any time, we quickly loaded the relief on the truck and reached the office of Mr. Mahaling. There the bed sheets arrived. As we had cash balance we purchased a few more bed sheets. With 23 packages of provisions, 29 bed sheets of two different types, we departed from Gulbarga for Javeri. It took us an hour to reach Javeri where we were joined by a few helping hands and together we reached the Tahsildar’s office around 2:30pm. We expected people to stand there as the Deputy Collector had said that the people would come there. But the Tahsildar informed us that we can go to the village directly and give the relief ourselves
We set out for the Village, “Biral (k)”, which is another 25km from Javeri. In between the village accountant accompanied us to take us to the families. While we were travelling, the clouds were opening up and we quickly covered the relief with the tarpaulin and moved on. When we reached the village, the village accountant called for the 15 families who were flood hit. On enquiring from the village accountant we got to know that these people are daily wage earners who work in the fields to have their livelihood. One person from each family came and collected the relief. In cases where there was no representative from a family (as they had gone to work in the fields) to collect the relief, the village accountant would convey the message and have them collect the next day. The remaining 8 packages would be distributed among few more households which were similarly affected
Care was take that there was no commotion or chaos and the people were informed that these were for them and that they had to share and use it among themselves. The village accountant informed us that there were few more families whose houses were damaged and they would be asked to collect the remaining relief. We thanked the village accountant, the people, talked to the people, took a few snaps and returned back (While being happy we only hope that the rest of the relief reach the right hands). In total we had spent Rs 33,296 (Rs 26,496 for food packages, Rs 5700 for bed sheets, Rs 1000 for transport, Rs 100 labor help)
It is a satisfying feeling to know that we accomplished the task we had set out for. A beautiful feeling not just because we should be happy doing it or we should take pride in it but because this was the need of the hour, because we should not and cannot ignore our fellow brethren’s suffering. True Human Will has the power to do this and beyond
