Serving the nation
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Cometh the hour, cometh the man. U.S.-educated engineers like Balaji Sampath, .nd their calling in development work in their homeland.
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"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." — Mahatma Gandhi
IT IS with these words that Ashutosh Gowariker starts `Swades,' India's first mainstream commercial film with its heart in the right place, when it talks about brain drain. Yes, you've heard about Shah Rukh Khan's realistic portrayal of Mohan Bhargava, the project manager working with NASA on Global Precipitation Measurement, who comes back to India, only to face the ground realities.
Shah Rukh's was just a role, a performance. But there have been more inspiring performances and roles played by real life heroes — Indians who went abroad and actually returned home to make it a better place.
"Balaji Sampath to me is much more than Mohan Bhargava," says Sudarshan Suresh, an engineering student currently in California, United States. "An IIT-JEE No.4, finishes his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, at the age of 24 and decides to head back home to work on developmental initiatives centered around education and health. His work is nothing short of stellar," says Sudarshan.
Balaji, one of the leaders of the Association of Indians for Development (AID) movement, is currently somewhere along the districts worst-hit by the tsunami, setting up a system which will attend to 10 lakh families in the next six months. "From relief to rehabilitation," Balaji said, before he left.
It turns out that while scripting `Swades,' Ashutosh and his team visited Bilgaon, a tribal village in the Narmada valley where AID supported a power generation project to light up the entire hamlet. Ashutosh visited Bilgaon after spending considerable time with AID Jeevansaathis, Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, who returned to India from the U.S. to work for rural development and were closely involved with the Bilgaon project.
The people of Bilgaon did 2000 person-days of `shramdaan' (labour) to make their village-energy self-sufficient. (http://www.aidindia.org/projects/illus/pedal.htm)
Times of tragedy and disaster are a true test of character. When social workers from all over the country rushed to the coastal areas to help people out of troubled waters, post-Tsunami, hope surfaced for thousands.
Though there are quite a few institutions which train students in social work and development initiatives, this is one discipline that calls for one simple qualification: the desire to serve.
Post Script:
The Madras School of Social Work, Stella Maris College, DG Vaishnav College and Centre for Social Initiative and Management, in the city have courses where students put in hours of field work.
Sudhish Kamath
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