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Say yes to Gandhigiri

The GeneratioNext is gung ho about Gandhigiri as they take up development projects, finds SYEDA FARIDA

MAKING A CHANGE Twin cities youth take up development for Gandhi Jayanti

Come October 2, a group of young businessmen, software professionals, doctors and scientists will be working in Rasoolpura, on adding three more classrooms to a government school, sponsoring nine teachers for the school and cleaning up the surroundings in an anti garbage dumping drive, as part of a greater holistic development vision for the locality. "We have adopted Rasoolpura, our flagship project, where we will be working in areas of education, livelihood, healthcare, water, environment and sanitation. We will be working in more core areas, with an aim that the overall quality of life is bettered in five years from now. We work on our development project from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and after our office hours," says Abdul Mujeeb Khan, president Bhumi, an e-group for change.

On the same day Udit Bhandari launches a first car pool drive nationwide. "Traffic will become a crisis sooner or later if we don't wake up to the fact. There are many benefits of car-pooling. Reducing global warming for one. In the West there are separate lanes for high occupancy vehicles. Gandhi Jayanti is an auspicious occasion to get the concept across to people," he says. A car rally buff, Udit is fulltime with the URL www.indimoto.com promoting the concept much in need today. Big cars occupy road space, and throw around opulence he says as he advocates simple living of the Mahatma underlying the drive.

It did not take a Lage Raho Munna Bhai to bring in a little Gandhigiri into their lives. But it sure has made the Gandhism cool with the GeneratioNext.

This year, more so, the thinking is `if Munna Bhai can, why cant we.' King Martin Luther and the Mahatma are still the heroes with the Gen X who are vocal against the corrupt babus and keen to borrow a frame or two from the film. That Satyagraha still makes sense, is the buzzword.

Constructive demonstrations and making a change are terminologies that youth today are following with élan.

"There are many ways of succeeding in goals aimed for the larger good. There are things to be done that you know sooner or later people will follow," says Mujeeb. Having taken up government schools as part of their project, next on the agenda is to ensure that drop out rates come down. "Our aim is to see that quality of education in these schools improve and offer the children in slums alternate world view, a mentoring programme," he says. And the feeling cuts across borders.

This Gandhi Jayanti, The CVRF-ATA Annual Youth Leadership Awards moves into its fourth year. The merit awards were instituted in memory of Captain R.V.R Reddy of the twin cities who died in July, 2002 as he lead his troops in an operation against terrorists holed up in a V.I.P. Residential complex in Rajouri District, Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Gandhian philosophy is as relevant in the modern context as it was during the pre-independence era. I believe that one can reside outside India and still be very much Indian at heart. A great number of NRIs are deeply involved in projects benefiting their motherland. I know of other friends in New York who have extended organisational and financial support to the Bombay blast and Gujarat quake victims. Several doctors in the US also regularly visit remote villages in India to offer free care to the much needy. All these acts are founded on the Gandhian principles of selflessness and good faith," says Srinath Reddy Geedipalli in New Jersey, founder Captain Veera Raja Reddy Foundation and convenor CVRF-ATA Awards Committee.

Gandhism is possible and is the new fervour around.

And it is not just a passing fad say the new generation.

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