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How a Railway Officer from Chennai Became Foster Father to 200 Children of Farmers from Maharashtra…

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Meet Ajeet Saxena – foster father to over 200 children of farmers in Maharashtra. This railway official has dedicated his life to the welfare of these kids, who are all known as Ajeet Saxena’s children wherever they go.

In 2008, a farmer in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra committed suicide. He was survived by his wife, four children, and his very old father. Three of the four children were girls. The eldest daughter, Deepa, was 14 at the time. Sapna was 11, and Swati was about 7 years old. The family was thoroughly shaken by their loss. They had no hopes for the future, no prospects and no dreams. But what happened next was something they never expected.

Today, Deepa is 22 years old and is working in a hospital after finishing her diploma in nursing. Sapna recently completed the same and Swati is in the second year of a BSc Yoga Education course in Bengaluru. They are educated, confident, and completely aware of how they want to plan their futures. The one person who made it all possible for them is Ajeet Saxena – a man who refers to these three girls and 200 other children from the region as his own.

He is their foster father, a philanthropist who is hand-holding and mentoring children of farmers in Vidarbha, while providing also financial support for their education.

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After seeing these girls for the first time, I sat inside their hut and cried, thinking of what would happen to them. They had nothing to look forward to,” he says.

Ajeet, who is currently posted as the Chief Commercial Manager of Southern Railways in Chennai, embarked on this journey with a desire to help farmers and stop them from committing suicide. It started with the many stories of farmer suicides that were all over the news in those days. Ajeet was deeply moved. He saw two options before him – to go home, watch the news and feel sorry, or to get up and do something sustainable. Choosing the latter, he took 10 days of leave from work and headed to Vidarbha. There, with the help of some volunteers of the Sarvodaya Movement in Sevagram village, he met 29 families of farmers in about 15 villages.

“The highest amount of money for which a farmer had committed suicide in the area was about Rs. 45,000. And the average amount was Rs. 15,000. I was completely heartbroken. But I felt that the situation could be handled if more people came on board. With farmers giving up their lives for just Rs. 15,000, I was sure people would be willing to step in and help,” he recalls. With that thought in mind, Ajeet returned to Chennai after giving the farmers his phone number and asking them to call him in case they felt depressed.

Being a regular speaker on spirituality, he addressed many people in a Rotary Club in Chennai, a few days after he returned. To his surprise, when he told the listeners about the devastating condition he had witnessed, there were many who came forward asking what they could do to help:

“I saw the inherent goodness in people and realised that everybody wants to do their bit but they just don’t know how to move forward.”

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Ajeet Saxena with 10 nursing students in Chennai and his 6-year-old daughter Sharanya

By this time, Ajeet was sure he wanted to do something for the farmers to augment their incomes. But this was before he received the news that another farmer had committed suicide. This farmer’s daughter was a student of Class 11 and he had taken some loans to support her education. And now, suddenly, the young girl was left in the lurch.

“It was after this incident that I reached a final decision – I didn’t want any children from the region to drop out of school and wanted to support their education.”

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Meeting at Sewagram Ashram

He opened bank accounts in the villages for some of these children and started talking to various people he knew to find someone who would be willing to help. One of his friends agreed to sponsor the education of 15 children, some others said they would sponsor three or four kids, and so on. The amounts were set – Rs. 250 per month for children studying up to Class 5, Rs. 400 for those between Classes 6-9, and Rs. 500 for children in Classes 9-12. Each person who agreed to sponsor the education of a child could transfer the amount directly to the child’s bank account. “I know that education for school children in the age group of 6-14 is already free. But this money acts as an incentive for their parents or relatives to not push them into child labour,” says Ajeet.

Within two months, a girl named Rajni called Ajeet and said – “After meeting you, I have a lot of hope that I can do something in life. I want to take up a course in nursing and I am in a bus to Amravati right now.” Rajni found that the fee for that course was Rs. 2 lakh. When she informed Ajeet, he just asked if she was willing to study in any other college, and then talked to the authorities at a nursing school in Chennai. They agreed to enrol her and told Ajeet he could pay the fee later. In this way, Rajni became the first girl from the village to travel outside and finish her education.

She learnt Tamil and English, finished her course, worked in Global Hospital in Chennai for about a year, and has now shifted to Nagpur.

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“All children in the region were very hopeful after this development. And that was when a college named Mahila Maha Vidyalay in Nagpur came to know about us. They were willing to accommodate 10 girls to study there and live in their hostel. They were also ready to take the fee at a later stage,” says Ajeet.

Today, all 200 children, a majority of whom are girls, are known as Ajeet Saxena’s children in Vidarbha. Three girls have moved to Latur for teachers’ training courses, 10 girls are in nursing and four are completing BSc Yoga Education in Bengaluru.

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The four girls (left and right) studying BSc Yoga

Ajeet arranges the funds by writing to his friends, well-wishers and several organizations, seeking sponsors. His intervention is no longer limited to children of farmers who have committed suicide, but all children in the region who come from financially weaker backgrounds.

He is also setting up a trust named Sharnagat Foundation in Nagpur to take this initiative forward at a larger scale. Ajeet visits Sevagram once every three months and lives there for two days to ensure that children are receiving their money on time and nothing is being misused by their parents or relatives.

“The amount of difference I have been able to make in the lives of these children with zero investment from my side is what keeps me moving forward. I feel that all of us should start thinking beyond our own families and handhold at least one child who cannot afford his/her education. All my children are very confident now. They are not at anyone’s mercy. And seeing them succeed gives me immense satisfaction,” he concludes.

You can contact Ajeet by writing to him at ajeet_samadhi@hotmail.com.

Source….Tanaya Singh in http://www.the betterindia.com

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Message for the Day…”What is the best way parents can show their love for their children…”?

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What is the origin of pride? Is it knowledge? No! It is ignorance. What is the cause of ignorance? It is the feeling of duality. Where did duality originate? From attachment and hatred (Raga and Dwesha). What is the origin of these two? They are the products of circumstances. How did circumstances come about? ThroughKarma (past deeds). What is the cause of Karma? Birth! Thus be clear that birth is the cause of all sorrow. Only by seeking freedom from birth that you can free oneself from sorrow. The opportunity of a human birth must be used for realising this supreme goal. The duty of parents is to set children on the right path from their early years. They should not hesitate to correct them and even punish them when the children take to wrong ways. The best way parents can show their love for their children is to do everything necessary to lead them on the righteous path.

Sathya Sai Baba

This College Student Is Taking Thousands of Beggars off the Streets and into Dignified Lives…

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Swati Bondia has created a powerful story of social entrepreneurship. At the age of 18, she started a handicrafts business that helped over 1000 people from the streets start leading dignified lives.

Five years ago, at a busy traffic signal where Bangaloreans waited impatiently for the light to turn green, a little girl went begging frantically from one vehicle to another, racing against the time the red signal gave her. As serendipity would have it, she stretched her hand towards Swati Bondia, an 18-year-old college girl. Swati refused to give her money. In a reaction that was totally unexpected, the child started crying. As heads turned and eyes rolled, Swati was left flustered. She quickly got down from the auto, took the girl aside and tried to pacify her.

She bought her food and clothes but the girl insisted, “Didi, I don’t want all this, I want a ten rupee note. If I don’t get money, my mother will beat me up.”

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Swati gasped. She was now terribly angry with the child’s mother and couldn’t control her desire to confront her and question her cruelty. Swati asked the girl to take her to her mother. Her mind was crowded with questions that she would ask of her.

But she was in for her second shock of the day. Where she expected to see an exploitative mother, she saw the face of a helpless migrant woman who lived on the streets with her children and an alcoholic husband. The family had travelled all the way from Rajasthan looking for work. But no one was ready to trust them and give them jobs. Begging, then, became the family’s only option.

Call it teenage impulsiveness if you will, but Swati was overcome by a strong feeling to help. She promised the family she would find work for them.

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For the next couple of days, Swati went around looking for jobs for the migrant family. This hunt made her realise what such families go through in finding their footing.

Companies and households simply refused to give jobs to migrants, unwilling to take the risk of trusting total strangers whose identities they couldn’t trace.

Disappointed, Swati decided to go back to the family and apologise that she had failed to find them work. However, when she walked into their shelter, she saw a different scene altogether. The alcoholic husband had shaved and tidied himself. The children had not gone to beg. The mother was beaming with hope that their life was about to change. Looking at them, Swati could not bring herself to say that she had not succeeded.

She decided she would be the one to create jobs for them.

She sat down with them to find out what they could do. The family knew the art of making handicrafts so Swati decided to give handicraft making a try. She bought them some raw material for Rs 250 and they made beautiful crafts from it. Now it was time to be back at the busy signal.

They displayed their wares on the pavement and behold, they made sales of Rs. 750 that day. Swati says it was the proudest day for all of them.

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Encouraged by their achievement and now confident of themselves, the family started making more handicrafts. Swati took their products beyond the traffic signals of Bangalore, under the banner of Om Shanti Traders. She sold their handicraft items as corporate and hospitality gifts. The takers for the products grew and so did the number of families that became part of Om Shanti Traders. Seeing the change she had brought to the life of the first family she helped, more and more street dwellers wanted to become part of Swati’s organization.

Today, the little girl who cried at the signal goes to school.

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One thousand individuals who would otherwise be begging on the streets are able to earn up to Rs. 10,000 per month and lead dignified lives. Swati grew the business to set up a factory and provide accommodation facilities for these families. When families sign up with Om Shanti Traders, Swati insists they commit to sending their girl children to school; she funds this initiative herself. She notes that the boys have been a difficult lot to keep in school but is trying to ensure that happens as well.

All the while that she was changing the lives of street people, Swati continued to lead her life as a college student as well. She completed her BBM and MBA, efficiently juggling her studies with her social enterprise. Swati has now started her new entrepreneurial venture, which provides virtual exhibition services. Her company, Enrich Expo, provides scholarships to children from 12 different villages, each village getting Rs. 20 lakh. As she builds one entrepreneurial venture after another, she says she wants to eventually realize her vision of bridging the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged.

Source….Ranjini Sivaswamy in http://www.the betterindia.com

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“I’d Given up on Returning to India After 18 Years Abroad. But This Year Something Changed.”

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From dreaming about returning to India one day after she had to shift to the US with her family, to reaching a stage where she could no longer find that cherished connection with her country, to falling in love with it all over again – this is the story of Jessica Sinha and how Kolkata showed her a different India.

I was 10 when I moved to the U.S. and have lived abroad for over 18 years now. Leaving was the most difficult thing for me to do every time I visited India in the first eight years of moving to the U.S. I would bite my lip hoping the pain would hold back the tears. My last memory of India would be of the last song that played on the radio before we arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Each year I vowed – I’ll be back someday, I’ll live here eventually. With no plans of when, where, and how, I continued to dream about it.

But after those first eight years, it never felt the same again. My relatives grew distant. Their excitement on seeing us dwindled every year. I found myself struggling with the basic things – showering, going to the bathroom, shopping, getting to places on my own, taking the bus, etc. Even my Indian looks and perfect Hindi couldn’t help hide the fact that I had no clue about anything in India. I was just a guest to my relatives now – a guest who visited once a year.

I grew up and started feeling unsafe in my country, cringing every time I read another news article about another rape case. Every trip from then on was the same. We would arrive in Delhi, go home, stay home. Then we would take the car and driver, visit relatives and family friends, and come back home again. We went to the mall once in a while, but the charm of India that I was delighted about once…it remained only in my heart. Everything and everyone I connected with, seemed to have almost never existed and my dream of moving to India started fading, right in front of my eyes.

This month I went back to India, Kolkata this time, with my Bengali husband for our first India trip after marriage. And something changed in the 14 days I spent there. A fire that I thought was long put out, sparked again. I saw a different country:

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Mornings here begin with the sweet cooing of the Koyal. This city wakes up later than many others, but by 7-8 am, I can hear elderly neighbours chattering, gargling, or fighting a cough. The kitchen stoves come alive and the scraping of metal palta against the kadais marks the beginning of a new day. The smell of mouth-watering spices slowly fills the corridors of the building and escapes into the alleys.

Someone blows a long note on the conch shell over the sound of bells and muffles of Bengali prayers.

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I walk up to the roof and get a glimpse of the sun. The buildings, painted yellow or light blue or pink sometimes, bear brown-black streaks from past rains. Some rooftops have bent clotheslines holding long saris that flow in the cool morning breeze. Somehow, the unfolded sari speaks to me. It floats freely like a kite, but is held safely by the clothesline.

With the distant sound of koyals, I sweep into a daydream where every single day in India feels as this moment does.

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Back inside the flat, my mother-in-law brings out tea for the three of us, herself, my husband, and I; and we all decide to sit in the balcony. The balconies, windows, doors, any openings into the flat, are all protected by grills. There is something about the grills that’s uniquely classic and nostalgic. I think back to my childhood in Delhi – every night the community watchman would walk around the block, blowing his whistle loud and clear as he ran his baton across the park fence.

I look out into the streets and though it is mostly empty at this time, I know that the morning has already begun in many homes. Every balcony is a window into a different life. I look across to the building on the right and find an elderly man sitting in his balcony with a cup of chai and his parrot. In another window there’s a woman pulling down the dry clothes from the clothesline, hung the day before.

A sip of my tea. I wonder if my mother-in-law sees what I see. On days when she’s feeling hot, tired, and wants to take a break, does she look out like I do? Does she see the different lives as I do? And in those quiet tranquil moments when she does, does the world outside beckon to her? Does she see the ever turning wheels of time in Kolkata? Does she savour the endless festivities of every day? Even if a dispirited heart was to look out this balcony, it would find peace in knowing that it is not alone.

I’m not sure how the rest of India has fared since 1997, but Kolkata seems to be stalled in a time and place, which I dreamed about in my thoughts. It remains culturally rich and enticing. There is no confused blend of the western influences and eastern culture. I heard no heart-wrenching stories, saw no soul-searching individuals. I saw no street corners engulfed in conversations of unfulfilled ambitions. I saw hope in a newly-wed couple’s humble home, gratification in the everyday affairs, modesty of character, and a satisfaction with life as it is.

– Jessica Sinha

Source…..www.the betterindia.com

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Breakthrough by Indian Scientists in the US Checks Effectiveness of Cancer Treatment Within Hours…

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Thanks to the development of nano-technology, it will now be possible to measure how effective a round of cancer therapy is, within hours of the treatment. This project has been kick-started by a group of Indian scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School.

The development is a major breakthrough because it will be possible to prevent the side-effects of chemotherapy right from the start in case the treatment plan is not working for the patient, and will help prevent long agonizing months of waiting.

Picture for representation only. Source: Sadasiv Swain/Flickr

“We have developed a nano-technology, which first delivers an anticancer drug specifically to the tumour, and if the tumour starts dying or regressing, it then starts lighting up the tumour in real time,” Shiladitya Sengupta, a principal investigator at MIT’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), told PTI.

The breakthrough was published online in ‘The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.’ One of the authors of the paper is Ashish Kulkarni, who hails from a tiny village in the state of Maharashtra. Kulkarni pursued his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati. “Our long-term goal is to find a way to monitor outcomes very early so that we don’t give a chemotherapy drug to patients who are not responding to it,” he said.

Most of the team members are Indian researchers except for one. This development will help keep track of the effectiveness of immunotherapy, which signals significant progress.

Shiladitya Sengupta

Source: www.dfhcc.harvard.edu

Current tracking methods, which are based on the measurements of the size or the metabolic state of the tumour, don’t always manage to detect the effectiveness of the treatment.

Source….Boshika Gupta in http://www.the betterindia.com

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Message for the Day…” Pain is a part of Life and must be accepted at any cost …Pleasure s an interval between two pains …’

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The life of Prahlada is a testament of real devotion to God. Though severely tortured by his father, Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada stood firm as a rock, steadfast in his devotion to Vishnu. At a tender age, Prahlada planted God firmly in his heart and withstood every storm and stress. Physical afflictions had no effect on him and did not reduce his devotion. The mind steeped in the Love of God is beyond any shock and strain like the chloroformed patient who is oblivious of the incisions made by the surgical instruments. Only Love of this kind can ultimately be victorious. But today, the devotion of the people wavers with every trying circumstance. When our wishes are fulfilled, we install many photographs for worship; and when our wishes are not fulfilled, we throw out the photographs. Pain is a part of life and must be accepted at any cost. Pleasure is an interval between two pains.

Sathya Sai Baba

Joke of the Day…”Now there are two …” !!!

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There was a farmer who grew watermelons. He was doing pretty well, but he was disturbed by some local kids who would sneak into his watermelon patch at night and eat his watermelons.

After some careful thought, he came up with a clever idea that he thought would scare the kids away for sure. He made up a sign and posted it in the field. The next night, the kids showed up and they saw the sign which read, “Warning! One of the watermelons in this field has been injected with cyanide.”

The kids ran off, made up their own sign and posted it next to the farmer’s.

When the farmer returned, he surveyed the field. He noticed that no watermelons were missing, but the sign next to his read: “Now there are two!”

Source….www.ba-bamail.com

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Message for the Day…” Avoid causing harm to others…Do not speak of ill of anyone…”

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Sathya Sai BabaYou spend a great deal of time to acquire some material object or other. How much time do you devote to thoughts of God? You shed tears profusely to experience a pleasure related to the senses. Do you shed a single tear for experiencing God? How then can you realise God? Today Bhakthi (devotion) has become a mass-produced manufactured product. But are the devotees practicing what they profess? Without practice, can the fruits of devotion be realised? The 12th Canto of the Bhagavad Gita clearly describes the qualities of a true devotee. The primary virtue is absence of hatred towards any living thing: Cultivate Universal Love (Advesta-sarva-bhutanam). Avoid causing harm to others. Do not speak ill of any one. Give up pride and egoism. Cultivate purity of thought, speech and action. Spirituality is not separate from other aspects of life. Spirituality permeates everything.

 

Top 10 Steps to Deal with Negative Persons …

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“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.“

You may interact with negative people daily, be they friends, family members, a partner or a colleague. You love them, you care about them, you can’t just cut them out of your life, but they are negative and their negativity is eating away at you. What can you do?
The best way of dealing with life’s challenges is to take a good look at ourselves and take responsibility for what we think, feel and do.
Never give your power away by blaming others for what you have or don’t have, what you feel or don’t feel. Once you do so, you’ll become a victim of circumstance, and instead of using your time and energy to beat life’s challenges, you’ll sink to a dark and miserable place.
Here are 10 smart, positive and effective ways of dealing with the negativity of the people close to you:
1. Give up the need to complain
Make sure you are taking responsibility for your feelings and mood. Don’t go complaining that other people’s negativity is affecting you, because it will only create more negativity. Take responsibility for your thoughts and feelings and see what you can do to make yourself feel better and change the existing situation.
“Whoever has limited knowledge of human nature and seeks happiness by changing everything but his own attitude, will waste his life in futile efforts.”
– Samuel Johnson
2. Similarity Attracts
Good brings about good, bad brings about bad, and whether we want to or not, we pull into our lives events, situations and people that reflect our internal state. Ask yourself: “How am I feeling? Am I happy, excited, thankful and calm? Or am I anxious, frustrated and judgmental?”
You may find that you radiate misery to the environment and that part of the negative energy surrounding you is in fact a reflection of yourself.
3. Don’t believe everything you think
This is definitely one of the hardest things to learn. Look closely at the negative people in your life. What is it about them that gets you going? What affects you so much? Is what they are doing really that bad or is your brain playing games with you?
Remember, the brain is configured to look for trouble, and it focuses on other’s negative qualities. It’ll be very hard to get it to see the positive side of things, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
4. Focus
Ask yourself: “Am I ready to find the good in these people? Am I able to see their good qualities?” Let the answers come naturally, and make sure you are being honest with yourself.
If you feel like you’re insistent and won’t change the way you are looking at people and situations, don’t give yourself a hard time. This takes time and patience, and when you are ready, you’ll take this step. Remember, we all have good in us.
“It’s so hard when I NEED to do it and so easy when I WANT to do it.”
– Annie Gottlier
5. Don’t make their problems YOUR problems
For their sake and yours, make sure you are not adopting their problems and becoming negative about them yourself. If you want to cure negativity, sliding down right along with the negative person won’t help, it will just make it worse by validating their thought and behavioral patterns. Rather, focus on solutions, not problems. Offer that and nothing else.
6. Taking ownership
Instead of being a victim and judge, you need to take full responsibility for your thoughts and feelings, and take a different approach.
“Everything that annoys us in others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.”
– Carl Jung.
Don’t waste your time obsessing and thinking: “They are ruining my energy, making me miserable, their negative energy is infecting my own…” Instead, say to yourself: “How can I use this to my advantage? Is there something I’m doing wrong? How can I improve the situation and increase my positive energy to be stronger than their negative energy? What do I learn from all of this?”
7. Come with your own positive energy
Focusing on negative energy cannot create positive energy, and the other way around is also true. Focus on making yourself happy, enough that you have great positive energy, and you will see the negativity cringing away from it.
Remember, energy is contagious!
How to put up positive energy? Focus on the things you like about the negative people, focus on things you love about yourselves, life and the world around you. Think of loved ones, of things that make you happy. That way, you will increase the positive energy exponentially.
If you incur negative energy by thinking about bad things, the opposite is also true, and you’ll be able to hopefully ‘wake up’ your fellow workers. You can’t focus on both of them at the same time, so choose one – happiness or misery.
8. Be part of the change you’d like to see
The world is no more than a reflection of who we are, deep inside. Try to go for a feeling of well-being, to live a positive life, a merry life, one that has love, trust, and the pursuit of happiness. We cannot change others, but only ourselves. This is the only way to change the world.
Think of it this way: When you are happy, the world seems happy, and the sky is open and blue. When you are sad, the world seems sad as well, and the sky is grey and uncaring, leaving you alone to deal with your pain.
Flow with life events, don’t resist them, live in harmony and be the change you wish to see in the world.
“Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Never overestimate your power to change others.”
– Wayne W. Dyer
9. Awareness and acceptance
Work on understanding life’s inevitable duality – accept the negative with the good. Don’t harp on people’s negativity, don’t judge or fight them. Let them be, look and accept. Remember, your world is no more real than a reflection of who you are, deep inside. Don’t try to bring everyone into your own world, accept theirs as no less real than yours, and their point of view as no less valid.
The hardest part of acceptance is accepting that, sometimes, some people cannot be changed. Their negativity is something they will defend to the last drop. Not because it gives them pleasure, but because they think it is a natural part of themselves.
Even though it’s never too late to try and change that point of view, some never will. It is up to you to either accept their negativity and react accordingly, or take your distance from them. This is especially hard when it is someone we love.
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of others.“
10. Move forward
Dealing with negativity and trying your best to dispel it can be exhausting, and at some point, you have to move on with your life in a positive way. Find a path that allows you to go on with your life without the negativity of others, but also, without the regret that leaving a loved one or friend behind may cause you.
Make your feelings known to them, make them understand they are hard to be around, and slowly decrease your contact. If they want you to stay in their lives, they will be forced to at least pretend to be less negative, and pretending is the first step to actually becoming less negative. The more we act a certain way, the more we believe in it.

Image courtesy of: Michal Marcol / freedigitalphotos.net

Source….www.ba-mail.com

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Message for the Day…”What is True Love …? “

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There is no love between the husband and the wife before they are married. There is no love between the mother and the child before the birth of the child. The son, though he loved his mother with all his heart, flings her body onto the burning pyre and consigns her to the flames without any mercy after death. How can such love be called true Love? All such relationships can at best be termed attachment and not Love. Attachments come in the middle and pass off in the middle. But Divine Love existed even before birth and will last after death. Attachments are like passing clouds that sail away quickly. True Love is uncontaminated, unsoiled, unadulterated, unpolluted, eternal, perennial, pure and unsullied. It is only Divine Love that is not tainted by selfishness and self-interest, and exists before birth and lasts after death. All other kinds of love are stained by selfishness.

Sathya Sai Baba