The more you love, the more attached you are to it..!!

Most people complain/compliment, depending on their situation, that I know most of the people in my college. That may be because I love participating in most of the events and I was well-known for my art work.  But my painting in college started in a beautiful place in my college.. AMRITA SANJEEVANI, student owned social service organisation in Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. It’s not only a place to help, but to learn too… this place gave me a lot in life… It taught me the life, it taught me love, it taught me to care, it taught me many more things.

I always wanted to go to an orphanage, an old age home, a cleanup drive, gardening, camps and camp fires, cycle rally, etc., and many more. But I never knew I could do all these in one beautiful place and that it will exist in college itself.. Funny isn’t it? Yeah..! I have been a part of all those and many more which I never expected I will be doing.  True college life will have other fun too. We can go to a movie, spend a night in a house boat on a weekend and that too especially when you study in Kerala. But, “When you become the reason for someone’s smile without anyone getting hurt, it’s one of the most amazing things that happened in your life.”

I believed in that. I wanted to be a part of so many beautiful kids’ smiles and happiness in poor old ones. I went and joined it. Wah..! What a wonderful receiving. Encouragement in every step. There are no seniors, no juniors, no teachers, nothing… beautiful relations and memorable events.

I re-started painting there. In fact my first painting I did in my college was printed in College newsletter SamVed which went through Sanjeevani again. Interesting thing is I painted the logo too for the same magazine which made me feel memorable. After that I did lot of creative things in my four years of graduation time and that brought me a lot of name and fame.

“However big the tree may be, still the roots are the cause for its growth. And Sanjeevani is my root.”

I was happy when I was enjoying burning the crackers all alone at home when I was in my +2, but when the time went by and a year passed and the same Diwali day came, there were tears rolling down my cheeks. Not because I am away from home, not because I am unable to celebrate Diwali at home, simply to say the tears rolling down are due to the happiness I encountered that day. Yes, I went to an Orphanage for the first time in my life spent my beautiful day with all those kids there. Played with those kids till the sweat rolled down and water poured out of my body. I danced with them, I ate with them, I burnt crackers with them. I was never satisfied when I was burning thousand rupees worth of crackers at home, but it gave me immense pleasure when one of the kids was burning one cracker worth five rupees. Sanjeevani.. !

Gandhi House-Old Age Home.  I went inside with a language barrier expecting that I will remain silent when all my friends who know Malayalam would be busy talking to all the grannies there. But to my surprise I met a lady there who is from Tamil Nadu and even more surprising thing for me was she had a PhD in Psychology and she knew a lot better English than I speak. She made my day. She shared a lot of interesting things of that place. Lots of people leave their parents there and go, but the old people there are lot heartened who adopt the orphaned kids and take care of them till they come to school age. They feel those orphaned kids too need a grandparent’s love. Interesting isn’t it? That was when I felt are those old ones inside left there because they became the burden? Crazy people. I feel pity for the people who think that their old parents are a burden for them. They are not destined for love and touch of their parents forever.

Swacch-Bharat began when Modi became the PM of India. But I became part of the same drive on August 15th, 2011 for the first time. I never understood the importance of a clean-up drive until I went to Sabarimala clean-up drive. Located in the scenic Western Ghats, surrounded by a dense jungle, the famous temple of Sabrimala in Kerala draws millions of pilgrims every year. Devotees make the arduous trek up the mountain to offer prayers to Lord Ayyappan, usually after undergoing a period of strict spiritual vows. But this dense jungle with this famous temple has waste left uncleaned for about 20-25 years. Even the priest doesn’t know when the temple was cleaned for the last time. We 1000 students and another 3500 volunteers became part of a project where the place is cleaned for one whole week with everyone residing amidst the mountains. Resulting Zero Waste Project is initiated by Chief Minister himself to protect the sanctity and purity of that beautiful place. It made me feel privileged to be part of such an event. Yeah! Sanjeevani gave me chance again!

Amrita Sanjeevani, it made me feel prerogative to be part of many more such good events in life. On the day of my induction in college we were told Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham believes not only in Education for Life but also Education for Living too. I understood why they told us that only after finishing my graduation.  Sanjeevani became part of many of my dreams and in fulfilling them. If I ever did something good for the society, it’s all because of Sanjeevani. It’s not an experience, but a memory for me to be part of the people and kindness there. Thank you all for making me feel so special by letting me do something good, which I never expected would be possible…!!!

By: Pramod R P S
Cross posted from pramodrps.wordpress.com