The difference is "Opportunity"...

The difference is “Opportunity”….

Recently I had visited an orphanage home – a home for street children and orphans…

This home was the result of vision of a group of individuals who were alumni of their school – Sainik School, Korukonda (near Vizag). Krushi Home is on the outskirts of Hyderabad with good infrastructure of dormitory halls, a large dining hall for the kids, football ground, volley ball and basket-ball court, open auditorium, a computer lab and kitchen garden for growing vegetables for the home.  

I wanted to get associated with an organization for spending time on social work and my friend obliged and took me to this home. My friend is a very successful Chartered Accountant by profession, an alumni of Sainik School, and one of the founding members of this Home.

  

When my friend and I were on the way to Krushi Home on a Sunday, my friend explained the genesis of the Home.

“A group of our old alumni friends met with our school principal, who was then in his eighties, in early 1990. When we had discussed our idea of an old age home, he had different ideas.”

The old principal had told “What you want to do for the aged society is good, but it will be much better if you start your initiative for young kids. Then you become instrumental in shaping the life of the young kids who have their entire life ahead… For the aged, they are in their sunset of life”.

My friend went on “What our Principal had spoken made lot of sense and logical to us. He was the spark and the vision of what is the Home today. Initially, the home was started in rented premises and when the number of kids grew, we funded the project for buying land and constructed this home in 2006. Apart from our alumni friends contributing to the project, financial assistance also came from a Dutch NGO”.

My first impression of the home was that it looked like a corporate office block in serene atmosphere. My friend explained that they had decided to construct the home with the objective that since these kids were coming from a very difficult background, they should get to see, feel and live a different life ahead.

We took lunch with the kids in the dining hall and the kids wished us with a smile and without inhibition. Two boys brought water in glasses and kept it on the table and smiled when I thanked them.My friend took me around the Home to see the dormitory halls, the computer lab and the grounds. In the open garden the kids were sitting together in small groups and discussing and enjoying their time.

“How do you pick these kids?” I asked my friend.

My friend responded, ”we have volunteers who pick these kids from streets, where they are begging and just lying around. They are also picked from railway stations, bus stand and other public places. At the home, we try to identify their parents or close relatives with the help of police. It is a fact that no matter how bad their economic situation is, we can never be a substitute for parents/loving relatives. But when we are unable to find their parents/close relatives, we take the responsibility of the kids at the home. There are 110 kids at the home – aged between 5 to 18 years.”

My friend continued, “our motto is to educate them, apart from giving them food and shelter. Education can change lives. We have tied up with a govt. school, funded the school for additional class rooms and teachers, so that all the kids in the home go to school and study till 12^th Std. If some children show inclination, we also make them join vocational courses like electrical, welding and printing. Few kids have completed engineering courses. 

There have been success stories – one guy learnt printing and having worked, owns a press today. Another guy studied engineering and works for Hyundai. Some get absorbed in companies in Hyderabad after their basic education. One guy has become a chef in a start hotel. These success stories give you that sense of satisfaction”.

We spent the entire afternoon and left the home in the evening.

After returning from Krushi Home and seeing the kids, my mind put out this simple question-

“What differentiates a normal kid and these kids – it is just ‘opportunity?”

If these kids also had got an opportunity, then they also would have lived a normal life, studied and made a career, whatever that may be..

But look at this question from a different perspective – “Are these kids responsible for not getting the opportunity, which any other normal kid would have got?  NO”.

One answer can be that their parents should take the responsibility for not providing these kids the opportunity. Maybe right and true.

If we say that these kids are not responsible for not getting an opportunity, then we may put it on destiny, fate as an answer to the question.

I am a firm believer that fate and destiny are true as concepts, only that you do not have any control over it. Since you do not have any control of your fate or destiny, there is no point talking about it. If something has to happen, it will happen.

In the context of providing an opportunity, what Krushi Home or any other similar Home is doing has a major impact to the lives of these kids..

Another view point – Is it not government’s responsibility to provide an opportunity to all such socially challenged kids? Why cannot the government start homes for providing shelter, food and more importantly education to these orphaned or street children?

Kids at Krushi Home have got an opportunity to change their lives, but what about many other kids who do not get that opportunity….

Thinking about the question of whether the kids are responsible for their destiny, one stanza from the song “Deivam thantha veedu….” from “Aval oru thodarkathai” penned by Kannadasan comes to my mind….

……நான் கேட்டுத் தாய் தந்தை படைத்தாரா?

இல்லை என் பிள்ளை எனைக் கேட்டுப் பிறந்தானா?

தெய்வம் செய்த பாபம் இது போடி தங்கச்சீ

கொன்றால் பாபம் தின்றால் போச்சு இதுதான் என் கட்சி…

(Did I ask my parents to be born to them.…

Or did my son ask to be born to me…

God has done this sin, just leave it…

To kill is sin, eating it is fine, this is my way..)     

(Like any translation, it can never be accurate and convey the essence of the original words….)

-       Venkatesh

PS. Krushi Home – www.projectkrushi.org