Congratulations Haneef!

For, those of you how know Haneef, bingo; you know who I am going to talk of! Haneef Lakdawala, is the head of an NGO Sanchetna (I mentioned here albeit in a different context) in Ahmedabad. If it still did not click, Haneef is the winner of the CNN-IBN Relience Real Heroes Award. When I was watching the award function on television a few days back, I jumped with joy, and found myself telling my dad like a small kid, “I know him, he is Mr. Haneef dad, I met him just last month while I was visiting his organization for work!”

He was just Haneef to me when I met him. I have traveled excessively on account of work, visited so many NGOs and met so many people. And then, he was just another person that I was bound that I was bound to forget. But this was different – today, to me, he is somebody more than the man who runs Sanchetna. It is different since his work has today reached every household in the country, thanks to the well deserved accolades he won at the award function. Having been felicitated like that, mind you, is something!

I thought I’d write more about Haneef and the organization that he runs – Sanchetna – one of the respected NGOs in Ahmedabad. Sanchetna, is a small organization that works in riot hit parts of Ahmedabad. For those who are uninformed; after the 2002 riots, when homes were reduced to ashes and people lived in fear without a home or an iota of hope they formed new colonies – illegal slums! These slums were new then, just land on the outskirts of Ahmedabad – no public facilities were available, no doctors with probably only charlatans at their disposal, with their ration cards cindered – no food security – in fact they were no longer legal citizens! Then builders came in, built small homes and rented it to them – a debt! And mind you, this was the story on both the sides. Haneef works in such riot hit slums and through his community workers he helps them get public health facilities that they are entitled to. And for communal harmony – Hindu Muslim cricket clubs!

For sanguine seekers like me, Haneef is a hope in an otherwise depressing, often frustrating field of Development. A hope that ones work is recognized. A hope that there is now one organization less that will say ‘perpetual penury mam’. A hope tomorrow will be better in spite of the odds – somewhere. My rationale for this – seeing Haneef receive the prize, made me believe that the award was actually given out to those that deserve. And when I saw the other awardees my belief in the sincerity of the CNN-IBN’s efforts amplified. And for this I salute, both to the awardees and to CNN-IBN. Somewhere at the back of my mind I can hear Martin Luther King:

“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But whatever you do, keep on moving towards your goal.”

Here are some photographs of my visit

Haneef talking to Dan and Beth from the Gates Foundation

Haneef with his team - Sanchetna

Bombay Hotel Slum

And then I remember what we used to recite (or rather forced to…) in school
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land
W H Longfellow

On the Streets

I always asked him to take me around if he was free. He knows all the places that I go to esp. work related. When I was new to Ahmedabad, and I had to go the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for the first time alone, I had asked him. When my ex-colleague Amit and I had to visit the Urban Health Center we used to ask him to escort us. I remember Amit wanted me to taste the 'maska bun' near the CEPT campus, which indeed turned out to be excellent and reminded me of the 'maska bun' back home at Cafe Good Luck at Good Luck Chowk on F.C Road....hmmm... But that apart. I remember we treated him then. He was our rickshaw driver - Jitu Bhai!

A zillion things that can happen while you are traveling, but seriously, have you ever been treated by a rickshaw driver? Yeah, that is what Jitu Bhai did the other day. After a long time, I had to visit the NGO, and all I remembered was the location - Fatepura, nothing more. I was at my wits end trying to remember more. Thankfully, for me, Jitu Bhai was in his rickshaw outside the campus. He knew the place very well and undoubtedly took me to the place safely. After about an hour, when I was returning, I stopped to have pakoda's at one of the famous places. And as usual offered him some too. Initial protests gave way to acceptance after persistent pleading. And then suddenly he says "Madam aap chai pioge?". That actually made me say "...huh?". He repeated his question and added "campus ke paas bohut achi chai milti hai". And after considering for a while I conceded to his wishes. Not that I am a chai lover, in fact my friends will second me when I say I hardly ever have tea. But this was different. I knew he would treat me and I wanted to respect that. Respecting other people is important not just to tell them that they are important but more so to tell them that you respect them - as whoever they are. And I knew that treating me with chai was his own little way of giving me back and I could not overlook that. For years now I believed in the principle of 'Dignity of Labour' and I had to reciprocate back in some way.

He did not let me get down from the rickshaw - served me hot sweet 'adrakwali special' chai which i am sure he would not have had otherwise and we left after having chai. On the streets of Ahmedabad, Jitu Bhai's gesture had touched me deep inside. When I walked through the gates of my room - I smiled; truely!