When Engineers decided to engineer Doctors for the future...

When I started Paritraan – A social service organization, I was alone. Today, Paritraan has over 50 members spread across India, who teach thousands of underprivileged children, the disabled and the old. 

When I talked about Social service, most of my friends thought that this was all a waste of time. But Robert Schuller’s, ‘Success is never ending and failure is never final’ told me something else. It inspired me to dream and inspire others' dreams.

One day I asked the school children to tell me what they wanted to be. They told me they wanted to be Doctors. It was Friday. I thought about it, how could I help them in their dream? How can I inspire them? I am an engineer… What should I do?

I prayed to God for guidance. And he answered. I called my friends, told them I wanted to organize a trip to RIMS – the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. Everyone resented. Filled with self-doubt and negativity, they gave me various reasons for not going.

One said, “What if you meet an accident?”

Another said, “You need permission from RIMS…”, the third said, “We can’t manage this…may be some other time…”

But words of Robert Schuller, Swami Vivekananda, the Holy Bible, The Holy Quran and the Holy Geeta keep echoing in me. They told me that God wants me to carry on with this task. “Help will be provided to those how seek, for those with a noble cause.”

I declared, “I am going ahead with the plan, you are free to join me!”

Sunday was declared to be the destined day. Akhil decided to join me. I met 10 children at one place, Akhil met with 15 others. We booked two tempos to travel from the BIT Mesra campus to the main road. There, I saw a bus. My heart told me, this bus is never here. It’s God’s help. Go ask for it. I thought Akhil is better at dealing about financial matters, so I sent him instead. The driver decided not only to carry us to RIMS, but also expressed that he would bring us back.

We played Antakshari during the journey. Then we reached RIMS. We came to know that on Sunday, the college is closed, but medical students had exams. Akhil said, “That’s why I asked you to take permission. It does not work like this. Now you see, there was no point in coming here. Its all a waste!”

I asked him to wait, and went straight to the Director's Office. I told him who we were and what we wanted. He was so happy he asked me sit down, then appreciated our efforts, asked me to keep it going and ensured he will provide all the help necessary for any future tours. He assigned two Guards, who took us around the campus and showed different departments. 

 

The doctors were also glad to have those children in their campus. They patiently answered children's questions. And to my surprise, these children really asked interesting questions. They asked about procedures of donating blood as they wanted to donate blood. Even the nurses and other support staff contributed with their own knowledge.

The children really enjoyed the trip. Not only that, those who did not join us, asked us to organize trips from them again & again. There was another school nearby, we used to teach children there as well, the news reached them and then they started demanding a trip.

 

That, gave me the ultimate satisfaction, and proved my theory of Goodwill – If you are working for a noble cause, God’s help will arrive. I don’t know if any of those children will become doctors, for they are very poor, but then even if one of them becomes a doctor, wouldn’t it make a difference?

Paritraan: Our Intentions and How we plan to do it.

This Sunday, on 3rd April 2011, I visited St. Micheal’s School for the Blind, near Bahu Bazaar(Ranchi), with a few of my friends.

I am posting this blog for those people who are interested to join Paritraan, to inform them about the main ideas which lie behind our activities. In short this is a blog about the how and the how not. If you are interested in the why and why not please visit Vishal Gupta’s blog-post.

Paritraan was started by Vishal Gupta, a final year student of Information Technology during his 2nd year Engineering. Back then, he used to teach underprivileged children in his native village. In January 2011, under the guidance of Asst. Prof. Anup Kumar Keshri, of Department of IT from BIT Mesra, Paritraan began to grow in BIT Mesra. Using MSTC's resources, Paritraan got its web-presence. The growth of Paritraan was impossible without the contribution of Akhil Ranjan, 4th Year BioTech and Amritesh Kumar, 4th Year IT (2K7 Batch).

The main purpose of the group is to carry out the works of Social Services in and around Ranchi and spread it across as far as possible. Right now there are about 40 students from various streams and batches working for Paritraan by utilizing their Sundays, Holidays and Half-Days to help those who are not as fortunate as we are.

Apart from Blind Schools visits, Paritraan teams also visit various Government and Municipal schools in nearby villages to provide them proper education. Educational Trips and Digital Literacy Sessions are also organized for underprivileged children.

The main principles behind the successful outings of Paritraan are:

1. It is voluntary. There is no concept of joining. You can accompany us in our trips.
2. Since studies are of paramount importance, we generally skip trips nearer to exams. We are only planning to utilize the Sundays and holidays we usually waste lazing around in the hostel. However, a few enthusiasts still carry out the noble work even during exam times.
3. This is not a club, this is a movement, a social initiative and a Social Revolution. There are no posts like treasurer, president etc. to offer. There is no chain of command per se.However, we do encourage to take advice from Asst Prof Keshri and Senior Members of Paritraan Team.
4. Though there is no concept of donation in the form of money, a few still donate so that we can give something to the blind children. We prefer to donate 2-3 hours of time a week to help. The best example is an incident that happened in front of me. The students of the school wanted books/magazines with paper of better quality for them to write in Braille. A senior suggested to buy the books for them. Keshri sir prompted and said that it would be better if we collected books from the common room than put in money from our pockets.
5. We try not interfere in the management of the schools/institutions we visit. The main logic here is that we have no basis to criticize the work of people who work in these institutions or to tell them what to do. We do not work for these institutions but we work on our own with their permission. At the same time we ensure all the benefits of our labour and contributions go to the people who actually need it.
6. The type of work we do isn't just limited to teaching. We try our best to provide Engineering like solutions to the problems faced by people who are usually neglected by the society. For example we also plan to guide the students of the school about the career options they have after they pass out of the school. 
7. We listen to the problems they are facing and try to solve them with things we can do in our free time. Some students in the school wanted to know how to apply for the position of radio jockey in radio stations or as announcers in railway stations. Our seniors were fast to google out some information on the availability of positions for the physically handicapped in some government organizations.

These are just some of the main ideas behind Paritraan that I have come to understand. As I see, the main goal will always  be to strive to help those who need help and to contribute in such a way that our hard work is beneficial for them.

Paritraan in Sanskrit means "To bring relief from the cause of distress".