Made In India: Bollywood triggering a revolution?

Update: Paritrana website [Link]. Interview with Chandreshekhar [Link].

Real life stories often inspire some great stories on reel, and the opposite is also true. Bollywood movies can be powerful tools, with the audience stretching to the size of several millions. And like always, power brings it's own share of responsibility. So that lays a lot of social responsibility on the shoulders of our directors! Some directors have taken up the challenge and have lived up to it. Not that I can name all of them from memory, some do come to my mind right away. Satyajit Ray, Mani Ratnam, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Nagesh Kukonoor, Deepa Mehta, Shyam Benegal, V Santaram, Mira Nair so on ... Not that every film they made was a social churner- but they did make a sincere effort.

What could be a bigger purpose to anything one does than making a difference to someone else, to the the society, or to the world? I came upon the following stories which I thought was worth sharing. Not all of them are inspired by the silver screen, but you can notice the awe-inspiring parallels.

Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera ...
Haren Joshi, 65, has not seen the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Swades but people identify him with the NASA scientist, who left everything to bring light to a remote village. Four years back, Joshi, a vascular surgeon occupying the prestigious Chair of Surgery in Frankfurt Hospitals in Philadelphia, came to Ahmedabad with his ophthalmic surgeon wife Pratima Tolat and slogged it out, sometimes over 15 hours a day, at the Shamlaji Community Health Centre in the backward district of Sabarkantha. Joshi, who gave up 34 years of a comfortable life in America was thrilled to see the smile on the face of 3-year-old Radha, a tribal girl, who he operated for a congenital deformity

In Surat, Vibha Marfatia, who completed her PhD in immunology from London University, abandoned a bright career to spread awareness about HIV-AIDS among the high-risk diamond workers and other vulnerable groups. Her courageous move led to the launch of an NGO called Sahas. "Life here has been meaningful," says Marfatia admitting that it was not easy leaving her parents’ home of 27 years in the UK.

In Vadodara, Ashet Kikani is silently fulfilling a promise he made to himself — to serve his city and country.Instead of complaining about poor infrastructure, Kikani has gone ahead and revamped an old crematorium in Karelibaug (Rs 1.25 crore project) and hopes to revive the swimming pool in the old city’s Jumma Dada Vyayam Mandir (Rs 40-45 lakh) among other projects.

The honours, however, could go to the 'NRI sarpanch' Chandrakant Mukhi, 56, a businessman, who returned to his hometown Thamna, a small village in Anand, after 28 years in Tanzania and the US. Thanks to his efforts, the 4500 people of Thamna have between them 280 telephones, 24-hour water and electricity supply. The new English medium high school offers free education, lunch, uniforms and books to all 350 children. In fact, the Thamna panchayat was one of the three panchayats from the state selected for the President's award.

Meri Makhna, Meri Soniye ...
Gomtiben Nayak, 85, is no more. But her memory lives on with many elders of Chorania village in Limdi taluka of Surendranagar district. She is a beacon for the senior citizens of this village who have re-discovered love amongst their younger ones. In an age where stories like the movie Baghban find echo in urban settlements, Chorania village provides a unique example of traditional Indian family value system still holding out.

Harshad Panchal, sarpanch of Chorania, says the villagers have promised before the panchayat that they will take care of their parents or face social ostracism in contrast to what Gomtiben faced when her son deserted her at old age. The change of heart in this case was helped by workers of a voluntary organisation, Help Age India, who had been moved by plights of senior citizens. The organisation has helped resettle more than 15 village elders in the recent past. The village with a population of about 2,000 has now become an example for others. A short film on Chorania is now being circulated in other rural and urban settlements to be emulated.

Dhakka Laga Bukka ...
Five former IITians, probably drawing inspiration from Mani Ratnam's Yuva, have decided to take up mainstream politics. The youths, all in their 20s are campaigning for their national party, “Paritrana’’, which was launched in Jodhpur recently.“Giving up handsome pay packages, comfort of family and support of friends wasn’t that easy,’’ says Tanmay Rajpurohit, the national president of the party and B Tech in aerospace from IIT Bombay followed by an MS from GeorgiaTech and double masters in arts.

“People think we are crazy so much so that our families have also failed to understand our motto, but we won’t give up,’’ he added. The core team of “Paritrana’ ’ comprises Rajpurohit , Shukla, Amit Beesen, also the vice president and a B Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a LLB graduate, Chandrashekhar (national treasurer), B Tech (computer science) from IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, the PRO of the party and B Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.

“Paritrana means complete relief from the various causes of distress, and that is what we want to do for our people,’’ added Chandrashekhar.

The zeal and burning desire of the five youngsters sounds sincere. “I believe that we are just five ordinary boys from the middle class family with no godfathers in politics but have dared to come forward and fight for our rights,’’ said Chandrashekhar. “And we will succeed in it,’’ he added. After the launch of the party at the Suchana Kendra in Jodhpur, the party members, as a part of their promotional campaign will tour Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.
Update: Paritrana website [Link]. Interview with Chandreshekhar [Link].