The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Sunday 6 February 2011

WELCOME SABA FATIMA: MY FIRST ‘NANHI KALI’ OF THE YEAR


2011 has begun on some high notes. Being blessed with an opportunity to be part of a drive to bring a fundamental change in someone’s life is the most significant achievement one can have.





Welcome Saba Fatima. She is bright girl from Bahadurpura, Hyderabad. Born 1999, she is one of the seven sisters. Coming from the economically poorest section of the society, it is next to impossible for her parents to impart even the basic education to their daughters. In a country like India there are scores of bright girls like Saba Fatima who want to make a difference to the lives of their families by getting quality education. And we cannot deny the truth that it not happening yet. But why should an innocent childhood suffer to the cruel hands of nature and nurture? That must not be. Though it can be easily dismissed as utopian viewpoint, it must echo.

Saba Fatima is a class IV student at the GBPS, Galbalguda. Her favourite subject is Urdu and she aspires to be a teacher once she completes her education. She understands at this early age the role education can play in availing her better opportunities in life. It is half the work done. The other half is providing her sustained education away from the pangs of dropping-out. India has 34% of girls dropping out by the time they reach class V.

We can contribute to it. We can very comfortably be the part of the driving force to educate the real India at its very base. Saba Fatima is my first Nanhi Kali of the year. By writing about her, I don’t intend to get any undue advantage like projecting me in a certain way. It is just if even one can think and can be part of such drives after reading it, nothing can match that. It’s good that we can find some genuine corporate philanthropy in India working seriously to be the spokes of the wheel of the change. It’s good to see that some major groups are coming ahead to contribute and extend the tradition of ‘Tatas’ and we can trust them to collaborate with for many more ‘Saba Fatima’ stories.