I WANTED TO BE A FILMMAKER but…..
It is said that “Dream Big to become Successful” but everyone in this world is not so lucky that he can fulfill all his dreams. Whenever and whatever happens in this world there is always some reason behind it to happen. Of course here is also a reason to make this organization happen “a reason” a very genuine reason!
I am thankful to those who said ‘NO’ to me.
It’s because of them, I did it myself. – Einstein
This statement of Einstein completely suits to the man in this story who is belonging to very poor family, staying in Mumbai’s slum area but with big dreams. I started his mission just at the age of 21 for people unfortunate like him, to make them lucky and happy. I had decided to dedicate his life to serve the deprived people when other friends of his age were busy playing games and enjoying their life. But on the other hand this person was very serious about things happening around him, things that were making him disturb from within i.e. poverty, hunger, child labour … and more.
My dream was to become a film maker. I was very fond of films and was a big fan of Bruce Lee. When we speak of films for him Burce Lee is a passion, Salman Khan is a craze, Riteish Deshmukh and Amitabh Bachchan is a style, Nana Patekar and Aamir Khan are an acting Institute. Akshay Kumar and Shahrukh Khan’s struggle and success is an inspiration for me. From childhood my interest was in film making only. My dream was to become a successful film maker, so I wanted to go for higher studies. But when I was in class 6th I was forced to shift to his uncle’s place in Satara (Phaltan / Baramati) due to the outbreak of 1992 communal riots in Mumbai. Because of the weak financial position of my parents I could somehow continue my education from 7th to 10th in ‘New English School, Nimbhore’ Phaltan in Satara. I failed in 10th Exam because I could not get enough resources, support, guidance and motivation for my studies in a remote place like Satara (Phaltan / Baramati).
In 1997 I came back to Mumbai with my father for further studies & livelihood with just Rs. 1800/- with them and a 10th fail certificate.
I again started his journey & struggles to fulfill his dream to become a film maker. I decided to continue my studies on my own from 10th class fail. I passed 10th by distance education in March 1998. But again because of my weak financial position I could not take admission in 11th for next 2 years.
These two years of my life were filled with very strange experiences and hard struggle. I did odd jobs for my survival. I started working at Navi Mumbai, Vashi .Due to financial constraints I could not travel daily from my home in Malad , Mumbai so I had to stay away from my home. In this period for first six to seven months it was not possible for me to arrange for my accommodation so I had to sleep on foot path at sector 17 Vashi with only some pages of news papers as his ‘Mat’.
Street dogs and cats were his partners for dinner and best friends to accompany me for whole night. In every difficult situation of my life, I always had two options in front of him one was GOOD and other was BAD. Bad was very easy to be achieved to make easy and fast money and Good was difficult and required a lot of patience and struggle to earn money but by grace of God at every situation in his life I choose the Good and not Bad.
Later on with help and some loan from his friends I managed to take admission in 11th for Commerce stream in Night College in ‘Saraswati Junior Night College’ at Goregaon (West) Mumbai, in the year March 2000. With the advice from my friend in 2001, I visited some local charity organizations for the financial help for my next year education but it didn’t work as many of them discriminated and rejected me on the basis of cast, creed, community and religion, and no one consider my proposal on the basis of his financial condition. This was the first time ever that I envisioned to have his own trust that would really help the poor needy students selflessly but ‘The vision to have my own trust’ that would never discriminate on the basis of cast, creed, community and religion, a trust that would reach to every deserving students and their underprivileged families to help everyone on the basis of their financial condition and physical capability as a human being was that time just a thought which came out of my frustration, irritation, depression and mental harassment.
I wanted to complete his own graduation and also wanted to help my brother & sister to complete their education. I had to take up a job & work 15-17 hours a day as I was the only bread winner of his family.
It was a hard struggle continuing my study in Night College and working in daytime for my livelihood. Sometimes I was just having one time meal in a day or sometimes even deprived of that. I somehow completed my graduation in 2005 from Public Night Degree College, Santacruz (East) Mumbai.
There after I had two options available, whether to complete my MBA thereby getting a good job to quickly get rid of his family’s poverty OR go for FILM MAKING COURSE to become a film maker & fulfill my dream. A career in film industry is always uncertain; it could have caused more struggle and trouble to me and my family. Though I was ready to take the risk personally but for the sake of his family I decided to go for the MBA COURSE. But when I inquired about the fees from the colleges unfortunately both of the courses were out of his reach as again he could not afford higher fees for either of the courses MBA or FILM MAKING COURSE.
While completing my graduation when I was in F.Y. B.Com in 2002 – 2003, I had already got the idea about the unaffordable expenses of further higher education. So I again prepared my own ‘Educational Profile’ for presentation which included my results, mark sheets, academic documents and also some sports certificates and medal that I had won in various competitions in my schools and colleges and started approaching various NGOs, charitable trusts, politicians, social workers and other people for donation to help me in his higher studies.
I was presenting my educational profile to the various people and organizations for 04 academic years i.e. form the year 2001 to 2005 but no one helped me. I requested many NGOs to present his educational profile to donors for his educational help but they did not entertain me at all. Some of them asked me for an initial BRIBE in return of their ‘HELP’. This again was out of reach for me. I was also not agreed for, even if it was possible somehow. Many times I did not have money for travelling to visit NGOs so I had to walk for hours and hours with my educational profile presentation file in my hand. My slipper got big holes under the ankles through which I could see the entire world but…..world could not see me.
Many of Trust/NGOs rejected me against caste discrimination saying we help only to our own community or religion people and not outsiders. No one looked at me as a human being or as an Indian brother. I realized that there is also a communal or religious cold war among people in our own society. The war which is without any weapon and violence but that which spoils the entire society, humanity, kills the feeling of unity among Indians, that which is working like a slow poison. I says that working for the welfare of one’s own community and religious is of course not wrong but making discrimination on the basis of cast, creed, community, state, province, language, party affiliation, color and religion is absolutely wrong.
I thinks every communal organization must have some provisions for other communities, if they want to distribute their helps on the basis on community. This kind of discrimination actually becomes the cause which forms a feeling of communal & religious enmity among the people of different cast & creed of our country. I says that people who carry such mentality of communal and religious discriminating are in one sense terrorist by themselves. Hence such people do not have any rights to blame the terrorist who kill innocent people with bullets and bombs under the name of cast, creed, community and religion in their terror attacks.
I also realized that many of these NGOs/ trust etc are just fake and money making organizations under the name of social work or sympathy for poor and needy people.
At this point I thought that there would be several students like me in this world who cannot pursue higher education just because of their weak financial condition and hence cannot fulfill their dreams. This was the point when I finally & firmly decided to establish a trust which would genuinely work for such students who are deserving higher education but cannot reach it because of their weak financial position.
From 2001 to 2005, with the guidance of my ‘Bhautik Guru’ ‘Jain Saheb’, I had already started doing observation of my friends and students studying with me in my college and their family members to know what are the things those proved to be obstacles or barriers in achieving higher education and not only education but also affect their health and career. As per guidance of his ‘Bhautik Guru’ I needed a ‘Deep Research’ to establish a very genuine charity organization. So from 2001 to 2005, I started finding out the problems, obstacles and barriers that affect education, health and career of the students in the format of ‘Problems – Root Cause – Reasons – Symptoms – Permanent Solutions’ because I wanted to work on the ‘Root Cause’ of the ‘Problems’ and not on their ‘Symptoms’. With his personal experience of struggle & hardships faced as a student and the strong observation of other my friends and students studying with me in my college and their family members I found out around 19-20 problems, barriers and issues that affect education, health and career of the students. I categorized all these problems, barriers and issues in 03 main categories Personal, Family Related, School Environment and Educational Infrastructure related issues. I created 03 most important programs for the welfare of the students under the ‘Mission Vande Mataram – National Social Welfare Mission’. There is story behind every project and program added in this mission. Stories or incidents happened with me or students around me which affected their studies, health, life and career. I proudly says that I stays in slum area because most of the social problems are lying in the slum area of the cities. So I gets chance to be in touch with the people, who are suffering from various social issues & problems, and study them to give better results.
I also started gathering information about establishment of NGO in 2005 when I completed my T.Y. Bcom Examination. I a proud Indian by my heart and wants to help all the people in India who belongs to any cast, creed, community and religion. Because I looks at everyone with an equal vision i.e. as a human being and as a Indian brother first. I started studying the field of NGO, its rules, regulations, acts, laws, working systems, concept, themes, planning, strategies, projects, action plan, organizational structure of my own NGO/trust to reach every deserving students and their underprivileged families and mainly shortcoming or drawbacks of other NGOs and many more things related to the field of NGO or Charity.
Later again at one of my well-wisher’s suggestion I continued his struggle and joined a Food & Beverage course from Kokane’s Koninoor Institute of Hotel Management, Dadar (West) Mumbai in 2006. I completed his stewards training in various well known hotels in Mumbai. In 2006 I started working as a steward just to have experience to go abroad and make money for my film making course. But again I could not become successful in this plan because I did not have enough money to give to the agent for visa.
I again got disturbed from within because of repeated failures which were only because of my weak financial position. I says “I am not the only one, I am not the first one and I am not the last one to face all these problems and difficulties in the life”. I has purposely not described in detail the difficult phases of my life which were sometimes full of depression, frustration, failures or times where thoughts of committing suicide touched me many times. Herein I also does not mentioned my personal distress, plight, irritations, sacrifices, compromises, hard work or heart-rending mental harassments in detail which I tolerated only for completing my education and getting two times meal to me and my family. The only reason is that I does not want to gain anyone’s “sympathy” for any purpose. I wants people to help me by considering me “sincere efforts and pure motto of selfless social work”.
I actually started my social work at age of 21. I used to help people around me who were in any kind of problem like financial, medical, educational etc, even though I Myself was facing lot of financial problem for my studies. I used to provide note books, stationary or very small amount of money like Rs. 20/-, 25/- or 50/-…etc. to the students around me. To help others many a times I used to borrow money from my friends & people at my work place.
Now when I firmly decided to establish a trust, it was real time that this social work of his personal level be converted into an organization which was later established in 2008, on the basis of study I made in the period of last 03 years from 2005 to 2008, and called as ’Swrna Rajhans Trust’.
I says we are here to do very genuine and true social work with very transparent financial transactions and affairs that is open to all. I believes in real & selfless social work that which is done from the bottom of heart to have long lasting effects to make a permanent change in society.
Trying to solve the problems in our society, many of the social workers, reformers, NGOs and charitable organizations are working only on the symptoms of the problems, but I says ‘We should work on the cause…..The Root Cause… of these problems to uproot them permanently from the society.’
In the formation process of this trust since 2005, without anyone supporting my for this noble cause, I took severe mental stress and painful physical efforts to plan my vision & design my mission. I took special efforts to study the problems, needs and requirements of the society, mainly students. It took himme quite some time to gather knowledge related to functioning of the trust and legal formalities. I met many people in the field of NGO or national and international charity and people who had done degree or diploma and other social work related 2-3 years courses to know their views and opinions. I studied the shortcomings and drawback of the other NGOs. But to cover these shortcoming and drawbacks, the main challenge in front of me was to set up a unique body of organization that consist of very effective structure of committees, sub committees with their types and total number of positions for effective delivery of the national and international charity to grass root level and also involving every Indian in to active social work which never happened before in the history of India. I specially designed roles, responsibilities and duties of every committee officer on these committees. I proudly says that this organization has an unique system which strives to provide all the helps and assistance even to last beneficiary at free of cost without any corruption, misuse, misutilisation. This system will surely works selflessly for 100% long lasting result and also motivate people for true social work.
I took special efforts to design an action plan to effectively implement his mission for 100% long lasting results and revolutionary social change in the history of social services.
After completing the design of the action plan and all necessary studies relating to formation of the organization, I registered my organization in 2008 with help of his common & ordinary friends.
For making this mission successful I had to sacrifice his career and his family life. I also sacrificed his full time job to give enough time for formation of the organization, “the job which could have given me good salary to secure me and my family life”. For the sake of the organization 80% of his earning from his part time jobs, home tuitions etc. was used for development of organization. But this amount of money was not really good enough for effective social work.
Fortunately later I got selfless support from some people, who saw his genuine struggle & qualities from very close and understood my mission. These people give me motivation and encouragement for my mission. I gives all the credit of progress for this mission to them and not to himself, considering himself just an insignificant cause to make this organization happen as per wish of the God.
I says that let’s remember one thing ‘Nothing in this world should be taken for granted or free’. One should not expect spoon feeding because- It is the rule of nature that ‘without doing any efforts you get nothing’. Hence to make our mission successful we have to visit and convince people to make them understand our mission. We may have to face irritation, frustration, financial problems, insult and failure too. In the process of achieving our goals we have to do hard struggle, do many scarifies and compromises but never give up because this all is also a part of success. Let’s brush up our minds, empower our self to get involved in service of nation and serve the needy people. Our mission is to involve each and every citizen of this country in active social work for the service of nation, but we need to take initiative, take the first step i.e. start from our self first……
I is firmly convinced that being a responsible part of the society, every one of us should come ahead and take steps to do our best for the welfare of our society.
He knows that in the matter of education, I was not ‘lucky’ but I wants to make others ‘lucky’ and fortunate. Hence my entire team is working with their sincere efforts and dedicated hard work to bring a long lasting change in the society.
I says ‘It is very difficult for a common man like me to run the organization and raise the funds’ because I am not a rich like well-known businessman and entrepreneurs in India, I am not famous like celebrities and I don’t even have power & authorities like any politician or minister for getting things done.
Whatever money I is earning from my tuitions, coaching or job is mostly utilized for the organization but it is not enough for me to make a visible mark or impact, so I has to hunt for donations from outside sources. When I approaches donors for donations they say show us a visible mark or impact of your organization only then we will give you donation. But none of them ever think that unless we give me at least a basic or sufficient amount of donation I cannot show any impressive performance. My condition is like a fresher who goes for interviews to 100 companies but everyone rejects me for having no work experience but none of them think that unless they give me a first chance I not going to get any experience.
Since it is just a beginning, this organization is facing problems. But it’s just because of his strong desire, passion, conviction, sincerity, determination dedication towards the work with ‘Never Give up’ philosophy which has helped me to run this organization till now.
Apart from sincere efforts rest of the things I leaves to God!!
So…..Finally the man who wanted to become
A FILM MAKER
…..became A SOCIAL WORKER
It’s only for TRUE SOCIAL WORK…
