Dear Mr Pal,
This is with reference to your recent mail on the above subject. I am taking
the liberty of weighing this mail against a specific case.
Manoj Yadav works as a driver in Delhi. He belongs to Dhamdaha (middle) village
in Purnia district of Bihar.
He has brought his mother to Delhi. She is a Widow. She is not mentally
sound. He brought his sister’s daughter also to Delhi. His sister died. The
brother in law got remarried. She is eldest of three children of his late
sister. She was not educated. So Manoj has arranged for a private teacher.
His land is there in the care of relations. He has no brother or sister in
Dhamdaha today.
He himself not educated. He was in the fifth class when he left home. But
today he is a driver in Delhi.
Now let us discuss his case in the light of your advice: “the power of
improvement lies within us. We can make the changes. Don’t expect the change to
happen drastically and don’t wait for any big ministers to take the initiative.
Believe in yourself and take the initiative.”
Manoj is not expected to know [email protected]. He is not
expected to know numerous groups on internet both in India and elsewhere. He
is not expected to know about Gopio (Global Organization of People of Indian
Origin) that will organize its annual convention in Chennai early next year
along with the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2009. He too is a Pravasi. Obviously
your mail is not addressed to him as your mail is addressed to Bihar Group on
Internet: But we can interpret that he is already working on your advice:
“Join the NGO and adopt a child for his/her education. Its very simple thing to
do but very effective. There are several ideas like that, which will help
improve Bihar conditions and needs less time of yours.” He does not know what
an NGO means but he has already adopted a child.
I want to ask you one thing. The thing is that should we not consider Manoj as
a non-resident Bihari? We know that those Manojes who go to the Gulf help India
more that what organizations like Gopio is doing.
Bihar-network should focus more on Rural Bihar and on Non-resident Biharies
like Manoj.
Ram Prasad
