A TTITUDE, Develop a right attitude towards the society and help others in your own way.
B EHAVIOUR, Behave with respect to your elders not only at home but outside too.
C ARE, Care not only your family members, but also those who have no one to care.
D ISCARD, Don’t discard anyone especially based on disability or status.

Karthikeya - The Small Step


Young minds can make a huge difference. I have come across many youngsters these days, spending their valuable time contributing towards the upliftment of the society. Here is an example, happened to read this in Outlook. I used to always feel its just a thin stretch that separates a person to reach out to help others. To take that small step, you need a strong urge, Karthikeya had that.

On the day after the tsunami, G. Raja Karthikeya, a sales manager at I-Flex Solutions, Bangalore, was sitting with a colleague discussing the devastation in the Andaman & Nicobar islands. "We were looking at some photos, wondering what it must feel like to be at the receiving end of nature's fury," recollects Karthikeya. It was a simple observation by his friend—"What can we do?"—that made the decision for Karthikeya. The techie sought leave, flew to Tambaram air force base, and convinced a batch of paramilitary officers who were to fly to Car Nicobar that he would be a useful guy to have around.


As an amateur ham operator and a relief volunteer, Karthikeya wasn't unfamiliar with rescue operations. Upon landing, he trekked along with a relief convoy to get a sense of the havoc and chalk out a plan of action. Tribals had fled villages in fear and were now scattered across the forest. Air-dropped rations had burst on hitting the trees and never reached the villagers.


Karthikeya trekked from settlement to settlement seeking out survivors, delivering basic first aid and what little food he could carry with him. But what he really wanted to do was build a helipad: "This was necessary to bring in the rations. Malaria had broken out. The wells were contaminated. Sheds made of leaves and branches offered little shelter from the heavy rain. Nightly tremors reminded us that the earth was not yet asleep." Villagers who were on the brink of starvation and were subsisting on a wild fruit called kewry were in no mood for any physical activity. Patience and persistence were the key and Karthikeya had plenty of both. Finally, the village elders agreed to send 200 young men. "That done, we radioed the base and choppers flew in with rations. But 1,800 hungry people can eat a lot. Soon the rations were over. The next morning, Colonel Bisht of the army and I led villagers to create a trail by hacking through the jungle to the nearest village. Rations could then be brought by trucks," recounts Karthikeya.


It was during this operation that Karthikeya befriended Philip, a young villager around his age, who had lost his wife and younger son to the tsunami. His older son, 5, was suffering from high fever and desperately needed medicines. The trail that they were hacking was not just a road to Philip. It was a lifeline for his child.


For this young man, courage during a tragedy isn't about pointing fingers at a non-responsive government or crying slogans. It is about plunging right ahead and acting on ideas which so many of us have but never have the gumption to implement.

Food for Thought...

It's good to have money and the things money can buy,
but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make
sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.
                                                    - George Horace Lorimer