Friends,
This is an ordinary story about someone who is trying to do
extraordinary
things in his own small way. This tall and handsome young man looks
like any
one of those successful professionals whom we see around ourselves in
large
numbers, rushing for money and success in more and more amount. There
can be
no denying that he has been bestowed with all those basic requirements
that
help a person succeed in life. This is exactly what he was supposed to
be inching
towards when after his education from Etah and Agra, he got into the
Oriental
Bank of Commerce as a probationary officer. Very soon he was a branch
manager
in the bank and thus had become the custodian of huge amount of cash
and
monetary instruments that the banks deal with.
But then Vivek Sharma was not bound to live an ordinary life, nor was
he made
up for the routine state of affairs. He was not interested in his
position,
perks and powers, what to say of other kinds of benefits that many of
the
bank professional are so often blamed to be in the lookout for. From
the very
beginning, he had certain ideals before him and was deeply guided and
motivated by some of his own ideas. His basic thrust was upon service
to the
people, whom he had been ask to serve. As a branch manager in small
places at
Shahjehanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, Vivek Sharma started
implementing his
ideas into real life practice. Instead of putting a large number of
hurdles
in the way of the poor loan-seekers belonging to the nearby villages,
he
opened up the public exchequer for all kinds of needy people. He not
only
simplified the loaning process to as much extent as could be possible
at his
end, he also ensured that the middlemen in the chain were completely
eliminated. In this he did not hesitate in getting a few of these
touts
arrested by the police.
This went on for some time before Vivek started believing that if he
really
wanted to serve the people of the region, he would have to get out of
the
limitations imposed by the government service. He was of the opinion
that he
would be able to serve the people in a much better fashion if he
resigned
from the banking job. But whoever he consulted, including his friends
and
well-wishers were completely against this idea. They were of the firm
view
that this would be completely ruinous for him and that he should not
bet his
complete life on some unknown ideological wishes. As per Vivek, it was
only
his wife who stood by him during those days. And one fine morning he
decided
he would no more be in the service.
The next few months were tough. Really tough. He did not have much
money
saved from his banking job. So, he decided he would join a small share
firm
as a partner, at the same time pursuing his real interests. He
remained there
for some time but his destiny lay somewhere else. In a year or so, he
left
even this profession. By this time, he had got a non-governmental
organization registered with himself as the CEO and other members as
the
teammate. According to Vivek, the process of registration took more
than the
usual period because he would not pay any speed-money at any
government
counter which resulted in a non-cooperating attitude from the
concerned
officials. Finally the CEO of Milky way found himself landed among the
same
people whom he had served a few years ago as a bank manager. Now he
was their
friend, philosopher and guide.
In the new awatar, Vivek is going deep into the villages and
intermingling
with them on a much regular basis. His focus is on creating Self-Help
groups
(SHGs) for these poor people. But unlike many other SHGs which are
there only
for namesake and whose creator are worried only till the time they
have got
the government support money for creating these SHGs, Vivek has a
complete
plan chalked out for himself. He shall be getting each individual of
the SHGs
such a loan sanctioned which will enable them to buy two milk-yielding
animals.
This will be followed by a proper training and support to each of
these
persons. Finally he is also developing a complete network, almost on
the
Anand model (I suppose) where the milk from these beneficiaries will
be collected
and properly processed. For this Vivek has started planning a
centralized
chilling and processing plant. The interesting part is that he takes
care of
each and every individual of the SHGs and goes to any extent to ensure
that
they are made fool of by any middleman or taut. He told of a story
where he
got a middleman caught by the police when he was asking for some
money.
Vivek Sharma has chosen to tread a difficult path and so far has been
quite successful
in pursuing it. I hope, he shall be able to contribute many more
things to
the society in the days to come
Amitabh Thakur
President,
IRDS,
Lucknow
# 94155-34526
