— 05/28/2012 —
MLK. The MLK day of service. It all started in first grade when I attended my first annual MLK day of service. That was the day I understood that it was my duty to give back to the others who needed help. It wasn’t until three years later, however, that I finally realized that I had to look beyond myself to help those people struggling all around me. This is My Barefoot Story:
ABOUT
“Learning from a Barefoot Movement.” The TED talk by Sanjit “Bunker” Roy about his Non-Profit Organization, the Barefoot College. In 1972, set in the village of Tilonia, in Rajasthan, India, the Barefoot College was created on the foundation to help rural communities become self-sufficient. As a part of this goal, Bunker Ji and his team set out to find their own ‘barefoot solutions’. These “barefoot solutions” can be broadly categorized into solar energy, water, education, health-care, rural arts and crafts, communication through puppets, and women’s empowerment.
“Roy’s idea is that India and Africa are full of people with skills, knowledge and resourcefulness who are not recognised as engineers, architects or water experts but who can bring more to communities than governments or big businesses.” — Guardian
Bunker Ji says, the Barefoot College is “a place of learning and unlearning: where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher.”
INSPIRATION
My parents. My greatest mentors. They made sure I developed a set of core values because they envisioned me on a path where people respect me because of my character. Somedays they would just talk to me. Tell me to always remember your roots. My father would tell me to always appreciate the small pleasures we take for granted. He himself being inspired that day, showed me the TED talk. He thought it was extremely important for me to understand how others were helping underprivileged communities and that it was never too young to start. Now that I look back on it, even though there were no immediate results, it unlocked a part of me that motivated me to look beyond myself.
That day Bunker Ji made me realize true service. True service has to be done with the right intention, heart, and perspective. A person is measured not by how they look, but, by how they act, think, and speak. In other words, a true servant is not someone who serves in need of an extra incentive, but a person who believes that to help is the real incentive.
I had to widen my lens on the world, look beyond what more I wanted and realize that there were others out there who couldn’t even afford what I already had. And so, subsequent to this realization my fourth-grade imagination started to spark and jolt open with questions: Why can’t I do that? How can I do that? When can I start? And with one long email to Bunker Ji, and a presentation during my Language & Arts period in the fourth grade, a new me had borne itself from the ashes. I accepted this new way of thinking and I live by it.
EMAIL – Written in fourth grade — Take 1 — 2012:
Although I got no response; it was a lesson learned. I realized that not everything will be handed to me in life. I began to understand that in any situation I had to persevere and persist to get what I needed. Not only is it hard to keep at your goal, it takes a great deal of hard work and will to be patient.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Yeshwin Sankuratri <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, May 28, 2012 at 5:58 PM
Subject: Student from The Haverford School, Philadelphia
Dear Mr. Roy,
Hello! Hope you are doing well. I, Yeshwin Sankuratri am a 4th Grade student at Haverford school in Philadelphia. This is how I got introduced to you. One night, I wanted to watch a TedTalks video, so my dad picked a video that was about you and that is how I got inspired by you and your community service. I have a lot in common with your childhood because I go to a private school and I play squash at the national level. I made a presentation on you to show the kids in class so they can then think about how to help with what you are doing too. I would like to be a part of your organization, please let me know how I can help. I am going to be visiting India for two weeks in June as I do every year during my summer vacation. I may be able to visit if I can make contact before that.
Sincerely,
Yeshwin Sankuratri