My Journey

I hail from Ahmedabad, India; popularly known as ‘City of Entrepreneurs”. Though my native is New Delhi but after spending more than a decade here it has also become like my second native. Though I belong to the Sikh community and probably take the trait of the warrior which depicts the community best as I never step back from any kind of work or task.

I live with a close knit family with my parents and younger sister. Ahmedabad being a developed state in comparison to others mainly interiors of Punjab and parts of Rajasthan where the plight of women in every community, be it high or low is very dreadful. These women are treated like commodities which is such inhuman practice. I will not term myself as feminist but I would also not tolerate any kind of misbehaviour with the females anywhere at least can vouch in my presence. Through our NGO, The Pink Foundation where we are working for the upliftment of women through employment program and kids through talent enhancement program, we talk to the mothers of these kids and they share the problems they are facing.

We get disheartened to know that some of them are in trap of domestic violence, poverty and likewise. But the only ray of hope they show us that they are happy for their kids who come in our sessions and we make them learn new things. We also tie up with some companies and take them out for picnics and other outdoor and recreational activities. These kids are with us since one year and are very happy to be associated with us; they show their affection to us in any possible way.

There is also a story behind me coming into foray of social work. Since last decade or in fact more than that I was working into Corporate and never thought of coming into social service anytime in future. This transformation happened to me couple of years back on my birthday which comes in chilling month of December and sharing this story still gives me goose bumps after these many years too. On my birthday night I was expecting the normal celebration with cake, some friends and dance but to my surprise destiny had something else planned for me. The main person involved was my sister. She had this plan in mind where she told me let’s celebrate today in different manner this time. And there she was with a surprise for me in car on backseat full with blankets and she said you just have to distribute these blankets to the needy and poor people sleeping on the road. I checked my watch and it showed 12:30AM and I imagine how chilling the weather would be that time. She took me to a place where we saw many people sleeping in rags and newspapers on road in that weather. My sister handed over the blankets to me and told, “Go ahead. Give this to people alone and the blessings they give you that moment IS YOUR BIRTHDAY GIFT”. I felt like crying and distributed blankets to them one by one. These people were sleeping and the way they squeezed in the blanket I gave just MOVED me a lot and I was truly touched and sensitized by the plight they were into and that I could help them to fight the winter season this time. Since that day there was no looking back. Anywhere we find any needy person, we help them to our best ability. My sister wished me to be her Co-Founder in starting The Pink Foundation NGO and I grabbed this opportunity that moment and we dedicated our time for empowering women and children. We were aware that the slum kids might be not interested in academic studies; but they have talents in them which is unbeatable and this is one thing we are also trying to enhance in them. Making them learn basics of English and Maths and trying to teach them some extra-curricular activities which we are sure can be helpful to them in later years with which they can earn their living in a dignified manner. This will also help them to understand what is right for them and what is not. We could reach heights with the support we get from our family and friends.

The women employment program we do are also quite helpful to them in terms of making them earn respectfully. Every year during Diwali these women make Diwali diyas. They paint them and we sell these to the Corporates and this is then used for the upliftment of these women and the facilities we can provide them for the any other project. We also have an entrepreneur program in which these women group are making natural soaps and these are giving us good recognition locally. Recently we have started our project for making handbags from natural cotton clothes which is on ideation (initial) stage and our team is working on the funding for the same. Through this bags stitching unit we want these women to scratch their creative heads and come out with the best creative and innovative design of the handbag and we will sell those online and offline and generate revenue out of those. This will help us sustain both our women and kids group respectively.

The support which I got from my family to continue this social work has also become my strength now and I do wish that these women should also earn respect and support from their friends and family and one day they can also rise above and say ‘We did It’.

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