Beautiful memories of challenging times…

“Ben that house you see there, that is my house. Please come for tea.” He had met us just two minutes back, “How come you are here, you had send lot of aid to our village, am I correct, Ben??

Becharbhai Maharaj - A Khariya resident - narrates his refreshing experience to
Mittalben Patel & Shri Rashminbhai Sanghvi during their post-flood visit

His statement confused me, it was not us who had given them aid, we were merely instrumental in bringing them aid, we cannot be taking any credit for that!! My mind was busy with these thoughts when he said, “Ben, we have witnessed many such floods but, this time we have been helped a lot by everyone. I had gone to Madhi to get saplings for my farm. You know how far Madhi is, 200 kilometers from here almost near Vijapur. The guy selling saplings asked my village and when I said Khariya he told me he was at our village with a truck full of fodder for animals and so much more. That guy wasn’t a rich fellow. He had a very small farm but he worried about us when he read of Khariya in newspaper and reached us with all the help he could.” He was overwhelmed by such gestures of kindness and help reaching them during some of the most difficult times of their lives. The gratitude towards such acts of kindness could be seen on his face!!!

He could not believe that a small farmer from as far as 200 kilometers could think of showing such generosity… “my entire Banaskantha was here to help us and I am extremely grateful to everyone who did. It is because of you all that we have managed this crisis… did you know any of us?? Yet you decided to help us!! How can we not offer you tea??”

The Banas river between Khariya and Mota Jampur decided to go wild without warning anyone, that night it just decided to spread its span from 50 meters to 2 kilometers….as we were looking at the aftermath our eyes fell of the beautiful setting sun in the horizon and we decided to get down and take a picture of it to find Khariya’s Becharbhai Maharaj who with his touching narrative refreshed us even before we could have the tea he offered……

The beautiful aftermath of the good deeds and kind gestures by human kind during such challenging times have made such profound impact…

With two outstanding humans... Respected Shri. RashminbhaiSanghvi and Becharbhai Maharaj…

'બેન ચા પાણી પીશો? પણે દેખાય એ ઘર મારુ. આવો બેન.'
બસ બે મિનિટ પહેલા મળ્યા ત્યારે એમણે પૂછ્યું, 'કેમ આ બાજુ બેન? તમે અમારા ગામમાં સહાય આલેલી ને બેન?'
એમના આવું પૂછવાથી હું તો હા ના ની અસમઝમાં પડી. સહાય કોની ને કોણે આપી અમે તો નિમિત્ત હતા ને એમાં આમ જશ લઇ લેવાય?? આ ગડમથ ચાલતી હતી ત્યાં એ બોલ્યા...
'બેન પોણી તો પેલાય ઘણા આયા પણ આ ફેરા લોકોએ ખુબ સહાયતા કરી. હું મારા ખેતર માટે રોપા લેવા માઢી જ્યો તો બેન. માઢી ચેટલું સેટ પડ્યું? 200 કિલોમીટર થાય. ઠેક વિજાપુરની બાજુમો. પેલા રોપવાળાએ મન પુસ્યું ક, 'કાકા ચોના?' અન મેં કીધું ખારીયા. ઈને મન કીધું, 'અમે આયાતા ખારીયા. ઘાસ પૂળાની આઇસર ભરી ન. અન બીજુયે ઘણું લઈન' એ રોપાવાળો કોય મોટો જબરો પૈસાવાળો નતો. બે વિધા જમીનનો માલિક હતો પણ જુઓ અમારી ચિંતા કરીન ખારીયાનું છાપામો વોચીન ખારીયા આઇન ઈને મદદ આલી. આ વાત કરતા કરતા સખત અહોભાવ એમના મોઢા પર જણાતો હતો.
અને સૌથી અગત્યનું ઠેઠ 200 કિલોમીટર દૂરથી અને એય પાછો બે વિધા જમીનનો માલીક ગાડી ભરીને ઘાસ લઈને આવે એ એમના માનવામાં આવતું જ નહોતું.

'અમારું આખું બનાસકોઠા મદદ કરાવવાળા બધાનો આભાર મોનઅ. તમે બધા હોવ ન અમે બેઠા થઈયે નકર.... તમે બધા ચો ઓળખતાતા અમન? તોય મદદ કરીન? તો અમે ચા- પોણીમોથી તો ના જઇયે ન?'
ખારીયા અને મોટાજામપુરની વચમાં બનાસે ના કોઈ રણશિંગું ફૂંક્યું ના લડવાની તક આપી બસ એણે તો કાળી રાતમાં પોતાનું સામ્રાજય 50 મીટરમાંથી વધારી બે કી.મી.નુંં કરી દીધું. આ જોઈ રહ્યા હતા ત્યાં સરસ સુર્યાસ્ત થઇ રહ્યાનું જોયું. ને એનો ફોટો પાડવા નીચે ઊતર્યાને ખારીયાના બેચરભાઈ મહારાજનું ચાનું આમંત્રણ મળ્યું ને ચા પીધા વગર ટેસ કરાવી દે એવી અદભુત વાત એમણે કરી...
માનવતાના અદભુત કાર્યોની સુવાસ કેવી સરસ પથરાઈ નહીં..
આદરણીય રશ્મિનભાઈ સંઘવી અને બેચરભાઈ મહારાજ બેય અદભુત માણસો...

Police Again severely mutilates innocent Dafers... Dafer Atrocity - a common phenomenon

“Ben, these police are after us, asking us to surrender the weapons we have. How are we supposed to have weapons? Do they think we have opened a weapon manufacturing unit?? My husband died when my son Noor was 10 years old, since that day we have not spent a single day around the boundaries. Since past 25 years have been living in Kalawar. Both, my son and I have been working as laborers to make living. We go wherever work takes us, if we get work on farms we go there but not to loot, rob or hunt, that is not what we do!! Yet, since last four days the Kalawar police officials have been visiting our house every evening. They are threatening Noor Mohammad and his wife, asking them to surrender the weapons they have…. Earlier it was just the weapons now they are asking for my son. Have I raised him for them? Noor’s wife objected and stood up against the police to which they got furious, hit her so hard that her face has swollen. They are talking rubbish, talking filthy and abusing us which is difficult to listen. We are innocent, we have no such thing as weapon and nothing of the sort they are asking for!! Help us from the police wrath, Ben! If it does not stop we will have to commit suicide… We are poor but, we live in a decent locality and the police reaching here every day is ruining our image…” a very painful appeal from Rehmatben.

“The police do not understand; what will we do weapons when we work in city!!” said Noor as matter of fact…

Rehmatben desires to live a simple life and the police is not allowing them to live in peace. The family has no previous police records, has been living a decent life and the police thinks otherwise.

I fail to understand why police behaves in such a manner, go get a warrant and search but, they do have other tactics they come with a weapon in their vehicle and ask for men…I don’t know what instructions they have received from #Gandhinagar…. We have always told the police force, have a dialogue with us, we will help you find the ones involved in unlawful activities, but please stop harassing the innocent Dafer….

This is not a request or a humble appeal, this is our anger speaking now….

(the picture is not of Rehmatben but of another Dafer lady who have been victim of police abuse)