[pcpranav]

Travel Date: Sun 13May'12
Place: Mokhada, Dist. Thane
Vehicle: Xylo


Since it was Sunday, I woke up bit late around 10am. Family was outstation for vacation. Made myself a tea and breakfast was served by one of my good neighbour. I was lazily reading the Mumbai Mirror and the article of Water Wars of Shahapur (Dist. Thane) caught my attention.

Link: Article Window

Within minutes of reading this article, remembered of a woman's tragic death while fetching water, at village Dolara in Mokhada area. I searched some info on the internet and immediately a plan came to my mind - someway to help those people.

Links: Water may be unfit for human consumption
Dolara villagers drink water unfit for animals
Tribal woman dies after 4km trek for a bucket of water - Mumbai Mirror


I thought of carrying some purified water bottles & biscuits to be distributed to Dolara village. Called one of my friend and updated of this plan, he was game. We went to nearby supermarket. Purchased ~200 packs of Parle-G; same size wasnt available in quantity, so did a mix of Rs.10, Rs.5, Rs.4 packs. Also packed 3 packs (~300#) of Mango Bite chocolates. Next, we called a guy we knew who stocks water bottles. Managed to fit 27 packs of dozen bottles each, at a reasonably discounted rate. (i.e total 324 ltr). We could have stocked more, but were unsure of bottle balance.

Though I did carry my FlipVideo, but couldnt manage to shoot any video. The only pics from my mobile cam are when we loaded my Xylo. Just a day before I got Nitrogen checked in wheels, but now there was quite weight put. So went there and inflated by 3 points.

>>>>> PICS..





Google Map: Mira Road East, Mira Bhayandar, Maharashtra to Unknown road - Google Maps

The map doesnt show Dolara village, approx pointed.



Route: Mira Road - Vasai - Manor - Vikramgarh - Jawhar - Mokhada - Dolara - return same path
Distance: total around 300 KMs

FYI: Last year, I had been to Jawhar for a overnight stay at ::Sunsetpoint Resort:: That was a lovely experience, covering Dabosa waterfalls (from top view itself), Jai Vilas Palace and the beautiful sunset in valley. Sorry, couldnt manage to write a travelogue yet.

Finally we started at 1.15pm and reached Vikramgarh at ~3.00pm. Had samosa & tea at a local shop and casually inquired about the places ahead of Mokhada. The shop owner said that water is a problem during summer (esp May) since its hilly area; but in monsoon there is enough water. Overall the roads are good, barring some patches. Caution at ghat sections is recommended, saw few accidents enroute. We overshot our time estimate, but that wasnt the main concern. Infact, had we originally thought, if we could manage another supplier of water near the highway junction itself, we didnt mind doing that to-n-fro one more time to supply more water. But eventually this didnt materialize, since neither we could locate a wholesaler nor did we have enough time.

We bypassed Jawhar and took the road for Mokhada and from a circle took a left towards Khodala. From here, the Dolara village was 14 kms. Trust me, all the way we had seen small girls to aged ladies carrying water from distant places. We can imagine the heat and weight of vessels. Some bullock carts did carry bigger tanks, but the steep roads surely puts strain on the poor animal too. Lot of wells were either dirty or dried. Did see people washing clothes & bathing in the larger streams (where available) and the same for drinking purposes. At places, people were digging reservoirs to store water, before the monsoon is gifted.

Once we touched Dolara, saw some people talking at the first house. We entered the broken road to see more houses & huts, were able to spot some Jilla Parishad Office and Prathmik Shala (i.e. local admistrative office and a Primary School) - both were closed. Saw some children playing around the Flag Hoisting Pole and we decided to come back at the village entrance. After parking the vehicle, we went to that family and told our intention of distributing water bottles and heard of this place from news. The person was very thankful and updated the population was around 2000, but he would personally ensure to give some water to max people possible. While the nearby residents was overlooking, the family started unloading the rear side bottles and biscuit box, along I gave 1 pack of chocolates. The person said that water tanker comes randomly every 2-3 days, costing 300-500 and isnt sufficient, and even not affordable for many. Quitely I told my friend to spare the bottles (~90) placed in the middle row seat, which can be distributed at other places on our way back. I exchanged mobile number with that person, and told that we would try to do something more in coming days. They offered us tea / cold drink, but we gently denied and within 10 minutes started from there. I asked if he could check definite source of those tankers, and in return we would explore possibility of sponsoring few tankers.


Today did some googling and found these: (unsure of some stats!)
Mokhada Taluka

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

Habitation Profile

List Of Habitations

While returning on the same road, we kept distributing water bottles to huts and people we met on road. We could see the happiness in their eyes. The chocolates gave added joy to the kids.
Few incident to depict: we stopped at a place where we saw a poor family trying to fetch water from a well. My friend called them to get water, but somehow due to communication (lingo), they misunderstood that we need to fill our water bottle. The guy waved us to wait and was coming to us with some water in their vessel. Finally, he understood that its we who want to give (not take) water, he was speechless for a moment and kept murmering kinda "why water .. oh water". At another place, my friend went with few bottles to a old lady outside her house, ground was bit heighted, next to the road. Another guy at loud voice asked at that lady, as to what my friend was giving ? The lady was very happy and told back him that they are giving water and its "bakshish" (gift) for her.

Once the bottles were all done, we were also happy and relaxed. Reached Jawhar ~5.45pm and had food at Shivneri Dhaba, located on main road, in front of the compound of Jai Vilas Palace. I did speed a bit on those curvy roads, since the bottle weight wasnt there. While we were crossing Virar, that person from Dolara did call and asked about our whereabouts and told that in a day or two he would inquire of tankers. Finally at 9.00pm we reached Mira Road and headed straight to our regular restaurant, food and coolers.

Overall it was a good trip, driving was a pleasure and our objective was met.

thanks,
Pranav

[Rehaan]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[parsh]

Hats off Pranav.What a way to serve a cause. Certainly what would be required is lot more than a couple of bottles for each family. But your gesture is absolutely down to earth humanitarian and from heart. Maybe we at TBHP can form such groups and organize such events with contribution from all interested and whenever possible.

[Hurrycane12]

Awesome deed Pranav; Your gesture is a inspiration of how we can make a difference. I am sure you and your friend are blessed by a lot of people who had received clean drinking water.

[anoopap]

Perfect answer to address problems we face around.

Why blame any government; Government is made of people. If every able person starts helping other, goverment starts becoming efficient.

Would like to quote what Gandhi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world"

Thanks for sharing and inspiring me.

[Jignesh]

Hello Pranav,

Sincerely appreciate what you did on a lazy Sunday. Hats off.

It is indeed pity to see that many Residential Apartments in Mumbai are getting 24 hours supply of Drinking Water, & just 125 kms away there are people dying for a pot of fresh water.

I would suggest next T-BHP Mumbai Meet should be organized to a place like this one, where we can have a nice drive + do some charity work rather than spending money on food & drinks at a restaurant.

Thanks,

[Speedme]

Kudos to you Pranav,

A lot of us read such articles and the only act by showing sympathy towards the people suffering, Very few are up for the moment. Guess your act inspires us to get off our own arse and be productive for the while we are on this mother earth. Great way of spending a Sunday, with a great drive and for the greater good.

[Schoudhury]

Great work Pranav .
What a awesome way to spend a sunday .
I'm sure this will surely inspire a lots of people to do something similar.
It always nice if we can give something back to our society and specially to people who are in need .

Cheers.

[pratheekkunder]

Standing Salute to you brother.! Great job indeed.!

[ghodlur]

Pranav,

Superlative effort, hats off to you.

BTW what is the source of water in the area other than tankers? Did you see some borewells? I echo Jignesh's sentiments that Social work should be an agenda during the T-BHP meets rather than just drink and laze around (sorry if I am hurting anyone, no offence intended).

[padikpanther]

Respect Bro, you have set a great example for all of us to follow... Thanks

[mobike008]

That is one of the most selfless act that I witnessed in a real long time. Sacrificing your sunday and venture out in this hot sun to perform this beautiful service shows the true character of a human being.

Kudos to you and your friend who joined you for this good deed.

I am truly inspired to do something similar ( which incidentally is being planned since last week with my bullet riding group)

[pcpranav]

thanks a lot for all your wishes & encouragement. It would surely make sense to plan our "Meets" with such objective, where our efforts are multiplied.

@ghodlur: all along we saw lots of wells being used by people, most of them have low water level and dirty. also consider the distance between such source and living place. somewhere I did see a pipeline (maybe 2-3 inch wide) running across the hills, but surely they didnt carry water. I also remember spotting 2-3 deserted borewells ! even the tanker is not reliable - either pvt or govt.

Just in case - I do have the mobile# of Mr.Ishwar @ Dolara village, whom I mentioned of delivering the stuff to.

[nekfar]

Pranav,
A very noble work done. You and your friend definitely deserve more than a pat on the back.

it must have been very pleasing and rewarding to see a smile on their faces when you offered them bottled water, biscuits & chocos.

[.sourov]

Most people think that we will do something but you really did it.
Awesome work, hats off to you Pranav