[pcpranav]

Wow, it was a very nice day!


Three days back, I got confirmation from TBHPian "mahen_narang" (Mahendra) that we would be joining us, and I explained him our detailed plan and requested him to bring some grains/pulses and chocolates/biscuits for giveaways.

Final Team Members: Pranav.B. (myself), Mahendra.N. (mahen), Mahesh.M., Mahender.R., Prasad.P.

Friday evening, myself and colleagues went to pickup the goods from wholesale market, which were almost finalized with the shops, and loaded in my Xylo, the 3rd row seat was folded to make space. Mahender.R. was to get the blankets from near him home and bring next day morning, and also Mahendra.N. was to bring some material next day. The vehicle would be heavily loaded, with approx 450 KGs material. Next day we would be 5 people sitting in vehicle, which means my Xylo was to drive with about 900 KGs loaded!! (Now please don't to the maths of finding our body weights!!). I got some air filled in tyres, and noticed the handling of vehicle was quite changed. I was prepared to drive slow and carefully, especially at the hilly twisty roads and some off-roads.

Material List: Grains/Pulses: (~350+ KGs), Chocolates & Biscuits, Fleece Blankets (50 qty), Soaps (washing & bathing), Tooth brush & paste, Drawing Books & Pastel Colors. The grains were packed in 1 or 2 kg packs, and put in 12-14 large sacks. Other material was mostly carried in carton boxes or plastic bags.

I had created a WhatsApp group for coordination and sync purposes. It was Sat 25-Nov'17, and all had woke-up early, sending "Good Morning" message in the group, and updating our locations. One member posted apt inspirational message in our group:




I shifted some extra material (oils, old parts etc) from car to home, to make some space. I live closest, so started by 6.50 AM, picked some cash from ATM and then filled Diesel till brim. By 7.20 AM I reached the decided spot, diagonally opposite to Fountain Hotel at the tea stall. We greeted each other, and loaded the balance material brought by Mahendra and Mahender, and had tea. After a 10 min drive, stopped for selfie with car fully loaded.

with car loaded :




Notice the Buddhist Prayer Flag in my car - I purchased few flags in May'17 during my family drive to Bhutan!! (sorry, lazy as usual, couldn't make travelogue of my travels)


After an hours drive, we reached Shree Dutta Snacks at Haloli/Manor, and had nice snacks.

snacks, car parked:




Just a bit ahead, from Mastan Naka, we took right and drove on the Vikramgarh - Jawhar road. There is also another road just a bit before going to right side, which is Wada - Vikramgarh - Jawhar, but I avoided that believing its a slightly narrow & dull road. Driving ahead we reached Vikramgarh and purchased a blade-cutter, useful to cut the grain sacks. By 10.30 AM we reached Jawhar town and using the bypass entered the Mokhada road. From a roadside local seller, we purchased some Guava (applied with salt and chilly powder) to refresh ourselves, and Mahesh purchased lots of sweet-potato for his home. We encountered this water well, which had quite dirty water. This is the same well which was completely dry last year wherein erstwhile few ladies were trying hard to get a bit of water, I had observed in my earlier travelogue as depicted for May'16. Maybe because of recent monsoon season, this well had good water level, but it was very dirty, with garbage, frogs & fishes all within water!

water bodies, well & car :




On on way, we kept distributing biscuits & chocolates to many kids & adults.



Using our mobile's GMaps and asking few locals, we cross Mokhada village and then took a diversion on a even narrow road going towards Hirve village. Just before Hirve village, we stopped near a water stream where road was bit wider over bridge, cut open the grain sacks and re-arranged the material for easy distribution.


VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/3PrVZP6mBKA

Initially we had planned to conduct our distribution of material & such activities in Hirve village, but now we thought of driving further to more interior / remote village. Now the road started turning bad at most sections, off-road patches with lots of sharp stones lying on the path. Carefully I was driving my trusted Xylo, only fear to avoid tyre damage. At a steep uphill bend, I braked to inquire road with a passer-by, and then I had to burn bit of clutch to climb! Overall, we can feel good altitude increase in all these areas of Jawhar, Mokhada, and on this bad section we has seen some steeps too! Soon we reached a hamlet/village named Jambulmatha. We entered the village and drove till end, it was a dead-end, and then somehow turned back and stopped in middle of village where some locals were sitting.


VIDEO :

https://youtu.be/3cV73EkNBOw

Firstly, we called all the kids and asked them to sit at the open space outside a big house, and we started distributing chocolates & biscuits to keep them engaged. Next we asked the present ladies to invite more ladies, as we wanted to distribute the grains. We were told that many adults had gone to the fields for work. With well internal coordination, we started distributing the grain packets, keeping some for the next village. Again back to kids, we distributed drawing books and pastel colors, and explained to draw something. Some of the kids had never done this before, and some kids and ladies were quite good at making an art. It was real good fun, and we also engaged by drawing & explaining to kids. Later we distributed some blankets, bid goodbye to all and set for Hirve village. I saw few packets were torn which led to grains scattering in my car, clean-up required on priority!









VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/lNEnRslRqAM

While returning, we again crossed that off-road section and soon came to Hirve village, finding the residential school. We inquired and met the Principal and asked for formal permission to distribute some material. This residential school housed about 500 students, majority being girls, all are from nearby villages. There was separate buildings for boys and girls. Nearby villagers enroll their kids for this residential school (study till 10th standard), wherein parents sometimes come to meet child, or during vacations the child goes to home. We unloaded biscuits, soaps, 2-3 sacks of mixed grains and distributed in each building. The Principal requested us to personally distribute some biscuits and called the students to assemble in the halls. Some boys had gone to backside river for bathing & washing clothes.


At Hirve school :




The Principal took us to his cabin and we spoke for few minutes understanding the environment. There are similar more few residential schools in this area, totally funded by Government aid, nothing from private funding. He pondered if possible to assist on two matters :
(a) purifier for water : the water channels gets mixed which causes poor water
(b) sports related material could be provided. Recently in a inter-school sports competition, this school won 3 awards, and sports is really liked by these kids.
The nearest doctor is 3 KMs away, and mostly there is no First-Aid kit available within school. This is a big school, being residential in nature, however there are several smaller Zilla Parishad (ZP) schools in mostly each hamlet/village, though many are having just very basic facilities. This school has about 12 teachers, and few support staff for cooking/cleaning etc.

Soon we left the school and entered the adjacent Hirve village for more distribution. Upon entering Hirve village, we parked our vehicle and called the kids and ladies. The kids were given chocolates, biscuits, colors, pencils and kept them engaged. Whereas few of us started handover of grain packets. We came across a person who was driving "Mobile van for Science Experiments", which caters to schools, very good concept. Driving outside towards main road, we kept distributing more material to few
houses and to passer-by people.


At Hirve village :




Before reaching Jawhar town we had finished our entire distribution, kudos to team. We were bit hungry, and also running bit late. While going we had seen this lovely spot (see that house at superb location!), and hence during return we stopped for some pics, it was about 4 PM by now. The approach road was very narrow, cemented (maybe privately built) and we didn't hesitate to venture that side. We had lots of pics and enjoyed the sincerity, even became bit adventurous to step near the waters, walking on sharp stones.






ADVENTURE, COURAGE, DARE, CONFIDENCE, read below.

There was some talks (kinda betting!) between my colleagues Mahesh and Mahender, and Mahender got in full mood to do a dare - jumping on the big rock in center of water! Ohhh hooo! We tried to discourage Mahender, but eventually he did jump on that rock. Now the more tougher part was to come back, and there wasn't much rock to take run-up speed. It was tactical, and I captured this sequence on my mobile (slow-motion). Watch very carefully till the end. Bravo Mahender, Im proud of him.



Video:

https://youtu.be/HmNoyV1Vc4w

Now after this dare, we were really charged-up and enjoying our times, and headed to Jawhar town. We went to a restaurant and ate lots, a very late lunch at 5 PM, even who day didn't have any tea! Since I had been to this area many times, I thought of showing my colleagues the Sunset point, though we were bit late as Sun had just set down! We clicked few pics and enjoyed the valley view. We were already late, otherwise we could have gone to Dhabosa waterfall (another 1 hour trip), and we even gave miss to nearby lakes & dams, some other time. We started our return journey and it turned dark, headlights switched-on. We got stuck in a big traffic jam, wasting about 1.5 hours, which is caused because of the throttled traffic on Vasai Creek bridge near Fountain Hotel. Finally we reached Fountain hotel for a tea, and my colleagues booked their taxi to home. We reached our home by 10 PM and more. Overall a fantastic drive of 300 KMs. We were talking that it was such a wonderful day, personally involved in the cause. We even spoke that by just delivering the material, and not interacting with anyone, we can do this task in half-a-day, but then it doesn't mean much! We could have saved 1-2 hours by better organized or less stops for pics etc, but that's ok.


It was a day well spend, really enjoyed. Thanks to the team and family to support these ventures.


regards,
Pranav

[Rehaan]

Awesome job guys!! And great report.

Feel proud to see a Team-BHP Sticker on your car

And impressive jump by Mahender. That was quite a build up!

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, pcpranav! Moving your trip report to its own thread.

Here is the older planning thread - link (Mumbai: Charitable drive & village visit on 25th November, 2017).

[shenoytech]

There is no higher virtue than giving.

With the blessings we have received, If only each one of us set on your path distributing happiness, it will make small but significant difference to the world around us.

You guys give us inspiration to take your path and fulfill our life with purpose.

[blackwasp]

Kudos to you! Not only have you helped others, but your posts here have definitely encouraged some to do good deeds.

Originally Posted by pcpranav

He pondered if possible to assist on two matters :
(b) sports related material could be provided. Recently in an inter-school sports competition, this school won 3 awards, and sports is really liked by these kids.

I'm interested in this. I used to play chess and table tennis in school and college days. The chess went on till my engineering days when we played at the university level.

My mom is a teacher and many of our close family members expressed interest in activities like this. The best part is the direct interaction. Next time around, you can expect my contribution as well. Unfortunately, I had already committed this weekend to family.

[Mahven]

You guys have made the rest of us BHPians proud, thank you for such blessings you have given to the people in need. Hope, we see more of these things and one day I get to be a part of such drives.

[swissknife]

A perfect "Thanksgiving" of a different kind. Kudos to you guys for this! It is so heartening to see the entire place filled with activity and I am sure they were pleasantly surprised!

[basilmabraham]

Well done guys. It takes a lot of courage to spend time for others. The art of giving, hope to see this trend spread and many more bhpians start doing such acts of kindness. Rated 5 stars.

[phamilyman]

That is indeed very kind of you - most of us are too busy living our daily lives, fighting our petty struggles (either the real ones or the imaginary social media ones), to be able to think of issues bigger than ours.

I am particularly concerned by two things in your excellent report:
a. The lack of water purification in that school
b. The lack of doctors

Please let me know if you would be doing anything on that account in future visits - would be happy to send a modest bank transfer your way as my humble contribution. The latter is really hard, but the former can be solved by money.

Also, if you could share any thoughts on how you went about selecting the recipients etc (selection of Jambulmatha or the residential school), that would be of interest to me.

[PapaBravo]

Great job Pranav. Really proud of you !!

Originally Posted by pcpranav

Notice the Buddhist Prayer Flag in my car - I purchased few flags in May'17 during my family drive to Bhutan!! (sorry, lazy as usual, couldn't make travelogue of my travels)

I was waiting for that one for a long time. Put in a photologue if writing makes you feel lazy.

Regards,

Pawan

[ritz3645]

Hello wonderful people. Last drive was during drought in MH, and many parts were battered by it. This time I see plenty water bodies. The sight of water is so amazing. Thank you for every bit of it.

[varoon9999]

Superb pcpranav, liked every bit of your log. Must be a heart-touching experience and such a noble way to spread love.

Kudos!!! Mahendra for making it to the shore.

[anumod]

Happy to see that Giving is also coming through Auto Enthusiast community. Very happy to see the initiative ..

[Pacific]

Kudos to you all, what an amazing bit of work you guys are doing. Please do PM me, next time if you require a helping hand and an additional vehicle. Even though I have a hatchback, I will be more than happy to hire a SUV for a day for this noble cause.

[vikram31]

Wow. Blown away by your humility and spirit. I truly believe what you give comes back to you. Please remain this way and keep inspiring selfish souls like me. I would love to join you for one of these events and contribute. Please pm me your details if you would like to take me along.