Inspiration
No means too small for this professor who begged in local trains to build rural schools
Professor Sandeep Desai took to ‘begging’ in local trains to fund 4 rural schools for the underprivileged. 2 of his schools are even adopted by the government today.
It is not every day that you will find a Marine engineer and a Management professor begging in Mumbai’s iconic local trains. You will be forgiven to think that Professor Sandeep Desai has lost a marble or two. This wouldn’t be the first time he would get such a reaction. He can’t help but chuckle as he recalls the events of the first day he actually set out to ‘beg’ on a Mumbai local. He spent the better half of September in 2010 trying to convince his colleagues to not disown him for what they called an ‘outrageous’ idea.
Professor Sandeep is so passionate about building schools for the underprivileged that no idea seems too outrageous to him including asking for money in local trains. Once he actually convinced his co-trustee, Professor Nurul Islam to accompany him on the train. Nurul agreed to stand at a distance and watched as Sandeep tried to convince commuters on a train to contribute money to build English medium schools in villages.
Between 2010 and 2012 Sandeep raised more than Rs 50 lakh to run four schools. Sandeep’s ‘begging’ exercise would have been a miserable failure if not for the commuters who donated generously every time the professor boarded their compartment.
Raunak Mehta, a commuter on the Western Railway and one of the many who has contributed to the cause said, “He has several news paper cut-outs about himself which he carries around with him. I have been travelling in this train for 2 years now and I see him every day, if he wasn’t genuine he wouldn’t come here every day.
There are a lot of young children in India who are unable to receive education. If these children are getting support and are being educated because we made a small donation, then we are very grateful.”
6 years on, Sandeep has 1 school in the drought-hit Yavatmal district in Maharashtra and 3 in Sipur, Sadakadi and Naijhar villages in Udaipur. The school in Yavatmal has 180 students till standard II and 5 teachers. The 3 schools in Udaipur’s tribal belt have 310 students in total and 7 teachers. These too have classes till class II now.
It is heartening to know that the sheer hardwork put in by Professor Sandeep is bearing fruit as the school in Yavatmal and 1 in Udaipur have already received government recognition. Indeed, it is testimony to the strength of one man’s willpower and passion. We salute you Professor.
Image Courtesy: Mashable India