….In continuation of what I did after I reached affected villages:
These are the 2 people (the woman in black Indian clothes and the guy in middle wearing white shirt) without whom I could not have done anything. They drove me around and did the translation for me since I could not understand villager’s language.

Trying to figure out the next step, we went to a private weaving society to get an estimate of the amount needed to fix a loom. We also found out the monthly amount earned by a weaver and whether there is a loan schema for weavers. When it came to loans, villagers were used to free loans and most of the times, close to elections, government
will forgive their loans.

On one hand I wanted to help them on other hand I never believed in free money. My belief is people don’t appreciate the help or the money if it’s given for free to them. I decided to setup a micro loan payment scheme where all those weavers who receive money have to pay a small amount back. To my surprise, some of them refused any kind of help on those terms. But I knew what I wanted to do so I decided to help only those who were willing to help themselves. Also I setup the system so that weavers receive the looms instead of getting money directly. Best of all I could help not only one but help 12 weavers establish their livelihoods one more time.

All those grueling flights and drives from San Francisco to these villages seemed worth it when I captured the smiles of 12 weavers whose families I helped.

On Nov26th, I flew for my long due trip to flood affected villages in Andhra Pradesh On oct 6th, I read this news on BBC and decided to do something about it. I was flying almost one and a half months later to put a face on the 4000 bucks we had raised to help the villagers. Some people I knew were doubtful about how much I can help after so many days of the flood. However I still wanted to see the situation first hand. So after 20 hours of flying and 4 hours of driving I reached the affected villages near Kurnool.

My first sight was rows of temporary tents built for villagers on both sides of the road.
Here is a video I recorded while driving by it:

I simply didn’t know where to start who to help? No government people around no NGOs in vicinity. After talking to people it seemed like NGOs give everything raised to government office which works directly with villagers. However due to corruption, nothing reaches to people. At that moment I was glad I decided to visit personally.

Here are some villagers waiting for their farms to be reusable again. I could not have done much for these people.

After driving around villages, talking to people, we finally reached Rajoli, one of the most affected villages. As the major profession, these villagers convert raw thread to beautiful Indian silk.

All the weaved clothes, weaving equipments(looms) were destroyed by the flood. On top looms are not even insured. This is how looms looked like after the flood.

Here is one villager trying to fix his destroyed loom.

Overall, the first impression was pretty sad one after seeing people living in tents with both privacy and security exposed. On top of that no hope for the future with nothing left to try one more time. I never felt more gratitude for what I have.

What?

This is how my tweets looked like starting from Oct 6th to Oct 9th (people had trusted me with $3000 with in 72 hours)

Why?

This picture in BBC headlines reminded me of my village and I wanted to do something about it no matter how small. So I decided to raise 3000. It was all on the spur of the moment. I did not know why I chose a region in India I don’t even understand its language. I don’t know who and how I wanted to help once I have the money. But none of these details were important to think about at that time. I just wanted to start with a faith that I can figure these things out once I am literally on the field.

How?

1. Technology

On Oct 6th I sent out a message asking people to donate to my cause. What was my cause? I wanted to change one person’s life( most likely an entrepreneur) in the region which was washed away by flood. To my surprise within 72 hours, I had more than 3000 in my Paypal. It would not have been possible to do it so fast with out technology.

I used FB causes application to create a cause.

I know charities,esp the ones far away, don’t have credibility among people, so I decided to go myself to the affected area and get first hand experience of the situation. This meant that people can not use Causes to transfer money. Paypal was my only option but that also meant that people had to trust me with their money.
Transparency has its virtues in these situations. So I used Google doc to list out all the details of the fund raising.

2. People, people and people

Everything else would have been useless if it were not for everyone who trusted me.

Thanks to all these people for their support:

Deepak Sridhar, Sachin Gandhi, Shuchi Rana, Baat Enosh, Prasad Boddupalli, Aihui Ong, Jazmin Hupp, Srividya Vemulakonda, Xue Jessie, Aryata Agarwal, Sashadry Divakarla, Jitendra Deshpande, Paresh Upadhyay, Neil Fernandes, Niraj Sharma, Karl & Fernanda, Mehran Bazargan, Sanjeet H Desai, Anonymous, Nitasha Verma, Vajji & Charu, srinivas sabbella, Alok Nagdev , Milan Mantri, Ruchira Modi, Vinodh and Mythili, saurabh shrivastava, Priti & Jayanto, Anonymous, Amit Gohil
Puneet Thapliyal, Anonymous, Surekha Saharan, Jitender Hooda, Naveen and Sakina, Shaherose Charania, Amanpreet Sidhu, Niharika Mateti

Next Step?

I am waiting for immigration document I need to travel outside US. I am hoping to receive it within weeks time frame. Hopefully till then basic facilities would have worked out for the affected people in the flood region and our money can go towards a sustainable business or something like that.

I would like to believe that all extra ordinary things must have started with ordinary moments like these when you just wanted to do something, no matter how small, about things. I hope I have such instinctive moments more often and I wish everyone find things they are passionate about.

Today was a big milestone for me. I finished my first half marathon this morning.
I have been training for this event since last month and a half. The longest I could run when I registered for this was four miles. Thirteen miles in six weeks seemed like a hard goal. However sometimes you’ve got to push yourself beyond your limits. And this morning I did it :)

I distinctly remember how hard my first six miles run was and how proud I was for finishing it. Another moment I’ll cherish was running along the Marina when most apartments were close to saying good night. Running by the Bay I could see the Golden Gate hidden in the clouds, the silhouette of hills & trees at a distance and hear the waves crashing the shore. The night was absolutely beautiful!! That I was one of the few people running that night made it all the more peaceful & satisfying. It was one of my best runs ever.

I think there is some truth in the saying “it’s the journey not the destination”. While the goal matters, it’s the journey that makes the goal memorable. I am glad I decided to run the half marathon and immensely happy (and tired) that I finished it. I could not care less that I lost my running chip on the way. While I don’t have an official time, I have become a physically and mentally fitter person.

Now on to deciding my next journey!!!!