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Journalism of Courage
Pavan Chopra had spent days out of his home without spending a single rupee earlier too.
But that was when the Merchant Navy officer sailed the high seas on his ship. Once on land though it was quite the opposite.
The exercise was part of a course they were attending.
“When I arrived at Shirdi, I had Rs 500 left in my pocket. This too was handed over for donation and I joined the group that had agreed to spend three days without money,” says Dhiraj Zagade (35) who is in the pharma business and lives in Navi Mumbai.
However, as the group, comprising men and women aged between 25 and 86, started the journey through the village more than a bit of trepidation, they soon realised how all their fears were unfounded.
“We had no money, no food and no beddings either. Yet we never went hungry for even a single meal, slept comfortably every night and always found a place to bathe and change,” says Zagade
He recounts how, on the first day, after walking many miles they went to sleep under a tree and woke up with this desire to have some piping hot tea.
“There was a house right opposite and just then someone came out and asked us who we were. When we told them, they asked if we would like to have some tea! It turned out to be one of the best teas we had ever had. Similarly at night someone just came up and told us there was a temple nearby and we could sleep there, and he would go ahead and make arrangements for food. Instantly we were suspicious – why would anyone go out of their way like this? But he actually went ahead and when we reached the temple, we were given food and we were able to sleep peacefully,” says Zagade.
“That’s when we realised our conditioning had made us suspect him and we actually felt a shift in our trust perceptions,” recounts Chopra.
Mahendra Pawar who earlier ran a small business in Ahmednagar and now owns a large plantation at the outskirts of Pune where he grows 2,500 kinds of fruits and vegetables feels the entire exercise was an experience in humility.
“One of the days we were supposed to beg for food. Clearly, we were uncomfortable with the idea. But what was amazing was how easily people were willing to give… It worked on two fronts: destroying our ego and reiterating our faith on the innate goodness of people,” he says.
“But the main purpose was to eliminate the fears we all harbour, from the basic fear of survival to the more complex one of money,” says Manoj Lekhi who led the group with his wife and daughter being a part of it too.
“We take life too seriously. We need to lighten up, feel the goodness and joy around us and let go of our insecurities. It’s like when we undertake the journey from say Mumbai to Pune how often do we enjoy the scenery and the fresh air?. We are so fixated on just the destination. Also we become too habituated to patterns in our life- be it bathing at a particular time or the kind of meals we want to have. Breaking these patterns is important as is the knowledge that money is not the sole means to happiness,” Lekhi said.
Or as Chopra put it- they went with empty pockets but returned so much richer for the experience.
