Tarpan Foundation’s Award ceremony: Saluting young achievers

✪ Determination to resolve neglected problems in the society
✪ People come along and it becomes a caravan
✪ Let the wings fly high in the sky
✪ "A bridge" for proactive charity
✪ Journey from being orphan to a patron- Gayatri Pathak
✪ Unity in efforts to overcome adversity
✪ "What you do to others will come back to you"
✪ Who says darkness cannot go away

Hello. Yesterday, on 13th January, there was Youth award ceremony organized by Tarpan Foundation in Mumbai. Young achievers were felicitated in this special programme. Shrikantji Bharatiya and Shreyaji Bharatiya are patrons of Tarpan Foundation. When I was studying in Pune’s Karve Social Work Institution, Shreyaji was my junior. But very senior as far as her contribution and age is concerned. Today she is working at such a huge scale, but she is humble and down to earth. It will be sufficient to tell this- They both have been working on the issues of orphan children since last 30 years, even before their marriage and now they have become parents of many orphan children.

Shreyaji's batch-mate and my junior- now working in medical field Smita told me about this programme. When I came to know about the persons to be felicitated, it was great to see the name of Ashikji Deshmane. Ashokji Deshmane belongs to Parbhani, my hometown. I had heard a lot about him. It was great to personally meet him in the programme. Right from his childhood, he had to strive hard to get education. He took his education when he had to work in a garage. Then he completed higher education in computer science and got a handsome job in I.T. sector. But he became upset when he saw hardships of people due to suicides of farmers. He left his highway and started to create his one path. He became father of orphan children when he was in his twenties. This was a very treacherous path. But years of hard work, dedication and determination has now converted into a highway and now his children are progressing further.

The programme was attended by many dignitaries and ministers. This programme started off with preface by Shrikantji. He told that facilities were provided to orphan children till they reach 18 years. But after 18 years, they had to leave their hostels. This age is actually very sensitive age! But in a way, they would become orphan once again. In order to this gap in the system, Tarpan Foundation started its work. Its motto is “Bridge: For noble objectives.” Their efforts and advocacy brought many changes over the years. 1% reservation was started and assistance was given for orphan adults. Efforts were made for education, job, further development and settlement of the children. Children under the wings of Tarpan Foundation later on succeeded in competitive examinations and also took higher education. In order to consolidate these efforts, Tarpan Foundation started to give this award to young achievers. This was its four years. In future too, Tarpan Foundation will continue its work and address lacunae. One project worth mentioning is a centre for orphan daughters as their mother’s home after their marriage. Orphan children get married, but they miss their first family. This gap will be overcome.

This programme was attended by children from several children homes in the State and also activists from many organizations. Ashokji Deshman, founder of Snehwan was felicitated. He works with his wife and run a hostel near Pune. The second awardee was a special warrior. In our society, being a girl is a battle! If she is orphan, then it is very tough. And if an orphan girl is intellectually disabled, then we cannot just imagine the situation! Mangalji Wagh from Jalgaon is the warrior who cares for such girls. She has been running a hostel for these girls. Her work expanded further and the society came to help. She is working hard to provide skill training and proper sanskaras to the girls to make them self reliant. She is also enlightening the society about the problems of intellectually disabled persons and working to help them get benefits of the Government schemes.

Sanath Welfare Foundation’s Gayatri Pathak was also felicitated. Her story is extremely unique. She was brought up as an orphan. After education, she became a journalist. Once she saw a huge hoarding collapse on a auto riksha. The auto riksha driver was killed. More shocking was that his wife too had recently died. Suddenly the two children became orphan! But Gayatriji started her journey to become parent of them. Then she established her organization. She is working on various issues such as education after 18 years, job, family stability and development. During the programme only, she donated her award amount to one organization and for initiatives of Tarpan Foundation. Salute to such people!

Minister in Maharashtra Government Smt. Aditi Tarkare expressed her thoughts. She showed a commitment to this subject and her vision to go beyond politics and party lines. Dignitaries supporting work of Tarnapn Foundation were also felicitated. One such dignitary was ISKCON’s speaker Shri Nityanand Charan Das and he too beautifully expressed his thoughts. He told that our own Karma always returns to us. Sometimes e feel that we took so many efforts or we did so much good, but nothing happened. But the doctrine of Karma tells us that whatever do or bad we do, it comes back to us. Just the difference is that may not come to us from the same medium or at the same time.

Such was the programme. It was actually a gathering of children, their parents and their larger family. It is said what we go only there where our future calls us. This programme had huge gathering, more than even movie shows! The respect the contributors got and inclination of the youth towards them brought a great cheer. It also gave a huge relief- if people are working so hard and so constructively, then no problems can remain unresolved!

Who says the darkness cannot go away!
Just light a small candle right away

कौन कहता है कि आसमां में छेद नहीं हो सकता
जरा एक पत्थर तो तबियत से उछालो यारो

(Thanks for reading. You can share it with your near ones. My above blog has articles about social initiatives, fitness, trekking cycling, running, meditation, sky watching etc. Niranjan Welankar. 09422108376. Date of writing the article: 14 January 2025)