Unsung Heroes of Akhar

Last Week Akhar-Soh completed three years of operation, it was on 30th of June 2007 when I visited Sholapur Dera (Habitat Of Sikhligar Sikhs). My first trip was followed by another trip one and half month later. Harjot Singh, Balvinder Singh and Myself visited the Dera in August 2007 and thus formally starting work in Sholapur.

Three years of journey has seen many changes , many volounteers gave there valuable time and this carvan moved on. Some of them have moved on with there lives and are busy with there families and social responsibilties. We have been so busy that we never looked back and acknowledged the contribution of our volunteers. Amandeep Singh was one of the great volunteers who contributed a lot in the upliftment of Sikligar Singhs. Here is a small account of time which we spent together.

Amandeep Singh :- A man with a big heart , A man who feels the pain. Harjot Singh jee introduced him to me and since then we work together. He has worked with Sikhligar Sikhs in North Maharashtra since his college days. Akhar started work in North Maharashtra , since then we have expanded to four areas in North Maharashtra. I would like to Share experiences of our Ichalkarangi Visit, In March 2008 I alongwith Amandeep Singh jee went on field visit to Ichalkarngi, It was an eye opener visit for both of us , we had never seen sikhs living in such poverty. Six families of Sikhligar Sikhs live in Ichalkarngi, They lived in tents made of ploythene , with no electricity, water supply and other amenities . During the day we enquired about Kids, we met some local people, we took stock of the situation so that we could plan some thing. We met a school principle who was kind enough to admit our students in his school, we made arrangements to admit kids to schools. As the night approached we decided to stay with Sikhligar Sikhs, we had langar together with Singhs of dera before dusk. We had casual chat with dera dwellers and after a long tiring day we wanted some rest. Place of rest was unusal , it was not the cosy and comfortable mattresses , it was hard road top with a sultry sheet to cover our body. We were feeling the vagaries of the world , we chatted for some time and we dont know when we slept, it was very nice sleep. I could feel small pebbles lying on the road , around midnight it started raining , we had to run for a shetlter . Luckily our hosts some how managed to assemble two tin sheets and all of us rested under the tin sheets, I could feel and hear rain drops trcikling down the tin sheet, tin sheets were just enough to cover our body. We spent night in the make shift tent , with nature and understanding the difficulties which many Human beings go through every day. Ironically some Human beings like us dont know what some of us go through every day... I took an introduction class of students and Ichalkarngi project was kicked off. Later seven tin shed were constructed and all the kids were admitted to schools. Bhavneet singh jee is looking after this area. One night changed a life time experienc....