We reside in a world where it is not uncommon for us to come across news of gross human exploitation, draconian violence, decadence of morality and ethics and the absence of all humanity.
However despite the overarching existence of negativity, there are individuals in different corners of the world who continue to work towards the betterment of the social world and for the sustenance of love and care in what seems like an overwhelmingly cold world order.
One such inspirational story comes from Delhi, where an old rickshaw driver has given true purpose and meaning to his life. Unlike most other people who concern themselves only with earning a decent sum of money everyday in order to sustain their families, Harjinder Singh is a man who chose to go beyond the given and become a light into the lives of hundreds of other people.
Yes, he belongs to a financially weak family and thus despite his frail body and aching limbs he is compelled to drive his auto throughout the day to make his living. But this has not stopped Harjinder Singh from bringing out the his humanitarian side and become of great support to countless accident victims who often lose their lives on the roads because of the absence of immediate medical facilities.
76 year old Harjider Singh drives his auto for a couple of extra hours everyday just in order to be of help to accident victims on th roads of the Capital. He has turned his auto into a sort of free ambulance that transports to the hospital the people who are injured in road accidents.
What is inspirational is the fact that Harjinder Singh provides this facility free of cost and is deeply convinced that there is need for more people to become active and vigilant as far as giving medical aid to people who are injured in road accidents may be concerned.
We discovered that Singh who is now 76 years old started this service in 1978 and has not looked back since then. He continues to work for couple of hours extra to make sure that he is able to provide this free of cost aid to accident victims.
His auto rickshaw boasts of a banner that says that he also provides free of charge medicines for diabetes patients. Before his retirement, Singh worked as a traffic warden under the Delhi Traffic Police. He begins driving his auto in the early hours of the morning and continues to do so late till the evening and after that he turns his auto into a life-saving ambulance for the night. With few hours of rest but a tremendous zeal in his eyes, Harjinder Singh gives us great hope amid dark times.
He reminds us with his gentle smile and passionate voice that each person must come ahead to help out victims of accidents that happen on our roads because this way we may end up saving many more innocent lives than we would if we decided to endlessly wait for an ambulance. He also reiterates how one of the core components of his religion Sikhism was to offer selfless service to fellow people.
Singh’s story is a lesson for us all and a silver lining amidst dark clouds. He reminds us that social work, charity or the passion to work for the collective good is not necessarily a monopoly of billionaire philanthropists, cinema actors or business persons- it does not require one to be rich or powerful but all it demands from individuals is their capacity to go beyond themselves and work selflessly for the greater good. Singh truly is living by the teaching of not only Sikhism but by the virtue of humanism itself.
