MOMENTS OF INNER JOY!!!

An emotional sharing of Moments of Inner Fullness from a participant of Citizen SBI Programme at SBLC, Guwahati.

I am working as Regional Manager in Guwahati. As I don't know the local language and cannot read the news items appearing in local dailies, I used to get the news from my colleagues. One such day, a colleague told about an editorial appearing in one of the assamese dailies depicting the plight of a physically handicapped youngster crawling on the road to reach his college. He is a student of Assam Enigneering College and a victim of polio with totally crippled legs which prevents him moving normally and forcing him to literally crawl on the road to reach the college and attend classes. As he hails from a poor family, he could not afford to get a tri cycle for moving around.

I was in pain after hearing this I got a strong urge to reach out to this boy and help him. So,I contacted Assam Engineering College to find out the details of the boy and decided to get him a tri cycle. As there were only very few manufacturers around and their reluctance to send one cycle to Guwahati, I started searching the Internet on my own. I found a manufacturer and ordered on line for supply of this cycle which a took a month and a half to arrive.

I also decided that I will bear the cost of the cycle and cost of transport myself. In fact, the cost of transport was more than cost of the cycle itself. When my colleague Mr. Sibanand Kakati came to know about this, offered his share to bear the cost of transport. The college authorities gave news to the press stating that SBI personnel have offered to help this poor boy and the same was published in the Newspaper also.

After the cycle arrived in Guwahati, some more adjustments were also required to be made to suit the boy's requirements. We fixed an appointment with the college authorities and handed over the tricycle to the boy. I could witness the joy in the eyes of the poor boy when he started using the cycle and started riding on it in front of us a like a small child. The satisfaction we derived on seeing this was immense and cannot be explained in words. The Media also gave wide publicity to this news that SBI has helped people in need. We decided to help this boy instantly not thinking about any publicity or anything in return for this act of help.

But, only when I attended the Citizen SBI Orientation Programme, I could realise that this is what is Citizenship!!!!

S. Sugunendiran
Regional Manager,
Region I, Guwahati

(Shri Sugunendiran is in the regular habit of looking out for such news in the dailies and proactively initiates steps either individually or through Community Services Banking activity of our Bank to help needy people. A perfect example of "Being" flowing into "Function").