Dear Friends of KCA-SC,

Every journey begins with a small first step – most of the times we have the destination defined precisely, and sometimes not. The journey that I was embarking upon, was not providing an avenue to define a crystal destination. When Hubli-Dharwad, the city that I was born into and got educated, was being tossed around from not being able to reach the final list of the central government’s ambitious project – Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the writing on the wall was crystal – missing an opportunity of Rs.500 crores in developmental aid. There was a passive reaction from the local political and societal leaderships. This is when I got interested, to garner the support of the NRIs of this region, from across the world. The e-connectivity was a perfect tool that helped bring in many a participant interested into this effort.

Be it submitting the application to the respective Ministries in the state / central government, or online petition for the JNNURM movement, or the token hunger strike that followed the days of our movement, there was a strong cohesive force that moved all the interested with one and only one goal, pressurize the decision making machinery to sit up and take note that NIRs have not forgotten their own motherland and that they are not only closely observing the developments but are willing to strongly voice their concerns, albeit being distanced across the nations / oceans.

Our time tested culture and preachings have taught us – “Yat Bhaavam Tat Bhavati” – embark upon a path that is beneficial for a bigger cause, the success may be delayed but, finally we arrive at our destination. I am more than convinced that being an NRI, the distances, the time zone differences, the delays do not really matter, if one is resolved to contribute genuinely for a common cause. And if and when many hands join this force, there are multitude of humane acts that a bigger group could achieve and breathe life into people’s lives.

KCA Southern California has a greater strength in the form of many a successful NRIs. There are plenty of opportunities that this group of successful and honorable individuals can achieve, for a bigger cause. It could be providing a borewell to a small village that is facing acute water shortage, or it could be providing small scholarship/s to the needy and bright students, or sponsoring clinical checkups for the downtrodden. The list could be too long to put in here, but, I plead all my good friends to join hands to contribute in a very small way to touch someone’s life, in our very own motherland.

Looking forward to be part of any such activity through KCA-SC, in the days ahead. For mor information please go to http://nageeta.blogspot.com/2009/08/efforts-towards-jnnurm-project-for.html

Sharanaarthigalondige,

Nagesh Tavaragerimath