It’s been a Year!! 2020 has been a year of new experience for all of us, a unique year to deal with, a year that everyone disliked, a year which everyone wished to end sooner and much more. I feel no different with that from anyone but one of the few things that I wanted to cherish about the season was my brand-new Blog Site. Yes, it’s been ONE YEAR of Nerthi.Com

I have always had the habit of writing about incidents that caught my attention, incidents that failed to get out of my sight mentally, whatever my inner being feels about anything, a dream which spoke to me and even whatever I think of randomly.

The inbuilt notes app on my phone is my best friend at the first place as it carries my joy, sorrows, pain, learnings and what not just everything. To people who have been around me would have mostly noticed that ? and to those that thought I’m chatting, it’s going to be a news now ?

I have always been an avid reader and a prolific writer from my childhood but everything lies privately in papers.  

Well, moving on.. Out of so many things that happened both good, bad and nice, the best to me was Nerthi.Com.

I see Nerthi.com as an arena to record my day-to-day notable experiences, a place to share my thoughts and opinions, a window to connect with the people of all kinds, a space to create awareness and in simple it carries a view of the world through my eyes.

When I turn back to see what 2020 was to us as a family, I see it as a time which God gave us a mantle to serve the people affected by the most unexpected pandemic Covid-19.

It all started when we made a simple decision to pay our house maid her full salary without holding back a penny when she couldn’t come for work during the lockdown. Whilst at that time we thought, we were able to help her but what about the so many of them just like her who make their livelihood on such small money and that too gets stopped as they cannot venture out of their houses.

Thus, we started to help the people around us who were unable to go out to fetch their daily needs. But we realized that the scenario of need was much bigger than what we thought. We along with our like-minded friends simply jumped on to offer help.

We worked on a plan to provide dry rations to the needy people and named our Dry Rations kit as LOVE BUNDLE. We were able to serve the needs of 10000s of people who were Daily Wage Workers, Leprosy affected people, Transgenders, Commercial Sex Workers, Tribal Communities, Elderly citizens, Physically Challenged people and so on through it. Gradually we made it possible for 11000+ families all over India.

On the other side, the migrant workers issue began and we saw that the Migrant workers were stranded on the road suffering hard as they were heading towards their home town. After all they have travelled a long way from their hometown to our city which they saw as a huge hope to build their families back in their hometown.

Hence the MIGRANT WORKERS MISSION was launched and through it we were able to help 1000s of Migrant workers get an accommodation by liaising with the Government & Corporation officials until travel accommodations were done by the government.

While during those times, one could see us on the road at odd times in late nights collecting details from the workers to lodge them in a shelter. Policemen stopped us and asked why on earth would you be so interested in helping but at the end of those long conversations we did befriend some amazing police inspectors and so many social worker friends some of whom we haven’t even seen face to face.

Besides, technology applications namely SHAKE POVERTY (which tracked lakhs of needy people across the Nation during the pandemic), I’M SAFE– a Women Safety app to assist women who go through Abuse and Violence during the Pandemic, SHAKE UNEMPLOYMENT – an initiative to help meet employers and people who lost their job during the pandemic were developed as we teamed along with our like-minded visionaries.

The best was REBUILD, where needy people who lost their livelihood were identified and assisted to restart their business. Small businesses like Vegetable Cart, Fish Cart, Petty Shop, Flower Business, Vessel Shop were set up for people so that they can re-build their livelihood. Over 125 families were touched and it was such a joy to see their hope and lives being re-built.

During then we got in touch with our Puratchiyalar Virudhugal Awardees through our best ever volunteers who were in touch with them on a regular basis to check on their needs. Through that way smart phones and Internet facilities were arranged for many needy children who were unable to attend the classes as they did not have a Smart Phone.

And so quickly came December along with the heavily lashing rains and we sat relaxed at out portico sipping our Tea while our hearts pondered about those who don’t have a ROOF TOP to relax as we did. So again our like- minded friends teamed up and we decided that we come up with plans to provide Tarpaulin sheets to them to have it over their damaged huts so that they can sleep well in their home during such rainy days. We saw 100s of families who slept along with their family happily without worrying of water leakages from their roofs.

That’s when we identified the village at Sathirai in Thiruvalluvar District wherein about 100s of families were living there for 40 years without water and electricity. The village was so fertile with a dozen of children at every house, their pets litter a dozen easily, Chickens & Cocks were out numbering and I think that was the richest place I ever saw. Poor financially but rich in happiness and love. We decided that we set up a study centre there and there came PADIPAGAM, a Solar Powered centre for children was built so that education is given to them by a One and Only literate woman who is a resident of the village.

Well, that’s recap of how the last 1 year was to us. The best was when Nerthi started asking people whoever passed by our house as “Uncle, Epdi Irukeenga? Saaptingala? (Uncle, How are you? Did you have your food?) and to our amazement, people were startled by a little girl of her age to stop someone and ask about their wellbeing. In a number of cases, we have literally seen that very question from her bringing immense joy to them. That’s how love works. A simple concerned check on someone can bring a lot of happiness, hope and positivity to move forward in their life.

At the end of the day, the best we could give our children is the nature to show love to everyone whom we see all around, more importantly to those who may never be in a position to repay it.

We think we taught her the best for her during her stay at home away from school, for a year.

And for us, we did learn a lot from our experiences, we certainly earned some of the nicest people on earth, we definitely heard some of the best stories of lives that were transformed and nonetheless the less we saw what Love & Kindness can do to anyone around us, when shared ❤️