How many times in your lifetime you have given it back to the society? How many times a month you have visited an orphanage or an old age home? The answer for most of us is negative. Right! Not because we don’t have time or we don’t care, but we forget because it is easier than remembering.
Diwali is the time of the year when people celebrate the arrival of Lord Ram, give regards to goddess Lakshmi, light lamps with a hope for a better humanity, wear new clothes, burn crackers, eat sweets, play Poker and whatnot. Amongst all this, someone somewhere is celebrating this festival all 365 days a year by providing his seamless service to mankind. Meet Dr. MR Sethi for whom his service to mankind is the utmost priority.
I celebrated Diwali this year in a very small village named, Singhai in Uttar Pradesh. The total population of this village is not more than 20k. I stayed at a place that was built in 1972 which is a hospital cum home. I met Dr. MR Sethi who is the elder brother of my father-in-law.
Born in the pre-independence era, 74-year-old Doctor Sethi has earned enough to live with comfort for the rest of his life. However, he is still actively working, not for money but to serve humanity. At this age, he still sees patients in an emergency. This Diwali night when I visited his place, what I witnessed was simply overwhelming. Dr. Sethi was sitting on his chair till 3:00 am and attending patients single-handedly.
His OPD is open 24/7 throughout the year and that too, without help, especially during the night. Every time a patient comes and rings his doorbell, this man steps down from the first floor to the ground floor to attend to the patient.
Living the life of a young mother is daunting and I have been experiencing it for over a year now. I understand the pain of waking up at midnight every day. This forced me to ask him, “Doctor Papa don’t you get irritated when someone rings the bell at wee hours, and that too almost every day?” He responded saying, “Someone at the gate needs me more than my sleep,” followed by a hearty laugh.
The very thought sent shudders down my spine.
I can do this for my child as I have no option, but a Doctor has an option to switch off the bell, disconnect from the world and sleep. But no, he has been doing this act of humanity for decades now and is quite known in nearby villages spread across 300 kilometers.
It’s pretty late at night and I am writing this blog because I just cannot get over my experience, and cannot let it die. If I keep the experience to myself then I will not be able to do justice to his good deeds and selfless work.
I want people to know that someone somewhere in a very small village in India is serving humanity silently through his deeds and there are other few who are also busy with their selfless work towards serving humanity. Why can’t we start?
It’s never too late, for anyone of us, to start giving back to our society in whatever way we can. I am glad I am part of this family and a proud wife of Mr. Gaurav Sethi :).