Meenakshi Gupta is Co-Founder at Goonj, a non-profit turning discarded & underutilized material of cities into a tool to bring ignored issues to light & convert it into resource for rural development

Anshu Gupta, is Founder Director at Goonj, he is popularly known as the Clothing Man a non-profit turning discarded & underutilized material of cities into a tool to bring ignored issues to light & convert it into resource for rural development

“It’s been a beautiful and meaningful journey. When I was leaving Escorts and Mini (Meenakshi 🙂 ) left the BBC a few years later, we certainly didn’t know that this second inning of life is going to so fulfilling. And then Urvi, our daughter was born in the same year as Goonj. We are blessed that this work and the villages have been her larger school and university!!

This beautiful sector -called development sector/civil society, is not well understood by many, as they have never tried to change their distorted lenses, but then it also gets love from millions of people.

I often feel people in this sector deserve more respect, care and more basic facilities, so that their families, like any other sector, also look forward to carry forward the work of doers. On the first day of this New Year 2020, we pledge to give back at least 50%of our wealth in our will to the cause of development..(somehow don’t like/endorse the word charity as we value Dignity more than Charity). We hope this little contribution makes a difference in the life of people who commit their life to this sector..”

कुछ पंक्तिया जो कुछ साल पहले लिखी थी, इस सेक्टर के लोगों पर ही हैं, जिनके दिमाग में kuch कीड़ा है 🙂

अगर नींद से प्यारा है सपना,
और ज़िद के साथ ले सकते हो जोख़िम
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर शुरू कर सकते हो अकेले,
और बढ़ने के लिए नहीं ढूंढोगे सहारा
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर भरोसा है खुद पर,
और अविश्वास नहीं है जग पर
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर चल सकते हो अनथक,
और छाव का इंतज़ार नहीं है
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर भूख लगे और याद आए भूखा,
और प्यास पर, तालाब एक सूखा
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर आँख नहीं है पर दृष्टि है,
तन का एक भाग नहीं है, पर मस्ती है
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर नहीं चाहते आग लगाना,
और चिंगारी है एक मकसद
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …

अगर नींद से प्यारा है सपना,
और ज़िद के साथ ले सकते हो जोख़िम
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है..’

– Meenakshi & Anshu Gupta