Ralegan Siddhi is just a rural village. Yet, it is one of the most talked about village in the whole of India. One inspired individual without a degree in economics or management has inspired the whole village to act for its own betterment and it is now a model village to be emulated.

In the beginning, prior to 1975:

1. The village had hardly any arable land. The water which the rains provided, ran down because of the undulated nature of the land.

2.Poverty was rampant.

3.Prostitution was prevalent.

4. Men resorted to liquor to drown their difficulties, were idle and resigned to their fate.

5. There were hardly any schools or any school going children.

The solution to the above problems proved to be “co-operative collaboration” with a selfless and courageous leader at the helm.

The Buddha once said:

“He who struggles in the interest of his own self, so that he himself may be great or powerful or rich or famous will have no reward, but he who struggles for righteousness and truth, will have great reward, for even his defeat will be victory.”

In conformity with the above words, Anna worked. Like a true entrepreneur, without having any clear picture of what lay ahead, without any hint of understanding about what he would eventually accomplish, he worked. He equipped himself with discipline, humility, patience and above all perseverance. He met all the challenges head on with nothing to trust except his intuition.

A brief overview of his life:

1940, January 15th was the time Anna was born. The place was a small village, Bhingar near Ahmedabad. His father was an unskilled labourer. Anna studied upto 7 grade in Mumbai. He started selling flower to aid his poor family and eventually set up his own shop. He later fell into bad company and got into a brawl which resulted in a person being nearly killed. Fearing imminent arrest, he fled and joined the Indian Army.

In the army, he became very depressed, with thoughts of suicide looming in his head. He had a feeling of aimlessness in his life. Two incidents, however, changed his life.

During the Indo-Pak war, in 1965, the truck in which he was traveling was blown off. However, Anna along with his colleagues, jumped from the truck prior to that when they got the hint from a low flying Pakistani plane. Inspite of this, except for Anna, the rest were killed.

In Nagaland, where Anna was stationed, the Nagas attacked his camp. Luckily for Anna, he was answering the call of nature just then. When he returned, he found all his colleagues shot dead.

These twin incidents convinced Anna that destiny had other plans for him.

When he came across Swami Vivekananda’s words he was all set for action.

“This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.”

In the next issue, we will see the method of work adopted by Anna and how it transformed the village.

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