Vedics Foundation whole-heartedly appreciates the prompt and generous support received from you. We update you with some special experiences as captured by Vedics India volunteers (pretty much in their own words) during the second phase of our flood-relief efforts, which involved preparing large quantities of food by many for hours on end and packaging them, collecting clothes and essentials, seeking out and prioritizing when and where help was needed, and delivering the aid packages there in time. We encourage you to take the time to read through the paragraphs below as it gives one a good picture of how the relief effort took shape and an appreciation for the selfless services of the volunteers involved.

Relief work was provided not only to people but also to the cows. Please check out these related facebook links.

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.904536032928308.1073741863.180550711993514&type=3

 https://www.facebook.com/sampathkumar.gosala/posts/1750334938528267

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.909254235789821.1073741869.180550711993514&type=3

Our next steps – the third phase – involves coming up with creative, economical, fruitful and sustainable trades and have these adopted by the poor villagers whose livelihoods have been wiped out. Needless to say that our first challenge there is giving them the hope to hang on. More on this at the end.

Special experiences from second-phase Cuddalore-area relief-efforts:

Car-drivers: helped a lot in delivering food packages and other necessities. As we were preparing for relief efforts in Srirangam, late one night at around 10pm we come to know that there is a party offering products that need to be transported for delivery in affected villages around Cuddalore. This meant a vehicle is needed before 11pm so that products can reach people in the morning. We called sleeping car-drivers and, before they fully woke up, they would be asked to come to pick up. And finding the route in Srirangam is a big confusion for drivers as most are new to the town and the 4 Uttaraveedis inside 4 Chitraveedis pattern is hard to comprehend for them. So after having reached Srirangam on time they would arrive at the specific location late. When yelled at for this, they would apologize. We yell out of tension following our commitments to deliver product in the morning – the product includes breakfast – so delivering on time is critical. The drivers did not show any sign of anger in any form. They would deliver the products in time after driving through the night for 5-6 hours. After returning, they wouldn’t even take 50-100-rupee tips. They would say that let it be contribution from their side: “saamee idhu aen side-laendu pannaamaari irkatam”.

Small vendors: had similar story. With big shops, bargaining for 5% discount would be looked at as if we are trying to rob them of their profits. Whereas small vendors would be forthcoming to give 50-75% discounts. On top of that, there were those vendors that would say that because we purchased all they would sell in a day, they offered the discount and joined us in relief efforts since the rest of the day is free: “saamee naan oru naalaikku vikkardellaatyum neenga mottamaa vaangitteenga. Adanaala innikku fullaa naan free daan. Naanum volunteer pandrattukku varaenae”. Nothing to beat the heart of simple folks and their generosity.

General Volunteers: We don’t have any listed volunteers for ourselves. It is all ad hoc. We went to Tirukkottiyur Madhavan Swamy who had material to deliver. We went to Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy, through whose SMS contacts we could get many volunteers. We found an apartment complex called "Sri Narayana Homes". Without notice or permission, we started using the building as a warehouse, making chapatis, breaking a few tiles in the process, collecting piles of old clothes, packing food and water, on their electricity bill, etc. Volunteers, who would normally not even touch those clothes for aachaaram reasons, let it all go and helped fold and pack them. We would finish work at 2am in the night and restart the next day at 8am. In the meantime the nice ladies (mamis) residing in the apartment complex would come to wash off the area and get it cleaned for the next day’s work, make coffee for the volunteers and so on, in addition to taking care of their daily routine at home. Their large heart and tremendous cooperation merits recognition. The apartment secretary mama’s son had a motorbike accident that day around noon. He had hurt his head, he got 8 stitches and was back to work at 4pm. The apartment residents were also able to bring volunteers from other apartments too.

A special volunteer, Jeeva. The first day no one had the guts to go to Cuddalore. Jeeva, about 23, was the only one who signed up for going anywhere as needed. First day, in the night he went to Cuddalore, delivered materials, and came back. The very next morning, he came to volunteer for packing food. That night again we sent him off to Tambaram, Chennai. He went in the same vehicle, no sleep. The third day we sent him again to Cuddalore. The fourth day he said he will be the point-person in Cuddalore taking care of distribution and asked us to continue delivering materials to him. During the first trip his wallet with license, etc was taken away by some other volunteer by mistake and he could not get them for the next four days. Jeeva didn’t care for it and simply pushed on.

Another special volunteer  and a bhagavata, Santosh. Early the morning at 5:30 am on the second day, he was standing after bath shivering in the cold. When we asked him why he said that he had washed the only veshti he had and it was drying in the cloth-line. When we told him to just use one of the piled up clothes temporarily, he wouldn’t do so saying that all that is donated is donated in good faith that it would all go to the affected people.

One volunteer mama: There was divided opinion about volunteers food during the prep work. Some would say that the volunteers should eat the food made there for efficiency’s sake, while others would say that they should take care of their food on their own. Vehement among the latter was one mama, who insisted that even though the volunteers would need only about 100 of the 10,000 chapatis made there, they should not touch the chapatis as it is made out of donated money meant only for villagers. It took quite some convincing to get him to see that it is indeed wasteful to have the volunteers go home for food and return to work.

HH Sri Mannargudi Jeeyar Swami. Ramapuram, Kodukanpalayam and nearby villages gave him a rock-star welcome with banners, paadapoojai, tiruppaavai sevai, nagarvalam, etc., with some even taking home Jeeyar Swamy’s tiruvadi mann (the holy soil from under Jeeyar Swamy’s feet). They were all bhagavatas, whose homes were destroyed by the floods. Yet they said that they are willing to go to other villages with worse damage and help out. Jeeyar Swami was a big strength in trying to keep things go smoothly and on time, keeping volunteers’ nerves under control, getting the attention of villagers and calming them down. Jeeyar Swamy entered Dalit colonies, personally entered homes and talked to them and gave them assistance. They were so moved as this has never ever happened before. Jeeyar Swamy did not want to get the affected people to stand in line and show their ration cards to get assistance. He wanted to go and hand out whatever was needed, inspired them to hang on, and gave them hope to get out of the situation. He also told them ways to live like keeping the house clean and auspicious with a separate place dedicated for deities and worship: “veetta suttamaa vechkonga, majal poosunga, vaasappadila veppamaram vainga, unmaiyae pesunga, saamikku oru edatta odukki vainga, mudinja alavaukku anda edatta suttamaa vechkonga, veetta mangalakaramaa vechkonga, etc.” He would just give a holler from outside and enter the house, look around the house and quickly judge their situation, ask a few quick questions about how they live, and would give this personalized advice. Flood situation apart, he wants every household to have Ramanuja-bhakti, and the relief efforts helped the cause in a big way. We could see that we have their trust. They would promise to change for good and not forget this ever. Jeeyar Swami would also text, call and keep enquiring about status of delivery and keep tags on things. A very inspiring personality ready to get down to any level to help. He has the natural instinct to want to be the first to help people in need. 

Special experiences from Chennai-area second-phase relief-efforts:

December 3, 2015. To start with, we were to set up a base for Vedics Foundation in Tambaram area to cover Mudichur and other affected areas in the vicinity. We tried all possibilities right from Railway Samudhaya Koodam to a place in CSI Church. We were welcome in CSI Church to place our camp but due to logistics issues, it did not work. Then we approached Sri Rama Anchaneyar Temple trust to provide us a space for our relief work camp. They invited us with open hearts and gave us the Vahana Mandapam all cleaned up and ready to be used. We then made arrangements for the utensils for cooking and distribution. The temple gave us the required gas and stove for cooking.

Day 1: On 4^th December, we got our first supplies from Vedics Foundation (groceries through Shri. Thirukkottiyur Madhavan Swami) in the afternoon. Later, along with Swami, we went and gave dresses to people who were stationed in a Church in Mudichur. We then went to a slum in Mudichur and supplied food for approximately 150 people at their doorsteps. Swami himself walked in the streets and distributed food packets to all the people along with his team from Triplicane. Meanwhile, we organized a cook from Nanganallur for the next day in order to cook food at Rama Anchaneya Temple since we were not able to source any cook from Sri Rangam.

Day 2: 5^th December brought us a big surprise and put a big challenge in front of us. In the morning, when the vehicle with Chappathis and provisions arrived, we had only 2 volunteers in the temple. We somehow managed to unload the vehicle with the help of temple employees. At that point of time, we were chocked thinking had we accepted something more than our capacity. We had only one thing in our mind – whatever happens, there will be people with good hearts to help when we start. We left it to Lord Rama to decide how to make that happen.

Then came an even bigger challenge – the cook who was supposed to arrive was stuck in heavy rains. Rama was testing us indeed. By this time, the first set of volunteers who were going to deliver food packets to Pallikaranai/Medavakkam area came and collected the 2000 chappathis for approximately 500 people and went for delivery.

 Then came the biggest surprise of all – this time it was a pleasant one. The temple cook offered help at the start and told us whenever he is free, he will help out. This gave us immense amount of confidence. Further, the temple trustee’s elder brother came forward to help and engaged in full time cooking without our request. This further added to our confidence level and made us believe that we were on the right path indeed. When our motive is genuine the Rama Himself takes us further. We were getting support from the temple officials’ family members as well. All the ladies from the trustee’s home to the Manager’s home and their friends and families came forward to help us in our mission. We started with just 3-4 members and were about 40-50 membered team by noon (including the delivery team). We prepared 500 food packets of Sambar Rice for supplies. There were demands for milk from various areas as well. Instead of giving it as raw milk, we boiled the milk and packed in small packets and sent for delivery.

During our preparation local volunteers came and helped us with TATA Ace vehicles and told us that they will supply food with their own vehicles free of cost. We were overwhelmed by the support we were receiving. They went ahead and delivered the 500 food packets to Thirumudivakkam, Anakaputhur and Pozhichanur areas with 2 vehicles. These were the areas where the people didn’t receive food packets till that point of time.

Then came a team from Nungambakkam who were coordinating with us for supply for food to North Chennai affected areas. They all belong to Crescent college founder’s family, all of Muslim religious beliefs. There was a lady in the team whom we got in touch through a mutual friend. She is settled in Singapore and came to Chennai for vacation just a month back before the floods.

They all came to the temple to collect relief material i.e., food, medicines, milk and some clothes as well. At first, the lady was very hesitant to enter the temple thinking that someone would oppose her entry as she was wearing a Burka. We made it clear that we are working on a humanitarian basis and there is no need to worry about anything and made her enter the temple. She came inside and became very emotional and started to shed tears saying that when she landed in India this time, she was worried about what will happen to her if she wears a burka and roam around. She was deeply concerned about the intolerance issue which was focused on highly by the media, and had decided that this was her last trip to India in her lifetime. She changed her mind on seeing our reception and told that she will definitely settle back in India after some years and postponed her return for at least 2 months.

This was really an achievement for us as this was what we intended to do without any publicity. This incident touched all our hearts and made us re-think how our life has been changed because of the floods. There was no Hindu, no Muslim, no Christian – no religion whatsoever. Just humans. This incident was a great advertisement for what India is all about – made of people and not religions.

Third-phase relief-efforts:

As we wrap up delivering aid materials that took the poor villagers through the time of floods, it became evident that their troubles would not end without something being done to rehabilitate them. There are lots of cows in the villages. The country-bred desi cows are able to survive the floods really well. They also look well-fed with all the agricultural fields wiped out and converted to grass lands. (The imported breeds like Jersey cows are the ones that seem to suffer.) All the villagers now have are their healthy cows, with everything but that completely destroyed. With no chance of any agricultural proceeds in the next 6 months, with no construction work happening anywhere for at least a month now, with no way to feed themselves and children, and with no hope or idea of how to survive through this or turn things around, they are living totally distraught and hopeless. In addition to HH Sri Mannargudi Jeeyar Swami’s personal visits and anugraham and giving them hopes, the main objective of the third phase is rehabilitation to get the affected people to carry on through this tough phase.

So we have arranged a go-poojaa on Jan 10^th as a first step at villages around Cuddalore like Ramapuram, Kodukkan palayam, Adinathapuram, Sambareddyppaalayam, Dalit colonies. Our plan is to first fulfill their immediate needs by giving them things in kind rather than as money. Next is to do a mass prayer including the villagers, praying that another disaster like this not befall them. After that would be a small utsavam on Jan 12^th at the local temple on Koodaarai-day and give them all chakkarai-pongal prasaadam. Following that, we will hand them go-teevanam kits for the next month and then teach them how to make products, other than milk, using cows and their by-products with little or no initial investment. For example, with just cow-dung, a pot, gomeeyam, and some sunlight, we will teach them how to make palpodi (tooth-powder), agarbathis, bug-repellants, pain-balms, dishwashing powder, etc. We will train the villagers on how to profitably sell the products, so they can make about Rs. 1000-2000 per month. This might seem like a stretch but there is indeed a farmer in Erode that has been doing this for 10 years now to support his family. We are taking him long to make the villagers believe in the approach. This is our first step towards long-term rehabilitation.