The mercury was hitting the 46 degree mark. It was a blazing hot day in Raichur. But the determination and the smile on the faces of the people who have been given the huge task of building close to 500 houses for the north-Karnataka flood victims was incredible. Mata Amritanandamayi Math's volunteers carry out their work, day in and day out, with clock like precision and unending love.
We (Vijitha, Gokul, Shiva , Sathish and Abhilash) ,along with our driver Lijesh, started our journey to Raichur on May 14th, Friday night from Bangalore. When we reached there at around 7 in the morning, we were surprised to see the number of houses that were already built. We were told that they had already built around 350 houses in the site in a record time of 4 months. Considering the fact that this is a non-profit work, it is an incredible feet of engineering enabled by hard work and dedication.
We were ushered to our rooms which were in one of the houses that were built for the flood victims. After taking a little rest after the long journey and a breakfast arranged by the supervisors at the site, we headed out to do what we came for. To serve the flood affected victims in whatever small way we can. We were given the task of removing the rubble and broken bricks from one of the areas so that it will make the workers’ life easier. We started on the job with great enthusiasm. But the infamous Raichur Sun was getting ready to burn with all its glory. One of the workers informed us that the temperature was 46 degrees Celsius. Despite the burning hot sun, it was truly amazing to see how the workers went about their chores. It was great to see the way my fellow travelers, infected by the workers’ dedication, went about doing their job. After 4 hours of hard labor, we retired to our rooms which to our horror were getting baked under the hot sun. It was then we realized how great a job these blue collar workers’ are doing.
Later in the evening, we took a dip in the Krishna river which runs through the village. It was puzzling to see how a river, so calm and peaceful, can bring such destruction as it did earlier this year in the form of devastating floods. Such is the nature of Mother Nature.
We also visited the famous Sheik Mosque in Raichur town which is located on the top of a rocky hill.
We slept on the roof of the houses rather than inside them because it was too hot inside the houses (even at night). We had to climb to the top using ladders. To our amazement, we found that all of the more than 400 workers were sleeping on the rooftops of houses. They were happily singing songs and cracking jokes before they settled down to sleep for the night. It was one of the most interesting experiences of our trip.
The next day, we went about our jobs in a similar fashion that we did the previous day. But we started at around 6 in the morning to beat the heat. We worked on the site for 4 more hours before we came back for a late breakfast. We started back to Bangalore at around 1 in the afternoon.
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