The Goa-Dehradun SHG Meeting

It was 22nd of November – the day scheduled for the second meeting for Goa SHG. But when the day dawned, a feeling of disappointment was beginning to lurk my mind. Till now, the meeting was not confirmed. I had received no confirmation from anybody that they are going to make it. I tried calling Stanley (with whom I had kicked off the first meeting) the whole week. But he didn’t answer the phone. For the first meeting we were two – but today I was just one! How would I possibly hold a meeting with no members to attend?   With those thoughts running my mind, I reached on to my laptop and logged in to my special account I have created to converse with stammerers on internet / orkut (This was before acceptance), and now it became an account for my conversations with TISA.    I saw Dr. Sachin online in my list. I conveyed my disappointment to him. He promptly asked me to call him on skype. And this conversation – like magic, erased all my disappointment.   Dr. Sachin reminded me again of the first advice that he had given me – that, running an SHG is not a 100 meter dash, but it’s a marathon race. He also  told me how he also face similar problems at Samagra, when people commit on phone, but don’t turn up in the meetings. He told me about the difficulties Mr. Manimaran from Chennai had, when he got started with the SHGs.   Dr. Sachin then said a very important thing. “We are doing this because we love doing it. Because we help ourselves by helping others. Not to win any reward.” These words by Dr. Sachin recharged me again. He also looked it in a positive way. Who says 2nd Goa SHG meeting didn’t happen? It did happen. It happened online. With me and Dr. Sachin having a conversation on Skype! As Dr. Sachin called it – It’s a cross-meeting of Goa and Dehradun SHG.   At the end of the conversation, I was feeling great and charged again. I promised Sachin sir that I am going to keep trying, and not going to stop.   Dr Sachin has always been an ocean of inspiration for me, right from the day I joined TISA. And today’s conversation has given me the much needed consolation, a recharge of energy to come back strong, and off course – A GREAT DEAL OF INSPIRATION. 
PS: I received a call from Stanley later in the evening, and he told me that he was unable to receive my call because he was outstation. We then tentatively fixed our 2nd SHG meeting, next sunday, 29th November 2009.