A walk to my birthplace Day 54 (150 Km covered so far)

Couple of weeks back, I got an invitation for a function that aroused my curiosity. The function was about donating two boxes of books to readers. The function was organized by ‘Kusumagraj pratishthan(Foundation)’. Kusumagraj was a towering personality in Marathi literature so when you get an invitation to participate in a function that bears his name, it was an absolute honor.

I entered the venue to be met by a short man. “Hi, I am Vinayak Ranade from Kusumagraj Pratishthan”. I shook hands with typical enthusiasm I reserve for office bearers of any type! I had reached early and there were not many around. So I asked Mr Ranade “Tell me something more about this function”. I must say, I asked the question just to kill time and was not ready for what I was about to hear!!

Mr Ranade started his narrative. In 2004, he met with a near fatal accident in which his friend lost his life and Mr Ranade himself was seriously injured. He had to lie on the bed for close to one and half years. All he could do that time was to reflect on life. “For the first time I realized that the world can run without me. I have a printing business which my wife had to run and she did it efficiently.” Mr Ranade recounted. He also had a unique hobby. He never forgot to wish anyone on their birthdays. He soon realized that he had about 3000 contacts. He organized these contacts into the groups. He would send a birthday message to the person concerned along with the others in the group so that others in the group also wished the birthday boy/girl – a very simple way of spreading happiness.  Invariably people celebrating their birthdays called Mr Ranade in the evening and asked him about what can they do for him.

This set him thinking. From this huge contact base came an idea “Pustak tumachya daari (Book at your Doorstep)”. Mr Ranade raised funds through his well-wishers and created what he calls “Reading Groups”. He would go and buy best of Marathi books and put 100 of them in a box. He would then give this box to one volunteer who would take responsibility of circulating the books in the box to the registered members of the reading group for next 4 months. After 4 months Mr Ranade or one of his volunteers would come to take the box and replace it with other box! The whole mission was about giving quality books to anyone who wants to read! “Lot of books in libraries lie on shelf but this way many of the books get read and people don’t mind reading if the books are easily available”.

Mr Ranade does not take a penny from this venture; neither do readers pay a penny. Today he has 400 boxes of books in circulation with each box containing 100 books. This is the overwhelming power of a simple idea acted on diligently. Here is a simple man who runs his business, his family but also runs a madness where 40,000 books are in circulation and the number is growing. Take a bow Mr Ranade – the world needs more mad people like you to make it a better place!!!