We will not accept Free Lunches!! – #WATWB

With the Corona Virus forcing us to take a refugee in our safe homes and stay closed down. But there are millions of people who are suffering out there in the real world, without a roof on their heads and no jobs/money to feed them. The media is doing their job by publishing their tired faces fleeing down from their work cities and migrating towards their home towns/villages. Which is a grim reality indeed. The government and few individuals are doing as much as they can to help these people. But still, it’s not enough. But this story about “No Free Lunches” is intended to bring out a cheerful smile on your face, despite the gloomy effect this pandemic is creating around you.

Typically, the migrant workers move from one state to the other in the search of their jobs. One such set of migrant workers were working in Rajasthan state were quarantined in Palsana village (in Sikar district) senior secondary school, when they tried to cross the Rajasthan state border after the COVID pandemic struck the state. These people are from various states and are working as building workers, agricultural laborers before they started the migration.

Looking at their condition, the villagers took turns in feeding these 50 odd people within their limited means, so that these laborers wouldn’t have to starve. When enquired for the reason for this good deed as the entire village community, the village sarpanch mentioned that their village still believed in the age-old Indian tradition “Athidi Devo Bhava” and that’s why they were feeding them with whatever material available for the villagers.

But the twist in the tale comes here only, as these laborers couldn’t sit idle after getting healthy and tasty food from the villagers. In the beginning, they started cleaning the school playground and the surrounding compound without informing any villagers. So while discussing amidst themselves, when they discovered that they do have a painter and carpenter among themselves, they discussed with the village sarpanch and started the school building painting and restoration work. The raw materials were provided from the school funds accumulated earlier.

They still believe in the old values which our elders taught to us and think that they need to repay the villagers who fed them despite their hardships. As they understand that there can be “No Free Lunches” for anyone in this world.

When the media spoke to this migrant workers team, as to why they had taken up this hard work, their reply was that “Free lunches can’t be digested at all, and we need to work to earn our meal“. Villagers were totally surprised and very happy with this gesture from these new guests in their village. The new guests are happy with the villager’s hospitality.

Don’t you all agree that there are a couple of lessons, we can learn from this incident despite the grim reality surrounding it. This is the ancient wisdom passed on by our elders in our Indian traditions, which is most relevant even today. Don’t you all agree, my dear friends that there is so much to learn from our age-old Indian traditions?

Good News – Migrant labourers in #Sikar #Rajasthan utilize their time by painting walls of the two school (Quarantine centre)#Haryana #Rajasthan #MP #UP Worker pic.twitter.com/y085hrJJoe

— Dinkar Rawat, #StayAtHome (@dinkarsr11) April 22, 2020

Now here is a positive story. Migrant labours from MP & Gujarat were quarantined at Palsana, Sikar. As a gesture they offered to colour the school since were getting food etc from there. Sarapanch arranged material. People are beautiful & inspiring. pic.twitter.com/1ncjTJGKA0

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) April 22, 2020

Author’s Note:

This post is a part of  #WATWB We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event created by Damyanti Biswas. “We Are the World Blogfest” which seeks to promote positive news. Sharing these stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world. The cohosts are Eric Lahti, Susan Scott, Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.