Just like any other Sunday, our local team had arrived at Shiv Ganga Vrudhashram when the manager informed us about a few new members added to the old age home. Excited to meet them, I entered the room where a well dressed man in the late 70s sat on his chair reading the newspaper. He had a cup of chai beside him. He had caught my eye as I entered and with a smile I walked over to greet him. I introduced myself and told him about being here as a volunteer from ODSER. After a few questions about the NGO I asked him his name and he said Farokh Shaikh and after that followed a beautiful conversation that lead us to be bestfriends.
Farokh ajoba had spend most of life in the city of Mumbai where he had stayed with his late wife. He has two children. He has a daughter who is married in a good family and has moved abroad with her husband. He is very proud of his son who works very hard in an IT company. He stayed with his son in Pune before his son had to move to Bangalore for his job.
As I sat on his bed while he sat on the chair, we talked about all the common things we had, like how we both loved chai and without a cup our day wouldn’t be the same. He told me how his job was very small yet the most important one. He was a hard working guy who was the first to reach everyday at the office and last to leave. He talked about his dedication to his work and he said “Everything in life can be achieved by working hard and being dedicated.”
Ajoba said he enjoys being in Pune yet misses the terrible Mumbai traffic and the heat. He asked me about my family and how I see myself when I grow up. I showed him my family photo which was my cell phone wallpaper. On seeing my wallpaper he took a breath and said how he’s glad that my parents send me here every sunday to spend time with them and he would love to meet them soon. We spent the rest of the Sunday morning talking about the weather and politics.
This meet strengthed my belief in the idea that we never meet people by coincidence but with an unfathomable yet very reasonable purpose.
Vaishnavi Gangadhar
Volunteer at ODSER
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