An arid region in the north western part of the Indian sub-continent covering an area of 200,000 Square kilometer straddling across both the nations of India and Pakistan ‘Thar has the honour of being the 18th largest desert of the world and 9th largest hot sub-tropical desert to boot it. About 85% of the Thar Desert is in India and 15% is in Pakistan with more than 60% of this desert lying in the state of Rajasthan; the portion in India also extends into Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. The portion in Pakistan extends into the provinces of Sindh and Punjab, the later portion is referred to as the ‘Cholisthan’ desert. This Eco region lying west of Aravalli mountain range in the northwestern Indian states of Gujarat /Rajasthan was the site of ancient Mohenjo Daro and Harappa cities that supported a civilization contemporaneous with ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Minoan Crete.
As the state of Rajasthan has aced the recent assembly elections to elect its legislative assembly, the focus of all these actions point towards synergizing the entire state machinery to help its common masses that have been for decades to no end grappling with perpetual cycles of famine, deficiency of water, a fast depleting water table to quote a few from a plethora of such litanies. The fact that the present ruling dispensation is headed by a commoner Mr Bhajanlal sharma as the chief minister with his deputy chief minister as Mrs Diyakumari belonging to the royal family of Jaipur, offers to the state a healthy mix of common aspirations taking center stage backed by a redoubtable royal thrust to achieve the same in a time bound manner.
Of all the problems that the ‘Thar desert’ faces in all its acuity is the age old depletion of water from all its known and unknown sources with an ever increasing burden of a burgeoning population on it’s already stressed out meager sources which are stretched to their tether’s end. A similar sort of dismal situation is present across the border in the Pakistani part of Thar Desert particularly the ‘Thar parkar’ district which has almost identical problems that abound the Indian part of desert of Rajasthan. For centuries to no end this western most part of the sub-continent was a cursed land, with foreign invasions adding to the misery of the local populace.
My days with the army since the mid-80s till early years of 2000 saw me crisscross the entire length and breadth of this desert of Indian sub-continent in its varied shades of black, white and grey with each colour bringing in its wake the human endurance, fortitude and a sense of equanimity that its local population bore without a wrinkle on their foreheads. But my prolonged stay at Munabao during the fateful days of ‘OP Parakaram’ in 2001/02 gave me the right sense of perspective to this hallowed land of warriors and how they shaped their destinies irrespective of the physicality of the vast expanse of Thar desert. The everlasting image of a woman of Thar with the earthen pitcher balanced delicately on her head full of water and trudging on the hot sand dunes is enough to launch thousand ships for her rescue, since the image is singed into the psyche of humanity that has been a silent bystander to her travails down the centuries. Such images are a commonplace in both the Indian and Pakistani part of Thar belying the sincerity of either of the governments towards their efforts to ameliorate the masses from their miseries.
But then all is not lost in the vast labyrinthine of the arid zone of Thar. There are dime a dozen NGOs which are the proverbial ‘First responders’ to the miseries of this desert inflicted upon the hapless populace that straddles both sides of the ‘Radcliff line’. One such NGO that has etched its name on the anvil of its steadfastness, commitment to the cause and fair& sureness of issues under consideration is ‘EK PLATE BIRYANI’ which has been registered and based out of Canada. Starting out in the year 2019, the so-called ‘New kid on the block’ had its mantra dug in the principle of providing a platform around the world to help those in distress. Their vision statement— ‘We envision a world without hunger—a planet where no one has to be uncertain about their primary needs’has now metamorphosed into a tsunami of efforts that has taken into its ambit very lofty works to include provision of food, access to clean and potable water, treatment solutions, education support and aid in emergencies.
One can make out that none of these ideals or goals have a common numerator, but each of them sports a common denominator i.e. amelioration of human miseries. The organization has its founder Mr Bilal who is its CEO and the key decision maker ably supported by others like Anum who is the COO (Chief operations officer) and a multitask man to boot. Others in the list of founders include Azghan S and Mehmood K etc. Surprisingly all the above have different backgrounds and come from different countries of the globe too. ‘Ek plate biryani’ was a moniker sort given by the team of founders with the sole aim of satiating the hunger and quenching the thirst of the needy across the globe, since lack of fulfillment of these two primary requirements of a human body goads him or her to commit unspeakable crimes under the sky. The NGO has been at forefront of digging wells and providing hand pumps to the locals of Thar Desert both in Indian and Pakistani part. In the Thar parkar district of Sind, Pakistan this NGO has installed 377 hand pumps to cope up with water shortage. As per this NGO the problem in Thar was the shallow depth about 50 to70 feet that was dug in for these wells which rendered them defunct during the summer season. ‘Ek plate Biryani’ has been at the forefront of deepening these wells to a minimum of 150 feet thereby making them rejuvenate again with gurgling waters of the subterranean.
For the above tasks which are mammoth in nature, the NGO has been inviting lots of donations from all over the globewith a resounding success. The donors in turn will get rewards for as long as these hand pumps are functional and the hapless souls of Thar have access to clean and potable water for their consumption. The hand pumps will help them in more myriad ways than one that is set to revolutionize their very being. From growing better crops, improving food security, feeding their livestock better, improved hygiene and sanitation, control and spread of diseases, and last but not the least curbing infant and maternal mortality rate in the humongous spread of humanity hidden behind the massive sand dunes of Thar, these hand pumps will be a virtual deliverance of their existence from that of a sub-human being to a normal human being. The NGO as different from other plethora of such agencies has made itself indispensable from others by going that extra mile in the way of providing the tools to these villagers so that when they are gone from them after installation of these pumps these villagers do not have to look askance owing to breakdown of these contraptions.
‘Ek plate Biryani’ has also installed 40 hand pumps in ‘Cox’s bazar’, Bangladesh for the Rohingya community too. Diversification has been the ‘Sine quo non’ of this unique NGO since it doesn’t believe to bask in past glories of its work based on a single facet of its work. The NGO has helped 2 campuses of street schools (street to school) in Karachi with healthy lunches for students everyday as also donated dialysis machines to ‘SIUT’ Pakistan’s best urology center. Till date it has been able to distribute fresh, ready to eat meals for needy individuals to about 9 lakh plus population in addition to providing door to door month’s grocery in underprivileged areas regularly. To ensure 100% transparency in their work, the said NGO has been taking pictures too supported with adequate number of videos as a proof of their projects that are spread all-over the world. The head count that has been benefitted from these actions of ‘Ek plate Biryani’ has been one million and counting constant hits on the social media too.
I have yet to see any such NGO in our sub-continent rival these young minds from far off Canada fired with an unparalleled zeal to better the lot of fellow human beings except for another similar effort by an American mountaineer cum educationist by the name ‘Greg Mortenson’. A one man’s mission to promote peace in an area that has been perpetually rocked by internecine conflicts; he was instrumental in building up 55 schools in the northern areas of Gilgit –Baltisthan of Pakistan all fired by an internal zeal to do something for people who had saved his life from certain death while on a mountaineering mission way back in 1993 on way to the second highest mountain K-2 in the world.
It has been a proven truth that until and unless humans are shaken to their marrow by a personal tragedy of sorts ,their hidden philanthropist side doesn’t come to the fore to trudge that extra mile in order to make peace with their maker. ‘EK PLATE BIRYANI’ too falls under this ambit that has helped many flowers bloom in the Thar of Indian sub-continent.
(The writer is a retired army officer and can be contacted on his email: [email protected])
