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My Tsunami Relief Experiences - A Reflection
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By: Navneet Singh Narula (Atlanta)
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April 22nd, was my birthday. I had a chance to reflect back on twenty six years
of my completed life and who I am today. I realized that nothing more, than the
past four months of my life have touched me and made me into a human being I am
today. Many of you may not know that I have recently come back from a three month
tsunami relief mission as part of the UNITED SIKHS team to South India and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. I have been seeing “other” important news on the
headlines these days, so it ! seems that we as human beings have perhaps
forgotten about tsunami, the worst natural disaster to have occurred,
that took approximately 300,000 lives. As a friend, I wanted to share a moment
of my experiences from these past 15 weeks.
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To be honest, I am not sure on how to start or what to say, writing this note
makes it really hard after seeing, experiencing and being in the midst of
post tragedy first hand. It's like I have come back to another life, somehow
amazed that I survived. It will shortly be a month since I have been back
home in the States, but the sights of devastated homes, the crying of
children during aftershocks and the state of all those people who have lost
their children, their families and every single thing they owned still has
me haunted in the middle of nights. Just imagining a 40 foot killer wave or
what we now call tsunami, sends chills down my spine. There is so much
destruction that the mind goes blank. There are places where you don't even
know if you are standing on someone's body, it’s that horrific and there
I was standing right in the middle of it.
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Before I left for the relief mission, I had seen the survivors' faces and
images of destruction on televsion screens over an over again, which had
made it so hard that I couldn't sleep. When my heart started to hurt and
nothing felt good, I knew then that I had to do more than just give money.
I decided to leave to see and understand the devastation, feel and
understand the pains of the people, and provide support to the survivors
through relief materials, mental and emotional support and in every other
way I could. When I heard that UNITED SIKHS was mobilising volunteers to
the Tsunami hit areas, I knew that it was a call for me to help in the
relief and rehabilitation of all those affected. Today I can still feel
the touch of the faces and the power of the destruction that wreaked havoc
long after the televsion screens have gone silent.
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Who says one needs to know the language to communicate, I know I didn't speak
everyone's language there. Though, I've learnt that touch, feel and actions
are the greatest forms of communication. It can erase all boundaries. Without
saying a word sometimes, with just one look on them, it felt like I understood
their pains. It was tough as there was a lot of sadness in them. The hundreds
of survivors that I met all have stories that can put any soul to tears and then some
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Today, even though I have physically come back from the relief mission, my work
is still not over. As a leader of the UNITED SIKHS team, as a brother to a young
boy there, as a human being to every survivor out there, it makes it hard not to
give them in every way possible. I still continue to talk daily with my team of
volunteers, planning tasks, managing budgets, organizing relief materials, and
implementing activities that allow us to help rehabilitate the souls of survivors.
I know this has become a part of my life, perhaps because a piece of my heart and
mind still remains there; back with those tragedy struck orphan kids I spent time
doing nursery rhymes, with those families who shared their food with me in relief
camps, with this 89 year old woman, who looked so much like my grandmother, hugged
and kissed my forehead for bringing her medicine so her coughing would stop. How
does one get away from those moments?
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The places I saw along the tsunami struck coast line were so beautiful yet so sad,
there was so much pain yet so much love around, there was so much hopelessness,
yet a faith in a better tomorrow; all at the same time. These past weeks have been
an experience I'll never forget in my life, however it has also been an experience
I sincerely hope no one else goes through.There's so much more to say, so much to
share with all of you, but it's hard to write everything in one email. If you'd like
to read more, and see the pictures, please visit my blog.http://navneetnarula.blogspot.com
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Today, I know I have become stronger in life but it's still hard to get away from some of
those moments. With the grace of god, I have decided to sponsor a child who has lost his
entire family. I am going to do whatever I need to support him and am excited about this
new change in my life. After seeing and experiencing what I have, its hard not to wanna
do anything. If you'd like to help, you can contribute by donating here
- http://www.unitedsikhs.org/ghanaia/index.htm#donate Having worked with UNITED SIKHS for
three months, I have full faith that the money you donate will be well spent.
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All I know is that I couldn’t have been this brave or done this alone in any way. My family,
friends, company and the entire community, whose spirit was the driving force, made this UNITED
SIKHS relief mission a success. I am sincerely thankful to all of them. In this time of need
- their support, understanding and faith in me to help serve humanity has been tremendous.
Everyone has been there providing support and love like a family. I am humbled and can’t
express my thankfulness.
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This is all lord's grace, I am lucky to have been chosen for this work and I truly feel blessed.
I feel we are all born for a reason, finding out what, is 95% of our life, doing it is just 5%.
We are only going to live once so I sincerely hope that we do find that reason. I believe it in
my heart that, If we can change one person’s life for the better, just one, then this life is
truly well lived.
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Warm Regards,
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Navneet Singh Narula (Neet)
Atlanta (404) 915-2300
navneetnarula@gmail.com
http://navneetnarula.blogspot.com
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How Tsunami Happened and Where it affected
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A child full of
blood eats sweets
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A man sits on the bricks
of his home in Cuddalore
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Before
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After
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