Around 10 AM on the day of the inauguration, (read the previous post) i.e. 3rd Oct, I had called up the brahmachari in charge of the construction and asked him about the progress on the erection of the stage and pandal and he confirmed that everything was done and the stage was ready. Taking him on his word, I concentrated on the arrangement of other aspects of the inauguration, like alerting the media, inviting other guests, getting the bilingual press report ready, etc (we had neither power supply nor printing facility nearby the camp). By the time I reached the camp after completing all these activities it was 3.30 PM. What I saw (or should I say should not have seen) was that nothing was ready for the inaugural function. In the place where the stage should have been there were just 4 bamboos weakly standing there. Neither was the dais ready nor the pandal on top nor was the sound system ready and there was just half an hour left for the inauguration. Initially I felt oh ‘what a blunder I had made in trusting them and now the math would have to bear the ignominy of a poorly organized inaugural program’. I wished that I had visited the camp earlier to ensure that all venue arrangements had in time. The only reason that I had not visited earlier in the day was that it took more than 45 mnts to travel the one way distance of 10 km and I would not have had sufficient time to visit the camp and also complete all the other pending works.

At that moment my mobile buzzed and I saw a message from the Chief Guest for the evening, He had sent the message saying that he would be late by half an hour. My joy knew no bounds and I immediately replied to him saying that, it’s perfectly ok(to be late). After that with the team of medics, paramedics, volunteers and workers we set about getting the whole place ready at a great pace. The stage was erected, pandals tied with many eager helping hands, chairs arranged in a proper manner, sound system connected and functioning, and even a few moments for decoration and arranging refreshments, tying the ribbon for the inauguration, lamp readied to be lit, etc. By 4.15 PM everything was readied and we sat around discussing as we awaited the arrival of the dignitaries. They arrived soon and the program got underway successfully. They were very impressed with the arrangements of the temporary shelters and in the cost effective and time saving manner in which they had been made. The District Magistrate and Collector of Supaul district Dr N Sarvan Kumar inaugurated the camp. After inauguration and on visiting the camps he directed his deputy to follow our model of making shelters in all future govt. camps.

The evening ended joyfully with many lessons learnt…never depend implicitly on anyone for important activities and that if one is sincerely concerned about the welfare of the service that one is doing, then Amma’s (God’s) grace will surely help and protect one from ignominy. As Lord Krishna says in the Bagavad Gita; “My devotee will never come to naught”.

— Br. Sadasiva Chaitanya