We see so many rickshaw pullers crossing our paths every day. But this certain rickshawala has made it into the news with his hard work and patience. Awarded the ‘Bhagat Puran Singh Award’ for his service to humanity, Rajbir Singh, a rickshawala from Amritsar has caught everyone’s attention.
The 45-year-old from Chheharta town of Amritsar, is known for his book ‘Rickshaw Tey Chale Zindagi (Life on a Rickshaw)’. The book published by a Rajpura-based publisher, is about his adventures as a rickshawala and the ‘unforgettable’ people he meets. Plus, Amritsar being a tourist spot because of the Golden Temple, adds a lot of different stories to Singh’s daily work. Also Read: Divya Dutta Becomes The First Indian Actor To Be Nominated At LA Diversity Film Fest!
However, in an earlier interview, Singh told that rickshaw pulling was more of a necessity at the time he started than his choice. When he was young, his father fell ill and with no other source of income, Singh had to leave his studies (after 10th Grade) and start working.
Singh has also installed a donation box in his rickshaw which says ‘Guru Di Golak, Lodwandan Layi’ (Guru’s Donation Box, only for the poor). A part of his daily earnings goes into the box, which he later on, donates to people who cannot afford medicine, books and such daily necessities. Also Read: Popular Music Producer The Boss Opens Up A New Music Studio In Mohali
The Bhagat Puran Singh award carries Rs 1 lakh prize money and a citation will be presented on September 23, the last day of the Baba Farid festival. The other award that is presented alongside this one is the ‘Baba Farid award’ for honesty, which will be given to Kumar Saurav Raj, a former deputy commissioner of Faridkot.
An urge to serve the society pushed Sarbjeet Singh to set up a free canteen for cancer patients, drive a free funeral van for the poor and organize regular blood donation camps to help Shimla’s hospitals.
Popularly known as ‘Bobby ji’, Sarbjeet Singh has been working to uplift and serve the underprivileged people of Himachal Pradesh for years. At a time when even paid drivers were not keen on doing it, this good samaritan volunteered to drive dead body van free of cost for the poor. For the last 10 years, he has also been organising blood donation camps for hospitals, and a couple of years ago, he has started a free canteen for cancer patients and their attendants at Shimla’s only cancer hospital.
Here is the heartwarming story of this hardworking man, who has shown what one inspired individual can achieve when he, or she, sets his/her mind to do it.
Unlike most people, who are pre-occupied with their own lives and responsibilities, Sarbjeet Singh spends so much time in social work that the people who know him affectionately call him ‘Vela Bobby’ – ‘vela’ in Punjabi means someone who does nothing and thus has a lot of time on his hands!Advertisement
“People in Shimla call me Vela Bobby. Even my mother does the same! It doesn’t offend me. Instead I am thankful that the almighty made me ‘vela’ so that I could spend my time in the service of humanity,” says the man who has made selfless service the mission of his life.
Talking about his experiences in an exclusive interview to TBI, Singh explains how his journey as a dedicated social worker began.
“It all started twelve years back when I used to volunteer with the local gurudwara and help them organise blood donation camps. Over time, the gurudwara gradually stopped organising blood donation camps. However, I decided to continue organising camps on my own.
Shimla, being the capital of Himachal, is where people from all over the state came for treatment. As a result, there is always a shortage of blood in Shimla’s main hospitals – Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Kamala Nehru hospital. So, I knew that I had to continue organising these blood donation camps.”
Sarabjeet Singh has been organising blood donation camps every Sunday for over 11 years now and has collected over 20,000 units of blood for Shimla’s hospitals. All the blood banks in the state have his phone number and know they can rely on him in case of an emergency.
For the past eight years, Singh has also been running a free 24×7 funeral van service to help the dead in their final journey, be it night or day. He has never refused a call, even at odd hours, to transport a dead body to the cremation ground if the vehicle is with him. He has even transported badly decomposed bodies, lying unclaimed at the hospital mortuaries, for the last rites by the Shimla Municipal Corporation.
Explaining that the idea came to him when he saw that even government-run hospitals lacked this facility, Singh says,
“Back then, cremation and burial grounds used to be pretty far from the hospitals which had no vehicle for transporting dead bodies. As a result, many families used to find it difficult to transport the dead bodies for their last rites. Also, after 5 pm, the people were helpless as there was no facility in town to help them do this.
Since I also like driving, I decided to lend a helping hand by driving a funeral van (run by the local Guru Nanak Sewa Society) to ferry bodies 24 x 7 and free of cost. In 2012, with help from citizens, I bought my own crowdfunded van for the free service. Till date, I have ferried more than 5,000 bodies.
While it is a macabre job, the experiences I have had while driving the funeral van have taught me many things. I still remember the time when I ferried a 9-year old girl’s body to her distraught mother’s home. It was the first time I had truly realised the importance of my job and it just strengthened my resolve to continue my service. I felt perhaps God himself had given me this duty. Soon after, I started my NGO, Almighty Blessings. “
In 2014, under the banner of his NGO, Almighty Blessings, Sarbjeet Singh started a free canteen for poor patients and their attendants at Shimla’s only cancer hospital. He says, “I realised that people from all over the state, some from really remote places, visited this cancer hospital and it didn’t even have a canteen to serve them! Some of them are so poor that they can’t even afford medicines for the treatment, let alone food. That’s when I decided to do something about this.Advertisement
The free canteen I opened started out by offering tea and biscuits for free to patients and their attendants. I wanted to ensure that everyone of them at least got a cup of hot tea in the cold mornings of Shimla. Today, I am very happy to say that the canteen now serves tea, biscuits, soup, daliya and dal-chawal for free to the patients and their attendants every day.”
Ambulances are hard to find these days in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal city that is grappling with the destructive second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Javed Khan an autorickshaw driver in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal city has turned his vehicle into a free ambulance service for Covid patients, that too with oxygen support.
Khan who normally earns Rs 200-300 per day, has limited financial resources and says there was a time when he had to sell his wife’s jewellery to keep his benevolent act going.
Thankyou Javed Khan, you are a hero! Citizens of Bhopal
Thank you Vasu Primlani for saying Thank you to the Sikhs. Your words are our strength and motivation. May your words continue to inspire many more to serve humanity, not only in these times of distress and disease but even during easy times.
