Recognition for 25 years of selfless service

Amid the din and bustle at the busy Chiraiyantand area of the State Capital, where 60-year-old Gurmeet Singh has a garment shop, a message is conveyed to the sexagenarian businessman that the Patna district magistrate wants to meet him.

The perplexed trader rushes to the top official only to be informed that he should apply for a passport, as he has to visit London in November. “But what will I do there? I don’t know English?”  the Class VI pass Gurmeet Singh wonders.

He is then informed that a London-based organisation  “The Sikh directory” has picked him, of all the 100 entries across the world, to receive this year’s World Sikh Award in the category: “Sikhs in Seva.”

This felicitation in London will be in recognition of Gurmeet’s tireless effort in taking care of poor and downtrodden section of patients here in the largest hospital – Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH)- for the last 25 years. This is the hospital where Gurmeet for the last two and half decades has been spending two hours daily in the evening feeding poor patients at the Laawaris (abandoned) Ward.

“Who will feed the poor patients if I go to London to receive the award,” Gurmeet asks his son, who accompanied him to the Patna district magistrate’s office. “We will take care of them. You just fill the passport application online,” his son tells the good Samaritan.

“Oye putra (dear son), police verification will take more than a month. I don’t think I will get a passport before the felicitation day,” a reluctant Gurmeet tells his son.

Patna DM Sanjay Agarwal chips in: “Don’t worry. We have also received a communication from London. We will ensure police verification is done at the earliest and without any hassles, so that you get the passport on time.”

Convinced, Gurmeet completes the formalities and again sets out for his passion: Collect food for needy patients and rush to PMCH where at least eight to 10 patients (on an average), living in a hellish condition, wait for him anxiously.

“Every day, after closing the shop around 8.30 pm, I start my two-wheeler and go straight to Radhe Krishna, a food joint near Gandhi Maidan, and collect food for patients, without even bothering about their actual numbers,” Gurmeet tells DH.

“After collecting food, I leave for the Laawaris ward, which was earlier also known as Qaidi ward where prisoners languished. On the way, I purchase sweets for them. Occasionally, I purchase boiled eggs too from Ashok Rajpath. This way, I ensure the poor patients, who have no one to take care of, get proper nutrition as our Guru Nanak has taught us to serve the needy in an optimum way,” says Gurmeet.

After washing his hand, Gurmeet personally takes out food for each of the patients and serves them. “Had Sardar ji (Gurmeet) not been here, chances are many of us would not have survived,” said one such patient Shanti, who is battling for life with her infected leg at the stinking ward.

“There was one patient – a very good-looking boy – from Assam, who had lost both his legs and hands in a train accident. He was shifted to PMCH and then to the Laawaris ward as he had no one to take care of. I took proper care of him and at the same time, I contacted a journalist in Assam, who, in turn, published his story and photograph in a north-east newspaper. The boy was reunited with a distant relative,” recounts Gurmeet.

When asked how all this generosity started, Gurmeet says: “You can say it’s in my blood. My grandfather, Sardar Amar Singh, who stayed in Pakistan (then part of undivided India) was an equally large-hearted man and was known for his charitable works.”

Then he recounts an incident at PMCH which jolted him so hard that it became a mission of his life to help the helpless. “Around 25 years back, one of my sisters was taken to PMCH. She was in need of urgent medical assistance. But help never came. In those days, I watched doctors’ apathy towards patients from close quarters. It jolted me from within.” The then telephone operator (at PMCH) Prashantji one day suggested to me: “Sardarji, why don’t you take care of abandoned patients who have no one to look after them.”

Prashant’s sane suggestion to Gurmeet struck an emotional chord. “From that day onwards, I made it a point to serve them without failing even for a day. We have put a donation box in our house, where 10% of our earnings are regularly kept in it. At least this is what we learnt from our Wahe Guru. If you have Rs 10 lakh in your account, and you have never helped the poor, then what’s the point of earning that amount,” says Gurmeet and exhorts his brethren to follow suit.

“I pity my own community members, who these days are not following Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh’s preachings (of always helping the needy). Guru Gobind Singh sacrificed his sons, but if today an adverse situation arises, we become the first to protect our sons.  Kurbani dene aata hee nai aaj kal logon ko (Nowadays people are reluctant to make sacrifices). And this pains me a lot,” says Gurmeet.

To buttress his point, he cites the example of his own family which does not celebrate Dasara, Deepavali or any other festival. “Nowadays, people spend Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 on crackers alone. I feel this is a sheer waste of money, which, otherwise, could have been used for the needy. You will be surprised to know that we don’t even celebrate birthday and marriage anniversaries in our family. Funds saved from these occasions are used serving the poor patients,” says Gurmeet.