Real Heros Series-Part 1

India is country which is obessed with bollywood and cricket. Superstars as we call them are heros and source of inspiration of basis of character they play on screen or in case of cricketers sixes they hit on field.

This hub is not on above two heros as lot has been written about them and lot would be written about them in future too.Bollywood stars , cricketers and corporate Icons have surely inspired millions and would keep on doing so. This hub and series which would follow with title 'Real Heros' would cover ordinary man who accomplished extra ordinary things in social service.

Today's focus is 'DR Vasant Parikh'. Dr Parikh was man with multi faceted personality. Doctor by profession , he was writer , he was Member of legislative assembly and man who formed NGO by name of karuna setu trust.

As a doctor he partnered with Dr Dwarkadas Joshi to open up an hospital called Nagrik Mandad hospital. The hospital's fees what based on principal of paying as per affordability!!!!. His idea was that none should be denied from treatment because of lack of money.

He started his ngo along with his wife in 1984 and since last 26 years karuna has been involved in humanitarian work. Their activities include eye operations , free food distribution to needy ones , hostel for poor children , schools and providing livelihood means for widows.

As writer dr vasant parikh has authored more than 40 books and two of his books are part of curriculum in Master Of Arts programme. He had delivered more than 1500 lectures.

Karuna setu does lot of work in tribal areas of gujarat. Educating tribals by establishing schools in tribal areas is one of most important works of karuna setu.

Dr vasant parikh's role as MLA too was noteworthy. He fought elections with minimum money used for campaigning. He was fear less MLA who advocated for transparency and accountability of government. One of his prime contribution is dharoi dam. He was one of main person behind dream of dharoi dam , its promoter and supporter. He also ran campaign for it.

Dr vasant parikh is no more in the world but his life would always remain source of inspiration for many. A selfless human being whose chief purpose was betterment of lives of other , specially the poor and backward people.

After death of vasant parikh , karuna setu trust continues the work as per dr parikh's principal. It has started an hospital in name of dr vasant parikh and his wife . Hospital is equipped with all modern facilities as fees are according to principal of dr parikh.

When I first came across Dr parikh's profile I wondered how can a single person do so many things in one life time. Writing more than 40 books , itself is not easy . Doing so many cataract operations , supervising distribution of foods,medicines , taking care of schools . All these needs super effort .

I saw vasant parikh's photograph in gujarat earthquake rehabilitation camps , I saw him in kashmir earthquake rehabilitation camp and again in srilanka when tsunami had hit. He was simply unstoppable even though he might be more than 70 years of age at that time. Guess purpose beats all difficulties and challenges.

Salute to real hero 'Dr Vasant Parikh' . People like him make world a better place to live.