Come January 18, two groups of veteran cricketers led by Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh will play a pleasant T20 match within the One World One Household Cup on the newly-constructed Sai Krishnan Cricket Stadium in Sathya Sai Grama, a 40-minute drive from the Bengaluru’s Kempegowda Worldwide Airport. Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar will probably be current on the match.
Because the title signifies, Sathya Sai Grama, just a little hamlet in Muddenahalli, is known as after Sri Sathya Sai Baba; remembered most for his humanitarian initiatives like offering free schooling, free healthcare and consuming water for the needy. His philosophy was easy: ‘Love all, serve all’. He additionally all the time declared that after his time, his college students would carry ahead his mission of selfless love and repair; and that’s coming true.
Sathya Sai Grama is immediately residence to a bunch of Baba’s former college students, principally younger professionals, who’ve banded collectively as a social-service organisation with non secular moorings, underneath the management of Sri Madhusudan Sai, a 44-year-old ex-banker and a double gold medallist at Baba’s college.
Spirituality has been redefined. ‘Divinity’ is now outlined merely as complete selflessness; ‘tradition’, as concern for others; and man’s elementary nature, as spirit. We’re non secular beings present process a short human expertise is the understanding; and subsequently, one learns to progressively detach from the fabric, and as a substitute, realise one’s self by “loving all and serving all” as “One world, One Household”.
Utopian? Quixotic? The superb truth is that human beings the world over, notably the youth, appear to resonate with the concept; and the group numbers are rising exponentially. Wonderful establishments of public service have come up in 33 plus international locations within the verticals of proper diet, healthcare and values-based schooling – free of charge, for all, with none discrimination.
In India alone, this interprets as three million authorities schoolchildren getting morning diet, full with a well being complement – ‘SaiSure’; practically 30 residential values primarily based rural college campuses (ultimately to quantity 600 – one for each Indian district), which get hold of and admit the poorest of the poor full with a College for greater schooling; and three healthcare streams – one for youngsters, that has mended practically 30,000 little hearts, by way of a hospital chain sans billing counters, secondly, a rising chain of small, rural mom and baby hospitals to advertise wholesome maternity, and thirdly, taluk-level Swasthya Centres to stem India’s ‘non-communicable ailments’ epidemic; and all that is completely free for all beneficiaries with no discrimination in anyway. The crowning glory is that 2023 noticed the primary batch of medical college students stroll into the world’s first rural medical faculty providing MBBS and PG coaching completely freed from price, to these able to work in rural geographies, for as a few years as they obtained free education- the Sri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences & Analysis (SMSIMS&TR)
Who picks up the tab for all this? Good Samaritans the world over, who subscribe to those identical shared values; by way of a Sai International Federation of Foundations. The place does cricket are available? Little Grasp Sunil Gavaskar has been a first-rate mover, in garnering assist for the kid coronary heart care mission, for a couple of decade. In truth, he calls it the third and finest innings of his life. All this whereas, the work was achieved silently; however now, spearheaded by him, the trigger goes public, in a fashion of talking; and what higher option to join with the center of India, than by way of cricket?!
Apart from, since bettering the lives of youngsters is on the centre of the mission, sports activities have all the time been given satisfaction of place within the schooling mission launched from Sathya Sai Grama. Each campus has sprawling sports activities grounds and services for video games and yoga. Gavaskar, Pullela Gopichand, Somdev Devvarman and others are a part of an advisory group to design the sports activities curriculum on the colleges and the college; and the Sai Krishnan Cricket Stadium, in Sathya Sai Grama is their brainchild. Ultimately, the stadium is to additionally home tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, in addition to an indoor facility.
The medical faculty on the village is poised to have a bio-mechanical laboratory and programs in sports activities drugs and sports activities psychology, whereas bachelors and grasp’s programmes in sports activities and bodily coaching are being rolled out by the college. The aim of the sports activities mission is to nurture the pure aptitude that rural kids appear to have, for sport; and hopefully assist India deliver residence extra medals in worldwide sporting occasions, by way of participation within the authorities’s Khelo India programmes.
Sports activities can do extra for character constructing than sermonising; by way of fostering aim setting, group work, dedication, focus and self-discipline, and studying to simply accept wins and losses with grace, reckons the group.
The amalgamation of sports activities, yoga and meditation nurtures holistic improvement, shaping kids into individuals with sturdy character, compassion and a profound understanding of their interior selves; and subsequently, on the mission’s colleges, athletics, video games and yoga are a each day affair; on par with teachers. Whereas all the colleges have particular person Sports activities Days, one of the best of the groups congregate at Sathya Sai Grama the place lastly, combined groups play one another. This promotes cooperation and friendship reasonably than competitors which is the essence of sportsmanship. This yr, the Annual Sports activities Meet for the schoolchildren has been deliberate for the day after the cricket tourney; and therefore the agricultural youngsters from 30-odd campuses are all starry eyed at this unbelievable alternative to see lots of their cricketing idols in flesh and blood.
Gavaskar’s ‘Seva Fever’ has proved extra infectious than COVID; and cricket stars from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, placing apart all the pieces else, have come ahead to bat for the mission, within the true spirit of One World, One Household. They’ve all expressed solidarity and assist for the worldwide ‘hat-trick’ of proper diet, proper schooling and high quality healthcare, free of charge, for all.
The star-studded checklist contains Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Danny Morrison, Muttiah Muralitharan, Irfan Pathan, Monty Panesar, Makhaya Ntini, Venkatesh Prasad, Yusuf Pathan, Jason Krejza, Chaminda Vaas, Mohammad Kaif, Darren Maddy and plenty of extra!
A grand procession and classical dance extravaganza will usher within the match, whereas the superb, mind-blowing Sai Symphony Orchestra, one of many solely two such orchestras in India, made up of our personal rural college students, will serenade one after the match. Devotees from many countries have already landed in Sathya Sai Grama to observe this distinctive, maiden cricket match; however thousands and thousands extra are ready with bated breath to observe it reside on YouTube! So save the date – January 18 – to observe ‘Cricket for a Trigger’; the One World, One Household Cup.
