Meeting youth continued presentation in 6 more schools and colleges, lined up for the day by MLA Bhavargavaji. I took Jalandharnath to Springfield World School. We were told this to be the best school of Vidisha with a swimming pool, basketball court, horse riding available on the school campus itself. We were joined by Yannbhai and then we drove to Olympus School. Here, the father-son duo were managing the school operations nicely, and with a session here, we addressed 19 schools and colleges in Vidisha covering almost 23,000 students overall, thanks to the big support from MLA Bhargavaji.
Afternoon program was very interesting, it started with my session at the SATI campus following many sessions by our other team members. Before Rajaji joined to launch PEACE PARK at the SATI campus, each participant planted a tree each with their name plates next to it. Tree plantation followed by the inauguration of a very innovative ‘Center of Excellence for Non-violence in Higher Education.’ I am deeply touched by the foresight of Dr. Chauhan and Jill Didi. The inauguration was done by S C Baher – former chief secretary of MP, followed by a few formal sessions by Anuradha Shankar IPS, Pramod Sharma IAS, Vinayak Verma IPS, MLA Bhavargavaji, Rajaji & Jill Didi amongst others, appreciating the 1st ever Center of Excellence for Non-violence in Higher Education in India. Director Dr. Chauhan promised me to ensure Peace Park to be FREE of plastics soon.
The next day, we started our walk after 4 days of break in Vidisha to reach at Bhargavaji’s for breakfast. Our team shared gratitude towards many but special efforts were made for director SATI, Dr. Chauhan and MLA Bhavargavaji’s team in particular. Most of their team members escorted us until the city highway. Today was a small walk with a distance of 11 kms only to Sanchi – a historical Buddhist place. Today was a special day, the beginning of the two days yearly mela too. On the way, Cabinet Minister for Education – Prabhuram Choudhary, joined us and walked with us for about 5 kms, and took us to his holy Vanagala Thero – head Buddhist monk of the centre. We took his blessings, had lunch and immediately after that we walked to Stupa on the hill. I too climbed with support from young and ever enthusiastic Ajit.
Rest of the day was open for Satyagrahis to visit historical Buddhist places. As usual, we had our evening prayers and retired early to bed. Our funds position is improving a bit in anticipation of support from leading citizens of Vidisha.
May PEACE prevail on Mother Earth … JAI JAGAT!
–Yogesh Mathuria
