Sponsored: One man, a cause and his big dream

Sponsored: One man, a cause and his big dream

FP Archives December 9, 2015, 16:45:02 IST

100 Pipers #BeRememberedForGood pays tribute to Neel Ghose for selflessly working towards a dignified cause of feeding the poor.

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Sponsored: One man, a cause and his big dream

In today’s time and age, every single one of us is a part of the incessant rat race. There’s a pressure to achieve so much in life that time has become a scarce mean. While most of us are running around accomplishing goals of our own and fulfilling expectations of society, there are few rare ones who want to pause, give life a deserved thought and do well for others. 100 Pipers #BeRememberedForGood campaign acknowledges these ordinary heroes amongst us and highlights one such story that made a difference.

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The story of Neel Ghose, Vice President International Operations of Zomato, is one tale that will inspire the benefactor in us. After his stint in the financial industry, Ghose’s boredom of excel sheets and financial analysis brought him to the world of food and startups. He joined a small zealous team of Zomato and traveled around to set up operations for the company across the world.

While there, Ghose side by side started ‘the Robin Hood Army (RHA),’ which is a volunteer organization working to get surplus food from restaurants to the less fortunate sections of society in cities across India and Pakistan. He confessed that the founding of the Robin Hood Army was no result of a premeditated plan of action but rather happened by chance. During his stay in Lisbon, Portugal, he came across an organization ‘Refood,’ which redistributes food to the poorer. This played an inspiration and led him to think on the same lines.

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Ghose said, “I observed their processes and spent some time with the founder understanding the basic workings of the model, before deciding to try out something similar back home. The need of course was much greater in India.”

Without a doubt, starting out with this initiative wasn’t the easiest thing for him with a mainstream career, work duties and life priorities. Initially, he spent after work hours and weekends to give this plan a shape. Gradually with time, the Robin Hood Army grew and now boasts a strong and diligent core team that manages its functioning in entirety.

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This young and ambitious man has plenty ideas lined up for this project. Currently feeding approximately 7000 people a night across cities in India and Pakistan, he said that this is hardly touching the surface of the hunger problem.

Looking at wider scheme of things, Ghose said, “Next steps would be working towards a daily model, taking the RHA to the student community, setting up chapter in smaller towns in India, and also taking the RHA into more countries.”

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With such aspirations, Neel Ghose attributes the encouragement to the Robin Hood Army team’s hard work and effort. The team is a huge source of motivation that propels the cause to move forward and continue the good work.

The impact ‘The Robin Hood Army’ creates is also a major motivator for many out there to continue doing good or begin something good. RHA has moved from a small 6-member team feeding 150 people in Delhi to a 1500 -member army that has served nearly 3 Lac poor people in a year. Despite the expansion, Ghose still thinks RHA has achieved only 1% of its goals.

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Neel Ghose believes that it is essential to use skills, opportunities and education to help the community. He added, “In our generation, the belief is definitely there that one’s responsibility to society does not end with a fancy MBA degree and a cushy job. As long as there is an effort – it does not matter how small or great it is.”

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There is no dearth of opportunities to make a meaningful difference in society where disparities are trite. It is imperative for the generation today to do more and think less while trusting that the bigger picture will always fall into place.

With the above message from a common man of noble deeds, 100 Pipers #BeRememberedForGood pays tribute to Neel Ghose for selflessly working towards a dignified cause of feeding the poor.

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Written by FP Archives

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