Alert Awards - - A humbling experience always The 7th edition

 

The Amenity Lifeline Emergency Response Team  popularly known as Alert  has instituted  The  Alert Awards  honouring Unsung heroes with  Alert Being Award – I get excited to go to this award function every year ( This edition is the 7the edition  ). Reasons for me wanting to be present are :

You get to watch and hear about simple people who do extraordinary acts of selfless service

These heroes have no or limited access to resources – be it people or money or material—they simply excel in adversity

Through the award function as you hear the  heroic deeds, the eyes are always moist and the emotions that  one goes are hard to describe. But it is positive .

The award function is conducted in the most efficient way and so you know it will start and end on time ( some delays but does not lag )

The process of selection  -- calling for nominations including self nominations , an eminent jury evaluating each nominations and comes with a list that gets recognized on this day.  This year there were about 200 nominations and 13 of them made it to the podium. 

All of the awardees did acts that would give  you goose bumps – To me there were two that stood out for their selflessness , grit ,beating odds , determination and having no fear except to go after the cause  reflecting a significant act of humanity 

The first one was of a very simple person – He did not want to even talk about what he had done. So simple and  humble was this person—During the recent floods at Thootukudi , this person rescued 200 people , yes 200 people from the floods – He has just ropes and some Tyres  and was in the rampant flood waters for nearly 12 hours continuously. He had the looks that indicated , I just did a small act, why this noise around me ? 

The second one was that of a staff nurse  ( again at Thootukudi )who handled the delivery of a pregnant woman who was deaf and dumb – It was a delivery that needed better infrastructure  and a qualified medical person.  She not only handled the delivery but took care in the PHC till relief came in some  36 hours later. She was a joy to listen as she described that journey. Flood waters inside the PHC and raising , no power , using Cell phone light – She said she did not care about the rains, the water etc ,  She just wanted to have the delivery done and have both the mother  and infant safe.   

Other notable winners : 

1. The Rat Diggers and one other firm  which helped in the rescues of 41 miners trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel. Again the Rat Diggers who went in to save the 41 did not think about any hurdles , risk to their own lives – they just wanted to get these guys trapped out .. that is all – Do they all do this because they will get recognized. Not at all.. they were so uneasy on the stage.
2. The Pudukudi Melur village that gave food to passengers ( 600 of them ) stranded at Srivainkuntam Railway station during the floods... All these guys ( Village reps who came to accept the award ) are unbelievably  simple-- We gave food , ethukku award ellam -- It was God send opportunity to serve -- Simple guys and sometimes i wonder that we city bred and current Gen make too much noise - And their village was flooded as well at that time but  they took care of the 600 passengers all of different ages and different needs
3. One Innovative smart reader ( just like smart watch )that tracks the Pregnant ladies in Tribal and hilly areas and who have no access to medical facilities  helped the doctors read data and monitor and ensure safe delivery remotely ( again done by a simple Madurai Software engineer )  The Indian native intelligence that went in to deployment of this reader was remarkable.
4. An NGO being recognized by another NGO is significant as well. United Way was recognized for the work they did in rehabilitation of Covid impacted families. I was so glad for Meenakshi Ramesh who heads United Way.. Very resourceful to work with and feet on the ground and no nonsense approach
5. A Life time Achievement to Ratan Tata that  was accepted by his representative
6. Congrats to the Alert team that spends time and effort in identifying “Unsung heroes” and bringing their stupendous acts to the public year on year is most commendable .  Well Done Alert Team
7. One needs no special invite to get to this function .. All are invited …. Alert team makes it a point to get in lot of college students to witness this function , so that the are able to hear and see these acts  and get to imbibe in to their system , acts of humanity however big or small they may be able to do to the society .

 

Waiting for the next edition of this wonderful event