Manjeet Singh’s
Story: A Journey from watching a friend die in his arms due to a drug overdose
to Reaching out to 18,000 addicts in a year.
Even while there has been no comprehensive
study of the problem of addiction in Punjab and its repercussions, Manjeet
Singh bears testament to the drug-devastation that is sweeping the land.
He has cradled the lifeless body of two
childhood friends, who died due to a drug overdose and says all his friends
struggle with addictions.
Manjeet himself wonders how he wasn’t grabbed
by the clutches of addiction. Every drug you can name, everything was available
in Punjab. He tried doing drugs too, he shares. He had a routine and was
committed to it.
Before partying, he would want to go to the
Gurudwara and spend time there in seva or silence.Active in college, he was the
vice-captain of the football team and a coordinator of all the cultural
activities. He never prioritised partying above these activites, he says.
He saw
his friends losing interest in anything but drugs and alcohol. “Maybe my
interest in life saved me,” Manjeet speculates.
Manjeet was interested in doing a little
something for society, be it tree plantation or working with deaf and dumb
school children. However, with the Art of Living he found a structured platform
to reach out to people with addictions. Manjeet did the Art of Living’s Youth
Empowerment and Skills Workshop to improve his skills for the IAS preliminary
exams in 2007.
The Turning point in life
‘This is my last breath, but go save the
others”, is what one of his friends said, Manjeet recalls.
Since then, Manjeet has travelled all over Punjab
and reached out to 18,000 people with the Art of Living De-addiction program
Manjeet’s childhood friend died in his arms
due to over dosage of drugs asking him to save other people. It was a sudden
shock for him.
When Manjeet did his first Sudarshan kriya in
November 2007, he had two things in his mind.
First, that this birth was for Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar ji, commonly known as “Gurudev”.
Secondly, he wanted to take drugs out of
Punjab. He expressed his wish to become an Art of living faculty and asked how
he could do that.
In the year 2009, he came to Bangalore Ashram
to do his Teacher Training Course where he asked Sri Sri what he could do to
eliminate drugs from Punjab. He was blessed to become a full time Art of living
Faculty and started his initiative in Ludhiana, Punjab.
His Journey to touch 18,000 people’s lives positively in a year
The initiative involved 4-5 Art of living
volunteers, with a common Mantra in Punjab “Naan Kumari Naanka Chari Rahe Din
Raat” which mean that the addiction of our name is such once comes doesn’t go
away. He made sure that whatever they did would be in the regional language so
that people could relate to it.
They
made four clusters to begin with and then made a cluster of 20 villages each
and used to go talk to people individually, to youth leaders and also
approached Gurudwaras. They announced a 12 day deaddiction program. So, in the
first camp approximately 100 people came and on the second day in this camp the
number of the people increased to 200 people.
Manjeet and his group took
deaddiction program for 18,000 people from November 2009-November 2010.
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