Rs7,000-salaried driver gifts Rs3m playground

new delhi — If you are not very rich — and most of us are not — would you be generous? A jeep driver, who earns a modest income of Rs7,000 a month, has donated five bighas (roughly four bighas make up one acre) of land for a playground so children can play.

The poor — in terms of his income — man is based in Sikar, Rajasthan. The beneficiaries are the students of a government school that was struggling to find a place for the children to stretch their arms and move their legs. The school is located in the backward Lawanda village in Sikar.

Thirty-year-old Ali, a father of two, donated five out of 14 bighas of his family land for the playground. Ali convinced his five reluctant brothers that the children need to play to learn. The students of the school will get the playground from this academic session.

Ali himself had studied only up to secondary school level, and missed playing at school.

He was among 109 philanthropists who were honoured by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at a recent function.

Perhaps inspired by Ali, a retired school principal Heeralal Meghwal donated 3.75 bighas of land for the construction of a new building for the school.

Thanks to all these acts of kindness, the school itself has been promoted from an upper primary to secondary level.

“We are six brothers and own collectively 14 bighas of ancestral land. The school has no playground. So I persuaded my brothers to part with some portion for the children,” said Ali. His brothers mostly do physical labour and menial work to eke out a living. Ali says the land is worth around Rs3 million. He could have used it to farm, but he now derives more satisfaction that the land is being used for a common cause. And for long the future children will be a lot happier for the playground.