INSPIRING STORY - 4 (Sister Nivedita of 21st Century)

 

                                             When you are 19, you think about fun, college, career. But when you have great family values, they teach you to keep others before yourself. Ultimately you desire to serve the society and wish to make your country a better place to live in. Nivedita Raghunath Bhide (Famously called Nivedita Didi) at a very tender age aspired to serve the people. Being an avid reader, she came to know about the great work of Vivekananda Kendra. She was impressed with the path shown by Swami Vivekananda.  EkanthJi Ranade who built the spectacular Vivekananda Rock Memorial inspired young Nivedita. There is definitely some connection between the name Nivedita and Swami Vivekananda. Nivedita told her aspirations to EknathJi. During that period, she was very young to join any volunteer organization. She was adamant that if Kendra doesn’t accept me, I will join some other organization but work for the society anyway. EkanthJi got impressed by her strong will and unwavering determination. He accepted her as a full-time volunteer of Vivekananda Kendra.

                                             She was the topper of the class, if she dreamt of something lucrative like IIT, IIM she could have excelled. In the last 40 years, she was invited to these top universities for lectures on Indian culture and its aspects. She has represented India in seminar on Swami Vivekananda conducted by ICCR in 2013 in Australia. One becomes meditative while listening to her speeches.

                                                            

                                             Today, Nivedita Didi is vice president of Vivekananda Kendra. Vivekananda Kendra works close to 1000 places. Mostly in tribal and rural areas. They help the tribals to get an education, raise the standard of living and be for them in any problem. Their major work is in northeast India. Wherever Kendra goes they take Indian culture and help Sanatana Dharma to survive in these challenging times. Didi’s major responsibility is to train the full-time volunteer of Vivekananda Kendra.

                                                

                                             For Nivedita Didi’s contribution in social work, she has been awarded the fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri. When the award was announced instead of getting delighted, she got disturbed because according to her that all the work is performed by the whole Kendra team. Only one member should not be felicitated. Hats off for the simplicity and tremendous work she has been doing for 4 decades.