THE MAKING OF BABA AMTE ... contd
While this provided some relief, he was forced to undergo another operation In Mumbai in 1980 for treatment of the lower back. He felt much better and was more or less back to his normal routine and could even drive the Anandwan vehicles. However, within a year, he was involved in a major road accident which was to decisively alter his physical disposition. Doctors informed him that while he could walk and lie flat, he would no longer be able to assume a sitting position.
But the man who had turned around and attacked his most primordial fears was not going to be so easily done in. The spirit of the man that inspired so many to overcome their physical disabilities fought back with renewed vigour. Indeed, as his body did less, his mind went flying in search of new possibilities for the nation. Anandwan was by now being increasingly looked after by elder son Vikas and his wife Bharati, who had devoted themselves to this work after completing their medical degrees.
Baba was looking for a new direction for an increasingly divided India.
"If we could build up a happy community under the most difficult circumstances, why cannot healthy people do the same under much more favourable circumstances? Why can the youth of India not do the same?"
In 1967, Baba establishes the Somnath project, a hundred kilometers south of Anandwan. Here every summer youth camps have been organised for the last 34 years for 1400 young men and women from different parts of India.
These young people are required to spend much of their day in manual labour, working in the fields, digging percolation ponds, making bunds, clearing wasteland for cultivation and so on. The evenings are devoted to group discussions on burning national issues, which are led by well-known national personalities. And then there is time for songs, dances, plays, poems and games. Over the last 34 years , this camp has become an annual feature attracting thousands of young people from all over India, searching for greater meaning and relevance in their own lives.
In 1973, less than two years after undergoing surgery for his back problem, Baba patched a tent at Hemalkasa, a place deeps in the forest, about 350 kilometers south of Nagpur. This took him back to the carefree days of his teens, when he had roamed these forests on his hunting expeditions. He liked being among the tribals, whose innocence and cheer struck a deep chord within him. But at the same time he was appalled at the misery of their physical existence. Travelling from village to village, he began to work to improve the health of the Madia Gonds.