18-state journey: Maha farmer reaches TN to encourage organ donation

He is less than a month short of completing his trip in Pune, where he began the expedition and the 67-year-old has taken the message cause across 18 states — from the North to the South.

Today, Mahajan has gone through rural and urban regions of the states, met all kinds of people and has taken the message of organ donation loud and clear to all of them. He says, “I know to modulate my language and message according to the person. It is not about the message but how convincing you can be with the message. 

People harbour all kinds of doubts —will it make them weak? Is it going to interfere with their marital life, etc? I speak to them to dispel all the doubts.” Through the years, Mahajan has convinced about 19 people to sign up as organ donors.

After having sold his farm land in 2006 for his daughter’s marriage, he has been carrying out odd jobs and working as a farm labourer. But that hasn’t robbed him off his passion towards the cause. “Many around me don’t understand why I feel so strongly for the cause. But being a person who believes that every man has to serve society, I have not allowed my hardships to take over and this bike trip is a big step towards it.”

Mahajan is aided by the MOHAN Foundation, ReBirth Foundation from Pune, along with bikers’ groups among others. Mahajan is a compulsive social worker. “In fact, when I had volunteered to donate my kidney, my friend didn’t believe me. He left and I managed to borrow the money from others to reach Mumbai for the procedure. I see this as a cause that I can give my heart and soul into,” he says.

Through his trip, he has encountered all kinds of people. “Wherever I have been to, I have found at least ten people gathering around with curiosity. In Bhopal, I had a 250-member group that I spoke to and I was happy to see even the police commissioner of the city signing up as an organ donor. 

That is the kind of difference I want to see. I have consulted doctors to gather information on the nitty-gritties of organ donation like brain death,” adds Mahajan, who studied till Class 10 before taking up the family occupation.

His trip from Chennai will be flagged off on Friday from Omandurar Hospital, from where he will reach Puduchery and take the Southern route to return to Pune. This is extremely gratifying, he observes. “I have always wanted to tour the country I was born in. Now, I am realising that dream and spearheading a cause that is close to my heart,” he says.