The poverty and corruption that makes up India no longer fascinated Neha when she traveled to the subcontinent nearly 3 years ago. Neither the political situation, nor the economy triggered any sort of persuasion for activism during Neha’s travel. As a matter of fact, her comfortable-ness with it all made her “more apathetic,” towards the entire mess. But that impression changed significantly on her way back from that trip.
It was the hardwood, marble, and tile floors that persuaded Neha to go shopping for a pair of slippers. Exiting the store after her purchase, she notes some stones blockading off a 4 ft ditch in the middle of the road. Daring to be a bit spontaneous, Neha leaps over the rocks only to fall right into the ditch. She refrains from looking at the substance inside of the ditch, but the catastrophe that was her left leg was unavoidable. It was a moment that she would “never want to relive.” Anyways, having clearly lost her left flip flop in the mess at the bottom of the ditch, Neha decided to rid of her right one as well. She figured that new pair she just bought would be a fit replacement for the old pair. It was on her way home that her insight hit her.
Life Moral: She started to think about how a homeless, poor child might find her old flip flops and use them as though they were something miraculous. She realized that something she “trashed without hesitation,” someone else could tremendously profit off of. That was the impetus that started her activism career. It may have “inadvertently, subconsiously trigger[ed] [her] participation with WAC, which is now GEO, JSA, and other non profit organizations.” Even the fear that she had for the rest of the day that her leg might have been infected with some sort of fungus did not seem to have much significance when she realized that someone else is going through their own similar type of hurdle every day.