“Peace begins with me” …“Peace is not an imagination”… “Peace is from within not without”
Such were the thoughts of enthusiastic members of Youth Peace Foundation(YPF), who organised a WALK FOR PEACE, an initiative to develop a culture of peace among the youth in Jaipur, on the occasion of World Peace Day on 21st September.
Cutting across different strata of the society, more than 700+ Jaipurites gathered towards one and only purpose, that is, to attract attention of people towards the most basic necessity of our life…PEACE. In our busy lives, we don’t have a moment to spare to think about peace. This walk aimed at making people think about it.
The walk began with a simple idea to develop the culture of peace among the Youth. Almost 3 months of preparation saw its fruitful rendition on the auspicious Day. Numerous meetings, planning regarding walking track, permission from authorities, spreading word about the event via posters, Oral publicity, choosing the venue, printing materials etc all formed part of the preparation.
The event began with the inauguration of the Walk by esteemed personality Mr. Gopal Saini, an Arjun awardee. The walk began from Kulish Smriti Van and ended at the same venue via Peacock Garden. During the walk, several passers-by were amazed seeing 700+ crowd walking peacefully, raising banners about peace, without disturbing decorum. Thereafter, the participants gathered inside the Open Garden Theatre, followed by an amazing interaction among the youth. The hosts interacted with people and sought their views regarding peace. Everyone had a different view. Someone thought equality defines peace and for some peace was a matter of abolition of corruption. But all agreed that peace needs to be felt and it must begin with an individual.
A number of famous personalities like Mr. K.K.Bhatnagar (Retd I.A.S.officer), Mr. Indraj Singh (Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jaipur), Mr. Kunal Majumdar (Chief editor of Times Of India) and Mr. Praveen Lekhra (R.A.S.) also joined the walk and later shared their own views about peace with the gathering.
During the programme a video was also shown by YPF which contained some peppy songs on peace, followed by inspiring videos of internationally renowned peace speaker Mr. Prem Rawat andPeace One Day founder, Mr. Jeremy Gilley. At the end, everyone was absolutely delighted by the live band performance, playing classical as well as modern music on peace.
The energy, spirit and desire to feel peace was the highlight of the event, with all the participants getting determined to achieve peace and to develop a culture of peace in our society with an aim that one day we can all live in a more peaceful world.
For this event we are thankful to all the supporters who have given us immense support the likes of Youth Peace Foundation core team, Administrative Authorities, all the Volunteers, Raj Vidya Kender, Sponsors, Media Personnel without whom it would have been difficult to achieve this milestone. This event was covered by five Houses from Print media and an online channel.
It was a great opportunity to learn a lot and we hope that YPF will be back soon with some more activities to develop culture of peace among the youth.
