“Jimmy! My Silent Hero in Social Service! My pioneering partner!”
I dedicate my first blog on my first wedding anniversary ( today Nov 27,2011) without the physical company of my beloved husband “Jimmy! My Silent Hero! My pioneering partner!” who lived and died working towards Sustainable Community Development Service in central India. (1986-2011)
James (Jimmy) R. McGilligan grew up in Garvagh, Northern Ireland. Leaving his home, country and his business, he came to India, volunteering in response to a call from the Bahá’í World Centre in 1986 to reclaim 72 acres of saline marshes of land at Rabbani School near Gwalior.His service started at the Bahá’í House of Worship (the ‘Lotus Temple’) in Delhi during its dedication ceremony. Having successfully completed his mission at Rabbani school, he was commended for his services by the Bahá’í World Centre.
Jimmy and I met on 16 October 1988 and were married on Nov 27,1988 in Chandigarh.Just after 3 days of Honeymoon to Chail Palace, he started his constant and unconditional support and help at every stage of my journey of service to The Barli Development Institute for Rural Women,Indore . We started our marriage in service together in a one-room apartment in the dormitory of the Institute, working around the clock seven days a week with no expectations or demands for a ‘package’, ‘position, ‘facilities’ or ‘comforts’ – and with no complaints! Jimmy drove me and the staff and many trainees for first 13 years in a NON AC Gypsy Jeep andlater a Bolero, to more than 2 lac, (two hundred thousand kilometres) to the roughest, most difficult, remote and crime-prone areas; stayed in the tribal homes in Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Khargone,Bastar. We used to stay for many days at a time without proper food or mineral water; no toilets, and took thousands of photos and videos. Having returned back to the Institute with no rest or break, he would go to work on manually digging the land, make gardens and roads, maintaining and developing the Institute facilities and infrastructure, ensuring food production, and teaching computer studies and environmental training. He set up a sustainable farm for the production of vegetables, lintels,herbs, fruits etc. to make the Institute as self-sufficient as possible, using minimal fertilisers and natural methods of composting farms wastes, including vermi-composting. Jimmy also set up a sprinkler irrigation system using reused wash water and recharging water sources with harvested rainwater.
At night he was always ‘glued’ to the computer, developing and manning the website and the audiovisual resources. His main source of energy used to be big mugs of tea without sugar. If I had to locate him in the campus,I had to follow a mug sitting in the office, the workshed or the fields or top of a wall ...I miss all this so much...
He built the solar kitchen at the Institute, innovated many other environmentally friendly solar technologies, and transferred and promoted alternative sources of energy technologies to more than 500 villages and many countries around the globe. Along the way, he made live demonstrations to thousands of people visiting Barli and presented papers in India and many parts of the World.This made him very popular and in November 2008 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his ‘services to social causes and the use of alternative energy in rural communities in India’
Actually, he loved and enjoyed it all – especially when thousands of tribal people and the Institute staff popularly called him ‘jeejaji’ (brother-in-law/sister’s husband ). He used to be so proud of being Jeejaji tell people “ I married Janak and married half of India.” Jimmy actualized one of the Baha’i principle of gender equality in our daily life that ‘the world of humanity has two wings; one is woman and the other man. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly . . .’ In fact, our work at the Institute enriched my personal life, especially through being able to work together as a couple, sharing the same vision and beliefs and trying to learn how to apply them together.
Jimmy’s last project was building our post-retirement home, “Giridarshan “(mountain view) at Sanawavdia village the outskirts of 20 kms Indore. Even while building his own home, his commitment to the community around him became his priority and with the collaboration of Daly College and RSIS, he envisoned, planned, physically built all the poles and successfully installed 2 Kilowatt wind and solar hybrid power plant at Giridarshan that powers 18 streets of a small hamlet of 32 tribal families of landless labourers our neighbourhood.I am trying my best to maintain and run it.
We were looking forward to our retirement from Barli on 16th April and move to our dream house and continue our service to Sanawadiya community, God had his different plan, no one can argue with Him.
Jimmy had come to Indore to serve at Barli and depart from Barli on April 23rd to rest in peace in the Baha’i Gulistaan near Indore following a very tragic road accident on April 4,near Ujjain and succumbed to these fatal injuries on 21st April . I was completely shattered and devastated, but with the support of our families from both sides and lots of friends from all our the world, I moved to the village on June 10,2011 where Jimmy had been working with his body mind and soul to complete our dream house . I live here along with our adopted family Nanda, Rajender and their children Sunil and Raveena.
I salute you Jimmy for your love, care and all the sacrifices and adjustments you made to help me, my people in India… and I feel you around me ,no matter where I am but I miss you ever moment! You continue to inspire me to keep me going ,I am trying my best to do my service to the community that we had planned together….Janak Palta McGillIgan
janakjimmy@gmail.com 099 77713397 or 09425032935
