However, a phone call to My Home India’s office in the city not only got him accommodation, but emotional support as well.

Pakyntein is not the only visitor from the north - eastern Indian states who has, within a short span of time, made Mumbai his second home. For this he only thanks a group of volunteers of the My Home India organization, who have been working as mediators between north-easterners and locals for the past eight years. Sunil Deodhar, founding member of the group, says, “Our only motive is to help residents from the North East adjust to the local scenario and provide a helping hand for admissions in local educational institutions and hospitals in case of medical emergencies, all this at no cost whatsoever.”

My Home India also runs a helpline for north-easterners. If any student needs medical help, the group asks their doctor friends to treat them at concessional rates. If a student is found weak in studies, the group asks some teacher friends to give them tuitions to improve his/her academic record.

“We do not provide students or anybody else with monetary help. We only guide them to the person who can help them so that they do not feel that they are away from home, we add a human touch to the entire experience,” Deodhar said. In fact, a volunteer from the group had once even saved a girl from Sikkim from being sold to a pimp in Mumbai.

The group organizes cultural festivals of artistes from the North East in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and is slowly spreading its wings to other cities. More than 150 artistes have been showcased in the fests.

Students and visitors from thr North East are invited to the homes of the volunteers and well - wishers during festivals like Holi, Diwali, Christmas, Ugadi among others in a process of integrating the rest of India to the North East, thus following the footsteps of its founder president Binod Bawri.

Fraternity Cup, a football tournament is also organized between students from the North East and locals for the last eight years. My Home India also organizes a ‘O.N.E. (Our North East) India Award to a prominent personality who has worked towards promoting nationalism in the north - eastern states.

In order to reduce the feeling of indifference with the north-eastern states, My Home India has also started promoting visits to the North East for people from all over the country, with no monetary support. The group organizes a stay with a local family so that visitors get a feel of the local culture. More than 500 people have already visited the North East in this way in the last five years.

“Our objective is to get the entire country to recognize the identity of the North East as all discussions on development are meaningless without an identity,” adds Deodhar. The group is working hard to create a feeling of brotherhood for the residents of the North East across the country. Indifference in feeling towards the disasters in North East, including terrorist attacks and blasts continue to be one of the biggest concerns for the organization.

Ignorance, lack of awareness, isolated geographical location and lack of political will has resulted in the states lagging behind the rest of the country. This has led to poor infrastructure development, absence of modern practice in agriculture, poor communication system, absence of advanced educational facilities, lack of entrepreneurial initiative, unemployment and lack of a conducive business environment triggered by perpetual social unrest, poverty and mediocre medical and public health facilities. Today the youth of North East India is struggling to prosper as the backbone of the society.

Continuous deprivation brings out many of the youth and others from the North East every year in search of better educational facilities, health and medical solutions, business avenues or entrepreneurial strides besides many other objectives.

The question here is - What inspired the group to work for North East Indians? Binod Bawri says, “People from the North East are very often mistaken for Chinese or Japanese. We are trying to make people aware that they are Indians too. Not every person with slant eyes is Chinese or Japanese people. In India, too, there are around 1.5 crore people who have slant eyes.” The group on its part is proactively promoting the concept and conveys this message to more and more homes across India.

Eknath Thakur, National President of My Home India and former member of Rajya Sabha and Chairman of Saraswat Bank adds, “With a presence in various cities and villages outside the North East, our volunteers are working to help the relocated north - eastern students to meet their various needs in the field of education and health. My Home India also aims to make every Indian realize that these students too are children of the same motherland.”

Rakesh Sharma