The sky was painted in a dark color, resembling the ocean of black water. Because it was a rural area, therefore, the stars were glimmering quite often if you compare it to an urban city. Chirping crickets were spreading their cacophony noise in the atmosphere as far as ears could hear. But it wasn't as unpleasant as howling of wolves from the backyard forest. 

Sometimes some people, however, are more inauspicious than wolves. A local group of politicians gathered for a secret meeting. They all were corrupt, and everyone knows how much black income a corrupt politician has.

"How to acquire votes from the residents of Panchagavya?" a corrupt politician spoke up. Panchagavya was the name of that village, where the social welfare program was going on.

A nefarious brainwave came into one politician's head. "What if, we distribute free liquor bottles to all of them?"

Although this idea brought a gleam of hope on everyone's faces, the reality battered their minds because they know it's not a cake walk. Raghu Sen has turned whole slum alcoholic free. The leader of politicians dangled down his head with worry; he caught a glimpse of the faces of his companions who held similar gestures like his. Parting his lips into two, he tried to give voice to a suggestion of using the same old tricks of bribing. But Raghu Sen wasn't kind of a guy, who would give in even with a bribe of millions of rupees.

Within the twinkling of an eye, he fathomed that manipulating Raghu, under the pretext of sense gratification won't do. His virtue and honesty were far above the scope of falling for greed. "No! We can't bribe him. He's sincere and virtuous. Plus, he got a tremendous public support for his selfless work." Another politician stole the thoughts, which was exactly running through the leader's mind.

The real reason for this assembly was to plot against the NGO relief program. Early they use to distribute free liquor and get votes in return. Raghu Sen, however, frustrated of all these tricks. And tomorrow was the day for the local election, so anyhow the main politician wanted to grab the seat of district mayor.

The leader was aware of the fact that it's only one and a half month passed since the residents were non-alcoholic. Therefore, he has this intuition that they could fall for it by some titillation. But worst will come to worst, if Raghu figures out their wrong doings, he has that power to jab them all behind bars.

The leader caught a glimpse of his grief-stricken fellow politicians and disclosed his final plan. "We'll use same old tricks."

The plan was all set. Same old tricks were to appoint some representatives to distribute free liquors. The leader knew that Raghu would not maintain silence after knowing this conspiracy.

He decided to let those representatives go underground after they finished the job. Thoughtfully, he selected fifty strapping representatives to execute this plot and readied three trucks loaded with liquor bottles. The reason behind choosing these hefty representatives was that they could bully residents to drink alcohol if anyone denies.

*******

It was 6.00 AM. Three huge trucks loaded with liquor bottles entered into the slum area and halted with a screech. Technically, NSS students and NGO volunteers were resting in their center, which was far away from this area. So certainly they were all unknown of this scene. Representatives came out and divided themselves into three people per group. Each three representatives personally visited every house and tried to allure residents to drink alcohol and give a vote in return; they had carried a portal voting device with them.

Within some hours, almost everyone started drinking liquor. This time, even teens indulge themselves in drinking it. It was very horrifying to see how they got addicted to alcohol again. In one house, a wife pulls her husband by his arm, stopping him from indulging in drinking. "Just stop! Don't go. How will Mr. Raghu Sen feel, he did so many things for us, and now we are repaying him like this?" The deep disappointment was stretched across on her face as she caught hold of her husband's forearm.

"Everyone is drinking. I can't control myself."

"Let them do it. We'll be honest with Mr. Raghu." The husband, however, was failed to curb his urge to drink alcohol. He pushed his wife and rushed out of his house.

Some faithful dwellers rushed at the NGO Center to inform Raghu Sen about this horrible turmoil. This heartrending news spread like a fire in the whole center. Everyone woke up due to hullabaloo which has occurred.

Every NSS student, being dog-tired assembled in the compound, their hair was disheveled, while dark circles underneath their eyes were apparently pointing at their incomplete sleep. Each one of them has covered themselves either in a blanket or sweater because cold were shivering their bones. Sid, Ravi, and Raj also strode down to the compound. They inquire about these outcries from a fellow classmate. "What's wrong?" Raj asked.

"Our service turned into dust. Some politicians conspired the project," the classmate burst out. A wave of shock chilled limbs of Sid, Ravi, and Raj's bodies, turning their faces pale. This bad news has them down in the dumps.

Sara and Nehali walked towards them. "Damn! The villagers started consuming alcohol again. Some say, a few representatives of a political party came and distributed free drink," Sara said, even her face held the same down in the mouth expression as everyone does.

The most affected person by this unfortunate turn of events was, of course, Raghu Sen. The shock was so severe for him that he passed out. Some volunteers sprinkled drops of water on his face and brought him back to consciousness.

Tears were sliding down from his cheeks, like a miniature waterfall, Raghu was sobbing like a child. All his selfless efforts to help poor people of Panchgavya slum was burnt down into ashes. His undying determination crumbled like a palace of cards. Prof. Khera brought his napkin closer to Raghu's eyelid to wipe off his cascading tears. However, he fended it off, breaking his speechlessness.

"I moved heaven and earth to rehabilitate alcoholics of this slum. But those wretch politicians—" Overwhelmed with emotions, Raghu's trailed off because the failure of his most cherished mission crumbled his heart and soul. Somehow or other he continued, "Why my people of Panchgavya gave in? They never thought about me or my selfless service I rendered to them?"

Listening to Raghu's distress, Prof. Khera felt the same pain as his, so the NSS students. Khera landed his hand on Raghu's shoulder; he tried to soothe his mind with his encouraging words, "Everyone here is proud of you. You'll get over with this tight spot; I'm dead sure."

Holding his head, due to intense pain, Raghu dreaded to think that how he is going to set up everything back to normal. It was evident that anti-alcoholic shots weren't enough to build self-control in the people. His sad face displayed his unwillingness to go on working on this project. In fact, he lost his faith in humanitarianism itself. Because of people, whom he served so tirelessly, betrayed him merely in a few titillation. As he has said in his words: I see God in people's suffering. They are my God. But his God (his people) betrayed him.

If you look at Sid, he was examining each emotion that manifested on Raghu's face, which was also tormenting for him to behold. So many questions paraded in his mind. Is goodness conditional? Why does it hurt us, when people don't return our favor we did to them with the same heart?

Just like, Raghu Sen, now he lost his interest in serving those people because they betrayed him. And he indeed has a valid point. Why help such people, who don't care about the selfless services he did for them?

As the whole matter calmed down, with a little hue and cry, the investigating police department promised to put their life on the line to arrest the culprits.

Now, it was time for NSS students returning to their home. All of them were engaged in wrapping up their stuff, as the bus was getting prepared to make a move. Many students gathered around Prof. Khera, discussing that misfortune event. Sid, Ravi, Raj, Jayshri, Nehali, and Sara also joined in.

"It's miserable, what happened today. Our all best wishes are with Raghu Sen; I hope he shall keep up with good work." Prof. Khera gave voice to his grief blended with anger. He landed his chin on his palm and stared at the students.

"Professor! Why do bad things happen to good people? Why God is so cruel?" Someone raised a good point.

Prof. Khera found it difficult to answer. "Let us ask other students' opinion about it?" he pointed his hand towards other pupils to get reasonable answers.

One student said it's because of corruption. Someone said, because of alcoholism. Another one said, because of poverty. Raj said it's because of lawlessness in the social system. Like this, many of them gave various opinions. Sid wanted to share his mind, but he purposely neglected it. But still, his mind was urging him to pour his heart out.

At first, he thought in his mind to evade on-going discussion itself because he has decided to not engage in spiritual reasoning anymore. But he couldn't help it, he heaved a sigh and questioned all. "Suppose if those people were able to curb their drive to drink and those politicians weren't exploitative, could this thing ever happen?"

"No. It's quite clear. There's no remedy for that," one geek answered.

"Then we should hunt down that remedy first. Or else these types of social welfare projects will always be a failure," Sid snapped back.

Quietness among all present students spread like an epidemic because their head couldn't come up with a solid counter argument. Sara and Ravi set their eyes on Sid because they have a clue of his philosophical nature. Sid continued, "I was reading an article in this regard. Sociologists research after research have pointed out: greed among poor and lack of sense control in needy. Unless we don't nip in the bud these two bad habits, there can never be any service to humanity."

Now, everyone started listening pensively; Sid continued, "A nuclear bomb could blow up the whole city in a moment. But no bomb that could go off someone's bad habits." All present people out there nodded their head in realization. Many of them appeared to agree due to the gravity of occurred situation.

"Bengal famine of 1943, is known for one of the greatest human-made famine. The estimates are between 1.5 and 4 million, taking into account death due to starvation, malnutrition, and disease, out of Bengal's 60.3 million population. It was one of the creepiest instances of man's greed.

"Also the Holodomor, which is also known as 'terror-famine' took place in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1932 and 1933 that killed an estimated 2.5–7.5 million Ukrainians, with millions more counted in demographic estimates. Mind it, none of it happened because of lack of food production. But because of power to dominate others, and greed in government that drives them to execute such soul-destroying activity.

"Having said that. Since there's no solution for this, we should try out something anti-material things to deal with it," Sid said firmly. After this group discussion. Everyone rushed into the bus and acquired their particular seats. Nehali was particularly impressed by this unusual thing that she'd got to know to about Sid. All the way to home, she sat with him and made their relationship deeper.

******

A/N: The alcohol incident is a real story. I tried my best to mold it in this chapter. I hope you like it. There are many selfless real-life social workers like Raghu Sen. This sort of unfortunate chain of events are soul-destroying. Please, vote, comment, and share.