Adani @ Rath Yatra

Hands That Serve, Souls That Shine: Meet Brand Adani’s Volunteers at Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in Puri

In the oppressive heat of Puri’s June sun, with the chants of “Jai Jagannath” echoing through the ancient city in coastal Odisha, there are thousands of footsteps following the grand chariots of Lord Jagannath. But amid the ocean of devotion, there is another quiet pilgrimage underway — a journey of service. These are the volunteers of the Adani Group, and their offering is not just devotion, but action born of empathy.

For many of them, this isn’t just a CSR (corporate social responsibility) activity. It’s a deeply personal spiritual journey.

Take Ritu, a young volunteer from Odisha, handing out water to exhausted pilgrims under a sweltering sky. She joined the initiative in memory of her late grandfather, who never missed a Rath Yatra. “This is my prayer for him,” she says, her hands trembling as she refills the bottles of strangers she’ll never meet again.

Then there’s Arvind, an Adani Group employee from Gujarat, who has taken leave just to serve in Puri. His task? Coordinating mobile sanitation units. Unseen and uncelebrated, yet critical. “When I see the elders smile after using a clean restroom, I feel like I’ve done something holy,” he says.

This is the quiet truth of Adani’s Rath Yatra drive — it isn’t just logistics and strategy, though both are executed with corporate precision. It is human hearts synchronizing with divine rhythm, one pilgrim, one act of kindness at a time.

Every volunteer has a story. Some are local youth who see seva as a way to give back to their community. Others travel across states to be part of something larger than themselves. Each of them brings not just hands to help, but souls that listen, shoulders that comfort and smiles that reassure.

During this nine-day festival, their days start at the crack of dawn and often stretch into late night. In the dust and crowd, they guide the elderly to medical booths, help lost children find their parents, and distribute countless cups of water and plates of food. They don’t ask for thanks — because their reward is in being part of something sacred.

What the Adani Group has done is not just deploy a volunteer force — they have nurtured a culture of compassionate service. Through training, coordination, and emotional grounding, they’ve helped transform service into spiritual practice. Each volunteer is given not just a role, but a sense of purpose. They are taught to see beyond task lists and into the eyes of the people they serve — because there, they find what connects us all: human need, human dignity, and human kindness.

This is not the kind of impact that shows up in annual reports. It shows up in the calloused hands of a volunteer holding a water bucket, in the soft murmur of “thank you” from an old pilgrim, in the silent tears of someone who knows they are not alone.

In a world that often forgets the people behind the effort, Brand Adani’s initiative at Rath Yatra is a rare and moving reminder that service is made of compelling stories, not cold numbers.

And in those stories, we don’t just find the faces of seva.

We find the soul of humanity — walking quietly beside the wheels of the divine.