Vibha Diary: First Meeting

After joining Vibha, we started receiving mails regarding a team meeting. Vibha members were planning to meet on the coming weekend at a CCD in Koremanagala. Meeting was called to decide the calendar of the next month. Mr. Ashish confirmed his gracious presence in the meeting and decided to drag me in with him. After his confirmation he received a call from Venky who summarized Vibha's work and methodologies. At the end, Venky made sure to invite us for the meeting as an introductory session for Ashish and me.

Without resisting much, I accompanied Ashish. As we did not want to leave bad impression in the first meeting so we reached before time and waited other members to join us. Other folks were late due to traffic chaos in Bangalore. Within sometime few members, including Venky, arrived

Though things were little off track but Venky, without losing much time, summed up everything about Vibha. In his short introductory speech, he introduced us with the history, objective, functionary, and work in India. He told us about the organization structure and heads. He was not shy about narrating the reason of choosing CCD over any Vibha’s office.

This was my first visit to CCD and I was not aware of different kind of coffees available. So I ordered the cheapest one. Rest expected folks joined us within some time and we started planning for the next month and it was decided to conduct at-least one event, in continuation with the previous events, in Hope School.

This event included entertaining the kids, knowledge sharing and promoting moral and social ideologies to kids so it was necessary to plan according to their grasping powers and understanding capabilities. Before I joined Vibha, other volunteers had conducted 2-3 successful events and this proposed event was for kids who were studying in 5th standard.

In the mean time our coffee arrived. Everyone got their coffees. Some were cold rest others were hot; some had chocolates others had cookies and so on. I expected my coffee to be as tempting as others but waiter shattered all my dreams of tempting coffee. He brought a small cup with some black substance i.e. espresso. In-spite of not getting as tempting coffee, I was still hoping for some milk so requested waiter to bring some milk which he denied with courtesy and weird smile. All others were enjoying their coffee whereas I was staring at my cup. I emptied 3-4 sachets of sugar and somehow finished the sweet poison without seeking much attention.

This meeting lasted over an hour and we concluded this meeting after deciding the agenda for the next meeting. Each of us had to come up with innovative gaming ideas for the kids, try to bring in more ideas on table to make event more interesting, propose something better in snacks and last but not the least the gifts for the games. After that we all paid our shares and moved back.

This meeting set the tone for both of us. We were excited and happy with the idea of doing something real.

So stay tuned for next meeting and further updates.

Vibha Diary: Search for an NGO

I had been thinking to join a social group, but I was lazy enough to type "NGO in Bangalore"@Google, so joining such a group was just a dream. Though the  fuel was always there but the medium to burn the fuel was not available. People in office had lots of different reasons to join an NGO. My office used to support an NGO and my colleagues used to visit the place once a while, but I never took any interest in supporting these workers and their causes.

After 3 years one room-mate left and Ashish came to Bangalore with the fuel and the burning power. Once a while in our inconclusive discussions, we had discussed about joining an NGO and "GIVE SOMETHING BACK TO THE SOCIETY". I was never too sure if I was really inspired to do something like this but as usual we made statements and forgot them after the discussion. But one such discussion clanged to Ashish's mind and our heated and in-depth discussion provided him the inspiration to do something which I dreamt for last 3 years i.e. TYPE "NGO in Bangalore" in Google and enter.

He did not disclose any results of his search but went somewhere on the same weekend. After returning back he told about NGO. This NGO was for dogs, something like PETA. People at this NGO were working for a good DOG life. Ashish was supposed to assist a team which would catch all the stray dogs from the streets and take them to a safer place. Though I am not an animal lover and I argue with people who fight for animal's cause (Quite frankly, they are also assisting but ….). People argue when human cannot be trusted then why not love someone who can be trusted i.e. Dog. Why do we even trust our family, our relatives, our friends and people around us? People say animals cannot speak, cannot demand and cannot hit back then that it is our responsibility to feed them and take care of them. Okay, there are a lot more humans who are living life very similar to this, why not work for them. I know, there are lots of people against my ideology but is it not worth to work for humanity or to work for people similar to you who need help just like the  animals. If we all reach a level where humans are not in need then in such society we can think of uplifting the standard of animals not until someone, like us, is in pain.

Anyways Ashish and I again had in-depth discussion about the importance of social work and preferences and somehow I convinced him. Though it was difficult for me to change his thoughts but this time our discussion reached to a conclusive end. So he searched again to find an NGO for children.

Within half an hour we registered for an NGO called VIBHA, which works for underprivileged children. This NGO supports various organizations across the country, mainly in south India. This organization provides financial assistance to other organizations which work for children born with lesser privileges and higher expectations. These organizations try to bring in more children under the radar to improve their current and future life.

Vibha working for under Privilege Children

I was not yet fully sure if I would like to continue this NGO but there are few reasons which might have impacted my decision.

1.     Ashish pushed me a lot to join so that we both can go support each other for the cause.

2.     MBA was much awaited future for me, so I wanted to add something in my resume to increase its worth.

3.     Lots of girls join NGOs so …...

4.     I had lot of time on weekends, so wanted to enjoy my time than wasting it in home.

But all stated reasons were secondary as I wanted to join some group where I might not be able to make a difference but can contribute towards the cause and assist people who are trying hard to make a difference.

More to continue…

Teaching assignment

Teaching, what a fantastic job it is? Enter the room, take the attendance, open the book and ask one of the boys to stand up and read the whole passage. That's all :) Isn't it? Hee hee hee, yah for few teachers it is! Teaching was an activity that I always wanted to do but never wanted it to adopt it as profession. Why not as a profession? As all are aware teaching does not guarantee good money, as some of the other more lucrative jobs, and above to this, I hated 90% of my teachers who ever taught me.

Why did I hate those teachers? Not because they had big tummies, nor because they used to spit like some physics teacher in MAIN HUN NA, But I hated them because they never took their responsibilities seriously. Or worse, they never realized, they are carrying a responsibility. Whenever I look back at my small success I always feel there are some holes that remained open in past and till now I am trying to fill those.

I got the opportunity to take up my first teaching assignment on November 29 in Hope school. Before starting, I had mix feelings - of excitement and tension. It was fear, not of the kids, but of a challenge and a responsibility. The question that were thrilling my conscience was, Will I be able to do my best in the time provided? Will It be possible to convey my knowledge to the kids?Will I be able to do justice to the trust which was shown in me? To add to the woes,I was not well prepared as I had to prepare for the event too.

Before I could take my lecture I had to prepare for a exam and had to revise the whole chapter. Here as soon as I started studying, words started dancing in-front of me. Here, I could realise the fear of Ishan Avasthi(Taare Zameen Par). It did not take me long to realize what it takes to become a Teacher? It is not, like , a IT professional will wake up some day, and will revolutionize the educational way(I thought the same). A teacher has huge responsibility to make children understand the various facet of subject. Without showing their frustration they have to keep repeating the same things again and again. Responsibility, that was assigned to me was little more complicated. For children, English was the bottleneck and in reverse i was not able to decode the script of children who had stronger vocabulary of kannada than Hindi and English. I kicked off my lecture with the discussion on parallel rays. I was far better than what i had thought, I was able to do my best. I was able to to give them the examples. My hands were able to bring light from sun, this hand was able to stop and reflect those light rays. Everything was going smoothly. But for kids it was not as easy as i had estimated. I had to repeat one thing for 5-6 times. Even after that they seemed confused in the examples and definitions. For whole one hour i struggled with them to make them understand very basic concepts of light. I am not sure if they still got hold of that untouchable and unexplainable phenomenon, called LIGHT.

I realized that the job of a teacher is not that easy. He can not go according to the guy who is intelligent or dull. He has to keep all in sync. He has to be creative, quick, Sarvgyani(Knowledgeable), patient, strict, friendly, interactive and responsive. Wow, god, have you taught me these many adjectives for a teacher in a single day.

PS: Thanks to Kunal, he gave the final touch to the blog...

Day with my Childhood

When I was a child I used to think why can I not grow faster so that I can earn a hell lot of money. That wish was fulfilled, just in a short time span, I became a grown young man. Now I wish why did I wish to earn the money? Sometimes I miss those mischief's that were part of my childhood. But we can only miss. We can feel those stupid things in children game, playing next door. Some time I want to be part of those mischief's.

Last weekend, 18th Oct 2008, I got the opportunity to engulf myself in the act of those stupidities. I and Rajhans volunteered in one of the events organized for school children near RT Nagar. Those Kids were 1^st – 2^nd standard kids who were hardly 5-8 years old. They had god gifted sweetness.

We were 9 volunteers who took part in the event, and we all were having tasks, assigned to us already. There were 2 teams of volunteers and 2 teams of kids, having 20 kids each. It finally started. People worked hard to bring those activities on the paper and charts. Lakshmi who surprised us with her motivation and hard work in creating charts, was leading the Treasure Hunt. Then after treasure hunt there was a game in which bacha-party were suppose to burst the balloons of others. I myself burst a few balloons. I was the winner though I didn’t get any prizes (:()... (I burst the balloon of the winners :P).

We started with the first group. Children's enthusiasm to play and understand the treasure hunt was inexpressible. The chart provided to me had 3 pictures each one of train, pig, calf (Kids had to tell me those name in kannada and then they will write it down on the paper from which we will conclude our first clue). I was told those three names in kannada, but I needed a few more words to communicate with those bachas, So one school teacher (Hema) helped me. Finally when they got the clue we ran like P T Usha, roaring like we won the game, our clue was hidden in the tree. We ran, ran hard here and there, in search of the clue, and finally Srinivas found that hanging on the leaf of the tree. We got next clue which was a church. So we need to figure out where the golden key was hidden near the church. We all ran 5-6 times all around the church and finally we could not win, why? Cause Ashish's team had found it. Koi nahi. Next event was bursting balloons. Now those 20 children were divided in two groups of 10 each. We stung the balloon on their ankles. They all were running to burst others’ balloons. None of them was really concerned about theirs’. So it paid to some of them. It was fun watching them and bringing them near to each other so that instead of running competition they can participate in bursting competition.

Oh didn’t I talk about second group, they were busy in pottery. They were designing different kinds of pots. Few pots were not able to stand properly, few did not have base. I made the best out of that, I made one bowl having the spoon popping out of the middle.(I know it is hard to imagine but you will love it once I will post the pictures.).

We followed the same sequence of events after the break. Now the group we took over earlier was busy in pottery and other group was with us. This time my team won in treasure hunt. Please do not ask how? In the second treasure hunt I was running with the key and children were following me. Once I stopped they all surrounded me. It was the trap from the honeybees to kill masoom Vishal. The eagerness of clinching the key in children was superb.

Once both the groups were finished, we danced on some kannnada songs. Dude!! you did not see the astounding performance of the kids there. The move of their bodies was failing the move of Hrithik. Seeing such a splendid performance was a wonderful experience. I never thought of dancing in my childhood. Even now I cannot dance. But those guys were superb.

So after running, laughing, scolding, dancing with the kids I was pumped up with more energy. The interaction with my childhood could not be better than this event. Thanks to Vibha, for providing me such an opportunity.

Sorry for adding the link late.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeydev/VibhaHopeEvent3Oct?authkey=wzSzt0NydQQ