H2O-India

A brief glimpse about Unnati !!!

2008-05-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

This write up on Unnati was written by Sanchit few days back.

How the seeds were sown - Unnati was started by AID Gurgaon volunteers in Jan 2007. It was on their way back from Mobile creches that the volunteers came across a slum besides Rajeev Chowk. They decided to visit the basti and found enormous scope of improvement in the lives of the people. The most striking aspect was the need for education of the innocent children who spent most of their time playing or helping the parents in their jobs. So the volunteers decided to do something for them and hence came the idea of setting up a school near the basti itself. So it turned out that on Republic day, the school was started without any shelter on a piece of land lying vacant very close to the basti. Very aptly, the school and the basti were given the name "Unnati", meaning progress.

The beginning - It's been a long journey for Unnati marked by lots of ups and downs. The first real progress was made when the volunteers were able to find a room in Jharsa village (walkable distance from the basti). It was a significant milestone but was followed by another one when with kind help from Literacy India, the volunteers were able to find a regular teacher - Sumanji. Without doubt, a lot of credit goes to her as traveling everyday from Palam Vihar to mainstream Gurgaon is not an easy task.

Keeping the momentum going - Once the school started, the volunteers realized that the inhabitants lead a very hard life. It could not be taken for granted that once the school had started, the children will keep on attending on their own. The parents as well as the children had to be kept motivated all the time. So the volunteers kept visiting the school as well as the basti on a regular basis. This ensured that the attendance did not drop significantly at any point of time.

The Independence Day 2007- With Independence day approaching, the volunteers saw an opportunity to hold big celebrations which the kids would hardly have seen and experienced till now. And it did work! There was flag hoisting, singing of the National Anthem, sweets and lots of fun. The amount of fun that the kids had was evident from their faces. And it was realized that such events do mean a lot for the kids especially if they haven't had too many opportunities.

More bastis and loosing out on the original Unnati basti - As the days progressed, the regular drop in attendance started to give a few headaches to the volunteers. Even regular visits to the basti were not enough to keep the kids and their parents motivated. This was of-course coupled with the frequent migration of some of the families in the basti. Thus the volunteers had no other option but to look towards more bastis. If you've visited Gurgaon, you would know that there's no dearth of construction sites and thus the bastis. So they found out not one but three of them, located near the school. Today the school has a strength of around 60 children and the classes are held in two batches - 9.30am to 11.30am and 11.30am to 1.30pm. But there's a bit of an irony - that not a single kid comes to school from the basti from where it all started. The volunteers though have not given up and keep visiting the Unnati basti once in a while.

Republic day turnaround - Last month, Unnati celebrated its first anniversary on Republic Day - 26th January 2008. This time along with the flag hoisting, singing of the National Anthem and sweets distribution, the volunteers thought of something special. So the idea of holding a sports event came up. The events included relay race, ball-in-the-bucket and spoon-race to name a few. After the games, a prize distribution ceremony was held where kids coming out in flying colors in the games as well as academically were awarded medals and prizes. Apart from this, with the generous help of Hero Honda sponsors, school-bags, water-bottles, tiffin-boxes and study-kits were distributed. In the end, it was a well planned and executed event and the smiles on the faces of all the kids throughout the day said it all!

Looking forward - The volunteers are working hard to maintain the momentum that has been gained with enormous amount of hard work and dedication put in by the whole team of AID-Gurgaon. There are plans in coming April-May season to get a number of students admitted in recognized schools. If we can pull this off, it would another milestone in the chapter of Unnati!

Glimpses from Unnati:

Children busy at Unnati's School !!!

Volunteers also involved in interacting with children along with their teacher Sumanji !!!

Every child gets a limelight :) !!!

It takes time to build rapport with children !!!

Kids of Unnati !!!

Children doing the tasks given !!!

Children happy after getting benches for their school !!!

An empty shop which was converted to Unnati's school !!!

More such ad hoc schools are needed to bridge gap for the children who don't receive regular schooling !!!

Volunteers also visit the basti to encourage children to come to school and to interact with their parents !!!

Republic Day Celebrations @Prayas, Gurgaon

2008-05-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

Given below are details of the Republic Day celebrations at the Prayas centre, Gurgaon in January 2008.

Volunteers from Evalueserve and Sparsh organized Republic Day celebrations at the centre to interact with the students. Varun, Abhinav and Ankit from Evalueserve and Sumit, Priyanka and Shweta from Sparsh volunteered and conducted the program. The volunteers kick-started the celebration by educating the children about the importance and relevance of the day by recapitulating the historical events surrounding the day This was followed by a brief round of introductions.

The volunteers organized a host of activities such as flag-making, poetry recitation and prize distribution. The flag-making session was started off by dividing the children into teams of five students. Each team was encouraged to choose a representative name and assigned a volunteer to guide them. The children were then educated about the structure of the national flag and each student was then provided paper and colours to make one flag. The children were told that their teacher Mr. Devendra would adjudge the best three flags and the students who made them would be acknowledged. The children spent considerable time and effort to make their own flags. The end result was terrific and choosing the top three flags proved to be a very difficult task. The students were then given their flags and photographed with their flags.

The flag-making activity was followed by a poetry recitation activity. Each student was encouraged to recite poetry in front of everyone. The students then came up and recited poems learnt in the school.

Finally, much to the delight of everyone, sweets were distributed to all students at the centre. This was followed by a prize-distribution ceremony to acknowledge the hard-work put in by the students in the school. Essential stationary materials such as pencils, sharpeners and erasers were provided to all students who are capable of writing. The volunteers concluded the session by stressing the importance of attending the school regularly to all the students present.

The activity was well received by the students and saw good participation. The day provided the volunteers a great opportunity to interact with the students, who with their friendly demeanor lent warmth to the otherwise chilly day.

A journey called Unnati !

2007-12-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

This video gives you a glimpse about our journey at Unnati. Hope you like it. Do post your comments too.

Independence Day @ Unnati

2007-09-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
This is an Update of Celebration of Independence Day at Unnati written by our volunteer Srinivasan

----

Dear Friends,

What a way to celebrate the 60th year of Indian Independence and the 150th anniversary of the 1857 Freedom Struggle! To quote that ‘in every crisis lays an opportunity’ would just be a formality.

The Independence Day celebrations began in the early morning hours of August 15, but the foundation for this ‘unprecedented’ event was laid a couple of days back by two spirited men; Sachin from EVS and Shankar from Hero Honda. Shankar had an idea that was aptly supported by Sachin. The finale was a soul-touching Azaadi ka Jashn with our very own Unnati. It was a pleasant surprise that the volunteers list was dominated by techies from Hero Honda. The support cast included the Guru Sumanji (and her daughter Priyanka), Manisha (EVS), Isha, Manoj Rathi (Market RX), Asutosh and Tarun (EVS), Rajesh khanaaji, Kashyap, Kamal, Akhilesh (all from Hero Honda), Harkeerti and of course, yours truly.

Sachin, Shankar and I landed at ground zero at 7.30 AM and were amazed to see the young and adorable kids waiting for us. Sachin and Shankar had intimated them earlier about a possible celebration and we could sense that the kids were pretty expectant as this was their first. We also overheard the localites that the kids were anxiously wandering around Unnathi since 6.00 AM in the morning. Sumanji Sr. and Jr. were energetic from the very beginning; they spread the colors of independence on a beautiful rangoli. I was assigned the task of calligraphy. I beautified the wall with the letters of ‘Independence Day’. Forgive me if the letters look twisted and tweaked in the photographs. Meanwhile, Sachin and Shankar made the necessary arrangements for the all important ‘flag-hoisting’. The landlord was very supportive indeed. By 8.30 AM the trickle of volunteers began and by 9.00 AM we were 10-12 in strength

Rathi bhai took up the task of teaching the kids the importance of the day. They displayed tremendous enthusiasm during the ‘class’. He egged them on the verses of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. By 9.30 AM they were ready for the finale. Isha and Manisha kept themselves occupied with the little ones. The live-wire Kashyap captured those fantastic moments in his Handycam. The entry of a huge box of jalebis signaled the beginning of the flag hoisting ceremony. As we all sang the National Anthem in chorus, the tri-color unfurled itself and started rattling in the wind, making us remember those heroes whose blood sweat and tears brought us Azaadi.

Soon after the kids tasted the mouth watering Jalebis and called it a day. A short round of volunteer introduction then followed. We then left the place with a sense of fulfillment. This is just the beginning. Time shall stand testimony to all future events.

I would like to thank all the volunteers for their whole-hearted support in making the event memorable. Others need not feel left out, there is always another day. Life is calling…where are you?

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram!

Yours truly,
Srinivasan

Chidiyaaa Udd.......

2007-08-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day for Unnati...

Nishank was leaving Gurgaon....

He is heading to US for his higher studies.... However, we were happy too as finally got what he was waiting for..

Guess what, it was Eisha's b'day too....

Hurrey...

Party time!!!...

Eisha brought Paties, chips (i just love them...) and cake for everyone.... Awesome...

Children were also very happy...

Oh shucks!!.. how can i forget Dairy Milk...(I hope everybody remembers this one.. )

She got Dairy Milk for everyone.... :)

Ahem.. Ahem..well i shouldn't say but I was really very hungry... forgot to had breakfast in the morning... but got so excited when I saw so many things to eat... :)

You can say i was like this....

as if i was seeing all this for the first time...

He was a bit confused ye kya ho raha hai... mummy ne to bola tha school mei padai hoti hai... par ye to bohot acha school hai ... :)

Now see how happy everyone looks ...

Kuch baaat hai Dairy Milk mei....

Well this was not all... after the school was over and all the kids were gone it was time to show your skills... eh? skills...Now you will ask me what kind of skills....

Look at this....

Manish showing his skills....

Infact I must say he is very good at it..

I also learned from him that I should also start practicing it.... It can always help you as an alternate career option...

So after everything was cleaned it was time to sit together for a serious meeting.. humm.. AID Gurgaon was about to have a serious meeting....

Guess what... the meeting turned out to be 'Chidiya ud' competition...

Chidiya ud..
Maina ud..
Kauwa ud...
Bhais ud...

ud gayi ungli... Ooops I got out.. :(

But competition was still going on and all the volunteers were busy keeping their eye on their fingers ki kahi galat janwar pe na ud jaye...

One by one volunteers were getting out... and competition was getting tougher.. but in the end we had two champions...

Champ Manisha and Champ Eisha.... ( Clappings for their maiden victory... )

Well I'm practicing hard these days to win the next AID Gurgaon Chidiya Ud competition...

How about AID Inter Chapter Chidiya Ud competition... Its not going to be easy to take over the AID Gurgaon team..

Check out the AID Gurgaon champions...

Many people asked me that what is all this happening...

I think social service is not about just carrying jhola and moving everywhere... its about joining with people.. its about making good friends.. its about having fun ... its about spending fun time with kids... its about you.. its about them... its about all of us...

Its about bringing the change....

being the change...

I am proud to be the part of AID Gurgaon

Dance Dance Dance

2007-08-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Dance Dance

I just love dancing.. so when Shilpi told me that she can get her dance teacher at Unnati to teach dance steps to kids, I got excited...

Wow...

Dance...

I started waiting for the weekend when the dance teacher will be visiting Unnati...

I reached the class in the morning and this is what i saw:

Awesome... :)

Everyone was dancing :)

Even the boys were learning classical dance...

1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2,

All the hands in the class were moving on this rhythm...

Children were really loving it...

They even made Himanshu dance with their moves:

Check out our spiky :)

Doh!!.. what to say about him... Looks like he is trying to fly...

Tara and Durga came out to be the best dancer and in the end also showed their dance to everyone....

Well this was not the end... after the fun time it was time to study...

Eisha (our visiting teacher from outside India :)) started the class with numbers...

1, 2, 3, 4, .....6, 7, 8..

It reminded me of my childhood.. how hard it was to remember that 8 comes after 7 and 7 comes after 6.. ufff.... I really couldn't understand at that time that why can't the 8 come after 6!!!.. they are easy to remember, isn't.. aaah.. only God knows the reason..

After the numerical class it was my turn... and i started revising them about chuha...

RAT MAT CAT NAT ... i don't know what all...

Hey do you guyz saw... Unnati is now all changed... Have a look at the board... its changed from the black board to white board....

Check out our posters..

I would give the credit for all the changes that are recently going on at Unnati to Eisha... she is a Gem of a person... She is teaching the kids with full dedication..

Hats off to her..

Guyz.. Unnati is progressing!!!..

Spiky..

2007-08-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hey people did i tell you about spiky...

Naah...

We have a child whose hair style is no less than hair styles of models..

I guess he can easily replace all the models in the Garnier hair Gel advertisement...

Here is our spiky...

Girls vs. Boys

2007-08-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

First of all sorry, sorry, sorry...

I know i'm very late... but despite of all the efforts by this mean world to stop me... I am here to tell you about the Unnati's visit...

Well well, we started the day with some english class, teaching the children about how to greet a person when you meet them for the first time...

How du du du... (basically that means How do you do?)
I am phine, Thanku ...
Wat is yur name?

I hope from the title you all must have got an idea about what i'm about to tell you...

The WAR which is going on since years and still no decision has been made...

The historical war between girls and boys... We decided to finally make an end to it by having a hot competition between girls and boys...

Well everybody know that this is just a formality and its unanimously known that who should win... but we still thought of having it so that the other party feels comfortable... :)

If you guyz remember we had a similar competition sometime back in Mobile Creches and you know how won :)

Girls and boys were separated and Unnati was divided into two teams.... Girls were on the left side and on my right were boys...

Questions started...

Datto ko english mei kya kehte hai... Teeth

Sir ko english mei kya kehte hai... Head

Ungaliyo ko english mei kya kehte hai... Fingers

Girls .. Boys.. Girls.. Boys..Girls.. Boys..

and teams started answering one after the other... I was impressed by the way they were answering the questions...

Though both the teams earned the same points no. of points but boys were answering in a better way :)

Ofcourse

Well its obvious too.. :)

We raised the level of questions and the war started again...

Questions-Answers, Questions-Answers, Questions-Answers

both the teams were fighting and volunteers got equally involved in the competition...

Slowly, the competition which started with a close fight finally got completed when one team took over the other team with few points....

Do you want me to tell you who won...

Ofcourse Boys!!! :)

I know now people are going to kill me after reading this post.. :)

Happy Unnati!!!...

What do you think.....

2007-07-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all the people who have been reading this blog regularly since its first few articles...

Now we would like to hear from you..

Please let us know about your experiences and what more could be done to improve...

Do you know the people behind...

2007-07-17T08:06:00.001-07:00

Many people who visit the blog always want to know about the people who are involved in these projects....

Well there are many and what could be better than introducing them in to everyone. So i thought of starting a series of posts about them.. about us... in which i will be introducing all of them one by one...

They are not different but they are still not the same... They are very similar to everyone but they still make a difference....

Would you too like too...

Today's volunteers are these two guyz:

The guy on the left is known as Rajesh (passionate about biking) and on the right Himanshu (want to be an entrepreneur in his life)...

Well everybody know that we had a plan to visit Unnati this Saturday but it was raining heavily in the morning . Many people didn't turned up due to this reason. Pretty obvious.. its not easy to go out in rain, and that too in the morning when you would love to have a tea in your bed...

But there are few for whom rain doesn't make a difference.

Himanshu came far away from Delhi to Unnati inspite of the heavy rain fall that morning...

Hey guyz, i guess many people doesn't know, Himanshu also takes care of our Finance, he is our so called Treasurar... Guyz who are interested in writing GMAT and want any tips, feel free to contact him.

Now what to say about Rajesh, we all know that how difficult it is to wake up early in the morning...... and that too on a weekend!!

Rajesh didn't sleep the whole night to keep himself awake so that he can visit Unnati the next morning... thats commitment..

You know what.. children call him Krissh.. (i don' t know why... I guess he must have really given lots of choclates to these kids for getting this name....Well bribery works everywhere :))

Rajesh has been affiliated with AID Gurgaon from a long time and has spent a lot of time in Mobile Creches. He is also amongst one of the initial members who got themselves involved in initiating the CSR activities in Evalueserve.

Creativity

2007-07-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

Art....

Just check these out...

These children are really creative.....

What M.F. Hussain started doing in his old age.. these children are doing now..

A serious one.. with long black nose...

Smiling Mummy (from Egypt)...

Angry young man!!!...

lol...

What to say about this...

This is worth million dollars ($$$) ...

Look at one of the artist who drawed the above pictures...

Our cute small Sania Mirza...

Hurrey!!!!...

Now every child at Unnati has his/her own bag....

Thanks to Literacy India. They were really very helpful in everything.

Cartooon Cartooon Cartooon

2007-07-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Everybody says its not easy to control kids.....

Who says??

I say you just need a camera and they would all turn into this...

Just check out the smiling lot.....

But here they are not because of Camera, but because of this:

Cartooooooooooooooooooooooooon.....

We all have seen a lot when we were kids..... so we thought why not they....

Check her out.... she is trying to make her place.....

You say kids... Now check them out...

Even they are busy......

Who cares what is happening outside.....

BUT.....

While everyone was busy watching, and i was enjoying seeing everyone, there was someone who is not interested......

Did you see him..... Can we do something for him.....

What more.....

Check her out........

She want to see everything herself......

So these are the kids.....

They are the one with whom we like to spend our time on weekends...

Would you like to....

Exploring the creative side of the children!!!

2007-06-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

This Saturday at Unnati's school children's teacher couldn't come. So it was up to the volunteers as what activity we conduct for the children. Drawing sessions had been carried out from time to time. So we thought of doing something different.

Finally we decided to conduct a collage session for the children. It was a very new thing for the children. Even we had tried such kind of stuff long back when we were small. So it was sort of new thing even for us. But anyways we went ahead with it.

So we gathered the required things: chart paper, glue, old magazines and newspapers, scissors, etc.

Everyone busy with their work!!!

Initially it was a bit difficult to explain to the children as what was to be done. So we just asked them to cut different objects they can see in the magazines and paste them on the sheets.

Every work requires concentration!!!

To involve the children in a better way we pasted a blank chart paper on a board and asked the children to paste on their favorite photo which they got from the magazines.

Where will I find my favorite pic!!!

Children are also getting some help!!!

I need to hurry up!!!

See even I have found something!!!

Children pasting their favorite pics!!!

Here is the 1st masterpice!!!

For two other chart papers we gave a "people" theme to children where they could put pics only having people in them. And we got a great variety. Children had amazing choices.

A great work in making!!!!

And here is the 2nd one!!!

And finally the 3rd one!!!
Which one is the best??

After the collage work was done, children were asked to clean up everything. And they did it so diligently. These children are really disciplined.

See even I am helping in cleaning!!!

Let's finish the work fast!!!

So finally we are done with the work!!!

Now we want to fly away!!!

Celebrating those little moments at Unnati!!!

The previous Saturday we also showed Tom and Jerry animation movie to the children. Most of them must have never seen a laptop closely before. They were really happy to watch the animation show. A lot of things can be done with a classroom.

Every one watching keenly!!!

Who is smarter, Tom or Jerry:)) ??

With all these little initiatives, we are trying to fill the moments which these children would otherwise miss in their childhood. There are so things to enjoy, to learn for a child. But they should be given an opportunity for it. These children are no less talented than the other children who go to English medium schools and learn computers. What we need to do is to provide a good learning atmosphere for these children, which will help in creating a better future for them by enhancing both their academic and creative potential.

~~Nishank

A Saturday at Unnati's School............!

2007-05-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

So here comes another weekend for the volunteers!!!

But it was a typical school day for the children of Unnati. So we thought of making it fun for the children. Afterall going to school should also means fun!!!

So the day starts with who all can recite poems.

One needs confidence to speak in front of everyone!!!

Even I don't hesitate in coming forward!!!

Here the drawing session begins for the children. All want to show their creative skills. No theme is given to them. Everyone starts drawing according to their wish.

I can draw really well; just give me some time to finish!!!

Some younger children just want to do the coloring. So they ask their teacher to give them something to color :)

Teacher, please give me some drawings to fill with colors!!!

My name is Priya, and what is yours??

Everyone is busy with their work!!!

See I can read this book!!!

Given the right kind of environment to learn, along with some guidance and encouragement can do wonders for the education of these children. Every child needs proper nurturing to grow up as a competent individual.

I want to fill this drawing with so many colors!!!

I want to ride on this school bus!!!

Will I get a "good" for my work?? Please tell me teacher!!!

Want to meet my friends??

Meet my new friends at school!!!

We girls are no less than boys!!!

Whose smile is the best??

Can you see my "close-up" smile at behind??

Even I want to be in the photo along with these kids!!!

Time for a group photo.......Say Cheese!!!!

How is my drawing??

And how is this one??

Which is the best one??

An online drawing exhibition!!!

We had a great time with the children at their school. It was reminiscent of our own school days too.

We all should try a little from our side to enable education for the children, for whom going to school otherwise just remains a dream. A little bit of time from our weekly schedules and some fund raising on a regular basis for running such initiatives can help in starting hundreds of such schools across India. Let's not wait to do it when we will get some more time, when we will be a bit free, when we will go to this place, when the things will seem right!!! Let's start the change from where we are.........We will be able to find the time...........Things will get right........Let's be the change we want to see..........!

~~Nishank

Unnati at its best!!!

2007-05-08T00:54:00.000-07:00

A view from inside..

Can you see how happy these kids are studying in school...

They want to study... they are different... they are not the ones who want to spend their life picking rags...

They are just like us..

Have you ever seeen a hand like this...

This picture is drawn by 'Hansa', a very good student and an innocent girl at Unnati. You would always see her similing in the classroom.

She wants to fill everything with colors..

Here she comes...

This is our teacher :)

She reminds me of my Hindi teacher. I was very afraid of her in school.

When i visited the classroom at Unnati for the first time, she looked at me and I couldn't stop gazing at her and I felt like she would say "Deepak!!! where were you, I don't know how many times i have told you to write clearly, when are you going to learn"

But she is good :) bach gaya

Did you see that...

Commitment of these kids!!

They have came up with their own ways to come to school. I also felt like cycling... it would be fun!! :)

I am bored of bikes :(

Now look at her, she would be half of my size and see her dedication...

These children really want to study.... they want to be like us!!

Shouldn't we help them...

Help them

First day at School for children of Unnati !!!

2007-05-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, i.e. April 28th was the scheduled day for the inauguration of school at Unnati. The volunteers had gathered there by 9:30 a.m. Sumanji (children's new teacher) had also come along with her husband. First we had to go inside the basti to gather the children for the class. It seemed that many of the children had forgotten during the week passing by that they had to get ready for the school!!!

We tried to gather as many children as possible. Some were feeling a bit reluctant while some were very excited. Many of the children told they will get ready in few minutes. We had to convince few children to come with us. Some of them asked where the class is, how they will go etc etc. We were a bit worried as how the children would go in the scorching heat. Immediately few of the elder children suggested that they will take their Redhi (the rickshaw used to carry goods) with them and the younger children sat in a group in that. (Now that's called best use of the resources available !!!)

In half an hour we all went to the classroom. We then arranged the different things we had bought for the classroom. Also Lord Saraswati's photo was arranged on the table for Puja. Meanwhile all the children had gathered in the new classroom. Few were making lot of noises. But still they were far more disciplined in front of their teacher. Then we had a small prayer session where all children recited the prayer along with Sumanji. After that we distributed sweets among the children. Few of people living in that area who were passing by asked us as what was happening there and we explained them that we have started a new classroom for children.

Then Sumanji first took attendance of the children who had come there. After that, she started with the teaching basic alphabets to children while the volunteers were helping in managing the children. Many of the children they were taking a good interest. Few of the children had already gone to their schools in villages and they were more eager to come forward and show what they know. But most of the children among them had never gone to school. For them, this was for the first time a classroom experience. The fans in the room were a lot helpful in offsetting the effect of summer. Nearby a bucket filled with water along with glasses was kept for the children if they felt thirsty.
After studying for sometime children were getting a bit restless. Moreover, since it was the first day we expected that it would be the case. Meanwhile, Sachin and Pratik had also brought few old clothes which we had collected earlier and we distributed it among the children. We told the children that they would need to come to class daily from Monday onwards. We also told them that they would be getting stationeries to use if they would come to classroom regularly. Finally the children and volunteers departed around 11 o'clock.

Now we need to ensure that we are able to successfully run this school for children. Such a classroom means that even these children won't be deprived of education, though in a bit informal way. What is more important that they should also be able to read and write and move ahead in life, so that their future doesn't remain dismal just because their parents couldn't afford to send them to school.

~~Nishank

Have you tried teaching kids??

2007-04-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this blog, there are 99.99% chances that you have gone through typical school education, with teachers teaching in classrooms. Do you remember your school days?? Going to school every morning, meeting friends there, playing with friends during the break, sometimes getting scoldings from our teachers and what not!!!

Every child wants to go to school. It is a place where one gets to learn so much. Just imagine how different your life would have been if you had not been able to go to school. We should be really thankful to our teachers who have helped us all the way in our journey of education. But still there are so many children in our society who cannot go to schools because their parents cannot afford to send them to school or may be they have to work as a child laborer.

Even if not a regular schooling, at least some form of alternate education should be enabled for underprivileged children. We at Unnati, have been trying to teach the children on our own whatever little things we can teach to them. It constantly reminds us that how difficult it is teaching children sometimes :-) !!! But at the same time it is so much fun trying to explain things to children. After all what's the use of all our education if we are not able to teach at least few children.

Aashish explaining to kids how a clock shows time!!!

Manoj is the favorite teacher of the kids these days!!!

Not that difficult to make children listen to you!!!

Sometimes you also need to play along with children!!!

Children @Unnati are missing Gyanesh these days!!!

It's not always that easy to explain things
to children!!!

Every child wants to learn!!!

What if these kids go to regular schools??

We are in process of starting a classroom for these kids. We have arranged a teacher with the help of Literacy India for these kids, who would teach them from Monday to Saturday. We have also rented a room not very far from Unnati and the kids would be going there in a group daily along with their teacher. Our aim is to ensure that these children should also benefit by education like other children with whatever means possible. We thought that this may not be possible by just teaching or spending time with them on weekends.

So when these kids would go for the regular classes, they would be provided with required stationeries, some nutritious thing to eat, uniforms in future etc. This would help in keeping these children motivated towards studies. We are also having a talk with their parents to send their children regularly for the classes. Once this initiative starts running smoothly, we would definitely be seeing some visible changes in a period of 6 months to 1 year. Moreover, since Literacy India already has a great deal of expertise in providing education to underprivileged children, these children would be benefited too with the curriculum followed by Literacy India.

But to support such a initiative requires money too. Given below is a rough estimate of the expenses that would occur every month.

Expenses	Amount in Rs.
Teacher Salary	2000-3000
Room Rent	1500
Meal for Children	2000
Literacy India School Monitoring - Transport	0500
Miscellaneous (Books, Stationary etc.)	1000
Total	7000-8000 /Month

Moreover, we need to ensure that at any point of time we have sufficient funds for at least 3 months to ensure that the classes for these children doesn't get hampered due to lack of funds.

You can also help these kids!!!

We really need people like you.

To know more how you can help these kids, please have a look at the following link:

http://gurgaon.aidindia.org/node/16

To know more about activities and details related to Unnati, please go through the following links:
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AID Gurgaon New Project - Unnati ( A look inside the basti, and the people living there!!!)

Republic Day - Initiation day for Project Unnati! (Well what could have been a better day to give it a start)

Unnati off-league ( Time to think how we can bring at least some progress ("Unnati") in lives of these people!!!)

Deciding the Strategic Moves ( Teaching the kids and also brainstorming as how to take things ahead)

Unnati - A parallel world ( Implementing a Modern Open Gurukul!!!)

If you would like to get more details related to this initiative or have any other queries, you can get in touch with following people:

1) Deepak Syal : deepak.syal@gmail.com; Ph no: 09810297880

2) Nishank: onlynishank@gmail.com; Ph no: 09910067703

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Sponsorship of education of 10 children for an year facilitated by AID Gurgaon.

2007-04-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Recently AID Gurgaon facilitated sponsorship of education of 10 children for an year. For this INR 30,000 was handed over to Literacy India. Out of this INR 24,000 was donated by Evalueserve and INR 6,000 was given by AID Gurgaon. This amount would be used in providing education to 10 children at Literacy India under their Vidyapeeth Project (http://literacyindia.org/WEBSITE/html/Vidyapeeth.htm)

Literacy India is a nonprofit organization registered as a trust under the India Trust Act, 1872. Since its inception in 1996, Literacy India has been working towards education of underprivileged children living in slums and rural areas in and around Gurgaon, Haryana. In addition to providing non-formal basic education to children, Literacy India has set up vocational training centers for girls and village women.

Literacy India has been doing a splendid job in reaching children from poor families who cannot afford a quality education. They have different projects targetted for different age groups of children and women. By raising sponsorships we are able to ensure that at least some children are being able to get education in a regular manner.

Here are the brief profiles of the children who would be benefitting from the sponsorship:

1)

Name: Pooja
Age: 10
Class: V
Sex: F
Father’s Occupation : Security Guard
Mother’s occupation : House wife
Brother : 3
Remarks : Neat & clean, obedient
Activity : Dancing

2)

Name: Komal
Age: 11
Class: V
Sex: F
Father’s Occupation: PEON
Mother’s occupation: House wife
Brother: 1
Sisters: 4
Remarks: Well dressed and well behaved

3)

Name : Manisha
Age : 10
Class : V
Sex : F
Father’s Occupation : Sweeper
Mother’s occupation : maid
Brother : 1
Sister : 1
Remarks : Good in studies

4)

Name : Ajay
Age : 13
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : labor
Mother’s occupation : daily wage laborer
Brothers : 2
Sister : 3
Remarks : Hard working student and punctual

5)

Name : Rodhi
Age : 13
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Gardener
Mother’s occupation : Maid
Brother : 1
Sister : 1
Remarks : Family going through financial crisis.
He is very Naughty but an intelligent student.

6)

Name : Santosh
Age : 14
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Cook
Mother’s occupation : House wife
Brother : 1
Sister : 1
Remarks : He always stood I in the class.
In previous terminal exams he has
scored 100% marks in math.
He was a working child mainstreamed after counseling

7)

Name : Rajiv
Age : 15
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Peon
Mother’s occupation : House wife
Brothers : 2
Sisters : 2
Remarks : He is good and obedient student.
He stood II in the previous terminal exams.
He was a working child earlier mainstreamed after counseling.

8)

Name : Srikant
Age : 14
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Unemployed (Alcoholic)
Mother’s occupation : Household worker
Brothers : 4
Sisters : 3
Remarks : He always scores good marks in the class.
He is liked by all his teachers for his good manners and obedience.

9)

Name : Shyamal
Age : 13
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Driver
Mother’s occupation : Maid Servant
Brothers : 2
Activity : Participated in many theatrical production of Literacy India
Remarks : He has transformed from a shy Bengali speaking boy to a good student as well as good actor.
Now he can converse in hindi fluently

10)

Name : Bittoo
Age : 12
Class : V
Sex : M
Father’s Occupation : Pvt. Service
Mother’s occupation : Maid Servant
Brother : 1
Sisters : 2
Remarks : He is a well-behaved boy. He is a very sincere, hard-working student.

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Given below are the details of the expenditure that would be incurred for each child:

Sr. No.	Expenditure Heads	Amount per child
1	Uniform Expenses	350
2	Books and Periodicals	450
3	Stationery	500
4	Snacks for children	350
5	Teaching Aids	450
6	Teacher's Salary	600
7	Visit to other places	150
8	Administrative cost	150
	Amt. /Child/ per year	3000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, here are few pics of the Literacy India center at Sector-23, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon. We got a chance to capture these pics when we went to Literacy India.

Classrooms at the Literacy India Center

What a serene surrounding for the children!!

Manish with children at Literacy India

Now computers are there for everyone to learn!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since many volunteers of AID Gurgaon are working in Evalueserve, it helped us in mobilizing the funds through the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) initiatives. These kind of sponsorships help institutitions like Literacy India to impart education to underprivileged children.

People working in different companies through their CSR teams can try to raise sponsorships for such children or can even undertake to sponsor one child on their own. By raising funds from time to time we can ensure that though we may lack time to volunteer due to personal commitments, we can still make a difference in lives of these children. For any kind of details required related to sponsorships, please drop a mail at: gurgaon@aidindia.org

Do you like spending time with kids??

2007-04-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

17/03/2007: It was a typical saturday morning. Weekend had started. This time other volunteers couldn't make it to Mobile Creches. Our new member, Sandra who is from Germany was really keen to go to Mobile Creches to meet the kids. So we reached Mobile Creches by 10:30 a.m. As there were only two of us and around 30 kids, it left us a bit perplexed as how to catch the attention of the kids. Normally we divide the kids in a group of 4-5 depending on availability of volunteers and go through what all they have learned in past few days and asking them few questions, clearing their doubts etc.

Sandra is still in the process of getting familiar with Hindi, so that she can interact more freely with the kids. So to keep the kids engaged we finally thought of teaching the kids how to answer if someone asks them in English, "What is your name?" The idea was that if Sandra asks them the same question, they would be able to smartly answer in English. All the children were told to sit in a circle and we started with a kid at random among them asking, "Tumhara naam kya hai?" He replied just by saying "Ajay". Then I had to tell him that you reply by saying, "Mera naam Ajay hai". He repeated it in a bit slow manner.

Then we asked the children that do they want to learn speaking in English and all replied in unison that they want to. So I asked Usha to stand and repeat with me that if someone asks her, "What is your name?" , then she should say, "My name is Usha". To that she tried to say slowly "My.......naam.......izz......Ushaa". But it was a good effort and she tried to improvise it too. Thereafter, each one of the kids was asked to stand and answer in the same way. Some of the kids were feeling too shy to speak. Some of the kids were saying in a very nice manner. For some it was sounding greek and latin. But at least it enabled to catch their attention.

Meanwhile some of the children were playing with Sandra, and were saying ,"Didi, Idhar aao naa!". Sandra really likes to be with these kids and even kids want her to teach Hindi quickly :-) . They were teaching her that a Cat is called "Billi" in Hindi and a Rabbit is called "Khargosh".

Later on we asked two of the kids to come at the center of circle, and to follow the simple exercise:

Ajay: "What is your name"?
Suraj: "My name is Suraj".
Suraj: "How are you?"
Ajay: "I am fine. Thank you."

Many of the children repeated this exercise. Few of them got a bit stuck while trying to repeat the sentences. Some displayed amazing confidence.

But it left me wondering that how much effort it requires in teaching just 4 lines of English to these kids. In the coming times how much learning and education(and the quality of education) is going to be possible for these children, when there parents have to keep moving from place to place every 2-3 years to a new construction site in search of some work. How many of these kids would be able to come out of the labour class, and get a chance like other privileged kids to learn computers and speak fluent English? Or would they become the next generation of labourers due to the lack of education even though they want to study and go ahead in life? Sometimes I really feel lucky that I was able to get a decent school education. How much education would be possible for these children? And what as educated individuals can we do for these children? Should we leave things for them on their fate?? Or can we come forward and do something worthwhile for them??

~~Nishank

People who are part of History

2007-03-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

They all are different..

But they all think the same...

They all want to do something different...

27 people attended first Community Service Hour (CSH) of AID Gurgaon.

Would you like to be part of this...

Do you think like them...

Come be a part of US!!!

Unnati - A parallel world

2007-03-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Modern open Gurukul...... Unnati!!!

Nishank's picture.....

Oh i'm sorry i mean the picture drawn by Nishank... There is nothing to laugh over here... he is a good artist...

Now look over here... This is a picture drawn by one of the kid of Unnati. After the drawing was complete i asked few questions to the kids.

1. How many tails does a mouse have?
Ans. Unanimously 'one'

Great!! I was impressed...

2. How many legs does a mouse have??
Ans. Unanimously 'four'

Impressive ... I liked that

3. How many ears does a mouse have???
Ans. Unanimously 'two'

By this point i truly believe that they know everything...

Next question..

4. How many eyes does a mouse have????

Guess whats going to be the answer!!!

Give you a hint.. again look at the picture, can you guess now...

Ans. Unanimously 'one'

Phew!!!... What a great chuha we have drawn, he has only one eye Doh!!... Then suddenly I heard a voice from the group - 'The other eye of the mouse is behind the board' lol...

At one place where the kids were busy with drawings, the other place was quite athletic...

There is no doubt that kids are expert in everything, you don't need to teach them. Now look here...

After the drawing session was complete, we had a rhym session..

Rupali who came for the first time to Unnati, took over the control... She started with a new rhym 'Hathi raja jhoom ke' and the kids repeated after her.... 'Hathi raja jhoom ke' Well i was one among them too... I also learnt this new rhym that day..

I revised few rhyms 'Chanda mama door ke' with them... Do you guyz remember the rhyms which our nursery teacher used to teach us. I really like this one 'Machi jal ki raaani hai' :)

Rupali again in action....

Sandra was again with us with our visit to Unnati....

Just a thought in the end - When somebody from outside can come and work for us, why can't we ??

What she has to say!!!..

2007-03-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

I hope you all must have already seen the pictures of Holi at Mobile Creches ... Now you all must be knowing Sandra too...

Here is what she has to say...

For as long back as I can remember, it has seemed to me that India is the world’s most beautiful country. After a five-week holiday here some years ago, I made up my mind that I would come back again. And now I am here – not as a visitor but as an Evalueserve employee with Gurgaon.

My original plan was to travel around on weekends and discover the fantastic places all around me. But then, I read an article about volunteer projects – and realized that this was that what I really wanted to do. Being in contact with underprivileged people, teaching and helping children who cannot afford to go to school to acquire an education (and often do not have enough to eat), and helping them aspire to a better life – that is so much more important than only looking at a wonderful landscape!

Well, at first I was really afraid of doing this. (I am a real coward and am afraid of everyone and everything!) I was worried whether the children would like me and how I would communicate with them, since I do not speak Hindi and they do not know English.

However, when we went there and I met the children for the first time, I was so happy – nothing can compare with the beautiful experience I had interacting with them. They were so happy seeing us, and although they are so poor and deprived of opportunities all children should have, they were so friendly. They called me Didi – what an honor for me! They were not afraid of me at all. Moreover, language was not a problem. I tried to teach them English and they taught me Hindi. I think they really enjoyed hearing me trying to speak Hindi, making mistakes all the time. It was great fun for me too.

I cannot imagine spending my weekends in a better way than working with these children. And whenever I have time (and you can be sure I will do almost anything to make time for these children), I would like to spend it with them, teaching them, helping them, and trying to make a difference in their lives.

-- Sandra

Would you like to say something to her....

Mobile Creches Holi!!!!

2007-03-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

This time we had Sandra, who is from Germany, on the visit to Mobile Creches.

Couldn't you see how sincere they are..

Now look at Rachit!!! Looks like he is going to teach everything in a day...

They all look the same...:)

Dance Dance.....Spice Girls live performance.....

Bura na mano Holiiii hai!!!....

Rachit busy with colors.... will somebody color him up!!!!

Sandra in her full mood, enjoying the festival of colors!!..

Now look at this...

Common guyz kaha dekh rahe ho...idhar dekho hamari photo khich rahi hai....

Unnati off-league...

2007-02-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

The first day when I took slate in my hand. This is what I wrote....Peoople of different cultures living at the same place, sharing same problems, fighting together for living....
I am proud to take responsibilities.. do you!!....
I want to study but i have my sister to carry...
Bread pakoda at his best...:)

Deciding the Strategic Moves

2007-02-21T07:55:00.000-08:00

Here is how Sachin describes the visits where the next moves are decided. The best part of these meetings are that they can be very well called Volunteer Informal Meet. The new volunteers and the old volunteers very well merge with each other and decide the future course of action.

During last week we visited Unnati on Sunday, 18th February. We went to Unnati around 2 p.m. We gathered all children from jhuggi and started our regular classes. This time, environment of class was different than our routine classes at Mobile Crèches and Unntati. Children were assembled on green grass under blue sky in a perfect natural world. We divided children into two groups. Gyanesh, Anurag and Aakash were busy in teaching one group and on other hand Manoj, Vineet, Rachit and Jivtesh were managing the second group. Meanwhile Sumit, Manish and Ashutosh also joined us and helped in handling the kidsJ!!!

Nishank and Anil bought slates for the children. Mahesh and Arun were ensuring that every newly admitted child should get slate and chalk. In between for some time a flock of sheep also joined our classesJ!!!! We carried out our classes till 4:30 p.m. At the end we distributed books to some bright children. We also went inside the basti for some time as few of the volunteers had joined us for the first time and they wanted to see the condition there.

Before departing, we had a discussion on following points:

* Hiring a full time teacher for Unnati if children continue to show interest towards studies

* Addressing health related issues of the community i.e. creating health and hygiene awareness in the community by arranging Heath talk with the help of Dr Vineet, distribution of medicines etc.

* Meal a Month program of AID.

* Arranging AID Gurgaon monthly update meeting for all Volunteers and Donors

* Sending monthly update of AID Gurgaon activities to all Donors with a ‘Thank You’ note

* Finding alternatives for distribution of collected clothes.

* Reaching out to more volunteers in Gurgaon, especially for creating buffer for smooth functioning of the projects.

* Collecting funds in a more systematic way for the future spending

We have collected funds of 2.5 k on Sunday (Thanks to all Donor-cum-Volunteers). Now we are growing rapidly, first time in history AID Gurgaon witnessed so many volunteers together (total 15 volunteers) (Thanks to all)

Hurreey Picnic Time!!!!

2007-02-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Here is how Nishank describes it:

The volunteers who went for the picnic were Manish, Rachit, Saikat, Sachin and me.

For Manish and Rachit it was the time they were interacting with Mobile Crèches kids. The bus for the picnic started from Mobile Crèches center at 11 o'clock. There were total 40 kids and all were excited about going for a picnic (these kinds of outings are rare things for them!!!). The bus it seemed was a little bigger for them as they were sitting in a very disciplined manner. (I was expecting lot of hulla gulla J)
The bus took around an hour to reach Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary. In the bus we were trying to talk to the kids but seems they were more engrossed watching the sceneries outside. After reaching the sanctuary we had a group photo with the kids. We never expected that we could get such a serene and natural surroundings near Gurgaon. At that time we also came to knew that children from another Mobile Creches center too have joined us for the picnic and soon we had a bunch of around 80 kids. After going inside the sanctuary, first we went to a small gallery containing posters of different migratory birds along with detailed information about them. The children were looking at them with lot of curiosity.

Then we moved on to go near the lake where most of the birds were there. The lake had some marshy areas to keep the birds at bay from people visiting there. After reaching near the lake we realized that we were missing binoculars. (After all there is a difference between a sanctuary and a zoo). However, the children enjoyed even seeing the birds from a distance. Rachit and Saikat were busy photographing birds using zoom of the camera. Manish and Sachin were busy ensuring kids were not running here and there.

After spending some time near the lake all the children gathered near a tree. There we all sat down and few of the children recited poems. Even Sachin recited a poem for the children which the children followed in chorus. After spending some time there we realized that it was lunch time for the children. We finally decided to return to the bus. While returning we realized that we had come along a long way. The kids were going in small groups. They were asking lot of questions out of their curiosity which we were trying to answer in our best capacity. J For the lunch we went to a park just next to the sanctuary. All the kids were made to sit in a big circle and the lunch was served for them.

After the lunch the children started running here and there and were enjoying playing among the greenery. We also had a brief drawing session for the kids where they were supposed to draw watching the natural surroundings. Then children were then given toffees. Finally it was the time to wrap up and go back.

While returning the bus had to stop near a railway signal for about fifteen minutes. The children got a chance to see "Chuk Chuk Rail Gaadi". Finally the bus reached Mobile Crèches center at 5 o'clock. The children were very happy that they went on a picnic. It was really nice to see their smiling faces.

If you want to watch the complete album for the Mobile Crèches picnic, you can follow this link (courtesy Rachit) :

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chawlarachit/MobileCrechesPicnic?authkey=5oQJkMTYt3Q

Hope we keep having similar events for children in the future.

Republic Day - Initiation day for Project Unnati!

2007-01-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

Nishank experience of the day:

I tend to remember that on last Republic Day I was watching “Rang De Basanti” in PVR. The movie was great and thought provoking too. There was a scene in the movie where the actors were sitting in a bar and complaining “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta!”

Well how easy it is to just watch the surroundings around us and shrugging off that nothing can be done!

But coming forward and bringing some change is a different game.

Unnati is supposed to be one such example.

I am sure we all want to see a developed India where there is an equal opportunity for all to succeed, where every child can go to a school. Where no child has to spend his childhood working day and night to earn a living instead of being able to play with his friends. Where people are not trapped in a vicious circle of poverty but have a chance to lead a decent life.

But just having a dream is not enough. The question is how much does it matters to us to achieve that dream.

We have an excellent opportunity to bring the change we envision. Being the youth of the nation we have a great responsibility on our shoulders as how we are going to shape up the future of the country.

There will always be only 24x7 = 168 hours in a week for us even if we yearn for more. In this limited time only per week we have to manage our time between our work, our family and friends, our hobbies and anything else we want to do. Things won’t change in a weekJ. But slowly and steadily if we move towards the goal, with our collective efforts we can achieve a lot. It’s not just about doing things here in Gurgaon, or being part of AID Gurgaon. It’s about asking ourselves as what role I am going to play and why. It’s about though being anywhere in India, or even outside India, but working towards bringing the change. But when we are able to do something near our immediate surroundings then changes are most perceptible.

When we come ahead for volunteering we are helping people who may be totally strangers to us, but still we share a common bond among us. They may be quite lagging in terms of education, income etc. when compared to us. But they are also citizens of the same India. Globalization and economic development shouldn’t remain a prerogative of few who are able to get decent education and get plugged-in in the system to enjoy benefits brought by Information Technology, Outsourcing, Foreign Direct Investment etc. Off-late we have seen that gap between Haves and Have-nots is increasing day by day but at some point the trend needs to be reserved. And for that we need to do something about it. It’s responsibility of each one of us.

Or else there is a simple solution. We can simply sit in our air-conditioned offices, sipping a cup of coffee and saying, “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta!”

Oh I yet have to start regarding the update on activities!

When we reached Unnati the children became excited and started making noises. We tried to gather all the children at one place. But they were not listening much to us. Some of the elders there intervened and helped us in keeping the children disciplined. We had plans of distributing slates and toffees to the children. We had taken 70 slates with us, but soon we realized that it was not enough. We got a bit confused as how to proceed ahead. But anyways we decided that the elder children would be given the slates first followed by the younger children. We decided to first note down the names of the children.

It seemed to be an arduous task. Sachin and Sumit were trying to placate the children. Deepak took the lead in between and children spoke following him, “Hum sabko padh likh ke bada aadmi banna hai”! That time we didn’t have a pen and paper with us. Then Mr. Mohd Rafi (I hope you guyz have not forgot Shahrukh and now we have Mr. Rafi) immediately arranged it for us. He is the owner of a tea-stall there and he is one of the few people to whom we had a talk initially regarding our plan of teaching children there.

Manoj started jotting down the names of the children along with Ravi. They jotted down the names of the children to whom slates were to be given. Then we started calling each child by his/her name to handover the slate/chalk and other children clapped with it. Meanwhile Deepak was busy in taking the snaps. Amit, Ankit, Rachit and I were busy opening the packing of slates and handing it over for distribution. The parents where happy that something good was happening for their children.

When we had distributed few of the slates we saw that few of the children have already started writing down their names on the slates. It was really nice to see that. One by one our stock of slates were finished and still few younger children were saying that they too want the slates. We told them that we will soon arrange the slates for them too. At that time the toffees came handy as we said that we will give toffees to them and told children to stand in line. After that we handed over the toffees which appeased the younger children. Even few of the elders said that they too want the slatesJ and that time we said that today slates are only for children.

We also had a chance to interact with the parents and some of them were asking regarding schooling for their children. Even some of the adults there want to learn reading and writing. It was a really nice experience and a bit unique way for celebrating Republic Day for us.

Once we go to that place, it makes us wonder that how these people are living in so abject poverty. How they must have faced this gruesome winter in their patch-like homes. What is the future going to be for these children for whom the present is in this dire condition? How much these people can think of education for their children when they are surviving on hand to mouth existence and not sure of what they will earn the next day.

And the most important question is, “Will things ever change for them? “

Want to be different!!

2007-01-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

Join this Group!!!

They are all the same but still they are different....

Changing the unchangeable things is difficult, but there are few people who still change them..

Are you also one of them...

Join AID Gurgaon

AID Gurgaon New Project - Unnati

2007-01-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

AID Gurgaon NEw Project - Unnati

After successful running of AID Gurgaon Mobile Creches, now with Nishank's continuous efforts we have a new project in our group. Nishank named it as Unnati. The project has been started from scratch and volunteers will be working without the support from any other NGOs. I believe the volunteers now are experienced enough to make this project a success.

Here is how Nishank describes his views:

Hi all,

Here is a brief update on the new project to be initiated by AID Gurgaon. There is a slum area which is located 5 mins drive from Evalueserve’s office (near Rajeev Chowk, close to Delhi-Jaipur highway). The slum area is called “Ret-Mandi” by the people there. On Saturday, January 20, 2007 while returning from Mobile Creches, Sachin, Munish, Sumit and I went for the survey of the area. The basti consists of more than 50 families with around 150-200 children.

The basti is on a barren land where people have put patch-like shelters. The basti is around 6-7 years old and some of the people keep coming and going if they are not able to get any work. Most of the families there hail from Rajasthan. The people there are basically daily wage earners surviving on hand to mouth existence. Their occupations vary from working as mason, labourers, making ropes, selling things on thelas etc.

The children there have no access to education. Some of the children there have been to school earlier, but had to leave their studies in between. There we met a boy “Shambhu” who has studied till class 5. His father was asking if Shambhu can be admitted in some school. We talked to few more people there and their responses were really good. They told that hey would help in every possible way if we start some teaching activity there. Even the children there want to study. The parents said that since there is no school nearby they are not able to send them school. Moreover affordability is an issue for them as sending to school means expenses in fees, uniforms, stationeries etc., that too when they have no regular source of income. Finally we returned from there and told that we would come the next day too.

Yesterday Sachin and I went to talk with more people there. We gave Shambhu a Hindi Storybook, a notebook and a pen. He even read aloud a paragraph from the storybook. Seeing him other children also told that they want notebooks. Even some of the adults there told that they want to learn reading and writing. There are children of all age groups. They were busy playing with their customized toys. Few of the adults there told that teaching these children is next to impossible task as these children won’t listen to us. We told that we will try our best and asked them to be a bit strict when we will start classes thereJ !!! We also took few photos of the children and the place there. The children were very excited to get themselves photographed.

We are planning to start classes there on Saturdays and Sundays. (On Saturday from 3-5 p.m. and on Sundays from 2-5 p.m.) Here we should strive for overall community development here rather than only the education of children. In this slum area no NGO or Govt. body visits and there is a lot of scope and challenge to do something constructive here. We will have to start things from scratch here. One of the possible names for this project can be “Unnati” as these people really need some development.

CSR in AID Gurgaon

2007-01-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

With efforts of the volunteers finally we were able to successfuly form a fully functional CSR team in the first company Evalueserve. Wouldn't you like to know why i mentioned it as fully functional?

Here are the few points lined up:

Successful completion of winter clothes drive
Successful execution of teaching program of the house boys within the company by CSR volunteers
Success of bottoms-up approach in forming a CSR team
Involving CSR volunteers in other AID Gurgaon projects such as Mobile Creches
Growing volunteers every month
Donation drive
and lots more

Now the plan is to form similar CSR teams in other companies in Gurgaon. A list of companies have been identified and bottoms-up approach will be used to form the core of the CSR team.

Keep checking this post for the updates....

Kids Ralley...

2007-01-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

Mobile Creches celebrated 'Bal Adhikar Diwas'

This saturday was somewhat different. It was late morning and we all reached Mobile Creches with the usual plan of teaching kids. To our suprise what we all saw was something different!!! All the kids instead of being inside school, were standing outside with posters and banners in their hand. It seemed as if some army is ready to attack.

I was surprized but then someone told us that there is a awareness rally organized today. All the kids were supposed to form a group and walk in their community. Kids were carrying posters in their hands with different messages written on it.

This was their fight for education.

Whoops... then what to think, I also took a poster in my hand and became part of the rally.

I could imagine the rallies in 1940s for the fight for freedom. This was very much the same for these kids.

However, this was fun!! fun for them and fun for all the volunteers.

We all were moving in the small lanes of the community (designed like jalebi, we were moving round and round from one lane to the other) with shouting aloud the messages that were written on the posters. Everyone from the community were looking us (which we all wanted) and trying to read what was written on posters.

Though there was no teaching that day, we were not able to teach something to kids, but i learnt one thing from the ralley "We don't value things that we get with ease, the value of those things are only known to those who are deprived of them"

Bhaiyya aa Gaye :)

2006-09-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

A wave of enthusiasm ran through the kids as we reached the Mobile creche - our lethargic bodies too got charged the moment a loud "bhaiyaa aa gaye" fell on our ears. This seems to have become a routine now (no wonder we are excited to meet our little friends every saturday).

This time Shashank got a jigsaw puzzle (animal pictures in every jigsaw) with him that attracted a lot of kids [chorus: bhaiyya main bhi khelunga]. We thought of fostering team work in the kids and divided the ones that were interested into three teams. Each team was given a separate jigsaw puzzle to solve. The desire of being the first one to solve was so strong that they focussed on our lip movement and waited for the "Start" signal. Some of them of-course did not wait :D.

Initially we thought that this exercise would be difficult for the kids. However they proved us wrong. One of the team was extremely quick at knitting the pieces together. I could see the glitter in their eyes everytime they were able to piece an animal together. They quickly finished their jigsaw and I began telling them the animal names. There was haathi, saanp, cheetah, sher and another one whose name I was unable to recall. Without much hope I asked if any one of them knew it's name. No one replied. I let it go by.

While some of the kids were busy with the jigsaw I looked around to see what others were up to. One of the groups that was being taught by Priyanka was making a lot of noise. I went closer to see that Priyanka had drawn a human figure (it looked more like a ghost..he he- don't tell Priyanka ;)) and marked the various body parts. She was explaining where nose, hair, teeth etc. fit in. She asked me if I could take a quiz since she had finished teaching. I agreed and quizzed the kids by placing my finger on the body parts. They answered quickly confirming once again that they are quick learners. Priyanka had already taught the kids Twinkle twinkle little star (with actions) so I tried my luck with teaching "Johnny Johhnny Yes Papa". Frankly I had forgotten the verse when Priyanka remined me the lyrics. My actions combined with my verse's hindi translation ("jonny beta tumhe cheeni khaee hai- nahi papa" ;) ) made the kids laugh and gag. I am hoping that they would remember the song (and the hilarious actions :D) the next time I pay them a visit.

Priyanka then taught the kids how to write their names in English, which they picked up quickly.

Meanwhile it was Munish's turn to teach the younger kids and face the heat :D. It really is not easy teaching kids alphabets however he did a good job.

Ashwini (aka Dhoni - as suggested by the Mobile Creche teachers :D) taught another group extremely deligently.

Rajesh too taught kids in his very unique and energetic "samajh aa raha hai na bhaisahab" andaaz.

As we were about to leave , one of the kids came to me and said "Bhaiyya wo nevla tha". Quickly the animal whose name I had forgotten flashed before my eyes. I cursed myself for not being able to relate the figure to the word. I looked at the kid and mumured "Hats off buddy - way to go!".

Get up everyone its time for Yoga!!!

2006-06-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yoga time for all of you!!..

For those who didn't go to Mobile Creches this time really missed the joy of Yoga. This Saturday I planned to do something which is different from mathematics, science and all, so I thought why not experiment 'Yoga'. The nice weather and the raining mood raise the excitement.

When I reached there everyone was studying, so the first step was to get everyone in a circle so that everyone could see everybody else (I didn't knew what would be the repercussion of this). The very first thing turned out to be very difficult for me, phew!!.. I told everybody to cross their legs and Doh!! Believe me this was the first time in my life I found that there are 15 different ways in which you can cross your legs. Every kid has its own way of sitting. So the few minutes went in getting all the kids sit in a similar pose. It looks easy but buddy it was not. Some of the kids have legs like rubber band (I know you wouldn't believe), you make them cross their legs and just turn around and you would find their legs (Wooops!!.. ) again in the same state as they were before. But finally I managed to get everyone in the same position.

Now it was time to get their thumb and middle finger together (big mistake!!). I told them the same line which I just wrote here and made the mistake of my life. I forgot that every kid had two middle fingers and everyone was ready with his own combination. But, I found a quick and easy solution to this problem by telling everyone to get their thumb and 'first finger' together. Sigh!!.. Thank God you have given us only one 'first finger'.

So now everyone was ready to start and sitting straight in Yoga position.

Now it was the time for the first exercise. I instructed everyone to close their eyes and take deep breath in.

Guess what!!..

Every kid had its one eye open and one closed, peeping to check that others have closed their eyes or not. Now every kid thinking in the similar fashion lead to a new form of Yoga ' Kid Yoga'. Keep one of your eyes open and one closed, Doh!!.. ( Hey hey I coined the term 'Kid Yoga' and I am the first person on this earth to teach that unusual thing.. lol.. I guess I can go for a patent!! Lol..)

Well, all the exercise kept on finishing one by one and ended with shavasan where every kid was lying still on the ground. Ok ok I accept they completed this asan again keeping their one eye open and one closed to see that other kids have closed both their eyes or not. And similar was the case with every kid.

So finally we completed all the exercises keeping one eye open and one closed.

And yeah how to forget a good dose of laugh that was attached with every exercise we did. Every kid was laughing looking at others performing yoga and he didn't knew that others are laughing on him lol..

I hope next time everyone who missed would be there.

Hooooooreeey!!!!!

2006-05-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Shahrukh is back in school!!!....

Moreover, Laxman's parents have agreed to send him to school.

Hip hip hooorey....

Attrition at School

2006-05-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were quite disappointed to learn that a couple of the kids have dropped out of school and have started working at the shops in the slum; one of them being Shahrukh Khan.

It seems that the kids themselves would rather go to school than work, but their parents insist that they do otherwise. These kids earn anywhere b/w 400 and 800 rupees a month working at these places, which is not a very small amount of money for these guys.

The teachers at MC said that they will speak to their parents; if they fail to make an impact then we may have to step in. I’m quite appalled that it’s so terribly difficult for parents to understand that their kids tomorrow is more important that the extra money today.

Do people have suggestions on how we should try and tackle this issue? Swapna suggested that we try and teach then crafts which can be sold to generate money for these kids.

Like to go for Partying...

2006-04-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

This time i'm not going to write what we did last Saturday, i'm going to show you. Let me take you through the world full of life:

Here is Prafulla teaching kids (Ooops... higher mathematics), but I guess kids were smarter than us, they started playing game (magic of numbers) with us and could guess any number that we think in our mind... (i was impressed)

While Ruchi was busy with small kids...

Saurabh was teaching the other group...

Now look at Prafulla and me, I guess instead of teching them we have learnt their way of greeting Doh!!.. Salaaaaaam Namaaaaste

Last time we taught all kids how to write their name in english. I was not sure if they would still remember but to my surprize when i told everyone to write their name they started laughing at me (one kid said "are bhiayaa aap bhi kyaa choti choti cheeze poochte ho.. ye lo..") and they all wrote their name correctly..

Now comes the twist, I guess everybody remember Shahrukh Khan, yes our own Shahrukh Khan. He stood up and asked me to write my name on his slate, well at that point of time I was clueless... but later I observed that he was trying to learn how to write our names. He wrote my name (frankly speaking his writing was much better than me, i think my school teachers were right, I need to improve my handwriting ...lol...) then it was turn of Prafulla and now look Shahrukh's concentration...

Here is our group

Oh i forgot, this time we had Dr. Rahul Verma and his wife Dr. Sumedha in Mobile Creches. They had a talk with MC coordinater Asha and discussed about the health of children. Now they would be visiting MC every week (Kudos for both of them). Asha was so hapy to see Doc that she couldn't stop herself thanking our group. I think we all should thank Dr. Rahul and his wife (three cheers for both of them).

Hey wait wait, can you guess who clicked all of these pictures..

I can bet you could not..

Kids of Mobile Creches :)

I never knew... Sun can be Blue!!

2006-04-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend only three of us were there. Sapna was ready with some A4 sheets, Prashant brought some candies and I was entering there with "no ideas what to do" in my mind. But once you are in, you really don’t need any idea. Refreshing smiles, curious faces, "namaste bhaiya" sound in the air...and you are totally into a new world.

Our "A for apple" team was busy doing some hard-code math this time:-). Moment I think of teaching something, very next moment they make me realize that they already know much more and I can really learn a lot from them. I sat in the middle and they were jumping over me.."bhaiya meri book dekho..bhaiya meri book dekho". I took one of the notebook in hand.. "2+3=5" was first entry on it. I remembered the day when, to add 2 and 3, I used to draw two bars...and a circle and three bars and count them all together. From counting..to sums..I thought to teach them some tables. I asked.."2 ka pahada kisko kisko aata hai" and there was Lalit (he is really good at many things) behind "bhaiya mujhe 20 tak aate hai".. I said "kyaaaa????" and thought.."graduation ho gaya par aaj tak mujhe 20 tak pahade yaad nahi hue"... It was so much fun teaching them some math tricks. They loved the one..using which you can generate (without remembering) the table of 9 just by writing 0 to 9 forward and backward.

At the other end, where Prshant was busy with camera session with kids, Sapna was enjoying drawing classes with them. I sat with one group and asked one of them make my sketch. If you dont care about the ratio of my head to my tummy...I was looking
cool:) with 5-5 fingers in both my hands. I would really recommend all the advertisement agencies to meet such creative minds. Looking at many concentric circles on a paper.. I asked "ye kya hai".. and he replied in a soft voice "ghar". Who knows he might be the first in future to make circular pyramids with top views as concentric circles? There were multicolored Indian flags, orange stars, triangular kites, one wheel car.. I was really lost into those colors. When I came out... the sun was really blue!!!

Fund's (Bizarre idea)

2006-03-30T00:29:00.000-08:00

Hey friends,

Till now Deepak has summed up most of the ideas for ‘fund generation’. (Just to add, please read comments to Deepak’s fund raising post, Nishtha has provided some excellent thoughts on elimination of ‘adsense’).
I also thought about this fund raising campaign. However, was not able to think on lines of fund generation using Internet = ( I have different approach. Let me take all of you through my approach.
What we need is some cash so that we can buy relevant things for children of ‘Mobile crèches’. Now, I feel that people are hesitant about giving cash (I know we can convince some for cash). So, what can people give? Clothes? (Na…. bad idea), Food? (Worse idea).
Hmmm…. After much thought I came to conclusion that there must be something that is basically rag to people, yet it has some cash value. I guess its old newspapers. (What…. Am I sounding crazy????????). Actually I have made some analysis for this too.

Assumptions:
A typical housing society (carlton/weelington/maple heights…e.t.c.) has 15 floors, 6 towers, 6 houses per floor. This gives me 5*5*15 = 540 houses per society.
1/3rd of people will be interested in contributing.
Study:
We will approach all the 540 houses and ask them to provide us with the bundle of old new papers (Obviously, we will give them details that why we are doing so).
180 people (1/3rd) will respond. On an average they will sell 5 kg’s of rag. This comes out to be 900 Kg’s. Now comes the cost per kg. I guess its 4.50 INR per kg. So it comes out to be 4050 INR. (Sounds like easy way of getting funds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Now comes the best part. Considering that all my assumptions and study has one or the other flaw (some may think its total crap), but I still feel that we can at least raise somewhere around 1000-1500 INR per society by just asking for old newspapers (their way for contributing money) and selling them.
Hope that my crazy idea makes some sense.

The trouble with life is, by the time you can read a girl like a book, its time to wake up

2006-03-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (sunday) was great!!

I saw "Love Story" in the morning. She didn't look like the heroine of the movie, but I don't know but the movie reminded me so much of her. Whatever, last few hours were simply great. I would have spend my whole life for those few hours, guess what spent my whole evening with her. It started with a cheeze tomato onion Pizza and what could be the best thing to have and that too with her. She loooks like any other girl, and yeah loves to talk and shop as other girls do (I think they are born with these skills). Whenever i'm with her i just don't waste time looking at anything else Doh!!. May be i'm foolish or better to say addicted. I think the whole credit goes to Hindi Movies. These things are expected to happen in these romantic movies where a boy in his 20s gets in love with with a girl in her early 20s. Whatever, we still know that silly movies like Niel and Nikki are still being made, promoting the multiplex chaap girl who wears a three year old's bathing suit to parties, drinks, smokes, uses foul words and calls herself independent.

Anyway, dream ended and i woke up in bed. Open my eyes in this hard real world. I am still thinking, if this is life or that was. Ok Ok i accept i'm an engineer, these things are not for me.

I am still in my bed and already late for office. Typing this stuff for last 20 minutes and still thinking when i should get up from bed. Now i should get up and brush my teeth. Oh that reminds me of our group. Last visit to Mobile creches was awesome. I was the first one to reach Mobile Creches. Rest of the group was a bit late. This time there were so many volenteers that it was hard for kids to choose which didi or bhiaya should be given the opportunity to pick them in their lap. You will soon be reading someone describing the whole story minute by minute.

Well i forgot what i was thinking to write and wrote all this silly stuff. Anyway, guyz what have you thought about fund raising activity. Ok let me summarize for all of you and you can put your thoughts here. The options we have:

1. Putting adsense on the blog.

2. Hosting a website where we can sell the products such as cards made by children.

3. Generating funds from corporates.

Please feel free to add more in case I missed any. Yesterday i came across one more idea for fund raising, what do you think about this.

Oh damn i have to go to office, i need to shut up and go and brush my teeth.

“Something” turned out to be much more..

2006-03-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

Hey people,

After lots of efforts and dishum dishum with blogger for the day, Ajay was not able to log on and finally he has to use my ID.

Ajay's experience of his first visit to Mobile Creches:

Deepak asked me “Are you coming to Mobile Crèches this Saturday” and without thinking much I said yes, may be will do something rather than sitting idle at home and watching TV. But “something” turned out to be much more than what I had thought of.

The plan was to meet in front of Cyber Park building at 10:00 am. I was a little late and reached there around 10:08. I found no familiar face and thought that it may be because I am late. But it turned out to be other way round. Anyways, all the people who planned to go to MC that day reached the Cyber Park building around 10:30. After everybody was there we (Deepak, Saurabh, Priyanka, Sapna and I) left for MC. One thing worth mentioning, as Deepak has already included in one of his previous mails to AID Gurgaon, that Sapna was well on time.

When we reached the gate of MC we could clearly hear the voices of the kids. As this was my first visit, I saw in one corner kids were studying, while in other, kids from one to three years of age were crying while some were busy in their own world. When they saw us they started shouting namaste didi and sometimes in between namaste bhaiya could also be heard :((. Some came running towards Saurabh expecting him to lift them over his shoulders and after that what could have happened you know, he could not have let their expectations down. Deepak also got busy with kids and Priyanka and Sapna started playing with small (one to three year old) kids. After namastes (milna milana) was over Saurabh started teaching them how to make frog (Origamy), while rest of us joined the kids. It was great fun throughout the time we were busy learning how to make a frog. Ooops, I forgot to mention about Neha, who also joined us a few minutes after we reached there. Well, it seemed she was really good and experienced at spending times with kids.

After the frog was made, one more thing was left to be done and that thing was teaching kids about computers. That required a lot of efforts and who other than Deepak (Masters in khidki, Certified by Bill Gates institute) could have done it better. All the kids were excited and surrounded Deepak, sitting with Laptop in his lap, and we could not see and hear what happened after that.
It was their lunch time and time for us to leave, guess what; again a lot of didi was heard with some bhaiya in between. When we were coming out I heard one of the kids asking when are you going to come back? And we all know the answer to this question we will be going this Saturday and will be a part of their sports day.

See everybody there…

Disclaimer: The information and thoughts in this post is the property of Ajay Panwar. I am no where involved. Though i wanted to make some modifications but i'm going to do them in comments. (I will see you Ajay)

And the Award goes to.....

2006-03-23T02:58:00.000-08:00

I took the risk and didn't knew it would have such an effect..

Last saturday after finshing off with Mobile Creches Neha gave lift to Sapna to her office (nothing to worry uptil now). Guess what Neha got time to orient (or disorient) Sapna. Now you all are aware what happen after that, guess what, today AID Gurgaon saw the most mail traffic in a day. Everyone's inbox were filled with AID Gurgaon mails...

Tantana..

Award for mailer of the day goes to Sapna Singh. Great to see so much energy in people :)

Pictorial representation of H2O

2006-03-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

Ha ha .. Hey look at our team, their style, their fans are looking at them

Beware, you can also be attacked.. Shekhar is still trying to recover..

Munish is trying to teach children :)

Does anybody want to meet Shahrukh Khan, here he is trying to draw a picture right in the center of the pic and you must not be knowing he want to become like Zaheer Khan ha ha....

Avinash is thinking are they so intelligent or am i so dumb he he..

Rang de Basanti..

2006-03-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

It was Wednesday, people called it holi, the day of filling your life with colors. Standing in balcony of my room on 9th floor, the world looked small. I could see many colored faces whom I cannot differentiate between. Black looked white and white had become black :). From the faces it looked as if all the color were dying to meet each other. Love, music, and laughter, the surroundings was full of them.

The world looked alive.

Afternoon: I was again there, standing in the balcony, but now the world looked different. I could stil see the faces, but now they all looked different (I should say indifferent). The faces which in the morning were laughing and playing with each other were not ready to recognize each other. Everybody going crazy, no one cares about anybody, it seemed the world has changed. The place which was full of life in the morning looked different from the one now. The feeling reminded me of crazy words..

What's wrong with society
When everywhere I look I see
Young girls dying to be on TV
Won't stop 'til they've reached their dreams

Diet pills, surgery
Photoshoped pictures in magazines
Telling them how they should be
It doesn't make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

I guess things are not how they used to be
There's no more normal families
Parents act like enemies
Making kids feel like it's World War III

No one cares
No ones there
I guess we're all just too damn busy
Money's our first priority
It doesn't make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Is everybody going crazy?

Tell me what's wrong with society
When everywhere I look I see
Rich guys driving big SUVs
While kids are starving in the streets
No one cares
No one likes to share
I guess life's unfair

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something
Something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Can anybody tell me what's going on
Tell me what's going on
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

Can anybody explain me whats wrong??

I want everyone to live in my world, the world which I saw in the morning, the world where people are not known by how they look but how they make their surrounding look. I guess its already 4 in night ( as they say in Evalueserve 4 A.M. Friday, March 17, 2006) and I have started sounding philosophical, i think i should go to sleep now, today i've been loaded with so many projects that if i do not sleep now, tommorrow people will make sure to make me permanently go to sleep.

Get yourself dissove in H2O

2006-03-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

Hey those who have read my previous post wait...

Before i go to sleep, i thought as i have planned to spend my weekend with
children why now invite everybody else. So people who do not know about our plans please find my mail which i sent over the group:

Hi All,

Holi was great for me, I found myself filled with colors!!..

Hope it was same for everyone.

Here comes Saturday, what to do?. No need to think, we all are going to Mobile Crèches!!

I came to know from the center coordinator of Mobile Crèches that every Saturday children wait for us. They really like spending time with us. (Wow, I thought that I’m the one who like spending time with others, but hey there are people who like spending time with me too) Chakshu was right “they are small kids with big hearts”

I think children there are very intelligent, therefore, I have decided I’m going to teach them about Computers. Moreover, I think we would be taking some sheets with us which will be used by children to make cards. (I am also going to learn this, I think a card presented to someone that is made by you, represents your true feeling)

Prafulla want to run with children with Firki in his hands.. Ha ha… (I don’t want to miss this scene)

Ok so the venue and plan to reach the venue remain the same. Let me describe it again:

Date: March 18, 2006.

Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Venue: Mobile Crèches (Vatika Center, Sohna Road)

We plan to get together at outside Evalueserve office (Unitech Cyber Park, Sector 39, Gurgaon) at 10:00 AM and leave together. Else, you can reach directly. The directions are as follows –

Once you are on the Gurgaon-Sohna Road, you will pass these buildings/ developments- MalibuTown, South City, South End, Park View and after this Vatika on your left. There is a sign saying Vatika 2006. Just ask the guard at the gate about the school and he will direct you.

In case you want to know anything about the activities or have any suggestions in mind please feel free to mail/call me.

Best regards,

Deepak (Don't follow me, I'm lost too...)
9810297880

P.S. Please confirm your presence by mailing me personally.

H2O-India... A Generation Awakens??

2006-03-06T00:33:00.000-08:00

H2O-India: Helping Hand to Ours
"A Picture is Worth A Thosuand Words", and those innocent eyes in the picture can reply every relevant question in your mind e.g. Why am I writing this? Why are you reading this? Can we really do something? Who need our helping hand? etc.
An old Chinese proverbs says, "Journey of a thousand miles begins with first step." Plans can be made for miles and miles, we can discuss 'what to do' day and night but I feel that our first step will be successful if we can bring smile on any such face.