Wednesday, July 05, 2006
How did it start?
So, how did I land up in this place doing whatever I am doing? Well, since Sep 2005 or so, I was getting itchy to do some work in social sector. I have been helping an orphanage in Bangalore, which I got introduced to through a colleague of mine at ThoughtWorks. A small group of us has been trying to help the inmates of this orphanage – some 70 odd kids, both boys and girls of varying age right from 3 yrs to 15 yrs. More information about this effort is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/koshish_effort.
Through this involvement, I realized that by participating part time in such kind of activity can at most prevent a disaster to happen, but it cannot improve the situation or reverse the cycle. So, in order to really change the situation, one has to devote a considerable time to such activities. With this in mind, I was wondering what I can do and when and how. My mind had too many questions and literally no answers. Over a period of time, I shared my thought process with few of my good friends.
Suddenly, one day, I received an email, from one of these friends, which had details about a project, conceived by one Mr. Thakar of Delhi, to be executed in a set of 4 villages somewhere in Himachal Pradesh. I went through all the attachments of the email and found it interesting. Actually, first I saw gaping holes in the whole planning and execution process and I wanted to talk to Mr. Thakar about it. I wrote an email to him but somehow I never sent it across. Then around couple of days later, I thought of that email and then instead of sending the email, I picked up the phone and spoke to him. Incidentally, that very morning, Mr. Thakar had left for these villages. He received my call while driving towards these villages. He pulled over and spoke to me for around half hour. After listening to him, some of my doubts got cleared and then I knew why he had made the plans the way he did. Anyway, we decided to speak again after his visit is over and he is back in Delhi, which we did. I asked him lots of questions some of which he could answer, and some of which he couldn’t because they were futuristic in nature. At the end, it seemed that before I make a decision I should probably visit these villages and check myself the ground realities.
On Apr 24, I took a flight from Bangalore to Delhi, met Mr. Thakar and after spending one day in Delhi I took an overnight bus to Manali. I got down on the way at Bilaspur. Here I had to wait for one hour, as the next bus to Berthin was only at 5 AM and it was barely 4 AM when I got down the bus. Finally, the bus arrived and after around an hour and half it reached Berthin, where I met Mr. Kuldeep who is the nephew of Mr. Rikhi Ram, who belongs to one of these villages – Kallar. It is because of him that Mr. Thakar created this project for these villages. I was put up in a PWD rest house in Ghumarwin where I stayed for 5 days. During this time, I met with everyone at Kallar school, participated in two meetings with villagers, met with Mr. Prakash and Mr. Bharadwaj (current Pradhan and a senior advocate at Ghumarwin), Agriculture research institute at Berthin, BSNL officers at Ghumarwin (to find out about broadband availability), a NGO by name Manav Seva Sansthan at Berthin, Senior Secondary school folks at Berthin and some youngsters at village. One of my old time college friends, Ramesh visited me for a day during this visit. That time he was working at NIT, Hamirpur which is just around 40 km from Ghumarwin. We met after a long 8 years.
Overall, I could get a sense of what all is going on, and what all one has to do from the perspective of what Mr. Thakar was planning. I left Ghumarwin and went to Uttaranchal to see my parents out there.I stayed in Uttaranchal for around a week or so, before returning back to Bangalore. During this week I thought a lot about the project and discussed with my parents and few friends. After returning to Bangalore, I had few conversations with Mr. Thakar over phone which gave me further insights into the whole project. Finally, I spoke to ThoughtWorks that I would like to take a 6 month Leave of Absence to pursue this project. ThoughtWorks’ management was extremely accommodative and they agreed to my request even though it was not the best time for such a thing as I was supposed to be relocating to US for a very important assignment. Finally, to help things at TW, I made a short trip to US before coming back and starting my Rendezvous with Kallar.
Through this involvement, I realized that by participating part time in such kind of activity can at most prevent a disaster to happen, but it cannot improve the situation or reverse the cycle. So, in order to really change the situation, one has to devote a considerable time to such activities. With this in mind, I was wondering what I can do and when and how. My mind had too many questions and literally no answers. Over a period of time, I shared my thought process with few of my good friends.
Suddenly, one day, I received an email, from one of these friends, which had details about a project, conceived by one Mr. Thakar of Delhi, to be executed in a set of 4 villages somewhere in Himachal Pradesh. I went through all the attachments of the email and found it interesting. Actually, first I saw gaping holes in the whole planning and execution process and I wanted to talk to Mr. Thakar about it. I wrote an email to him but somehow I never sent it across. Then around couple of days later, I thought of that email and then instead of sending the email, I picked up the phone and spoke to him. Incidentally, that very morning, Mr. Thakar had left for these villages. He received my call while driving towards these villages. He pulled over and spoke to me for around half hour. After listening to him, some of my doubts got cleared and then I knew why he had made the plans the way he did. Anyway, we decided to speak again after his visit is over and he is back in Delhi, which we did. I asked him lots of questions some of which he could answer, and some of which he couldn’t because they were futuristic in nature. At the end, it seemed that before I make a decision I should probably visit these villages and check myself the ground realities.
On Apr 24, I took a flight from Bangalore to Delhi, met Mr. Thakar and after spending one day in Delhi I took an overnight bus to Manali. I got down on the way at Bilaspur. Here I had to wait for one hour, as the next bus to Berthin was only at 5 AM and it was barely 4 AM when I got down the bus. Finally, the bus arrived and after around an hour and half it reached Berthin, where I met Mr. Kuldeep who is the nephew of Mr. Rikhi Ram, who belongs to one of these villages – Kallar. It is because of him that Mr. Thakar created this project for these villages. I was put up in a PWD rest house in Ghumarwin where I stayed for 5 days. During this time, I met with everyone at Kallar school, participated in two meetings with villagers, met with Mr. Prakash and Mr. Bharadwaj (current Pradhan and a senior advocate at Ghumarwin), Agriculture research institute at Berthin, BSNL officers at Ghumarwin (to find out about broadband availability), a NGO by name Manav Seva Sansthan at Berthin, Senior Secondary school folks at Berthin and some youngsters at village. One of my old time college friends, Ramesh visited me for a day during this visit. That time he was working at NIT, Hamirpur which is just around 40 km from Ghumarwin. We met after a long 8 years.
Overall, I could get a sense of what all is going on, and what all one has to do from the perspective of what Mr. Thakar was planning. I left Ghumarwin and went to Uttaranchal to see my parents out there.I stayed in Uttaranchal for around a week or so, before returning back to Bangalore. During this week I thought a lot about the project and discussed with my parents and few friends. After returning to Bangalore, I had few conversations with Mr. Thakar over phone which gave me further insights into the whole project. Finally, I spoke to ThoughtWorks that I would like to take a 6 month Leave of Absence to pursue this project. ThoughtWorks’ management was extremely accommodative and they agreed to my request even though it was not the best time for such a thing as I was supposed to be relocating to US for a very important assignment. Finally, to help things at TW, I made a short trip to US before coming back and starting my Rendezvous with Kallar.
// posted by amAUzed @ 3:24 AM 
Comments:
<< Home
"The good news is that now-a-days, whenever students of 7th and 8th have a free period, they come to me and ask me to teach them."
This is soooooo AWESOME!!!!!!!
Post a Comment
This is soooooo AWESOME!!!!!!!
<< Home
