kartheevidya.com - Blog by Kartheeban Chandramohan

2020 - A year, we will never forget

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 10:15:21 +0000

2020 - This is a year that our generation will not forget easier. The first pandemic of our lifetime. A virus which is so small that we cannot see in our naked eye bought the entire world to a standstill. It looked like the virus has pressed the huge ‘Pause’ button.

This world which is divided by boundaries, race, colour, religion united to face the common enemy. At times, it makes you think pandemic like this happens for a reason.

The pandemic made us stay in our home for longer periods than we ever thought.

It gave us time to do something beyond work.

It gave us time to spend our time with family.

It gave us time to connect back with our old friends.

It gave us time to reflect back on our life.

It taught us to appreciate the small things in life.

It told us, not to take things granted in life.

It made us to live LIFE.

For me personally, 2020 is an year of fightback. Dec 31, 2020 concludes my completion of 6 years of quitting my corporate job. For a guy like me who comes from a not so financially strong background, quitting a steady corporate job is a big step. I made that decision so that I can go and live my dream of serving others, promoting volunteering in this country. Hence, I make sure that the work I and my team does is worth quitting a well paying job a 1000 times.

Here are few milestones by Team Everest which I’m proud of this year:

Milestone-1: We closed our office on 20-March-2020 thinking it will be for weeks or a month. Never in our wildest dream we thought it will extend for a year. Our team of 20+ employees need to work entirely from home. I always believed in having ‘Laptop’ for employees than ‘Desktop’ as I loved the portability the ‘Laptop’ offers. All our employees were using laptop for work which made the job easier. In less than 24 hours, we became a 100% remote team without any additional investment.

Milestone-2: The first task in our hand is to help our beneficiaries fight the pandemic. 1 in 2 families lost job with no income at all. Their next meal became a question mark. We launched a ‘Covid Livelihood Relief’ fundraising campaign. We ended up raising Rs 45+ Lakhs helping 600+ families by paying them directly to fight poverty in their home. More than 2000 people had food because of support from volunteers like you.

We even raised funds to sponsor the salary of teachers who lost their jobs during pandemic.

I can never forget the heartfelt thanks these people shared with us. Nothing can be better than a timely help.

Milestone-3: Our students most of them from rural areas and in slums, huts in Chennai stopped learning as the schools and colleges closed. We launched Virtual Volunteering with 17 types of activities on March 23, 2020 which is within 48 hours from the day we closed our office. By end of the year, 7000+ volunteers volunteered to teach 8000+ children virtually. There is zero physical volunteering and 100% of our activities went virtual.

For me, to adopt to such a change in a short period is a massive achievement. A big thanks to all the volunteers and my team who made this happen. For me, just this alone shows the resilience of the organisation. I want ‘Team Everest’ to be an organization which is ready to face any challenges in future and come out with flying colours. Every challenge is an opportunity to become stronger. We became more stronger from this challenge.

Check all our virtual volunteering opportunities here.

Milestone-4:‘I am the Change’ scholarship is our flagship program where we identify parentless, single parented students and sponsor them for their UG degree. We started this scholarship in 2016 with 19 students. In 2019, we added 200 new students to this scholarship and was sponsoring a total of 400 students by end of 2019.

I wanted to double the number of students whom we sponsor in 2020. We worked hard. We reached out to people and asked for help. We crowdfunded for this initiative. 10,000+ people donated and we ended up sponsoring the education of 450+ new students in 2020 which is 125% more than 2019. As of now, 850 students are part of this scholarship and 70% of them are sponsored by individuals like you (Rest is sponsored by Corporate sponsors).

Because of Covid, we converted our student selection process virtually. We received 6000+ applications. After 10,000+ calls, thousands of interviews, we shortlisted 450 students for this scholarship program in 2020.

Interviewing 6000 students virtually, doubling the number of students to sponsor when the entire economy is crashing shows the faith our volunteers, donors have on Team Everest. Thank you everyone for stepping in when the world needs the most.

If you wish to sponsor a student, click here.

Note: We also introduced ‘Covid Scholarship’ and currently sponsoring 50 students whose family is affected because of Covid.

Milestone-5: Team Everest vision is to promote volunteering in the country, in the world. We strongly believe that to create a culture of volunteering, we should start it from home. Hence, we introduced ‘Children Volunteering’ on Children’s day (14-Nov-2020). We introduced 10 virtual volunteering activities designed exclusively for children. Already more than 500 children volunteers are part of various initiatives. We look forward to introduce volunteering to many more children in 2021. (Click here to know about our children volunteering programs)

I want to take a moment to thank all the volunteers, donors, my teammates, friends and family members who gives me the strength to keep going.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. There is no better proof for this statement than 2020 for Team Everest.

We will find strength from 2020 and will build 2021 with more hope and optimism.

Team Everest promises to spread volunteering more and to help more children in 2021.

Happy New year everyone.

The Picasso in me!

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 07:25:11 +0000

This happened during my 5th std. School inspection is going to happen.

My science teacher who is also my class teacher entered our class in a rush. We can clearly see a sense of urgency in her face.

She informed the entire class that School inspection is coming up in next 1 week. I don't know what a School inspection is. She told that everyone should draw a chart and bring it to paste in the classroom.

She opened the Science textbook and started giving topics to each and every child as per attendance order. I'm all excited. For the first time in my life, I'm going to be part of a school inspection. My art is going to decorate the walls of my school.

I was eagerly waiting for my turn.

Gopal - Reflection

Harish - Sound Waves

Karthee - Teeth

Yes, I got my topic. I have been assigned the task of drawing 'Teeth'. Yes, teeth.

Human beings has 32 teeth. Right. That teeth. Same teeth, I need to draw!

I was expecting a bigger challenge. A more tougher challenge. But, that's ok. I need to draw a teeth now. The human teeth.

This is my first assignment. I need to prove this world who I am. Time to show my artistic skill to the world.

The teacher finished assigning tasks to all students and left the classroom. The deadline is 3 days. On the 4th day, I need to bring it to the school.

I got up from my seat with lot of proudness because someone has trusted me and has given me an assignment.

I felt like an astronomer who was shortlisted by NASA for their next Moon mission.

With the background music playing inside my ear, the one which only I can hear, the school bell rang. It is time to leave school and get in to action.

My teeth mission started.

My uncle came to pick me from school. Once I reached my home, while I was removing my slippers, I was shouting 'Mummy, Mummy...'

I came inside, quickly removed my school bag and told my mom about the important project that I has been assigned in School.

I clearly explained her all the raw materials that I need to accomplish this mission. We listed them down on a piece of paper. We made a call to my dad using our landline phone and asked him to purchase the items while coming back to home today (Thanks to the technology. I'm making some quick progress in my mission!).

My dad use to come back to home by 8.30PM or 8.45PM everyday. It is just 5.30PM. I'm looking at the clock every 5 minutes. The clock is ticking slowly. I felt like a boy who is waiting in the park for his girl friend. Excited and impatient.

The excitement and waiting took a toll on my health. I went asleep by the time dad reached home. Day-0 is over.

Day-1:

I woke up the next day and felt excited to see all the raw materials for my mission ready. But, it is time to go to school. I went to school, done for the day and back to home now.

Time to take my first step. I opened the chart. It is the first time, I'm working on a chart. I never thought that it will be that big. It is almost 20 times bigger than my regular notebook which I use everyday in my school. It is almost half my height.

Mastering such a big piece of paper is my first challenge.

I remembered the instruction given by my teacher. The chart should have a margin.

Wow. That's great. I decided to complete this milestone first.

The chart is so big and my scale is very small. What's the fun in it if there is no challenge?

I started drawing the margins. I was rolling, diving, jumping, sleeping, kneeling down and used all humanly possible postures to complete the margins on all four sides of a chart.

I'm done. It took me 2 hours to finish drawing the margins.

I stepped back to see the work I have done. Wow, 4 lines on 4 sides of a chart. Not very perfect. Not straight. But that's okay. What is more important is the art inside these margins and not the margins.

With all those gymnastic postures, acrobatic moves that I made for drawing the margins, I got tired and slept near the chart itself.

Day-1 is over. More importantly, I completed Milestone-1: Drawing margins.

Day-2:

I'm back home after a tough day at school. After drinking my routine cup of boost, it's time to immerse myself in the world of art.

It's time to bring the Picasso in you.

I opened my chart, looked into my margins and felt proud once again.

You can't pride yourself in victory when there is a bigger mission to achieve. I stopped glaring at those beautiful margins and opened the page number which my teacher marked me for my art.

I saw 3 art in that page:

An art with single tooth
An art with 5 or 6 tooth put together
An inside view of one's mouth trying to cover all 32 teeth.

A decision paralysis engulfed me. Which one to draw now? My teacher only gave me the page number and topic. She did not tell me exactly which art.

Oh, my God. How am I going to make a decision now? Should I choose the easy art which is a single tooth or chose the complex one which has 32 teeth in it.

A champion always chose tougher challenges over easier ones. So, I decided to choose the 3rd art: 32 teeth.

By the time, I made the decision, I already spent 1 hour.

I started drawing the teeth, one by one. Every curve, every shape, I started to replicate. My full concentration is on the art.

Suddenly, I stopped. I got a doubt whether the original image has all 32 teeth in it. I started counting them in my book. I cannot find more than 20 (I was not aware that we need a 3D model to show all 32 teeth and it is tough to replicate it in a 2D model).

Oh my god. I'm in mid of my art work and my original art has a big mistake. It do not have all the 32 teeth. Confused by whether to go ahead or not, I'm paralysed once again.

With all these tough decisions to make, my brain got tired and I slept for the day.

Day 2 is over.

Day-3:

The final day before submission. My chart now has a margin and partially drawn teeth.

The clock is ticking.

An artist need creativity and time to build his masterpiece.

I'm full of creativity. But, the clock is ticking. I need to submit the art to my class teacher next day. I'm running out my time.

I had a proverb in my 5th std English book which said 'Time and tide wait for none'.

Now, being confident that time is not going to wait for me, I'm in a race against time. I brought the best in me. I'm in full flow. The teeth's are laid out one after another. There is no Colgate or Pepsodent to look at my art. If they were there, they would have sponsored me to show my art in their advertisements.

It's time for dinner. I quickly completed my dinner and back to work. It's time to colour my teeth.

I gave it white colour (Thank god, I chose a light blue chart for my artwork!).

The masterpiece is ready now. I asked my mom to roll the chart and tie it with a thread.

I went to bed while my masterpiece is waiting to be rejoiced by the world the next day.

The D-Day:

I woke up a little earlier. Took a nice bath, dressed myself, applied oil to my hair, combed my hair properly and made sure that I'm looking in the best possible version of me.

Had breakfast and my journey to the school started in my dad's TVS 50.

My lunchbox is put in the front while I'm holding my school bag in my back, my two hands are carefully holding my artwork.

There are no siren in our vehicle. There are no security guards surrounding us. The responsibility of safeguarding my masterpiece is absolutely with me.

I need to carefully hold it against the racing wind (Even if I'm in a TVS 50), the bumpy roads and the dust in the atmosphere.

I finally reached the school on time. Myself and my masterpiece, both of us were waiting for the Science period to start.

The most expected period has come. My class teacher is inside our classroom. She is going to see all our art and appreciate us.

She started calling one by one in alphabetical order.

Akash....

Akash handed over the art work to the teacher. The teacher saw the art and showed it to the entire class. The entire class goes in wow and clapping hands like crazy.

My teacher called out the the next names...

Arun

Bala

Chitra

....

That's the first time in my life, I blamed my parents for naming me with the starting letter as 'K'.

I was waiting for my turn.

Gopal

Harish

Karthee

My name came. The teacher called out my name. I stood up from my bench. Took my masterpiece and proudly walked towards my teacher in slow motion and a background music in my ears.

I handed over my artwork to the teacher like a king handing over the sword to his Army head before the war.

The teacher opened my chart. She gazed over it. She took extra few seconds to look at my chart.

She lifted her eyebrows. I felt so happy. I'm sure she is impressed. I'm waiting for her to turn and show my art to the entire class. I'm waiting for my class to applaud me, applaud my art.

Time to tell the world, that the Picasso of this generation is here.

My teacher looked me into my eyes. She rotated the chart and showed it to the entire class.

I was looking at my classmates. I'm waiting for the class to go in awe.

Suddenly, everyone's opened their eyes to their maximum. They bought all their focus to my chart.

But, unfortunately they could not find the art in it. Everyone is searching for the art.

I'm a very practical guy. I love to bring reality in whatever I do.

So, in that big chart, I drew the teeth in the teeth size itself. Yes, my teeth is just 1 to 2cms in that big chart.

When my classmates found it out, the class erupted in laughter.

My teacher looked into my eyes and said something which I will never forget in my life - "Karthee, unaku drawing varadhu. Nee ini drawing try pannadey" (Karthee, drawing is not for you. Do not try to draw anything in future).

She said this and told "Rajashekar, take this chart with you and draw teeth at the backside of the chart". Rajashekar is the 1st rank holder in my class and a very good friend of mine.

I came back to my bench disappointed. The eyes are filled with tears. The background music stopped. Only my teacher word is echoing in my ears. She told me I couldn't draw.

All students trust their teachers. When a teacher say something, the student believes it. I believed my teacher. I believed that I cannot draw.

I started avoiding any drawing assignments. To draw animal and plant cells during my 8th std is like hell. It will take me days to get it done.

I will skip a simple drawing which will take just 5 mins to draw in exams and start answering questions which will take me 20 mins of writing a big essay.

I decided to choose 'Computer Science' group in Plus-1 because 'Biology' group will involve a lot of work to do with diagrams.

Drawing margins on my unruled notebook is the most complicated work for me. I could not draw a straight margin because my teacher told me that I cannot draw. I believed her.

When they introduced 'Integration' in Maths in 11th std, I could not draw the integration symbol which looked like a big piece of art to me. I could not draw it because my teacher told me that I cannot draw.

When my family asked me to take 'Mechanical Engineering' after my Plus-2, I avoided it because it involves doing lot of drawing about machines.

Despite joining 'Metallurgical Engineering' (in Govt College, Salem), I could not avoid the 'Engineering Drawing' subject in my second semester.

What? A full subject dedicated for drawing to become an engineer?

I use to bribe my friends with tea, biscuits to get my engineering drawing assignments done. Somehow, I cleared my 'Engineering Drawing' exam.

I joined an IT Company. Whenever, I try to draw something on whiteboard during a brainstorming session, my colleagues have a lot of fun looking at my drawings.

My sweet teammates at Team Everest use to take pictures of my whiteboard drawings and even blackmail to make it public 🙂.

All this happened, because my teacher told me that I cannot draw. And, I believed her.

A teacher can make or break you. This is a story of a teacher who killed the artist in me. (I have a story of another teacher who made me realise my full potential. That's a story for another day)

If you are a teacher, choose your words wisely.

If you are a student, choose your teacher wisely.

Because, a teacher can make or break the Picasso in you.

5 Years of quitting Cognizant

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 07:35:30 +0000

Yes, It’s officially 5 years since I have quit my job in Cognizant and decided to do full time Social Work with the non profit organization I founded - Team Everest. Dec 31, 2014 is my last working day in a corporate. I wrote a Facebook post 5 years ago announcing my decision to quit the job which went viral fetching 14,000 likes, 1300 Comments and 1100 Shares. The blog post I wrote was viewed by 6.7 Lakhs people.

So, what am I doing for the past 5 years?

Is it worth quitting my high paid corporate job?

Is it good to chase passion?

Let me try to answer some of these questions in this blog post. Remember to Read till the end!

Let me start with some of the key accomplishments which I feel proud about:

Giving back to Native: Immediately after quitting my job, I went back to my native - Arni in Tiruvannamalai District, Tamilnadu (India) and started identifying deserving parentless & single parented kids to support for their education. I identified 100 kids and started sponsoring their education. We named it as 'Smile 100' scholarship program.

Mom Dad Community Center: Converted our home in my native (Arni) where I was born and brought up into a community center helping 500 children in the community every year.

The Graduation Dream: A survey data says that out of 100 kids who join the school in India, only 25 students go on to join a graduate program in a college. I have seen this personally in many schools that we work with. Students dropping after school education due to lack of money to join college. This drop out rate is even higher for parentless and single parented students. Hence, we started a scholarship program called 'I am the Change Scholarship' in 2016 sponsoring 18 parentless, single parented students for their UG degree as a first batch.

We are currently sponsoring the graduation program of 400 parentless & single parented students.

Introducing computer education to School Children: We have set up computer labs and doing digital literacy classes for 5500 children every day in Government schools. Digital Literacy is not part of their curriculum and hence this is a very crucial skill to teach our children in 21st century.

Global Volunteering Program: We do an initiative called ‘Speak Out’ (www.speakout.teameve rest.ngo) where volunteers teach Spoken English to College students. In our last edition of Speak Out, 800 Volunteers from 12 countries volunteered to teach Spoken English to 400 students who are in Chennai. 15,000+ Calls have happened in last edition alone. We built a mobile application that is used to map students and volunteers, access curriculum, mark attendance and raise issues that are resolved within 48 hours. Happy to conceptualise and execute a global volunteering program like this from scratch. I believe this is the first such tele-volunteering global program happening in India.

Corporate Partnerships: When I quit my job, our nonprofit had no partnerships with any corporates. 5 years down the line, we are currently working with 50+ corporates, SMBs and startups on various initiatives and on a different scale. At least 25% of these companies did their first CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity after my intervention.

Promoting Volunteering: We built a volunteer base of 15,000 volunteers from scratch who are the backbone of many Team Everest initiatives now. We are still learning and exploring many new ways to engage these volunteers in giving back to society.

Beneficiary reach: We currently work with 40,000 children every year on various programs.

Financial Capacity: When I quit my job, our organization didn't have enough funds to meet our goals. We worked hard and grew financially by 2000% in the past 5 years. Yes, that's 20 times. This is very important to scale our scholarship program and other initiatives to reach more children.

So, is it worth quitting the job?

Absolutely Yes. With loads of time in my hand, I'm able to build a team, identify volunteers, do fundraising and find the right corporate partners to help more children.

So, were there challenges?

Like everyone who is trying to chase their dreams, I too had many challenges in my journey. It required a lot of personal sacrifices, hard work and never say die attitude to keep things rolling.

I should thank my parents, my teachers, my friends and all my mentors in Cognizant who made me the person who I'm today.

What's the road ahead?

Scholarship: We will be scaling our Scholarship to new cities in the next 5 years and our vision is to give Scholarships to 2025 new students every year from 2025 onwards.
Promoting Volunteering: We will develop new programs and engage more individual & corporate volunteers to give back to society.
Corporate Partnerships: We will meet more Corporates, SMBs, Startups and help them in making 'Giving' part of their organizational culture.
Reach More beneficiary: We will work towards impacting 10x more children by 2025.

So, how can you help?

Give time: You are interested to volunteer? Sign up as a volunteer now.
Be a Monthly Giver: Running our Scholarship program requires regular funds. Signup as a monthly donor and donate any amount of your choice monthly to educate a parentless/single parented student - www.hope.teameverest.ngo/join
Donate: Cannot donate monthly? Make a one-time donation now - www.bit.ly/help2020
Refer a corporate: Connect me with your company head or CSR head or HR or manager. We love to partner with like-minded organizations who wants to make a difference. My contact details are given below.
Start a CSR/Giving Club in your company: No matter how big or small your company is. If your company wants to volunteer and looking for guidance, feel free to reach out to me. I will be glad to help.
Follow our work in Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube and Twitter.

Sponsor Me:

For the past 5 years, I'm not taking any salary and working as a volunteer to promote volunteering in our country and to provide quality education to children who couldn't afford it. Check out my giving journey here.

My wife who was working in Cognizant and later in Philips has also quit her job and joined Team Everest full time. Our current family income is 25% of what we use to earn in 2015. My savings helped me for the past 5 years and I will exhaust them in 2020.

Though I don't charge any of our beneficiaries, this world still charges me for all my expenses :).

The only way I can continue to survive in this world is to earn some money while doing my social work.

You can help me by:

Sponsoring a small amount every month. Whatsapp me as 'Karthee Sponsor' to +91 89399 12365. Click here to whatsapp me now.
Connect me with an individual (CEO, VP/Director, Celebrity, etc..) who can sponsor me fully or partially.
A corporate can sponsor me from its profits so that I can continue to impact more lives.

Contact Details:

Call/Whatsapp: +91 89399 12365

Mail: karthee@kartheevidya.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kartheevidyavolunteer

Twitter: @kartheevidya

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kartheevidya

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kartheevidya

I have a dream where every Indian volunteer at least once a month. And, I will continue to chase that dream to help more children.

P.S: Whatsapp me at +91 89399 12365 and let's stay connected. Be part of this Volunteering journey!

Thank you!

How a 3rd std kid in USA raised funds for kids in India?

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 21:16:13 +0000

I got to know about Miss Pavithra Raghavan, a 3rd grade student studying in USA through her mother Jayanthi whom I got to know through Whatsapp!

Pavithra is a young, enegetic, brilliant and optimistic kid with a lot of character. I have never met Pavithra or her mom. Pavithra needs to do a social service project as part of her school work.

Pavithra got to know about me and the service we do through Team Everest from her mom. She did a google research to know more about me. After reading my facebook page and blog post, she decided to raise funds for some of the children whom we work with.

One day, I got a call from Jayanthi and got to know about Pavithra's decision. I am impressed with her attitude and decided to help her.

This is what the little girl did in her school to raise funds. She first made a collage about me to create awareness on why she choosed me.

Pavithra is good at painting. She drew some amazing paintings which she sold to her friends and relatives to raise funds. Below are some of her paintings which she drew to raise funds:

After selling these paintings, she needs to put a stall explaining about her project. This is how her stall looked like:

When I saw these paintings and hard work she has put in, I had tears in my eyes. I prayed to God that this girl should get endless years of life in this world with good health.

Kindness acts like this inspire me. It is bigger than a noble prize. I feel happy that I was able to inspire Pavithra. It gives me a lot of motivation to help more people in the future.

This girl has taught us some thing important in life:

If you are a person who is too busy working all these years, it is time to ask yourself -- "What am I done to society? What am I done to others? What am I done for the people". If the answer is "Nothing" or "So little", it is time to do something back to society.
If you are a parent, you can show this blog post to your children, talk about Pavithra and motivate them to do something back to society.
If you are a student, Pavithra's act shows that there is no age bar for social service. Don't wait to become an adult to help others. Help now. You can do it.

Thank you Pavithra for inspiring me and showing the world what kids can do. I wish you all the best in your life and I'm sure you are going to inspire many more in the future.

Keep making a difference with your art, thoughts, and acts. This world belongs to people like you. Keep inspiring.

Note: If you or your kid want to fundraise and help Children, whatsapp to +91 89399 12365. We love to promote volunteering!

10 Corporate and Project Management Lessons from Baahubali-2

Tue, 16 May 2017 19:48:55 +0000

About the Author: I'm Karthee Vidya, who loves volunteering and helping children. I have quit my corporate job and doing full-time social work now. Read ' My Giving Journey' here.

I'm also the Founder and First Volunteer of Team Everest NGO. We promote volunteering and provide quality education to children who could not afford it. To join as a volunteer, sign up here or WhatsApp with your name to +91 89399 12365.

I love connecting with people.

Let's be friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

10 Corporate and Project Management Lessons from Baahubali-2

Hi,

As everyone is aware, Baahubali 2 has smashed all movie records in India. It is one of the wonderful creative works of our generation. Just like you, I was also awestruck with the movie. There are many awesome scenes in the movie which makes your jaw drop. Hats off to Rajamouli and his team for this visual treat.

After watching the movie, the logical person inside me spotted few management lessons from the epic story. This blog post is a result of that thought process. Here it is:

Lesson-1

Scene: Devasena practices hard by herself to master Bow & arrow.

Lesson-2

Scene: Devasena acts as a prisoner in Baahubali Part-1 and as a princess in Part-2.

Lesson-3

Scene: Pig Hunting Scene where Baahubali helps Kumaravarma.

Lesson-4

Scene: Devasena replies to the letter from Sivakami.

Lesson-5

Scene: Baahubali kills the person who misbehaved with girls/women.

Lesson-6

Scene: Baahubali is sent out of the palace. He lives with the common man and helps them by making their day to day job easier.

Lesson-7

Scene: Sivakami sends a letter to Devasena asking her to marry her son. She forgets to mention which Son it is!

Lesson-8

Scene: In the Climax, Baahubali will Promise his mother that he will throw the villain in the fire bed before she completes 3 rounds. And, he does it too!

Lesson-9

Scene: Devasena is arrested and handcuffed even before she is proven guilty as per the rules of the kingdom.

Lesson-10

Scene: In the Climax, the head of the statue is washed away in the water and thrown out in a big waterfall.

Bonus Lesson

Scene (Baahubali-1): Sivakami sacrifices her life to save Baahubali.

Hope you enjoyed. Share your favorite lesson in the comment section and remember to share this blog post with your friends.

About the Author:I'm Karthee Vidya, who loves volunteering and helping children. I have quit my corporate job and doing full-time social work now. Read ' My Giving Journey'here.

I love connecting with people.

Let's be friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Note: All pictures used in this blog post is taken from Baahubali official site or from Google Images. The ownership and credits for the pictures belong to respective owners only.

The Poet in me!

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 01:35:38 +0000

Even the subject line of this blog post would trigger a huge laughter from my wife. After all, she is the one who needs to listen to my boring poems (That's how I call them) :). That's a different story altogether.

Here, I want to write about my first experience on the poems I wrote.

During my School days, I was very much fascinated by how these poets write those beautiful song lyrics. I thought poets have a special brain which makes them write beautiful poems.

I use to read some of the regional weekly magazines where some of the reader's poems get published in it. In fact, those readers are also recognized with cash awards for their poems (Mostly Haiku type). It made me realize that 'Poems' are not just for 'Poets'. Even a common man can write it.

So, I thought, why not I try it out. But, you know what. I always felt that I'm a more a logical guy than a creative one.

But being a School student, I was not aware of being logical or being creative. All, I wanted is to write some beautiful poems.

So, I took out my pen and my diary. I choose a silent, private place so that none of my family members figures out what I'm doing, reads my poem, have a great laugh and embarrass me.

I reached my spot. The page is empty. The pen is full of ink. But, the words did not flow. I didn't know what to write.

Came back home with a failed attempt of becoming a poet. I didn't give up. I wanted to try some other day.

The next day, I don't want to fail again. This time, I wrote something on paper. I was very happy. But, the happiness was short lived. I read what I wrote. It didn't sound like a poem. In fact, it is a 'Sentence'.

One more day of failed attempt...

I want to be a poet, but words are not just flowing. The creative side of me is just not working.

And, that's when the 'Logical Person' inside me woke up. I started paying close attentions to the poems I read, songs I listen, to figure out some common patterns in the poems.

After reading quite a few poems and listening to songs, I made a discovery.

I figured out two common patterns to write good poems during my school days:

1) You should be in 'Love', or you should have a 'Love' failure as many songs are written when a hero falls in love or have a breakup :) .

2) To write some good poems, you need to involve 'Mother Nature' in it. Yes, I found a pattern that there is some frequent usage of some natural elements like 'Sky', 'Moon', 'Star', 'Rose' etc...

I believed, I cracked the code to become a poet.

Option-1 is ruled out as it is too much for a 7th standard school boy to fall in love or have a breakup (At least in the year 1997 in India)

So, I went ahead with Option-2. I listed some of the natural elements on the back of my diary as 'Key Words'. This is what I wrote:

Sea, Waves Cloud, Rain Mountain, Moon, Flower Breeze

Having found the keywords, I'm now trying to add few more words on the front and back to the keywords to make it a poem.

Viola! When I read them, it sounded like a poem (At least for me). I figured out. The little school going kid has become a poet. His logical brain trumped the creative brain in him. Option-2 is working great for him.

I do not remember what my first poem is. But, I'm sharing some of those poems I wrote during my school days:

Dear Cloud, if you cry farmers get happy. Don't you have anyone to understand you?

Dear breeze, why do you behave like a cyclone to me?

Dear Sea, won't your waves touch me?

Dear flower, won't your fragrance reach me?

Dear Cloud, won't you rain on me? Dear Nature, are you also discriminating by caste and religion?

Claim the branches called 'Failures', to eat the fruits called 'Success'.

Option-2 worked for few days and the poems dried out sooner. I felt that 'Option-1' has more potential to deliver an infinite number of poems. But 'Love' is so complex than poems for a guy like me. But, I need a girl for whom I can write poems.

I'm very fond of having an elder sister during my school days. I'm only blessed with an elder brother and not a sister. To my agony, a majority of my friends had an elder sister. When many of my friends were looking for girlfriends, I was looking out for an elder sister. To my luck, I found one.

Now, I have a person for whom I can write poems for. More importantly, I have got my first reader for my poems.

Here are some poems that I wrote for my sister. When I read them now, some are so funny and some of them are too good even now :)

If she comes along with angels around, people will ask who is that beautifulgirl?

Dear flowers did you learn to laugh looking at mysister? She doesn't fade, but why you do?

I am not a natural poet. It's not my hobby too. I just wrote few out of my excitement. I stopped writing poems after my school days. I didn't write any after that. I do not know why I don't write them. I write blog posts. But, not poems. Sometimes, I write one liner quotes that strike my mind on my Evernote. That's all.

After many years, I figured out something about poems. Poems are not creative magical lines. They are not logical blocks of words.

Poems are emotions.

Poems are written to express an emotion.

To tell something more beautifully.

I understood poems are words with souls. You don't need any special skills to become a poet. You just need to feel, enjoy each and every moment of your life. The poems are just hidden in the nook and corner of such moments.

All you need to do is,

Live your life like a POEM.

And, the world one day will say 'Once, there lived a great POET...'.

An inspiring Banyan Tree..

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 07:01:36 +0000

On the way to my meeting venue, I saw a Banyan tree with a message board in front of it.

I’m sharing the message written in front of this tree below:

“This 70 year old banyan tree was transplanted from Padiri Village, located 60Km from here. The branches were chopped and the tree was uprooted to make way for putting up a structure in the village. Even in the uprooted condition, the tree showed no sign of giving up and started bearing green shoots giving signal it wants to live.

Six months after it was chopped, the rehabilitated tree was transplanted in the present upright position. It has started growing again giving the message

“NEVER GIVE UP”

After reading the message, I was dumbstruck. Someone has put great efforts to transport and maintain this tree with the only intention to motivate others.

Wow! Hats off to that person and their attitude. What a nice innovative way to motivate someone.

I wonder how this world would look like if we often see these kinds of inspiring things in our day to day life.

Thanks to the tree for inspiring me and to the person who wants to motivate others. This world is beautiful because of people like him and stories like this. - KartheeVidya Volunteer

#lifeisbeautiful

P.S-1: If you are in Chennai and wish to see this tree, you can visit ‘Estancia Township’ in Guduvanchery.

P.S-2: If you would like to volunteer with Team Everest India NGO to educate children by giving time or money, whatsapp with your name to +91 89399 12365. Keep making this world beautiful!

Happy Birthday to me :)

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 09:33:40 +0000

This is the first post ever I’m writing about my birthday which I recently celebrated on Dec-12, 2015. It is a special birthday because it’s spent with Team Everest Smile 100 kids in Arni. These are 100 kids whom we are sponsoring for their education and we take free daily tuitions as well. You can understand more about Smile 100 initiative through the below video:

I would say it is the best birthday celebration I ever had. My wife and my friend Mani has planned for secret birthday celebration along with kids. We gave a mask to all the kids and celebrated by cutting a Cake.

The highlight of the birthday is Pani poori. Manikanta bought Pani poori for all kids from the shop where I use to eat Pani poori right from my 6th standard. This is the first time the vendor has come out of his shop to put a pani poori stall in client’s place :).

While thanking the vendor at the end of the event, I shared a story with our kids which I thought I can share you the same story.

I use to eat Pani Poori in their shop right from my 6 ^th standard. Most of the days, after school ends, I go to their shop in bicycle, have Pani poori and then go home. My mom use to give me pocket money to eat since I feel very hungry after school hours. They use to put Pani poori in a small moving Vehicle during those times.

One such day, when I went to the shop, the owner of the shop whom I call as ‘Anna’ (Brother), was wearing a huge bandage on his head. I asked what happened? He told that he met with an accident, few hours back and he went to hospital to wear the bandage and came back to the shop to sell Pani poori. It was such a big bandage and he is badly hurt. You could see the blood marks on his head. But still he came to shop. I was amazed at his dedication and hard work.

Years rolled on. Even after 15 years, I still keep eating Pani Poori in the same shop whenever I go to my native Arni. Now, he got a shop in the same place where he use to sell Pani Poori on moving cart. A lot of customers keep coming to his shop to taste his dish.

For me, he is one of the inspiration. He thought me at young age that there is no replacement for dedication and hard work. Am lucky to have the same person to give Pani poori to all my kids during my birthday.

The other thing, I wish to share is the various gifts which I received for my birthday. It was strictly informed to kids that they should buy any new gifts. Instead they can make their own gifts if they want to :) . So, a lot of kids drew pictures, wrote stories and poems for me. Am sharing some of them for your reference. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

While celebrating birthday with Smile 100 kids, kids who are taking up computer class in Mom Dad also planned for my birthday celebration.

Mom Dad Community center is our home where I was born and brought up by my parents. When both my parent passed away, we converted our home into a community center to teach computers, yoga and other classes. We called it as Mom Dad Community center.

You can look at the below video to know more about the center:

So, I went quickly to Mom Dad Community Center to cut cake and celebrate birthday with them. The kids have collected raised funds using their pocket money and bought a pack of pens for Team Everest. They requested me to give it to any kids who cannot afford to buy a pen. It is one of the best gifts I ever got in my life. I almost had tears in my eyes. I opened the pack and gifted one pen to each one of thekids and left to Smile 100 tuition center to continue the celebration there.

I opened each and every gift and read the writings or showed the drawings toall kids and parents.

It is one of the memorable day ever in my life. Being with kids, I would call it as ‘Heaven’. Feeling so blessed and happy to have the love of so many kids and volunteers.

I could not have asked for a much better birthday. Thanks for all the love and the blessings. This journey is beautiful. Living to the fullest.

Now, I feel that my responsibility to serve has increased by many fold. I hope to live up to the expectation.

Thank you once again!

Note-1: We are looking for donors to provide evening snacks to our Smile 100 kids every day. It costs an average of Rs 1000 per day to provide evening snacks. If you are interested to donate one time or monthly, please whatsapp to +91 89399 12365

Note-2: To get our regular service updates, whatsapp with your name and city to +91 89399 12365. Happy Volunteering!

Things you miss when you leave your corporate job!

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 03:48:49 +0000

Leaving a well-paid corporate job is not an easy thing to do. But, when you are passionate to do something big and good for the society, quitting the job seems one of the easiest steps to take in life!

That’s how and why I quit my job on Dec-31, 2014 to do full time social work with the NGO I founded in 2006 – Team Everest (www.teameverestindia.ngo). Team Everest objective is to promote volunteering and provide education to those who could not afford it.

For the past 6 months, my home is my office and I work from my home every single day.

Six months down the line, though I have started doing things which I want to do in my life forever, I was thinking about the things that I miss after leaving my corporate job.

Here are the things that I miss – Both Big and Small:

You miss your team and friends: Having worked in team size of 20s and 30s, sitting alone inside a room, looking at your monitor from 9am to 6pm with no one to talk around is boring at times. Though I have multiple calls a day, speaking with different people and getting things done virtually, having a physical team in place is something which you miss while leaving the corporate job. You also miss loads of fun, chit chats and those cute pranks.

You miss your manager and mentors: Yes, very true. You will miss your manager, if you had a good relationship with them. In my case, I miss my manager who mostly would be the first person I wish every day. Now, you have no one who can set your goals, guide you when you are struck with a problem and support you at your tough times. When you work alone, your overall productivity is solely dependent upon how personally motivated you are. No sticks and carrots around!

You miss seeing people: Having worked in one of the biggest corporate, I keep seeing people all the time around the company. You go to your desk, pantry, cafeteria, auditorium, you can see crowd everywhere. You can see so many faces, some very enthusiastic, charming, smiling, sad, worried etc.

Now, it’s about me and my laptop. There is no one around. Only if I go out for meetings, I see fresh faces. You miss meeting new friends and networking with people. Hope this will change in 2016 when I start going out and meeting new people.

You miss your Desk: Yeah.. The first day after I quit my job, when I started my work, I was quite confused where to sit and work. Since, you always have a nice cubicle in office, you don’t require a desk in home. The first week after I quit my job, I was sitting on sofa, over the bed, and even on the floor with my laptop. Looking at my poor postures, my wife decided to buy an office table and a rolling chair (Yeah, the one similar to the chair in corporates with confusing multiple screws across it).

My home office is set up now with a cute Buddha statue smiling on my desk :). All I need to reach my office now is to walk from one room to another.

You miss your coffee: I still remember my Day-1 in the company. My friends told that coffee and tea is provided free inside the company. I had 6 coffees on Day-1. Slowly, I started hating the machine made coffee. But still, I ended up having 2 coffees (11AM and 4PM) a day during my 8 years of corporate life.

Now, being in home all alone, you need to prepare your own coffee. So, I have my morning coffee by 8AM itself when my wife is in home and I prepare my 4PM coffee every day.

Yeah! AC: I still remember those days where I run to office earlier just to avoid the scotching Chennai heat. Gone are those days. Now, I sit inside my room below a ceiling fan. With low voltage playing the role of culprit, I have bought a pedestrian fan to have some air in the room. Though we have an A/C in one of the rooms, I rarely use it.

Have your lunch all alone: Going to lunch with friends is always fun. Your mouth is busy talking than eating. You consume more stories than food. You get to share everyone’s food and end up eating 5 to 10 different items than what you bought.

Now, it’s all alone. My wife keeps my lunch ready on the dining table. It’s only me and the lunch now. Sometimes, our TV accompanies me for lunch.

You miss those minimal walking too: After joining the corporate in 2006, my physical activities have reduced a lot. The only exercise I had was walking from one block to other block, walking from your seat to cafeteria or a pantry. If you are in a big ODC, walking from your seat to a nearby water cooler and rest room is considered as a big exercise. Rest of your movements is taken care by internal shuttle, office bus and cabs.

After quitting the job, my minimal walking routine during office time has also come to an end. There is no need to walk till bus stand to catch the bus since my office is inside my home itself.

My water cooler is just 5 feet away and rest room is 3 steps away. I’m trying to incorporate the habit of walking for 30mins every day now to keep myself physically active.

You miss your ID card: For the first one month after quitting my job, whenever I’m travelling out, I keep checking for my ID card to ensure that it is in place, forgetting that I don’t have an ID card any more. While in corporate, the ID card is your licence to enter the office. It’s your sacred Mantra. Having it with you gives you all power inside the company.

I weigh 20 grams less now since I do not wear an ID card nowadays.

These are few little things which you miss to have what you want in your life. I thought, I can write this blog post to let you know what you will miss when your time comes to quit your corporate job :).

Till then, happy working…

To be part of the volunteering journey and to get updates, whatsapp as ‘Update Me’ with your name and city to +91 89399 12365. You will get individual whatsapp msg each week about volunteering opportunities in your city. Happy Volunteering!

Want to know what I did after quitting my full time job?

Read my first 6 months report card here - www.bit.ly/karthee2015h1.

Note: I’m planning to have an office for Team Everest in Chennai from March 2016 which can provide space for 4 to 5 people and a small meeting room for discussion with volunteers. In case you have a place which you are ready to provide for Team Everest office, please let me know. Thank you :).

About Me: I’m Karthee Vidya with a dream to promote volunteering in our country. I have a dream where every person volunteers at least once a month (12/365). I love kids and volunteering. Education and Volunteering is very close to my heart. I’m 30 years old on this planet and 9 years old to volunteering as of 2015. To know more about me, check my Facebook page.

An Ode to Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Sat, 08 Aug 2015 23:50:58 +0000

I called it as my darling. My wife hates me when I do so! It is one of the best friends I ever had in my life. Yes, it is Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

I bought it in 2012. It stayed with me for close to 3 years – Both during the good and bad times.

It helped me reach out to thousands of Team Everest volunteers – asked them to volunteer by giving their time or money.

It helped me in coordinating and run 10 free study centers in 10 villages of Tiruvannamalai Dt, helping 900 kids.

It helped me in getting bicycles for students from rural area who walk a minimum of 3 Kms a day to reach schools.

It helped me in converting our home in Arni to Mom Dad Community center which benefits 500 children a year.

It helped me to take farewell pic with my friend and mentors when they left the organization where I worked.

It helped me record when Mr. Neil Bush spoke about me in Washington D.C

It gave a face to the quotes that I write..

Every time, there was a special occasion at our home, it used to be a part of the celebration.

I recorded my mom school farewell video using it. She passed away 4 months after that speech.

May-2, 2013, 6.00AM – I got a call from my brother. I picked up my phone. He told that my father is no more. I used the same phone to coordinate with Theni Medical college to donate his body for the medical college so that the students can use his body to study during lab hours.

When I quit my job in Dec-2014, all those ‘All the Best’ messages and calls were received through my Samsung Galaxy Note-2.

In 2015, when I was searching for those 100 parentless and single parented kids to sponsor for their education, my phone was my robot. I would stand in the middle of a road, click a photo of a hut, email it, take call from a sponsor and whatsap the child’s picture for background verification.

It did everything for me. It was with me during my good and bad times. During those 3 years with me, it worked even after I slept (Would download something or the other for me.)

It reminded me about my meetings and mobile bill payments.

One fine day, it stopped working. I rebooted it, gave it in a service center. But the efforts went in vein. I could not bring it back to life. The game was over.

My darling is no more with me. I do not want to cremate it. So, it silently hibernates inside my desk. I’m still working now but without my darling.

Good friends are those who spend valuable amount of their time with you, helping you out or having fun.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 did the same with me. It’s just that it doesn’t have a soul. It was with me all the time helping me day in and day out.

Just because it doesn’t have a soul means we shouldn’t respect and care for it?

I take this opportunity to Thank you my darling for being with me. Thank you Samsung for making Note-2 part of my life. It really helped improve my productivity and helped me do things which I want to do in my life.

I will miss my ‘Darling’ forever irrespective, of whichever smartphone I buy in future. Bye.