Happy Birthday to me :) | kartheevidya.com

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!