kartheevidya.com - Blog #Everest

What I did after quitting my job?

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 15:33:52 +0000

It’s been 6 months since I have quit my full time corporate job. My last working day as a full time corporate employee was on Dec-31, 2014.

After which, I was working 5 days a month for part time in the same corporate. I quit that as well by May-2015.

So, I have spent the past 6 months in the area which I like the most – ‘Service and Volunteering’.

Note: I founded Team Everest in August 2006 and was doing volunteering work for the past 8 years from Aug 2006 to Dec 2014 while working in a corporate. From Jan-1, 2015 I quit my corporate job to spend all my time and energy on volunteering work.

Starting Jan 2015, to keep my work open and transparent, I wrote one blog post a month covering all the activities that I did for that particular month. You can read them here - Jan-2015, Feb-2015, March-2015, April-2015, May 2015, June 2015

As in corporate, you have a self-appraisal once in 6 months. I would like to consider this blog post as a self-appraisal for myself. I would like to reflect on my work, see where I went right and where I need to improve.

I wrote a blog post in Jan-2015 listing the targets that I would love to achieve in first 6 months of 2015. Here is an update on it:

Mom Dad Community Center:

Goal: Set and ensure the Mom Dad Community Center (MDCC) initiatives goes on smoothly. Will be ensuring that the first batch of students have a quality learning experience in the center.

Hits:

We have completed computer course for 8 batches (6 Student Batch and 2 parent batch) in Mom Dad Computer center. It includes 1 month of summer computer crash course for 2 batches of students.

We conducted 2 Medical camps, 1 summer and 1 winter camp in MDCC.

We are also using the MDCC to take free tuition classes on Sundays for SMILE 100 kids.

Misses: We wanted to start Yoga classes in MDCC. We could not do it due to lack of Yoga teachers in Arni. Once we find the right teacher, we will start the classes there.

First Batch of students who completed their course.

Computer classes for a Parent Batch

SMILE 100:

Goal:Identify 100 parentless and single parented kids in Arni, Tiruvannamalai Dt, Tamil Nadu and put them in a proper English Medium school and sponsor till they finish formal education.

Hits:

Identified and shortlisted 100 parentless and single parented kids.

We have admitted them in a good private school in Arni.

We are also conducting free after school tuitions for all 100 kids since there is no one to guide them after school hours. We have identified a venue for these classes and appointed 4 staffs to take daily tuition.

Every Saturday, we conduct extra-curricular activities for the children.

Every Sunday, we conduct bridge course for students from 6 ^th to 8 ^th standard since they are weak in English.

Smile 100 Home Visit

Smile 100 - Result Day

Smile 100 Inauguration

Day-1 in School!

Reaction of students on first day at tuition

Smile 100 - Parent Meet

Misses:

We underestimated the fund raising efforts for Smile 100 initiative. We need to put in 10 times more efforts in raising the required funds for Smile 100. We have raised funds for 80 students so far. Need sponsors for 20 more students. Interested volunteers can sign up here. To know more about Smile 100, please read here.

The lesson learnt is, that I should be more careful in estimating efforts for our future initiatives.

Starting Everest Chapter in Bangalore:

Goal: To start Team Everest in Bangalore

Hits:

I made a visit to Bangalore, stayed there for 10 days and kick started Team Everest. We had a volunteer meeting followed up by school visit.

Now every weekend, 5 to 10 volunteers in Bangalore are doing some good to the people of Karnataka.

Misses: The entire Bangalore activity is dependent upon one volunteer. Need to strengthen the core team in Bangalore to scale up the initiatives in the city.

Bangalore Volunteer Meet

Reading Session for Visually Challenged in Bangalore

Library set up across the Country:

Goal: To set up 50+ Libraries which is donated as part of Team Everest Contest for a Cause (C4C) prize money.

Hits: We successfully set up 50+ libraries across various cities in India which includes Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Dindugal.

Misses: We chose the wrong time frame to set up libraries. Since many schools were busy with exams, summer vacations from February to May, the bulk of the library set up happened only by June. I underestimated the external factors which will affect our library set up.

Contest for a Cause winners distributing the library in a Govt School

Additional Goals achieved:

Strengthening Hyderabad activities:

We have appointed one full time staff in Hyderabad. Hanumanth is one of our volunteer who has quit his corporate job similar to me to do social work. He Joined Team Everest in March-2015 and played a key role in executing Smile 100 initiative along with me. I successfully mentored him for 3 months and we hope to see the results through our Hyderabad Everest activities.

Re-Structuring Internal support team:

We had a lot of re-structuring within our support team with the focus on empowering the team volunteers, providing them clarity and giving them responsibility for the initiative they own. It is bringing a lot of clarity internally, speeding up decision making process and helping us scale our initiatives.

Everest Support Team!

Partnership with Corporate:

We started focusing on partnering with like-minded Corporate who share a similar vision. Corporate tie-ups need not be purely fund oriented. In fact, we look for corporates who are ready to motivate their employees to engage in community activities.

We had one successful partnership with Lennox who supported Team Everest’s Smile 100 activities during the first half of 2015.

lennox Sponsored Visit

Volunteers from TCS started to regularly volunteer in our schools for our digital literacy programs.

Volunteers from Cognizant Outreach helped in conducting summer camps in 10 villages and they continue to volunteer in various Team Everest activities.

Cognizant Outreach volunteers during Summer Camp

What amazed me is the interest shown by start-ups and small sized corporates who truly want to give back to the society.

Team from Aadhyaa Studios

Team Everest will expand its platform to engage as many corporate volunteers as possible to promote volunteering and motivate them to volunteer at least once a month (12/365).

I’m a person who looks at the past with gratitude and the future with hunger. The first 6 months of this new volunteering journey is fruitful and enjoyable. I was able to set up goals and chase them as well.

The next 6 months is going to be challenging and game changing as we are experimenting with various new initiatives to promote volunteering in our country.

Till then, it is bye from Karthee Vidya. We can meet up again through my monthly review blog post and will write a one year summary blog post by Jan-2016.

Happy Volunteering. Keep Supporting!

Note: If you wish to get my personal updates on whatsapp, plz whatsapp to +91 8939912365 as ‘Update Me’ with your name and city mentioned in it. You can also follow my updates on Facebook and Twitter – @kartheevidya

Smile 100 - Let's create 100 smiles in 2015!

Fri, 23 Jan 2015 21:04:18 +0000

Hi friends,

As you are aware, one of the key initiatives that we are planning to launch in 2015 is the Team Everest ‘Smile 100’ initiative.

The idea behind this initiative is to provide best of the best education to the poorest of the poor in our country (India).

We strongly believe that ‘Quality Education’ is really a game changer. It empowers and help a person to stand on his own legs. They can be out of poverty. Not just that. Now they have the power to change the world around him. With better knowledge, you create a better world.

If you are reading this blog post, I can assure that you are one among the elite crowd – ‘Educated’. The basic foundation among us would be a good sound 'Education'. Not many in the same world are as privileged as you and me. Hence, we decided to gift quality ‘Education’ to those who could not afford it.

I believe that ‘Education’ is a ‘Magic’.

It just does not changes a person’s life. It changes the life of the entire family, in fact their entire generation.

I still remember the story which my mom use to tell me. This is a story happened in early 1930s in India. My grandfather (Mom’s Dad) use to study well. He studied up to 5th standard and for his next class, he needs to go to another school which is 2 Kms away and had a yearly fees of Re 1 per year (Re 1 is very huge in those days. Imagine, that you can by a shirt with Re 1 :) ).

My great grandfather who under estimated the power of Education, told my grandfather that he is not ready to pay Re 1 and there is no need to walk 2kms a day to study further. My depressed grandfather discontinued his studies and started selling Sarees along with his father (My Great Grand father). He had a fire in his belly at that time. He decided that when he gets married and have kids, he will give education to them. That’s how my mom completed Masted in Education (M.Ed) and worked as a Govt school teacher. In later years she worked as a School Principal in a small Government school in a village in Tamilnadu.

When I was a kid, she use to tell me this story ‘n’ number of times. She use to tell me that because her father educated her, she is putting me in school now. Looking back at it, whatever I got today is because of the education I received. It was my foundation. Without it, I would not have reached where I’m today.

With Education, I have the power to choose what I want. Without it, I’m nothing.

That’s why I told that ‘Education’ not only changes one person. It changes an entire generation. Nothing can replace ‘Education’. That’s why I call it a ‘Magic’.

So, what are we planning to do through ‘Smile 100’ initiative? Let me explain this initiative through a Question and Answer model:The Plan?

We are planning to adopt 100 parentless kids and Single parented kids mostly from age group less than 10 and support them for their education till they complete college (Or atleast the schooling!).

Where these children are from? All these 100 children would be from a place called ‘Arni’ in Tiruvannamalai Dt. It is just 150 Kms or 3 Hours drive from Chennai! Why are we selecting children from same place?

We are selecting Children from the same place because we have many such deserving children there itself. Moreover, picking students from one place will help us run after school coaching classes where we can help the kids do their homework, help improve their other extra-curricular skills and help them become a better human being. We will miss those opportunities if the kids are scattered in a different place. The idea behind this initiative is not just providing scholarship for their educational support. We want to help create an atmosphere, where they can express themselves, experiment, identify and nurture their talents. We want to help them become good human beings who can grow up and create a ripple effect of goodness in the society.

On what basis the students are selected?

We have a detailed due diligence process involving 7 to 10 steps to select the right and deserving child for this initiative (I know that all kids are deserving. Unfortunately, our budget and bandwidth at this point of time can be used effectively for only 100 kids). Our basic criteria is to select a financially poor kid who have no parents or have a single parent with dreams to come up in life. By parentless, we mean that these kids are not from orphanage. They might be with their grandma or grandpa who struggles to pay the fees for the kid. Our kids group may even have school dropout kids or kids who are yet to go to school.

When will we know the students name and their details?

We have started the background process for student identification, school identification and sponsor identification. By May-2015, we will complete our back ground works and we will finalize the 100 kids who will be part of Smile 100. So we will reveal the students name and their details by May-2015. We are also working on a website to publish all the details of 100 kids. We are facing a shortage of technical assistance and the website plan might get delayed depending upon the amount of support we receive to build it as soon as possible.

What is the cost of sponsoring one student?

To be honest, we are actually yet to figure the actual amount. As of now, we have an average cost idea behind it. Out of 100 kids, we identified 1 kid last year and put him in schools for 6th standard. It costed us Rs 30,000 per year. So, we have taken Rs 30,000 as an average for a student per year. The actual cost for a student may be less or more. It depends up on which class and school the kid is going to study in. So, for 100 kids, we need Rs 30 Lakhs per year to educate them.

I find the cost per student is very high. Why don’t we put them in a cheaper school so that we can educate more children? That was one of the idea we discussed during the start of this initiative. But, we had one question in front of us:

‘If I have a kid, which school will I choose to educate him?’.

Just try answering this question to yourself. Most of us would want to put our kids in best of the best schools so that our children can get more opportunities and excel in their lives. That’s the same idea behind Smile 100 as well. We want to give the best of the best education to these kids who could not afford such education even in their wildest of their dreams.

I would also like to recollect that we do not mean ‘Costlier’ means ‘Better’. We look for a school which can help the kid to become better and excel in their life. If there is a low cost school with much better learning experience, we will choose that school also for our Smile 100 kids. That’s why I have mentioned earlier that the cost per child will vary depending upon the school in which we admit the kid.

How about ‘Transparency’?

Whenever I speak with my friends, many of them have shown interest to adopt and support a child for their education. At the same time, they feel that NGO’s are not transparent enough. In most cases, they do not have enough trust with the NGO. It might be a truth or just a perception. That’s why when we decided to start this initiative, we thought that ‘Transparency’ should be the core and central part of this initiative.

We want to keep it as transparent as possible and want our donors to question us whenever they have slightest of the doubts in their minds. We would also like to invite the donors of Smile 100 initiative for an open audit every month so that we ensure greater transparency and maximum impact. Team Everest is just an organization connecting people and facilitates by creating an opportunity to connect the volunteers with the needy. Our core belief is ‘Of the People, by the People and for the people’.

We want our volunteers not just to be ‘Donors’. We want them to be a ‘Mentor’ to the child whom they sponsor. We want our donors to meet the child atleast once a month and guide them further. These kids will be just 150 kms away from Chennai and we could facilitate a visit to our donors in Chennai. If you are any where apart from Chennai, we would be glad to connect you with your kid through Skype, phone calls and updates through online. However, facilitating such options for each child and each donor would be time consuming and needs a lot of ground work.

Being a small NGO, we have little man power but a BIG dream. So, these options will be rolled out in a phased manner so that, on the long run, we have options for donors to collect with their kid any time.

Ideally, we want each donor to be connected with a child so that they know whom they are sponsoring and where their money is going. We will be able to enable this option once our website is ready.

If you have any other options to keep this initiative transparent, feel free to suggest us by emailing to info@teameverestindia.org

We want to show this world that there are still many NGO's and people who are honest, transparent and making a deep impact in this world. And we wish to be one among them!

So, How do I contribute?

We recommend that you can be one of our Monthly donor and donate month on month. Minimum contribution amount is Rs 50. To join as a monthly donor, register at www.bit.ly/everestsmile100

If you want to make a onetime contribution of Rs 1000 and more, you can do that as well. You can register here for the same - www.bit.ly/everestsmile100

Feel free to write us at info@teameverestindia.org for any other queries or support for this initiative. You can also call our Everest help desk number at +91 8939912365 to talk about this initiative.

Let us create 100 Smiles in 2015. Are you ready for it??

Thanks & Regards, Karthee Vidya Team Everest - First Volunteer and Founder www.facebook.com/kartheevidya

Mom Dad Temple

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 06:00:59 +0000

Dear friends,

Today (Dec-21, 2014) is a very special day for me and my family. Yes, we dedicated our home in Arni, Tiruvannamalai Dt, Tamilnadu to serve the community. It is the home where I was born and bought up. Our family lived there for more than 30+ years.

Our Home

My mom passed away in Sep-2011 because of cancer (You can read the Lessons I learnt from her here . I named the blog post as ‘Mom is God’). She worked as a Govt school teacher and retired as a Govt school headmistress. When she passed away, my dad, my elder brother and I decided to use the home where we lived for the community. Due to various challenges, we were not able to do it immediately.

Unfortunately, my dad also passed away in May-2013 because of cardiac arrest (You can read the Lessons I learnt from him here. I named the blog post as ‘Dad is God too’). It came as a shock to us because, no one expected it. He was not even sick. He watched an IPL match a day before and went to sleep who never woke up again. My dad ran a video cassette rental shop when he was young, then started taking videos and photos for marriages and in his late fifties, he ran a small xerox shop for our living.

Just to keep you aware, that both my mom and dad donated their body to Theni Medical College after their demise. We didn’t burn or bury it. We donated the body to create awareness about ‘Body Donation’.

Few months before my mom passed away in 2011, when she was bed ridden, she told me that I was settled in life and requested me to take care of my elder brother as he was switching jobs because of his family condition. Moreover, once my brother completed Plus-2, my parents made him join a local computer course and he did his BCA through correspondence. He was working in Bangalore in a computer hardware form as System admin which he decided to quit to take care of his little son who was battling few health issues at that time. My Sister in law decided to continue her job as a lecturer in a nursing college. They were switching places often to ensure that their son got required medical attention. I believe, this made my mom to tell to take care of my elder brother.

When my dad passed away, my mom words just echoed me. I was thinking what to do for my brother’s family. We had our own home and a shop in our native, Arni which belonged to both of us after our dad’s demise. I decided to give both the home and the shop completely to my brother so that he can use it to earn some money. I shared my thought to my wife Vidya and she immediately agreed to it. I’m glad that I had a wife who supports me in my every act of life.

I shared my idea with my brother and in a matter of months, I transferred the complete property in his name. I still remember the day when I signed the documents for property transfer. After signing the documents, I just looked at the sky and told my mom, ‘This is the least I can do for my brother. Hope you and father were happy looking at us.’

I told my brother that he should give the home for lease to Team Everest for atleast 20 years to start with so that we can use it for community service (Hope we will be able to use this home for community service for ever!). He immediately agreed to it and we started the renovation work for it.

Apart from putting our personal savings, it was not sufficient to reach the total amount required. So, I reached out to my friends on FB and our Everest volunteers. Thanks to all the volunteers who contributed for this cause. The home is all set to serve the community now!

Today, Dec-21, 2014, we inaugurated the home by inviting the friends of my mom and dad, Everest Volunteers from Chennai, Volunteers who donated for this cause and our relatives.

Volunteers from Chennai arriving at home

Friends of my mom and dad, Volunteers, relatives and Students during the function

My Dad's friends siting at the front row

We named the center as ‘Mom Dad Community Center’ (In Tamil, we named it as ‘Appa Amma Ninaivagam’).

We have named it as ‘Mom Dad Community Center’ as the intention behind this home is to make every individual think about their parents and their contribution in their lives. Every child, every person who steps inside this home should understand the key role their parents played in their lives and give them due respect. Apart from playing a role of an educational hub, this home should stand as an inspiration to many and help them love their parents much more.

It was an emotional day as many of them took their time to share their sweet memories with their mom and dad.

I’m introducing why we started this mom dad Community center and I’m sharing the lessons I learnt from my mom and dad. (Explanation of the quote behind me – The God which we should pray first is ‘Mom and Dad’.

My friend and our Everest core team Volunteer Malathi sharing her experience with my mom. She was there with my mom when my mom breathed last.

My friend and Everest core team volunteer Praveen sharing his mom’s story. He lost his dad when he is just 4 years old and he shared his mom’s brave story of how she worked to take care of the 3 kids in his family.

One of our volunteer’s father also came to the front to share his mom and dad story.

My Aunt (Dad’s sister) shared how my mom and dad played a crucial role in her life. She is working as a School Headmistress now for a free Govt aided School in Arni.

Our entire family came to open the ‘Stone Inscription’ which we kept in front of our home.

Friends and volunteers who joined this ceremony

People from our street joined along with our volunteers for the opening ceremony

Dedicating the home to the Community

Our family who supported us to go ahead with this idea

Special thanks to my Elder brother who supports me always

Translation of the Stone Inscription:

Mom Dad Memorial:

This is the home of Ln.Rcr.K Chandramohan and K.Lakshmi.

Both of them donated their body after their demise.

Now, they are donating their home also for the community.

This home is an example for Humanity!

This home is a way of giving respect to all the selfless souls!

This home is a temple and will motivate all those who want to serve others.!

Come, Let’s Serve!

We decided to do the inauguration with the oldest person in the street. We called the oldest Grandma from our street to do the inauguration by cutting the ribbon. She was our chief guest!

She is our Chief Guest!

Her first reaction after cutting the ribbon!

We took her to show the computer room. It was our old bed room+Pooja Room.

The home now has a free computer center, yoga center and a study center for children in the community. It will benefit atleast 500 kids in the community every year. We have appointed staffs and volunteers to take care of the center. The running cost of the center will be supported by our Team Everest Volunteers. I told the kids who are attending the center that though the courses are free for them, it is not free for us. We are raising donation to help them study and requested them to help others when they grow up. I hope it will put a seed of giving in their young minds, which can do magic in future. I believe that we have now made a wise investment to make a better and kinder future for all of us!

The Computer Hall!

Just to keep you posted, we are also planning to roll out more initiatives centered around ‘Parents and their Love’ through this community center so that we can see much lesser old age homes in future.

Wall Hangings to remember our parents

I’m sure that everyone agrees to this quote!

Isn’t it true??

Thanks to my friend Javeed who volunteered to design these beautiful posters. We always lacked creative designers who can help design creative posters and banners. If you are the one who is reading this post and knows photoshop, Illustrator and works as a professional designer, do let me know. We can take your help for our future initiatives! Please register here if you are a designer.

We are also planning to create a website for Mom Dad Community Center. If you are a website developer and have developed websites in the past and ready to help us, please register here. We will write to you soon once our plan is ready!

My dad had put a LIC policy in the name of my brother and me before his death. We got Rs 30,000 each (Rs 60,000 in total) as maturity amount. We decided to use it for this community center and used the amount to do plumbing work and to paint the home with pictures, quotes of mom and dad to inspire people who come to this home. We are happy that the money he saved for us is put to use for a good cause. We just thought, he just donated even after his death!

A picture to show the love of Mom!

A picture to show the care of Dad!

Few Inspiring Quotes about Mom and Dad!

Translation of the quote in above picture (For Mother):

There is no life which doesn't call 'Amma' (Mother)

There is no growth without giving respect to your Mother

The God who speaks in front of us

is none other than 'Mother'.

Translation of the quote in above picture (For Father):

I didn't get the luck of having you inside my stomach.

That's why I hold you in in my heart for ever!

- Daddy

(Please forgive me if the translation is Pathetic :))

This is how our upstairs looks like now. We will be using this place as a Study center for students.

My mom and Dad picture while climbing the steps!

Before leaving, all the volunteers took a picture in front of the paintings

A young mom and dad taking a picture along with their kid!

Though, we named it as ‘Mom Dad Community Center’, for me personally, it is a ‘Mom Dad Temple’. It's a place filled with love, peace and happiness.

I wanted to end this blog post, by requesting you all to take a little time in our busy schedule to show our love and affection towards our parents. Let’s ask them what they want. Let’s ask them where they want to go. Let’s have a walk with them.

My mom wanted to fly in flight atleast once which I’m not able to fulfill. When the opportunity came, she was so sick to fly. My dad just passed away in sleep and didn’t get an opportunity to see my marriage which he awaited for long.

This life is very short. Don’t postpone your love. Don’t postpone your affection. Be with them. Be for them.

Finally, I invite you all for our ‘Mom Dad Community Center’ along with your family (Especially your mom, dad or your kids). You can even celebrate your mom, dad birthdays and anniversaries in our center.

Make a visit there once. It’s just 150 Kms from Chennai. Let’s celebrate our parents!

Note:

1) If you are interested in volunteering and ready to teach kids, sign up as a volunteer in www.teameverest.ngo/volunteer

2) If you wish to sponsor and educate a kid, check www.teameverest.ngo/donate

3) If you wish to get in touch with me, whatsapp me at +91 89399 12365.

Happy Volunteering!

Ooty2013-Making dreams come true

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 18:55:44 +0000

Dear friends,

After joining an IT Company in 2006, I never took any vacation leave till 2012. Though my company policies allow me to take vacation every year, I never availed those leaves simply because I didn’t know what to do after taking vacation . So, in my past 6 years of work, I have never taken a vacation. So, I thought why not use this vacation as an opportunity to volunteer for a good cause and to spend some time with nature. Though I volunteer throughout the year, it was one of my dreams to volunteer in schools located in hill stations.

Reason? Very simple. I love hill stations .

So, I decided to volunteer in schools in Ooty. Since, I do not know anyone in Ooty, I dropped an email to Everest volunteers asking them to refer schools and a place to stay there. I got reply from more than 25 volunteers who helped me with school and guest house details. Finally, one of the Everest volunteer Sudharsan helped us with accommodation and school to volunteer. His father Dhandapani who is a Canara bank manager near Ooty is the person who helped us during our stay there. Five Everest volunteers also took vacation along with me and joined along with me for the Ooty trip.

And this blog is all about what we did in Ooty for 8 days. If you have time, go through my picture story to experience the same joy that I experienced. I have also updated the same along with pictures in my FB page – http://www.facebook.com/kartheebanc

Here is the summarized blog post of my Ooty trip:

The trip was between Feb-2 and Feb-9, 2013.

Day-1: Feb-2, 2013 (Saturday)

Reached Ooty by 7.00AM and waiting for the vehicle to reach the place where we planned to stay. Felt the chillness immediately after getting down from the bus. It was 15 degree Celsius.

We reached a village called Ithalar which is 15kms from Ooty. This village has less than 150 families.This is where we stayed for all the 8 days. The moment we reached this place, we went to the view point to see where we are. And this is how it looked:

And, this is the home where we stayed…

Schools have holidays on a Saturday and hence after a good breakfast, nap and lunch we went to Ooty market, followed by the visit to Botanical garden by evening. I had a good time walking in the garden.

And, I just loved this rose garden there. Lovely.

Just had this thought while standing in front of the rose garden:

பூக்கள் இருக்கும் உலகத்தில் அணுகுண்டு உருவாக்க மனிதனுக்கு எப்படி மனம் வந்ததோ? அவன் அவ்வளவு கொடூரமானவன் ஆகிவிட்டானா?

(How come a human being ever think of inventing atom bombs in a word which is filled with flowers? Has he become this cruel?)

It's 7PM by now and it's time to leave the garden. We enjoyed the chillness and returned back to our home in Ithalar.

After reaching home, I oriented the volunteers who accompanied me on What we are plaining to do in school.

Day-1 just got over. All we did on Day-1 was getting adjusted to the climatic condition there.

Day-2 Feb-3, 2013( Sunday)

It's Sunday 10Am when we woke up. To wake up in front of a mountain is a bliss. Nature is the height of beauty! Below is the view from our home where we

stayed there!

Started exploring the homes in Ithalar… Inside a villager’s home now. All homes here are very narrow than wider. The picture shows a narrow bed when in which 4 people can sleep (2+2). Interesting innovation to suit the place

Majority of homes here has a first floor where they store potatoes, carrot etc. They also store wood logs for winter at the top floor.

Decided to go to Avalanche lake and Kundah power station. The travel towards these places from Ithalar is a sheer beauty!

The avalanche lake..

Also we visited Kundah power station and back home by 5.30PM.

And that’s the end of Day-2. It’s getting dark and we settled in our home. Kept all items ready for the next day school visit.

Day-3: Feb-4, 2013 (Monday)

I’m waiting for this day for long time. The day, when I’m going to volunteer in a school in hill station.. Wow!

Day started with preparing lunch for 5 volunteers. As usual, I’m not the cook

We visited Govt hr sec school, Nanjanad (12 Kms from Ooty and 3 kms from Ithalar). he school entrance.. Need to walk down atleast 100 meters steep down to reach the school from here…

While walking towards the school from the entrance.. Much closer view…

A lovely place to have schooling..

Classrooms.. Not in use now…

Inside the school….

Man made in God made place.. A school computer lab located in the hill…

A lovely basketball court in the school.. Kids shows a lot of interest in sports in this place…

The school infrastructure is really good compared to many of the government schools in cities… 50% of staffs working in this school studied in the same school years back! Their dedication is really amazing…

We conducted Everest Serve India poster competition for kids on 8 social themes which includes no smoking, save trees, save water etc.. Kids picking their theme in the picture…

A Volunteer guiding the students to make their poster…

We distributed prizes to students who prepared good posters and presented it well. The idea behind poster competition is to create awareness on social themes while teaching them soft skills like Team Work, Decision making and presentation skills.

This is how we had lunch today!

All staffs in the school have their lunch in school. No one brings lunch from their home. There is no hotel nearby. They have a staff kitchen when they cook lunch every day and make tea 3 times a day. Even those who stay with their family also eat lunch made in staff kitchen. Staffs share the cost. It only comes to Rs 500- Rs 600 for lunch and 3 cup of tea a day for 22 working days a month per staff!

During logical thinking session for students today…

Students solving a logical puzzle!

Finally, we conducted Poster contest for 2 classes and logical thinking session for 1 class.

Returning back from school..

A day to remember.. My dream of teaching kids in hill station came true today… A happy Karthee in picture below

The school is 3 Kms away from the place where I stay.. Walked back from school to my home today. A lovely experience…

Day-4: Feb-5, 2013 (Tuesday)

We visited the same school Govt hr sec school, Nanjanad for the second consecutive day today. We did poster contest, logical thinking, skit contest and career guidance to students today. The below will tell you the picture summary of what happened today!

The day started with visiting the village people and heads of Appacode village. They have invited us for their village coming Friday to take session for their school in their village.

During assembly in Govt hr sec school, Nanjanad. Able to give a 5 mins talk in the assembly about our purpose to the school.

We conducted skit competition today. The class was divided in to 12 teams and each team was given a moral story which they need to understand and perform as a skit. This is to help them overcome stage fear and speak fluently. Students prepare to perform skit during the time given to them.

Students performing skit..

Students listening to the feedback given by judges..

Prizes has been distributed to the winners of Skit contest.

Volunteers interacting with students while waiting for the bus to return to home after the school is over..

After the school visit, we started to visit carrot field. We need to cross a tea estate to reach the carrot field. What you are seeing in the picture is a tea estate..

On the way to carrot field.. We are nearing the field now..

Wow.. For the first time in my life, I was seeing the carrot in its roots.. Yet another childhood dream came true today

A much closer look of the carrots…

Fresh Carrots and not so fresh me

Near to the carrot field is a beetroot field.. Got chance to see it as well..

Can you see a green tiny dot in my hand?? Believe it or not.. It is a seed for beetroot! You will get 3 beetroots from it.

This is the manure for the beetroot plants.. Poultry waste is used as manure for the beetroot plants..

Day-5: Feb-6, 2013 (Wednesday)

We visited the same Govt Higher sec school, Nanjanadu for the 3rd consecutive day. Since, this was our final day of service in this school, we conducted poster contest, logical thinking session, skit contest to as many classes as possible to cover maximum students. The pictures will explain more on what happened today!

The day started with interacting with kids who were waiting for their school bus…

A Kid waiting for school bus..

My yet another little dream of taking picture with Ooty kids got fulfilled today

One of our volunteer Kowshik celebrated his birthday today. We celebrated his birthday in the school assembly. In the picture, the school HM is gifting Kowshik a birthday gift!

This is something new that I tried in 9C section today (Wednesday). When I visited the same class on Tuesday, I spoke about the importance of helping others and requested everyone to volunteer atleast once a month (12/365). I requested all the students to bring a small gift which is not more than Rs 10 for their friend. They should not newly buy it. They can even make greeting cards for their friends. On Wednesday, when I visited the same classroom, 20 out of 29 students have bought gifts for their friends. We put chits to identify who needs to gift whom. In the picture, a student is gifting a sharper to another student as a symbol of kindness and making someone happy. The students promised to help someone and make them smile every month!

We had Skit contest where students need to come to the front to perform a skit. This is to overcome stage fear and teach moral to the kids in the form of a skit. Top-3 teams who performed well were given prizes. In the picture, kids were preparing for their skit performance

This is the 3rd and final day of our visit to this school. The day ended in the school by taking a photograph with a cute and sweet kid Sneha. Sneha is studying 8th std and score between 5th and 7th rank during examination. Her ambition is to become a doctor. Her parents are working in tea estates as daily labors. She is very curious to learn and always wants to do better than yesterday. Her attitude impressed me a lot and I thought I should take a photograph with this kid which I can keep it as a memory.

Once the school visit was over, we went to a nearby Broccoli field…

The Broccoli plant…

Day-6: Feb-7, 2013 (Thursday)

This is our Day-6 in Ooty and Day-4 school visit. After volunteering for 3 days in Nanjnadu school, we decided to volunteer in Emerald Govt high school which is 3 Kms from the place where we stayed. The photo album will explain you more on what happened today..

The day started with watching this lady for some time. I saw her struggling to carry the water to home. Only when she approached near me, I noticed that she is visually challenged. Oh my God.. What I was doing sitting nearby and taking a photograph? Just put my mobile down, ran towards her and took the water on behalf of her to her home. When I enquired the nearby home, they told that she use to take 5-10 pots of water every day to her home from 100 meter distance. Just got amazed at her spirit. The village people near her home will also help her whenever possible for them. A great inspiration to start the day!

Then, we went to a new school today – Govt high school, Emerald where 300 students are studying. As usual, we conducted poster contest, logical thinking sessions and moral value skit .

The classrooms…

The playground for 300 students..

Students practicing to perform skit. This is to help them overcome stage fear!

The day ended with a photo with another sweet kid Shreya today. Yesterday, I took photo with Sneha and today it’s Shreya. Let’s see whom I meet tomorrow.

Day-7: Feb-8, 2013 (Friday)

Today, we went to a new school (3rd school during our trip) – Govt primary school, Apucodu. This is one of the small village in the Nilgiris dt where less than 100 families live. In this school, we had only 10 students studying. The low strength is due to a nearby matriculation school and parents prefer to put their kids in English medium and not in Tamil medium in Govt school. The school has a teacher and a Headmaster. The students are really well guided by staffs and we can see beautiful talents standing in front of us.. During the afternoon, we traveled back to Govt high school, Emerald to cover the missed out classes and conducted various sessions.

Another volunteer, Srinivasan joined with us today in Ooty for volunteering.

This is the school we visited on Day-7. Govt primary school, Apucodu

The location where this school is located

The beautiful quotes written on the school wall caught my attention…

During the short 3 hours’ time we spent in this school, we were teaching kids using iPad.

Village people looking at what we are teaching to kids..

Village people who came to school to see what we are teaching and to thank us for volunteering.. Great gesture indeed.

During official thanks giving..

Gifting the sweet students in the school…

A group photo with 10 students in the school

This time, it is a photo with Mr.Jeeva, a 1st std student. He is extremely smart and quick to learner. Multiplication is introduced to students only at 3rd std. Whereas, Jeeva being in 1st std, he knows multiplication tables up to 6th tables. An amazing talent on top of the hills…

During the afternoon, we traveled back to Govt high school, Emerald to cover the missed out classes. A volunteer during logical thinking session…

Day-8: Feb-9, 2013 (Saturday)

This was our last day in Ooty. With 5 days of volunteering in schools, Day-8 was an emotional day to start with.

The day started with meeting the family who offered food for all 8 days of our stay in Ooty. Every day, I returned from the school, I go their home to hear their stories. They deserve a separate blog post..

Leaving the place where we stayed for 8 days and travelling towards Ooty for site seeing.. Note: We stayed 15 Kms away from Ooty, a place called Ithalar.

Went to Ooty Tea museum on the last day of our Ooty trip..

Welcome to Tea Museum..

A series of information boards has been kept inside the Tea museum to help the visitors understand how important the role of ‘Tea’ in History of this world!

A description on the board…

Hot air is blown through this to remove moisture from tea leaves!

Tea powder on conveyor belt.. A lot of process happens in between for the tea leaves to get converted in to tea powder!

Tea powder finally getting collected in bags..

There was a retail store at the exit of tea museum where you can buy all kinds of tea powder.

On top of Tea Museum was a Chocolate making unit..

Chocolates kept for display..

Next we visited Doddabetta. Doddabetta is the highest mountain in the Nilgiri Hills, at 2637 meters. There is a reserved forest area around the peak. It is 9 km from Ooty, on the Ooty-Kotagiri Road in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, South India.

While getting down from Ooty to Mettupalayam, we stopped for a while. Can’t resist visiting the nursery which was kept there!

Finally reached Chennai on Feb-10, 2013. What a visit it was!! Wish I go to Ooty every year! Felt very happy since it was one of my child hood dream. It thought me that you can make all your dreams come true, if you really prioritize them and put the efforts it requires!

Just realized that a place looks beautiful not because of its geographical location or because of the resources it has. It is because of the people it has.. In this blog post, I mostly focused on what we did for 8 days. In my next blog post, I will write about an interesting family I met there!

So, what is the moral of the story?? Please follow 12/365. That is, volunteer at least once a month. In other words, volunteer for 12 days out of 365 days that you have in a year. You can do that by taking a vacation too!

See you all in my next blog post!

I met Dr.Kalam for the 3rd time!

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 18:52:25 +0000

Three volunteers from Team Everest met Dr.AbdulKalam on Oct-07, 2009. This is my third meet with him

Our First meet happened at Pollachi, where I shared his photograph with 100 other people.

Second time, I met him in at Raj Bhavan in Chennai by midnight 12.00AM. This time, I took a photo standing just behind him along with 12 more people. Also, I got an autograph from him.

Action2020 forum brought me the third chance. As I have already got a chance of sharing a beautiful snap with him and also his autograph, this meet made me look forward for something special from him. In my last post about my meeting with Dr.Kalam, I mentioned -’In the 45 min interaction which we had, I would have learned at least 45,000 lessons from him’. This time too, I’m exactly looking forward for such lessons from him. Every movement of him, each word from his mouth will teach us thousands of lessons.

This time, we got his appointment at 8.30PM on Oct-7th at Raj Bhavan. We are also allowed to bring 2 volunteers from our respective teams. So, I decided to invite Thilagavathi Venugopal-the pillar of Everest and Karthik Ilango who is supporting Team Everest from 2006. This was a tough decision as we have many active volunteers who deserve to meet Dr.Kalam. We 3 assembled in front of Raj Bhavan by 7.00PM. We had loads of fun while standing in the platforms near Raj bhavan. Also, we got introduced to other 32 voluntary groups.

By, 7.45pm, we started walking inside Raj Bhavan. We are not able to see any deer’s around us this time:-(. I think, they might have got scared of our huge group. After, the regular checks, we are asked to seat in a big room in 1st floor. This is the same room where I met Gandhi’s secretary last time.

We three, carefully selected our seats so that we can see Kalam in a much better view

Around 8.45PM, Kalam came in.

All 70 people inside the room stood up and told in one single voice- ‘JAIHIND’. A real moment to be treasured throughout life. He gave a smile to everyone and repeated the word ‘JAIHIND’. Kalam was seated in a big sofa which had place to accommodate 2 more persons. After seeing it, Kalam told, ‘You are all sitting in groups, but trying to leave me alone. Don’t leave me alone. Please someone come and sit with me.’ On hearing this, I moved 2 steps forward. Suddenly, the topic changed and they invited six volunteers who are the core members of action2020 forum. My name was called as the 5th name. All the six people were standing near to him.

Out of the 3 seats available in the sofa, the center seat was accommodated by Kalam. Kalam invited Mr.Srinivasan, moderator of India vision2020 and Action2020 forum to sit towards his right. All the 6 volunteers were standing towards his left and no one sat near him. Kalam asked someone to sit near him. Everyone hesitated, but I took the chance, went and sat near him. Sitting with Dr.Kalam now. Wow! Opportunity knocked everyone’s door. But, only few people get up and open the door. I’m glad that I opened the door this time! Everyone loves to go to heaven. But, I got a chance to sit along with God though I’m not to heaven. I can say, he made that place heaven.

(The one sitting near to Kalam in White and Blue t-shirt is me)

I will share the speech by Dr.Kalam in a separate post.

Now, let me list out few points which I noticed during the meet:

1) During the Teams introduction session, a person will call the team name; the concerned volunteers from that team will get up from their seat. Every time, the team members stood up, he will see them and say a hello by shaking his head. This shows his importance towards individuals.

2) In one of the teams, there were two old women aged 50+ representing their team. When their turn came, they stood up. Kalam looked at them and told ‘Vanakkam’ in tamil. This shows how much respect he gives to old people. Also at the end, when he puts autograph to everyone, there was much crowd around him. Even by that time, he called those old ladies and put his signature for them so that they will not suffer in the crowd.

3) He insisted on Individual social responsibility even during this meeting. He told his famous lines once again:

Righteousness in the heart brings beauty in the character,

Beauty in the character brings harmony in the home,

Harmony in the home brings order in the nation,

Order in the nation brings peace in the world!!!

He asked every one of us to repeat the lines along with him. This is the 3rd time I’m repeating those lines along with him. While repeating those lines, I saw the police who came for Kalam’s security, standing at the corner of the room too were repeating the words along with us. What a surprise?? How many leaders will inspire people like this?

At the end of the meeting, they too took photo along with him.

4) 15min, before the meeting ends, I got up from the seat so that others can come and sit near Kalam to take the photograph. Almost everyone sat near him and took a photo. I sat near him for almost an hour.

5) I asked Thilaga to sit with Kalam and take a photo. Initially, she hesitated. But, later on she understanding that it is a life time opportunity and took a photo along with him. See the photo below:

6) We 3 stood behind him and took a photo as well. Have a look at it below:

7) I got 5 signatures from him this time. 2 for me and 3 for my friend Thilaga. Out of 5, he signed 3 on Everest’s ‘Ilam Indiaviku’ book.

8) At the end of the meeting, all the volunteers felt that they have spent 10mins personally talking with him. But, there was no personal time allocated during

the meeting. It is the effective communication skill of Dr.Kalam which made each and every volunteer think that they had spent some personal time with

him/her.

9) I gave two copies of ‘Ilam Indiaviku’ book to Kalam. After the meeting, we gave a copy of this book to all who attended this meeting. Later, many of them mailed us and shared positive feedback about this book.

While returning home, I was keep thinking on what was the reason behind the success of Dr.Kalam? I can say it as, his humbleness, positive attitude, thinking big, having a vision and his acts towards achieving that vision. More importantly, he thinks about ‘WE’, whereas most of us think ‘I’ for 90% of our life time. I think these are his secret of success.

JAIHIND!

I'm a Volunteer!

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:20:16 +0000

First of all, I would like to thank each and every volunteer for the selfless service they provided for the past 6 years through team Everest.

Happy to share that I got ‘ivolunteer Hero -2012’ award organized by an NGO called ivolunteer. The motive behind this award ceremony is to celebrate, reward and promote volunteering in India. The ivolunteer team believes that by promoting volunteers and NGO’s, we can bring a volunteering revolution in our country. This is the first ever iVolunteer award ceremony conducted.

Let me take you through the process of selecting the winners. Nominations are received in two categories

We nominated ' Team Everest' for Leader in volunteer engagement and my name was nominated for ' Volunteer Hero' award.

There was a public voting through which we got qualified into top - 10 on both the categories.

The winners were selected by a jury panel comprised of:

1) Dhaval Udani – CEO, Give India

2) Pushpa Aman Singh – CEO, Guide Star India

3) Sarath Divella – Country head, Lionbridge Technologies

4) Dr. Meena Galliara – Director, Jasani Center, NMIMS

5) Prerana Langa – CEO, YES Foundation

An event was organized in Mumbai on April -8th where actress Nandita Das was the guest of honour.

The ivolunteer team had arranged for travel and accommodation for the ten finalists from both the categories.

I had a lovely 25 hours train journey from Chennai to Mumbai. The event was organized in ‘Hotel Blue Sea Banquet, Worli’ and I had a great time with people who had similar thoughts on volunteering.

Mr Shalabh Sahai, Co-founder and director of iVolunteer gave a wonderful welcome address mentioning how ivolunteer team is trying to make volunteering a mainstream in the entire nation. He quoted a beautiful line where he told that we can make a country of billon people in to a country of billion volunteers. This is exactly the thought process of team Everest too.

Nadita Das, a well-known actress and a social activist gave an inspiring speech on the importance of volunteering, followed by the award presentation.

I received the ‘Volunteer Hero-2012 award and got a chance to speak for few minutes on stage.

I used this opportunity to talk about 12/365 – volunteer at least once a month and how volunteering can make a difference.

Thanks to the entire iVolunteer team who organized this beautiful event and gave chance to meet many inspiring people. They have really did a great job and it is a great first step to make the nation take notice of the volunteering work happening in our nation.

My way of looking at it:

I would like to share a small flashback which happened before this award. When I came to know about this ivolunteer awards I was little skeptical to apply for the awards, because we Team Everest do not believe in awards .That’s why we do not award anyone in Team Everest. Instead we only thank them.

During our Everest anniversaries which happen every October we give thank you memento and thank you card for our volunteers. That’s why they are called ‘Thanks from the heart’ and ‘12/365’ thank you card.

I personally believe that if we get a chance to help others we should thank God for giving such an opportunity.

I feel that the entire world is ONE family. When we help a fellow family member do we think proud about it? NO!

First of all, we don’t even think it as a help. We believe that it’s our duty to support our family members. I feel the same way when I help a fellow human being. He/She is my family member. The entire world is one family. Why to get an award or recognition for it while actually you should feel thankful to God for this wonderful opportunity?

Having given my take on awards for social service, I always wanted the others advantages which any awards or recognition brings with it.

Let’s take a few examples in my life itself.

When a Tamil magazine ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’ published an article about Team Everest in 2009, 700 new volunteers joined the team in just 3 days’ time.

When I got the best person award by the same magazine in 2010, many schools and clubs invited me to give a speech in their organization which helped me spread awareness about volunteering.

When I got a chance to ring the NASDAQ bell along with the Cognizant CEO, many teams invited me to talk with their teammates and we got more than 500 volunteers through various team meetings.

Though I don’t like or hate any of these awards, I loved the other advantages which these awards or recognition brings in. If not for these awards, it is so tough to get an article published in media or giving a TV interview or getting inside a school or college and talk about volunteering to students. Awards or recognition open up such opportunities and many times they are bigger than the award itself.

With these thoughts, I was in double mind on whether to apply for the ivolunteer awards or not. When it comes to Team Everest it should be a team decision than not an individual decision. So during our monthly team meeting we discussed on whether to apply for these awards or not. After an hour long discussion we had a voting among the team members and decided to apply for the awards.

The option of attending ‘Points of Light’s conference’ at Washington D.C in June was also a big driving factor to apply for this award.

Team Everest is working to bring the concept of service learning to India by piloting it in 1 or 2 schools this June. Team Everest will be the first NGO to bring the concept of service learning to India. The Points of Light team who is the organizer of the conference is involved in doing service learning activities in USA big way. Their guidance and support will help us implement Service Learning effectively in India.

And that’s how we applied and won one out of the two awards. Thanks again to iVolunteer team without which this is possible.

I request my friends not to call me a hero. I already see a few FB messages addressing me as Hero. Call me just ‘Karthee’ or as ‘Volunteer’ .

If you call me a ‘Hero’ while crossing you I may never turn back thinking that you are calling someone else.

Call me a volunteer I will say a ‘Hi’ with a big smile and will ask you ‘Shall we have a cup of coffee?’:)

I always want this world to remember me as a volunteer.

I may not have been a good Friend!
I may not have been a good Son!
I may not have been a good Brother!
But I always wanted to be a good volunteer!

When I die, this world should tell that there lived a great volunteer in India who inspired many to volunteer. If that happens I feel that the goal which I have set for myself has been achieved.

Having said whatever I want to tell I would like to end this blog post with my usual request.

Try volunteering!

Start volunteering at least once a month!

Follow 12/365!

We can make a difference!

We can make a better world to at least one person. By continuing to do it, we would have made the entire world a better place to live than what it is now.

Only volunteering has the power to do that!

Happy volunteering!

Note: I would like to dedicate this award to all the volunteers in this world who is making a difference every single day!

Marriage with a difference

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:35:56 +0000

I think, its marriage season now. I’m getting at least 3 marriage invitations every week. Few are my good friends and many are those who know me through Everest. It’s interesting to get invitation from those whom I have never met. Thanks to all those who invited me for their marriage. Unfortunately, I was able to attend only 1 marriage out of the 22 invitations I got in past 2 months. I wish them all a happy married life.

The purpose of this post is different. Once I came across in a newspaper that a guy had arranged for a blood donation campaign during his marriage at the marriage hall itself. The plan is to create awareness about blood donation in that rural village and make people donate blood. On his marriage, more than 50 people contributed blood!!!

Now, those who are planning for marriages can include some social activities as part of their marriage. Here are few tips from me:

1. Arrange a blood donation campaign during your marriage.

2. Bring few orphanage kids to your marriage and provide them food.

3. If you bring senior citizens from any old age home and provide them food, besides their smiles, you will get their blessings too.

4. You can help any school on the special occasion.

5. If you feel the above points are bit tough, you can at least print about ‘India Vision2020′ in your marriage invitation. Else, you can take a simple print out of ‘India Vision2020′ and distribute it along with your marriage invitation or you can even distribute it on the function as a Thank you card.

6. Last but not the least- Print some inspirational quote in the invitation. It will give positive energy to those who read.

You can come out with more ideas on what you want to do during your marriage.

The reason why I want to do something good during marriage and spread something good through marriage invitation is that, it will reach out to a large no of audience across different geographical locations.

When I was telling this idea to one of my friends, she told me how can we break the regular traditions and do all these things? All what we call traditions now are once initiated by someone else. Every time, we always wish to be a follower and not an initiator. If we initiate this now, soon it will become a tradition and lot of good things will happen in this world.

I will be happy if at least one person who read this post implement it in action!!!

Game???

KILL TERRORISM NOT TERRORISTS!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:15:33 +0000

Terrorism is not new to India and to this world. If the blood wetted this land during each terror attack is not cleaned, this world would have been floating in blood long back!

Now, world has seen one of the world’s ever worst terrorist attacks last week. With terrorists in their duties (!!!), more than 200 killed and 350+ got injured. It was the hot topic in all Medias last week (even now).

Everyone blamed the poor Indian security, the rich politicians and the coward terrorists. After the attack we lost 16 of our life saving GODS. (After seeing this attack, do you still call them as NSG or army or police or what so ever???)

There was lot of angry voices to tighten security in India. Political parties played their part as usual. But, something was running in my mind. Does securing our self is all what we can do now?? If we are secure enough, terrorists will start attacking China or Bangladesh or some other parts of this world. It is the same people but of different nationality is going to be killed. It’s the same blood which is going to wet this land.

Does it mean that we should not tighten our security?? No. What I want to tell is, just tightening our security is not enough. Something extra needs to be done to overcome terrorism.

Shall we go ahead and start killing terrorists across the globe??? Yes, you can. But at the end, you might have killed all Terrorists in this world, but not Terrorism. When you believe only one more terrorist is left alive in this world, there would have been thousands of terrorists trained and got spread across this world.

So, what is the solution? – Kill terrorism, ……..not terrorists!!!

Instead of preventing the enemy from attacking us, let us prevent an enemy being created!!

Just increasing security and killing terrorists may give you a temporary solution. But, killing terrorism will be the real and final solution for all terrorist attacks.

How can we kill terrorism? By killing all terrorist? No!!! We can kill terrorism only by not allowing anyone to become a terrorist!! How can we do that?

By ‘Love’ and ‘Value based Educational system’!!!

Love is the most powerful weapon this world has ever seen! A person with a lovable mother/father cannot be a terrorist at any cost! Their parent’s love would have already planted the seeds of kindness in one’s heart and there is no place for terrorism to spread its roots!

Let us start loving each other. It is the humanity in people which keeps people still alive in this world. Else, the words ‘People’, ‘Humans’ would have been added in history and queued next to ‘Dinosaurs’.

And, there are humans who turned to be terrorists because of the surrounding circumstances. We can name them as ‘Situational terrorist’. What can prevent them from becoming a situational terrorist is nothing but the ‘Value based educational system’. I have a personal feeling that today’s educational system is concentrating more on academics, neglecting the feed of moral values to the students.

A good educational system will not create Engineers and Doctors. It will create Honest, sincere, ethical Engineers and doctors!!!

We should start preaching good moral values to others. We should start doing it right from our home. You might have seen in many houses, when a kid falls hitting a chair when it tries to walk, many parents will go and start beating the chair to convince the child and to stop its cry. This is where we start sowing the seeds of terrorism in that child’s heart. The best response would be, to kiss the child, hug it and tell him to be careful next time. You can question me like the child is very immature to understand this. But, I may in turn question you, “if a child is matured enough to understand when you beat a chair, why cannot it understand your kisses and hugs?? “.

Just preaching others is not enough. We should start following it!!! You being a lion, cannot ask the tiger to be a vegetarian! Practice and preach!

The way you react to a situation matters a lot!! Your attitude determines your reaction!! So, have the right attitude!!!

To reach a stage of ‘Zero Terrorism’, everyone needs to play their role. You cannot just ask the politicians or the army to ensure the countries safety. You need to be socially responsible. Just like you being a good son/daughter to your father/mother, just like how sincere you are to your boss, Be a good citizen to your country!

You may ask whether ‘Zero Terrorism’ is possible. Why not? When a BAD can be taught easily to someone, a GOOD can be taught much more easily to others. Believe first. If faith is there, then you have won half the battle!

So, what can you do now?? How you can help this society kill Terrorism?? Simple.

Love all. Follow and preach moral values. Your great love and good values will certify this world as a ‘Zero Terrorism place’

Let us make the word ‘Terrorism’ available only in dictionary!

P.S: ‘Killing Terrorism’ will be a real tribute to those ‘Life savers’ who lost their lives during the attack and not a simple royal salute!

P.S.S: I just wrote what I felt. It is straight from my heart. I’m not an anti-terrorism expert. But a simple creature in this world who want to live in a peaceful world! This post is dedicated to all those who wants peace in this world!