A day at Sweekar Upkaar

I have been celebrating new year's eve all these years with friends and family. This time I decided to spend it with some special children.

I had collected few gifts from my friends - like teddy bears, photo frames, gift articles, a beautiful watch etc. and I wanted to give them to some mentally challenged kids. I spoke to the PRO and the staff of sweekar upkaar about my idea of giving those gifts to the inmates of that institute on the 31st Dec. They readily accepted and they even planned few fun games for the children. The idea seemed very good and I asked them to plan for atleast 10 programs, so that we could give away all the gifts that I collected.

I shared this idea with my teammates at office and they were more than happy to join me. So, Rhoda Wiliams, Deepthi Gulla, Sridinesh Kolluru and Arvind Shivaramakrishnan and I went to sweekar upkar at around 1:00 PM on 31st Dec. We took goodie-packets which consited of biscuits, chocolates and wafers made for 200 odd kids as suggested by the staff. My whole team was very excited to see the reaction of the kids there. Mrs Sunitha, the principal of the school took us to a large hall with a stage at one end. Children applauded loudly with joy when they saw us. I realised for the first time that Sweekar upkaar is not only providing education but health care also to all age groups but not only to the kids. It was a group of 100 odd inmates which consists all age groups, the dedicated teachers of this institution and parents of those kids.

Teachers selected 5 kids(boys n girls) in each group to participate in different type of fun games as per understanding level of the kids. the kids were participated with so much excitement in all the games. They were cheering for each other. We had organized few events like 'eating banana', 'throwing a ball into a basket', "memory game',' ithreading a needle', 'sticking bindis on the faces' etc. The program lasted for approx 2 hrs.

A special mention to the one of the inmates Mr Gouri Shankar...he came up with a really surprising package. He has impressed the whole audience with his art of tabla playing. I am really thrilled to say that he was playing varities of beats on tabla. The way he was playing tabla inspite of having such a health condition is really very good. We all were so thrilled.

When the event was going on in full swing, I realized and noticed one thing which actually made me re-think about myself. I was always thinking about the kids, but I never gave any thought towards the staff of that institute. When the event was going on, the kids were participating with so much enthusiam. May be the events we organised were very easy for the normal kids, but it wasn't for those kids. I could not communicate with those kids. At this point I realised how great those teachers could be. They were treating those kids with so much care and affection. The way the teachers were encouraging and cheering for the kids was really awesome to look at. I was really moved by their effort. One can imagine how difficult it could be to teach even small things to those kids, where as so many parents think that teaching their own kids as a big task.

If I think I did a great job by doing such thing on "one day" , then how great those teachers and staff can be who are actually educating, taking care of those kids, providing the health care and trying their best to build the confidence in themselves to live their day to day life happily. I salute the great institute and staff for doing such a great job.

At the end we distributed the gifts to the 2 winners for each event. The kids were so happy and thrilled. Program ended by distributing the goodie packets to all the inmates. Deepthi and Rhoda were little disappointed cause they could give only 2 combo packets to each kid.The event was a big hit... All the children went home happily wearing a broad smile on their faces. The principal Mrs. Sunita, then took us to the office room and explained us about the whole working of their organization, what they do and how they do it, while we were having tea offered by her.

At the end we all were very happy. All of us went back home with satisfied and a sweet memory to last our lifetime! We can never forget the way they applauded and welcomed us when we entered the hall, and the way they were trying to shake hands with all of us while they were leaving after the event.

Me and my team would like to thank Mr Murthy, Mrs Sunitha and all the staff who made this possible. Thanks a lot to the Sweekar Upkaar.

And a special thanks to my dear friends who encouraged me by giving away such valuable gifts and my teammates Rhoda Williams, Deepthi Gulla(Ratnam), Sridinesh kolluru and Arvaind Shivaramakrishnan who made this possible.

Terrorism......war against humanity

Looking at the recent attackts in Mumbai, I feel completely insecure of myself , my family, my friends, my nieghbours, my city and my Nation.

Where are we heading................!!!!!!!!!

I feel helpless for not able to do anything agaisnt the Govt od India(not against the terrorists). A meak prime minister, A dummy home minister and total chamchagiri cabinet!!!!!!! where are we heading.

Aren't they (terrorists) challenging us by these blast every month,everywhere. They went up to enetering into our homes and hotels and killing hundreds of innocent people.

One news channel reports the recent attack on Mumbai as " A war against India" and "India won the battle". I felt so sad for the interpretation.

But then Yes, upto some extent it's true! Ten guys declared a war against more than a biliion people on the center of the India and they managed to kill hundrends of innocent people right in front of our eyes. We were watching the fun for 3 days sitting at our homes. I wonder how come anybody can say that we won the battle.

Did we winat all???!!!

They have been doing it since over a year ....killing innocent citizens. What is our great Government of India is doing all this while!!!??? Are they sleeping or are they busy in doing some bhajana( sonia ji ki bhajana)!!!!! What are we waiting for?? Are we waiting for them to come and explode few cities completely or are we waiting for some muhurath to take some action against them!!!

These Pakistanis occupied "Kargil" and we had to fight for more than 2 months to get it back at the cost of so many lives of our brave soldiers. Did we win Kargil!!!???
They attacked our Parliament, what did we do? nothing!!!... we couldn't even hang the guy who came to blown the Parliement!!! I think we are waiting for somebody to hijack a plane again and help them flee away!!

This terrorism is gone beyong imagination now. They are enetering into our homes and killing us. Isn't it scarier than ever before!!! And we say that we won the battle. What big fools we are we!!

I am feeling ashamed about the rulers of India. They elected(!!!) some puppet as president, they made someone who never bothered to take any action against any of these terrorists as Home Minister. I think This guy is minister of Ms sonia gandhi's home. He knows only bhajana of sonia gandhi.

I learnt at school that our country is a Democratic country... I wonder what is it we have in our country, is it democary, autocracy, communism or aristocracy, what is it? It definately is NOT democracy!!

Prime Minister is not ruling the country, he cannot take any decission. Home minister, he is only bothered about sonia's home. President......who is she?? what does she do??
Who is ruling our country? and what are we doing?

Is it not funny to ask someone to handover these terrosrists(dawood ibrahim and party) to us!!! Weren't they aware when they were planning all these bombings that they can get caught somewhere, are they bothered about it? They are doing it every otherday and we are waiting for our turn to get killed by these guys. When will be able to take some action against this pakistan and these teerorists???

I don't think we'll able to take some tough decisions this time also. We are afraid and we do not want to loose these minority votes at any cost. So things will continue like this.
The only thing we can do is........wait and watch for our turn to get killed in this biggest DEMOCRATIC country.

Can we declare elections right away, so that we can get rid of these dummy and chamcha politicians!!!

If we cannot declare war against pakistan, atleast we should...
Stop all bilateral ties with Pakistan.
No train, no bus to pakistan.
Throw the pakistan embassy out of India.
Play no sport with them(especially cricket).
and occupy POK and destroy all terrorist camps.

If we cannot act tough, they will go on destroying this beautiful world and the good part is, now we have the open support of the rest of the world. It is high time that we should take some stern actions against this creatures.

Degrading Morale Values

Recently there had been some acid attacks on two girls and the attackers were killed in a encounter(which was obviously faked). The whole incident was very disturbing.

Did we do the right thing by shooting the attackers??? Is it the right solution?? Did we eliminate the root cause of the problem!!??? Can we assure that these kind of things won't happen again?? Where are we living?? Under the TALIBAN rule!!??

No, No way....We just overreacted without even trying to find out the actual root cause of the problem. Whose fault was it?? Who are thedefaulters?? is it the guys, girls, their parents, or police??

India has always been known for it's great culture, values, human relations, traditions and family system.

Today, the world has indeed become small... we can reach anywhere, any time. There is an exchange of culture is happening among different cultures. It is always appreciable if it is the 'good' that we share and adapt out of any culture. Unfortunately it is always that we get attracted to and catch the 'bad' very fast.

Infact, no system is 'bad'. Every system evaluates with good values.It is we, the people, who err and hence defame the system. People very often say that "we are getting attracted to the western culture and are forgetting values and beliefs in our own system".

I don't think it's true.

Instead, the unfortunate truth is that we are getting attracted and emulating the bad part of other cultures, while those people belonging to other cultures are admiring and adapting the 'good' part of our culture!!

Today's generation have so many options to get information, knowledge, entertainment. We have the TV, books, Movies, Cell phones and Internet. All these things have been invented for a good cause, but these facilities are being misused and manipulated by some people.

Today's generation is being manipulated and falling a prey to some of these privileged facilities of this century. We should make sure that these systems are being used for the right cause. Who's responsibility is this? Is it of the individuals, parents' or the Government's, Who'll keep a close watch on this?? Though we make a hundred thousand laws to prevent the misuse of this facilities, people always commit mistakes!

Now coming to the acid attacks that happened recently...

Boys and girls have been interacting much more than ever before. They have been studying together, working together, which is undoubtedly a right thing. But bad part of it is.... Guys and girls are developing some unacceptable relations out of these opportunities. They do anything and EVERYTHING in the name of friendship!! Unfortunately the term "FRIENDSHIP" is being misused and abused. Parents are also ignoring such things all in the name of being "Broad-minded" and "open"!! Over a period of time these relations are taking a violent mode and things like these acid attacks are happening. So many such incidents are going unnoticed as they are not so fatal. But such things are definitely creating so many problems in their personal lives. There is a huge outcry... we hold debates on popular news channels, stage dharna's to say the most popular and sympathetic saying "stop violence against woman". Would this stop such incidents in future.

These incidents occurred not because of any one incident, they have occurred and evaluated out of over a period of time and can't stopped by killing defauleters like that. As the presinet of Loksatta party Mr Jayaprkash Narayan rightly said we'll regret later for what we are doing now. We are creating an unacceptable culture rather than providing a solution.

We do not have to point at a 'boy' or 'girl'. Most of the times there will be mistakes from both sides. I have personally seen girls(evenmarried women) flirting and doing things of all sorts with boys. The most unfortunate thing was that they were doing it with more than one guy at one point of time, which ultimately led to some unexpected and unfortunate incidents. Everyone of those involved have had to suffer because of the resulting incidents. College campuses, hostels and working places are becoming platforms for such things, where the people have full access to do such things. Movies and TV shows are only helping influence their behaviour.

I am not trying to point out girls only here. My point here is that mistakes are happening from both sides. Parents should keep a closewatch on such relations and strictly warn them whenever they feel that their kids are crossing that thin safety line between friendship and such unacceptable relations.

I read a question and answer column in a news paper recently. One guy was asking a question "Is it not the responsibility of parents to ask their children when they spend most of their time on the phone"?. He asked this question pointing out girls, but I am more surprised at the editor's answer..He said, "why should we question girls, why should we stop them spending unusual time on cell phones and chatting". I felt very sad reading that answer, it's not like that we should not allow them to talk or chat, yes definitely parents should be strict with children(both girls and boys) when they are spending more time on 'cell phone' and 'chatting'. Should not parents ask their kids when they are going out for late night parties!!?? or should return a blind eye to it all in the name of 'freedom'. These things will surely have adverse consequences on all of us...but it might be too late by then!

I think it is the responsibility of the individuals, parents, police, law and Governments to stop and prevent such incidents to reccur, but that would not mean killing people in fake encounters!

Let's wake up and try evaluate a utopia, but not a Taliban rule!!