15th August, 2010 saw VNCiites venturing out for the first time together, as a team, to celebrate a day each of us is proud of as an Indian- our 63rd Independence day...The day began as early as 5 a.m. with Prasad Sir giving each of us a wake up call [me twice]....By 7, we had commenced our journey to Tuniki village, the place where team VNC has adopted the secondary government school...While the guys thrilled themselves with the delights of the countryside on bikes, the girls had incredible fun and chanced upon instances of naughtiness in Joseph sir's car....We even stopped by for a brief exploration of a serene place with a lake and a temple....and then moved to have hot and yummy breakfast a few miles before we entered Tuniki....
As we entered the village, the lush green fields, the simple huts, the refreshing breath of unpolluted air caught our senses....It was like a huge sigh of relief from the rat race of our daily lives....We went into the school....the huge premises welcoming us to a proud sight of a large gathering of students and teachers around our national flag....around the flagpole was a magnificent rangoli of India...and they also managed to get a pretty little Bharat Mata to enhance the grandeur of the show! As the smart group of drum masters set all to a uniform, respectable posture, we sang the national anthem in unison...
Post school hoisting, we also attended four other occasions of flag hoisting in the village....They said that the village conducted about 13 flag hoisting ceremonies for different communities for which the school kids had to go around the village to grace them with their song and cheers....Although it seemed like a respectful custom, I for one had objections to two aspects of this ritual...firstly, the spirit of enjoyment was won over by exhaustion by the time the kids returned to school which was very unfair...after all they are children and should not be forced to move around in the sun for so long.....and secondly, if thirteen hoisting ceremonies need to be done for different communities,what is the use of a flag hoisting which cannot unite the people at least on one day through patriotism, forgetting all their caste based and racist differences? But to raise such questions, we need to take baby steps to be able to be taken into trust by the villagers to have a say in their doings and undoings...
Nevertheless the programme took us back to our enthusiastic schooldays when we shouted spirited slogans and sang beautiful songs to arouse the tinges of national belonging within us...The Principal of the school gave a slightly long but [hopefully] motivating speech to the kids....And for our part, we gave away cash rewards and books to kids who performed outstandingly in their exams along with science kits and blackboards, which were gifted to the school on behalf of team VNC....And the unique part of this ceremony was that each kid was given the award by a VNCiite....Speaking on behalf of all, I feel that though the ceremony was a humble affair, to laud a child for his or her performance and felicitate them places a huge responsibility on each of our shoulders....It pushes us to really make ourselves worthy of being able to encourage these children, who perhaps look at atleast some of us as their idols, their mentors and supporters....Towards the end, Purushottam Sir spoke to the new generation of his alma mater about what dreams they are capable of building with the chances we are willing to give them....
And oh how can I forget, we also had some wonderful authentic Andhra lunch at Puru sir's house...With that, the lovely day came to a high spirited end....
All in all, it was a splendid boost to the energy of VNC's work.....I hope we are all able to work more intensively on our adopted school so that one day, when these little kids with their beautiful dreams succeed in various fields of life, each of us can proudly say," Yes, these are my children....and I? I'm a VNCiite!"
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
On the eve of Independence Day....
Dear Prime Minister,
Wish you a very Happy Independence Day. Have you realized this Sir- 63 years of Independence and we’re yet to be free. After all Independence is not synonymous to Freedom. You’re independent enough to be the most powerful person of this country, but are you free enough to make decisions for better India, which you aspire to (now this later part is just an hypothesis). Hope one day we all will be truly free. Hope, naah… Fools hope!
I’m sure your speech on the eve contains all right things you’ve accomplished in your tenure and what else you’d like to accomplish. So I thought of reminding you of what else your government has achieved.
Let’s begin with the latest- congrats to you and the CWG team for hosting Common Wealth Games. I know this is a bit premature, but am not very sure if Kalmadi Sir will present me with this opportunity later. I mean it’s great for a nation with no sporting spirit to invest 40K Crore Rupees in hosting such great games. (Apologies for not using your new designed symbol for Rupee. By the way, I’m really excited on our new currency symbol. Earlier, we’d Rupees written before a tainted minister’s scam, now Ra will replace it. A sure feather in your cap) We Indians fancy comparing ourselves with China, day in day out. But the truth is stranger than fiction, isn’t it? Just to remind you, China had instigated this culture within the country before hosting the Olympics. That’s the reason they won the highest number of gold medals where Indians carried pride for winning one. So my suggestion to you is listen to Mani Shankar Aiyar Sir and do not commit such mistakes again. Come on, you guys have so many other means of hoarding wealth, least you can make sure is this is not done at the cost of country’s pride.
I’d also like to congratulate you on the way you’ve handled Maoism. Congrats for Salwa Judum, which has led to the employment of 12000 Special Police Officers, surprisingly below 18 years of age!! What an irony for a government which plans to uproot child labour. But then that’s not the highlight of your achievement. What stands apart is the way you’ve handled the Adivasis in Chattisgarh. Burnt their farms, killed them, so that they move out, and multi-nationals can then carry mining operations. As a matter of fact I support it. They should face the music for choosing such an errant government. And this is all important Sir. People will die, but our 7% GDP should not be hindered. Only word of advice on the current CRPF exercise to our Stanford educated Home Minister- its high time we stop borrowing American ideas. I doubt if they’ll work, and I’m sure so do you. It’s very easy for anyone to read written condolence messages. What matters is having a right team and execution plan in place before making funny comments like- Maoists will be eradicated by 2012. Or are you betting on the Mayen calendar which predicted end of world?
I also heard that our ambitious mission to put Indians on the moon is in full swing. Congrats Sirji. Serious achievement for a country which is still held back by diseases which other countries have eradicated long back. A country which fails to find the right direction in small issues like same gotra marriages and honour killing, is successfully tracking the trajectory to moon. And did I mention the fact that we’ve highest number of illiterates in world. Way to go! My only question is who that person will be- A Hindu, a Muslim, SC, ST, who?Are you planning to bring this under reservations? Astounding that we’re planning to capture the moon, where here we’re losing foot on our own soil. China is encroaching our border foot-by-foot, yard-by-yard. Separatists from Kashmir are asking us to Pak-in our army. But then probably what you’re doing is right. With these hideous revolting neighbours,the only place where we all could rest in piece, I mean peace, would be on the moon. What an idea, Sirji!!
Your government has said that we’ll be achieving 7%+ GDP. I don’t know how you manage to pull out these magical figures, considering that 400 million people are scorching under poverty. Great for a country, once known as an agrarian economy, whose architects are now left to commit suicide. But that’s not the only thing you achieved, right? You also managed to sustain high inflation. So what costed me 12 Rupees a while ago, is now costing me 40. And all you’ve managed to give me is another poly-tickle hope. I'm living (read leaving) the dream!
The list is endless- Jagdish Tytler getting clean cheat for Sikh genocide, Raja getting clean cheat for 3G scam of whopping 70k crore,the way you’ve handled the Telangana issue,the nuclear deal, Afzal guru case, Bombay attacks, Bt Brinjal, reservations...and the list is endless.
I’m sure you’ll speak on none of these in your speech today. What you’ll do is paint another rosy picture, which is as fictitious as our notion that you’re heading this country and not the high command.
Paint it yellow! Azadi mubarak ho!
Best,
Abhishek
Just another common man with nothing in capitals...
Wish you a very Happy Independence Day. Have you realized this Sir- 63 years of Independence and we’re yet to be free. After all Independence is not synonymous to Freedom. You’re independent enough to be the most powerful person of this country, but are you free enough to make decisions for better India, which you aspire to (now this later part is just an hypothesis). Hope one day we all will be truly free. Hope, naah… Fools hope!
I’m sure your speech on the eve contains all right things you’ve accomplished in your tenure and what else you’d like to accomplish. So I thought of reminding you of what else your government has achieved.
Let’s begin with the latest- congrats to you and the CWG team for hosting Common Wealth Games. I know this is a bit premature, but am not very sure if Kalmadi Sir will present me with this opportunity later. I mean it’s great for a nation with no sporting spirit to invest 40K Crore Rupees in hosting such great games. (Apologies for not using your new designed symbol for Rupee. By the way, I’m really excited on our new currency symbol. Earlier, we’d Rupees written before a tainted minister’s scam, now Ra will replace it. A sure feather in your cap) We Indians fancy comparing ourselves with China, day in day out. But the truth is stranger than fiction, isn’t it? Just to remind you, China had instigated this culture within the country before hosting the Olympics. That’s the reason they won the highest number of gold medals where Indians carried pride for winning one. So my suggestion to you is listen to Mani Shankar Aiyar Sir and do not commit such mistakes again. Come on, you guys have so many other means of hoarding wealth, least you can make sure is this is not done at the cost of country’s pride.
I’d also like to congratulate you on the way you’ve handled Maoism. Congrats for Salwa Judum, which has led to the employment of 12000 Special Police Officers, surprisingly below 18 years of age!! What an irony for a government which plans to uproot child labour. But then that’s not the highlight of your achievement. What stands apart is the way you’ve handled the Adivasis in Chattisgarh. Burnt their farms, killed them, so that they move out, and multi-nationals can then carry mining operations. As a matter of fact I support it. They should face the music for choosing such an errant government. And this is all important Sir. People will die, but our 7% GDP should not be hindered. Only word of advice on the current CRPF exercise to our Stanford educated Home Minister- its high time we stop borrowing American ideas. I doubt if they’ll work, and I’m sure so do you. It’s very easy for anyone to read written condolence messages. What matters is having a right team and execution plan in place before making funny comments like- Maoists will be eradicated by 2012. Or are you betting on the Mayen calendar which predicted end of world?
I also heard that our ambitious mission to put Indians on the moon is in full swing. Congrats Sirji. Serious achievement for a country which is still held back by diseases which other countries have eradicated long back. A country which fails to find the right direction in small issues like same gotra marriages and honour killing, is successfully tracking the trajectory to moon. And did I mention the fact that we’ve highest number of illiterates in world. Way to go! My only question is who that person will be- A Hindu, a Muslim, SC, ST, who?Are you planning to bring this under reservations? Astounding that we’re planning to capture the moon, where here we’re losing foot on our own soil. China is encroaching our border foot-by-foot, yard-by-yard. Separatists from Kashmir are asking us to Pak-in our army. But then probably what you’re doing is right. With these hideous revolting neighbours,the only place where we all could rest in piece, I mean peace, would be on the moon. What an idea, Sirji!!
Your government has said that we’ll be achieving 7%+ GDP. I don’t know how you manage to pull out these magical figures, considering that 400 million people are scorching under poverty. Great for a country, once known as an agrarian economy, whose architects are now left to commit suicide. But that’s not the only thing you achieved, right? You also managed to sustain high inflation. So what costed me 12 Rupees a while ago, is now costing me 40. And all you’ve managed to give me is another poly-tickle hope. I'm living (read leaving) the dream!
The list is endless- Jagdish Tytler getting clean cheat for Sikh genocide, Raja getting clean cheat for 3G scam of whopping 70k crore,the way you’ve handled the Telangana issue,the nuclear deal, Afzal guru case, Bombay attacks, Bt Brinjal, reservations...and the list is endless.
I’m sure you’ll speak on none of these in your speech today. What you’ll do is paint another rosy picture, which is as fictitious as our notion that you’re heading this country and not the high command.
Paint it yellow! Azadi mubarak ho!
Best,
Abhishek
Just another common man with nothing in capitals...
Friday, July 9, 2010
The history.....and today
When a system breaks down, it takes with it not just its components or people involved in it, but also the courage from them to try again...But did it happen to us? Not really....Team VNC was a happy playful and huge group of young minds enthusiastic to make a change...Then, a system broke down...and from the ashes of the burnt out spirits arose the real team VNC....a score of people who just wouldn't bow down to the whims of the tides....When nothing clicked together, a new idea was given a chance...each one of us aware of the risks involved....the disappointment failure could get....and above all....the precious time and energy that would go into this....yet there was a commitment each of us had....not to anyone else but to ourselves.....to accomplish what we dreamt of......Education, I have heard, leads to the complete and much craved for picture of self sustenance...and that is exactly what team VNC aims at....
Today, VNC works from a tiny room in a little known basthi [slum area] on every Sunday of the year, come hell or high water....Somewhere in a small corner of our unimaginably big country, there is a group of kindred souls who goes about in a strange land asking, not if one can help, but if one wants help.....Every weekend these youngsters come together to interact with their seasoned facilitators to build a community within the basthi, that will enable the basthi to come out of its ignorant helplessness...to bring out the best in each individual, no matter what his bank balance, notwithstanding his or her caste, colour or creed...
What we get from it? In worldly terms, no self benefit....no certificates to show off to our career launchers.....no money to load our pockets with....Maybe just a little push of confidence which says " you are doing your bit".....Maybe just a little peace of mind in the utter chaos of daily unrest....maybe just a few hours of innocent and un-polluted happiness....and I guess...that's all that WE, VNC can ask for....
We aren't the descendants of Hercules....we take little steps at a time, which maybe insignificant on their own....but when we look back to map our path....the distance we have covered gives a satisfaction, that very few other things in life can compensate.....
In the thousand little joys that VNCiites experience every Sunday, some come from the several little buds we get to nurture in our freshly laid garden....children of all ages come to us with their beautiful hopes and inspiring aspirations, depending on us to help them reach their stars....and so we try.....Apart from this....we get to meet those simple hearts who reside in these unexplored lands...We sit and chat with them, share little tidbits over tea, about how they came to live here.....what they had thought and what they became....what they pray for their little ones to turn into.....and what colours we can help them with, to paint their lives in a slightly brighter shade.....For we, at VNC believe that every one has the right to freedom.....the freedom to see their dreams come true....And no one has it a little less or a little more....We believe...in the essential human virtue....that we are often taught but which is easily forgotten.....the virtue of sharing....
And so our journey goes...inching little by little....but steady and firm.....
We don't ask the world to make way for us or join us.....just take the hint...and start a journey of your own....
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