Experiences – My friends!

I was all excited about the Goa trip in my last post.. And now I am in Goa. Waiting for the fellows around me to get up and leave to some place!

We have been here for a couple of days now but did we have a lively couple of days? I am not sure what my answer would be.. People look changed as I see them from their earlier days. People change, have to change.. but still I find it a bit difficult to accept that their priorities have changed (so much).

3 or 4 years back, we would have loved to play a game of football in the 1st ground of school and then sit on the tiny wall tired and yet excited that we are together. We would then head to Uday’s home, sit on the compound wall and keep shouting for water. Usually an hour of football would be topped with a couple of hours of fun-filled updates and recollections from the B-section days.

The 2 days here, on the contrast, was filled with foods, drinks and … Unfortunately, I am not really fond of both and definitely not the drinks. Man! food and water are available everywhere on earth. The slow service here in restaurants didn’t help one bit! We have traveled some 200km on 2-wheeler in search of beaches, while one is next our hotel! Neither have we traveled to catch-up with some history of Goa nor did we sit back, relax and talk.

I was telling Purri that, everyone of us has become more defensive and demanding.. every small joke might be taken seriously and every small ‘want’ needs to be taken seriously! I demand we do something else.

Priorities have changed and we have been set into those thinking templates.. thanks to our lives. But, I still feel its always a matter of choice. 11 agreed to come, we are now 9. I am happy that most of us made it till here. I wish we make it memorable for all so that we come back again.

I did have my share of fine moments in the 2 days, especially the drive with Purri, faint recollections of 2nd standard with Tija and the chat with Uppi on Facebook. I enjoy my days here!

–buddi

Memories - my friends!

Most moments in life are short and become memorable after they are gone…

All of us (friends and classmates) have different experiences and possibly different expectations! We lived close by, yet we were far from each other. We spoke once in a while, yet we were never talked about each other. After sharing benches, lunch and jokes for almost 10 years (may be more) is that all we care about each other? Why is it I know so little about a friend who told me how to dress, how to write and how to play? These questions often eat into my sleep and worse I feel there is none that has the time to listen… purri and uday are exceptions. I sometimes feel that these were among the few people whom I knew a little about and probably they know a bit about me. We wonder whether we were the only few who are stuck-up in our past and want to be so.

I write quite a bit about my friends in Hyderabad, Chennai, Saragur and other places.. most times it is filled with regret. I miss my friends and worse I have no idea of how I can do better than regretting.

A few days back, a bunch of us met at McDonald's and had a great time. It is always a pleasure to recall the old days and re-live our times (most of us had much better sense of humor then), I am sure many wouldn't disagree. How much ever we enjoy as a group, I find it surprising that we need a "good" occasion to meet. This time it was one of us flying off! (I hope he would remember us and come back to meet us some day). Just as we were getting comfortable with the food, the place and more importantly each other some one threw this idea of going to Goa. I felt they had done it very early into the meeting, however, to my surprise almost everyone instantly agreed to be a part of it, putting an end to my cynicism.

As of now, the plan is on and some 11 of us are heading to Goa in the days to come. I am really excited and looking forward for the visit.. actually looking forward to meet my friends again! I really wish all of us make it to the trip and live a few of the moments we might relish all our life. Even as I type this.. I am sure at least few more are dreaming of what we would be doing there in Goa.. lets live it!

--buddi

I am not quite sure of how I wanted to write this. But this is how it came out. This is dedicated to my friends - all those "B" section walas who will make it to the trip and paapi, kabani among many others!

A world within

I have a world within
interesting and important for me
all the things that made me
and the reasons I never understood for myself

As I find my days are counted
today I want to dig out a few that define me
where do I start and what do I look for
even before I start, here I am confessing...

Its a pot full of memories,
memories that I intend to share here,
I wish I could say they were mine
Alas! the truth stands,
there is nothing that had me alone.

Why so many of these to remember,
why so few people to teach me live,
why so many that I have already lived
why so less time to add a few more?

Day after day as 'My Love' elongates
Day after day as this journey goes ahead
Day after day as I see the inevitable coming
I see myself shrinking in thought,
desperate for shelter and time as I wander across
I feel I will be lost soon.

Where did I start this...
I still say, "I have a world within,
a world so small that can't accomodate any more
a world that never needed anyone more."

I like to LOOK BACK now
nothing much to LOOK AHEAD for
for its you who defined yesterday
for its me who might have to define tomorrow

Even as people say 'enough'
Even as friends say 'enjoy'
I still continue my race with time
I am still looking for a return

--buddi
0228
03 - 09 - 2008

Would you do social work on a week day?

31st December, 2010

A lazy long day.. this wasn't how I would have like the year to end. And then, this happened..

Infosys has been running SPARK - Rural Reach Program (RRP) which is a one day program that aims at improving awareness of computers and the power of IT among children in rural India. The target audience for this programme is school children of classes 5th to 7th. This is also connected to the PC donation scheme of Infosys.

With regards to the above programme, I was contacted to help coordinate the programme in a Government school in this area. The person from Infosys (may be some manager) explained the thing in brief - some volunteers would be coming and a target audience of 200-300 (later increased to 500) would be reached. Some of her lines shocked me, she stressed on the following - every volunteer would bring their own laptop, none of the volunteers would get paid for coming on a Saturday, it is very fruitful for the students, the program is being conducted all over India for the last 5-6 yrs and it has been a great success, they will provide computers to all school which submit a request within 2-3 months and on on.

Then I asked her - there are more than 50 Higher Primary schools here (surely an underestimate, I don't know the exact figure), is there any selection criteria to organize the programme?

"There is no such criteria. You can select it. We will cover all the schools in the future. There are 1000 or more than 1000 schools in the country, we can't finish all schools at once, we will cover them slowly." And another round of praise for the programme and the volunteers followed.

We decided to work on that and the phone goes dead. The thought kept playing on my head and then suddenly I realized that Saturday is a half-day for schools. So I send her a sms -

"One more constraint, Saturday is a half day for schools. So it might be difficult to have it on a Saturday. Please check for other options.

Praveen"

And the call comes in a while -

The lady on the other end says, "I saw your message now. We have successfully run this programme for so many years. It is very fruitful for the students to spend time with us. It is because our DC suggested this organization we are contacting you. We have so many schools waiting in the pipeline and they invite us to come to their school. Other than Saturdays is not possible as we have a working day in Infosys. We can't do social work on weekdays. Would you do social work on a week day? We are not wasting the time of students beyond 7th and we are not wasting the time of students below 5th. We are only asking for 5th to 7th. I hope I have explained the point. Instead of sending a message, give me a missed call. I will call you back."

And some 45 min later, I get an sms -

"It can be conducted without affecting to their classes please verify with the school head master n let me at the earliest for further arrangements. Trust me from this program lot of govt. Schools have been benifited..thanks for coordinating n Wish u happy new year."

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This evening had raised some questions I couldn't quite answer. We live in the corporate era and this conversation exposed some realities for me. We have schools where students find it difficult to write in their mother tongue in High School, students who don't come to school unless they are served the mid-day meal and here is a corporate firm who will send their people on Saturday and expect the school to function full time. We have a person who thinks there are 1000 or more schools in India, and she is the same person who thinks their RRP sessions are very fruitful. Is that true Corporate Social Responsibility? Well, it is for Infosys (which is the best among the lot)!

I would agree that these exposure sessions would be good for children but have they been chalked out well to facilitate the learning process or are they just the picnic visits of those people where they show  a few models of laptops? Can you plan to teach a kid without having any knowledge of that kid? Their show of skills (communication and presentation) may vastly undermine the skills of the teacher (in the eyes of the student) with whom the students would have to spend maximum time. Why shouldn't we train teachers? (Training teachers doesn't seem big enough in annual CSR reports, after all we feel more sorry for a child beggar than an old-aged beggar!).  The programme may or may not reach the intended goals, however, their lifestyle, culture, etc. may influence the kids in ways we may never understand. May be for good or bad! Who cares what happens to a child in these remote villages, after all the software-walas don't get paid for spending time with that child!

I have questions all over, didn't know where to start and where these would end. This seems to be the harsh reality of the modern world. Why can't CSR be truly for nation building? Why should we be paid for spending a few hours for our nation? In spite of so many questions, I still have a hope that these sessions will help some kid somewhere and I will try to facilitate these sessions until I find answers to at least a few questions.

Would you do social work on a week day?

I don't know what to say for that. May be the answer lies in another question -

Does your hunger take leave on a Sunday? It surely doesn't in the countryside.

--buddi

0119

01 - 01 - 2011