As we step in to a new year, this is that time of the year when we look back and ponder how was the year that is bidding adieu to us.

It was a great year for Spoorthi Foundation. We started our year with the test run of “SAMVAD” on February 14^th at Banumaiah’s girls high school, Mysuru. In our efforts to provide quality education to the students of government schools, we started to leverage the power of Internet to provide firsthand experience of technology by connecting accomplished individuals and the schools.

2015 will remain special for us as we did our first ever fund raising event “BIMBA”. Noted photographer, Aditi Dinakar, joined hands with us in our cause and accepted to exhibit her works of Photography and Arts at Suchitra Art Gallery. 

With the people who made Bimba, a success

We conducted ONE BOOK ONE DREAM, annual notebook donation drive at Maharaja Bifurcated School. Students of MIT Mysore actively participated and collected more than 500 notebooks.

Books donated by the students of MIT Mysore

Teach and Learn team successfully organized and celebrated Independence day at Banumaiah’s Girls School. 

Independence Day Celebration at Banumaiah's Girls School

Third edition of Joy of Teaching week was conducted from Dec 14 – 18 in various schools of Mysuru. Shri Muralidhar, a retired Headmaster, Mr. Shashidhar, a yoga teacher, Project ReachOut team participated in the event and made it as success. 

Mr. Shashidhar along with the students of Government School

We announced SWACHH VIDYALAY, a project in line with our PM’s vision and we will be launching it very soon. We will also have our first session of SAMVAD in the month of January.

Highlight of the year certainly was Teach and Learn program. We tweaked certain things and made sure children get individual attention.

Teach and Learn Team

Some of our team member's share their experience being a part of Spoorthi Foundation.

Varsha Says, "It was a magical journey I should say. Teaching is my passion. But, I didn't even expect that so soon I'll experience that feeling of teaching! I wanted to help kids who were interested in learning! This was possible only because of Spoorthi Foundation!  I am happy & proud of being a part of a energetic team."

Nandan Says, "Teaching kids and seeing their satisfied and happy faces is unexplainably beautiful. Spoorthi foundation is giving such a wonderful opportunity for all those who wish to unprofitably teach the kids to improve their knowledge. I feel proud to be a part of Spoorthi foundation"

Radhika Says,"I am a person who strongly believe in the quote 'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.' I am glad am a part of SpoorthiFoundation, which shares the same thought. Every kid in this world has a right for quality education but sadly, not every kid is realising his right. Most of the children are deprived of their right to quality education. We, in Spoorthifoundation try our best to make this dream come true. Among many programs that are organized by Spoorthifoundation, the one which is close to my heart is 'Teach N Learn' where we go to selected schools on weekends and share our knowledge and create loads of satisfying and cherishing moments with  kids. I am associated with Spoorthifoundation for two years now and it has been a wonderful journey. I thank Spoorthifoundation for giving me a chance to work with them for such a good cause. Come, join your hands with us, let's do a bit to make this society a better one."

Deepthi Says, "Spoorthi Foundation being a dedicated non-profit organization aims to inspire the future by involving dynamic team members from various professional and social backgrounds. It is mainly working towards uplifting the educational level of children studying in the government schools. I feel privileged to be part of this organization and thankful for providing me a wonderful platform to showcase my abilities for a vital social cause. Till date, I have been part of several interesting activities conducted by Spoorthi Foundation such as 'Joy Of Teaching Week', 'Teach and Learn', 'Samvaad', 'One Book, One Dream' etc and found it to be supremely fascinating and rewarding. To sum up, my volunteering experience in Spoorthi Foundation has provided me the best fruitful memories to cherish for the lifetime"

Pooja Says, " I joined spoorthi foundation as a part of “Teach and Learn” program. I started teaching science to the children. Initially I had a fear that am I capable of teaching? But after spending some time with the kids the fear got vanished. The children were very enthusiastic and amazing in way of learning. It was very good experience with those children. 

There’s lot to look forward in the new year. As of now we will be concentrating on Teach and Learn, Samvaad and Swachh Vidyalay.  We wish you all a great success ahead. If you have the zeal to be the change you want to see around, join our team.

Spoorthi Foundation Team

After the wonderful conversation with Pruthvik and his mother, we were more than delighted and excited to meet the next child to speak about his experience and aspirations in life.

That is when we headed to Chethan’s house. A short but sharp boy with dreams to reach out, he was excited and looking forward as much as we were. In conversation with him we realised that, it is not about the destination but the journey, the journey of this little boy walking towards his dreams. We met him and started the conversation about his education, career and asked him how helpful our foundation was. That is when we understood, Chethan is an enthusiastic and eager child. 

He has finished his 10^th and looking forward to join Pre University. Further talking to, the situation with him was similar to that of the other children we spoke to, he vaguely had knowledge about the career choices he could make, what suited him best and what choices would help him shape his career. Chethan was counselled by Mr. Santhosh, for him to understand his strengths and weaknesses for which he could choose his further path in career. That is when Chethan decided on taking up commerce stream. Beyond this vagueness one thing was for sure the spark in his eye to know more, study and overcome it. He lacked guidance, someone to explain him the choices that he had. His parents do their best to provide him education but they too lag behind in knowing the current opportunities. His father is a Tailor and Mother, a home maker. He has a younger brother who is very intelligent and bright in his studies. They want their children to study well and reach greater heights for which they are ready to work hard, to meet the expenses of their Children’s education. What really caught my mind was the fact that they were so supportive and willing to do the best for their children. They said that they want their children to lead a better and secure life, which is the dream of every parents.   

What difference has Spoorthi foundation done? The reply was that it has done wonders by both Chethan and his mother.He had switched from Kannada medium to English medium school, which was a great challenge for him, coping with subjects and in addition to that was the English language. He shared with us some of his initial day incidents at school which he can never forget. On the first day of his school his first class was mathematics. When the teacher took the class, everything was alien to him, he was worried and scared. But then he met the team of Spoorthi foundation, who promised to help him. He wanted study and understand all the subjects, which is why he showed interest and attended all the sessions conducted by Spoorthi foundation where some of the other children of his class would make excuses to not attend the classes. 

As time passed he started picking up and understanding the lessons being thought in class, with the help of his mentors of the foundation. He very well recalls how Mr. Santhosh made mathematics fun, and how history lessons by Mr. Kushal turned the battles and dynasties of history into stories that could easily be understood and the dates could be well remembered.

His mother throughout the conversation had a broad smile on her face reflecting how she felt contended by his son’s improvement. Her mother said that the reason for his progress is Spoorthi foundation team. She said all the areas which he found it difficult to cope. She also told the team that she wants to see her son converse fluently in English. For which we suggested him to start practicing and attend classes in the weekend which we conduct for improving the speaking skills.

The short fall from our side, which Chethan pointed out just like Pruthvik and his mom was that the foundation should have stretched their hand out for help a little earlier, which could have made a better impact for them.

The whole conversation ended on a happy note, motivating us to do more and keeping up to their expectations. When the children’s eye look up to us with expectations, wanting us to be their guides or mentors it really becomes a great responsibility from our side. Eventually that is was inspires us to keep going and do more for the children.    

Article written by Sahaja Bhargavi
Photos by Faizan Baksh

    “Sky is the limit”, to reach which we must spread our wings and fly. This is the face of the children associated with Spoorthi Foundation, who have passed 10th standard board examination. Every child has a dream, a dream to succeed.

     When we met the children and their parents, we realized how wonderful it is to be a part of their life, and doing our little for them to fulfill their dreams. We wanted to know what they aspire to become and what their parents expect from them. Hence we further thought of speaking with them about their approach towards their interests and how much they are aware of various career options. We were also keen in knowing the impact of our program on them and what they feel about us.

                                        Conversation with Master Pruthvik

       During this session, we spoke to Pruthvik and his mother. The moment we started knowing Pruthvik and his mother, we could understand how important his education and career was to them. They didn't have distinct idea about the opportunities and various fields available to opt for. Having scored 74% in the 10th examination, Mr. Santhosh had counselled and advised him to take up Diploma in Mechanical. Even as he had little interest in this field, he couldn't realize, till Mr. Santhosh elaborated him further on it. He was guided on what is the admission procedure, college availability and other needful steps to be taken.

Pruthvik and his Mother

Pruthvik is a curious child and interested to learn new things. He said it's not that he has particular liking towards any subject but wants to learn all the subjects. Thus, when he was counselled it was important to understand depth of knowledge he has for a particular subject, we realized that it was for mechanical engineering. Language on the other hand, he was pretty confident because of the coaching he had got through our foundation and also we asked him to continue to attend the classes which is being conducted for spoken English, so that he can be well versed in the language and would not cause him any hindrance in his career further. In the remaining free time, he has got, before he chooses his college and it resumes, he has joined computer course near his house, where he is learning computer basics.   

           His mother runs a paying guest accommodation from which she manages their family’s requirements as there is very little or no financial support from his father. His father drives an auto rickshaw in Bengaluru and does not look after his family here in Mysuru. So Pruthvik’ s mother wants him to study hard and come up in life for which she is ready to struggle and do the best for him. Her determination towards her son was very inspiring.      

Sahaja interacts with Pruthvik and his Mother

When asked about our foundation and the programs conducted by us, we were overwhelmed by her response. She said it did a lot of difference, the difficulty he had in studies were easily overcome and he could understand the subjects well. She liked what we did and said, this kind of attention and assistance even the other children require and that we should conduct teaching sessions in large numbers and with school students who are in need. The one thing which we lagged at was unable to conduct classes at the end of academic year was the only complain by Pruthvik’ s mother because the school failed to complete the portions which did hamper his marks. 

As soon as she got to know the reason about the volunteers who conducted these classes were held up with their own exams. She understood the situation which had encountered and why it happened, thus we told her in the coming years we would try bringing in more people with similar interest to join hands in assisting the children and guiding their paths. The period in which her child was thought she was satisfied as he would give his feedback of how well he understood the classes’ every day.  

She also requested with us if we could help her son further in his diploma course also.

           This kind of feedback from the children’s parents really motivates us to work even more hard to help them realize their goals and dreams.

Article written by Sahaja Bhargavi
Photos by Faizan Baksh

  

I once knew a man who talked about ideals, values, principles and kept telling me not to compromise with them. Integrity is everything. No matter what the situation you are in, do not bow down to the circumstances. They test you and you should not lose to them.

I believe time has come a full circle. The man once I knew is a transformed man now. He talks about making money, and believes ideals are bullshit. For a moment I agreed to him. But then my conscience would not let me fall prey to such thoughts. I always believed Money is a valuable entity only if it's doing good for the humanity. Otherwise its just a piece of paper.

Last year when we started Teach & Learn in association with Project ReachOut, we were very sure that it will work and we would make difference in the lives of the students of two schools. To some extent, it did. Last week we got results of SSLC and they were pretty good. Our work didn't reflect on the marks they scored but in the confidence that they want to study told us a very different story.

As promised in the beginning of our program we wanted to make sure that those kids do not dropout and get quality education to fulfill their dreams. So we made two teams to visit the homes of those children and interact with the parents.

On Saturday, 16th May, it was around 5 PM when I reached Pruthvik's home near Terressian College, Mysuru and I was drenched in rain. I was warmly welcomed by his mother and a plate full of sweet. Then I interacted with her for 20 mins. Pruthvik's father is an auto driver and he is in Bengaluru. His mom takes care of his education and his father is least bothered about it.  Then after counselling his interests they decided he would join for Diploma in Mechanical or Electronics.

Later that day , I visited five more students and interacted with their parents. The parents were very happy that we are investing our time in doing good for their children. The affection with which they talk to us gives a proud feeling to all of us.

On Sunday, our team members, Sandeep and Akash, visited three students and met their parents.

Here is what Sandeep says,

  "It was a very good experience when we meet the students and their parents. I just felt their thankfulness in their words and the way they talked and greeted us. Some parents don't have any idea about higher education and they have left to their children wish regarding the higher studies. Some have big dreams that they wanted to see them in a good position. And they have full hopes on our decision regarding their children's higher education and they were seeking our suggestions and they have full hopes in our decision or suggestions. Totally it was a nice experience"

Here is Akash's words

"It was a new experience to me. It felt really good when we get positive response from the parents. And more than the proud feeling that we got, it encouraged us to not to stop doing good work. And It was a great feeling to see the children and parents happy"

We are on a journey now. Chasing our dreams and helping the children chase theirs. In the next post, we will be sharing about 14 children we are supporting.

We need you support in supporting these children. If you wish to make a donation, Please click HERE

Follow our facebook page for updates

Santhosh S V
Spoorthi Foundation
www.spoorthifoundation.org

BIMBA – is the reflection of our “Spoorthi Foundation”.

It was the first ever thought of fund raising Photography Exhibition by our team through which we can reach the public, tell them about our cause, enlighten the thought in them about how important is right to education for each and every child in this society, spend every single rupee in doing our bit in providing education to children, encouraging them to get educated by supporting them financially and morally.

It was three wonderful days with beautiful photographs, with the Spoorthi team who were working day and night to make the event a success, with friends and family who came to support us, with the press and the public who came to encourage us and help us to reach more people.

I was literally overwhelmed and very thankful by the response and support that we received by ALL for Bimba.

When we say, this is a fund raising event, the first thought that will hit the public is, are they raising the fund for their wellness or is it really for the good cause. This is the actual scenario in the present society. People around us will have concern about what we are doing but when it comes to involvement the response is very minimal. It is both the concern and involvement is all it takes to build every child’s dream that they may have in life. In all its fullness!

I believe that every child has the right to shine and has the right to live life in all its fullness that respects and develops their personality and abilities. Don’t you think so?

Let us all join hands together in caring for others children as well than always caring our own family; Let us show our love to them and we will be thrilled by the unconditional love that we get in return from those little children; Let’s share our knowledge, teach them, guide them, spend some time with them; Let’s support and encourage them to join the mainstream of society as educated and productive citizens.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”

                                                                                                 -Nelson Mandela

Let’s do it!

Anvitha Anand

President,

Spoorthi Foundation

She completed her engineering degree in Computer Science from Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore.

Currently she works for Cerner Corporation as Software Engineer in Bengaluru.

Certainty is an illusion. Confusion sometimes becomes your greatest source of learning. With certainty the desire to learn, desire to explore, and desire to follow instincts die. Human race evolved following its instincts. With two years of journey behind us we were confused, excited as we were when we started Spoorthi Foundation.

Since the beginning we believe in the ideologies of Swami Vivekananda. Education is the manifestation of perfection already present in a man. On Jan 12^th we started our journey of 2014. We were at Chayadevi Trust celebrating the birthday of the great man.

Childhood is a very special and important part of everyone’s life. We are so lucky to have had the best days of our life in our childhood. All thanks to our parents for the invaluable love and care they showered upon us. But some children are so unfortunate that they never had the pleasure of a mother’s lap, father’s hands while they learn how to walk. Being the reason for their happiness was something that made all of us proud as the kids tried to bring their imagination on the white sheets. Thanks to our friends Raviraj and Achyutha who sponsored pencils, crayons etc for the kids.

Deccan Herald covered our Teach & Learn Program

It is here that the most important project of Spoorthi Foundation, TEACH & LEARN, started taking shape. You can read here about the program. From being a bunch of engineering graduates we slowly became a group of passionate teachers. Along with Project ReachOut, currently the program is in its final stage as we assist 30 students of Bifurcated Maharaja School and GovindRao School to prepare for their final exams. Click HERE to read about the program.

Joy Of Teaching Week (JOTW) second edition which aims at spreading the joy of teaching to the public was conducted from November 3 – November 8. More than fifty volunteers from various colleges participated and made it a success. Take away from JOTW, Spoorthi Foundation family grew in numbers and inspired many more to take up social activities. Click HERE to read about the program

Aashiyana featured in Prajavani, a kannada daily

Vijay Prakash Sir with the kids of Ashadayaka Seva Trust

As a part of JOTW, we organized a cultural fest for the kids of Ashadayaka Seva Trust, AASHIYANA 2014, an orphanage located in Metagalli.  Kids had a great time dancing and singing. It was a perfect evening as the kids were happy and our parents were proud. Through Aashiyana, we also got associated with Spandhana Trust, Audiology India & Fun + Learn. Our relation with Project ReachOut became stronger through JOTW and Aashiyana 2014.

On 9th of November, Acclaimed singer Vijay Prakash of Jai Ho fame visited Ashadayaka Seva Trust and spent time with the children. 

He adviced kids to believe in themselves and their dreams. Kids had a great time with him as they showcased their their talent by singing some of his songs.

Spoorthi Team along with the students at Infosys Mysuru Campus

Towards the end of the year we organized a educational visit to Infosys Mysuru campus for the kids of Banumaiah's Girls High School.

Here we are at the end of a purposeful year which gave us some amazing memories and happiness. We thank everyone who came together for a common purpose, make our society a better place to live. We thank everyone who believed in us and our efforts. 

Cheers to 2014 for being kind to us.

We will be sharing our plans for 2015 where we are thinking to focus on taking government plans to the doors of public. Let’s hope for a great year. Wish you all a happy 2015 J

You can visit www.spoorthifoundation.org to know more about us. Alternatively you can follow us on facebook by clicking here

Someone truly said Learning never ends. May be that’s the reason why Goddess Saraswathi still has a book in her hand. But we always confuse education with degrees. We need to understand that getting a degree is not equal to getting educated. Remember professionals built Titanic while amateurs created Microsoft and Apple.

We humans evolved learning from our mistakes. And the knowledge that we have now is because of our ancestors who passed on their knowledge by sharing with their next generation.  Ideally in order to grow and prosper as a community, we have to share the little knowledge we have with our fellow human beings.

With this motive of sharing the knowledge with the students of government schools, we conducted a unique event called JOY OF TEACHING WEEK from Nov 6 – Nov 12, 2013. You can read the report here

We just wanted people to come to the government schools, interact with the kids and make them feel that society cares for them. And we succeeded in inspiring some people to take up social cause. We will bring you these people in front of you soon.

Enough said. We will be having second edition of Joy of Teaching week from Nov 3 – Nov 8, 2014.  We proudly invite you to be a part of it and discover the teacher in you. If you have a heart that beats for the nation, make use of this opportunity. Let this be the beginning of a great journey that you always wanted to take and never took because of various reasons.

Goal: 

1. Inspire kids

2. To make people realize the lives of students in govt. schools and Spoorthi’s efforts in working for a cause to give better education and encouraging people to contribute in terms of funds, time, sponsoring etc.

How it works:

• Have you ever dreamt of becoming a teacher? Or given a chance, would you want to teach the kids? Here is your chance. Irrespective of your age and career, spend time with kids in schools and share what you know.
• Are you a sportsman willing to spend some time with kids? Visit us, explain how that game is played, what is meant by team player, share your experience, good and hard times, inspire kids.
• Are you a science enthusiast? Come and share with kids a few interesting experiments. 
• Are you a doctor? Share few health tips.
• Are you a Musician? Teach them a song, see the vibrancy in them.
• Are you a craft maker? Teach kids the art of cutting and pasting paper. You know kids will love that.
• Are you a traveler? Share your experience about places you have visited.
• Mysore/Bangalore is a place where people from different parts of the world come and live. Share with kids the importance of your place/city/village, culture, festivals and what you learnt.

Have no clue on what to share? We are there to help you. Spend some time with kids, play with them. They are a bundle of love. They make you laugh, jump and run.

Who can be part of it: Anyone! Everyone! We feel anyone is not worth missing the joy of seeing the spark in the kid’s eye as they learn how to draw a perfect circle for the first time or when they learnt a new game.

COME, SHARE, ENJOY, INSPIRE and BE A PART OF THE JOY OF TEACHING WEEK!

Ways to contact us for enrollment,queries or

You can email us: spoorthifoundationmysore@gmail.com

Message us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/spoorthi.ngo  or RSVP here

“Jo Desh ke kaam na aaye wo bekar jawani hai” These lines from Rang De Basanti still echo in my ears. Whenever I see someone especially someone of my age or someone younger than me doing something good for the society, I cannot stop myself from congratulating them.

Ashwin Udupa, an engineering student from Mysore with whom I had some of the best moments of my life. I met this guy when I was in final year engineering. He was my junior. I remember him as a guy, who always gets slapped by girls in a short film and for his infamous Gangnam dance during our college fest.

Ashrith G N is also one of my junior but I never personally met him. One day I got a call from him informing that they have started a website and have listed my book for the visitors. I just thanked him and forgot about it. Some days later I got a notification in Facebook asking me to like a page e-mysore.com. I liked it and went through the page and their website. It is a decent website showing news about local events happening in Mysore, promoting music bands, short films etc.

Now the same team has come up with a web portal for blood donation where the donors can be directly contacted. All one has to do is visit http://blooddonors.e-mysore.com/ and search for the blood groups. We get customized results depending on the blood group required. If one wants to register as a donor, all he/she has to do is just register in their portal and their details will be published in the website. Three days back, I found their work featured in Star of Mysore, an evening daily of Mysore and that made me to write this.

When I look up to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as inspiration I realize that the biggest thing we need to do in our life is to believe in our dreams and work slowly towards making them true. While doing that if we can return something back to the society that we are a part of, will be a great achievement. Instead of cribbing about the problems around, let’s be the answers. Let us be the trendsetters.

I congratulate the entire team of e-mysore.com lot more success in future and hope to work together in making our country a beautiful place to live. If you are a donor willing to donate blood, please register in their website and be a part of the new wave. Your small step may save a life of someone. Share the website among your friends and encourage them to register.

Santhosh S V

CEO

Spoorthi Foundation

On 9^th of November 2013, I was standing in front of around 35 students at Yeliyuru Government School Mandya. We had visited there as a part of our event JOY OF TEACHING WEEK and we were just starting our classes. Before beginning, we asked the children about what they want to become in future. Promptly most of them replied with “I want to become a doctor”, “I want to become a police officer”, “I want to become an engineer” and so on. We were happy that the kids from villages have such big dreams. But while interacting with the school officials, we came to know that most of the students will not even continue their education after 10^th standard. At that point of time I decided we need to do something.

While we read some success stories of the students of government schools occasionally, large number of children especially Girls drop out after 10^th standard. So I put forward an idea in front of my team. We were meeting to decide the plans for 2014. We would select two schools, Yeliyuru High School and another school in Mysore and will be taking free classes during our weekends for one whole year. And we will be guiding them till the exams get over. After discussing, we finalized on two schools in Mysore itself and to visit Yeliyuru during December.

On January 12 we visited Chayadevi Trust Orphanage in Mysore to celebrate National Youth Day. We also invited our seniors Kushal and Sandeep to join us and spend some time with the kids. They joined us and even sponsored the prizes for the drawing competition winners. While going back, Kushal addressed the group of 10^th and 12^th standard students and advised them about how important it is to follow their dreams rather than following the herd. That is when I decided to have Kushal on board for our future works.

So, on March 16^th, we created a post on facebook about what we are going to do and asked interested individuals to attend the meeting and we also sent emails to our college alumni’s. The first meeting was conducted at Banumaiha’s  College and around 12 people attended it including our team members. We decided on having a demo class to see the presentation skills and confidence. Then we started worrying about the place to conduct demo classes.

My mind flashed upon my high school teacher A G Nanjappa Swamy and immediately I called him asking to provide a classroom for taking demo classes in their coaching center. He was more than happy to give a nod and wished us good luck.

We invited M V Tulasi Prasad, Hindi Teacher, Government School, Hunsur and also my high school Kannada Teacher to give us feedback. After two weeks, we have made a team of 26 people who will be actually taking classes from June 30.

Kushal and Dushyanth, both my seniors helped us in getting permissions from DDPI to conduct classes on Saturday and Sunday’s. And we will be having an interactive session about teaching skills by Mr DayaPrasad, Faculty, RIMSE, Mysore and A G Nanjappa Swamy, Teacher, Marimallappa’s High School.

This teaching program will go on for 8 months starting from June 30 till February end. Our teachers will be helping them in their academics and guiding them through their exams.

We even got blessings of elders when Mrs. Shakuntala and Kushal’s mother joined us in our work. This would be the first work we will be doing with the government and we are all excited about it. We need your blessings and advices.

Recently we opened bank account to raise funds for our future works. One of the important work included in our plan is to financially support two students to continue their education. If you wish to make a donation, Please help us. Find the bank details below.

Name: SPOORTHI FOUNDATION

Acc No: 065900101005454

IFSC: CORP0000659

Bank: Corporation Bank, Vijayanagar, Mysore.

To know more about us

Web: www.spoorthifoundation.org

Fb: facebook.com/Spoorthi.ngo

Twitter: @spoorthi_ngo

In my next post, I will be writing about the people who will be taking classes and the people who helped us reach here.

Thank You

Santhosh S V

CEO, Spoorthi Foundation

The best gift of life, I believe, is life itself. And I am very happy to be born in this age!

We are living in such times when sky is not the limit. The wonderful possibilities of life never cease to amaze us. The world, in reality, has become a global village. Science and technology have thrived and made our lives more comfortable and exciting. Life IS beautiful.

But…

We tend to keep in mind the small sect of the society that is availing all these outcomes of modern day life. In a country like India, where about 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, girls and women like me would not even have the slightest idea of the very existence of these joys, opportunities. This write up is a contemplation on one such wonderful opportunity that women are missing or not being on the receiving edge as they deserve – education.

There have been a lot of haunting questions I would like to address that go beyond gender, religion, region, economical status etc. but this is an attempt to ponder upon one thing at a time.

Why aren’t our women allowed to live their lives as ‘they’ want?

Kalpana Chavla, Indian Astronaut

I mean, I know that times have changed. Women are reaching the pinnacle of success in a lot of fields that were once untouched by them. They are national leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate women, writers, media personnel. There are women who party 9 days a week!!! There are ladies who spend half their lives in beauty salons! It’s all kind of cute in a way, actually. And there are some inspiring women around us – Kalpana Chawla went to space (It’s sad that she couldn’t make it back…)

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw heads Biocon; Sudha Murthy is “simplicity Personified”… there is one Chaavi (MBA gold medalist) who resigned a job that paid lakhs together every month and is now serving a village called ‘Sodhaa’ in Rajasthan as a ‘Gram Sarpanch’; there is a Sampath Pal Devi who is like a moral police – who has not even the basic education and was a victim of child marriage – She now has thousands of women for support who just go and literally thrash men who assault women in any way!

Sudha Murthy, Infosys Foundation

I have just mentioned some names that occurred to me right now. There are still many examples out there. But I would call them “exceptions” rather than “examples”, because their number is so small. There is a whole other sector of our kind which is in absolute darkness – completely unaware of all the above mentioned “exceptions”. That sector is still plagued by superstition, ignorance, child labour, child marriage, sexual assault and what not!

Is it really “development” when only one group of the population flourishes?!

I’m NOT disputing the fact that a lot of women are doing great. But who are to be blamed for millions of voices that go unheard? What about those dried out, tired eyes that have given up on hoping and seeking help?

Kiran Mazumdar Shah, Founder, Biocon India

Swami Vivekananda had once said that our nation needs women who can be Indians inside their homes and who can be Europeans once they step out of them.  But many well educated women give up on their careers for a marriage unwillingly. Don’t they want to be successful as professionals too? Why is it that a woman alone has to make sacrifices for a marriage? This is another dimension to the status of education and women in this country, unlike in the West.

Some women ARE let to live the lives they want. And that’s the reason I say I am very happy to be born in this age. But this write-up is for those thousands of women whose faces have lost that grace and essence of being a woman, fighting and fighting and fighting all their lives for some happiness. I just hope life turns out fair for at least those who deserve.

Women in our country are beyond wives, mothers, daughters… they are home-makers. If the world looks at India as a country where family values are preserved and given the utmost importance to, then the credit goes more to these women who keep it all together with every bit of their strength.

Every person, they say, is a book by himself. Our women are from a line of legacy that still keeps our society saner than a lot other nations and communities. When every other woman could do this, most of them who are deprived of even elementary education, just imagine how much better a society we could be – if they are formally educated. Most women who are deserted by their husbands or families would still be able to take care of themselves and if needed, their children too.

The Central government and all the State governments have taken up some appreciative measures in this course. It is welcoming. But they must be implemented better than they are now; better than how they are drafted on paper. Although it is hard to accomplish this in the context of our societal superstitions, unscientific religious dogmas, lack of basic amenities which makes education a far-fetched idea. There is one more concern I would like to bring out here. The unfortunate ignorance: most women ‘choose’ to remain silent when it comes to a fundamental right they deserve! A lot of them accept that it is their ‘fate’ and nobody can do anything about it. Some of them deny having keen longings for so many wonderful pleasures of life and just bury them deep within and build concrete graves on them.

It is not impossible.

Volumes could be written about any discussion, any issue. But certain things deserve ‘work’ more than just ‘lip-service’. On that note, I take this opportunity to thank every single soul that does its bit in trying to make this dream a reality.

Our ancient epics say “Yatra naaryastu poojyante ramante tatra devataaha”. It means that where women are worshipped, the Gods (Should we say Goddesses, as this is about women?! I know not of the gender, if there exist any) reside there. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But our women are made of substance rather than phony ideologies. They face far worse issues with grit and valor and do not even make a big deal out of it. They are soldiers who fight demons inside four walls. Their biggest problem is not to choose between a Gucci bag and a Prada; but to choose between basic necessities – if they can afford any.

I would like to end this earnest attempt by remembering one of the most moving ads – a one liner from ITC (the books we have all been blessed to buy in schools and colleges! An irony!):

There are millions of them who still just dream of school…

About the Author

Sourabha Rao, aged 23, currently working at Unisys Global Services, India, Bengaluru is an Engineering Graduate from Mysore. She likes writing, singing and has been a constant supporter of our organization

Please visit her blog at wheremindsmeet.wordpress.com