We all have people that we look up to, people whose life experiences we can learn from. It could be anyone: from a scientist, an athlete, to a social activist. Well, what about a man who prowls through the night fighting crime in a bat costume?


Batman didn't exactly win the superhero lottery, so to speak. He doesn’t have an alien heritage nor does he have mutant or magic powers to rely on. His intellect, will power and other such human qualities are his real superpowers. And as crazy and unrealistic as it may seem Batman/Bruce Wayne can be the best and without doubt the coolest role model anyone can find.

 Here are the top ten things that can be learnt from our favourite caped crusader... 

1. FIND YOUR PURPOSE
Why do you do what you do? Even multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne (AKA Batman), had to look into his past to find his true purpose in life. Bruce’s vow on his parent’s grave:"I will rid the city of the evil that took your lives." became his purpose and that purpose created Batman.  Without purpose, life can seem to be a meaningless existence.

2. SLAY YOUR DRAGONS
Bruce Wayne had many dragons to slay - grief, loss, death, but the only way to move forward with his life was to confront those dragons and fears head on.  He embraced his fears and made his enemies share his dread. His fear became his catalyst. Tip toeing around our fears and limitations gets us nowhere. The only way to get rid of an obstacle is to confront it and defeat it.

3. DO THE DIRTY WORK
Batman went through blood, sweat and tears to protect Gotham. In fact, he was so committed to his mission that he willingly took the fall for others when it was necessary to. We sometimes just have to step up and take charge, even when the going gets tough and it involves working outside of our comfort zone. 

4. UNITY IS STRENGTH  
Gotham City wasn’t saved by Batman alone. In the end it was a group effort, led by Batman that rescued the city from destruction. We can’t do everything on our own, and even when we try to, the end result is nowhere near as big as when you allow others to help you achieve your goals.

5. STAY COOL UNDER PRESSURE
One of Batman’s notable qualities is his ability to stay cool. Even in the face of fear-inducing scarecrows and mad clowns, he is able to exude an aura of calmness. What we can take away from Batman’s cool is how important attitude is, especially when confronted with unexpected and disorienting challenges and when dealing with difficult or even hostile people. 

6. SACRIFICE IS KEY TO SURVIVAL
In order to achieve anything in life, you must be willing to sacrifice. Bruce Wayne sacrificed his wealth and trained several years to fight injustice. He gave up his personal life. He did all this willingly and knowing he would never get recognition for his actions.  

 7. MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING
Bruce Wayne values love and family more than his personal wealth. Nothing of what he does is repaid by money or recognition or even gratitude at times. He loves his city and that love is why he feels indebted to protect it, both publicly as Bruce Wayne and privately as Batman. He is the perfect example of how money can be used as a tool instead of a goal.

8. BE RESOURCEFUL
Bruce Wayne has a lot of resources, thanks to his huge fortune, thus Batman is well equipped for virtually any situation. Even without his trademark suit and gadgets, Batman is still ingenious and calculating, still capable of devising plans to escape pit-prisons and save Gotham from a nuclear explosion. The point is to maximize what’s around you.

9. CONSTANTLY IMPROVE YOURSELF
In order to become Batman, Bruce trained incredibly hard to build his physical and mental strength and was not afraid to put himself in difficult conditions. In fact, he worked himself to the peak of human perfection. So, you may be good at what you do, but always find ways to better your performance.

10. LEAVE A LEGACY
Years, decades and centuries from now the city of Gotham will remember Batman as a hero, a legend who helped save their city. He has left a legacy which will inspire many to go beyond their limitations and rise above well after he is gone.

To me, Batman is something more than a fictional character from graphic novels and movies. He represents the constant struggle we face in our daily lives and the fear we hide deep within. But most of all he represents  HOPE. The quote from the movie ‘Batman Begins’: “It’s not who you are from the inside, but what you do that defines you.” describes all that Batman is about and all that we can strive to be. Think about it, it just takes all these qualities for any of us to be Batman.




Ayesha Iftiqhar is an engineering graduate from Maharaja Institute of Technology and a member of our organization. She is currently pursuing her masters degeree and resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, US
        Always wanting to do little difference in the society and earlier being connected with other foundation,which worked for helping out children in need. My friend Miss. Aditi Dinakar told me she was preparing for a photography exhibition towards a cause with Spoorthi Foundation and BIMBA it was. I got curious and was very keen to know if I could be part of it. That was how I became aware of the foundation, and soon got in touch with Mr. Santhosh. He shared and discussed about foundation and how I could contribute. I was quite overwhelmed by the projects they carry out and their approach of the understanding towards needs of the children at the Government schools.

The event BIMBA , I was present at the venue on the second day. I met the members of the foundation, who were from different walks of life. It was a good initiative taken by the team , very much visible as the place spoke all the heart and soul. It had attracted various kind of audience from college going students to Professionals. who were given neat description about the work displayed by the whole team and Miss Aditi Dinakar, who was present throughout the event. The foundation ensured that it conveyed its goal and the main idea behind the whole event. It gained whole lot of appreciation by the audience present, also some of them were ready to give their support in most possible ways. 

The turning point of the event was when people with little interest gained a lot of interest towards the end. That created a momentum in the event.The enthusiasm and energy level never dropped throughout the event, that showed the determination of each member for the foundation. I am honoured to be part of it and looking forward to do my best.



Sahaja Bhargavi is an engineering graduate from NIE Mysuru. She is our new team member who will write articles related to the activities of Spoorthi Foundation.

She can be reached on her facebook account.

Please follow our page for more updates.
Its been a time we posted anything in our blog. We were busy planning the activities for our next academic year. We really had a purposeful 2014. Hope 2015 remains same for us.

As we wait for the new academic year to start, we are having our first ever fund raising event.

Spoorthi Foundation has collaborated with Ms. Aditi Dinakar to organize photography exhibition and sale. Thus we invite you all to be a part of our efforts and support us.

ENTRY FEE : Rs.50 /-


Funds raised from the event will be used for :

1. Financially supporting at least one student of Maharaja Bifurcated School to continue education after 10th Standard.

2. Samvaad - Interactive session with inspiring personalities using Google Hangouts.

3. Surveying dropped out student details and trying to find the root cause for the dropout and talk to parents of the children to send them back to the schools and providing educational assistance to them.

4. Swachh Vidyalay Abhiyan - 2015-2019

5. Organizing Medical Camps

6. Teach & Learn - Our comprehensive teaching program to improve the basic knowledge of 8th standard students of Maharaja Bifurcated School.
7. Organizing Industrial visits to the high school students.

For tickets : bit.ly/spoorthi

Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any queries
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 12th 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
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 9th 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 10th 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 10th 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 10th and 12th 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 16th, 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
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