Triple Celebration For Pankhudi

Hi..
It was indeed a great show on November 18 by Pankhudi Chennai team..
The much awaited detailed report – here it goes.. bear with my style of writing
Whenever a big event is planned, the night before the celebration would go as a sleepless night for me.. Imagining sequence of events to take place, things to take there, do this do that etc.
My heart jumped like a small school kid going to Educational Tour the next day. The day before evening went to a super market to get gifts for the children, prizes for the games.
The profile of the children is
0 – 3 years : 20
3 – 10 yrs : 25.
So gifts and games were planned according to that. Since the kids were too small, thought of giving some games related gifts. So got tennis bat for 3 – 10 yr old kids and smiley balls for the children..
Also thought of teaching the kids with some dolls and hence got a sponge and few rubber bands to create a very basic doll.. Other than that games planned were
1) Lemon and Spoon
2) Identifying objects
3) Filling the bottle
4) Baloon bursting
5) Passing the ball
6) Tapping ball for long time
7) Few more.
Idea was 5 games for small and kiddies. 5 for little grown up children.

Other than this an exciting magic show by one of the renowned magician in the city.. how will all these make an organizer sleep. Before the actual show atleast thousand times I executed all that in my eyes.
Although the number of volunteers who promised to come had some reasons for absence, I thought let’s give it a shot. Everything will be perfect…

The D-Day came.. I started from my home with aunty and two kids. It was good to see the kids were very excited to see other kids over there. On the way they were very excited to meet them and were saying that they will get new friends etc.
We reached the get together spot sharp at 9.30 and from there Swarnabha ( my colleague ) joined us and we reached Balagurukulam around 10.15
We met the care taker of the orphanage first. That time we were 5 in number. Myself, Swarnabha, my aunt, and two kids.
The care taker was a very open person and we had talk for about 1 hours. It would be too long to say all that we discussed. I will just highlight the important things to be noted.
• The kids are taken from dustbins and are mostly abandoned children
• Babies 2 days old were also there
• It’s been 6 years since starting the orphanage
• The children are admitted in a very good school and are mostly good in academics
• The life ambition of the care taker is to bring more than 300 children like this and make at least 100 IAS / IPS from them.
• All these kids call him father and he has got order from court too. Has not specified any community for them and specified only INDIAN for them.
• Other than children, he also brings cats and other few animals (including some snakes :O – but in a separate place )
• According to him, this Balagurukulam is only 30 percent of work and other than that he is also working for village empowerment and has adopted around 55 villages.
I am sure with such a wonderful care taker the kids would surely become collectors and IPS officers.
It was 11.30 by the time we completed and we went to one main hall where we thought we can conduct the magic show. The scene of the hall will stay in the eyes of many of them for long days. The kids in sounth india will usually be in a made sleep in a hanging cradle made out of cotton saree. Usually there will be only one cradle in a home. But in that hall there were many cradle. It was really cute to see that. There were many small small babies sleeping in that and other kids were playing here and there.
After some struggle we organized the kids to sit in an order and started distributing the sponges for creating the doll. But by the time the magician came and he had to leave soon. Hence, the craft session was halted and magic show proceeded. By the time the magician finished preparing the table for magic, the kids completed the dolls themselves tying rubber band here and there. Each doll by them was as cute as them 
I contacted the magician through an internet website and that time he was in Delhi. He reduced his cost as soon as he came to know the program was for kids and this was the first time he was doing without any music around and in a simple writing table. But he adjusted and said I am happy to do for the kids.
Really the magician was enthralling us with the show. Even elders will be surprised to see the tricks performed by him. He was simply great. The kids had great fun seeing the magic show.
By the time he finished the show, it was 12.30 and after he left the kids completed the doll and also named it. Few more volunteers joined us by that time. Then it was time for lunch.
The kids were sitting in a huge circle and said a very long prayer before they started eating (for about 10 mins). There was another cuter thing that we witnessed. All the one year kids were made to sit in row in chairs and there was one 6 year old kid holding a big vessel full of cerelac. Usually I have seen cerelac in a small cup. It was different to see a big vessel full of cerelac . She keeps feeding each kid in a row. And by the time she comes to first kid again, it would have digested the food feeded. It was really a cute scene. It also showed how much each kids supported each other and loved each other. The one year kids also ate the food without any hindrance. I have seen many parents dancing to make the kids eat the food.
Not only this, for some 2 year old kids, we were asked to feed. It was yet another great feeling. I was also feeding a kid and she ate the food so well. Some kids were not eating and volunteers made them eat by playing with balloons etc.
After lunch we thought we will play games. But unfortunately it started to rain so we couldn’t have any games in the ground. We went to a big hall which was in construction and organized games there.
Haa… the kids gave me a good exercise. It was too difficult to handle them. They kept bursting the balloons and playing here and there. For lemon and spoon if we keep the game for 5 kids, there will be 8 kids saying I came first. We had only 5 lemon and spoon and no kid compromised to come in second round. Etc etc. So we found it near impossible to finalize who came first and who deserved prize. So we forgot about the game things and just had fun.
The kids had great fun making me run here and there and bursting all the balloons when I keep blowing them. It was fun for everyone. There was this kid, Dheena (whose ambition is to become Police Officer )was naughtiest of everyone. .
Then we had filling the a small waterbottle from a bucket full of water by carrying water from one end to other with hands. Oh.. the fun we had cannot be described. First of all I instructed how to play the game, but once I gave start, one kid took the bottle itself to the bucket and filled it.. the other time all kids kept dashing and pushing making the water fall out of hands.. They enjoyed, cheered and fought nicely with each other.
There was another wonderful moment. There was this girl Meenu who was my aunt neighbor who came with us. There was a small fight and she started crying. This was during that water filling game. Immediately few other children seeing her crying filled her bottle themselves and said you were first, don’t worry don’t cry. It was really touching. It was really great to see how they showered love and care to others also. Since she was bit elder than others they were calling her akka (sister) and very attached to her. When she was playing also they were cheering her.
After sometime we thought we would leave because it was getting late and bid bye to the kids. Dheena came with us till the gate to bid us bye  

Volunteers Participated:
1) Divya
2) Saroja (My aunt)
3) Seenu (2nd std)
4) Meenu (7th std)
5) Kavitha
6) Praveena
7) Swarnabha
8) Karthik
9) Ramanathan (From IVolunteer thru Anvesha)
10) Dhanraj
11) Manish
12) Venkat
Thanks for Everyone!!! It was a very wonderful day !!!
Cheers,
Divya Senthamil Selvan

Triple Celebration For Pankhudi

Hi all..As a follow up to this, I have contacted Balagurukulam through one of my colleague and confirmed program with them

The details of discussion with them is as follows
Lunch for the kids (and our volunteers) - 1500
Full day meals for the kids - 3500

Kids count:

Less than 3 years = 20 Children
3 to 10 years = 25 Children
15 yr old = 1 kid


So lets come up with the plan for the activities we can conduct there.Also please let me know your availability on November 18th (10 - 4) If anyone want to contribute for this event, please mail me. I will let you know the procedure. (divya.senthu@gmail.com)
Regards,

Triple Celebration For Pankhudi

Hi all..

Wish you all a very very very Happy Diwali..

We have three special occasions coming up

1) Festival of Lights - Diwali (November 8)
2) Children's Day (November 14)
3) Pankhudi Team Day (November 19)

In order to celebrate all this we are planning to have celebrations in an orphanage on November 18th (Sunday) from Morning 10 - 6. We shall plan to have lunch with the children itself. Please let us know your availability.


Planned Activities:

1) Distribution of Sweets
2) Games
3) Competitions for the children.

You are very welcome for any new activities.

Right now I am contacting the orphanages for schedule. Will keep you informed.

Please give your comments and suggestions. Let us make the day wonderful...

As an folow up to this i have spoken with two orphanages

1) New Life Orphanage - Eraiyoor Village
- This is the place where we had Independece day Celebration. Right now they dont have caterers and so they said that we cant provide food for more than 10 volnteers. If needed you arrange for the entire group (120 over there + our volunteers) from external caterers. The problem with this Orphanage is that there is no transport available here except for one bus which comes rarely in the morning. We need to arrange a private van + food problem this time. But we have good rapport with the care taker and the children over there. It is a very nice village which always welcome us with open hands.

2) Balagurukulam Orphanage - Kalikuppam Village - http://www.balagurukulam.org

- This is a new place for Pankhudi. I came to know about this through Net only Courtesy: Yahoo (http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070825132406AANunuh ) plus through my office colleagues who are also visiting there. According to them it is an absolutely nice place to celebrate and the care taker is very kind hearted. There is not much transport problem for this village (It is 5-6 kms from Ambattur. 20 kms from City) and i havent spoken about lunch and other details. I have spoken to the volunteer of Sneham ( another NGO) who visits there. She said she can confirm me once i have finalized my plans.

So please respond to this post so that i can confirm as soon as possible. or mail me @ divya.senthu@gmail.com

Regards,Divya.S

Questions to Ponder

Hi,
We are trying to publish a collection of questions.

There are many categories in it. I am sharing few interesting topics here.

Topic1: What are top 10 questions to be asked to choose a girl as life partner?
Topic2: What are top 10 questions to be asked to choose a guy as life partner?
Topic3: What are top 10 questions to be to determine a best doctor?
Topic4: What are top 10 questions not to be asked to choose a girl as life partner?
Topic5: What are top 10 questions not to be asked to choose a guy as life partner?

I will post more topics if the responses are good.

Please note:
· One small condition – The question need not be like eg. “Does he/she earn good salary” because the search itself is - what is good :) )
· The questions are not asked in specific to people from software industry. So you can give questions in generic point of view too.
· You can either give your questions thru mail (Divya.Senthu@gmail.com) or thru Blog itself.
· If I get any interesting questions ill share it in blog thru comments

Thanks and Regards,
Kelvizhi

Whats Special On April 23

International Books Day

When people run head over heels on "Atshaya tritiya" to buy something in white (May be platinum as the commercialists say), it is very rare to find people buying books on International Books day.

The Origin of IBD

• The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Catalonia as a way to honor the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day.
• In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright day would be celebrated on this date because of the Catalonian festival and because the date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare.

One Interesting Bit

• Although 23 April is often stated as the anniversary of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes, this is not strictly correct.
• Cervantes died on 23 April according the Gregorian calendar; however, at this time England still used the Julian calendar. Whilst Shakespeare died on 23 April by the Julian calendar in use in his own country at the time, in actual fact he died ten days after Cervantes, because of the discrepancy between the two date systems. The apparent correspondence of the two dates was a fortunate coincidence for UNESCO.

On this Day..

• If you are a regular book reader, bring out this habit to your friends and family circle by gifting them a book today (there could be another reason for this.. read on.. )
• If you are still “trying” to start reading habit, go ahead. Today is the D-Day. Start the journey of life with Books.

If you are a newbie to reading books

• Don’t start with too philosophical books
• Take a small book in the subject of your interest. I often end up in returning a book unread to library just because of the fact that it is big. Last week I took a small book from library and almost completed it. (If you are exceptionally good reader, kick start your journey with giants!!)

What did I do?

• Today morning I and my brother have taken responsibility to sell books worth Rs. 400 to our friends circle. If you are one, contact me. (Tamil Books)

Catalonia - Lover's day

This day is also called as St George's Day.

Reason for celebration

• Well, we all know the Story behind Valentines Day. Like that, this day also has a special reason behind it.
• "Patron Saint of Catalonia, international knight-errant Saint George allegedly slew a dragon about to devour a beautiful princess south of Barcelona. From the dragon's blood sprouted a rosebush, from which the hero plucked the prettiest for the princess. "

How people celebrate

• This day is celebrated with Men giving roses to their Lady Friends and in turn they return Books.
• This day is celebrated in Barcelona since the Middle Ages to honor chivalry and romantic love, a day for men and mice alike to give their true loves roses.
• Over four million roses and half a million books are sold in Catalonia on Sant Jordi's Day (St. George Day)

Why books?

• In 1923, the lovers' fest merged with International Book Day
• Besides the Shakespeare and Cervantes anniversary, Barcelona is the publishing capital of the Spanish-speaking world.
• Language and love have, in any case, always been closely associated, to the point that contemporary evolutionary psychologists identify the cerebral cortex as both the erotic and linguistic center of the human brain.
• And don't affairs of the heart inevitably lead to exchanges of letters, books, poetry? Indeed true isnt it??
• In Sarrià a floral artisan displays 45 kinds of roses representing 45 different kinds of love, from impossible to unrequited to filial and maternal.

Birth and Death day of William Shakespeare

• There can be no one learning English Lit without knowing works of William Shak.
• He has contributed a lot in English poetry and has impact a lot on future generations.
• The complete works of W.S can be read at < http://shakespeare.mit.edu/>

Death day of William Wordsworth

• Complete works of William Wordsworth is present here - http://www.bartleby.com/145/

Turkey National Sovereignity and Children's Day

• The designation of Children's Day came in 1929 upon the recommendation of the Institution of Children's Protection.
• Since 1986 the Turkish government organizes an international children's festival on April 23.

Other Add-Ons for Today

• Finding Out AIDS Virus - 1984 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/23/newsid_2524000/2524039.stm
• National Beer Day in Germany
• International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/15/april_23_is_internat.html
  

Please give your comments on this post. Also add the details you know about 24th.

Please give ideas on improvising too!!

Cheers,

Divya (Kelvizhi)

திரும்பி வா....

பி.கு. ..
இவள் அழுகையில் எழுத்துக்கள் கூட கொஞ்சம் மங்கலாகி போனது..