Ponni - Sixth semester results

Dear friends,

A very good new to start the day with.....Our student Ponni has scored 80% in her sixth semester, 2nd topper in the class. Dream India wishes her all the best. We are proud to be associated with her.

Read more about here here

Regards

Natarajan

Pooja secures admission

Refer to this for more details...

Hallo people,

A piece of good news. Pooja’s admission for the XIth is done – SNDT College – MCVC in Electronics Technology. It’s a minimum competency vocational course, similar to regular XIth FYJC, but that’ll give her vocational training along with a chance to jump into the mainstream once she’s done. Earlier, the management was to put Pooja into XI Commerce at Mamasaheb Mohol College. Thanks to Sameer Sir and Rachna, this thing has become possible. Now she’ll have a fighting chance, should they tell her to leave AG once she’s eighteen years old.

College starts on the 17^th of July, 2009 – at 08:15 A.M. So, please try to keep yourselves free on that day. Let’s cheer her on to her first day at college.

Travel – Pooja’ll be taking a bus to college, everyday. They’re looking at the pass thingy. I guess, she’ll get the concession form once college begins – so, that’s that.

But, finally, some good stuff.

Amit

Bhuvana - second semester results

Now how about this news friends!!!. Our student Bhuvana has scored 91.7% in her second semester. She scored 90+ in her 1st semester too.

Bhuvana is a very sincere and hard working student. If you all remember, couple of months ago, Parthy and I, we met Bhuvana and her mom and handed over a check for Rs.20,000 for her college fee.

Dream India is proud to be associated with Bhuvana. On behalf of our team, I convey our best wishes to Bhuvana. I am sure she would continue her good work and make us all proud.

Regards,

Natarajan

Dream India

Chennai DI updates - July 2009

Adyar class:

It has been two weeks since we started the weekend classes for our Adyar school children. Currently, we are taking classes for 8th [ new batch] and our old students who are in 9th standard now. The strength of the 8th kids [ 30 ] has been very encouraging.

Our friend Mani, [ Web Admin along with Marshniel ] joined Adyar team and has been really energetic to get things done. By god's grace, Adyar chapter always finds dedicated volunteers which helps us handle the classes comfortably.

You might have seen my emails on plans for I-day at Adyar. Also, ELCOT set up of new computer room is almost done, DI would take over deployment of a teacher at this school in near future.

Certificates and prizes would be distributed for the 9 students who successfully completed DI's summer computer course.

KK Home Visit:

We visited KK old age home on 5th and provided dinner to all residents. As planned, we sang some songs and danced too :) One of the Paati's sang a very good prayer song. We served idlies and coffee and spent nice time with them all. I will share the snaps with all of you soon.

In case if you have been wondering, KK Children home visit is being done monthly by TCS - Morgan Team. I am in touch with them and things are running smoothly.

Regards,

Natarajan

Summer school admissions - An Interview with Padmaja

I was half way thru my vacation sitting in a hotel room, and talking to Padmaja on phone. The recent developments in the Mumbai team seemed very interesting, what with many of our students completing their tenth standard examinations and applying for various colleges. Padmaja has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes and it was good to have her talk about them. Here are some excerpts...

Padmaja (P): Geeta was so confused about the course that she should take. She is very confident that she does NOT want to do Arts or Commerce. And she does want to do engineering, but was kind of apprehensive, considering she would have to cope with the English language and also four years of engineer AFTER her junior college ends. She was so confused that she took inputs from many many people.

Varun (V): It is good, that she is concentrating so much on her education and her career paths. What do her parents think about engineering?

P: Her parents seem totally co operative, but I am slightly concerned. Engineering means she would have to give up her part time jobs and study another 6 years from now (incl junior college) and I hope she and her parents are able to take that kind of stress. Especially her father. He is all hunky dory when talking in front of us, but behind closed doors, he really does not appreciate the need to spend so much time and money on education. That is what worries me.

On the other hand, Shubham from Borivali seems to take his career very easily. Right now, Geeta is the most determined of the lot.

V: How about the Andheri pada? What is happpening there?

P: Lalita has scored decent marks and so has Aarti. But these people are so irresponsible. They do not even have caste certificates with them.

V: Uh oh...And what is happening on that front across the centers?

P: Everywhere it is the same story. Geeta also did not have it. I had to literally scold her parents and tell them to make sure the certificate is ready - by hook or by crook - within 2 days. The applications are all online this year and I had already categorised Geeta's caste in it. Then luckily, her parents did act soon and got the certificate readied and delivered on time. On the contrary, when I told Arti's parents to get these done, they asked me if I can help them do it. I said I wont and that they should do that at least themselves. We were supposed to meet in a couple of days but they didn't turn up, nor did they intimate me. How many times does one follow up in such cases!

We have to understand that while these girls have done well to surpass the expectation of their communities and score decent marks, these marks are not good enough to get them admission into good colleges. We have to leverage the caste certificates.

V: Hmm... This caste thing...we have to make sure that after all these admissions are done with, we should explain about the caste certificates to the kids and also open up some topic on reservations in education, jobs etc. and if they are needed or not. And if needed, on what grounds. Anyways...what about Raju's daughters? They have certificates?

P: One of the best things to happen there is that Jayasundari has secured 80%. Though it is lesser than what I expected her to score (I was hoping more of 85%), it is very good indeed. But caste certificate? None! And Raju said that even if he got one made from Tamil Nadu and sent it, there might be issues as it is issued from Tamil Nadu. Good point. And when I asked them to go meet a lawyer to get an affidavit done, they were so reluctant, they were not used to roaming around at all, not been beyond the Marol area, so they were apprehensive when I suggested to them this lawyer that I knew, who spoke good Tamil. But they did make it at the end...

V: You said something about admissions being online this year?

P: Yes, and it is both good and not so good. Good, because we are computerising things and not so good because, these people know nothing about 'online'. We had to thrust it into the kids to let us know at the time they were filling their online applications and we would be there at that time. And despite this, Jayasundari went on and filled the apps on her own and messed it up big time!

V: What are you saying??? What did she do?

P: I had given her the list of colleges that she should apply to and in what order. She gave the absolute reverse order as her order of preference.

V: Oh, that could have been corrected later on...surely?

P: You think so? We were running from pillar to post for a week at the admissions office. Finally, that lady looking at my sorry face, came up with a solution that could have been suggested long time back. She rejected the application, so that it opened up in 'edit' mode for Jayasundari again, and she was able to change the order! Phew! It was a close call. But finally, all the applications are done and we have to wait with fingers crossed for the results... Meanwhile, we also had a felicitation ceremony for the Borivali kids and the Andheri kids at the pada. Many children and a few parents turned up for the event. The children were given school bags as gifts and also some sweets at the end. Overall, it was a very happy scene that reflected the entire efforts of DI and the kids over the past one year!

V: Thanks Padmaja, for talking with us for such a long time. Really appreciate the efforts that you have put in. It has not been easy and is definitely not, considering that the parents also act in a lackadaisical manner, it is very very difficult to keep up the focus. You have done that admirably!

KK visit - July and Chennai updates

Dear Friends,

Last week our team visited KK old age home and provided dinner to all the residents. After more than a year and half, we had Janakiraman join us back for DI's on field activities. We also had couple of new friends join us.

The residents were very happy to see us and in fact they has already asked the in charge to find the date we would visit them. They all feel and see us as a part of their family. We have planned to conduct some kind of games, cultural programs for our next visit.

Photos given below:

Adyar Class:

Parthy met our Adyar school HM last week and has collected the names of the students for this year spoken English/PD classes. We also would continue our classes for the 9th standard students.

Classes at Adyar would begin from Saturday, 4th July 2009. Will keep you posted.

Valasarawakkam

The DI classes at Valasarawakkam for this academic year had been started on 13th june. We the Alapakkam School head master for 25 students of Class 6 for the classes. But to our suprise we got nearly 80 Students. Arunan, Aravidhan and myself (Sriram) managed to conduct the classes in disciplined way. For the first two weeks we planned to have some educational games. then probably we can start teaching some spoken English.

Regards,,

Natarajan & Sriram

Apale Ghar girl clears her Tenth Exam

Adding DI oune group and trustees to thread J

This month seems to be a gr8 gr8 month for DI …After Bablis roller coaster here comes the most awaited news of the year….

POOJA PASS HO GAYIII…cant believe it man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She has cleared all her board exam papers given below is result

SSC EXAMINATION RESULTS 2009

Division	Pune
Seat Number	C009215
Name	CHAVAN PUJA PRADIP

Subject Name (Subject Code)	Marks
MARATHI (01)	053
HINDI (15)	047
ENGLISH (17)	038
MATHS	053
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	057
SOCIAL SCIENCES	057
Total Marks	305
Percentage	46.92
Congratulations!!! You are passed

Dosto we at DI have this habit of beating the bench marks and delivering the unbelievable..and we proved it again J

I still remember 6 months back when we use to discuss about Pooja most of us had our own genuine doubts, and concerns about her passing 10th board exams.

we approached many teachers, spoke to lot of veterans and after looking at Pooja’s status almost all of them were of the opinion that chances are really BLEAK.

things really looked very very tough at that time...samaz nahi raha tha ki after Supriya if Pooja fails in 10^th it might be very demotivating not only for other kids in Aplaghar but for DI volunteers as well.

DI Volunteers decided to work on this at war level. Ashwini, Sameer despande , Amit Gawade, Deepak Shingan, Deepak P , Rachana , Anushree, Udhaav More, Surendra, Preetam ..…. Discussed , planned for hours … approached lot of people what to do what not to do … help strted coming from all sides and …we all know the outcome now.

This was a team effort and every one contributed to thr best …but still Three names and there exemplary commitment needs special mention here, despite of there personal problems, official commitments , personal commitments these guys spent day and night planning, thinking and praying about Pooja:

ASHWINI J--- DI ki Aunty

Ashwini was always confident that Pooja will pass…she worked with her like anything ..took Pooja to her place for weekends … spent entire day teaching her….. went all the way to Aapla ghar after office hours(15 kms) in week days just to teach her …on weekends it was more than 5-6 hours some times. She was engaged to get married during this time …but still Pooja was always the priority… ANIL ji gussa mat hona ;) J

What a commitment !!!! ….rare isn’t it J

We all are really proud of you ASHWINI and your efforts are really commendable...HATS OFF!!!

Sameer Deshpande --- Mein hu na J

This down to earth gentle man was always a inspiration for us … way he planned things for Pooja were just perfect…he use go all the way to collect for giving her sample papers to solve and then spending hours to check them and then giving right feedback to her …. Congratulations sir ji J

Amit Gawade – Tension nahi lene ka

Amit sir also worked very hard with Pooja especially for English, without him I doubt she would have cleared English papers, we all knew he was going through very tough times but his commitment is worth mentioning here.he use to go alone whenever he had time sit with her for hours …hum ko to pata bhi nahi chalta tha kitni baar ki Amit AG jake aa gaya

Salute sir !

Last but not least Pooja J

w/o her co-operation an dedication it was almost impossible DI volunteers kabhi bhi tapak padte the...but she always used to welcome them an ready to sit for studies...never got annoyed of so many suggestions, assignments ...it was like single student an so many teachers jus to try anything they think of.

Hurraahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Together we can Together we should !!!!

And yes as Deepak said Parttyyyyyy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards,

Ashish

Dream India - Pune