Planned visit to Sarojinivaradhappan girls higher secondary school

Dear Friends,

Our friend Rajender informed us about the school at Poonamalle, Chennai. Ravin, Parthy and myself we have planned to visit the orphanage this Saturday, July 19th, 2008 to gather the requirements. We are planning to start early in the morning to beat the traffic. In case if you wanna be a part of this, please contact me at 99406 75570.

Today morning, I spoke to Ms.Kamala, the in charge of the home. Details below should give you a brief idea about the home.

a) School being run by 50% funds from Trust and 50% from welfare board.

b) As of now, they are getting funds like Rs.200 for food of a kid per month which is really less.

c) They have some more requirements for classes as well.

Keep watching the space for more details.

Regards,
Natarajan
DreamIndia
http://www.dreamindia2020.org/
"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma

Updates on Srinivasan Results

Dear Friends,

Srinivasan called me last night to inform about this results. He has cleared all his back logs from the past [ the only person in his class to do so]. In the last semester, he cleared all the papers but for one [ Probability and statistics ].

His aggregate percentage is somewhere around 60%. I know it is not something that we would desire for, but he has the challenge of working as well studying which is not easy.He has another 4 semesters which would be on only his core subjects and he is very confident of making the aggregate percentage around 70%.

Moreover, Parthy, Ravin and myself, we are in touch with him to make sure he gets the confidence that is required. I promise you that he would do good and make us all proud.On behalf of DI, I conveyed our best wishes and support to Srinivasan.

Regards,
Natarajan
www.dreamindia2020.org

"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma

Medical camp at Thane, Mumbai

On the 5th of July DI Thane conducted a General Health Check-Up Camp in Tikujiniwadi, Thane. The camp was held at construction site of Cosmos Lounge and catered to the laborers there. We had brought in doctors from DY Patil Hospital, Nerul. 150 construction workers were treated in the camp.

Mr. Mahesh Patil, the in-charge at the site had made very good arrangements including tables, chairs, curtains, wash basin, etc. He also ensured that all the workers come in an organized manner and maintained a uniform influx of workers, which enabled us and doctors to work smoothly. It was observed that while most of the patients had general problems, there were some cases which will need to be looked into at an urgent basis. These include cases in which doctors have suspected serious conditions/ailments like HIV, TB and night blindness amongst others.

Dr. Ram, Sanket and Dr Karuna, your inputs and guidance right since the beginning of efforts, helped us a lot. Thanks! A detailed and consolidated account along with photographs will follow shortly.

Regards,

Ujjaval Gupta

Volunteer, DreamIndia - Mumbai

Updates on Srinivasan, B.Tech Anna University student

Dear All,

As most of you know already, we have been supporting Mr.Srinivasan for the past 2 years to pursue his B.Tech course at Anna University, Chennai.Last week, we gave a DD for Rs.13,330 towards his 5th semester as well. Srinivasan has been a very dedicated and hard working student.

Also in addition to paying the fee, Partheeban and myself, we have started conducting spoken English course for him as well. We wish Srinivasan all the very best for a bright future. Thanks to Udhay [ India Sudar ] for introducing Srinivasan to us.

Regards,
Natarajan
DreamIndia
www.dreamindia2020.org
"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma

Visit to Kaakum Karangal old age home, July 9th, 2008

On the day of KK visit, we had talked about visiting the home more frequently as this one is near by the place of stay for many of us involved in the project. Not the one to be satisfied only with words, our DI members Elavarasi and her friend Aarthi decided to step on action. On 9th of July, they visited KK home again. They spent good quality time with all the inmates and bought bananas for them as well. They have plans to visit the home again in the near future. Please write to us at admin@dreamindia2020.org in case if you wanna know more about this project.

Regards,
Natarajan
DreamIndia
www.dreamindia2020.org

Updates on Dinner at Kaakum Karangal, Chennai

Dear Friends,

As planned earlier, on behalf of DI, we took care of the dinner for all 43 inmates of the Kaakum Karangal Old age home in Thiruvamiyur, Chennai last night. Elavarasi and myself, we reached the home around 7.15 along with the food packets from nearby hotel. Ravin, Parthy and Hariharan joined us at the home in a few minutes. As we had sometime left for the scheduled dinner time, we interacted with a few inmates and got to know about them.

Around 7.30, the scheduled time for dinner, we started off with a prayer session. The gentleman in charge of the home recited a few prayer songs. The entire home wished all DI members the very best to all our efforts towards the community during the prayer. After the prayer, we started serving idlies, vada and a sweet packet to each of them. As per the feedback from them all, the most pleasing aspect of the entire event was the fact that we served the food going to each of them in person. This allowed them to ask us what they wanted without any shyness and serve them better. All of them were very happy and completely satisfied with the dinner. After serving them all, our friends too swallowed :) couple of sweet packets in the name of tasting food ;) After making sure all of them ate well, we put the remaining a few sweet packets and side dishes in the refrigerator to be used by them.

Later, for almost 30 mins we all spoke to various inmates and listened to their stories. Couple of them wanted to buy some medicines that were not available in the home's medical shop. Ravin bought those medicines for them. Elavarasi made a donation of 1000Rs on behalf of her friend to the home. We booked the slot for dinner again on August 3rd, 2008. We also took feedback on what they would need next time apart from usual stuff. Many of them wanted Parathas, Uthappam, ice creams etc. [ It's worth mentioning this here: I read in a Tamil Magazine that, when parents become old, especially Mom, the best thing to do for her while eating is to let her serve for herself making sure all the items are there at her reach. This would give them the freedom to eat what as per their wish. All through their lifetime, Indian mom's always make sure their children and husband eats completely satisfied, even if it means they have to eat less or nothing at all. I am sure you all would agree with this. They sacrifice their wishes and small desires for us. When I heard the feedback from them for Parathas and Uthaapams, the food which would be difficult to digest, I could only realize that what I read in the magazine was true. ]

A few of us have planned to visit the home regulalry and spend time with them all. Overall, the evening was really wonderful to say the least. The stories of the inmates also made us to think about the trivial stuff we all worry about in this world and NOT to forget the 1000's we spend on treats every week. In short, a visit to place like this would make sure one always stays in touch with ground realities and not get carried away.
Snaps:

You can relive the event at http://picasaweb.google.com/natadreams/KaakumKarangal Will upload a small video of the same in Youtube soon.

Last but not the least, 10 members of our team contributed for the cause. Thanks to them all. In case if you wanna contribute towards this cause, please do write to me.

Regards,
Natarajan
DreamIndia
http://www.dreamindia2020.org/
"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma

Latest update on Ponni: Scores 76.4% :-)

Dear Friends,

It is with great pleasure I write to you to inform that our Ponni has scored 76.4% in her 3rd semester. She called me just a few hours ago to inform this good news. She has scored first mark in one of the subjects. Getting over the setbacks and challenges she faced in the first semester, past two semesters she has scored very good marks. You can see her results at http://ns3.annauniv.edu/cgi-bin/result/result.pl?regno=91406104055

Thanks to Mr.Kalyan and Mr.Murali who along with DI pays her fee every year. I would also take this opportunity to mention the hard work being done by Ramya, Janu and Parthy. They keep in touch with her regularly, taking care of all her educational needs. The result what we see today is the combined work of all these people. Also sincere thanks to Ravi and India Sudar for introducing Ponni to us.

On behalf of DreamIndia, I have conveyed our heartfelt congratulations to Ponni. By God's grace, the day she would make us all proud is not very far.

Regards,
Natarajan
DreamIndia
www.dreamindia2020.org

"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma