All that matters in life
February 25, 2006 Leave a comment
Magic Bus India is a NGO started by the Ex-COO of Cox and Kings back in 1998.
Based on the Akanksha approach to child education and enrichment, Magic Bus carries out various mentorship projects using non-classroom methodologies on young children who drop out of school early.
Interesting. Sometime, I’d like to volunteer for a weekend.
February 25, 2006 Leave a comment
I’m fond of Rajini. Now and then, we fans are used to hearing news about him visiting Himalayas, undertaking expeditions on unheard ranges and caves there. We never know how much is real and how much is spun-off from fantasy of journalists who don’t grow tired paparazzying him, but one such story quoted him as recommending Living with the Himalayan Masters.
I’ve just taken this book, and glanced through first few pages. It’s a narrative by Swami Rama, who was a Himalayan sage enlightened under the Mahavtar Babaji tradition. Although he wished to spend his entire life there in the Himalayan ranges, he was forced by his teachers to get back to Society to spread the message of Humanity and Love (Wasn’t it the same case with The Monk who sold His Ferrari?)
I haven’t heard about Swami Rama before, but the book is enchanting as it’s opening up to describe the beauty of a life in the Himalayan region. I understand that as Swami talks about the lessons he was taught there, we get to understand what extents a human life can go to by way of practising discipline. My Yoga classes have just begun, and it’s fantastic to see related content falling in place to complete the experience.
February 15, 2006 Leave a comment
If you’re in and around Velachery area and you’re always shopping for books, you might find Ahana interesting.
Ahana is a new bookstore and gift shop on the Velachery main road to the left close to the Ashram school building near the Concorde Showroom. It has a pleasant ambience, good collections (although I’d like some more attention in genre grouping) and conveniently organized seats to relax and browse what you’re going to buy. Oh, and for those of you who always grow tired of shopping, it’s got a Cafe as well.
February 10, 2006 Leave a comment
I was so excited last week when I found a Economic Times supplement titled as Corporate Social Responsibility. This branding marks a whole new movement that we see in front of us, a great step forward to add a meaningful dimension to corporate life. CSR is about companies (not just the employees in private) themselves focusing on creating volunteer groups and identifying projects locally to fund, manage and deliver social causes systematically.
I guess the Tsunami Season last year was a starting point to all this. It had many of us Software Engineers give up our casual weekends in part or full to take up assignments with NGOs for local and outstation relief activities. I was no exception – this seemed a perfect chance to kickstart a journey in a direction I was always passionate about.
Having been assigned as the official in-charge of finding projects for Tsunami relief when my HeadQuarters was busy gathering funds, I zeroed down on the Chennai Chapter of Aid India, a US based non profit institution working extensively in India since many years now. We partnered together to plan a mid-term relief project towards improving Education standards in a Tsunami hit area with a significant budget. It turned out to be a concept primary school, due for starting this academic year 2006.
On field, I found out that many, many small and mid size companies from Chennai (in addition to the giants) were getting busy with different episodes of short-term relief work. I was personally left wowed by the volume of people in action during that time from age groups usually classified as interested in filling up themselves. I recollect a remarkable example – a Tamil guy called Bhanuchandar who resigned from some senior position in a Financial Firm in Dallas, flew in straight from the US and was coaching women over there to paint T-Shirts and powder spices for sale. Passion does speak for itself.
Let the good times keep rolling.
February 2, 2006 Leave a comment
Ok, it might seem like a mistake, but surprisingly I found another site with almost the same name talking on almost similar agenda, but the focus is more on making you productive with your computer and gadgets.
I found interesting articles even to the depth of system administration, so while I keep guessing what these fellows might be doing for a day job, here you go: http://www.lifehacker.com
