Everest Visit

Last week was very special for me.

The best part was that – it was not ‘Special’ made by luck – but it was a pakka pre-planned travel and experiencing it in reality, made it special.

 

This post is all about sharing my experience about that travel – a visit along with 10 of our organization`s ‘Team Everest Trust’ members to a place called “Chinnalapatti”, an interior village near Dindigul. Yes! Dindigul – my own birthplace! A trip from Chennai to my own hometown where I had my school education. The agenda was to distribute School uniforms to all the school children @ Thilagam primary school , a free school operating for more than 50 years in this village. Unlike my previous two visits as a part of CSR wherein I got IN by mere luck, this was the first time ever that I myself nominated me for a good social cause.

 

Kartheeban – is a very young associate from my organization who primarily takes care of a team called EVEREST an independent charity wing in our organization having around 1800 employees (especially more of Entry level freshers) for doing social service. He organizes weekend visits to orphanages, schools etc and day by day the team is growing in size in a very large number and their motto is to identify remote places of the state and bring in Educational awareness throughout.

 

About a month back, I was sitting working in front of my system and I received a forward mail regarding a visit planned by this team Everest for a village “Chinnalapati” , which is in the interiors of Dindigul district. And Kartheeban, the organizer had called for about 10 volunteers for the visit.

 

Dindigul district? OMG . That’s my town and how cannot I remain without nominating for it. Immediately on seeing the mail, I was nominating but as usual my name was near  14^th in the list of people who nominated and only 10 of the volunteers were required. I was little bit skeptical whether luck will favor me this time too. But however You know, When something really need to happen for you, the entire universe conspires in helping you achieve it. Yes. Kartheeban himself called me over phone and asked “Hi Suriya Narayanan, are you from Dindigul?’ “Yes”, I replied. “For our June 21^st visit to Dindigul, can you join with us and help us arranging for the travel from Chennai and if any other help required we will let you know”..of course a great opportunity for me to learn things. And when I tried to look for the train availability online, almost all the trains were booked . However there were 1 or 2 trains left out with limited number of seats and I dint have my Credit card also to book immediately. Sh!t. Should all this happen only when the chance knocks my door? And I immediately called my appa and gave the names of the people and he booked the tickets in Dindigul and sent it by post to me to Chennai. So somehow all the travel plans were made pakka last month itself and we all were waiting for the date June 21^st to arrive.

 

June 20^th Friday evening 6 PM – Chennai central – Nagercoil express:

 A team of 10 – Kartheeban(the organizer), Sadhanai(an upcoming Tamil patron), Vigneswar(an upcoming poet), Prasanna(my type :-; ), Satya(an upcoming politician), Madhumathi(an upcoming speaker), Aarthy(BPO specialist), Parvathy Devi(an upcoming speaker), Manikanta(writer), Jaysh(Singer cum dancer) and Myself. We got introduced with each other and exchanged talks till late night. To start with, I had a personal Interview session for about an hour with Kartheeban and got many useful insights from him. Following that , there was a group discussion with many inspiring speeches, incidents , memories etc and the this was going on till 12 PM midnight. And 12 PM was the birthday for Sadhanai and we had a party for her and she had a virtual cake cutting ceremony.

 

June 21^st Saturday morning – 10 AM – Thilagam School – Chinnalapatti:

As I arrived the school some 20 min early than others, the school headmaster and teacher offered me a chair and started interviewing  me for some half an hour.. (Interview – Censored).

 

Within minutes the other members joined and the school management had arranged for uniforms distribution function and the function continued for about 3 hours. The function agenda were : Speeches by HM, teachers, Kartheeban and Sadhanai; Uniform distribution; A song and dance from Jaysh ;Vote of Thanks from Shobana (one of the school girl doing her class 5th).

 

I had to leave early from the school, as we had a plan to go to Dasavatharam movie the same day evening and so I left the place for booking tickets. As I started walking, the little girl Shobana who read the vote of thanks was also coming with me to give me company till bus stand.  I was really surprised How such small kids are able to understand us. Actually I was walking alone from the school to the village bus stand and she called me and came running towards me. She asked me where I am going. And when I replied that I am going to bus stand, she said she will give me company till I reach there. Even after me insisting that was not needed and I can go alone, she was not ready. She came walking all the way there till bus stand, invited me to her home for a lunch , thanked our team for the uniforms, asked me which school to join for class 6^th  whether to continue in the same village or should go to dindigul stay in hostel and study, what she needs to do if she needs to become an engineer etc etc. All these I did not initiate , she herself raised all these questions to me and I shared my views with her and Thanked her finally for giving me company until the local bus to dindigul arrived.

 

Finally The day had a highlight when all the 10 members arrived my small home in the evening – had snacks – and we all went for the “Dasavatharam” movie.

After the movie the day ended with a Dinner @ balaji bhavan. J

 

 

Outreach

This entry is all about sharing my experience in visiting a near by government school in the Old Mahabalipuram Road as a part of our Organization’s ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’ effort.

Wait…!. Let me first make a note clear. I am not an active member in any of the Charity group or Social welfare group or Non-profit group by any means and have not done any worth mentioning tasks till now. I am like as many others having the inherent WILL and desire to do such charity works but never have I taken any responsible personal efforts to do it. Well ? Then what is this entry all about? The reason that I make this entry is that I got one good chance to join with this CSR social welfare team of our organization and just wanted to share the experience of visiting a government school near by and wanted to capture the wonderful interactive speech of one of our senior management staff with that school children. It was really wonderful that the visit and his speech gave me quite remarkable and valuable insights. I admire such managers when they stand on the dais – and with no egos and with no image consciousness – they go down their levels to children state of mind and deliver a speech.

Well. Few days back as usual I was on my seat in front of my system and all of a sudden I got a ring. I picked up the call and the person from the other end asked, “Are you D.K.Suriya Narayanan?”

“Yes”, I replied. 

“We are calling from corporate communications. We are randomly selecting 40 of our company associates to visit a near by government school on the OMR and we are planning to distribute prizes to the top rankers of that school on behalf of our organization. Are you interretsed to join with us?”

~ “Yes sure… and if you don’t mind can I please know what my role in this program is. Should I come prepared on anything for this?” ~

She continued, “No need for any preparation. You will be reporting there and participating in an hour long prize distribution program and few of our senior management staffs will distribute prizes to the school children. Following them you 40 people will also be distributing prizes to some of the children.”

~ Whaaat?? Me distributing prize??!!!! ~

And she continued, “Yes. We are doing this to bring in an awareness of such social welfare activities to as many associates as possible. So you will be coming tomorrow right? “ .

~ Sure ~.

Wait…! I am not going to explain here in Autograph (movie) style gyabagam varudhae…and make this entry. No! I have come far away and long way from such common emotions. However it was quite a different experience sitting on the dais this time and watching 100s of children sitting on the ground. And I really liked the speech which the senior manager gave to all those children and I wanted to capture it here.

As scheduled, the next day we were a group of 40 associates reached that school around 4 PM. The senior members of our organization from the CSR group joined with us and we were ready with the School bags to be distributed as prizes to the 1, 2, 3 rank class toppers from class 6^th – 10th. The agenda is that: We have one X-military general as senior staff and a senior management staff who were the prime VIPs to donate the prizes first. Then we 40 of us have to go in rounds and continue distributing the prizes.

Before the prize distribution started, our senior manager was asked to speak a few words to the children.The Speech - I am capturing here in Thamizh.

It was a real thrilling experience on hearing a – very massive “claps” sound and the Collective Big shouting noise from all the children – when we all stepped on to the top of the dais. Frankly, after many years I am hearing such real-time massive audience group clap.

 

With huge noise still remaining among the children, our manager stands up and picks up the mic in his hands…

Manager: anbana kuzhandaigala…konjam amaidhiya irunga

~No effect~

Manager: neenga ellarum amaidhiya irundha dhan naan pesa mudiyum

~No effect~

Manager waits for about a min…and still

~ No effect ~

Manager: amaidhiya irungapaa…

~ still no effect ~

Manager watches the school principal weirdly and the Principal steps in, gets the mike and starts speaking

Principal: Dayavu seidhu palli manava manavigal anaivarum amaidhi kakumaru kettu kolgiren…

~ Noise gets reduced to half…But still not completely~

Principal: dae… indhaa pacha bag vachuttu nikkaran paru anga…utkarda keezha…andha marathu pakathla oruthan ninutu irukkan parunga…dae keezha utkaruda, dae konjam amaidhiya irungada …sir PT sir…anga kekkama unga pakathla pesittae irukkanga parunga avangala naalu adi adinga sir… konjam ukara vainga sir…

~ PIN drop silence ~

(this is called principal`s style…and I love it)

Manager : Kuzhandaigala…ippo naan pesalamaa?

~Mmmmmm…….~

Manager: Naanga ellam “ ” ngra oru software company la irundhu Inga vandhrukoam…edhukku vandhurukoam theriyumaa…

~Theeeriyadhu…~

Manager: Ungal `la 6avadhula irundhu 12aavadhu varaikkum class la mudhal moondru idatha pidichavangalukku naanga ippo prize thara poroam…

~ (Claps…) ~

Manager:Ungala ellam parkum poadhu enakku ennoda pazhaiya school gyabagam varudhu…naan eppo ungala madhiri oru studentaa irundhaen theriyuma…1978 la – studentaa irundhaen…ippo naan oru manageraa irukkaen…oru software company la manageraa irukkaen…ungalukku onnu theriyumma??…neenga ellarumae romba romba lucky aana students. Yen theriyumaa??…yenna naan poana vaaram Bihar poirundhaen…Bihar kelvi patturukeengalaa??…anga ungala madhri padikara pasangalukku avanga schoola bench kidayahdu chair kidaiyadhu class building kidayadhu…romba kashtapaatu avanga ellam padikranga…appidi padicha dhan naalaikku nalla irukka mudiyum nu padikraanga…neenga ellam adhae madhri oru kurikoaloda nalla padikkanum puriyudha…Seri ungalukku ellam yendha hero romba pidikkum?

~ Unanimous Collective response was “Vijay Vijay” ~ (Not for a joke. This was the real responseJ)

Manager: Seri…Enaku endha hero va romba pidikkum theriyumaaaa?… Abdul kalam…Ungal`la ethana paer naalaiku avara madhri aaganum nu aasai padreega…

~ALL raise hands ~

Manager: Doctoraa…??

~ Few raise hands~

Manager: Engineerraaa…??

~ Comparatively more ~

Manager: Seri Vijay madhri…??

~ Still some children raise hands ~

Manager: Seri…ungalukku pidicha yaar madhri vaenaalun neenga varanum nu aasai irukkalaam…thappu illai…aanaa ennava aaga poroam? Yara madhri aaga poroam? Eppidi aaga poroam nu clearaa irukkanum…Chumma schoolukku vandhoam..Padichoam…Poanoamnu irukka koodadhu…puriyudha…oru GOAL irukkanum…adhu dhan mukkiyam…seiveengalaa..??Puriyudhaaa..?

~ Mmmmm…  Seivoam ~

Seri inga en pakathla nikaraangalae indha annan`s and akkaa`s…avanga ellam, yaru theriyumaa

~ No response . Still one voice came out aloud: Soptware engineer…”

(Nalla vela Saptu`vara engineer nu sollama ponnaan!!!)

Manager: Correcta Sonnan andha payyan. Ivanga ellam ippidi engineer aaganum nu Aim vachukittu irundhaanga…Adhunallaa inniki engineeraa irukkanga…Neengalum nalla aim oda padicheenganaa naalaikku engineeravo illa doctoravo illa Vijay madhriyo illa oru Abdul kalamavo varalam…puriyudhaa???

~ Mmmmm… ~ 

Finally we distributed the school bags…to them all and they were all happy with smiling faces. The visit was indeed a memorable one.