What happens when 40 dedicated people all ready to be mentors are put together in one room? You get high levels of energy, bombarding of questions and simply, confusion. Day by day, this confusion was cleared and the picture was clearer.
The MADe EZ mentor training in Mumbai took place from 17th July to 19th July. These 3 days have been the weirdest 3 days I have ever spent. Never ever have I had so much fun and learnt so many things in such a short duration.
The only thing that bound …

Over the last few classes, I have been trying to understand our new syllabus, and make the required changes to it to make it work for the kids that I am taking classes for. I will share my experiences and try and explain my interpretation of the syllabus, which could have gone wrong at places. Hopefully we can discuss and find out how better we can tweak the syllabus to suit all of our specific needs.
Basically, there are kids with different kinds of intelligences – kinesthetic, inter-personal, logical, verbal, visual, …

Ice-breakers, baseline assessments and most recently, syllabus training…the MADiacs of Trivandrum have been busy these past two-three weeks. After spending what seemed like ages in overcoming the force of friction opposing us (please forgive that little allusion to Physics, but ‘force of friction’ seemed less dramatic than the ‘forces of darkness’  ), we, the MADdies of Tvm, were caught in a flurry of activity.
Ice-breakers familiarised us with the kids and I’m glad to say all of us established
‘the beginnings of beautiful friendships’ with them . The girls at …

(as reported by Vikram Bondal)
Following in the footsteps of the MAD Mangalore Recruitment Drive was the First workshop held today the 19th of July and Man!!!! Was it awesome or what????
Being the middle of the Great Mangalore Monsoon….The day started off with some seriously heavy showers and the only thought in our heads were “Okayyyyyy Now what???”…..But I gotta admit,We made the right choices during the recruitment drive as nearly everybody turned up in spite of the weather and the workshop being scheduled at 9 am(Which like Trishma mentioned in …

3 days, 70 acres, a Rs 200,000 budget, 9 trainers, a 35 foot rock, 12 litres of fuel, 8 snakes, 8 lakes, 2 swimming pools, 45 degree Celsius room temperature, 1 genuine true-blue celebrity, 2 professional dancers, 2 DJs, 1 maa-beta reunion, 15 volunteers, 40 kids, a 720 hour delay in blogging about it …and numbers don’t tell 1/100th the story!!!
Karthik…I know its your word ( ie you came up with it) and all that.. But Hyderabad just (actually more than a month back ) set …

The final list of volunteers and the organizational structure has been made and distributed. Everyone knows what they are expected to do and everyone is MAD about the same. There was a small shuffling in the team depending upon the commitment and expectations of the various roles and now, it is all set.
The meeting last weekend was the first formal meeting of the volunteers and the core team. Though a few could not make it to the occasion, the people who were present showed real interest and initiative in …

The one characteristics found in almost all treamendously successful men and women like you and me is unlimited energy(human dynamo of super energy ).Today, we come accros different avenues to accomplish more than what we have , where the best investment is “YOU”. All great powers like religion, nation, cooperate bodies etc, have special symbols ,so does MAD – a symbol of love…..
THE EXODUS…
The first time i came to know about MAD was at an inter -collegiate fest . Beneath the hot sun some of my friends and me thought …

{Note : I’ve always asked people to focus more on events and happenings while writing on this blog. But yet, here I’m breaking all the rules I set for myself and everybody else.. Can’t help it though.. If I have to leave, can’t leave without saying Goodbye to the blog.. Post content follows..}
Around this time last year, braving the rains, I set out on my bike to that place they call Thrikkakara.. I had never known any place in Cochin (or anywhere for that matter), and getting there …

Hurray, great news!!!
One of MAD Chennai’s volunteers Dr. Prahalathan has been shortlisted for the prestigious YouthActionNet’s Global Fellowship Program! Launched in 2001 by the International Youth Foundation, this fellowship strengthens, supports, and celebrates the role of young people in leading positive change in their communities by their innovative approaches, and by their ability to mobilize their peers and community members in support of their social change efforts. YouthActionNet supports aspiring and accomplished young leaders by providing skill-building, advocacy, and networking opportunities.
Dr. Prahalathan is a founder member of Bhumi, a non-profit …

And the day began! The Young guns in black (read: MAD core team) were all geared up at the Roshni Nilaya auditorium at the very break of dawn (read: 9.30 on a Sunday morning). Even the rains dared not keep the sunshiny smiles away from their faces. The Mangalore Recruitment Drive had finally arrived!

It was quite heartening to see a steady stream of people coming into the hall from the start. We began the day with the Adjective Game, to break the ice among the many that had gathered. Presentations …