Archive for category The Things That Happen...
It’s a MAD Future
Posted by Krishnaraj Mahadevan in Still MAD !!, The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on January 28th, 2010
Curtains raise..
Year 2035.
Its a bright sunny day in Hyderabad, the largest technology hub of the modern world as Gloria Benny, MAD-Hyd President, sets out on her routine visit to Forum for Street Children (FSC) near to the bullet train tracks in Musheerabad. She gets into the back seat of her robot driven Ferrari and whispers “FSC”. The bot reponds with “Yes, Madam. Please fasten your seat belt. We’ll be there in 2 minutes.”
As the hydrogen powered air-car starts to gain speed, a buffallo crosses the runway and the robot responds with a skillful manoeuvre to avoid a crash. Elated about his achievement, the robot looks back and requests a “High Five” to which Gloria responds and then says “Ouch!! that hurt again”.
It is exactly 1 minute and 58 seconds after that incident when the air-car lands on the roof of the 10 storied FSC building. “Some things just don’t change” mutters Gloria as she sees tamarind dried in a dirty plastic sheet in one corner of the roof and a pile of construction materials for the proposed 11th floor at the other.
She gets into a glass elevator donated by “Fanindra Group” and whispers ‘G’. As she descends she finds MAD teachers in every floor and waves to the ones who notice her. Anusha in Floor 8 is sitting with a group of students in the virtual classroom. Floor 7 is the computer floor and is buzzing with activity. Floor 5 is the dance hall where Jr. Aditya is teaching the kids “Dance On” from Unit 5 Lesson 14b. He is seen referring to the syllabus in his pseudo-phone as he dances. Melvin is demonstrating push-ups with one hand as a warm up activity in Floor 3 and he waves with his other hand. The inside of Floor 1 and 2 cannot be viewed from within the elevator, but one is able to hear Venkatesh scream “L is for LION, not Lalit Modi !!”.
The elevator comes to a halt at the ground floor and opens. As she walks out, Gloria gets a reminder message from her robot in her pseudo-phone that reads “Rainbow School in 10 minutes”. The ground floor has a few Level 1 kids sitting idle and watching T10 cricket world cup on a palmtop TV.
“Heyy!!, Where’s your advanced english teacher?” she asks the kids.
One of them says “Krishna sir texted us to say his scooter tyre was punctured. What’s a scooter Golra madam?”.
Gloria is annoyed and opens MADapp in her pseudo by touching an image on the touchscreen. She whispers “Krishna, Credit, -2, Close”. MAD just had launched its intelligent substitute-finder helpline beta. Gloria decides to give it a try. She whispers “MAD Helpline” and the pseudo-phone dials the helpline.
The call is answered.
“Hello and welcome to the MAD helpline..”
“Please select one of the 3 choices anytime during this message…”
“If you are already mad, say 1 ..”
“If you want to be mad, say 2 ..”
“If you want to speak to a real mad officer, say 9..”
Gloria whispers “9″..and immediately gets a reply..
“All our mad officers are in mad classes at this moment. Please try again later.”
“Some things just don’t change”, she mutters again as the curtains fall and the sound of a scooter horn is heard in the background.
The Jovial Santa and the Smiling Cherubs…Yes! It’s Christmas Time!
Posted by Rakhi in Party !!!, The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on January 23rd, 2010
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” Espousing this opening line of Little Women, we the maddies of Divine Home, Trivandrum decided to celebrate Christmas with the kids inculcating all its nuances; be it the presents or the Santa Claus. To our surprise and joy, the children of playschool “Friends” brought a lot of goodies as Christmas presents for our kids. (Thanks to fellow maddie Anoosha whose aunty owns the playschool.) The gifts varied from a brand-new frock (which went to the cutie pie Kesiya) to coloring books, sketch pens and what not!
After a mad scramble to get the costume of Santa Claus and the cake, we reached Divine Home to be welcomed by the beaming faces of our cherubs:) The excitement and elation that oozed from their faces on seeing us heightened, when we started playing musical chair .With all the spirits of a game they went around the chairs, some of them even dancing to the tune of latest hit song “daddy mummy”! Since it was taking aeons for the Santa Claus to get ready and most of the volunteers were busy helping him, the rest of us had the hectic task of controlling the naughtiest bunch of kids. Most of our kids are very small, K.G. to second standard kids forming the majority and to quote our VP HR Keerthi who’s teaching in another shelter home, “Kids shouldn’t be this small!!!” 
The children scurrying to make it to the musical chair.
YIPEE!! I got my chair! 
Arjun desperately trying to control the kids while Robin cheekily retorts
It was time for the grant entry of the Santa Claus bagged with all the goodies. Our jovial Christmas papa aka Ganesh came hopping in sans the sleigh. The exuberant happiness of the kids on seeing the Christmas father was palpable from the way they all swarmed near him, tugging at his robe, trying to get a handshake and pulling at hisbeard to take the mask off. And yes! He was welcomed with a chorus of jingle bells . But to our dismay Kesiya and Diana, two of the little ones we have there were so scared on seeing Santa that they started crying. Nothing we said pacified them. So finally, our dear Santa Claus had to take the mask off. Pronto! We got their smiling faces back again. The already brightened up faces became even more lit on seeing the yummy cake. Even we the volunteers had a hard time keeping our hands off it and the rest of us had to practically cajole Arjun and Shasta to prevent them from attacking the cake! Luckily, the cake was big enough to feed all and the kids got at least two pieces.
Yummy yummy cake!
The picture speaks for itself
If you thought getting gifts from Santa was easy, then you are wrong! You have to ask Santa a question before you get the gifts. But our kids are way too smart.They all had something to ask Santa, even the unusually quiet ones in class. To actually witness the true joy in the heart of a kid reflected on his face, observe them while he opens his gift-the one face of his that you will never find fading in oblivion. The kids who got puzzles started doing it then and there. Ranjith and Kesiya adorned themselves in their new dresses. The rest of them were excitedly showing their gifts to us. It was certainly a moment to cherish.
The jovial papa
… and his alter-ego!
Christmas celebrations are never complete without the Carole songs and our kids are not far behind in this also. “I like to be a Christmas tree…” they sang in unison along with actions, with a little help from us volunteers (they couldn’t contain the excitement which in turn made them forget the lines in between).
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…
The mad scramble for making this day perfect for the kids finally paid off! Yes! We celebrated Christmas with all its spirits and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Usually the kids are extremely sad and at times the younger ones cry when we leave from their home. But it was different that day. They were so happy that day and so contained with excitement that they were busy admiring their gifts when we left them; some of them even didn’t realize that we had left. That day added to those myriad memories that we have spent with our kids.
Our kids – all happy-happy!
P.S.:
Siragugal’09-When Bhumi spread colour,joy and more!
Posted by Aruna in The Things That Happen... on December 28th, 2009
Siragugal 2009 was a one day Art, cultural Fest held on 15 Nov, 2009. 796 children from classes 1-12 of 26 orphanages in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur Districts participated. The event consisted of 16 different competitions for three age categories, a science exhibition competition, fun events including a magic show and a theatre workshop for the children.
In spite of the heavy rains the children made it to the the venue, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kilpauk thanks to the buses Sponsored by Velammal Educational Trust. Siragugal’09 was inaugurated by Ms.Archana Raghuram (Cognizant Outreach), Mr.Kannan (Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development), and Mr. Mukesh (playback singer of ‘where’s the party tonight’ fame). An electrifying performance by Mr.Mukesh and Bhumian Ms.Aakansha set the tone for the day getting the children and volunteers into a frenzy.
The children then spread out across the venue as six events started simultaneously. The morning session consisted of events like group song, solo dance, quiz, English and Tamil elocution, Tamil essay writing, Tamil poetry, drawing-painting, mimicry and monoact. While Siragu Montessori School delivered a prize winning traditional villu paatu during the group song event, many enthusiastic children drew and painted their message to society (“Say no to child labour”, “Give life by donating blood”, “Educate children” and the like).
In the meanwhile, the six game stalls including balloon shooting etc and the Science Exhibition which had models prepared by Bhumi’s Little Einsteins Team and also those brought in by the children for the competition were thrown open to all participants. The children and Bhumi volunteers displayed their scientific models, and actively explained the theoretical concepts to the other children.
Immediately before lunch Magician Elango‘s show, a surprise element for the children doubled up the energy and the excitement in the auditorium. Lunch was sponsored by Cognizant Outreach and Food King.
Post-lunch events commenced at the respective venues – Tamil skit, soap carving, pot painting, rangoli, group dance, and solo song. Despite the registrations being closed before the event, groups of children turned up with requests to participate in art events like soap carving and pot painting turning the venue into a colour riot! Meanwhile at the auditorium, an outstanding performance from a child who participated in group dance was asked to perform Solo on demand. His moves to the title song from the movie Villu had the audience on their feet for a standing ovation! Definitely a moment that will be remembered by all those who were present there!
The valedictory function marked the close of Siragugal’09. Our Chief Guest ‘Food King’ Mr. Sarath Babu delivered an inspirational speech to the children.
The guests of honour for the evening were Mr. Balasubramanian and Mr. Sattainathan (SBI, one of our sponsors). The guests distributed the certificates and medals to all the prize winners.
And the Awards went to!
Best Children’s Home Rolling Trophy – Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, whose children made a clean sweep at Siragugal’09
Best Participating Children’s Home Trophy’ – Indian Council for Child Welfare
Best Individual Performer, Male — Mst. Udayakumar from SISTWA who stole hundreds of hearts with his realistic mimicry concept that revolved around the dancing styles of actors Kamal Hassan, Vikram and Vijay
Individual Best Performer, Female – Ms. Nancy Lavanya from St. Thomas children’s home for winning the most number of awards
Volunteers from Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development (Thamaraipakkam), Cognizant’s Outreach, Infosys’ Sneham and NCC cadets from college of Engineering, Guindy contributed with zest equivalent to that of the organising Bhumi volunteers.
We are deeply indebted to our Sponsors including Cognizant Outreach, SBI, Infosys Sneham, Food King, Velammal Educational Trust, Welmech Engineering, Sniper Systems, ISHRAE and over a thousand individual donors also contributed towards the finances of the event.
Participating homes (in alphabetical order) – Aadhiswarar Home, Adi Dravida Samooga Sevagar Sangam (Manavar Illam), Anbagam Street Children Care Centre, Annai Bharathamatha Educational trust, Annai Trust, Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, Bharatha Matha School, Child Children’s Home, Ebenezer Home Of Social Outreaches, Good Life Centre, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Maranatha Intermission children’s home, Mottukkal Good Shepherd Convent, Nalmanam, Nesakkaram Seeds, Open Door Orph. & Community Centre, Parisu Trust Child Development Centre, SAC Dr. P.V.Rao School-Children’s Home, Roshini Home, Sathiya Jyothi Destitute Home, Siragu Montessori School, SISTWA, Sree Sarada Sevasramam, St. Thomas Orphanage, Swami Charitable Trust, Webbs Memorial Orphanage.
Team Bhumi celebrating the close of Siragugal'09
A bigger and better Siragugal 2010 beckons! Siragugal ‘10 will be a two day Art, Cultural, Science, Athletic and Sports Fete. See you all again in July 2010!
20K Day and a Belated Birthday
Posted by Jr. in The Things That Happen... on October 31st, 2009
Last year, sometime during the early hours of September 19th (i think), days when I used to go to sleep early, I got a call, and an ‘in-the-zone’ Jithin C Nedumala told me something about some blog that was coming up, and Kenney doing the installation, and something about ensuring traffic and all.. (Click)(Back to Sleep)
Next day I signed into the Mad Blog for the first time. A week later, a tracking system was up. 1 year on, we’ve crossed 20,000 unique visitors who’ve come to these pages. So here’s happy birthday to the blog, pats on the backs for all of Mad’s talented bloggers, ‘visit again’s to all our visitors and cheers to the future.
Jr
Going Mad, and loving it!
NMIMS SRFs JOYFest – MAD
Posted by Tanmay Arora in Media Coverage, Party !!!, The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on October 24th, 2009
Originally written by Anusha Thakur
On the occasion of “Joy of giving week” at NMIMS campus being celebrated from 27th September to 3rd October ’09, we thought of doing something different and make a difference. It is a festival where every person can ‘give’ as much, or as little, as he or she wishes to. What they are sure to get in the bargain is pure, simple joy!
It aims at educating the youth about different social causes, and encouraging them to indulge in acts of giving during this week- in time, money, skills or kindness- the same morales we have in MAD. So the “JOYFEST” & NMIMS Social Responsibility Forum has collaborated with MAD and all the funds raised through the events held will be donated to ‘Make-A-Difference’. Renowned celebrities like Nandita Das, Sachin Tendulkar and Imitiaz Ali have supported this cause.
On 29th September 09, the 3rd day of this week, we enacted a street play to raise awareness about MAD and the joy of teaching kids. The response was pretty good making people come to our MAD desk, at the premises, and register themselves for being volunteers. After that there was a craft workshop “crat-o-rama” for the Make A Difference kids from St.Catherines centre in which each kid along with a participant had to decorate a paper bag by making newpapers’ collage. The judge for the day was the Indian Idol & Iss Jungle Se Mujhe bachao host Mini Mathur who chose the best bag and these bags were later auctioned. All the money raised from the auction will also be donated to “Make A Difference”.The media coverage of this event was by MTV. VJ BANI and VINEET came n interacted with the kids and volunteers which was later featured on MTV WASSUP!
Lights, camera….awesomeness !!
Posted by Karthik in Party !!!, The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on October 17th, 2009
Current Emotion- Yet another year; and yet another Diwali in Cochin (Sigh!)
But then, the clouds struck, and in the background of lightning and thunder somebody spoke –
Hey, Chotu Diwali on friday and your class on friday too….
Current Emotion – ahan
Rapid thinking and a few phone calls = Diwali celebrations at YMCA Boys Home, Thrikkakara.
Jazim (the latest noobie aka tingu no. 2) and I arrived earlier and had a chat with the warden and the kids. We planned a greeting card making competition; Gautam and Harsha got the chart papers and sketch pens. We also got Ladoos, Chocolates and Candles to light up the occasion. After a brief description of What, How and Why Diwali and after the most enchanting mythological story about Diwali by me –
Current Emotion: Thank you…thank you..
Negative Creep(Harsha & Jazim): Ya RITE !!
- we started off with the competition by around 545. Blesson, Elizabeth, Saina and Sumit joined us well ahead before it started. Controlling a bunch of hyper-excited kids is not so easy but it is my baae haath ka khel
Negative Creep – OOOoo…pinne !! (that’s mallu for yea rite)
We viewed some really amazing drawings and messages on the cards. They made three fold cards. Some kids actually tried to present the story of Diwali while the others expressed joy, lights and happiness in the greetings. The competition was just a spoof and in the end, everyone deserved the yum yum sweets for the efforts they put in. Afterwards, we distributed chocolates, candles and ladoos. Soon, YMCA would be lit up with diyas and candles. (Awesomeness 1.0)
A few other people also planned to celebrate Diwali with the kids at YMCA. They got some pedas and crackers like phool jhadi, chakri and anaar.
Current Emotion- Ah, once upon a time, a boy named Karthik used to light up his neighbour’s cat’s tail as part of his Diwali rituals….(drifting to Mexico 
) 
This point, we had a hard time with the kids, but again thanks to me –
Current Emotion – Buhahaha
Negative Creep – And blesson and gautam and everyone else !!
- everything was safe and sound.
Personally, I always regret not being able to be with my family during Diwali. But this year, everything has been different with MAD.
Happy Diwali people !! Cheers and stay safe
PS: We have a lot other pictures uploaded on facebook !!
MAD Cochin update on activities
Posted by Sanjana in The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on October 14th, 2009
We are into our second trimester of MAD activities and classes.
We have finished 3 and a half months of classes, give or take a few. . The new English syllabus is working well. We have been able to make alot of improvements based on the feedback we have got from the mentors and volunteers.
We have completed three levels of training : process, syllabus and teacher training.
Mentors have visited their mentees and got alot of very useful inputs from them about improvements to the syllabus.
First of all, thank you for your commitment and support to all the activities we have had till now, from classes to training programs to placement activities. We really must take a moment and acknowledge the work we are all doing and the consistency with which we are carrying it out: in terms of teaching English and the placement activities we have done.
Please note we have two new VPs in our core team:
Gautam Thomas is our new VP Training: He has taken over the tough responsibility of ensuring we all have timely access to the syllabus, and organising trainings for us.
Blesson Gregory has taken over as VP Resources: He is in talks with Hippo campus, an NGO that focuses on providing libraries to develop childrens’ reading skills and broaden their horizons.
see: www.hippocampus.in
Other updates:
English :
We are currently teaching in 10 centres: St Mary’s, St Teresa’s, YMCA Boys Home, Sneha bhavan (Pallu), Bosco Bhavan (Big boys), Crescent, Valsalya Bhavan, St Joachim’s, Holy Ghost, Bal Bhavan.
We are starting in two new centres:
Udaya Colony: This is a slum colony in near Girinagar. We will be teaching the boys and girls from this colony, in a convent premises just outside the colony. We were requested to take this up by an organisation that’s working with them, whose patron is SP Vijayan, husband of Ms Beena (Collector)
Goverment Girls Centre, Kakanad: This is a girls centres run by the Government.
We will be starting in both centres this month.
We are also supporting a Rotaract project to teach underprivileged children.
We have at least two more centres that have approached us to start teaching there, but we have put them on hold till we recruit enough volunteers. The centres are: Darul-ul-loom boys centre in pullepady and a women’s shelter run by retired justice Usha Sukumaran in Aluva.
Bala from EZ VIdya had come down to study the effectiveness of the syllabus and teacher training material they had developed. He attended the teacher training session we had last Saturday and also visited Snehabhavan. It was a learning visit for him and us.
Computers:
Computer classes are on in 5 centres.
The Computer syllabus, which was developed by our Computer volunteers, is also going well. We plan to get computers in more centres so that we can expand the computer project to them as well. Saju and team are working on this. We have an in house GMT: General Maintenance team ( comprised of Computer volunteers) who ensure that computers are in working condition.
Placements:
The placement volunteers are on a roll. They have organised a variety of programs for the children:
Camp VYB, Visit to the Science Park, orientation on engineering in Rajagiri, how hotels run: avenue regent, casino, cultural sessions at amaara, visit to National Institue of Oceanography etc. We have completed camps for 3 centres, we have 7 to go. so volunteers, please take active participation and get your children to also experience the thrill and learning.
We are speaking to Rotary Greater Cochin to organise leadership camps in tow of our centres: St Joachims and Pallu Big Boys.
Friends of MAD:
Jake and Anu (FOM co-ordinator) and their team are working on this.
This is the monthly target they are working with (in terms of no. of fom forms to submit):
2009-10
Month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Cumulative Monthly FOM 10 30 60 100 140 180 220 260
Monthly Target 10 20 30 40 40 40 40 40
I am happy to inform that they have gone above and beyond, and Cochin is far ahead of all other cities in terms of collection. This collection goes towards our share of cost towards the syllabus and webapplication. Some major leads they have this month are HSBC bank and Cognizant. Please also support them at a volunteer level by letting your friends and family know about this so they can contribute if they are interested.
Fundraising:
We must appreciate Jake who took over Fundraising and FOM mid year, very enthusiastically and also the teams, who are doing amazing work on this front. The fundraising team has managed to get us sponsorship support from alot of schools and organisations.
HR:
Shahnaz and her gang are on a roll. They have been consistently ensuring the availability of committed volunteers, which is why we have been able to expand to new centres with such ease. The OBT being planned is their best kept secret, but i know for a fact its going to be a great experience.We will also be getting the findings of the survey soon.
PR:
As you know the PR party never stops. We launched our first newsletter in August, an amazing one at that. Many donors and well-wishers responded with praise for our activities. The next one is coming out in November. Cant wait!! Also the MAD comps which will decide which centre takes home the prize during the farewell party.
We have been able to work so well and achieve so many things because of the strong volunteer involvement in all activities. Please keep your suggestions and feedback flowing. As a team, we can really make a difference in our children’s lives.
Updates.
Posted by Karthik in MAD Resource Centre, Media Coverage, The Things That Happen... on August 3rd, 2009
We have a forum in place at – http://makeadiff.in/forum – Its still in beta. All volunteer based activities, announcements will take place here. Guests are also welcome to post/reply to topics; ask anything regarding MAD etc. Cochin & Bombay have successfully been implemented the forum. Other cities to follow suite soon.
The placements cell has successfully organized field trips to science park, engineering colleges etc. A post on the events will be put up soon.
The first edition of the newsletter will be out on 15th August. It will be published on scribd. Will send a reminder via email on the day.
MAD Alumni is being set up. If you are a former MADDIE or you know someone who is, please spread the word. You can fill out the details here :- http://tiny.cc/MADalumni
As CN rightly says – “You may leave MAD, but MAD never leaves you.”
We are looking for 100(or more) professional / part time bloggers to have a “madge” put up on their website/blogs. The MADGES are here – http://twitpic.com/az82q and http://twitpic.com/az91n
You can download the MADGES from http://bit.ly/makeadiff
Your connectivity with people who want to make a difference will help us spread the word. Please comment on the post by giving the blog address who have the Madge or those who want to put them up.
Blogs that already have MADGES
http://blessongregory.wordpress.com
http://jayajith.blogspot.com
http://www.cochinsquare.com
The above shown MADGE are also put up at Oberon Mall, Cochin as part of Reliance TimeOut’s Rock Festival 2009. It will be there till the festival ends. A post on the event has been put up. Credits to Vivek Xavier for making the whole event possible. They have been designed by Faizan Patel from MAD Mangalore.
MADComps 2009 for Cochin have been launched. All other cities can follow a similar model. Check them out for details => http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=99663669565
As of today we have 17119 unique visits on this blog.
For all those who tweet, follow our real time updates on twitter
http://twitter.com/twiMAD
Facebook fanpage – http://facebook.com/makeadiff
Until next time
MAD Bangalore is all set to Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Posted by Tan in Newsletter V 1.0, The Things That Happen..., Volunteer Files... on July 10th, 2009
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.
MADness urges for colors - colors are soul of MADness
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 making a difference! There were students and working professionals too, who either travelled for hours to reach the venue or rushed directly from their colleges. The Ice Breaking session went great will good innovative activities. The general overview of MAD and its vision and mission followed by another group activity took out the urge in people to contribute. I was actually feeling that the whole bunch of volunteers available there were just ready to get into one of the centers and start teaching then and there. Such was the ambience created in the small room where we all met. There were ideas flying in from all the corners of the room and it was nice to see everyone participating in the discussion. There were a few people who already have the experience of teaching children or who were associated with some kind of social works concerning little children. Their experience in teaching and dealing with the children, their guardians and families were informative and a learning to all of us for sure. Their inputs along with the words of the President and the other Core Team Members made the session fruitful, informative and edifying.
With the Mentor Training Workshop (@ Chennai) coming up round the corner, we are sure to be prepared well to teach and start our classes in the first week of August. The two centers are already been identified and all talks are done and set now. The volunteers and the Core Team Members are divided into groups and have been assigned slots where they will be teaching. The Mentor Training Workshop has come in a timely manner for MAD Bangalore and it would help immensely to kick start the MADness here. Join hands – come together – let’s share, learn and grow together – I will keep you posted about the proceedings!
Quick Top: You know how to connect to the children whom you are going to teach?
Well, Savan has a great thought: You smile at them and they smile back at you – the connection is made!
Think about it… until next time…
Mumbai Recruitment Drive
Posted by Rashi in The Things That Happen... on April 29th, 2009
-
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the The Things That Happen... category.
Recent Visitors
