Posts Tagged Hyderabad
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 FUN-GYAN COMBO” in Hyd
Posted by Sai in Volunteer Files... on November 22nd, 2009
It began with just with about 10 of us where we had this informal “chat on”! But eventually as the large number of late comers joined in, it was not only extremely educating but also (quite surprisingly) A LOT of fun!
We had the process training first. At the onset it felt like a lot of pyramids and a hundred thousand posts, each with a lot of “responsibilities”. But eventually we realized it was a lot more. A lot more fun and a lot more work. Clear structures of organization, we realized, were a necessary part of all focused work.
We also had a break midway through the breeze of pyramids where we got to know things that (well…technically have no business on something as public as a blog) were NOT KNOWN. Here’s a little bit of an insight:
We have a member in our prestigious team who wears a uniform for college. He is training to be an engineer by the way.
We also have a member who changed 5 colleges in 1 year for his MCA and after that (hold your breath) has worked in the same company for the past 7 years!! ?
'All ears'
Late comers's have fun enacting their childhood 
The syllabus training, that came next, was brilliant to say the least. It began with the current suddenly playing truant but thanks to our “experienced” mentors was taken off beautifully well. Along with a small introduction on what we were going to be focusing on in our classes and their basic structure we also got a lot of tips that would have taken us ages to discover. The little activities that we did kept the session interactive.
Prep for class
Preparing for the mock class
On the whole it was a great mix of fun, gyan and work. It’s unfair to end my piece without a mention of the stars of the show. (Come forward and bow as I name you please!). Glo, Kola, 9a, Lettie, the rest of the mentors and of course the newbies. 
(APPLAUSE)
Ice broken with a BAM! at Hyderabad
Posted by Sid in Volunteer Files... on November 9th, 2009
I had a great experience during MAD’s recruitment drive with the proverbial ‘walk-in’ scenario (with no prior intimation or registration, etc, etc), so I was naturally looking forward to the Icebreakers event that they had scheduled at a place called the Rainbow School. Not having worked with kids in a teaching/mentoring position, I really didn’t know what to expect and I went to the school half-wondering if I had got myself into something that I couldn’t handle. As cliched as it might sound, the rest of the day was history. Hats off to all the kids, they really lived up to their school’s name and ensured that I had an absolute blast that afternoon!
That weekend being Diwali, every kid was in a peppy mood, and as soon as I (and every other new volunteer) stepped into the school campus, we were greeted by a mass of kids shouting out ‘Happy Diwali, happy diwali!’. And on they went leaving us to smile in amusement and get to know each other. A mention here about Meghna, Leticia, Anusha, Raj and Pragyna (all MADsters) who did a fabulous job throughout the afternoon in getting the kids to gel with us and ready to burn all that hyper-activity away with some whacky, fun-filled events.
First up, we formed impromptu teams with about 4-5 kids and 2 volunteers in each ready to battle it out in the above-mentioned activites. When Meghna came over and said we had to come up with a team name and a team ‘battle cry’, all I could do was give a stupid grin and think ‘yeah, what else?’. But I take back those words now; my team came up with the name ‘BUDS’ and a fantastic slogan which went ‘BUDS are the best!’ What made it fantastic was that the kids in my team were so enthusiastic in hollering it out all the time that kids from other teams joined in as well! Truly fun, and totally insane!! But, hey, it did the job and the A-Team was formed.. 
We were back to primary school-days with the lemon race (one of the kids actually tried to walk back with an empty spoon in the mouth and the lemon in her hand.. hah, rich!), followed by balloon-bursting and dancing events (both with 3 people involved during the activity). I’d like to elaboraaaaaate on the balloon event, simply because WE WON! It was a funny idea to have 3 people walk about 100 metres with balloons being balanced only at the hips and no support from any limb. There was amazing synchronization between the participants in all the teams as they walked gingerly across the ground (RULE No. 1: You can’t burst the balloons! Hey, no fun!), but like they say, the best team won. Do I get credits on this, Glo???
We finished up with a general chat with the kids about the day and how each looked forward to the next meeting. Without sounding too melodramatic or philosophical, it was nice to see these ‘lesser-privileged’ (certainly less privileged than we were) kids happy in the absence of most of the materialistic things that drive our world today.
All in all, had a gala time bursting balloons and egging on my team. I can’t wait for more…
Woken up (as I always was!!) and totally MAD,
Sid
Don Bosco,Hyderabad made me realize am really MAD!!!
Posted by Sreedevi in The First Day..., Volunteer Files... on June 5th, 2009
8.45 – Vishu calls in to say she’s starting…
9.15- She reaches my place
9.30- We start off… We stop on our way to buy some stuff for the Ice breaker that we were going to have at Don Bosco….
The cabbie is totally lost n clueless of the way to reach Don Bosco.. We somehow managed to finally reach the place..
As we step in we are greeted to the sounds of people yelling n’ hooting… I feel a sudden pang of anxiety run in my stomach… Am doubtful if I should walk in or not…. I was nervous to face them… I was afraid if I would be accepted… I somehow muster the guts and walk in and am taken aback to see the huge number of kids sitting in front of me…
I walk towards Kola and I can feel a hundred eyes observe each move of mine… Soon we are segregated into groups… And I end up having a bunch of most excited kids ever…I was always told by people that I have huge levels of energy and that am capable of screaming my lungs out for hours together.. But here I was all set to be proved totally wrong…
I had with me kids who could scream on forever… I join along in their screaming and booing the other teams… We decide to call ourselves Deccan Chargers…. We then had an introduction spree with us trying to remember each others name.. Sadly I failed biggg time here… I could hardly remember any names… But what took me by surprise was that all the kids could remember all our names… I felt really ashamed of myself… And swore to make it a point to remember most names…
Then one of the kids asked me if I was from Google… And to my surprise he in fact asked me if I was working with Adwords and he told me a little about Adwords… My eyes popped out at the amount of knowledge these kids held… be it Adwords or be it current affairs they were pretty updated… Again I make a silent note to myself to be updated with things happening around me…. We then walk out… I was really touched by the fact that they were making an extra conscious effort to make me feel comfortable… Most of them were trying hard to talk to me in Hindi and English…. I also pitched in with my Telugu and laughed along with them on my disastrous Telugu and its pronunciation…. We then went on to talk about our favorite subjects, favorite game; Math and football won by majority… We soon tied pink (ouch it hurts to c pink.. a color I detest totally) ribbons on our hands and started yapping as usual.
We soon decided that we’d start playing… Our team split and some of us ended up playing volleyball and cricket while the majority went on to play football…. Vishu and Syeda kept telling me that we have to leave at 11.30… but I kept postponing it.. I went on to play volleyball with the kids..
Then the time came to leave… With a heavy heart n promise to come back soon I waved goodbye and walked towards the cab… And then I couldn’t help noticing a kid who was 
following us.. He came along n helped us carry the bags back… When questioned he said his name was Gopi Sandeep( Yes!!!! I remember his name…)… We asked him why he wasn’t playing and he said he didn’t like playing… He told us he liked studying..
I was shocked again… A kid who likes studying? No way!! His favorite subject is Science….Shocked once again…. Then we had to leave… I somehow dint feel nice about leaving… The warmth in Gopi’s eyes was stopping me from going.. The love felt was unexplainable and beyond words… He kept waving bye till his sight could reach… With a promise in my heart to be a true Madster and bring about a change in the kids lives… I pledged to come back soon…
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep….
Hyderabad Unleashed!! :P
Posted by Gloria in Volunteer Files... on December 24th, 2008
Up until 6 months ago, I’d roam around my apartment on weekends, wanting to do something worthwhile with the precious little time I get to spend outside of work. After half a day of ‘roaming’ & ‘head scratching’, I’d finally convince myself for the thousandth time…. that there really isn’t anything extraordinary to do. Resigning to my fate, I’d pick up a book (from the stack of books left half read from similar preceding weekends) and start to read, knowing that this too would be yet another unfinished story…. Then, follows the long hours of sleep, goofing around with roomies & before I know it’s back to Monday morning …back to work…to advertisers & their plaguing issues…to the food (that threatens to make you put on 2 inches horizontally just by looking at it!!)…..Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed it…life was loads of fun, easy, a complete ‘no-brainer’ & shallow…..
Occasionally, I’d go on Orkut..check out the MAD, Cochin community…read through the ingenious activities that volunteers come up with each class, the web wars, enthusiastic discussions on forums…& log off feeling nostalgic, frustrated, useless & missing MAD like crazy… more than 365 days of feeling ‘guilty’, ‘frustrated, ‘useless’ & plenty of awesome ‘VARKI’ talks resulted in MAD, Hyderabad … Yay!!!! & I’m eternally grateful to the above elements!!
So, if you’re asking what’s so special about MAD, Hyderabad???.. Well, thanks Jithin, Sanjana & the awesome recruitment process we’ve devised in MAD, we have over 20 very talented, committed, mind blowing enthu-cutlets joining the MAD family from Hyderabad!! Wondering what they’ve been up to for the last one month???…. Well, this is how they’ve been making a difference….
Nayana & Shwetha with kids at Kasturba...one of their first MAD classes..Awesome job guys!!
Show me Black colour!!! - & Lettie akka gets battered...
Shameem getting ready to start dance lessons... told you they were talented!!
After a MAD class..
Christmas Celebrations in Hyderabad
MAD celebrated an early Christmas with the kids in Thara & Kasturba. The kids at both places performed amazing dance numbers that would put even Prabhu Deva to shame !! Many a Da Vincis & Michelangelos were also discovered during the painting competition that followed. And then, there was modeling for an exquisite ‘paper’ designer collection. Highlight of the event??? Well, a ‘very pregnant’ Santa Claus flew down from the North pole!!! Check these out….
Christmas Celebrations @ Kasturba:
MAD Designer Collection!!
Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Clause has come to town!!
Look what Santa gave us!!
And the Winner is ..... !
Christmas Celebrations @ Thara:
Yay!!! Christmas Gifts!
Go MAD!!!
Why is your tummy so BIG Santa???
Let's Paint away!!
Cutest kid in town ..
Check out my picture!
Breakin' the Dance floor!
We Won!!
#*~The Hyderabad Team!! ~*#
Watch this space for more!!
MAD – HYD BReaKiNg ThE ICe
Posted by Apeksha in Volunteer Files... on December 9th, 2008
21ST NOV 2008 – MAD HYD ALL SET TO BREAK THE ICE!!
KASTURBA – PICTURE PERFECT – Kasturba is a home for destitute women..there are around 63 inmates from infants to middle age women..this being the first ice breaker, all the volunteers were excited to meet the kids who they would be teaching the coming months..girls being girls, they were well behaved and paid attention to everything we had to say..it was easy to get along with them and the ice breaker went as perfect as it was planned..we had balloon games and team compititions that brought out the best in them..we left the orphanage with the girls asking us to come back and start the classes as soon as possible…which was precisely what we wanted.
Bhavana & Vivek
Our very own Abdul Kalam...No kidding that
22nd NOV 2008 – MAD HYD READY AGAIN TO BREAK THE ICE
THARA – UNPREDICTED – Thara is the home of nearly fourty street kids from the age of 3 to 17..we went there with gr8 plans of captivating their attention with our ‘ exciting games ‘..the success of our previous day’s ice breaker session adding to our confidence, we knew we’d hit it off with them..first game involved a competition btw the teams to blow up max no. of balloons..the kids enthusiasm was very contagious and uncontainable..as per plan, the volunteers were to instil excitement and energy in the kids ….but instead, as things turned out.. it went the other way round…and we all left with a few pounds less!!
Uday & Seenu - Can't live without eachother..!!
Kids at Thara...finally we got them to sit down for a snap..
The Dawn of MAD – Hyderabad….Yay!!! :)
Posted by Gloria in Volunteer Files... on November 30th, 2008
First few MAD interviewees trickling in for their interviews…clueless of what’s in store for them…uhahahahaha!! (evil laugh)
And the saga begins….uhmm….with Jithin sleeping walking!??!!….
Nisha getting ready to do the ‘Funky Chicken’ …!!! 
& Finally…Go MAD!!!!!!
What IS this?! What the hell are they trying to do?
Posted by Kola in Volunteer Files... on November 26th, 2008
Sitting sleepy at my desk in the office listening to kabhi kabhi tho lage zindagi mein rahi na khushi aur na maza, kabhi kabhi tho lage har din mushkil aur har pal ek saza which very aptly summarizes my situation in life when i passed out of college waiting to join Google. And when i did join, the life i felt was so spoon-feeding types. People were being pampered to the hilt.
“Get out and live in the real world,” I said one day to my friends who looked at me like an alien on the prowl to screw their happy and luxurious office life.
Though I was workin in one of the best (or is it the best company? Leti correct me here), I wasn’t really content with life.
Me, a crazy girl wanted something more.
So i signed up for a GOAL visit one weekend, and felt so guilty at the girls’ plight at Auxilium Navjeevan that I stopped volunteering for it.
So the boring life just went on- come to office, eat, review ads, eat, ads again, go home, watch tv, eat, sleep for the day.
Then I saw these scary lookin posters in the lifts (yes, i prefer using ‘lift’ to an ‘elevator’ despite workin for an American company)
A little boy with a dirty, green face.. and i thought it was just another donate type of ads.. and i saw some more, a different set, on the pillars with coloured pencils and MAD scribbled on them. I was particularly attracted coz it said MAD and i’m always first in doing anything that can be labelled MAD.
Hmmm.. Actually, I was impressed that some random group is proud to call itself MAD. Man.. that needs guts!!
And i decided to attend the preso on whatever date in August.. thoda out of interest and thoda coz Mallu was pinging people and bugging them to attend.
There I go and I get to meet these pretty little girls called Leti and Glo who were pretty busy but still were kind enough to welcome me and ask me to take a seat.
Then followed a moviemaker ka video and then jumped into the picture Sujith Varki (bad with spellings, hope this is right!) to introduce us to the concept of MAD and how we can be associated with it. He looked like an enthu-cutlet the way he had a jump in his step..no no i think its called spring in his legs.. whatever!
Ya, so with the bounce in his step and the ‘aahh’s, actually’s, forget it’s’, etc. etc. and the nodding of the head like a genius solvin problems in the air, he more than succeeded in distracting my attention rather than captivating it.
But from what I saw, I was pretty impressed with the program, more because they were focussed and knew what they want to do.
I signed up like a good girl who wanted to do this and that and that and this for her country (high on patriotism dosage) and found this platform pretty neat to give it a try. Signing up made me happy and of course the love of my life Mallu happy 
.. so all happies.. so far so good
Our First Visit to Kasturba At HYD
Posted by nisha in The First Day..., Volunteer Files... on November 26th, 2008
We had a wonderful time at Kasturba with the kids.
The ice breaker session was full of fun and it went off really well. We played a lot of games like which team blows the maximum number of balloons, dog and the bone and so on. We played with all the kids of the orphanage, kids of all ages.
The journey back and forth from Kasturba was quite fun too as it was a time when all we volunteers were together getting to know each other better.
The children had such a ball of a time that they wanted us to come back everyday with chocolates and more games. We went with an impression that the kids would know only telegu but it came to our surprise to see that quite a few of the older girls, could understand and speak a little English too. That made it easier for us to communicate with them along with have a jolly time.
We got done by around 6 30 and left the orphanage with fond memories and a feeling of completeness. A feeling which cant be expressed in words. We are definitely looking forward to the days ahead that we will spend with these adorable kids.
- Ayesha
The MAD inaugration and training session
Posted by nisha in Volunteer Files... on November 25th, 2008
Day: Saturday
Time: 2.30 p.m
Do we remember the day we attended the first formal program of MAD? I feel so attached to the organization and my work that I do not feel it was just last Sunday we met for the first time. May be it was just the charm of the MAD organizers that gave us the feeling of closeness and greeted us with love. Awwwwww aint that so sweet!! Cheers to all of them.
These are the few vague things I remember of that Saturday.
I get up from a deep slumber and just realize that the MAD introduction program for all the volunteers interested in MAD was about to begin in half hour.
We were welcomed at the auditorium with a broad smile by Gloria, Letti and Samitha. The others I met there at the gate were Anu and Jithin.
My mind was filled with apprehension whether I should be a part of this program and will I be able to dedicate time and do justice to my commitments. I left this as a thought for later. The program started with a lot of ice breaker sessions filled with fun, laughter and getting to know each other. There was active participation from the audience. Later Jithin introduced MAD to us and giving us a brief overview of the entire organization, its goal, founder members, structure etc. This was a very informative session and a little boring too (just kidding) There was a lot of knowledge sharing about our ideas, about understanding goal etc. We understood what it takes to be committed and what are the requirements from a MAD volunteer.
Here is where I want to say something that really took me aback. I have been a part of many NGO’s and organizations that work with kids and adults. This was perhaps the only organization that put it straight down point blank, that we required to be committed, that we are there for a reason, that we are there to make a difference. That was not gyaan by the way
Then came the scary part ‘the Interview.’ Were all tensed and scared and there was apprehension and tension in all’s eyes. Do you think that was true?? We all knew we were here for a reason and knew that we wanted to be a part of this MAD group and walked in with confidence. Most of us proved it that we had it in us to be a part of MAD.
The second day was an intensive session of training and learning. We learnt a lot about what we will do at the classes and how we should ideally deal with the kids. It was a day long learning, but good fun and very intuitive
One thing I am really happy about is that I am a part of MAD and hope we can give our best toward it.
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