Of love and more!

Samarthanam holds a very special place in my life. My outlook/ approach towards everything changed when I started visiting Samarthanam over weekends. It took me over 4 months to get an appointment with Vijaya Mam and start volunteering but looking back I know it was worth the wait. You know the adage - Patience bears sweet fruits. And Samarthanam is one of the sweetest things that could have ever happened to me. What moved me the most was the positive attitude of the children and the girls in JP Nagar hostel despite difficulties. To be honest I was going through a very difficult phase in my life and I started coming on weekends for selfish reasons - to keep myself occupied in a productive way. I did learn a lot from the children. I do not know if I can ever give back what I have received - I have received warmth & love when I needed it the most that has healed me. All I want to do is try and be useful to these wonderful people in whatever way possible.

Priyanka made me realise that I am a good teacher by being an extremely attentive student. I had no idea I could teach before I met her. Every time I bunked a class our roles reversed. She became the teacher and called me to check why I was absent. :) What a beautiful person we have in Priyanka! I feel blessed to know her. I do not know if I teach her or she does in her unique way. Nandini is so humble and down to earth - I was elated when she called me to inform me about her score in an exam in which I was a scribe for her. I had tears in my eyes when I received her SMS about her success as an actor in one of the movies. Salma's "Ma'am" makes me smile everytime I think of her. The entire bunch has managed to take my heart away.

The cricket match and Conversation in the Dark was an experience of a lifetime for me. The cricketers are talented, humble, naughty and fun loving - a total masti gang! I have some stories to tell people when they ask me about myself. :)

Last week we started the Story telling session by Storywallahs at HSR. Ameen was extremely delighted. We have decided to take up 2nd standard students and help them improve their vocabulary through stories. I hope we will be able to achieve this objective.

Some book recordings are in the pipeline. Shalini from Tech Vision and I have a plan to take this to the next level. We plan to have a list of books (stories and Classic English Literature) and a team of volunteers who can record this. We also plan to set up a process through which we can make the records easily accessible to the students. We will commence the project in September.

Geetha Ma'am, the principal of HSR wants to start a library in the school to help imbibe reading habits among the students. I thought the 1st step is to collect the books and the best way for this would be to put up a request on FB for books donation.

The above are the baby steps I have taken to make the ones happy who have unconditionally showered so much love upon me. Hopefully I will be able to do more and make some difference.

Sir! Thank you for giving us Samarthanam.