how can I contribute to the society? How can I contribute in the development of India?

You think what you can do!

We the youths can and will bring a wave of revolution everywhere in this country.

I have a dream to see India as the most forward country in this world. I want India to become powerful and regain the pride and honor it once enjoyed in ancient times. India has to emerge as a strong nation and I don’t want a single youth to be unemployed.

There is a lot to be done in this country today. It is difficult to find plumbers, drivers, cooks and electricians in this country. There is a lot of demand for such people.

Our education system is so old-fashioned and wrong, that people remain unemployed after completing their studies. In our country, the ones who are uneducated find employment while 59% of the post graduates are unemployed. Though they studied so hard all these years and did their post graduation, they cannot find employment. The education should be job-oriented. Our education should be such that proper attention is given to honing the employment skills. If the teaching is job-friendly, then as soon as the students complete their education, they will get a job. We need to bring this change.

I request all the doctors to offer three free medical camps in a year. If you are a lawyer, I want you to handle three cases free of cost. Do this once in four months for people who are very poor and cannot afford to pay your fee.

Can you do this?

And all the school teachers should give free tuition to students who are weak in studies. Consider three students for a year. And if you are a student, create awareness about voting amongst people. Ask everyone to go and vote and to vote against corruption.

Thoughts of Sri Sri Ravishankar.

Holi Celebrations 2011 by Paritraan Team

When Engineers decided to engineer Doctors for the future...

When I started Paritraan – A social service organization, I was alone. Today, Paritraan has over 50 members spread across India, who teach thousands of underprivileged children, the disabled and the old. 

When I talked about Social service, most of my friends thought that this was all a waste of time. But Robert Schuller’s, ‘Success is never ending and failure is never final’ told me something else. It inspired me to dream and inspire others' dreams.

One day I asked the school children to tell me what they wanted to be. They told me they wanted to be Doctors. It was Friday. I thought about it, how could I help them in their dream? How can I inspire them? I am an engineer… What should I do?

I prayed to God for guidance. And he answered. I called my friends, told them I wanted to organize a trip to RIMS – the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. Everyone resented. Filled with self-doubt and negativity, they gave me various reasons for not going.

One said, “What if you meet an accident?”

Another said, “You need permission from RIMS…”, the third said, “We can’t manage this…may be some other time…”

But words of Robert Schuller, Swami Vivekananda, the Holy Bible, The Holy Quran and the Holy Geeta keep echoing in me. They told me that God wants me to carry on with this task. “Help will be provided to those how seek, for those with a noble cause.”

I declared, “I am going ahead with the plan, you are free to join me!”

Sunday was declared to be the destined day. Akhil decided to join me. I met 10 children at one place, Akhil met with 15 others. We booked two tempos to travel from the BIT Mesra campus to the main road. There, I saw a bus. My heart told me, this bus is never here. It’s God’s help. Go ask for it. I thought Akhil is better at dealing about financial matters, so I sent him instead. The driver decided not only to carry us to RIMS, but also expressed that he would bring us back.

We played Antakshari during the journey. Then we reached RIMS. We came to know that on Sunday, the college is closed, but medical students had exams. Akhil said, “That’s why I asked you to take permission. It does not work like this. Now you see, there was no point in coming here. Its all a waste!”

I asked him to wait, and went straight to the Director's Office. I told him who we were and what we wanted. He was so happy he asked me sit down, then appreciated our efforts, asked me to keep it going and ensured he will provide all the help necessary for any future tours. He assigned two Guards, who took us around the campus and showed different departments. 

 

The doctors were also glad to have those children in their campus. They patiently answered children's questions. And to my surprise, these children really asked interesting questions. They asked about procedures of donating blood as they wanted to donate blood. Even the nurses and other support staff contributed with their own knowledge.

The children really enjoyed the trip. Not only that, those who did not join us, asked us to organize trips from them again & again. There was another school nearby, we used to teach children there as well, the news reached them and then they started demanding a trip.

 

That, gave me the ultimate satisfaction, and proved my theory of Goodwill – If you are working for a noble cause, God’s help will arrive. I don’t know if any of those children will become doctors, for they are very poor, but then even if one of them becomes a doctor, wouldn’t it make a difference?

Your Facebook Likes, Tweets and Blog Comments can help to generate funds to buy books and clothes for the underprivileged.

If you would like to contribute, your Facebook Likes, Blog Comments, Digg Likes, Tweets can help us generate funds. How? Here's what you have to do:

1. You have to click on this link The Journey of Paritraan.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Leave a comment.
3. At the top of the Page, there are 4 buttons - Digg, Facebook Like, Tweet and Facebook Share.
4. You need to sign to Facebook, Twitter and/or Digg to contribute. Then Like it, Share it, Tweet it, and Digg it.

In case you are in a corporate environment where security policies do not allow you to visit social networking sites [for obvious reasons] please use the comments in the blog. You can Like, Share and tweet about it when you are using your personal net. To get to the article, you can either visit my blog i.e. www.aasthik.com or simple use Google to search for "the journey of paritraan", the very first result will be the article.


This article was a part of Article Writing competition organized by another Not-for-Profit Organization called TechAloo [their official Facebook page- www.facebook.com/techaloo] dedicated at promoting Social Entrepreneurship.

The article "The Journey of Paritraan" has won the first round. For the second round we need more Facebook likes, Shares, Digg, Tweets and TechAloo Comments. This will help us win Rs. 3000/- which will be used to buy books and clothes for children.

The Need for a change in the Indian Education System.

The current education system does not teach how to become innovators or entrepreneurs or artists. Had it been so, they would have been millions in numbers.

More often than not, the Entrepreneurs, Artists and Innovators are either dropouts or have bad grades. To a few of them, their education may have given the technical know-how (though it is hardly conceivable), but not the dream or the inspiration needed. It is the education which should inspire one to become something one really wants to. Education should make you free, should make you experiment and it should make you ask questions. Ultimately, it should make you realize who you are, what exactly your goal or dream should be and how to achieve it.


There's a need to change the education system from the ground-up that is from the primary level (reduce work load, put more importance on physical activities, encourage original thinking etc).I believe that there should not be any form of evaluation (exam or so) till age 10 years (lets say upto class 4 level).

Subsequently the exam patterns should change and put more emphasis on original thinking, innovative ideas and problem solving rather than emphasizing on mugging up the theory.Basic education should be in mother tongue but English should be made compulsory. The benefit of Education in mother tongue is evident from countries like China and Japan.

We have an obligation to give something back to our country which will have a long term impact on the whole society.These are few of my thoughts. Let’s start a vibrant discussion and let us know your opinion in this matter. I would be glad to have your feedback - appreciation and criticisms both are welcome!