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?

Magical Methods Training Pvt Ltd re-kindled the fire and passion within me to take sessions on Vedic Maths.

Taking sessions for under-privileged children and students of engineering and technology is nothing new for me. For those of you who do not know about me, here’s a brief introduction:
1. I am the founder and Chief-coordinator of Paritraan – a social initiative started by me and supported by friends, faculty and juniors not only from BIT Mesra but from other colleges in India.

2. I am the Chairman of Microsoft Software and Technology Club, India, a club that gives free sessions on Microsoft technologies to students, faculty ad professionals across India. We also organize, from time to time, several national and international events to promote programming and software development. DreamSpark Professional Programming contests conducted in 2010 and 2011 are such examples.

3. I have trained more than 1000 students, faculty and professionals on various technologies & subjects like:

• Microsoft technologies like .NET, SilverLight, Windows 7,   Windows Phone 7, Visual Studio, SQL Server 2008
• Personality development skills
• Computer/Digital Literacy
• Vedic Mathematics

Infact, Paritraan began with my first session in Vedic Maths. However, after joining Samsung Software Engineering Lab as a Software Engineer in June 2011 I was unable to carry out my sessions because of office timings. But then a few days ago, I came across a Facebook Page by the name Magical Methods Training Pvt. Ltd. in which I saw a committed Mr Pradeep Kumar carrying out the task of creating awareness of Vedic Mathematics and  I saw pics of him teaching Vedic Maths and it re-kindled the fire in me to take sessions on Vedic Maths.



In the time of writing this blog-post, I am in Nagpur, in the house of my eldest maternal aunt. She is a lecturer in a junior college and also teaches in a Coaching Institute. I offered her to teach Vedic Maths to her students and she agreed and I began taking sessions on Vedic Maths. Its been 2 days already and tomorrow will the third day. Its a mix batch of students from class 7-12.

I would like to point our the syllabus of Maharashtra board is not at all up to the mark and the children even in class 11 are unable to do simple 2 digit multiplication or 3 digit addition/subtraction mentally. They need to be spoon-fed! Most of them are either afraid of Maths or hate it! Imagine hating such a beautiful subject…



So in the last two days I took 2 sessions of 2.5 hours each and now they have gained confidence and some of them have started liking Maths, I get the same feeling as I get when I convert a Naasthik (Atheist) into an Aasthik (Theist)!




The movie Spiderman had a really nice message – “With great power comes great responsibility!” And I believe being an Engineer its my responsibility to engineer a better society, a better India – A Better Future.

Magical Methods Training Pvt. Ltd. details:
Website: www.magicalmethods.com/
Blog Link1: http://vmfortrainer.blogspot.com/
Blog Link2: http://magicalmethods.wordpress.com/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Magical-Methods-Training-Pvt-Ltd/161663113891616

A Microsoft employee left his job to create a University in Africa and succeeded with a lot of hard-work of 10 years.

[An article by Brier Dudley. I have reposted this here so that people get inspired by it.]

It took a bit longer than expected, but the university in Ghana started a decade ago by a visionary Microsoft engineer finally has its own campus.

Ashesi University is moving from rented space in the city of Accra to a 100-acre suburban campus formally opening Saturday.

A contingent of supporters from the U.S. — many with Microsoft ties — will join ambassadors, Ghanaian officials and village chiefs for the opening.

Several said the campus is much more than a collection of new buildings for the school. It represents the vision and commitment of Patrick Awuah, who left the security of a job writing software in Redmond to pursue a crazy dream building a university in his homeland.

Awuah, 46, wasn't one of the Microsoft stock-option jillionaires. He was just an engineer in his 30s with an audacious idea he left to pursue in 1997.

Awuah's goal was to offer Ivy League-caliber education in Africa, to create ethical, broad-minded leaders who would go on to elevate the continent.

That started happening even before ground was broken on the campus, where the first students began moving into dorms last week.

Ashesi began offering classes in 2002, and enrollment has grown from 30 to about 500. Most graduates have stayed in Africa and all have jobs in fields such as finance, technology and education.

In 2008, the school began breaking even financially and started raising money for the campus — just as the economy crashed. But Ashesi's early success helped raise $6.9 million for the project.

Among Awuah's early backers was Paul Maritz, a Zimbabwe-born former top Microsoft executive now chief executive of VMware in Palo Alto, Calif.

"Ultimately, the future of Africa lies in the hands of Africans, and in particular a new generation of leaders who can give the continent the leadership it deserves," Maritz said via email. "Ashesi represents an extraordinary effort by a true African hero [Patrick] to prepare this next generation of leadership and imbue it with the values that they will need."

Awuah said he's thrilled and relieved that the campus is finally open, but his project continues.

"It feels wonderful to be in our own space and it's a major milestone for us, but no, we're not done," he said.

 

 

Growing new majors

After the opening ceremonies, Awuah is meeting with trustees to chart the school's next decade of growth.

Plans aren't final yet, but Ashesi is likely to begin offering new majors in engineering and science — in addition to the current, four-year degrees in computer science, business administration and management information systems.

Ashesi already has been working on curriculum with Awuah's alma mater, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He arrived there from Ghana with a scholarship and was hired by Microsoft after he graduated.

Among people he initially worked with was Mike Murray, who co-founded the international philanthropy Unitus after retiring from Microsoft in 1999. Murray and his wife gave Awuah one of his first grants.

"Ashesi's unique in that it takes an extremely bold vision and courage to say, 'I'm going to start a new university in a developing country from the ground up,' " Murray said. "The common response to that would be, 'You're nuts' or, 'You're crazy.' "

It turned out to be a great investment. One college graduate in Ghana potentially helps up to 100,000 others directly and indirectly, Murray said.

"Not only are you going to help individuals, it's going to help the entire country," he said. "The proof is in the pudding — the goal and the dream was that these students would get great educations and then stay in country, and that is proving to be what's happening."

The campus will keep growing. It can now accommodate 550, with room for most in its dorms, but there's space for 2,000 students eventually.

Among those at Saturday's ceremony will be Ruth and Todd Warren of Seattle, who helped raise money for the campus and will have the library named after them. Todd Warren retired from Microsoft in 2009 as vice president of Windows Mobile and is on Ashesi's board, and Ruth Warren led the campus capital campaign.

 

 

"Unique model"

"We're so excited to have the campus and buildings but the school is more than that. We have this unique educational model," she said. "We couldn't have done this and built the campus without proving that the model works. The success of our graduates provides this."

One priority may be adding more space for large gatherings.

The school has a central courtyard that serves as a natural amphitheater. That's where Saturday's ceremony was going to be held.

But a regional chief invited so many other chiefs and dignitaries that more than 1,000 attendees are expected. Events had to be moved to a larger, open space that serves as a parking lot.

When Ashesi asked the chief about the protocol for such events, "He basically told us we didn't understand how significant this was — this is the first university in the whole region and they really care about education, and they invited all the chiefs from this whole traditional area," said Matt Taggart, associate director of development.

 

 

"Bottom-up change"

Maritz also sees broader significance in the school's milestone.

"The most leveraged thing those of us on the outside of Africa can do is to support these kinds of efforts to bring about deep, bottom-up change. Everything else is just a Band-Aid," he said.

"The fact that Ashesi has survived its infancy and is now entering into the next phase of its growth is an enormous testament to what can be done with comparatively modest resources to create what Africa most needs, which is lasting and effective institutions — the new campus is the visible symbol of that."

Awuah said he's especially pleased that alumni, students and faculty contributed to the school's permanent home.

"I can feel it when the staff sees the donor wall. The pride they have is phenomenal," he said. "It feels great."

Brier Dudley's column appears Mondays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.

Why the name 'PARITRAAN'?

Well, I have been asked this question so many times. Why the name Paritraan for this social initiative? there isn't one answer.There are quite a few reasons for that. The first being I had to have a name for a team!

I first heard of the word Paritraan in the year 2005 while I was in Bangalore. It was supposed to be a political party launched by a group of IITians who were initially into social-service but then got irritated due to the obstructions they had to face during their social service campaign.

I was really happy. It was a time when my hopes were high. I was preparing to appear for IIT-JEE and was really impressed to know that finally educated section of the society is taking responsibility of the nation. The word got printed in my soul.

In the news they also explained the meaning for the word 'Paritraan' which comes from the famous verse of the Holy Geeta-

“यदा यदा ही धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारतः, अभ्युथानम अधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम!
परित्राणाय साधुनाम विनाशायः च दुष्कृताम, धर्मं संस्थापनाथायः संभवामि युगे युगे!!”

Paritraan literally means "To bring relief from the cause of distress".

परित्राणाय साधुनाम [Paritraanaya Sadhunaam] was also used as an emblem by the Chhattisgarh Police. I really liked the meaning it conveyed.

So when I was thinking of a name for my team, which should convey what it stood for and the idea behind it – Paritraan was an obvious choice. Also, it embodied our cultural heritage.

And today I am really happy to say that the word Paritraan is not just a word anymore… it has given meaning to many lives associated with it.

What is the use of Social Service or any Social Initiative? What is the basic Ideology behind Paritraan?

Suppose you are stranded in some place and you need someone to give you a lift in their car or taxi and nobody stops their car to give you a lift, how would you feel? 

You are carrying two bags and you have to go to the restroom in a railway station. You can’t leave the bags unattended and you have to go to the restroom, what will you do? You will find some nice elderly person, go to them and keep the bags with them requesting them to take care while you go for five minutes to the restroom. Don’t you need other’s help? If they refuse to help you then how can you survive? You know in this world as human beings we have to help each other and that is what seva is.

In Sanskrit Service is called 'सेवा' [Seva]. Seva means what? ‘सः’[Sa] means ‘him’ which refers to God and ‘एव:’[Eva] means ‘like him’; so 'Seva' means doing things like him.

God does so many things for you but does not expect anything in return from you. Whether you pray to him, thank him or not he will still continue to do. He is not doing you a favor. When you thank God, that is for your own joy, it does not matter to God. In the same way whether people acknowledge your work or not, whether they thank you or not you still do it because you find that it is important to do!

That's the basic ideology behind Paritraan. Its for a noble cause!

The Need for Educational Trips for Students!

Educational trips can enhance learning in many subjects, allowing students time to bond with their peers and have a range of new experiences outside of the classroom.

We learn best when we can see, hear, touch and feel - in other words, when we can experience things at first hand. Multi-sensory learning is an important part of school life, and school trips answer the requirements of all five senses.

It’s because of this that we organized Educational Trip to RIMS – Rajendra Institute of Medical Science, Ranchi. We also plan the next trip to Vigyan Kendra Ranchi. Educational trips take many different forms. When your child visits a museum to find out more about a history topic, walks into the local town to do some geography fieldwork, or goes to an art gallery or theatre, he is taking part in an educational visit.

Whatever the subject, you can be sure that these visits are planned to help your child enrich their learning experience. And the best bit is that they are having fun while they’re learning!



And that is why, we took school children on a trip to RIMS, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. We were moved by their desire to become doctors. We thought that meeting doctors and visiting a medical college will act as inspiration and motivation. How we did it, and our experience of the trip will be shared in a different post very soon! Keep reading and taking initiatives at your level.

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!

Importance of Personality Development and Life Skills in Education.

Together, the phrase Personality Development may mean the various actions initiated for the development of an organised pattern of behaviour, attitude, character, traits, habits, etiquettes and manners that will make a person unique and distinctive.

At Paritraan, we don't just teach them syllabus. We try to come up with innovative methodologies to help students to harness their latent potential and channel their energies towards cultivation and sharpening of multiple dimensions of human competencies.

Education, formal and non-formal, must serve society as an instrument for fostering the creation of good citizens. All approaches to redesign the educational processes must take into account the basic and agreed-upon values and concerns of the international community and of the United Nations system such as human rights, tolerance, and understanding, democracy, responsibility, universality, cultural identity, the search for peace, the preservation of the environment and the sharing of knowledge.

There is no denial that the purpose, the aim and drive of the educational institutes, must be to equip the students with the most excellent technological proficiency so that the students may function with clarity and efficiency in the modern world. But a far more important purpose than this is to create the right climate and environment so that the students may develop fully as complete human beings. Total human being means not only a human being with inward understanding, with a capacity to explore, to examine his or her inward state and the capacity of going beyond it, but also someone who is good in what he or she does outwardly.

The cultivation of a global outlook, a love of nature and a concern for fellow human beings and environment should be part of the scheme of education. In order to achieve this, education has to cover the four distinct dimensions of the human personality beginning with the physical body, the development of intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities, the development of socially desirable moral values and finally, the inner dimension of spiritual growth.

While the science labs impart knowledge on the various principles of science, the Personality Development Lab focusses on how to develop some of the traits mentioned above. It should focus on some of the life skills such as:

1. Communication and Public Speaking
2. Various Forms of Arts like Music, Singing, Paiting, Dancing, Poetry, Literature etc.
3. Emotional Intelligence
4. Interpersonal Relationship
5. Norms for Social Behaviour such as manners and etiquette
6. Fitness of the mind and body through yoga and meditation
7. Problem Solving and Thinking Skills
8. Assertiveness
9. Leadership and team working
10. Self empowerment and time management

Why do we need initiatives like Paritraan?

Education is the single best development investment a country can make. It contributes to better health, higher incomes, and increased participation in community life. These social and economic returns have been proven to be particularly high when girls are educated.

The world community has been committed to achieving universal primary education since 1990. Two of the eight Millennium Development Goals-universal primary education and reducing the gender gap at all levels of education-underscore the importance of this issue and the importance of educating girls. UNICEF works tirelessly to ensure that every child – regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or circumstances – has access to a quality education. We focus on gender equality and work towards eliminating disparities of all kinds. Our innovative programmes and initiatives target the world’s most disadvantaged children: the excluded, the vulnerable and the invisible.

Too many of the world’s children are out of school or receive spotty, sub-par educations. Each one of these children has dreams that may never be fulfilled, potential that may never be realized. By ensuring that every child has access to quality learning, we lay the foundation for growth, transformation, innovation, opportunity and equality.

Despite a marked increase in primary enrollment rates, especially among girls, more than 100 million children worldwide do not go to school. Adult literacy has also improved. However, some 770 million people, two-thirds of them women, still cannot read or write. Even for those who do attend school, many do not leave with basic skills due to under-resourced education systems and poor quality instruction. Barriers to access and completion are higher for girls, members of ethnic minorities, children living in geographic isolation, working children, children affected by conflict and disasters, children living with disabilities, and the very poor.

That's where Paritraan comes in! We are a team of Engineering students from BIT Mesra (as of now). We have developed a simple strategy - 'Encourage College students to take 2-3 hours/per week to teach poor and under privileged children.' No money no donation purely commitment purely dedication. You can too join us, just by helping children in places nearby you. Nothing more is required.


Unlike 'Teach For India'  or 'Pestalozzi World' or 'India Orphanage Project' we follow a different model. Though they are truly dedicated team, we believe that our model fits best amongst the student community. Even professionals can contribute in a similar way. We encourage you to do whatever you can, wherever you can, whenever you can, howsoever you can!

What is Paritraan all about?

The aim of Paritraan is to reach out to underpriviledged children who are deprived of proper education due to lack of resources. Here, at Paritran, we try to understand their problems and take suitable initiatives for their proper education.


We try to help them understand the value of proper education in their life because we believe that it is the only light which can guide any man through the darkest of times.We ask them about their future plans and tell them what step should they opt in order to achieve those goals of their life. We also encourage them to ask their friends and relatives to tell them the values of education because we believe that education is just like a light for the society which becomes more luminous when more sources are there.

We also take their classes in which we try to incorporate the formal class education along with moral values because we think education should impart the quality of decision making, to distinguish what is good and what is bad, what path to follow. We encourage them to set goals for themselves and dedicate themselves towards the same.

We also emphasize on the personality development of children that includes practicing to speak in english, thinking independently and expressing their ideas in a logical manner in front of others confidently.

Lastly, we keep asking about their personal problems which may hinder their studies and tell them the solutions to those problems to best of our capability.