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?

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

Why should we Serve? What is the need of (Social) Service?

'Seva' is a Sanskrit word which is close in meaning to the word 'Service'. Its more close to 'Selfless Service'

[Thoughts by Sri Sri Ravishankar]

Seva is something that is needed by other people. Suppose you are carrying a weight, heavy luggage, and you cannot carry anymore, then you look here and there, you want someone to help you, don’t you? See, we are all interdependent; everybody needs some help from somebody and doing that help without expecting anything in return is seva. Without seva nothing can happen on this planet, isn’t it? By seva don’t think you are changing the world. Seva you do, because you can’t but do it. It’s in your nature. If you are good, if you are loving, if you are happy, you can’t but do seva. And when you are unhappy, if you do seva, you become happy.

A hundred rupees seems too much to give to the beggar, but too less to order a lunch in a restaurant.

Most of the days in TOT Mall near my residence, here at Sector-62 in Noida, I see a different beggar without food. I happily give them 10/- or 20/- rupees. Some people may think I am stupid. But now since I earn my own money I have every right to do so. I don’t think I am wasting my money in alcohol or cigarettes, am I?  Moreover, out of my salary if I can give 500/- per month its not a big deal, is it?

People will say – feeding the hungry, teaching a child, doing this for one day - what difference would it make? Let me tell you one of the many incidences which will answer that question. I was at the juice shop at the Tot Mall when a kid hardly 2-2.5 years came up to me, wearing a dirty dress and a lovely smile. 

He could not even talk! He just gestured to me that he was hungry and wanted the juice I was drinking. I would have given it, had I not started drinking from it. So I ordered a fresh glass for him. The shopkeeper did not know that I ordered for him. He started scolding the boy  and asked him to leave. When I told the shopkeeper that the juice I had ordered was for the boy, he was surprised.

Finally he gave the juice to the boy. The glass was big. I thought I should have ordered a small glass, the boy would not be able to drink it. I then left the scene to buy some other stuff. On my way back I saw the boy. He was so hungry, he finished all the juice in the glass. Suddenly a lady made way to the small kid, saw him, saw the empty glass, lifted it up like a ‘World Cup’, smiled, thanked God, and the unknown person who fed his child. I could see emotions on her face. It had lit up. It had brought her peace and me a feeling that goodness had not died yet. I was moved by that scene.

The juice had hardly cost Rs. 20/- and I had visited a moment of a lifetime. This was not the first time I had experienced such an emotion and I know for sure, it wasn’t the last either. The real happiness - an everlasting one - comes from a life of giving.

This reminds of my friend  Akhil Ranjan. Whenever we traveled together, he used to buy stuff to eat often. He really liked those ‘Thela Wala’ items. But, most of times, some begger or some poor woman carrying a baby would be there. And since he used to get limited pocket-money he could not buy a new plate of fruits/food-items, so every single time, he used to give his own plates. 

  

“A hundred rupees seems too much to give to a beggar, but too less to order a lunch in a restaurant.”  

Think about it, will ya?