St Marys Prize Day function

This blog is at the insistence of my son Vir and inspired by my interaction with him this morning

Last evening we were invited to St Marys Prize day function. Vir had not won any prize but every year the class teacher gets to invite one parent and this year in 4^th standard we had the honour of getting the invite.  So what does a Prize day function have to do with a blog on Charity ??

St Marys is known to be great in academics, but what most don’t know or write about is their commitment to build the most important trait in their children - “EMPATHY”. Do you know why Vir was so excited about us attending the function yesterday ? “Mom there is a superb play on Child Labour, I loved it and I really want you to see it” When a 9 year old boy gets excited to see and show his parents a play on Child Labour, the school is obviously doing something very very right which needs to be acknowledged and appreciated!

Very often we hear about Marys children winning sports, debate, quiz competitions or % kids doing exceptionally well in 10^th grade but what we don’t know is that on Childrens day they work so hard to invite ngo children to spend time at their school, have their children visit various ngos, have fund raiser fun fairs, have a donation box in each class……I applaud their efforts, especially the teachers who take out the time to do all these charity initiatives  inspite of having so much on their plate !

Please read this amazing article written by a renowned American psychologist on how important it is for teachers to instill this “empathy” in their children especially as the world is getting increasingly  fast paced and impersonal with the misuse of technology

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-empathy-in-action-marilyn-price-mitchell). 

Just read the Indian Express front page headline about how a 12 year old Dalit boy was beat up by his teacher in a Jodhpur school when he touched the food plate of a Jat boy in the school, if this is the India we want to change, we need our children/ the next gen to be sensitive, aware and have enough empathy to want to make a difference 

now to conclude this blog with my honest confession about what really happened yesterday ….

I lost the invite, Vir made me get a second one…..even if that meant admitting my clumsiness and getting embarrassed with Mrs Kisty

I had a YPO event, Vir insited I leave 20 minutes early to make it in time for the event….even if that meant leaving early from an event where I was interviewing Sanjiv Bajaj

Then I made the biggest blunder …..I attended from 6 to 7.30 but left without watching the child labour play as I had another social commitment at 8…….

First question when Vir woke up the next morning “ Mom, how did you like the play” Part of me wanted to lie and say it was fantastic but then I confessed that I hadn’t seen it…….Vir is a strong kid and never cries but he had tears in his eyes  & was sobbing…..“Mom, I really wanted you to see the play”, I tried to reason that he could explain it in detail to me, that I would try to get the DVD a month later but he was inconsolable……i just didn’t get it……then he quietly murmured “Mom I really wanted you to write a blog on the child labour play, its such a fantastic play, I want everyone to know what my school has done”

My heart was truly filled with pride at that moment, St Marys you have been successful in instilling the most difficult and most important trait in my child “EMPATHY” ( in addition to tremendous pride in belonging to St Marys)

So here is the blog Vir wanted me to write….and  I have promised him that just like his hero Harry Potter had 2 movies part 1 and 2 for Deathly Hallows, this is only part 1 of this blog and I will for sure write part 2 after seeing the child labour play on dvd …….

NGO Navshitij at Hollywood Gurudwara

Spirituality can bind us, spirituality can blind us too…

Spirituality can be used as a medium to make your life overly ritualistic and superstitious even or can be used as a medium to become a better person and do good.

We did just that today at Hollywood Gurudwara, most of us had never been to a Gurudwara and experienced the beautiful culture of “Langar” – serving food and doing seva. Today, our kids heard a “paath”, had a dupatta/ cloth covering their heads, served food and ate along with our special friends (mentally challenged adults in the age group of 20 – 45) from Ngo Navshitij. The most beautiful part was our Navshitij friends put up a play on Organ donation. What a lovely play and what elaborate costumes they wore!

I didn’t know much about organ donation but this play made me curious and want to research the basic facts, what can be donated, how, what are the credible ngos, myths around this? Organ donation can be of 2 types – Live donation & Deceased or Cadaver donation. In India only 0.08 persons per million population (PMP) donate whereas that rate is as high as 20 PMP in developed countries. You can donate your kidney, liver, lungs, heart, pancreas and much needed cornea, skin and bones too. There are still myths surrounding this such as can you be too old, too young or not healthy enough to donate which need to be dispelled. We gave handouts to all kids educating on these basic facts.

Now something about our NGO Navshitij – Dr Neelima Desai started this when her younger daughter Aditi was born mentally challenged. She realized that just giving a roof and food is not enough for mentally challenged adults, they need to be loved, intellectually stimulated and engaged and Navshitij does this so wonderfully! They participate in treks (they have been trekking to the Himalayas 7 times already!!), conduct traffic awareness programs on the street, organize & compete in drama competitions, make incredible chocolates and candles for sale, go for lovely vacations in India as well as abroad, I am amazed at how the Dr Neelima always comes up with creative ways to engage our special friends! In fact our friends were so excited about todays event that they woke up at 5 am and got ready!

(If you would like to help this ngo please visit our website www.indiacharity.org to see their ‘needs list” under tab NGO database. Also tab NGO stories has a lovely story on Shalakha and how Navshitij helped her gain self confidence and new purpose in life)

We ended the activity by distributing Dr Prakash Amtes DVDs to all the children, an inspiring Marathi movie (with English sub titles) and a must see for kids as well as parents.

A special thanks to Jasleen who tirelessly and selflessly worked so hard and helped us co-ordinate with the Gurudwara, got the required permissions and even brought goodies for our friends.

Joy of giving week is from Oct 2^nd to Oct 8^th, now called “Daan Utsav” in India. When we served food to our Navshitij friends and they had the biggest smiles, kept saying ‘mast jevan’ (meaning ‘lovely food’ in marathi), kept saying ‘thank you’ repeatedly and when Aditi kept squealing loudly in delight & clapping her hands every time we gave her a compliment, we all felt a certain peace in our hearts and truly understood the “joy of giving”.

Jeevitnadi - marathi word for 'Living River'

The fun part of being a blogger is that you get invited to cover amazing events by inspiring social activists!

I got an invitation from Jeevitnadi (an organization that works on environment issues) to see their river cleaning efforts for Mutha river. I am embarrassed to say I had no clue where river Mutha runs & what state it is in. This morning I showed up at Mutha river by Deccan to see what it's all about. Almost 300 people wearing masks & gloves were cleaning the area, I call it area since unfortunately as you can see in the picture I took there is no river water due to our rain situation!

Niranjan, one of the key activists spent good time talking to me about this initiative. He has organised a week long festival call " Muthai" which comprises of such fun activities (contact Pallavi Jacob at 9890013779 if you want to be involved)

2^nd Oct – clean the river

3^rd Oct – paint the river (noted artist Milind Mullik and many others will capture essence of river on paper)

4^th oct – click the river and send photos for their exhibition

4^th Oct – Saritayan, a cultural program on Mula Mutha

6 th to 8^th oct – Photo exhibition and street plays (they had to cancel the street plays due to funding constrains, what a pity)

What a fabulous way to kick start Daan Utsav (Joy of Giving week - Oct 2 - 8)

This group (jeevitnadi.wordpress.com) also works at policy levels with the government to tackle the source of pollution – inefficient sewage treatment and lack of regulations for industrial waste management. In addition they go to schools & corporates to give presentations on small/practical/easy ways we can keep our rivers clean and use fewer chemicals at home. Please invite them to speak to your employees & children.

My favorite part of this visit  --- I got to see the inspiration behind all this - Niranjans 2.5 year old son wearing a bright yellow Tshirt & cap & walking around the place. Niranjan proudly told me that he started this when his son was a year old  & what drives him is that he has promised  his son to take him for a swim in a clean Mula Mutha river on his 10^th birthday !