News about Vidyadaan Sahayyak Mandal, Thane in Loksatta dt. 27th June 2015

Report on Niwasi Shibir held at Tapobhumi,  Naik Udyan, Yeoor on 1st and 2nd May 2015 by Vidyadaan Sahayyak Mandal, Thane

Number of students present: 53

Organizing karyakartas: 

Abhay  Gadiyar, Sandeep Bhagwat, Ranjana Kulkarni

Great support from other karyakarta’s like Arun Lalit, Deepak Joshi, Arun Joshi, Mahesh Dhumale, Bina Padwal, Sujata Thakur, Nivedita Joshi, Vandana Shirke, Suparna Belgaonkar, Dr. Kamat, Prerana Madigiri, Vishakha Katre, Dipti Govekar.

Helping hands : approx.6 ex vsm students and karyakartas were assigned various types of work.It is important to mention here the special anytime help given by Mr. Gopal Parab, friend of Arun Lalit. Yeoor is a remote place and not connected properly. Two days he willingly solved the problem of transport of food , goods and public.

Food arrangement : Morning and evening  tea and snacks and  simple but tasty lunch with special rice Bhakari was served.

Residential arrangement was done at Pandit school .

Program Details :

Two days program was conducted by AMRUT YATRA team of Naveen Kale in two sessions each day.

First Day (1st May 2015)

Ranjana kulkarni welcomed all and started with Shabari and Sudama's stories to convey that whatever is offered with love is valuable .She further told that Abhay and his  team had worked day and night  with love to organise this shibir for students and appealed Students to respect food and not to waste it. This was so well received that there was zero wastage of food.

Then Bhau spoke about the importance of shrama sanskar in life giving message of  Baba Amte.

Navin started with his Introduction and asked students to introduce with each one 's goal in life. 

Session I :  Shailaja Gokhale who has published many books  on Manasik Arogya like "Mulagi vayat yetana,kallya umaltat" and at presently handling children from ashram shala or Dongari balsudhar gruha etc. She began with a game where in pair of students should discuss with each other and tell partner's good and bad points . In this game children were open to tell their mind status.  Getting angry fast or hot temperament  was observed to be very common .On this line she spoke at length and softly but convincingly following points.

1) Mind and health are interconnected.

2) Proper exercise not only increases the physical strength but also mental.

3)She gave many tips  to control anger like counting of numbers, think  before reacting.

Morning on the bed itself and at night think of your behavior at different time .

4) Try to accept people around as nobody is very good or very bad ; only circumstance matters. So maintain friendship and relationships. 

5)  Keep your face smiling and pleasant to improve your personality.

6) For girls she gave earnest Advice to keep analytical mind while developing friendship and to be strong to react if it is necessary.

Next speaker Ashay Mahajan 's presentation was short but sweet. He narrated his own story. He was a very playful student in school and in college .when he got just 56% marks.   He was sincere and consistent in his efforts to achive his goal ; CA. This path was not very smooth .He passed CA at 14th attempt; but this qualification helped a lot to grow his business .He also told his passion of sports helped to concentrate on whatever he does and overcome the frustration with strong mind. The points he discussed are really appealing to students and are as follows :

1) Understand your passion. and If you select the career accordingly.  Success is yours; but full devotion is required. Here he gave the example of Sachin Tendulkar and Kambali and marked Sachin' sucess to his consistent efforts, displined mind.

 2) All may not be lucky enough to get job of your interest; in that case he said that his own experience tells that if you persue your passion side by side keeps you happy. Ashay started playing tennis at the age of 34 and now every day he is on tennis courts;  wherever he may be.( in India or out of).

3) Ashay further said that ups and downs are always there but you should not leave line of education u had selected with examples of  his own and Sachin. Like as in Vedh Vilas Sawant said he emphasised to work 10,000 hrs to get success

Session II

After lunch Navin conducted an  advertisement competition. Seven groups were formed and each group was given a product's name like oxygen cylender, flying chatai, bandwale, dhotar, andhar karnara bulb, modak etc.

All the performance s were very nice showing intelligence,  creativity and team work.Students imagination was wonderful.

The last lecture of the day was by Kaustubh Bhagat on " nisargachya sanidhyat" while working he persuaded his hobby and collected the information and travelled a lot for study. His presentation was with wonderful slides prepared by him. He has covered world of :

1 plants

2 Birds

3 Mashrooms, yeast

4 Animals...all types observed in various jungles in Maharashtra

.

Kaustubh was explaining every details of the slide giving scientific reasoning of the habitat and it s association with others to maintain environment of jungle . Students were happy , surprised and curious to know many things and it was a very long interactive lecture.

The day program ended at 6 p.m as per shedule with tea and  snacks.

The students then shifted to Pandit Prathamik Shala. The students were segregated to two buildings meant for boys and girls. The boys section was controlled by Joshis; Deepak and Arun. The ladies section was controlled by Suparna Belgaonkar, Nivedita Joshi and Vandana Shirke.

Day II (2nd May 2015)

The students got up from 4 am onwards to make up for shortage of toilet accommodation. The shramsankar shibir was conducted under guidance of Captain Gautam, Sujata Thakur, Anjali Barwe, Prerana Madigeri and volunteers from a group referred by Mr Shyam Ghate. The students came hungry and tired. They were treated to fresh kandepohe and tea.

Second  day of the Shibir was mainly devoted to convey ‘How people over come the problems in life. In other words we need not murmur about small problems. But to learn to overcome them.

Really the session started with technical difficulties like not getting proper ground, or electrical connections etc. but (without that) the whole day program was handled properly by Mr. Navin. According to him problem become smaller if you become bigger than it. He explained it with story of Hanuman and Dronagiri. Morning there was session titled “akshache khamb” where  he uncovered the lives of four inspiring personalities. Who willingly chose to live for some noble cause of service to mankind or poor, namely –

Baba Amte the inspiration for VSM

Popatrao Pawar:- The architect behind success of Hivare baazaar

Barefoot college of Bankar Roy

Ocello Mecardy  Story of black American lady who rose form a laundry staff to become ambassador of USA

Next speaker  was 80 years old Ratnakar Mahajan  retired person from Air-India. He covered right from hang glider to satellite 250 years of aviation history using nicely prepared pictorial boards. He discussed passionately the very details of the each picture but the session being too lengthy and in hot Sun, many children were not attentive. However the enthusiastic presentation of Mahajan will definitely motivate karyakartas

.

He was followed by Anil Hardikar who is a T.V serial dialogue writer for aabhalmaya. He shared his experiences in T.V serial program. The Program is generally for 25 episodes. Every episode is of generally 20-22 Minutes and how a Friday episode ends to maintain curiosity of viewers etc. He created a story by inputs from students that helped to identify talented students named Vijayalaxmi Pattewar, Pankaj Bhonsale, Nidhi Varavadekar and Sakshi Shinde.

After lunch, session started with Orogami by Aishwarya Mahajan. She showed many items. Prepared only by number of fields from a single paper. She demonstrated the sequence of folds to prepare flying birds and everyday could experience it doing flying bird from a given paper by profession

She was followed by Payal Bhosekar who travelled alone to Thailand and Cambodia shared her experiences and gave many tips. She said when you are alone you are always more alert and learn many more things. One becomes stronger mentally while taking such bold step one should take dear and near one, in confidence, always keep them informed about your travelling plan and location for your safety.

The last session was the most memorable  Krushnakant Mane is an outstanding personality. He is  not only wizard in computer or IT field but totally committed to social work. He is blind but surpassing any normal person in knowledge, or activities.  Initially his parents helped him to overcome this blindness and gave him confidence . But further he developed himself to the level of the post like professor in IIT  Powai. His laptop and phone talks for him and he naturally, easily handles like any other normal person he teaches students of IIT, an intelligent cream of society but keep in mind poor students from his native place , how to reach this facility of there  two gadgets like phone and computer in their daily work or farming he said. You should be proud of your mother tongue but be practical or feasible when you want to learn the technology.

He said this in context of development of software. He is very lively person fond of reading, trekking, singing etc. His observation sense (without eye sight) is fantastic. He never forgets to name his mentor from Homi Bhabha Science centre who encouraged him to develop software. He is a founder member of Digital Freedom Foundation. According to him. knowledge ideas are nature’s gift share them, free of charge. To explain this she shared one story of ward boy who was knowing the post operation recovery stages of a patient due to his experience and when doctors were not giving assurance of recovery of a patient ward boy said “Saheb he will recover in 24 hours”. A good news in that Krushnakant accepted Bharat Kadam, one of the VSM student in his project work.

Conclusion: Try to select your passion oriented work. If is not possible along with you job follow your passion.

To view some photographs (other than shramsanskar) please click on following link:

https://plus.google.com/photos/102125249960052035639/albums/6144902895861077377

VSM Karyakata workshop - 19th April 2015

On 19th April 2015 Karyakata workshop was held at Parshwanath College , Thane for Vidyadaan Sahayyak Mandal Volunteers. Around 80 karyakarta's attended the workshop. It started sharp at 10 am and was concluded at 5 pm.

Ranjana Kulkarni welcomed all and conveyed the purpose of the workshop. The workshop was held for the orientation of new volunteers and as a refresher course for experienced ones.

All the volunteers introduced themselves stating their name and place of residence. 

Bhau Nanivadekar unfolded the VSM journey – about how and why was it started . He said that Students, Donors, Volunteers and Palak Karyakarta's are the four pillars of VSM. He gave some examples of dedicated volunteers.

Swati Agate explained about the responsibilities of palak karyakartas. She said that he/she works as a mentor for the student and has to convey the discipline of VSM to him. He/She has to be like a potter giving shape by one hand and support by the other.

Radhika Gadiyar talked about communication between Volunteers and VSM and also between palak karyakarta and his ward. She highlighted 5 points as follows –

1. Commitment - we should read all the emails sent to us, send monthly ahwal on time,find and convey budget of the ward,inform students about various workshops, ensure that the ward submits the vouchers on time.

2. Communication - there should be good bonding & tuning between the ward and the palak karyakarta and also among all VSM members. The mails should be answered promptly.

3. Value for time - Bhau is very particular about the time , we all should follow his example. There are 40 people who send the ahwal on time without the need for any reminders.

4. Involvement - Everyone must try to be present for meetings and other programs arranged for us. She gave an example of Mr. and Mrs. Malshe who try to be present everytime and Dr. Sujata Kelkar who travels from Bhusawal for the events.

5. Expression - Express yourself freely by talking , by mail. Finally Radhika told about her own ‘Help Desk’ . If anyone has any query regarding VSM he/she can contact Radhika.

Next Parag Rede was asked to discuss about Goal setting of students. He had taken a workshop on the subject. He covered following points : we can tell the students that we are same as you and goals may change sometime in life, be ready with ‘Plan B’ i.e. alternative plan.

Make them focus on short term goals. We can report in Ahwal about short term goals. Goal setting helps one understand what one should not do.Goal setting is an ongoing process. Differentiate between goals and means.e.g. reading 3 books in a month is not a goal but ‘means to end’. Once you set the goal one has to work hard to achieve it. But before that one should think about the ‘tipping point’. A boy getting 55% may work hard to get 60% and get first class. But if he gets 35% , then even if he works hard he may not get 60%, instead he can invest his energy on something else which will help him to get employment. So the goal should be attainable.

Swati Khare and Ujwala Ranade gave presentation about various careers for students.Ujwala suggested careers such as travel and tourism, massage, x-ray technician, dialysis technician etc. she said that everyone need not try to become average engineer, instead can choose any career suitable for his condition and try to reach the top. She gave an example of her niece Rujuta Divekar who is now a well known dietician.

Swati Khare showed various slides about career selection. While doing branch selection after 10th one should consider –

1.  Aptitude test which shows different types of intelligence. 

2.  Student’s interests. 

3.  History of student from 8th std.

               i)   Marks 

               ii)  Experience of competitive exams 

               iii) Extra curricular activities

4. Financial capacity of the parents.

Review after 12th std is necessary. Slides on options after engineering and commerce were shown. Swati also told that developing core competence and doing internship is important these days. Engineering students should do different projects, attend different exhibitions displaying various projects, prepare for group discussion in their friends groups. GATE entrance exam score is used nowadays while offering jobs at public sector organizations.

She suggested that for commerce students after CPT they have to appear for 4groups for becoming CA but after one group and certain experience they can opt to become ‘Accounts Technician’.

After lunch Shubhada Puranik informed us about ‘English Language improvement program’. Shubhada Puranik & Ameeta Shaha along with other volunteers will conduct this program. 

Group I - 9th std to 1st Year of college.

Group II - 2nd year onwards.... 

Each student will be given two notebooks of 100 pages. Each month they will be given 20 assignments which they will write in the notebook and return next month.

Suhasini Thakur converses with her ward in English so she had some suggestions about improving conversational English.

i)   Use short sentences. 

ii)  Read aloud in front of the mirror. 

iii) Encourage thinking process in English.

After this some Karyakarta palaks (Varsha Joshi, Archana Damle, Anjali Pednekar and Mr. Solegaokar ) narrated stories of their wards. Narration by Solegaokar brought tears to the eyes of many. He said that ‘Rule should not overrule the objective.’ Gopal Athawale also told about his wards and said that for the outstation student we must search at least one local guardian.

Nivedita Joshi explained how we have ‘एकमेका सहा␣य क␣ अवघे ध␣ सपु ंथ’ at VSM.

She gave some examples such as – Narayan Ponkshe helped Shakeela to pass in Chemistry,Vijay Kelar went to Shahapur from Bandra to teach Dhanke about ‘Book Keeping’, Veena Shenoy teaches English conversation to Hostel students , student Rohan Jalgaokar helped Rahul Bhalke for Interview , student Rameshwari Thorat teaches English to another student from VSM and so on.

Last session was conducted by renowned Psychologist Dr. Shubha Thatte. Neeta Apte and Vandana Shirke presented cases of their wards. Dr. Thatte gave us many guidelines for interaction with our wards. Following points were stressed by her –

 At VSM we don’t need only dependence or independence but we need interdependence.

 Palak should not feel bad or guilty if his ward is not getting as many marks as others.

 While talking to student ,find out the subject of his interest. 

 We should communicate that I am ready for talk , but every child is different.

Teenagers may not like to talk too much.

 One has to consider one’s strengths and then decide about our goals,destination.

 If child has any dreams we have to assess whether he can really do that ,what difficulties can come etc.

 If his efforts are less we can point that out but we can not insist.

 Students have to decide what is important and what is urgent.

During all the sessions Geeta Shah was giving her inputs wherever required. In the end Narayan Ponkshe summed up the day’s proceedings. Written feedback was collected. Ranjana Kulkarni thanked everyone and all went away thinking over various lessons learnt during the day .

Report By : Dhanashree Ketkar