Life is good :)

Nothing special to say, except that I had a great day!

Work was quite productive, had good food for lunch (I made it, so HAS to be good, hehe), came home and spent two hours toiling in the yard, ended the hard work with half an hour in the new spa. All stress melted away :) I feel good as new!

Still have my crunches to do, and cooking to do, and cleaning to do, but right now...

am luvin' it :)

Life is goooooood!

PS: Life would be awesome if I have enough time to finally apply a new coat of nail polish :D

Do What You Can!

Whew! So I finally presented my speech today! I was really nervous, but apparently no one noticed the tremor in my voice :) They all felt this was coming straight from the heart and loved it. A few people even came up to me to say they were quite inspired to do something!

Am feeling great :)

Here's the speech then...(WARNING: Its rather long!)

Today I am going to speak about a topic very close to my heart. I have written about it quite often on my blog, forwarded relevant links and emails to friends, but have never directly tried to share my thoughts with a group pf people way I am going to do today.
I want to persuade all of you to open up your hearts to the underprivileged people in the world.

To be honest, I had almost given up on this idea. Regardless of how I feel about it, how much I believe in it myself, I found it hard to convince others. Asking someone to give away their hard-earned money, or to spend time volunteering while they could very well be snorkeling in Hawaii, is hard. Then, a couple weeks ago, I came across an article about a 12-year old boy. This boy has raised more than $5 million and donated it all to help underprivileged children! Yes! He is 12 years old, and has raised $5 million for charity!!! He was 4 years old when he heard his parents talk about earthquake victims. They were talking about how a lot of money needs to be raised to help these people get back on their feet. He was eating an orange at the time, and he asked his parents if it was possible to raise money selling oranges? They were all for it, and he raised $350 in that first stint. He has not looked back since!

He started off by selling oranges, then sold hand-made crafts in the mall, at the train station in freezing winters, volunteered wherever he could, even went to Tanzania to volunteer, made speeches, and has also written a book! What this child has done is quite exceptional, not some thing everyone can do. Yet, his message is very simple. Do what you can! That is all. Do whatever you can! He says making a difference in someone’s life brings so much more joy than the latest gadget can ever bring.

He makes sense. I know it from experience. I have been sponsoring child education in India since the day I got my first paycheck. I have two kids right now, both growing up in very adverse conditions. One of them is studying for the same engineering degree that I have. The same degree that brought me here. I am proud that her grades are so much better than mine ever were! If I compare the joy of her some day leading a much better life than what she has today, to, lets say, my car, she wins hands down. If I compare the cost of educating her versus the cost of maintaining my car, she wins hands down again! I pay more for gas per month than I do for 6 months of her tuition.

There are many areas where we can help. There are many ways in which we can help! In fact, with so many choices, it is easy to get overwhelmed, confused and finally to give up on the idea!

So I am going to put forth some simple ways in which we can make a difference. The first one is to go to websites like thehungersite.com. All you need to do there is click! Yes, it is as simple as that. For each hit that the website gets, sponsors donate to fight hunger. Just one click is all you need to do. You can even sign up for a daily reminder via email to go click. They have made it so easy; there is no excuse to not do it ?

Another website I love is freerice.com. This one can actually help you find a word of the day for toastmaster meetings ? Play the word games, enhance your vocabulary, and for every word that you get right, donate some rice!

You can take it further a little bit by donating to charities. There are many prominent organizations doing excellent work in various fields like health care, education, women’s rights, animal rights, etc. There are some valid concerns that how do I know where my money is going? How do I know they are really doing the work they claim to be doing? The good news is that there are websites that help you research these organizations. The one I like to refer to charitynavigator.org. They help you find organizations in a specific field, they rate organizations, they list the most popular ones, they list ones that are in the red for a long time. They have tips and guides for donors, questions to ask before donating, pointers on how to spot a scam. There is a lot of information out there. I would encourage you to explore the website. I am confident that even if you don’t have a specific cause in mind, you will find something you would like to support just by browsing through the information!

Now, there are people who say they don’t believe in giving away anything for free. There is a solution for them too! Microloans! Organizations like kiva.org connect struggling entrepreneurs in third world countries with lenders who can lend small amounts like, say $25. This small amount goes a long way in changing the standard of living of these people, and some times even changing the economy of a small region. You may have a concern that these are inexperienced people, how would their business ever succeed, and I doubt I will ever get my money back. They succeed because their life depends upon it! For most people, it is a last chance to escape poverty, illness and illiteracy. They put in more efforts than the mucky-mucks in big companies to make it work! The average repayment rate is more than 98%. So most of the time, you get your money back. Even if you don’t, its just $25! Kiva does not pay any interest on these loans, but there are other organizations that do give out interest as well. If you go with one of those, then you save a family, and make money as well!

There are other options that are more time-consuming and take more effort such as volunteering, working full time at one of these organizations, or setting up subventions such as scholarships!

Bottom line is, there are millions of people out there who need help, gazillions of ways to offer it, and zero reasons to not do it! You can get a child off the streets, from a potential life of crime and put him in a school for less than the amount you spend on your daily shot of caffeine! You can help restore someone’s eyesight for less than the price of a t-shirt! You can make a big difference with very little effort!

Go click on a button, run a marathon, host a fundraiser. Do whatever you like, but, please, do something! More than anyone else, do it for yourself, it is good for your own soul!

This makes me want to laugh, and also makes me angry!

Just came across this piece of news that says an American passenger managed to get past the security systems at New Delhi Airport – and almost through Chennai on Thursday – before being caught with a gun and 35 rounds of ammunition in his baggage.

What makes me laugh is this:
He says he did not know the Indian laws about carrying fire arms on flights.
Hello? Are you dumb? Or do you think the people you are trying to sell this story to are dumb? This is almost like saying, I didn't know it was illegal to kill someone in India!

What makes me angry is this:
He got past the security systems at New Delhi Airport, and almost through Chennai. After the regular, almost monthly attacks all over the country, he could get past the security!

Back by popular demand :)

Mia was missing me, so here to give an account of some little tid-bits from my life :)

Inneresting weekend. Wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!
So what did I do...lets see...wow! Its been so packed I can't even remember what I did yesterday!!!!

Thinking...thinking......

-- We have new fences around our house. Lookin; good :)
-- We planted a whole bunch of different things by the spa. Lookin' good :)
-- We bought MORE plants! Will look good :)
-- While planting, I saw a fly chase and eat up a spider! Quite a fight the little guy put up! Lookin' ... never mind :)
-- We bought 150 pounds of salt. Go figure why :) Ha ha :)
-- I finally did some work for Project Why and am feelin' good :)
-- Dad's coming on the 4th of July, feelin' good :)
-- We have some 8-10 lilies blooming all at once, lookin' beeeyutiphool.
-- And the best one...I FINALLY inaugurated the spa! Half an hour in there, and feelin' great!!!

L.I.F.E.

I really liked this birthday message I got from an online "wellness" community I have joined.

The Power of Just One Goal

Did I tell you I have re-joined Toastmasters?

I had joined a club in my previous company in 2006. I gave my first two speeches within a month. My audience totally loved me. After the first one, I was ecstatic. After the second one, I thought if I am so good already, why do I need to do this? I switched jobs after my second speech, and never joined the new one until 3 weeks ago. I went back because I wanted to finish all such initiatives that I started with a lot of enthusiasm, but quit halfway out of boredom.

I am glad I went back. I am having a lot of fun. The various topics under discussion really stir up the brain cells that have settled down lately to think only about work and home. It is definitely good for the brain, the confidence, the variety of thoughts, the challenge!

I attended the area level International Speech Contest hosted by my club today.
The title of this post is the title of the winning speech at the contest.

The power of just one goal!

It was about the speaker's sister: mother of 10, grandmother of 24, who decided one fine day that she wanted to start running! She wanted to run everyday. That is it. Just run, no other goal related to time or distance. After she did it for a month, she decided to run every single day for a year! Once she achieved that, she wanted to run a marathon. She took a year preparing for it, and won the first marathon she ran! She participated in marathons all over the country, and one day decided that she wanted to run the Boston Marathon. No mean feat this one! Yes, of course, she did it!

It started with one small goal of wanting to run. Nowhere in the picture was the Boston Marathon! Yet, that is where it led!

The speech got me thinking about the way I dealt with personal projects. They all start with lofty dreams. I have dreamt of being a fashion designer, a writer, a social worker, a singer, a dancer, a winner of this very speech contest where I was among the audience! While I had more than the basic talent needed for all these things, I never understood the power of humble beginnings! I just wanted to be at the top while I was still eyeing the bottom rung. While I had a flair for a wide variety of things, I never understood the importance of focusing on just one of them at a time! My head was always full of more ideas than I had the time and energy for. The result was that I achieved nothing significant! The result was anxiety and a sense of helplessness that there is so much that I can do, yet nothing that I am actually doing!

What a revelation that speech was! I started thinking about all that I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, how it fit into the bigger picture of my life. Thoughts churned, and I started to see things more clearly. I was able to categorize tasks into must-do, can-do, and einhhh…why bother!

The things that bubbled up to the top were:
• Social work
• Writing
• Speaking

The more thought I put into this, the more I realized that they can all be connected!
I now have just one goal of my own that I feel really good about.

Present a speech promoting charity work within one month!

Wish me luck!

Project WHY needs help!

I am re-posting this hoping to get some more people to pitch in. Project WHY needs your help! I received a touching letter from AnouDidi this morning:

Dear All

It has been a long time since I wrote and it is after some thought that I pick up my virtual pen again. It is not that you have not been on my mind. I often think about each one of you who have made pwhy possible. It is true that one often wrote when in need as that is human nature! On the other hand I also knew that many of you dropped by the site or the blog and thus got all the news about pwhy.

I must admit that the past few months have been smooth sailing thus lulling us into a deceptive comfort zone. We reached the magic figure of 1K without much ado and once again the children did us proud. We had our anxious moments be it Manu's health, or a little boy's dreams shattered but somehow weathered the storms. We had our huge moments too be it the surgery of a little scarred face or the miracle that made it possible for us to send our little proteges to boarding school.

Yes we lived exhilarating times and somehow did not realise that some promised had not been kept. Hence we were totally taken aback when we realised that our funds had dwindled. Today we do not have money to pay our monthly commitments.

Before you wonder how we got to this situation let me explain our funding pattern. We have solid commitments for about 60% of our needs, the rest has to be raised ad hoc. A slip on my part or an unexpected payment (like the one time of the boarding school) and we find ourselves in the lurch!

We need your sustained help, a small amount that you would send us on a regular basis. Is that asking too much? I do not know. All I can tell you is that that tiny amount may help a child remain in school, or help a challenged child smile or another get the urgent medical help it needs.

Love and blessings

anou

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Going with the Christmas spirit, and for a cause VERY close to my heart, I urge you to help the kids that call Project WHY their shelter, their playground, their home and hearth! What is project WHY you say?

It is a non-profit organization based in Delhi helping out slum kids of Delhi and their families, in any which way possible. Yawwnnn...you go, yet another non-profit. Here me out, please, before letting out that yawn.

This is not just another non-profit organization. This one is special. Anou has made it special! They get NO support from the government or any other institute. Their teachers are from WITHIN THE COMMUNITY! Anou is known as the lady who made a sweeper into a teacher. Most of the teachers at their school are slum dwellers, with a minimum education of 8th grade. So the benefits are reaching every where! Everyone earns and learns with dignity!

They now have over 600 children and run two early education programs, one prep class, four primary and one secondary after school support programs, a day care and life skills program for 20 children with disabilities as well as a computer center.

Anou is indeed leading a revolution at the grassroots level. The primary charter for the organization is education support and life skill enhancement of slum children and their families. But believe me, they do more than that. They have helped a lot of these kids get life saving surgeries and other medical, financial and emotional help. They have helped get them out of the streets and into a classroom. Off the foot path and into a home! They help wherever they can, and NO ONE is every turned away.

I was introduced to this project through a comment on a friend's blog. She had written a poem promoting education for one and all. And someone had pointed her to this blog by Anouradha Bakshi, the director and founder of Project WHY. I dropped by, and have been doing so everyday now, even have Anouradha as a Facebook friend.
The poem by my friend was beautiful, but the blog is a private one, so I cannot share it here. (Ella, I am talking about you, dear!)

Anou's blog is a window into the lives of these children, the difficulties they face with so much courage, the basic rights that they have to fight for, the smiles on their bright little faces which are so innocent, and so unfortunate! And so much talent and potential! The stories Anou puts up are heart-wrenching, because the little ones face so many adversities, and at the same time they are heart-warming because the kids are not alone! pWHY is there for them!

Project WHY has started another initiative called Planet WHY. This is also a very very special undertaking. I will let you take a journey to that planet yourself and explore it with your own eyes. It is truly a world of its own.

I can go on and on about the project and the little angels. But now...lets get down to business, shall we? :D

I ask you to donate Just One Rupee A Day to Project WHY. What is this?
It is an initiative of pWHY where they make it possible for even the poorest in India to contribute and make a difference. It is only Rs. 365 a year. Less than what you would spend on a decent dinner. Less than a movie for your family at that multiplex. Less than a pair of shoes!

Think about the difference it is going to make! I hear a lot of fellow bloggers "wanting to make a difference". Here is your chance! And this here is a proof of how it is going to help us build a better India! Anou Didi approached a child who would otherwise have gone on to become a goonda, and turned him towards studying, towards a better life.

This is real! This is effective! And Anou Didi is there to take it further. I have so much faith in the project because of the faith she has in the kids!

So once again, I urge all of you to donate Just One Rupee A Day. And maybe take a step further and donate Just One Rupee A Day for each earning member of your family. The kids deserve this! India deserves this!

Here's a link to donate pWHY via paypal.
And here is a link to other other ways you can donate.

Merry Christmas everyone :) Lets spread some cheer, shall we?