"As a child, my ambitions were very different. But life had a different plan for me. I did my bachelor's in pharmacy and started working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in December 2006. I enjoyed my work there. TCS also offered weekend volunteering opportunities through Tcs-Maitree.

My friend and I were looking forward to do something on weekends. That’s when Sion School initiative happened. A team of TCS employees volunteered on Sundays at a school in Sion. We taught English to 8th and 9th standard students. My friend went on for further studies, and I continued with this initiative on weekends. Working with students here was a very positive and motivating experience. I enjoyed what I was doing there.

I realized that I would love to be involved in teaching, but didn't know how. I was academically not trained to be a teacher. However, this passion to teach and the concern about the education system in India grew with my volunteering experience. I wanted to do my part to bring a change, however small.

In December 2013, I quit my corporate job and started looking for options for. I started volunteering with The Akanksha Foundation’s Shindewadi Municipal School. Later one day, thanks to a friend, I was introduced to Kranti, which works ‘to empower the daughters of sex workers and make them agents of social change'.

Kranti offers a personalized developmental program to the girls. I used to provide home schooling support to them. This changed my life in many ways and I realized teaching could be so much fun. You can teach critical thinking in so many different ways. #Education is ultimately about empowering kids to be independent - emotionally, financially and socially. I enjoyed the alternate education system. Through Kranti, I came to know about lot of people who are involved in making education more relevant and practical.

During my Kranti journey, I got in touch with an organization called Antarang Foundation that provides employability skills to build self-reliance. I have trained youth from different communities on employability skills and have seen their journeys.

Now I'm working with Happy Feet Home – a hospice that provides palliative care to terminally-ill children. Here I teach kids who are living with Thalassemia Major or HIV. The kids are in different age group and are different backgrounds. I help in their academics, conversational English, reading and writing skills. I hope to help them to increase their critical thinking ability. I'm still associated with Kranti and Antarang.

When I talk to my cousin about the work I do, he says “you would always become a teacher when we used to play in childhood, and you used to love being a teacher.” When I think about where I'm right now, I didn't plan this but it feels so right. It seems like it was meant to happen. I love children, I love being around them. Teaching gives me an opportunity to interact with them, understand them and love them"

"Dots are starting to connect"

As every Saturday, I reached 5 mins before the usual school time. I was talking to few students and they said they have some programme in school, so are we still having the sat English class ?

Luckily, I spotted the principal of the school. I went to her and asked her if we can take our usual class. She told me, there is some cleanliness drive for which she needs students for 15 mins and then we can continue. I was like hmm, ok , we can start our class after 15 mins

Then we spotted a bunch of people who have come for this cleanliness drive. Principal introduced us to them . One of them said they got late as they were waiting for someone so couldn't start the cleanliness drive on time ( they had to start it at 10). They said that we can start our class little late because they want to click pics with students. So out of our 1.5 hrs time in a week you want to take our precious 30 mins.

The cleanliness drive was to walk from one corner to another corner with a broom and click photos to show their participation.

Then me and some other volunteers were talking , and we wondered if " Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" started is a one day cleanliness activity to click pics. It has become a sham where people clean one street ,click pics and then post about their participation and views on " Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" 

This is not the point of 'Clean India' . It is more about to create awareness on cleanliness and establish the importance of having clean surroundings such that they can keep their surroundings and country clean always. We don't need someone to clean our street for a day and click pics 

It is sad that everything is so hyped and media oriented...!!!

An interesting article shared by a friend

http://esnoticia.co/noticia-8790-swedens-prostitution-solution-why-hasnt-anyone-tried-this-before

So as per this article Sweden government introduced a law which led to decline in use of prostitution services

What was important to me and thought was interesting is - clear definition of the victim and culprit

In prostitution and human trafficking ( be it men, women or children) , the service providers are the victims ( they are forced into prostitution , at least more than 50% are forced)

And the people who pay to get these services and people who force others into prostitution are the real culprits..

Hope to see changes in outlook on prostitution in every part of the world !!! 

Life continues....

Mysterious life

Some people are happy, some are not

Some people get mostly what they want, some don't

Some people have a purpose in life , some don't

Some people are brave to go after the purpose, some are not

Then we all use fancy quotes on "Karma" , "Destiny", "Choices in life" , "Faith" , "Hope" etc to answer the questions we have...

But do they give an answer or rather are momentary distractions.... 

Guess it is a "Mysterious Life" !!!

Year that passed by : 2013

2013 has been a roller coaster ride for me



This year has been very eventful for me...at the end of the year I'm clueless , in dilemma and in utter confusion

It started with anxiety at work, work pressure and craziness... Then landed with a promotion which I had yearned... Then comes a twist where I did quit work...I have been praised, taunted and mocked in this year...I'm not sure where I'm headed.. But realized that life cannot be planned...I have taken my decisions after lot of discussion and speculation but  its still all blur and hazy....

Sailing in 2014 with twilight and hope in my eyes..

constant.....

Recently realized my life has been constant.....

I have loved and respected few of my cousins always, they are important people in my life ...  avi, jinus, grishma, rakhi,  shefali....

Initially when I was small, I used to dote on my bros (avi and zenith) and found friends in grishma and jinus. Then came my cousins, shikha whom i loved and shaily whom i wanted to love and protect... (sisters I have)

Then i gave all my love to my beautiful nieces simoni and yasha....
now my new kids are kiyaana (niece),  diyaan ( nephew) and Aagam (nephew)

Whenever I'm with these people around i am happy. I wish for their love and happiness

I will always love them
God bless them always... :)


people have changed , generations have changed but I have been constant....

Life - part 2

Today after a busy day at work, was so tired, I dragged myself from train to train.. Just wanted to reach home and drop on bed...
I reached thane station....

There near the ladies compartment, two ladies (one old and other in 40's) who have come from interior regions of Maharashtra were asking which train to take...
Then me n one more lady started talking to them n told them which train to take...
Then the lady who was in her 40's told us that she is upset with the attitude of people in Mumbai, everyone is so rude, no one listens, just rushing, can't even wait a moment to help some one
She had asked so many people which train to take but no one even cared to answer her...

This lady was not angry just upset that no one has time to help others, is everyone so busy...??
She had to attend a funeral and was in hurry...

I was so stunned after listening to this,that I couldn't speak further
All these busy people are us ( each one of us).... 

Reaching heights without compassion towards others is of no use, it will bring us down... We got  to think on this...

Expression

Sarah said bye to Abhi and hung up the phone.. This is the routine - Sarah either talks with Abhi on phone or texts / chats everyday.
Sarah and Abhi are friends since 1st day of college and their relation grew stronger with time and every moment they spent together. They would share everything with each other and be there for each other..
Sarah knows distinctly about her feelings for Abhi. She is lying on the bed, contemplating of how she loves to talk to Abhi all the time. When he is around, she only talks to him and when he is away, she thinks of him and the moments spent with him. Sarah knows that "She loves Abhi"
She thinks how wonderful it would be to hold his hands, to hold him close to her heart and be in his arms forever. She ponders how wonderful it would be to feel his lips on her.. 
Sarah is totally smitten over Abhi

Sarah lives in her crazy dream world but she has never expressed her feelings 
.
.
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Today is the engagement day.. "Sarah and Vicky"
Sarah is getting ready for the ceremony and trying not to think of Abhi
After Sarah and Vicky exchanges the ring. Abhi gets a glance of Sarah and is awestruck. Sarah looks beautiful in the peach color corset dress she is wearing with the pearl jewellery. Abhi goes ahead to wish Sarah. He says, " Congratulations..!! You are looking beautiful .." 
Sarah smiles and then Abhi leaves...
Abhi rushes to home, goes to his room and slams the door behind. He sits on his bed, tears start rolling down his cheek. After some moments, he says "I love you Sarah"
.
.
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trrrrng... Trrrrrng... Alarm rings
Suddenly Abhi gets up with a  shock and is scared, he looks around and then he sees the watch.It is 6 in the morning.. He exhales and smiles..He gets ready for the college . Sarah is waiting for Abhi in college. 

 Abhi runs to college and looks for  Sarah. Once he spots her in the crowd, he grabs her hand and takes her aside. He looks into her eyes and says," I love you Sarah" and Sarah smiles.....  
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.
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Express your feelings honestly & sincerely and  'Life will be Beautiful'

Destiny

 Karan got up late after a late night party and movie on Sunday, and now he was late to office. He quickly got ready and left his home to catch a bus. Karan lives in Mumbai and needs to take a bus for office, which takes around 20 mins. He went to the bus stop and was waiting for the bus. The bus is also late and after 15 mins, the bus came. He looked for a place to sit in the bus; he saw one seat empty in the fourth row of the bus. He sat and when he turned to his left, he sees a beautiful girl sitting next to him. He again sneaks to have a look at the girl and looks into her ‘Eyes’ and forgets the world. He looks at her eyes again; they were honey brown in color and were beautiful. They were so mesmerizing that when the conductor asked Karan where he has to go, he forgot and started blabbering. The eyes were attracting Karan towards them and talking to him. He couldn’t stop staring at them, and after some time, the girl got uncomfortable. Karan never noticed that, and he didn’t realize he is staring at her eyes continuously, all he knew was ‘he is in Love’. She noticed that this guy is just looking at her continuously and then luckily her stop came so she decided to get down. Karan’s eyes were still following her eyes and even though the bus went ahead, he was trying to look back and see if he can see the girl or where she is going. He thought of getting down at the bus stop but he was already late to work so he decided he could talk to her tomorrow in the bus.

Karan thought about that girl and her eyes the entire day, he couldn’t sleep in the night as those eyes were haunting him. He decided he would take the same bus tomorrow so that he can talk to the girl, he was rehearsing what to talk with the girl in the night. Karan is in LOVE, he decided, “I would do anything to meet this girl and then I would propose her and marry her”. Next day, he go up early in the morning, took a bath, wore his best shirt and perfume on it and headed towards the bus stop with excitement & anxiety. Once he reached the bus stop, he was nervous. He took the same bus as yesterday. He searched for the girl in the bus but she was not there. He was disappointed. He repeated this for some days but he never met the girl again in the bus. Then he decided to look for the girl where she got down but to his luck he couldn’t find the girl. He enquired about the girl but all he could remember about her were eyes and face. He couldn’t find the girl and he was disappointed. Days passed and he was about to forget her, he suddenly saw her on a busy street buying some fruits. He ran towards her, but she took a cab before he can talk to her.

This was his last chance and he missed it , he thought , “I can never find her again” He was dejected and left from the market

Destiny 1: One day accidentally Karan meets this girl at a friend’s party. He looks at her and says “Hello” in excitement; the girl looks at him and recognizes him. Then they introduce each other. That day they both spoke to each other through out the party. Her name is Riya. She tells how she felt uncomfortable the way Karan was staring at her and laughed at the incident. After that day in party, they spoke to each other regularly, almost everyday. After one year from the day he saw her in the bus, he proposes her and Riya says “Yes”

Destiny 2: After 3-4 years, one day accidentally Karan meets this girl at a friend’s party. He looks at her and is stunned. He recollects the day when he 1^st saw her. He says “Hello, I’m Karan” and to his surprise the girl also recollects the encounter in bus, recognizes him and says “Hello, I’m Riya”. They talk about the day they saw each other in the bus and laugh. Actually that day when they met for the 1^st time in the bus and on the next day when he  was looking for Riya in every street of Mumbai, Riya also wanted to meet him. Riya also had liked him and there was something that attracted her towards him. She wanted to meet him again but she got sick the next day and hence didn’t take the bus for some days. After some days when she started taking the same bus, Karan was never there in the bus. She was disappointed but still she decided to wait for him in the hope that she would meet him one day and finally today she meets him. She was very excited and was over whelmed with happiness. She was about to tell him how she felt about him and how she was looking for him, some one called from behind. A girl walks to them and talks to Karan. Karan introduces ‘Kajal’ to Riya as his wife.

 Life is unpredictable & full of surprises. It is driven and influenced by forces which we cannot account for or reason out. So, live your life every moment instead of waiting for someone or something or some miracle. 

Learn from past, Live & Enjoy today, dream for future but dont live in future/ dreams

Life

Last week, after a usual day at work, I was travelling back home from Vikhroli station. I got to sit (a 4^th seat but was too tired and didn’t want to miss the seat) . I was really tired and I could hear people talking around. My head started aching again as I was not feeling well.

I usually like to look at people, observe them while travelling in the train, especially small children. Finally after some time, I shifted to a different place where I got to sit comfortably, and then I observed a kid about 10-12 years old. He was wearing yellow t-shirt, nice fitting jeans, a black kerchief around his neck (trying to act cool) and he was selling hair clips in train. He was doing his work (selling hair clips) with such enthusiasm and smile on face that I was fascinated to know where does he get this serene innocence from. I was observing him all the time since I saw him, then I looked at him and smiled, he smiled back with the most beautiful smile. I felt good and forgot my problems during that journey. That smile cheered me the whole week with a positive outlook in life

After some time he comes back to sell earrings, someone asked you sell earrings as well, he was like no. Then he added he is done with his selling for today and he was helping one old lady who was selling earrings in the same train. He was then giving money to a beggar who passed by and enjoying every moment of his life..

I was returning home from a stressful day where I said I hate my work , I had bitched and gossiped about people , the unfairness which has been adorned on me  but this kid who is not even sure of his next meal is still enjoying his work and life. Your attitude and innocence changes the outlook of your life.

Dots to be connected…

Today, I was talking to friends in office and I was thinking simultaneously, is this the work I want to do… Did I choose this job and life for me..

Its starts from my childhood.. What I want to be.. When I was really small, me and my cousin, we used to live in Bhimavaram, dreamt of being Doctors and having our own hospital and treating people.. Childhood dreams…

As I was growing up, I started understanding different subjects being thought in the class.. how they impact us..  and then I fell in LOVE with Maths. This is one subject I absolutely enjoyed and would do it for hours and would always want to come 1^st in the class.  Obviously, at that moment in life, I was clear I would go for Engineering and wanted to do something amazing in this field.

I studied hard till 10^th, and then my next destination in life “Mumbai” was calling me.

As I was determined to be an Engineer and my aspirations and goals were clear in life, I chose to come to Mumbai and continue my studies.. My parents couldn’t join me in my journey as my bro was back in Bhimavaram and had to yet complete his 10^th so I stayed with my Aunt.

I was a shy girl initially here but yet confident, I don’t know where did that come from.. I may not be very talkative and expressive but I was confident as I was sure what I have come for.. my goals were waiting for me to shoot…

I still remember in 11^th std in my 1^st semester I scored 98 out of 100 in Maths and that had put me on maps in my class. I was so proud on that day..

Then comes the point in my life which will decide my life ahead  “12^{th “}   (That’s what at least I believed at that point my marks in 12^th will decide my life ahead) I worked hard.. I wanted to do good in PCM… I would always do maths.. I remember 3 of us, myself and 2 of my friends we would always do maths and discuss the problems.. If we find some tough problem, we would throw it in front of others as a challenge and all of us would rack our brains and start crazily working on the problem.. We were geeks then may be.. hehehe But yaa that is how my 12^th passed away solving maths problems and developing new love for Physics through experiments as it made every concept and law so interesting and conspicuous..

I remember me and my friends (the same ones), all of us didn’t open Biology book and suddenly when the final exam was approaching.. around a month left for exam, we would beg our friends, professors to explain biology and go to Lab and see what is to be done. We just wanted to pass Biology J and we could score and pass in Biology at the end.

Then the humungous task of admissions start: get forms , fill them , enquire about different colleges where to go.. Me and one of my friend had come to Mumbai in 11^th so we didn’t have much idea about colleges so we started enquiring and with our scores in PCM we were pretty sure we would get decent college.. Again CONFIDENT… so we did not take any backup admission like BSc.. Like I said we didn’t know much about how admissions work in Mumbai and then there are twists in life.. God drops a stone on my head, a new impediment, my form was not accepted, as I have not lived in Mumbai I need to produce Domicile certificate.. Wow how do I get this certificate and from where, I was flabbergasted. Alone, and away from parents, but me n my friend who was in the same situation figured out what we need to do. But how will I get Domicile certificate when neither my parents nor me have stayed in Mumbai since 15 years. But by the time I got the certificate, my Engineer dream has been destroyed. I was devastated, I didn’t know what to do next, I went to colleges asking for BSc admission but they don’t have seats now, I was running here and there didn’t know what to do.  I guess I was negligent and expected things to happen and was over confident, I should have been cautious in life. Then my friend who was applying for Pharmacy told me you can apply for Pharmacy. This is the last form, which is released for admissions, and I applied. I got through Pharmacy because of my PCM marks and not PCBmarks . After years I’m thinking again did I make the correct decisions in life, should I have waited for a year and went after my dream. From this experience , I know that I need to be more aware  and be more cautious but I guess till today I haven’t learned that and I know this for a fact.

I’m waiting for my DOTS to connect in life they haven’t yet..

But one thing I know now for sure.. Chase your dreams and Do what you love.

 “Do what you Love or Love what you do” and I think this will make your life rocking J