Pungidasa's Blog, page 9

The Pyramids of Paranga

The pyramids of Giza rank as one of the wonders of the world and nonetheless the pyramid classrooms at Paranga Vidya Kendra fare the same.

From the mainroad, it looks like a quiet meditation centre, 11 pyramids lined up. But once you make your way in, you instantly love it for the quiet peace and tranquil of this place.

Paranga Vidya Kendra , a heart child of Mr. Ram Moorthy is a private school in Magadi that runs a free education for all campaign.

Five minutes in you can see the place , vibrant and glowing with happy faces, dressed in normal dhoti , the legendary visionary himself comes to meet you and shares his dreams of a self sustainable education model adopted in the school.

The pyramid classes ,the first in the world; the free education for around 650 odd kids, trees and birds humming in the places.
But nothing can beat the fire in the eyes of Ram Moorthy sir as he goes on to share anecdotes of his tyrst with this school.

Taking voluntary retirement from NAL when he held reigns as a deputy director , he plunged towards his long term dream of building a place of education for the rural folk.

He stays in his ancestral home there, still takes 7 classes a day, runs around like a young kid even now.

It is not an easy task , to run the show with 650 odd kids in a school that runs in cities, but this inspiratinal man manages to do just that with effort less ease.

Free education,
Free unifrom,
Free shoes and free books and free love.

There is such a sense of calm in the kids around the school, even as they take up a preparatory exam before the finals, a sense of calm that the school's homely atmosphere provides.

One visit there, you will come back home with a sense of awe, at the sheer dedication and passion of this walking and talking inspiration,
His words and the fire in his eyes make you want to join hands with him and propel the kids in this school further into possiblities of existence.

With this school, the lives of many young women have been brightened,
And as the saying goes, "Educate a woman , you Educate a house."

This beacon of knowledge beckons everyone to its shores.

For this beacon of knowledge to spread its influence far and wide and for it to be self sustainable, contributions from Donors who believe in the vision of a society with free education to the nation’s rural women.

Are you interested in joining hands and helping ?

The Saraswati Seva or the educational fund for one kid per year , 5000 INR donation can be made into the trust.

With over 650 kids in the school, your contributions are going to uplift them to a better future in life.

You just dont support a cause, you support the cause behind the cause !!

Here it is guaranteed that your monetary contributions reach the kids.

But if are still not satisfied visit the school and find out for yourself that the pyramids of Paranga are a wonder in itself !!

Your Hashtags vs Your Privacy

Your Hashtags vs Your Privacy

Do you know that your Hashtags could land you in trouble.

Do you know of anyone between 16 and 40 who do not use atleast one form of social media and Internet.

You have gazillion bytes of data out on the internet.
Websites, media, information etc.
How does it get sorted out ? How do we get relevant information in one shot.
This is where hashtags comein,
So much of content comes in and the # make it easier to sort the content based on an approximate theme.

Like a photo tagged with #bff gets into list of photos with the tags and when a search is given your photos comeup.

Similar to the #indvssa , all the tweets with the same are grouped together.

Now that you know the basics.

Your #bff on whatsapp statuses should be safe and okay but it really serves no purpose.

#crazy#friends#for#life on a whatsapp photo has no relevance , it can as easily be crazy friends for life.

But if you want your photo to really be a part of many searches , then go crazy on your #hashtags.

But if you are Facebooking or Instagramming or twittering be careful with your tags because #ethnic#sexyinsaree#iloveyougal#lookinghot maybe fun to tag around in pictures but in the wrong hands can land you in trouble.

So the next time you see a really bad usage of this # , like on whatsapp statuses let them know , their hashtags are vestigial.

Until then take care of your hashtags because in the world of information # can take away your privacy.

And privacy matters !

Wow. Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies.

Wow. Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies.

A Safe Heaven for Young Dreams

A Safe Heaven for Young Dreams

"Follow the river it will take you home" is one of the most repeated survival techniques.

Following the meandering path of roads, gullies and routes of Thangamalai slum in Kaval byrasandra we come to a small pocket of a world within a world.

Cresent Trust runs a creche for the kids of all the daily wage workers who dwell inside the neighborhood.

Walking from a seemingly buslting roads into the quiet interiors of the arena is an adventure in itself, but the real adventure begins when you enter the fascinating world of dreams within the trust.

Young innocent faces looking up at you, big eyed , surprised at our sudden intrusion into their quiet existence.

Almost blissfully unaware of the gravity of the outside world, you too join in with them, play with them , take up the slate , chalk and make them laugh , giggle and smile.

So happy are you that , you forget to take selfies, forget to check your phone and just be there lost in their world.

It is precisely then that the undercurrent of harsh reality hits you.

Kids from all cultural backgrounds with some now being the first generation of school goers , stay at this creche from morning till afternoon whilst their parents toil hard for daily wages.

The project is completely a community driven project, kids are taught basic alphabet and numbers, rhymes and are also fed with nutritious food on a daily basis and also sleep in the relative safety of this house.

This safe heaven in the meandering reality of the slum is a bank of little dreams and laughter.

Without this, a rather dangerous question remains as to what would be the plight of these kids.
But the very presence of such an initiative bring a warmth to your heart.

With Bosch Primavera completely funding this project, there is definitely hope for a better future for these young minds, in a place that rather does not inspire much hope.

We hope that the light of this home shines through for more and more young kids who call this slum home.

Well Reema D’souza , nothing can surely replace the charm of reading a news paper .

Well Reema D’souza , nothing can surely replace the charm of reading a news paper . That is for sure .

But is it not time that we embrace e paper intsead ?

Once upon a time , Sunday mornings were the best.

Once upon a time , Sunday mornings were the best.

Waking up late, coffee in hand, sitting cross-legged on the verendah floor, holding the paper open and slowly sipping in all the information.

I would normally hit the sports section and glance through.

This was a very very long time ago. It has been over a year since we stopped buying printed newspapers at home and more than 3.5 years since I really had the joy of having an enjoyable read.

It has been 3.5 years since office began and the software engineer lifestyle began.
Waking up early and running to catch the bus was a task in itself, reading the newspaper became extinct.

After office, the news was stale anyways.So it came to be.

With over 100 newschannels in every regional language broadcasting North East West South , every conceivable news possible, is the paper still needed ??

With all people at home working, newschannels blaring its news out , flash news breaking news in all blazing glory run thier hoarse voices dry, the newspaper had pretty much died in our house.

We still bought it though , since we found no reason to stop buying them, after all it’s not like we are cutting trees to make paper, wood is specifically grown to be cut and used for this purpose.

And we promptly made money using this for the Raddiwala, who in turn sold it to the Bondawalas, chat stores and hotels.

So on and so forth, the pile of newspaper in the house grew and was sold every few months.

Hardly opened , fresh and crisp they were folded and left to die. And finally after too many arguments from my environment conscious debates the newspaper as we know it took its last breath at home.

With all this said and done, the big question I have to ask you is ,
Do we still need a printed newspaper now in this time and age ?

1. Old news gets printed. Because its already stale for the time of print.
2.All houses have TV that hold great debates at greater length, are already informed of news.
3. We have apps for everything, weather, gossip ,sudoku , crossword etc etc and This app is available for who ever needs it.
4. We have e paper of all the big newspapers, We save tonnes of ink, paper and trees.
5. Much of today's newspaper material is gossip and advertisement and gibberish like this.
6. The editorial column and other columns that need your attention are also available online.

So the question is why do still want a printed newspaper?
1. Paper production, Printing presses, Distribution and marketing provide thousands of people with jobs and livelihood.
2. Paper is still getting recycled and hence we are still environmentally secure when it comes to paper production.
3. There is an old school charm to reading newspaper that nothing can beat. It is a wonderful way to distress.

I don't know which side you choose, but newspapers at our house has been hunted to extinction purely because no one really reads them.

365 days, 20 sheets of paper and ink .

How many trees can you save from cutting ??

After reading this, will you consider stopping your correspondence with the printed newspaper or just tell me to bugger off.