WTF is MAD!?

is the question I asked the girl (Disha) when she gave me a call. It was 11 pm, I was almost in bed, and I shouted, 'Mad!? what!? you must be MAD to call at this hour, huh!' And we argued. She wondered why I filled some form online, and I was pretty sure I didn't fill random forms. Especially since the growth of survey stuff online.
Nevertheless, I got a mail stating I had cleared some telephonic interview. It asked me to show up at an orphanage. As a pretty useless guy with no life, I felt it wouldn't hurt to show up! I showed up that day, the task involved being with kids, and it wasn't something I was going to miss! I decided to join in as a student. Considering my age, I had to get in as a teaching volunteer. Besides, MAD had (it still does, I think) a 90% engineering quota at that time, so I got in quite easily!

Here's what I believe MAD is-

MAD is a group of crazy big kids who put in their combined energy, enthusiasm and brilliance in shaping the lives of little kids.



MAD is LOVE


Here's what my friends and I built in barely half-hour during Dream Camp!



MAD is CREATIVITY in ACTION


Oh! and i loved playing Name-Place-Animal-Thing late in the night with my friends and Siddhesh sir. And pakdum-pakdi with Darshita miss and her kids. I probably wouldn't be able to convince even five of my non-MAD friends to play these games!


MAD is EMBRACING CHILDHOOD


We've loved hogging Aayush sir's camera whenever we could. I've got a lovely pic with dream camp teacher Divya didi.




MAD is CAPTURING BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS


I loved reading the 'oh, not so love letters' that some of my friends shared with one another during camp. I was pleasantly surprised that they wrote them in English. Shh! my 'strict' teachers must not know of this!


MAD is JOY of a sense of PRIDE! (since I was one of their teachers! :-p They put the Queen's language to good use!)


I met my friend Geeta at the camp. She is one of the awesomest singers I've known. She's been adopted in US, and is slated to move there sometime this year.


MAD is HOPE


I found a small clip of Geeta's singing in my knapsack. (video below)

Play video in Youtube




Talking of brilliant singers- there's Sneha didi. Her voice is lovely! She owes me a song, glad I
remembered!


MAD is INSPIRATION


I was shit scared of heights. I saw Priya didi conquer a mountain like she was on a morning walk. I decided to follow her until I climbed it myself. I was scared of water. Especially cold water. The fear went as I climbed Chinmay bhaiyya's back and plunged into a cold pool.



MAD is COURAGE


Less than a year at MAD, and I published my first novel, re-started my baby (Noyo), and felt more inspired to do great stuff. Met loads of friends and awesome teachers, who've built me. Basically, I got a life.
Here's Ronak sir gifting my book to one my friends, Akshata.



MAD is LIFE


Pretty soon, MAD's new academic year shall begin, and recruitment shall start.


I wanna JOIN MAD!
Click on the link above if you'd love to be a part MAD's awesomeness.
A little bit of happiness before I end my post! (video below)

Play video in Youtube

I've chronicled my journey in this post. The point of this post is- there's more to learn for yourself when you make an attempt to share the little things you know with the little kids. I hope this post helps anyone who is wondering whether to volunteer for MAD. I am grateful to MAD for giving me one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.

For those keen on learning more about MAD, their website is: www.makeadiff.in