It was an evening of celebration inside Infosys Campus, as SI (Systems Integration unit) had touched 5000 employees mark. This indeed was a memorable day in the history of SI unit. But there was something which made the event even more special. It was a performance by Apann Vidyalaya students (It is an institute in Pimpri Chinchwad area of Pune for differently abled underprivileged kids).
What goes below is a Social Media Marketing pitch for those who may not be able to reach out to Internet to make a pitch for them.
1. First of all I am proud that my unit took this opportunity to give stage to these students. As such the Infosys has many well known social service campaigns running all over India. One of them being Sparsh Foundation, Pune.
2. The students put up a group performance on song “sone ki chidiyaan”. At one hand while this feat was spell bounding, on the other it gave us a heartrending experience. There were kids who could barely manage to stand but were taking the lead on the stage dancing to the tunes of the legendary song, kids who could barely see but were dressed as “Sone ki chidiyaan” and were doing rounds of the stage, and a lot more. What immediately followed after that performance was a standing ovation by Infoscions (which continued till the last kid was on stage.)
3. This was followed by a small speech by trustee who thanked the society for their patronage and giving a chance to the students to showcase their talent.
4. And this was followed by an array of questions that came to my mind right at that moment… I recount few of them here:
a. Does a long standing ovation suffice? Can it give these students what they have dreamt of?
b. If not standing ovations, will monetary help suffice? Can just money get them what they always wanted?
c. Oh well, first of all do we know what is it that they want?
d. So does that mean we spend time with them to figure out what they want?
e. Ok, given you have got time to share with them… will it solve their problems or for that matter problems of the trustee managing the institute?
And the toughest realization rather the question that followed was…
Are we just a result of our birth? Had I been born in a slum, I would had been underprivileged. But since I was born in a well to do middle class Indian family, I became an engineer. So does that mean it’s a mere bad luck that these kids are not only underprivileged but also differently abled?
A ten minute of deep thinking on this topic can get you a severe headache and make you stand before a mirror and ask yourself who you are… But the point is… even this won’t help the cause of these kids!!!
As of now, I see just one solution… It can be through talking to them, listening to them, helping them support each other, energizing the ones with extraordinary determination and making him an example for others and finally… Embracing them as an integral part of our society rather our family and responsibility!!!
Any second thoughts???
