Can we cater to their needs...

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???

After a long time....

“Time will pass on; summers will come and go,
My assets may wither; the relations may get on low,
But nothing can tear me away from my ambitions,
And that is something I surely know”

I return back to the world of blogging with this note. (Check out the time of my last post. I will give you an idea that how long I have been offline. And the subject would tell you why I was Offline :-)) To the few readers, which I have... I am sorry for such a long break. But then life at times gets you on back foot and you are not left with any other options but to postpone all your plans and do what destiny dictates. All said and done... the fact remains that any emotional or professional setback can cut only as deep as you let it cut. Unfortunately for me, I gave my setback more time than it ever deserved. Notwithstanding, I have finally decided to return to my blog.

Getting back to business , I would like to remind you that the blog is about Entrepreneurship, start ups and GMAT. In the meanwhile I’ll also chip in with some book reviews and movie reviews (new). Off course the trivia , which has turned out to be more of centi”Mental” drama will continue to feature in my blogs. I simply can’t help it.

What’s new??? This time around, I have definitely matured in terms of start ups. So my new posts would ne now based more on ground work than Internet research. As here onwards I’ll be bringing to table the data from real markets; Retail, IT and other sectors. Now one thing that’s obvious as of now is the data would be too close to Indian market (I am yet to become a global citizen).

Now, a word on current impositions on bloggers put by Supreme Court in India. For those who don’t know about it, certain rules and restrictions have been imposed on bloggers from India in wake of some audacious posts put in by some bloggers (Even I am not very sure about it). As far as I feel my blog is far away from politics and public matter. However, you never know what may offend who... so to be on the safer side, I’ll request all my readers to intimate me immediately in case they see anything offensive on the blog. The post will either be edited or taken off altogether. You see just like everyone else, even I don’t want to attract unnecessary attention and issues.

Happy reading.....