Read-a-Fest @ SOIL

Joy of Giving Week

6th October, 2011
"Life is given to us; we earn it by giving it." - Rabindranath Tagore

There is no better joy in this world than the joy of giving something to others. The Joy of Giving Week is India's "festival of giving". Launched for the first time in 2009 during the week of Sept 27th –Oct 3rd, this festival is celebrated every year in the week encompassing Gandhi Jayanti and brings together Indians from all walks of life to celebrate ‘giving’.  SOIL has been actively involved in the ‘Joy of Giving’ right from its inception. This year, it was celebrated with all the more zeal with ROOTS playing an integral part in promoting and conducting the events. As part of spreading the joy, ‘Read a Fest’ event took place on 6th and 7th Oct 2011 at SOIL campus in which volunteers recorded audio clips to add to the audio library of the blind people. ESHA is a non-profit initiative striving to help the blind in small ways that make a big difference. Started in May 2006 by Nidhi Arora, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, Esha focuses on entrepreneurship for the blind and helps them earn a minimum of Rs 15,000 per month.

In August 2010, the Clabil (Central library of Audio books in Indian Languages) project was started by ESHA to make audio books freely available to the blind, in particular and the print disabled, in general.  The ‘Read a Fest’ event held at SOIL was to help them facilitate this noble cause and provide content for their online audio library. SOIL students came out in large numbers to extend their support by recording their voices to help blind people see the colorful world with their words. The event was very well organized and coordinated by the ROOTS team led by Abhishek Saxena. The event also drew coverage from Indian Express and Zee News and what’s more, there were participants coming all the way from Delhi. There were a total of 70 recordings made in languages such as English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Sanskrit and Oriya and the entire activity happened for about 3 hours with 40 volunteers. 

Nidhi has been working for the cause of blindness from the year 1994 and says that it is an awesome feeling that you get by giving others and has to be experienced. Her best experience so far has been working for the audio book on Mathematics shortcuts.

Here is what some of them had to say about ‘Read a Fest’:

“A VERY SPECIAL Thanks goes out to the entire ROOTS and SOIL Team. All the volunteers who were on their feet THE WHOLE TIME! Your bright smiles and your attitude are appreciated much more than you know”.- Nidhi, Esha Initiative

“Speaking has never given me more satisfaction. The feeling that my voice would enable somebody to experience something new, made all the effort worthwhile.” – Chinmay Sharma, Participant, SOIL
“To help those who need it the most is the most amazing experience in anyone's life. Read-a-Fest was one of these initiatives where I thoroughly enjoyed myself by lending my voice for a noble cause.” – Richa Bharadwaj, Participant, SOIL
The ROOTS team is proud to contribute to the success of ‘Read a Fest’ and is looking forward to spreading the ‘Joy of Giving’ concept in every possible way in the days to come.

Learn, Lead, Live - The SOIL way!
Feedback from Esha :  http://eshabraille.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/read-fest-at-soil-gurgaon/

http://www.soilindia.net/events/joy-of-giving2011

Self leadership

The sessions I always look forward to attend are Self-Leadership sessions by Anil Sir. After every session, I discover something new about myself & ponder upon the true purpose of life ,Why I am here ,Who all I care for ,What am I doing to serve others.

I want to share learning’s from last session on 8th Sep 11.
Leadership: A true leader is always listening to the big S and is always connected to the source & knows the purpose of life. It is important to identify the cause of the habits which are pulling us back by help of reflection and finding out the ways and the strength to achieve what lies within us to achieve what we want.
If you connect to the bigger S, the source you have the ability to live to find out that I am fully present .The mind, the body the intellect is the way I choose to act, feel and relate and the way I think, all my previous experience form my tendency which stops me to take on to the new ideas.
Ego is friend of fear and fears opposite is unconditional love, if you give unconditional love you will feel content and joy.
Most knowledgeable person is who has a purpose; goals come from purpose which are time bound. Biggest leader is the best follower because he is always following the right cause.
We should always strive hard to achieve higher purpose and keep on trying till we achieve what we want ,a mistake is a missed take .
Work is love made visible, and we always rise in love .
The power of seva (servant leadership ) is supreme , when you serve the higher purpose, you discover capabilities and talent in yourself which you never thought existed in you and great things start happening to you.
When ego gets killed a person is transformed, this transformation makes you a better person.
We also had a lot of reflections on various aspects like Immunity X-ray where we learned to reflect and find out what we wanted to change , what are the thing we do opposite to what we want , what are our hidden competing commitment and what are our assumptions for them.
This exercise showed us a path to improve and be a better person.
When a person leaves his ego behind and gives unconditional love to others he can even walk on fire bed and come out safe , it’s the power of love which makes you do things which you would have never thought you could do or achieve.
It is important to understand the purpose and be mindful ,always be connected to the source.
In the book Immunity to change the notion of immunity to change is presented and how to identify the cause using four column method , then by corrective measures potential can be unlocked.

Orientation day of SIP @ Sulabh International

We had an awesome experience on our first trip to Sulabh International. Sulabh team termed the first day as SOIL team`s orientation day instead of first working day.
As soon as we reached we found them eagerly waiting for us and received us with a warm welcome. We were then escorted to the morning circle with a large audience gathering
That morning few other distinguished guest have also arrived a couple from Austria and a former IPS officer now working with NGO`s and a lady working with UNESCO for water purification.
We were called up on the stage to share the space with Sulabh`s founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak and core team. It was such a moment of joy to be in presence and people with high repute working for a social cause.
We were welcomed by Mr Pathak with garlands and they also presented us with a shawl which is Sulabh Internationals special ritual.
Dr Bindeshwar Pathak is a Padma Bhushan recipient from the Government of India. In 2003, his name was added to the Global 500 Roll of Honour. Bindheshwar Pathak also received the Energy Globe Award, the Dubai International Award for Best Practices, and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for Environment. Stockholm Water Prize was awarded to him in year 2009. Antarrashtriya Bhojpuri Samman was awarded to him in the 4th world Bhojpuri Sammelan in Port Louis.
A tour of the campus was pre planned for us, firstly we saw the unique Toilet museum which had a wide collection and lot of historical information.
Then we went to the school run by SICAS which imparts free education to children of scavengers and weaker section of society. A vocational school is also running in the same premises which offers computers ,fashion designing , embroidery, tailoring, typing ,beautician courses to make the unprivileged self-reliant.
Then they showed us the marvel of Sulabh`s two pit technology and various technique through which they create various types of toilets & water purification system and bio gas plants.
After the tour we had a long round of conversation with Mr Pathak and Mrs Abha Bahadur .
We were enlightened that Sulabh is much more than an organization working for sanitation they have many other social programs running
We were then invited to have lunch which was also very interesting we heard a lot of insights from Dr Pathank and she showed us a lot of award received by him for his work. Dr Pathak is a very humble and insightful man who is fully dedicated to the cause of sanitation and development of the weaker section of the society. He also told us about the new book he is going to write. Mrs Abha is also instrumental in the success of the Sulabh International.
We then discussed our plan and project that we can execute and contribute to the cause of Sulabh International. We would be focusing on SICAS and working on various projects which would be detailed in the next SIP day.
The team is excited for the next and forthcoming visits, we want to put in our best effort to make this SOIL – Sulabh International collaboration a success.

The First Day

It was an important and difficult decision for me to go for an full time MBA when my career in IT was at a high point ,after a lot of pondering and evaluating my options I zeroed on SOIL as my final choice. I have been in touch with SOIL from last one year to know the developments and events happening.
I underwent the selection process and loved every stage of it ,Calipers Assessment test was something which made me realize that SOIL believes in their values.
TAP the talent appreciation process was a wonderful experience too , I was interviewed by panel which consisted of a senior faculty member and a senior leader from Consortium company @ SOIL.
I got selected for Business leadership program

First day at SOIL was very eventful not like orientation days at other B schools.
For first three days we had interaction activities so that students and faculty know each other well.Meeting Anil Sachdev Sir for first time was an awesome experience ,listening to him fills you with positive energy and transforms you to a better human being . Morning circle is a practice that is followed everyday from 9 to 9:15 where students and faculty pray together share motivational stories and then have an open forum for thoughts or anything one wants to share. What a way to start a day .