Here are few thoughts, which friends share with me in my day to day life. I am always a great benefactor from such great thoughts and contributions from my friends. I share few of them here with you...Hope they are useful to you too !!!

My pick is "Persistence"...I just loved it.

What about you ?





PS: I thank each one of you individually who have spent lot of time and contributed excellent ideas in my previous blog for my dream project. Your encouragement means a lot to me and the project is taking a great shape. My sincere thanks to all of you once again !

I brought it to the attention of all of you some time ago about the proposed Community Center at my village. The above photos are my dream to be brought out as reality with the support and help of all of you !!!

To say briefly, my village is a small hamlet with a population of around fifteen thousand people and having a high school up to 10th class.The closest town is at a distance of around ten miles.

I am engrossed now a day in giving a shape to the project. Once I started working on it, then I realized that, it is not as simple as I thought. It is not about the money or budget, but about its functions, modalities and complexity.

I discussed with few friends about the project and I gathered enough support financially. Now what all I need is not money...but good ideas...!!!

I really need help and guidance from each one of you in this great social cause. Every idea counts, every thought is invaluable more so...I respect your thoughts !!!

My main concerns are;

1) How to precisely know the needs of the village in present day context?

2) How to design a center to the satisfaction of one and all without any inadequacy or redundancy?

3) How to involve the village folk into this event and make them part and parcel of this project from concept stage, so that they will feel the ownership of the project ultimately.I want every villager to feel that it is their project?

4) How to take enough care to keep away local politics, cast and religion factors away and make it as universal love and care center?

5) How to make it sustainable and ever growing in long run?

My thoughts are.....

In my opinion, the main components of the Community center which I am visualizing are;

1) To tap the potential intellectual / artistic talent of any child at a very young age and groom them in that direction, to excel in that area, when he / she grew up. I always believe that you need to tap the brilliance of the kid at a very young age, because the grasping power of a kid is always 100 times better than the grasping power of a matured person.

2) The village folk deserve more than what they are enjoying today because of illiteracy and inhibitions about their short comings to mix with fast paced society. The community center should bridge the gap and build confidence in every individual that they are not alone and the whole society is at their back, if any need arises.

3) Many social evils like child marriages, child labor, and abuse of kids in variety of activities are rampant in villages. The child got to be protected under any circumstances. The main objective of the Community Center is to protect every child and to treat every child as a privileged child “to the society” and not alone to the parents.

4) There are hundreds and hundreds of welfare programmes announced by both State and Federal govts, which most of the village folks are not even aware of. The politicians and the bureaucrats in charge for those programmes are least interested in moving to villages to explain to the village folk and implement them with the participation of village folks. The main focus of the Community Center should be to keep an eye on all the programmes relevant to the village and mobilize the Govt machinery.

5) In general, the politicians and bureaucrats have a step mother attitude towards villages. The Community Center should build confidence in the minds of village folk that they too belong to the main stream and have equal right to enjoy all the benefits and privileges like all urbanites. Any Govt agency should pay the best attention if any request is being made by the Community Center, because, it represents people’s mind and need.

What is a Rural Community Resource Center?

A resource center is a place where members of a community can:

• Find information about subjects of interest to them.
• Take part in learning activities
• Discuss and share knowledge, information and concerns with extension and other community workers, planners and administrators.
• Find materials to help them retain their literacy and numeracy skills.
• Meet to organize and work together on community projects.
• Use equipment to produce their own informational materials.
• Enjoy culture and leisure activities.

What are the Benefits of a Center?

A Community Center can:

• Provide information and activities which will help community members acquire the skills, knowledge and confidence to participate more fully in community affairs.
• Provide information and activities about health and agricultural techniques, business, etc. to assist communities to improve their economic situation.
• Provide a forum through which governments and other agency workers can be informed about concerns, problems and reactions of community members to their plans and programs.
• Provide support to extension programs and help extension workers to co-ordinate their work in the community.
• Strengthen a community’s involvement in, and appreciation of, local and national culture.
• Serve as a focal point for community activities and enhance a sense of belonging among community members.

If you have patiently completed reading to this point.... firstly I appreciate your curiosity and secondly for understanding my confusion in figuring out the structure and configuration of the Community Center.

This blog is for a purpose and going to be interactive. I am going to analyze every thought very carefully and incorporate it in formulating the final structure of the Community Center.

Please have a look at Mithuna’s blog, which is like a supplement to this blog...

Love you always and as ever ....

It’s a beautiful sunny day. I started my day at 8 AM. It is my usual practice to go for my site inspections very early in the morning, when I am very fresh, more so my moods are fresh. I was walking on a sprawling 15 acres of my construction site with all my staff walking along with me. Apart from keenly watching all the developments at my job site, I never miss my attention to my squirrels and birds playing all over the area. I love them. Every thing is looking great at that particular point of time.

Suddenly I stopped at the sight of a "small lump of cement" in the grass at a distance (from the construction debris). All my staff too stopped. I started staring at that small lump in the grass and I realized, that lump too is staring at me. We were staring at each other for few minutes and my staff was wondering at what am I looking ??!!.

I started walking towards that small cement lump, while my staff was at a loss to understand what I am doing ?. I reached the lump, calmly kept it in my blazer pocket and just smiled at the inquisitive looks of my staff. At times when my heart speaks...I don't want to answer any one verbally...

Came back to my office, took the lump out of my blazer pocket , kept it on my desk and started looking at it...just to understand why that lump was staring at me??!!

Oh God !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is Lord Ganesh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On my way back home, I dropped by my family friend’s house on some personal work and I took the cement lump out of my blazer and asked his four year old son... how is it looking like?... he observed it in 360 degrees and said with his chweet and mischievous looks...”It is Ganapathiyappa”

Yes...yes...yes...it is Ganapathi on whom I stumbled today !!!!

Now this master piece is at the most sacred place in my home.

“What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.” -- Eleanor Powell

This blog is like a passing cloud...may not be around again for a long time....Have a blessed day ....

Please share your thoughts !!!

These are few of my most favorite quotes, which influenced me a lot and which wake me up in the middle of the night and keep a book in my hands;

“Education is bitter but the fruit is sweet.” - Agustin Marissa

“We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” - Anthony J. D'Angelo

“Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.” - Sir William Haley

You must be getting surprised for my absence here for the past couple of weeks.

Well, the reason is very simple as I explained to few friends here already…. I am taking one professional exam which is due in two months from now. It’s a very tough one and needs lot of concentration and preparation. Though it is not a compulsory / mandatory exam , it is more like a hobby for me to take this type of exams, just out of curiosity to explore new things. In other words… ”Continuous learning is my passion.”

It’s really a tough task to share time for job, studies, blogs and some free time for myself . Still I am confident of managing my time in the best possible way. So for couple of months from now, I will be on and off here. Hope you all will agree with me… missing for a good reason is worth while. But for sure I will be around and when I want to escape from my books for a while, I will leave my foot prints in your blog !

Have a great and wonderful day !!!

Love you all as always and as ever....