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The Harvard Model

How does Harvard attract the best of the best students to study there ? Most of us ( definitely, i thought ) would think the big boys at Harvard would have it easy – the best students fight to get in there ( similar to the IIT situation ).

I was WRONG – This business week article shows why .

Harvard admin / professors / alumni go all out and scout for the best talent to study at Harvard. Machine ( computer) involvement is so minimal. Its this personal touch to the whole effort, that brings the best of the best to study at Harvard. Am quoting Mr.Fitzsimmons, the Dean , here “What we aim to do is to get the very best faculty together with the very best students,” he says. “Our hope is that these synergies will develop the talents of these students to a much greater degree and that they will then give back a lot more to America and the world.” 

Am thinking Deepam should aim to ‘ Bring the best volunteer effort , with a good infrastructure / technology and enable the underprivileged kids become the best students ‘

Its possible… with a personal touch 🙂
Besant Nagar Class, Blog, dancing, Kids, Nalamdana, Olcott School, singing, Talent Hunt

Deepam Talent Hunt 2009-Anniversary Celebrations Event 2

For all those who couldn’t be there…this is what u missed.Hope to see u all next week 🙂

Deepam Talent Hunt 2009 –Olcott School
Judges: Paras and Dr Karthik
Winner: Karunakaran
Sang two numbers : Prayer song and on public request a Tamizh Movie song
His USP over others: Confidence and made the right choice to perform what he was best at Deepam Talent Hunt 2009 –Nalamdana
Judges: Paras and Anuradha
Winner :Hemesh Danced for Taxi Taxi- one of the most popular Tamizh numbers of 2008
His USP over others : He did what he loved doing – Danced carefree and dint bother about any one around.Choreography was original and appreciated by the judgesSpecial Mentions
Pavithra and Priya (Deepam Sisters )
Sang Munbe Va Anbe va – yet another famous Tamizh number sung by Shreya Ghosal
Their USP: They complemented each other and neither overdid the other..total sync
Group Dance by Nirmala- Rajni Troupe They displayed “Kolattam”-south Indian Dandiya for the song Mukunda Mukunda Their USP: Planned well, rehearsed well and simple choreography
Other Highlights :
Paras on the guitar and lending his vocal chords for “Orrey Nyabagam-Minnale“ Anbu singing melodiously a yester year tamizh movie number :Rasathi Unnai

Dr Karthik choosing to sing and also beautifully completing the song Mundinam from Vaarnam Ayiram
Karthikeyan (KK) at the strings bringing back the nostalgic Titan tune -a bonus for the Olcott kids
Balaji keeping up his promise and singing the number “Its amazing when you say nothing at all” Anuradha cheering every single participant and consoling the kids that there is still a good chance next year if they did not make it this year 🙂

Activities, Blog, Collaborative Painting, Deepam, Education, Funds, Kids

Collaborative Painting- How ideas were spread colorfully on 5 mt of Canvas?

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” is what we at Deepam believe in and on Feb 7th and 8th of 2009 we realised how true this saying is when 40 kids who belong to the three different centre’s participated in the collaborative painting event held by Deepam

This is the story on how the kids grouped together, worked as teams , helped paint a 5 metre canvas in two hours time(1 hour on both the days ) The topics were “Singara” Chennai (Singara means beautiful in Tamizh ) and I love my COUNTRY

Team A at was led by Muthu supported by Tina and Ram.This is their completed Canvas

The team showed two different seasons Chennai ‘s hot summer and the cool rainy season. The kids came up with specific landmarks in Chennai like the local bus stops, Murugan Idly Kadai, Olcott School, Besant Nagar Beach ,St Thomas Mount and to also highlighted the presence and untiy of people belonging to all religion, caste and creed. The kids completed the painting by leaving their handprints on the canvas which was my personal favorite part of the whole painting as it showed how such small hands together completed this large canvas.

Team B was led by Balaji supported by Vijay, Mohan and Anuradha. Their completed canvas is displayed below

The team spent considerable amount of time to decide on what they would represent.Then one of the kids gave the newly constructed Khatipara junction as a landmark which became the crux of the painting. On one side of there was a group making the beach , and others were busy making temples, airport ,Chennai railways and the local Koyambedu Bus Junction.By drawing schools and factories they showed how Chennai has been developing and has become a hub in the southern India. One of my favorite was the Zebra crossing the kids drew – which we the volunteers couldn’t think of.

Team C was led by Vijay at Pudiyathor, our new centre and was supported by Sai.Their completed canvas is displayed below

The team started by drawing a huge map of India and scared the other team which hadn’t still finalized on what they would draw. They had Taj Mahal on one side ( I have visited this place more than twice and yet cant draw it anywhere close to how these kids have drawn) and the national bird and animal on the other side. One the other half of the canvas- the kids had shown how the country has developed from villages to some big cities, IT industry, schools, factories et all. My personal favorite was the whole theme of how they tried to pull in a story of a huge country through such colorful pictures and in just an hours time.

Team D was led by Anupama at Pudiyathor and supported by Noopuran.

The team had several ideas pouring in but also faced a starting problem on how and what to start first.Then finally it was decided that they will show their love for the country with a big heart that connects every other picture about it. They tried to show northern India by drawing a Taj Mahal (The kid who did this needs a big applause- beautiful pencil work with nice shading) southern India with the besant Nagr beach and the Pudiyathor Community, western India through the gateway of India and the Rajastan Pot Balancing Act, eastern India though the dense forests and also drew the national bird and the animal. They completed the canvas by drawing the signs of all the religions and saying “Unity is Strength”- This was my personal favorite.

Finally a wonderful weekend wherein we learnt how each kid thinks differently and worked together as a group and did their best. The competitive spirit helped them try to out-do the others by “Thinking Differently and Doing Differently “ There were brush strokes, finger prints, oil pastels, pencil shading, hand prints et all. Each and every kid- no matter which class they studies in participated and there was not a single kid whose idea was not considered by the others in the group. Everyone worked as a group and the end result showed on the canvas.

One more thing worth noticing was that how these kids looked at the positive side of life. Though they have not been as lucky as many of us in getting our daily needs and living in comfort they presented a very colorful picture of their city and country. None thought of the poverty, traffic, anti social activities or even the slums across India….Hats off to the future leaders of our country. Their dreams seem very positive!

Pictures Courtesy:KK (Karthikeyan) who was the official photographer on both the days.

To participate and fund for the Deepam activities and more importantly “HELP THEM DREAM” join us !

Blog, Painting

Collaborative Painting!

Deepam 1st Anniversary celebrations kicked off with a ‘Collaborative Painting Workshop’ on Saturday and Sunday. Students at 3 of our centres – Olcott School , Pudiyathor and Besant Nagar Community center had a lot of fun splashing the colors on the canvas. Over 40 students participated in this activity. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely – their creativity and team work was on display as they turned the blank canvas into a piece of art .

A big thanks to Archana and Balaji – They helped take this concept from an ‘Idea on Paper’ to ‘Painting on Canvas’ !! They planned this event well, from buying the right materials / coming up with a ‘workable theme’ to coordinating with the other volunteers and kids, to ensure the event was a success. Thanks to all the volunteers, who worked along with the kids , got their hands dirty with the paint and brought shape to the painting.

Here are some of the pictures













Blog, Deepam, pudiyathor

Pudiyathor – a new chapter begins.

Saturday afternoon saw 10 volunteers of Deepam head to Pudiyathor in Besant Nagar. We went there prepared for an ice-breaker to interact with the children. We didn’t need that, they were the most lively (and extremely noisy) group who were eager to climb on us to catch our attention. Pudiyathor is a community center for the children who belong to the adjoining slum. About 30-40 kids of all age groups from toddlers to college kids frequent the center and use this facility whether it be hanging out on weekends for different classes/activities or group studies.

We were introduced to Pudiyathor by Manickam (a senior of KK’s from BITS). Maniks and his father run the show at this centre providing the children with whatever is necessary. They are doing an awesome job for these children by providing them a place to learn new and different things, a place to be themselves, a place to dream and see a wonderful world beyond. The entire team at Deepam is extremely excited and looking forward to being a part of Pudiyathor.

We played a few games with the children with the volunteers enthusiastically joining in. We did the good cop-bad cop routine with Paras and Archana being bad cops as they took on the job of shushing the kids to control the noise level. Balaji and Meera were the good cops who were breaking all the ground rules set by those two. Vijay got the most cheers. All he had to do was just introduce himself! That was because of his namesake in the tamil film industry. Vinay, Swetha and Pramodh completed the set of 10.

As always, the enthusiasm and eagerness of the children towards computers was quite visible in the way they crowded around Paras’s laptop.

For the next 5 months, Sundays 2-4pm at Pudiyathor is open to everyone to volunteer in teaching these children the basics of computers, general awareness and english knowledge.

Blog, Government Schools

Teaching in Govt Schools

Hey Guys,
This story should settle the debate on ‘teaching in Govt Schools’ – I heard this from someone ( who teaches physics for class 11 / 12 at a Govt School in Coimbatore ). One of the most wonderful stories about a government official.
This one is about Karmegam, the C.E.O ( chief educational officer ) of Coimbatore , probably between 2007 and 2008. He was officer incharge of Government schools in this region.
  • He worked most days from 9 am to 1 am 
  • He would do random checks on Govt schools – Once he went to a rural school, as a saree-vendor. Teachers rushed in to take a look at the stock, during school hours.. no prizes for guessing on what happened after..
  • He made sure all govt schools had computers installed. He even gave away laptops to the schools – All the HM ( headmaster / headmistress ) were to email daily reports on teacher attendance , students performance and many more to the education dept
  • Daily reports were emailed out to schools – reports on checks done on schools by the ‘flying’ squad. He would land up in schools unannounced and would check on the class and the students. He would never tolerate any negligence of work. He took people to task on the spot ..
  • He brought in a ‘teacher rating’ system for the govt schools – All teachers would be graded relatively , across the region. The bottom rung were dealt with severely. 
  • He held an exam across the govt schools in the region, to test students’ capabilities. The ones who were unable to meet the basic criterion were provided with extra coaching, to bring them up to speed
  • He would meet with most of the teachers personally, to understand the issues, through a townhall meeting !! All the non performing teachers, were dealt with in front of the entire teaching community!!
  • Whenever he was offered a gift, he would look for the nearest kid in the school , to give it away !!! When he was offered more than a lakh, as a reward for his efforts, he just donated that money for a non profit foundation 🙂
  • And this is the best… he sent his kids to a government school !
With more such people , am sure Deepam will have to look for a new cause to support !!!
P.S The person who mentioned this, was one of the teachers who met with him personally.
Blog, Kids

Weekend Notes..

I spent my last weekend at the besant nagar beach, playing frisbee for the Chennai team at a National Tournament. This post is not about that. But about the interesting event that happened during the games..
Some of the kids who we teach at Olcott School and at Nalamdana centre, wandered near the playing field. With the games being held under the lights and the Saturday evening attracting a lot of crowd, i spotted a couple of our kids at the game watching us play. No doubts on who and which team got the loudest cheers and support from these kids!!! and at one point, when we were trailing the opponent team, these kids were rooting for us and during the breaks they were with me, ‘offering support’ !!! 
I continue to benefit from these little kids. As Ram pointed out the other day, it would be arrogant if i claim that am ‘giving back’, as i seem to be the one who is benefitting!!!