An Unforgettable, Endless journey and full of happiness towards what I am doing………
~Pankhudi Parivar & Readers ko Amol Nilekar ka Namashkar
Just few days back I got a mail from Pune Team saying to write about my experience with ~Pankhudi Pune. It’s really hard for a talky person like me to write down my BHAVNAS on the paper but I will try my best to make all readers feel the emotions I have for ~Pankhudi.
Here I am going to tell you the story about ~Pankhudi and ~Pankhudi Pune along with some of my unforgettable moments. I still remember the day when I met Shahzad Wakeel and Anand Gautam at one of Aashrams. When I met these guys and came to know about ~Pankhudi that time we had just 15 - 20 youngsters across INDIA planning to work for a cause. And today we have a whole ~Parivar across the country and globe.
I saw ~Pankhudi becoming a registered NGO from a group of people. It’s ~Pankhudi’s specialty that nobody force here to other person to work for the cause. All ~Pankhudians contribute whatever, whenever they can but with a force of extreme energy. Here nobody is senior or junior; everybody listens to other’s opinion. The structure of NGO is very transparent and everybody has rights to know any ~Pankhudi related things. This is the NGO which believes on working first, getting results and then motivate people to join.
Sorry, I made a mistake here it’s not NGO it’s our ~Pankhudi Parivar J .
I joined ~Pankhudi because I love to play with kids and wanted to do something for the kids who doesn’t get what a child deserves from a responsible society. The most and wonderful thing I love about ~Parivar is everybody working for innocent smiles and beautiful minds by keeping away personal benefits. I would go on and write hundreds of pages coz when somebody says ~Pankhudi every time a flash of hurdles we faced and all the achievements of ~Parivar.
Now to tell you about ~Pankhudi Pune which started slowly but steady like other chapters. ~Pankhudi Pune is achiving a new high by work for the cause in their own way.
We (Shahzad Wakeel, Vishal Mishra, Swati Yedekar, Shweta Gupta, Anand Gautam and myself) started visiting different Orphanages, Home for HIV +ve kids, Blind School on weekends as all of us were working/college student. Initially we just used to interact with kids, play with them then slowly we started looking at their studies and the reasons which are stopping their progress as a human being.
The Manavya & SWEEKAR - Homes for HIV +ve kids where we started our fist activity on weekends. I remember when I went to MANAVYA first time a little cute girl Vaishali who has very innocent smile all the time, she came and hugged me saying "Dada aala Dada aala". I still remember that hug which makes my eyes wet. I asked GOD why he does such things to such innocent kids. After that whenever I went to Manavya I prayed to GOD not to give such life to anybody. Whenever some ~Pankhudian goes there all kids become happy and play with us. The younger kids below 12 years don't know that what happened to them but after getting ignored by surrounded society they still smile, play and enjoy the life. If you see them playing anything from LINGORCHA to CRICKET you see a good player there. Their way of playing Carrom, Chess, sketching, painting shows their brilliancy. I bet you will feel that you were nothing at their age. How can I forget here to mention about singing & dancing of 4 year old Tanmay from SWEEKAR.
We had every kind of person in our team but I still remember my all visits to MANAVYA along with Vishal Mishra, we used to play with all 45 kids 2-3 different games at a time. Vishal Mishra is really enthusiastic person from whom I learnt how a person can do things without expectations.
Daily on mail we used to plan how can we get new volunteers who really want to work for the cause. Then two more volunteers joined us Md. Irshad Danawala and Prashant Arkal but we needed more because we wanted to start some activity on our own. Here Swati Yedekar (I would say The Revolutionist of ~Pankhudi Pune) came into picture and she brought a huge no of volunteers from her college and all of those who are still enthusiastic and contributing their efforts towards this great cause. Here I would like to Mention below names (forgive me if I missed any important name)
Srikanth Iyer, Rasika Randad, Nivedita Ghonge, Rujuta Munje, Swati Thoshniwal, Sanika Mokashi, Girish Bhambre, Garima Waghale, Manjiri Dhond, Mrinali Koche, Ketaki Andhare, Trupti Gedam.
So with the help of all new enthusiastic people we started our most successful activity for slum kids. It was a sunny day when we entered to the slum to take a survey with a questionnaire in everybody's hand. We made 10 groups 2/3 in every group. On the basis of survey we selected almost 125 kids for the first interaction session. That time we were really unaware of what are we going to do and how. Next weekend all these 125 kids came and we were 10 -15 volunteers but believe me we were not able to control them at all after first 15 - 20 mins. After session everybody was laughing and telling how he/she had interaction with kids.
We all decided that we are going to take 40 kids for our classes where we are going to start with Basic English, Mathematics and things to improve them as a human being. We took kids who are lagging far behind according their age. Let me tell you one thing that they all are brilliant and just need a hand to teach them how to walk in this competitive world. Here I would like to mention our kids performance at Shiamak Dawar’s Academy, Pune annual dance function which whole Pune seen it and appreciated their talent.
While writing this I hear those voices from kids "Oh Amol Dada aaj lai bhari chashma lavlav :)" "Amol Dada mala Gadi var chakkar mara ki". “Dada aaj class nako khelaycha aahe “
Initially these kids used to run away from our class, out of 2 hours class we used to spend more than an hour to control them. Today, we see the result of efforts from all the ~Pankhudi Pune members directly or indirectly. All the kids are cool, calm and eager to do progress in life.
We used to plan very big things every day and used to implement very less but when we realized this we got over of this and plan little but do ground work more. The result of that is we started weekday classes for school drop outs and our first batch of school dropouts will start attending regular school by next year. We also started helping poor young guys of 10th to 12th STD by giving them training to teach school dropout kids and they are successfully running the classes. In a way we are trying to help these young guys financially.
Apart from this main activity ~Pune team contributed their help towards HIV +ve kids by visiting Homes for HIV +ve kids, teaching them, making an emotional bond with the kids. Pune team also conducted few HIV Awareness Campaigns in and around Pune with the help of other organizations.
To achieve this thing we got few more enthusiastic volunteers in between like Priti Dargad, Ruby, Jyoti Sarda and many more. I heard all new people who joined ~Pune team in last 6-7 months are very dedicated. While mentioning names how can I forget the most enthusiastic person in the team Kru Bhai (Krunal Desai) who is the most dedicated person in the team and a gift for ~Pankhudi Parivar. I mentioned few names here but I would say that the achievement is not because of these people it’s a ~Parivar success because of everybody from the team contributed to the cause directly or indirectly.
While mentioning about TEAM work I would like to mention an open secret of ~Pankhudi Pune team is transparency, clarity, unity which you can see in every decision. If someone new joins the team, it takes hardly few minutes him/her to get comfortable with the team. There is a respect for everybody’s decision here. Like other chapters ~Pankhudi Pune believes on doing ground work first and then formal NGO related things because the main motto is to make a kids life better. If you join any ~Pankhudi Pune team meeting its full of seriousness about activities in very funny and friendly environment. I remember each and every meeting we had, a 5 mins meeting to a complete day meeting. Also it was great feeling to be a part of team when media appreciated Pune Team work by approaching themselves.
If GOD comes to ask me my wish I will request him to give me everything I need to solve problems of helpless kids.
I really can’t express how we feel proud for the progress ~Pankhudi made so far in last 4 years though its slow but steady.
I would request all readers to visit Pune team members whenever you get a chance. People who are not into ~Pankhudi yet I would request them to join us for the cause and make ~Pankhudi more efficient by their presence. I will assure you that ~Pankhudi Parivar is looking at you as a most important part of it so come ahead and work for the cause. You will see your ideas for the good cause are getting implemented here. Click here for more information on ~Pankhudi Parivaar
Now, I can’t hold my tears of happiness for being with ~Parivar. I tried my best to write my experience for rest BHAVNAO KO SAMJHO J
With Lots of Love to ~Parivar
Amol Udaykumar Nilekar
