The Connect !

The Connect is a 'high' - Like the dancing the right moves to the beat , timing the ball perfectly well with the cricket bat , Pacing a 15 km run well over the course and sprinting to the finish, picking the right song for that car drive at night, packing the right "to-do's" in a day - never too much or little , business meetings going the way we'd prepared for and many more.

Yesterday i found a few more connects and high's during the Deepam class at Olcott School.

• The kid we taught at the school trying to reply in English - His Tamil response and the sentence being translated and formulated in English by him ( and the joy on his face when we said he was right !! )
  
• This other kid ( after being "talked to " by me ) going back to his computer and working along with his team mates and helping them with tricks of using Word processor
• The class listening to Basu teach them and stopping him to ask questions !

The little joys on saturday afternoon !

Deepam on Times of India !!!

It was nice to see Deepam featured in the Times of India paper on 14th July 08. The big goal for our group is to positively affect 1000 kids by 2010. Media mentions such as this will surely help us gather more support in the goal chase !

Here is the online article. If you want to know more about Deepam, please go to www.deepam.in

Idea # 4 - The Village Potter

Before I begin - Am just "reporting" here -

A few months ago, i met this guy - An Indian, born and brought up in the US. He had returned to India to do social work for a year. He is my age ( young !! ) and had travelled to a village, about 250 km west of Chennai, India. This village was in the middle of hilly terrain and hence, a trip to the grocery / vegetable store takes more than a day. And none in the little village could afford a refridgerator. Result - The food that people ate usually was devoid of vegetables and most of them were undernourished.

His solution - Low cost "refridgerator".

He designed a "system" that would lower the temperature inside the "system" by 10-15*C compared to the outside temperature.

The System - 2 pots : a large and a small one. The smaller pot is placed inside the larger one and the space between the two is filled with sand. Sand is always kept watered. The resulting evaporation through the pores in the pot caused the cooling and lowered the temperature inside the smaller pot by 10-15*C .

Since the cost of this "system" is just Rs.80 , all the household in the village could afford this system, store the vegetables and eat healthy food.

and.. the village potter is having the time of his life!

(P.S. I meant to write this one months before - but completely forgot about it. Thanks to Abhi for the link to Guy's blog, where he had written about the pot idea ! )

Sports Story #5 : The Pull

It was more than a year ago - i would put on my running shoes and head out for the usual run. I succeded, as far as getting on the road. Most days, i ended up walking and in the few, i did run, the run would stutter to a stop and a walk, in a few minutes. Physically, i could've run a marathon ( which i actually did, at Mumbai in Jan 07 ). But it was the mind - a thousand thoughts . This was right after the Mumbai marathon finish ! I tried - to not think at all. To break free - of the thoughts. I wanted to wake up fresh. I wanted to sleep. I wanted the energy. And i almost gave up on my runs.

Between the mumbai marathon finish in Jan 07 and March 07, the shoes just gathered dust , from my house, not the road. The shoes, btw, were new - a 6k adidas ( new shoes usually don't have try too hard to get dirtied ).

And i did run in May 07 - the midnight marathon - managed my best half marathon timing so far - 2:15 .

Sometime in March, this guy took a liking to call my phone at 5 am in the morning !! I ignored it a for few days ( well, can't go running, having not slept a wink ). He decided not to give up ( just like me ! ). He threatened to come home ! And i did turn up for a morning run - when everyone else had burned the road and got ready to go home . Walked for a bit with him and i went home. In a few days, his calls woke me up on time and my jogs took me across a few km. He would run with me , get me immersed in a conversation and take me away from the 'thoughts'. Soon, i was running with him for a good 45 mins.

For more than a month, he would run with me on most days. This guy runs the fastest in my running group, but for a month, he ran at my slow / steady pace. He pulled me out ! Thanks Coach ( Hari )

This post is dedicated to his dad and mom, both of whom passed away, recently.

I guess , it is my turn to take a liking to call his phone at 5 am...