Talk by Mr Sankara Raman, Amar Seva Sangam

27th August, 2012

We had the great fortune to be addressed by the secretary of the Amar Seva Sangam, Mr Sankara Raman. Founded in 1981, the Amar Seva Sangam has been instrumental in providing much needed rehabilitation and training to disabled people in order to help them lead normal lives. In circumstances where disabled people have been looked upon as a curse, neglected and marginalised, the Seva Sangam has been a beacon of hope that has helped overcome adversity and seen them emerge stronger.

Mr Sankara Raman himself is a chartered accountant who has secured gold medals in spite of a muscular dystrophy that has rendered most of his body paralysed. The talk was very touching and we all realised that we really had no reason to complain about the little difficulties that we faced in life as people has successfully overcome much greater challenges.  

Amar Seva Sangam website: https://www.amarseva.org/

A video outlining their activities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCajWROQp_M

Independence Day 2012

15th August, 2012

For this years edition of Independence day, we invited Mr Mahendra Munot, the owner of Maruti Medicals, who had earlier sponsored banners for our clean up drive. While shifting seamlessly between Hindi and Kannada, Mr Munot delivered a passionate speech that had the audience's attention riveted.

Apart from the customary recitation of the national song and the flag hoisting, we also undertook an awareness campaign against littering. Posters were displayed and slogans were raised as we walked along the neighbourhoods of Chandra Layout and Binny Layout, urging the residents not to litter.

Mission statement

After more than 3 sessions of brainstorming, we had zeroed in on the following aspects to be included into the mission statement:

1. Environment/ Sustainable Living
2. Cultural Empowerment
3. Inclusiveness of various people
4. Character Building and social responsibility

We felt that the following statement would successfully encompass all these intentions:

"To engage in selfless service, build character and live in harmony with the environment"

This is currently the mission statement of Samruddhi.

Environment Day 2012

23rd and 24th June, 2012

Since we had the World Environment Day (5th of June) following closely on the heels of the Shrusti lecture series, we decided to postpone our celebrations.

In this edition, we had a series of competitions aimed at children of all ages. The itinerary  and a brief description of each event has been given below:

1. Poster Making

Upto Standard 5
Theme: Anything to do with the Environment

2. Segregate This!

Upto Std 7
Time Limit: 1 Minute

This was an event that sought to test the participants awareness of secondary segregation of waste. The participants were given a small write up on the description of each waste type: E Waste, Hazardous Waste, Wet Waste and Dry Waste. They were given a big pile of waste and asked to segregate its contents accurately. 

Winners:
1st place: Chinmay
2nd place: Harivatsa P

3. Art in Chalk and Charcoal  
Std 9 onward
Theme: Global warming 

Participants were given sheets of both black and white chart-paper on which they were to draw with chalk and charcoal. Spent charcoal was sourced from the local dhobi, who has used its heat to iron clothes.

Winners weren't declared due to inadequate participation.

4. Best out of Waste 
Up to Standard 8

This was a contest where a big pile of waste normally produced at households, such as plastic bottles, pieces of string etc. were provided along with some glue and participants were asked to craft something artistic out of this pile. The competition produced interesting looking robots and submarines!

Winners:
1st place: Aravinth Mahesh and Arjun Jagdish
2nd place: Harivatsa P and Aravind Sylvester

5. Quiz Prelims and finals
Up to Standard 12

This was a general quiz where a few rounds were dedicated for environment related questions.

Winners:
1st place: Anuradha Prakash and Nitya Satish
2nd place: Kailash Hariharan and Ashwin Jagdish


6. Documentary Screening
Documentary: The Inconvenient Truth

During the screening, an important lesson was learnt, and that was to always include subtitles with the movie. The documentary, with its staggering revelations, left many people astonished in light of the need for immediate action to stop global warming in its tracks.