'ARISE & AWAKE – 2013', a reunion of old volunteers

‘Chalo Jalayen Deep Wahan Jahan Abhi Bhi Andhera Hai’

Over the last twenty years, Purvanchal Kalyan Ashram has regularly organized ‘Vanjeevan’, a week long summer camp in the core tribal areas for school going children from Kolkata. Most of these children are now adults, busy with studies, office and household responsibilities. Though they might be disconnected with the Vanvasi, they still cherish the ‘good old days’ of fun and mischief, in their Vanjeevan camps. This event ‘Arise & Awake’ was conceptualized to reconnect with them and ‘awaken’ their dormant thoughts.

Ultimately, 22^nd September, Sunday was chosen as the date for this historic event. Each guest lit a Deepak and placed on the beautiful rangoli, near the registration desk. It symbolized the motto of the Youth Wing – ‘Chalo Jalayen Deep Wahan Jahan Abhi Bhi Andhera Hai’.

A Vanjeevan participant relives moments from her trip 

The event started with a flashback of memories of old Vanjeevan camps and how Purvanchal Kalyan Ashram has evolved over the years. The guests from the audience mostly youth who at some point of their school life participated in a Vanjeevan also pitched in and shared their experiences of the trips, some even dating back to 1990s. It was a wonderful atmosphere as old Vanjeevan pals met each other after years and relived those Vanjeevan moments!

This was followed by detailed presentations on the main activities of the Youth Wing – Education Camp, Medical Camp, Shishu Mela and Village Development. These presentations, small video clips and case studies of some successful projects beautifully illustrated the scope of the activities, their impact on the Vanvasi community and how interested people can volunteer in them. Some interesting quizzes were also included in between the presentations. The event ultimately concluded with a sumptuous lunch.

Overall, the event was a grand success as the number of guests was close to 180, much more than anticipated! It was the result of the hard work of the volunteers of the Youth Wing, who worked tirelessly for nearly two months combing through old Vanjeevan records, sending e-mails, messages, making hundreds of phone calls. 

Education Camp @ Mallarpur, Birbhum in July 2013

My experience of Bharat

-  by Krittika Saha

There is no element of surprise in the fact that our country suffers from poverty, malnutrition, exploitation and chronic illness, specially the suburban/village areas. But knowing and experiencing this state of our country are two completely different things. I became aware of this fact, when I embarked on a journey to Mallarpur to assist Kalyan Ashram in their work. We reached Mallarpur at about 11 am and went straight to Kalyan Ashram Boys Hostel where the generous organisation had provided small boys of class V to X with shelter, food, education and basic needs of life. 

On reaching the hostel, I saw the young boys working according to a preset schedule. So disciplined and hard-working, the lifestyle of these little boys reminded me of the contrasting leisurely nature of my childhood. We, the children from metro cities take everything for granted. Our parents provide us with good food and so many facilities and we do not even acknowledge how lucky we are. But these boys were deprived of even the basic needs of life. When I sat down to teach them, much to my surprise, some of them were quite intelligent and were capable of pursuing higher education, given the chance. The boys took care of all our needs from cooking the meals, serving our lunch, making our beds to fetching filtered water from far distance just for our comfort. As afternoon came and the boys just finished their meals, I engaged myself in their simple games and the innocent smile of the boys made me realize how cruel we have been to them.

We have emerged from darkness into the dawn of technology, innovation and comforts of modern civilization and have never looked back on these humble beings of our society. A feeling of guilt and anger struck me and suddenly the feeling that I was doing charity work turned into a feeling of responsibility, a responsibility which we had been running from all our lives. I realized it was at their expense that we were getting all the luxuries of life, while we never even had the mere humanity in us to make sure they got the basic needs off life fulfilled. 

As the day drew to an end, I saw another beautiful practice. The boys hummed 32 "shlokas" in Sanskrit, regarding India, a practice not seen in even the best of institutions in Kolkata. It was, through and through, an enriching and eye-opening experience for me. What I saw and felt created a new side in me. The experience is one, I will remember, hereafter, whenever I succeed in any phase of my life and it will make me come back and carry on my responsibility, rather than running away from it, to make sure their innocence is not exploited.

Education Camp on 6th & 7th April'13

EDUCATION CAMP - Baghmundi hostel, Purulia, W.B.
Activities - Interactive sessions, games, quiz with resident vanvasi children in the hostel & local sightseeing. 
Departure - 5th April, Friday by night train from Howrah

Arrival - 8th April, Monday, early morning at Howrah

All are welcome to join!

contact - vasugoyal8@gmail.com

Chalo Jalayen Deep Wahan !!!

Saksharta Essentials - The first step

Last summer, the youth wing of Purvanchal Kalyan Ashram took an initiative of coaching the students of our chhatravas who were then in class 10.  The students gained from this initiative and the volunteers enjoyed a lot teaching Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, English and other subjects. It was a common observation that fundamental subject knowledge of the students was poor and there was none to help them out. Sticking to our objective “Saksharta Essentials”, we prepared an annual calendar of our educational activities to motivate the students and to prepare class 10 students for Madhyamik exams. The first step was tutoring vanvasi students who have just been promoted to class 10. The long weekend in last week of January coupled with the holiday on Netaiji’s birthday provided us with the right opportunity to call twenty students of class X from 8 chhatravas across South Bengal. The students landed in Kolkata on 18^th January and stayed till 27^th  January. 

Starting the day with intricacies of Mathematics at 6.30 AM in the morning, our youth volunteers answered their queries time and again until they understood. Arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry were touched upon so as to make their fundamental knowledge of the subject very clear. After a break, they were taught English lessons from their text book. The students even enacted a small skit mentioned in the exercise. After a lunch break, the tired minds rested for some time before being jolted by logics of physics and chemistry. One of our vanvasi brothers, who is a computer engineer and works in a software firm in Kolkata, was moved by our initiative. He managed time from his packed schedule and taught physics and chemistry. Hailing from the same language background as the students, every word uttered from his mouth was very easily understood by the students. 

It is said that all work and no play makes life cumbersome. Nine rigorous days of studying was marked with some fun as well. Children were treated with home made chocolate cake on one of the Sundays. They were very excited and jubilant while watching the national republic day parade on TV on 26^th January though they did not understand a word of the running commentary. 

The youth wing put in a lot of time and effort to make this initiative fruitful. Yet, as 27^th January arrived, there was a sense of disappointment. Disappointment of leaving the task at hand unfinished, disappointment of not seeing the curious innocent faces from the next day, and being sucked into routine life. But there was joy in our hearts. We tried to serve society and nation at large, however small our contribution in the last nine days may be. With the promise of calling these same set of students again during their summer break, we felt in our hearts the following verse from Kaviguru Rabindra Nath Tagore – 

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service. 

I acted and behold, service was joy.”