In principle, physically challenged is defined as "Having a physical disability or impairment, especially one that limits mobility". However, this is limited to their mobility and not their creativity and the fantastic craftsmanship.
Have you ever met a physically challenged person? What was your heart's reaction? Am sure you must have felt blessed for the completeness of your body and the nagging about the hair fall, darkening complexion, pimples would seem worthless.
Being completely able individuals, I believe that we should be more philanthropic and supportive to the challenged. There are many ways to uplift them. Be it be helping them with daily chores or spending your weekends with them or donating money to the related NGOs. None of the above is feasible to me; hence I've decided to help them in my way. Read through and you'll realize how you can make difference to their lives.
Can you differentiate between the below images (A& B)?
You'll be amazed to learn that toy in A is created by a disabled artisan and B by some Archies or e-bay guy.
We spend more-than required money on the glassy-doored shops to buy these extremely attractive gifts. Can we take another path sometimes and visit some other laid back store that earns the bread for many disabled?. I'm talking about a small outlet called "MESH".
This shop is located at the heart of the city, near the city's famous hangouts - NTR gardens, Prasads, Eatstreet.
MESH stands for Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped. This Delhi based NGO aims to empower disabled people to trade for rehabilitation. Through this organization, disabled people raise funds by making beautiful handicrafts that MESH sells. Isn't it wonderful to see that challenged are striving hard to earn their living despite of their God given pitfall?
It was heartening to see them mke their lives by coming up with brilliant handcrafts, that too at very reasonable prices.
MESH outlets are located at Delhi and Hyderabad. You can visit the Hyd store @
MESH , Shop 8, NTR Gardens. Hyderabad
More about these outlets @ http://www1.clikpic.com/MESH/
This shop is run by a youngster, who is facing his crippled destiny. But he seemed so confident and contended in life. When questioned, he says, "I m not begging, borrowing or stealing money, I'm living a financially independent life by creating such stuff. At the same time, I am helping my community (of disabled) to climb the economy ladder".
These words of wisdom are eye-openers for this self-centered crowd of the physically-able group, and that's us!
The difference that I'm making is, to create the awareness about such an organization and try to mediate with the CSR groups of corporates to enlarge the customer base.
Think about it guys and you too can elate some needy souls!
I've been thinking of creating a collage of my family, as we are geographically dispersed..hence a virtual pic would have to substitute the family pic.
In an attempt to boost the team spirit, I initiated this simple rapport building game called, “Secret Santa”.
You take a raffle of the names of the team members and pick up a name. Whosever name, you pick up will be your buddy and you become the Santa for that person.
Santa is iconic for someone who makes us feel special. Hence, as a Santa you are supposed to make your buddy really happy. This can go on for days and we’ve put a cap for a week.
My Santa prepared a creative Message Frame and inspired me with words! Take a look at it.
Below are the words:
A Sparkling note of Mirth
Cascades from Heaven to Earth
O weary heart be Gay
This is your day…..Today!
The game unwinds you very much. All you need to take out is 10 minutes of your time and send a message expressing something good about your buddy. Such exercises instill positivity in us towards the other person.
I tried to observe my colleagues’ socializing activities and Orkut topped their list. However, I also realized that extreme orkutting is a renowned pass-time for most of the youngsters!
- You start your day with the thought of sending a scrap to co-Orkutter (or Orkutian? Or Orkutist..i leave it to you)
- You read through all your old-older-oldest scraps
- You walk into the workplace and the 1st thing to do is to check your scraps in Orkut
- You login to Orkut once an hour to re-check your scraps
- Your default website on your browser is Orkut
- You visit profiles of people you know and don’t know
- You look at your friends’ albums in Orkut in your free time
- You wait for updates from other profiles
- You create strange communities on anything under sun and invite your friends to be a part of it
- You join communities very frequently
- You poke your friends through ipoke and wait for their response
- You will search for your old pals and try to reconnect
- You play with the Orkut applications in your free time
- You often change the template
- You comment on all the pictures of your friends
- You tag yourself and your friends in the pictures
- You take pictures only to upload on orkut
- You try to update your photo album as much as possible
If you are able to relate yourself with more than half of these symptoms, then join the OCD club!
Orkutting Compulsive Disorder!
Credits: Thanks to Kalpana for helping me with this experiment! :)
Note: You are welcome to enhance this list, if you are experiencing different symptoms.
Barack Obama needs no introduction. He is the star of this year and you can find loads of info about him on Google. Simple way to trace him is to switch on the TV and watch any news channel. At least one of them would be airing some special focus show on him.
I am not an ardent worshipper of world politics, but this guy has been intriguing. The possible reasons could be his ethics or principles. I am posting an anecdote about him which impressed me to the core. Source: Times of India
When the whole media was roaring about the Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter’s untimely pregnancy, Obama demonstrated his wisdom in a very pragmatic way. All he said was, “My Mom was 18 when she was carrying me”. He could have criticized to any extent, but he kept mum and slapped their indignity to publicize a sensitive issue.
This is the change we definitely need in our thought process not to demean someone’s life! Such a change will inculcate true human values and build a philanthropic universe.
How does that feel? At least, I was totally impressed with his reply. Please comment your views.
I am neither a religious person nor an atheist. But am truly spiritual and would like to express my gratitude to the creator of this beautiful universe.
Who is God? I can define God as an invisible, omnipotent and omnipresent spirit filled with compassion and humanity. Being oneself can bring out God from all of us. I can relate the following attributes to God:
--Love
--Patience
--Goodwill
I don’t believe in idol worship, since I can actually see, realize and feel in people around me. Let us see how?
My Mom – God’s own Angel…or is she the God, as she created me and brought me up with immense patience and boundless love?
My Siblings – Are they..as they share and care with compassion?
My friends – Are they…they are ready to do anything to keep me happy…for selfless goodwill?
My circumstances have been the eye openers and I regard these set of people in my life as the ambassadors of God. We are born to be optimists and if we follow our heart & conscience, all the senses like common and civic will surely fall in place, as the instructions given by our heart are always POSITIVE!
It is our attitude which governs these instructions. Listen to your heart carefully and the 1st advice that you hear is always the right one! Believe your conscience; it leads you in the right direction! Coming back to our basics, conscience is the spirit within you…So trust yourself!
Now, let us look at a simple example from Hinduism. Namaskar, which is the traditional form of greeting others, is symbolized by clasped hands. In this way, we bow to the soul or spirit in the co-human being. By doing so, we wish wellness and seek forgiveness from the other person.
Our ancestors have identified and realized it long ago to love thyself and love thy neighbor…
God is in and around us....realize the spirit and be happy!
We’ve been to Shiridi last weekend and extended our trip to Nasik & Triambak aswell. I am a travel freak and love to visit ancient places with age old temples or palaces. Triambak is a small-town place with a marvelous temple guarded by western ghats. There is a famous temple built for Lord Shiva. More than the diety, I’ve enjoyed the sculpture. It’s truly splendid to watch the huge campus with vast range of carvings and statues. One can easily figure out the amount of thought that has gone in while planning. The temple reflected the Orissa style of architecture where the shrine is not pointed and has a curvy tip.
Triambak is 35 km away from Nasik and route is quite scenic and breathtaking with the chain of hills driving along with us. You can surely enjoy the unpolluted, country ride! Triambak is the birthplace of the holy river Godavari. The actual spot is located on a hill top and all we could notice is a thin stream of water. I was amazed to realize that this almost invisible flow transforms itself into an enormous flood.Godavari couples with the underground water bodies and becomes larger than life at “Rajahmundry” . This is one reason, she is addressed as “Akhanda Godavari”.
After Triambak, we started our return journey to Nasik which is famous for the following:· Triveni Sangam – Union of three rivers – Godavari, Aruna and Varuna
· Currency Printing press – Do you know that Indian currency is printed at Nasik?
Triveni sangam is surrounded by many ancient temples such as kalaram, goraram, sita guha. Once again, it was a feast to my eyes and I was almost lost in our rich heritage.
India is still a rich country with its world’s richest & ancient heritage of temples and palaces.
How will I heal this wound?
God! Give me the strength to face….
God! Give me the patience to endure this pain
God! Give me the power to abstract it
Tears are rolling down like an ocean
My heart is roaring like its waves
Hope this remains as droplet in my life and not turn as a tsunami!
Bangalore - The city of gardens…truly a pleasure being to the place. It is indeed very green and lushy inspite of the Bangalorians complaint about the fading greens!
I could notice that domestic plants…trees may be the right word are nurtured and there is a huge green, flowery tree in front of most of the houses. What else can you expect after returning home, a place devoid of pollution?
Bangalorians seem to be convicted about saving themselves from the raw claws of pollution…in other words, saving Mother Earth! They are keen are making the city green, green and green!
Every ride on the road with huge shading trees on either side of the road was a feast to my eyes. I can seldom find such a sight in Hyd. (Mind you! nothing to degrade, but lets accept the bitter facts about our home). I wish such green awareness spreads to Hyd and we turnout not only as city of pearls but as trees and gardens!
The other day, in one of the Jubilee Hills lanes, I could see some tree felling activity going on in the wake of “Road Widening”. Why on earth, can’t these guys ever lay roads on either side of a tree, than lay it off!
It takes decades for a plant to mature as a giant and these folks are killing it in few moments. Its seriously Heartbreaking and worse part is I couldn’t do anything about it!
