A Fun Day for the female sweepers of campus

Due to a brilliant idea and thanks to the Indian Cricket Team (for winning us the world cupJ) the team of UDAAN had raised quiet a respectable amount of money for the welfare of the eco-clean women of our campus by selling popcorn on the world cup finals.

A fun day for all the eco-clean women of our campus was planned, when they could keep aside all their worries and tension and just have a blast. A day, just for them when their happiness mattered the most and everything else came second. A day when we served them, instead of the usual other way round. This day was supposed to be special and we at UDAAN were hell bent in making it absolutely legendary.

So on, 15th April the fated day, at around four, after finishing their daily works, the ladies started arriving slowly in groups of two or three chatting with one another, pretty unsure about what was in store for them. After all were seated, around the LT lawns in c-wing and made comfortable it was announced that the first event of the day was going to be a drawing competition. A murmur of excitement rose. Soon after the drawing sheets and the crayons were distributed among them, all of them became very busy bringing out the painter buried deep within them. For hands that had held the broom and mop for such a long time, the excitement of holding a colour pencils was one of pure ecstasy and joy. Slowly all the drawings start coming in. They range from small colourful ‘rangolies’ to their houses to beautiful sceneries each of them giving a glimpse into their imaginations and an aspect of their lives.

Soon after as the drawings were being evaluated, the second game – the ‘Tug Of War’ started. After 

hurriedly distributing themselves into groups, the game starts. The joy in their laughter and the excitements in their screams as two groups of enthusiastic women try to pull the other across the mid-line can be measured in nothing less than pure diamonds.

Continuing with the fun, a game of Musical Chair started after this. Running round the chairs, to the tracks of Bollywood music trying to eliminate the others, it was very difficult not to smile looking at their excitement and eagerness to win the game. After little bit of pushing and lots of pulling finally one of them emerged as the winner, very proud of her accomplishment and applauded by all her friends.

This concluded all the games, but the day was far from being over, in fact it was just starting. The real fun was yet to begin. The groovy tracks of Bollywood music started playing and the dance party began complete with the all the traditional jhatkas and matkas. While some needed no further invitations, others after a little encouragement soon joined in. Janabai, after a lot of persuasion from her friends and applauding emerged as the star of the evening as she took the dance floor with thunder and storm and showed off numerous traditional dance moves and tricks she had learnt as a child (she covered her face, blushing & giggling, after she was done).

The winners of the drawing contest, proudly showed off their new watches and bags to their friends which they had received from our esteemed judge, Ms. Saby John mam. After this they were all seated and the team of UDAAN presented a street play in front of them highlighting the need and requirements of educating the girl child. The look on their faces told a thousand different stories. They were ones of lost opportunities, and a sad life. A few of them even had tears in their eyes, because after all it was not a drama, it was their life, right in front of them. After, the play was over all of them promised to educate themselves and their children promising never to let their daughters go through the same miseries they had faced due to lack of education.

As the momentary sadness passed, the entire team of UDAAN along with the ladies all sat down and had a light snack of ‘wada-pav, gulab jamun and lime juice’. After snacks, the day finally came to an end, with a photography session. All the women hurdled together to click photos together. The ladies thanked the Udaan members since they never got this importance before. One or two of them took out their mobile cameras to capture few moments of the day with them. Though the photographs couldn’t speak for themselves, but the expressions they captured spoke a million tales of joy and happiness and of the fun day, which I am sure will always remain as a colourful event in our memories for the rest of our lives for both the women and the entire team of UDAAN!!

World Cup 2011 ! Fund Raising and fun !

                The average engineering student doesn’t need much to be happy, give him (or her) the occasional artery clogging titbits, a laptop to wipe those greasy hands off, the prospect of doing no real work and he’s set for 4 years. But now and then comes along an event which forces the most socially disconnected of us to get off our numb behinds and be together for an event which can only be described as “beautiful”. Well, such a corny and pretentious opening can only be justified if the event in question is India playing in the World Cup Finals.

                      So, where does Udaan fit into all of this? The members of the club had a brainwave - why not use the match as a fundraising opportunity? Selling popcorn seemed like the best idea-it was fast, not messy (or so we hoped), and easy to make. So the next step was getting the raw materials, which was easier said than done. After 2 Udaan members spent an evening exploring Vasco’s narrowest gullies and by-lanes with a checklist in hand (à la Amazing Race),the ingredients were finally procured.

                    So, after hastily roasting the seeds in the IC…viola! We had popcorn! After sealing them plastic bags, we were all set for the D-day.

                   Stalls were set up at Mongi’s and the B-dome. Now, no one wanted to miss the match either, so the girls took turns in being the sales. Kudos to them for being so persuasive (the fact that it was for charity also helped).

                  Well everything got finished in no time; which was awesome as it left the best parts of the match for everyone to see.

                 The auditorium was literally bursting at its seams in the last hour of the match. A haze of dust and debris was in the air, the source of which was people jumping up and down with joy in parts of the auditorium which are almost always empty. Two thousand Bitsians cheered at every boundary and the atmosphere was electric. The final six which sealed the victory made the crowd go ballistic, some were busy taking pictures of each other (pictures they’ll cherish for years to come) and some were so overwhelmed, they didn’t know how to react!

                    The proceeds of the sales (a sizeable profit, btw) went towards buying books, pens and snacks which were given during the funday (more about that in another post). All in all, a great day for Indian cricket and women empowerment!

Thank you Team India, for answering more than a billion people’s prayers and giving Udaan such a good opportunity to raise awareness for its cause.

the experience at signing session

I’ve always looked forward to help the underprivileged especially to teach them some of the things we were lucky to learn i.e. basic hygiene, health and how to stand independently in our own feet. Through Udaan, we empower the women in our campus by interacting with them, making them understand the necessities of today’s society. One of the activities taken up by Udaan is the signing session, where we sat down with a couple of women each, spelling out their names in the English alphabets. I have to say, it is one of my memorable moments, satisfying their longing to see their names in ink. They immediately try to imitate the curves on their own. The younger women grasp it soon cause they have already tried to learn it before and they wish to learn more than just their signature. The older who have always been associated with hindi take a while but have experienced the real need for a signature. By the end of three sessions of one and a half hours each every Saturday , we were able to teach them how to sign, which was useful in opening a bank account for them. I’m sure each woman will remember its importance and make sure their children are educated. We will always stand by their sides for help and support.