Vibrant Echoes

Books and coffee are such a great combination. Here in India, we are fond of tea and we find a whole array of teas and coffees. In Connaught place in the heart of Delhi, a fantastic combine of a renowned book store and a cafe-hangout, serves as a place where one can relish different flavors of not only books but also tea, all at the same time- Oxford Book Store and Cha bar.

Samuel, Richa, Prannay and I attended Missing Page III, an event organized by ‘Make A Difference’ (MAD) on the 21st and 22nd of march. MAD was born in Cochin in December 2005. A group of B-school grads heard their inner voices strummed by kids with potential and they decided to start with an initiative which today exists as MAD Over the years it has grown by leaps and bounds for the betterment of kids from orphanages and shelter homes. MAD provides after-school support, counseling, and training to underprivileged kids, in order to instill confidence in them, ready them for a better future and carry out activities and events in line with these. It is now in operating in 23 cities across India with a workforce of over 3000 taking care of more than 5000 children.

Prannay Pathak and Richa Sharma, VE’s participants

Shaurya, the grandmaster for the event, briefed the teams on finding clues leading on to clues and to a final cipher. Book-keepers were standing at respective locations to help teams for successive clues, hidden inside books. It was an engaging and yet challenging event for book lovers.

Shaurya Singh

MAD has been organizing this fund raiser event in the Oxford Book Store for three years now to sponsor their endeavour towards the cause they’ve taken up. Anshal, a volunteer, told us about the management of different events for raising funds to take care of what MAD has started. Anshal is a law student and contributes in any way he can, being not very inclined towards reading by his own admission.

Abhay Sisodia, Anshal Jain and Hardik Gaurav

Hardik, an anthropologist and photographer, has been contributing in every possible way. A civil engineer, Rupesh Kumar Soni, who leads a team of 18 at work-place, is being supervised here at MAD event by much younger fellows. He is very happy contributing towards the social cause and says that it makes one learn to live an ego-free life.

Rupesh Kumar Soni

Varun Soni, one of the book-keepers, works for Jabong and has been associated with MAD for 2 years. At MAD, he has gone one from being a ‘Volunteer’ to ‘Fellow’ because of his sheer dedication and grit. At the event, I spent some time with him and he showed me videos of the annual dream camps that MAD has organized at various locations. His sense of nostalgia while showing the videos betrayed the glitter of devotion, accomplishment and compassion for kids that has been the hallmark of MAD’s commitment for their cause.

Varun Soni and Hardik Gaurav

Recently, MAD, Delhi has successfully organized the annual ‘Dream Camp’ at Treehouse Resort, Bhiwadi from 27-29 March. They routinely organize an event called ‘River of life’, at dream camps kids are made to overcome their fears, hesitations and painful pasts. ‘Discover’, ‘Ed Support’ and ‘Propel’ are a few projects at MAD to boost kids’ sense of confidence and self-worth. These also help children learn practical lessons and help to secure a bright future.

Aren’t they really making a difference? What do you say?

Stills from the event