AID - Developing India with small steps

I just wanted to drop in a quick line about the NGO I am working with. Its called AID -Association for India's Development- and it truly is that. The unique thing about AID which interests me is that they work for the overall development of a region and don't try to solve just a specific problem. Moreover, they have a really dedicated and professional team which works hard to ensure that the projects they take up actually happen and the money does not go to waste.
Now, there are multiple ways to volunteer with them
- Donating money being the simplest
- donate some of your time on a weekly basis : You can become a project coordinator and thereby make a real difference and also build your leadership skills
- Donate time on vacations - go and visit there various activities and spend time at the locations. You will make a report back to the main base about how the work is going on in that area and thereby ensure that the task which AID set out to do is happening and at the same time understand India from the grass root level
- Tons of other ways, - check out the website. If you have even a little time or skill, you can be of some help

Also, one of the best things is that AID is Global. Its in most major cities of the US, its in India and they are VERY open to opening chapters anywhere. Its quite an informal and fun place to work and the best part is that you meet really interesting people.

Chalo, I had been meaning to drop a line about this for a while, so here I am. Let me know if anyone wants more info.

Cheers
Shantanu

Link: http://www.aidindia.org/

hellloowww again...

Whats up guys ? Been really busy with work the last week so didnt get a chance to post new things.
And anyways, nothing really exciting happening except that my bro just got his VISA for the US and will be reaching there on 23rd Jul. Man, the amount of prep which these docs go into before going into visa interviews. They have some capacity for research - now I know why I didnt become a doc :)
heh heh

Also, saw a few movies last week
- Dus : SUCKED !! Lots of hype, but crap movie ! But the song ROCKS !!!!!! :)
- Sarkar : India's tribute to the godfather. AWESOME ! Have to see it again.
- War of the worlds : average to low
- Black : Awesome movie man ! Awesome !
- Pirates of the Caribbean and some other Bond movies, etc etc.

Good fun, I have to say :) I mean seriously, Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my definite fav movies - Johnny Dep is awesome and Keira Knightly- va va voooom !

Hmm, what other movies do I like ? Thats an entire post on its own...soon !

The best forward in a while...

the site says it all - one of the fondest memories from Childhood TV.

http://www.geology.ohio-state.edu/~bhattiprolu/personal/nostalgia/

Enjoy !

Trips coming up to the south

If there are any Blr/Mumbai/Chennai guys are reading this, I am coming down south next week. The itenary is somewhat like this

Sat Jul 8th : Mumbai
Wed Jul 13th: Delhi
Sat Jul 16th: Blr
Tue Jul 19th: Chennai
Wed/Thu : Back to Blr

Cheers

Addendum to India Gate

In an endeavor to get free ice cream, we crashed a marriage on our way to India Gate. Some pics of our journey there are below. Nikhil, your request has been fulfilled ;)


The marriage we crashed



How we got there

Monumental Day

details will come sometime later !

Also saw War of the Worlds today - didnt really like it. Now am watching a mid 80's flick called Bombay 4-- (something)!! Quite interesting-its very typical. Thieves with a sense of humor out to fool everyone but obv develop a conscience on the way and end up fighting over a girl !

Typical !

Moments Jun '05 - Trip to India Gate

India Gate - Delhi's cooling off point on the hot summery nights.


For all the non-delhites out there, India gate is the place where if you sit from 8pm to 12am on any given day, you will see atleast the half of delhi pass by. You will also see a bunch of characters roaming around there eating ice cream, playing volleyball with big balloons, blowing soap bubbles, eating chuski or flavored ice balls. You will also see the original movie theater on wheels and tons of other entertainers. All in all, its the most active spot in the hot summery nights of Delhi !

Needless to say its one of my fav spots too and me cousins and I were there a few nights back doing all of the above - check out the pics !


Starting from me and going left
Shantanu, nikita, nidhi, shubhi, shashu, neha, kartik, nikhil !

Soap bubblesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss- fav past time :)



Chuski - the most unhygenic dessert ! The ice, the dirty hands - all give it its unique flavor ;)





4 brothers in this one - shantanu, sidh(on the ph), shashu and nikhil !

Au revoir

Moments Jun' 05 - Kashin !

Kishoo, my neice Kashin, coming to stay with us from Ajmer. This girl is just 10 months old but is such a bundle of energy, its amazing.

- just a hint of music and she is dancing - you can thank me for this one, and yes, i will teach her to dance like me :D !

- her fav stuff is to purse her lips and do pfffffffffft sound while at the same time drenching anyone in front of her - this has caught on so much that Shubhi(my cous) was doing this at work

- she is the naughty 10 mo old now so she grabs and breaks everything - a few bowls, chachoo's (me) specs and laptop keys, med bottles have already become prey

- lastly, she still has the insane ability to make everyone around her to rapidly go down the fountain of youth and start dancing and talking like her. It must be funny ;)

So, thats one of the highlights. Am sure you wil hear about this one for a while :)

Moments Jun '05 - London Trip !(Updated)

The london trip !
- catching up with friends
- some sightseeing
- lots of falling in love with London
- the conference

As soon as I get the pics of my brothers laptop, I update this.

Cheers

Now the pics

































Radhey Gopal Ashram

5 weeks of family, friends and work...

Its been almost 5 weeks now since the happy hour at Capital Ale House which marked my departure from Cap1 on the 3 month sabbatical. Since then, what all have I done -
- a day in NY with polo finishing the last of the chores and figuring out accommodation in London
- 10 days in London preparing for the Med Tourism conference and catching up with friends
- 4 odd weeks in India enjoying the heat, catching up with lots of friends, closing chapters and having fun with almost my entire family
- kick off for the Radhey Gopal Ashram - my dads dream project !
- and yeah, getting a lot of initial planning done for the startup I am with and also some meetings

All in all pretty packed. Now 1 month down, I am thinking whats coming next. Well, I think the next month is going to be even more packed. Lets see what am I going to be doing -

- traveling South of Delhi-> Blr, Chennai, Mysore, Mumbai, Pune(?), tourism from there (hopefully) !
- catching up with some hobby
- and if Saiko has his way, going up North for a quick weekend ! now this is something I desperately want to do.

Whats not going to happen
- My Ladakh and Leh Motorcycle trip ! :( Polo ditched me and now the startup is taking too much time :( I have to do this sometime in my life though ! Definitely have to !

Aight then, this is good enuf for now. More details on specific events of last month soon - look out for the best of Jun in pictures coming to your fav blog soon.

Bleak thought abt the future ...

The way the world is progressing right now, very soon we will require less and less people to do the same old things ! However, the population growth is not really slowing down so there is only going to be one result of this - tremendous unemployment !!

so mob scenes and basically the scenario from all those bleak futuristic movies might be a reality !

Thoughts - this is meant to launch discussions so do pitch in !