‘College ki Duniya’-Drishti’s production at Christ University Campus

December 14^th of 2011 was going to teach the students of Christ University the philosophy behind College Life! With the aim of uniting the different cultures that the University is a home to, creating a spirit of collaboration, instilling the seriousness of education, elucidating the perils of peer pressure and ensuring that an understanding evolves within the Christites, Drishti (CSA’s Street Theatre team) crafted this educational medley of acts.

Enacted in college, we received the same large response! Dressed in white and blue, and with utmost co-ordination, synced voices and the usual energy in abundance… the college show – “College ki Duniya” began. Television compere Lucas, in his typical voice, attracted the vast crowd.

ACT ONE: Seniors Dev, Narayanan and Arjun celebrate the arrival of a new college year – basically because it is freshers day. As they are enjoying themselves ragging Ravi and Nirmal, Narayanan sees two new girls (Kasturi and Surya) walk into the campus. He beckons Kasturi to come over – she escapes the ragging as she gives him some reason for embarrassment by calling him Anna. Surya gets caught though, Love at first sight he calls it – forces her to accept his invitation. Left with no choice – and after a muddled and emotional outbreak as a result of her career, family and the society’s reactions, Surya suicides. She had committed no sin. For no fault of her own, she suffered. Does ragging now give such fun? Who is he to take the life that God has bestowed on others?

ACT TWO: A class room scene that begins with a famous Kannada movie song. Lokesh appears to be a very studious person. Mugging by rote is his method of studying. Madhu, Abu, Nirmal and Naveen care not about the coming and going of exams. When the class teacher, Narayanan gives out the report cards, the usual anxiety and inquisitive attitudes arise. Abu lies about his marks to Lokesh. And like a stereotyped nerd, Lokesh responds with irritation that he has studied a lot and only he deserves to come first. When the truth that Lokesh was actually the topper was released, happiness and relief comes on. But during the placements… Lokesh is grilled logically and practically. His standard answer remains “It is not in the syllabus, Sir”. Abu gives wittier answers and skillfully solves the simulations. Abu gets placed. As an advice to Lokesh in specific and the crowd at large, Abu evokes a realization that one should study for knowledge and not for marks. Learning for marks only satisfies the present day want of passing the papers, but think about it – what does learning for knowledge have in store for you? Ponder on that.

ACT THREE: At a bar: a normal place where you find more attendance percentages among the college going generation. Three couples who are drunk with their own sense of enjoyment and blissfully unaware of the surroundings fall into an embarrassing trap. Shyam who is obviously unaware of his actions and mentally unconscious falls on Surya (Dev’s girl). A battle of the brawn surfaces between Dev and Shyam. The result is Shyam painful death. Madhu, who was also present during that event, calls Shyam’s Mother (Kasturi). She, in the motherly voice advises the audience on pressuring prospects of peer pressure. At the tender age of 20, does a college student have to give in to drugs and alcohol? Isn’t education more important?

ACT FOUR: Outside a class room – two families are shown cribbing over their respective children. Born crippled, these two (Lokesh and Harshith) are being teased and ridiculed in the class. Yet, they stand strong and determined in what they want to achieve – becoming a doctor and climbing the Everest. A few inspirational words from both and the thought of single-mindedly walking towards the target, follow. With Vande Matharam in the background, a guitar stringing some patriotic music, the men in the team creating a human pyramid, Harshith climbs Everest! Do the disabled (the fourth wave) deserve this? Being able-bodied, ain’t it your duty to protect them?

Emotions swayed, the audience applauded, the team’s passion showed and the entertainment quotient was omnipresent! Chiming along with Drishti, the audience sang the song – sparks of patriotism, sprays of self-realization and streaks of unity multiplied.

Drishti left the scene with the contentment that people had learnt something! Appreciation in abundance followed. A nostalgic feeling will remain every time we re-live the minute moments of this production.

 

A trip to Yeldur(CSA rural exposure camp)

Centre for Social Action conducts village exposure trips throughout the year. This time it was to a place called Yeldur in Kolar which is about 150 kms from Bangalore city. We were to leave on 15/6/2011 at 1:00 PM and return by saturday 16/6/2011 by 4:00 PM. On our way to the destination we got to know our fellow volunteers. We reached Yeldur by 4.30 PM. We prepared ourselves for the village visits as it was about 30 kms away from the place we were staying in.

Before leaving we all were divided into 6 groups as the total strength was 97. This was also done so that everybody would get to know each other,each group visited a specific village. Our mode of travel were mini tempos. This journey with a small group of people enabled me to get to know people on a personal level and make friends. Our group was brimming with  energy and enthusiasm right from the start to the end which made the trip eventful.After reaching the place we visited homes of the people living there and spoke to them about their occupation,education of their children, access to health care etc. We were shocked to see the inadequate facilities available to them. We played games with the children and for me to see them smile and laugh was a  wonderful experience. Memories such as these will be etched into my mind for a long time. The lesson learnt by me was to find happiness in small things in life.” All good things come in small packages”, at that moment  I knew how true it was. I realized that in order to work together as a group i had to interact with everyone  so that we could work as a unit. The way senior volunteers took up responsibility  is one quality which I would love to imbibe in me.

Like this the village exposure trip came to end leaving me yearning for more. I would like to end by stating a very famous quote “A journey of thousand miles begins with one small step”. Csa has indeed taken the small step towards the progress of our nation.

Hitesh

Bcom

 

first meeting of the csa with the fresheres…:-)

This Thursday the CSA had its group meeting’s with the new volunteers………….and start of a new adventure to the CSA community begun this week with lot of new minds in the block and to explore the world…..:-):-) hope this year will be an educating and a learning expierence to the new and old volunteers………all the best to all the csa volunteers:-):-)

 

KRUTAJNYATA!!! :) :)

On  26^th of July, CSA visited a village in Hoskote district to attend the programme Krutajnyata. This programme was a thanksgiving event organised by the members of various villages, along with CSA volunteers.

Members of various villages, mainly women, came to  the programme. Shri S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty (Member of Legislative Assembly,  Malur Constituency), Shri Arun Kumar Bunyan , Dr. (Fr.) Augustine Thottakkara (Chancellor of Christ University) and CSA volunteers, attended Krutajnyata. This programme emphasized on the  ‘Chetana Project’ which was instrumental in the development of fourteen villages for seven years in various aspects like education, health, finance, women’s upliftment and so on. The funding organisation Kindernothilfe (KNH) Germany, The Church’s Council for Child and Youth Care (CCCYC), Christ University (CSA), and many others were withdrawing their support in order to help these people  pursue their aspirations on their own.

People’s enthusiasm was at its peak and their courage, inspiring! They bid us farewell with great respect and honour. They brought out their achievements in the form of a wonderful play. Many women from the Self Help Groups shared their inspiring personal experiences on stage too. CSA volunteers also put up many interesting and vibrantly informational stalls.

When it was finally time for us to return, we all carried with us a heart full  of inspirational incidents, achievements, performances and a resolve, never  to forget our  responsibility of  serving  the needy. Krutajnyata showed us how great and inspiring feats can be achieved by  people if they are provided a little help and cooperation.

 

How much is enough?????

What does GM mean to you? To me, it is the reverse of the two words that I find most appealing and fantastically exciting: MG (Road).

The first Chatting Over Coffee (C.O.C.) held on July 15, brought out issues pertaining to, not a shopping expedition (much to my dismay) but on Genetically Modified (food) or commonly known as ‘GM’.

The ‘chatting’ was preceded by the screening of a documentary called “Genetically Modified Organisms vs. Food”. The production crew had incorporated a few comments of Indians about GM.

As per research done by anti-GM movements, the substance has been around for nearly two decades and was introduced by the United States of America. Some also believe that GM is a solution to the shortage in food production, which is a result of crowding on Earth. Evidently the makers of the documentary believed otherwise. Most of the people were against GM. The debate was fiery and raged on till 5 o clock when the warm fragrance of coffee calmed us down.(We did not know whether the coffee beans from which our coffee was made were genetically modified ) The first CoC was in the true spirit of a filter coffee: warm, awakening, thought-provoking!!

 

We Care.. Online

For those who could not access to the Centre for Social Action magazine ‘We Care‘ march edition, we bring you the online version of the same.

Do post back your reviews and suggestions about this edition of We Care

 

We Care released!!! :) :)

As said in the previous post that our activities have officially come to an end. Actually it has not. especially not with the Publications team .

Our magazine- ‘We Care’, planned, articles collected, edited, re- edited, designed, redesigned, proof read………. which finally has given us ripe fruit. Yes, it is in our hands in its final form of a magazine.

The toil and hard work of the publication team day- in and day- out, is very much visible in our latest edition of WE CARE.

We congratulate all the contributors of articles and alll those who have helped to make the magazine a responsible one and have shown to the world that we really care.

Copies are available in the CSA office, II floor, Main Block, Christ University.

We would be happy to recieve your feedback, comments- positive and negative which would help us improve in our next edition.
E- mail- csa@christuniversity.in
csa.wecare@gmail.com

 

Official Closing of Volunteers Activities :)

Tutions programmes, exposures, documentaries, camps sports day, talents day…… All planned and accomplished!!!!!

The CSA volunteers activities for this academic officially ended on February 26 with the evaluation by the volunteers themselves. The evaluation included the presentation made by each of the groups- Activity centre, Samveditha, Street theatre, Chatting over Coffee and Publications. It was a reflection on the activities planned, activities executed, failures,innovations, challenges faced and suggestions for next year.

Its was great to know the committment and efforts put in by each of the volunteers in making the year active despite their busy academics. It was very well appreciated by our beloved Johny sir who also said that the suggestions for the next academic year would be taken.

Every volunteer has done their bit to make a change, so CONGRATULATIONS and wish they keep up the Good Work!!!!
The session ended with the best volunteers trophies that was given to the volunteer from each of the groups for their outstanding service
Activity Centre- Lakda Sangeetha
Samveditha- Shymala S. P
Street Theatre- Melvin Deepak
Chatting over Coffee- Ashmita Bhattacharya
Publications- Lenin S. Vijay
Promising volunteer- Harish Bhuvan
Overall best volunteers- Varshini Narayanan and Venu

A Hearty Congratulations to all!!!

It was also an official farewell to our dear friend and a volunteer of CSA from Germany, Isabella Juretski for her dedicated and selfless service.

Well activities have officially ended but the spirit still continues!!

 

Tiny tots’ day out!!!! :) :) :)

The invigorating chilly wind of the morning wrote a perfect prelude to the energy packed day ahead. As streams of zealous kids poured into the campus, talents’ day had officially begun. It started with a power breakfast.The heat of the sun grew steadily. So did the enthusiasm of the kids.All the boys and girls went to classrooms alloted for each event after gathering in the mini-auditorium for a while shouting and singing.The events went on scruplously as the kids exhibited their budding talents.The dull corridors of main block were splashed with brilliant colours as the rangoli event kickstarted. Along with the usual events like elocution, singing, drawing and creative writing we had one more event that was undoubtedly the cynosure of all eyes present there-newspaper dressing. As the lads and lasses entered the stage dressed in newspapers as chefs, kings, queens, brave women of history, doctors, nurses and a lot lot more,the mini-auditorium roared with applause and cheer!After that, we flocked to birds’ park where a hot and tasty lunch awaited us.The lunch was an absolute delight! After that one hell of a feast we headed back to the mini-auditorium where all the little nightingales filled the hall with their innocent melodies.The room got really loud when the dancing began! As the volunteers danced with the kids and became kids themselves, the whole atmosphere became festive. As the kids were walking back to their homes, everyone of us knew that that day would be fresh in our memories for a long long time. Talents’ day turned out to be a true celebration of innocence and the beauty of childhood.:):)

 

last chatting over coffee took place in the campus

On 20th february 2010, the last coc(chatting over coffee) took place in 3rd jpeng with a documentary screeing on matrubhoomi and followed by a chatting over the movie.