Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Siragugal '09 - When Bhumi spread colour, joy and more!

Siragugal 2009 was a one day Art, cultural Fest held on 15 Nov, 2009.  796 children from classes 1-12 of 26 orphanages in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur Districts participated. The event consisted of  16 different competitions for three age categories, a science exhibition competition, fun events including a magic show and a theatre workshop for the children.

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S09 - 005 In spite of the heavy rains the children made it to the the venue, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kilpauk thanks to the buses Sponsored by Velammal Educational Trust. Siragugal'09 was inaugurated by Ms.Archana Raghuram (Cognizant Outreach), Mr.Kannan (Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development), and Mr. Mukesh (playback singer of ‘where’s the party tonight’ fame). An electrifying performance by Mr.Mukesh and Bhumian Ms.Aakansha set the tone for the day getting the children and volunteers into a frenzy.

S09 - 015 The children then spread out across the venue as six events started simultaneously. The morning session consisted of events like group song, solo dance, quiz, English and Tamil elocution, Tamil essay writing, Tamil poetry, drawing-painting, mimicry and monoact. While Siragu Montessori School delivered a prize winning traditional  villu paatu  during the group song event, many enthusiastic children drew and painted their message to society (“Say no to child labour”, “Give life by donating blood”, “Educate children” and the like).

S09 - 011 In the meanwhile, the six game stalls including balloon shooting etc and the Science Exhibition which had models prepared by Bhumi's Little Einsteins Team and also those brought in by the children for the competition were thrown open to all participants. The children and Bhumi volunteers displayed their scientific models, and actively explained the theoretical concepts to the other children.

S09 - 078 Immediately before lunch Magician Elango‘s show, a surprise element for the children doubled up the energy and the excitement in the auditorium. Lunch was sponsored by Cognizant Outreach and Food King.

S09 - 021 Post-lunch events commenced at the respective venues – Tamil skit, soap carving, pot painting, rangoli, group dance, and solo song. Despite the registrations being closed before the event, groups of children turned up with requests to participate in art events like soap carving and pot painting turning the venue into a colour riot! Meanwhile at the auditorium, an outstanding performance from a child who participated in group dance was asked to perform Solo on demand. His moves to the title song from the movie Villu  had the audience on their feet for a standing ovation! Definitely a moment that will be remembered by all those who were present there!

S09 - 045 The valedictory function marked the close of Siragugal’09. Our Chief Guest ‘Food King’ Mr. Sarath Babu delivered an inspirational speech to the children. The guests of honour for the evening were Mr. Balasubramanian and Mr. Sattainathan (SBI, one of our sponsors). The guests distributed the certificates and medals to all the prize winners.

And the Awards went to!

Best Children's Home Rolling Trophy - Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, whose children made a clean sweep at Siragugal’09

Best Participating Children's Home Trophy’ - Indian Council for Child Welfare

S09 - 042 Best Individual Performer, Male -- Mst. Udayakumar from SISTWA who stole hundreds of hearts with his realistic mimicry concept that revolved around the dancing styles of actors Kamal Hassan, Vikram and Vijay

Individual Best Performer, Female - Ms. Nancy Lavanya from St. Thomas children’s home for winning the most number of awards

Best Actor - Mst.Manikandan from CHILD Children's Home

S09 - 038 Volunteers from Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development (Thamaraipakkam), Cognizant’s Outreach, Infosys’ Sneham and NCC cadets from college of Engineering, Guindy contributed with zest equivalent to that of the organising Bhumi volunteers.

We are deeply indebted to our Sponsors including Cognizant Outreach, SBI, Infosys Sneham, Food King, Velammal Educational Trust, Welmech Engineering, Sniper Systems, ISHRAE and over a thousand individual donors also contributed towards the finances of the event.

Participating homes (in alphabetical order) - Aadhiswarar Home, Adi Dravida Samooga Sevagar Sangam (Manavar Illam), Anbagam Street Children Care Centre, Annai Bharathamatha Educational trust, Annai Trust, Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust, Bharatha Matha School, Child Children's Home, Ebenezer Home Of Social Outreaches, Good Life Centre, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Maranatha Intermission children's home, Mottukkal Good Shepherd Convent, Nalmanam, Nesakkaram Seeds, Open Door Orph. & Community Centre, Parisu Trust Child Development Centre, SAC Dr. P.V.Rao School-Children’s Home, Roshini Home, Sathiya Jyothi Destitute Home, Siragu Montessori School, SISTWA, Sree Sarada Sevasramam, St. Thomas Orphanage, Swami Charitable Trust, Webbs Memorial Orphanage.

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  Team Bhumi celebrating the close of Siragugal '09

A bigger and better Siragugal 2010 beckons! Siragugal '10 will be a two day Art, Cultural, Science, Athletic and Sports Fete. See you all again in July 2010!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Let’s nationalise Cricket in India!

India is now a top contender for the best Test and one day cricketing team in the world.

  • Is it because unlike other sports in India cricket is less controlled by the government? – But then there are so many politicians in BCCI!
  • Is it because we have the best talent in the world? – Or is it because world over people are tuning into football and no one is bothered about Cricket?

If a country, like the USA with a third of our population can win a hundred plus medals every year at the Olympics, why do we have to get in there every year at the bottom of the pack? Shouldn’t there be three times more potential medallists among a billion Indians?

So where’s all that talent??? Probably languishing in some desk job because they were was not supported by their family or the system(rather the lack of it!)

While Indian budget for all sports in India this year is about Rs.1,000 Crore INR, BCCI’s Income itself Rs.700 Crore (it was 1,000 last year!) and this doesn't include the Indian Premier League Cricket who are earning Rs.8,200 crore just for ten years media rights!

If cricket is earning more that what’s being spent on all other sports combined, how will all other sports and sportspersons thrive?

Shouldn’t the BCCI be nationalised? Yes, there’ll be more corruption. But, won’t the state of other sports be much better?