Request for help by Srividhya

[Vaylan]

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great...what are the antecedents of this Isha foundation ? Are they allied with brahmin causes ? can someone tell me more about this foundation ?

 

[priyaram]

Ni Isha is not associated with any particular section..check out in www.ishafoundation.org

 

[Vaylan]

Thanks Ram - I went to the site, it seems to be a general "samaj seva" type site.

Now, we should emulate what they are doing, but am not sure if they can fulfill our specific purpose of improving the lot of Brahmins.

 

[prpsarathy]

no

We must work for the bramin uplift ment. Gone are those days where brahmins could say that they are forward. We have to run to be where we are . We had great leaders like rajaji who worked for all, but what is the ground reality, every body is just working towards their community. In a way it is ok. In the world of nudes, the man who wears dress is mad. So our focus must be on our community

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Who willl lead the effort?

Hi Prp,

Are you willing to lead the effort. As said in another post today, unless there is one person to lead the effort nothing will happen. If you are, then we can go from there.

SV

 

[prpsarathy]

yes, i do. When contribution was request for meenakshi's relative, i personally went and requested for donation from my colleagues in first gulf bank uae and sent 25000 in a days time. I do help others throught my own networking. but i am too far away from reality. We require people to spread that u come to this forum either seeking assitance or extending help. In fact, i look upon our educateed brahmin girls who are at home after a child to come out and help others. I had earlier mentioned that i am ready to give a computer and even sponsor a dsl internet linkage for usage of people. But i require a place and aperson to be around. Generally retired person with attitude to serve would be most appropriate for the same.

 

[prpsarathy]

Even i went to the extent of having site for donors and donee's to meet. Unfortunately, the programmer is not have resources to do it. Once again, i have consciously ensured that i have given my project development to our community guy. I remember the words of buddha that if everybody keeps the road opposite to their house clean, the road is clean. i am trying to see whenever i spend, hopefully, i can give the business to our brethens.

 

[subalaji]

I am back again, had some personal challenges and was inactive for a few weeks . It is heartening to note so many members . I am still fine to do lot of coordinating work from chennai

Balaji

 

[prpsarathy]

Wellcome Back. Iwas wondering why u were not available

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

First step

Please locate an appropriate place in a Brahmin oriented neighborhood which is available for the purpose of a community center and do a project report around it detailing the address, facilities to be provided

(Computers, DSL Connection, Software Packages, TT Table, Kitchen, Furniture, Gymnasium, TV and DVD player etc.. etc.. , personnel to be hired, costs etc.) Plan for growth at the very early stages. Initially it could start out in a small way but as it succeeds we should be able to expand easily without zoning restrictions.

You can take the help of a person who has done some project implementation before. A business plan is necessary before any money is forthcoming and money spent. Part-time work will not do. We need a person appointed full time but will be paid. A distinguished retired person should be okay but he should have the drive and energy to keep it going. Please collect some resumes of people and send them to me at [email protected]. I will post them on my server for all members of this site to see. Then we will take a vote on who we will choose.

We also need a book-keeper, an accountant and an independent auditor to keep sure that all monies are accounted for.

This way we can assign duties, targets and have the person commit themselves to these. Problem with part-time work is that the person can always come back and say he was too busy at work and with no achievable targets the whole effort will suffer and people will lose interest. If the people involved have a regular revenue that that will lose if they do not perform, they will certainly do a better job. These FT people should be surrounded by a lot of part-timers who will pitch in with their Kar-Seva - a term, I borrow from the Sikh faith. We also need to draw up a list of Kar-Sevaks who will be available at a short moments notice to arrange for
events.

A sizable function hall is also a must. We have a lot of artists and performers amongst us who can help with the fund drives with their performances and provide a nucleus for our congregation.

SV

yes, i do. When contribution was request for meenakshi's relative, i personally went and requested for donation from my colleagues in first gulf bank uae and sent 25000 in a days time. I do help others throught my own networking. but i am too far away from reality. We require people to spread that u come to this forum either seeking assitance or extending help. In fact, i look upon our educateed brahmin girls who are at home after a child to come out and help others. I had earlier mentioned that i am ready to give a computer and even sponsor a dsl internet linkage for usage of people. But i require a place and aperson to be around. Generally retired person with attitude to serve would be most appropriate for the same.

 

[subalaji]

Need updates

Hi PRP,

Can u pls update me on Volunteers and new active members and current focus areas , it would be great . I did see some mails asking for volunteer in chennai ,

we can do many things in chennai physically but we need lot of financial help for brahming community . There are so many poor brahming families whom I know who need help and awareness on education.

We were also planning to create a link here with lot of useful educational info

Balaji

 

[subalaji]

Hi Silicon Valley-an,

I have an excellent person in my father in law whom I can convince to do some of the activities , he is retired and is in a part time job, but can make him quit and focus on this . Can I know the exact plans . He is very good in administration and accounts and was also Manager in Music academy chennai
if we have concrete plan I can talk to him

Thanks

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Great

Please let us know his details and let him write a post to all of us about what he thinks of this responsibility and what he can do for us.

I live in Silicon Valley and have a lot of wealthy friends - to money should not be an issue.

SV

 

[subalaji]

Need to know the background

If you can call me sometime on 91-9840055764 we can take this forward.

I am still not clear about the plans, sorry as I was inactive for a few weeks . I used to be a active member in this site along with PRP and Silverfox. However some personal challenges kept me away .

So I am not sure what we are trying to achieve and how we will sustain this

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Tried calling you

Balaji,

I tried calling you but no one picks up the phone....

SV

 

[subalaji]

Hi SV-an,

I also have some very simple ideas which to begin with will help the brahmin community . I see that there are so many opportunites in some fields which brahmin children in remote cities do not even know. The amount of opportunites even for ICWA's and CA's in India today is immense .

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Bp

All these things go into the BP.

SV

 

[Vaylan]

Subalaji....that is exactly the kind of thing we need. We just need to turn it into a repeatable, scalable system instead of being ad-hoc...see my post on this topic in Volunteer thread

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Subalaji

Vaylan,

I am counting on Subalajo to make up his mind and take the plunge..or anyone else for that matter. I think it is just a matter of time we will find the right person.

SV

 

[subalaji]

Hi Silverfox and Praveen, awaiting ur inputs on the same

 

[Vaylan]

Shri Silverfox has dropped off the radar :lol:

Kannan mama where are you!

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Market Research

Yesterday I had a long chat with Subalaji again. It occurred to me that before one does a Business Plan, one should do Market Research which will give us a positive indication what are the problems and then we can think about how they are to be solved.

The two or three inputs I got from my friends and relatives are:

1) Are TB's so badly off?
2) Most of them are migrating to places like Karnataka and then on to USA.
3) They can easily get admission in Private colleges and get bank loans.

I asked - what about the very poor?

They said the very poor can easily get jobs in Bangalore with the current economy being what it is and then educate their kids. One cousin said she has a Brahmin cook whose daugher aspires to do computer science and migrate to the USA. If there are NRI's owning fabulous houses in Bangalore earning hundreds and thousands of dollars in income surely they will be able to use the services of these very poor brahmins as Cooks or nannies or whatever.

It also occurred to me that we have to encourage the resourcefulness of our people to solve their own problems. If we are bleeding hearts who go out looking for people to help and shower our benevolence on people, it just might turn them from being resourceful into being dependent - which will do them no good in the long run.

On the other hand there may be a few for whom none of the solutions that others have found might work and might really work. For them, we just need to publicize this site and urge them to register and ask for help. So the need of the hour might be just to come to this site, period - rather than create brick and mortar infrastructure and all the overheads that go with it. Keeping it simple is often more effective.

I think we have give all these issues some serious thought over the next few days and talk to people who are our intended beneficiaries are, bring them to this site and find out what exactly needs to be done. Without that our efforts will not have the intended results.
So those who are physically located in TN, please us bring some of them to this site and let us talk to them. May be all they need is a few ideas how to help themselves.


SV

Shri Silverfox has dropped off the radar :lol:

Kannan mama where are you!

 

[hariharan1972]

Valid point SV regarding doing 'Market Research'.....However i would like to share my perspective

a) As you have rightly said, a good percentage of our community may be 'resourceful enough' on their own & only may lack guidance. However i am concerned about the ubiquitous 'middle class' who may have enough resources to lead a 'creditable but struggling' life throughout. I regret missing the "IT bus" by virtue of this 'middle classness' & wish it doesn't happen to many going forward.

b) We need to be concious of the 'changing demographics'....So some 'escape routes' (karnataka, USA) may be under duress, who knows ?

c) I am sure TBs form a sizeable % of the successful immigrants from India in the US, but how many do 'look back' ? Pity there aren't too many SV, SF, Ramkis, so can we afford to individually reach out ?

d) I hope it is not a bad idea to make the future of our community "absolutely safe" even if the Market research indicates that on a 'standalone' basis the community is safe....

Hence i feel after all necessary spade work is done, need gap established, actionables identified, we still create a "kitty" to help the less fortunate members of the community.

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Absolutely

Hariharan,

I absolutely agree with you. But whether or not we have a kitty, we still need to identify who requires what help so that there can be transfer of funds from the kitty to the people who need help.

I was telling Subalaji that helping becomes very powerful if people can identify specific people to help - just as all of us helped Srividya. This website is already a very powerful tool for interacting with such people. Kudos to Praveen for that. Why not we just place advertisements in Brahmin oriented magazines and ask them to come to this site and identify themselves - so we can directly help them? That way, as soon as a person comes up, tells his story and convinces us of his/her need for help, we can send checks to cover his/her need after some due diligence.

Setting up a kitty first with the hypothetical possibility that someone will show up is somehow less powerful than if someone knocks at your door and says I need help.

SV

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Another point

Ability to take struggle in one's stride and take a little risk in life serves to build character which is more valuable in the long run than being mollycoddled.
So please publicize this site and get those who need help come to this site and interact with us. That is the social security net we need. Some will get money and some will get advice.

SV