Monday, May 25, 2009

CALLING PROMISING YOUNG SPORTSMEN & SPORTSWOMEN FROM TUMKUR DISTRICT - YOU WILL NOT WALK ALONE!

In the name of sports facilities - children participating in hobli-taluk-divisional-state-national level tournaments are made to sleep on newspapers in class rooms with virtually non-existent toilets. Food is served in a most unhygeinic way. Compare this with five star facilties provided to our cricket players - past, present & future.

We call all budding sportsmen and sportswomen of District tumkur to come and talk to us about their careers. If you are SELECTED as a `promising basketball player' according to our parameters - we will provide you continuous support till school level. At college level, you have to VOLUNTEER for our programmes to enable us to support your sporting ambitions.

BASKETBALL PLAYERS OF TUMKUR DISTRICT SHALL NOT SUFFER - PROJECT SUMPOORNA WILL ENSURE PROPER FACILTIES.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

THE CALL OF SAVANDURGA !

It is difficult to tell the students at SUMPOORNA about some trekking experiences without being caught! So when inadvertently I mentioned SAVANDURGA there was virtually a clamour `WHEN ARE YOU TAKING US THERE'?

At 56, I am not what I was at 35 - we used to wander all over the hillocks and valleys of places around Bangalore. If I name them I will be in trouble again - so let us just stick to Savandurga. I must be selective and careful in making programmes - but how can I deny my students the same `joys' that I provided children two decades ago. So be it! The lure of the Kari Betta and Bili Betta will haunt these children and inspire in them a sense of joy that has endured in me even after having climbed it more than hundred times. I have climbed it with my wife and younger son - I have climbed it with more than fifty students at a time.

The discipline this hill demands - children climb on it the way a small baby tries to climb on the chest of its mother - I have to use this analogy because I have a grandson of five months who already climbs on to my chest probably practicing for its climb on Savandurga.

I have climbed Savandurga as a father - now I am going to climb it as a grandfather - WILL I CLIMB IT as a great grand father? As I write this piece - tears of joyful
memories flow down my cheeks - where are they - all those thousands of children with whom I climbed these hills. DO THEY STILL CLIMB OTHER HILLS - I don't know; yet I have a feeling that whenever they see a hill, they would remember me as the person who helped them climb their FIRST HILL at Savandurga.

ADVENTURE & COURAGE - THE REAL EDUCATION!

So well `protected'[shepherded is more likely the word] are children today that they rarely have an opportunity to develop their sense of adventure and courage. For the past three decades I have been working with children to this end and for the past five decades I have been living a life of adventure & courage. AND I WONDER who will provide this education which is the essence of being human.

Slowly but steadily our children are becoming more and more helpless in adverse situations - preparing them early on is a must. At 13 years when I first traversed the snow bound pass of ROHTANG in the Himalayas - I promised to myself that when I grew older I would provide this opportunity to my children. The hundreds of treks, hill climbs and village camps that I conducted after becoming a father are a testimony to my unshakable belief that adventure and courage should be nurtured in younger children.

Few parents realise this - at enormous cost to the healthy development of the children. Sadly most of the children miss out on this real education. A harshly competitive world can be faced only by slowly developing the spirit of adventure and courage. And I shall continue this endeavor of mine for I know I am right.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

THE LURE OF MAKALIDURGA - SETTING NEW RECORDS!

MAKALIDURGA hills are just 50 Kms away from Bangalore - I have visited it periodically in the last 25 years. IT IS A BEGINNERS' HILL. But it is better to go with a person who knows the topography.

We had decided [as we usually do] to divide the group into two - the juniors will climb the CHIKKA MAKALIDURGA and the seniors [or the fitter ones] will climb the imposing MAKALIDURGA. I faced the group and looked at the hill and instinctively KNEW that the mother hill MAKALIDURGA was beckoning all of us. AND WE SET OUT on this hill that has kept calling me and my students.

A RECORD HAS BEEN SET - sixty students climbed the Makalidurga as a single group. Two volunteer mothers provided able support to the group. EVERYONE CLIMBED THE HILL - a unique feat.

CONGRATUALTIONS V.S.C. BASKETBALL CAMP AND CHILDREN OF SHISHU MANDIR.