Tuesday, March 20, 2007

My memorable birthday gift...

Yesterday (March 20) was quite exciting. I was really touched and humbled to get so many calls and mails from my friends and relatives. So many of them remembered my birthday, called or mailed me. I was replying to a lot of mails and scraps on orkut (an online community) when "a friend request" caught my eye...

This person, whom i have not met so far, added me as a friend in orkut. First, I did not bother to click and learn more about the profile. But then, some instinct told me to check! (is this called 'woman's instinct' by people? :)) Well, I am really glad I did as I think this was one of the most memorable moment of the day!

I gasped in astonishment when I read this profile. For the first time, I ended up spending close to an hour learning more about the acheivements and the good work done by him and I thought this profile definitely needs to be known by people , particularly those who are interested in Social Service!

His name is Manekshaw T. He has adopted 17 children who lost their parents to the Tsunami waves. 21 widows who lost their husband to tsunami waves are in his care. 84 Mentally Retarded Children are also being nurtured.

You can visit his profile at:
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=6148832488821419821
(Orkut is an online community in which you can become a member if you have a gmail account).
In brief, He is...
  • The winner of National Award from His Excellency the President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
  • The coordinator for Government sponsored Guinness world record event of planting record number of saplings in 24 hours
  • Managing Trustee of EshaasEp, a Non Governmental Organization dedicated for the welfare of the Children with Mental Retardation, based at tsunami-hit Nagapttinam. Presently, EshaasEP is instituting a residential care home, Hospital and Research centre for the children with Mental Retardation. Pl visit ww.eshaasMRprojects.com for more details
The albums caught my eye... one of the pics shook me really, it brought in the me some of the shuddering memories of my Tsunami visit to Pattinachery during Jan 2005 right just 2 weeks after the fatal incident...
http://www.orkut.com/AlbumZoom.aspx?uid=6148832488821419821&pid=3
(you need to be logged into orkut for viewing this pic)
If you too are impressed by this profile, you may add him as a friend, so that many more of your friends would know him if they chance to visit his profile. You may also Join in the EshaasEP community of ORKUT.COM
For more details you could contact:T. Manekshaw BE. MBM, Managing Trustee, EshaasEP, GVR Complex, New bus stand, Nagapattinam – 611 001. Ph 04365 240412, email: tmaneksha@gmail.com

Thanks, dear friend!

I promised a couple of my friends, that I would start some serious writing some day. I started writing a novel which never seems to move beyond 2 chapters! I was never satisfied with the style of my writing. It was reaching a stagnation... A couple of my friends, to whom, I had expressed this idea, to my surprise kept following up with me as to how the novel was coming up!

One of them, I believe, knew which 'KEYWORD' would work on me to put an end to my continued procrastination. He asked me to set a 'DEADLINE'. He introduced me to the blog world, and I promised that I would start my blog on my birthday. I also promised that I would publish atleast one post a day once i start writing my blog.... Well, being in the software field, in particular, after starting on my own, here I am, true to my commitment to the 'deadline', with my first post!

I had started attempting writing on a couple of topics last month, and having a volatile schedule, I thought I should definitely have atleast some reservoir of ideas to seriously publish atleast one post a day! I have written clost to 30 drafts, and I wanted to publish them only when I found them worthwhile to be read! :)

The first blog post was a challenge. I wanted it to be really special and close to my heart. Believe me, none of the blog posts I had written, really deserved to be the first! And atlast, right on my birthday, I finally got the first topic on which i wanted to publish!

And that, I think MY DEAR FRIEND is nothing but to ACKNOWLEDGE YOU in my first post for inspiring me to start writing again!!!...

See you tomorrow!