08th September 2008

We had visited the school in Bangalore this weekend (on 06^th September 2008) and handed over the items purchased. Games – chess (1 qty), snake and ladder (2 qty), scrabble and drawing books, trace and paint books, color sticks and story books in both English and Kannada language. The Teachers were telling us how drawing, when introduced to students, will help them. We had just taken a few books of different variety, to check if this will help. The Teachers are fine and gave us a new list of requirements. Below are the details

(1) Trace and paint books - 40 pieces

(2) Drawing books (farm) - 100 pieces

(3) Cursive writing books - English 140 pieces

- Kannada 140 pieces

(4) Note books – single ruled – 50 pieces

- Box (for Math's) - 50 pieces

Going forward, the students will be introduced to cursive writing also. Later we looked at the computer, as the Teachers said that the sound was an issue. Kiran looked into it and found that the speaker was not connected. It was set then right. As said before, there are a good number of educational CD's distributed by the Azim Premji foundation and the Teacher and the students should be able to make full use of the computer. Later we had a look at the school library too and interacted with a few students – though they were shy. But we did get to see their creative work – like drawing. If there are any ideas/suggestions for development of the students, kindly share them

Apart from the books the Teachers also asked us to get some patriotic songs. We can give them songs in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu

@Kiran, Venkat,

If there is any thing that I have missed, kindly update

Bank account

Today, when I went to the bank a new requirement cropped up. The manager asked us to get our resolution stamped with 'Saktyavesh' seal. We don't have a seal yet and have to make it. So some more time here, for the bank account

Website

è For our website, we got a good number of feedbacks. If there is anything more, do write back

è We are looking for quotes, good, inspirational, energetic quotes related to our work, for our website. If there is any that can be shared, we will be happy to hear

If there are comments/feedbacks or suggestions regarding anything related to our work, do communicate the same

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and spirit with interested individuals and organizations

------------------------------

It’s one thing to say and another thing to implement what we say. During our school visit, two incidents happened that should be highlighted

(1) After we donated the books, games and other items, we were asked to sign a register as a proof of our donation. I signed, then Kiran signed, and then Venkat signed. After signing, Venkat asked if we did write the name of Saktyavesh against the donations. I was struck. We didn’t. We went back and wrote

(2) The next incident was when we received the new list from the Teacher, Kiran asked if we can go and buy the things now. I said ok. Then Venkat said, we should check out with other friends, discuss on this list and then buy the things and give the donations

Thank you Venkat for making sure we followed the process. And that was a great team work

It’s very easy to go off course. That’s the reason in most companies there is a position of Chief Operating Officer created. Though these are small incidents, we should make sure we don’t deviate and work humbly and with devotion for the work that we have taken up

01st September 2008

We take pleasure in introducing Shree Kiran Viswanathan. A few friends among us had his association when working at HP, and they still do. Having sound experience in organizational management, we believe we shall have his expertise and good will in our noble initiative

@Kiran,

If there is any thing that I have missed in introducing you, do feel free to write about it

Website

We now have our website (http://www.saktyavesh.org/) up and running. Kudos to Ananth, his friend (Chary) and Kalyan we were lucky to get help from experts. Ananth and his friend (Chary) worked on the design and Kalyan helped us with hosting

Do let know your feedbacks. We now have more than 20 data points as feedback and once we have it consolidated we shall implement after good thought and logic

Request you to write in your feedbacks/suggestions and mail it to saktyavesh@gmail.com

Bank

I had been to the bank last week and there are some more modifications suggested. Should incorporate this and have the bank account process going

If there is any thing that needs to be shared, kindly communicate the same

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and spirit with interested individuals and organizations

25th August 2008

Our search for a friend with similar interest and the ability to use Orkut with ease ends. Rajesh Narendar has volunteered to take ownership of spreading the message and bringing more visibility to Saktyavesh via Orkut. Rajesh shall shortly send an invitation to all to join Saktyavesh community, kindly accept the same

We did not have any meeting and there are no updates to share. If there is any information that can be shared among us, kindly do so

If there are any suggestions/comments on the usage on Orkut or on any other subject, do reply back at saktyavesh@gmail.com

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and spirit with interested individuals and organizations

18th August 2008

On Friday, 15^th August 2008, Ananth and I had a good discussion on the basic processes and things to work on about our project. Guess Ananth being a Six Sigma Green Belt certified helped. From understanding how critical our work is, to questioning ourselves what the basic needs of a school are. Do we have a list for the basic things that a school needs? As of now we do not have one, and we have to come up with one. It is imperative for us to understand how critical our work is and how are we making a difference. Hope the attached ppt helps us understand this complexity (Do let know if there are suggestions/comments here)

Communiation

We also talked about our communication modes and styles. We all are busy with our work and it will be disturbing if a feedback for a question or a suggestion is sent by all the 35 of us marking all 35 of us. Many of our mailboxes would be flooded and worse, it may hang. So we propose that feedbacks and suggestions be sent to single mailbox only (Saktyavesh@gmail.com). Once feedbacks are received and after collectively brainstorming we shall communicate to all the outcome/the best possible strategy or simply, just consolidated feedbacks

If there are any suggestions here, kindly let know

Since Ananth and his friend are helping us with the website, we had discussion on that also. Attached is the text which has been proposed. Feel free to look into it and let know if there are any suggestions/proposals. Again a suggestion – reply to this mail id, if there are any feedbacks or feel free to call on any of the numbers below the signature

We need to make sure we design better processes and work with the highest level of integrity, trust and transparency

One important question to all

Many among us have joined us midway and we would like to ask – is there anything missing? Any information that is needed to know or any action? We would be more than happy to hear from you and have your great feedbacks implemented

Do write to us with an open heart and positive intent

If there is any further information that can be shared among us, kindly do so

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and spirit with interested individuals and organizations

11th August 2008

I am short of words to write this mail. We have lost one of our dear friends from Hyderabad. Srinivas Reddy (who helped us with templates for our website) is no more. He met with a fatal accident due to electric shock on Saturday (09^th August 2008). I had spoken to him only a few weeks back regarding the website. We convey our deepest condolence to his family and near and dear ones. Only wishing that they have the courage to overcome this tragedy

Let's Pray for his soul to rest in peace

We have three new friends among us who have expressed their willingness to work with us. Sankaralingam, Rajesh Narendar and Shilpa. Sankaralingam and Rajesh Narendar are classmates and friends of a few of us. Sankaralingam is currently working in UK and Rajesh Narendar is in Chennai working with Satyam. I got to know Shilpa through a mutual friend and colleague. She is based out of Bangalore. Thank you friends, we believe we will be able to realize our dreams of a better world collectively and make a positive difference to this world, our mother nature

@Sankar, Rajesh and Shilpa

If there is anything that I have missed or if any of you want to introduce yourself better, feel free to do so

Last week, we had brought some games and books worth Rs 1,151.50 for the school. Games like Chess, snake and ladder and a puzzle game. Books which are activity related and fun to learn. However, we were not able to hand it over to the school on Saturday as the Teachers at the school had to attend a meeting at another location that day. So we should be handing over the item purchased next week hopefully

That's the information to be shared in this tragedy struck week

If there is any further information that can be shared among us, kindly do so

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and spirit with interested individuals and organizations

04th August 2008

On Friendship in Chennai (Sunday), a few our friends classmates (2003 class of M.C.A, Mepco Schlenk Engg College) had got together and donated a sum of Rs 2000 towards Saktyavesh. Attached is the snap in this regard

Reg Bank & Website

We are in the process of creating our letter pad (which is now urgently needed for bank account creation). Our website is hosted but there are some basic modifications, once it is done we shall share the links with all for further feedback/suggestions/enhancement

Thats the update for this week

Do let know if any further information can be shared or there are any feedback or suggestions to share

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh with interested individuals and organizations

28 July 2008

On Saturday 26^th July 2008, Athiraj, Sakthivel, Venkat, Yogitha, Vinay and I went to the school. We had got 7 more mats costing Rs 2500 and donated them to the school. The Teacher had specifically asked for mats to Vinay during a conversation – may be because of the cold climate

Once at school, after giving the mats the Teachers there had a surprise for us. All the students sat in one class room and we were made to sit in front of the class. The students then gave a presentation of their skills like singing, dance and rhymes. They Teachers motivated the students taking us as examples. That was a surprise for us and not to say we were really happy at the energy levels the children displayed J

Later we had a meeting with the Teachers and Councilor. The discussion was centered on how to improve the school. The staffs there are forth coming and willing to help the students. The Head Mistress asked for teaching aids like globe and charts from us

If you have any specific suggestion on improving the school, kindly pass it on – it may help in the students and schools betterment

Regarding Bank Account

I had been to the bank and showed the manager our resolution. Got a feedback from the manager that we have to have our resolution on our letter head. So we have to work on creating our letter head

Regarding update from Prakash on his visit to a place in Chennai, we have to now decide on how we can help in here

@ Vinay, Yogitha, Venkat, Sakthi, Athiraj

Kindly add/update if I missed any information

Do let know if any further information can be shared or you have any feedback or suggestions to share

Feel free to pass this communication to interested individuals/organizations

Here is an update from Chennai.

Last week I and Vivek met and had discussion for an hour. I am listing out the things discussed.

• Already an organization like ours by the employees of Polaris in Chennai are doing great job of conducting the exam and top 10 will be given books, uniform and stationary need for the education , we can also think in such a activities may be not exactly the same.

• Picking up students from the corporation schools and giving them the awareness and skills need to shine in their life like Personality development, communication and other classes required for the life which is not thought in the school.

• Educating them the importance of the simple thing but important to life like following Traffic rules and many other things to make the younger generation healthy in thinking.

I spoke to Another Person Swaminathan. Already he is doing a great job in Chennai. He get the helps of youths who is working and studying and he making them to take class to the students in the very Poor area. I visited one such class. That is not exactly the class but children’s are engaged with some moral things. They have been taken class about the Ramayanam , Mahabharatam and Freedom fighters. The youths who come here are really coming out of their won interest and not with any money motive.

I met one more person whose name is Nathan Sharama. He is organizing the things in the place where I visited. He has given some request to us.

• To help the students to earn them selves and to study: That’s we have to help them to get some part time job. Its all small works through that they can earn some money for their family like candle making.
• To pay for a tuition Master: There are around 50 students. He wants to take tuition to those students.

First meeting - Minutes of Meeting - 22-07-07

Its one year now that we had our first officially recorded meeting in our journey of Saktyavesh

Below is the mail concerning the same. It’s beautiful that we were able to achieve what we thought of and are well on our path – though there are challenges ahead

There will be challenges, there will be issues but we have to emerge stronger, brighter and mature with each passing challenge and hurdles. We have to help each other and work together as a team – a truly strong and formidable team

We can surely achieve what we thought of, all our limitations are in our minds. We have to build a truly great service organization and we can do that and much more than what we have imagined. We have to believe in ourselves. That’s the key. There is no alternative to that and we have to deliver on our promises

We have to keep our source of inspiration flowing and keep revisiting the things/places/objects/people who motivate us – for each one has a different source of inspiration

Let’s re-dedicate ourselves with greater vigor and a better understanding to work to make this world a better place – a truly better place

Let’s keep going slowly but steadily

Thank you

GOD Bless

Best regards

R. Aneesh Kumar

Only through one’s willingness and dedication to give one’s self, and strive solely to be the best, not the biggest, can one become a better leader

_____________________________________________
From: Kumar R, Aneesh
Sent: Monday, 23 July 2007 12:13 PM
To: Senthil Arasu P
Cc: Kumarswamy, Vinay (ECO-IT); Alagarsamy, Nandhini; Kumar R, Aneesh
Subject: Minutes of Meeting - 22-07-07
Importance: High

Hi Senthil,

As decided, we(Nandhini, Vinay and myself) had a meeting. It was on Sunday, at Forum, around 12:30pm.

A few points we discussed were

There is guy who along with a group is all ready into the activities that we are into and Nandhini knows this guy(through phone). We can meet him and probably he will have more to share. I had been to the school which SAP is sponsoring(along with HOPE) and we planned to visit this place. Also, there is another school which needs help. This info we got from Ian(he is the Chief Development Officer with HOPE). So we can visit this place. We have planned to visit this weekend(if all are free) and proabably can visit this school.

We did talk about opening a bank account and increasing our monthly contribution. We also talked about documenting our contributions.

As of now our Action Item are

(1) Opening a bank account - Aneesh & Vinay takes responsibility for this

(2) Visit the schools - All 3 this weekend(if all are free)

(3) Get in touch with the guy(which Nandhini said) who has a similar line of interest - Nandhini takes responsibility for this

Would like to know if you have anything to add to this.

Vinay/Nandhini: Please add if I had missed out on anything and also if any comments

21st July 2008

We have answer's to a few questions on tax exemptions, thanks to Raghavendra.

Quoting him below

***********************************************************

No we can not give any receipt which enables the donee to take the benefit u/s.80-G.

To get the benefit, we would have register the trust with the Income tax authorities. To do that,
the minimum requirement is
a) Trust should be in existence for atleast 3 years
b) Trust should have filed the Income tax returns for all the three years.
c) Proper details of all the donees of past 3 years should be maintained.

Considering this, at this stage this is not applicable to the trust. So, we can not give any income tax benefit to donees.

*************************************************************

We have a clear answer there. As of now, we will not be able to give receipts with which a person/organization donating to us, can claim income tax exemptions

We friends in Bangalore did not meet this week, as we were away.

However, I had the opportunity to meet one Mr. Rahul Kapoorr who is working on an interesting and exciting initiative (http://igniteindiainitiative.com/). Clicking on the link will help us to a powerpoint presentation. A good one and thought this information should be shared with all

Thats the information we have this week

Do let know if any further information can be shared between us

Feel free to spread this message to interested organizations or individuals

14th July 2008

Last weekday, Vinay had met the lawyer and had given the pending fees of Rs 1500 to lawyer (Mr. Baaliga)

Regarding donation to school - Vinay and myself had already spoken to a vendor for buying mats for the school. The price was negotiated at Rs 350 a piece (a better deal than the earlier price of Rs 525 we had got). We had planned to give the mats last Saturday. Saturday morning Vinay tried calling the two school Teachers (with whom we interact) to check if the school is open and when we can go. So that we can buy the mats and later proceed directly and give it in school. Unfortunately Vinay could not reach them on telephone and we had to drop our idea of going to the school. We planned to donate the mats this week.

I had been to the bank this weekend to have a resolution drafted after checking with the bank manager. We need this resolution to have the bank account. Below is the resolution drafted. We need to now furhter process the resolution and filled form the bank

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Certified copy of resolution dated (12th July 2008) regulating the conduct of the account

We hereby certify that the following resolution of the Board of Trustees of Saktyavesh Trust was passed at a meeting of the board held on the ( 25th November 2007) and has been duly recorded in the minute book of Saktyavesh

Resolved:- That a bank account for the Saktyavesh Trust be opened with the State Bank of India and that the said bank be and is here by authorized to honor cheques accepted or made on behalf of the Trust (Saktyavesh) by Shri Vinay Srinivasan Kumarswamy or Shri Prakash Kolandaivelu

Board of Trustees

Pandimurugan Nandhini Alagarsamy Prakash Kolandaivelu Vinay Kumarswamy Aneesh Kumar

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

A point to make - We have been receiving donations. No matter what the amount is, each and every contribution is valuable and it shall make a difference. Lets not feel anything on the amount but feel happy about the spirit of giving itself. Each contribution helps our cause

And once a donation is made, kindly acknowledge so that we can track it. It will help our cause of being transparent in our dealings

That's the information to be shared as of now

Kindly let know if there are any further information that can be shared among us

Feel free to forward this communication to interested organizations and individuals

07-July-2008

Pandimurugan - our friend from Chennai - did communicate about our work to his friends from college and we have new friends who expressed their willingness and desire to work with us. We have two more people – Shri Vignesh and Shri Antony Jasmine who shall be working with us. Both of them are classmates of Pandimurugan and are based out of Chennai. Thank you both for your support and interest. Looking forward for a valuable partnership in making a positive difference

@ Vignesh, Antony Jasmine,

If there is any thing that I have missed in introducing you, do feel free to write about it

Last weekday, we spoke with the water purifier people. Since the school doesn’t have an overhead tank we need to have an alternative to have the water purifier working. The suggestion by the vendor (Aqua Guard) customer care is that they do have an apparatus which should be an alternative for the overhead tank. We could not look at that as the stock was not present. Once they have the stock they shall intimate us (or we should get back to them in a fortnight). The cost of that was said to be about Rs 1700

Regarding the website, we have the content and we should have it uploaded in the website and have the website up and running as soon as possible. Once it’s done, we shall intimate you all, so that wecan have a check on it and have it bettered with each of our positive opinions collectively

We have a Feedback

There was a feedback saying that - it will be better if we focus on individual people. Like focusing on families who are unable to educate their children etc… In this way, we will be able to measure our real contributions. We did discuss on this and we also have this way of work included in our Trust Deed. So it is not that we will not be helping individuals but we need more resources – both people and funds – to focus here. Also, at present we do not have any contact of people who need help. If any of you are aware of people, kindly let us know and we will be happy to help them – again we need to look in to people who shall act as mentor to such people and also we need to have the funds.

Not just this, if any of you have any opinions, do feel free to communicate. For we are a team and we need to speak our mind and work collectively and its for the good of our society

It’s important to thank people who helped us along in our Journey. We did receive an appreciation fromtwo great souls. One is a world renowned personality and the other is a senior person leading research and development projects. Attached below are the mails

< 30th June 2008>> < 30th June 2008>>

Congratulations for each of your help in working together till date and let’s keep our good work going with more dedication, professionalism and positive vigor

If there is any thing that needs to be communicated, kindly let know

Feel free to forward this mail to interested organizations and individuals

30th June 2008

We have now got a new friend among ourselves. Introducing Shri. Raghavendra (in cc). For our project we were looking for an advisor, who can help us with our balance sheet preparation at the end of ourcurrent financial year and thanks to Amar, we have now a friend in Raghavendra. He works for India times, Bangalore.

Happy to have you Raghavendra and looking forward for a valuable partnership

Good news. Over the last week, the computer which was due for servicing at the school has been done. With this, the students and staff shall have access to a good amount of teaching materialsupplied by the Shri. Azim Premji foundation, and other people alike. Vinay had contacted a freelancer and got this up and running for Rs 350. There was also a new keyboard given. But we did not get the bill for this, as this technician was a freelancer

On Saturday, I had been to the bank and met the manager. I showed him our registered Trust Deed (It is also called Bylaw). In our deed document, we did mention that two people shall operate the account. It will be Vinay from Bangalore and Prakash from Chennai. For this we have to draw a resolution among ourselves stating our intentions and the way we shall operate. But we have to get Prakash’s signature on it and hence the document has to travel to Chennai. We need the address proof of the person who shall be operating the account, photo id proof and one color photograph. Hopefully, we shall have this up and running by next week

On Sunday, we – Vinay, Nandhini, Venkat and I – met in Bangalore to discuss on our action items

The major tasks pending were

è Bank account - we are clear on this and we have to act now. Fill in the document, draw a resolution and submit

è Website – Spoke to Kalyan the last week, and he was of the opinion that we should not have been waiting this long. We shall decide on this and shall finalize this week

è Money to the lawyer – we are yet to pay Rs 1500 to the lawyer who helped us with the registration. When we went for the first time, the lawyer was not available and Vinay called the lawyercouple of days back and was unable to get an appointment. Hopefully this should be closed by this week

è Water Purifier – the water purifier we gave is unable. But they are unable to use it as they need an over head tank – say Sintex. I need to check this with the near by service center. Shall keep you all informed (any information on this from anyone?)

è School Contribution – we decided that from the list which the Teacher gave us, we shall first buy some mats (7 to be precise) which was the most basic of things needed as of now. We did check out with a couple of local dealers. The lowest quotation obtained was Rs 350. We shall purchase a few this weekday and donate

è Logo/Motto – we have samples for our logo and motto. We have still not decided on this. Long time now. But we are in the process. Shall keep you all updated. If there are any suggestionsfrom your end, kindly put across

è Any new school/place – there was an opinion that we can check with other schools as well.But with our current resource, we shall not be able to help other schools. Also, the majority of the opinion was that we can provide the basic things to this school that we are involved in and then move to other school

è Balance Sheet – Vinay have been receiving money, to his account for our Saktyavesh. If you have transferred money and not sent a mail, kindly send a mail to Vinay mentioning the amount and your identity. It will help us prepare our balance sheet. Vinay shall update us in a couple of days

We also need books (for classes till 5^th) and games for similar age children which were on the requirement list from the Teacher. Nandhini came up with a bright idea to have this circulated among our friends and collect if there are any. It will be great if you contact your friends/relatives/know people who can donate books/toys/games for children till class 5

Another bright idea from her was – if we are living in apartment we can speak to the association and have a notice put up. I spoke to one person at my place and he said we can have a drop box near the security and a notice in the notice board. Another idea will be to go from apartment to apartment and circulate a pamphlet. It will be a good idea if we have our website up and running before this

This same idea was given by Karthick a few months back, there you go Karthick

Let’s hope we collect a good number of valuable items – books, toys, games etc…

That’s the information we want to share

@ Vinay, Nandhini, Venkat,

Kindly add, update if I have missed any information from our discussion

Do let know if there is any information that can be shared between us

Feel free to share this mail/message with interested organization and individuals

-----------------------------

Below is the Regarding the Website

I just got an idea. Whether can we have a website which is dynamic – like in the morning we have the sun rise, in the afternoon we have bright sun and in the evening we have sun set and in the night we have stars

I checked with Kalyan and he said it is possible

Can we have this? Are there any better suggestions or ideas

We shall have a minimum content on our website at the earliest by this weekend and we can then upload and keep refining it

Looking forward for your views here