Unforgettable experience at AMMA’s 56th B’Day – 2

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[Contd...]

On 25th Sept, 2009 at around 7am first set of beneficiaries from Kozhikode arrived and our work started. They were all directed to the respective counters, got them registered and taken to the allotted room. Parents who  accompanied them were also allotted rooms. Slowly benificieries from other places also started arriving. Same process was done. Volunteers took them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, interacted with them, played antakshari and many more. All the volunteers had a great time with beneficiaries. In between there were lots of problem, some id cards were not there, some uniforms were missing, even some name itself were missing from the list. There was a tailor too, who was taking the measurement and was giving the clothes instantly. We had to take care of all these thing. As expected there were fights too. You won’t believe two groups Kasargode group and Kozhikode group were formed and were fighting for some silly reason. They took mats, rolled them and were hitting each other(WOW!!!). Volunteers took proper care. Though they also got enough from them, but they made them understand and solved the matter. Volunteers enjoyed a lot doing that. Meanwhile lots of beneficiaries fell sick who were immediately taken to the first aid room which was set up by AIMS(Amrita Institute of Medical Science & Research) Kochi.

Most of the time I was sitting at the information center. When ever a new set of beneficiaries arrived my job was to inform the corresponding faculty, so that they could take charge. In between many counters faced lots of problems and either  me or Aishwarya had to go to the respective room to solve it. We did a pretty good job. By night all the rooms were almost overflowing and even corridors were not left out. People were sleeping even in corridors. There was a huge crow gathered by then. At around 12 midnight me and Aishwarya went to each room and confirmed that there is no problem with any counter and that there is no missing cases. After finishing our job we went to public canteen and had our dinner. By around 2am I went bak to hostel and came back by 5.30am in the morning. I was damn tired and was just flat on my bed. Volunteers were alternatively taking group of 10 students for bathing. That day(26th Sept, 2009)every student had to wear uniform for AMMA’s public program in the evening. There was a confusion about whether after the breakfast they were supposed to be seated in the main hall to attend the final round of elocution or they were supposed to be taken to ashram for AMMA’s darshan. To avoid any missing cases we decided to bring all the beneficiaries back to their room itself after breakfast. Once we got the confirmation some of them were taken to main hall to attend the finals. After the lunch by 3.30pm all the students were seated in main hall for AMMA’s public program.

In morning around 20 students came from Calicut whose id-card were missing. So muself and Sharanya T L(S5 EEE) were checking out for their id-cards in internet cafe(place where all the id cards were printed). Mean while I got a call from Geetha Maam that I have to rush near main stage. There was a benificiery supposed to get prize from AMMA, who was not in uniform and was not having id-card too. I called Br. Manoj, who was incharge, to get more details but he said he immediately wanted to meet me. I then ran towards the stage(I ran as if i am taking part in Olympics). After reaching near stage I came to know that there were 2 students who were not in uniform instead of 1. One girl from Alappuzha and 1 boy from Tanur. Manoj Sir told that I just have 10 minutes and within this 10 minutes Both the children should be in uniform and id cards. I immediately took their details and contacted Geetha Maam over mobile. She contacted the tailor so that we could get the uniform as soon as possible. But tailor said he can not do anything until he take their measurement. I then took both of them and ran from stage till manufacturing lab. Tailor took their measurements and gave them uniforms. They immediately changed their dress and we again ran back to the stage. Manoj Sir was very happy to see them in uniform.WOW!!  you won’t  believe, these students were there in stage with uniforms and id cards in less than 10 minutes. This was a great achievement. I can never forget this.I then stood near the stage itself, expecting such cases. Thank God there were no more.

Beloved AMMA was about to reach and all last moment preparations were going on. A huge crowd had gathered near the stage to see Actor Mohan Lal(A well known film star of Malayalam movies), because of the huge crowd I had to temporarily shift my department from Vidyamritam to Crowd Control. It was a tough time. People were shouting slogans for Mohan Lal, screaming, pushing. My God!!! A small action from Police Officers were also seen. They were also helping us to control the crowd. It was really a great experience. Crowd was in control only after Mohan Lal left.

At 8pm, after bhajans volunteers took them for dinner and then they were seated to their respective counters. Faculty and volunteers distributed the cheque of Rs 450/- to each beneficiary. After the cheque distribution volunteers took all the beneficiary for AMMA’s darshan. They were then taken to their respective rooms. At around 11pm everything was done and darshan was about to get over. Me and Aishwarya then went to each room and confirmed that there were no missing cases. Apparently we were all afraid of missing cases because of the crowd, but must appreciate the volunteers, they did a fantastic job.

Unforgettable experience at AMMA’s 56th B’Day – 1

I am sure those who read this will definitely enjoy this. Thus I am expecting lots of comments from all my friends. I know its huge but please don’t skip anything in between… . So let me start.

I am going to share my 4 days’ experience at AMMA’s(Mata Amritanandmayi Devi) Bday celebrated here in amritapuri. This time the main event for AMMA’s bday was vidyamritam. Let me tell you something about vidyamritam first.(If you know about vidyamritam you can very well skip and move to the next paragraph)

Vidyamritam is a scholarship scheme for students, initiated by Mata Amritanandmayi Math(MAM) about 2 years back in Sept 2007.About 35,000 students benefits under this scheme. These are students(here after termed as beneficiaries) from 6th STD till 12th STD and are from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.These beneficiaries are selected on the basis of :-

1. Orphans.

2. Semi-Orphans.

3. Below Poverty Line(BPL).

MAM provides scholarship of Rs. 1800/- to each beneficiary every year in installments. Kerala alone covers nearly 12,000 beneficiaries. Apart from this scholarship various competition like elocution, pencil sketching, painting, poetry writing and essay writing were organized across the state of Kerala. This was first phase. Second phase was Semi-finals and Finals which was held at amritapuri itself. First prize winner was awarded a prize of Rs.5,000/-, Second prize winner was awarded with Rs.3,000/-, Third was given Rs.2,000/-. Apart from this there were 5 consolation prizes worth Rs.500/- each were also given.  Around 9,000 beneficiaries were expected to be here in amritapuri from all over Kerala. It was also expected that atleast 1 parent will accompany them. So in total we were expecting around 19,000 to 20,000 people for this vidyamritam program from all over Kerala. Beneficiaries were given their first installment of Rs. 450/-.

Many of us gave names as vidyamritam volunteers to the concerned faculty. Next day(22nd Sep, 2009), I was shocked to hear from my HOD that I was selected as a Student Coordinator from Amritapuri Campus for vidyamritam. Since I was knowing about vidyamritam I was having 2 expressions on my face. One was, I was extremely happy that I am given this opportunity and other was I was quite tensed thinking of those big numbers which were in thousands. Apart from vidyamritam there were 13 other areas like crowd control, plate washing, food serving, stage decoration, media, drinking water etc..etc.. where volunteers were required. For each of these department 2 student Coordinator were selected. On 22nd Sept, 2009, there was a meeting of all the student coordinators, where I came to know that my the colleague is Aishwarya from S5 BSc CS. We also came to know that the overall faculty coordinator for vidyamritam was Br. Anand shenoy. There were two more faculty co-ordinators. They were Miss Geetha M, HOD Department of Information Technology and Mr. Binu P K, faculty Department of Computer Science and Engineering.