Graduation Day

Dear all, I’m happy to inform that I have successfully completed Deshpande Fellowship Program. We had Graduation Ceremony on 18/08/2011. I was wonderful moment for me because I feel completing Deshpande Fellowship Program is an achievement. It was wonderful time we spent in Deshpande Foundation, I enjoyed each and every day of fellowship journey. It is a great place to learn the things. Every day I learned something new here in Deshpande Foundation and I could able to meet new personalities from different profession. Teaching methods are very effective and joyful. Each and every fellows will get personal attention, it helps to improve and correct our weakness. We were treated as a guest on the Graduation Day, We received great honor on Graduation Day. I Thank management, members of the staff and Cohort 7 fellows for organizing such a wonderful show.  I thank DFP team, Instructors and staffs who helped me in my fellowship journey.

                        I’m happy to inform you that with all your good wishes I got a job in TiE Hubli as a Program Manager. I seek your help and support in my professional life also.

Fund Raising Event

We, the Fellows of Deshpande Fellowship Program, have organized the “Charity Drama show Natakotsava” in collaboration with Rangayana Mysore. This charity show was organized to help to improve the health and education of HIV-infected, orphan children in Dharwad, and also to encourage theater and young theater artists in Karnataka. The show was held on 28^th and 29^th of July 2011 in Deshpande Foundation Auditorium at BVB Engineering College campus, Vidyanagar, Hubli. It was a challenge for us to raise funds for the event. We have approached most of the traders, businessmen and many companies to sponsor for this event but they didn’t come forward to sponsor for this event. We tried to make this event as successful but we failed in raising funds. While working on the event I really learn a lot, this learning will remain as a part of my life forever. We could able to meet lots of well known personalities in Hubli-Dharwad region. Through this event I realize that our plans will not work  according to the plan, we need to plan well in advance to make it successful. I think I wont make any mistakes in future while organizing big budget events. I don’t regret myself loosing big amount of money but I gain experience which is worth than money. It made me more confident and skillful to handle the events in future. I thank all my co-fellows Mr.Mallikarjun, Mr.Ravi, Mr.Innus Khan and Ms. Margarate for their help and support to organize this event.

Fundraising Event Preparation

Dear all, in Deshpande Fellowship Program as a part of fundraising module I’m busy with preparation of  fundraising event . We are four in our team. We have planned to organize a Charity Show ‘Natakotsava’ in collaboration with Rangayana Mysore. Two comedy dramas will be played by Rangayana team. The show will be held in Deshpande Foundation Auditorium on 28th and 29th, July, 2011. I’m approaching donors and sponsors for the sponsorship. It was really tough task to convince donors to get fund for our event. It is really a challenging task for me to search sponsors and to approach them. Personally I’m learning many things from this preparation. Approaching donors and explaining them about the event is made me more confident and to be more clear about the event. Sponsors will ask many questions about the event so we need to be  clear about the event and should be able to explain them very clearly to make them understand. I’m trying hard to get sponsorship for the event. Hope it will be successful one. Dear friends you can suggest me how can I approach donors and what strategies I need to follow. Your suggestion will be considered.

Guest Speaker Session by Mr.Abhay

On 8^th July we had a session by Mr. Abhay who is an activist and social worker. He is basically an Engineer who worked for multinational company in Bangalore. Since 10 year he had been working in development sector. He founded an organisation called Prerana in Raichur District of Karnataka. He is well known for his advocacy works in the north Karnataka. He works for women related issues in northern Karnataka region. He mainly works for the empowerment of the women and children. He started working for Devadasis to bring them out from that meaningless practice. He influenced state government and local authority to work on this issue. He found an association called Nava Jeevana Mahila Okkuta of women. Members of this association work for the development of their community in Raichur. They are trained and given awareness on various issues by the organisation. They also give Education for the children of the Nava Jeevana Mahila Okkuta members. More than 1200 children’s are sponsored by Infosys Foundation.

            Mr. Abhay is an activists he influenced government on many issue to pass the bill. From 2006 onwards he is working on NREGA implementation. He encourages members of okkuta to take lead in NREGA issue, so that people get employment in the village itself. Okkuta women members participate in the Gram Sabha and contribute in planning and implementation of the various programs. Interesting part is they work on all the issues which normally villages face.

            It was really inspirational one. His speech was motivated me to work with rural community. To work in development sector we need to have passion and commitment towards work. I’m really lucky to meet person like Mr. Abhay. He is a real hero who brought life into thousands of poor people in Raichur.  I thank Abhay sir for sharing his experience and views about development sector. 

Workshop by Mr.Prasanna Sir

On 07^th and 8^th of July, we had workshop by well known personality Mr. Prasanna Sir from Charaka (Desi). He is the founder of Charaka Organisation it is a women’s co-operative society in Bhimanakone village in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district in Karnataka. Charaka produces naturally dyed cotton handloom garments, which are sold under the ‘Desi’ brand name across the state. The co-operative employs nearly 200 women and has a decent turnover of crores of rupees. He is well known theater artist as well as writer and director. He took a session on Entrepreneurship and Leadership, after his session I understood that Entrepreneurs and the leaders have similar qualities to lead people. Both of them need to have commitment, excellent communication skills, patience, and courage to take decision. He taught us about presentation skills, I think it was interesting to listen to him. He conducted practical session on presentation with reading exercises. He gave his feedback for all the fellows to improve their skills. He also gave some inputs to present the matter with clarity. He gave many tong twister exercises to improve our pronunciation and clarity of speech. He gave some of the important tips to improve body language and eye contact. We had role-play session and in this we need to act different roles on the stage, based on our performance he gave us valuable suggestions to improve our body language. He suggested us to sing many songs because that is one of the ways to improve pronunciation and clarity of speech. He is the person who is very much concerned about language and culture of this country. He also suggested us to develop passion towards mother tong and own culture because each and every practice have meaning in it. We got enough knowledge about theater. After listening to Prasanna sir I think I need to work on my communication. I need to change my way of communication. I’m really looking forward to meet and attend his workshops to gain more knowledge. I’m interested to visit Charaka organisation to know how the organisation is running. I thank Prasanna Sir for sharing his knowledge and views about language, theater, entrepreneurship and leadership.

5K Challenge Result

Dear all on 04/07/2011 Mr.Shashidhar sir DFP marketing instructor announced 5k challenge winners in the classroom. It was a surprise for me and my co-fellows that we got first place in this challenge. I’m very happy to get this award because we were never expected that we will get this award. I feel that this award is not for the profit we made out of investment but this is the recognition for our hard work and effort we put in during marketing. Award has given based on the transactions and investment we made during 5K challenge. I thank my co-fellows Mr.Mallikarjun and Mr.Shivakumar Yadav for their sincere efforts and hard work during 5K challenge.

5K Challenge, Marketing

Dear all we had one week 5K challenge module in Deshpande Fellowship Program, in this module fellows will be divided into group of two people they will be given 5000 Rs. fellows have to invest this amount in business. We need to do marketing as I was alone so I joined my co-fellows Mr. Mallikarjun and Shivakumar Yadav. We invested amount in buying branded shirts, T-shirts, umbrellas and rain caps. We purchased in wholesale market and sold in different places in Hubli. On first day we purchased only 1 dozen of rain caps, we invested around 350 and sold in Kalaghatagi. We purchased it for 25Rs per cap and sold it for 40 Rs. It made us more confident to sell more things in Hubli. Second day we bought branded Shirts, T-shirts and Umbrellas and sold it in Hubli only. It was challenging for us to convince customers about the quality of products, people never believed us as we are new to market. We purchased umbrellas for 55-65 Rs. in Wholesale and sold it for 75 Rs. it gave us more profit. we struggled to sell shirts and T-shirts so we took 3 days for those to sell. Finally we didn’t able to sell all the materials which we bought. But at the end of the module we made 3040 Rs. profit. We really got the marketing experience, I think individual learn many things by doing and experiencing. It made me to change my attitude towards marketing. I really understood the difficulties of the people who are involved in marketing. It was very hard time for us to stand for whole day and carrying materials from one place to another. I really enjoyed one week marketing module because it taught me how to deal with stranger. Marketing completely depends on how you present yourself to the stranger or customer. It required lot of patience to deal with customers.

Leadership Activity- World Environment Day Celebration

Dear all, as a part of our leadership activity in Deshpande Fellowship Program we celebrated World Environment day on 06/06/2011 in A.Basavanakoppa Government Primary School  in Kalaghatagi. To create an interest among the school children and teachers about the environment we decided to celebrate world environment day in a meaningful action not in words. We decided to plant more than 50 plants in school campus.  We approached Forest Department for the plants they agreed to give 50 plants for our leadership activity as we as concern about environment. With collaboration of Shikshana Foundation Kalaghatagi we implemented this activity in A.Basavanakoppa Government School Kalaghatagi. It was memorable experience for me and my friends as we involved in activity which is really a matter of concern.This is the right time to think about environment. We planted 50 plants with help of school children, teacher and villagers their involvement boosted us to plant more plants. After the plantation we made sure that each plant will be taken care by two students of the school and some plants will look after by the villagers. I think each school should have at least 10 trees in it campus. World environment day is celebrated in many organisations but it is just in word not action oriented. Our life will become miserable after some years we may not find much trees in the nature. Every year temperature of the earth is raising above the normal level this is the sign of danger. This is the small effort from our side to protect mother earth. I rally thankful to Shikshana Foundation, Forest Department, Kalaghatagi and Deshpande Foundation for their supports and encouragement. Special thanks to my co-fellows Shivakumar Yadav, Mallikarjun, Ajit K for their contribution and help to organize world environment day.
Link:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=228718667138430&set=pu.112855385391426&type=1&theater

World Environment Day

Dear all, World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 June every year in more than 100 countries. World Environment Day was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. Our planet is in trouble!!!!! Almost every day we seem to hear of yet another problem affecting the environment – and what a list of problems we are creating day by day!!!! – Pollution, Acid Rain, Climate Change/ Global Warming, Waste etc.

We humans create such a lot of rubbish or waste. Most of this is taken away by dustmen and buried in enormous landfill sites or burned in incinerators – both of these actions can be dangerous for the environment. Only solution to this problem is collect all dry waste materials and recycling it for reuse. There are 5 R’s of waste management they are as follows

1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle
4. Recover
5. Repair

 Things to be remembered:

• Organic matter like food substances can be uses as fertilizers for plants.
• Waste like newspaper, magazines, and bottles can be reusable.
• Use recycled paper to save trees.
• Say no to plastics.

Mr. Mahantesh GK, Founder of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled.

Dear all, on 30/05/2011 we had guest lecture by Mr. Mahantesh G K founder of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled. He is visually impaired and highly qualified person. Though he is visually impaired but his achievements are really great. He shared his life journey with DFP6 fellows during his visit to Deshpande Foundation, Hubli. He was born in a village called Neginala in Bailahongal taluk of Belgaum District. He completed his early education in Ramana Maharishi school Bangalore and his Post Graduation studies in English Literature from Bangalore university. Mahantesh sir lost his eye sight due to typhoid at a very early age. After experiencing so much in life with a aim to guide and encourage visually and physically challenged children to provide education and to pursue higher studies he, along with two other visually impaired friends, in the year 1997 he started an organisation called ‘Samarthanam Trust For The Disabled’ in Bangalore. the word ‘Samarthanam’ means capable in Sanskrit. Samarthanam provides free lodging, boarding and education to the visually impaired, physically and economically challenged students. Samrthanam also provides free computer training to its students. The students of Samarthanam have represented India in the “World cup cricket Tournament for the Blind -1998 and 2002”.

According to Mahantesh sir there are 6 D’s which plays very important role in an individuals life.

• Dream
• Desire 
• Dedication 
• Discipline
• Determination 
• Destiny   

He said if we want to achieve something in our life these 6D’s should be very clear and need to follow these in life. To achieve success we need to believe in ourselves and need to be more confident. I was really motivated by his speech and his work. He inspired me to work hard and to be humble in life. He always believe in sharing so it made me to think in his perspective and to give small contribution to the society.