A Play on Swami Vivekananda by Shekhar Sen.
Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) Delhi organized a year end function -
'A solo play on Swami Vivkenanda's Life', on the 26th of December,2004 at Siri Fort auditorium, New Delhi. Filled to capacity the programme was a huge success.
Inaugurating the programme, the national coordinator of Ekal Vidyalaya Movement (EVM) Shri Shyam Gupta outlined the brief history of FTS and gave an overview of the work of Ekal vidyalayas. Identifying the words of Swami Vivekanand ‘if a poor boy cannot go to a school, then a school must go to him’, with what the ekal vidyalaya programme is doing, Shyam ji said that the ekal vidyalaya movement aims to bring the light of literacy to 100,000 villages by the year 2011.
The evening’s programme Swami Vivekanand’ had been conceived, directed & acted by Shri Shekhar Sen. Multi-faceted and versatile, Shekhar Sen’s solo performance kept the 1200 strong audience spellbound. He skillfully presented the life story of Vivekanand and brought him alive on stage. Not just Vivekanand but all those characters relating to his life were portrayed with a lot of panache.
The Chief Guest, Shri Kashinath Mimani, President of the P.H.D.Chamber of Commerce, appreciated the efforts of FTS .Those present on the dais included the Chairman of Salora International, Shri Sitaram Jivrajka, which had organized the programme , Managing Director of Indorama, Shri Om Lohia and Dr. Basant Tariyal from Atlanta,USA.
Radiant Childhood
Chinmay Surpur, a resident of Cupertino, CA turned 7yrs on July 24th' 04. At this age, most of the children look forward to receiving gifts on their birthdays. But Chinmay didn't. Instead he was looking forward to give something to the society. He decided well in advance that he wouldn't accept any gifts from his friends. Instead he wanted them to donate the same gift money to EkalVidyalaya. He asked them to bring cash or check made out to EkalVidyalaya.
On his birthday, he made a nice gift-wrapped donation box with a hole in it. He collected over a hundred dollars on his birthday! On July 25th at the Sushil Baweja fundraising concert, he brought this box to present it to the EkalVidyalaya Bay area coordinator. He was called on the stage where he explained what he did receiving a thunderous applause. Chandra Jaiswal who is the main coordinator for EkalVidyalaya in Bay Area called Chinmay the youngest member of EkalVidyalaya family.
Chinmay later went around the concert hall with his gift box and collected over a $700 in donations that day. That amount is close enough to run about 2 schools for an entire year. What better way can one think of celebrating a birthday?
Chinmay has shown us that age is not a bar for "Giving". Even a child of his age can give and make a difference in the lives of others. He has given the light of education to his underprivileged brothers and sisters in India.
Ekal website
The new Ekal Website
www.ekal.org or
www.ekalvidya.org incorporates a host of features not available on the earlier site. We propose to get you acquainted with its numerous features one by one through a regular column on the Ekal News. One of the features is a page for each of the areas which would contain all the information of that area, regarding forthcoming events, reports of previous events, pictures and local contact information. This page can be viewed by clicking on the \'Support Us\' link on the home page of the website and going to the link: \'In Your Area\'. You could then choose the region of your choice from the menu to get the desired information.
