Spreading the Smile on Sankranti
“A smile is the
most contagious illness in the world, and we at Bhopal Round Table want to
embrace it with both hands.” Tr. Animesh Jain
We inaugurated the Bhopal Round Table on the 10th
of January, 2015; and decided to meet on the 14th or 15th
to take stock of things and decide on the future course of action. While we
were discussing the agenda of the next meeting, Tr. Yogesh Dang and Tr. Sameer
Ismail came up with the idea of clubbing the meeting with Sankranti
celebrations, which would not be limited amongst ourselves but with slum
children. All this happened on the 12th of January, and we thought
how will we be able to arrange for everything, but as it is said where there is
a will there is a way all of us came together and planned the event as a
combination of Kite Flying drawing and other fun activities for kids followed
by lunch on Sankranti.
Tr. Sameer pitched in and made arrangements to assemble kids
from nearby slums in the area of Koh-e-fiza, what started as an idea for a fun
morning for 50 kids culminated into a big gathering of approximately 200 kids,
which has been quoted as 300 kids by newspapers. The morning had it’s own share
of adventures, when we realized the number of kids is well past our
expectations, Tr. Sachin Agrawal who had arranged for food told us that we will
run out of food, that is when Tr. Neerav Pradhan pitched in and arranged for additional
food from his hotel within an hour.
The event gave all of us a beautiful feeling of fulfilment
and was attended by 12 tablers, the media when it came to know of the activity also
covered it extensively and nearly all Hindi and English dailies of the town had
the news being published.
A special thanks for the event goes to Tr. Yogesh and Tr.
Sameer for the idea, Tr. Sachin and Tr. Neerav for the food, Tr. Karan and Tr.
Animesh for the banner, Tr. Amit for the sweets, Tr. Vinay for the Kites, Tr.
Siddharth for the books. We would also like to thank Tr. Rohit, Tr. Abhijeet,
Tr. Himanshu for attending and supporting the event and making it a grand
success. A special thank should also go to the uncle from the nearby house who
gave us permission to use electricity from his house to power the music system
and Bouncy that was arranged by Tr. Neerav.
This was a zero overheads event in which all the items were
individually funded by tablers who took responsibility and the overall cost of
the event can be put at Rs. 20,000 approximately.
