Birth Of An Empire

 

INTRODUCTION

 

      'People who are able of making significant sacrifice are the one making a difference '

 

   This blog is all about a man who is the reason of many students hope and holistic knowledge. Mr. R.Harigaran the founder and president of Swami Vivekananda Sevai Maiyam. This NGO is running since 2007 in Thiruvottriyur, Chennai. For 14 years he is educating students without any expectations.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

    Now their current project is School4Change which is started in the motive of providing holistic education and learning to the students. Now I'm presenting you  The outline of the nightschool.

 

SINGLE MAN

 

Q  "How and from when you started the service works?"

A  "I started this service activities after I joined my first year college in 2005. At first we saved rice and accumulated that at the end of the month we used to distribute the rice to the orphanage, elderly people homes and blind people orphanage.

       And I've took part in the entire medical and blood donate camps as a volunteer in Saturday and Sunday's and I also used to donate blood once in six months."

Q  "Can you please explain about your experience when you were doing the rice collecting service?"

A  "When I first began, me and my friends joined hands to this service. Everyday when parents prepare rice for cooking we exclude one hand full of rice from that and at the end of the month we saved like 1kg to 1.5kg per person. And we distributed rise to orphanage and all.

    First 4 years we approached many people for rice, cause the people who were in need of rice was high but the quantity of rice we had at the end of the month was comparatively low.

     Every people we reached out were ready to contribute, but they didn't actually.  The reason was our age at that time. This society has lots of trust issues with young adults and teenagers.

     First 4 years we just collected 15kg to 20 kg of rice at the end of the month. But after that at some point we've got around 200kg and more of rice per month.  I know it's a massive shift in numbers but because of our consistency, we gained trust from many people. The more people that trust you, the more responsibility you need to carry.

      Many people also told us they knew lots of families who were all poor and in need of the basic necessaries. Back then all we could provide was rice, so we thought to do what we could. We visited their places for an inspection to know their needs and helped them out in possible ways that we could."

 

JUST A DREAM

 

Q  "First you were just providing rice then how you thought about giving education?"

A  "It came up as a simple question, but that changed the whole thing. The question is 

'Now I'm here to provide them for dining and what if I'm not here to give them anymore?'

      After giving it lots of thoughts the conclusion I met with was if they happened to get the proper education then they can feed themselves. That's why I decided to start a nightschool and educate the students who have no awareness of education."

 

Q "What was your vision for the distanced future before you start this nightschool?"

A "I wanted to make our next generation to stand for themselves. I thought that academics alone won’t do any good to students and I still think so. I dreamed to teach them life skills to make our next students society a bold, self discipline and self reliable one. Bold enough to face the obstacles and fear. Discipline enough to change there life to the better."

HIT OF THE REALITY

 

Q "From where you started your mission?"

A "Yes, mainly I decided that I need to give education then I was in a search of whom I need to educate. I chose 3 bus stops in Thiruvottriyur where students would eventually gather after school hours. I asked many students that why they were getting education some of them said they want to become something because they like it or their parents like it. Some of them said they just enjoy meeting with friends.

     Then most of them said they didn’t even knew why they were getting education and these students were from government schools, after lots of studies I decided to educate the sea shore side people of Thiruvottriyur. "

Q  "What you found so difficult in teaching to those students?"

A  "On the first day of nightschool there were only 7 students. The first hindrance was to gain parents trust and the other one was to teach the students self discipline.

    I was a single teacher at that time. After we moved to the Vivekananda School, students were divided and seated in 3 classes. I was the only one that handled all three classes so that was a really hard task but still that's a great experience. "

 

Q  “What were the problems you faced in this society?"

A "As I said I was a single man handling over 100 students, because of that I couldn't get a job which would suit for my schedule. I was jobless for 7 years. Not because that I couldn't get a job, I even rejected the job offer that I got from US. Because of that I faced a lot of mental pressure from this society. At all cast my mom stood by my side even when everyone was against me."

 

 

VOLUNTEERS OF THE FUTURE

 

Q "What do you think your biggest asset is?"

A "My teachers are the biggest asset to me"

Q  "Okay, then how the first batch of teachers approached you?"

A  "They just came front and asked me, that's it."

 

Q  "Just because they asked you, you let them come as a teacher?"

A  "To be honest I motivated them to become a teacher cause when it comes to service everything is about voluntary skill. Here they are teaching the students so we call then teachers but actually they are volunteers.

      Even though I motivated them, it all happened because of their self interest.  When they asked me I just welcomed them whole heartedly. After that many batches of students volunteered as teachers so I started to conduct interview from 2013."

 

Q  "Any reason for interview and what kind of questions will be in the interview?"

A  "Yes there is a reason. This nightschool is all about growth. I need volunteers who have growth mind-set, who will improve students and themselves as well. That's why I decided to conduct interview. The question will be like

       "If I give you responsibility over 50 students and what will be the improvement that you make in students"

     These kinds of questions will show the point of view of the volunteers."

BATTLE OF SURVIVAL

 

Q  "The problem you happened to encounter after all this time?"

A  "After all this time has passed but even then some people muster the courage to say that I was doing all this for nothing and it's a waste of time. Even after many years passed since the beginning lots of my relatives discouraged me and some of my friends backstabbed me. At the end I overcame all that and now no one can say this is waste, I just proved them that this is worth a jump."

 

UNSHAKEABLE EMPIRE

 

Q  "What is the biggest pillar of this nightschool?"

A  "The confidence and courage that I held in myself.  These are the true things which kept me going and still keep me in this path. I started this nightschool without expecting anyone to stand by my side and now I have teachers here with me. Even if they left I can and I will stand alone and run this nightschool towards its biggest vision and the greatest future of the students. So it's me, I'm the pillar of this nightschool."

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

     From this nightschool over 3000 and more students have passed out. They became their own brand than the product of this society. Dream of Mr. R. Harigaran the founder president of Swami Vivekananda Sevai Maiyam is to build a school that gives a holistic education. 

As a common human being in this society I wish all the students gets this kind of education to understand everything in a better way.