mAkE a DiFFerEnCe !

If you are passionate about something, how far would you go for it? Today, I witnessed how much some people can actually go in it. All thanks to a mail that had dropped in my facebook account by Puneet, a couple of months back. It’s a MAD, MAD world out there, and I love being a part of it!

2006: A group of youngsters, leaded by 22-year-old Jithin Nedumala, started out on a journey to teach the children at a children’s home in their home town. Initiated as a noble cause, however, the youngsters started realizing the reality of the situation. More importantly, they realized that they could improve the situation. Make A Difference was born. And the rest was history. Spanning across cities like Cochin, Chennai and Pune and winning accolades, MAD had really started making a difference. And then it decided to venture into the maximum city, the metro with a live heart. Mumbai was all set to go MAD, and today was the first official workshop, which I got to attend and be a part of.

2009: The Mumbai chapter of MAD has primarily been actively promoted, organized and managed by a bunch of energetic youths from the NMIMS College. They were glad to see a non-NMIMS make it to the workshop, as much as I was glad to be a part of them. The venue was at St. Joseph’s high school, Vile Parle. After most of the volunteers turned up, the workshop kicked off with an ice breaking session which was, in my honest opinion, one of the most incredible programs ever! We were all given a sheet of paper with a couple of questions relating to numbers and places, such as the size of our footwear, the number of ex’s, your favorite honeymoon destination and local railway station. After figuring out these numbers, everyone was asked to gather up in the middle of the hall and start hunting for other people in the room with same numbers and places as you had. An intelligently designed program, it was an instantaneous hit amongst all of us! Everyone was shouting “Churchgate”(obvious one, isn’t it?), “Seven” (foot size), “Paris” (honeymoon), “two” (ex’s) at the top of their voices, with some hilarious entries like “Seawoods” for favorite station, “Mount Everest base camp” as a honeymoon location, and a whooping 14 number of ex’s! The program ended with each one of us knowing each other a lot more, and the ice had melted away!

This was followed by an orientation programme which explained the birth and mission of MAD in brief. An emotionally touching presentation brought us back to the primary reason why we were all here for. The sense of unity was vibrant as the participants started opening up their cogitations. Our differences were kept aside, and we all realized the moral responsibility that we were about to shoulder by committing towards MAD.  

After this session, the whole group was divided into teams of four, and each one of them was presented with a situation most likely to experience during teaching at the centers. The teams were supposed to understand and analyze the scenario, and brainstorm on possible solutions to overcome such situations. This really bought all of us in the groove of the situation, and as the teams presented their solutions, a healthy discussion would follow (Yash – I couldn’t help mentioning your name here!). It was a fabulous way to express each other’s opinions and broaden our visions.

The next program on the list was again team based, but this time it carried a different spice. Each team was supposed to work as the core committee of MAD, and think up of designing a logo, a jingle, a T-Shirt design, ways to raising funds and ideas to foster the organization amongst the youth. I particularly enjoyed this activity a lot, since it was years since I was dipping my fingers in poster colored bottles and painting on paper! Letting our imagination run wild, we all expressed our ideas and concepts in strokes of colors and papers. During this program, the personal interviews of the volunteers also initiated. As this creative session came to an end, we started with another game – taboo. Unfortunately for us, Natasha had somehow hoodwinked the whole game, as she kept winning round after round, earning a perk on every win! Finally, we decided to debar her from the game, and started with dumb charade. As a result of all these games, we never realized the pace of interviews, until our turn came in. The interviews were pretty decent, with a few questions designed to judge one’s reactive abilities.      

         On the whole, I had a truly nostalgic experience, it felt like going back to my college years and the NSS experiences. Only that MAD was a lot more fun, had a lot more interactive sessions than I had expected, and made me feel great at the end of the day! It’s the pure energy of these youngsters, there’s something addictive about it – you tend to fall for it, and if you really want to get high, then think of joining us! Be ready to embark upon yourself the moral responsibility of making a difference towards our society, by empowering the youth with street smart education. It’s the need of the hour for our nation, and there is indeed a lot that YOU can do! For starters, you can click here. Understand what MAD is all about, what the programs are, and what are different ways in which YOU can contribute for this society. Last, but certainly not the least, if you can’t be MAD, then spread the word. 

Even that Makes A Difference.