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At Great Lakes Institute of Management, it is part of the course on Intelligently Interacting with Others to do a Karma-Yoga Project. In essence, it is social service. 'Karma' means Action, 'Yoga' means Meditation (well, a crude definition). So it is 'Meditation through
Action', in raw terms. But is it? Well, that’s what it says.

Every group (consisting of 4-5 members) is required to put in at least 3 hours of field work every week, working with people from the under-privileged sections of society. When Prof. Venkat told us about the Karma-Yoga Project, most of us were unhappy about it. Not that its unimportant (I’ve been part of CSR activities in the companies I’ve worked in), but, I mean, we don’t have 2 hours to spare given the grind here at Great Lakes, and now we are to put in 3 hours for this? To top it all, no two groups were to be associated with the same target group (same NGO).

Reluctantly, all of us searched far and wide (actually as close to the college as possible, so as to waste the least amount of time in transportation, etc.) to find an NGO that we could be associated with. After a few hiccups, my group finally zeroed in on Puthiyadhor. This NGO works with children of day-laborers of the Besant Nagar area of Chennai. They study in classes Ist to XIIth.

It's a government-run community center where the children come to play, mingle, learn, etc., during the vacation time. During school time, it also serves as a tuition center to teach the children. Mind you, it’s a government run community center. So it is a luxury to have a fan there that is in good working condition. And all it does is to circulate the hot and humid air already present, what with the ventilation being next to non-existent.

After having interacted with some of the other NGOs for the Karma-Yoga Project, we had built up a mental picture that while NGOs were sincere in their approach to help the needy, they had got bogged down by innumerable requests from groups like us who come in for small periods of time so much so that they viewed us with suspicion and contempt. They said they would dictate the kind of work we do. But at Puthiyadhor, it is very different indeed. It is run by mainly two people - Mr. Balaji and Mr. Vinod. They welcomed us and told us we have complete freedom in what we contribute as long as it benefits the children there.

On the first day, we met a few children too. They took us around showing us the presentations that they had made using chart paper (they were presenting facts and figures of each state in India each day). The children showed no qualms in interacting with us and after feeling content that we had chosen the right place, we returned after spending close to 2 hours there. It was pretty stressful that day, and by the time I got back, I had a splitting headache and was wondering how I would cope for the next 18 weeks of this (I get these splitting headaches, if I am out in the heat for a little while). And then this week happened.

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* Contributed by -
George Mathew,
Student, Batch of 2009,
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.
Article posted on August 18, 2008.