It is really an excellent and it is quite surprise that staying in Chennai not aware of this.
At least now this is brought out by a worthful group to get popularise and the services are really commendable.
Siga
--- On Tue, 28/7/09, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.
> From: Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.
> Subject: [India_Vision_
> To: "India Vision group" <India_Vision_
> Date: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009, 10:41 PM
> Dear friends
> When Dr Abdul Kalam
> gave the concept of India 2020 a decade back, Mr M A
> Balasubramanian (now 59) started thinking of 'Why not
> Kodambakkam 2020?'. He has been running a small tea
> stall with the name 'Bharathi snacks'. Bharathi was
> a great National poet, who inspired many people for freedom
> struggle. Bharathi's poems were banned by the then
> British rule and he had to live in Pondicherry, which was
> then under French rule. Right from childhoold,
> Balasubramanian used to take part actively in social service
> and also promote the awareness about National
> leaders.
>
>
> When I
> heard about 'Kodambakkam 2020', i could not resist
> the temptation of meeting him at his tiny tea stall on last
> Sunday. When you enter the small 10feet by 10 feet shop,
> you will find the pictures of National leaders like Mahatma
> Gandhi, Dr Abdul Kalam and great poets like Thiruvalluvar,
> Bharathiyar and spirtual leaders like Vallalar on the
> walls.
>
>
> Probably, many of
> the readers may know Kodambakkam as the Hollywood of
> Chennai, where many of the Indian movies are made. On the
> other side, this area is the locality of poor and lower
> middle class people. This tea stall is situation in this
> locality, catering to the lower middle class and poor
> people.
>
>
> "Many young
> people visiting my tea stall, used to ask me about the
> National leaders. Some of them got inspired. In the year
> 2000, around 10 of us decided to start a movement to make
> Kodambakkam as the ideal place for living by 2020 and we
> named this initiative as 'Kodambakkam 2020' in line
> with India 2020. To achieve this vision, we formed an
> informal group called 'Nallore Vattam' (meaning
> forum for good people)" says Mr Balasubramanian.
>
>
>
> Over the period of
> nine years, this initiative has grown effectively, with
> more than 1000 members (most of them youngsters). They have
> divided their activities into 26 categories like blood
> donation, environment, poor feeding, education, awareness
> for eye donation, yoga classes, etc. This organisation
> Nallore Vattam does not have any President, Treasurer,
> Secretary, etc, It is a flat organistion with Mr
> Balasubramanian and another young professional Venkatesh as
> convenors. They have one in-charge person for all the 26
> activities. They have not been collecting any money from
> anybody for the past 9 years. All the activities are
> supported with the help of sponsors, who take care of the
> expenses directly.
>
>
> The in-charge
> persons of the activities meet on every Sunday evening at 4
> PM sharp for the past 9 years regularly, and discuss their
> activities. Some of the interesting initiatives done by
> this team:
>
>
> 1. Rapid Action
> Service : On the birthdays of Mahakavi Bharathiyar and Dr
> Abdul Kalam, 150 members assemble in one particular colony
> or area ay 7 AM and start their service like clearning the
> street, creating awareness on various issues like health
> care, envronment, etc. to the people, planting of trees,
> etc. They do this service till the evening. "Of
> course, we also inform the residents in advance about this
> Rapid Action Service and 50 percent of the residents join us
> in the activities. Our Rapid Action creates awareness
> amongst the residents to keep their area as a model area.
> So far, in the past three years, we have done in 9
> places", says proudly Mr K Venkadesan, Convenor for
> Kodambakkam 2020 initiative. Mr Venkadesan is an MBA
> graduate working in a software company.
>
>
> 2. On 5th of every
> month, the volunteers collect 'one rupee' donation
> from various people, including schools and other
> organistions. The entire amount is donated to one of the
> orphanages or old age homes in their list. They get the
> receipt from these orphanages in the name of donor
> institutions. "Every month we collect around Rs.3000
> to 4000/- like this from various schools and instittuions
> and help the orphanages. Through this service, the donors
> also get to know of thse orphanages and establish contacts
> directly with them for helping such activities", says
> Mr Vivekanandan, 12th standard student in the nearby
> Corporation School and who is also incharge of poor feeding.
>
>
>
> 3. Nallore Vattam
> has another initiative to bring together like minded
> organisations for working together. This initiative is
> known as "Third Sakthi" (first two being
> Government and politics and third one being the people
> sakthi). On the last Saturday of every month,
> representatives of various NGOs meet together regularly
> (for the past three years) and work out strategies for
> coordination. Nearly 100 such NGOs are in their network.
>
>
>
> 4. Besides, they
> also conduct regular free yoga classes, personality
> development classes for poor students. Mr Murugan, another
> young person is in charge of Yoga Centre.
>
>
> If I start
> describing these 26 activities, it may take few more pages.
> I was highly impressed with the pictures taken by them
> during the various activities.
>
>
> "I am running
> the tea stall here. Many of my own customers are part of
> this noble initiative. They are all residents of this area.
> Defintiely, we will achieve Kodambakkam 2020, well ahead of
> our vision. This is our humble contribution to our
> Nation" says Mr Balasubramanian with a sense of
> satisfaction.
>
>
> India Vision Group
> salutes Mr Balasubramanian and his team for the great
> initiative. Like Kodambakkam 2020, every ward, village,
> town, district, state should have a vision and work towards
> this.
>
>
> Mr Balasubramanian
> may be reached over mobile 91 97910 05771 or through email
> at kodambakkam2020@
> gmail.com
>
>
> SrinivasanModerator
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