SADDAC - Together we can make things better

Daund is a small dry dusty town in Western India, about 75km South East of Pune. It is better known as a major Railway Junction, handling trains to and from North, South and East India. Being a major railway station, you find here a number of lost or abandoned street and platform children, most of whom have landed up here from other parts of the country. To cater to this peculiar situation, SADDAC started a shelter Today SADDAC is not just a shelter but a home to the street and platform children. It offers a caring family environment with basic facilities, better health care, nutrition and access to education. SADDAC inculcates values such as cleanliness, self-discipline, self-reliance etc and provides counselling facilities for the psycho-spiritual growth of the children enkindling in them a process of self-realization. SADDAC re-unites the run-away children with their families, shelters the abandoned and educates them in nearby schools, and settles the grown up children in life by job placements.

The social work team of SADDAC visits the railway station regularly and enquires the whereabouts of the wandering children. Many of the run-away children are re-united with their families; and those who have no one to care for them are brought to SADDAC where they begin a new life in a family environment.
Under the able administration and gentle care of Sr. Olive Oliveira (Person-in-Charge of SADDAC) and her team, the children are quick to realize that they are wanted and loved. The care and opportunity provided by SADDAC to enjoy a better childhood today inculcates an attitude to be responsible persons, and thus, to become better citizens for tomorrow(Vishwadeep) for street children in Daund in 1997.

My Official Chai wala - Anna from Kerala

Nothing seems to have changed in the last 365 days..i meet the man every morning for exactly 2 mins..no words spoken ..no signs used..no questions asked..1 dhs & 50 fils exchanged ..parcel taken and gone..
he knows exactly what to deliver and does his job with absolute precision..i call him 'anna' and he is my official chai wala..i moved into the qasimiyah area about a year ago and have been visiting him for my morning cuppa tea ever since..the chai he so fondly cups up for me is called ''Saada'' and initially the only 2 words i had to communicate to him were ''2 Saada'' which means two cups of tea..his technique has been mastered after filling not less than 2,00,000 cups of tea..yes thats the no of cups anna must have served his early mornign customers till date..the cafeteria he works at is called Amjad Cafeteria and is the only one of its kind Mallu cafe in our locality..besides chai they also serve an assortment of other dishes for breakfast such as - kheema paratha / bhurji / puri & sampbhar / masala dosa..etc..

but his most famous offering is his chai..which beats every other chai for miles together..

anna and i share a very strange relationship..he gives me VIP service which i have come to enjoy , anna keeps all his other customers waiting and makes sure i get my saada before everybody else does..his technique is simple - - take 2 disposable cups and place them in style as if he is placing 2 glasses of champagne..now comes his best move..takes the can of rainbow milk and pours little portions of both in the thermocol glasses at an elevated angle..and finally for the grand finish..takes the hot boiling kettle..holds each cup in his hand and beautifully mixes the milk and water together..

after this its pretty much simple..packs the cups in a plastic bag..and hands them over to me..
anna and i have been doing the routine for almost a year now..and every single day the chai tastes the same like yesterday..absolutely fantastic ''anna style''

Straight from my heart

I woke up at 6am today morning and felt quite disturbed with the way i am living my live and the world around me..by the grace of allah and all my hard work - i have all the comfort one could ask for..great bunch of friends..good job..good salary ..great family and etc etc..i infact have come to live a very luxurious life after coming to the UAE..all of this is great ..and i have put in a lot of hard work to get here..but there is something missing..its not love and its not having that someone to share my life with..
I know what it is - its being a better human being and living a more meaningful life..
I feel like the most selfish man on earth right now..when i die and meet god - the first thing he is going to ask me is -so what did you do for others...and honestly i wont have an answer for him then..
I can keep doing what i am doing..work harder..compete and excel and make more money with each passing day..but i keep asking myself..is that what i really want to do and keep doing..
Honestly - I dont think so..I want to begin with helping the less priviledged and less fortunate children in this world..in whatever little way that i can..i know that doing social service is something everybody likes to boast about and it even looks good on your credentials..but very few do it "straight from the heart"..

i have decided to start what i believe in -  at a place called Daund near pune..

( will continue writing this post..Chapter 1 begins here )

Cast Away

'' Speed thrills and kills '' - reads out loud and in big bold words to every speeding motorist on the Pune - Mumbai expressway..In my case it got me stranded and helpless in the middle of nowhere..There I was thinking about my friend Hank and what his helpless self must have done while he was cast away on a remote island..
Jet Skiing -
Wow ! Lets do it.. That's exactly what i first said when my friend Mr Nomani mentioned it to me..Its a superb adrelanine pumping// full on adventure sport thingy..and off we went to Mamzar ( Behind Taawun mall as the instruction mentioned on the card ) .. The shack owner Mr Anwar finally let us have the t(h)rill of our lives after cut throat negi on d price , since it was a friday..200 dhs for 1 hr was fixed after taking the legend -  ''thakur saabs'' bataka as a security deposit. Now that 1 hr of thrill had to be split 50/50 between me and safi as anwar was going to give us only one watermachine..since it was my first time - i decided to go first..basic start n stop instructions and off i went..it was me ..d jetti and the water..we connected from the moment i got on to the thingy..and after sometime it was like we were one..i was finally having the thrill of my life..once i was well averse of my gear i decided to rev up  my tempo and get some more excitement..all was going well until...the all ''gone in water'' thing finally happened..it was a splitsy of a sec..it was more like a bollywood movie - hero jumps off  jet ski to save his heroine and fight the goons..except there were no goons, no ladylove and the only hero in d mov was the 'first timer'..
If there are two people i would like to thank ( actually three people ) it would be allah ,  my mom and the lifeguard who threw me in the pool and teached me how to kick and splash until i learnt what they called ''swimming''- to save my life..
Icing on the cake  - my life jacket came off and there was not a single soul in the vicinity to come to my rescue..not a single soul to even record my fullon murugan style jump of the jetti..somehow i managed to get back to the jetti which was at quite a distance after scaling the towering waves..finally i reached the jetti , but getting on the damn thing was like getting on the back of an elephant..it took me all my strength to pull my body out of the water and on to the jetti..uff what a relief..wait -- -  the nightmare was far from over..
so how do u get this thing started - everything has a key, and so did the jetti , only thing was the key to start the engine was somewhere at the bottom of the ocean..yup - now what ?
i did what we indians are experts at doing - wait..wait for somebody to come arnd and help me..after abt 15 mins guess who came to my rescue - my kings knight in shining armour ( the Dubai Police patrol vehicle )..
im going jet skiing next week again..this time not alone..

REUSE. RECYCLE
What is recycled paper and what is the main objective behind using it?
Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstock for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste.

• Pre-consumer waste is material that was discarded before it was ready for consumer use.

• Post-consumer waste is material discarded after consumer use, including OM (old magazines), OTD (old telephone directories), and RMP (residential mixed paper).

• Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper scrap from the manufacture of paper.
SAVE TREES AND SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. Have you read these words before?

Yes, many times. But have you done anything about it? NO. Why?
• Don’t care

• Doesn’t affect me directly

• Too lazy to go and buy it from a shop where it’s easily available

• Recycled paper looks so boring. I want to use fancy books
So much has been written and spoken about global warming being the biggest threat to the world today. We feel sad for a moment and then it’s forgotten. The world’s population is believed to be approximately 6,708,700,100. Imagine how much paper is used in our day-to-day lives!

Why recycle paper?

• By using waste paper to produce new paper, disposal problems are reduced.

• Producing recycled paper involves between 28 - 70% less energy consumption than virgin paper and uses less water. This is because most of the energy used in papermaking is the pulping needed to turn wood into paper.

• Recycled paper produces fewer polluting emissions to air (95% of air pollution) and water. Recycled paper is not usually re-bleached and where it is, oxygen rather than chlorine is usually used. This reduces the amount of dioxins, which are released into the environment as a by-product of the chlorine bleaching processes.

• Paper is a biodegradable material. This means that when it goes to landfill, as it rots, it produces methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas (20 times more potent than carbon dioxide). It is becoming increasingly accepted that global warming is a reality, and that methane and carbon dioxide emissions have to be reduced to lessen its effects.

And if you didn’t quite understand the above points, just know, that it’s ‘COOL’ to be eco-friendly these days! So if you’re not a part of the eco-friendly team, join now! I promise you two things:

1. You’ll be the coolest person around.

2. It doesn’t take much effort or money. It’s free of cost and guess what, there are unlimited seats!

Just remember. For every tonne of paper used for recycling, the savings are:

• At least 30000litres of water

• 3000 - 4000 KWh electricity (enough for an average 3 bedroom house for one year)

• 95% of air pollution



What can I do to reduce the amount of paper being wasted?

1. Try not to use as much in the first place! Use the back of sheets of paper as well as the front - look to see if that piece of paper you were going to put in the bin could be used as scrap paper for many uses. For example, to make a shopping list, to jot down your dental appointment or to leave a note for someone.

2. Buy recycled paper products wherever possible.

3. Reuse envelopes - sticky labels to cover the old address and re-seal the envelope are widely available, also made from recycled paper. Many charities sell them, so you can support them at the same time.

4. Playgroups and schools may appreciate being given odd rolls of wallpaper, or any other kind of paper, for painting on or for other uses in the classroom. They are also often glad to receive newspapers to cover the tables for craft activities.

5. When you buy a pint of milk or a soft drink, think about the container it is in. Is there an accessible recycling bank for the packaging, or might you end up throwing it away? It would be better to choose the product in the container you know you can dispose of locally for recycling.

6. Contact The Mailing Preference Service (details under further contacts) to avoid receiving unsolicited mail.

7. By putting a "no junk mail" sign by your letterbox you can cut junk mail such as pizza delivery leaflets by around 90%

An Act of Bravery