Tag: Ripples December 2013

Puzzle-IVD2013

Puzzle-IVD2013

Did You Know?

 

“To ease one’s heartache is to forget one’s own”-Abraham Lincoln

 

In line with these verses. A few guys and girls (we are a national YOUTH volunteering organization – Pun intended) turn out every weekend which would have been spent just simply otherwise. They choose; volunteer and keep alive a cause. For such people across the world; a day volunteers itself as the international Volunteer day in line with United Nations on December 5th.

 

It is in international observance since 1985. It offers an opportunity for volunteer organizations and individual volunteers to make visible their contributions – at local, national and international levels – to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The International Volunteer Day is marked by many non-governmental organizations, including Red Cross, scouts and others. It is also marked and supported by United Nations Volunteers.

Source: Wikipedia.Org

puzzle

 

 

Annotations

ACROSS
2   A wave that reflects monthly news (7)-Ripples – A form of wave (“Tagline-Reflections of lakshya”)

3   A project with cash in it (7)-Lakshya-“LAKsHya – LAKH”

7   The rare meeting in an exotic cabin (6) Outing (simple and straight)

8   Following a Greek god who helped his friend (9) Mentoring (Mentor –A greek god who helped in guiding his friend’s son)

10 A project for Young scientists (6, 9) Little Einsteins (Simple and straight)

12 An Eco conscious thought (5, 5) Think Green (“A thought”-“eco consious”)

14 The comment that keeps us alive (8) Feedback (simple and straight)

15 *you are in a fruit; for a project; [a Tamil word in cryptic clue] (6) ka (NI) ni (Ni-You ; Kani- Fruit)

DOWN

1 A project enriching a language (5, 3) Speak out (Simple and straight)

4 City where it all started (7) Chennai (Simple and straight)

5 A meet to align ourselves to Bhumi (11) ORIENTation (“ORIENT”- align )

6 The souls keeping the thoughts alive (9) Volunteer (Simple and straight)

9 A star that shines once in a month (9) Nakshatra (Simple and straight)

11 A time in our life implementing the project (7) Session (Simple and straight)

13 The name that binds us together (5) Bhumi (pretty obvious)

Children’s Day Celebration@Bala Mandir

Children’s Day Celebration@Bala Mandir

Just as festival season starts; the cold days are accompanied by watering mouths; delicious sweets; glittering gifts.What not? Here are the accounts of memories for you to sit back and relish. And few colorful moments that glitter..

For Lakshyans, Children’s day celebrations is a favorite festival. And here’s how the celebrations were at Bala Mandir:

The children’s day preparation started off; a week ago with all the volunteers deciding on the games and activities and videos. A huge box full of options was available before us and after considering the pros and cons of them; we decided on a few short films and activities that could excite the kids.

On the day… early in the morning it was raining heavily but the volunteers wouldn’t give up on that. Everybody grabbed a raincoat and hit the centre. The plans were changed when we saw the girls dressed up in traditional dresses; we thought that they wouldn’t be able to run around. They soon surprised us all by buckling up to play Kho-Kho, and the traditional “running and catching” with the volunteers.

We were all awed by the girls’ spirit. Never the less they played a fantastic game against the guys :p . The volunteers mustered up all their energy to match that of the kids. It was a heartfelt happiness to play with them.They helped us go back to our teens, lose everything behind and play the game. Even though we felt quite miserable about the rain, the kids changed our moods instantly with their exuberance and involvement.

This was followed by their favourite part, the short films which was focused on bullying, comedy, etc., The celebrations came to an end with the distribution of certificates for The Doodle for Google winner; of course there is no Children’s day without chocolates. 😉

~ Lakshmi, Chennai

A rewind on Ripples along 2013

A rewind on Ripples along 2013

“Memory is a great artist. For every man and for every woman it makes the recollection of his or her life a work of art and an unfaithful record.”

As the doom of 2013 is nearing, we are about to have a small sneak peek into the articles that made it to our emails under the name ”Ripples” and the backstage in making it.A few words are lingering in our minds and quite a few articles are left unattended. Doing justice to them is impossible; yet; I’m recollecting a few best moments. (With appropriate inputs). So bear with me; the article might be long but it is worth a read (after all its December and you are free; so what?)

 

Jan 2013: The year started with a discussion to change The design of ripples and it went onto a gossip on the person who suggested it (our beloved rajan anna) and later the idea got submerged in suggestions (it would  be  a collection of light moments for all the members of ripples team now; but during that time?). The way all volunteers bombard into discussions is a great deal to read about and for them it is a good time to blush on re-reading it.And ripples was taking new avatars (very brief ones); it came out as a blog too. Trust me “http://testabcdefghi.blogspot.in/#”  is that blog.All new ideas and efforts are worthy enough to be mentioned even if it didn’t take up a better stand. I have just the word of mouth (typed though :P) which is still awesome. This is a time; we take to reward each other in words. The discussion is still on the design and the delay is still on; yet it is refreshing on such discussions…

 

Feb 2013: Well the dedicated followers of ripples and the ripples team members might ask me a question ”Did we really have Jan 2013 and Feb 2013 editions? ” or a “New year Edition” The subtitles here refer to the happenings in the month and not necessarily on the issue worked upon :P. But trust me I found two archives named in this way that’s why. And the phrase “change is the only thing that never changes” was ultimately true; yeah the suggestions grew; blending and revolutions sparked in Feb to end in fb. ”Fb?” yes ripples took a brief avatar there too (in ideation).It was a short lived avatar. So a lot of memories to revisit. I  also found that a person from my college had volunteered with Bhumi in lakshya after seeing the interview.

March 2013: This month had an official edition in its name in our webpage. It has an article on Tutoring session. And the interview which I mentioned earlier. The article had one simple yet clear line which is stuck in the memory “Last but not the least; don’t give any false promise or appreciation.” You misinterpreted it; it is stuck (Ctrl+V) in the memory (archive). It is a great line for all of us in life; may we remember it.

 

Apr 2013: So what did April have? It wasn’t a good time for the team; articles were dragged about with the help of fb, blog and stuff in parts just to maintain the balance. It was great crisis management. The article is a great one though about the ride As usual a pick up line from the article would be “A great man once told me “It’s not the destination but the path you take that matters”, I’d like to rephrase it by saying “It’s not the destination you go to but whom you go with that matters.” ”. waiting for more such trips.

Jul 2013: I don’t know what people got from the July edition I got a phrase “Super late” into my life. Are you gonna skim through your mail; to find it. You won’t be able to because that was phrased by our infamous HR Sangeetha akka while preparing the edition for publishing. I have been using this in a lot of places; so I thought I’d give a courtesy here 😛

 

Aug 2013: From this month I had been officially inducted into lakshya; yet heard of just the name “ripples”. Didn’t see it or read it. Later on reading the thread I found a “meeting notes” doc that consisted of details of inaugural session of thoraipakkam. It was an inspiring piece of story about a team of 8 enthusiastic volunteers.

 

Sep 2013: This is the first edition of ripples that I read completely. The first line that I read is”…” What that is the trademark line of arshath anna; he only will say it and he will probably say only its I’m not gonna utter it again you know it.Yet the article was having a great innocent touch to it.Just like him. It was great reading it.I had another interview article of Priyanka. That was pretty much inspiring too. I found that “voluntear the mask” section with unidentifiable volunteers (not by image clarity though :p) just in line with its name.

 

Oct 2013: This is the first edition that I co-ordinate to be published. I managed to fulfill the kid’s involvement to some extent with kid’s interview featuring in the section. But since they made huge statements I had to take the interview with three kids instead of one. That posed a question to me: are we volunteers more enthused or is it the kids that overtake us? The question still lies unanswered. Or I haven’t been able to accept the fact that we are lazy compared to those kids. Yet that seems to be true.

 

Nov 2013: ”How to conduct a Flash mob in 2 days” that is the book we are planning to release :P. with all those experiences. We planned for it in the 11th hour yet executed it. Prerequisites: A Small team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers; who are determined. The article highlighted this to the max a fews word can express. A tribute article was straight from the hearts of people. And the interview with Yashwanth; was a most informal though.

 

Dec 2013: A lots of celebrations and memories. Are you asking about ripples edition; I hope you can say that. Do you want to? Then ripples is waiting to induct you in the team. Come on you know what to do….

 

~ Harish, Trichy