The Concept:
The SMU Cox Co2017 India batch came up with the idea of
“Melange-2015”, the concept behind which is to bring smiles on the faces of
young needy children while inspiring them to believe in the latent talents of
creativity inherent in them and then probably go on to aspire to change the
world with this spark of creativity.
Creativity not necessarily is limited by the realms of
poetry or music but it lives in every domain of maths and science as well. For
example, Albert Einstein, James Watts, Francis Crick and modern day mogul like
Steve Jobs- creativity led them to define a new world. At “SMU Melange-2015”, we take a step to give
the children a scope to connect with their talents- maths, science, writings,
poetry, and drawing – our scope of operation for this year (however, we do intend to extend
it to dance and music in subsequent years). Who knows, we might discover our next Edison
or Rembrandt who may go on to carve an entirely new world!
The Operation:
At SMU Melange, we first distribute school bags and
stationary along with drawing kit and lunch boxes. The idea- first give them
the basic resources and tools that they can use. After all, Vincent Van Gogh
had to start with a brush and a drawing paper.
We aid each student in this lot of 150 kids in 3 Ashrams- ARK Foundation
and Prakash Deep in Delhi and the Ahwan in Orissa with school bags, notebooks,
pencils, pens, drawing utensils, lunch boxes etc.
The next step is that our team conducts a small
competition which is broken into small segments over maths, science, writing,
poetry, drawing and games and sports. We recognize performances amongst them
but do not judge winners to set apart because our idea is – make them work in
teams to cross the lines and then each one is a winner. (to improvise a new education model for the
children where we grade each student in different departments and then each
student is gauged on a basis of collective performance).
At the end of this, we give away gifts and goodies to the
children so that they can feel a connect and be proud of their achievements-
not as individuals but as teams because what Melange’s idea is the famous Hindi
cliché, “paanch ungli jor ban gayi muthhi” .
We have the goodies and presents gifted by established
authors and poets such as Amol Redij, Anjali Garg, Nitya Prakash and Anand
Neelkanth, besides the lovely work on Indian poetry done by the students of NIT
Warangal and Delhi University in 2012 by the name of “Wordsmith- India’s first
national level poetry event”. We also have contributions by sports persons and
beauty queens. Thanks to all who have made lend a small hand to the future.
The reason behind this effort was to give the talented
children backing of the established persona to pursue their dreams. The concept
– “I feel 10 times stronger and believe in my dreams of playing for India when
someone like Milkha Singh says that I can run and win gold for India”.
We intend to provide snacks and refreshments to all these
children for a simple reason –good food always lights up the day for each one
of us. Nutritious food stimulates us. Just imagine the smiles on the face of a
small girl when she takes a sweet curd and rosogolla ! We may not be able to do
this daily but a small moment may inspire them that – “yes there are people
still who care for me”.
The idea of
“Melange -2015 book”:
We plan to conclude Melange with a small presentation in
the form of a book which would carry the writings, poetry and drawings made by
these children. This book will be presented to each of these NGOs and also live
in the students’ library at SMU besides finding its base in the Indian literary
market. I believe, the memories of this
book will be indelibly etched in the heart and mind of all who have made this
event come true. I believe, when Rakesh sees his poetry in this book in years
to come, he will always feel the energy to write more and who knows the same
Rakesh may sign an autograph and present me his poetry book on an international
platform tomorrow. Who know, a new Smriti may become the next Jhumpa Lahiri or
who knows, when Faisal sees his drawing in the book 10 years down the line, he
will remember where it all started for him to become the next Zakir.
The hope:
Melange is just a beginning for a better tomorrow, kicked
off by the India batch of Cox MBA. Hope this pilot project is successful and
certainly the model will follow its route to other nations and continents,
furthered by SMU COX Net Impact division. A model that started certainly, will
always be grateful to those who supported the vision. Besides, we can also get
the scope to work with NGOs and other global organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO
etc. to bring in projects and case studies relating to the society and try to
put our minds into making a better world.
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