26th January, 2012

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

Doing the Necessary

anuary is the month of celebration in IIT KGP, a land where dreams won't lie, to quote Spring Fest. We revel at the spirit of youth, technology, entrepreneurship and what not in this blissful time of the year. We dance and party hard during SF and marvel at the lectures of eminent guests at KTJ, celebrating life at its best. But there's something else observed in January which is but forgotten by the majority or at most labelled as a mere formality. This is the National Youth Week, dedicated in honour of the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, a spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power. Celebrating the spirit of the youth is not only to make merry in life but it includes a wider perspective than held by most of us. Youths are the agents of change, in whose hands alone lie the power to bring about a revolution, for our mind is fresh and discernible and not so disposed to accept whatever the society shoves at us. We have always stood against the questionable and age old practises of our country, replacing the contemptible with commendable. Hence it becomes exigent that we engage ourselves in meaningful activities which further the cause of our nation. However, the contemporary situation hints otherwise. It appears that there is a general disregard for constructive work and a sense of unawareness towards the opportunities available. The youths at large seem disinterested to make initiative or are fed up of the ills taking this country to ransom, their every good intention getting counteracted by someone corrupt hanging onto the system. But in these moments of frustrations and

despair one must remember the life of Netaji, a great revolutionary who despite all the differences with his contemporaries stood fast with his ideals and didn't spare a single second to achieve the freedom of his motherland. His is a life worth emulating for today's youth, a life which reflects a sense of revolution and passionate fervour for one's nation. Incidentally, his birthday too lies in this month on the 23rd. At this 62nd anniversary of Republic Day, when the whole nation got redefined in terms of our Constitution, let us make a resolution to make changes to our life and the one's less privileged than us, to the best of our capacity and capability and not let anything come in our way. Let us redefine the spirit of the youth. An inspiring quote from Swami Vivekananda : When you are doing any work, do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

EDITORIAL TEAM
Imbesat Ahmad Ishan Garg M Vivek Reddy Krishna Kant Sijariya Saif Khan Gyan Prakash

Dr. Goutam Saha

NSS Website: www.iitkgp.ac.in/nss/home.html NSS Blog: nssiitkgp.blogspot.com Email: gsaha@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in

NSS Day Celebration

The NSS Day Celebration was organised on 5th November, 2011. The function was attended by several dignitaries including, but not limited to, Mr. Sudatta Chowdhury, SDO, Kharagpur and Prof. A.K. Majumdar, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur. The volunteers presented their groupss current activities and future objectives. Then, there were performances involving both the volunteers as well as the community members. The meritorious students were awarded scholarships. The SDO praised the effort made by NSS, IIT Kharagpur and the positive impact that it has created in the vicinity of IIT Kharagpur.

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EDITORIAL

26th January, 2012

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

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Featured NSS Unit

Village: Kuchlachati Panchayat: G opali Gram Panchayat No. 5 Name of representative: Mr.Sanjit Ari Mr.Sheikh Liakat Ali (Local Committee Member) and Saddam (Social Volunteer and member 7 Star Club) Q. Please brief about the village where the work is going on. Ans. The locality where NSS work is going on consists of around 100 tribal families who are very poor and lack basic amenities and is riddled with many problems like illiteracy, alcoholism etc. Q. What are the activities done here by the NSS unit along with you? Ans. The NSS people have distributed around 35 polythene cover or tripal for rooftops during monsoon time. The have also done bleaching of about 40 wells. They have also distributed some stationary in a primary school and currently are active in binding of 2 drinking water wells. In one of the wells 2 persons have already died by falling into it. Q. Are you satisfied with the effort put up by the unit? Ans. Yes we are very much satisfied and we hope for more participation from their part in future. Q. Do you have any demands or requests for the NSS? Ans. Yes, we have some requests for the NSS team. Firstly we want them to petition the government and the SDO on our behalf for issuance of caste and birth certificates, old age pension, SC/ST pension for the benefit of the tribal people. Also we request them to help the issuance of certificate for fishermen so that they get subsidy from the government. Also if they can teach the people here some skills like bamboo crafting that will be really be helpful in generating employment. Mr.Bhanu Mallick (Villager) Q. Please tell us about any benefit you have received from the NSS. Ans.Till now the government and panchayat have been more helpful than the NSS. But we are satisfied with the work put up by the volunteers. Q. What problems do you face here? Ans. Our source of income is not fixed. Some days we go on without any money. We mostly do menial work and even beg during hard times. Q. Do you have any request for the NSS? Ans. We would like more polythene sheet or tripols and want the volunteers to help us renovate the village temple. Abir Das (Group Leader) Q. Tell us about the work you do. Ans. Presently we have given a Rs. 200 scholarship to a boy and a girl after a test in the village school. This is sponsored by senior students of IIT Kharagpur. We distributed tripols bought from our own pocket money and currently using the money meant for program development to buy bricks, sand etc. for the well binding. Q.What are your future plans for the village? Ans. We are planning to organize some sports event for the kids here. We have also decided to organize a blood donation camp here. Distribution of more tripols is on cards. Moreover we have picked the poorest house in the village and plan to make it a model house and provide it with all the basic amenities. Petition for pension of the villagers is also a future possibility. Q. Please share your experience working for NSS. Ans. It gives me immense satisfaction working for people as poor as these. Personally I think the survey we conducted for caste, economic status etc. wasn't of much use as every year it's done but nothing concrete has come up with it yet. This has only increased the misunderstanding between us and the villagers. This year, we NSS, IIT Kharagpur talked to SDO and BDO about this problem and hope a solution will come out. Except that, am really pleased with the effort our team has put esp e cia l ly the f irst ye ar students. The second year students need to be more involved in the activities. Mr.Mantu Rajak (Program Officer) Q. What is the motto or motivation behind all the work you've doing in the village? Ans. Our aims is 1.To motivate the locals and show them how things are to be done. We are not here to do all the work ourselves but to make them participate so that they become self-sufficient in future. 2.To instil self confidence in the tribal people. 3.To uplift the economic status of the villagers through women's empowerment like teaching them how to stitch or make paper crafts etc. Also we need to find a market for the embroidery work done by the womenfolk here. 4.To make a model house for a very old and poor couple in this village and include a bedroom, a kitchen, a smokeless stove and a latrine.(The old couple presently live in a pathetic condition, their home being just a tent like structure covered by the tripol having just enough space for two persons.) Q.Are you satisfied with your volunteers? Ans. I am fully satisfied with my team. They are very punctual and sincere. But the participation of second year students is less than expected. Q. How is the attitude of the villagers towards NSS? Ans. The villagers are friendly and cooperative and have provided us with free labour for well binding etc. Q. What will be your message for the whole NSS family? Ans: Everyone including the Program Officers should be sincere in their work. They should be punctual and should keep the promises they make to the villagers. That way our image will be clean. Also there is an urgent requirement of some kind of development fund to sustain our activities.

26th January, 2012

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

A Tribute
Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta on 12 January 1863 and was given the name Narendranath Dutta. Narendranath's thinking and personality were influenced by his parents Viswanath Dutta and Bhuvaneshvari Devithe father by his rational mind and the mother by her religious temperament. A precocious boy, Narendra excelled in music, gymnastics and studies. From his mother he learnt the power of self-control. One of the sayings of his mother Narendranath quoted often in his later years was, "Remain pure all your life; guard your own honor and never transgress the honor of others. Be very tranquil, but when necessary, harden your heart." By the time he graduated from Calcutta University, he had acquired a vast knowledge of different subjects, especially Western philosophy and history. Born with a yogic temperament, he used to practise meditation even from his boyhood, and was associated with Brahmo Movement for some time. Vehement in his desire to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach After Sri Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda renounced the world and criss-crossed India as a wandering monk. His mounting compassion for India's people drove him to seek their material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching. For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He died on July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into nine volumes.

A Talk to Enlighten Us
On the eve of Swami V i v e k a n a n d a ' s b i r t h d a y, celebrated all over India as the National Youth Day, NSS IIT KHARAGPUR hosted a lecture by Swami Atmapriyananda of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University. He told us about the life and principles of Swami Vivekananda, and how we should approach our own lives to realize those principles for the development of ourselves as human beings as well as the society. He started by telling us about Swamiji's address in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he had begun his speech with "Sisters and Brothers of America". To these words, he got a standing ovation from the crowd which lasted for two minutes. After that he had travelled to many parts of America and England, instilling respect for himself in people all over these places. Swami Vivekananda believed that God is present inside everyone. We all are born with some unique characteristic or strength which may be hidden within ourselves. We need to identify them, develop full control over our body and mind, and not let our body and mind control ourselves. Then only are we actually reaching God, as God is not anything supernatural, God is only the manifestation of positive energy, characteristics and strength inside ourselves which we need to identify. Swami Vivekananda's concept of education was based on thought process, nervous association of ideas. The clash of thoughts produce different thoughts and to absorb those thoughts and grow in our own way is nothing but education. Educated person is one who has picked up some idea and made it a part of his personality, his life. The choice of the idea depends on the man himself, as every man is unique in its own way. UNIQUENESS, to throw light on it, he made an analogy between uniqueness in nature and Pauli's exclusion principle which means as every particle in an atom is unique with respect to all the quantum numbers, similarly, a person is unique in his own way with respect to different aspects of life and that uniqueness is admirable. He also talked about Swami Vivekananda's guru, Sri Ramakrishna. He said that Sri Ramakrishna was so deeply attached with the truth that he could even sense it with his subconscious mind. He stated various examples where his disciples including Narendranath Dutta or Swami Vivekananda had tested him but Sri Ramakrishna always emerged successful. At the end Swami Atmapriyananda addressed us, the students, as the future of this country and asked to develop ourselves by believing in ourselves, by growing control over our mind and body, by increasing our determination and will power and the desire to do something beyond our personal interests, something for the society, something for the country, and most importantly something for humankind.

Youth Rally
NSS, IIT Kharagpur organized an awareness rally on 14th January, as a part of observing National Youth Week in which around 600 NSS volunteers took part. The excitement in the volunteers was palpable; many of whom were participating for the first time in such a rally, the cool breeze even waking the most sleepy of souls. The cold soon gave way to warmth as the sun took over, making it a perfect sunny morning. The rally started at 8:40 from Jnan Gosh Stadium and marched forward past MS hall, Tikka, Staff Quarters, Pan loop, Tech market and back to Jnan Gosh Stadium at 10:15 A.M. Inspiring colourful posters and placards on social issues and Swami Vivekananda were displayed throughout the rally. Volunteers shouted slogans on the spirit of the youth and patriotic themes.

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26th January, 2012

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

NSS Camp
NSS BUZZ
Be it team work ability, leadership quality, communication skill or keen observation, if any KGPian wants to improve any such qualities, there cannot be a better opportunity than NSS CAMP. As scheduled, right after the End-Semester exams, all the NSS first year volunteers were camped in the compound of Salua Board Primary School, from 26th November to 3rd December, 2011. The camp kicked off by flag hoisting followed by National Anthem. After the selection of group leaders and deputy group leaders, the first task allotted was terrain mapping of the nearby village areas around the camp site. The volunteers spotted the development that has already taken place in the village, the occupations in which villagers are involved and the major problems faced by them such as scarcity of water, barren lands, damaged hand pumps or dry wells. Each of the groups made detailed and very informative maps depicting all the major sites and issues of the area. The next job was a real community service after the identification of concerned problems; i.e. road building. At a distance of about two kms from the campsite, the roads had worn out. The students set out with shovels, sacks and other instruments to upgrade the roads by spreading red pebbles and pouring water over them to make it reinforced. They arranged boulders on either side of the road and leveled it in a manner to avoid water logging in coming days. Despite being naive of such kind of work, they paved about 2 kms of road for the villagers, driven by the spirit of community service. An inter group speech competition was organised on the topic, We, the people, our role and the alignment with the welfare schemes to reach out to the masses. The major points suggested by the speakers were organisation of rallies, pictorial display through posters, street plays and above all the enthusiasm for the society to be shown by our sides. At campsite, they held an extensive discussion over issues faced by villagers like no proper classes for class 5th onwards, problems in getting documents

for pension, no proper sanitation, lack of medical shops etc. Some of the key solutions which came out were approaching NGOs , establishing websites etc. Seven MGNREGA proposals were prepared by different groups of the camp and they were submitted to SDO, Kharagpur. On the occasion of AIDS day, students organised a rally in the Gopali village and the most striking feature of it was the uniform of all volunteers; white shirt and black pant showing the uniformity and purity in their work. Students shouted different slogans in the local language of the area, motivating people for education, saving water and other resources. The most awaiting moment for the villagers was the cloth distribution camp. All the village children and women were invited to collect clothes from the camp. Cultural programs were presented by different groups to spread their message in a more effective and creative way. They presented different songs, plays etc to symbolise different issues like needs of water, importance of hard labour, need for abstaining from alcohol ,women empowerment etc. The camp was no less in fun and frolic as an inter-group football match was organised to produce an example of sportsmanship in front of the villagers. Dean, Undergraduate Studies and other faculty members, their spouses visited camp site and motivated the campers. The local panchayat member and the head of the panchayat met campers a number of times and encouraged them. The local youth, school teachers extended full support. After all, no doubt in saying that NSS camp is once in a lifetime opportunity. Far away from books, laptops, lecture rooms etc, a student gets a chance to learn a lot through his friends, people around him and the activities which he performs and the feelings that he acquires seeing the gradual effect of his hard work.