MAKING IT MATTER WITH NEW SKILLS

What could be the most common confession of employees Im not happy with my job, Im job
hunting!!! And what would be the first question that any such employee will be asked when he
attends an interview? What are your skills? Well I have an answer to that question, but it
includes a new skill which Ive acquired recently which probably will not help me get any of the
jobs Im searching for!!! So what is this new skill? PAINTING!!!
Yes, Ive actually acquired basic skills in painting a building. Once again it was a group of totally
diverse set of people who had come together to do this. Continuing from where I left earlier (Trip
to Yeldur), this time we set off with a different agenda and objective altogether, something new
and totally different from the usual set of activities for serving the community.
The trip was to 2 villages, Thoralakki & Komanahalli, in Malur Taluk in Kolar district of Karnataka
and this time it was a day trip. Oh yeah, painting is so easy we didnt think it requires much
time! Anyways, we started off in the morning at around 9:30AM from Bangalore, 1.5hrs late
from the scheduled time, thanks to some crazy Friday night partying! There were a lot of familiar
faces this time, people whom I had met during the previous activity, and there were many new
faces also, which is something I again enjoy about these trips. One gets to meet & talk with
people in different parts of an MNC like HP. The bus trip to the village was as usual filled with
fun. We had a group of Back Benchers who entertained us all throughout with their calls for
Pankaj-a, some wild hooting and cheering for anything and everything.

The Back Benchers clicked in action

Anyways we reached our destination at around 11AM, picking up buckets, brushes, paints, wall
putty and all the required materials on the way. We first reached Komanahalli where the major
group of people, around 40, got down including Pankaj, Shobha, Mamtha and few other core
volunteers whom I knew. The rest of us moved on to Thoralakki which was around 1-2kms
away. On reaching there the first thing we realized was that we did not have enough brushes.
We had only 2 with us! Then it was a long wait for other brushes to be brought. We put on our
aprons and got down to cleaning the place before the painting could begin. A few got involved in

preparing the paint which was done by the experts, and with the 2 brushes we had people
started taking turns in painting 2 classrooms, with some doing trial runs and doing some
practice before they actually got to painting bigger walls. Meanwhile some kids also came in to
the school, we started interacting with them, refreshments were served, and photos were being
clicked by Sarath Chandra Mouli. Two of the kids, Ramesh & Suresh the twin brothers, were
very active and especially naughty.

Ramesh and Suresh (in front)

They were taunting us by making faces, pulling our dress from behind etc. Overall we had a fun
time clicking pictures, and painting 2 classrooms in blue. We were just going to catch a breath
with a sense of achievement, when the aunty, who cooks the midday meal at the school, came
up with a request could we paint one more room!!! The energy with which everyone got back
to their feet, and got about doing this last special request was just amazing and beyond words.
Around 20 of us got into the act each taking up a portion of the 4 walls and within no time,
probably 10-15minutes the room was looking as good as new with its fresh coat of blue paint.
Yeah we should probably apply for Guinness records or something for doing it in record time,
even though we were beginners in this painting work. We all got busy in cleaning ourselves up
with some detergent powder and soap. All of us were covered in paint drops from head to toe
and it was a tough time getting it removed. But finally it was done, and then we had a photo of
the whole group, with few kids also joining in.

The group at Thoralakki

We left Thoralakki at around 2:30PM and returned to the school at Komanahalli where the rest
of the group was busy painting the school pink. We were thinking we had done a great job, but
on reaching there I was shocked to see that they were still not done, and the reason. They had
around 4 classrooms to paint and they had painted the outer walls also! The rooms did look
brighter with its fresh coat of paint. Roopa, Mamtha and few others were just giving the final
touches to a last portion of the outer wall, while some others had already put down their aprons
and got busy with the sumptuous lunch being served - freshly made and hot bisi bele bath, curd
rice & masala vada. After the vigorous work done, all of us were hungry and tucked in to the
meal. After the meal I got busy catching up with few of the familiar faces whom I had met in my
previous Yeldur trip. While people were still having their meal, someone came up with 2
volleyballs and 2 groups of people started playing. There was a big group which was playing
actual volleyball and there were 6-8 of us who took up some small place behind them and were
playing throwball, or at least were taking the throw part seriously, as we were testing each
others reflexes. The games started getting a bit wild and vigorous.

The volleyball match

Some people called it quits and went back to sitting in a shade and catching up over quick
conversations. I made some new friends Shahzadi & Abdul and along with Kalaiselvi, whom I
already knew, we continued with the throwball. Meanwhile Mamtha & Shobha got busy with
distributing the new volunteer T-Shirts. The bright blue T-shirt with its Make it Matter tag in the
front and volunteer written in around 20 different languages at the back did look very attractive
and also gave a proud feeling when I tried out mine (just couldnt wait till I got home!).

Mamtha & Shobha busy distributing tees

T-shirts distributed, a busy and fruitful day of serving society done, we finally had some
comments, feedback and vote of thanks by Naveen, the headmaster (forgot his name!) and few
others. For the non-Kannadigas, Roopa was the interpreter and translated what the headmaster
had to say. She was learning Kannada and so it was more like she was forced to do it!

Vote of thanks

Then it was time to bid adieu to everyone there, and start our return journey. In the morning we
thought we were going to get late as our start from Bengaluru had got delayed. But then we
finished well ahead of time and we were on our way back by around 5:30PM. Honestly speaking

I had no mind to go back to hustle and bustle of the city with horns blaring, and people running
around in a mad race to be the first in anything they do. Maybe someday when Ive had enough
of city life and cant take any more of it, Ill pick a village like this and dedicate myself to
improving the society full-time! For now, I had friends to get back to, family to take care of and
so there is no option but to return to the city. I so wish I could have both of it together, but alas it
is not to be so. Be back with more for the next activity that will Make it Matter.