Pavan Gupta ji, principal of DC Model School, Sector 9, Faridabad is a neighbor – and was running a second school in the afternoon for children from economically weaker sections of the society. I have known him as a neighbor for last couple of decades – and interacted extensively with him at the Residents Welfare Society meetings.
In 2006, I had donated a couple of HP DeskJet printers to the school. And the family kept the initiative rolling when we donated an Intel dot computer to the society….a simple CPU-integrated monitor solution that looked good, was obsolete from our perspective – but was fully functional unit that would find some use in basic administrative work and in trainings the children on basics of a computer….
These low cost donations resulted in my gaining a good friend in Pavan ji – and it was his advice that resulted in the formation of Gyan-Jyoti – a not-for-profit society run by my family members and primarily a structured mechanism for doing good in the community with our limited resources.
They are also the events that shaped my thought process on ‘giving in the community’ – and started me on a journey towards higher goals…
SOME OF THE LEARNINGS:
There were assets that were just not getting utilized. I had the Intel computer in my garage- and it was just idling. I simply thought that it was it was an asset – till I realized that I was just turning idle assets into scrap and cluttering my place. When I finally let it go, I gained a friend, some respect and lots of self-respect.
Without this change, I was being self-centered, paranoid and negative. With this change, I learnt the power of giving and started the journey towards emotional liberation and value-based life engineering!
