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Vol 1 | Issue 1 september 2011 A MonthLY newsLetter

InspIre > Involve > Transform

On 15th August, this year, when India

celebrated its 65th Independence

Day, a non decrepit centre at Nehru

Nagar in Delhi opened doors of economic

empowerment for the youth. The day marked

the beginning of ‘Training of the Trainer’

(TOT) program for this centre, whereby 25

members of academic institute ‘Samarth

Shiksha Samiti’ were groomed to become

Master Trainers (MTs), who would in turn

impart entrepreneurship training to the youth.

The MTs were honed by I Create, a partner in

Nation Building Projects of Pan IIT Alumni.This was I Create’s 10th training centre—

a stamp of its mounting popularity, 12 years

after it was flagged off. Says Ulhas Kamat,

CEO, I Create, “So far, we have trained

over 1,000 MTs, while 30,000 have gone

through our entrepreneurship awareness

program. Over 6,500 have participated in

full entrepreneurship workshops and more

than 1,400 have been successful in starting

their entrepreneurial journey, whether it is

in tailoring, catering, fast food joints, repair

shops, beauty parlours or maid service.”

The Journey So FarDistressed by the high level of

unemployment in the lower strata of society,

US-based Harsh Bhargava and his wife

Aruna decided to start an organization in

India that would help create jobs through

entrepreneurship training. As part of Harvard

Business School Alumni outreach program,

Harsh had volunteered to help Network For

Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and was

convinced that the NFTE training would also

help disadvantaged Indian youth to become

entrepreneurs and acquire employability

skills. He adopted the NFTE program for India

to start I Create in 1999.While the plan was to initiate the first

I Create centre in Jaipur, their home town,

dearth of funds posed a hurdle. With the help

of a friend, they reached out to Dr Purnendu

Chatterjee, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and

the Founder and Chairman of The Chatterjee

Group (TCG). Dr Chatterjee readily agreed to

fund the novel social initiative and thus two

I Create centres were unveiled in Kolkata and

Jaipur in quick succession.

Tutoring unemployed youth, urban poor

to tribal, abused and helpless women, and

school and college drop outs to kick start

their own business is fraught with challenges.

However, the three-to-five-day training

program helps sail over such obstacles

by simplifying the process of training. The

training entails helping participants identify

their areas of interest, screening business

ideas, transforming ideas into profitable

business ventures, along with follow-ups

and continuous mentoring. “In many cases,

we have helped them get bank loans,”

informs Kamat.

Widening AvenueHead-quartered in Bengaluru, I Create India

was registered as a trust only in 2009 and

since then it has proliferated rapidly, starting

centres in Rajkot, Hubli, Bengaluru, Delhi and

Mumbai, in addition to centres in Kolkata,

Jaipur and Baroda. While the prime focusis to reach out to the underprivileged class,

I Create also conducts entrepreneurship

courses in schools and colleges. “We want to

‘Chart’ing out CareersStarting with a sole entrepreneurship training centre in Kolkata,

I Create has rolled out 10 centres that have honed 6,500 underprivileged

youth and women to embark on their entrepreneurial journey.

I Will Impact traces the journey of this social enterprise

It was a moment of pride and glory for I Create,

when on 3rd August, 2011, Former President of

India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam — in his address at

the National Seminar on Skill Development —

extolled I Create for its entrepreneurship training.

He cited the example of an unemployed youth, a

school drop-out from a village in Bengal, who today

has established a Rs-10-crore business empire.

“Entrepreneurship incubation institutions need

to be developed all over India and the developing

world,” Kalam had said in his speech.

A participant gives business plan presentationas part o Entrepreneurship Training Program

Kalam Extols I Create

I Create has helpedmore than 1,400participants tosuccessfully start

their entrepreneurialjourney

ulhas KamatCEO, I Create

Continued on page 2



InspIre> Involve > Transform2

change the mindset of students - to enable

them to think like job creators instead of job

seekers and thus attain I Create’s vision of

a prosperous India spearheaded by small

entrepreneurs as job creators,” elucidates

Ashok Kalbag, General Secretary, Pan IIT

Alumni.

A Sustainable ModelSo, how is I Create fuelling its rapidly

growing footprints across India and

providing free training in 10 centres

with over 1,000 master trainers? “In

order to create more centres and to

get local communities involved in the

entrepreneurship development in a cost-

effective manner, we follow the Modified

Business Format Franchising (MBFF)

model. This means a centre is sponsored

by an individual or an organization which

has its mission congruent to that of

I Create — entrepreneurship development

at grassroots level,” explains Kamat.

250 Partnerships and GrowingI Create has successfully crafted

partnerships with 250 NGOs and

educational institutes, which provide

infrastructure for training and allow their

members to become faculty or MTs, while

all necessary technical support, quality

control and coordination for program

implementation are provided by I Create.

In the beginning of August, this year,

I Create inked an MoU with Skills for

Progress (SKIP), a pan India association

of private technical/ vocational traininginstitutions. The MoU entails I Create

to conduct TOT for teachers of SKIP

to become MTs. The first batch of 30

participants would receive training at

Bengaluru in October. While there is no

target number of centres that I Create

wants to commence, it is keen on foraying

into to the North East. “We are looking for

sponsors there,” concludes Kamat. n

If you want to contribute to I Create,

mail Ulhas Kamat at [email protected]

How I Can Impact?To get involved in Pan IIT’s nation-building

mission, send the following details to

[email protected]:_________________________________

Age:___________ Alumni of : _______ Yr: ___

Mob:__________________________________

E-mail id : ______________________________

Current Location:________________________

Current Occupation: _____________________

Interested in supporting project/s:

_______________________________________

I would like to

1. Volunteer time & expertise

2. Contribute cash or kind3. Join full time

4. Any other

Participants o Training o the Trainer Program

Vol 1, Issue 1, September 2011

Consulting Editor

Rita Dutta

Editorial Advisory Board:

Hari Padmanabhan, Satish Kini, Chand Das

For feedback, participation, subscription and

sponsorship, write to [email protected]

To know more about individual projects,

write to:

Avanti Fellows

Krishna Ramkumar

Email: [email protected]

Classle Knowledge

Vaidya Nathan


I Create India

Ulhas Kamat


Indo US Collaboration for Engineering Education

(IUCEE)

Vedula Krishna


IITians For ITI

Pradeep Kapse


Pan IIT Alumni Reach for India (PARFI)

Kalyan Chakroborty


I Will Impact (IWI) is a monthly newsletter of Pan IIT Alumni

that is aimed at highlighting the pioneering nation-building

initiatives undertaken by its various projects: Avanti Fellows,

Classle Knowledge, I Create India, IUCEE, IITians For ITI, PARFI

and SEED. IWI would also underscore determined efforts of

social change and significant achievements of members,

provide updates on conferences and be a platform to discuss

and deliberate.

Continued from page 1

While the master trainers ignite sparks of

entrepreneurship and mentor enthusiastic

students to identify lucrative business ideas,

lack of seed capital to start the entrepreneurial

venture is often a stumbling block. While there

are ample Government schemes to support

such entrepreneurial initiatives, red tapism in

the banking sector often leads to dissipation of

participants’ interest.

To keep the entrepreneurial spark alive,

I Create has started chipping in with a seed

capital of a maximum of Rs 25,000 per

participant for a span of 20 to 25 months.

Once I Create is convinced about the viability

of the business proposal and certain about the

interest of the participant steering the project,

it offers a seed capital, a fund that bridges the

gap between idea generation and approval

of loan. Interestingly, there is no collateral

against the loan.

The seed fund project has been piloted in

West Bengal and Karnataka with remarkable

success. “Most participants have re-paid loan

within a few months. We have observed that

if we lend Rs one lakh to one centre, we can

help up to seven participants, every year,” says

Kamat, enthusiastically. In order to replicatethe program in other centres, I Create plans

to commence an angel fund that would help

expand the corpus of the seed fund.

Piloting Seed Fund Projects

in K’taka & WB



3InspIre > Involve > Transform

2011 PanIIT Global Conerence

Date: September 30 to October 2, 2011

Venue: New York Hilton Hotel, New York

The 2011 Pan IIT Global Conference enables you

to listen to views of recognized industry leaders,

attend workshops to enhance your professional

skills and explore career enhancement

opportunities with leading corporates.

Highlights o the conerence are:

n Entrepreneurship Workshop’ presented with

the help of experts from Babson College of

Entrepreneurship & TiE.

n Dr Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of MIT

Media Lab, will elaborate on his vision of future

technologies.

n John Sexton, President of New York University

and Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business

School will deliberate on topics like economic

turmoil in the world economic markets, business

opportunities to increase bi-lateral trade between

the US and India, etc.

n Energy and Clean tech panel discussions by

industry experts and much more.

For general inquiries, comments, suggestions

or feedback, please send an email [email protected].

Conference Watch

Q. How and when did your journeywith Pan IIT Nation BuildingInitiatives commence?

A. The seeds of the Pan IIT Nation Building

Initiatives were sown during the global annual

conclave of Pan IIT Alumni held in Mumbai

in December 2006. The key note speaker of

the conference and then President of India,

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam during his inspirational

address urged IITians to be job creators

rather than job seekers. This truly was a call

for action.

Soon, a group of active and involved IIT

alumni collectively decided to create Pan IIT

Nation Building Initiatives — a platform with

the objective of creating employability among

the underprivileged, enhancing the quality

of engineering education and training and

fostering entrepreneurship. At that time, I

had sold my company INSYST technologies

to 3i Infotech in 2001 and was their Deputy

MD. With another inspired associate, Kalyan

Chakravarty (IIT Madras alumnus), who

quit his job to devote his full time to this,

and Ashank Desai, then Chairman of PIAI,

we founded Pan IIT Alumni Reach for India

(PARFI) in 2007 to impart vocational training

and create employability for people at thebottom of the pyramid.

Q. When did you become a part oPIAI board?

A. That happened last year. Due to my

active engagement with PARFI as its founding

patron, the PIAI board elected me to take on

this onerous role.

Q. What was your assessmento PIAI and its unctioning,

ater you took on the mantle ochairmanship?

A. I realised with Pan IIT Alumni being

an established brand, both nationally and

globally, expectations from it were colossal.

I saw the immense potential that lay in

leveraging well-networked IIT alumni, which

is over two lakh in number, spanning over

Government, corporate and social sectors.

However, there were serious challenges in the

path to achieving sustainability and scalability

of our initiatives. PIAI lacked a permanent,

functioning organization structure that could

pro-actively enable our project initiatives.

This resulted in little on-going engagement

between Pan IIT and the projects and

infrequent and insufficient communication to

the alumni about PIAI’s initiatives, resulting in

a large section of the alumni turning sceptical

and cynical about PIAI. It was time to make

lasting changes.

Q. Please list the initiatives takenby PIAI ater you took charge.

A. I am focusing on streamlining the

organization and chalking out a sound

organisational structure. We now have well

appointed offices in IIT Madras and IIT Delhi.

I am first putting in place a permanent

full-time organization with passionate

professionals — alumni who have been thereand done that and others who have the right

experience in our areas of endeavor. Their

mandate is to pro-actively engage with our

various projects to enable them to grow and

scale, produce measurable results and make

them financially self-sustainable.

We are delighted to have Satish Kini, an

alumnus of IIT Bombay, joining us as our

COO, and Anil Vij, an alumnus of IIT Delhi, as

the Head, Government Projects. In Chennai,

we have Shanmuga Sundaram, who comes

with many years of experience in the socialsector to run the admin and support projects

on the ground.

Hot Seat

An alumnus of the 1975 batch of IIT Kanpur,

Hri Pdmnbhn is the current Chairman of Pan

IIT Alumni India (PIAI). In the debut issue of I Will

Impact, he discusses about his involvement with

Pan IIT Nation Building Initiatives, ambitious plans

implemented to scale up the organization

and the road ahead. Excerpts:

We want more and more IIT alumni

involved, by first registering themselves on

www.paniitalumni.org and making a nominal

subscription of Rs1,000 to obtain the Pan

IIT Alumni Card. The objective is to have a

minimum of 10,000 to 20,000 subscriptions

and thus raise Rs one crore to two crore

annually from alumni to meet organizational

expenses.

Q. What is in the pipeline? A. Top priority is to have an updated and

extensive database to be able to communicate

effectively to all alumni. We are engaging with

the various IIT alumni associations to get

our message across through their activities,

meets and want to be present in each IIT

Alumni event, immaterial of who is organizing

it. The key objective to get every alumnus

involved, giving their time, the benefit of their

experience and expertise, and when andwhere possible, to contribute monetarily, but

more importantly to participate and engage

and be an ‘I’ in India’s nation building. n

‘My Focus is onStreamlining Processes’




Over 40 members of the IUCEE College

Consortium congregated at the 2011 IUCEE

Summit on 1st August in Hyderabad to review

the past years’ programs and to draw the blueprint

for next year’s programs. The Summit was graced

by leaders of Pan IIT and Indo US Collaboration

for Engineering Education (IUCEE) India. From

Pan IIT, Past Chairman Ashank Desai, COO Satish

Kini and General Secretary Ashok Kalbag attended

the program to provide guidance and assistance

towards ensuring sustainability of IUCEE.

An Assessment o Past ProgramsFormed in 2007 by leaders of engineering education

and businesses from the US and India, the vision of

IUCEE is to improve the quality and global relevance

of engineering research and education in India by

imbibing the best global practices from the US.

During 2008 and 2009, over 36 professors from

the US and 10 industry experts have conducted 46

workshops at Infosys campus in Mysore with 1,165

faculty members. The Indian faculty participantsreciprocated by conducting more than 200 regional

workshops with more than 6,000 other faculty

members that impacted 1,00,000 students. During

2010, 22 Colleges hosted 37 workshops by 28 US

experts and five industry experts for over 1,000 Indian

faculty members.

During 2011, 37 Indian colleges became members

of the 2011 IUCEE College Consortium and 42 one-

week workshops were conducted across India. This

year also witnessed more than 50 one-hour webinars,

each attended by an average of 50 faculty and

students, being conducted by the US faculty, andthe development of long-term association between

several consortium colleges and the US faculty,

leading to a wide range of collaborations.

The Road Ahead As the Summit drew to a close, several important

decisions were taken that would define and impact

the future programs. They were:

n The need to continue the Faculty Leadership

Institutes (FLIs) with modifications was taken, so

that a consortium college may either host a US

expert by itself or share costs with other colleges.

n Allowing consortium colleges to invite US experts

for conducting one-week or two-week workshops

for students.

n The need to select and publicize the webinars, so

that faculty and students can accrue maximum

benefit.

n The possibility of conducting part or complete

courses directly for students using the webinar

approach, and restrict these to a few colleges

willing to share costs.

n Emphasis on building the PhD Co-guide program.

n The need to facilitate consortium college leaders to

attend international meetings, such as the Global

Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) in Beijing inOctober, 2012, in order to share experiences with

global leaders of engineering colleges. n

event UPdate

2011 IUCEE Summit Pavesthe Road to the Future

Besides reviewing past programs and drawing the blueprint for next year’s programs,

the 2011 IUCEE Summit led to the forging of an MoU between IUCEE and Classle

A Delectable Tourin Toronto

IIT Alumni Canada meetsIndian students visiting

Canada under the MITACSGlobalink Program

In the summer of 2011, close to

150 students from India went

to Canada under the MITACS

Globalink program. MITACS

Globalink is a program funded by

the Canadian federal government

that facilitates a number ofstudents from various universities

in India (including the IITs) to

undertake three-month summer

internships at various Canadian

universities.

About 15 of the MITACS

Globalink program students,

including several of them from

various IITs, attended a luncheon

hosted by The IIT Alumni Canada

on July 16, 2011 at the Payal

Banquet hall in Mississauga. The

luncheon was an occasion notonly to felicitate the students, but

also meet Prof SS Murthy from

IIT-Delhi who is visiting Canada

on a two-month sabbatical at

Ryerson University and University

of Waterloo. The luncheon

was attended by several past

presidents of IIT Alumni Canada—

Jogendra Singh, Mitali De, Ujjal

Mondal, Surinder Sharma, and

Chander Dhawan— along with

prominent IITians and IITAC board

of directors. Also, present were

Vasu Chanchlani, an entrepreneur

and philanthropist, and Krish

Krishnamurti, Vice President,

Corporate Development &

Technologies at SNC Lavalin.

Vijay Aivalli coordinated the

event, along with his family

members.

Said S Venkatesh, President,

IIT Alumni Canada, “The students

briefed about the projects that

each one of them had worked on

while in Canada. It was exciting

to listen to their enthusiasticdescriptions of their projects

that ranged from cyber security,

medical imaging, astrophysics to

and everything in-between.”

At a Glance

Charting out a new path : Krishna Vedula andVaidya Nathan seen signing a signifcant MoU

The think tank : Krishna Vedula, Satish Kini, Ashank Desai,Ashok Kalbag and SN Zindal in an engaging discussion

In rapt attention : Participants o the Summit



5InspIre > Involve > Transform

On being invited by Pan IIT Alumni Reach for

India (PARFI) Sevak, Kalyan Chakravarthy,

on the eve of this Independence Day, I drove

down to PARFI Gurukul at Alwar, Rajasthan. The

centre is located off the busy NH-8, a mere three-

hour drive from New Delhi. I was simply not ready for

what I was about to experience!

The Gurukul campus provided only some basic

amenities, yet it was complete in all respects.

Located on a 500-square-yard plot, it is housed in

a two-storeyed ‘pucca’ building. It has a classroom-

cum-recreation room that has a carom board, a

dining room, a dormitory and a kitchen. There is a TV

and a DVD player, while Kalyan brought along some

good DVDs and movies. This entire set-up is manned

by a lean five-man team, essentially ex-servicemen.

The Trainees: Naive Yet OptimisticThe centre is imparting driving training to 25-odd

youth, who receive training on an adjoining driving

track with two Qualis. The trainees displayed great

enthusiasm about their new profession. After the

brief introductions, I found them sneaking out,

exploring the features of our Innova car and in earnest

discussions with our driver.The trainees, all Dalits, had come from diverse

locations-- from Banswara in Rajasthan to Nagpur

in Maharashtra. They had barely one or no other

earning member in their family. Their families either

possessed non-agricultural land or were landless.

They had either nil income or anyway less than Rs

2,000 per month; many were deeply entrenched

under the spiralling cycle of debt. Some of them

had also witnessed suicides in their villages due to

poverty and debt.

Barely class eight pass, none of them had driven

an automotive vehicle before. Their knowledge about

their country and its people was abysmal. They had no

idea about who Gandhiji was, had never ever heard

of Sachin Tendulkar or Shah Ruh Khan. They had not

seen a TV set in their life. Yet, their heart was brimming

with the hope of a better living for their family.

We gave the trainees confidence-building advice

in the most simplistic and rustic way. Like with one

stroke of their joining the Gurukul, their journey of

progress in life had begun and that there would be

no dearth of jobs for them if they were hard working

and honest.

Low on Cost, High on EnthusiasmPARFI Gurukul model is a low cost, fit-for-purpose

training with the cost of training benchmarked with

one-month’s post-training salary. The Gurukul

charges Rs7,500 for a full time, residential and 45-

day driving training with Rs 6,500 assured job at

the end of it with 100 per cent micro- financing. This

makes it one of the lowest cost models in the country,enabled through the people behind the project who

are always high on enthusiasm, delivery and hope

and bring their ex-servicemen patriotic passion to

the forefront. Hats off to seven full-time young IITians

team at PARFI for providing the only ray of hope in

the lives of these youth and their families, integrating

them with the mainstream and making definite and

permanent changes in their lives!

Is it too much for us IITians to provide more active

support to such a noble project? I would most

certainly request all IITians, whether visiting or staying

in Delhi, to witness this transformation that has left anindelible impact on me. n

Anil Vij is Head, Government Project, PAN IIT

FocUS

After visiting PARFI’s Gurukul in Alwar for Independence Day celebrations,anil K vij seeks more active support from IITians for PARFI,

the nation-building arm of Pan IIT Alumni

IIT Kharagpur CollaboratesTo Set up Rs-1,000-Cr

Research InstituteIIT Kharagpur has entered into a

joint venture with Mani Bhaumik

Educational Foundation to start a

Rs-1,000-crore research institute in

Kolkata. The institute, to be located

near Ruby Hospital on the EM

Bypass, will be a research wing of

the IIT, where students can pursue

masters and doctoral programs.

The Kolkata-based ManiBhaumik Educational Foundationprovides full financial supportfor university education of overone hundred meritorious butunderprivileged students from rural

Bengal. Physicist Dr Mani Bhaumik,an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur andManaging Trustee, Mani BhaumikEducational Foundation, recentlymet chief minister MamataBanerjee to discuss the project.A land measuring 15 acres hasalready been acquired for theproject.--------------------------------------------IIT Delhi Alumni Association

Felicitates AlumniOn 13th August, IIT Delhi Alumni

Association (IITDAA) felicitatedfive distinguished alumni, who

have attained excellence in theirrespective fields, with IIT DelhiDistinguished Alumni Award forthe year 2011. The awardeeswere: Prof DP Agrawal, MTech(1972) and PhD (1978), IIT Delhiand now Chairman, UPSC;Ashok Belani, BTech, Electrical(1980-IIT Delhi), and President,Reservoir Characterization GroupSchlumberger Ltd; PatanjaliKeswani, BTech Electrical (1981-IIT Delhi), and now CMD, LemonTree Hotels; Anant Jhingran, B

Tech, Electrical (IIT Delhi), is theVice President and CTO, IBMCorporation; Dr Dinesh Manocha,BTech,CSE (1987- IIT Delhi), iswith Phi Delta/ Mathew Masonas a Distinguished Professor,University of North Carolina.While delivering a message to theawardees, Anil K Vij, ExecutiveCommittee, IITDAA and HeadGovernment Projects – Pan IIT,said, “This award is a testimony toyour extraordinary achievementsand excellence in your chosendomains and your perseverance in

rising above the challenges facedby you. IIT Students, IITD, IITDAAand PANIIT decidedly deserve tobe guided by you in our respectiveendeavours.”

At a Glance

Anil Vij with trainees on the occasion o IndependenceDay at PARFI’s Gurukul in AlwarAnil Vij in a motivational session with the trainees

My AppealWe must provide hope to these PARFI folks— to sustain the

hope they are bringing in the otherwise dark and hopeless

lives of our underprivileged brothers and sisters.

We Pan IITians proudly strive to match Bill Gates in theprofessional world. Yet, why do feel shy to match the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation?

What is our contribution and support? To contribute to the

project, write to Anil Vij at [email protected]

Pan IIT Alumni Reach for India: The Unsung Mother Teresa of Pan IIT




Dr Arogyaswami Paulraj, an

IIT Delhi alumnus, has been

awarded the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers

(IEEE) Alexander Graham Bell

Medal - the organization’s

most prestigious honor. He is

currently emeritus professor of

Electrical Engineering at Stanford

University.

Dr Paulraj has been bestowed with

this prestigious technical award for his

pioneering contributions to the application

of multi-antenna technology to wireless

communications systems. He is credited

with pioneering Multiple In Multiple Out

(MIMO), a wireless technology that

dramatically increases the

performance of broadband

wireless systems, and nowforms the core technology in

latest WiFi and WIMAX systems.

Dr Paulraj joined the Indian Navy

at 15 years through the National

Defence Academy, Kharakvalsa

and served the Navy for 30

years. In India till 1991, he was

known for pioneering the development

of military sonars. He also served as the

founding director for three major labs

in India - Center for Artificial Intelligence

and Robotics, Center for Development of

Advanced Computing and CRL Central

Research Labs of Bharat Electronics. n

acHieverS

IIT Delhi Alumnus Receives IEEE Graham Bell Medal

IIT KGP Alumnus Wins Magsaysay Award

Harish Hande, an alumnus

of IIT Kharagpur, has

been recently bestowed with

the prestigious Magsaysay

Award. The 44-year-old Hande

is renowned for bringing

solar lights to India, where

half of the households do

not have electricity. He has

been recognized for his efforts to make

solar power technology accessible and

affordable to the poor. With the help

of a social enterprise, Solar Electric

Light Company India (SELCO) that he

established in 1995, he has lit up over

1,25,000 households.

Hande, who has completed his

BTech(Hons) Energy Engineering

in 1990 at IIT, Kharagpur, has a

PhD in energy engineering from

the University of Massachusetts.

Interaction with American

environmentalists and visits to the

Dominican Republic, a leader in

energy initiatives in the Caribbean,

and Sri Lanka inspired him to establish a

small scale solar installation in India.He

thus founded SELCO in Bengaluru. Besides

affordable renewable energy services to

poor villagers, SELCO also offers doorstep

financing and services. n

What Can I Give You in Return, O Krsna?On the occasion of Janmashtami, Mumbai-based

Gautam Saha, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, has

penned this devotional poem

O Krsna, what is Your heavenly pastime?

In Vaikuntha, how do You perform activities sublime?

When do You work, when do You enjoy leisure?

When do You rest or enact activities of pleasure?

To provide every creature his daily food, You never forget

O Vishnu, You ensure that everyone’smaterial needs are fully met

Be it an ant, a whale, or any other being of material creation

Each and every one is looked after byYour grace and disposition

Whereas every creature has assumed a materialbody due to past karma

Your body is spiritual, O Narayan,because you are beyond kaal and karma

Kaal and karma are both under the supremecontrol of Your holy writ

You are the master and last refuge of both matter and spirit

You had descended to earth, O Krsna,O supreme Lord and Master

By Your own internal potencies,of the various devtas the only Controller

Though at such times, You occasionally assume a human form

To give Your devotees pleasure,wonderful pastimes You do perform

Wherever and whenever there is a decline in religiosity, O Lord

You descend to earth, to deliver the pious, O supreme God

To annihilate the miscreants,the ‘sudarshan chakra’ You do empower

To bless and protect Your devotees,You carry a conch and a lotus flower

Me and my measly activity are all underthe spell of material nature

Where do I stand in comparison with evenone of your heavenly feature?

Whereas everyday, you care for the trillionsof creatures in this macrocosm

How many do I care for, even if, beside myself,I do think of any other living form

Please let me offer you a small and simple bit of food

So that in this world of sin and discord, I can do my bit of good

This little service can never equal Yours in love or generosity

Nor in any way come close to Your eternal spiritual potency

Please let me wash away my mediocre thoughts and inanity

By connecting with You, O Krishna,in love and service, with humility

In proximity to Your Holy Name and timeless opulence

So that, in this life, I can rise above my inane presence

Heart-Felt

Picture of The Month

on a missin: IITians showing solidarity with Anna Hazare’s fight fora strong Jan Lokpal Bill at Delhi’s Ramlila Ground

harIsh hande

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