Toybank turns 5!

Yes indeed! Toybank turned '5' on the 15th of August! And we are planning to make this 5th year anniversary a fantastic one. Here are some upcoming events in Pune and Bangalore!

Toybank Bangalore
Our last event in Bangalore was with kids at IAR summer camp in May. It's time to gear up for the next distribution event and this time in rural Karnataka - a first of its kind for Toybank Bangalore.

On the 6th of September 12 of our volunteers will be distributing toys to the kids from Govt. Higher Primary Secondary School in Siddarahalli village of Belur, Hassan district. Toybank is working with 2 other social welfare groups to bring in more cheer to the children during the event.

JoinUs2Help - will be sponsoring a parade drum and copy-writing books for the children.
Aakanksha - would also participate and engage the children in coloring, drawing and some craft activities.

We also had a toy collection drive in ANZ, Bangalore. The employee volunteers have collected the toys and they are now going to be wrapped and distributed very soon!

Please mail in at bangalore@toybank.org for any queries.

Toybank Pune
After the 1st toy distribution event in Pune with Gyanankur School, Toybank Pune is back in action!
Toybank donated 350 toys to 300+ kids and to the toy library of the school.

We have few events planned to celebrate the 5th year anniversary. But these have taken a set back due to the swine flu attack in Pune. A toy collection drive is planned in one of the societies and dates are being discussed with the management to arrange the drive. Also we are planning for a toy distribution event with one of the schools run by Akanksha with the help of PMC and other MNCs.

Please mail in at pune@toybank.org for any queries.

Join us in making the rest of the year an amazing one by reaching out to more kids with Toybank. Join Toybank on Facebook & Orkut and spread the word. Get instant updates about our events on Twitter!

You can also send in any suggestions and feedback to us on our website!

Mystic Mahabaleshwar

We finally made a trip to Mahabaleshwar last month and here are the pics. It was a perfect day with a drizzle here and there and clouds all over the hills of Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar.

And yes we managed to pack a carton full of Mapro goodies on our way back!

Oh Yes! am alive and blogging!

I hate to realize it every time that it's been almost 6 months since my last post now!
I was caught up with a few things at work, home and Toybank. But none of these are any kind of excuses for not being in the scene.

In the past 2 weeks I was down with fever and cough, you know the kind of sad cough - I don't even remember having one of these in a long long time! I had sleepless nights in spite of taking all kinds of antibiotics, syrups, home-remedies and now homeopathy too. Don't you worry - I don't have 'the flu'. I am working from home for a couple of weeks now and hoping to get back to the work routine soon.

These days I mostly wait for weekends more than anything else to have some 'me' time. EPL's back with a new season! Though we haven't had the best start am sure things will get better very soon.

And yeah there was 24 to our rescue after we had finished watching Lost season 5. And now that we have successfully finished watching all the 7 seasons of 24 as well, all we can do is wait until January arrives for some action on the small screen! Meanwhile I was exposed to a sitcom - Frasier, a delightful show with unique characters! Hope I can munch on this for a while. We did try Entourage but somehow after 2 episodes I didn't crave to go back and watch more. May be will try it when we run out of all options some day :)

Alright too much of TV there! Let's move on. You know by now that Pune is on the world map for being a swine flu hot spot. All thanks to this, that in the past one month I did hear some really dumb and weird things people did because of the swine flu scare. Definitely the city was under a panic attack for the first couple of weeks after the first casualty. But with the media and newspapers taking swine flu out of all their headlines I must say that things are back to normal now.

I know I have been lazy in updating the blog. But I have been in action on Twitter though. You can catch me here!

3 cheers to 'me coming back to blogging'! Toybank updates will soon follow this post.

Let's get started!

Here are some of the action points from yesterday's meeting in Pashan.

Toy collection will go on for a month's time in Panchvati which is home to many societies/apartments in Pashan. Arvind who runs One Life activities has offered Success Club as the toy storage space for the drive. And we already saw two bags of toys donated by yesterday :)

Everyone will send in their recommendations of any NGOs they have worked with in and around Pashan (and elsewhere in Pune). This'll help us during distribution of toys.

Initially our target will be to do one distribution per month depending on the toys collected and hence reach out to kids in Pune.

And guess what I was thrilled to see some special volunteers at the meeting. Around 6 kids joined us in the meeting yesterday :) . They are willing to be volunteers for the drive as soon as they are done with their exams!

Toy drive in Pashan, Pune

Volunteers in Pune - get ready to join us for toy drives in Panchvati, Pashan.
Toybank toy drives will be on in various buildings/societies in Panchvati.

We'll be collaborating with volunteers in Pashan and One Life to kick start this toy drive.
We have a meeting scheduled today at 2 PM.

Date:	Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time:	2 - 3 PM
Location:	One Life Activity Club,Near State Bank Nagar Society,Panchvati
Street:	Pashan Road
City	Pune

Here's the agenda for the meeting.

(1) Chalk out plans for toy drive in various buildings/societies in Pune .
(2) Discuss how we can get volunteers from Pune who can help us in collection, gift-wrapping and distribution with the help of One Life and also by spreading a word across all societies.
(3) Involve Volunteers from One Life in our distribution events and hence encourage inclusive play.
(4) Identify NGOs in and around Pashan so that distributions can happen in same area.
(5) Discuss on how we can schedule monthly or fortnightly meetings/follow ups.
(6) Discuss any other ways how we can collaborate with One Life to spread the message.

Please mail us at pune@toybank.org in case you have any queries.

Also there are toy drives happening in Juhu Vile Parle, Mumbai starting from 16th of February till 7th of March. Find out more here.

This is a toy collection and distribution drive set up all through JVPD Scheme, Mumbai. Students from the MBA Tech program from the Mukesh Patel Institute are initiating this Toy rally all through mid February and March. People living around these areas can fully support this activity if interested. Please write in to mail@toybank.org for more details.

Let us give back the right to a childhood!

LokSabha Polls - Corporatized!

Well the dates are out for the LokSabha polls. While I read the newspaper an idea struck my head!

Me: All these candidates with nominations for LS polls should go through a test before they are given the candidature. Who ever fares well will contest the election from that party!

Kunal: You wish. The test will be rigged!

Now that's the kind of confidence all of us have in the transparency of politics in India. I later realized how stupid my idea was. It sounded very much like a dream but I definitely want that to happen very soon!

I strongly feel politicians should take a test for contesting in elections.
I am not sure on what basis each party gives them a candidature. The ones who are loyal to bosses and the madams or may be the ones who make money speak for them!

I as a citizen of this country would definitely want the leader from my constituency to know a few basic things based on which I would choose him because he's being chosen to deliver what I want!

The test can revolve around things like these -

(1) How much does the candidate know about the constituency?
Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj both contested from Bellary few years ago. But did they know what the people of Bellary wanted in the next 5 years?! And what the problems were and what kind of development was required?

(2) Problems to be handled on priority in his/her constituency in the term
Every candidate must be aware of what are the bottlenecks bothering the people in the constituency and how to deal with them if he/she wins. Their agenda should be known to the public before they contest.

(3) The challenges India's facing with regard to the global scene
The candidate should be able to understand and relate to the challenges India's facing and contribute to the development by developing his/her own constituency.

And finally when all the above said things are on track (I hope I'll be alive to see it if and when it happens that is) - well the best part - 'the results' should be conveyed to everyone in the constituency once every year. And the candidate's agenda should be updated for the next year.

More importantly I feel all the results against the agenda should be 'quantifiable'.
Well only if the Election Commission took note of all this gyaan from the corporate world!

It's true - India mein mufat ka 'serious' gyaan bhi milta hain :D

Liverpool Fever

16th Dec 2007, Liverpool 0-1 Man Utd
I know nothing about football but am still watching the game.
I want to understand this game. I want to know all facts about English Premier League so that when I get married I can watch all the weekend Liverpool games with Kunal.

13th Sept 2008, Liverpool 2-1 Man Utd
My happiness knows no boundaries today and yes indeed! - I have become one of those people who stay glued to TV for 2 hours every weekend and never miss any game of their favourite club.

12th Dec 2008


It's very soon going to be exactly one year that I started watching EPL. I have watched almost all the Liverpool games this season and even if I have missed one that's coz I was traveling :). And my husband has taken care of how to stay updated no matter where you are - check this out!

Guess what! - I have even managed to watch other clubs' games just to see who's gonna stay on top of the table :D

Vote for Shweta Chari

Toybank's in town!

Toybank's first toy collection drive is on!

I thought it's always nice to get started by creating awareness in the neighborhood first. Hence the first toy collection drive is happening in my society next weekend :)

Hope we get loads of toys from everyone. These toys will be segregated according to age groups of 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and gift-wrapped. They'll be given to NGOs providing non formal education to kids in and around Pune. We have already identified a couple of them who have expressed interest in taking the toys.

Anyone in Pune who's interested in volunteering for Toybank or anybody who wish to donate toys, gift wrapping sheets or stationery required for gift-wrapping, please contact me on toybank-pune@toybank.co.in.

Volunteers from Bangalore, please write in to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in and if you are in Mumbai write to us at mail@toybank.co.in

Watch this space for more!

Akanksha Literary Fest 2008 - Pune

Well finally, I think things have started to fall in place.
I had thought my volunteering stint had taken a back seat in 2008. No, not anymore!

The Akanksha Literary Fest took place at Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Range Hills, Pune on the 30th of August. Few of us from Tech Mahindra volunteered for this event through the CSR.

I had to leave for Bangalore the next day morning and I was so looking forward to an amazing drive with Kunal. So I packed all my stuff on Saturday itself! And then I headed for the event in SIMS at 2 30 a cloudy noon.

Akanksha is an NGO working with children on non formal education. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non formal education through the various Akanksha centers in Mumbai and Pune and also formal education by initiating school reforms.

Children between level 1 and level 6 at Akanksha are taught English, Maths and value education. And children between level 7- 12 are taught career skills, leadership skills through programmes like Learning to Lead, Social Leadership and other empowerment programmes.

I had met Anupama and Reeves from Akanksha a month back when they’d visited one of the Tech Mahindra offices to let us know about mentoring opportunities in Akanksha. I was looking forward to meet them at the event as well!

I reached the venue by 3 PM. The event was scheduled to start at 4 PM but the volunteers were asked to be there earlier to help Akanksha arrange the event.

When I reached there, I saw a colorful display of various poems, stories, pictures and artworks written by kids from Akanksha hung up in one corner of the auditorium! I was smiling when I was reading through many of them :)




All the kids from various centers assembled at the auditorium at 4 PM. The event kicked off with a Drama which was about a Bookworm meeting various characters in a library :)



The exciting bookworm played by a member working at Akanksha thrilled the audience while meeting and explaining the characters like Birbal, Aladdin, Little Red Riding Hood etc who were all dressed up in the attires of the characters they played!

Bookworm also stressed the importance of a library and how we should ensure that we kept increasing the knowledge everyday.

This interesting drama was followed by poetry and drawing. Children were taken into the nearby 5 classrooms which were all named with different colors. The children were given various topics to start with their spot poetry. The volunteers helped the kids by giving them tips on writing and also by giving various ideas on the given topics.




After a 45 min poem writing session, there was Author’s chair where kids would read out few stories to the audience in their classrooms.

This was followed by the best bit of the event – the Lit Circles Skits, short for ‘the Literary Circles Skits’! A group of kids performed various skits like Wizard of Oz, Four friends, sending an important message on moral values that hard work & honesty are the only way to reap benefits.



After watching the wonderful skits performed by various groups, all the children came back to the auditorium. The wonderful literary fest ended with a story telling session by Sonali Adkar from Twist & Tales, Aundh, Pune.






Isn't it an amazing way to get back on track?
Pune...Here I come!!

Cruising through NH-4

Last week I and Kunal went on our first trip to Bangalore after our wedding. It was an amazing trip. All thanks to NH-4 and our new possession - a brand new Red Swift LDi :)!

We started off on a Sunday morning at around 5 30 AM. Kunal had all the essential R&D done about NH-4 for our drive from Pune to Bangalore. We made our way out of Pune in the early morning and hit the NH-4. Soon we drove through Satara & Kolhapur.

Reached the Karnataka border by 9 AM and then we came across a huge, wide reservoir near Nipani, Belgaum district. We stopped for breakfast for about half an hour and we were back on the road!



The Belgaum-Dharwad-Hubli stretch of NH-4 is awesome! It's a treat to cruise through this stretch at around 120 kmph. I was remembering the roads in Muscat for sometime :)

Like every good thing even NH-4 comes with its set of pros and cons. The bad part of NH-4 was here. This was from Haveri-Ranibennur-Davangere-Chitradurga. We saw some bad unfinished roads and too many diversions as well.

On this stretch we spotted huge number of windmills everywhere and sunflower fields adding to the lush green scenery with clouds in the background!









We stopped for lunch at Davangere and continued our drive hoping the road further on would be good! After a 3 hr drive, we stopped for coffee at Kamat, Hiriyur and yes the stretch till Bangalore was great!

We refrained from entering the Bangalore city through the usual route and instead tried the new Mysore Corridor and reached home at around 8 45 PM and our 15 hr journey came to an end!

Over all, this was truly one trip that I will remember for a long time now. With airfares being where they are and domestic air travel almost becoming out of reach, this experiment to try NH4 was definitely cool! All credit goes to my husband for making the smart move :)

After a 4 day vacation, we cruised through NH4 again and came back to home sweet home :). Its always good to be back home!!

Say hello to Toybank Pune

Hey all!

How's everybody doing??

You must be wondering if Toybank shut down its Bangalore operations. We apologize for not being in action for close to 5 months! The last event in Bangalore was on 21st of Dec for kids from Annanya.

Time for a quick recap!

Coordinators for Toybank Bangalore:
Vinay D R and I are the coordinators for Toybank Bangalore. The Bangalore Chapter started on 18th Aug 2007.

The journey so far:
We had toy distribution events with Nele (18th Aug) and Makkala Jagriti (8th Sept), Swanthana , Suraksha Makkala Rakshane (2nd Dec) and amazing toy collection drives in Raheja Residency, Koramangala (22nd Sept) and Akme Harmony (5th Jan 2008) . We celebrated Children's Day with kids from Balajothi Centre for the Disabled, Benson Town. Also we had a fantastic time with kids from Annanya where we celebrated Christmas on the 21st of Dec!

A lot of changes have happened at Toybank Bangalore in the past 7 months.

I moved out of Bangalore in mid October last year to Mumbai and then to Pune in December. Since then I have been caught up with work and then there was my 'marriage':-). Now we are working on building up the Toybank Pune Chapter!

Vinay works for Motorola, Bangalore and has moved to Pre sales a year ago. His new role requires him to travel extensively abroad and hence he too isn't able to give a lot of time for arranging more events.

Till now we were using iVolunteer's Bangalore office for the gift wrapping sessions as we don't have an office in Bangalore. We thank Prarthana and iVolunteer immensely for giving us the space! Even now I guess there are a lot of toys lying around at their office :-)

We are now looking for active volunteers in Bangalore and also a couple of coordinators who would arrange toy collection drives/ toy gift wrapping sessions and toy distribution events.

If you are interested to coordinate or volunteer for Toybank Bangalore, please write to us on mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Also volunteers interested in volunteering for Toybank Pune, please do write to us for volunteering opportunities and any queries at toybank-pune@toybank.co.in

Be the reason behind their smile.

To 'a happy beginning'

Yeah...finally am back! That was indeed a long break, completely away from the world of blogging.

But the bestest things happened to me in this long break. Many of the questions that haunted me a year ago have now been answered. Not by someone else but by 'myself'.

Though to a large extent still the way the world works wrt to marriage continues to be ridiculous, I answered few of those questions and I am so happy I answered them at the right time.

Enter 'Kunal Dua'. Into a life which was wondering what was going to happen in the years to come. In over a year and a half he was given a challenge of performing various roles. He has so far tried his hands at being a good friend at work- to being my love - and then currently he's doing the toughest job he would've ever done - being my husband :).

I am glad I met the 'right' person at the 'right' time.

Back with a Bang!!

After a short break, Toybank Bangalore is back in action !!

With the Children's Day around the corner, we at Toybank definitely won't be idle this month :). We have decided to bring more smiles to the children in Bangalore by celebrating Children's Day with them!

So join us at these events happening this week:
(1) Children's Day with kids of Balajothi Centre for the Disabled - Benson Town.
Date : 14th November 2007
Time: 9.30 AM onwards ( around 2-3 hours)

If you wish to drop in and make it more special, here's the address -
Balajothi Centre for the Disabled
# 25, 2nd main, S.K.Garden
Benson Town, Bangalore – 560046

For landmark please contact the Director Mr. J.M. Balaraj at 23541940 or 9341907162.

(2) Inauguration of a new Makkala Jagriti learning centre in partnership with Dept. of Women & Child Development, Govt. of Karnataka.

Toybank is giving away toys to Makkala Jagriti's new learning centre this Saturday. These toys will go to the 'toy space' at the centre.

What are you waiting for!??

If you want to donate a toy and make this Children's Day a special one to a child or if you have any queries or suggestions, please write to us mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Watch out for this space for more events and activities happening at Toybank!

Toybank featured in Sattva's Anniversary Issue

Check out for Toybank being featured in Sattva's Anniversary Issue -

Also check out Sattva's anniversary issue on Nextbillion.net, which is a website of New York-based World Resources Institute.

In their Anniversary issue you'll find:

* National Youth Foundation, an organization for youth, who
work on bringing youth NGOs together on a common platform.
* Jain College's highly innovative community radio program.
* Nitin Rao, 21-year old Sattvic Celebrity talks about how
for-profit social initiatives are the way of the future
* Aaditeshwar from the Waterloo University, Ontario, guest
columnist on building low cost rural networks to reach thousands.
* A very interesting look at the Rajinikanth fans association
and the community initiatives they carry out under the
superstar's banner.
* Meet the faces behind Sattva in team sketches and the
founder introduction page.
* Messages for Sattva from the readers.

If you want to know more about people behind the making of Sattva and their ideas visit ITIHAS

Civilization Love Clash!??

Guess it's just one more example of what I posted a few days back. As Wafa Sultan puts it, "The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations...It’s a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another that belongs to the 21st century".

Screening Toys for Lead!

"Toymaker Fisher Price is to recall almost one and a half million Chinese-made toys over fears that their paint contains too much lead"

This news hit the world close to 2 months back with Fisher Price, a subsidiary of US toy giant Mattel Inc, announcing on 2 August that it would be recalling some of Lee Der's [Mattel's sub-contractor] Chinese-made toys, affecting 83 product-types sold around the world.

Consumers all over started to worry as many of these toys were either already sold or ready to be sold in the markets. Mattel has apologized for the same and has promised to intensify their testing standards. Mattel has also answered few basic quests and given safety recall facts on its site.

While all this was in my mind for a few days now, I stumbled upon a google ad on my blog which directed me to a page on Niton.com

Niton has devised a product - a Handheld NITON x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer, which provides quick and easy screening of toys and other consumer goods for lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic metals. Niton has a distributor in India. Find the contact info here.

Lets assume that you've now tested your child's toys. In future whenever you buy a toy how would you identify and make sure if your child's toy contains lead? Here are some tips I found which might be useful for parents to have a check if their child is in a no-danger zone while playing with a toy.

Check out for -

• Dull, grey-looking metal.
• Pieces that seem heavy for their size.
• If you rub a piece of jewelry against a sheet of paper and it leaves a grey line, it's probably made of lead.
• Bright colors, especially orange and red.
• Soft plastics, as lead is used as a stabilizer to help keep the plastic soft.

Find more information and tips here.

Toys, Toys and MORE Toys!

You have to check out these pics to believe what an awesome toy collection drive we had today at Raheja Residency!

Toybank thanks -

• all those people who spent some time to dig their wardrobes for some toys which their kids would have thrown away long back!
• all those moms who got their kids along to our stall, and when their kids started feeling sad about giving their toys away, they consoled them saying "beta, you promised me that you'll give these toys, now other children will play with them".
• people who have now moved out of Raheja, but still came all the way to give toys after getting an email on the Raheja group.
• Friends and volunteers who managed to get the carton boxes, stationery, packaging tape in place for this drive.

Thanks everyone!!

Soft toys - cho cute!

Toddler toys!

I have to still figure out what this one is!

We've skaters too!

Toybank stall... no one's there though... he he he :)

Educational toys!

So here we come...

Join us for the 2nd toy collection drive in Bangalore this weekend!

Date and Time: 22nd Sept, 10 AM - 1 PM
Venue - Club House, Raheja Residency, Koramangala 3rd Block, Bangalore

You can help Toybank -

• To arrange a Toy Collection Drive in your neighborhood, schools, apartments, corporate offices.
• As Volunteers in collecting the toys, segregating them according to different age groups of the children and also in gift-wrapping them.
• In "helping us find their lost childhood" and in spreading the word around.

For any queries and suggestions, write to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in
Also Join Toybank at

• http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=10288292
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toybankforum

Idol worship or idle worship or ideal worship?

I came across a thought-provoking post in my organization's discussion board which happens to be a forwarded email. Posting the same here. I am not able to get the pictures from the forward posted here, so will give you just the "irony".

IDOL worship? Or IDLE worship? Or IDEAL worship?

The plight of Ganesha a day after immersion...!

Would you like your Gods bulldozed like garbage?
Left to rot for scavengers to feast... ?

Would you like your Gods to be maimed? Desecrated? Dumped?

And you create a hue and cry when some statue in your city gets ‘desecrated’?

You burn down buses and call for bandhs?

Was that statue a GOD?

OR

Is this GOD only a Statue?

You decide.

Wake Up!

Recently I had read about the various ways to prevent environmental pollution, to save earth which is already suffocating because of the deeds we humans have done and are doing.

I feel instead of looking at what are the ways of a doing a Visarjan so that it doesn't cause any environmental menace, I would rather try to look at the contradictory views people have in the society we live in. People in India don't mind leaving their God away into the waters causing all kinds of environmental hazards to the water-bodies everywhere. If asked, they'd say "it's Visarjan! After few days of worshiping Ganesha, god has to be immersed!”

Ask the same people how they feel when their gods get bulldozed like garbage, you wouldn't find anybody answering!! But when they find someone break their Gods down elsewhere; they make such a BIG fuss about things. Ya, because it's normal people who have done that, but in the former case it's just the Municipality officials doing their JOB!


Can't forget to quote the "burning down of a Chennai-bound bus" on Hosur Road in Bangalore 2 days back, just because TamiNadu CM Karunanidhi made a statement about the God Rama's existence. He didn't go break down any God anywhere, so why was the bus burnt down then?? 2 innocent people were charred to death because of this disgusting act! Should we call such people Hooligans or mere idiots who themselves don't know what they are doing?