The responsibilities of the citizen - Kautilya Arthashastra

As part of the online audio library, we are recording the original Chanakya Arthashastra .I am doing most of the recording myself, because i really do want to read this book, and also because then it helps me create good stories for my child. Arthashastra is a treatise on economics, strategy, public administration and politics combined. It is an incredibly fantastic book and proves to me, yet again, how advanced was the thought process of the people who came before us.


Today, however, i recorded a really special chapter, which i really want to share with the rest of you.


This is the chapter on the duties of the citizen. Sample some gems:
A. Every householder has to let the civic administration know that they have guests. The origin, destination and purpose of these guests must be disclosed, otherwise the householder will be considered complicit if the guests are found to be committing a crime.
Even if the guests do not commit a crime, the householder will be fined 3 panas per night for not disclosing details of guests housed in the private home.


B. All visitors to the republic (janapada) must be registered. They can stay with their professional or personal acquaintances if they know someone. Else, the owner of the hotel must inform the civic administration about them and must allow them to stay only after the right approval.


C. If an officer of the law omits to conduct a check where he was supposed to check, and this lapse leads to the successful committing of a crime, the said officer will be punished at the same level as the committer of the crime.


D. Yes, there was death penalty for rape in certain cases, and in most other cases, the severity of the punishment was very high - the most severe, or the second most severe category.


To know more about the duties and responsibilities of the civic administration, and the duties of the citizens, check this audio file out:


Nagrikpanidhi: https://goo.gl/Q5Epha


Enjoy!!

We got featured in The Hindu Chennai edition

https://www.thehindu.com/education/careers/actions-speak-louder-than-words/article26014656.ece


This is our first press appearance this year.


Thank you, Liffy Thomas, and The Hindu.


Also so proud of Venkatesh and Chandru, who have truly made a name for themselves in the region.


Thank you


Warm Regards


Nidhi

New School in the network - Aurangabad

Very happy to share this. Over the last two days - December 24th and 25th, I was at Aurangabad. The brief visit had 2 happy occasions:
1. We took the message of creating an inclusive society to over 100 young students at the MGM Institute. The students were from Class 11, and from classes 7 and 8.


I had so much fun doing this! The students were active and eager. We asked for 6 volunteers for the blind walk, and got 14, with more waiting. The learning was Braille was done with much gusto and the questions at the end were thought provoking. Thank you!


The visit to the blind school was equally good. We saw the basic and clean facilities, understood their requirements and were surprised to see the very low level of audio penetration, even though the students are working towards competitive exams.


The school is now a part of our audio library network and will share requirements.
Special thanks to MGM, and Dr. Aparna Kakkad in particular, for enabling both these interactions.

With the Grade 7 and 8 students, the principal and teachers

Talking about why inclusive spaces are necessary

With the Grade 11 students who asked some very interesting questions

This young lady asked a really interesting question - mam, how do you train them. This is her being trained on getting on stage without stumbling, and walking straight. It was very nice to see her confidence surge when she reached the stage on her own, and turned around to address the audience, all with her eyes closed!

A full house!

The hostel is in a simple, single builing

The school gate

The team after the discussion. MGM has consented to play an active role in the development of the audio library for the school

How to get my patient a free bed in Delhi - www.charitybeds.com

Today, we heard about this awesome initiative that will really help everyone.

All private hospitals in Delhi are duty bound to offer some beds at low or no cost to poor patients.

This is a website that compiles the list of such beds every single morning and makes it available.

If you know anyone who is economically weak and is looking for treatment, please please guide them to this website:

http://charitybeds.com/

They can call Gagan: +91-7838348237
Lalit Kumar: +91-9999071842

And these kindred souls will work to get them a free bed in these hospitals.

November 2018 Roundup

What a lovely November this has been!
In this month, we:
A. Conducted Read Fests at KPMG, Moodys, and SOIL (School of Inspired Leadership)
B. Did a Trust Walk with the German exchange students at The Shri Ram School, Aravali
C. Conducted Blind school visits for the Grade 7 students of The Shri Ram School, Moulasari, to the NAB Center for Women, Hauz Khas
D. Added some more Braille Cards customers, one of whom is a very prominent one.
E. We also visited the Namchi Blind School in South Sikkim to take stock of their learning needs. This is one of the remote schools from which we take requirements for our audio library. We noted the requirements for the next year and also gave them a free resource which they will use every day now - the daily newspaper for children, which is an initiative of our founder. This paper will now be shared with them every day at no cost. The school will use the in built screenreader of Adobe to read out the news to all the children in the assembly. Currently, the teachers have to make the news every morning in Braille and then the children read it out.




The audio content recorded during these Read Fests will particularly help Indian history fans (Original Kautilya Arthashastra in Hindi), and IAS aspirants (All 2018 Mains papers and Prelims papers recorded in audio)


80 files in English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Oriya and Malayalam were recorded. These will be a part of the next release, which is due this week.


The Blind School visits almost always make us very happy, because they help us sensitise a lot of children, and the children who walk out of that school truly understand the key words that we stand for - Dignity, Empowerment, and Enablement.


On the technical front, we made the code of the mobile app - CLABIL, more robust, and are working to improve the code even further. We have heated discussions on security for the mobile app, and I love those discussions!


Here's to an equally outstanding December.

People’s zest for Read fest at KPMG

The Read fest at KPMG Cyber city, Gurugram is one of its kind experience.


It was really amazing to see people coming up with overwhelming zeal and interest to contribute for the recording. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the support provided by Ms. Neelima Chakara in listening to this idea for rollout at KPMG and then working with us alongside her internal organization’s management to get all requisite internal approvals for this event and ensuring that all logistics are in place to ensure seamless rollout. And she achieved all this including rollout in just under two weeks.

“Huge thanks to her”

During the event, we were supported by one of the employee of KPMG: Ms Akansha Bawa. It was due to her assistance the event went smoothly.



I and Nidhi Ma’am coordinated the recording sessions and were simultaneously guiding the people with their queries. The memorable moments we had with the people is the reason we felt very happy and cheerful after the event.



I remember one conversation I had with one of the person who volunteered. He asked a humorous question after the recording completed, “Where do you work?”
The question instilled pride and happiness in me at the same time.
I told him that I’m still a student. I study in class 12 and I have been volunteering for Esha for a year.


It was indeed a very wonderful experience of working with professional people at KPMG.


Thanks a lot to Nidhi Ma’am for all her guidance and People of KPMG for the success of the event!!

Lead The Rest Through Read Fest!

As the doors opened for the Read Fest to be held at School of Inspired Leadership, we could see a plethora of eager volunteers gearing up for the same!
As the flurry picked pace, the excitement grew paramount with participants enquiring for the same, curiosity & inquisitiveness pretty evident from their expressions!

"So.. What's This About? Can You Brief Us?" 

                                                                                      - Anudeep, Student SOIL

The Esha Volunteers left no stone unturned be it through providing information to students or motivating them to record.

Needless to say, the students were very excited & eager to help.
Help implied they had to miss classes & record audio content for Esha..

"We want to help! But we have classes till 6:15! How to go about it?"

                                                                                                - Analytics Student, SOIL

It seemed like an uphill task to convince them to stay back after classes.
The time had come to enlighten the students on how just 10-20 minutes of their time could help a Blind person in understanding & interpreting the world he lives in, in a better way.

The Esha Volunteers did succeed in getting recordings in languages ranging from Tamil to Bengali.
The mission resonated well with the students & they could well understand the impact this was creating on the society they live in..

" Yes, it did take time. Yet, I feel like I've done something of greater value today!" 

                                                                                                   - Marketing Student, SOIL

The Impact could be felt in the conviction & tenacity the Participants showed despite the fact that there were multiple takes at recording owing to technical glitches & noise disturbances.

" We thank you with all our heart & soul. You guys have done a great job!"

                                                                                            - Shivangi Sharma, Volunteer Esha

 

                     In Picture: Two Students supporting Esha in Audio Recordings in Bengali & Oriya at Read Fest

The Experience was enriching & provided lots of learning to both SOIL Students as also Esha Volunteers.

The Impact could be felt, somewhere in between the softened mumbles of students & the sighs of the Volunteers....

Read Fest at KPMG and SOIL

This week saw 2 back to back Read Fests - coincidentally, KPMG held its first Read Fest ever on October 31st, and SOIL held its seventh Read Fest - SOIL is our longest standing year on year partner, and KPMG is our latest. What a lovely week to have! And what a great start to November!


The KPMG Read Fest was on October 31st, and the SOIL Read Fest was on November 1st.


Pictures awaited.


The KPMG team recorded the Mains papers for 2018 Civil Services exam, and it was a delight to see them leave the recording rooms HAPPY.

India Vs Sri Lanka - Blind Cricket Match INternational

Cricket Association for Blind in Delhi (CABD) along with Cricket Association for Blind in India (CABI) is organising a cricket match between the Blind cricket teams of India and Srilanka. We cordially invite you to attend the match and to cheer the visually impaired players.
Venue: Roshanara Club, Roshanara Garden, Near Kamla Nagar, Delhi-110007.
Date & Time: 23-10-18 from 14:00 onwards.
For any query feel free to dial +91-9911711608 / 9971938737
 You can watch the match live on DD sports.