November 2019

Foundation for CSR @ Redington REDINGTON CSR – CONNECT November 2019 PREPARE THE KIDS FOR LIFE Redington’s Dynamic Activities For School Children

From Trustee’s Desk GREETINGS TO ALL We are nearing the end of calendar year 2019. In most of the colleges, odd semester is over and students are busy with their semester exams. Ms. Sangeetha, a third year student in a college in Madurai, where our employability skill training is happening, astonished that two and half years got just over after her joining in college. She is eagerly awaiting the New Year 2020 in which she dreams to join a corporate, post completion of her academics. When I asked on the purpose of her looking for a job, whether it is because she is educated or she needs the job for her livelihood. She simply cried and shared about her family economic condition. She is the elder daughter of a poor farmer. She mentioned that her father who is a daily wager and does not know anything other than working on field. There were several days, while her mother deliberated whether both sisters can continue their studies else one can be dropped out. She also shared that her father is the one who encouraged and sacrificed his basic needs for his children’s education. Sangeetha is waiting to attain a promising career and to take care of the family and her sister’s education. She also mentioned that, one of her immediate wish is to take her father to his favourite restaurants and treat him with his favourite dishes. Yes, Year 2020 will bring lot of such hopes to reality. We at Redington Foundation is committed to support children who are caring their family and committed to make change in their lives. November 2019, while there are limited activities in colleges due to semester exams, several fun filled activities are conducted in schools. Keeping the importance of the Soft Skill Training at School level and the impact that can make within the children, our trainers were engaged in the schools with their expertise in soft skills. Classes conducted with topic s like Confidence Building, Removing mother tongue influence, Goal Setting, Improving Memory Power, Preparing for Exams, Developing Fast Reading and Writing Better and Faster. I am glad to share that our Foundation’s activities are recognised by PASUMAI THOZHARGAL TRUST and conferred with the “ABDUL KALAM AWARD” as an achiever in the field of social development. We, Redington Foundation, wishes everyone Merry Christmas and seasons’ greetings.

CONTENTS 1 Prepare The Kids For Life 3 Glimpses November 2019 6 Abdul Kalam Award 7 Workshop on Special Education 8 Preventive Healthcare Camp 10 Corporate Health Check-up 12 Simple Healthy Habits 13 Now Learning in new way 14 Numismatic Exhibition 16 Wash Project 17 ICSI Inspection at Madurai Zone 19 Why we do what we do

PREPARE THE KIDS The training methodologies adopted for the FOR LIFE training program were PPT Presentations, Discussions, Games, Activities, Tips for Redington’s Dynamic Activities Improvements and Question & Answer For School Children sessions. When our Elite Colleges announced their The students were very participative and eager semester examinations in the month of to learn the concepts apart from their November, our Trainers and Elite Enablers syllabus. were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to start their soft skill programmes for the School Children. The importance of the Soft Skill Training at School level and the impact that can make within the children and in the society is highlighted a lot in our previous issues of our magazine. Keeping this in priority, upon the instruction and the guidelines of the Trustee, our team were ready to roll with full of energy. Even though, this is a window of opportunity for the school children, the influence that the training can make in their behaviour and self development could be high. Confidence Building, Removing Mother Tongue Influence, Goal Setting, Improving Memory Power, Preparing for Exams, Developing Fast Reading and Writing Better and Faster are the topics covered in the training. The training programmes were conducted in both the associated and non associated Schools. 1

The following are the details of schools and trainers S.No. School Location Trainer & Elite Enabler 1 Uma Maheshwara school Thanjavur Ms. Sugavaneshwar & Trichy Ms. Hareni 2 Annai school Vadalur 3 Fathima Hr sec School Ms. Mahalakshim i& Mr. Richard praveen raj Ms. Indirapriyadharshini & Mr. Samson De Paul 4 Kalaivani Matriculation School Pullambadi Mr. Abdul Rahman 5 Meenakshi Higher Sec. school Madurai Ms. Abarna & Ms. Selvi Madurai Ms. Abarna & Ms. Selvi 6 Mangayarkarasi Higher Secondary School 7 Kammavar Girls Higher Sec.School Sattur Ms. Abarna & Ms. Kavya 8 St.Theresa Higher Sec.School Sattur Ms. Abarna & Ms. Kavya 9 Chinnakampatti Govt HSS Sattur Ms. Abarna & Ms. Kavya 10 Pachyappas High, School, Uppukottai Theni Ms. Somenal & Ms. Shanthi 11 Thambithottam Hr.Sec.,School Gandhigram Ms. Someenal & Ms. Maheshwari 12 Sarada Matriculation Hr.Sec School Tirunelveli Ms. Lakshmi & Ms. Prema 13 Vivekandha Matriculation Hr.Sec School Valliyoor Ms. Lakshmi & Ms. Prema 14 Sri Rama Mandhiram Government Girls Shencottah Mr. Iniyan & Ms. Hr.Sec School Rajeshwari 15 John The Baptist Hr.Sec School Thoothukudi Ms. Ramalakshmi 2

Glimpses November 2019 Tailoring course in Semmangudi SLC A tailoring programme for women, is planned to be conducted in the newly started SLC in Semmangudi Village of Kodavasal Taluk, Tiruvarur District. Mock Interview in Thanjavur SLC A Mock interview was arranged on 14th November 2019 for our SLC students, where our Placement Lead Mr. Hari Prasad conducted the Mock Interviews and provided the valuable suggestions to the students for attending the job interviews confidently. TTT (Train The Trainers) program at Gandhigram, Dindugul A TTT program was conducted for all the Trainers and Elite Enablers of ESLC on 16th & 17th November 2019 at Gandhigram, Dindugul. on the Aptitude topics, AOL activities and on H2 plans. Meeting with SIMS at Hyderabad A meeting with Sai Institute of Medical Sciences was held in Hyderabad on 08th November 2019. The discussion with regard to the conduction of “Clinical Skills for Nurses” programme at Thanjavur SLC with the association of SIMS happened. 3

Quality time with Children All our Elite Enablers and Trainers had a good time with the children of Gandhigram Orphanage Home after the soft skill session conducted for the School Children of Gandhigram Trust. Children’s Day Celebrations \"Shaaron Special School\" On 14th November 2019 the Shaaron Special School arranged for a children's day celebration in their school premises. The special children participated and performed in the cultural events organised by the school. Ms. Shanmuga Vadivoo, Zonal Head - Tirunelveli and team distributed gifts to the Children at the end of the event. Interaction Session with Students of Remedial Class On 24th November 2019 Mr. Muthukumarasamy, and Mr. Ravisankar, from Redington (India) Limited., had an Interaction session with the students of Avvai Ashram who are attending the Remedial Classes sponsored by us. As the students are appearing for their Board Examination in March 2020, our guests provided them useful tips and motivational talk. It is notable that, there was 100 % pass out at Avvai Ashram in the previous 4 consecutive academic years, and the main reason for the success is our remedial classes. Placement Drive at Madurai The Apollo pharmacy and INFACT conducted a placement drive at SLC 1 Madurai on 05th and 06th November 2019 respectively. Totally 17 students of SLC 1 attended the placement drive. 4

NSDC Assessment for Solar Panel Trainees On 28th November 2019 , the final assessment was conducted for Solar panel trainees at SLC/ Avvai Ashram. Mr. Alagupandi from NSDC, Chennai, assessed the students and 35 trainees had successfully undergone the assessment. Television Donation for Shanthi School – Gandhigram Trust On 24th November 2019, Mr. Ravisankar, Dy. CFO of Redington (India) Ltd., along with his wife Ms.Bhuvaneshwari, participated in an event where they donated a Television for the Hearing Impaired children. The inauguration of the Television made the children rejoice the moment. The guests also interacted with the students through sign language tutor and motivated them to give their best in the academics and sports. 5

Abdul Kalam Award Our foundation is honoured by Pasumai Tholargal Trust Article By Ms. Dolores Scholastica, Resource Centre Coordinator, Tirunelveli Zone On 24th November, an appreciation ceremony was conducted by PASUMAI THOZHARGAL TRUST for giving away the “ABDUL KALAM AWARD” to the achievers in the field of social development at Thiruvalluvar college, Papanasam. Our Redington Foundation was also recognized and got selected for the award for the extraordinary service rendered by Redington to the Society. The Chief guests of the event were Dr. G. S. Vijayalakshmi, NGC Coordinator and Mr. S. Sivakumar D.I.G (Rtd), Mr. G. Barath, Forest Officer, Kalakkad Mundanthurai, Tiger Reserve Forest. Principal of Thiruvalluvar College, Mr. S. Sundaram and Principal (Self Finance College) Dr. C. Alagappan also presided over the event. The guests presented a talk on the following subjects • The ways of Environmental Protection by planting and protecting the trees • Oxygen deficiency eradication methods • Importance of forests • Hazards of air pollution places like Delhi The award was received by Mr. G. Eniyan, Soft Skill Trainer of our Thiruvalluvar College on behalf of our foundation 6

Workshop on Special Education Manonmaniam Sundaranar University(MSU), Tirunelveli Article By Ms. Dolores Scholastica, Resource Centre Coordinator, Tirunelveli In Association with Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, our foundation organised a Three days workshop on Special Education from 21st to 23rd November 2019. The session started with prayer song and the function was inaugurated by the vice chancellor of MS University Mr. Pitchumani. As our foundation contributes a lot on the area of special education, our Trustee Mr. Muthukumarsamy was also invited for the Workshop. Mr. Stalin Arul Reagan and Mr. Dhanapandian from NIEPMD (National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities) , Chennai, Mr. Srinivasan from Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidhyalaya Maruthi college of Physical education, Coimbatore, Ms. N. Devi and Ms. Bhuvaneshwari Ragavan from Spastic society of Tamilnadu, participated in the workshop. The presentation was done on the topics - “Understanding The Concept Of Special Education”, “Behavioural Management In Classroom”, \"Adaptive Physical Education & Yoga For Special Children“, “Assessment & Evaluation“, \"Acts, Policies And Benefits Of PwD” by the participants. At the end of the third day event Mr Santhosh Baboo, Registrar, MS University , Mr. Ravishankar,, Redington (India) Ltd, Mr. Muthukumarasamy, Managing Trustee, Redington Foundation , Ms. Shanmuga Vadivoo, Zonal Lead, Redington Foundation gave away the certificates to the participants Additionally, the special children of Shanthi School, Avvai Ashram, displayed their hand made products at the stall allocated to them in the MS University and sold the items to the visitors joyfully. 7

PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE CAMP Tenkasi, Tirunelveli Zone Article By Ms. Dolores Scholastica, Resource Centre Coordinator, Tirunelveli Zone A Healthcare Camp was conducted on 16th November 2019 with the support of Tenkasi District Administration. Our foundation organized this camp for welfare of the Sanitation Workers. The event was presided over by our honourable Tirunelveli District collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish IAS, and Municipal Commissioner, Divisional Officer and Tahsildar. Ms. Shanmuga Vadivoo, Zonal Lead and team along with the Thenkasi Corporation arranged the camp with all the essentials. More than 100 sanitation workers benefitted through the camp. A team of Doctors from Shifa Hospital, Tirunelveli provided the healthcare services to the participants. 8

CORPORATE HEALTH CHECK-UP Beyond the usual Article By Mr. Pankaj Sati, Project Coordinator, Delhi Zone The objectives of Corporate Health Check-up Program is, to reduce diseases amongst employees by preventing them from the communicable deceases, to do early detection of health related problems and refer them a proper treatment, to impart health education, to suggest the authorities of the organization on the importance of safe drinking water supply, good environmental sanitation & cleanliness and to provide healthcare counselling. Conducting the health camps will reduce the sick leaves and increase the work efficiency amongst workers. On 27th & 28th of November a health check-up camp was conducted for the workers of ProConnect warehouse located at Mundka Industrial Area and their family members. The workers come for work in two shifts and most of them are from the near by villages. Creating awareness about the preventive healthcare measures among the workers and their family members, conducting the health check-up camp and early intervention of the health related issues were ideally achieved with the help of the doctors and supporting staff from BLK HOSPITAL and ROKO Cancer Trust. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to these hospitals. 9 ProConnect Warehouse – Mundka, Delhi

Images of the Workers at Warehouse The two day camp was at the ProConnect warehouse. The team of doctors and the supporting staff of the BLK Hospital and ROKO Cancer Trust did the Basic vital health check-ups, Dental examinations, Mammography check-ups (Using Mammography Van), BMI check-ups, Pap smear (for cervical cancer in women), Preventive ONCO examination, PSA test (prostate specific antigen) , Dental extraction (at nearby dental centre), Dental x ray digital, Dental fillings (temporary or GIC according to doctor advise) treatments for the participants. A Dental chair was arranged at the warehouse for the doctors to perform the ideal check-ups, which was highly appreciated by the participants. The family members included in the camp can create many positive effect on the family healthcare. The awareness program would really bring a notable change in their life style. 10

The following are the Doctors, who have participated in the camp  Dr. Jai Gopal Sharma, MBBS (ENT Specialist) from BLK Hospital  Dr. Poonam Gambhir, MBBS,MPH (Gynecologist) from BLK Hospital  Dr. Prateek Aggarwal, BDS, (Dentist), ROKO Cancer Trust  Dr. Piyali Chatterjee, BDS, MPH (Breast Cancer Check-Up),  Dr. Kunal, MPH (Public Health provider) Oral Cancer Check-Up  Dr. Gurudas, BDS, (Dentist) (Health camp organizer & coordination)  Dr. Vaishali, BDS, (Dentist)  Dr. Gaurav, BDS, (Dentist)  Dr. Sunil, BDS, (Surgical Oncology)  Dr. Ravinder, MBBS Team of Doctors and Supporting Staff Ever since the inception of our foundation the concept of preventive healthcare has been a dream project for the foundation, which the foundation is able to achieve gradually in all the zones . Healthy habits act as an effective mechanism against most illnesses and make us live long with good health. Happy Health 11

Simple Healthy Habits Recommendations of WHO WHO says that just being more active, eating healthy, and avoiding tobacco and harmful use of alcohol can help us to lead a healthy life. Physical Activity Tips Children and adolescents aged 5-17 years: Should do at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity daily. Adults aged 18–65 and above years: Should do at least 150 minutes of moderate- intensity physical activity throughout the week, or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous- intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both. Healthy Diet Tips Breastfeed for babies Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit Eat less fat Limit intake of sugars Reduce salt intake Say No to Tobacco and Alcohol 12

“Now Learning in new way” Article By Deepak Mehto, Project Coordinator – Delhi Zone Our foundation recently associated with Arya Public School, Malviya Nagar, Delhi and supported the school with Smart Boards to introduce the students to the world of Digital Education System. The school is located in Malviya Nagar of South Delhi, between Saket and Hauz Khas and also close to IIT Delhi. Malviya Nagar is named after the noted freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya, who was an educator. It is surrounded by Begumpur Village, Shahpur Jat, Sheikh Sarai, Chirag Dilli, Khirki Extention, etc., Arya Public School of Arya Samaj Trust, is a non-profit organization. The students of Arya Public School are coming withing 4 to 5 Km of radius surrounding Malviya Nagar. The school is running with the motive to support the children, who are from economically challenged background, by providing quality education for them. When our team identified the school for the association, we found that the school is not introduced to the current Digital Education System. Therefore we supported the school by providing the Smart Boards which will be useful for the students to experience the visual learning. A training program for the teachers of the school, on “How To Use Smart Board For Effective Teaching” was conducted at the school premises by our foundation. The teachers from the grades 1 to 5, attended this training program and got hands-on experience about the usage of Smart Board. Bridging the gap between the teachers and quality education is the main objective of the training program. The professional training and development of teachers can be a key source for quality teaching and to prepare competent students with the necessary knowledge and aptitude. After the training session, the teachers told that, they feel so fortunate to have attended the training programme, which will not only help them to teach the students effectively but also for the self development of their career. Smile Silent Sad 13

Numismatic Exhibition At Thambithottam HSS at Gandhigram –Dindigul Article By Ms. Barbara Aro Ramya, Project Coordinator, Madurai Zone A Numismatic Exhibition was conducted by our foundation for the students of Thambithottam Higher Secondary School at Gandhigram –Dindigul, on 11th November 2019. Numismatic is the word derived from French adjective “numismatiques”, which means \"of coins”. Numismatic is a study of all kind of Money. Mr. Mani, Numismatist - who is based at Madurai was the Resource Person of the event. He has a collection of Value 1 in world coins, Bi –metallic coins, proof set coins, silver gold coins, foreign coins, commemorative coins, un usual value coins, polymer currencies, denomination 5 in world currencies, Gandhi stamps, first day covers, sheet lets and much more. As part of the many beneficial programs conducted by our foundation for the development of the students community, a thought of conducting a different program like this has impressed the students to learn a lot about money. The Resource Person shared that, it took 50 years for him to collect all the above mentioned coins and currencies. He added that, he has also conducted the Numismatic Exhibition for PAN INDIA. 14

The programme idea was initiated by, Mr. Murugan, Regional Head. The programme was organized and conducted by Ms. L. Barbara Aro Ramya, Project Coordinator with the guidance of Mr. Balaji, Zonal Head and also with the help of the team members (Ms. Kavitha, Centre Coordinator, Ms. Rathina, Centre Coordinator, Ms. Delphi, Smart Champ and Ms. Maheswari, Elite Enabler). Chief Guest Mr. Sivakumar, Trustee, Gandhigram Trust and Ms. Pangajam, Secretary, Gandhigram Trust inaugurated the event and gave the presidential address. Thambithotam School Head Master Mr. Anbazhagan, Mr. Murugan, Mr. Balaji, Ms. L. Barbara Aro Ramya, Mr. Mani and Ms Saravanakumari Mani, Soft Skill Trainer presided the Inaugural Ceremony and Ms. Maheswari anchored the program. The Students, Teachers and other participants were awestruck to see the extremely rare collection of 1500 years old coins. The world’s smallest gold coin and the 100 million denominated currency of Non surviving countries, attracted the participants hugely. A Quiz Programme with regard to the coins and currencies and the prize distribution for the winners was conducted in the valedictory function. On the whole everyone learned a lot and conveyed their heart-felt thanks to Redington Foundation for providing this amazing opportunity. 15

WASH PROJECT A rally at Gandhigram Article By Ms. Barbara Aro Ramya, Project Coordinator, Madurai Zone World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day on 19th November of every year to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without \"safely managed sanitation\" and around 673 million people practise open defecation. In order to bring the awareness among the society about the importance of achieving sanitation for all and to end open defecation, the WASH team of Gandhigram Trust organised for a rally around the villages near Gandhigram. Our foundation is supporting the WASH project of Gandhigram Trust through funding for the Water and Sanitation Hygiene developmental activities of Athoor Block, Gandhigram. On 19th November 2019, the students of Panchayat Union Middle School located in J. Pudukottai village of Athoor block participated in the rally programme. The concept of the rally was ‘Clean Village’. The school student’s rallied around the villages and raised slogans about usage of toilets, water scarcity, environmental pollution, dangers of open defecation and also educated the people on the construction of IHHL (Individual Household Latrine) for healthy life. Along with the WASH team members Ms. Ramuthai, Project Manager, Ms. Buvaneswari and Ms. Chandra, members of WASH team, our Dindigul Cluster Project Coordinator Ms. Barbara Aro Ramya, participated in the rally. After the rally the students were gathered and given awareness about the water safety, sanitation and personal hygiene management by Ms. Ramuthai. Ms. Barbara Aro Ramya explained about the usage of toilets and environmental cleanliness to the students. 16

ICSI Inspection at Madurai Zone Article By Mr. Murugan G, Regional Head An inspection for the ICSI 4th CSR Awards was held on 02nd November 2019. Mr. Sridhar, Company Secretary of Bajaj Auto Limited, Pune, who was deputed by ICSI (The Institute of Company Secretaries of India) visited Madurai Zone, for inspecting our CSR activities. ICSI chose the Madurai Zone for conducting the inspection among all the zones. Mr. Sridhar, Inspector, visited our Madurai Smart Learning Centre 2 in the morning and also had interaction with the trainees of Montessori Teacher Training Programme. Alumni of Montessori Teacher Training Programme and Employability Skill Training in Data Process for Hearing Impaired programme were called for having interaction with the Inspector. The alumni shared about their training experience at Redington Foundation and also about the employment that they acquired because of the Redington Foundation Programme. After the interaction with students, our team explained about “Redington Foundation Projects Management System”, which is developed and used to monitor our CSR activities happening across the country. In the afternoon, Mr. Sridhar visited another Redington’s Smart Learning Centre of Madurai (SLC 1) located in the prime place of Madurai. He also interacted with the students, of the SLC 1, who are undergoing training for Business Process Management Programme. Few alumni of BPM were also present at the centre and interacted with the inspector. Mr. Sridhar told the team that he could see the confidence in the students that our training program has imparted. 17

All the training records like beneficiary details, training feedback, assessments, placement records were shown to the inspector for his observation. Mr. Sridhar, also saw the magazines of our foundation and appreciated our efforts. Mr. Sridhar was also taken to NMR Subbaraman Residential Primary School by our team where he could observe a block constructed by us, for the school students, named Sri. M. K. Chanrai, the founder of Redington. At the end of the day, Mr. Sridhar expressed that the CSR initiatives of our foundation could be visualised during his visit to Madurai. 18

Why we do what we do !!! Article by Mr. Chandrasekaran, CSR Operations Head Recently our Foundation created a wonderful opportunity for many of our members to attend the “Art of Living” (AOL) event “ Ananda Anubhavam” at Chennai. AOL events are also happening / planned in other zones. Well, I could attend the event only for two initial days. As my thoughts travel back to those two days and the conceptual messages imparted by the wisdom mind I started travelling in the time machine backward on the evaluation of our life events as a Nation and as common citizens of our past glory & present status !!! What I relish about events like these is that, it is not just people coming together to listen to ideas and life lessons. It’s that we all perhaps attended for the same reason. Every single one of us went there because, we wanted to share something, we have similar values and similar beliefs and that’s the reason we showed up. We don’t know each other and yet we know something about each other or we wanted to know about each other. As you all would accept, the very survival of the human race depends on our ability to surround ourselves with people who believe what we believe. When we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe something remarkable happens. Trust emerges. Make no mistake of it, trust is a feeling, a distinctly human experience. Simply doing everything that you promise you are going to do does not mean people will trust you. It just means you are reliable. Trust comes from a sense of common values and beliefs. The reason trust is important, is because when we are surrounded with people who believe what we believe, we are more confident to take risks and new challenges. 19

We are more confident to experiment. We are more confident to go off and explore knowing that there is someone from within our community, someone who believes what we believe, someone we trust and who trusts us, will watch our back, help us when we fall over and sharpen our potential. Our most valuable possession on the planet are our believes. Then why do we do it differently at work? Why are we so preoccupied with someone’s persona and where they worked and what they’ve done for our society. We never think to consider what they believe, where they are from. How to trust them and how would they trust us? What’s a community? What’s a culture? It’s a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs and common goals for goodness of society. Okay, now let us consider this! What’s a nation? It’s a group of people with a common set of values and beliefs. And the single biggest challenge that any culture or any organization will ever face is its own success. When an organization is founded, it is founded on the same basic principle. There’s some sort of measurement. It is often money but it can be other things too. And then there is time with which the organization moves steadfast. And when an organization is founded, what they do and why they do what they do are inseparably linked. They are usually some founder or some small group of founders, that are able to put their vision into words. And their passion inspires others to come and join them in pursuit of something greater than all of themselves. And they trust their guts and off they go and it is an amazing experience. It is the strength of the collective wisdom of few determined noble souls. Then starts the growth, success and more success follows. There is a stage (whether they like or not) that they can no longer rely on themselves. From this stage they need to hire somebody who hires somebody who hires somebody who hires somebody, all these “who’s who” have to make informed decisions to uphold the prestige, credibility, core principles and profits of the organisation. Based on why they do what they do starts to grow. That metric gets significance. 20

The paradox is why they do what they do (owing to time and changes) starts to go fuzzy. This is the biggest single challenge any organization might face. It is this thing right here, that I feel within as the litmus test ! Symptoms of the litmus test inside an organization are when stress goes up and passion goes down. Symptoms of this LT are things like when the old-timers, the people who were there from the founding, from the beginning start saying things like, “It’s not like it used to be. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.” They can’t quite put it into proper words, but they still strangely start feeling it is not the same. Why they feel what they feel could be million dollar query! Even though the organization might be more successful than it ever was in the past or is making concrete productive efforts to excel, it is still just not the same. The organization starts focusing more on what needs to be taken forward for enhancement of efficiency and effectiveness. When they start finding out others new in the system the natural deliberation is “Who should we be, What should we do? How should we do new initiatives? Where should we move for building future? How to create greener pastures! At the beginning they never asked anybody. They ran on their own passion, on their own energy. At this level I travel to early independence, pre independence and post independence days. My grandparents’ generation was called the greatest generation because everybody was united and unified in some sense of common cause and purpose and belief and trust was at an all time high. Everybody was one like the concept friendship message shared in the AOL -- I belong to you. My parents were perhaps called the ‘boomers’. Why? their parents were ‘doing it’ when they came back from war. This sense of purpose, this sense of cause, this sense of why they did what they did. 21

Later after war & peace, they wanted to experience life a bit, they wanted to buy some stuff and sort of care about themselves a little more. They had been giving so much to their entire lives. 1950’s were defined by responsibility. Going out there and giving the same kind of loyalty to your company as you gave to your country or to the cause. The fifties were like, everybody gave and devoted life to the company. Again the change, we started to become more affluent and the wealth of the country started to grow. That sense of purpose and that sense of cause and that sense of fulfilment and that sense of trust and that sense of happiness didn’t grow with it. And this is undesirably confusing. We responded to this change in 1960’s & 1970’s. Nevertheless, we didn’t get that sense of fulfilment. So, the pendulum swung again. The 1980’s. That sense of me, but now business was cool again. And in the 1980’s we started to see something that had never been seen before. We started to see companies using people to balance the books. This has never happened before, where they would use lay-offs to make the numbers work. People to make numbers work. The 1990’s came fast with dotcom. The most selfish behaviour you could find. Everyone wanted to get rich regardless of anything else. And once again the litmus test ! (LT) What do we get? We are the Gen “X” the unknown variable. The only thing that happens, the only thing that really grows in organizations or societies where they go through a split or litmus test is that the distrust increases. We become distrustful of each other inside organizations. We get entangled in the thick web of thought that how are we going to find the sense of fulfilment. Does technology help. Ney. Technology only enables things to go faster. Technology is absolutely fantastic for the exchange of information and exchange of ideas. It is wonderful for resourcing and finding people, but it is terrible for creating human connections. You cannot form trust 22 through the internet.

We did develop speed but shut ourselves within. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our intelligence and cleverness, hard and unkind. The way how people relate to each other and how we empathize has changed. We think too much and feel too little. Persons in person have become luxury!!! All of a sudden the humanity of things starts to drift away? Friends and colleagues are not somebody you check their status. Our network is not on Linked in. True interaction cannot happen on Twitter. These are human experiences and we need them. We need to learn about each other’s values and beliefs. And we can’t simply do it through Whatsapp. What I imagine is the day in which we start to have healthy human / humane interaction. Something that requires - a hearty handshake. Yes, Great Feeling. Let us have a hearty hand shake. This is what trust is, trust is human. Trust is all about humane interaction. It is about real worthwhile meaningful conversations. What we need is more handshake conversations. What we need is more handshake discussion. More handshake debates, more handshake friends, more handshake leadership. If we don’t, then we continue to go through this and we will not find our own sense of fulfilment and happiness and inspiration from within. It requires being among people who believe what we believe. Who believe why we do what we do. 23

Finally, one query of a devotee drew my attention to an awesome Tamil literature content on friendship. Guruji was enquired about who is a good friend!!! His interpretation was a new of course. But Thiruvalluvar says; “ நகுதற் ப ொருடட் ன் று நட்டல் மிகுதிக்கண் மேற்பெனறு இடித்தற் ப ொருடட் ு “ நட்புக் பகொள்வது சிரிதத் ு ேகிழ ேடட் ுே் அல்ல. நண் னிடே் மவண் டொத பெயல் இருக்கக் கண் டம ொது கண் டித்து ் புதத் ி பெொல்வது அவசியே் . ேகிழ்வது ேடட் ுமே இல்லல. நட்பு. நண் னிடே் மவண் டொத பெயல்கள் அதிகேொகேல் தடட் ிக் மகட் மத நட்புக்கு அழகு Let us unite with the concept of “I belong to you” ‘We belong to each other’. And build a new human curriculum of power. Educate each other for empowerment. Let us happily imagine the future of our TRUST and implement our pet projects. By looking from that future point back at how it got there we can think about how to achieve it. Again let us make things safe for all of us and allow each of us to self-govern. Hearty advance greetings for a happy prosperous peaceful NEW ERA – 2020 24

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