Donate today:6 days to do!

Hi ,

This year I am running the Airtel Delhi Marathon on the 1st of November aspart of the Dream Team. I am raising funds for the following projects

1. Score Foundation's Scholarship Fund for under privileged Blind studentswho would like to pursue higher studies. The fund will support tuition fees,hostel fees, purchase of assistive technologies, computers and so on. There are a number of students who approach us from different parts of the country with request for financial help.
2. Score Foundation's Eyeway Talking Book Production Service. This is aneffort to make available reading material to blind children, students andprofessionals. We sign up with publishers to convert there print material into audio books. Presently, we have a number of volunteers who record withus.
3. Score Foundation is launching a cricket for development programme. The plan is to use cricket as a tool in Community Based Rehabilitation by drawing blind children out of homes and coaching them and providing them with a platform at the community level to play the game they love anddemonstrate their ability. I would urge you to please support this effort by making a contribution towards any of the above projects. Your cheques should be drawn in favour of "Concern India Foundation" and sent to me at George Abraham
CEO
Score Foundation
Y-70, LGF,
Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016
India

This donation will be exempt of Income Tax under section 80G When you send the cheque, please do indicate the project you are contributing towards. This is a request to you personally and not to yourcompany necessarily. Even the smallest of contribution will mean a great deal to the work we do. You can also now donate online at http://www.concernindiafoundation.org/i-pledge/help_ipledge_page.asp?dreamid=DTeam5&session_id=gk04ErpDDx

Score Foundation is a registered NGO that has been working with the blind since 2002. We have launched Project Eyeway, a single stop Knowledge Resource for persons living with blindness and low vision. Eyeway today comprises:

a. the website www.eyeway.org
b. a weekly radio programme Eyeway Yeh Hai Roshni Ka Karawan broadcastfrom 30 cities of India
c. the Eyeway helpdesk that takes calls from all over the country fromblind and visually impaired persons
d. an SMS news alert service that informs over 600 subscribers aboutlatest career opportunities, new technology, events and so on
e. the Eyeway talking books

The Eyeway experience has been a life changing one for many a blindpersons in the country. We do look forward to your support.

Warm regards,

George

An Indian Cricket team for all seasons

I have been following cricket very closely for 4 decades now. Read a lot, wathced a lot and heard a lot of cricket. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to put together an India Cricket Test XI taking cricketers from all seasons and all eras.

My XI is

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. V Sehwag
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Vijay Hazare
6. V Mankad
7. M.S Dhoni
8. Kapil Dev
9. Zaheer Khan
10. E A S Prassanna
11. J Srinath

There could be discussions on certain positions in the team. I opted for Vijay Hazare over Vishvanath for instance on the basis of Hazare's good performances overseas. Vishvanath is a very good batsman but most of his spectacular cricket was played in India. The other debate is the wicket keepers spot. Dhoni is steadily improving as a Keeper and has proved to be a very productive batsman. His records speak for itself.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Shocking! Can we do something?

The other day, I attended a campaign launch function organised by Save the Children Fund (SCF). The campaign was called "Everyone".

The campaign is about the children of our country and the dire straits they are in. I learnt that 4 lakh children born in India do not make it past 24 hrs, 1 million children do not make it past their 1st birthday and 2 million children do not make it past their 5th birthday. This is indeed shocking. The tragedy is that most of these infant deaths are due to mal nutrition, diarrhoea, poor drinking water and highly inadequate public health services.

What can we do about this problem, beyond just creating awareness?

Commonwealth Games, A Waste of Tax Payers Money?

October, 2010 will see the Commonwealth Games take place in New Delhi. It surely would be a spectacular event with very grand openning and closing ceremonies and dazzling sporting action . But the big question is whether our country can afford such an extravagant venture and how the event is going to affect the sporting scene of the country.

In 1982, we proudly hosted the Asian Games. The event was considered by many as a huge success. Huge money was spent on sporting infra structure and other facilities. Does the average sporting loving Indian have access to any of those facilities? Have the Sport Authority of India done anything to maximise the utility of the facilities? Did the holding of the events throw up fresh enthusiasm for athletics and other such sporting disciplines?

We have had a few great sporting icons like Milkha Singh, P T Usha, Shiny Abraham Anju Bobby George, Prakash Padukone, Gopichand and more recently Abhinav Bindra and the boxers . All these champions have come through inspite of the system.

Sad to say that Milkha Singh's record of the1960 still stands for the 400 meters. While World Records are tumbling all the time, Indian athletics records have not changed very much. How do we justify the fact that Suresh Kalmadi has been at the helm of affairs for nearly 3 decades. It is obvious that he has done precious little to raise the standard of Indian sport. I am sure that there is someone else in our vast country who can do better.
If Abhinav Bindra, Prakash Padukone and others can be World Class, there should be plenty more talent around who can be coached and developed to be World Champions. I think as a country we should focus on creating World Class sportsman and women rather than wasting money on big events that do not benefit anyone.