About 6 months ago, I had made a serious bid to prepare for the 21kms run in the Delhi Half Marathon. I began by skipping and spot jogging at home. A few weeks down the line, I stepped out of the house to find an athletic stadium where I could freely jog without being worried about on coming vehicles, hurting my knees and possibly breathing some fresh air.
Well NOIDA had nothing to offer, except for the NOIDA football grounds with thick grass and and ditches. I quickly returned to the safety of my home and also gave up the idea of 21 km run.
New Delhi is hosting the C'Wealth games and not one stadium with a proper running track. The roads are unsafe and running on the roads is not the best for one's knees. When I was in school at Hubli in Karnataka, every morning my friends and I went out for athletics practice at the local Engineering College grounds. It was a good 400m track. Hubli at that time had at least two other athletics stadium. In school the annual athletics meet was a highlight of the year. I wonder if school kids in Delhi have the opportunity to work on the sprints and other athletic disciplines. I know that the school in which my daughter studied had their annual athletics meet once in 4 years! Ha! Ha!
I wonder if the sport loving citizens of Delhi would have more facilities for athletics after the 2010 Games. Shouldn't Sheila Dikshit and co ensure that all the DDA sports complexes are accessible and have proper running tracks which ideally should be standard 400m tracks. These tracks could easily go round the millions of cricket facilities around the city.
I want to run. I am sure that there are many more people in the NCR who also want to run. So please, the powers that be, do something about it.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
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
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
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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?
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?
Saturday, October 10, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Running because I care...
Hi,
This year, I am running 21 kms at the Delhi half Marathon on 1st November to raise money for
1. The Eyeway Scholarship fund for under privileged blind students wishing to pursue college and university education. The scholarship will be looking at funding tuition fees, hostel accommodation, assistive technology, books and so on. The scholarship will be an All India one and will be given on merit and need base.
2. The Eyeway talking book service which is an endeavour to make reading material accessible for the blind and visually impaired people.
3. The IPL for the blind. In February, 2010, we plan to organise the first Indian Premier League cricket for the blind at New Delhi. 112 players from all over India would be participating The players will be selected through 16 Talent Scouting Camps across India.I would urge you to support our effort by making a donation.Your donation would be exempt of Income Tax under section 80G of the IT Act.
Your cheque should be made out favouring "Concern India Foundation" and sent to us at Score Foundation.
Thanks,George
George Abraham
CEO
Score Foundation
Y-70, LGF,Hauz Khas,
New Delhi 110016
India
Ph: 91 11 26852581
Telefax: 91 11 26852559
Mob: 91 9810934040/91 9810001181
Email: george@eyeway.org
Skype: georgeabraham13
This year, I am running 21 kms at the Delhi half Marathon on 1st November to raise money for
1. The Eyeway Scholarship fund for under privileged blind students wishing to pursue college and university education. The scholarship will be looking at funding tuition fees, hostel accommodation, assistive technology, books and so on. The scholarship will be an All India one and will be given on merit and need base.
2. The Eyeway talking book service which is an endeavour to make reading material accessible for the blind and visually impaired people.
3. The IPL for the blind. In February, 2010, we plan to organise the first Indian Premier League cricket for the blind at New Delhi. 112 players from all over India would be participating The players will be selected through 16 Talent Scouting Camps across India.I would urge you to support our effort by making a donation.Your donation would be exempt of Income Tax under section 80G of the IT Act.
Your cheque should be made out favouring "Concern India Foundation" and sent to us at Score Foundation.
Thanks,George
George Abraham
CEO
Score Foundation
Y-70, LGF,Hauz Khas,
New Delhi 110016
India
Ph: 91 11 26852581
Telefax: 91 11 26852559
Mob: 91 9810934040/91 9810001181
Email: george@eyeway.org
Skype: georgeabraham13
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Times they are a changing...
Ramakrishna today is General Manager, Finance with IDBI, He is totally blind. He is the first blind person to successfully complete an MBA degree. Geetha Shamana is a German translator working out of Bangalore. Sanjay Dang owns and manages a Rs.1.5 crore Travel Company in Deli. Charudatta Jhadav, a software Engineer is a Project Goup Leader aTata Consultancy Services. Sidhdharth Sharma runs a PR company, while Vikram Dalmia runs his own Industry. Kanchan Pamnani, Kanchan Gaba and Deepak Motivala are thriving lawyers. Sameer Late, Dilip Loyolka and Rajni Gapalakrishnan are CAs doing wonderfully well. To add to this L Subramani, Garimella Subramanium and Rajesh Kumar are journalists with leading Newspapers of the country. These are just a few names of individuals who are doing extremely well in the mainstream and happen to be totally blind.
The last couple of decades have witnessed tremendous changes as far as living with blindness is concerned. In the 1960s and 1970s, educated blind people could aspire to get into the teaching profession or take up music at best When it came to the less educated or the uneducated blind person, they would be lucky if they could sell candles, cane chairs or at best be part of an industrial assembly line.
The opening up of the media in the 1990s, the coming of age of assistive technology for the blind, the increasing opportunities for education for blind persons and the steadily rising recognition of the ability of blind persons slowly but gradually has started opening up a wide range of avenues.
T: Technology
E: Education
A: Ability
M: Media
Indeed a formidable TEAM that promises to put the blind people of this country onto an equal footing. Surely the potential is there and now the TEAM tools are available, what is needed are the inclusive policies, universal designs and a determined and discipline effort on the part of the blind persons.
The 1990s saw the emergence of Personal Computers, Mobile Phones, Scanners and so on and along with it saw the advent of screen readers, OCR software and the internet. This has opened up a whole newn World of Knowledge that has become accessible to the blind persons of the country. This revolutionary access to the World of knowledge has created a vast variety of opportunity both in terms of education and also in terms of employment.
The 1990s also has seen several mainstream schools opening their doors to blind and visually impaired students. Today, in the big cities, inclusive education is catching on where blind students are learning side by side with their sighted peers. Hence the blind persons are beginning to be included into the mainstream from an earlier age and this truly is progressive.
Further the media has since the past decade and half have told many a stories about blind persons that has informed, inspired and empowered not only blind and visually impaired persons, but also their families and the society at large. With stories of people like Erik Waheinmayer, the blind mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest, David Blunkett- the former Secretary of Home in the UK, Miles Hilton Barbar- the blind Pilot who flew a twin seater aircraft from London to Sidney, Dr.Geeratt Wermaij- a totally blind professor of Marine Biology, Shasha Wanlu- a totally blind detective, there is no doubting the times that are changing .
George Abraham
The last couple of decades have witnessed tremendous changes as far as living with blindness is concerned. In the 1960s and 1970s, educated blind people could aspire to get into the teaching profession or take up music at best When it came to the less educated or the uneducated blind person, they would be lucky if they could sell candles, cane chairs or at best be part of an industrial assembly line.
The opening up of the media in the 1990s, the coming of age of assistive technology for the blind, the increasing opportunities for education for blind persons and the steadily rising recognition of the ability of blind persons slowly but gradually has started opening up a wide range of avenues.
T: Technology
E: Education
A: Ability
M: Media
Indeed a formidable TEAM that promises to put the blind people of this country onto an equal footing. Surely the potential is there and now the TEAM tools are available, what is needed are the inclusive policies, universal designs and a determined and discipline effort on the part of the blind persons.
The 1990s saw the emergence of Personal Computers, Mobile Phones, Scanners and so on and along with it saw the advent of screen readers, OCR software and the internet. This has opened up a whole newn World of Knowledge that has become accessible to the blind persons of the country. This revolutionary access to the World of knowledge has created a vast variety of opportunity both in terms of education and also in terms of employment.
The 1990s also has seen several mainstream schools opening their doors to blind and visually impaired students. Today, in the big cities, inclusive education is catching on where blind students are learning side by side with their sighted peers. Hence the blind persons are beginning to be included into the mainstream from an earlier age and this truly is progressive.
Further the media has since the past decade and half have told many a stories about blind persons that has informed, inspired and empowered not only blind and visually impaired persons, but also their families and the society at large. With stories of people like Erik Waheinmayer, the blind mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest, David Blunkett- the former Secretary of Home in the UK, Miles Hilton Barbar- the blind Pilot who flew a twin seater aircraft from London to Sidney, Dr.Geeratt Wermaij- a totally blind professor of Marine Biology, Shasha Wanlu- a totally blind detective, there is no doubting the times that are changing .
George Abraham
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