Its just the Beginning !

Its just the Beginning !, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ छाया चित्रालय.

30On30 is over !

Let me put it a bit differently... it has just started !!!

and the first month of this beginning was a huge boost to the cause ! here are some highlights :

- 30 on 30 website had over 2000 visitors in 30 days and more than 4000 page views

- 57% visitors were from India, 28% from the US, 3% from the UK, and rest from Japan, Canada, Singapore, Poland, Hongkong, UAE, and some others...

- There was also a poll on the 30on30 page which was taken by 52 people and 47 of them thought that this initiative has the potential to bring some change and 5 were not too sure

and now the most important statistics !!!!

I had thought that on my 30th birthday I would sell 30 photographs and raise Rs. 30000... Not much went as planned !!!

Through the 30 on 30 project, I managed to sell 69 prints of my pictures, and the project managed to raise Rs. 69000 !!!!

There would also be some more to this 69000 which comes from the dollar conversion, and some from the rounding off of the printing and shipping costs...

69000 !!!!

Ye !!!

30000 on 30000 on 9000 !!!!

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated, promoted, or wished for the success of 30On30...

and like I said, earlier, this is just the beginning!

Thank you for your support !

Thank you for your support !, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ छाया चित्रालय.

30on30 was a huge success ! Something that I wished for and was secretly hoping for, but did not expect !!!

Will come back with a detailed post later on how the last one month was for 30on30...

Thanks again folks, and please do visit www.30on30.net for the photographs that were on sale !

I am finally off for a small getaway this weekend after the long winters ! Will be back soon !

30 on 30 Updates

30 on 30 Updates, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ छाया चित्रालय.

A week ago it started with a some emails, FB and orkut events, and some blog posts...

In a week's time
- More than 15 blogs have the 30on30 tag or a related post
- I have written at least 150 emails responding to interests/queries on 30on30
- Have received about 40 "I am interested in buying this photograph" emails
- Have collected about Rs. 10000
- Placed 5 print orders out of which 2 have been received
- Have been overwhelmed by the encouraging words everyone had to say about the project
- Touched by some of the responses from friends known and unknown


Next steps
- Follow up with friends who have showed interest, to complete the orders
- Ensure the prints are ordered and shipped on time
- Spread the word around
- Be thankful to everyone who has participated in the project
- Reach much more than 30K... 50K maybe... or more... lets see

Thank you everyone !!! In the last week, we have done very well and are hoping to carry on with the progress. Thanks again for your support and wishes

Cheers,
30on30 team
Prashant Bhardwaj, Swati Seth, Bhumika Udernani, Subhadip Purakayastha
30on30

Contrasty Weekends and More !!!

I feel very satisfied for being able to do what I started off for... And mind you, it could not have been possible without a few, actually more than a few, people around who played very very important roles during the entire initiative...

I have a commitment of Rs. 12500 from the two posts that show the paintings and have received Rs. 8000 already and the rest is in transition or process and should be with me soon!!! My next step would be to go to ASK and give all this money to them for Sankalp.... Thank you again everyone who has contributed in some way or the other... I am in the process of arranging the paintings and sending them off to their respective owners...

I should, however, mention a few names here specifically...

I had only thought of going to Sankalp and giving away the Stationary etc to the kids there... discussed the thought with Arobindo and our conversation resulted in the day turning into a Painting Competition for the kids where they could use the stuff we take for them... Thanks Bro for your support...

It would have stayed a painting competition, if I had not seen a framed painting made by a small kid at my friend's place... I was at Nidhi's place one day and that’s when I saw the painting... I think AP had bought it for her from an NGO, and that moment a bulb was switched on in my mind... I had more to do than just organise the painting competition... Nidhi, if it was not you, we would not have a single rupee in our kitty today!!! Cannot thank you enough really!!!

Bindiya was told about this thought, and she loved it... We figured out a few things over a few calls and organised the entire event... Kalpana ji from Sankalp was always more than keen in helping us out with whatever we required. I love it the way Bindiya (also read ASK) lets me take complete ownership of what I want to do and also give me the freedom to do it my way!!! Thanks Bindiya for everything!!!

Tushar and my cousin Ashish was both excited when I asked them to join me that day!!!

Not many people knew about the initiative except Me, Aro, Bindiya, Nidhi, Tushar, Ashish (my cousin) the team at Moradabad and Sharanya, whose excitement and loads of ideas she shared acted as a Catalyst to the entire thought process...

And once we were back from the Painting Competition, almost everyone I know in this big blog world helped the way they thought was appropriate... some came forward to take one of the painting, some encouraged me with very kind words, and some mentioned it on their pages to ensure more people knew about the initiative !!! And I also need to mention that my Hughes Gang rocks!!! For many reasons and one of them is the quick response that I got from Aseem, Subbu, Aro, and Naveen to buy the paintings.... Overall a great experience this was and needless to say, a very successful one to thanks to a lot of people!!!

Now something about what I have been doing for a while, other than trying to sell paintings :)

Some flower in my balcony... no idea about the name

The last weekends have been so different from each other yet very fulfilling...

The last Sunday was spent in silence... I did not speak much the entire day was almost locked (with an open door though) in my room... Watched movies (Juno and the Bucket List), read a book or may be more than one, went through the Calvin and Hobbes Tushar had given me for my birthday (A very welcome change from the travel books he gifts me all the time :)

My bed on the floor, the laptop the ear phones and dark !!! nice Sunday it was...

My lunch one of these days... brown bread with Sauce and Jam and Marmalade...

I like the way smoke moves out of Incense Sticks... I have lately realised I can look at it for a long time...

It rained last week... Did you get out to enjoy it? I took a bath in the rain twice last week :)

This weekend I was on a talking mode :) was trying to make up for the silence that started last Sunday I guess :) the weekend started a few hours early with a long drive to meet Ruchi, handed over the painting to her, drove to haldiram, got stuck in a two way truck and trailer traffic on a single lane service road (for about 5 minutes after we were already 25 minutes into the jam, I had a feeling that we might stay stuck there for a few more hours, but thankfully the jam cleared and we were out of it in like 35 odd minutes)...

Friday night at Arobindo’S place, with one more lad from the Hughes gang... laughter and bakar bakar bakar bakar and more bakar... Poor Raj was the target of most of the jokes while I and Arobindo laughed our asses!!!

Saturday started early and ended pretty late (Only on Sunday by 0200 hrs) and it included watching The Gods must be crazy part 1 and 2, having a late breakfast, not feeling like getting up from the beds till like 1400 hrs, taking the metro to Mandi House and not getting the tickets for a play I wanted to watch (GhasiRam Kotwal)... taking a wrong bus to CP from Mandi House, walking towards CP and singing songs fairly loudly on the road with Subbu, searching for Nirula's and finding it eventually after having a nice pan at Odeon, having the Make your own triple sundae at Nirula's with a scoop each of Black Currant, Mango Mania and Tutti Fruity, having the mango milk at Cavenders, going back to Dwarka in the Metro, singing songs, learning some English from Subbu, meeting a few more friends from Hughes at Aro's place and bakar bakar bakar bakar bakar till post midnight !!!! Phew!!! Long day eh!


Sunday was again a lazy day with the highlight being the English play Indian in the Bronz... and interesting subject but not really presented in the best of the ways... I revived a lot of good memories from the past of the various technical things that I had learnt about one act plays and how we used to implement most of them... I wish I can contribute to a theatre group soon... Maybe once I have shifted base to Delhi, I would... Not sure if Bindiya also had the same opinion about the play, but she made a nice single word remark that the play was interesting!!! Let’s buy that opinion for now :) Had to wait a good 20 minutes before we got a seat in the Bengali Sweet house before having our dinner of Chole Bhature, the Pao Bhaji and the lovely Kulfi Faluda!!! A quick drive back home and a few more discussions on how I can contribute more to ASK and various other initiatives in the organisation!!! We did discuss about some websites that talk about one can contribute to the society as well... I am going to write about them too in future once I have gone through the sites in detail!!!


Too long a post eh!!!

Never mind :) If you have managed to read it fully, congratulations, or if just jumped to the last line, well :) I think you missed a lot :)

Have fun, God Bless!!!

Oh and guess what, I have this small water pot in my balcony, which I fill with water every few days... sometime last week I there was this Pigeon who visited visited the waterhole of sorts... There was not much water there, but I guess enough to keep him there for a good 15-20 minutes and there was something in there that he was eating too... I guess he had brought it himself !!! Check the pictures below :) It was nice !!! very !!!



ok... final ta tu !!!

More from Sankalp :) Thanks Friends...

Here we go... The second lot of Paintings from the painting competition in Sankalp. Needless to say I am delighted to know that many of my friends pushed me into posting this set as everyone wanted to contribute something or the other...

So here we go :) Take your pick. Leave a comment here and drop me an email at prashantbhardwaj[at]gmail.com with your address... Like the last set, I am expecting you to pay atleast Rs. 500 in case you decide to buy one of the following ::)

Apologies but I could not note down the Artist's name and her/his class for this one. My Mamaji decided to take this one for himself :) Someone said it just right, Charity begins at home :)

Made by : Hina; Class VII (Not available; Reema Srivastava has offered to take this one)

Made by : Aayesha ; Class IV

Made by : Farha; Class IV

Made by : Tarannum; Class VI

Made by : Shaqib ; Class V (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)

Made By : Rabia; Class : VI (Not available; Mayuri has offered to take this one)

Made by : Noori; Class III (Not available; An Online friend who does not wish to be named has offered to take this one)

Made by : Sajid; Class III (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)

Made by : Laiba Noor; Class III

Made by : Faisal Hussain; Class III (Not available; Sarika has offered to take this one)

And this is the palm print of the kids from Sankalp :) Ruchi Sharma has offered to take this one :)

Thank You Folks !!!

My heartfelt thanks to

• Arobindo Sinha
• Aseem Kumar
• Monika Rawat
• Naveen Katlaria
• Pankaj Trivedi
• Reeta Skeeter
• Geet
• Mayuri Chaturvedi
• Gaurav Agrawal
• Subhadip Purakayastha
• Kavita Bhargava

for coming forward to take the paintings that I shared in the last post... I was hoping but not really expecting to reach the milestone this quick !!!

THANK YOU FOLKS !!!

I know of atleast 5 people who are keen on extending a helping hand to the initiative, and I am going to post another set of 10 paintings very soon from that painting competition and I am really happy to see that we would be able to collect more money than we initially thought of !!!

Time for a Sankalp...

So here I am... back to Sankalp and posting the much awaited paintings that won at the Painting Competition in Sankalp, Moradabad...

There were multiple things that I wanted to achieve from this entire set of activities:

1. Go out and do some fun activities for the kids in Sankalp
2. Not just donate something, but have some use of it
3. Bring back the paintings and do some fund raising for Sankalp

1 done
2 done
Click HERE for details of the day...
3 is what this post is about!!!

The aim is to collect at least Rs. 6000 which is the amount that is required for non-formal education of one kid in Sankalp. Non-formal education includes the education expenses, recreational opportunities, nutritional expenses and healthcare.

Here is the plan... You can select one of the 12 paintings below (click on the photo to see large) and write to me at prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com in case you are interested in the painting. The minimum that you should be willing to give is Rs. 500 and I shall leave it to you in case you'd like to give more. I am going to collect the entire money and hand over to ASK.

In case you' like to follow a different route of helping to the cause, please visit the ASK India website directly @ ASKIndia.org and browse around to find an opportunity.

Made by Sayma Sharif (Class VI). This one won because of the positive message in the painting, and the girl trying her hands on Water Colors for the first time. We had give three topics - Child Rights, - Child Labour and - Rains... Sayma wonderfully clubbed two of them to come up with this ! (Painting not available anymore; Arobindo has offered to take this one)

Made by Sana Afreen (Class VII). Lovely use of color... Very soothing to the eyes. The category she chose was Barish (Rains); (Painting not available anymore; Monika has offered to take this one)

Made by Irfan (Class (VII). A Very nice representation of Child Rights...(Painting not available anymore; Binnu :) has offered to take this one)

Made by Ishtiyak (Class VI). Lovely use of Color... Treat to the eyes... (Painting not available anymore; Aseem has offered to take this one)

Made by Saira (Class VII). Brilliant representation of Child Rights. Very nice use of color.(Painting not available anymore; Binnu :) has offered to take this one)

Made by Nazma (Class VI). Nazma was one of the winners because of a different thought she put into this. She made a canvas and then painted inside the Canvas... Nice thinking...(Painting not available anymore; Pankaj Trivedi has offered to take this one)

Made by Umar Farid (Class VI). Umar painted a question that stares at the face of many of us who are involved with the initiative... We have an answer, and we are working towards getting the answer being put in reality... (Painting not available anymore; Reeta Skeeter has offered to take this one)

Made by Shabeena Khan (Class VIII). Shabeena used the colors very nicely and the glitter too... It was a cloudy and rainy day in Moradabad and it took a while before this work dried... This is an absolute visual delight... (Painting not available anymore; Geet has offered to take this one)

Made by Shiri (Class V). Shiri's message in this work is simple, straightforward, and very clear. Lovely portrayal of the thoughts...(Painting not available anymore; Mayuri has offered to take this one)

Made by Rani Sartaj (Class VI). Very nice use of colors. Visually very soothing...(Painting not available anymore; Gaurav Agrawal has offered to take this one)

Made by Sadim (Class III). Sadim did not paint for any of the themes, but he made the Indian Flag and wrote the National Anthem for us... We could not have ignored this one...(Painting not available anymore; Subbu has offered to take this one)

Made by Salman (Class VI). Brilliant use of color, and a visually appealing representation of Rains...(Painting not available anymore; Kavita has offered to take this one)

Like I said before too, please contact me at prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com and let me know in case you interested in one of the above paintings/sketches. The minimum I am expecting from you is Rs. 500.

God Bless !!!

We painted the Weekend in Moradabad :)

Saturday Morning: 0300 hrs... my alarm goes off!!! And then the alarm on the other phone goes off too... I had just slept at like midnight... but getting up was important... I did... Woke up Ashu (my cousin) called up Tushar to wake him up and checked with Aro to make sure he was on his way to my place...

Why get up this early on a Saturday morning?
Valid question :)

We four were going to Sankalp, Moradabad... The same place I had visited in Feb'07... and wrote about it HERE!

Me and Aro had been discussing this trip for a while now, and last week when I realised that my travel plans were still very unclear I decided to go to Sankalp and do what was long due... So a few phone calls over the week, some bit of planning and we were all set... Roped in Ashu and Tushar as well... so we were four of us who were traveling to Sankalp and organise the painting competition...

The weather was good, the roads were good too wit a few exceptions... It did rain almost throughout the drive and at times it was too heavy to drive as well, however with one pit stop just about 10 kms after Gajraula (Reliance A1 Food Plaza) we reached Sankalp around 0800 hrs...

Found these beauties together on the grass @ A1 Plaza...

A Bunch of Happiness :)

I discussed the plan with Kalpana and Santosh who take care of the centre and we were all set to start the painting competition around 1030 hrs... The main centre has 100+ students and it was difficult to involve everyone in the competition, so we decided that we would let the teachers select some students from all the classes and have about 40 students participate...

We started on time around 1045 hrs and the kids finished their work around 1215 hours...

Our goodies for the Painting Competition :)

The kids could use the water colors, or the Crayons or Sketch Pens...

During the Painting Competition...

During the Painting Competition... (She went on to win a prize, for the strong message presented in a simple and very effective way)

During the Painting Competition...

One of the other winners in progress...

All done :) ready for a picture :)

We did manage a riot of colors :) and spread happiness :)

Some of the winners :) It was tough to decide what was better than the other... so we did not differentiate between the winning entries.. We could not have anyway :)

Post this we played "Stuart Little" (Hindi Version) for all the kids... (We had arranged for a LCD Projector, a laptop, the speakers and the DVD last night)... It was an amazing feeling to hear the kids laugh together and react to various scenes in the movie... One of the best experiences that I personally had EVER... So much so that I don't have enough words to write about the entire event!!! Now there was something for the kids after the movie too... We had prepared some questions from the movie, and the kids who answer those questions right were to get prizes...

The movie in Progress !!!

Once we finished the movie, we distributed the prizes for the Painting Competition and followed by the overwhelming question answer round!!!

The post movie huddle :) Had a great time here :)

We had asked everyone to first raise a hand and then we would pick who answers the question :) but as you might have already guessed for 100% of the questions everyone first answered the question and then raised their hands :) by the end of it we had exhausted all our questions and had to make a few set with our own knowledge of the movie :) it was fun...

Everyone would answer and then raise their hand :) It was tough to decide the winners :)

One question we asked was the name of Stuart Little's father... Well no one knew the answer, but one boy very confidently stood up and said "Daddy" :) I even asked the duration of the movie :) when we did not know what to ask :) and kids answered that too without raising any hands :) too bad it did not have a prize :)

I participated too :)

And then moved back to what I was slightly better at :) Capturing the moments :)

Managed to capture a game of Kho Kho too on the terrace :)

Windows XP :) Professional :)

Did I forget to mention that Gupta ji (The caretaker at the centre) also arranged for some Aalu, Pyaaz, and Palak Pakodas for us and the Chatney with Raw Mango and fresh Mint was just too good to resist... Don't know if I was eating the Pakodas with the Chatney or the Chatney with the Pakodas :)

What yummy Pakodas were they !!! Heaven !!!

Only one :) Love the way water rests on Rose Leaves :)

Once we were done at the Centre we moved around in the Community to get a first hand feel of the workshops...

The melting/moulding workshop... and smoke all around!

Molten Brass on fire...

Still from the same workshop...

An Art on its way towards extinction... The artist spends about 4-5 hours on every piece and gets around Rs. 50 per piece...

From the electroplating workshop...

Did not even realise how the time flew by and it was already 1645 hours when we started back for Delhi!!! All in All a wonderful day, an experience which words cannot express, and a feeling of satisfaction...

We have brought back the winning entries from the painting competition and the plan is to sell them with support from Online friends, and people we can reach via other mediums too... In one of my next posts I am going to post the paintings and if you are interested in buying one of them please do write to me @ prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com. I am currently in the process of finding out a place where I can get them framed for a decent price.

More about Sankalp:

Sankalp is an initiative of ASK (ASKINDIA.ORG) which aims at providing educating to the children who are involved in Child Labour in Moradabad... An initiative that is not 500+ children strong and going strong with its committed workforce... The teachers for the schools also come from the local community itself, and hence help the educated local women as well.

You can read more about Sankalp, ASK and my previous visit by clicking the following links:

ASK

Sankalp on ASK Website (The page also has a few photo essays that I did the last time I visited Sankalp)

My earlier visit to Sankalp (http://rightmore.blogspot.com/2007/02/ask-me-how.html)

Pictures from Sankalp and Moradabad (http://flickr.com/photos/prashantbhardwaj_ut/sets/72157594564953401/)

My last picture of the day :) All smiles... all happiness :) All Funn !!! Loved it !!!