Corporate Social Responsibility activity : Annapurna visit for the library setup

Annapurna is a residential school for the destitute children under the age of 15. It is located in the lush green heart of Phurshungi village with little infrastructural facilities.

It takes around 40 minutes to travel by vehicle to get there from Magarpatta City, taking the traffic in consideration.

The school not only teaches around 250  students from class 1 to class 10 but also houses them within the 14 rooms and looks after their needs. The staff compromises of a handful of dedicated faculty and helpers who live in the house to take care of the children.

The main objective of Amdocs is:

It is to provide the kids with the basic amenities and render help in better education of the children via the various voluntary activities.

So as a part of the CSR activity for library setup at the school in alliance with Akshar Bharti - we volunteered to pitch in our time for the noble act.

When we reached at the school, we saw this two storied building, where there were rooms running in parallel to each other. It was heartening to see the school.

It was even nice to know, that they were extending the school to include hall and hostels for boys and girls. What surprised me that the school was also equipped with a computer room, making the kids aware of the technological advancements and keeping them up to date, it is well taken effort. Wow!

By now the kids from various grades, lined up in front of us. Soon after that the volunteers from the school asked us to speak few inspiring words to the kids - it would lead them to study and read books a lot more than they do now.

So a colleague of mine chipped in to speak on our behalf - since he was the one who could speak in Marathi fluently. This helped the advises to be catered to all.

The kids looked highly motivated, it was purely in their eyes - that they were just just hungry for more words from us.

It was quite captivating to hear about the kind of books they wanted to read - voices ranged from "raja maharaja ki kitabein to baba amte to akbar birbal".I was highly intrigued to find their ranging interest.

The expression, the glow on their faces was worth a capture - seeing the books that would be available to them from now on, in their library.

We even received a vote of thanks from one sweet girl. Bliss!

To contribute little more, we were again requested by the teachers and volunteers from school, to recite few stories from the books for the library to the kids.

As soon as we reached their classes, it was totally an old school feeling where all the kids got up to greet us.  :)

"Good morning madame." :)

Well, I don't know if we really made much of a difference in that hour or two that we spent in the school, but we tried out best - with the activities like reading along with them, encouraging them to read, pointing out new words, spelling it out to them , helping them with the correct pronunciation. I hope at least 5% was contributed to their knowledge level, that they at least remember one word out of the 15 that we collectively taught them. :D

There was this burning curiosity in their eyes - more like a strong urge to learn and listen to more. Worth a mention!

Since they were more fluent in Marathi, we had to regularly take some help from their teachers for the translations. Hats off to the energy and dedication of these teachers - their willingness to help us help the kids. :)

We found quite a number of children taking interest in English, trying to grasp the words, their meanings and pronunciation. Their effort on a whole was appreciable. :)

To conclude, it was a joyful activity where at the end of the hour, both us and the kids were a happy bunch. 

Of course, I as an individual will try to indulge more in such CSR activities.

What did I take away from the activity - a sense of satisfaction to be able to help on a very small scale, adding to it my sense of gratitude. In a true way, a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction was achieved after spending time with these kids. 

SO guys, let's all pledge to spend at least spend 2 hours a month for such activities. We never know how many lives we might be touching.

Do good, feel great! :)

Few photos from the activity:

Happy kids with the books

The books provided by Amdocs in alliance with Akshar Bharti

Classrooms

Kids checking out the books

Cheers to life!!

~Believe in yourself always!

P.S.All the above photos have been clicked by me.

Wanderlust Tales : Fun at Imagica, Adlabs - Khopoli

Imagica,is located near Lonavala on the Mumbai-Pune highway. It is one of the major attractions in this location.Residing in Pune, it had almost become a mandate that I visit this place. Imagica,Adlabs has been the talk of the town since it's inception.

It is a theme amusement park - which has rides apt for all age groups from 5 onward.It is designed and well concept-ed,keeping its audience in mind.

After repeated failures in plan - to make it to Imagica,Adlabs we were finally here - courtesy the annual event organised by our sole bread giver.  :P

Taking the traffic in consideration and the distance we had to cover from the opposite end of the city i.e. Magarpatta City - it took us approximately 3 hours to reach the venue.

Once you get out of the city traffic - it is the long-long highways that you have to drive through. And if you enjoy long drives - this is just the perfect setting for you!The added tadka is the full on Bollywood music - aah bliss!

The drive was really serene - scenic beauty and greenery. What more can you ask for?! I just loved the drive to and fro. :) With the weather - not being too naughty ;) neither sunny nor pouring - it was just an awesome feel. Just watching the clouds , could lead you to tell a story. :)

The highway is well attributed with food courts/restrooms/petrol pumps all along - where you can have a stop over. Just make it a point not to stop on these highways.

Google maps on these trips are your best friend - but we were with someone who had been there earlier so he had all the knowledge about the roads. 

After covering a certain distance on the highway - please note that there is a diversion that needs to be made. And from here the drive is on kachha roads, through the villages.

There are farms on either side, bullock carts sharing the roads with you and the numerous animals grazing. These small things are a good break from the chaotic city life, and you can go back on pondering from how life differs from place to place.

There are few sign-boards of Imagica which you will find - during the day we went, there were people from our company holding hoardings for directions every here and there - so it was an added advantage for us, else use Google maps.

Once you reach the location, you will find ample parking space for your vehicle. Then you make your way in, collect the tickets and the only task you have in hand is - ENJOY!

The deadliest roller coaster ride here is the Nitro. If you enjoy these sort of rides, then this place is just for you.

There are others like the scream machine, deep space, dare to drop - these are all must try rides. And yes, rides are absolutely safe, they do perform regular checks on them - which sometimes causes the lag in the queue for the rides.

All the rides have a minimum waiting time of 20-30 minutes - so plan your day and rides accordingly.

I have a great fear of these rides - so unfortunately I did not try any rides. For me the visit to the place was more like an outing, spending some good time and seeing the most talked about place.

A special mention to I-for India ride - a ride which for sure arouses your patriotism and pride feeling for your country. It presents the bird's eye view of the best and exotic places in India. A feel good ride!

That day it was raining profusely, which added to the fun factor that day.

In addition they have this rain dance fountain - where there were numerous kids enjoying the natural rain plus the rain fountain and the music. The kids were just dancing to glory. It was a treat to the eyes to see them enjoy with such innocence. It was almost one could rush back to their childhood just by watching them.

The small joys of life, I must say!

During such weather - please make sure to carry rain coats/umbrellas and a spare set of clothes/shoes.

The art work is mind blowing, it is just alluring. It can be seen, a lot of effort has been put in designing it. 

Kudos to the team who has come up with the eminent idea.

Apart from all these attractions - they have four restaurants for hogging. These are the places which you must go, when you get tired with the rides.

And surprisingly they have an all Jain restaurant - OMG I was astonished - such care taken for people. :)

We tried the Armada restaurant - I loved the décor of the place , it was in the form of a ship. Not much was done on the interiors, it housed almost 8-10 tables. The food was decent enough. But the food took a lot of time to be served to us - almost 40 minutes waiting time.

The best was the potato basket, it was an assortment of all types of potato fries. 

I think the décor of the place was attracting more people there. The food and drinks are little pricy too.

Before we called it for the day, we had a visual treat - the wonderful parade, a must watch for all age groups - they have few cartoon characters performing ranging from Cinderella and the seven dwarfs, Pinocchio, Alice in wonderland - it was really enjoyable. 

Loved the 15-30 minutes of the colorful parade completely. It was the best way to end your day there.

I would suggest start early from Pune, and enjoy the drive - also it would help to avoid the traffic. It would also attribute towards using your time well in Imagica. :)

Do plan a full day event - it is worth it!!

Points to note:

1)Try to use your own vehicle for transportation - gives you the ease.

2)Carry spare pair of clothes/shoes.

3)Wear comfortable clothing/shoes.

4)Start early to make the maximum of the place.

5)Carry raincoats/umbrellas during monsoons(although you can buy them there as well - raincoats cost us approximately Rs.250)

6)Plan a full day event!

Here are some the pictures from the visit:

The highway - look at clouds and the mountains, looks like a work of art.

At Imagica:



Armada restuarant



Nitro roller coaster ride ~ Pirates water ride

The beautiful parade of various characters from Disney and our children story books - reminiscing!!

On our way back, the weather got all cloudy. With the immense traffic building up, this was a sight to watch for.

Cheers to life!!

~Journey  of a thousand miles begins with a single step! :)

P.S.All the above photos have been clicked by me. :D

Food tasting event : Effingut Brewerkz - Kiva , Koregaon Park - Pune

Was invited here for my first Zomato foodie meet up on the 18th June 2015,and I must say this place was just incredible.
We were a group of 15 odd people, and prior to us coming, there were tables reserved for us.

I really liked the décor of the place with framed catchy wall posters. Full points on the innovativeness and cool ideas for the décor of the place. Aptly lit - comfortable seating space. TVs located in such a way, that you can view them from where ever you are sitting. There was this bike which was hung on the wall, which seemed more like a show piece – but we were told that in every 3-4 months, the bike is removed from there and is actually ridden. It is in perfect – driving condition.



A fully functional Rajdhoot

Look at the work done for the wall décor, eye catchy posters.



From the outside look of the place, I hadn't imagined it would be really this cool inside.

This place serves dishes ranging from Indian, oriental to continental. You can expect a every breed of food here. :P

As an added bonus, we had the in house tour of the brewery. Manu Gulati(the brew master as he called himself :) ), really gave us nice insight to the entire brewing process, showed their brewing tanks, the cold storage - how the consumption of beer is measured, the different kinds of malt they use. It was an interesting insight into this information.



Brewing tanks

Storing tanks

Various kinds of malt

For all  the beer drinkers, they had arranged for tasters, so they could choose their beer aptly. And Manu provided lot of info about each type from beer.

It was good trivia. Not a beer person, but I could see how the beer was loved by each and every one.

Coming to the food - there was a predefined menu decided for the foodie Zomatians. It was a wide spread of delicacies, ranging from beer, mock tails - starters (veg and non-veg), main course(veg and non-veg) and finally the desserts.

For mock tails, I had the fresh passion and the orange wheel. The fresh passion was more of a virgin Mohito –mix of lime, mint, soda. The next one I tried was the orange wheel - a mix of orange and cranberry juice along with peach. Both the mock tails were good.



Orange wheel

Fresh passion

Coming to starters - I think we had numerous rounds of starters.

Crispy corn - just loved this dish. It was fab.

The paneer tikka - it was cooked the traditional way - the paneer was ultra-soft, slightly grilled. It just melted in the mouth. Perfect!

The mushroom agilo ohilo - another dish I relished. By the looks of the dish, I didn't find it appealing, but it tasted really good. Mushroom cooked in lots of cheese and garlic sauce. Could really taste the flavors.

The jerk chicken - it was just about a OK dish for me. I found the chicken pieces little hard, which was the drawback of the dish for me.

Then we had the chicken in plum sauce – this one was indeed juicy and tasty. I loved the sauce it was cooked in - tangy and sweet think for the first time I had a dish of this kind - a different presentation as well - chicken sliced in circular fashion.



Crispy corn

Mustard chilly prawns

Paneer tikka

Jerk chicken

Chicken salad



Broccoli mustard chilly, mushroom Aglio olio

Being too filled with the starters - I had really no place for the main course. 

But went for the paneer Sashilik. This one is a  complete dish on its own - one doesn't need any breads along. It was skewered tikka-ed - paneer along with veggies and broccoli - served with a bowl of rice. The presentation and the taste were both really alluring. 



Paneer sashlik

Kulcha



Red curry thai

To save the best for the last, was the brownie with ice-cream - and it was a delight to see the dish brought in. They actually set the platter on fire to make it sizzle. Wow!!

The service was really good. The staff was well aware about the dishes and drinks they were serving. Kudos to the guys for their efficiency.

They play some awesome music - which really lets you to groove on to it. We went on a Thursday - but the crowd, music and ambiance gave a complete feel of the weekend. It was a good kick start to the weekend. J They had this amazing game or a quiz that they were hosting - for every right answer you win a beer for your table. This was something really riveting.

In the end I can say, this place is EFFING GOOD man!! 

And kudos to the team of Zomato for making such amazing arrangements for us. #ZomatoMeetUp

~Bon Appetite!!

P.S. All the above photos have been clicked by me.