It has been a long one month away from my dear blog here. Thanks to a busy October! Though I have been on my official twitter every other day micro-blogging.
Just as my twitteroids rolled out today, I realised the urgent need to send out this very important message to all of you.
Today, the date 14th of November will never fade away for the life of me! Ask me why!!
My family instilled in me the concept of healthy competition on this day every year for my first 15 years, growing up. Today I realise how important that learning experience was. On the realisation that art became my daily bread, they understood that there is no life I would choose outside of it, so they went along with my madness should I say? ;o) (starting off as a toddler scribbling on the walls and floors of our home. In modern days that could easily pass off as murals eh?) My folks packed me off on every 14th November to child art contests. Though I have heard critical comments about children getting used to contests, I find there is a useful side to it important for a 6-10 year old. It is not the thought of getting ahead of someone else but to get a handle to analyse where we stand within our competition. Today I am able to gauge myself as a professional, to see where I stand in the competition. I am able to see my strengths and weaknesses, and have adopted the ability to constantly brand myself to be an expert of a field. I don't think I would have been able to aggressively continue among wins and failures typical of such a competitive world and so the relevance of such a grounding holds good. A marketing degree with real-life experiences even as a young-un does matter immensely.
Anyway... the 14th of November! oh how I pay you my respects!
This is the day which gave me the pride of growing up in my country. This day was commemorated as Children's Day in India whereas the International Children's Day was on the 20th November.
14th was a special day because it was the birthday of a "child of India" during India's Independence freedom struggle, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru" who grew up to become the first Prime Minister of the free India in 1947. Nehru was a person who showed so much devotion and affection towards children that marked the day for India to remember the rights of the child.
Though India has gone a long way in fighting for privileges to be given to their children, there are a lot of them who stay under-privileged and are born to poverty with the child mortality rate still being a problem.
With this mentioned, may I join others to a cause for down-trodden children not only in India but the rest of the globe, as an artist to register my intentions to give back in yet another way to a community of the needy.
Several years ago I made an agenda to help children growing up in slums and unfortunate families who cannot send their children to schools, to bring to them a fun-learning environment....to help them learn about the world just around their homes...to give them a real life history lesson where they participate along with other children and learn how it is to work together as a team. I hope to start working side-by-side with my core work duties, on this cause with non-profits at the beginning of 2012.
What is your agenda for today and the International Childrens' Day?
