Stories are the best medium of communication to reach young and old. In the early days, grandma stories from epics used to be popular. Now due to change of life style, our system is totally forgotten this age old proven concept. However story telling is an art by itself. Through good stories, we can plant good thoughts in the minds of the children.
In order to revive this concept, Team Everest, one of the partner organisations of Action 2020 Team under India Vision group released a book on 26th Sep 2009, in Tamil titled "Ilam Indiayavukku" (meaning 'To Young India'). This book is the initiative of Mr Kartheeban, Founder of Team Everest and his team. Team Everest has around 3000 members working in Cognizant Technology at different locations, connected only through intranet. They are supporting various education projects, identified through their members.
This book has 100 anecdotes (in the form of stories) compiled by 23 members of Team Everest, taken from the lives of great people like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Dr Abdul Kalam, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa and others. Every anecdote has been written in Tamil in a very interesting manner like a story, so that young school children get attracted to that. All the 23 authors are working in different projects of the company at different locations and in different countries. They have also not met each other earlier. They compiled the book using the email and chat and other technology tool.
I was also present during the launch function. Out of 23 authors, only few people could attend the function, as all others were in different parts of the country/world. Interestingly, even those authors who were present there met for the first time, though they were closely working together to compile this book. :)
The members of Team Everest operating in US, mobilised funds to the extent of Rs.70,000/- through some cricket tournament to print these books. Presently, they have printed 10,000 copies for distribution amongst school children. As a pilot project, they have already spoken to Chief Education Officer of Tiruvannamalai district. This book will be distributed free of cost to the Head Masters of nearly 500 schools coming under that district. Every day, one anecdote will be read to the students in every school during morning prayers. After few months, Team Everest will get feedback from the Head Masters and improve further.
Kizhakku Pathipagam, one of the leading publishers of Chennai helped them to print the books at cost.
The book is priced at Rs.25/. Whatever money earned out of the sales will be used for re-printing of this book for further distribution. Mr Kartheeban aims to print and distribute a minimum of 1 lakh copies.
Team Everest can be contacted at teameverest@yahoo.co.in and Mr Kartheeban may be reached at 9940299062 (Chennai)
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