I arrived around 10 a.m. on the morning of the “1 Day Volunteer Camp a.k.a Annual Volunteers’ Retreat” and as usual picked a corner chair by the window side while also ensuring that a wall-fan was near-by to keep me cool and sat comfortably looking forward to the rest of the day that had a lot in store for us.

Krishna, our anchor for the morning session, led things efficiently. As the Inaugural lamp was lit and the traditional YFS ‘anthem’, if I may so term it, was being sung, my mind gradually drifted back in time and I reflected on how and when my own journey with Youth for Seva had begun …

My first introduction to Youth for Seva happened during a routine conversation with a friend of mine, who is a very popular long-time volunteer herself here at the YFS Bengaluru Chapter – Deepa.

The entire world was going through a testing time during the Covid pandemic and one lockdown afternoon I saw a message from Deepa requesting for voluntary contributions from interested folks to temporarily support a family financially as it had lost its only bread-winner to the epidemic, while his two children were still a long way from completing their education.

Having seen our family and friends all safe despite the pandemic causing havoc all around us, I was glad when this opportunity arose where I could give back in a small way for all the good that had come my way.

After this, we got talking and she explained to me a bit about YFS and what they do. With a 25-year career in IT behind me, I was in a position to work mostly from home, so volunteering came across as a very attractive option for me to put my free time to the best possible use.

In my bucket list of things, one of the top goals was to try and be a teacher, even if it was only for a day. And this was not any fancy thing I wanted to do, but a genuine aspiration of mine as a way of paying respect to all my teachers in general and a few in particular, who, with their love and affection and parting with knowledge, not just the academic kind, but in a lot more aspects concerning life’s skills, had helped shape me to become what I am today.

NMMS was my obvious first choice to volunteer with as it meant I got to go into a school environment, meet and interact with kids and also challenge myself to always be abreast of the subjects that I was supposed to teach the kids so that I could explain the topics in the simplest and best possible way for them to grasp.

The applause that followed the inaugural song brought me back to reality. Smt. Arunmayee ji welcomed the guests and volunteers and explained briefly about the sessions that were planned for the day and who would be hosting each of those sessions.

The first of the sessions was by Shri. Ashwini Kumar ji, who started giving us an overview of the various projects that a volunteer could be part of in this segment, like teaching Basic Math & Science, Spoken English, enabling the 8th standard students to get scholarships by clearing the NMMS tests …

At the mention of NMMS, I started drifting back again in time, remembering those initial days as I started my much-awaited and hopefully illustrious teaching career, and the challenges I faced and the unforgettable learnings I picked up along the journey.

After a few internal discussions with Rohit, Varalakshmi, and a few other senior volunteers who had been conducting NMMS classes for a while, I was finally assigned my first school in my vicinity to commence teaching NMMS topics to the kids. It was at “Srinagara Government Primary School” just a hop, skip, and jump away, literally, from my residence. I was really excited about it.

25 years in the corporate world, having handled customers from Japan to California, and all those skills and training could hardly have prepared me for Day 1 of my teaching career.

My first ever batch of NMMS students from Srinagara Government High School

The school had children from kindergarten to the 8th standard, but clearly lacked enough teaching staff strength to have at least one teacher to man each class throughout the day. So I found out that the 8th Standard students were also part-time kindergarten monitors and sometimes Physical Education teachers to lower-class kids.

And one bright young chap promptly approached me as I stood watching all the hullabaloo around me and said, “ಸರ್, ಇವತ್ತು ಕ್ಲಾಸ್ಸಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರಿಗೂ ಮೂಡ್ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಾಳೆ ಇಂದ ಬನ್ನಿ ನೋಡೋಣ” (Sir, none in the class are in a mood to study today, so please come tomorrow and we shall see)

I stood there for nearly half a minute trying to digest what had just happened. And then and there, I got a clear idea of what I was up against. But the direct approach of the student made me chuckle with a genuine smile, rather than being angry at him.

Of course, the initial days were a good test of my patience and determination, and I was almost getting to know myself in third person, wondering if and whether I would emerge without going completely insane from this volunteering experience.

However, within the next six weeks, I had started engaging with two schools (Arasu Kumar High School, next door to my first school) and had 31 unique students to whom I was imparting knowledge, and had established a good personal rapport with both the school management and their teaching staff. But more than all that, I was content as I could connect with each of my 31 students not just by their names but having understanding their strengths and where they needed that extra push to discover their own potential.

This experience was both humbling and satisfying at the same time. By the end of the first year, I had spent several unforgettable moments with them, from celebrating festivals to going out for an evening of chats.

Celebrating the Festival of Navaratri with my students

Enjoying some street side chats with my students

My attention returned as Ashwini Kumar ji was emphasizing volunteering opportunities in the areas of Cyber Security Awareness and Career Counselling and also driving Projects for Corporates.

Smt. Savitha Sulugodu ji, the CEO of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) took stage next to share her thoughts on Leadership in the Social Sector.

She drew a lot from her own experience of having worked under Dr. Balu, founder of SVYM, and how he had sprung a surprise on her and a few of her colleagues in terms of handing over the reins of running the organization to them with no other conditions other than to ensure that their motto of Satya (truth), Ahimsa (non-violence), Seva (service) & Thyaga (letting go) were not compromised in any aspect of work they did towards betterment of this society.

She also emphasized that in SVYM, they believed in the 3 Hs philosophy, which stood for “Heads to Think, Hearts to Feel & Hands to Work”. During the short tea break that followed I personally spoke to Savitha ji and asked for the link to read the blogs of Dr. Balu that she had referred to during her session. I bookmarked the link to Balu’s Musings for reading later during the evening.

We then had a brief talk by Shri. Bharat Bhatta ji, who had navigated the arduous journey from being a volunteer to becoming a Change Maker. Having found the Shrigandha Foundation with the intention of empowering socially deprived communities by providing scholarships, they are now supporting the education of over 120 students across Karnataka.

While the sessions by these elite individuals were engaging and their work highly admirable, it was coming to a point where a catalyst was needed to keep the audience's attention and participation at the highest level. And as though ordered for this very purpose, Shri. Pramod Nataraj ji took stage.

It was like a sudden gush of fresh breeze on a sultry afternoon. The energy and passion with which Pramod goes about his talk ensure that every single person in the audience is captivated in a trance.

His quiz session on the theme of know your country & culture titled “India Inspires,” was clearly the highlight of the pre-lunch session. Not only had Pramod spent a great amount of time in preparing this highly informative quiz, he also explained the context behind each and every question and its answer with so much enthusiasm that it surely rubbed on to us participants and except for Pavan and team of organizers who were keeping an eye on the slightly delayed lunch arrangements, none of us even felt that we had shot 30 minutes past the planned lunch time.

Looking at the way in which Pramod was going about his session reminded me of one of our greatest leaders and former Prime Ministers, Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and without my knowledge I was drawing comparisons between the two (while I knew even in that moment that it was not right to compare two individuals).

Both were great orators, both were highly passionate about their country, both were immensely proud of our heritage and culture and coincidentally, both were bachelors as well!

The idea of sharing my thoughts above with Pramod ji while we briefly chatted during lunch did cross my mind, however, I left it unsaid with the final conviction based on a very famous quote that when we really want something, all the universe conspires in helping us to achieve it.

The competition and enjoyment of the quiz had built up a good appetite in all of us (despite having the thirst-quenching buttermilk and spicy potato chips that we had had during the morning break) so the lunch menu of Andhra style meals was the right choice and everyone enjoyed the lunch consisting of steamed basmati rice, gun-powder, ghee, aloo-rajma palya, pappu, rasam, sambar, papad, pickles, curd and payasam thoroughly.

One great initiative this time was for YFS to have tied up with “Adamya Chetana”, a voluntary organization that works in many aspects of service to society, and one of it being “Prakruti,” focused on initiatives to keep our environment clean.

While a typical caterer would bring in single-use plastic bottles/covers/cups, this initiative by Adamya Chetana encourages people to use their NO RENT Plate Bank facility, from which we can borrow steel plates & tumblers for the purpose of serving food and water during gatherings. This way there is no wastage additionally and also it brings in a sense of community wher,e from the youngest to the oldest member, from a full-time volunteer to the guest, everyone not only uses these facilities but also helps in cleaning up after their meal by washing it before returning it back.

Sensing that any non-interactive session immediately after lunch would be a very difficult one for the host, Sneha had planned well to get us into 6 teams and made us play some fun activities which emphasized the need for good communication in successfully accomplishing our goals.

Once the post-lunch lethargy was kicked away by these fun activities, it was time for a session from YFS founder and Chief Mentor Shri. Venkatesh Murthy ji. He had chosen to speak about “Resilience in Service,” which touched upon how one needs to thrive through the ups and downs of the journey of volunteering. He also emphasized that “purpose” is the main key and motivational factor when it comes to volunteering.

As Murthy ji was seeking experiences from several volunteers on their purpose to have come into the field of volunteering, I was reminded of a wonderful devotional song by our legendary Gana Gandharva, Dr. Raj Kumar celebrating the friendship between Lord Rama and his most ardent disciple Hanuman ji, who had devoted his life to serve his master. In the song, the worshiper is seeking the blessings of Hanuman ji so that he could become a sevaka, just like the lord himself was in the service of his master.

‘Volunteer’ is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task without being paid Sevā (सेवा)

Sevā (सेवा) is the concept of selfless service that is performed without any expectation of reward for performing it

Hence, in my view, Seva is nothing but the highest form of being a volunteer.

And as Murthy ji was explaining, being a volunteer makes one let go of their ego. This is again clearly emphasized in the wonderful lyrics of the song as well.

ಸೇವಕನಾದರೆ ನನ್ನಲಿ ಆಗ ಕರಗುವುದು ಅಜ್ಞಾನ

Being a volunteer will help remove the ignorance/lack of knowledge in me

Murthy ji then emphasized that taking a long break from volunteering was one of the reasons why many of us quit volunteering. He also urged volunteers to take up more responsibilities to overcome the monotonous nature of work, which may otherwise lead to a loss of interest and hence discontinuity from volunteering.

The discussion then veered towards understanding what one or more of us had gained from volunteering. While the standard responses of satisfaction, peace of mind, and some sense of giving back to society were all correct and duly noted, I again remembered the same song where the lyrics had aptly described what selfless service gives to a volunteer.

ಸೇವಕನಾದರೆ ದೊರೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಭುವಿನ ಕರುಣೆಗೆ ಎಣೆಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲಾ The amount of blessings one receives from the Lord for volunteering has no parallel or comparison

ಸೇವೆಯು ನೀಡುವ ಮಹದಾನಂದ ಬಣ್ಣಿಸೆ ಮಾತುಗಳಿಲ್ಲಾ No amount of words can do justice when trying to describe the satisfaction one feels from the act of volunteering

ಸೇವೆಯು ಕೊಡುವ ಫಲದ ಕಲ್ಪನೆ ಕಲ್ಪವೃಕ್ಷಕೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ The reward that comes for volunteering is more valuable than the valuables that emerged from the Kalpavriksha

In short, knowing the purpose that drives us towards volunteering, not taking a long break, taking on more and more responsibilities in volunteering to beat the monotonous nature of its journey are the key aspects that a volunteer needs to be cognizant of.

We also got to hear from a senior volunteer Shri. Sathish Rao, who started his journey with YFS in 2012 and is now a key contributor with the Indiranagar chapter.

Next, we got to meet two young and bubbly individuals who were recipients of these services. While Harsha had been, deservedly, a beneficiary of the “Vidya Chetana” scholarship which helped him do his engineering, Sadhana on the other hand had been mentored by Prasanna ji, a senior volunteer with YFS, and now she was here on stage having successfully cleared her NMMS tests and with the help of the subsequent scholarship from that, had completed her Plus 2 and was looking forward to take the next step towards graduation. Meeting these two was clearly the highlight of the day, and it made us commit to volunteering with even more vigor as stated so wonderfully in the first line of the YFS anthem

ಸೇವೆಯಂಬ ಯಜ್ಞದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮಿಧೆಯಂತೆ ಉರಿಯುವ / Let us burn like the twig (fuel) in the auspicious fire of Sevā

And just like that, the day had concluded with a lot of learning and information for each of us to ponder. We left on this high note, already excited about planning for our next connect like today, except that it should be over 2 days and one night somewhere in the midst of nature!