“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at
the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return” ~
The Bhagavad Gita
Is the English translation of the parting words the Principal of Chembiyanpattu GTMS, Point Pedro told us. Chembiyanpattu is a small hamlet which is about 25 KM away
from Point pedro town and it is one of the places that had experienced the
wrath of man made destructions as well as natural destructions.
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| On the way to school |
It’s a place
where pitched battles were fought. The rows of Palmyra trees without the top,
the red flags and boards of landmine warnings (even today), clearly show what
it had gone through in the form of manmade destructions. In Tamil there is an
idiom “
பட்ட காலே படும்; கெட்டக் குடியே கெடு“, when
roughly translated reads as “the injured leg gets injured again in the same way
affected colonies get affected again”; true to that word the village did face
the wrath of tsunami too.
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| External view of the school |
The school was closed down for a long time and it was reopened
in 2010 and currently it serves as the main school for the poor hamlet. When we
went in they showed us a steel cupboard with a whole pile of teachers guides along
with another 10 non – teachers guide books and called it the ‘library’. Personally I was feeling very guilty as in my
own room itself I have a bigger pile of books, which now I seldom refer. Here
we have students in hundreds studying up to Ordinary Level and their school
library had a total of about 10 books. The world is not fair, is the thought
which occurred in my mind.
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| Current 'library' - the non - teachers guides are the pile of books on the extreme right on the last row of the cupboard |
Luckily for us we had gone there for the purpose of donating
library books. It was part of hSenid Software International’s 15
th
anniversary celebrations. Starting from very humble beginnings, hSenid has
reached the 15
th year in its journey last month. To coincide with
that Dinesh, who is the founder and CEO of the organization and whose name when
spelt in reverse order gives the organization’s name, initiated a program to
donate books to 15 rural libraries in different parts of Sri Lanka. He insisted
that schools from all parts of the island should be covered by this project and
had a soft spot for a Point Pedro school.
So we asked from Sarveswaran, a Lecturer at the University
of Jaffna to help us in finding a school which is in need. Sarves contacted the
Provincial Education Authorities and on their advice found this school. It
could not have been a more deserving school. If not for this effort from Sarves
and the authorities, very easily the books we donated could have ended up as a
drop in the ocean had it been given to a school with more books and hence lost
its value. Also we didn’t want to donate
random books, so we obtained the needed booklist from the school itself. They
took two days to compile a complete list with input from all teachers and sent
us the list of books needed. hSenid made sure that the whole list requested was
provided to them.
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| Harsha - CTO hSenid Mobile and Principal of Chembiyanpattu GTMS, Point Pedro exchanging the MOU |
The need was clear and the right gift was given to the right
school at the right time. We walked back home feeling that we had done
something worthwhile.
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| The team from hSenid with Principal |
hSenid team also participated at the YIT meet, which I would blog about in the coming days.
Pictures courtesy of Duleepa and Priyanka
