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9/19/2006

A day at SOCARE

Technorati Profile
SOCARE, Society’s care for Indigents is home for 70 odd kids coming from different backgrounds. Background- some dark, some grave.

SOCARE took birth in the mind of Mr. V Mani during his days as a banker at RBI. He used to pass the central jail on his way to the office and often was left wondering while looking at the waiting mothers and kids of convicts, the life of these kids. Post retirement, Mani decided to invest all his savings and retirement benefits to start SOCARE. Mani along with his wife Mrs. Saroji Mani lovingly extended the comforts of their home to indigents, by turning their home into a hostel.

Today there are kids who are provided education, training in extra curricular activities like dance, martial arts, yoga etc at SOCARE. 7 of us when decided to surprise Pradipta on his birthday and spend time at SOCARE, least did we expect “the experience”. It is beyond words, to explain how we all felt.

Aged between 2 to 15 these kids were lively and intelligent too. You will find a wall cabinet full of cups and trophies they won in different streams- education, sports and other activities. We watched them sing, we watched them perform bharatanatyam (a dance form they are getting trained in) and before we all realized we were having a gala time together.

We had major fun post we sat through their compulsory tuition time in the evening. Subash, a ninth class student made me and Kaushal sing all Himesh Reshamaiya’s songs! The nasal song by Kaushal broke them all into peels of laughter. We regretted though not knowing the verse of the songs properly, LOL. While Jadeja was teaching few of them to make a paper camera, Suhasini was breaking her head trying to win a game of chess which ultimately ended at a draw. Supriya was quite amused when Renu whom she was teaching Maths discreetly joined the Himesh Reshmaiya singing group. Deepak thrilled the kids with his giant camera. Pradipta at this moment was probably thinking of adopting all kids! We simply loved them all, Lavanya being my favorite.

We all realized one thing, all these kids needed was love. The authorities of SOCARE, even if they want to shower the kids with love have to restrain just to keep the balance right. They share a common dream of bringing up the kids well, giving them an environment conducive for learning and see them soar heights in life. Hence, like any other parents have to take disciplinary measures. They look up to individuals like us who can come and spend some time with the kids.

We surely are going there back again. If you too are interested, here’s how you can contact them.

Mr. V. Mani/ Mrs. Saroji Mani: 2642, “Desik”, 12th Main, ‘E’ Rajajinagar II Stage (Subramanyanagar) Bangalore- 560 010.
Ph no: 080 3321864 / 3520329

Mr. Anandagopalan (one of the trustee): 82, Bhuvaneswarinagar, C V Raman Nagar, P.O. Bangalore 560 093.
Ph no: 080-5240055

Mrs. Asha Narasimhan (one of the trustee): Ph no: 3320059

Cheers!