Munna inspires seva over show on R-Day

Munnabhai returned, conquered and went but this time he changed the meaning of January 26, for many dramatically. In an era where gandhigiri is considered cool, merely paying lip service to ideals and sentiments is completely out, or so says Gen Next. Turning a new leaf on January 26, this year are scores of them who are actually proving that actions speak louder than words.

Religion of the future

For Deepti Singh and her friends, Sreshta Chary, Mridhula Vijaykumar and Praful Joshi, students of St Mary's, Villa Marie and St Francis, Republic Day is the best time to spread their new religion — gandhigiri. Deepti says, "The whole business of attending the parade at college just out of compulsion when we are pining to get out of the gates and have fun is so hypocritical. So this year we have decided to chuck college and do what we like instead." Surprisingly it's not hanging out at coffee pubs that they are talking about. "We are going to spread gandhigiri," says praful explaining, "We are trying to get a big network of students from different colleges to promote Gandhigiri. We will garland traffic violators, if anyone litters the roads we will pick it up and give them a flower instead and we plan to stand near bakeries and collect the food that people tend to waste. This will be given to hungry beggars." While these may not be the exact things that Gandhi advocated, these youngsters believe that it's the spirit of the whole concept that matters.

Wlak the talk

For students of Icfai School of Marketing studies this Republic Day is all about doing service with a smile. They plan to spend the day with a home for the destitute and orphans at Moosapet doing little things that matter to them. "The school in that campus does not have benches, so we have pooled in money to buy over 200 planks that can serve as desks for these kids. Apart from that, we also managed to get some protein drinks, pain balm and medicines for the older women. We want this to be a hallmark day for them, a day when they truly feel that they are taken care of in this great republic," says Pragnesh b. Doshi, a first year student of ISMS.

Corporate causes

While students are chipping in to do their bit, young corporates seem to be going out of their way to spread the spirit of Republic Day. Madhu S. Rao, Operations, HSBC, and his team don't enjoy a holiday on republic day. But that's no excuse. "Though we are working tomorrow, we have taken half a day off to go early to an orphanage and rehabilitation centre for street children. We want to hoist the flag and tell them why the whole country is busy celebrating this day. We will then conduct some sports and games for them, give them some gifts and end the day by having lunch together with them," says Madhu. The basic idea is to involve these ignored children in the celebrations. Many are discovering that it's no longer difficult to get people excited about such activities. "Thanks to munnabhai, gandhigiri is considered cool now and there's not much you need to do to convince someone to support your cause."

Children seem to be the focus of many corporate activities. After all they deserve at least a handful of happy days in their lives," says Zeeshan Ahmed, a 25-year-old who is working with a leading MNC in the city. "A couple of us will be going to a government school to give out books and stationery and celebrate the day with them. Such thoughts come naturally even to those who never did anything like this before and I think it has a lot to do with powerful movies like Rang De... and Lage Raho," he adds.
Welcome to the nation of the future where Gen Next is all geared up to make a difference.