VEDH -वेध - The first interview

The interview-VEDH  -वेध

Preface

Some days back ( some years, you could say) back, one of my nephews forwarded a series of videos, made by VEDH  -वेध . I thought of writing about it and about the interviews.

                VEDH  -वेध

 VEDH, which stands for Vocationa Education, Direction and Harmony)  &  IPH (Institute for Psychiatry Health) under their Avahan (आवाहन) series and presented in Association with M.C.Dattar Classes & Palshikar Institute. Dr. Anand Nadkarni who is eminent psychiatrist and founder director of the Institute. Here Avahan (आवाहन) could be taken as summons or call for all of us to take notice or as a challenge to achieve something.

One of the objectives of the institutes is to expose young minds to varied career perspectives. This is done by introducing them to prominent, successful academicians or achievers via a live on stage chat session with Dr.Anand Nadkarni or series of interviews conducted by Dr. Nadkarni and Dr. Jyoti Shirodkar. It is being done very effectively

These videos were captioned under the heading  ' Zapatlepan Te Jamtepan (झपाटलेपण ते जाणतेपण) and Pratikul Te Anukul (प्रतिकूल ते अनुकूल). झपाटलेपण ते जाणतेपण has been appropriately labelled as Passion to Wisdom in their logo  and so is  प्रतिकूल ते अनुकूल, which is, as we all know, ' Adverse Conditions to Favourable Conditions', has been also titled aptly.

All the interviews were fantastic, conducted with professionalism. Both the interviewers allowed the interviewees to feel at home, asked them leading and pertinent questions, bringing out their stories of struggles, challenges faced and the success they achieved. But no moment the interviews were monotonous or boring. In fact, they were so interesting that the viewer sits glued to his seat watching the entire stories being unfolded in these videos. All the anecdotes in the lives of these successful achievers are brought to light by asking them questions but there is no bragging or self - praise anytime. Switching from one anecdote to another is done with precision, right timing and careful interruptions, without being or appearing to be rude to the interviewees or viewers. You simply ease into the whole thing.

It was certainly a learning curve for me. I must have interviewed many, a number of staff and teachers, but all of them for recruitment or assessment purpose. All the interviews were conducted in a routine manner with same set of questions for all the candidates, never bothering about the candidate's nerves, whether or not he / she felt at home, and most of the time trying to find what the candidate doesn't know rather than what he/ she knows. We never bothered how to make the interview interesting to both, the interviewer and interviewee.

The Interview - Aseem

Through one of these videos we come to know about Sarang Gosavi and his Aseem  (असीम) Foundation, an NGO. असीम means infinite or limitless!

Sarang Gosavi, a thinker, a change seeker and change maker, who has been in Kashmir since 2001. He is the founder of Aseem Foundation. He is helping the Kashmiri Youth to become entrepreneurs by providing training; and on the larger front helping establish a bond between Kashmiris and the rest of the India.

‌ Yunus is a student representative from Kashmir. She is doing her BA in Psychology. Simultaneously, she is an entrepreneur (Apple Biscuits Bakery). Replying to the question what she has got from Aseem, she has now got confidence and she is able to stand on own feet and likewise she wants to motivate others. She says Assem is not an NGO for her but a family, where they all work as a team. She is grateful to Assem and Sarang Sir, who is her mentor, adviser and guide. She is, she adds, what she is today is only because of them.

Through the interview we come to know about their work, which is primarily concentrated into three areas:
1) Education, providing different opportunities of Education to the people in border areas of India. We learn about their great work especially in Kashmir.
2) Social Entrepreneurship, creating different avenues of Enterprise by utilizing local resources in the border regions areas of India. We meet Yashmin Yunus.
3)  Research about the problems faced by citizen in border areas, and Creating awareness in the rest of India.

Answering a question how did Kashmir happen to him, Sarang tells us that he had acquired a job in Tata Technologies through the campus placement and knew that eventually after getting experience of 3 years or so, he too ultimately go to the US, may settle there as his brother was there. However, after listening to  General Patankar's motivativational talk at Balgandharva (Auditorium) and his call for  youth to work in Kashmir, he felt that he should go and have the  real picture of Kashmir. There were all negative reports in Sakal and other media about Kashmir. When his mother refused him permission to go there, he lied that he was going to Goa with friends, but instead landed in Kashmir. Thus began his journey. He was good at computers and so it was only natural for him to start computer centre by default and it began at S Alfayaz Public School. We come to know how he would take a five days leave from his Tata Technologies, Pune, clubbing it with weekly holidays. This would get him 9 days, but actually just 3 to 4 days (5 to 6 days lost due to train travel) to work in Kashmir. He tells us about General Patankar's motivations and help. All the anecdotes are interesting, about people of Kashmir, how they take ten steps forward if you're to take just one step in their direction, about their hospitality -  how they would never ask you as to why you were there (your purpose of visit) but would say "Aap aaj therjaao" (You stay with us for the night) and how they entertained him lavishly every time. Asked whether he was not scared of working all alone, he says there was bliss in the ignorance.

We come know about their other projects like Olive Green Bakery (a project for widows of army men, where Mehek and Yashmin train them), Abhilasha Project and Second Opinion Health Center (in collaboration with IPH) We get to know about Aseem's Super 40 project. (Super 40 is an initiative of the Samba Brigade of the Indian Army in association with Assem to help local students in the entrance tests for joining the Armed Forces.) Sarang talks about the emotional bonding that he has with his students, he tells us how he and two of his students cried at the time of seeing them off at the railway station and how they came back the next year and today he considers them part of his family and they can drop in any time they want. He says he doesn't have a sister of his own but says they are more than his sisters to him.

[Entire video is available on YouTube, and it's worth viewing].

Another video pertains to Amrut and Amit being interviewed. Since Amrut Dedhmukh's mission is 'Make India Read' and which is also my pet subject (Reading, I mean), I would love to write about him at length. So that video and the interviews can wait.

Vinay Trilokekar 

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