Raid those prostitution dens! Work your way into the night! One girl I save from the clutches, goes miles for my achievement! They had the students enthralled!
Then it was their turn to be at the receiving end.Adolph D’Souza, Corporator and Ward Committee Chairman, K-West Ward, James John and his team-members couldn’t help closing their mouth lest they exclaim at the outburst of electrifying questions put up by the students.
The screening of the documentary on the Protest Vote under Section 49-O of the Code of Conduct Election Rules 1961 and the importance of voting hit the nail on the head. If Representatives of the people are one of the pillars of our democracy; Executive, Judiciary and Fourth Estate are the other three, then definitely the slab that caps it all are ‘We, The People’.
“If I submit a petition now, when I am twenty years old, probably I’ll be fighting it out in the Supreme Court when I am forty?” asked Keyur Vaidya, SYJC student of Dahanukar College.
Keyur waited outside the Principal’s cabin for over forty-five minutes, awaiting James John, AGNI Co-ordinator along with his team and Adolf D’Souza, Corporator, who spent a substantial amount of time, chalking out plans for students’ active involvement and commitment to activism for a brighter, better world.
Surprised to see Keyur waiting so long, James and his team spared some more time to answer the young lad’s unending list of questions.
As Principal Dr.Madhavi Pethe said, “Let’s tackle things together. If we work for a cause, then we realize the fulfillment from our inner being”. As Jaimala Deorukhar Librarian, Prof.Mrs.Char, Prof.Mrs.Kumaran and Prof.Mrs.Sudha of the organizing team of M.L.Dahanukar cast a valid non-election protest vote in the August Assembly, expressing their views on the need for betterment of civic life in the city and in the nation, the students teamed up to participate in Agni Volunteer work. One could perceive young minds striving to come to terms with the reality of corruption, prostitution and other ills, simultaneously realizing their need to commit themselves.
The presentation by the AGNI team in the College Auditorium was up for grabs. Gandhiji’s letter possibly had as many takers, as the takers for the talk on Activism, The Right To Information Act and Corporate Governance, interspersed with the very ideology of democracy, that the AGNI team touched upon.
Continuing with planning a cell on ‘Right To Information’, Mr.Ashok Pai spoke on students’ participation. He asked them that if they were to purchase a Mercedes car in the future, would they enjoy driving it on such bad roads? Definitely not, came the reply. Then the solution lay in getting down to work towards improving the roads as active citizen groups! Gang up and work for your country!
Adolph D’Souza, Corporator, emphasized the fact that blaming the system, criticizing the Government, grumbling, passing on the buck, was not the solution. The only solution was
‘Get down to work as an active citizen!’
The call won the day, for the students’ were charged! As James John and team members Ashok Pai, CD Soman, Mrs. Bernedetta Rosario, Pramod Sawant and Anil Tawde wound up the session, they had just unwound a host of pent-up student feelings that depicted in one voice, as the students’ put it, ‘Humlog Bhi Kuch Kam Nahin. Kuch Karke Dikhayenge.’
Indeeed, the closing note marked the beginning of tiny flames surfacing. That’s AGNI, lighting the flame within.
YOU CAN CONTACT US ON RAVI - 9821295960, JAMES:- 932408610
BY Sudha Subramaniam
Faculty
M.L.Dahanukar College.
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