A Noble Deed on a Noble Day "June 4th, 2007"

Dear SPB Fans,

We all were jubilant and joyful in celebrating and wishing our beloved SPB on his birthday from all parts of the world. It had given great pleasure to all of us to greet him on this noble day. Some of the closer & regular fans had the fortune of wishing him on phone while most others had expressed their greetings through the website facility or group mail or to his personal mail ID or through a SMS facility created by TechZone for this purpose. I was one such who had sent greetings to his personal email ID and when i opened my mail box today, there, i found his prompt reply expressing his gratitude. What a great man !!!. Taking time off to reply.

While it gives us all immense pleasure to send greetings and wishes on his birthday, as part of the SPBFans Charitable Foundation, we are destined to make this day more worthwhile and memorable for him and also for ourselves, by playing a definite role in enhancing the quality of others' life and also bringing brightness to them. That has been the prime derived purpose of the union of his fans from all over the world. Our SPB is so much attached and impressed with our Group for the sole reason that we are taking efforts to associate ourselves to the society through him and his association and not just spending our energy loudspeaking his artistic contributions to the world music. As most of the members are aware, we normally celebrate our SPB's birthday, by lending ourselves to a social cause. This has been happening for the past two years and this year also it continued. Ashok, as the Trustee of the Foundation, had set the ball rolling and many of you had even sent your contributions towards this. All our contributions were pooled together along with an amount of Rs.40,000 that our SPB had contributed. If one remembers the Bangalore Meet in Jan'07, our SPB had promised that he would be sending his monthly contribution of Rs.10,000 to our Foundation and he had done just that. He also promised us once again (when we met him in person recently during Jaya TV EPP recording) that he would continue doing so.

This time, an organisation by the name RASA, at Chennai was identified by our Webmaster. (please click on this link to know about RASA and its activities :: www.rasaindia.org). And as usual our core team of Ashok and Venkat got into the act and worked overtime to discuss with this organisation and get all their requirements. Their requirements were as follows,

Special chairs
Tape recorders
Assessment kits
Play pen with coloured balls
Basket swing
Rope ladder
Sensory integration board
Wheel Chairs
Different musical instruments

While the contributions generated could not meet this total requirement, it would cater to a part of it. Based on a discussion by WebMaster and also Ashok with our SPB, it was decided to present a cheque to RASA on June 4th, 2007 and at a later date meet all the Special Children (due to holidays children were not available on this day) and spend some time with them and also handover the items bought by RASA from our donation.

The following members assembled at RASA, Abhiramapuram, Chennai at 6:00pm on 4th June 2007.

1) WebMaster Mr.Giridhar Raja
2) Ashok (Trustee) & Mrs.Ashok
3) Venkat
4) Vijaykrishnan
5) Madhumitha
6) Priya
7) Prasanna
8) Seshadri
9) S Balaji
10) Ramachandran & his Sister Uma
11) Anand
12) Srinivasan
13) Dasaradhi

We were warmly received by Dr.Ambika & team. She gave us a brief summary of the organisation & it's activities. RASA is a school for Special Children. It uses Theatre, Drama, Music, Dance and other forms to develop Special Children, which is quite different from the traditional medical approach. Dr.Ambika is the founder and she along with other like minded persons are involved in this process of teaching Special Children to acquire various attributes and grow up in life. Around 100 children attend this school which is spread over three locations, one at Ahbiramapuram which caters to 35 children and the other centres at Mandaveli and Mehta nagar-Nungambakkam taking care of 65 children. Dr.Ambika told us that by God's grace they were able to pull along through the contributions of philanthropists like us and she felt happy in being associated with us on this occasion. She invited us to come over one day and spend some time with the children and have a look at the activities so that we could understand what is going on. She also extended an advance invitation to us to a gathering of 250 Special Children that they are planning probably at Narada Gana Sabha, sometime in September 2007, which will showcase the performances of Special Children not only from RASA but also outside it.

After Dr.Ambika had completed her brief about the organisation, our WebMaster handed over a cheque for Rs.60,000 to her.

We all left the place with the fulfillment of having done something good on our SPB's birthday on behalf of the SPBFans Charitable Foundation.

We will again visit RASA on a Saturday in a few weeks from now to spend a few hours with the children and also to present the items bought by RASA out of our donation.