A Day Out At Ashrey Akruthi

Motorola celebrated Global Services Day on the 18th of October. Employees, from all across the world, participated with loads of enthusiasm. We were divided into groups of twelve, and each group had a representative, who arranged for the activity for the day at the Voluntary Organisation. Our group went to the residential hostel of Akshay Akruti - a school for the hearing impaired.

We reached the hostel premises by the afternoon. We were graciously welcomed by the secretary of the school. We were handed a rose and a card signed by the children, as a mark of their affection. Then the wardens and the caretakers, showed us around the place - the rooms, the beds, the posters, the balcony, special facilities for girls, the study rooms, evening activity space, the lab space. We were impressed! The place was indeed maintained very well.

After all the hospitality, we set out on the task for the day. We were to paint the walls of two rooms of the Hostel, the drawing room and the kitchen. The coordinators had done a great job, we had everything ready - paint, gloves, face masks, brushes, and ofcourse the much needed guide, the man who would make do for the little goof ups we would make all through the day - the Painter, who would take care of the final coating.

We spent the evening, cleaning the walls, removing the oil stains, climbing up those huge ladders holding those little buckets full of paint... With songs, tit-bit chat sessions, hulla-bulla sessions, we had a good time painting the place. We learnt some good lessons through the day. A day out of the software industry, we realised "why we software engineers are paid 100 folds for the same 8 hours of work":) .

As evening dawned, we were served, hot tea and refreshments. The children were back from school, and it was time for some fun. We met the kids, spoke to them, and truly got inspired seeing the way they found happiness, in sensing little noise around them despite the fact that they couldn't hear us. They understood us; may be the language of compassion needed no voice !!!

We had a nice day out - working, having fun, making a difference to the little hearts !