Finding True Passion in India

1) The Making of YUVA UNSTOPPABLE

In May 2005, I quit my job as senior Systems Configuration Analyst at Hewitt Associates in Atlanta, to visit my family in India. I had got the highest scholarship ever offered to an international student at Texas A & M, College Station, Texas. I was to start my MBA in August, 2005.

I had come to India after living in the U.S. for eight years. To my shock, I found that my 84-year-old nanny, Kamalaben, was unwanted by her only son’s family. Kamalaben had no money and nowhere to go but suffer the insults, cry and pray for death. I enrolled her into a nearby old people’s home. I shouldered her financial responsibility. I was touched by the poignant stories of several other elderly people there. Soon dozens of my friends and I started visiting them twice a week. We also started going to orphanages, local Blind People’s Association, two slum children’s schools as well as poor vagabonds found near the railway stations. I decided to postpone my MBA for a year.

I founded a new organization called “YUVA Unstoppable” which means “the inexhaustible youth.” YUVA Unstoppable is a social work organization of college students and young professionals of India.

From four people who helped me with my initial project, now we have 450 members across the state of Gujarat in 11 short months. The progress of YUVA Unstoppable hasn’t been anything short of a miracle.

Since its inception in June 2004, YUVA Unstoppable volunteers have put in more than 13,000 man hours and are helping more than 3,500 underprivileged children through education, entertainment and medical help. We are also feeding close to 1,000 poorest of poor children every month.

We bring hope to poor children by teaching English, math, science, drama, dance and indoor/outdoor games. Besides, YUVA Unstoppable has started providing clothes, blankets, shoes, books and other amenities to hundreds of children of various slum areas. We take them out to movies, restaurants and our homes. We also celebrate social, national and religious festivals with these children. Our message to the slum children is that they do not have to lead a life of quiet desperation and frustration, or live a life of crime, or do drugs and alcohol. There is a better way. There is hope for a significant future.

I am Founding Chairman of YUVA Unstoppable with a strong team of dynamic youngsters. We have dedicated Project Leaders, Team Leaders, Public Relations Officer, Secretary, Treasurer, Entertainment Chair and several others who help run the organization very smoothly and efficiently.

The Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra