Handwritten

Recently I went to the National Mall of Washington to see the Monuments. It was a pleasant sunny day and a lot of people have come there. I was roaming alone but it was nice to spent sometime walking on the Mall. I saw the world war Monuments and Lincoln Memorial but was moved by 'the wall on the mall' that has been made in remembrance of the US soldiers who gave their life for their country. The Wall or the Vietnam Veterans memorial has been designed beautifully and its goes with the ambience of the mall, engages the visitors to reflect on the cost of war for them. I saw that many of them brought flowers and was searching for the names. not only this the texture, location and other architectural input every thing is so well thought that there isn’t any better War monument I have seen. but I also saw the two contradictions of the society just a few blocks away in front of white house there was a bunch of people protesting against war. Democracy must prevail!

A month in US is over. A month away, from home, family and my beloved homeland India. I miss them all and I miss them badly but today I am remembering the food and tea corners in Delhi. So after writing this post I will make some 'Biryani' to satisfy my taste buds. When I look back to this past month it seems like a flash back, covering each event in few seconds. Let me take you through a tour, which starts with my journey in plane. The pleasure of flying is so addictive, I was above the sky, enjoying the clouds and the sun besides me, but do you know what was most interesting for me? To see all the terrains and pattern of landscape from a bird eye view, it seems as if a passionate artist has painted on the canvas! When I landed at DC, Kimi, our US program Director, came to receive me, she gave me quick information capsules and shows me few places so that I don’t get lost, and by that time my fear of new had gone because knew that I was in safe hands! My encounter with second A...

Ramadan fasting is over and I am back in feasting mode! This weekend it was Eid and I really enjoyed the way people here observe it. I went to Mary land for EID prayers. What I enjoyed most was the great party after the prayers, every body brought gifts cakes and food, moving in a line with all fun and laughter! ...oh yes... I did miss my family. But then there are my lovely housemates who give me a homely feeling! this weekend we had some great Indian food saw musical, melodramatic hindi songs on Youtube. Last week at work was busy, entertaining but satisfying. I went to a fund raising lunch organized by the Washington Area Women Foundation. I found that the event was a good mix of recreation, media, and food and off course fund raising!! Just imagine in a short span of 2 hours, we saw a film, people had lunch, got involved in a lucky draw, heard live stories from the beneficiaries, got few poems from one of the pioneer and observed a discussion on collective philanthropy. It was a ...

These days i am meeting new people every day, & I am excited to see that here people are so interested in politics. It wouldn't be wrong to say that politics is in the air ! every third person i meet is either attached with some cause or another or have started his own non profit organisation. (i would prefer to use this term because no matter how different terms are used because of the market influence, still they offer the tax benefits when it comes to donations ). so I was telling you about my encounter with new people, people from different back ground, different profession, distinct interests and also with different motives. Interestingly many of them are young energetic and ambitious. This Thursday I met around 10- 12 people in a get together and at least three of them have served America as peace corps, Ameri corps or military and, are highly motivated and ambitious to serve the nation in their own way.. and off course !!! they all have started their Non profit organi...

It has been my first week at global giving and I am glad that I am here. Though I have been working in the citizen sector for last four years but I couldn’t imagine that Giving would involve so much of art or science whatever you name it. Expolring the world of online giving & trying new softwares was a nice experience but last week was full of confusion also! Different department, segmented meeting, the official lingo and over and above overlapping and connected tasks of each of them. All made me feel from where to start. But then Dana, Saima and Duane made me feel relax that it is Ok to be confused at Global giving during the initial days! They have already gone through this. There have been few changes in my perspective also , earlier I was skeptical & concerned about the participative nature of web and the word ‘dialogue’ created a different meaning in my mind. But now a window has been created & I am able to see the enormous potential of online communication for citize...