by Rashmi and Priya

There was an unmistakable buzz coming from the Malavalli auditorium at ICC Milpitas on Nov 3,2007.  As a freshly minted ILP volunteer, I was attending my first annual dinner and it was with some trepidation about what to expect, that I entered the hall.  The social hour was well under way, old friends caught up and new acquaintances were made, all bound by the common cause that had drawn us together that evening.

Seated at our tastefully decorated tables, our attention was drawn to the Emcee Rajesh Rajamani’s welcome note and reminder to turn off our mobile devices.  It turned out to be a worthy suggestion, considering that it would have been tragic to have missed any part of the evening ahead, because of a buzzing cell phone.  For the next hour we were enraptured by the exemplary entertainment on display.  The young artists on the elegant stage, designed by fellow ILP volunteers, treated us to a scintillating performance of Hindustani classical music.  Akshay, Kiran, Pavan and Shishir transported everyone into the land of Bhimsen Joshi and Zakir Hussain in a seemingly effortless manner.   Following them with a rhapsody of light film music were Pragati, Prithvi, Ramyashree and Krishna.  The audience was so engaged in clapping along, simply mesmerized by the unwavering voices, that the dinner remained largely untouched. 

Kicking off the latter half of the evening was Padmaja Sathyamoorthy, our National Projects co-ordinator. She described the state of the various projects across the country and drew equal attention to the success stories and the adversities.  Her speech was the cornerstone of the evening, anchoring all the good and bad that the past year had brought, and highlighting the areas that need utmost attention in the year to come.

To give the keynote address, Dr. Kanwal Rekhi, a very well-known Indian-American businessman and technologist, took over the stage.  Dr. Rekhi has been the founder and chairman of many organizations including TIE (The Indian Entrepreneur).  Returning to ILP to deliver the keynote for the second time, his commitment to the ILP purpose was apparent and very encouraging.  In his unassuming and muted manner, this accomplished individual wore his philanthropic hat for the evening.  Taking us through his journey in the United States, he spoke of his passion for education and the importance it held in a successful person’s personal and professional growth. His ideas resonated with ILP’s own past accomplishments and future plans and were an endorsement of our charter.

Complementing Dr. Rekhi’s speech was our guest speaker, Dr. Brij Kothari.  An Ashoka Fellow, founder of PlanetRead.com, and an Associate professor at the IIM, Ahmedabad, Dr. Kothari’s qualifications were stellar.  But his work towards the cause of literacy of the underprivileged was even more stunning.  Through his presentation of the award winning Same-Language-Subtitling (SLS) program, he showed us ways in which a simple concept can be turned into an effective learning tool.  The SLS method leverages the reach of TV to display the lyrics of popular songs while they are telecast.  The program has been proven to have dramatically improved the literacy rates in the groups that have been exposed to it.  It was a very inspiring for us ILP folks to be able to see a simple idea making such a large impact on the literacy graph of these regions. 

Through the evening, we also saw one of ILP’s co founder, Mr. Venki Venkatesh put in an appearance to honor the speakers and the entertainment team.  To see his passion for the ILP cause and his undiluted interest and perseverance through all these years, was of great inspiration to us new volunteers.  It was a treat to see where this organization germinated and who was behind the mission, vision and dream.  It gave us a sense of perspective about where we fitted in and how every contribution, whether it be time or money, no matter how small or large, could still make a difference.

That evening, I felt a warm glow inside.  We were all making a difference; as volunteers, as donors and as patrons.  I was convinced that my time, monetary contributions and my efforts were channeled in the right direction.  And I am quite certain that the warm glow permeated the crowd to each and every attendee that evening.  ILP, and to every person who worked tirelessly behind the scene to make the evening a success, it was undoubtedly a job well done.