National Service Scheme (NSS) IIT Kharagpur

Rochish Manda, Kumar Aniket (Unit 1) and Sandeep Muzzalda (Unit 12) shared videos of the nukkad (street play) performances of December 5 at Khelar Annual Camp.  Here they are...  

Dev Burman (Unit 5) shared a video on review of their roadwork by Khelar residents.  A slightly edited version of the video can be found here...

Units 12 and 15 still conscientiously put in a few more hours trying finish their roadwork tasks.  Things didn't get completed and the decision was to come back to Purba Shikarpari and elsewhere to finish things up.  Then there was this plan of an inter-unit knockout football tournament.  That also could proceed only to the end of the first round - pre-quarterfinals - before the match officials and the players gave up and the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final were saved for some other time.  Then there was garbage clearance.  Only when the area started to look nice and clean folks started throwing around plastic wrappers, food waste and what not.  Then came some sentimental stuff in the afternoon that the annual camp apparently built bridges between participants although the fight for a lousy seat on the bus continued through the entire duration of the camp. Finally Professor Dibakar Dhara's point calculation revealed Unit 1 was the best in nukka...

Roadwork at Purba Shikarpari (units 9 and 12), Library area of Banpatna (unit 11) and Dakshin Banpatna (units 10, 13, 14 and 15) should have gotten a tremendous boost with the delivery of an additional 6 wheel barrows although the impact was somewhat nullified by an unusual obsession of several units (including unit 1 working at Seva Dal and units 2 and 4 working at Raghunathpur) with street play ( nukkad ) rehearsal. The afternoon session was also extremely productive except for the sad back-to-back losses of NSS cricket team at the hands of the youth's team of Khelar-Banpatna.   The first one of the two 8-over matches was basically a wash out with the loosing team managing a paltry 43 runs and the victors chasing the total at the cost of only 2 wickets with countless overs to spare.  Performance of NSS in the second one was better - only very slightly - despite the valiant wicket keeping by Professor Dibakar Dhara captured in several professional grade photographs ta...

Road work continued at Dakshin Banpatna, Raghunathpur, Seva Dal and Purba Shikarpari areas.  The groups at Purba Shikarpari were unable to pinch a wheel barrow since the beginning.  Their progress has therefore been somewhat compromised so far.  They finally managed to borrow a tricycle trolley from a local.  This will hopefully let them finish their work on time.  Local residents are also helping by lending their tools and implements, participating physically in the road works and sparing words of encouragement for the hardworking volunteers. In the afternoon Mr Kartik Chatterjee, an expert on sustainable agriculture from Shaktigarh, Burdwan with several years of hands on experience, talked to 15 farmers from the Khelar area interested to learn the latest techniques in sustainable agriculture.  The local farmers were so impressed with what Mr Chatterjee had to present, they are planning to visit Mr Chatterjee's agricultural farm in Burdwan.   T...

This year's 7 day long Annual Camp started on 27-11-2013 in the school compound of Chattisgarh High School. This is situated near the biggest slum in our neighbourhood. The place is called Ayma. Five hundred first year undergraduate students of IIT Kharagpur are attending it. Seventeen faculty members are supervising them. There are tremendous goodwill and cooperation from local community leaders. The prominent among them were present in the inauguration function. All, including local councilors, school headmasters were very appreciative of NSS, IIT Kharagpur and the NSS Unit working in that area in their speech. NSS team thanked them and and look forward to life-building training experience in this one week long camp. Here are some pictures of inauguration and breakfast that followed.

The villagers not only came forward but also helped students in providing equipments and guiding them. The elected Panchayet member came to camp site and requested NSS students' service in another patch of the road. In the 2nd day, Panchayet Pradhan herself was with the student volunteers where work was carried out. The stretch for which work started previous day   The new stretch the panchayat member requested March past to level the road When the student volunteers left after job Cloth sorting in parallel, to be distributed on 3rd Dec. Volunteer Speak continued A Plan of Action We also prepare food, distribute it and eat it too! More pictures to come soon.