Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan !

It is a dream come true for the students of Shyama Vidya Mandir to get an exposure to Mumbai on Sunday, said Dr.Pillai. Exposures and seeing things can definetely change the perspective of the students. It is the need of the hour that students in a rural-setup see the developing world and thereby develop themselves, expressed Dr. Pillai.

A group of 60 students from SVM visited Mumbai for the first time on Sunday the 17th February 2008 along with a couple of villagers from Tammnathwadi.

Shyama Vidya Mandir is an empowerment school of Indian Development Foundation operated in Tammnathwadi in Karjat Taluk of Raigad District of Maharashtra. IDF has been running this empowerment school for nearly 5 years now. Indian Development Foundation in its diversified activities has taken up rural development as one of the objectives. Like SVM, IDF has established 15 empowerment schools in different parts of India.

The students led by Mrs. Vimalatai, President of Tammnathwadi Panchyat, Ms. Baby Sawant, school teacher and a couple of volunteers left Tammnathwadi at around 7 and reached Mumbai by 9 on Sunday morning.

It was all a thrill filled with life and enthusiasm for the students seeing different places in Mumbai. The students who are confined to a rural set-up, visiting Mumbai was like visiting a foreign country, said Vimalatai. I am very happy that my students are given a wonderful experience of the Sky Theatre and gazing stars in the Nehru Planetarium was a real effect of the stars in the sky, said Ms. Baby Sawant teacher of SVM.

Bridging rural-urban divide is also the agenda of India 2020 programme of Dr. Kalam, said Dr. Narayan B. Iyer. We felt happy to see happiness on the faces of the innocent children of this rural village, he added.

Mumbai Darshan included visit to the newly inaugurated Metro subway in Marine Lines, BMC Building, CST Station, Gateway of India, Nariman Point, Chowpatty, Malabar Hill, Hanging Garden, Nehru Planetarium, Siddhivinayak Temple and Juhu Beach.

"Thanking IDF for the wonderful experience provided, Laxman Bhau Pawar, a student of Shyama Vidya Mandir said, Mumbai Darshan was really a feast for our eyes. We will certainly share this golden moments with our friends in our village, he added.

The SVM team was received by Dr. A.R.K. Pillai, founder President of IDF and his team at Sion Circle. Further a team of students from Podar International School, Santacruz led by Mrs. Sarala Gavane joined the SVM students at the newly inaugurated Metro Subway in Marine Lines. Podar students, as part of their social responsibility activities, volunteered in the excursion helping the visiting students.

I am thankful to IDF for giving me and my CAS students an opportunity to participate in such a wonderful social excursion, said Mrs. Sarala Gavane, the CAS co-ordinator of Podar International School. My students did their best in volunteering in the social excursion event and such activities should be a regular feature in all the schools, she added.

Seeing the students splashing water in Juhu beach, participating in the running race and mingling with the Mumbai students really added more colour to the event, expressed Dr. Sharad Nayampally, IDF ambassador. All the students kept their eyes and ears open throughout the event and got immersed into the magnificent moments in life, he asserted.

The entire travel and sight-seeing programme organised by IDF was an eye-opening for the village students visiting Mumbai for the first time. A couple of parents also joined to taste the life of Mumbai.

Dr. Narayan B. Iyer and Dr. Sharad Nayampally from IDF were the guides for the visiting students explaining various points of interest. They had to finally quote the famous line to the visiting students by saying, "Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan".

Click here for the golden moments caught on the camera
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