50 Years of PCI: Finding our Colours and Aroma…

PCI India: New Delhi, November 9, 2011

‘The more we celebrate our living the more life will celebrate with us’ how aptly it echoes in our lives. And, one such moment was November 1, 2011 when PCI celebrated its 50 years of Positive Community Impact in 16 countries across the globe including India.

The entire PCI fraternity lived some magical moments that nurtured the soul and enhanced the humanity.

PCI India organized a fun and activity filled full day event at the Shelter Home, Mewat, Haryana and the team from Delhi and some of the field offices made the day special for 32 boys aged 6 to 18 for whom days in the Home are full of care and action

The PCI India fraternity in Delhi encircling the logo in celebration mood.

Enjoying the bus ride.

The bus trundled the 80 km to the Shelter Home and it was completely a fun-loving experience. Uproarious, beaming with laughter and singing songs all happy emotions floated in the air. Every member of the team was on a high on this special day and and for being part of much awaited golden jubilee.

The boys in the Home had an off due to Haryana Day and warmly greeted and welcomed everyone.

After refreshments and the introduction of our special guest, Erina Fischer from the Washington DC office, everyone got on with the day’s action, starting with the fascinating and warm ‘Find out your buddy’ in which each team member found his/her own special buddy amongst the boys in the Home.

Each boy picked a chit from the fish bowl, with the name of the PCI team member to locate his buddy. Both the buddies were then asked to spend some quality time together and by the end of the day had to share what they learned about each other.

Neha Pokhriyal building the camaraderie with her buddy Shiva.

Aprogram designing the sketch of the PCI logo with two younshok, Caricaturist in OVC g friends from the Shelter Home.

The team were then moved on to ‘Colour the Celebration’: designing and decorating the PCI logo with the ‘50 years impact’ message.

A colourful and fun-filled exercise, everyone enjoyed creating an artful design in traditional Rangoli design, using the PCI colours to create a design on the ground. “Creating a Rangoli is my favourite pastime and I always design one at the time of festivals but designing a PCI logo in vibrant colours was altogether a different experience.

I enjoyed it to the fullest and it also gave me a chance to work and know my buddy, Ajeev” says Anuradha Harpola from PCI India finance department.

This was followed by a shift from colours on the ground to get lost in natural colours of fruits and vegetables, an aromatic experience for all. The entire PCI team participated through separate teams in the Cook-out, to create sumptuous and mouth-watering dishes and delicacies for their buddies. Teams had been formed by enthusiastic leaders, each taking charge of preparing one menu item: chole (chickpea), puri (fried and crisp bread), fried rice, stuffed capsicum, salad, lassi (traditional yogurt based drink) and fruit custard. The organizing committee had much before the event collected the list of the ingredients from the respective team leaders and arranged the items in the desired quantity and handed them on the d-day. The teams were engrossed and enjoyed their hand at cooking, an activity which not only broke down barriers but brought everyone together in a burst of activity to ensure that their buddies were not left too hungry if the lunch was delayed! Even those for whom cooking was anathema enjoyed the experience. ‘I have hardly cooked in my life. But today’s experience would last forever as I learnt to make puris and most importantly I would say that the idiom that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ doesn’t always hold as we were six in number and prepared 300. Wow…almost a Guinness Book of Record’ says Harsh Mandlik from PCI India’s M and E department.

V.S. Gurumani, Country Director of PCI India holds a full plate of veggies, chopped fine by members of his team

: Erina Fischer from IO engrossed in preparing small balls of dough.

Nivedita Gupta preparing Chole (Chickpea)

Cook-out was a task in itself involving concentrated effort, teamwork and gave every member a high. In other words, it was a cooking reality show epitomizing the famous ‘Masterchef Australia’ and here too, a feel of competition could be sensed as the Masterchefs of PCI were to be decided.

Despite the competition, there was a spirit of give and take and total team spirit, and several team members assisted out of their assigned groups, blurring team lines even as they took pride in their own parent team. When it was time to serve the boys, the aroma spilled in and the boys found it irresistible. They waited for everyone to be served before jointly saying their collective prayers, which touched everyone. ‘I loved fruit custard the most. I have eaten for the first time in my life. It tastes so different, sweet like an ice-cream. It’s my favourite sweet now’ said Krishna, an 11-year old. The other dishes were a hit too and it was a truly hearty meal, much enjoyed by all the boys.

: Boys from Shelter Home enjoying the aroma and eagerly awaiting for all to be served and taste the food.

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The Masterchefs of PCI enjoying their victory.

The smiles on the boys face and twinkle in their eyes made everyone feel contended and in high spirits. Satisfied with having made their ‘community’ happy and impacted them with full stomachs, the PCI team had their own lunch with lots of mutual congratulations and rejoicing at the masterful cooking of each team.

There was much mutual admiration and appreciation for the way each team had coped with the challenges: time, untrained members, mishaps like replacing noodles with rice at the last minute due to logistics problems and so on…

The boys were the judges of the cooking and the organizing committee announced the result of the winner of cook-out. There was a tie and the teams who prepared chole and puri were announced as the winners and as Masterchef (s) of PCI.

The Country Director awarded the winners of the sports events, organized for the boys while the PCI team was involved in the cooking. ‘The boys from the past few days have been practicing for the race competition, the runners were at their best and I am happy they performed well’ says, Virender, Care-taker at the Shelter Home.

The day ended by presenting shoes and t-shirts for the boys, which were given as a token of affection to them by the PCI team and finally bidding adieu.

PCI India also celebrated the event at Muzzaffarnagar under CGPP program by taking out the Kuck-u-ku rally, which is a usual practice of sensitizing communities on Polio. The community was informed about PCI and its 50the birthday. Candies and refreshments were distributed amongst the rally members.

V.S. Gurumani, Country Director of PCI India applauding the winners.

Mala and Balwant from PCI India joyously getting them clicked.

PCI India also decorated the office with celebration material. ‘Reliving 50 years with all the team members was momentous and memorable.

Celebrating this incredible day in the life of this incredible organization through such creative team activities made all of us understand the power of coming together, first in groups, then in teams and finally as a community, to help us act with a single mind and with all our heart to create positive impact in communities wherever we work.

The spirit within PCI India is really very inspiring and makes me feel very proud. I feel especially happy that we all as a team were able to make the day special for our special buddies in our program with young people, in the Shelter Home’ summed up V.S. Gurumani, Country Director of PCI India.