LFE lamps -THE SUPERHERO of every CHILD !!!

If anyone of us living in fast-moving, posh, well electrified cities of India were shown a solar powered study lamp and asked "what do you think this lamp could do?"; not many will bother to answer it. Oh forget it ! Few won't even bother to look at it. Well show the lamp and ask the same question to a child who lives in a remote, un-electrified region of India, his face would light up immediately and will not only give you the list of changes that it would bring in his life but also eagerly wait for you to give the lamp to him. Thats exactly what SELCO does under it's project "LIGHTS FOR EDUCATION"- providing solar powered lamps to rural children who are either un-electrified or are victims of erratic power supply. You know what's the most innovative part of the project ? Well, the children have to come to school to use lights at home. Now one question in mind is why come to school to use the lights at home? Simple, the school will have a centralized charger and the students would take the battery to the school and get the batteries charged for the entire day in the charging station while they happily attend the classes. And when they return home, they take their batteries along and connect it to the lamp. The lamps are designed keeping in mind the young users. The design is so simple. There is no pain of removing the batteries from the battery cover. All they need to do is remove the battery attached to the connector by just plucking it off from the connector. And when they are back from the school they connect the battery to the connector, the lamp glows and there goes the darkness !!!

LFE lamp with the connector, and the battery

The centralized charging station at a school 

       As an intern at Selco Labs, Ujire, I got an opportunity to be a part of impact assessment of "LIGHTS FOR EDUCATION (LFE) ". The lights prove to be every child's SUPERHERO. The superhero not only gives lights to the beneficiaries for their studies, but also helps mom for cooking and also dad with his work, especially in un-electrified area where there is no other source of light. The SUPERHERO has overthrown the evil kerosene lamps which didn't provide much light and also gave health problems. The LFE lamps are keeping the teachers also happy as they find that the attendance level has increased because the children have to come to school to charge their batteries. They say that the children are much regular with their home-works.

A Child studying under LFE lamp

                             Isn't that great- a humble lamp makes a child's life much brighter and brings so much happiness !!!

A Refreshing Trek !!!

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear trekking ? Beautiful mountains, lush green forests, tough climbs ??? Exactly!! thats what we got when we went for trekking in Western Ghats on 9 Feb 2012. We trekked to Bandaje Falls which is 700 meters above and which took three and half hour of climbing the mountain. When it comes to SELCO Ujire, they have awesome people who are enthusiastic enough to take an off from their daily schedule and ready to climb the hills which looks really gigantic from below. They are so warm and affectionate that they included me and and my friend who are interns and hardly been 3 weeks here at Selco.
     Never thought trekking can give an insight into YOU - what you are, to what extent you can go physically, how much energy you have. I say that because when you start walking into the jungle, and start climbing up the hill you find the way up is really difficult. There are rocks and the angle of climbing is always 20-30 degrees. There is so much pressure on the thigh muscles and you just can't afford to stop. You need to keep moving. There are times when you want to stop and sit,but you can't because you just have one day and you need to get to the top of the hill, and return before the dusk. Its about your mental strength also, how much determined are you to climb up, how much focussed you are, how much desire you have in you to climb up that it shadows the pain you have in your legs. Once you reach the top, you have a breathtaking view. You just turn around and the shear beauty of the mountains around you, the breath of fresh air will make you forget the damn pain in your legs. All you feel is the happiness inside you and a sense of achievement.  Another adventure was near the Bandaje Falls- standing in the edge of the cliff and looking down. What a adrenaline rush it is!! You see the steep fall and you get the thrill in your heart beat.
                         The way down is what that ultimately makes you realize how high you had climbed. You stop  after you reach down and just look back and its so hard to digest the fact that you climbed so high. You pat yourself for the achievement !!!
THE BEST PART WAS RETURNING BACK TO OFFICE THE NEXT DAY AND FINDING THE SAME ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE AT SELCO !!!! 

The Theory of Instincts

Let me press the rewind button and take you three months backward, that is, the month of November. I want to show you the flashback to tell you what made me come to SELCO.
                                          So the basic question that is in everybody's mind is WHY SELCO ? You being an engineering student of Information Technology background, Why Selco, a company that solar electrifies the villages of India. Everyone wants to know the answer for this particular question. After a lot of soul searching I got the answer and the answer is well explained in the 'Theory of Instincts' - a theory that works on each one of us. The phenomenon of instincts works on us all the time. But how many of us have noticed those instincts that guide us, that keeps telling you the answer for every question you ask. Insticts do not do the logical thinking, but still they give you the right answer. Any important decision you make in your life, it's the instincts that will guide you. Lets take an example, if Harish Hande would have done the market analysis and all other surveys to the find the feasibility of solar lights in India, would he have started SELCO 17 years back. Naah !!! That's were his instincts told him, YOU GOT TO DO THIS, he listened to it and he did it and you know what SELCO has achieved in 17 years. Instincts are that part of your life that is intelligent enough to somehow figure out what is the best thing you can do.
So, three months back what made me apply for the internship at Selco was my instincts. If I would have thought logically I would be in an IT firm right now. But I trusted my instincts, the inner voice that kept telling me you got to go there no matter what. So here I am, at the most beautiful place.A kind of place that I always wanted to be in and with the right kind of people. Thats what the instincts do to you- keep you happy, indeed very very happy !!!