When everyone came to the campus with all the luggage, it felt different from regular days. The feeling when volunteers started off from NU campus was avid. When they came to Vasai, they were excited to see the Tirthdham, their accommodation place. After coming to Tirthdham, the room allocation began when everyone started to visualize their room as their home for the next seven days. After having lunch, volunteers headed to Vasai. On the first day, the main motto was to make villagers aware of the harmful effects of tobacco and cigarettes.

Reaching Vasai, volunteers first met the children at school. Volunteers were elated to see those smiling and cheerful faces, and the kids were too. After meeting the children, the volunteers organised a rally to spread awareness about tobacco’s ill effects and invited the villagers to participate in the activities they would be conducting in the rest of the six days of the camp. The rally also highlighted the two decades of excellence in teaching, learning and research initiatives by the Nirma University. Volunteers would go to different areas of the village and spread awareness by speaking out loud the slogans like “Ek-Be Ek-Be, Beedi Cigarette chori De”, “Jeevan ko bachana hai. Tambaku ko hatana hai”. After the rally, the villagers were enlightened to stop using tobacco and cigarettes or consume less if they could not completely stop using them. With this, the first day of the camp came to an end.

Reaching Vasai, volunteers first met the children at school. Volunteers were elated to see those smiling and cheerful faces, and the kids were too. After meeting the children, the volunteers organised a rally to spread awareness about tobacco’s ill effects and invited the villagers to participate in the activities they would be conducting in the rest of the six days of the camp. The rally also highlighted the two decades of excellence in teaching, learning and research initiatives by the Nirma University. Volunteers would go to different areas of the village and spread awareness by speaking out loud the slogans like “Ek-Be Ek-Be, Beedi Cigarette chori De”, “Jeevan ko bachana hai. Tambaku ko hatana hai”. After the rally, the villagers were enlightened to stop using tobacco and cigarettes or consume less if they could not completely stop using them. With this, the first day of the camp came to an end.

To make the children’s life more beautiful with colors and nature at school the volunteers were divided into two groups, one group was assigned the work to paint the walls of the school and the second group was allocated the work to first clean the area around the school and then plant trees there. After a productive day of service, we headed back to Tirthdham to get prepared for the next day.

To declutter our minds and boost our energy for the day we started our day with a yoga session at 6:30 am. The main objective for the day was a nukkad natak and volleyball tournament for the youth of Vasai. Nukkad natak is an effective way to circulate any life altering message to the community. So it was important to disperse a message to the villagers that volunteers were performing a nukkad natak for them so that the message of the natak can stick out to each and every person of the village. To do the same the Volunteers started the day with spreading a word around the village by dividing themselves into groups of 2-3 and going to each and every house of the village to inform them about natak being performed for them  because that spot was in the center area of Vasai where everyone can could reach easily. The natak started with volunteers in a group singing a few bhajans to gather the crowd and the script of the natak was based on the bollywood movie UUNCHAI where three aged friends take a trek to the Kedarnath camp, to fulfill the fourth friend’s last wish. A simple trek turns out to be a personal, emotional and spiritual journey as they battle their physical limitations and discover the true meaning of freedom. After the performance of natak we requested the senior citizens of the village to exhibit their talent, to do the same, two aged men came forward and sang bhajans which enlightened the whole village. We could see the impact of natak when both aged men came forward as it showed that they have received the message we wanted to convey.

After performing the natak the volunteers had lunch and then they started preparation for the volleyball tournament. Volunteers directly reached the ground where the tournament was being held and started with the pre-preparations of the tournament like installing the net, drawing the boundaries of the court, deciding the teams and the match sequences and the rules for the game. In total there were four teams, three of Vasai named Vasai tigers, Vasai lions and Vasai titans  and one of the NSS volunteers. The first match was between NSS volunteers and Vasai tigers, the match was captivating as both teams played with full spirit Vasai tigers won the game with full enthusiasm.

The second match was between vasai lions and vasai titans The game became brisk and interesting. Now both the teams equalized in no time. It was a thrilling game. The spectators were charmed to see it. Vasai lions won the game by 25 to 23. Then there was an interval. Both the winning teams took light refreshments. The game started again after some time. Vasai lions won the final game. The final game was of 3 sets and 15 points, all the players played united. They handled the ball very tactfully. The players delighted the spectators with their smashes.

A little bit of pranayama, a little upper body strength, and some meditation. Starting the day with a clean slate in the yoga class at 6:30 am was very refreshing. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.” Justifying this quote on day 4 the volunteers played the role of teachers for the children of the village and the main objective for the day was teaching the children the basic subjects and topics that they were not aware of and painting the walls of the school with something inspirational and motivational so that every day when children comes to school they study in lively environment. Day began with interaction with the kids at school. Volunteers were allocated the classes where they were supposed to teach and the remaining volunteers were assigned the work to paint the walls. The volunteers taught many subjects like math in which children were taught basic multiplication and division, GK in which children were given the basic knowledge of our country like national bird, animal etc., three letter words, shapes and colors and A to Z etc. Volunteers on this day accepted the challenge to go beyond their comfort zone and realize how these kids live with so little. Working in an entirely exciting and different atmosphere. Sharing our knowledge with the kids in the village and teaching them Basic English, pronunciations, and vocabularies surely encouraged them to learn more. The kids were always glad to meet and learn from the volunteers. Teaching these children made volunteers realize how important it is to make sure that at least basic education is given to each and every child of the country and how the government schools play a big role by imparting free education to these children. After teaching sessions the names of the students were noted who were interested in taking part in the culture event that NSS unit was organizing on day six. After lunch the preparations for cultural activities were initiated and the volunteers were in charge of different activities like dancing, singing, skit and role playing. The volunteers in the afternoon began with teaching the kids the dances, songs and script of role play so that till the day of the event the kids are fully prepared and confident to perform. In the evening the volunteers were working together to complete the paintings. We painted a solar system as something educational for kids and a Buddha to ensure a positive environment in school. The posters of prohibition on tobacco were also painted declaring the school as “No Tobacco Zone” as it was noticed by us that many students at a young age were consuming tobacco.

“Behind every brilliant performance there are countless hours of practice and preparation”. Day 5 was fully dedicated to practice for the cultural event. Volunteers again on this day played the role of teachers and it was really exciting to teach these kids all the dances, songs and dialogues. While teaching these kids volunteers realized how important NSS camps must be for them as there must be fewer times like these where they get to learn different dances, songs and get to do art and participate in sports. This thing makes it obvious that NSS camps are not only beneficial for volunteers but also for the village. The highlight of the day was children imprinting their handprints on the walls of the school, this will remind them how important their presence is in that school which will encourage them to come to school daily. At the end of day all kids were very excited about the next day as we had many events lined up for them and they were all excited to perform as they had practiced very hard.

Day 6 was the most exciting and important for the kids as they were going to perform on the stage for the first time and for the villagers as they were going to watch their children perform as well as for the volunteers as all our efforts and hard work of two days was dependent on the success of the events.

9:00 to 10:30 am volunteers organized an Art and Craft competition for the kids at the school. For different standards volunteers had planned different activities like for Std. 1&2 drawing competition, Std. 3 to 6 card making competition, for Std. 7&8 kite making competition. Volunteers were assigned the classes and we were all set for the day. The motto of these competitions was to motivate the young artists of Vasai, to assist them in developing their creative talents by exposing them to such events. The excitement and joy in the eyes of the children when they completed their paintings really made our day. The thing we as volunteers learned during the competition was the children did not care about scoring rank but they just wanted to participate in the activities, they were always enjoying the present moment and giving their best and participating with full enthusiasm.

“Sports have the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand” said NELSON MANDELA. To build in this spirit of sports in the lives of these children we organized a Sports event from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. We made children play all kinds of sports like three legged race, lemon race, musical chair and many more. During the sports event we could see the spirit of sportsmanship and cooperation among the kids, not at one point fighting about who came first in the race or who would play first. They would happily accept the fair judgment by the volunteers and were all set for the

next events lined up. All the volunteers were happy to be able to organize the sports and art event after such a positive response from the kids.

After all the pre events preparations like making announcements in the whole village about the time and place of the cultural event, getting the stage and technical team ready, making sure all the speakers and mics are working. The moment we were all waiting for finally arrived at 5:30 pm. The crowd started gathering around, the kids were as excited as we were. We started the event with Saraswati Vandana then the kids rocked the stage with their dance performances, they were all dancing their hearts out and the crowd was excited to see the entertaining performances. In between the dances we also had kids presenting singing performances and role play performances. The kids in solo and duet singing really won the crowd by singing a Gujarati folk song and a patriotic song. After this we had volunteers presenting a Natak (drama) about UPI frauds and side effects of tobacco on health. After the natak kids exhibited role play performances where they depicted themselves as freedom fighters and spoke 5-6 lines presenting their character. Following the role play we had group singing which was euphonious and there was good connection on stage between the performers and thereafter we had a drama by kids of Vasai based on awareness about traffic lights and it was very educational to the audience. After all the thrilling performances we had prize distribution for the winners of the art and sports events. Then our program officer Prof. Ashutosh Pandey gave vote of thanks to Sarpanch of the village, Principal of the Vasai school and other honorable villagers who helped us in organizing the seven-day camp in Vasai successfully with full support and respect. The cultural event was a great success and to celebrate this success with the villagers we ended the night by organsing a Garba.

“Mornings are natural and nights are artificial”, the morning of the last day truly justified this quote, we started the day with the view of a beautiful sunrise at the lake side of Vasai where we also caught sight of some alluring birds. Then after freshening up and having breakfast we went to school to meet the kids and the teachers and took feedback from them about our seven-day camp and had a brief discussion about how further we can help them. The kids along with the community were very happy with yesterday’s cultural event and they responded that they were eagerly waiting for us to come back next time. While other volunteers were at school interacting with the kids some went to the village and gave vote of thanks to the villagers for attending the cultural event and supporting us in the seven days camp, then we did a small survey on women about how we can ensure their development for that we took an initiative of spreading awareness about self-help groups among women. We noticed that women in village spend most of their time doing household chores and when we talked to them about this they responded that they want to do something for their own development but they don’t have the right guidance and support. So to change this we acquainted them with self-help groups, as we were short of time we decided to continue this initiative on our next one day camp. Overall the camp was a hit. We as volunteers learned so much about the culture of vasai and the importance of education for children.