Sugraahi the fest of the Social Service Soceity at Sri Venkateswara College- Parivartan took place this morning. The day long festival (that may also be called a small scale NGO Mela) started off with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest Mr. Harsh Mander, with Vaishnava Janato being sung in the background. This was followed by a poem on empathy in a very empathetic tone by Mrs. Poonam Pandey a teacher in the Hindi Dept. The Chief Guest, Mr. Harish Mander, an Indian social activist and a writer was felicitated by senior members of Parivartan. Mr. Mander currently is the convenor of the social organisation Aman Biradari. The performances for the day that livened up the Venky front lawn included a self choreographed classical dance performance by Kajol, the president of the Indian Dance Society- Nrityangana. After this the students of Dil Se foundation- one that works for the upliftment of street children- took to stage with their dance performance. Notable performances were the street play on consumerism and bad waste management by Sweccha foundation as part of their Spot it Stop it, clean up campaign, a poem recitation and dance performance both by the students of the National Association for the Blind. There were a few NGO stalls as well that were registering volunteers or simply disseminating information about their respective projects. Also a blood donation camp was held throughout the day in the college in collaboration with Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and it was encouraging to see the number of people who volunteered for the same. Sugraahi means sensitization and the all the efforts Parivartan made in the direction of sensitizing our young minds, were successful!   Anugrah Gopinath and Surya Raju]]>