Yoga @ Don Bosco
SMILE emphasizes on the holistic development of children. This is primarily why we organized a Yoga Session for the kids at Shelter Don Bosco. The instructors, Bruna and Kalyani, have been trained in yoga and have completed the yoga course from The Yoga Institue (The oldest organized Yoga Centre in the World). Both of them taught the kids different Asanas such as the “Vajrasana”, “Sukhasana” and “Tadasana” apart from meditation and balance. They also touched upon “Trataka” which is an exercise to improve eyesight.
The importance of Yoga in improving the flexibility of the body, rejuvenating health and concentration of the mind was emphasized throughout the session. The ending was like a typical yoga session with the reverberation of OM chanted by the kids. One could actually feel the amount of ‘Pranik’ energy in the room from the resonance of their voices. I couldn’t help but remember Resul Pookutty’s Oscar acceptance speech for Slumdog Millionaire – “I come from a country and civilization that has given the universal word. That word is preceded by silence followed by more silence. That word is OM.”
SMILE is specially thankful to Bruna and Kalyani for taking time out of their busy schedule and helping bring smile to the faces of the children.
Author: Dev
Don Bosco Shelter Annual Function
The date, 1st March 2009. The venue, St. Joseph Auditorium. The event, Don Bosco Shelter’s Annual Function. The kids put up an exhilarating cultural performance on stage.
The display of skill and talent the children exhibited left the audience spellbound. The “jhatkas and matkas” would surely give the top bollywood stars a complex. The only thing these boys at the shelter lack is an opportunity, but SMILE will strive to provide them that as well. 
SMILErs choreographed three dance sequences for this gala event. Months of perseverance of all the boys and SMILErs, culminating into such a grand event is a feeling which we will always cherish. It was really heartening to see our first venture turn into such a huge success. We shall never forget the experience and the warmth and affection the children showered us with. 
Thank you everybody for your time, efforts and passion which helped us achieve this. And last but not the least a special thanks to Father Barnabe for extending his support to our beloved SMILE and for giving us an opportunity to be a part of Don Bosco Shelter.
Author: Dev
At Mumbai Marathon !!!
The air in Mumbai is different when it’s the MUMBAI MARATHON !!!
It’s an exciting celebration of Mumbai’s Spirit which says we never stop, we just keep moving on. The ones who run display their commitment towards completing the long distance challenging their mental and physical fitness and on the other side common Mumbaikar is present to support and cheer for the participants…
Apart from the fun and excitement, the Marathon is organized to address a important social cause. The funds raised are used for social work and this is where the Marathon and SMILE stand together…
Last Sunday morning around 12 SMILErs were at Mumbai Marathon wearing SMILE T-Shirts and distributing SMILE’S Pamphlet. The volunteers came early morning to Churchgate from far of places and were the part of SMILE promotion at Mumbai Marathon…
It was indeed a wonderful event and we’ll remember it for a long long time. I surely will not forget those 4-5 minutes when I briefed Mr. Ramodarai about SMILE and gave him the pamphlet and how others managed to speak to Mrs. Sharmila Tagore and got our pamphlet in her purse. We shared our idea with many at Marathon and the day ended with a lot of satisfaction and fun at Mumbai Marathon.
Cheers to the Mumbai Spirit that never stops and cheers to SMILE !!!
Click here to see SMILE@Mumbai Marathon photos…
Author: Rajat
Ideology of SMILE
SMILE is a citizen initiative…
We believe in the ideology that making society a better place is responsibility of every citizen. As citizens, we should not always look upon government, NGOs, Corporate to take initiatives of social welfare and make things better.
We believe that in a democracy the most powerful person is a common citizen. In a vibrant country like India we have plenty of educated, enthusiastic and responsible people around who very well understand that they can make a constructive contribution towards the society.
We, in SMILE, have taken the initiative to do something positive for the society and we are sure we will do it. We are sure we will certainly touch lives of people who are in need. We believe that even if we do something small we will be successful in establishing the ROLE MODEL that ‘Social Responsibility is a RETAIL IDEA’ i.e. it can be done by common but responsible individuals if they come together and take initiatives.
First Step
Today was a day which I and many others won’t forget for a long long time; Today was the day SMILE conducted its first session of Dance Therapy at Shelter Don Bosco…
Let me first explain all the first time readers about SMILE, it is a group of people like us who came forward for a cause… Causes like helping street and orphan children, etc. It was the initiative of Shalini and later many more people like me joined SMILE… All the details about SMILE, its formation, ideologies, etc will be posted in future posts…
One more thing which many of you would be thinking: What’s exactly is Dance Therapy and how will it help the children? Dance Therapy is nothing but simple dance lessons which will help these children in rejuvenating their energies, gaining a self confidence and also learning something new…
Before starting the session we decided to decorate the place a little. Children didn’t have any idea that what we will be doing but then too we had 20+ enthusiastic participants waiting. We started the session with a small prayer by Raghu and then Nariyal thodna (Coconut breaking) by Shalini…
Coming back to today’s session; it was an introductory session of the Dance Therapy, hence we started small introduction of the children. Later we asked every child to come and teach all of us, one of their favorite steps and to my surprise this activity was real fun. Second activity was based on the concept of dumb charades but only difference was that acting was replaced by dancing in our case. Later the dance floor was open for all, where everyone was allowed to dance freely. But guys the party wasn’t over, the last part was the teaching session. Amongst the chaos, with the help of Hetal, Sanket, Shalini and Tanvi we taught the children 2-3 dance steps.
Before ending today’s session we distributed gifts to some of the best dancers among the children and chocolates to everyone present there. Lastly one of the guys from the Shelter sang 4-5 songs for all of us in his melodious voice. For your information, that guy had also participated in one of the seasons of Indian Idol.
Some points observed are that those children are very talented, some of them are really bright kids and very fast learner; what they need is people like us to show them some direction where they want to and can excel…
For more details on SMILE and its activities, kindly go through the SMILE Orkut Community
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