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Asha for Education is a secular organization dedicated to change
in India by focusing on basic education in the belief that education
is a critical requisite for socio-economic change.
Asha has supported more than 385 different child education
projects spanning 24 states in India. Since inception, Asha has disbursed
nearly $4,000,000 to projects. In 2002 alone, Asha chapters raised and disbursed more
than $1,000,000 to over 200 projects. To learn more about Asha For Education and the the specific projects it undertakes,
please visit: http://www.ashanet.org
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I am a grad student at tech, and a compassionate soul like everyone else on my team!
Those of you who know me well are thinking: Tejas and running? Well my good friend Goutham prodded me into this, cleverly coating it with some "you-can-even-lose-some-weight-this-way"!
Why Asha?
We all have our reasons for running. For many of us, it is what Goutham hints - keep fit. For others, it is about discipline, or a personal challenge. But one thing most runners agree on: they need lots of motivation in the last few miles. And, cliched as it may sound, the thought that my running can help little kids learn spurs me on. Education is truly the greatest equaliser, and it doesnt help that India's children (31% below the age of 15, as compared to 20% for USA) doesnt have access to a good education. Inspite of the large steps it has taken since independence (the literacy rate rose from 12% in 1947 to 65% in 2001), it is clear that this young population will need a solid foundation to be gen-next.
Asha supports a large number of educational initiatives. For eg. a school bus with a scientific laboratory touring the countryside around my hometown Pune. Or a school catering to kids of migrant labourers in Uttar Pradesh. You can browse the list for the hundreds of projects across India that Asha is trying to push forward.
Questions? About my running? About why I shaved my head? About how your name could appear on this page? :-) Email me.
Donations
Please consider clicking on the Donate button above! The transactions on the website are secure, and do not retain data. If you are employed in a corporation, your company may offer a corporate match to what you donate - so do find out about that! Every penny counts.
Aditya Bhashyam (who is known by everyone but his wife as a Baddy) and Varun Kanade within minutes of each other have kickstarted my donation campaign! Not to be outdone, Satyen Kale and Akshay Wadia have chipped in too! Mukul Joshi, Dhruv Jain, Ameet and Amit Deshpande :), Dheeraj Singaraju aka Golu, Abhishek Rege, Justin Cranshaw, Abhishek Kumar, Poorva Tayal, Rohit Karnik, Ashutosh Jogalekar, Anjali Gupta, Jeremy Viegas, Shrinivas Kudekar, Parth Bhavsar aka Bhola, Karthik Pinnamaneni, Subruk, Saurabh and Malavika, and my dear Appa and Amma are making me run longer and longer... the one thing common to all these people - they have emailed me saying "Now go run!" :-)
This just in! I ran the half-marathon today thanksgiving morning at 7am braving atleast two strong bouts of rain and clocking 2:39 - complete results here! (Also to all my friends and teammates, especially those who bet against it, I made my 11am flight comfortably, hehe..)
More pictures: on the blog and on Anil's page!
Running History
| Date | Distance | Notes |
| 22nd Sep | 4mi | from Big Peach Running Store |
| 29th Sep | 8.4mi | on Silver Comet Trail |
| 6th Oct | 5mi | from Peachtree Publix to Chastain Park |
| 13th Oct | 10mi | from Peachtree Publix to Chastain Park and back |
| 20th Oct | 5mi | Peachtree Publix to Northside Dr and back, shins burning, hence short run :( |
| 27th Oct | 10 mi | For those of you curious about times, it was 2hrs2min. Ankle problem seems to sort itself out after 6mi. This run was along the Chattahoochee Nat Rec Area. |
| 3rd Nov | 12mi | That's almost 2 10Ks in a day - whew! Bengay took care of the ankle problem. Same route as the 13th Oct run, but extended till Mt Paran Road and back. |
| 10th Nov | 8 mi | past the hump, should cut down on soccer. |
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