Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

IIT toppers spend time with orphans

— Photo: RAJU. V

Toppers of IIT JEE-2011 and AIEEE- 2011 gather at the VR-1 Home in Kanuru on Vijayawada outskirts on Monday.

VIJAYAWADA: Some of the IIT-JEE-2011 and AIEEE toppers have gathered at a small home in Kanuru on Vijayawada outskirts not to celebrate their success, but to connect and spend time with a small group of orphans.

Birds of same feather flock together goes the adage and these academically successful students, who have achieved an entry into India's premier engineering colleges like IIT and NITs, chose to spend their time qualitatively, learning the basics of life and helping out others with their knowledge at VR 1 Home.

An informal network of engineering and medicine students across the country, basically hailing from Andhra Pradesh, VR 1 has attracted a number of IITians and other engineering students to a 10-day programme to help freshers plan their academic career productively.

Hyderabad-based Bhargav Reddy 8th rankers in IIT-JEE, ninth ranker J. Varun from Ramagundam, K. Harshavardhan from Rajahmundry (15th rank) and Rohit Kishan of Ananthapur (17th rank) benefited from the counselling of S. Vijay Kumar, a physics professor of a corporate college in Vijayawada, and their life changed for good.

They were not very confident of achieving their goal before beginning their Intermediate programme, but today they have so much self-confidence and positive thinking that they wish to help, and, in turn, get helped, in their spare time which is spent for productive activities at such homes or workshops for engineering students.

This informal gathering, which began in January 2009 comprising students of S. Vijay Kumar in Vijayawada, has now spread into a massive network of 2,500 students ready to participate in any academic or service activity.

Indian ethos

Coordinating all the activities is financial analyst Shruti K.V, who, while working at Bangalore with the UBS Financials, resigned from her job and chose to provide quality time to seven centres of VR-1, a registered group that runs home for the disadvantaged where sharing, mutual help, rooted in Indian value systems are the key watch words.

Engineering and medicine students share the same home along with orphan boys in the ages 4 to 12 years. “The funding comes from Mr. S. Vijay Kumar's earnings and some amount collected from students for their subsidised hostel facility depending on their paying capacity,” Ms. Shruti told The Hindu.

A five-member core students' committee manages each home along with finances with Ms. Shruti coordinating to solve their problems. Children's studies are monitored by the senior students, while they run the mess also.

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