Dear friends,

It might be a surprise for many of you after reading the ‘Blog Post Title’. I have one Sad and Good news for you.

The Sad News is that, my last working day in Cognizant is Dec-31, 2014. For a change, just thought, I can inform this a month before rather than telling it on the last day!

The Good News is that, I will be working as Part Time with Cognizant in 2015 where I will be spending one week every month. However, I will be quitting the job completely by end of 2015.

So, why I’m quitting my Job?

I’m quitting my job to chase my dream of promoting volunteering in India. I have a dream where every Indian volunteers atleast once a month (12/365). I will be spending most of my time doing various initiatives to inculcate the habit of kindness and volunteering among Children for the rest of my life through my NGO Team Everest which was started in 2006.

What is the plan for 2015?

SMILE 100: We will be adopting 100 parentless and single parented kids and support them till they finish education. So, I will be spending most of my times in villages, identifying the right child, right school and individual sponsors for them. If you want to sponsor a Child, please register here – http://bit.ly/everestsmile100 . Minimum contribution amount is Rs 50 per month. You can choose an amount of your choice. We will let you know the child details once it is finalized by May, 2015.

Oct-10, 2015: It is going to be an important day in my life as I will be revealing the plans for the rest of my life. I have dreamt about it while I was a 5th std student and Oct-10, 2015 is the day when I’m going to realize my dreams. Please block your calendar now itself to join my special day.

What will I do for my living?

When I told about my decision to quit to my friends and family, everyone was asking me this question – ‘What will I do for my earning?’. I thought, it is better to address this query openly and being transparent about it.

Though, it is legally possible to get a salary through my NGO Team Everest, I’m not interested to take it since I want it to go to children as much as possible. So, honestly I have not planned anything for my income. My focus is completely on the service I’m planning to do for my country. I hope, I will figure out a way to have some income in the next 2 or 3 years.

I’m planning to work for Cognizant for 1 week a month in 2015. So, I will be anyway getting 1/4th of the salary which I’m getting right now for next 1 year. However, I will not be getting this in 2016. So, my wife would be the source of income for our family. I have told her to give me time for 3 years before which I will figure out a way to have income for myself.

Though I have opportunities to do business in social sector or become a social Entrepreneur, I decided not to do it since it would take away a lot of my time and I have a worry that it would become an obstacle for me to do what I want to do for my country. I would be doing a little consulting for companies on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) which would consume less of my time, since I get many such requests from various companies.

Sometimes, I get a dream that few individuals after getting to know about my good work are sponsoring for my salary. Who knows, it may became a reality one day.

I’m not worried much about it now. I do not have any financial goals in mind. All I would need is to feed my family and have a little money to help others. So, I will figure it out later, while this is time to focus on my service! We live this life only once and my dad’s death has taught me that this life is short. So, I wanted to chase my dream of promoting volunteering in our country.

Stay in touch:

Though I’m out of Cognizant, I would like to stay in touch with all of you. If you are on facebook, please give me a friend request – www.facebook.com/kartheevidya. I will be posting most of my volunteering service activities on my FB page.

Any time in your life, if you wanted to help someone on your birthday or any other normal days, reach me through our Everest Help Desk number – 89399 12365. I would be glad to help. After all, this is my passion! Please save this number so that when I use the ‘Broadcast’ option in Whatsapp, the message reaches you. Once you save this number, please whatsapp me as ‘I would like to get Updates’. I will add you to the contacts and keep you posted about our activities!

Write to me any time at karthee@teameverestindia.org

Thanks to all of you for all those sweet memories and the lessons you taught me.

Stay in touch. Your support is required to make a difference and serve more people.

This is not my farewell post. This is just the beginning of a new journey. Let’s make a difference together!