A talk with Joy of Giving Week volunteer Aarti Gupta reveals the successful ‘A Day in the Life of…’ initiative, which had 50 Pune youngsters spend a day with CEOs and professionals to get a first-hand learning experience. Tania Roy brings you more details about this unique project

Does it bring you immense joy to nurse a wilted plant and bring it back to life? Do you feel happy when you feed your neighbourhood stray dog? Do you bother to take time off from your busy schedule to help your watchman’s son do his homework? Does playing with children in the orphanage make you cheerful? Well, if your answer is ‘yes’ to some of these selfless, caregiving acts, then here’s your chance to be a part of a bigger community, which is helping bring greater joy into the lives of others.

The Joy of Giving Week, which commenced on October 2 and is being celebrated across India till October 8, seeks your participation in the ‘festival of giving’. There are several events lined up for the programme like Wish Tree (Oct 2 to 8), which gives you the option of choosing your donations for various NGOs, Joy of Giving, Art and Craft Fair (Oct 5 and 6), an exhibition of products made by NGOs, which will be held at Phoenix Marketcity, R-VOW Workshop, redressal of violence and offence against women at the workplace, (Oct 2 to 8) and so on.

Another Joy of Giving Week event, ‘A Day in the Life of…’, which has seen the participation of 50 school and college youngsters, was designed to give the youth of Pune a platform to interact with or spend a day with a professional in a career of their choice. Along with Anuja Agarwal of Deutsche Bank, Suchita Motwani of Entre Nous and freelance trainer Hima Bisht, Aarti Gupta has been the driving force behind this initiative.
Gupta, who is the Global Head, Learning & Culture at Capgemini’s Financial Services Strategic Business Unit, says, “A Day in the Life of… had three key objectives: Help the youth understand different careers, help the professionals give back to society and provide a platform for raising funds for NGOs.”

Learning has always been close to Gupta’s heart. She set up the India University for the Capgemini Group and also led Leadership curriculum as director for Capgemini’s Corporate University worldwide. Ask what this Bachelor of Arts from SNDT University, Mumbai, who has also done her diploma in Hotel Management, enjoys doing most and she replies, “I love teaching children and of course travelling.” However, her hectic work schedule allows little time to pursue these activities. But A Day in the Life of… is something that this first-time volunteer for Joy of Giving Week has been relentlessly pursuing for the past few months. She has been devoting all her weekends and even some weekdays to make this initiative successful.

Talking about how she went about it, she says, “We approached schools and colleges, and got a phenomenal response from both students and professionals. We received numerous applications from Flame, Cummins, Symbiosis, Food Technology Institute, Mercedes Benz International School and also had a few underprivileged students from Lila Poonawalla Foundation and Akanksha Foundation participating in the event.”
The final 50 were chosen through a lucky draw. For each professional, five students were allotted a day to get hands-on experience.

Professionals from media and entertainment, fashion designing, architecture, photography, film direction, art, advertising, medicine, airlines and sports management took part in this event. “Hence a few students spent a day with Sabina Sanghvi and also practised some RJ-ing skills, some worked with Nivedita Saboo and her karigaars, a few others spend a day with CEO-EXL India, Madhavi Dhanukar, and were even encouraged to take part in a boardroom discussion and so on. However, the maximum number of students wanted first-hand learning experience with entrepreneurs and CEOs. Also, they were keen to learn fashion photography,” says Gupta and smiles.

The application process also required the youth to donate a sum of Rs 100 to Rs 500 to one of the six participating charities — Navkshitij, Mamta Foundation, Common Aid and Sponsorship programme, Hope for the Children Foundation, AKS Foundation and Nirankar Sikshan Prasarak Mandal.

As part of Joy of Giving Week initiative, Taj Vivanta hosted a closing talk for the youngsters and professionals on October 3 to share their learning, which will help enhance the next run of A Day in the Life of… in the Joy of Giving Week 2014.

Sharing a few more details about the ‘festival of giving’ that brings together NGOs and donors who want to share their time, talent and treasure with others, Gupta says, “From 30+cities last year, Joy of Giving Week is being celebrated in 73 cities this time round, and we have almost 2 million volunteers.” The more the merrier!

To get more details, log into info@joyofgivingweek.org.