The Ashoka Tree Blog

A little bit of outdoor sports has never been known to do any harm.   On the contrary, not only does one feel physically fitter, but you always end up feeling mentally recharged as well.   Getting out to play a sport has always been an easy enough option; however, there are millions of children all over the country without access to either the space or the facilities to play a sport of any kind, much less the option of playing in a tournament.   From gully cricket to gilli danda, options for play for normal children out in the open are numerous with a little bit of imagination, a stick and a stone most often.   Options for special children living in special schools around the country, however, are limited. In late August 2015, we, at The Ashoka Tree, were wondering what our group of children did every evening - whether there were some sort of physical exercises they were lead through every day or sports they could play.   This is when we thought we’d s...

There’s much to be said about a ‘New Year’ and all the resolutions that go with it.   The huge liability of having to fulfill every (ok, at least one) wish you made for yourself at the end of the last, and the need to feel like you’ve accomplished something at the end of the new. This 2016, however, we at The Ashoka Tree have three things we are ‘not’ going to do. We are not going to sweat the small stuff .   Miracles happen when you least expect it, so we’re not going to worry about getting tiny things done.   More than ever, those things somehow get done on their own, with no extra help.   Like we learnt at the onset last year when we couldn’t find a donor for rice for our school in Wynad, or even at the end of the year when we couldn’t find somebody to transport our packages to Chennai - people turned up.   There are still people in the world who wouldn’t mind giving a small amount out of their salary every month to feed needy children elsewhere an...