Somu Travellingh with Tarun

 Tarun got admission in to medical School in nanjing in China. before leaving for China Somu took him to the hills and they went to Himanchal Pradesh and upto Lahaul Spiti. They also met our friends Sharmas. 

Meeting Sankalp in Chicago

 The 47th Annual Convention og ISA was orgaised in San Diego from March 22nd to 25th , 2006. After this I cam to Chicago where  my elder son, sankalp Bittu was studying. I  also had few lectures here in the Univiersities. Some of these were,  Globalization and trafficking of women and Children’ at gender and Women’s studies program, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601, Morgan street, Chicago on  27^th March, 2006. Globalization, Information technology and digital Divide” at department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, 326, Lincoln Street, Urbana, 29^th March, 2006. Bittu was doing his MS then and staying with few friends.   His friends took me to the Swamy narayan temple Chicago. 

Establishing an NGO SEED

 We eestablished an NGO called SEED informally in 1997. We just wanted to work for the society and get some studetsn involved. We had meetings with the members of the Governing Board in our House. We worked informally for Nine years and finally got this registered in 2006 .Established in 1997, SEED brought together a group of people, who did not believe in institutionalizing and who wanted to bring about a transformation in society and it worked in an informal way. It worked on Projects in Uttranchal  on issues of agriculture and water shed management. It started its activities by looking at the Women- Girl Child Exploitation in the Unorganized sectors in ancillary industries like the Beedi industry( Indigenous Cigarette), Agarbatti ( incense industry), Bangle making and Dye industry  and focused on issues of livelihood, work, exploitation and Health. It has also looked into issues of arrack (liquor), domestic violence and child labor. Its impact oriented Projects attempted to make a difference in the livelihoods of few families.  Having worked informally over a long period of time, to be precise nine years, the members of SEED felt that the time was ripe to formalize its functioning and status. A member quipped, even a child is born after nine months and we were in existence for nine years and it was time we were born formally.  Hence after a lot of debate and discussion among the members who were actively involved in its work, SEED was registered in Ranga Reddy District in Hyderabad in February, 2006. Thus SEED was formally born after having existed and working informally for nine years.