శ్లోకమ్

శుక్లామ్ బ్రహ్మవిచారసారపరమామ్ ఆద్యామ్జగద్వ్యాపినీమ్

వీణాపుస్తకధారిణీమ్ అభయదామ్జాడ్యాన్ధకారాపహామ్

హస్తే స్ఫాటికమాలికామ్ విదధతీమ్ పద్మాసనే సమ్స్థితామ్

వన్దే త్వామ్ పరమేశ్వరీమ్ భగవతీమ్ బుద్ధిప్రదామ్ శారదామ్

The above verse is in praise of the Goddess of Knowledge, Saraswathi, wherein the Goddess is praised as the One who holds the Book of Knowledge and thus provides an assurance and also drives away the deep darkness of being idle. Knowledge is indeed the assurance of good life, and the light that illuminates everything around us and inside us too! Knowledge gives the discretion of good and bad, and provides insight into ways of the world, and is the great power that drives our senses, our intelligence, our experience. Not only that, but knowledge also gives comforts, brings name, fame and fortunes, and garners respect from the greatest people. “vidyaa bandhu janO vidESa gamanE” wrote Bhartru Hari, meaning “knowledge is one’s relative in a foreign land”. Such knowledge is represented, and preserved, in alphabet (aksharam) in speech or written form.

“na ksharati iti aksharam” is an etymological elucidation of the word “aksharam”, meaning “that which does not get destroyed”. Thus, Knowledge is that special Wealth which can neither be stolen by a thief nor can be divided among brothers; it does not cause any load on the acquirer either – it increases as it is spent! Knowledge is acclaimed to be one of the greatest forms of Wealth, and imparting Knowledge is praised as being the best gift (dänam) one can offer.

The community of “Akshara” is our small effort to help poor Brahmins struggling to overcome the financial hurdles for getting quality higher education in the present globalized world. Please come forward to join our Akshara team for this noble cause. It is inspired by the spirit of the word aksharam, and our effort is to keep the rendered help alive, self-assuring, and knowledge-giving.

Akshara Structure

Akshara Structure has been modified for the effective functioning of different activities in the team. This restructure helps in improved mentoring to the beneficiaries with the concept of Mentors/Recognized Mentors and hassle-free funds transfer to the beneficiaries. With the new structure, Akshara team now consists of mainly four kinds of members: Administrator of Akshara, Members, Mentors and Recognised Mentors.

Administrator: Administrator is the sole owner of all the mailing groups, blogs and forums related to Akshara. The decision of the Administrator is final in any matters related to Akshara. The Administrator will interact with the Akshara members group from the e-mail address admin.akshara@gmail.com.

The Administrator will participate in the e-mail discussions among members in Akshara group and will take feedback from discussions in the group.

Members: Members have to contribute at least certain amount as donation to Akshara, and the minimum amount of donation is decided by the Administrator every year. Members can join as a regular member by choosing one of the available Recognized Mentors. Each Recognized Mentor has 15 regular members attached to him. Regular members contribute a fixed amount on yearly or monthly basis. All Regular members are added to the Google Group Akshara, where they can interact with the Group members by e-mailing to aksharatb@googlegroups.com. Members can propose a beneficiary to the community and can also become a mentor to the beneficiary if desired. A newsletter of Akshara will be sent to all the members periodically from the Administrator of Akshara. Members are subscribed to the Akshara news letter automatically. Occasional contributors who want to help for any particular beneficiary on one time basis can contact the concerned Recognized Mentor for that particular beneficiary

Mentors: Mentors are the members who propose a beneficiary to the community, generally. If in any case the proposer of beneficiary is not in a position to handle the case as a mentor, such cases may be transferred to some other members who are interested in mentoring that case. It is the primary responsibility of the mentor to work with one of the recognized mentors to raise the fund. Mentor is a bridge between the community and the beneficiary. Members may not directly send the fund to these Mentors. Mentors will receive the required fund from the recognized mentor and he will submit the records of fee payment etc. to the concerned recognized mentor.

Recognized Mentors: Recognized mentors are the members who had handled one or more cases in Akshara previously and they are closely associated with the moderators. Recognized mentors shall be identified by a separate thread in the Orkut Akshara community with link given

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#CommMsgs?cmm=42454231&tid=5496445909986268660&start=1.Members are requested to send the monetary help only to these recognized mentors to enable double checking in the funds flow to the beneficiary.

Community: We believe that people need to understand our activities before they pitch-in. We want to build a community where everyone is aligned with the goals of the community and motivated to help our fellow Brahmins. There are forums where people can join and understand us before they can actually take part in Akshara. The idea of Akshara itself started in the Orkut community of Telugu Brahmins (TB) http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=1725955 and Akshara community will try to work closely with the Telugu Brahmins community in future also.

We have also created http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=42454231, a separate and exclusive Orkut community owned by the Administrator and moderated by people chosen by him. This will be used for Akshara related discussions among Orkut community members. You can also read our blog with Akshara articles at http://aksharatb.blogspot.com.

Please be part of these communities, understand our motives and suggest others to join.

Note: Akshara is not affiliated to any organizations. Mails from admin.akshara@gmail.com should only be considered as authentic. In case of Orkut communities, posts from moderators of TB or Akshara should only be considered in decisions related to Akshara in the respective communities. In case of any queries/issues/conflicts please contact us at the E-mail address admin.akshara@gmail.com.

Akshara Beneficiaries: We are currently considering only poor Telugu Brahmin students who want to pursue their higher education above 10th standard as Akshara beneficiaries. However, depending on the case and the availability of our financial resources, we can consider other beneficiaries.

Any person related to Akshara community can propose a new beneficiary by way of e-mail to admin.akshara@gmail.com. The decision about offering financial help shall be taken by the Akshara Administrator or shall be discussed in the Google Group for Akshara, depending on the time and financial resources available to the group.

Akshara Beneficiaries 2010

This year we have funded 5 beneficiaries. Out of which 3 beneficiaries are new additions this year and remaining 2 beneficiaries are funded by Akshara in previous years as well. This year the fund’s distribution event was held at Budithi Govt High School, Srikakulam on Aug 15th 2010. The event was organized by Budithi School Head Master and senior Akshara Member Sri T.V.Ramana Murthy garu. Honourable guests for this event are Buditi Ex-School Head Master, Sri Rama Murthy garu and President of the village. 10th class students and other school staff also graced the occasion.

I) Beneficiary Name: Siva Rama Santhosh

Benificiary ID: 2007002

Village/Town: Srimukhalingam (Srikakulam District)

Qualification: Diploma in EEE with 80%

Support from Akshara to pursue: B.Tech in CSE from AITAM College,Tekkali

Recognized Mentor: Chandra Sekhar

Mentor: Kamesh Telikicherla

Funding for current year: 2010 - Rs. 10,000/- (Funded by Amulya Sharma, Goutham Mylavarapu and Vijaybharadwaj G in association with Akshara)

Funding in previous years: 2009 - Rs. 10,000/-

2008 - Rs. 5000/-

2007 - Rs. 10,000/-

(Akshara funded a total of 25,000 for his Diplamo in EEE)

We would like to thank Amulya Sharma,Goutham Mylavarapu and Vijaybharadwaj G

Siva Rama Santhosh receiving funds from Akshara

II) Benificiary Name: M Sri Rama Sruthi

Benificiary ID: 2009001

Village/Town: Vishakapatnam

Qualification: 10th class with 529 marks, CBSE XI with 92.4%

Support required to pursue: Intermediate in CBSE at Narayana Junior College

Recognized Mentor: Kamesh Telikicherla

Mentor: Shravan Kumar Hullur

Funding from Akshara: 2009 - Rs. 10,000/-

2010 - Rs. 25,000/- (Funded by an NRI (Velagaleti Sateesh) in assosication with Akshara)

III) Benificiary Name: Sai

Benificiary ID: 2010001

Village/Town: Godhavarikhani

Qualification: 10th with 501 marks (A2 Grade)

Support required to pursue: Intermediate in Sri C V Raman Junior college, Warangal

Recognized Mentor: Krishna Kishore

Mentor: Kamesh Telikicherla

Funding from Akshara: 2010 - Rs. 10,000/-

IV) Benificiary Name: Pavan

Benificiary ID: 2010002

Village/Town: NarasannaPeta

Qualification: Inter with 85.3% marks, B.Sc 1st Year with 78%

Support required to pursue: B.Sc Computer Science from Gayathri College, Srikakulam

Recognized Mentor: Kamesh Telikicherla

Mentor: Krishna Kishore

Funding from Akshara: 2010 - Rs. 5,000/-

Pavan receiving funds from Akshara

V) Benificiary Name: VeeraGhanta Laxmi Adhitya

Benificiary ID: 2010003

Village/Town: Uppal, Hyderabada

Qualification: 10th in CBSE with 8.8 GDPA

Support required to pursue: Intermediate in Narayana College, Hyderabad

Recognized Mentor: Pavan Kumar V

Mentor: Shravan Kumar Hullur

Funding from Akshara: 2010 - Rs. 6,600/-

Successfully Completed Cases

1) Beneficiary Name: Ganti Bhargavi

Benificiary ID: 2007001

Support from Akshara to pursue: B.Sc (Computer Science)

Funding from Akshara:2009 - Rs. 4150/-

2008 - Rs. 4600/-

2007 - Rs. 6400/-

2) Beneficiary Name: Vemuri Sridevi

Benificiary ID: 2008001

Support from Akshara to pursue: Intermediate (Bi.P.C)

Funding from Akshara: 2009 - Rs. 5000/-

2008 - Rs. 5000/-

3) Beneficiary Name: Satya Kameshwari (Swathi)

Benificiary ID: 2008003

Support from Akshara to pursue: Teacher Training Course

Funding from Akshara: 2009 - Rs. 5000/-

2008 - Rs. 12500/- (Funded by an NRI (Srikanth Iyyanki) in assosication with Akshara)