Namaste,_x000D_
I am Vijay Kapoor, BIT SIndri ’57 to ’61 TC. I met many of you two years back, and hope to see you again at the Sept 7 picnic. For the last one year, I have been working on a project to repay Bihar which I am very excited about. Bihar made me educated, mostly at public expense, and anything I can do to repay that debt is hardly enough. I would much appreciate your attention to what I have to say:_x000D_
For the last several years, I have been actively participating in a movement started by my guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati, one of the greatest living masters of Vedanta, a forceful speaker, a prolific writer, philosopher and a social worker. With the active help of Dr Vankatraman, former President of India, he started AIM for Seva. This movement has a singular focus – that of providing boarding houses, near existing schools, for the very poor 100 million adivasis and vanavasi children in India_x000D_
Our aim is to provide a complete living facility (including tuition, meals, shelter, clothing, medical help – anything that a 8-14 year old will need). We support the child until he or she is ready to stand on their own feet. Our goal was to build a chatralaya, or Free Student Home (ASH) in each of the 600+ districts of India. Starting in 2000, or results have been impressive. We have built 125 such FSHs, housing over 4,000 children. Not just housing them, but turning their lives around, and transforming the prospects of their families,_x000D_
Last year my thoughts started to focus on Bihar. Building one takes about 60 to 70 lakh rupees – or about $100K. I found out  earlier this year that one Mr Sharma – who also is student of Swami Dayananda – donated a land for building a FSH. At that point, I decided to sign up raising $100K to help Bihar, the state that has helped me so much._x000D_
My goal is to raise $100K by the end of 2014 to start a chatralaya in the Shiekpura District of Bihar. I am asking for help from you. I have donated $10K myself, and approx. another $10K has been raised from my Vedanta students. We need to raise $80K more. I cannot guarantee it, but my hope is that it will be for girls._x000D_
I could have waited for the picnic on Sept 7 to tell you about this in person (and I am still hoping to do that), but I am writing to you now for a reason. On Sat, Aug 23, we have a unique operatic ballet – Kalidasa’s Meghadootam – that is being staged for all donors to the AIM for Seva movement – in any state. It is a classy, Broadway production quality musical play (music was especially composed for it by Bombay Jayashri, who was nominated for Oscar for the Life of Pi). It just opened in India and got rave reviews. We are the first stop in the U.S. Only donors are invited to it – no tickets are being sold._x000D_
Let me close by asking you to take the following action:_x000D_
1) Please go to our website aimforsevabayarea.org._x000D_
2) On the front page, please go to the special mention of the Bihar FSH_x000D_
3) Click on to get information about it. _x000D_
4) Browse through lots of material about AIM for Seva_x000D_
5) Please donate on ‘Donate Now’, and donate on line._x000D_
6) Please tell us how many passes to the Aug 23 show we can send you. _x000D_
Or, just write to me vijaykapoor@gmail.com, if you have any questions._x000D_
I will see you on Sept 7. If you want me, I can come to your home to explain as well. I am determined, so this is not the last time. I will not rest until the funds for building this chatralaya is raised._x000D_
Warm regards, Vijay