Hand in hand: TCS-Maitree workers at a tribal school in Panvel, close to Mumbai

You can all it corporate social responsibility if you want to use heavy corporatese. Or simply Maitree. At Maitree House, a small roof-tiled cottage in a quiet corner of the refreshingly green 23-acre campus of IT major Tata Consultancy Services in Andheri, Mumbai, they call it one big family.

TCS-Maitree has a unique identity. It cannot be described as an NGO funded by TCS and doing active social work, nor can it be dismissed simply as an internal employee club. Though when Mala Ramadorai, wife of TCS chief S. Ramadorai, first mooted the idea, it was primarily with the intention of keeping busy the lonely spouses of TCS executives working on software projects in foreign countries. Over the years, TCS-Maitree has gone beyond that.

?In today?s corporate world, you don?t know your colleagues most of the times. We have created a platform where all TCSers can interact and bond. We now have an adventure club, a theatre circle, a yoga circle, a music and dance club, and even a Toastmaster?s club for personality development,? says Ramadorai chatting at Maitree House surrounded by her young team of Maitree members.

The chief co-ordinator of TCS-Maitree activities (and a former TCS employee) Nina Screwvala, describes Maitree activities as ?out of the cubicle? experiences. ?Every idea has been initiated by employees. There is Umesh Thakur, an avid trekker who now looks after the Maitree Adventure Club. And they do much more than just trek. The club once organised a trek for a group of 45 dyslexic students of a local school.

?Then there is the case of Manikandan and Kavita, who are passionate about theatre and dance, and work on theatre and classical dance-related activities,? says Screwvala, who quit TCS after 17 years of work at the CEO?s office, but returned to work for Maitree on Ramadorai?s request.

The Adventure Club was begun by an avidtrekker and its employees do much more than just trek

Maitree spouses abroad are involved in several small but significant social activities. For instance, the Indianapolis group of Maitree spouses contributed to the ?Baby Bottle? project. The aim of the project is to save lives of unborn foetuses. The project is run by Crisis Pregnancy Centre, a Christian organisation which works with pregnant women contemplating abortion and counsels them to save the unborn child. The organisation also helps such women in bringing up their babies. The centre hands out baby bottles which are filled with pennies, nickels and dimes. The money collected is used to publish literature, help buy ultrasound machines, baby products and other necessities for the pregnant women.

TCS-Maitree also acts as a shock absorber of sorts for employees who might get transferred from one city to another. A TCS employee who got transferred from Chennai to Mumbai didn?t know how to cope with the weekends. When he heard that Maitree also has a music club, he joined the group to learn violin. ?I was always fascinated by the violin, but had never got a chance to do something about it. Now apart from my violin classes, I also work with tribal children in a Sevalaya project at a Panvel school,? he says.

Maitree members also give their time for small, but meaningful community projects. For example, Tejal Sanghvi, Muqarram K. and two others teach students of vernacular students how to use English in practical life. ?We go to a school in Sion every Saturday to teach Marathi-medium students who find college education in English difficult. We move away from the textbook and using quizzes, games teach them conversational and practical English,? says Sanghvi. Similarly, Vivek Arya and others travel to a tribal school in Panvel to teach tribal school children basic English. ?Initially, just three students turned up. But, since December 2003, the attendance has gone up to 45 children,? says Arya.

According to Screwvala, Maitree has consciously stayed away from taking up big social projects primarily because a social project required continuity and sustained work. ?TCSers constantly travel away from Mumbai on projects. So, we try to ensure that whatever little we do should be sustained,? she says. TCS children can also get deeply affected by most of these projects. Says Subhashini R., who works on a communication skills project with Maitree, ?My daughter once participated in our environment workshop for children. One day when I was using a plastic bag, she explained to me how plastic can harm the environment.?

Maitree also has a full-time professional counsellor to help TCS employees overcome any problems related to work and family. Screwvala uses the Maitree website and its monthly newsletter Maitree Matters to co-ordinate various activities in various centres of TCS. ?Maitree activities are ever-expanding, with more than 40,000 TCS employees worldwide. Mumbai alone has 16 TCS offices,? says Ramadorai. Apart from chapters in all major cities in India, TCS-Maitree has chapters in Hong Kong, Budapest, Amsterdam, Zurich, Bristol, Edinburgh, Guildford, London, Manchester, Atlanta, California, Chicago, Detroit, Florida, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Schenectady where TCS has its offices.

?I think soon we should start a match-making club too for bachelors like Manikandan,? says Ramadorai, amid laughter as Maitree members sign off to return to their respective offices.