The Annual Day celebration 2022 of Young Indians Kolkata fueled new aspirations, recognised those who made a difference with their hard work and acumen and a book launch that only pushes one to dream big. An integral part and a strategic partner of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), YI operates with an objective of creating a platform for young Indians to realise the dream of a developed nation. The Calcutta chapter of YI works towards the development of a better India through thousands of impactful projects and activities divided primarily into three areas — youth leadership, nation building and thought leadership. Here’s the highlight.
Shobhna Mohta (in brown), Anil Agarwal (centre) and Purva Soni received the award for the Dream Project of the Year for Wish for Magic. The idea behind this project was to fulfill wishes of underprivileged people and the team worked for children, old age homes, community workers and sex workers. The highlight of their work included celebrating Makar Sankaranti by distributing toys in slums of Calcutta, celebrating February 14 at an old age home and to make society more inclusive they organised a special screening of Gangubai Kathiawadi for sex workers from Sonagachi. The year ended with Flight of Fantasy, a star project where they took six orphan girls to Mumbai by flight to meet celebrities like Ajay Devgn, Anupam Kher and Sonu Sood. Shobhna Mohata said, “I feel overwhelmed and so grateful to be part of a platform where we are encouraged to do such good work for the society. I share this award with all the lovely people of YI who supported ‘wish for magic’.” Anil Agarwal added: “Firstly, thanks to YI and our chairperson Vaibhav Soni for giving us the opportunity to dream big. It was my dream to take underprivileged kids on a flight and make them meet with their favourite film stars, and that happened very smoothly with the help of my whole team.”
The evening also saw the launch of the book Dream Believe Magic. The biography chronicles his journey right from his childhood to his stint as the Chairperson of Young Indians. The book expounds numerous projects and ideas close to the author. Commenting on the book Soni says, “Dream Believe Magic is a book where I have tried to share real life experiences, dreams and aspirations of young India. The belief led to a magical journey. This book indicates India’s story forward.”
The grand evening ended with a soulful performance by Leslie Lewis who performed hits like Yaaron dosti, Pal, Duniya mein logon ko and many more.
Chairperson of YI Vaibhav Soni (left) said, “As the chair of YI Kolkata, I had the opportunity to interact with senior politicians, businessmen and social workers. We are grateful that we could positively impact millions of lives of children and elderly people through various nation-building projects.” Rohit Patni who will be the next chairperson of the organisation added, “I hope as we move from the theme ‘the power of manifestation’ to ‘the power of togetherness’, the YI Kolkata chapter in 2023 will hit new skies.”
Anirudh Poddar receiving the Dreamer of the Year award from Arpit Dhandhania, for donating 10,000 prosthetic legs to the needy and truck drivers who lost their limbs due to accidents. “Vaibhav Soni and Rohit Patni made sure all the team members dreamt big and believed in us to create magic by over achieving. This year was a fantastic experience,” said Anirudh Poddar.
Arpit Dahndhania (extreme left) presenting the Dreamer of the Year award to Subham Karnani (second from left) who opted for Financial Literacy Programme for children and named it YI Smartkids, where children were taught earning, saving investing and developing entrepreneurship skills. On winning the award Karnani said, “Being just one year old at YI, I got an opportunity from the leadership to dream of a project and bring it to reality. I chose financial literacy programme for children where children learned how to earn, save, invest and develop entrepreneurship skills. The outcome was that by the end, children earned around Rs 15,000 by putting game stalls at BRC with self-earned capital.”
