Today let’s take a look at the inspirational journey of Mahesh Gorde, who devoted his life to the development of children and to facilitating happiness in families. He is an eminent speaker, author, and founder of Kutuhal creativity hub, a foundation working to enhance the skills and personality of children for the past 19 years.
His journey highlights the importance of giving wings to the curiosity of youngsters and cultivating the joy of togetherness in a family. He has done great work in spreading awareness about how the undisciplined use of television, mobile, and the internet is continuing to negatively affect us and how we can use those resources wisely.
Mahesh Gorde – My Story – Stepping ahead for the development of a better society
Right from my school days, I got associated with various foundations and institutes which were working for social development. After getting into college, I also started taking numerous activities and seminars for many people. Besides that, I used to work with student organizations like Akhil Bharti Vidyarthi Parishad due to which I understood different concerns of students. I used to think about how to resolve these issues. Being a part of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari, I used to participate in various initiatives taken by them and spread the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.
Gradually as I gained more confidence, I started giving lectures at various places. With time I got much appreciation and started getting invitations to speak on various occasions throughout Maharashtra. Till today I have conducted over 2500 events and lectures at numerous places across the country. Some of them were with people in various tribal and rural locations while some were in big companies, schools, and colleges in metropolitan cities.
People started recognizing me, and my work got published in newspapers. Also, my interviews were broadcasted on various TV channels and aired on Akashvani Kendra too.
The very crucial aspect of my college days was that I thought beyond a routine life which included going to college, studying, and coming home. I looked beyond that, finding ways by which I can serve society. Those days many youngsters just went to college and returned home, spending their remaining time doing senseless talks with their friends or watching television!
Many wise leaders have talked about the strength of youth. However, the true potential of the youth could be witnessed only if they dare to step out of their comfort zone.
When I was in school, many lecturers and guests used to visit us and conduct events and activities for us. There was a period dedicated to social work in our school timetable. These two things sowed the seeds of my work. I started understanding that people face many issues in their life. Be it rich or poor, be it well educated or illiterate, everyone has got some problem going on and they all need help in some or the other way. In this phase, providing them with correct support empowers them. Whilst working alongside various organizations, I got a better exposure to these circumstances.
I spent some days living with tribal people and worked with them for their health and wellbeing. This work was really helpful for them and I was immensely motivated by their response. Thus, I started devoting my holidays and my free time to a social cause. I came to the realization that this work was very much needed in society, and I was always ready to do it.
The bedrock for my work was laid in my school days. Back then, I had decided to create an organization of my own and work for the development of society. There was this strong urge in my heart to do something that would bring a positive change in the life of many people. This urge worked out for me.
I believe that this urge to work for the betterment of others is present in everyone. However, many never explore this urge, while some wish to do something for the betterment of others but do not find a chance or scope to do so. I am grateful to have both of them, the desire to explore that urge, and the opportunities to work to bring a difference in society.
An inspiration to work for the betterment of others has been my philosophy since childhood.
My greatest positive influences are – my grandfather, my teachers, and everyone who worked for the betterment of society that I hear or read about. As I started working in this field, I met many people who were ardently devoted to the mission of making a difference in society, they became my role models. I also look up to Swami Vivekananda and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
their thoughts and work have always kept adding great value to my life.
Apart from working on the foundation and writing. I love to read, travel, arrange various activities and spend time with children.
The best gift a child can get – The rise of Kutuhal Foundation
While exploring social work, I realized that I loved to work with youngsters. I used to enjoy taking workshops and camps for them and working on their skill set and personality development. I used to conduct ‘Bal Sanskar Varga’ for almost a decade. I found myself continuously working with children and decided to dedicatedly work for the wellbeing and betterment of children by giving it a firm platform.
Thus, after my college, I decided to start the “Kutuhal foundation”, a foundation that would work on two major themes, a happy family and the betterment of children. I incorporated my ideas about what people can do to increase communication and experience the beauty of the bond with their family members. Also, I focused on skills and personality development in children and reducing the usage of things that were detrimental to their well-being like excessive usage of television and mobile phones, and replacing that time with something productive that would enhance their creativity.
Before initiating the Kutuhal foundation, I used to work on different themes. But after the Kutuhal foundation, my work got focused on one specific theme. My aim was to help a child to be a better person irrespective of his/her background and a family to be happy despite being rich or poor. I curated my lectures, workshops, and other activities in a way that everyone would be able to relate to and benefit from it.
Every parent feels that their child should have good manners, do well in academics, and have a decent personality. But most of them are unaware as to how they can instill all of these into their children. Some parents get frustrated and resort to aggressive means. The parents themselves need guidance on effective parenting, especially those who just keep expectations from their children without even trying to understand their potential and interest. Thus, I started activities focused on guiding parents about effective parenting.
I also started identifying the barriers that were responsible for various issues in families. Television and Mobile were the two of them. I started to raise awareness in people regarding how detrimental excessive and undisciplined use of these devices is and how it affects the family relationships and the mindset and personality of children in a family.
Kutuhal foundation was a base for all this work focused on the development of children and fostering happiness and wellbeing in families. Increasing the interactions in the family especially in a parent-child relationship, reducing the strain within families, and developing the skills and personality of the children has been the vision of the Kutuhal foundation.
I try to provide all the resources and opportunities to the family to reduce stress, increase creativity and build togetherness. Merely advising others what they should do makes a very less impact. But instead, if we tell them what they can do and tell them how to achieve their desires and provide the necessary resources and opportunities, we may be able to bring a great change in their life.
As a part of this, I decided to open a shop named Kutuhal creativity hub where I can help families get a range of all sorts of creativity boosters, toys that help improve concentration, memory, and imagination power, family games, puzzles to accelerate problem-solving, books to enhance knowledge, scientific DIY kits and much more.
Just spreading awareness and telling people to spend less time on television and mobile phones isn’t something that would work. Instead, if we provide them with something that they find more interesting and fun then naturally people would spend less time sticking to the television or mobile phone. Also, I keep taking various camps, workshops, and seminars with the goal of turning this vision into a reality.
There is no better gift for a child than a happy family and an environment that facilitates a healthy upbringing.
Giving wings to curiosity with a spark of science
Each and everything in this world is having a base rooted in science. Our physical activities, our growth, everything that functions around us and within us has an aspect of science but many of us often fails to notice that. Science has great value and just by understanding this, we can function in our life much more smoothly and effectively.
Practically understanding the science and mechanisms behind something greatly satisfies our curiosity. Seeing life through a scientific lens can make it very much interesting and wonderful. For instance, our kitchen is a chemical lab, where many chemicals react and undergo various processes to give the product which is edible, tasty, and healthy. We can add to the health benefitting properties of food just by adding some appropriate stuff into it.
The ones who understand that everything around them is rooted in science the more they wish to explore and this exploration encourages growth in humans. This scientific vision is very much important and it’s not at all necessary that one has to stick to bookish knowledge. Even a farmer who may not be literate but has studied what suits the land and plants would benefit more than others. Thus, having this scientific temperament is very crucial in most professions.
This curiosity is natural in children and it could stimulate many to gain a broad perspective of things and a scientific vision. Having a scientific temperament would teach the children to have a skeptical mindset and they won’t just blindly believe something but would try to find out mechanisms behind it. Hence to encourage the scientific temperament we run a Sunday Science School in Jalgaon where students kindle their interest in learning about science through a practical approach.
It is a usual happening that parents buy a toy car for their children, and the children play with it for a couple of days and after that, they try to dismantle it. Parents usually get angry when children do such things and they scold the child. But there they miss out on a very crucial point. That is, the child was exploring as he was curious. He was in the process of learning something new when he dismantled a toy to see how it worked.
I decided to take a different kind of workshop to build this insight into parents. It was named as ‘Break and Make’ workshop. I divided the parents into various groups and gave them something that we use in our daily life. For instance, remote, flat iron, fan, and so on. Along with that, I gave them various tools which they would need to dismantle it. Their task was to dismantle and assemble the object which was given to them.
Every group had one volunteer who was an expert and had adept knowledge regarding that object and its components. At the end of the workshop, I asked parents about their experiences. They said that it was insightful, they got to learn something and greatly enjoyed the whole process. Understanding how these objects we use in our daily lives was very interesting for them. Then I told them, even children have the same tendency and they get the same happiness out of dismantling their toys.
Playing with a toy and enjoying it is the first step. But the curiosity to understand the mechanism by which the toy works is the next one. Thus, it’s not just about how a child enjoys playing, but it’s also about what the child learns from it.
Today’s necessity: The TV, Mobile and Internet Discipline campaign
Many lectures that I deliver are based on discipline regarding the use of television, mobile, and the internet. The source of the idea of this campaign was my home itself. The daily soaps that used to play during lunch or dinner time used to fuel my anger. It is essential to have positive thoughts and environment while having food.
But the television and the serials that showed violence, melodramas, and even vulgar scenes were a really direful thing to have. Everyone in the family, be it old or young, everyone sits together and watches all this. That was something that added to my anger.
This blazing anger turned to my inspiration for running a campaign of raising the awareness of being disciplined about the usage of TV, mobile, and Internet, both quality and quantity-wise. Many people were aware of this issue and were felt the same about it, yet no one took a step
ahead to raise this issue at a social level majorly due to fear of how others would react. I didn’t care about anybody else and my work kept going on. Even after facing opposition from some people I didn’t turn back because I was well aware that what I did was based on facts and I am doing the right thing.
Even if we spend daily 3 hours watching television for 70 years, we are spending approximately eight years of our life just in front of the television. People generally used to spend more than three hours daily and in the present life due to mobile and internet, this time is significantly greater. When I started placing these facts in front of the people, they were both flabbergasted and convinced too. Also, the content one watches on television with the family has a very deep impact on the minds of the family members, especially children.
Thus, I used to confront people by asking them, isn’t that our responsibility to reflect upon what we are watching in front of our kids? Then they used to realize their folly. Also, one of the causal factors of many disorders is the stress that we take and this television and mobile add lots of stressors to our life. I made people understand this with facts after which they gradually started to understand the necessity and importance of taking this step.
Many activists and even the media supported me for this cause. The book that I wrote named ‘Ya Tv Cha Kai Karayacha?’ got a great response as well. More than one lakh copies were sold. After reading it, thousands of people made a change in the way they used television. Some set up a timetable, while some reduced the usage and others stopped watching television at all. With time they found positive effects in their lives as well as in their household.
Many people wrote me letters and sent me emails expressing the changes they experienced. Children were able to focus on their careers, family members could spend more time in positive interactions with each other and it even reduced the strains and hassles in the family. This spread a lot of positivity and happiness in many households across the country and I am very glad about it. My greatest achievement is hearing from parents, or students that I have helped them in bringing a positive difference to their life.
Journey as a writer
My journey as a writer started when I was in school. During that time, I was not much confident, and neither did I try to find an opportunity to express my writings in front of others. But during college, while working for organizations I paid attention to my writing skills. That’s when I realized that I really write well and I could greatly develop this skill. Passion for writing emerged in me during my college days. I used to write poems, articles on many topics, and write-ups for various books since that time.
At present, I am the author of four books, ‘Abhyas Mitra’, ‘Chala Yashasvi Houyaat!’, ‘Katha APJ Abdul Kalamanchi’ and ‘Ya TV Cha kai Karayacha?’. I also write for newspapers. Now many people ask me for guidance and invite me to review the work that they have written. I have even taken competitions based on the books that I wrote and many students throughout the state enthusiastically participated in it.
Note for the readers
As Swami Vivekananda rightly quotes, “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.”
I think that, throughout our life, we all keep getting a lot from nature and society. But if we firmly decide, even we can give something back to our society. I would like to encourage everyone to introspect and explore themselves and find out their strengths. If they become successful in this process they can come forward and share the benefits of these strengths with everyone, thus bringing love and joy in their own lives and in the life of others as well.
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