HYDERABAD: Young techies with a social cause. No way, one could brush off the suggestion, given their stereotyping – robotic, 24x7 workaholics who can communicate only through laptop carried in the trademark Google backpack. Patently uncharitable but that is the popular and very contemporary image of a techie. How could they spare time and thought for societal problems? Even as one wonders, increasing number of software professionals are taking up cudgels on behalf of the society, doing their bit in heralding the much-desired change.
After IITans floated a political party and our own Bhumi took up livelihood, educational and leadership programmes, yet another group of techies has decided to launch its initiative, ‘Simple Thoughts’. “Solution- oriented, not problem- obsessed” is their punch line as they kicked off their social movement with a website ( www.simplethots.com) reflecting their premise that simple thoughts could initiate the change that one dreams of. Dedicated lot “People may want to do things to see a better society but don’t know where to start or how to go about implementing the change practically. It is this realisation that made us launch Simple Thoughts,” says Rajesh Varma, a software engineer who quit his job with EDS/ Symbian India to devote full time. Others like Manoj Manduva of Satyam, Ravi Shankar of Deloitte, N. C. Kiran, a doctorate in engineering physics chipped in. Those desiring change and keen on working with like-minded people could register in their website. From finding solutions to knotty traffic snarls, promoting no-car day, rehabilitation of beggars and child labour to improving quality of education in government schools, the group has firmed up an action programme to be implemented in the days to come. After reaching about 1,000 techies during the last few days through the website, the group distributed 2,000 hard copies of their blueprint to employees in Wipro, Nokia, Motorola, Sasken, Infosys, TCS, Satyam et al and to different sections of people. They now plan to launch a magazine – a freewheeling platform to discuss day-to-day problems, offer solutions, network and work on them.
“We started our journey from the IT sector and now we are heading towards students and people in other occupations. We want to bring them together to trigger substantial change,” says Kiran.
