... is doing what people say you cannot do.
There's melody in her voice, cheer is her bright smile and despite her physical disability, she possesses tremendous character and confidence to face life's challenges. For, Latha is one of those many children from the Spastic School affected by cerebral palsy.
She was all happiness when she was told that MindTree had given her a job. She trained for six months and is today MindTree's front office spokeswoman. "I've changed totally. I used to depend on my teachers for everything. But now I can handle things on my own," says Latha. "People are so good here and many of them helped me out initially. I was so nervous in the beginning and even if I made mistakes, they guided me with affection and corrected me so that I would learn."
Not in her wildest dreams did Latha ever think someone would come forward with a job offer, considering her physical condition. Her confidence in herself is so pent-up that she's now aiming to work her way through an MBA. Her ultimate dream is "to be on one of those floors on the top as a software engineer." But before that happens, she has other things to accomplish. Like training more children from the Spastic School to work. She's just trained young Vipin, who's confined to a wheel chair for life and is now employed in a Software company in Bangalore. Latha tells us proudly, "He called me this morning and said he was so happy and enjoying his job."
MindTree's social commitment towards the Spastic Society of Karnataka is legendary. Their powerful logo aside, each floor of the MindTree offices proudly display their colourful paintings, digitally blown-up and the Spastic Society children are shareholders in MindTree. MindTree's commitment to primary education is yet another example of the company's social obligations.
Babuji Abraham sums up best the reasons for MindTree's commitment to society, "These (the founders) are people who grew through a regular middleclass value not with a silver spoon in the mouth. So, when they grew in that path, sharing and caring is very much a middleclass value of Indian culture."
