"Superman" Thyagu

Good Friday with "Superman" Thyagu

Introduction: The Spectrum of Impact

Spending a day with Thyagu is like stepping onto a high-speed tour through a "social work Disneyland." It is a whirlwind of extraordinary acts, sensory overload, and deeply enriching conversations.

Thyagu doesn't limit himself to one cause; he is all about looking at adjacent areas to build a whole solution. His work spans the entire spectrum of human vulnerability—from pediatric cancer wards and destitute street care to runaway youth shelters and transition homes for young adults. Across every stop, he moves relentlessly from one crisis to the next, asking tough questions and finding creative, ground-level solutions.

Who is "Superman" Thyagu?

To understand Thyagu's relentless drive, one has to look at his background. Holding a degree in Chemistry, Thyagarajan Palani ("Thyagu Sir") spent years working in software, IT systems, and corporate training. Leaving behind the corporate rat race, he chose to transition into full-time, pro-bono social work.

Since joining Vinimay Trust in 1990, he has served as a trustee, spearheading new initiatives and active management at Tarun Sadan. His reach extends far beyond a single organization: he volunteers at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) and serves as Secretary of the Guruji Education Foundation. Thyagu brings a structured systems-thinking mindset learned in software engineering to the often chaotic realities of grassroots human welfare.

---

Image Caption: A visual overview of the day's journey—from funding bridges at TMH to rescue operations with Grace Foundation and halfway housing at Tarun Sadan.

---

Part 1: Navigating the Frontlines at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH)

The Structural Dilemma: Dr. Sanger & The Funding Gap

At Tata Memorial Hospital, the challenges aren't just medical; they are systemic. Dr. Sanger highlighted a core operational hurdle: the seasonality of funding.

Grants must often be exhausted within strict calendar timeframes. This cycle leads to sub-optimal allocations—not through financial waste, but through forced timing. Early in the fiscal cycle, deserving patients may be turned away due to pending allocations, only for a rush of funds to require rapid disbursement at the end of the year.

• The Proposed Solution: Establishing a 100 Crore Corpus Fund. The interest generated from this capital would act as a buffer to support patients during gap periods between grant cycles. Seeding for a portion of this corpus has already been offered by a prospective donor.
• Pediatric Care & Advocacy: In the solid tumor and blood cancer units, funding is relatively robust. However, advocates like LLF are currently pushing to extend the upper age limit of pediatric coverage to 18 years, bringing much-needed relief to older teens.

The Foot Soldiers: Timely Diagnostics & Human Dignity

Meeting the brave frontline team—Anil, Madhav, and Swapnali—reveals the human side of hospital logistics.

Madhav shared how critical targeted micro-funding can be. For instance, the 10,000 INR TAP allocation for diagnostic testing provides immediate leverage:

• It unlocks critical diagnostic clarity early on.
• It often saves enough downstream capital to cover up to 4 chemotherapy sessions or alternative care pathways.

The public charity side of a major hospital can be intimidating; long, overwhelming queues often break the spirit of families at their lowest points. The team's success isn't measured in policy papers, but in real human outcomes—like the uncle who returned two years after initial treatment, standing healthy alongside his wife for a routine follow-up.

---

Image Caption: Anil, Madhav, and Swapnali—the foot soldiers at TMH making real-time interventions possible.

---

Part 2: Street Care & Emergency Rescue

Grace Foundation (Shankar’s Mission)

From the structured environment of TMH, the journey moves to raw crisis intervention with Shankar, the founder of Grace Foundation.

Starting with just a two-wheeler to deliver basic aid, Shankar built a mobile response network using ambulances to rescue destitute individuals abandoned on the streets. Today, Grace Foundation operates a shelter providing food, care, and medical attention. Shankar is the absolute personification of an angel.

• Monthly Operating Expense: ~₹350,000 INR
• Resource Link: Support & Contribute to Grace Foundation Mumbai
• 

---

Part 3: Youth Shelters & Transitioning Out of Care

Children's Hope Chembur (Dr. Manini Ganguly)

The next stop is a shelter home for runaway and vulnerable boys assigned by the courts. The campus consists of 4–6 kutirs (cottages) housing up to 60 boys each, where they receive shelter, municipal schooling, and academic coaching from volunteer BARC scientists.

Dr. Manini Ganguly shared the profound innocence and confusion these children navigate—encapsulated by innocent questions like, "Aapka husband aapke saath rehta hai?"

However, the transition out of the system at age 18 presents a severe hurdle:

• The Financial Trap: Upon turning 18, orphans receive a government lump-sum allowance. Without prior financial literacy, receiving a sudden payout often becomes a curse rather than a blessing for a teenager entering the world alone.

Tarun Sadan by Vinimay Trust

To address the critical gap between institutional care and adult independence, Vinimay Trust established Tarun Sadan in Kopar Khairane—imagined as a halfway house for young men aging out of Child Welfare Institutions (CWIs).

True to the Sanskrit origin of the word "Vinimay"—meaning "mutual exchange"—the philosophy is built on social participation rather than top-down charity. Over 45 years, Vinimay Trust has guided 500+ youth through practical skill training (ITIs, electricians, wiremen, therapists). Yet, achieving complete independence remains difficult, with high rates of recidivism as young adults navigate social isolation, mental health struggles, or unstable livelihoods.

• Resource Link: Learn more & contribute to Vinimay Trust

---

Image Caption: Thyagu Sir alongside grassroots champions working together to support vulnerable youth.

---

Part 4: Personal Reflections & The "Superwoman" Behind the Scenes

Observations on Grassroots Philanthropy

Data tracking and real-time metrics aren't always prominently displayed at these centers. Older organizations often rely on organic, battle-tested methods driven by sheer willpower and community trust.

Thyagu's day-to-day existence is spent balancing these heavy realities—whether helping a 50-year-old former Tarun Sadan resident who still lacks a social safety net, or supporting individuals struggling with mental illness and law enforcement issues. The question of what gives meaning to lives that end prematurely or quietly off the grid seems to be a central, haunting focus for Thyagu Sir.

Sabera & CORO

The day concludes with a brief meeting with Thyagu's wife, Sabera. If Thyagu operates like Superman, Sabera is the Superwoman equal in this story—working tirelessly with CORO India to empower and uplift marginalized communities at the grassroots level.

• Resource Link: Learn more about CORO India

---

Image Caption: Thyagu and Sabera—a dedicated partnership powering grassroots social change.

From the Classroom Floor to the Strategy Dashboard

 Following up on last week's visit to Happy Feet Home, where we saw firsthand how joy and dignity can be centered even in the face of heavy circumstances, my focus this week shifted between the classroom floor, field outings, and the strategy desk.

Moving between these spaces makes you realize that social-emotional learning (SEL) exists in two distinct modes: the immediate, living practice on the ground, and the deliberate systems required to sustain it.

1. Curiosity, Capability, and the MuSo Outing

Before diving into tests and dashboards, there was the sheer magic of taking the children on a field trip to MuSo (Museum of Solutions).

If you ever want to see SEL and curiosity uninhibited, watch students enter an interactive space designed specifically for creative problem-solving. Outside the structured classroom environment, different sides of their personalities lit up—students who are usually quiet during in the class suddenly took the lead, demonstrating natural spatial intuition and teamwork.

Another thing stands out in our classrooms is the intentional 50-50 gender balance between boys and girls. Seeing boys and girls learn, experiment, and solve problems together on equal footing is quietly laying the groundwork for gender equity. It normalizes collaboration, mutual respect, and shared leadership from a young age.

You are also confronted with the incredible grit these kids carry. Take Farhan*, an 8th-grader who is already earning his own money alongside going to school. His hustle and sense of responsibility are humbling.

There is raw talent and relentless curiosity all around us. The key isn't to force them into rigid boxes, but to meet them where they are at—unlocking their potential with a gentle dose of direction that feels relatable to their lived reality.

*Name changed to protect privacy.

2. The Unseen Wall: Language Barriers in Scholarship Prep

Back in the classroom, we are several days into Scholarship Exam preparation, where a familiar, frustrating pattern has emerged.

The primary hurdle standing between these students and success isn't a lack of cognitive ability, effort, or curiosity—it is the structural language barrier. The concepts themselves are well within their reach, but when presented through complex, unfamiliar phrasing in English, language acts as an artificial ceiling.

If we simply teach to the test using standard materials, we risk testing their English comprehension rather than their problem-solving potential. The current challenge for our team is designing creative, intuitive workarounds: using visual bridges, context mapping, and bilingual entry points so that structural linguistic obstacles don't rob these students of a fair shot at the exam.

3. Translating the Invisible: Marketing SEL & The KPI Dashboard

Later in the week, the focus shifted to the Apni Shala office for strategic discussions around messaging and metrics.

How do you market a process whose most profound outcomes are invisible? It is easy to showcase tangible inputs—number of notebooks distributed or attendance stats. But the real essence of Apni Shala’s work lives in moments that defy simple photography: an 8th-grader balancing work and school with pride, a classroom operating with genuine gender equity, or a student stepping up during a field trip to help a peer.

Translating this grounded work into clear marketing messages—and connecting those narratives to our internal KPI dashboard—is a delicate craft. When we look past surface-level vanity metrics and trace a successful KPI back to its root, it almost always leads back to the quality of the ecosystem: how supported the teachers feel, how consistently the SEL vocabulary is reinforced, and how equipped the children feel to express themselves.

4. How You Can Help: Opportunities from Lekha Didi

As we work on strengthening both our classroom strategies and internal systems, Lekha Didi has shared two immediate areas where our broader community can step in and lend support:

1. Online Basic Literacy Sessions: Apni Shala is looking for volunteers who can conduct one-hour online sessions each day to help learners develop basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. These sessions are designed to build confidence and improve communication skills in a supportive, encouraging environment.

2. Counseling Support for Caregivers: Apni Shala is also looking for qualified counselors or compassionate volunteers to provide emotional support to caregivers who are experiencing trauma, abuse, or significant emotional distress. Your guidance can play a vital role in helping caregivers cope, heal, and build resilience.

If you have a few hours to spare or the professional skills to support our learners and caregivers, please get in touch with us:

👉 Contact Apni Shala to Volunteer

Keeping a Promise: A Visit to Happy Feet Home

When a 13-year-old hands you a birthday 5-Star chocolate in the middle of a geometry lesson,

you don't just say thank you—you hold on to the invitation that comes with it.

As I shared in my last post,

A very eager 8th-grader invited me to visit the hostel where he lives.

That promise brought me through the doors of Happy Feet Home (HFH).

HFH is an organization providing daycare and hospice support for children living with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses, including HIV and pediatric cancer.

What I expected was a quiet, clinical space. What I stepped into was an explosion of everyday childhood.

1. "Childhood First. Illness Second."

Happy Feet Home operates on a simple, radical premise: regardless of a child’s prognosis, today belongs to them.

The focus isn't on the diagnosis; it is on ensuring every child gets to experience a normal, joy-filled day.

As I walked in, students were arriving straight from school, dropping their bags, and washing up for a shared lunch.

There was no heavy silence or medical gloom—just the clinking of steel plates, warm laughter, and the relentless banter of young kids teasing each other across the table.

Listening to them, you are sharply reminded that before a child is a patient, a statistic, or a beneficiary.

They are simply a child who wants to eat lunch with their friends and talk about their day.

2. The Quiet Grace of Resilience

Watching our 8th-grader in his element at HFH added another layer to what I had observed in the classroom.

At school, he is helpful and bright; here, among his peers, his warmth and natural leadership shine even brighter.

In spaces like these, Social Emotional Learning stops being an educational framework and reveals itself as a

life-preserving craft. It is the invisible scaffolding that allows a child facing extraordinary odds to hold

onto their dignity, build deep friendships, and look out for others with effortless grace.

Visiting HFH wasn't just fulfilling a promise to an 8th-grader—it was a grounding reminder of why we do this work.

It reminds us that our goal as educators and supporters isn't just to prepare children for exams,

but to honor their present lives with safety, dignity, and joy.

3. Support the Work at Happy Feet Home

The team at Happy Feet Home provides holistic care—

from free nutritional support and medical checkups to art therapy, counseling, and a safe, joyful environment—

all completely free of cost for children and their families.

If this story touches you, please consider supporting their incredible work or spreading the word.

👉 Learn more and support Happy Feet Home here

The View From Inside the Classroom

The view from inside is vastly different from the view from a distance. When you spend your first few days inside the classroom and the office at Apni Shala, you realize quickly that "impact" isn't an abstract KPI on a slide deck—it’s a series of small, fragile, and deeply human moments unfolding across desks, protractors, and quick morning circles. Here are a few observations and reflections from the ground this week.

Grounding the Teachers, Centering the Students

Before the day’s chaotic energy sweeps through the hallways, the educators gather. Every morning begins with a uniquely intentional mindfulness circle. The teachers huddle together with music playing in the center, pausing for a mood and feelings check-in on a scale of 1 to 5—from sad to hopeful and cheerful—to center themselves and ground their intentions for the day and week ahead. What stands out immediately about these huddles is the alignment: no matter how complex the administrative or operational demands are, every single priority agreed upon in that circle is uncompromisingly student-focused. It creates an anchor of empathy before a single lesson plan unfolds.

Lightbulbs and Scale Lines

Inside the classroom, pedagogy is a constant exercise in finding the right key for the lock. During a geography session, we watched the room light up when the teacher broke down the etymology of *geography*—connecting its roots back to *photography*. That simple linguistic bridge anchored something abstract into something known. From there, concepts like latitude, longitude, the equator, and the prime meridian didn't feel like dry terms to memorize; they became coordinates on a map they felt curious to read. Then came geometry—and a reminder of how deep foundational gaps can run. While working on drawing triangles using inner angles and specific line segments, it became evident that several students weren't struggling with the concept of a triangle itself, but with basic tool literacy: simply reading the finer units on a scale or aligning a protractor correctly. It is a quiet reminder: you cannot teach higher-order problem-solving until the fundamental tools in a child's hand feel familiar. Closing this skill gap is where our focus needs to go next.

Accountability Without Scars

In environments where many kids view school as an extension of their play area—or carry heavy external stresses—classroom management can easily default to rigid authority. What Apni Shala does differently is striking: actions have real consequences here, but those consequences are never designed to be scarring punishments. Instead, the team has systematically built and taught students a rich, shared vocabulary for conflict resolution and de-escalation. When friction arises, children are guided to articulate what they are feeling and take ownership of repair rather than retreat into shame or anger. Watching kids use that language in real time to navigate disagreements is a powerful masterclass in Social Emotional Learning.

Five Stars and Multi-Faced Dice

Then there are the moments that quietly reframe why we show up. A very eager 8th-grader walked up to me, handed me a 5-Star chocolate bar, and whispered, *"Aaj mera 13th birthday hai. Mein hostel se aata hoon."* I happened to have an 8-faced dice with me, which I handed back to him as a small birthday gift. Later in the period, I watched him patiently helping a younger girl navigate her assignment. He comes from a nearby hostel that supports HIV-affected orphans, and his warmth and instinct to look out for others stayed with me long after class ended.

*(Note to self: catch up with Didi to coordinate a community visit to the hostel.)*

Visit done, here is the visit report.

 

Looking Ahead & A Request for Support

We are also working through Scholarship Exam preparation, where finding creative ways around structural language barriers remains our current puzzle. Over at the office, we are analyzing the internal levers driving our KPIs and figuring out how to articulate this deeply grounded work into metrics that showcase real outcomes. As the new school year kicks off, the classrooms are full of energy, but energy needs tools to thrive. While government supplies provide basic notebooks and textbooks, true experiential learning requires so much more—stationery like chart paper, markers, and protractors, picture books, learning games, and classroom tech resources. Apni Shala has launched the **Kaagaz, Kalam aur Khwaab** campaign to bridge this exact gap and equip students with the essential and creative learning materials they need for the year ahead. If these stories from inside the classroom resonate with you, please consider supporting the campaign. Whether by sponsoring supplies or sharing the word, every small contribution helps build a richer space for these children to learn and grow.

• 👉 Support the Kaagaz, Kalam aur Khwaab Campaign Here]
• Link: https://www.apnishala.org/backtoschool.html

Photos from the school.

Running For, Running to this internship with ApniShala.org

Running For, Running To

In 2019, Ganesh, Sachin and I wanted to run the Mumbai Marathon together. What I didn't expect was that the run would quietly hand me the ending of a story I hadn't finished telling.

The marathon came first; the cause came second. To run, we needed bibs — and they were surprisingly hard to come by, until Karon connected us to Apni Shala. (The same Karon whose phone call two years later would set so much else in motion.) So we ran FOR Apni Shala before we truly knew them. That order of things — commitment first, understanding after — turned out to be fitting, because what I learned about them has stayed with me ever since.

When I met the founding team of — Amrita, Sangeeta, Rohit — the whole impression landed at once. Here were people who had chosen to make this their mission, who spoke about the children they served with a closeness and conviction that you cannot manufacture. I came away feeling I had met people doing something real, and doing it for the right reasons.

And what they were doing was something I hadn't encountered framed quite this way before: social emotional learning. SEL, at its foundation.

Apni Shala builds emotional literacy in children — a vocabulary for what they feel, a language for their own inner lives. Through Khoj, their SEL-aligned school in Govandi and Mankhurd, they centre a child's psychological wellbeing alongside academics, working not just with the child but with the whole ecosystem of teachers and caregivers around them.

Here is what drew me in. When you give a child the language to understand their circumstance, you offer them a truth that can change everything: poverty is not a disease. It is not something wrong with you. It is not your fault. It is a circumstance — and circumstances can change, and you are not defined by the one you were born into.

That reframing is quiet and enormous at the same time. It is the difference between a child who believes they are broken and a child who understands they are simply somewhere difficult, for now.

This is the kind-work I want to be close to — not to teach it, but to learn it.

And that desire to learn has only grown more acute with time. As I wrote in When Caring Became a Craft, the causes I've come to know through TAP have kept raising the same question — not just how do I give, but where and how does one actually begin to make a difference? Due diligence taught me how much I didn't know about the work itself. Every organisation I've helped support has sharpened that question rather than answered it. This internship is part of that ongoing quest — a chance to stop asking from a distance and start learning from the inside.

The seed was planted in 2017, when Appa and Amma moved to Ashraya. It found form at Snehalaya in 2019, where, as I wrote in When Feeling Found a Form, Dr. Girish first told me that to really understand this work, I would need to be immersed in it. It found purpose through TAP in 2021. It waited through two years that weren't. And now it has found its destination — back where it quietly began, with the organisation whose bib I wore before I understood what I was running for.

In 2019, I ran for Apni Shala.

In 2026, I am running to them — to learn.

The internship begins.

When the Door Opened and I Didn't Walk Through

 When the Door Opened and I Didn't Walk Through

Some years you defer to circumstance. Other years, if you're honest, circumstance defers to you.

By 2020 I had the intention clearly enough — an internship at Snehalaya, a chance to finally be close to Appa, to immerse myself in the work the way Girish had suggested. Nothing had been formally arranged. No dates confirmed, no conversations started with the organisation. It was still an intention living in the near future, waiting to become a plan.

Then the pandemic arrived and made the decision for me. The world closed. The intention went back into its drawer. There was, if I'm honest, a certain ease in that — the deferral came from outside, so it cost nothing to accept it.

2024 was different.

By then Mummy was gone — a year had passed since her death — and the desire to be near Appa had become sharper, heavier, more layered. This time the intention had become a plan. Time at Snehalaya was booked. Flights were arranged. The years of waiting had finally moved into action.

But Appa was anxious. He had raised me in Mumbai — a city where the train takes you anywhere, where the infrastructure of daily life is always within reach. Ahmednagar was something else: a small town without public transport, unfamiliar rhythms, no metro instincts to fall back on. His worry wasn't about the work. It was about his city-bred son navigating a world he hadn't grown up in. A very particular kind of parental love, the kind that knows exactly what it built and worries about what it didn't.

And then a colleague went on medical leave. The timing was difficult. The team needed covering. I said I would stay.

Looking back, I know what the honest account is: the colleague's medical leave was real, but Appa's anxiety was the bigger weight on the other side of the scale. The leave gave me a reason I could say out loud. Appa's worry gave me permission I hadn't quite admitted I was looking for.

That is not a comfortable thing to write. But it is true.

Two deferrals. One taken from me, one handed back. The question that had followed me since 2017 — what would it look like to actually be close at hand? — was still waiting, more patient than I deserved.

When Caring Became a Craft

When Caring Became a Craft

The pandemic did strange things to time. It also did unexpected things to friendships.

In 2020, a group of us — batchmates from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College — started getting together regularly, the way you do when the world goes quiet and you suddenly need to know if the people you care about are alright. We were checking in. That was all it was, at first.

Then on a call on April 25, 2021, something shifted. Karon — a friend, a leader, someone I'd describe as one of the highest-bandwidth people I know — broke down. She was being flooded with messages asking for help, and one of her own employees had reached out at the 11th hour for medicine money. Remdesivir. Karon couldn't get it in time. The employee didn't make it.

That brought the pandemic home to me in a way the news never had.

That evening, sitting with Appa and Amma for our daily prayer, with the mind finally quiet, something small and clear emerged. Rohini and I decided: we would find people doing the work on the ground, and we would support them. The next day I posted a fundraiser appeal. The response was humbling — together, close to $200,000 was raised.

But money moving was only the beginning of what that season taught me.

Through MahaPECOnet and our partnership with Ratna Nidhi in Mumbai, I got to see what ground-level coordination actually looked like — 1,376 oxygen concentrators procured and delivered to rural hospitals, a verification process built around accountability, plans for an oxygen bank to serve the urban poor at five rupees. I met trustees Rajiv Mehta and Arvind Shah, and was struck by the years of quiet experience in how they moved. No drama. Just systems, trust, and relentless adaptability.

Out of that season, TSEC Alumni Philanthropy — TAP — took formal shape. A nonprofit, founded by batchmates, built around the belief that giving could be more than a transaction. That pooling resources could reach further. That rigorous due diligence could find the organisations that deserved to be found.

That last part turned out to matter more than I expected.

Due diligence is humbling work. You start asking questions — how does an organisation function, how are decisions made on the ground, how does help actually travel from donor to the person who needs it — and you quickly discover how much you don't know. Not about the organisation. About the work itself. About what it takes to keep something running at the grassroots, day after day.

Girish had told me in 2019 that to really understand, I needed to be immersed. TAP, in its own way, was now telling me the same thing. Funding work from a distance, however thoughtfully, kept raising questions that only proximity could answer.

The seed of 2017. The form of 2019. And now, in 2021, a reason grounded in something more than feeling — a recognition that to give well, I first needed to understand deeply. The internship idea was no longer just about being near Appa. It had become something the work itself was asking of me.