This is Praveenkumar from Bangalore, INDIA – I am one of the families esteemed FSL India has partnered with to host International volunteers. Veena is my wife and we have a son named Om. My parents stay in my native town, Gadag which is around 420 KMs north of Bangalore towards Mumbai. It is located between Goa and Hampi – two of the most popular touristic destinations.

 

I would like to thank FSL India for giving me an opportunity to host the volunteer friends and also express my experience of this wonderful journey. At the same time, I sincerely appreciate the international friends who come to India as volunteers to help India leaving behind their family, friends and their luxury life if not atleast comfortable life.

My philosophy is “If someone loves me, respects me and cares me, I reciprocate with double of everything” – this I believe matches FSL India’s vision and mission.

Maxim Dieckert, Fabio Heublein and Philipp Rieger are the new guys from Germany who would be staying at my house for 11 months. The journey has been smooth and all thanks to their patience, broad mindedness, family values and cheerfulness. I am blessed with a very good family and blessing bestowed upon me is growing which is evident by the fact that my extended family is growing with more and more new foreigners like these new guys. I have added unique names to them: Maxim – the Super Model because of his model like looks, Fabio – the serious and sensible guy with soccer player looks and Philip the Hulk, the Strongman and the Niceman and also my Guitar guru (we are yet to start our Guitar classes because we need 28 hours in a day or perhaps we should skip our Kannada classes and Philip’s workout sessions).

Our family time usually means gathering together for evening tea, Kannada class and dinner. Our tea time is full of fun, happiness and leg pulling – we all are grown up in age but our mind and hearts are still child like; I am sure all the previous volunteer friends strongly agree. We smile and laugh (in a respectful way) so much at anything and everything on things like Om’s talking style with his mom, my style of promoting raw foodism and enforcing this new found food habit to everyone (because I want everyone to be happy and healthy), strongman Philip’s ‘Brave Heart’ stories and Demi Moore looks, Fabio’s burps, Bollywood/Sandalwood/Tollywood/Kollywood hilarious movie stunts and sometimes bad acting and make up in TV serials and Indian News Channel debate shows – our fun time gets high that we often have to be dragged down by Veena for dinner.

I simply love these new guys because they have been continuing the Indo-Germany friendship like their predecessors. To avoid any kind of misunderstanding, personal issues, disagreement, we have an unwritten rule ‘I give you what you want – you give me what I want’. They say that a man is more productive when his mind is at peace and happy and free and taking a queue from this, I make every attempt both at home and office to give them the best so that they are happy and productive all the time. We all share home chores in turn – like regular family members, they enjoy going to shops to buy milk, grocery, medicines, taking Om to school and back home in my absence.

We are a happy family and welcome you all to our home for weekends and get-together. Thank you FSL for sending such beautiful people to my family J…