Impromptu donation triggers windfall

All through his life,Manish Vohra had watched sports,swallowing the lumps in his throat as he applauded sporting feats he watched on television. Now,though,he was itching to do something for the sportspersons who evoked such pride and emotion in him. So when the first opportunity arose at The Indus Entrepreneurs TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2009 at the Bandra Kurla Complex Vohra wrote out a cheque of Rs 7500 and handed it over to the Olympics Gold Quest COO Viren Rasquinha,after the former hockey Olympian had made a detailed presentation highlighting the needs of upcoming sporting talent.

The organisers has an impressive panel of achievers with impeccable credibility as its founders Prakash Padukone and Geet Sethi,along with Leander Paes,who recently joined as a board director. These people have strived very hard to achieve top-level success,and its quite sad that they still need to struggle right now to put together the funds to help young sportspersons. We should help them,without them having to even ask, said the Ghatkopar businessman,after he made the spontaneous donation on the final day of the summit here,one that triggered a flurry of instant cheques and commitments to help Indian athletes succeed at the Olympics.

A web designer offered to set up OGQs new website,and other professionals lawyers,consultants and motivational speakers committed to help out with services. A London-based physiotherapist even offered to fund all lodging and expenses of Indians training in the UK. The biggest commitment came from Kanwal Rekhi,a 64-year-old co-founder of Inventus,based out of California and Bangalore. Rekhi declared he would fund Rs 51 lakh,spread over three years after he was moved by Leanders appeal.