The financial year in India runs from the 1st of April to the 31st of March. The year usually ends with its own demands – books have to be balanced, receivables managed, creditors answered, salaries paid, reports to be written, donors to be spoken to…the list is indeed endless. And magically, things seem to be different the next morning with the day bringing along the excitement of starting afresh and all over again. For us at the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, the new financial year today began in much more than a refreshing manner. We had a visitor who not only came along like a breath of fresh air but also carried with him the message of friendship, peace and the spirit of togetherness. He was Ambassador Richard R Verma, the ambassador of the United States of America to India. He spent more than an hour visiting our Mysore campus and getting to know more about the Vivekananda Institute for Leadership Development, the Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies and the Grassroots Research & Advocacy Movement. His demenaour and warm smile carried the message of peace, harmony and the desire to build positive energies for the progress of mankind in general and the peoples of both countries in particular. Bala Murthy, his brother in law and a good friend accompanied him to our center. After watching the videos on SVYM and VIIS, he spent time going around the campus and learning about our activities. He also spent time discussing different issues ranging from how SVYM was founded to the policy advocacy that we were engaged in. 
The icing on the cake was his interaction with our Master’s in Development Management students. He bid farewell to us after garlanding the statue of Swami Vivekananda at VLEAD. The entire team at the Mysore campus had worked overtime the last two days in order to make his visit memorable.
-Balu
