On February 11, a football autographed by Lionel Messi, tennis shoes autographed by Rafael Nadal, M.S. Doni's bat used for the World Cup 2011 and Milkha Singh's running spikes from the 1960 Rome Olympics will be among the 29 sports memorabilia to go under the hammer in Mumbai. The event: Equation 2012, an annual charity spearheaded by actor/activist Rahul Bose for his voluntary organisation, ‘The Foundation'.
“The last time Equation was held (in 2011), we raised Rs. 2.18 crore that went into the corpus fund of The Foundation,” shares actor Rahul Bose, speaking to us. This year, Rahul hopes the auction will raise Rs. 4-5 crore. “A portion of the money we raised in the last auction went towards education of poor children from Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the Rishi Valley School. It takes Rs. 2.5 to 3 lakh to educate a child, which includes air travel for the children and parents from Andaman. Last year, we also set up operations in Kashmir and chose six children, from over 2 lakh children, to get education at Sahyadri School in Pune,” informs the actor.
The selection process is arduous and meticulous, reveals Rahul. The team, with the help of the Director of Education of the state, shortlists poor students studying in English medium schools taking into consideration the family's economic condition, the student's track record in studies, and the students are tested for emotional intelligence, imaginative capabilities, skill sets in painting as a means of expression and then asked to answer multiple choice questions in English and Mathematics. The candidates are then addressed by counsellors before the final selection is made after interviewing the students and parents. “But ultimately, our aim is not to merely have good scholars but have good human beings coming out of these schools,” says Rahul.
Rahul is also associated with Oxfam, Akshara, Breakthrough and Spastics Society of India. Giving his best to these causes amidst his acting schedule is not unthinkable, he says, “Even the busiest of actors works only for 100 to 150 days a year. The rest of the time is spent in planning or talking about work. I try to spend every waking moment of my life doing things that are close to me, from films to my voluntary activities,” he says.
Marathon, auction and ‘Vishwaroopam'
A day before the auction, he will participate in a 50 km walk in Bengaluru for Oxfam Trailwalker. A day after the auction, he will join Kamal Haasan's team for Vishwaroopam, in which he essays a negative character. “The teams that are working in these NGOs are superb. I help them get the money and the access. No one will have to wait endlessly for permissions and to meet people in power,” adds Rahul.
His celebrity status certainly helped in sourcing sports memorabilia for Equation 2012. “I personally approached Indian sportsmen and women to pledge memorabilia for the auction. I knew some of them personally and others through mutual friends. And no one has refused so far. For the international memorabilia, I got help from friends. Siddharth Mallya helped me get F1 memorabilia, Mahesh Bhupati helped to get Nadal's shoes, Parameswar Godrej helped get Imran Khan's shoes. To cut the story short, it takes about six months to a year to get all the items,” he explains. As a parting shot, the actor says, “If you are crazy about sports, like I am, you will go to any lengths to get things done.”
