Unlike most stories, this one starts with Dheeraj Kolla’s mother and not him. Since a very young age, she began stressing the importance of charity and would encourage him to donate food to at least one person, if not a 100 people. So, about seven months ago, the 23-year-old who has done much voluntary work as a student pursuing Mechanical Engineering in AVN Institute of Engineering and Technology, started donating one meal daily. He even took his initiative online by posting it on Instagram, “as doing this alone wouldn’t have made a difference. This campaign needed to spread,” he explains. He encourages everyone to share a meal with the needy, click a picture while doing so and use the hashtag #shareameal and #dheerajkolla while posting it.
And while some of his friends deemed it a ‘social stunt’, several others got in touch with him to find out how they could participate in this simple, self-explanatory campaign. The Share A Meal campaign, which was inspired by a similar campaign, has now given birth to several other campaigns of the same nature. “It is not just about helping the needy. It is also about influencing others to do the same,” says Kolla, who intends to share a meal with 200 people on the day the campaign completes 200 days.
But Kolla, who is the MD of Naavigo, an event management firm, is also a self-taught micro artist, who carves people, names and pretty much anything onto a pencil’s lead tip. Kolla has gifted his micro art to many public figures such as the Governor of Telangana and AP, ESL Narasimhan and many others. He was recently part of the panel discussion on how to convert passion into a profession held at Muffakamjha Business School. His aim is to open an art gallery in the state, which encourages other rare art forms such as this.
Check out his Instagram handle instagram.com/dheerajkolla/
