TORNOS exemplifies compassion - World Tourism Day 

(27th September 2003)

It was a sunny morning of 27th September 2003 but so unlike other mornings it was. A small tour enterprise in Lucknow named TORNOS took a social initiative of collecting 53 small children from the slums of Lucknow who were basically rag-pickers, to show them inside of the walls of the beautiful monuments of Lucknow. These monuments are inaccessible to this section of our society.

We at TORNOS who are handling foreign tourists since 1994 had planned an event that surpassed the highest degree of compassion and showed the world that compassion does not really require any budget but just an attitude.

The children were brought together at the Hotel Taj Residency for a flag off ceremony at 0930 hours. Here took place an ‘Aarti-Tika’ and T-shirts distribution ceremony sponsored by a Local Travel Agency. A large deluxe coach was flagged off by Mr. Vimal Seth, the General Manager of the hotel, from here for a city tour of Lucknow.

The Group reached Husainabad Imambara, where, the Husainabd Trust exclusively for these very special guests hosted a tea party. The sight seeing was conducted by none other than the descendent of the Nawab of Lucknow, Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullha along with the executives of TORNOS and other guests. The entry to this monument was free for this group.

Next halt was Asafi Imambara, where again a group photograph was taken and the guests were shown around the Imambara. Shia clergy was kind enough to extend all VVIP treatment to this group here too.

We moved on to Lucknow Residency and Archeological Survey of India extended free entry into this monument for the children and arranged for a fruit distribution here.

Lucknow Zoo was the final destination. Here the compassionate individuals waited on the gates to welcome the group. The guest list included Mr. Mukul Singhal (Director General Tourism – UP), Other officers of UP Tourism, Dr. Fonia (Director ASI, Lucknow), Mr. Vimal Seth (GM – Taj Lucknow) with his team of HODs and executives, Ms. Eva Sharma (Director-LKO ZOO), Mr.Rahul Dave (Station Manager – Jet Airways), Mr. Sujit Kumar (Station Manager – Indian Airlines), Mr. S. N Srivastava (GM- Great Value Travels), Mr. Sharad Thadani (MD – Mayfair Travels), Mr. Sengupta (Area Manager – SITA Travels), Mr. S.K.Saxena (Manager – TCI ), Mr. Mohit Chandra (Manager – Travel Bureau), Prof T.V Singh (Travel Researcher and Academician), Dr. Manoj Dixit (Dept of Tourism – IGNOU), Mr. R.K.Saxena (Principal IHM, Lko), Mr. & Mrs. Katti (TTG Asia correspondent and travel writers), Print and TV media along with Mr. Prateek Hira (President & CEO – Tornos) with his team.

The compassionate individuals were waiting here to welcome the special group at the Zoo gates. None here was VIP or VVIP just individuals who were full of compassion. Finally the group arrived with flowers in their hands to hand it over to us as a gesture of gratitude. We then walked into the Zoo along with the children and settled down to have Lunch with these children. Hotel Taj Residency served this lunch, and to top it all the senior executive including the General Manager himself served it.

There after mementos were distributed to all the compassionate individuals to thank them for all the support extended to TORNOS in pioneering this cause.

World Tourism Organisation has mentioned this event in their international diary apart from an extensive encouragements received from, The President of India, Prime Minister, Tourism Minister and Tourism Secretary (Govt. of India). WE AT TORNOS SERVE TOURISM SOCIALLY TOO !!!

'UNSUNG HEROES OF TOURISM' - World Tourism Day 

(27th September 2006) 

It was a pleasant evening of 27th September when 150 guests from all spheres of travel trade, airlines, hotels and travel academia assembled in the lawns of Hotel Comfort Inn to honour the senior most Taxi Driver, Hotel Doorman, Railway Porter and Tonga Driver. The event was presided over by Principal Secretary & DG - Tourism Dr.Om Prakash. This was the most thoughtful of events ever organised in our industry where that part of our industry was honoured that is unknowingly neglected and unrecognised, but without whom tourism is just not possible. The event was followed by a Cocktail Dinner and soulful Qawalis recited by Ustad Haider Baksh and party. Local media was all Ga-Ga over the event to the extent that Hindustan a Lucknow daily had a first page prime cover story and NDTV 24X7 showed a seven minutes documentary apart from a direct telecast on Doordarshan.   

'Food for all' -  World Food Day

(16th October 2007)

This year we joined hands with the Home Science, Cultural Studies and Social Work & Women Studies Departments of the University of Lucknow, to shoulder their responsibility of their ongoing project, where they have adopted 4 slums in Lucknow. They support 4 schools of 500 slum children by way of regular studies in morning and evening and even medical camps that are organized exclusively for these underprivileged children. 16^th October happened to be The World Food Day, where we together fed the hungry stomachs of those masses who constitute rag pickers and indulge in other menial jobs. Under this programme we propagated an idea of collecting the left-over banquet and restaurant food from the hotels (not wasted food from the plates) and served them in a packed form in hotel boxes itself. We received an overwhelming response from all hotels in the city: Taj Residency, The Piccadily, Comfort Inn and La Place Park Inn. It was a sheer bundle of joy seeing the smiles on these otherwise crying faces.