Sulabh Swachh Bharat - VOL: 2 | ISSUE 49

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Rejuvenate Ganga

Sanitation In Sweden

Indira Gandhi

The Making Of A Legend

“10,000 dedicated people & Ganga will be clean”: Dr Bindeshwar Pathak

Access to sanitation is especially crucial for global equality, & for the rights & needs of women

A Life in Nature presents her life as a naturalist and examines how she steered India’s conservation policy

PM Modi visits EMERCOM, the National Crisis Management Centre POSTAL REGISTRATION NO. DL(W)10/2240/2017-19

RNI No. DELENG/2016/71561

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A Good News Weekly

Vol - 2 | Issue - 49 | Nov 19 - 25, 2018 | Price ` 10/-

Breaking Widows and Untouchables

The Shackles Celebrate Chhath

Sulabh has been celebrating 'Chhath' for years, which synonymous with sacredness and simplicity, to spread the message of harmony. On this occasion, the widows of Vrindavan and the emancipated scavengers of Tonk and Alwar in Rajasthan make offerings to the Sun God

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Chhath Puja

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Amola Pathak giving Arghya to Sun god SSB Bureau

“K This was a celebration standing tall as it was a true projection of simplicity and societal harmony amidst the purity and sacredness of Chhath Puja

aanch hi baans ke bahangiya bahangi lachakat jay/ Penhi na pawan jee piyarira daura ghaate pahunchaay…” On hearing these lyrical tunes, you know there is a Chhath celebration going on in full-swing. The very melody and various others were mixed in the air in and around the residence of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, where breaking all barriers widows of Vrindavan and emancipated scavengers of Alwar, Tok (Rajasthan) made offerings to the Sun god and Chhathi Maiyya.

This was a celebration standing tall as it was a true projection of simplicity and societal harmony amidst the purity and sacredness of Chhath Puja. For years now, these women, the widows and erstwhile scavengers, have been a part of the festive zeal at Dr Pathak’s Delhi-residence – soaking in the purity, positivity and soulfulness of the Chhath Parv.

Just as Chhath depicts the purity and detoxification of mind, body, soul, such celebration with the widow mothers and the uplifted erstwhile scavengers is the best way to give the world the true sense of celebrating the grand festival.

The widow mothers were once leading a life of monochrome and darkness, full of restrictions and taboos. Similarly, these women from Alwar and Tonk (Rajasthan) were living a life of misery where they

were forced to do manual scavenging and considered ‘untouchable’. Today there is hope, happiness, colours and dignity in their lives. They celebrate Diwali, Holi, Rakshabandhan and Chhath with Dr Pathak. They are now happy. They sing, dance, offer prayers on various pious occasions (which were once out of their bound), and sit, eat and talk with others.

Eversince Dr Pathak has brought light in their lives, they have been celebrating the four-day festival of Chhath with fervour and gaiety with him. Their very participation is what stands this celebration apart from all.

Sulabh Chhath 2018 On November 12, Amola Pathak, wife of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, began the rituals after a bath and a vegetarian meal of rice, pumpkin, bottle gourd, milk etc. (Kharna).

The residence of Dr Pathak was decorated with flowers and banana trunks, with the devotional songs and Bhajans that are rendered during the Chhath Arghya being sung by the Sulabh music section.

Amola Pathak observed the fast for 36 hours as ordained by the Shastras. She would stand with folded hands facing Sun god, knee-deep in water, in a traditionally decorated small water tank, with banana trunks on its four sides to give ‘Arghya’ (offerings) to the setting Sun in a ‘soop’ (winnowing basket).

Chhath Sandhya Arghya had the trappings of a carnival in Dr Pathak’s residence. Besides the erstwhile

Chhath Puja

Nov 19 - 25, 2018 celebration gives social message to all.

Chhath Puja isn’t just a festival, it’s life – life to the withered souls, life to the downtrodden, life to one and all. And that is how Dr Bindeshwar Pathak has seen it and has been celebrating not one but thousands of lives.

scavengers and widows from Vrindavan, there were elders, friends, members of family, onlookers and numerous volunteers and senior officials from Sulabh who all paid tribute to setting Sun in the west. Pandits recited shlokas from Aditya Stotra eulogising the Sun god.

The rising Sun was worshipped in the morning of November 14 with offering ‘Usha Arghya’ (morning offerings). The end of this puja marks the end of the fast. After the worship, Amola Pathak gave Prasad, tied Baddhi (sacred thread) and applied vermilion to all present to participate in the holy rituals of Puja as a mark of blessing wishing a long life of their husbands and welfare of their family. It is indeed the time when the family bonds and feels rooted more than ever.

The biggest feature of this Chhath Puja at Dr Pathak’s residence is that while on one hand, it is an integral part of our folk tradition, on the other it is an occasion where the cordiality of family and society is visible prominently. The simplicity and purity of this Chhath

So, What Is Chhath Puja?

Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival historically native to the Indian subcontinent, more specifically the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and eastern part of Uttar Pradesh.

The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and Chhathi Maiyya (Usha, one of the wives of Sun).

It is the festival that makes people leave everything that is going on in their lives and head straight home, no matter which part of the country they stay in – back to the place where they belong.

The ghats are decked up, the roads wiped clean, the surroundings stand tall in all their shimmering glory, there is a smell of thekuas and sugarcanes in the air, and people start flocking in with much fervour to observe this one of the most important festivals dedicated to the Sun god and Chhathi Maiyya as a thanksgiving for granting health, prosperity and abundance.

The word ‘Chhath’ in Chhath Puja denotes the number six in Hindi as the festival begins on the sixth day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik. The celebrations carry on for four days, during which the devotees follow

Dr Pathak along with erstwhile scavengers of Alwar & Tonk on Chhath Puja

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Quick Glance Amola Pathak observed the fast for 36 hours as ordained by the Shastras Chhath Sandhya Arghya had the trappings of a carnival in Dr Pathak’s residence The rising Sun was worshipped in the morning of November 14 with offering ‘Usha arghya’

Amola Pathak observed the fast for 36 hours. After the worship, Amola Pathak gave Prasad and applied vermilion to all present to participate in the holy rituals of Puja as a mark of blessing wishing long life of their husbands and welfare of their family. It is indeed the time when the family bonds and feels rooted more than ever

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Chhath Puja

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

7 Musts Of Chhath Puja SOOP: This winnowing basket, made of bamboo, has special significance in the Puja. Bamboo is considered pure. All the worshipping material is kept in it and taken to the Puja ghat for offering the arghya.

THEKUA: The offerings of the thekua in Chhath as Prasad is considered as one of the most important part of the festival. Without this, the procedure of Chhath Puja is considered incomplete.

SUGARCANE: Sugarcane has a special significance in the Puja. The presence of sugarcane among the offering during the arghya is considered most important. Sugarcane is considered a pure source of sweet. It is said to be very dear to Chhathi Maiyya.

BANANA: In the worship of Chhathi Maiyya, an entire bunch of bananas is offered to the goddess. Banana is also used in prasad of Chhath Maiya.

COCONUT: Watery coconuts are also among the important worship ingredients and served as prasads after offering to Chhathi Maiyya.

DAAB NIMBU: These are a kind of lemon which are big in size. While yellow from the outside, these are reddish on the inside. They have a sourysweet taste and offered to the goddess.

RICE LADDOO: The round sweets are made from a special type of rice.

The quality of this rice is that it is prepared after multiple layers of paddy, this way it is not picked by any birds and remains pure. It is believed that by extending impure offerings in any way, Chhathi Maiyya becomes angry, so their purity is kept in mind.

The residence of Dr Pathak was decorated with flowers and banana trunks, with the devotional songs and Bhajans that are rendered during the Chhath Arghya being sung by the Sulabh music section

rigorous rituals including long fasts, holy baths in the Ganga at sunrise and sunset, and eating food cooked without salt, onion, and garlic.

Devotees rigorously fast for four days without even drinking water. Not only this, devotees stand in the water, usually river or lake, for long periods chanting prayers for the welfare of their family and making offerings to the Sun god thanking him for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.

The rituals are usually performed by the women folk clad in colourful attires. Each village communion has a water body designated for the purpose and the final day of the Chhath Puja offers visuals worthy to marvel at.

Tracing The Roots Chhath Puja is one of the most ancient Hindu festivals.

It first finds mention in the Rig Veda which contains hymns worshipping the Sun god and describes similar rituals.

There are diverse stories on why Chhath puja is celebrated. In the Mahabharata, there is a poem where Draupadi and the Pandavas, rulers of Indraprastha (modern Delhi), are depicted observing rituals similar to Chhath puja on the advice of noble sage Dhaumya.

Through Draupadi’s worship to the Sun God, she was not only able to solve her immediate problems, but also helped the Pandavas reclaim their lost kingdom.

Scientific history tells the tale of rishis who could stay without consuming any food and gain energy directly

from the sun’s rays using the Chhath method.

There is also a belief that Lord Rama and Sita had fasted and offered puja to the Lord Sun during their coronation after returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. From that time, Chhath puja became a significant and traditional festival in the Hindu religion.

The Blissful 4 Days!

The first day called ‘nahan khan’ or ‘nahai khai’ is when all the worshippers can be found at the river ghats taking a dip early in the morning and carry water from the same water body. This water is then used in the preparation of the prasad or the holy offerings to the Sun God. The worshippers, on the other hand, clean their houses and surroundings and eat only one meal in a day. First the Vratti eat and then other members of the family.

On the second day, women of the house observe a fast, not even a drop of water for the entire day and end it only after sunset. This is called ‘Kharna’. Later in the evening, Vrattis prepare special Prasad called RasiaoKheer. This day marks the beginning of a 36-hour tough fast which doesn’t even allow them to take a sip of water.

On the day of Chhath – the third day – there are gigantic preparations of the holy prasad and everyone flocks to the river ghats to take a dip in the evenings to worship the Sun God and Chhathi Maiyya. During the day, the daura (a basket made of bamboo sticks) is prepared putting into it all the offerings including thekua and seasonal fruit. Women of the house are

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Chhath Puja

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Dr Pathak along with widows of Vrindavan celebrating Chhath sweets, they generally prepare a sweet made of powdered rice, jaggery, saunf, and ghee.

On the second day of Chhath Puja, which is just a day prior to main Surya Shashti, people also fast for the whole day and break their fast after the sunset.

They do not consume a single drop of water or a morsel of food except the one sattvik and vegetarian meal.

For breaking the fast, devotees pray to Sun and the Moon, and offer kheer, chapattis, and bananas to their family and friends as prasad. Chhath puja songs are sung with devotion.

On the main day of Chhath, people go to the river bank during sunrise and then again during sunset and make Amola Pathak giving Baddhi (sacred thread) to widows mother various food offerings such as thekua, kheer, malpua and the likes. They also accompanied by all the family members to offer gather and sing folk songs ‘Sandhya Arghya’ (evening offerings) to the setting sun. and recite folk tales.

This is paired with everyone singing folk songs in the On the last day of the background.

Chhath Puja, devotees The fourth and the final day observes worshippers visit the river bank before gathered around the same water body in the morning the Sun rises and make and offering ‘Usha Arghya’ (morning offerings) to the offerings to the Sun. rising sun. The end of this puja marks the end of the Devotees break their 36fast. Everyone comes together to have the prasad. It is hour long fast and then indeed the time when the family bonds and feels rooted feast on the prasad along more than ever. with their loved ones.

The food prepared Of Offerings & Togetherness during these four days Apart from fasting, praying and taking dips in the holy is pure vegetarian and is Ganga, Chhath is a festival of offerings and feasts. cooked without the use People prepare puris along with sabjis like kaddu of onion, garlic and table (pumpkin), dudhi ki sabji, and even chana (gram). In salt. Of all, what stand

Chhath Puja isn’t just a festival, it’s life – life to the withered souls, life to the downtrodden, life to one and all

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Chhath Puja

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

The Worldwide Harmony Of Chhath Native to the Indian sub-continent, Chhath is also celebrated with much galore in the UK, the US, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, et al

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istorically originating from Bihar, Chhath Puja today is not limited to the state. It is celebrated in different parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Bengaluru, West Bengal, Assam, et al.

Interestingly, it has also spread globally. Native to the Indian sub-continent, the ancient Hindu festival is also celebrated with much galore by the Indian Diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and many other parts of the

The word ‘Chhath’ in Chhath Puja denotes the number six in Hindi as the festival begins on the sixth day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik

world.

Braving sub-zero temperature, hundreds of Indian-Americans – mainly those tracing their roots from Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh – celebrated Chhath Puja in the US this year as well. In the Maryland suburb of

Capital Washington DC, Chhath Puja was held on the banks of the historic Potomac River, which was attended by some 400 people while a large number of them gathered on a lakeside at Monroe Township’s Thompson Park in New Jersey. It was a picturesque scene at both the places, as onlookers compared the ceremony site to their memories of India’s Chhath Puja.

“This year it was the largest

ever gathering for Chhath Puja,” said prominent Indian-American Kripa Singh from Virginia, who along with his wife Anita started celebrating Chhath Puja in traditional way about a decade ago on the banks of the Potomac River.

Similarly, hundreds of families having Bihari-Jharkhand origin gathered to support the ladies performing the ceremony in New Jersey. People from as far as Vancouver and Michigan attended the Chhath Puja in New Jersey, according to a press release issued by the Bihar and Jharkhand Association of North America. “It reminds me of attending Chhath in Patna,” said Deputy Consul General New York, Shatrughan Sinha.

In Silicon Valley too people gather in huge numbers to celebrate the festival. Chhath geet, chanting of Surya Mantra and hawan – all are performed on the dedicated ghat at Quarry Lake, Fremont, California.

Similarly, Mauritius and the United Kingdom are two such places where the Indian population celebrates Chhath puja with full festivity. Noteworthy, more than 70 per cent of people living in Mauritius are of Indian origin and Bhojpuri is a popular language there. UK also shelters a large number of Indians and hence, the Sun worshiping is celebrated grandly.

Chhath Puja

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Amola Pathak standing in small water tank to give ‘Arghya’

Dr Pathak and Amola Pathak performing Puja on Chhath next morning, also known as Sandhya Arghya. After offering it to the Sun God, devotees distribute thekua in the form of prasad.

out are the kheer and the thekua that are enjoyed the best.

Thekua Stands Apart For the ones celebrating the Chhath festival and even the one who observe it from a distance, thekua is something of a top attraction.

Thekua is a sweet that is traditionally made of whole wheat flour, raisins, dry coconut, jaggery or sugar and ghee or refined oil. First of all, a solution of sugar or jaggery is made with water. This is then added to the wheat flour to form dough. This is followed by rolling a small chunk of the dough and pressing it against the wooden mould that has been greased with ghee to form small tikkis, which are then deep-fried in ghee till golden brown and crispy. Also known as khajuria or thikari, thekua is widely prepared in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Traditionally, in olden times, thekua was prepared on earthen chulhas using mango wood as fuel; nowadays, people prefer preparing it using bronze cookware. Thekua is generally prepared on the second day of Chhath (which is known as Kharna) or in the

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It’s Scientific, Healthy With roots in Mahabharata and Ramayana, Chhath Puja also has certain health benefits. The science and yogic philosophy behind Chhath dates back to the Vedic times.

According to yogic philosophy, the physical bodies of all the living organisms are highly sophisticated energy conducting channels.

The four-day Puja is believed to be very beneficial for the body of the devotee, who keeps the fast, and helps the human body get rid of toxicity. It helps the human body to detoxify, and the dips in the water by exposing oneself to the sun increases the flow of solar bio-electricity in the body. This bathing in sunlight improves the functionality of the body.

Worshipping the Sun in Kartik month allows absorption of Vitamin D (essential for the absorption of calcium and the prevention of rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults) from UVB rays which are predominant at sunset and sunrise. Vitamin D is then responsible for absorbing calcium from the food (all the food items used in this puja are high in calcium).

The rituals help the flow of blood and stimulate a balanced secretion of the hormones for the proper functioning of the body. The significance of worshiping the Sun God is that during the periods of sunrise and sunset, human beings can obtain optimum energy from the Sun and safely harness it.

Standing in the water of the Ganga allows the energy absorbed from the Sun to move along the spine, cleansing the human body. A kind of polarisation in the spine helps the body to be transformed into a cosmic energy powerhouse.

It is said that it also helps eliminate harmful microorganisms present in the body and with this prepares the body for the onset of the winter by strengthening the immune system.

Chhath Puja rituals help the flow of blood and stimulate a balanced secretion of the hormones for proper functioning of the body. The significance of worshiping the Sun God is that during the periods of sunrise and sunset, human beings can obtain optimum energy from the sun and safely harness it.

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Save Ganga

NOV 19 - 25, 2018

innovative idea

“10,000 Dedicated People, & Ganga Will Be Clean”: Dr Bindeshwar Pathak The Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement founder has a revolutionary idea that can rejuvenate Ganga like never before SSB BUREAU

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he goes on, flows on. She takes one to the feet of Lord. She is lifeline.

She is Ganga. Save Ganga, it will save us!

The importance of Ganga and how it nurtured and supported the rise of Indian civilisation is no hidden tale. And so, many ideas, concepts and projects have been pitched and implemented over the years to clean the holy river and get rid of the pollution taking over its beauty, relevance.

From 1905 to 2018 we saw ambitious efforts such as the inception of the Ganga Mahasabha in 1905, launch of the Ganges Action Plan in 1985, establishment of the National River Ganga Basin Authority (NRGBA) in 2009, the closure of many industrial plants by the Supreme Court, the introduction of integrated Ganga development project ‘Namami Gange’ in 2014, the setup of National Mission for Clean Ganga in 2016, et al. The efforts have been plethora but it still remains as though a game changing plan is yet awaited. An idea that is simple to implement yet so effective that it can change the scenario for once and all!

Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, is a man of innovations – take for example his idea of the two-pit pour-flush toilets that not only dismisses the malpractice of open-defecation but also ploughed out the evil custom of manual scavenging. One such innovative idea that Dr Pathak has is like The Mantra to achieve clean flowing Ganga, rejuvenate the holy river and restore it into the pure holy river it was ages ago.

Dr Pathak’s idea: Dedicate to Ganga 10,000 responsible, accountable people/volunteers and she will be cent per cent clean soon, and remain that way!

HOW? Read in Dr Pathak’s own words:

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A ‘Sulabh’ Solution “There is a popular saying in Hindi which says that if a person does not look after his farm and cattle daily, he will lose both. So to keep Ganga clean, people themselves have to engage. Areas should be allotted as per proximity, and each person should be accountable to their particular area.

The length of Ganga is 2525 km, and starting from Gangotri the number of people required – say, half kilometer per person, i.e. only 5000 people each on both the sides of the river – will be only 10,000 and the Ganga will be clean.

Such people should be held accountable who can be punished and/or awarded. It will be their responsibility, that if there is any factory or brewery in their area, no waste is deposited into the river. It will be as simple as that. It will not only ensure the cleanliness but also provide employment to these many people, and make the process transparent as well. It is a ‘Sulabh’ solution.”

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Let The Mainstream Do The Trick “Dead corpses are burnt and then the ashes are immersed into Ganga. We have seen that the mainstream is not polluted, it has such quality/characteristic that it does not get polluted. That is because the mainstream is able to take care of the pollution itself.

Such arrangements should be made that ashes are immersed at such point which is 200 metres away from the mainstream. When the ashes will reach the mainstream after 200 metres, they will be then taken care of by mainstream itself. Otherwise what is happening now is that all the immersed substances settle around the banks of these rivers.”

Save Ganga

NOV 19 - 25, 2018

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Daily & Immediate Actions “The former CM of Bihar, Daroga Prasad Rai, had said that social work cannot be done alone by the government or an organisation. If the two join hands, then only the mission can be accomplished. This is true.

If all come together, it can be done.

We all pray the holy Ganga. Nobody has to tell us to do that, we do it by our own.

Similarly, to keep Ganga clean, whatever one can do on their own they should contribute with that.

Pick one area and visit it daily to check its cleanliness. Engage with your family, friends, neighbours to keep it clean. If fund is needed, you can ask the tourists and pilgrims for donation. You can even approach the government for funding. But you have to look after the area daily.

Round the globe when if the corpses or carcasses are thrown into rivers they should be immediately roped out. We (Sulabh) cleaned one ghat – Assi Ghat, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaned and then later on Sulabh took it forward. Today, round-the-clock we look after it. If something is littered around the Assi Ghat or thrown into the river, we immediately remove it. Our people sit on boats and whenever anybody throws any flower, fruit or anything else, we immediately take them out of the river.

Till the time Ganga is not maintained round-the-clock, nothing substantial will happen.”

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Don’t Change Traditions, Change Habits “We cannot stop people from offering diyas or flowers to the holy Ganga, but we can at least urge them to take it all out from the river and keep aside on the bank once the pooja is done. The caretaker can remove them from there.

Sulabh believes in giving practical and mutual solutions – What is human behaviour and how we can change it mutually, make them understand. Such solutions will work in the long run.

Nowadays flowers are used as good composts or for extracting the Holi colours. The people who do the extraction can collect these flowers from the banks and reuse for the desired output.”

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Treatment As Important As Protection “Treatment of waste water is very necessary. Today there are 732 cities whose sewage water goes direct to rivers. Class-I cities are around 500, 232 are Class-II cities. Treatment coverage in the Class-I cities is average, i.e. only 32 per cent. Treatment in Class-II cities is mere 8 per cent. Treatment in

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Delhi is 69 per cent. So the remaining goes into rivers, Ganga being one such river.

For cleaning Ganga, it is important that sewage water and the wastewaters from tanneries and breweries be treated 100 per cent.

All the early civilisations settled on the banks of rivers as water was needed for drinking, trade and commerce, and dispose off the used water, be it of toilets, kitchens, etc, into those rivers. Earlier the population was less and so the use of toilets was also limited. Now what has happened is that lakhs and crores of people are living in one city.

Today Sulabh recycles the human excreta, produces biogas from it and ignites lamps, cooks food, produces electricity, etc. with that very gas. And the water that we clean through our plant is so clean – there is a technical term for it: Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) per liter per milligram – that it has 10 BOD, which is of very clean water. It has nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and can be used for various activities such as farming, where it will act as a compost, or can even be added to rivers.

This way the river too can remain clean and free of pollution. Such treatment plants, of the kind that is here in Sulabh Gram, are needed to be placed in such way that even before the sewage can enter the river, the water is cleaned prior hand. Then the water can immerse into rivers and no pollution will be done.”

6.

Don’t Forget The Toilets!

“As you can see, with reference to saving the environment from pollution, the toilets built in houses and at public places are a big reason behind the however much cleanliness that is there today in India. You can imagine it for yourself that had the situation that was 50 years ago remained the same today, then what would have been the current scenario? Had Sulabh Shauchalaya not been invented, then even today neither the malpractice of open defecation nor manual scavenging could have ended.

Through the joint efforts of Uttarakhand government and Sulabh, toilets were built in Uttarakhand, especially Gangotri. The Uttarakhand government wanted that Sulabh Shauchalaya be built in Gangotri so that the pilgrims do not have to roam about and open defecate which pollutes the area as well as the Ganga Jal. All the houses that are built near the banks of Ganga, or are in the catchment area, should have toilets so that there is no open defecation and no deposit of human excreta into the holy river.

Plus, just building the toilet is not sufficient, it has to be maintained. It should be clean, people should be made aware to access it.”

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Sanitation

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

sweden

Commitment To Improve Water & Sanitation For 60 Million people Access to sanitation, especially, is crucial for global equality, and for the rights and needs of women and girls

Swedes confused over gender neutral toilets

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n SSB BUREAU

head of Global Citizen Festival in 2015, global citizens campaigned to secure a commitment from Sweden to improve access to sanitation for 60 million people by 2030.

From July 2015, global citizens sent the Swedish government 40,000 emails asking them to help provide clean water and sanitation. In addition, global citizens also sent voicemails that were presented to the Swedish International Development Cooperation as a video message during World Water Week.

Finally, Global Citizen Festival Curator Chris Martin personally wrote to Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, highlighting the link between gender equality and access to water and sanitation.

Global Citizens took these actions to stand up for the 2.4 billion people who do not have access to clean toilets, and almost 1 billion people who defecate in the open. They targeted Sweden as the world’s first feminist government because poor water and sanitation affect children, and girls and women the most, globally spending 200 million hours a day obtaining water. Therefore, a commitment on water and sanitation resonated strongly with the Swedish government.

Behind the scenes, Global Citizen worked with partners like WSSCC, the World Bank, WaterAid and UNICEF to ensure the campaigning was aligned, as well as securing support from influencers in the corporate world to see a commitment from Sweden at Festival.

Access to sanitation, especially, is crucial for global equality, and for the

rights and needs of women and girls. So as a feminist, I (Prime Minister) make this pledge: “Over the next 15 years, Sweden’s almost 10 million inhabitants will support efforts to improve access to sanitation for 60 million people throughout the world,” said Stefan.

Sweden is still committed to quality sanitation as part of the broader health picture, and as part of their response to the global refugee crisis, although they have capped their ODA budget response to refugees to a maximum of 30 per cent to ensure the majority of funds are directed to the world’s poorest people.

“Our support to schools and education, to LGBT activists, to clean water, toilets in refugee camps, to specific initiatives for girls and women, food parcels to refugees. I am glad that there are many in Sweden who raises their voices for us to take even greater responsibility to make the world better,” said the prime minister.

Targets • By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

• By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations • Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management Water and Sewage Disposal In Sweden, water supply and sewage disposal are by law a municipal responsibility.

Under municipal control and with financial support from the state, intensive construction of treatment plants was carried out during the 1960s and 70s. Today, 95 per cent of the wastewater is treated both biologically and chemically and as much as 54 per cent also goes through special nitrogen removal. Water supply and sewage disposal infrastructure for municipal use encompass more than 2,000 waterworks, 67,000 kilometres of water pipes, around 2,000 sewage treatment plants and 92,000 kilometres of sewers. In total, some 6,000 people work in the sector.

Sweden is setting an example for the rest of the world, when it comes to waste management

Campaigners propose that instead of dividing toilets into male and female, they should be labelled as ‘stand-up’ or ‘sit-down’. The idea is that everyone should be allowed to choose which toilets to attend, but according to Transgender campaigner and actress Aleksa Lundberg, it is also a question of transgender people’s safety.

“There is always a risk of violence, especially for trans girls. If you use the ladies’ toilet they throw you out, and if you have to use the men’s toilet there is a risk that you will be beaten up. (…) It has happened to me and many other transgender people several times, no matter if it’s in the street or in clubs, that people have pushed me away,” she told.

Don’t waste waste!

Sweden is setting an example for the rest of the world, when it comes to waste management. Less than 1 per cent of Sweden’s household waste ends up in landfills. Of the 4.4 million tons of household waste produced by the nation every year, 2.2 million are converted into energy by a process called waste-to-energy (WTE).

Before this process starts, home and business owners filter and separate the waste into ‘hazardous wastes’ and ‘recyclable material’, which are then sent to different waste-management systems, like incinerators and recycling, and a small amount to landfills.

The furnaces in WTE plants are loaded with garbage, and then burnt to generate steam which is further used to spin turbines in order to produce electricity.

The waste that is recycled is essentially used as a resource, converted into district heating, electricity, biogas, and biofertilizer.

Environment

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

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Green Governance

Recycling INRevolution Hyderabad IAS Officer Hari Chandana Dasari has been dedicated to numerous recycling initiatives under her jurisdiction for over two years SSB BUREAU

various plastic recycling initiatives across the city.

Right from installing veryone talks about upcycled furniture made eliminating the curse of waste from unused tyres and and environment friendly old oil drums at over 120 construction, but no one knows parks in the city to the where to start or where to approach. conception of housing Currently, the Zonal Commissioner and sanitation projects (West Zone) of the Greater where paver tiles and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation roofing sheets are made (GHMC), Hari Chandana Dasari of recycled plastic, has been dedicatedly invested in Hyderabad is witnessing a numerous recycling initiatives under remarkable change, thanks to Dasari’s her jurisdiction for over two years now, and with her efforts, all the parks extra interest in the initiative.

So, what prompted her to take in Hyderabad city are now attracting up recycling and initiate various everyone. initiatives across the cityscape of Hyderabad?

Plastic Pollution “The idea first occurred to me India roughly generates around 25,940 about two years ago. We had a lot tonnes of plastic waste a day, as per a of old tires lying strewn across 2017 report by the Central Pollution our municipal premises and upon Control Board (CPCB). noticing, I was keen upon putting While this study comprises them to some use. These tyres were extrapolated data from about 60 repurposed as upcycled furniture that major cities across the country, yet was originally used in our offices. another study showcases that almost Then, I wondered, why not 90 per cent of this generated scale up the initiative plastic invariably ends and take it to public up in landfills or water spaces,” says Dasari. bodies instead of The idea Today, if you recycling, with was to push the scope visit any one of about half falling and cost-effectiveness the public parks under the singleof alternative in the city, not use category. construction materials only would you Many find benches, individuals like recycled plastic seats, flower pots, and non-profit among public and and even dustbins organisations administrative made of upcycled in India have echelons tyres or oil drums been vehemently but also colourful paver championing the cause tiles lining the walkways of recycling and upcycling for pedestrians that are made of plastic for several years now. recycled plastic waste.

However, for these practices to be Working on this recycling crusade conceived and implemented at the alongside Dasari is Prashant Lingam administrative level is something that of Bamboo House India, a social is slowly catching up. enterprise based in the city that has been providing eco-friendly and Green Revolution sustainable low-cost housing solutions IAS officer Hari Chandana Dasari is for a decade now. spearheading a ‘green’ revolution of a “The idea was to push the scope, different kind in Hyderabad through

E

and cost-effectiveness of alternative construction materials like recycled plastic, not just among public but also the administrative echelons and it worked quite well. Many people from the city reached out to us directly, asking if they could also have recycled plastic paver tiles in their homes.

Representatives from municipal corporations of cities like Mumbai and Pune also got in touch to ask about our various recycling projects, as they wanted to implement something similar in their ambit,” mentions Dasari.

She also shares that this is a good sign because people are slowly waking to the perils of plastic and want to actively engage in recycling activities but don’t know where to start. “When civic bodies engage in eco-friendly initiatives like these, it sets an example for its citizens to follow and imbibe in their lives,” she adds. “Compared to regular structures, the cost of recycled plastic construction materials might prove to be little higher, but we believe that this will be an offset to the cost that our environment is paying

while answering to all our needs and requirements,” states Dasari.

Yet another initiative led by Dasari is the ‘Give and Share’ centre, where numerous kiosks across Hyderabad have erected small 3-walled structures, where people can donate anything and everything for underprivileged people to pick up.

“All of these structures are constructed using upcycled plastic bottles. While the initiative allows people to showcase their compassionate side, it also draws their attention towards upcycling and the greater message of environment conservation. With that we can hope that more people can forward and take up recycling as a way of life,” she adds.

Dasari also practices what she preaches and shares that her household has not contributed any form of wet waste to the garbage dumps in last three years, as 100 per cent of it is routed for composting-she has installed a compact biogas unit at her place.

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Off-Beat

NOV 19 - 25, 2018 Arecibo Message

Humankind’s First Interstellar Radio Message 3-minute radio message—a series of exactly 1,679 binary digits was aimed at a cluster of stars 25,000 light years away from earth

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Agency

ovember 16, 2018, marks 44 years since researchers sent humankind’s first interstellar radio message - an achievement Google celebrated with a Google Doodle.

The Arecibo Message, sent from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974, is a three-minute message of exactly 1,679 binary digits - which, if arranged in a specific way, can explain basic information about humanity and earth to extraterrestrial beings.

The Arecibo message is a 1974

interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth sent to globular star “cluster M13” 25,000 light years

away, with a hope that extraterrestrial intelligence might receive and decipher it.

The message was sent from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

It had exactly 1,679 binary digits (210 bytes) which, if arranged in a specific way, can explain basic information about humanity and earth to extraterrestrial beings.

The message was broadcast into space a single time via frequency

modulated radio waves.

Astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake from Cornell University wrote the message with the help from American astronomer Carl Sagan, among others.

“It was a strictly symbolic event, to show that we could do it,” Cornell University professor Donald Campbell was quoted as saying in an Independent report.

Since it will take nearly 25,000 years for the message to reach its destination – and an additional 25,000 years for a reply, if any, the Arecibo message is viewed as the first demonstration of human technological achievement.

LPG

IIT Kharagpur’s Research To Boost LPG Distribution It is a first of its kind for analysis of a national level energy policy Agency

I

IT Kharagpur researchers have devised a decision support system to help maximise the LPG connections in BPL (below poverty line) households, an official statement said.

It is a first of its kind for analysis of a national level energy policy, it said. “A team of researchers, led by Manoj Kumar Tiwari of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has devised a decision support system focusing on the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for maximising the number of LPG connections, particularly in BPL households,” the statement said.

A decision support system (DSS) is a computer programme that helps in making sound rational decisions using mathematical programming and operation research techniques.

“The DSS for such policies can provide us with the exact values of important parameters over the prescribed policy time period, which in turn will help us to take important measures to ascertain the proper functioning (monitoring) of the policy towards the

desired goal,” Tiwari said. PMUY, launched in May 2016, aimed to provide five crore LPG connections by 2019 to BPL families with the support of Rs 1,600 to each family. The government has recently revised the target to eight crore LPG connections by 2020.

The DSS devised at the IIT uses mixed integer linear programming to mathematically formulate the policy using input parameters, decision variables and

their relationships.

The mathematical model has found the optimum number of total (BPL) connections required in a region, number of dealerships that need to be commissioned in a region over the policy time frame.

The IIT team has done sensitivity analysis with the mathematical model -- change in a decision variable with respect to the change in the parameter.

With this, they can predict not only how the number of household connections can be increased but also the critical region that contributes most in each zone of LPG distribution.

Certain areas though have been well covered, such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal. The government needs to pay special attention to regions critical to LPG penetration, such as Assam in the Northeastern zone, in order to achieve 100 per cent BPL household penetration, the institute said.

This kind of DSS can be developed for various federal and state level policies for various commodities like solar panels distributions, agricultural commodities and so on.

State-News

NOV 19 - 25, 2018

bihar

Three Teams To Count Endangered Gangetic Dolphins According to the experts, dolphin presence is a sign of a healthy river ecosystem Imran Khan

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hree teams of experts and scientists will from November 18 begin a comprehensive drive to enumerate the endangered Gangetic dolphins along nearly 1,000 km of the river Ganga and its two major tributaries -- Gandak and Ghaghra -- in Bihar.

Scientists expect to find out the exact number of these dolphins by the middle of December after the completion of the first such comprehensive census, officials said.

The survey will help authorities formulate conservation policies and make sure the dolphins’ count doesn’t dwindle.

“The census of the endangered dolphins will be completed on December 10. A summary report would be submitted to the government in March next year,” Gopal Sharma, senior scientist at the Zoological Survey of India, said. Sharma will lead one of the teams.

The other two groups would be led by Sameer Kumar Sinha of the Wildlife Trust of India, and Sunil Choudhary, Coordinator of Vikramshila Biodiversity Research and Education Centre (VBREC), Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University.

Sharma told that this would be the first time that a survey is being conducted simultaneously in the Ganga and its two major tributaries.

This is also the first time that a coordinated exercise will be made for the dolphin population assessment.

According to him, the three teams will begin the survey in their respective zones on the same day to minimise the possibility of duplication in the dolphin count.

“I will carry out the survey from Chausa in Buxar district to Mokama in Patna, a stretch of about 300 km

in the river Ganga, to count the number of dolphins there during 22 days,” Sharma said.

Sinha will carry out the survey in Ghaghra and Gandak along a 400-km stretch, while Choudhary will conduct the assessment from Mokama to Manihari, a stretch of about 300 kilometres.

Bihar is home to around half of the estimated 3,000 dolphin population in the country. The last survey of the dolphins was conducted in a limited stretch in 2012 in Bihar and

The Gangetic river dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal but frequently falls prey to poachers

nearly 1,500 dolphins were counted then.

The Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bhagalpur district is India’s only such sanctuary, spread over 50 km along the Ganges.

“Unlike in the past, this time a full survey on a large scale will help count the exact number of dolphins,” Sinha said. He said that the survey will help the government take measures for conservation of the dolphins.

RK Sinha, an expert on Gangetic river dolphins, said that the habitat of the endangered Gangetic river dolphins has been changing due to climate change, threatening their survival. Change in their habitat has resulted in a decrease in their population.

RK Sinha, known as the ‘Dolphin Man’, said that several habitats of the Gangetic river dolphins have shrunk in the past few decades, and many more will follow in coming years due to climate change.

“Rising temperature and erratic rainfall are leading to a fast decline in river flow that is bound to hit dolphins,” he added.

Dolphins prefer water that is at least five feet to eight feet deep. They are usually found in turbulent waters, where there are enough fish for them to feed on.

Demand for water from the river has been increasing with rise in temperature. “We need more water, but water level is declining in the river, putting more pressure on the dolphins to manage their life cycle,” RK Sinha said.

Experts agree that Gangetic dolphins’ habitats face serious threats from climate change.

They pointed that increasing pollution due to largescale discharge of industrial and municipal waste, siltation, and mechanised boats pose the biggest threat to these freshwater dolphins.

The Gangetic river dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal but frequently falls prey to poachers.

Their carcasses are found regularly on river banks. Gangetic river dolphins fall under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act and have been declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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uttar pradesh

Pension For Disabled Now Made Fully Online People who suffer from 40 per cent or more disability can avail this facility

n Agency

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ension given to the disabled in Uttar Pradesh has been completely made online across the state, an official said.

Instructions have also been issued by the state government to officials to ensure that the disabled are not harassed in the name of physical verification.

Additional Chief Secretary (Handicap Welfare) Mahesh Gupta issued instructions to all district officials with regards to the pension scheme being completely made online.

More than 47,000 disabled persons have been identified in November for the pension and officials have been asked to ensure that the first installment is transferred to their bank accounts. Those below the poverty line were entitled to Rs 300 per month pension which was increased to Rs 500 per month and the state government had enhanced the budget for this pension from Rs 333 crore to Rs 575 crore in 2018.

People who suffer from 40 per cent or more disability can avail this pension. Irked at complaints that the pension beneficiaries face tough time providing disability certificate, the state government has said that all these details, certified by the state’s Health Department, were available on the Revenue Department website.

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International Personality

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Ezra Pound

A Master Of Modernist Poetry & Imagism He is a major figure in ‘modernist’ literature, renowned for his remarkable knowledge of poetic forms, his experiments in style, and his interest in world literatures

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n Urooj Fatima

esides having one of the most terrifyingly brutal pun-ready names in the English language, EZRA Pound was one of the 20th century’s great American poets. This man was important for single-handedly crafting the tradition of Modernist poetry and quite literally shaping the work of other players of the period, such as TS Eliot and HD. Pound’s Imagism, which morphed into Vorticism after 1913, gave poetry in English its focus on simple, concrete diction and spare syntax, as well as its emphasis on strong visual imagery, which continues to this day.

In the early teens of the twentieth century, he opened a seminal exchange of work and ideas between British and American writers, and was famous for the generosity with which he advanced the work of such major contemporaries

as WB Yeats, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, HD, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and especially TS Eliot.

Pound has been one of the most controversial; he has also been one of modern poetry’s most important contributors. In an introduction to the Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, TS Eliot declared that Pound “is more responsible for the twentieth-century revolution in poetry than is any other individual.” Four decades later, Donald Hall reaffirmed in remarks collected in Remembering Poets that “Ezra Pound is the poet who, a thousand times more than any other man, has made modern poetry possible in English.”

He is renowned for his remarkable knowledge of poetic forms, his experiments in style, and his interest in world literatures. He is best known for the group he founded in 1913, which he named ‘Imagism’, and for his long poem, The Cantos, which he began around 1915 and left unfinished at his death in 1972.

Early Years Ezra Pound was born in the small mining town of Hailey, Idaho, on October 30, 1885. The only child of Homer Loomis Pound, a Federal Land Office official, and his wife, Isabel, Ezra spent the bulk of his childhood just outside Philadelphia. His childhood

“The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy”

seems to have been a happy one. He eventually attended Cheltenham Military Academy, staying there two years before leaving to finish his high school education at a local public school.

In 1901, Pound enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, but left after two years and transferred to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. By this time, Pound knew full well that he wanted to be a poet. At the age of 15, he had told his parents as much. Though his chosen vocation certainly wasn’t something he had inherited directly from his more conventional mother and father, Homer and Isabel were supportive of their son’s choice.

Young Ezra found and developed an early interest in the two worlds that would passionately shape him; poetry and politics. His first work, published in the Jenkintown Times-Chronicle, was about presidential candidate William Jennings Brian, who lost the election.

“There was a young man from the West, He did what he could for what he thought best; But election came round, He found himself drowned, And the papers will tell you the rest.”

-Ezra Pound, Age 11 Later in life, while working as an editor in Europe, he would recount the goals he had set out for himself (see excerpt below) and become legendary for his acquired skill and the ability to make master poets out of his protégés.

I resolved that at thirty I would know more about poetry than any man living… that I would know what was accounted poetry everywhere, what part of poetry was ‘indestructible’, what part could not be lost by translation and — scarcely less important — what effects were obtainable in one language only and were utterly incapable of being translated.

In this search I learned more or less of nine foreign languages, I read Oriental stuff in translations, I fought every University regulation and every professor

International Personality

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

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Fascinating Facts • Ezra Pound’s middle name was Loomis • His first published poem was a limerick which appeared in his local paper in 1896, when he was 11 years old • Pound coined the word ‘logopoeia’, which he defined as ‘the dance of the intellect among words’ • He never finished his doctoral work; instead in 1907, he started teaching Romance languages at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana • In December 1908, he self-published another book of poems, titled ‘A Quinzaine for This Yule’ and then spent the following two months teaching at Regent Street Polytechnic. Meanwhile, he managed to persuade Mathews to publish his next three books.

• Out of the three, ‘Personae of Ezra Pound’ was published in April 1909. It was his first commercial success and was followed by his fourth book of poems, ‘Exultations of Ezra Pound’, published in October 1909.

who tried to make me learn anything except this, or who bothered me with “requirements for degrees.”

Imagist & Vorticist movement In 1908, Pound set sail for Venice. There he paid $8.00 for the printing of the first volume of his poetry -­ A Lume Spento (With Tapers Quenched). Pound then travelled to England to meet WB Yeats.

He quickly became a literary success in London. The following year he met Yeats and became the dominant figure at Yeats’ Monday evenings.

Pound also came into contact with The English Review, which was publishing works by new talents such as DH Lawrence, and the author, painter and critic Wyndham Lewis. In 1911 Pound launched his campaign for innovative writing in The New Age, edited by the monetary reformer AR Orage. To Pound, the new poetry of the century would be “austere, direct, and free from emotional slither.”

The following year Pound founded the Imagist movement in literature.

He was by this time already helping to launch the careers of William Carlos Williams, TS Eliot, Hemingway, and James Joyce. He had also become the mentor of Yeats, 20 years Pound’s senior and already world famed.

In remarks first recorded in the March 1913 Poetry and later collected in his Literary Essays as “A Retrospect,” Pound explained his new literary direction. Imagism combined the creation of an “image”—what he defined as “an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” or an “interpretative metaphor”—with rigorous requirements for writing.

In 1914 Pound started another more enduring movement that was to have a lasting influence on English culture, the Vorticist movement. The impetus came originally from a young avant-

garde sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

A True Friend What remains distinctly consistent in all his biographies was that he did not rise alone. He was fiercely protective of his friends and would recommend and get the most talented within his circle published. TS Eliot credits his work and ability to Ezra as do three other Nobel Prize winning Laureates, James Joyce, Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway.

A difficult personality, he might have been, but he never gave any of his friends cause to question his loyalty.

His fashion sense At the University of Pennsylvania, where he went to study in 1901, Ezra Pound contravened college convention by wearing flashy socks, something freshmen were forbidden to do; he was promptly thrown into a lily pond by second-year students (this earned him the nickname ‘Lily Pound’).

Shortly after Pound arrived in London in the early twentieth century, Ford Madox Ford described the young poet’s clothes: he ‘had trousers made of green billiard cloth, a pink coat, a blue shirt, a tie hand-painted by a Japanese

His Epitaph

Like many poets, Ezra Pound wrote his own epitaph.

It was a poem called “E. P. Ode pour l’Election de son Sepulchre” (Ode on Choosing His Tomb), written just after World War I: For three years, out of key with his time.

He strove to resuscitate the dead art Of poetry; to maintain “the sublime” In the old sense. Wrong from the start— No. Hardly, but seeing he had beers born In a half savage country, out of date; Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn.

Giving the rocks small leeway The chopped seas held him therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert.

He fished by obstinate isles; Observed the elegance of Circe’s hair Rather than the mottoes on sun‐dials.

Unaffected by “the march of events,” He passed from men’s memory in l’an trentiesme De son cage; the case presents No adjunct to the Muses’ diadem.

friend and an immense sombrero. All this was accompanied by a flaming beard cut to a point and a single, large blue earring’.

Major work- ‘The Cantos’ Ezra Pound is best remembered for his unfinished epic poem, ‘The Cantos.’

Mostly written between 1915 and 1962, the work contains 116 sections, each of which is a ‘canto.’ It is a mixture of satire, hymns, elegies and essays, covering different themes such as economics, governance, culture and memoirs.

TS Eliot once described Ezra Pound as “the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time.” While this quotation is often cited as praise for Pound’s preeminent translation abilities, it is worth noting that Eliot uses the word “inventor” rather than “translator.” Because Pound, a white man who couldn’t speak or read a word of Chinese, was not even necessarily attempting to faithfully recreate Cathay’s poems in English; he rewrote the poems to fit into American modernist aesthetics, bringing ancient Chinese poetry into his own place and time. Pound’s translations represented the most extreme form of domestication, a practice that theorist Lawrence Venuti called “a manifestation of ethnocentric violence.”

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Nov 19 - 25, 2018

We have to prove to the disinherated majority of the world that ecology and conservation will not work against their interest but will bring an improvement in their lives

Indira Gandhi

Toilets for all

jairam ramesh

VIEWPOINT

He is an Indian economist and politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Andhra Pradesh state in the Rajya Sabha

Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature

A Life in Nature presents the former prime minister’s life as a naturalist and examines how she steered India’s conservation policy

The deadline for the world is 2030

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n the occasion of the World Toilet Day (November 19), it is useful to remember that the sixth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also referred to as SDG 6, adopted by the United Nations, mandates toilets for all by 2030. We are still far away from

fulfilling the goal because it is estimated that about 4.5 billion people in the world, still do not have access to a toilet. It is not an impossible task if the government’s and international organisations like the United Nations and it’s affiliates, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), set their mind to it. Sulabh occupies a prominent place because it is an NGO, and it works in a country where sanitation is crying need. In other Asian and African countries too, home-grown NGOs on the lines of Sulabh are the need of the hour. Western NGOs cannot do the job which needs to be done locally, and ideally on a voluntary basis, without waiting for the government’s to take up the task. 2030 is barely a decade away, and there is need to pursue SDG6 on a war-footing.

Editor-in-Chief

Kumar Dilip Edited, Printed and Published by: Monika Jain on behalf of Sulabh Sanitation Mission Foundation, owned by Sulabh Sanitation Mission Foundation Printed at: The Indian Express Limited A - 8, Sector -7, NOIDA (UP) Published at: RZ - 83, Mahavir Enclave, Palam - Dabri Road, New Delhi - 110045 (India) Corporate Office: 819, Wave Silver Tower, Sector - 18, NOIDA (UP) Phone: +91-120-2970819 Email: editor@sulabhswachhbharat.com, ssbweekly@gmail.com

From the Chapter 1: A First Word …This is an unconventional biography of Indira Gandhi—for it deals with only one aspect of her personality and her record in office.

Why focus on Indira Gandhi’s life as a naturalist when she was quintessentially a politician?

The answer is simple.

A naturalist is who Indira Gandhi really was, who she thought she was. She got sucked into the whirlpool of politics but the real Indira Gandhi was the person who loved the mountains, cared deeply for wildlife, was passionate about birds, stones, trees and forests, and was worried deeply about the environmental consequences of urbanization and industrialization.

She was the only head of government, other

than the host prime minister, to speak at the first-ever United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972. Her speech there has reverberated down the decades.

She was singularly responsible not just for India’s best-known wildlife conservation programme—namely, Project Tiger—but also for less highprofile initiatives for the protection of crocodiles, lions, hanguls, cranes, bustards, flamingos, deer and other endangered species.

She almost single-handedly pushed through two laws—one for the protection of wildlife and another for the conservation of forests, which continue to hold sway. Today’s laws for dealing with water and air pollution were enacted during her tenure.

Indira Gandhi used her political authority to

She almost single-handedly pushed through two laws—one for the protection of wildlife and another for the conservation of forests, which continue to hold sway

Nov 19 - 25, 2018 save ecologically sensitive areas from destruction like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the entire northeast and the rainforests in the Western Ghats.

She repeatedly drew the attention of chief ministers and other political colleagues to issues concerning wildlife, forests, pollution, resettlement, and for the need to always maintain what she called ‘ecological balance’.

She highlighted, time and again, the inextricable link between India’s natural and built heritage. Indeed, she was one of the very few—perhaps, the only one—to see nature and culture as two sides of the same coin.

It is because of these accomplishments, among several others, that Indira Gandhi deserves to be looked at with a fresh ‘green’ lens.

While her politics and economics changed over the years, all through she remained steadfast to conservation.

This passion survived the vicissitudes in her life.

On matters related to the environment, she was open-minded and deeply engaged all the time. She listened, consulted and reached out.

She responded to what she was being told. She was both active and proactive.

She gave political space to different points of view; she offered time, often at short notice, to those who would not normally have been able to reach individuals at the helm of decisionmaking. She took courageous positions that had no immediate electoral payoffs.

The environmentalist in her has never got the acknowledgement it warrants from her biographers… A cohesive ecological narrative extending right through her life based on written records has been missing.

That is the unabashed reason for this book. It is an exploration of a relatively under-appreciated dimension of Indira Gandhi’s personality and of her achievements in public life as an ecologist. …Whatever the judgement regarding her politics or economics, Indira Gandhi is still relevant as far as India’s search for ecological security in its pursuit of high economic growth is concerned.

On more than one occasion Indira Gandhi had said that she was no feminist. By the same token, she was no narrow, one-dimensional environmentalist either. She was always acutely aware and deeply conscious that she was the prime minister of a country burdened by deprivation and poverty, a country where malnutrition and disease were widely prevalent, a country where the main challenge was to educate a growing population and provide it with expanding employment

opportunities.

Her entire effort, therefore, was to arrive at a balance between ecology and economic growth. This meant that, at times, she would align herself with the ecology and on other occasions, with the forces of growth and industrialization, while insisting on ecological safeguards…

From Chapter 3: The Companionship Years (1950–1964)

By Indira’s own admission, her entire life revolved around India’s first prime minister. … for the purposes of this book—it’s best to describe the time between 1950 and 1964 as ‘the companionship years’. …For fourteen years, Indira Gandhi lived in Teen Murti House, the prime minister’s official residence in a lush green 65-acre complex with peacocks and various other birds. This sprawling colonial-era bungalow was originally built for the British commander-in-chief who started living there in 1930. When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, there was concern that Nehru might be the next target. A reluctant Nehru was persuaded by his cabinet to move into the bungalow, which he did on 2 August 1948. Indira Gandhi shuttled back and forth between Lucknow and New Delhi, before moving in full-time with her father in early 1950.

The prime minister’s residence was a mini-zoo of sorts—as graphically described by Indira Gandhi herself seven years into her stay there: We always had dogs, the good kind with long pedigrees and others rescued off the streets that were just as devoted—also parrots, pigeons, squirrels and practically every small creature common to the Indian scene. And we thought life was pretty full, looking after them on top of all the older [sic] chores.

Then in Assam, we were presented with a baby cat-bear (or red Himalayan panda), although we did not know what it was until we reached Agartala and were able to study the book of Indian animals in the Commissioner’s library […] Much later we got him a mate […] and now they have the most adorable little cubs—the first, I believe, to be bred

in captivity. My father calls on the panda family morning and evening. They miss him when he is out of station […]

Two years ago, we received our first tiger cubs—there were three named Bhim, Bhairav and Hidamba. A man came from Lucknow Zoo to teach us how to look after them […After a while] we sent them off to the Lucknow Zoo where you can still meet Bhim and Hidimba; magnificent beasts, their muscles rippling with power and grace. [Marshal Tito] asked for one of them and Bhairav now resides in Belgrade. …Of all the jungle’s magnificent creatures, Indira was unarguably most committed to the tiger. She had read

Jim Corbett, of course, but perhaps the first time she actually saw the beast in the wild was on 19 October 1955 on the way to Jog Falls in Karnataka. That day, she wrote to her father: Here I am after all. And truly it’s a sight worth seeing. The scenery all along the road was very lovely too, although the road itself was deplorable.

Just as I was being told that there is no likelihood of seeing any wild animal at that time of the forenoon and in this season when water is plentiful throughout the forest, a tiger, magnificent creature, sauntered across the road just in front of our car.

OpEd

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The sight was permanently etched in her mind—and twenty-seven years later she recalled it vividly in a foreword to a book of wildlife photographs by one of her senior colleagues from Karnataka.

Consequently, if there’s one environmental cause Indira is forever associated with, it is tiger conservation. Intriguingly, throughout the 1950s, the Indian Board for Wild Life (IBWL), set up in April 1952, never recommended a ban on shooting tigers. In fact, in its very first meeting in Mysore in November–December 1952, it identified fourteen animals that required urgent protection, but failed to mention the grand beast! A ban on hunting tigers came to be initiated only in 1970, four years after Indira became prime minister. But that Indira thoroughly disapproved of the practice is revealed by a letter dated 7 September 1956 that she wrote to her son Rajiv: We have received a huge tiger’s skin. The tiger was shot by the Maharaja of Rewa only two months ago. The skin is lying in the ballroom. Every time I pass it I feel very sad that instead of lying here he might have been roaming and roaring in the jungle. Our tigers are such beautiful creatures, so graceful. You can see their muscles rippling under their skins. Such a short time ago he must have been King of the Jungle—striking terror in the hearts of other animals.

I am so glad that nowadays more and more people prefer to go into the jungles with their cameras instead of guns. It seems such a shame to deprive anything of the joy of living just for our pleasure.

She continues to inspire awe and admiration, draw hostility and criticism… A naturalist is who Indira Gandhi really was, who she thought she was.

Indira’s decisions on the environment included those which seem to extend for inter-generational equity rather than mere personal interest—like safeguarding Western Ghat rainforest, instituting Project Lion and Project Tiger, renewing the Indian Board for Wildlife, and creating decisive environmental legislation in the face of other problems. Here then, is a way for environmental decisionmaking—personal interest is just one path towards the end.

18

Photo Feature

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Chhath Puja Celebrated With Untouchables & Widows As Chhath denotes positivity and detoxification of mind, body and soul, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak brought about positive changes for widows and detoxified the once ‘tabooed’ lives of erstwhile scavengers by elevating them in the society. These women are now, for years, participating in the festivity of the Chhath Pooja with full zeal at Dr Pathak’s Delhi residence Photo: Montu & Jairam

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Photo Feature

19

20

Young India

NOV 19 - 25, 2018

good time

If Not Now Then When? Living There has never been a better time to be young in India: The Great Indian Dream is here and it is here to stay Saket Suman

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here’s talk that the country has lost track and is headed in a direction not envisaged by those who fought for our independence from colonial rule.

Those growing up today are faced with the unnerving challenge to thrive against all future obstacles – increasing population, decreasing jobs and unmatched inflation – that, they are told, awaits them. Yet we are doing fine.

In fact, we are doing pretty well.

Our health sector no doubt needs a lot more attention, but has undoubtedly come a long way when you look at the spread of hospitals across the country over the past two decades. Miserable as they may be, but government schools and colleges are thriving. There are world-class private universities and even for those who cannot afford their exorbitant fees, it had never been as easy as it is today to procure education loans. And most importantly, the gap between the village and the metros, as also the tier II and III cities, has decreased tremendously.

Even before we could realise it, rural India has been connected to the rest of the country in ways that were simply unthinkable in the past.

Today, moving out in search of employment or education is easily accepted in homes as well as society.

Picture this: I was born in the last decade of the 20th century in a rather privileged family of landlords in Bihar. I spent most of my childhood in a reputed boarding school in Darjeeling, but the first journey from the village to the hill station was not easy. Relatives, neighbours and family friends expressed their anxiety, pointing out quite arbitrarily that it would be a worthless exercise. Few from the village had gone out, for the schooling of all things, at such an early age. Today, education of children is both a priority and a

norm.

Then, there was the matter of changing two buses, boarding an overnight train and then taking a taxi to reach Darjeeling. Today, it is much easier – one straight train to New Jalpaiguri and then a two-hour drive to Darjeeling.

By the time I moved to Delhi for my college, the process had become much simpler. There were not many questions raised about my decision to move to the capital. If there was a question, it was only about the choice of subject – journalism. Civil services and government jobs were what dominated the minds of people back then. This too has changed, much to the relief of those growing up today.

What were previously looked down upon as alternative career options are the dreams of youngsters as well as their guardians now.

Thus, we see thousands of

students from all parts of the country graduating in various disciplines from leading universities every year. Where do they go? No matter what you have been told, there is such an upsurge in opportunities today that almost each of them secures a job. And they are doing fine.

True, it is leading to unplanned migration at an alarming rate, but then new cities are fast turning into hotspots for job-seekers too.

Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Chandigarh are today’s alternatives to yesterday’s Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Never before in India’s history have there been so many opportunities for women as there are today. They are inside every office, at par with their male colleagues, and are doing better than them in sectors like publishing and many others. Whenever there is an instance of discrimination, we hear

Never before in India’s history have there been so many opportunities for women as there are today. They are inside every office, at par with their male colleagues

it louder than ever before.

The face of offices too have undergone significant change. Until very recently, we had the experienced greys managing all affairs but there has been a sudden boom in the presence of young Indians in offices. As the greys approach their retirement, imagine the extent of opportunities that await youth in the years to come.

And then, there is the burning question of freedom of expression.

Even as we see protests against movies and writers or a ban on beef and threats against minorities, it is worth pointing out that the voice of dissent, which many say is being throttled, is only getting louder with every passing day. Our society, like every other of its kind, may have a number of shortcomings but at the present juncture, it is much more than the sum total of all such things to be unproud of. There is a great hope for India in this millennium.

I earn a decent salary, but I am usually broke by the end of the month. And yet, I am doing fine.

Because unlike our predecessors, the mindset of my generation has changed too. Hoarding huge amounts of cash is not our priority -- we spend what we earn -- and are happy at the end of it all.

I go shopping every once in awhile, dine out with friends and relatives, read books that I love, participate actively in the national discourse and travel to the mountains whenever I get a chance.

In short, I am living the Great Indian Dream.

In the midst of all the pessimism that we are surrounded by, there is actually very little for young Indians today to be worried about. There has never been a better time to be young in India: The Great Indian Dream is here and it is here to stay!

Feature

NOV 19 - 25, 2018

21 07

Change makers

Empowering Children To Be Future Civic Leaders

Three 12-year-old kids joined hands to resolve the problem of garbage disposal

Nivedita Singh

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hile kids of their age were busy playing, 12-year-olds Jatin, Vikas and Ritesh joined hands to resolve the problem of garbage disposal and the unhealthy living conditions in their working-class neighbourhood in Shiv Vihar in north Delhi. At the same time, Aatrey, another preteen from Nilothi Nangloi, took the initiative to solve the problem of an unsafe road after his aunt met with an accident.

The force behind these children acting as civic change-agents was their Nikita didi (elder sister), a commerce graduate from Delhi University. Nitika Sharma, 23, from Dwarka wanted to “create a communities and wanted them to significant change by empowering lead the transformation,” Sharma children as future leaders” – a desire which led her to the “Teach for India” told.

“The students were surprised and initiative in 2017. excited as it was new for them. They “We had problems in our had studied the hierarchy of the communities and we wanted to solve government, but they never had them, but we did not know how. real experience of contacting Nitika didi guided us to government authorities. be change-makers and I wanted them not helped us improve 12-year-olds Jatin, only to study but the conditions in understand the our communities,” Vikas and Ritesh government and Vikas, who wants joined hands to how we, as citizens, to become an resolve the problem have every right to army officer, told. of garbage disposal bring about change Sharma decided in harmony with to teach the kids – and the unhealthy the government,” she all students of Class living conditions said.

VII in Sarvodaya Bal Her efforts not only Vidyalaya, Vikaspuri inspired the children but – about their rights and also enabled them to be changeresponsibilities and how to makers. bring about change by working in Among the few successful efforts harmony with local authorities. were the garbage disposal project by “I wanted to make my students Jatin and Ritesh, stray-dog project by problem-solvers and change-makers Prince, and road cleaning project by in the society they live in. In order Bhavesh. to work on their leadership skills, “They ( Jatin and Ritesh) I planned to take up a community contacted the Municipal Corporation engagement project. I saw how they of Delhi (MCD) regarding the faced problems living in low-income

unhealthy conditions and followed up for three months, which led the MCD to take notice and their problem was addressed,” Sharma said.

Prince, 13, also from Shiv Vihar, worked on the problem of stray dogs causing nuisance in the area.

“The nuisance created by dogs was leading them to be ill-treated in the community. He contacted the respective authorities and followed up with them to get the dogs transported to a safe rehabilitation shelter,” she said.

The journey, however, was not smooth. “For solving complex problems and issues, usually more time is required. It took almost four months for solving issues like the sad state of roads. At that time, the students started losing hope. I had to make sure that I was helping and motivating them,” Sharma said.

“Moreover, I did a session on rights and duties. I told them it is their duty to initiate the steps to solve problems, as we always fight for our rights but seldom remember our duties,” she added.

She also recalled that it was “very easy” to lecture students about

change, but it was slightly difficult to motivate them to take ownership for effecting a change. However, the success of these children does help her in motivating other students as well.

“They felt responsible towards their communities, which accelerated things. I started the project before the summer holidays. I integrated holiday homework with the project so that students would be invested in it. I made sure that parents were also informed and invested, and they also encouraged their kids to solve the problems in their communities,” she said. Her objective was to inspire and equip students with the skills, values and knowledge required to be dynamic and responsible citizens of a democratic India.

“Aatrey’s story of getting the road repaired helped in motivating other students to take the initiative and solve complex issues. When he started with his project, nobody believed in him. He started his project in mid-April and followed up for four months. When his problem was solved, there was a ripple effect and other students started taking initiatives on their own and took immense pride in the efforts of their classmate,” she said.

“Jatin, Ritesh and Vikas’s initiatives helped in encouraging other students to work on problems of cleanliness and hygiene. Now they want to encourage people even in their communities to focus on cleanliness,” Sharma added.

On the other hand, she said, Prince’s initiatives helped in motivating students to have a safe environment. Apart from these successful efforts, there are students who are working on other projects as well.“Streetlight repairing project

by Aditya and Tanuj in Shiv Vihar, garbage disposal by Dhruv, also in Shiv Vihar, are in process,” she added.

22

Health

Nov 19 - 25, 2018 Study

beneficial

Hot Coffee Contains More Antioxidants Than Cold Coffee Hot coffee has measurable health benefits, including lower risk of some cancers, diabetes and depression

agency

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ot coffee has higher levels of antioxidants than cold coffee, which is believed to be responsible for some health benefits, says a new study.

The study explored that hot coffee has some measurable health benefits, including lower risk of some cancers, diabetes and depression.

For the study, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University in the US showed that hot coffee had more total titratable acids – any acid that can lose a proton(s) in an acid-base reaction – which may be responsible for the hot cup’s higher antioxidant levels.

“Coffee has a lot of antioxidants.

If you drink it in moderation, research shows it can be pretty good for you. We found the hot brew has more antioxidant capacity,” said Megan Fuller, an Assistant Professor from the varsity.

Results also found that pH levels – acidity indicator – of both hot and cold coffee were similar, ranging from 4.85 to 5.13 for all coffee samples tested.

However, coffee companies and lifestyle blogs have tended to tout cold brew coffee as being less acidic than hot coffee and thus less likely to cause heartburn or gastrointestinal problems.

“And considering hot and cold brews have comparable pH levels, coffee drinkers should not consider cold brew a ‘silver bullet’ for avoiding gastrointestinal distress,” said Niny Rao, Associate Professor from the university.

Stress Reduces Fertility In Women The team measured perceived stress using the 10-item version of the stress scale (PSS) SSB Bureau

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igher levels of stress can lower conception or fertility in women but it does not affect men, finds a study. The researchers, from Boston University in the US, found that the association between higher levels of stress and lower levels of conception could be due to decreased intercourse frequency, increased partner stress discordance and higher levels of menstrual cycle irregularity.

“Although this study does not definitely prove that stress causes infertility, it does provide evidence supporting the integration of mental health care in preconception guidance and care,” said Amelia Wesselink, Research Assistant at the varsity. The team analysed 4,769 women and 1,272 men who did not have a history of infertility and had not been trying to conceive

“Although this study does not definitely prove that stress causes infertility, it does provide evidence supporting the integration of mental health care in preconception guidance and care,” for more than six menstrual cycles.

The team measured perceived stress using the 10-item version of the stress scale (PSS) to assess how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overwhelming individuals find their life circumstances.

On average, baseline PSS scores were about 1 point higher among women than men and the average follow-up PSS scores among women remained fairly constant over the 12 months.

The findings revealed that women with PSS scores of at least 25 were 13 per cent less likely to conceive than women with PSS scores under 10. This association was stronger among women who had been trying to conceive for no more than two menstrual cycles than among women who had been trying for three or more cycles before enrolling. The association was also stronger among women under 35 years. The researchers did not find an association between men’s PSS score and the likelihood of conceiving.

However, couples in the study were about 25 per cent less likely to conceive when the man’s PSS score was under 10 and the women’s was 20 or higher, said the researchers.

HEART health

Why Grief Is Bad For The Heart The study found that the link between sleep disturbances and inflammation was two to three times higher for the bereaved spouses SSB Bureau

S

leep disturbance among people grieving the recent loss of a spouse may put them at increased risk for cardiovascular illness and death, a study has warned.

Recently widowed people are more likely to suffer from sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, that may lead to increased levels of inflammation in the body.

Higher levels of inflammation may in turn increase risk for heart diseases, showed the findings published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

“The death of a spouse is an acutely stressful event and they have to adapt to living without the support of the spouse,” said Diana Chirinos from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, US. “Add sleep disturbance to their already stressful situation and you double the stressor. As a result, their immune system is more overactivated,” Chirinos said.

The study included 101 people with an average age of 67. Half were bereaved (identified through obituaries), and the rest were included in a control group.

The researchers compared the

self-reported sleep habits of recently widowed people to the control group.

Both the groups had sleep disturbances.

The researchers found that the link between sleep disturbances and inflammation was two to three times higher for the bereaved spouses.

Inflammation was measured by the level of proinflammatory cytokines, which are designed to be short-term fighters of disease but are linked to long-term risk for health problems including cardiovascular disease.

Bereaved individuals are more susceptible to the negative health effects of poor sleep, the study said.

Science

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

23 07

Origin

Where Did Earth’s Water Originated From?

Comets contain a lot of ices, it could have supplied some water. Asteroids, which are not as water-rich yet still plentiful, could be a source as well

E

Agency

arth’s global ocean water may have originated from both asteroidal material and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, according to a new research that gives insights about the development of other planets and their potential to support life.

Researchers noted that since comets contain a lot of ices, it could have supplied some water. Asteroids, which are not as water-rich yet still plentiful, could be a source as well.

“But there’s another way to think about sources of water in the solar system’s formative days,” said Peter Buseck, Professor at the Arizona State University.

“Because water is hydrogen plus oxygen, and oxygen is abundant, any source of hydrogen could have served as the origin of Earth’s water,” Buseck added. The study challenges widelyaccepted ideas about hydrogen in Earth’s water by suggesting the element partially came from clouds of dust and gas remaining after the Sun’s formation, called the solar nebula.

Jyoti Singh

W

hen the air quality in Delhi and other cities in the north is deteriorating with pollution level touching ‘hazardous’ mark, a new mobile app promises to be of some help. The app, Air Cognizer, uses camera images to estimate air pollution level in the vicinity. The idea has won its developer an award by the US-based Marconi Society.

The app has been developed by a team from the Delhi-based Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering. “It is a real-time air quality analytics application. Click an image either through the smartphone camera or by the app camera. The image should be taken outdoors with half of the image covering the sky and should be uploaded on the app.

After this, the user would get the air quality index of that locality,” explained Tanmay Srivastava, a team member, while speaking to India Science Wire.

“It is a real-time air quality analytics

If the abundant hydrogen in the nebula could combine with Earth’s rocky material as it formed, that could be the ultimate origin of Earth’s global ocean, the researchers said.

“The solar nebula has been given the least attention among existing theories, although it was the predominant reservoir of hydrogen in our early solar system,” said lead author Jun Wu, an assistant research

professor at the varsity.

The new finding fits neatly into current theories of how the Sun and the planets formed. It also has implications for habitable planets beyond the solar system.

Astronomers have discovered more than 3,800 planets orbiting other stars, and many appear to be rocky bodies not greatly different from our own.

Air Cognizer

Use Your Phone Camera For Real-Time Pollution Check The app, Air Cognizer, uses camera images to estimate air pollution level in the vicinity application. Click an image either through the smartphone camera or by the app camera. The image should be taken outdoors with half of the image covering the sky and should be uploaded on the app.

After this, the user would get the air quality index of that locality.”

As soon as the image gets uploaded on that app, the underlying software starts extracting the information from features of the image. By combining image processing with machine learning, the app can generate estimates of air quality. The image features used for analysis include how dark, intense or light is the sky in the picture. After this, the machine learning model estimates the air quality index (AQI) of that location.

As of now, the app is capable of calculating air quality index, PM 2.5, SO2, ozone, temperature and humidity.

“The app uses government marked AQI – 0 to 500 - and tells the actual concentration along with the AQI. The more one uses the app the better would

be the results,” said Kanishk Jeet, another team member. It took the team five months to develop the app beta version of which can be downloaded from Google play store. Prerna Khanna is the third member of the team. Two more innovative ideas have been awarded by the society under its Celestini Program India. The second prize has gone to the team of Divyam Madaan and Radhika Dua, from UIET Chandigarh, Punjab University. They have prototyped a website that provides a 24-hour forecast of air pollution in Delhi, advanced machine learning techniques. It can predict major pollutant and causes (road traffic, industrial emissions, or agricultural wastes) in every location based on historical data.

The website updates the information in real-time using Google Cloud platform and Cloud ML engine.

The third team, also from Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, included Sidharth Talia, Nikunj Agarwal and Samarjeet Kaur. They prototyped a low-latency platform to transmit vehicle-to-vehicle alerts about potential road safety hazards or collisions using computer vision techniques on Raspberry Pi and Xbee radio modules.

24

excerpts from the book: “NARENDRA DAMODARdas MODI: the making of a legend”

Russia We highly appreciate the friendship, trust and mutual understanding with Indian partners Vladimir Putin President of Russia

Modi’s visit has certainly shored up Russian insecurities in the short term, but a truly transformative manoeuvre is still awaited.

The single greatest transformation in India-Russia relations is an expansion of Indian trade from defence, and perhaps energy, to other sectors of the economy… Not only will this

create a healthier basis for relations, but it will buffer Russia from the effect of not winning an arms contract.

P

rime Minister Narendra Modi undertook a two-day summit-level annual visit to Russia on December 23 and 24, 2015, where he had substantive and extensive discussions with President Vladimir Putin on issues of mutual interest to both countries.

While re-emphasising the need for further enhancing bilateral economic and commercial relations, both leaders expressed satisfaction over the continued exchanges that included high-level visits, institutional exchanges and other contacts over the past year.

They agreed that these visits have strengthened the Russia-India strategic partnership considerably.

Several agreements in diverse fields of bilateral cooperation, including several commercial pacts between Russian and Indian companies were signed during the visit. Prime Minister Modi also addressed a gathering of Friends of India, including members of the Indian community in Russia.

Both sides agreed to increase annual bilateral trade and investment and emphasised the need for continued facilitation by their respective governments based on regular consultations within the framework of institutional mechanisms.

They welcomed the outcomes of the twenty-first meeting of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation held in Moscow on October 20, 2015, and decisions taken by various working groups of the commission.

Mention was made of the “Make in India” initiative, which both

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Jaideep Prabhu in the First Post

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits EMERCOM, the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC), in Moscow, Russia, on December 24, 2015.

PM Modi laying a wreath ceremony at the Alexandrovski Cad (Tomb of the Unkown Soldier), in Moscow, Russia on December 24, 2015.

President of Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, presents to PM Modi a page from Mahatma Gandhi’s diary containing Gandhiji’s handwritten notes, in Moscow, Russia, on December 23, 2015.

sides agreed provides a new and durable framework for engagement

by Russian corporate entities in a growing Indian economy.

They urged companies in both countries to finalise new and ambitious investment proposals in promising sectors such as oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, mining, machine building, implementation of infrastructure projects, cooperation in railway sector, fertilizer production, automobiles and aircraft construction as well as collaborative ventures in modernising each other’s industrial facilities. The two delegations also welcomed the successful launch of the Joint Study Group to consider the feasibility of a free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union, and called for early finalisation of a draft report. They attached importance to exploring new connectivity between their economies to facilitate the movement of bulk goods and commodities as well as trade between the two countries. In this context, they welcomed increased emphasis on implementation of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). They reaffirmed that their cooperation in facilitating peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which they said is the cornerstone of the Russia-India strategic partnership.

In all, 17 agreements, protocols, and Memoranda of Understanding were signed between the two delegations.

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

excerpts from the book: “NARENDRA DAMODARdas MODI: the making of a legend”

Afghanistan India-Afghanistan partnership is helping the transformation of Afghanistan by enabling empowerment of its society, reconstruction and development of Afghan economy and strengthening of its polity. …

Historically, there is a huge reservoir of goodwill in Afghanistan for India.

25

Your suffering is our pain. Your dreams are our duty. Your strength is our belief. Your courage is our inspiration. Above all, your

friendship is our honour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Ashraf Ghani President of Afghanistan PM Modi holding a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 25, 2015.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the opening ceremony of the new Afghan Parliament constructed by India, in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 25, 2015.

PM Modi delivers a speech at the new Afghan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 25, 2015.

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rime Minister Narendra Modi undertook an officially unannounced day-long visit to Afghanistan on December 25, 2015.

There was a three-fold focus to the visit: (1) To inaugurate the new parliament building built with the Indian Government’s financial assistance, (2) To hand over four Mi-25 attack helicopters, and (3) To look for ways to mend existing bilateral ties, which had presumably faced a downswing.

President Ghani and Prime Minister Modi stressed that the millennia-old ties between the two countries and their peoples had enriched not only their own history and culture, but had also bestowed to the world a precious legacy in trade routes, economy, art, architecture, religion, literature and music.

Both leaders spoke of the huge reservoir of goodwill that exists between the two countries, and committed to taking this bilateral and multi-dimensional friendship forward.

Prime Minister Modi conveyed India’s continued strong support

for a united, democratic, sovereign, secure and prosperous Afghanistan.

He expressed the deep admiration of the people of India for their brave Afghan brothers and sisters in combating all forms of terrorism at great cost to themselves.

President Ghani and Prime Minister Modi exchanged views on the security situation in Afghanistan, which faces serious challenges of terrorism, extremism and narcotics, and reiterated that peace in Afghanistan required elimination of terrorism perpetrated and supported from sanctuaries and safe havens.The two leaders also discussed key aspects of utilisation

of India’s pledged assistance of over USD two billion for development in Afghanistan India reiterated its commitment to develop capacity in the areas of education, governance, higher learning, skills development, and science and technology.

Both sides agreed to further promote bilateral trade ties and ease visa procedures for Afghan businesspersons wanting to trade and invest in India.

The Indian delegation also agreed to help set up the Afghanistan National Institute of Mining and regulate exchange programs for training of mining sector experts.

Prime Minister Modi emphasised

that people-to-people interactions lay at the heart of the relationship between the two countries.

Prime Minister also inaugurated the new Afghan parliament building.

The Afghan parliament building has been constructed by India at a cost of USD 90 million.

Modi said that the new parliament building should be seen as an enduring symbol of the ties of emotions and values, of affection and aspirations that bind India and Afghanistan in a special relationship. He also lauded the people of Afghanistan for their epic struggle of courage and resolve to shape their future through vote and debate and not by guns and violence.

The Prime Minister said he was deeply touched to see that a block in the new building had been named as the ‘Atal Block’ in honour of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

He also met with Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah and former President Hamid Karzai.

To be continued in the next issue

26

Northeast

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

PMUGS

GAIL Fast Pipeline Northeast To National Gas Network The pipeline will connect the upcoming ‘Indradhanush’ gas grid network to the national gas network Raj Kashyap

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tate-owned Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has fast-tracked the project that will link the Northeast with the Barauni –Guwahati gas pipeline under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga scheme.

The new initiative is included in the contract for the purchase of 616km of pipelines totalling Rs 1,100 crore which will start from next month. The pipeline will connect the upcoming ‘Indradhanush’ gas grid network to the national gas network.

Chairman and managing director of GAIL BC Tripathi said in a statement that the award of the tenders supports the ‘Make in India’ efforts of steel pipe manufacturers and suppliers in the country and marks the completion of mainline ordering for the entire 729km section.

The ‘Indradhanush’ gas grid network which is jointly executed

by GAIL along with joint-venture partners Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Oil India Limited,

Numaligarh Refinery Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, will provide an uninterrupted supply of natural gas to all the Northeastern states. The scheme is expected to put an end to the shortage of LPG cylinders in several remote pockets of the region and especially in the border districts of the hill states.

Last April, oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had distributed 655,000 new LPG connections to poor women beneficiaries across 6,741 villages in the Northeast as part of the Centre’s plan to make households smokeless which included 204,000 new connections in 3,042 villages in Assam. Under the scheme, the government gave the deposit money on behalf of the beneficiaries, while the cylinders were given to the owners on loan from the company, which will start recovering the same from delivery of the seventh cylinder from the subsidiary amount.

The agreement which was inked last July is expected to incur an expenditure of Rs 6000 crores. The

estimated length of the proposed North East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid is around 1,500 km. The Joint Venture Company will develop, build, operate and maintain the Natural Gas Pipeline Grid connecting Guwahati with the capitals of the Northeast and other big cities and major load centres like Numaligarh Refinery.

The time schedule for commissioning the North East Pipeline Grid is four years, which will include one year of pre-project activities. On the other hand, Gangtok will be connected from Siliguri from the gas pipeline of GAIL coming from

Barauni to Guwahati.

The Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project aims to connect the eastern and northeastern states of the country with the existing gas pipeline grid to ensure access of clean energy solutions for household, transport, industrial and commercial applications in the energy deprived region. The release said that work across India’s single largest pipeline spanning 3,400 km under JagadishpurHaldia-Bokaro-Dhamra project is in full swing and progressing as per schedule “Physical progress under phase-1 of the flagship project is 92 per cent complete and expected to be completed within next two months, whereas the balance phases including the additional section under Barauni-Guwahati spur line are lined up for sequential completion by December 2021,” Tripathi said in the statement.

Arunachal

CM Launches Northeast’s First Tourist Police The concept of tourist police is a first in the northeast and 15th overall in the country Agency

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imed at promoting the untapped tourism opportunities in Arunachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Pema Khandu announced the launch of the states tourist police spreading across seven different districts.

The concept of tourist police is a first in the northeast and 15th overall in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Khandu expressed his government’s commitment to turn the hill state into a tourist hub and create more employment

opportunities for the state’s youth.

“Arunachal Pradesh is popular among tourists for its splendid beauty and serene landscapes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in February this

year steered us to work more seriously on making Arunachal one of the best tourist destinations, not only in India but worldwide,” Khandu said after the launch. “Our Himalayan mountain ranges stretching across the entire state offer one-of-its-kind experiential road trip options.”

“Our government is committed to promote tourism in the state including adventure tourism as we understand the role that the sector plays in generating employment and attracting investment,” he added.

The Tourist Police with its distinctive vehicles, uniform

and specialised training in soft skills, languages, rules and regulations and most importantly people friendly attitude aims to dispel any inhibitions a tourist may have while approaching them. Tourist police personnel will be specially trained about crime against women and how to professionally respond to various situations concerning tourists.

They will also be educated about the local tourist attractions and modes of transportation, accommodation, hospitals etc.

On the occasion the tourist police’s mobile app Arunachal Suraksha was also launched.

Best Out Of Waste

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

27 07

Travel Food Service

Airport Garbage Helps Save Rs 1.2 Crore A delayed flight, a curious COO and a rummage through garbage — all this led to an important lesson adopted at 280 food outlets across 19 Indian cities SSB BUREAU

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arbage though it may be, crores can be saved simply by studying the contents of dustbins at airport lounges, cafes and food outlets, it seems.

Last year Gaurav Dewan, the COO and business head of Travel Food Services, a food and beverages firm operating the GVK lounge in the Mumbai international airport, saw an overflowing dustbin on the premises while waiting for a flight that was delayed. With time to kill, he picked up a pair of gloves and rummaged through the contents of that bin to figure out why it was overflowing.

After a thorough examination, he ordered a three-day survey, and through it found out that the problem passengers had with the food was not about taste but portion size.This discovery set in motion a process which has not only saved the firm Rs 1.2 crore through changes made in just the dessert section of the free lounge buffet which passengers dive into before getting onto their late-night international flights, but also cut down food waste significantly.

This April, Dewan’s company subscribed to a quarterly ‘Dustbin Analysis’ conducted across 280 food outlets across 19 cities, including other airport lounges in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The ‘Dustbin Analysis’ analyses the eating habits of passengers. “The bin at the GVK lounge was full of barely eaten desserts,” said Dewan, in a conversation with Times of India. “Earlier, the dinner buffet would serve 15 varieties of desserts.

Each passenger would pick two or three, maybe even four. They would eat a spoon or half and throw the rest.”

Following this survey, the firm cut down on the size of its desserts and began introducing smaller items like macarons and cupcakes.

“Now, we offer 18 [desserts] but small portions. Our dustbin waste has reduced, [the] cost has reduced. We saved Rs 1.2

crore in a year from the five lounges at Mumbai airport in the dessert’s category alone. Through bins used by customers, we learn what food item is not doing well while kitchen bins reveal what has been overproduced,” added Dewan.

The kitchen team reworked the menu to introduce small-sized desserts such as tiny cupcakes, macaroons, doughnuts and meringues. “Earlier, we offered 15 desserts in the lounge. Now, we offer 18 but small portions.

Our dustbin waste has reduced, spoilage has reduced, and the cost has reduced. We saved Rs 1.2 crore in a year’s time from the five lounges at Mumbai airport in the desserts category

alone,” said Dewan. “Now, it’s become a religion. We target to save Rs 4-5 crore through this alone.”

Dustbins of outlets where people pay for food speak a different language though. “Through bins used by customers we learn what food item is not doing well while kitchen bins reveal what has been overproduced,” he said.

Then again, dustbins revealed that 80 per cent of the sandwiches they sold were served grilled.

“The staff would bin the packaging, grill the sandwich and serve it on a plate. So we eradicated the packaging,” he said. At all 70 coffee shops TFS runs, sandwiches, rolls and quiches are displayed sans plastic wrapping in a temperature-controlled cabinet.

e-waste

Mumbai Teens Conduct E-Waste Drive They have collected over 380kg of e-waste from schools and community and donated it to a nonprofit organisation and helped educate over 17,000 slum children ssb bureau

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n e-waste collection drive might seem simple as an idea. But what if getting rid of your unused or scrapped electronic items could fund the education of a child?

Well, two Mumbai students not only conceptualised but also successfully executed the idea to raise funds for the education of over 17,000 underprivileged students.

According to a report in The Times of India, Trisha Bhattacharya and Soorya Balasubramanian, students of classes 9 and 10 from Vibgyor High School in Goregaon, were behind this initiative.

What started as an idea for a competition has turned into a year-long campaign to safely dispose of electronic waste and help the environment for two students from a school in Goregaon. In the past two months, these two have collected over 380kg of e-waste from schools and community and donated it to a non-profit organisation and helped educate over 17,000 slum children.

They got the idea when they decided to participate in a panIndia competition-where they had to pick up a cause, make a blueprint for the plan of action, and scale the impact.

Speaking to the publication, Soorya revealed how Vibgyor had already initiated several

social campaigns. And while segregation of dry and wet waste was already in place, the idea of an e-collection drive wasn’t executed in its full capacity.

And so, the duo decided to pick it up. Their team won fourth place.

But little did the students know, the work and impact of the drive would continue long after the competition was over.

Soorya said, “As we were working on the campaign, we decided to continue with it through the year, even after the contest got over.”

The teenagers first mobilised kids from their own school to donate e-waste from their homes.

“Most homes have nonfunctional cell phones, chargers and other electronic appliances lying around because we don’t know what to do with them.

We found a non-profit, India Development Foundation, which collected the e-waste and sold it to a recycling company. The money raised was used to educate over 17,000 underprivileged students,” said Trisha.

For the last month, they have hosted collection drives in three housing societies in the western suburbs, which have received promising responses from the residents.

The duo is now looking forward to getting more students on board to keep the project running.

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Sports

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Viswanathan Anand

Happy With The Way My Classical Game Has Stabilised In 1987 he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship and the next year, he became India’s first Grandmaster Debayan Mukherjee

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ontent with the way his classical game has shaped up in recent times, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand is not sweating over his poor run in the rapid format and feels he has time to work on his frailties which, according to him, are out in the open.

“I think my classical game has stabilised. If you see the Olympiad or the Isle of Man or St Louis... these are steady performances. I was happy that in the (Chess) Olympiad and the Isle of Man, I was winning several games; games with black and things like that,” Anand told in an interview. In the classical format, Anand has been in good touch, remaining undefeated in the Sinquefield Cup and finishing sixth in the Isle of Man International Chess Tournament.

In Kolkata to take part in the Tata

Steel Chess India 2018 meet, the 48year old legend fared poorly in the Rapid format, finishing seventh with eight draws and a shock defeat to local challenger Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the last round.

Since winning the World Rapid Chess Championship last year, Anand’s form in speed chess has been on the decline, the latest testament being his last-place in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz meet.

“The rapid and blitz has been quite disappointing,” Anand conceded.

“I probably have some chance to try and improve the rapid and blitz performance, hopefully by the new year.

The problems I am facing in chess and the weaknesses I am showing are quite evident. So I can work on them even without specific tournaments,” said Anand, who does not have tournament invitations after Tata Steel’s classical chess meet in the Netherlands in January next year.

“I was happy that in the (Chess) Olympiad and the Isle of Man, I was winning several games”

Quick Facts…

• Anand was born in Tamil Nadu into a Brahmin family. His father, Viswanathan Iyer worked with the Southern Railways while his mother Susheela was a housewife. Anand is the youngest of three siblings.

• His mother was a big fan of chess and taught him to play the game when he was just five or six years old. She encouraged and motivated him a lot and this build the foundation for his future career as a chess player.

• He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1987 and became the first Indian to do so. He became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988 when he was just 18.

• Anand is considered one of the best contemporary chess players in the world, especially renowned for his versatility. He is a five time winner of the World Chess Championship and was the undisputed World No.1 from 2007 to 2013.

• He is the proud recipient of several prestigious awards. He won the first ever Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award—India’s highest sporting honour—in 1991-92.

• In 2007 he was presented with the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award for his achievements in chess. He was the first ever sportsperson in India to receive this award.

• He is married to Aruna and has one son. He is a very simple and unassuming person who keeps away from controversies and focuses only on his game. He is well respected and liked even by his former chess rivals.

Anand will take part in the Chess World Cup next year in November. The top two finishers in the tournament will qualify for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2020. He stressed that although his form in speed chess is a matter of concern, the focus will shift to qualifying for the Championship he last won in 2012, before Magnus Carlsen took over.

“But by next year, my focus will again shift to the World Cup. Because that would be the next big event to try to qualify for the Candidates (tournament).

“I will just see also what invitations I get. I am confirmed for Tata Steel in January; but, after that, my schedule is still developing. So it’s hard to make

plans so far ahead,” Anand said.

Anand signed off by saying that he is hopeful of the younger crop coming up the ranks and touted the likes of Nihal Sarin, Vidit Gujrathi, R. Praggnanandhaa and S.P. Sethuraman to break through in the near future.

“The broader trend is someone like Vidit, he is young enough and highly rated enough that people are watching him with lot of interest.

“But again, we have people like Nihal Sarin and R. Praggnanandhaa and S.P. Sethuraman, who I played in the Isle of Man. So let’s see how many of those develop. “We have got the enormous depth of talent. So I think some of them will break through.”

Entertainment

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Z a k i r

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H u s s a i n

Cinema’s Loss Was Music’s Gain, His Tryst With Rhythm

The style and mastery over the Tabla seen in his brilliant performances have established him as a genius in the world of percussion both in India and abroad

Contribution and awards

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stad Zakir Hussain is considered as one of the most important personalities in shaping the contemporary world music movement. He is often credited for taking the Tabla to the world stage, thanks to his numerous collaborations. He also showed to the world that Tabla, which was considered a mere percussion before his era, could be used as a main instrument at concerts. This belief that he instilled in many, changed the way we looked at concerts. His achievements as a Tabla player inspired many young aspiring percussionists and opened the doors for many Indo-Western

U

n Saket Suman

stad Zakir Hussain is well-known as a table maestro but very few are aware that he was once being considered to play the role of the young Salim in yesteryears movie “Mughal-e-Azam”.

“I was actually being looked upon, under the microscope, to play the role of young Salim in ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, Hussain revealed at a session at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival, providing a rare peak into his past.

“My father (the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha) was working at the Mohan Studio during those days and they were shooting for the song ‘Pyar Kia Toh Darna Kya’ and I was there. At that time the possibility of me playing the role of young Salim in the movie was explored.

“I was presented to Dilip Kumar and he looked at me, then said ‘thik hai kal baat karte hain’ (Ok, we’ll discuss it tomorrow). But before that, my father found out and became very angry.

He said I was meant to play tabla and thus, I never played the role of Salim,” the 66-year-old Hussain told a packed audience on the first day of JLF 2018.

“It was a blessing in disguise,”

maintained Hussain. And why not, if you look at the long way that he has come ever since.

Cinema’s loss was music’s gain.

Starting out at an early age, Hussain rose to global acclaim and is today regarded among the top musicians across the world.

Every story has a beginning and the stories of an artist’s realisation of his craft are often captivating.

So it is with Zakir Hussain.

He recalled during the session “A Life in Music” (titled after the similarly titled book by Nasreen Munni Kabir) that it is customary for Indian fathers to say a little prayer in the ear of their just-born children.

When Hussain was presented to his father, “he stuck his lips to my ear” and instead of the prayer, he played a rhythm.

A frequent accompanist of sitar player Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha had blessed his just-born son with an instant rhythm. When his mother complained, saying that it would be a sign of ill-luck and demanded that he say a prayer instead, Alla Rakha humbly responded: “Yahi toh meri prarthna hai, yahi toh meri dua hai” (This is my prayer, this is my blessing).

He also recalled that his upbringing was a journey through many faiths and it is perhaps because of that, that he said: “Yes, I am a Muslim, but through my music I am offering my prayers to Saraswati and to Ganesha.”

By the time, Hussain turned three, his father set him free and, in his own words, “just let me go”. The idea was “to let me find my calling”, he said.

Quite naturally, he chose the tabla.

In the self-leaning mode, by the time he was nine-years-old, he was playing in school concerts. “It was then my father asked me if I wanted to (formally) learn the tabla. I said yes and then the practise began, the next day at three in the morning,” he recalled. “And there he was, Mr God himself, my father. When the

collaborations.

In 1987, Zakir’s first solo release, ‘Making Music’, was acclaimed as ‘one of the most inspired East-West fusion albums ever recorded’. He has also composed and released many albums with the likes of George Harrison, Van Morrison, Joe Henderson etc and soundtracks of films like ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘In Custody’, ‘Little Buddha’, ‘Heat and Dust’ etc for which he was nominated for the best music Director at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. He arranged the opening music for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Awards Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan, Indo-American, National Heritage Fellowship Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, two times Grammy award, Kalidas Samman, and in 2012 at Konark Dance & Music Festival, he was honoured with the Guru Gangadhar Pradhan (lifetime achievement) award.

rest of the world was sleeping, I and my father would be practising early in the morning from three to six. Who wouldn’t want that kind of a conversation with his father,” he asked the audience.

As per his usual routine, he would practise and then go to play cricket with his friends, return and listen to the radio and then practise again.

“It was like reading a book, totally out of passion and according to my convenience,” he maintained.

He would go to a madrasa to learn the Quran and then cross the road to a nearby church to sing hymns. “But never at any point, neither the mulla or the priest impressed upon me that what they were preaching was the sole truth. Those were very different times,” he quipped.

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Sulabh Parivar

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Some foreigners visited Sulabh Campus. They saw various activities of Sulabh Gram including Museum of Toilets, Sulabh Technology based “Twin Pits Pour Flush Toilet”, public toilet based biogas plant, etc.

Rupendra Kumar Tiwari, Member, Minisrty of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Food Corporation of India and some other visitors visited Sulabh Campus.

Deepak, Gaurav, Vishal Sharma with his family and some other visitors came to the Sulabh Campus and were surprised to see the different artifacts displayed at Sulabh International Museum of Toilets and also showed keen interest in PETT: Portable Eco-Friendly Tent Toilet from South Korea.

Some visitors came to the Sulabh Campus, were surprised to see the different artifacts displayed at Sulabh International Museum of Toilets.

They appreciated of the “Throne-like Chamber Pot” of the French emperor Louis XIV.

POEM

Dreams

Recited by Chingahudim Trade: Stenography (05-10-18) They say dreams never do come true.

But they are wrong, I say they do I dream of violence, I dream of hurt I dream of children, they live in dirt I dream of you, I dream of me I dream of how this was never meant to be I dream of my feelings, I dream of my thoughts I dream of these things, I dream of them lots I dream of my loved ones, I dream of the dead I dream of these thoughts, exploding my head I dream of yelling, I dream of you crying I dream of you hiding, I dream of you lying I dream of you huring, I dream of you shutting me out of your life I dream of the only one I can trust, I dream of my Sulabh Who says dreams never come true?

They are wrong, I say they do

Events

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

events & more... events

Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 1 Dec 10:00 AM - 2 Dec 9:00 PM

SSB crossword no. 49

4th Times Litfest Delhi At India Habitat Center Venue: India Habitat Centre

1 2 3 5

4 7

6 8

9

10 13

11 12 14 15 17

16 18

19 20

SOLUTION of crossword no.48

The India International Trade Fair Is Back For Its 38th Edition Venue: Pragati Maidan Pragati Maidan, New Delhi 14 Nov 9:30 AM - 27 Nov 7:30 PM

The Delhi Queer Pride 2018 Is Here!

Venue: Lodhi Garden Lodhi Colony Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 25 Nov 2018, 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM

1. West

11. Nagarjuna

2. Forests

12. America

3. Anaimudi

13. Kuhak

4. Speaker

14. Othello

5. Uttarakhand

15. Kanishka

6. Japan

16. Throat

7. Stupa

17. Ganga

8. Tuticorin

18. Lenin

9. Mathura

19. Damodar

10. London

20. Kochi

solution of sudoku-48

Folk Music & A View Of The Qutub Venue: 1AQ MEHRAULI

Qutub Minar Complex Road, Seth Sarai, Mehrauli, New Delhi 25 Nov 2018, 7:00 PM - 10:30 PM

31

Across 2. Which city is the venue of the 18th IORA Council of (Foreign) Ministers Meetings (COM)?

7. The 33rd edition of the ASEAN Summit begins in __________.

11. Name the firm which implement a Transparency Policy for Buying Political Adverts Ahead of Indian Elections.

13. European Intervention Initiative a joint military force was launched in __________.

14. Gaddam Dharmendra was appointed as the Ambassador of India to __________.

16. Which state bans importing of fish officially for 6 months?

17. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate two important national highways in __________.

19. Which country unveils ‘most advanced’ stealth drone UAV - CH7 recently?

20. Name of the Indian city where the world’s largest hospital opened is; Down 1. The Global Cooling Innovation Summit will be held in which country?

3. inked 1st e-commerce agreement?

4. Nokia and this IT company join hands to work in AI and machine learning driven solutions.

5. Which country signed agreement with India on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters?

6. Who has taken its first step towards its mid-2023-planned mission to Venus?

8. Who has approved strategic disinvestment of 100% Government of India’s shares in Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCIL)?

9. US has granted a waiver from sanctions for New Delhi’s role in the development of Chabahar port in __________.

10. Which of the following technology will be used in ICC Women’s T20 tournament for the first time?

12. This state government decided to launch a digital platform for Agriculture land.

15. Name of the NASA’s space instrument that will travel with the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, in 2021.

18. Nilambar Acharya was nominated as the Ambassador to India by which of the following country?

sudoku-49

Masterclass And Interactive Sessions Venue: National Textile & Crafts Museum

Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi 30 Nov 2018, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PMFri, 16 Nov 9:00PM - 11:30PM

on the lighter side by DHIR

Please mail your solution to - ssbweekly@gmail.com or Whatsapp at 9868807712, One Lucky Winner will win Cash Prize of Rs 500/-. Look for the Solution in the Next Issue of SSB

30 32

Newsmakers

Nov 19 - 25, 2018

Garima Arora

Mumbai Girl Bags First Michelin Star For India Chef Garima’s restaurant, GAA, featured in the recently released Michelin’s guide to Bangkok, Phuket and Phang-nga for 2019

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n a rare honour, Indian chef Garima Arora has become the first Indian woman to get a Michelin star for her restaurant in Bangkok. Her restaurant, GAA, was featured in the recently released Michelin’s guide to Bangkok, Phuket and Phang-nga for 2019.

Born in Mumbai, Garima is an alumnus of the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu. She studied in Mumbai’s Jai Hind College and

is a former journalist. After having worked with culinary stalwarts like Gordon Ramsay, Gaggan Anand and René Redzepi, she set up GAA in 2017.

GAA is also the only restaurant in Bangkok run by an Indian woman and is also the first of its kind.

In an interview to Forbes India, Garima said that getting the Michelin star was a “huge stamp of approval” for her and her team.

Garima added that her father, who would travel extensively and then cook exotic dishes he savoured there for his family, has been a huge influence on her.

She also talked about how the Indian cooking technique of pickling has influenced her, and how she liked to pack strong and unusual flavours, which makes the food interactive and makes the style of eating a familiar, collective one.

Bajrang Punia

He is World No. 1 It has turned out to be a remarkable season for Bajrang, who was also the only Indian grappler to be given a seeding

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tar Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia touched a new high in his career by achieving the number one rank in the world in the 65kg category recently.

The 24-year-old Bajrang, who has won five medals this season, including CWG and Asian Games gold and silver at the

World Championship, was placed atop the ranking table with 96 points in the UWW list. It has turned out to be a remarkable season for Bajrang, who was also the only Indian grappler to be given a seeding at the Budapest World Championship.

“Every athlete nurtures the dream to be world number one in his career. But If I had become number one with a World Championship gold, it would have been better,” Bajrang told.

“But I am working hard and will try to retain this world number rank with a World Championship gold next year,” he added.

Menaka Stephen

A Beacon Of Hope For Underprivileged Kids A Bengaluru-based NGO, Parikrma works with underprivileged children to educate and empower them to work towards a better future

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ven in 21st century India, millions of children continue to be stuck in the vicious circle of poverty, completely missing out on their childhood This is the story of one such person, who witnessed the deprivation from a very young age and despite the challenges, rose above them all. Menaka Stephen comes from a less fortunate background.

Her father abandoned her family when she was just a child and her mother, who worked as a housemaid, found it extremely tough to provide for the family.

However, Parikrma Humanity Foundation, which works for the education and empowerment of underprivileged kids, took her in and gave her a platform to showcase her innate talent.

8-year-old Menaka was part of the first batch and her life since then has been one of positivity and sheer determination. In the course of her education, Menaka bagged awards of ‘Best All-Rounder’ and ‘Best Student’. Although financial problems continued to cause a strain, young Menaka did not lose heart. She had to drop out of her hospitality course in the final year,

but she immediately got a stable job. She later joined IBM as a receptionist and for all intent and purposes, her life seemed settled and happy.

Supported by SBI Life, Parikrma is actively involved in skill enhancement, counselling and literacy programmes. This ensures that the children don’t just receive bookish knowledge, but also develop values of compassion, empathy and selfless service.

The impact of the teachings can be seen in an incident from Menaka’s life.

Even when she secured a well-paying job at IBM, she found something amiss. Her heart lays with Parikrma. So she quit her job to join the organisation. And a week of volunteering was enough to tell her exactly what that was. “That happiness and all the children coming to me and asking me ‘Akka how did you feel when you were in school?’ All those things made me come back to Parikrma,” she says.

Today, she has a permanent position there as an Environmental Science teacher for Classes 4 and 5 and she is helping underprivileged children get the opportunities they deserve.

She shares, “I could not have asked for more from life as this is what makes me the happiest. Seeing these kids and being with them keeps the child in me alive as well.” We should all take a leaf out of Menaka’s book as #DilBacchaTohSabAcha.

RNI No. DELENG/2016/71561, Joint Commissioner of Police (Licensing) Delhi No. F. 2 (S-45) Press/ 2016 Volume - 2, Issue - 49 Printed by Monika Jain, Published by Monika Jain on behalf of SULABH SANITATION MISSION FOUNDATION and Printed at The Indian Express Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, NOIDA (U.P.) and Published from RZ 83, Mahavir Enclave, Palam-Dabri Road, New Delhi – 110 045. Editor Monika Jain