Sulabh Swachh Bharat - VOL: 2 | ISSUE 28

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Vrindavan Saga

Nikkei Response

Bibliophile’s delight

The Making of A Legend

She was restless and didn’t realise it was peace that she sought

Dr Pathak is God’s noblest and most precious gift to India

Libraries have been the prized possessions of historical societies

Schemes FOR YOUTHs AND EMPLOYMENT

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Vol - 2 | Issue - 28 | June 25-July 01, 2018 | Price ` 5/-

impact factor

Books Shape Life, Life Shapes Books n Parsa ventakehwar rao Jr

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here are two very interesting and widely divergent examples of how reading a book has changed the thinking and life of two great people. The first is that of Mahatma Gandhi. He was influenced

by American thinker Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” (published in 1849) and British writer and thinker John Ruskin’s “Unto This Last” (published in 1860). He read it on a train journey from Johannesburg to Durban. Gandhi was so impressed

by Ruskin’s book that he paraphrased it in Gujarati and serialized it in the Indian Opinion, the newspaper he was running in South Africa. He later published this as a pamphlet under the title ‘Sarvodaya’. This is indeed the origin of the word ‘Sarvodaya’!

The third writer who influenced Gandhi was Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. But it was not the novels of Tolstoy that impacted Gandhi. It was the Russian writer’s outpouring on the religious life that left an impression on him, especially Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God Is Within You”, which was translated into English from Russian by Constance Garnett in 1894, and also Tolstoy’s “Letter To A Hindu”. It is now generally recognised that Gandhi’s political experiment with ‘satyagraha’ owes much to Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and to Tolstoy’s idea of “passive resistance”.

The other example is from the field of science. Erwin Schrodinger, an Austrian physicist, wrote a book called “What Is Life, The Physical

Books come as life-savers in every situation. A long journey, a sleepless night or a lazy day, a book can be your companion in every mood

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Cover Story

June 25-July 01, 2018

10 Gems of Indian English Literature

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t always takes a lot of time to decide which book to pick as there are thousands of options available. These Indian Authors You Must Read at Least Once in Your Lifetime The Story Of My Experiments With Truth- Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi has always been an interesting, inspiring and impressive personality to read about. The autobiography was written as weekly journals and then compiled and published as a book.

Aspect of the Living Cell” (published in 1944). Schrodinger was keenly interested in the Indian philosophical system of the Vedanta, which speaks of the unity of forces in the universe.

Though a physicist, he chose to speak in this popular lecture addressed to a general public about the basis of biological life. Francis Crick, a physicist read Schrodinger’s book and turned to biology, and Crick along with James D Watson discovered the double helix structure of the genetic material, the deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. Crick and Watson along with Maurice Jenkins won the Nobel Prize for Biology in 1962 for their discovery of the structure of the DNA. While Thoreau, Ruskin and Tolstoy influenced Mahatma Gandhi’s unique

5 International Best-sellers You May Not Have Read, But Should •Girls of Riyadh- Rajaa Alsanea •The Flea Palace- Elif Shafak •Trust No One- Paul Cleave •The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules- Catharina IngelmanSundberg •Confessions- Kanae Minato •Like Water for Chocolate- Laura Esquivel.

style of non-violent political struggle, a book written by physicist Schrodinger influenced another physicist Crick, which in turn led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. So books can bring about revolutionary changes. That is why it is said that dictators fear books and writers. The first thing they do is to ban books.

There has been a running debate whether the French Revolution of 1789 was caused by the ideas of a group of writers called encyclopaedists, which included Denis Diderot, Voltaire, D’Alembert, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Rousseau’s famous Social Contract opens with the resounding sentence, “Man is born free; but everywhere he is found in chains.” There was keen awareness of the political situation of the day and thinkers and writers of the day addressed those issues with all seriousness. Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man”, published in 1791 is a defence of the values of the French Revolution of 1789 – liberty, equality and fraternity. It was English novelist Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” which told in a dramatic fashion the story of the French Revolution. Another English-Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle wrote about the French Revolution as an imaginative historical narrative. Books are part of the historical developments. While books and ideas trigger revolutions on the one hand, historical events inspire great books.

The awareness of modern Indians as to what the British colonial rule was doing to the country was expressed in “Poverty and Un-British Rule in India”by Dadabhai Naoroji which was published in 1901. All the nationalist

The White Tiger- Aravind Adiga Arvind Adiga’s Man-Booker-Prizewinning debut novel was widely acclaimed for its refreshing take on social class disparities and contradictions in contemporary India.

The Interpreter of MaladiesJhumpa Lahiri The stories are based on lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are lost between the two cultures.

The book was published in 1999 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Private Life of an Indian Prince- Mulk Raj Anand The story revolves around abolition of princely states in India, focusing on the life of a King and his fascination towards one of his mistresses. The story has some real life incidents which are beautifully converted into fiction.

The Guide- R.K. Narayan The Guide is yet another story set up in Malgudi. R.K. Narayan won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the book in 1960.

The Glass Palace- Amitav Ghosh The novel beautifully portrays the

leaders used Naoroji’s book as a text to criticize British rule. Gandhi himself wrote his own political manifesto, “Hind Swaraj” in 1909. He wrote it in Gujarati and then he translated it into English.. Interestingly, Vinay Damodar Savarkar, Gandhi’s ideological rival, published his Indian War of Independence in English translation in the same year. The

circumstances and incidents that made Burma, India and Malaya what they are today The Palace Of Illusions -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Banerjee has written the whole story by stepping into Draupadi’s shoes and writing a completely male dominant epic from a female’s point of view.

Chronicles Of A Corpse Bearer by Cyrus Mistry Set in pre-independence Parsi era, this book captures the city of Bombay and its Parsi community that are in a minority.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai It shows how people find the English lifestyle fascinating and also captures the perception of various opportunities in the US The Collector’s Wife- Mitra Phukan This book is set up against Assam’s insurgencies and is the first English novel to be published by a writer from North-East India.

original version in Marathi was written in 1907. The book was read avidly by nationalists of all hues. Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Autobiography”, published in 1936, was more the story of the Indian freedom struggle than the lifestory of Nehru himself, though there is quite a bit of that in the book. In “The Discovery of India”, published in 1946, was a narration of Indian history in

Cover Story

June 25-July 01, 2018

5 Elite Authors Who Sell 100 Million and Plus •Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has legions of readers. His bestknown book The Alchemist has sold an estimated 350 million books.

•Horror master Stephen King, with more than 50 titles, has also sold an estimated 350 million books.

•Dan Brown has millions of readers as well. The Da Vinci Code alone sold 80 million copies.

•Considered by many scholars Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes to be the first great novel, it hit the 500 million mark.

•A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens passed the 200 million copy mark

Nehru’s elegant English prose.

In fiction, Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s “Anandmath”, published in 1882, and which included the famous Nationalist song Vande Mataram, showed how literature becomes part of the political developments in a country and how it makes an emotional appeal to the people. Odiya writer Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Chha Mana Aaath Guntha (Six Acres and a Third)”, is one of the earliest fictional masterpieces to depict the harsh and exploitative reality of rural India.

Rabindranath Tagore’s “Ghare Baire (Home and the World)”, published in Bangla in 1916 and translated into English in 1919, shows the dilemmas faced by individuals who were fighting against the British colonial rule. The

tussle between the main characters in the book is about accepting or rejecting Western culture. The great Hindi writer, Premchand wrote “Godan (Gift of a Cow)” in 1936, which portrayed rural poverty and exploitation of the poor.

It is significant that after Indian became independent in 1947, novels, plays and stories continued to be written which showed the state of the mind of the nation as it were. Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s “Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu (My Gran’dad ‘ad an Elephant)” published in 1951, showed the vibrancy and innocence of Indian rural life which a writer, with an eye for detail, could use to create a literary masterpiece.

Dharamvir Bharati’s Hindi play, “Andha Yug”, written in 1954, which shows the situation after the end of the great war in the epic of Mahabharata, but which was an allegory of the trauma of Partition that marred the dawn of independence. In the same year, Phanishwar Nath Renu’s novel “Maila Aanchal” too came out, which was a powerful and wistful portrayal of the India of the village and of the poor.

By the 1960s, the literary trends changed and there was a revolution of another kind in the making, especially with the Dalit writers in Maharashtra.

Poets likes Namdeo Dhasal articulated what it is to be at the bottom of the social heap, and the poems showed anger and clarity. A landmark event in 1976 was the publication of Marathi poet Arun Kolatkar’s “Jejuri”, a collection of poems in Marathi and English. The English version won the Commonwealth Literature Prize in 1977. Kolatkar brought forth a new sensibility, which worked through images and it showed the sharp edges of belief and the dilapidated social system.

Indians did not give up English as many new writers took to English as they would to any other Indian language. In the 1980s, Vikram Seth showed virtuosity in writing the versenovel, a gymnast’s feat at the best of time, called “The Golden Gate”. It showed Seth’s deft control of English prosody. In 1992 he achieved another difficult task by writing the huge novel, “A Suitable Boy”, which told a family saga in the India of 1950s, showing the country emerging from

Books have a close connection with the times in which they are written, though some of them continue to be popular centuries later

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The Book that influenced Dr Pathak

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he book that triggered the two-pit latrine idea in the mind of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak was a World Health Organisation (WHO) publication of 1958 called “Excreta Disposal For Rural Areas And Small Communities” by Edmund G Wagner, who was chief engineer and associate chief of field party, in the Division of Health and Sanitation, Institute of Inter-American Affairs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and J.N. Lanoix, Public Health (Sanitary)

Engineer, Division of Environmental Sanitation, in the World Health Organisation at Geneva in Switzerland.

Books written by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak

• Environmental Sanitation and Eradication of Scavenging in India • Gandhi Sanitation and Untouchability • Untouchability… No More • Road to Freedom • Sulabh Shauchalaya – A Simple Idea that Worked • Sulabh Shauchalaya – A Study of a colonial past into a bureaucratic socialist present. The Time magazine described the emergence of Indian writers in English as “The Empire Strikes Back” as Amitav Ghosh started off his series of novels touching upon the recent past of India with considerable craftsmanship. This was especially evident in his “Calcutta Chromosome”, which was a sciencefiction thriller. Arundhati Roy winning the 1997 Booker Prize award for her debut novel “The God of Small Things” marked the culmination of the Indian success story in the journey of the Indian novel written in English.

Of course, it did not happen suddenly.

Writers like Kamala Markandeya and Anita Desai had quietly written the novels in English through the 1960s

Directed Change • Serfdom to Freedom • Action Sociology and Development • Continuity… and Change in Indian Society • Sanitation and Scavenging In India : Achievements and Challenges • Constitutional Safeguards for Weaker Sections and the Minorities in India (Co-author B.N. Srivastava) • Supreme Court of India & Widows of Vrindavan • Narendra Damodardas Modi-The Making of a Legend. and 1970s, and it established the invisible base for the new writers to take off. It was poetic justice of sorts when Anita Desai’s daughter, Kiran Desai, won the Booker Award in 2006 for her sensitive and subtle politicalcum-personal novel, “The Inheritance of Loss”.

There were new things happening in the languages in India. Hindi novelist from Kolkata, Alka Saraogi, in her 1998 novel, “Kolkata Via Bypass” wrote about the Marwari community long settled in Kolkata and their life-story with verve and pathos. For a long time, it seemed that the Hindi novel can only be written about people living in the Hindispeaking states, which was a natural thing to do. Here, Saraogi shows how a

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Cover Story

June 25-July 01, 2018

5 Popular Comics For Children Learning while reading is an essential part of a child’s growth. One of the ways to ensure it is by letting them read what they find enjoyable.

Comics are considered a great way of imparting knowledge and wisdom to children.

Here are 5 most popular comics that a child must read: Archie Comics This series began in 1941 and is still going strong. It follows the lives of Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and many of the students of Riverdale High. With plenty of slapstick humour, these comics are a fun read.

Marvel’s Avengers The Avengers were created in 1963 where the superheroes Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, The Wasp, and Hulk fight against Thor’s brother Loki.

They are later joined by Captain America, Hawkeye and other Avengers.

The content is based on the classic principle of good versus evil.

Chacha Chaudhary Eversince 1971, Chacha Chaudhary continues to be a popular comic series among children. In the series, wise old man Chacha Chaudhary with his sidekick, Sabu, solves crimes with a mind working “faster than a computer”.

Tinkle First issued in 1980, Tinkle is well known to most adults as they grew up reading the series. Characters like Kalia the Crow, Supandi, and Shikari Shambu immediately become a child’s favourites. The books stress on the common virtues of being hard-working, honest, and kind.

Scooby-Doo Team Up Originally publisghed in 2015, this mystery genre book, largely talks about teamwork, friendship and doing what is right. Scooby-Doo and the rest of the Mystery Inc gang team up with DC comics characters Batman and Robin to solve crime and mysteries in New York City.

Hindi-speaking, or speaking a variant of Hindi, community can find its own literary voice. She shows the life struggles of the Marwari community, their struggles and successes, and their tragedies, in a city where they live as a linguistic minority. It was a natural thing to do because in every part of India, linguistic minorities live and each of them has a story to tell. India

offers diverse and rich possibilities of craving a literature of one’s own. She carries the experiment forward with her latest 2018 novel, “Sachi Jhooti Gatha”, where she weaves in the social media into the literary landscape of the novel, and she does this in a rather ingenuous way.

There are others like the 19th century Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib,

10 Most Expensive And Rare Books In The World

Book: The First Book of Urizen Author: William Blake Price: $2.5 million

Book: First Folio Author: William Shakespeare Price: $6 million

Book: The Tales of Beedle the Bard Author: J.K. Rowling Price: $3.98 million

Book: The Canterbury Tales Author: Geoffrey Chaucer Price: $7.5 million

Book: Geographia Cosmographia Author: Claudius Ptolemy Price: $4 million Book: Traité des arbres fruitiers [Treatise on Fruit Trees] Author: Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, illustrated by Pierre Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin Price: $4.5 million Book: The Gutenberg Bible Price: $4.9 million who lived most of his life in Delhi, who have remained popular because of their delightful use of language so that people born generations after the poet lived are able to enjoy his wit.

Ghalib was not only a great poet because of the wit and pathos of his verse, but he was also a great letter writer where he shaped an informal and lively Urdu prose. The saying that great writers do not belong just to their times but to all times is true of people like Ghalib. He is popular among readers who read his Urdu poems in Devnagari script and make effort to understand the shades of meaning of the Urdu words he used, and they are happy to have made that effort.

India being a land of many languages – 16 of them are recognized in the Constitution – people read many of the works through translations. Nobel

Book: Birds of America Author: James Audubon Price: $11.5 million Book: The Gospels of Henry the Lion Author: Order of Saint Benedict Price: $11.7 million Book: The Codex Leicester Author: Leonardo da Vinci Price: $30.8 million laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s poems and stories are familiar to a general reader in all parts of India because of the translations of his work. And it is true of two other Bangla novelists, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, whose novels are accessible to many people through translation across the country. Everyone is familiar with the story of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s novel “Devdas”, and very few pause to remember that it was originally written in Bangla.

Similarly, the two grand Sanskrit epics of the country, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are familiar to people speaking different languages because these works had been translated time and again into the many languages in the country.

The Indian experience with books is full of surprises and fulfilling.

June 25-July 01, 2018

Vrindavan Saga

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Pushpa Dasi Pushpa Dasi didn’t realise she was restlessly in search of peace, till she visited Vrindavan

No More Hardships, No More Worries n Swastika Tripathi

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ushpa Dasi of West Medinipur, West Bengal, came to Vrindavan four years ago on a permanent basis. It was not like she had troubles with her son or his wife. Yes, there were differences, as it is natural, but not so major that she would get compelled to take drastic measures.

What made Pushpa Dasi leave her home, even she didn’t realise till she actually did.

Pushpa Dasi was then an 11-yearold little girl when she was married to a 22-year-old boy. The family was very poor. Her husband was a beggar.

Money was a big question mark.

One the top of it, in the course of time, she gave birth to four daughters and two sons, of which one boy died at an early age. Sustaining a family of seven, on the back of begging, was a real struggle.

However, her husband was managing. And so was Pushpa. A life of adjustments was their daily routine. Conditions were poor but the family had learnt to live with a rich heart. Little things were handled with a smiling face.

But, life was yet not done troubling Pushpa and her family. This time the trouble came in the form of deadly cancer that caught hold of Pushpa’s husband. The poor family was shaken. The breadwinner, the sole source of income and the strong head of the family was victim to a life-

sucking disease.

And then eventually, the painful fate was met. Pushpa’s husband died, she became a widow and her children – father-less.

“Cancer killed my husband. What could we have done? We were poor. A poor cannot tackle such big diseases.

We knew he would die, sooner or later. And that is what happened. Our poor family was left without its source of strength. We were left shaken. I was left shaken,” said Pushpa Dasi, recalling the painful phase.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Yes, the family remained poor (or even poorer than before) but Pushpa made sure that she at least sustained her five children. Whatever all she could manage to collect, she would spend it on her kids. She made sure they were fed and taken care of.

Surviving the days and the entangled hardships, Pushpa somehow managed to marry off her daughters and then later on the son, too.

“My daughters’ marriage was a very low-key affair. We are poor. That is how it was supposed to happen.

It might have been better, had my husband been alive. But how does that even matter now. At least they were married.”

Pushpa spent the days that followed from then on living with her son and daughter-in-law. There were no major spats between Pushpa and her son and daughter-in-law but still she was restless.

One day she went to visit one of her daughter who was living in Mathura after marriage. She thought maybe a change of environment will give her some peace of mind.

“My daughter took me to Vrindavan. The aura of the holy city captivated me. I felt an unexpected lightness in my head and happiness in my heart. I suddenly knew this is what I was looking for all along. This is where I belong.”

And so, Pushpa decided to stay.

Her daughter took her to a widowashram on her consistent request.

Eversince she has been spending her days, with utmost content, in a Sulabh-assisted ashram.

“I was poor from birth. I was accustomed to the poor lifestyle. It

“I was poor from birth, accustomed to the poor lifestyle. But I guess a part of me was restless. I was looking for peace”

Quick Glance Pusha Dasi was born in and married to a poor family

Her beggar husband died of cancer and she somehow raised the kids

She was restless and didn’t realise it was peace that she sought

never bothered me. But I guess a part of me was restless. I was looking for peace. And that is what I finally found when I came to Vrindavan. I don’t have to struggle anymore. There is a quiet place to stay; Good people to sing bhajans with; Proper meal to satisfy the hunger. ‘Lal Baba’ (alias of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation) takes care of it all. No more hardships, no more worries,” and then she gave a smile of complete satisfaction.

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Response

June 25-July 01, 2018 Appreciation

Dr Pathak Is God’s Noblest And Most Precious Gift To India He is a man with an extremely comprehensive soul, who can’t see people in distress n Prof. Awadesh K Sharma

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congratulate the Founder of our organisation on receiving the coveted and one of the most prestigious international Nikkei Asia Award in Tokyo, Japan. I know, as well as you all do, that no man is more worthy than Dr Pathak of the name of genius, and great in everything he does, and I mean it, in everything he does. There is something in him which makes me desire to speak out loud to the whole world, “Look what a wonderful man is living on earth, and that too in our midst. How fortunate we are!”

Dr Bindeshwar Pathak is God’s noblest and most precious gift to India and the world in general and to the downtrodden and the outcast in particular. He is a man with an extremely comprehensive soul who can’t see people in distress. Social service comes naturally to him.

His consciousness for sanitation and environment also came to him naturally and without reading any books on the subject, he looked inwards and applied his common sense and his inventions saw the light of the day – two-pit ecological compost toilets, pay and use community toilets, biogas from Sulabh Public Toilets, Effluent Treatment Plant, Purified Drinking Water, and there are many more yet to come. It happened because, as Gandhiji said, “To think good thoughts is one thing, to act upon them is another.”

A scientist and a social scientist, a leader and a humanist, a spiritualist and a revolutionary, a writer and a poet, a composer and a singer, a human right activist and a messiah of the untouchables and widows, and over and above everything, a perfect human being, Dr Pathak is a confluence where all streams of knowledge combine and coalesce. He has received not less than a hundred awards and honours from nearly all international organisations and nations for his work in the areas of health, hygiene, sanitation and community development and has been a nominated member of

dozens of national and international committees. To cap it all, he is an action sociologist and father of the sociology of sanitation, which at his initiative is being taught in more than a dozen universities in India.

Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, which Dr Pathak founded in 1970, is the largest nongovernmental organisation in the world where sixty thousand associate members are rendering their services, meaning thereby that Dr Pathak is supporting sixty thousand families.

Besides, there are widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi and women and children in different parts of India who are also being sustained and maintained by Dr Pathak.

These facts are known to you all.

I want to draw your attention to an altogether different aspect of Dr Pathak’s personality. Shakespeare in one of his plays writes: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”.

Dr Pathak achieved his greatness single handedly. He was neither born with a silver spoon in his mouth nor did he have any godfather to push him to the heights that he has achieved in his life in the course of time. He pulled himself up by his own bootstraps overcoming poverty and ignorance by education, sanitation and social work to become the founder of the biggest philanthropist organisation of the world.

Imagine a boy from an orthodox Brahmin family in a backward area of Bihar in the sixties, carrying night-soil on his head to have a feel of the plight and agony of the scavengers. He did not think about the result, did not even realise what he was upto. On the same day all the awards and honours were earmarked for him by the Almighty.

Karmanye wa adhikaraste ma faleshu kadachana.

(Our duty is to work and not to waste time in being overwhelmed, thinking of the result of our action).

A Karma Yogi, a Gita Purush was born in that Brahmin boy on

the same day and he was destined to do something exceptional and exemplary. Like Milarepa, a Tibetan saint, whose guru, Marpa, asked him to work hard instead of having lessons in spiritualism. The work assigned to him was to make a stone hut on top of a mountain and once it was ready then to bring it down stone by stone to build another, and another and yet another hut and in due course one day Milarepa fell down the precipice, but while falling what he could think was ‘I have not completed the mandate given to me by my guru’. And before his body could hit the rocks below, an invisible hand stopped his fall and lifted him up before his guru who blessed him by saying, “Milarepa, today you have become greater than me.” Dr Pathak did not have any such guru, he was a light unto himself Appa dipo bhavah, but that invisible hand was always there, who could visualize his potential wand said into his heart, ‘Bindeshwar, work hard, just involve yourself in

Karmayoga and the light within you will shine’.

Adweshta sarvabhootanam maitrah karun eva cha, Nirmamo nirahankarah sama dukh sukhah kshami.

(He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment, balanced in pleasure and pain and forgiving’) Imagine the early struggle and those hard times of Dr Pathak when he would have no money, no support, no place and over and above that the jeers and taunts of the unfriendly and hostile people. Imagine the amount of patience, positivity and equanimity this great man would have during his youth. He has all along been a sthitaprajna. Had Arjuna seen Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, he would not have asked Lord Krishna that searching question.

Sthitaprajnasya ka bhasha samadhisthasya keshavah, Sthitidhih kim prabhashet kimaseet vrajet kim.

(O Keshav, what is the language of a person who is stable in wisdom; how does such a person speak, how does he sit and how does he walk) But Lord Krishna, who could see past, present and future, had certainly anticipated Dr Pathak when he answered the question.

Duhkhesu anudurgnamanah sukhesu vigat sprihah, Veetraaghayakrodhah sthitidhih muni uchyate.

(Sages are of the view that a person who is not restless in grief nor overjoyed and excited in happiness and free from attachment, fear and anger is a person of steady intellect and consciousness) Tulsidas has also said the same thing in other words: Ninda astuti ubhaya sama…

(A person for whom there is no difference between whether you condemn him or praise him) Do you notice any difference or change in the behaviour and reactions

Response

June 25-July 01, 2018

Hearty Congratulation To Winner of Nikkei Asia Prize

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Follower Of Gandhi, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak n Dr Anil Dutt Mishra Duniya mein vahee shakhs hai taazeem ke qaabil, jis shakhs ne haalaat ka rukh mod diya ho

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n Arjun Prasad Singh

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n a glittering and star-studded ceremony Nikkei Inc. Japan conferred the “23rd Nikkei Asia Prize 2018” in the category of “Culture and Community” to Padma Bhushan Dr Bindeshwar Pathak for his outstanding achievements that contribute to the region’s sustainable development and to the creation of a better future for Asia.

The Nikkei Asia Prize recognises Dr Pathak as “An Indian social reformer, tackling two of his country’s biggest challenges – poor hygiene and discrimination”.

Nikkei Inc., one of the largest media corporations in Japan, has been presenting the awards since 1996 in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of Nikkei Inc’s newspaper, the Nikkei. They honour people in Asia who have made significant contributions in one of the three areas: Economic

of Dr Pathak before and after receiving the award. Dr Pathak’s religion is: Sevya hi dharmah. (Service is religion).

That is, Parhit sarisa dharma nahin bhai par peera sam nahin adhamai.

(To render service to others is the best religion and to inflict pain on others is the worst sin) He is engaged day and night in the selfless service to mankind. Gandhiji also said, there is not a single moment in life when man cannot serve.

and Business Innovation, Science, Technology and Environment; and Culture and Community. It aims to give light to people and organisations that contributed to the development and prosperity of Asia. Speaking after receiving his award at the 23rd Nikkei Asia Prize Ceremony in Tokyo, Dr Pathak said that the honour will be another milestone in his commitment to the service of society in Asia in particular and the world in general.

Although umpteen awards and accolades, national and international, across the world have been conferred on Dr Pathak, still I wish for prestigious “Bharat Ratna and coveted Nobel Prize for him.

In the last, I heartily, congratulate Dr Pathak on receiving the prestigious award, and extend my gratitude to the audience who have listened to me patiently. (Input from Agencies) I wish and pray for many more, especially two awards for Dr Pathak which he richly deserves, they are Bharat Ratna and Nobel Prize. Though I am not an astrologer, yet I can say for sure, as my wishes are fulfilled and prayers are heard, these two awards will come his way very soon.

I would conclude with Arnold’s lines about Shakespeare: Dr Pathak: Others abide our question thou art free, We ask and ask, thou smilest and are still.

hese lines are perfect on the life of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak. From childhood till today, his life has been a struggle.

He never compromised with his principles and always kept the focus on his path. After the struggle, he kept on achieving success one after another. Government of India honoured him with ‘Padma Bhushan’.

Today, his work is recognised not only in India, but globally, and for his work, he received the ‘Nikkei Asia Prize-2018’ in Japan. He had an informal meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, the second largest economic country in the world, and had dinner with the delegates and participants. This is a big deal in itself.

After 21 years in South Africa, when Mahatma Gandhi came to India in 1915, he was greeted by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was first given the title of ‘Mahatma’ by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore.

Today, we are very happy to call Dr Bindeswar Pathak, for the first time as ‘Sulabh Gandhi’. Indeed, Bindeshwar Pathak, the symbol of simplicity, has presented a new mode of social change in front of us, which we know as ‘Sulabhvaad’.

I will try to define the life of Dr Pathak in a few words...

‘His life is unknown journey of unknown destination’

Dr Pathak is an innovative person, who created a contemporary history for himself, and whom the world is determined to follow. Dr Pathak had neither ‘state power’ nor ‘financepower’ nor ‘religion-power’. In spite of this, he had done what others have not. After Gandhiji, nobody has done such a big thing for the untouchable. In other words, ‘He is

next to Gandhi.’

Dr Pathak, a person full of charisma, always thinks differently.

His thinking is fundamental and diverse. It is reflected in his works.

‘Sulabhvaad’, the initiative done in Alwar, work done for women in Vrindavan, and work done on water issue in West Bengal. All these show his attitude and foresight towards life. Whatever he says is very simple in terms of language but holds a profund meaning.

A Shayar has rightly said: ‘baat nikalee hai to door talak jaegee’ Dr Pathak says we should recognize the continuity in the liveliness of nature. This is ‘Sulabhvaad’. The work is tough, but it must be done, today we take the pledge. The lines of Bashir Badra are very suitable here: ‘ujaale apanee yaadon ke hamaare saath rahane do na jaane kis galee mein zindagee kee shaam ho jae’ Whenever history will be written hundred and two-hundred years from now, Dr Bindeswar Pathak’s name will be written in golden letters and it will be researched across the world.

I pen down with these lines of Mahatma Gandhi...

‘The path may be clouded : Move on for the orbit is fixed for your soul; And though it may lead into darkness of night; The torch of the Builder shall give it new light.

Jai Sulabh, Jai Sulabhvaad!

08

Sanitation

June 25-July 01, 2018

Ghana

Ghana – Struggle For Sanitation An intensive national campaign to achieve the goal of eliminating open defecation by 2030

urooj fatima

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hana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, who came to power in January 2017, has started a national sanitation campaign, deriving inspiration from Indian Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi’s nationwide total sanitation movement. He has set up for the first time in the country the ministry for sanitation and water resources. He has set for himself the goal of making Accra, the capital of Ghana, the cleanest city in Africa before his term in office ends.

He has formulated a national sanitation strategy: -Establishment of a National Sanitation Authority -Establishment of a National Sanitation Fund -Local government asked to follow the one-house-one toilet policy -Sanitation Ministry and Attorney General’s office to set aside a day for trying sanitation offenses -Evaluation and Monitoring Ministry to publish quarterly performance reports of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies on the sanitation front -Appointment of Sanitation Ambassadors to help with the sanitation campaign

-All government departments and agencies to be assigned two officers –sanitation marshals and deputy marshals to oversee compliance with sanitation by-laws -Establishment of National Sanitation Brigade, comprising Ghanaian youth, to enforce sanitation laws across the country.

According to the Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), more than half of Ghana now lives in cities and towns, but of these only one-fifth the urban dwellers have access to improved sanitation services. In Kumasi, one of the larger urban centres, there is one toilet for every thousand persons and half of the 1.7 million population of the city is dependent on public toilets. In the capital and the largest city in the country, the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), where four million people live, The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have said in 2017 that only 14 per cent of Ghanaians have access to basic sanitation, while 19 per cent practice

open defecation.

On June 19, the World Bank has given $45 million to provide sanitation to the poor and vulnerable in the country. This has been said to be additional funding by the first Sanitation and Water Resources Minister Joseph Kofi Adda. The WB fund is to be utilised for household latrine ownership and usage initiative.

Ghana faces the peculiar problem that it has achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of access to improved water supply but not on access to improved sanitation. But in absolute terms, the record for access to water is not too good either. Only two out of every five Ghanaians drink safe water, two out of five schools are without toilets, and three out of five schools are without water supplies.

The World Bank indicators showed that in 2015, only 14.9 per cent of the population had access to improved sanitation facilities. And the WB criterion for improved sanitation facilitation is defined rigorously. It implies that there is adequate access to excreta disposal. It also means access to simple but protected pit latrines to flush toilets with a sewerage connection.

There is a multi-prong strategy to tackle the challenge of sanitation in Ghana. On June 20, Ghana had also got $300,000 from the African Development Fund to support the schools of hygiene in the country.

There are three of them and a fourth one is being set up. The schools of hygiene are being supported by funding support from the Netherlands government, and the Dutch ambassador to Ghana had assured that the support to the schools would continue. There is increasing awareness that there is need for trained graduates in environmental health to spread the message of hygiene among the people and to find administrative solutions.

The Tourism Ministry has announced that it will build 100

Ghana had also got $300,000 from the African Development Fund to support the schools of hygiene in the country

Statistics

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n Upper East region, 89% of the population practice Open Defecation (highest rate in Ghana) and only 3% use unshared improved sanitation facilities. Nationally, on average 22.9% of people in Ghana do not have access to ANY sanitation facility (open defecation) and only 15% use improved unshared sanitation facilities.

washrooms at beaches as a way of keeping the tourist sites clean and attractive. Tourism minister Catherine Afeku expressed the hope that taking care of the sanitation needs at the destination sites would attract tourists.

Meanwhile, the Ghana National Association of Private Schools and an NGO, Foundation for Generational Thinkers, is organizing a quiz competition for the students to make them aware of the sanitation issues, according to a report in Devdiscourse (Discourse on Development).

It is acknowledged that 19,000 Ghanaians die because of diarrhea, of whom 5,000 are children below the age of five, and cases are diarrhea occur because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities. The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has reckoned that the losses to the country due to poor sanitation amount to US$290 million per annum.Of this, open defecation alone costs $79 million per annum for the economy.

In an academic article, “Health in our hands but not in our head: understanding hygiene motivation

Sanitation

June 25-July 01, 2018

09 07

Sulabh ‘Two-pit Technology’ In Ghana

Sulabh Foundation has already provided key role in construction of public toilets in several countries

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hana and some other African countries have adopted Indigenous Sulabh techniques to improve their sanitation system.

Representatives of African countries have spent ten days in India in 2006, to get first hand experiences about the low cost Indian toilet system.

UN-HABITAT has organised the International Capacity Building Workshop on “Sanitation Technologies” with the collaboration of Sulabh International Academy of Environmental Sanitation between November 13 and 25 in 2006, to provide a platform to the African Countries to get in-depth knowledge about the low cost toilet system which was designed by Sulabh International. The Founder of Sulabh movement Dr Bindeshwar Pathak has assured the visiting delegates to provide all possible help to improve sanitation condition in these African countries As a part of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda through collaboration with all Partners including NGOs in achieving the Millennium Goals for Sustainable Development in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, this Capacity Building Programme was organised. The in Ghana” by Beth Scott, Val Curtis, Tamer Rabie, Nana Gabrah-Aidoo in the Journal of Health Policy and Planning, published in July, 2007 observed that “less than 5 % of Ghanaian mothers were observed to wash their hands with soap after defecation or the handling of children’s stools”.

participants had expressed great satisfaction over the techniques and expressed their desire to implement in their countries in near future.

The capacity-building process was carried out in three phases wherein the professionals were trained by Sulabh on sanitation technologies, followed by the implementation of the sanitation projects by the participants in their own countries under Sulabh’s technical and administrative supervision and the review of the projects in Africa by early 2008. Sulabh has been working closely with UN-HABITAT for over 35 years and has made contributions to bridge the sanitation gap in India.

Dr Pathak, who won the coveted Stockholm Water Prize in 2009 for his efforts in the field of sanitation to improve public health, said his organisation would construct public toilets in developing countries to popularise Indian toilet system in order to ensure proper sanitation in near future.

Sulabh Foundation has already provided key role in construction of public toilets in several countries including Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Laos, Ethiopia and other 10 African countries.

The programme officer of Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, Kweku Quansah, said earlier this month, “Children play where people defecate. Child safety, especially for the girl child, is compromised, while children are exposed to snakes and other animals.

The strategy to stop open defecation

is cheap, but the benefits are so many.”

The authorities are also pursuing the legal option of punishing those who violate the sanitation laws. A court in Accra sent 11 persons to 30 days prison earlier this month. The crime: open defecation, urination and indiscriminate dumping of refuse.

The guilty were rounded up and brought to the court by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly Sanitation and Monitoring Taskforce. But it is realized that taking legal action against those who violate sanitation laws should be a last resort and that there is a need to carry out an awareness campaign along with strengthening the sanitation infrastructure. This is exactly what the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area -Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) has done when it launched a door-to-door campaign to get toilets in their homes.

The residents are required to register with the municipal assembly and they will be provided with the choice of toilets. The first is the “fabricated built ones with metals and digesters to receive human waste to convert into valuable nutrients”. The other is designed with cement blocks.

Government will bear 70 per cent of the cost of the toilets.

There is consensus across the political spectrum that there is need for change in attitude to solve the problem of sanitation in Ghana.

Former president Jerry John Rawlings observed in April this during the ‘Clean Adabraka’ sanitation campaign, “If we do not improve our sanitation habits, we will never develop. There will be new street lights, roads and drains but we will dump refuse in the new drains and slow down our development.”

Ghanaians realise that their battle for better sanitation has to be fought at two levels, the physical and psychological. There is also a note of desperation in some quarters that there are much-publiscied campaigns, programmes and large allocations, the achievements on the ground are disappointing because of poor implementation. But government, NGOs and global donors continue to fight the battle of sanitation and they are optimistic that the country will attain its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of health and sanitation.

10

Records

June 25-July 01, 2018

language

Indian-origin Children Monopolise Spelling Bee In 1985, Balu Natarajan became the first Indianorigin child to win the Spelling Bee and 17 others have followed him Arul Louis

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or the 11th consecutive year, Indian-origin children have monopolised the National Spelling Bee crown with Karthik Nemmani winning the 2018 championship, beating out five others in the last rounds.

Nemmani, a 14-year-old eighthgrader from Texas, spelt “koinonia” correctly for his victory after second place winner, 12-year-old Naysa Modi, got “bewusstseinslage” wrong.

“It’s what I’ve been dreaming of for years now,” Nemmani said.

He takes home $40,000 and a trophy from Scripps Bee, which is sponsored by the EW Scripps media group, in addition to a $2,500 cash prize from Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher. Last week Indian-origin Venkat Ranjan, won the National Geographic Bee, which carries a $50,000 scholarship, beating out two others.

The second and third places in the contest, which tests knowledge of geography, were won by Anoushka Buddhikot and Vishal Sareddy.

This year 515 contestants participated in the National Spelling

Food

296 kg Goan Fish Patty Sets Guinness World Record The world’s biggest fish patty, which is 29 cm high and 122 cms in diameter

IANS

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iterally speaking, seafood in Goa cannot get bigger than this. A nearly 300 kg fish patty made here now holds the Guinness honour for being the largest.

Months after making a bid for an entry to the Guinness world record, by crafting the world’s largest fish cutlet,

a popular seafood snack in Goa, the record keepers at the Guinness World Records Limited, have adjudged a 296 kg fish patty as a world record.

This has delighted the Mumbaibased Trinity, hospitality, food and Beverage Company and chefs who participated in the mammoth effort.

The world’s biggest fish patty, which is 29 cm high and 122 cms in diameter,

Bee championship, the biggest number so far because of rule changes that widened the pool beyond the local champions and also included those without sponsors, who are usually newspapers. Indian-origin children have won the Spelling Bee championship for 11 continuous years since Sameer Mishra won in 2008.

In 1985, Balu Natarajan became the first Indian-origin child to win the Spelling Bee and 17 others have followed him. The Spelling Bee is not merely a memory test of exotic words as it also requires learning about the origins of words and the languages they are derived from. Almost a cult among Indian-Americans, Spelling Bees is organised by community organisations and by businesses wanting to reach them. Nemmani’s cousin, Srivatsav who was a contestant, but didn’t get to the finals, said: “I knew he was going to win. He studied for hours and hours and hours, countless hours.”

“Koinonia” is “an intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment

and spiritual community”, according to National Spelling Bee website.

The site defined “bewusstseinslage” as “a state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components”.

Given the difficulty of the word that tripped Modi, Nemmani said modestly: “She deserves the trophy just as much if not more than I did.”

The third through sixth places went to Abhijay Kodali, Jashun Paluru, Navneeth Murali and Sravanth Malla.

was slapped together in August 2017, at an indoor stadium near Panaji, by a team led by Trinity’s chairman Joseph Dias, a Goan by origin.

The team also included chefs from several starred hotels, who are part of the Goa Culinary Forum, supported by local service and logistics providers.

“We have breached all parameters of the record as the requirement was 200 kg and similar seafood Guinness records have a diameter of three feet, with a height of around seven inches and weight of 136 kg,” Dias told recalling the feat.

“We documented almost 12 hours of activity, with the Food and Drugs Administration, Weights and Measures department officers supervising and certifying the effort.

“Non-stop video footage, photographs, documentation, etc, then went back and forth, before the Guinness World Record authorities in UK confirmed and certified the fish patty so,” he added.

The world record effort was assisted by as many as 40 culinary professionals led by executive chefs of Goa, Prasad Paul of the Synergy Hospitality -- The Pan Asian Hut, Saurabh Puri of the Caravela Beach Resort, Ranjeet Pandey of Holiday Inn, Sunit Sharma of Cidade De Goa, Manjit Singh of Holiday Inn, K.S. Mahesh and Chef Leon Pereira of Radisson Blu and others.

“The team toiled through preparing

the fish and ingredients for about five hours and it took almost four hours to bake in an oven type contraption specially prepared for the occasion.

“After cutting, chopping, mincing, weighing and mixing the ingredients, the batch was put into the baking vessel with live coal underneath and left to cook on low heat,” Dias said.

The monumental task at hand was to process and blend 185 kg fish, 660 kg eggs, two litres of milk, 25 kg potatoes, 33 kg onions, 10 kg garlic, eight kg gherkins, 16 kg carrots, 16 kg bell peppers, 16 kg coriander, 10 kg jalapenos, six kg parsley, two kg lemons and seasoning like thyme, olive oil, spices, lemons all together into a paste and shaping it into a patty, which held together.

“The fish patty, once cooked and measured by the Guinness authorities, was distributed to the exhibitors, business visitors and a substantial amount went to charity, which included a food bank for the poor,” Dias said.

“Italabs confirmed that the final product was fit for human consumption and of high nutritional value because of the quality ingredients used,” Dias said, adding that the idea of creating the world’s largest fish patty came about because the team wanted to give back to the Goan food and hospitality industry, which they had been a part of for more than a decade.

Society

June 25-July 01, 2018

LITERATURE

FREE INTERNET

11 07

Yoga

Google’s Free Wi-fi Now At 400 Indian Railway Stations Sahitya Akademi Announces Bal, Yuva Puraskar 2018

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ndia’s national academy of letters, the Sahitya Akademi, announced the names of 21 winners of its Bal Sahitya Puraskar and 21 receipients of the Yuva Puraskar for this year.

The Bal Puraskar awards will be conferred at a function on November 14, which is celebrated as Children’s Day, being the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The date for conferring the Yuva Puraskar awards has not been declared yet.

The awards were recommended by jury members representing 22 Indian languages, and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met the Chairmanship of Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, Sahitya Akademi.

“Ten books of poetry, seven of short stories, three novels and one play” have been chosen for the Yuva Puraskar award.

The award comprises a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 for both types of awards.

The award in the Dogri language category will be announced at a later date.

Established in 1954 by the Indian government, Sahitya Akademi is India’s premier literary institution, promoting preserving literature in 24 languages.

Google had, in collaboration with Railtel, launched free Wi-Fi services to 400 railway stations

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oogle has successfully completed its public Wi-Fi programme to provide India’s railway stations with free internet, with Dibrugarh in Assam becoming the 400th station.

Google had, in collaboration with Railtel, launched free Wi-Fi services to 400 railway stations as a key initiative

under the government’s Digital India programme in 2016.

“Bringing high speed connectivity to millions of Indians across railway stations has been an incredible journey and underscores the importance of investing in public Wi-Fi as a crucial step in getting high quality internet to everyone in India,” K Suri, Director, Partnership India, Next Billion Users, Google India, said in a statement.

“With over eight million monthly unique users connecting to the network, this is a lighthouse project for India and every growing economy that is looking to bring the benefit of connectivity to everyone in their country,” he added.

Offered as a free utility service under the brand name “RailWire”, users have 30 minutes of free access to the internet, in which they can on an average consume 350 MB of data per session.

“Railway stations are a microcosm that is India and creating a digital inclusion platform is in line with the

vision of our Prime Minister and Digital India initiatives of the Ministry of Railways,” said K. Manohar Raja, Executive Director-Enterprise Business at RailTel. Over 35 per cent of users on the network are first time Wi-Fi users.

Interestingly, over 50 per cent of users accessing the internet multiple times a day highlight that they work to

pursue their occupation from the train stations.

Within the first year of the project, 100 of the busiest railway stations across India were made internetfriendly. In the last year and a half, 300 new stations were added across the length and breadth of the country, the statement said.

As part of the Next Billion Users initiative, Google is now building on the success of RailTel project to expand the public Wi-Fi outside train stations, into Indian cities and around the world.

Google Station, the public WiFi platform, that amplifies Google’s vision to bring the best in class Wi-Fi experience to more places, is now also live in Pune.

RailTel is exploring sustainable ways to provide Wi-Fi across all stations on Indian Railways and also spread highspeed connectivity to homes by the collaborative entrepreneurship model of RailWire, the statement said.

Doctors Make Room For Yoga Asanas In Prescriptions

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new age yoga start-up in the national capital region, Karma Spark is offering clinical yoga therapy for curing Polycystic Ovarian Disorder and Syndrome (PCOD/PCOS), both chronic disorders in women caused by hormonal imbalance which contribute to infertility.

The start-up is blended of modern diagnostics and traditional yoga to cure chronic disorders.

“We have already cured over a dozen PCOD cases fully and 30 more are currently underway at the centre. Modern diagnostic reports focuses and accelerates the therapy better. The program has therapeutic yoga sessions, diet advice and no drugs,” said another Co-Founder Runvijay.

He also shared a case of a 32-year-old woman who was suffering from PCOD from the past 10 years for whom surgery didn’t help.

“After 49 days of clinical yoga therapy, which involved different combinations of yoga poses, multiple cysts were gone, ovarian volume and her menstrual cycle became normal and drug-free. We are delighted that she conceived naturally and is in her second trimester,” he said.

Subhash Chandra, Chairman and HOD, Cardiology, BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi said that yoga improves flexibility thus alleviating back aches, knee pain, improved postures and strengthens muscles of body. It prevents cartilage and joint breakdown, protects spine and delays osteoporosis.

12

People

June 25-July 01, 2018

Education

This Teacher Goes The Extra Mile

G Ulaganathan

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rom spending nights on the school premises to begging parents to send their wards to school, and from taking extra classes to holding career counselling sessions, this teacher does it all Many teachers go beyond the call of duty for their students, but this man’s dedication has taken teaching to the next level. He demonstrates an incredible level of passion towards teaching that has immensely benefited hundreds of students in the past one decade.

Nagendrappa Avarad is the headmaster of the Government high school in Dongargaon village in Kalaburagi. Nagendrappa (40) earlier worked as a teacher at the same school, for about seven years, when the passion for teaching enveloped him.

It was probably his dream of developing the high school into a model one that brought him back in 2015 as a headmaster. Since then, he has tirelessly made efforts to improve the quality of education as well as results. Nagendrappa strives to ensure that all children get an education and his students secure good marks in SSLC exams.

He not only teaches but from spending nights on the school premises to begging parents to send their wards to school, and from taking extra classes to holding career counselling sessions, this teacher does it all.

Nagendrappa starts training his students for the next year’s exams from May itself. He takes special permission

Nagendrappa Avarad is the headmaster of the Government high school in Dongargaon village in Kalaburagi the parents from Lambani thandas to allow their wards to continue studies after Class 7. I met several families in Gutti thanda, Hodi Hola thanda,

Eyeing 100 percent results in the next SSLC exams, he is planning to start night school from November itself this year

from the officials concerned for opening his school in May when he helps students of 7th to 10th standard strengthen the basics. He also imparts knowledge of basic reading and writing to academically weaker students. Two old students occasionally join him in teaching.

“This year, 70 students, mostly from nearby Lambani thandas, had enrolled their names in my school even before May 28 when government schools opened across the state officially,” he says.

“It was not so easy for me to convince

Chapla thanda and Dongargaon and Kaalamandargi villages and made every possible effort to bring students back to the school. They are still not aware of the importance of education,” he adds.

Ahead of the SSLC exams every year, between January and March, he holds special evening classes. During these three months, he and some of his students spend nights on the school premises. They go back home in the morning only to freshen up and do some chores and return to the school by 10 am. Classes for girls are held till 8 pm. Students are taught the lessons of all subjects with the help of

a projector and video. He also invites subject experts once a week and special attention is given to slow learners.

Through a special teaching formula, he ensures that all students at least get pass marks in the SSLC exams.

And all his hard work has paid off in the form of the school’s good SSLC results. In 2017-18 SSLC exams, 85 percent of students of this school passed. Three students scored above 90 percent marks and nine above 80 percent. As many as 19 students secured first class. All of them passed in mathematics, which most students consider a difficult subject. But Nagendrappa’s mission is far from accomplished. Eyeing 100 percent results in the next SSLC exams, he is planning to start night school from November itself this year.

Nagendrappa’s good work has been recognised by several institutions.

While he was given Jana Mechhida Shikashaka award by the Department of Public Instruction in 2002-03, he bagged the District best teacher award in 2007-08. He was also the recipient of the Best teacher award instituted by Karnataka Rajya Shikshakara Pratibha Parishat of Kalaburagi district unit.

Shikshana Koustubha Award instituted

by Karnataka Rajya Shikshakara Pratibha Parishat is the latest that he got this year.

Firoz

Money Above Humanity For This Man Techie extends help to needy this Eid, pays fee for auto driver’s daughter G Ulaganathan

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ow many use their hardearned money to bring smiles on the faces of the needy?

Not many but Firoz, a resident of Bellandur in Bengaluru and a software professional, did exactly that.

Firoz, who received a big amount as part of a settlement from his

earlier company, helped the family of Badrunissa, a 55-year-old widow and a tailor.

Badrunissa, who lives with her two daughters in Anjanapura, said, "It is very difficult to manage the family from the income I earn by sewing clothes. My husband passed away after a prolonged illness some time ago and I have been looking after my daughters.

(Left) Firoz with the auto-driver’s daughter and (Right) Badrunissa

At times, it was difficult to manage even two meals a day.

"One day, Firoz came looking for

me at my place of work. I have not met him earlier. He then went to a shop and brought three sarees for me. I couldn't

Ardh Kumbh

June 25-July 01, 2018

control my emotions and cried as it was a loving gesture. Who has the time to think about others? But, Firoz thought of comforting me and my family. May Allah bless him."

Firoz, when asked what made him extend the gesture, he said, "Gifting a smile won't cost much. I had received a good amount of money from my old company and was thinking of moving in to a new house. But then I thought that the new house can happen later and instead, I could use the money to help those who are in need. Everyone likes to celebrate Eid. I went on Facebook and asked my friends to identify those who are struggling to meet even their basic needs. I received a lot of responses, but I was scared as many could be frauds. I decided to check the background of the people by approaching them in person, checking their background and their living conditions. After a thorough check, I helped three families."

Apart from Badrunissa, Firoz also helped Yaqoob, an autorickshaw driver, by paying for his daughter's education.

Yaqoob, who suffers from an ailment, continues to drive the auto to make the ends meet.

Yaqoob said, "I had two daughters and a son, but my elder daughter died because of an illness, and I could not save her. Firoz was kind enough

Firoz is today a happy man that he has been able to help someone in need. He is now determined to make it his life mission to pay my daughter's school fee. He came home, met my daughter and then presented the amount. At first, I couldn't believe it, but later he hugged me and wished Eid in advance."

Firoz, who is from Andhra Pradesh, said, "First, I was thinking of distributing clothes, so that many could benefit. But I learnt about Yaqoob and met him when he told me about his daughter who needed help. I thought that helping a girl child in completing her education would be more satisfying to me. I met Yaqoob and his daughter and gave him the amount." Firoz is today a happy man that he has been able to help someone in need. He is now determined to make it his life mission.

How he is going to do it, he is not sure. But he is a determined young man and wants to educate others also in his profession to do likewise.

Equality

221 ‘sanyasins’, 5 ‘Mahamandaleshwar’ – All Dalit women Juna Akhara will ordain 221 Dalit women in 2019 Ardh Kumbh of Allahabad

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Quick Glance 221 Dalit women, 300 Dalit men to be ordained as saints

Of the 221 women, 5 will be made ‘mahamandaleshwar’ before Mauni Amavasya Juna Akhara’s first Dalit ‘sanyasi’ will also be elevated as ‘mahamandaleshwar’

denied entry into a Sanskrit seminary because of his caste.

The akhara is now also set to elevate Shivanand as ‘mahamandaleshwar’ during the 2019 Ardh Kumbh.

The procedure of coronation

n Swastika Tripathi

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he 2019 Ardh Kumbh Mela of Allahabad is set to script history in its own special way.

Juna Akhara, considered by many to be the largest and oldest order of sadhus out of the country’s 13 akharas, will ordain 221 Dalit women as ‘sanyasins’ (ascetics) during the 2019 Ardh Kumbh.

As per reports, of these 221 women, five will be made ‘mahamandaleshwar’ (considered to be a high position in akhara tradition) before Mauni Amavasya.

This will be the first time when in such huge number Dalit women will be ordained as saints.

Apart from these 221 women, 300 Dalit men will also ordained as saints in the 2019 Ardh Kumbh.

500 Dalit sanyasins, 3 Dalit seers exist

According to Mahant Hari Giri, there are millions of saints of the Juna Akhara who are spread across

different parts of the country. There are about one million women saints in the akhara across the regions of Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Nepal.

Of these, the number of Dalit and Mahadalit women is around 500. With the 2019 Kumbh ordains, the number of Dalit women saints in the akhara will take a hike.

The akhara also boasts of eight Dalit seers, including three women, who have already been ordained as ‘mahamandaleshwars’.

A departure from tradition

In a departure from its centuries-old tradition, the akhara had rechristened Kanhaiya Kumar Kashyap to Kanhaiya Shivanand Giri as its first Dalit ‘sanyasi’ in April 2018. Thought, this was not the first time a Dalit religious scholar was given “diksha” by the head of an akhara, but Shivanand’s inclusion in Juna Akhara was significant as it marked yet another turn in the remarkable life of a man who was

Juna Akhara already has 500 Dalit ‘sanyasins’ associated with it and with the 2019 Kumbh ordains, these numbers will take a hike

In the coronation ceremony, the members will shave off their hair and accept ‘diksha’ amid chanting of Vedic mantras by the head of the akhara. The ‘sanyasi’ will thereafter perform their own ‘pind daan’ (a ritual done after the death of a person), signifying that they are now beyond worldly desires.

Each one of them will be then handed over a ‘dand’ (a ritualistic decorative stick).

A similar ceremony would be held for mahamandaleshwars. The position of mahamandaleshwar is very influential in the akhara.

Dalit upliftment – A step towards equality

From attempts to appropriate the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar to lifting the social and economic status of Dalits, a lot has been under the to-do of the government to bring them to the mainstream.

The latest development by Juna Akhara is historic and comes at a time when Dalit atrocities are a burning topic across nation. It also sends a strong message that the Indian society is gradually accepting people belonging to all caste and creed, thus moving a step ahead towards equality; That being Dalit or an upper caste is immaterial; That the time has come when all are treated equally in the country; And that the caste boundaries should melt and dissipate.

The Ardh Kumbh 2019 will be held between January 15 and March 4 in Allahabad.

14

Uttar Pradesh

June 25-July 01, 2018

SWACHH BHARAT MISSION

Speeding-up The Process Of Toilet Construction Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has himself taken over the monitoring of the progress being made in each district S. Shukla

U

ttar Pradesh is facing a daunting task of constructing 982 toilets per day to achieve the target of declaring the state open defection free (ODF) by October 2 2018, a deadline set by the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Out of total 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh, so far only 12 have been declared ODF while work in remaining 63 districts was slower than expected.

The state had set a target of making 30 districts ODF by December 31 2017 but it stands nowhere to achieve the target.

Though the state is doing well in overall category of the Swachch Bharat Mission under Yogi Adityanath government but it may not meet even the all-India deadline of total ODF by 2019, leave alone CM’s deadline of October 2, 2018.

In April 2017, the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had set the target of declaring 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh ODF on October 2, 2018, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Till date, Uttar Pradesh stands at fourth on the top five lists of states having lowest toilet coverage in the country.

The other states are Odisha, Bihar, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.

Serious doubts are being raised by the Panchayati Raj department officials to achieve the target within the deadline. The department officials attribute many reasons for slow pace of work.

“The target is a big challenge due to several factors including size and population of the state, delay in release of funds, sharp increase in prices of construction material and unavailability of labour and mason during the farming season. Moreover, rainy season will also add to it as hardly any construction could take place during heavy rains in the state next two monhs,” admits RK Tiwari, Additional Chief Secretary Panchayati Raj. Department officials claimed that the ODF target would now be even

more difficult in regions where the work is under progress. “The ODF was easier in districts failing under the Western UP as the region is prosperous and people are relatively more aware about health and hygiene issues. The real challenge we are facing now in poverty-stricken low literacy areas of Eastern UP, Bundelkhand and Central UP,” points another senior official of the department.

To save the situation from going out of hand and saving his government from facing the embarrassment, the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has himself taken over the monitoring of the progress being made in each district. The CM held a videoconferencing with District Magistrates of about 25 districts where the work of toilet construction was slowest.

During the video-conferencing, Yogi Adityanath directed all the DMs to give a minimum of one hour on daily basis to review the progress of toilet construction in their respective districts. To make officials accountable, the CM has made the Bloc Development Officer (BDO) responsible for achieving the target.

“I request you all to work with

a mission mode for achieving the target by October 2, 2018, at any cost.

Accountability will be fixed and those failed to achieve targets will face the consequences,” he warned.

After receiving a large number of complaints on quality issues and toilets being constructed on papers only, the CM issued directives for 100 per cent physical verification and GeoTagging with uploading of pictures of all toilets constructed.

Assuring no paucity of funds, the CM also ordered for deploying a trained employee of the Panchayati Raj department in each gram panchayats to create awareness among people about health and hygiene issues under the Mission. With the rainy season sets in the state, the Chief Minister directed Panchayati Raj department officials to speed up toilet construction work in 38 districts of Eastern UP which are affected every year by the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

“Each year hundreds of children die due to JE/AES which spreads during the rainy season due to unhygienic conditions and defecating in open. We can save these lives by constructing

The CM held a video-conference with District Magistrates of about 25 districts where the work of toilet construction was slowest

toilets and creating awareness among people for keeping their area clean under the Swachh Bharat Mission,” pointed Yogi Adityanath.

A separate cell has been created in the CM’s Secretariat for effective monitoring the toilet construction every day. All the DMs and BDOs have been directed to furnish details every day by evening about the progress in their respective districts.

The Additional Chief Secretary Panchayati Raj RK Tiwari has been asked to fix targets to each DMs to make them accountable and brief the Chief Minister every week about the progress vis a vis target.

Though the Chief Minister has oiled all the administrative machinery to work in mission mode but there are officers who are still not taking up the toilet construction work seriously in their districts.

“They wake up from their slumber only when the Chief Minister plans a visit to their districts or else numbers is inflated to achieve the targets. In Sitapur, about 47 toilets were constructed overnight in a village where the CM had to hold a Chaupal,” charged PN Kalki, a social activist, who is doing social audits of various central and state government development and welfare schemes.

The social activist claimed that corrupt bureaucrats and Panchayati Raj department officials were derailing the sincere efforts of the Chief Minister Yogi Aditayanth on Swachch Bharat Mission. “The target could have been achieved much before October 2, 2018, deadline if these officers had made sincere efforts in the construction of toilets,” pointed he.

He alleged that they are flooded with complaints from genuine BPL people whose names were deleted from the list of beneficiaries when they refused to bribe gram panchayat officials. “The actual benefits of the Swachch Bharat Mission and other schemes are not reaching to the poor and genuine people due to corruption in the system,” he rued.

June 25-July 01, 2018

Science & Technology

15 07

NASA

Tiny Lab To Search For Alien Life On Mars NASA has sent rovers to Mars that have found additional signs of past habitable environments

SSB BUREAU

S

cientists have created a toaster oven-sized lab for a Mars rover that will drill beneath the surface of the red planet and look for signs of past or present life.

The tiny chemistry lab called the Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) is a key instrument on the ExoMars Rover, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, with a significant contribution to MOMA from NASA. It will be launched toward the Mars in July 2020.

“The ExoMars Rover’s twometer deep drill will provide MOMA with unique samples that may contain complex organic compounds preserved from an ancient era, when life might have gotten started on Mars,” said Will Brinckerhoff, project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the US. Although the surface of Mars is inhospitable to known forms of life today, there is evidence that in the distant past, the Martian climate allowed the presence of liquid water - an essential ingredient for life - at the surface.

This evidence includes features that resemble dry riverbeds and mineral deposits that only form in

the presence of liquid water.

NASA has sent rovers to Mars that have found additional signs of past habitable environments.

The MOMA instrument will be capable of detecting a wide variety of organic molecules. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and can include oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements. To find these molecules on Mars, the MOMA team had to take instruments roughly the size of a toaster oven so they would be practical to install on a rover.

Mars rovers face another challenge when searching for evidence of life: contamination. To ensure this, the MOMA team has taken great care to make sure that the instrument is as free as possible from terrestrial molecules that are signatures of life.

The ExoMars rover will be the first to explore deep beneath the surface, with a drill capable of

taking samples from as deep as two metres.

However, Martian sediment is an effective shield, and the team expects to find greater abundances of organic molecules in samples from beneath the surface.

MOMA recently completed both ESA and NASA pre-delivery reviews that cleared the path for the flight instrument to be delivered to the mission.

On May 16, the MOMA mass spectrometer was delivered to Thales Alenia Space in Italy, where it will be integrated into the rover’s analytical laboratory drawer during upcoming mission-level activities this summer.

Following subsequent higherlevel rover and spacecraft-level integration activities in 2019, the ExoMars Rover is scheduled to launch to Mars in July, 2020 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

GUPPY SMASH

Fierce Goth Fish Turns Its Eyes Black When It Gets Angry Freshwater guppies - small, defenseless and popular as aquarium pets - are towards the bottom of the food chain MICHELLE STARR

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ormally, its eyes are silver.

But when the tiny Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) gets all worked up, the eyes turn pitch black as a warning for other guppies to rack off, scientists have discovered.

And they had a fun time finding this out.

Freshwater guppies - small, defenseless and popular as aquarium pets - are towards the bottom of the food chain, and when they experience

a high level of predation, they don’t display a lot of aggression. However, in safer environments, such as above waterfalls, they tend to get aggressive with each other, fighting over resources such as food - and, as previous research has observed, black eyes in some guppy species correlates with aggressive behaviour and dominance.

They can change their eye colour in just a few seconds. But whether the guppies were using this deliberately was unknown - so animal behaviour experts designed an experiment to

find out. “Experimentally showing that animals use their eye colouration to communicate with each other can be very difficult, so we made realisticlooking robotic fish with differing eye colours and observed the reaction of real fish,” explained Robert Heathcote of the University of Exeter.

They can change their eye colour in just a few seconds. But whether the guppies were using this deliberately was unknown - so animal behaviour experts designed an experiment to find out.

In the real world, smaller guppies don’t tend to display black eyes to larger ones - it’s only used by guppies against those they know they can dominate.

The researchers think that the behaviour they observed by the large guppies is why this dynamic exists: act tough when you’re not, and you will get a thrashin’.

Scientists still don’t know how the guppies change the colour of their eyes, but the research is yet another demonstration of the importance of eyes in the animal kingdom.

16

June 25-July 01, 2018

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

Khalil Gibran

Yoga Is Flourishing The Life In Every Situation-Modi

VIEWPOINT

Saket Suman Principal correspondent @ ians-india covering Arts, Books & Culture and everything in between

A Culture Revolution Is Sweeping Through Urban India With the changing trends, the future looks bright and full of optimism for India’s creative industry

In the run-up to International Yoga Day, PM Modi told about the importance of Yoga

Y

oga helps to maintain balance amidst disintegration. It does the job of uniting us. Yoga brings about peace in this modern fast paced life by combining the body, mind, spirit and soul.

Yoga unites individuals, families, societies, countries and the world and it unites the entire humanity.

And today every citizen of the world, every country of the world considers Yoga as its own and it is an important message for the people of India that we are the inheritors of that great legacy, that we have preserved the legacy of that great tradition.

Today, Yoga has become one of the most powerful unifying forces in the world. Yoga is beautiful because it is ancient yet modern…it is constant yet evolving. It has the best of our past and presents and a ray of hope for our future.

In Yoga, we have the perfect solution to the problems we face, either as individuals or in our society. The way to lead a calm, creative and content life is Yoga. It can show the way in defeating tensions and mindless anxiety.

Instead of dividing, Yoga always unites. Instead of further animosity, Yoga assimilates. Instead of increasing suffering, Yoga heals.

Practicing Yoga has the ability to herald an era of peace, happiness and brotherhood. It is our responsibility to further develop the understanding about Yoga for a healthy and happy humanity. Please come forward, let us further intensify our efforts by keeping our responsibility in the mind..

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

T

here has been, in recent times, a great churning in what can be called India’s “cultural space”. Public institutions, hitherto custodians of all things “cultural”, have been eclipsed by the rise of new-age festivals and events. Indeed, the involvement of the state in promoting culture is fast diminishing, with private event management companies stepping in to organise cultural events -- at home and abroad -- on a scale never known before.

Notwithstanding these changing trends, the future looks bright and full of optimism for India’s creative industry. This is evident from the increasing interest in cultural events like the Jaipur Literature Festival ( JLF) or the Kochi Biennale. At the same time, the art and publishing sectors are also seeing an unprecedented rise in revenues. International auctions featuring contemporary Indian art have seen recordbreaking sales in recent years and Indian writers have bagged international contracts, often at rates much higher than their Western counterparts.

New art galleries have opened in cities, multinational publishers are thirsty for Indian stories, translations are gaining their rightful attention, literature festivals have mushroomed across states and, for those inclined, there is something interesting -- exhibitions, talks, culinary events -happening almost every week. Compare this to a handful of institutions like the staterun Akademis or the NCPA in Mumbai that bore the entire burden of organising cultural events till about two decades ago, and a striking contrast emerges.

There is another contrast too. While institutions like the National Gallery of Modern Art struggle to attract audiences (apart from school students) even with their minimal entry fee, almost every art or cultural event these days -- both paid and free -- run house-full. How is it that the private sector in the creative industry manages to attract crowds for events that usually go unattended at public institutions?

The artists, writers, musicians and dancers are the real force behind this creative

The artists, writers, musicians and dancers are the real force behind this creative boom in the country

June 25-July 01, 2018

boom in the country but what degree of difference has really been added in the recent years? Industry insiders suggest that the most ground-breaking thing to happen in the recent past is the coming together of the “creative class” and their realisation of the need to speak in one voice.

The boom in literature festivals was not only unprecedented in terms of the audiences that they attracted but also for the behind-the-scenes networking opportunities they threw up, bringing people with similar trains of thoughts together. Thus, it paved the way for new collaborations and partnerships and the emergence of even more events and platforms. Today, India hosts close to 200 literature festivals in a calendar year.

While all of these are not as big or as successful as the JLF, they have in their own ways contributed to the awareness about literature and culture among the masses. The sudden upsurge in the interest in cultural events, therefore, is no surprise.

But even as a cultural revolution is sweeping through India’s urban landscape, there are questions that need to be addressed. Unplanned growth may lead to the sudden end of this boom period and, therefore, voices from the fraternity need to address the elephant in the room -- the audience.

Spreading propaganda by misleading the audience in the name of culture is a norm at many events today.

As late diplomat Abid Hussain had pointed out in “India’s National Culture” (National Book Trust/1978), the real problem in defining Indian culture is “that India is the home of one of the oldest peoples, and is at the same time one of the younger nations”. As a civilisation, we have a set pattern of life “firmly anchored in time-honoured traditions” but where will this new age cultural revolution lead us to?

On the one hand, the success of entrepreneurs from the creative industry is a positive sign but, at the same time, only a handful have come to rule the roost. Are a handful of people commanding a monopoly over India’s creative industry today? Will they -the cultural entrepreneurs of today -- emerge as an arm of the state in the future because events that attract lakhs of impressionable visitors are potential grounds for political slugfests too?

At the same time, are the events and shows that find allegiance in democratic norms, truly democratic and open to all voices? Or are they, like the television studios of today, running with vested interests at play?

OpEd

17

Maulana Wahiduddin Wahiduddin is an Islamic scholar and peace activist known for having translated the Quran into contemporary English and for writing a commentary

upfront

Experiencing The Presence Of God God is, indeed, everywhere, but only those who are blessed with vision can behold Him

O

ne of the three astronauts who traveled in the Apollo 15 American spacecraft was Colonel James Irwin. He later described the magic of that moment, in August 1972, when he set foot on the moon. It was an ecstatic experience, he said, to feel oneself in God’s presence, to feel so close to Him that His greatness appeared before one’s eyes. Colonel Irwin did not look on his voyage to the moon as a voyage of mere scientific discovery; it had given him new spiritual life as well.

Colonel Irwin’s experience was not a unique one, for in truth all that God has created is so wonderful that one has only to gaze upon it to become lost in the wonders of what He has fashioned. The face of the Creator shines continually in the perfection of his creation.

But by observing the world around us from an early age we become accustomed to it; we take it so much for granted that we fail to perceive its uniqueness. Wind and water, trees and birds – all the wonders of

nature are a mirror of perfection, reflections of the beauty of the Lord.

But we are too familiar with them to realize how extraordinary they are.

Only in unfamiliar circumstances, such as when a man sets foot on the moon, does one wake up to the wonders of the world; only then does the sight of the spectacles of creation arouse in one an awareness of the presence of the Creator. But we too can experience God’s presence, like Colonel Irwin did, just by observing the world around us. The trouble is that people do not look on the world with true wonderment, the way someone on the moon for the first time is awestruck by the spectacle that meets his eye. If we were to look with the same awe on this world,

letters to the editor /2017-19

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POSTAL REGISTRATIO

11 Vrindavan Saga

Her reliance on children took unexpected turns

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Leo Tolstoy

The Making of A Legend

Sanitation in Uganda Measures of change in the ‘Pearl of Africa’

Great writer and spiritual rebel

Welfare schemes for farmers

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NEWS WEEK LY

PATHAK NIKKEI PRIZE FOR DR NIKKEI ASIA PRIZE

2018

The major Japanese media house prize went to the Indian Social Reformer’s work of half-acentury in the category of Culture and Community.

This award is in recognition of his tireless efforts to promote human rights and improve public health by constructing innovative toilets.

Dr Pathak dedicated this award to the downtrodden

The 10 minutes yoga Practicing yoga is the most important thing that one has to build up in life so as to maintain a healthy lifestyle. As an individual

I do practice yoga every day in order to improve health. Reading about the 10 minutes yoga, it made me more immense to know how yoga actually makes changes in the lifestyle of human being. The benefits of yoga provide both instant gratification and lasting transformation. In fitness world both are actually necessary. Through this 10 minutes yoga I believe that it can result good changes in your physical and mental capacity as well Balram Kumar, New Delhi

Please mail your opinion to - ssbweekly@gmail.com or Whatsapp at 9868807712

then we would live on earth as if we were in God’s presence; we would continually see Him, feel Him, all around us, and act as if we knew that He was watching over us.

When we behold a magnificent machine for the first time, we immediately become aware of the skill of its manufacturer. In the same way, if we observe the world, and ponder over the wonders it contains, then the Creator Himself will appear before us; we will gaze on creation and see there the face of the Lord.

The moon was a new sight for Colonel Irwin. That is why, struck by its magnificence, he was able to experience there the presence of God. In order to see God in His creation, we too have to look at everything – not as old and familiar – but new and exciting; we have to look at things as if we are seeing them for the first time. There is no greater discovery than the discovery of God, no greater realization than to feel Him everywhere. When this realization is awakened, then everything becomes a reflection of His glory. The sunshine will portray His light, the trees His beauty. One will feel His gentle touch in the winds as they caress one’s body. As one prostrates oneself before Him, it will be as though one has cast oneself at His feet. God is, indeed, everywhere, but only those who are blessed with vision can behold Him.

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Photo Feature

June 25-July 01, 2018

Bibliophile’s delight

Libraries have been the prized possessions of historical societies, both in the ancient and modern times. It can be said that in our own times bookshops have become the favourite spots for the bookworms. A pictorial glance at the libraries in Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia show not only the magnificence of these buildings but the value that people place in the tomes of learning and enjoyment that occupy the floor-to-ceiling shelves

China

Japan

New York

Photo Feature

June 25-July 01, 2018

19

Motilal UK Books of India The buildings in which the libraries are housed are architectural marvels with their dizzying designs and they show that these buildings show that these are monuments of passion for learning.

Future generations when they look back to these buildings will infer that human beings in the modern period valued knowledge and that they loved books as much as they loved the art-works.

Libraries will symbolise the modern period as the pyramids did ancient Egypt. While the pyramids immortalised the dead, libraries are paeans of praise of writers and thinkers who have set down their thoughts in books.

Amsterdam

Russia

Argentina

20

Health

Sanitation Coverage In India Almost Doubled: PM

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rime Minister Narendra Modi said the sanitation coverage in the country has increased from 38 per cent to nearly 80 per cent and asserted that the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ is playing a central role in creating a healthy India.

Interacting with the beneficiaries of the ‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana’ (PMBJP) and affordable cardiac stents and knee implants through video bridge, the prime minister said that more than 3.5 lakh villages in the country have declared themselves open defecation free.

“Cleanliness is considered to be first necessity for a healthy life. We initiated the campaign to construct toilets at home. This campaign for cleanliness is being taken forward successfully by 125 crore people of the country.

“Look at its results. Sanitation coverage has gone up from 38 per cent to around 80 per cent. So if it was 40 per cent it has (it means) doubled. More than 3.5 lakh villages have declared themselves open defecation free in India,” he said.

Referring to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study, he said that those villages which are open defecation free, Rs 50,000 which would have otherwise been used for other works, is being saved on an average per family.

Otherwise the same amount would have gone into treatment of various diseases and commuting to and fro to the hospital, among others.

Interacting with the prime minister, the beneficiaries explained how the ‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana’ brought down the cost of the medicines and made it affordable.

The beneficiaries also talked about how reduced prices of heart stent and knee transplants have changed their life.

June 25-July 01, 2018

gREENdISPO

Device For Better Disposal Of Sanitary Napkins Called GreenDispo, the device has been designed in such way that it will incinerate the sanitary napkins completely with minimal flue gas emission

Sunderarajan Padmanabhan

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Top R&D Institutions Come Together To Help in Better Disposal of Sanitary Napkins

wo leading Indian scientific institutions have come together with a private partner to launch expertise of the Hyderabad-based a new high tech device to ensure that International Advanced Research the growing popularity of sanitary Centre for Powder Metallurgy (ARCI) napkins do not end up becoming an in the area of processing and shaping environmental nightmare. of ceramics, the knowledge of Council Called GreenDispo, the device of Scientific and Industrial Research’s has been designed in such that Nagpur-based National Environmental it will incinerate the sanitary Engineering Research Institute in napkins completely with flue gas emission control, and the minimal flue gas emission. It is skill of Secunderabad-based Sowbal estimated that 432 million pads Aerothermics in energy are already been disposed off efficient designing and every month in the country manufacturing. and this is expected to grow Launching the multifold in the coming years. product, NEERI Inappropriate handling Director, Rakesh of the used pads is already Kumar, said the specially posing a major challenge designed heaters of as the pads grow harmful the device generated pathogens causing serious a temperature of more health and environmental Greendispo prototype than 800 degrees Celsius, hazards. In addition, blocking which helped in complete of drainage paths due to the disposed combustion of the used pad. It also napkins is becoming a critical issue. had a secondary heating chamber with The new device combines the a temperature of 1050 degrees Celsius

to take care of any hazardous emissions from the incinerator.

ARCI Director, Dr G Padmanabhan, noted that ARCI experts have designed special ceramic holders for the device to ensure that the heat is channelised most effectively. The concentration of heat to the pads not only provide reduced ignition time, higher peak temperature, increased life expectancy of the heater element and reduced power consumption.

VVS Rao of Sowbal Aerothermics said that the device will be available with a power rating of 800 and 1,000 watts and a unit size of two to three cubic feet volume. It is a batch type incinerator suitable for use anywhere including rural areas, colleges, schools, hostels, offices and public places. It has been tested for emissions and reliability of performance through field trials under practical conditions. It will be marketed by Messrs Girl Care uner the name of ‘Pad Burn’.

North-East

June 25-July 01, 2018

cm pEMA KHANDU

ARUNACHAL PRADESH TO MAKE AGRICULTURE A ‘PROFITABLE BUSINESS’ With consistent efforts of the state government Arunachal Pradesh moves forward to improve their agricultural techniques for better outcomes

3 lakh Solar Street Lights In NE States

25 lakh solar study lamps would be distributed to students in the northeastern

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Raj Kashyap

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he Arunachal Pradesh government has firmed up plans to make agriculture a profitable business for farmers, chief minister Pema Khandu has said.

Khandu’s statement came after an agriculture conclave at the state capital Itanagar which saw experts offering suggestions on different aspects of agriculture in the hill state which also has the least population density in the country. The programme witnessed the participation of 500 BJP Kisan Morcha delegates from across the State and also from Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Assam.

In a press release, the government informed that the state government has clubbed the departments of agriculture and allied sectors under one ministry for proper coordination and efficiency. The government also will establish an orange nursery, research and development facilities and referral centre in Roing in collaboration with the Central Citrus Research Institute at Nagpur with an allocation of Rs 2 Cr. Support will be provided for establishing integrated pack houses in Dambuk and Pasighat and Rs 25 lakh have been earmarked for export promotion subsidy on orange.

Among other components of the new programme is an allocation of Rs 18 crores for the establishment of six wholesale markets in Mahadevpur, Roing, Ruksin, Likabali, Kimin, and

The Arunachal Pradesh government has firmed up plans to make agriculture a profitable business for farmers Bhalukpong, livestock cooperatives, fisheries and sericulture cooperatives.

Due to consistent efforts by the government, the state has made a significant progress in gradually doing away with jhum cultivation which degrades the environment. It is the process of growing crops by first clearing the land of trees and vegetation and burning them thereafter. The burnt soil contains potash which increases the nutrient content of the soil. In line with the Centre’s focus on conventional methods of cultivation, the state with an 82 per cent forest cover had been able to reduce the total area under jhum cultivation from 1,10,000 hectares to 84,000 hectares in the last 10 years.

Like the other hill states in the Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh suffers from remoteness and inaccessibility, marginality and fragility in terms of moisture stress and the poor soil conditions and a short growing season.

Added to these are socio-economic constraints such as small holdings, poor productivity, poor production management, labour shortage, poor marketing and networks and lack of entrepreneurship. All these have led to under-utilisation of the resource bases in the hills and limited generation of surpluses. Because of a lack of regular

markets and reliable marketing, hill farmers in many areas are finding it too risky to diversify into more lucrative high-value crops.

A few months ago, the government had also decided to earmark Rs 20 crores for construction of three spice auction centres at Namsai, Kimin and Balukpong. Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein said that the auction centres would help boost farmer’s economy by getting rid of the middleman since the buyers can approach the farmers after the auction centres are established.

The state produces a variety of spices, including large cardamom, black pepper, ginger and turmeric.

Last year, Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh launched the State Organic Mission. With this, the State hopes to shift to organic farming in a phased manner and become a hundred per cent organic State in the days to come.

Like Sikkim, the government has also outlined measures to discourage use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and gradually substitute plant nutrients by organic manures and bio-fertilizers and manage control of diseases and insect pests by biological control measures.

21 07

he Union Cabinet approved Rs 637 crore central assistance for solar power plants, solar street lights and solar study lamps in the northeastern states and Left Wing Extremism (Maoist) affected districts.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the third phase of Off-grid and Decentralised Solar PV (Photo Voltaic) Applications Programme to achieve additional 118 MWp (megawatt peak) off-grid solar PV capacity by 2020, an official statement said, citing Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Prasad said that 3,00,000 solar street lights will be installed throughout the country with special emphasis on areas where there is no facility for street lighting systems through grid power, northeastern states and Maoist-affected districts.

The second component of the programme comprises building stand-alone solar power plants of individual size up to 25 kWp (kilowatt peak) in areas where grid power has not reached or is not reliable.

This component is mainly aimed at providing electricity to schools, hostels, panchayats, police stations and other public service institutions.

The total project of the three components included under the phase-Ill, which is likely to generate 8.67 lakh man-days of employment for skilled and unskilled workers, is Rs 1,895 crore of which Rs 637 crore will be provided as central financial assistance.

While the off-grid solar systems, which will provide power to schools, hostels, panchayats, police stations and other public service institutions, is also likely to open better livelihood opportunities for beneficiaries in rural and remote areas, the programme will benefit 40 lakh rural households.

22

International Personality

June 25-July 01, 2018

Kahlil Gibran

The Face of Lebanese Literature He being one of Lebanon’s few writers to reach such a level of fame

Quick Glance Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi

His book ‘The Prophet’, has been translated into more than 40 languages Gibran is often cited as the reason for the Arabic literary renaissance

Urooj Fatima

T

he most celebrated LebaneseAmerican poet ever was Kahlil Gibran. He was a consummate artist who wanted to change the world and open hearts to spirituality through his art. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and John Lennon all agree to being influenced by the writing of Kahlil Gibran.

More than eighty years after his death, Kahlil Gibran’s name and life story remain in relative obscurity, despite the epic success of his writing and art. Gibran’s timeless message crosses cultural divides and relates to mass audiences as much today as it did during his lifetime. As a result, his most notable work, a book of essays titled, The Prophet, has been translated into more than 40 languages and has never

been out of print. It has sold more than 100 million copies. After Shakespeare and Lao Tzu, Gibran is the most widely-read poet in history, and yet his captivating life story has remained largely untold to mass audiences for nearly a century.

Kahlil Gibran is best known for his iconic series of prose poems, embodied in The Prophet, but he was also a prolific painter and author of many other works, including extensive correspondence that illuminates his artistic and romantic self. His work emphasized “unity in diversity”

through internationalism and respect for various cultures and religions, as well as his own spiritual vision and support for the rights of women.

One of Gibran’s most recognizable statements on service, was echoed by JFK in his 1961 Presidential Inaugural Address. When emphasizing human rights and freedom around the world, recalling the earlier words of Gibran, JFK said “ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.” Gibran’s words and works remain timely beacons for the world today.

Themes of influence in his work were Islamic/Arabic art, European Classicism and Romanticism pre-Raphelite Brotherhood, and more modern symbolism and surrealism

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church.

For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”—Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet(1923).

Although looked down upon by Western academics, Gibran generally appealed to the masses. His writing has been translated into more than 50 languages, and his book The Prophet (adapted into an animated film in 2014, voiced by Salma Hayek) has been cited as an inspiration by The Beatles, John F Kennedy and Indira Gandhi. What makes his poetry special is its inclusive aesthetic – anyone reading his work can relate and feel like the speaker is addressing them personally.

In an Arab context, however, Gibran is often cited as the reason for the Arabic literary renaissance and was viewed as a rebel or pioneer, like a Lebanese Whitman. He raged against the oppression of both the church and Ottoman rule and, in the transcendentalist spirit, preached equality and moderation. The Arab world protested his work because of its provocativeness – he’d gone where few had before.

He being one of Lebanon’s few writers to reach such a level of fame, and his work are still perpetuated as the face of Lebanese literature and philosophy. Today, Gibran is as alive to many as he was in the streets of 20thcentury New York, and his fresh voice still speaks to millions.

Kahlil Gibran, Gibran also spelled Jibran, Kahlil also spelled Khalil, Arabic name in full Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān was born January 6, 1883, Bsharrī, in Lebanon to a poor family that could not afford to give him formal education. However, priests taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages. Around 1891, his family’s property was confiscated

‫טּ‬

June 25-July 01, 2018

International Personality

23

Highlights of His Life

by the authorities. With no home, Gibran’s mother decided to immigrate to the US in 1895, taking Kahlil, his younger sisters Mariana and Sultana, and his elder half-brother.

They settled in Boston, and the mother worked to support the family.

Gibran started school in 1895, and he also enrolled in an art school where he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavours.

Family Background

Gibran’s father owned a walnut grove in his village, his meagre income was soon wasted over gambling and alcohol. He was known to be “one

of the strongest men” in Bsharri and everyone feared him, including his wife and kids… Later on in his life, Gibran expressed his feelings towards his father, while moderating the harsh reality of this autocratic relationship: “I admired him for his power, his honesty and integrity. It was his daring to be himself, his outspokenness and refusal to yield that got him into trouble eventually. If hundreds were about him, he could command them with a word.

He could overpower any number by any expression of himself.”

However, in truth, Gibran had never felt close to his temperamental father; an unloving man who was hostile to his artistic nature and skills.

On the other hand, Gibran always evoked his mother with the deepest

Excerpt from the beauteous The Prophet , this is something that we must read and understand if we ever hope to do justice to the word love You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

•Lebanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications published a stamp in his honor in 1971.

•Gibran Khalil Gibran Garden, Beirut, Lebanon •Kahlil Gibran Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada inaugurated on September 27, 2008 on occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth.

•Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden in Washington, D.C., dedicated in 1990 •Gibran was inspired by William Blake and often likened to the protoromantic writer and artist •During his life, Gibran was a prolific artist who created hundreds of paintings and drawings.

•In 1904, Gibran started writing articles for the Arabic-speakingémigré newspaper Al Muhajer (The Emigrant), marking his first published written work.

feelings of affection and admiration. In contrast to her husband, Kamileh was an indulgent and loving parent.

In one of his earliest works – Al Ajnihah Al Mutakassirah (The Broken Wings) – Gibran Kahlil Gibran clearly expressed his deepest respect and admiration for motherhood: “The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word “Mother”, and the most beautiful call is the call of “My mother”.

Another influence in Gibran’s early life was a local man named Selim Dahir, a poet-physician who had sensed very early the boy’s thirst for knowledge. Gibran, who was denied formal schooling the first twelve years of his life, remembered him in these words: “But some people are so wonderful that I wonder whether their life isn’t creation after all.”

Gibran’s Drawing

Gibran held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day’s studio. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. While most of Gibran’s early writings were in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. His first book for the publishing company Alfred A Knopf, in 1918, was The Madman, a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose.

•His first publication was called Vision, a romantic essay that portrayed a caged bird amidst an abundance of symbolism •He was influenced not only by his own religion but also by Islam, and especially by the mysticism of the Sufis.

•Elvis Presley was deeply affected by Gibran’s The Prophet after receiving his first copy in 1956.

•Gibran held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day’s studio.

The Prophet by Gibran

Much of Gibran’s writings deal with Christianity. Gibran’s best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of twenty-six poetic essays. The book became especially popular during the 1960s with the American counterculture and New Age movements. Since it was first published in 1923, The Prophet has never been out of print.

One of his most notable lines of poetry in the English-speaking world is from “Sand and Foam” (1926), which reads: “Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you”.

The Death and Legacy of Gibran

Although he never had any children of his own, Gibran declared the children of his close friend Mikhail Nahimy to be his. Gibran died in New York City, April 10, 1931 at 48 years old. His death was due to cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.

Gibran’s wishes to be buried in Lebanon were carried out by his friend Mary Haskell. Haskell and her sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis monastery in Lebanon, which has now become the Gibran Museum. The marker next to his grave reads, ‘a word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.’

24

Gender

June 25-July 01, 2018

Seema's story

Educating Girls To Negotiate Life, Become Change Agents At Udaan innovatory bridge school of Care India, girls cover the syllabus of six years within 11 months Umer Rashid

I

nside a dimly-lit classroom in this district, with its walls decorated with drawings and paintings made by children, Seema Yadav, 36, is teaching a group of 25 girls who are sitting in a circle in one corner. These are girls who were either never enrolled in school or had to drop out due to various reasons. They are now way behind academically compared to other students of their age.

At the Udaan innovatory bridge school of Care India, almost 125 km away from state capital Lucknow, such girls of 10 to 16 years age are taught for 11 months so they could catch up.

Every year, nearly 100 girls cover the syllabus of six years within 11 months. These girls then appear for the 5th Grade annual examination, which ensures their admission in any formal school in the state.

Almost 1,800 girls have been taught in this preparatory school set up by the Care India project in collaboration with Sarvodaya Ashram in 1999.

High dropout rate among girls is a serious concern in India. As per the 2017 Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), once the eight years of elementary schooling are completed, girls begin to abandon schools in far greater numbers than boys.

According to the report, while at the primary level, 5.7 per cent girls are not enrolled in schools compared to 4.7 per cent boys, the enrollment gap widens steadily as they grow. At the secondary level, by the time they turn 18, over 32 per cent girls are not enrolled in schools compared to 28 per cent boys.

The survey suggests that the predominant reason for girls dropping out is family constraints.

The study also reveals that over 70 per cent out-of-school youth have mothers who have never been to school.

Seema, a resident of Mirzapur district, was just 17 when she first started teaching here to help support her own education. She has been now associated with this residential school for the past 18 years.

Almost every girl in this school has a tragic tale to share: Of domestic violence, poverty, untouchability, discrimination and marginalisation which is prevalent in most districts of Uttar Pradesh. Seema is no exception.

As a child, she helplessly witnessed the horror of domestic violence for years. She would cower in a corner of her room and watch her jobless father go on a rampage in the house and take out his frustration on her mother.

She struggled to get away from that environment and eventually eloped with a man of another caste. However, her struggles were magnified when

her husband, Hariram Singh, died of cancer a few years after the couple were married in a Sitarampur court.

“My father told me to forget everything and pretend as if I had never married. I told him I would marry again only when he gave me assurance that no domestic violence would happen. He gave me no answer,” she said.

“Some incidents you experience as a child leave you shattered throughout your life. I saw terrible things happening at my home that shattered my spirit,” Seema said.

When she was a child, there was pressure on her to quit her education and take up odd jobs, but she toiled hard, often trapped between discrimination and poverty. Her resolve eventually prevailed over adversity and she finally managed

Almost 1,800 girls have been taught in this preparatory school set up by the Care India project in collaboration with Sarvodaya Ashram in 1999

to graduate and become one of the handfuls of girls from her village to do so.

Seema went on to complete her post-graduation, finished her B.Ed. and also cleared the eligibility examination that qualified her to teach in government schools.

Now she teaches mathematics and life skills to girls who face similar

Environment

June 25-July 01, 2018

25 07

Green Kanha

People Do Their Bit For A Greener City Heartfulness Institute to develop rainforest near Hyderabad n IANS

he Heartfulness Institute announced plans to develop a mini-rainforest over 25 acres of land at Kanha Shantivanam, its global headquarters, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Under the initiative, the institute will plant over 300 species of typical rainforest trees including several rare, endemic and threatened species.

These valuable seedlings and saplings have been procured from the Chennai-based MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Shivaji University in Kolhapur, Foundation for Revitalisation of Rural Health Traditions in Bengaluru, Forest Department of Karnataka and

be taken to create a microclimate for conducive for the growth of some of the delicate species,” said Ramakantha, Heartfulness Trainer.

The rainforest is one of the three major initiatives announced by the Institute, buoyed by the success of Green Kanha, a successful initiative of shaping the microclimate of hundreds of acres of Kanha Shantivanam and its surroundings.

As part of Heartfulness Green initiative, it has committed to planting, adoption and nurturing 10 million trees over one year across all its centres in India.

Kamlesh pointed out that Green Kanha was a result of extraordinary efforts to recharge the dry and barren ecosystem into a flourishing green environment.

“It is now home to over 1.5 lakh

Grameena Krishi Vijnana Kendra in Bengaluru.

Kamlesh D Patel, Global Guide of Heartfulness, observed that testing the resilience of the rainforest species is an imperative in the current scenario of global climatic change. He is confident that the efforts and methods employed will create a new paradigm.

“To begin with, we will be developing eight to 10 acres of land.

The entire area needs to be prepared to receive the rainforest tree species.

Special rain-guns that continuously spray water from 50/100 feet will be installed in this area to keep it moist and all other measures will

trees, including indigenous and several of the IUCN red listed species amongst those being nurtured here. This has helped create a positive microclimate in and around Heartfulness region,” he said.

Kanha Shantivanam is being developed as a resplendent Green Space, hosting a wide variety of herbs, shrubs, and trees as part of the Green Kanha Initiative. More than 150,000 trees have already been planted and some 1,000 trees translocated from various regions.

Heartfulness is a system of Raja Yoga meditation founded at the turn of the 20th century.

T Quick Glance The founder Dr R Balasubramaniam is a development activist, social innovator, writer

Some children are learning skills like tailoring and some are singing merrily

The school has open classrooms, no windows or doors but rather large square openings

adversities and tries to change their fate just a education changed hers.

According to Sangita 14, and Reetu, 16, two students studying at Udaan School, “Seema didi is an inspiration.”

“When we were admitted in this school some months ago, we knew nothing. We feared to hold a pen; we could not read, write or speak properly for we lacked motivation and confidence. We are reading story books now, do ganit (mathematics), and enjoy doing extra-curriculum activities,” said Reetu, who has seen her share of domestic violence, especially when her father gets drunk.

She wants to become a police officer and prevent drunkards from committing crimes in her village.

According to the programme coordinator of the school, Urmila Srivastava, the Udaan project has inspired the entire state education system in Uttar Pradesh.

“The module of preparatory education has now been adopted by

almost all preparatory schools across Uttar Pradesh which shows how influential our curriculum has been,” she said.

“We don’t just teach girls here, we educate them about the processes that are essential for their life such as leadership skill, behavior and personal hygiene. To bring reforms in the predominant casteist and illiteracy-riven state with child marriage issues, only focused education can bring long-term social changes,” added Vandana Mishra, the programme manager.

In a survey conducted by a team of Udaan teachers, 460 out of the 1,567 girls who graduated from this school were found still unmarried, suggesting that education helped them to negotiate their marriage.

The survey also found that those girls were able to support themselves and helped with the education of their younger siblings as well.

“Most of the girls, after spending 11 months in this school, inspire their siblings at home to develop interest in studies and learn to maintain personal hygiene,” Vandana added.

However, the major problem the girl-students face is overall poverty in their homes and the lack of resources to continue their studies once they clear the fifth-class examination.

In 2017, Seema adopted a nineyear-old boy, Anirudh, from a relative. She says the satisfaction of nurturing children from marginalised backgrounds gives her more comfort than she can express in words.

“I see myself in their eyes. I relate my struggle with their life. I often cry with them... This inspires me to make more efforts to change their lives,” she says and breaks down.

26

June 25-July 01, 2018

excerpts from the book: “NARENDRA DAMODAR MODI: the making of a legend�

Schemes FOR YOUTHs AND EMPLOYMENT Start Up India This major programme of the government will encourage start ups by lessening burden of regulations on new entrepreneurs; providing freedom from six labour laws and three environment laws along with three years income tax holiday, free consultation for intellectual property rights, and quick disposal of the application received for patents. A Fund to the tune of Rs. 10,000 crore operated by SIDBI has been set up.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana This scheme is designed to develop skill in unemployed youth so that they can get employment and their life may be better, this scheme targets development of one crore youth in 4 years. Training of 1 lakh 97 thousand youth has

been completed till 23 July 2016.

Meaning of skill development is building a better India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gramin Kaushal Yojana This scheme is designed to provide training to the rural youths in the age bracket of 15 to 35 years for employment with guaranteed job to 75 percent of the trained youth.

Main focus of the scheme is on the socially deprived section. After completing training of 3 months, minimum monthly salary of Rs. 8000 or minimum salary fixed by the state government, whichever is higher will be given. 724

training programmes have been conducted in 1100 training centres where 3.56 lakh youths have been trained and more than 1.88 lakh youths have got employment.

Start Up India, Stand Up India.

Let's try that every corner of India gets filled with creativity and innovation and India becomes the start up capital of the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Mudra Yojana Through the scheme, small entrepreneurs are getting loans without guarantor or witness in three categories: For small business up to Rs. 50,000 in "Infant category", Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lakh in "Teenager category" and Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh in "Youth category". Loan of Rs. 1,37,449 crore to more than 3 crore 48 lakh entrepreneurs have been sanctioned.

Youth of Hindustan have the capability to turn their luck. Only they want the opportunity.

Mudra scheme adds wings to the flight of the youth. Making them self dependent by providing opportunities, they will be able to write their future on their own and the dream of a strong and prosperous India will be fulfilled.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Udaan This scheme imparts training to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir for employment so as to connect them to the mainstream of the country by providing opportunities of employment in all cities. More than 23,000 candidates have been selected and more than 20,000 have attended the training programmes.

In all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir 100 mega drives have been conducted.

60 percent population of India is youth, less than the age of 35 years. Through skill development, every youth of the country will be able to fulfil his dreams, which will ensure the progress of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

June 25-July 01, 2018

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

33 Percent Reservation for Women in Police This dynamic decision by the NDA Government is aimed at women empowerment. The reservation will be in all the police forces from the post of constable to sub inspector. With this step representation of the women in the police force will increase and will also embolden the confidence of the women to reach the police. An

advisory has been sent to all state governments for implementing this reservation programme.

27

Welfare Schemes FOR WOMEN

To respect mother power is our motto.

For our development, women empowerment is important.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Atal Innovation Mission This platform brings teachers, entrepreneurs and researchers together so that an environment of innovation can be developed in the country. Under this scheme 500 tinkering labs will be established in the schools with an initial aid of Rs. 20 lakh in 5 years. It is targeted to make 100 Atal Incubation Centres with the total cost of Rs. 10

crore in the year 2016-17.

“Aim to Innovate” -- We want to boost innovation through Atal Innovation Mission. This mission shows our commitment to boost innovation, entrepreneurship and start ups."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Mahila-e-Haat Women have a traditional skill to produce various types of items but they do not find any platform for sale of these products. To fill this gap, a unique online marketing platform, "Mahila e-Hat" has been established.

This scheme will prove to be a boon for the women in taking their products to the market. One lakh and twenty five thousand women and 10 thousand Self Help Groups are taking benefit of this scheme.

Development of entrepreneurship in women is a right step in the direction of self dependence.

Through this skill women power will come forward. Let’s come together and strengthen this feeling for the development of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Sukanya Samridhi Yojana For the development of the girl child, parents or guardians can open an account in the name of girls till they attain the age of 10 years at maximum interest rate.

Minimum investment per year would be Rs. 1000 and maximum investment per year Rs. 1,50,000. After opening,

the amount can be deposited for 15 years, which will be tax free. More than 96 lakh accounts have been opened so far and a total of Rs. 7817 crore has been deposited.

Only development of women is not the total development.

Today, we have to move from women development towards women led development.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Continue in next issue

28

Sports

June 25-July 01, 2018 Kapil Dev

‘Cricketer Of The Century’ From playing cricket, to coaching it, to leaving it. Let’s take a look on the story of one of the best all-rounders that India has ever produced Some of Kapil Dev’s Amazing Achievements • He was never run out in his in 184 Test innings long career • Kapil Dev was the youngest Test player to achieve the all-round double of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs • He held the world record of highest numbers of wicket in test and ODIs for eight years (434 wickets) • Kapil Dev was voted as India’s Cricketer of the Century during 2002, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.

• Kapil Dev is the youngest bowler to take 300 Test wickets

Abhishek Lakhera

T

oday, ICC ranks the Indian Cricket Team as one of the best playing and top ranking cricket teams of the world. But there was a time when India was struggling to make its mark on cricket. Whenever there is a mention of India’s cricket history, there is one player whose name comes up every time. The man, the legend who led India to its first milestone in the sport by winning the world cup in 1983.

Kapil Dev is a hero for all the Indian cricket fans as they know what he did for the team and the country is far more than anyone else in the sport. People still remember the mind boggling 175 against Zimbabwe in the semifinals that this man scored which ensured the team’s win later in the finals. Dev has always been known for being an

aggressive player who used to hit the long shots and bowl the fast paces. He was the first fast bowler of the country which came as a great development to the team. Remembering his old days when he was not recognized he said in an interview, “I once asked for an extra roti during my U-21 days in the canteen and they didn’t give it to me. I then told them that I am a fast bowler give me one more roti. Then the guy who was serving it said “There are no fast bowlers in India”.

Apart from his life on field Kapil was quite the party personality and especially good with the women, “a harmless flirt” as his wife Romi Bhatia

called him in an interview. As deadly as he was on the field, Kapil had a great sense of humor. “He always used to be the funniest guy in the room” said Navjyot Singh Siddhu who also mentioned that Dev had a really hard time talking in English and used to “murder the language” when he conversed in it.

Kapil had an amazing spotless career before and after retirement till the time he was accused for match fixing and betting by one of his great friends and team mate Manoj Prabhakar in 2000. Kapil was just in the coaching position, getting his rhythm as the new coach of the Indian Cricket

“My mother is 63 years old and my father is dead, so there will never again be another Kapil Dev”

Team when he was subjected to these accusations, which later proved to be false. Kapil was heartbroken when people raised questions on him as he was innocent and had been falsely accused. So in later 2000 he left his position as the coach of Indian Team and vowed to leave the game altogether. He said, “I bid adieu to the game that gave me so much and then took a great deal of it away on the mere hearsay of a third party”.

After leaving cricket Kapil developed a newfound love for golf.

He even got really good at it and became the only Asian person to be in the founding committee Laureus Foundation. Kapil has written 3 books By ‘God’s Decree’ came out in 1985 and ‘Cricket my style’ in 1987 and his autobiography, ‘Straight from the Heart’ was released in 2004.

Kapil has got a ton of records to his name. In his long career of 184 innings, he was never run out. He was the youngest player and the only player to score 4000 runs and take 400 wickets, a record which still stands. In 2002, he was voted India’s ‘Cricketer of the Century’. On being asked why can’t there be another Kapil Dev in India, the then skipper replied by saying, “My mother is 63 years old and my father is dead, so there can’t ever be another Kapil Dev and there will never be another Kapil Dev.”

Entertainment

June 25-July 01, 2018

29 07

Literature and Cinema

Books That Came Alive As Movies Bollywood filmmakers have found novelty in literary masterpieces

1947 Earth (1998)

Urooj Fatima

I

nspiration is the fuel Bollywood runs on. Inspiration, like creativity has no boundaries.

Readers will agree that books are endlessly inspiring. Bollywood filmmakers have found novelty in literary masterpieces too.

Writing a screenplay is very different from writing a book. Yet, there have been many filmmakers who have succeeded in bringing a common platform for the book lovers and cinema lovers. There is something about seeing characters from your mind come alive on screen! India has some excellent writers whose books have been adapted into screenplays Although it’s a universally known fact that film adaptions usually completely ruin the books, but some of these Bollywood movies have actually been crafted really well.

These films have not only impressed the readers with their charm, but also helped the non-readers enter the world of literature, without even letting them know of it. Here are some brilliant Indian books that have been made into movies.

Devdas

(1936, 1955, 2002)

This eternal and tragic love story

by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay has been adapted into innumerable movie adaptations, showing that it truly stands the test of time!

This film is so iconic in popular culture that any man in despair due to love is immediately labelled a ‘Devdas’. The novella primarily shows how societal customs in feudal Bengal meddle in the love of two people.

and Saeed Jaffry) are addicted to the game of chess and oblivious to the damage their obsession does to their personal and political lives. Meanwhile a larger political game is being played out as the British checkmate the equally ineffective ruler Nawab Wajid Ali (Amjad Khan) and takeover the state.

The first film in Deepa Mehta’s Elements trilogy (it was followed

by Fire (1996) and Water (2005)) is based on Bapsi Sidwa’s novel on the Partition of India – Ice Candy Man (1988). The story is narrated by eight-year-old Lenny, a polio-afflicted Parsi girl who lives in Lahore with her family.

She is looked after by an attractive ayah (Nandita Das) who has many admirers in the neighbourhood, including an ice-candy man (Aamir Khan) and a masseur (Rahul Khanna). As riots break out in the city, the group discovers – at great personal costs – that such madness is infectious.

Umrao Jaan

The Japanese Wife (2010)

(1981)

Guide (1965)

This one’s no big secret. Vijay Anand’s film starring Dev Anand in the titular role as Raju guide and Waheeda Rehman as his love interest Rosie is now considered a cinematic masterpiece. The film is based on novelist RK Narayan’s The Guide (1958), which received the Sahitya Akademi award. Though Narayan hated the big screen adaptation and even wrote a scathing critique of it for a magazine, the film went on to win numerous awards and claim its place among the classics of Indian cinema for its stellar performances and SD Burman’s memorable music.

Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977)

In this adaptation of Munshi Premchand’s short story, Satyajit Ray depicts the rot in the state of Awadh as it is annexed by the East India Company in 1856. Two wealthy landlords (played by Sanjeev Kumar

“Umrao Jaan Ada” is a Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. It tells the story of a courtesan and poet by the same name in 19th century Lucknow, as recounted by her to the author. The story of Umrao Jaan Ada has enthralled film makers, begging for cinematic representation! In the Muzaffer Ali directed version, Rekha mesmerised all with her fluid moves and beautiful use of her eyes. Aishwarya Rai in the same role garnered mixed responses.

Sadgati (1981)

Based on the short story with the same name by Munshi Premchand, this film was made by Satyajit Ray. The story talks against caste discrimination. It’s about a poor out-caste village shoemaker, Dukhi who needs the village Brahmin priest’s help to get the date of his daughter’s marriage fixed. The priest takes advantage of the situation, but in the end the tables turn against him. Watch stalwarts like Om Puri as Dukhi & Mohan Agashe as the cunning priest in this award winning film!

A tale of pure love that plays out only in the form of letters for seventeen freaking years! Snehmoy Chatterjee, a Bengali and Miyagi, a Japanese are pen pals who exchange wedding vows through letters and remain true to each other (though they have never seen each other) until the very end. The movie was adapted from a collection of short stories with the same name by Kunal Basu. The protagonists are played by Rahul Bose and Chigusa Takak.

Lessons In Forgetting (2012)

Based on Anita Nair’s novel of the same name, this film is about a father’s search for the truth behind his daughter’s death. J.A. Krishnamoorthy, a cyclone expert comes to India, when he learns that his daughter, Smriti, has met with a fatal freak accident.

He finds out that that the issues surrounding her death are much bigger and must find it in himself to forget about the past and fight them. With stellar performances by Adil Hussain and Roshni Achreja, this film won the National Film Award in 2012.

30

Literature

June 25-July 01, 2018

Inspirational

On Work

Y

ou work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.

Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.

You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save

when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”

But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;

Kahlil Gibran And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Inspirational

The Midas touch

I

n ancient Greek, there was a king named Midas.

He had a lot of gold and everything he needed.

He also had a beautiful daughter. Midas loved his gold very much, but he loved his daughter more than his riches.

One day, a satyr named Silenus got drunk and passed out in Midas’ rose garden.

Believing that Satyrs always bring good luck, Midas lets Silenus rest in his palace until he is sober, against the wishes of his wife and daughter. Silenus is a friend of Dionysus, the god of wine and celebration. Upon

learning Midas’ kindness towards his friend, Dionysus decides to reward the keg.

When asked to wish for something, Midas says “I wish everything I touch turns to gold”. Although Dionysus knew it was not a great idea, he granted Midas his wish.

Happy that his wish was granted, Midas went around touching random things in the garden and his palace and turned them all into gold. He touched an apple, and it turned into a shiny gold apple. His subjects were astonished but happy to see so much gold in the palace.

In his happiness, Midas went and hugged his daughter, and before he realized, he turned her into a lifeless, golden statue!

Aghast, Midas ran back to the garden and called for Dionysus. He begged the god to take away his power and save his daughter. Dionysus gives Midas a solution to change everything back to how it was before the wish.

Midas learned his lesson and lived the rest of his life contended with what he had.

Moral: Do not get greedy.

Be happy and content with what you have.

Events

June 25-July 01, 2018

events & more...

ACROSS

2. At which of the following stadiums was the final match between Germany and Argentina played in World Cup 2014?

7. The first World Cup tournament was held in 1930.

The host of the joust - Uruguay - won the final with the result of 4-2. Who did they play against?

10. In which country are the headquarters of FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) located?

11. Which nation finished third in the first World Cup in 1930?

12. In which country is FIFA World Cup 2018 scheduled to be played?

16. What kind of animal is Fuleco, the mascot for FIFA World Cup 2014?

18. A is for Argentina. Argentina won their first World Cup when they hosted the World Cup finals in 1978. They successfully came out on top of a second round group to reach the final. That second round group consisted of Brazil, Poland and what other nation?

19. Who of the following was awarded the Golden Ball or the Best Player Award at the 2014 FIFA World Cup? 20. The World Cup in 1998 was held in France, where the host nation beat Brazil in the final. In third place was a country that made its first appearance in the World Cup and in fact didn’t exist a decade earlier. Who finished third?

Icekraft E-1, Shop 5, Ground Floor, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi 21 Jun 2018 11:00 AM - 8 Jul 201811:00 PM

SSB crossword no. 28

events

Drink Yo’ Face! This Dessert Parlour Is Giving Selfie Shakes Venue:

DOWN

SOLUTION of crossword no.27

String Art Workshop Venue:

Hookkapani Baithak AB-12, Safdarjung Enclave, Community Center, Block A 1, Nauroji Nagar, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi Sat, 30 Jun 12:00PM - 3:00PM

Adaah Shoppaholic (Fashion and Lifestyle Exhibition)

Venue:

Courtyard By Marriott Gurugram Downtown Plot No - 27 B, Sector Road, Block B, Sushant Lok - 1, Sector 27, Block B, Sector 43, Gurugram 5 Jul, 11:00AM - 6 Jul, 8:00PM

Manch-The Stage 12.0 Open Mics for All Arts in Delhi NCR Venue:

31

1.Muspel 2.Loki 3.Frost giant 4.Vidar 5.Cow 6.Baldur 7.Logs 8.Rainbow 9.Mistletoe 10.EDDA

11.Asgard 12.Midgard 13.Nine 14.Skald 15.Idunn 16.Freyr 17.Maggots 18.Goats 19.Old age 20.Ship

Manch The Stage Manch The Stage 530, Phase V, Udyog Vihar, Sector 19, Gurugram solution of sudoku-27 Sun, 1 Jul 3:00PM - 6:00PM

1. Which country had the honour of hosting the 1938 World Cup? 3. 1978 Argentina Which team lost to host nation in the final match after extra time?

4. How many teams from the Asian continent participated in the FIFA World Cup 2014 tournament?

5. Which country hosted the 1966 World Cup? 6. When the Bafana Bafana were chosen as the hosts of the 2010 World Cup they became the first African nation to be given that honor.

8. What was the name of the goalkeeper that got the cup for Italy in 1982?

9. Paul, a marine creature, which supposedly predicted the outcome of many matches in World Cup 2010 was a/an 13. To which country does the famous player Ronaldo, who held the record for most number of World Cup goals, belong?

14. Which team was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award at the World Cup 2014 tournament?

15. Which country won the first football World Cup? 17. Who has the record for scoring the most goals in World Cup history?

sudoku-28

Art of Living’s Program for Kids (8-18 yrs) Venue:

Bestech Park Bestech Park View Ananda New Sector Road, Sector 81, Sector 81, Gurugram Thu, 28 Jun 7:00AM - Sun, 1 Jul 12:00PM

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

32

Newsmakers

June 25-July 01, 2018

unsung hero

Sudeeksha Bhati

Tea-Seller’s Daughter Gets Rs. 3.8 crore Scholarship

L ushroom The M

Her social innovation to foster mushroom cultivation helps bring livelihood opportunities to Uttarakhand

Sudeeksha is one of the few girls from her village, who was lucky enough to get a chance to study

S

udeeksha Bhati is a girl who many may look at and ignore. Until you notice the sparkle in the eye of the young girl who not only dreams to change the world but is working towards it. Daughter of a tea seller, Sudeeksha is the first generation learner of her family. Her father barely manages the family expenses with his meagre annual earnings of Rs 72,000. But Sudeeksha believed she can change all that and she is all set to do so. She scored an excellent 98% in her CBSE Board Examinations and has topped her district. And now she is off to USA to study.

Sudeeksha has been awarded a full scholarship of 70,428 USD per semester which roughly

translates to Rs 3.83 crore for the 4 year undergraduate program by Babson College – on of the Top colleges in USA. The college is considered one of the best in USA for entrepreneurship.

Setting her goals high, Sudeeksha is already a change agent in her community. An inspiration to her younger siblings, Sudeeksha is associated with the Voice of Women initiative wherein she educations families to send their daughters to school and also to fight eve teasing.

Sudeeksha is one of the students from the Vidyagyaan leadership Academy, an organization to support rural meritorious underprivileged children and was established in 2009 by the Shiv Nadar Foundation in UP.

Achilles The 'Psychic' Cat Russia to win first World Cup match, Achilles The 'Psychic' cat predicted

A

chilles, a white-furred Hermitage male cat reputed to have psychic powers, has predicted that the Russian team will win a match against Egypt during the FIFA World Cup in St. Petersburg on June 19.

The oracle cat was offered two bowls with food and the national teams’ flags at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. The food was spooned from one package for an accurate prediction. The cat immediately headed to the Russian flag and ate all the food from the bowl.

However, Achilles later puzzled the spectators by eating from the bowl with the Egyptian flag.

The organizers are still confident that the cat absolutely made a choice in favor of Russia.

Earlier, the blue-eyed cat was correct in choosing the Russian national team as the winner over Saudi Arabia the 2018 FIFA World Cup’s

opener in Moscow on June 14. The World Cup hosts Russia secured a 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia.

Achilles had been selected as the animal oracle as he had displayed capabilities for choice, analysis and unusual behavior. Moreover, Achilles is deaf as many white cats are, yet this impairment does not sidetrack the feline and lets him better concentrate on his predictions.

The Hermitage cat was right about the outcomes of three out of four 2017 Confederations Cup matches played in St. Petersburg, including the opening and final matches. His “performance” during the World Cup is a joint project on developing tourism of St. Petersburg and the Hermitage Museum.

Achilles has and will predict the outcome of the World Cup’s matches due to be held in St. Petersburg on June 22, June 26, July 6 & July 10.

ady

Divya Rawat

A

mushroom cultivator from Uttrakhand’s Dehradun has devised ingenious and innovative methods of growing the edible macro-fungi, making its farming a lot more cost-effective.

26-year-old Divya Rawat, who is the founder of Soumya Foods, has also promoted her methods, thus providing a means of livelihood for many Uttrakhand residents.

“People in Uttarakhand were leaving their villages to seek jobs in cities due to no fixed source of income as the traditional farming of paddy and vegetables was not lucrative enough to promise a bright future,” said Rawat “Looking for a solution I visited Dehradun wholesale markets and found mushrooms to be priced higher than all other vegetables. It was being sold at Rs 200 per kg and yearly price variations were told to be between Rs 200 and 400. I hit the jackpot and started working on the same.

Furthermore, as mushrooms are grown indoors it prevents crop loss from natural calamities and wild animals,” she added.

When asked about the prerequisite capital investment she responded by saying, “The cost for the whole up is quite steep. So I made a few changes, making the entire process cost-effective. I replaced the aluminium/steel racks with bamboo racks for vertical mushroom cultivation and nylon ropes for growing mushroom via hanging method.

It brought down the capital investment cost to Rs 40-50 thousand which earlier was more than Rs two lakhs.”

Another change she implemented was growing three different mushroom varieties following the seasons and natural climatic conditions of Uttarakhand. “It was done so as to take advantage of the varying temperatures. It eliminated the need for air conditioners, humidifiers or other temperature controllers.”

“We grow milky mushroom in summer as it requires 3040 degree Celsius, post-summer when the temperatures are more moderate, we grow oyster mushroom and in winter button mushrooms are grown,” she elaborated.

“If you have a small room to spare, even under a thatched roof, you can grow mushrooms without any hassles all through the year,” says Divya.

RNI No. DELENG/2016/71561, Joint Commissioner of Police (Licensing) Delhi No. F. 2 (S-45) Press/ 2016 Volume - 2, Issue - 28 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