Meet Ratanlal Maloo - The Birdman Of Kheechan

Meet Ratanlal Maloo - The Birdman Of Kheechan

It all began over 40 years ago when his uncle requested him to return from Orissa, where he was working, just to help his lonely mother cross the magical age of 100. Little did Ratanlal know that it was a decision that would change his life, and the lives of thousands of demoiselle cranes.

Since Ratanlal had precious little to do in the half-asleep village of Kheechan, his uncle entrusted him with a job: feed the pigeons and sparrows and peacocks that frequent a place at the outskirts of the village.

Ratanlal and his newly married wife Sundarbai liked this idea as they were devout Jains who believed that it’s their bounden duty to give alms and to feed birds. Young Ratanlal used to carry a sackfull of grains to the feeding place and his wife used to transfer it into a large vessel and disburse it on the ground at the feeding place.

Initially, for a couple of months, only the usual suspects came to feed: squirrels, sparrows, pigeons, and the occasional peacock. But then in the month of September, he found a dozen of a huge, black and white bird that he had never seen before, feeding with the regulars. On asking the villagers, he was told that they were migratory birds that have been frequenting the farmlands of Kheechan in winter. They were called demoiselle cranes or kurja in Rajasthani.

It was love at first sight. Ratanlalji started observing them closely. To his joy, he realised that their numbers started growing till it reached around 80 in November. But in February, to his horror all of them disappeared overnight.

He had to wait for a year for them to come back. And this time around, there were over 150 of them. Word must have spread in Mongolia and Eurasia that there’s a feast awaiting them in Kheechan, served by this gentle soul called Ratanlal. This number kept on increasing every year, and in the 40 years of his care and conservation, the number became a staggering 15,000 last year.

►Continue reading his wonderful journey:http://bit.ly/ratanlal

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Sindhu Tai- The Mother of Orphans

Sindhutai Sapkal’s life started as being an unwanted child, followed by an abusive husband who abandoned her when she was nine months pregnant. The circumstances she has faced could force anyone to lose courage and succumb to the adverse situations. But Sindhutai emerged stronger with every difficulty she faced and became a ‘mother’ to over 1400 homeless children when she herself was in a hand-to-mouth situation! 
►Read about this unique persona:http://bit.ly/sindhutai

A retired man turned Traffic Cop

I was on my way to meet one of my friends and I was so frustrated with the traffic at the Crystal Chowk, Queens road (Amritsar). I got stuck at this roundabout for almost 15 minutes because of traffic and to make it worse the traffic lights were not working which made every thing chaotic. Somehow, after about half an hour later, I was able to cross that roundabout. And what was making me even more scared was that I had to get back via this same route after meeting my friend.

And to my surprise when I was coming back all the traffic was smoothly managed even though there was no traffic cop and the traffic lights were still not working. I saw one elderly gentleman guiding the traffic and he was doing it very well.

I was curious and asked him that since he had retired and this was the time when he could just sit back at home and play with his grandchildren or do any leisurely activity, why would he do all this? And his answer was,

“I had watched civilians working as traffic marshals to manage traffic in some foreign countries on television. It instantly came to my mind that I can also work as a traffic marshal after retirement,” said Harjinder Singh.

“More and more people should come forward to reduce the traffic chaos in the city,” he added. “I feel that there is a need to educate school students as they are the future drivers.”

He was very happy and shared his phone number with me and he thanked me for stopping by and acknowledging his efforts.

“It motivates me to save people’s lives from road accidents,” he added.

We still have people in our society who work for the welfare of society. He is 65 and could’ve easily taken a more relaxed path in life. However, he patrols around the city on his bike all day and offers his service whereever it is required. He doesn’t get paid for this job – in fact he uses his retirement savings to contribute towards regulating traffic.

A HEARTWARMING TALE OF FRIENDSHIP & HOW IT OVERCAME DISABILITY

Ashwin Karthik wanted to pursue Engineering. But the pressure of studies, competitions and scoring good marks was not something that bothered him much. Rather, it was writing a three hour long exam that was his biggest challenge. What made Ashwin different from any other engineering student was cerebral palsy, a condition that made movements and speech extremely difficult for this talented guy.

“I knew it would be difficult. But I was ready to work hard and do whatever it took to live a good life and achieve my goals,” says Ashwin.

Ashwin’s condition was first identified when he was just 16 months old. He wasn’t sitting or crawling like other children. As he grew older he realized he was “different” but the immense love and support from his family kept him going and he managed to excel in all exams.

He secured 84 percent marks in his 10th board exams which was the highest score ever by a student with cerebral palsy.

“My mother would sit outside my school for hours to help me to go to bathroom. She would borrow notes from other students to copy them for me as I could not write quickly enough in the class. She has been a great support,” Ashwin says.

But, the biggest milestone came in Ashwin’s life when he met Bharath Sharma, a friend from his Maths tuition classes in 11th standard. What started as a good friendship soon turned into an inspiring and life-changing relationship for both of them. Bharath once visited Ashwin and saw his mother helping him out with Maths problems. “That day I decided to help him with studies and thought of studying together,” says Bharath.

As time went by, Ashwin managed to clear his 12th board exams with good marks while Bharath could not clear the exams. And then Bharath did the most amazing thing a friend could do.

He became the scribe for Ashwin for his Engineering studies, knowing full well that he would have to keep his studies on hold for four years.

“But this was something I was ready to do. I wanted to help Ashwin, it was my priority,” Bharath says. Though he faced a lot of criticism from his family and society, but he was determined to help his friend.

With Ashwin’s hard work and Bharath’s amazing support, Ashwin managed to become a Computer Engineer. He is the first successful engineer from India with Cerebral Palsy.

Bharath gave up his career and lagged behind for years to help his friend but he does not regret it at all. Rather, he is proud of his decision. After finishing his Engineering, Ashwin encouraged Bharath to study further and become an Engineer too.

Ashwin now works at a large IT company and has received several awards, including the National Award for the “Best Employee with Disability” from President Pranab Mukherjee in 2013.

Besides this he has been the recipient of the Helen Keller Award in 2011 for being a role model employee with disability and Positive Health Hero Award by Dr. Batra in 2013. He also received three state level awards including Veer Savarkar Award and Young Achiever Award.

Though he has received all these awards subsequently, it was extremely challenging for Ashwin to find a suitable job and make his mark at first. “People had notions that because I have this disability I wouldn’t be able to perform the task properly. I took it as an opportunity to prove my worth and worked really hard,” he says. He gradually won everyone’s trust and heart at work.

Bharath too is now an engineer and works at another large technology company. He is happily married and has managed to mend his relations with his family.

Ashwin enjoys writing and has written many poems in English, Kannada and Hindi. He has also started writing his autobiography which will be an inspiration to people facing similar challenges in life.

The story of these two friends is inspiring and heart warming. How both of them stood by each other in spite of many challenges is commendable. We wish the duo good luck for all their future endeavours and hope to see many more examples of such unconditional friendships emerge

City that pays people for using toilets

In an interesting move, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has decided to pay people for using public toilets.

The objective is to reduce open-defecation and this is seen as one solution that could get people to use the public toilets. An AMC official also stated that they will try and offset this cost by generating revenues via advertising. 

This idea has been implemented in Nepal and has worked well there. What's your view? Is it a good solution to try? Will it help reduce open-defecation

The Forest Man of India

One man who converted a washed out land into a 1,360 Acre forest!

A teenager, after noticing the deaths of a large number of reptiles due to a lack of a tree cover, started planting Bamboo in an area that had been washed away by floods. Today, that same land hosts 1,360 acres of Jungle called Molai Forest, named after Jadav “Molai” Payeng, the man who made this possible single handedly! That forest is now home to Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, over 100 deer and rabbits besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures.

He was 16 when the flood hit Assam, and Payeng observed that the flow of migratory birds was gradually declining to the forest areas and wetlands near his home and snakes were disappearing in large numbers.

This disturbed him.
“I asked my elders, what would they do if all of us die one day, like these snakes. They just laughed and smirked but I knew I had to make the planet greener”

He alerted the forest department but they asked him to plant trees himself (which he actually did). He located a riverine island, on the banks of River Brahmaputra, and began to plant the saplings. Payeng visited the island and planted a few saplings every day for three decades.

Next year, in 1980, he started working with the social forestry division of Golaghat district when they launched a scheme of tree plantation on 200 hectares at Aruna Chapori situated at a distance of 5 km from Kokilamukh in Jorhat district.

Payeng was one of the labourers who worked in that 5-year-long project. He chose to stay back after the completion of the project even after other workers left. He looked after the plants and continued to plant more trees on his own, in an effort to transform the area into a forest.

“My friends have become engineers and are living in the city. I have sacrificed everything and this Jungle is my home now. The recognition and awards that I have received is my wealth and that makes me the happiest man in the world,” Payeng says.
JNU vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory named Jadav Payeng as “Forest Man of India”. In the month of October 2013, he was honoured at the Indian Institute of Forest Management during their annual event ‘Coalescence’. 

Trees' - One solution to solve global problems: Climate change, sex ratios and global warming!

Dharhara', A small, nondescript village in Bihar has found a great way to tackle declining sex ratios, global warming and climate change, all in one go. Theirs is a solution that incorporates tradition as well as knowledge of farming and it has been in practice for decades now.

Located about 20 kilometres from the district headquarters of Bhagalpur, this village is one of the greenest pockets of the region. And that’s not all. Unlike elsewhere, for years now girls in this village have been welcomed into the world in the most novel way: By the local community planting at least 10 fruit trees – traditionally mango – in celebration. New daughters here are treated as avatars of Goddess Lakshmi and stand to inherit these fruit trees as they grow up.

In the highly prejudiced Bihari society, where girls are generally seen as a financial ‘bojh’ (burden) on the family, dowry deaths that were once so common here no longer make the news. Planting trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child is essentially a move to build an asset base for her, which can eventually be utilised by the family to finance her education and future development. Former pradhan, Pramod Singh, puts it this way,

She inherits the trees and over the years the fruit not only helps support her family it also helps them bear the expenses of her wedding. We plant the trees at birth because as our girls grow up, so do the trees.

Pramod had planted 10 mango trees about 12 years ago when his daughter, Niti, was born. Niti now goes to school and neither her father nor other family members consider her school fees a burden since the money comes from selling the fruit from her trees. Of course her very traditional mother, Rita Devi, has taken to planning for her marriage already and sees Niti’s trees as an asset in that context.

According to the 2011 Census, at 933, the state’s child sex ratio may be better than the national average of 914, but it has dropped sharply from the figure of 981 that the state had registered 30 years ago.

The success story of Dharhara has even caught the attention of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has visited the village to plant trees and ensure that a girls’ school is built there. During a public meeting in the village, some years ago, he said that the Dharhara residents’ age-old practice of planting trees to mark the birth of girl child is worth emulating at a time when the gender ratio in the country has been on the decline.

Treat the girl child as a blessing and trees as bank deposits – that’s the message from this tiny village.

The Couple Who Transformed a Barren Land Into A 300 Acre Wildlife Sanctuary!

The Couple Who Transformed a Barren Land Into A 300 Acre Wildlife Sanctuary!

Pamela and Anil Malhotra, passionate about wildlife and nature conservation, bought 55 acres of land 23 years ago, and today they have converted it into a beautiful forest of over 300 acres. SAI Sanctuary, the only private wildlife sanctuary in India, came to host animals like Bengal Tiger, Sambhar and Asian Elephants.

The passion to expand the green cover grew stronger and they kept buying idle lands from farmers. This way the land was used and also farmers got money to repay their debts.

“The problem is, we expect the government to do everything. Like-minded people, NGOs and other agencies should purchase land and do their own bit to conserve the wildlife,” says Pamela.

There were a lot of native trees that already existed there. The couple decided to retain those and follow three important rules: no chopping down of any tree, no human interference and no poachers. The sanctuary also has a beautiful river in the middle that is home to several aquatic species like fishes and snakes, including the King Cobra.

The huge trees and thick forest has also helped several birds like hornbill find their homes. There are over 305 species of birds that visit this sanctuary regularly.

Several cameras are installed across the sanctuary to identify new animals and keep a track on poachers. “People think that animals need the forest. But the truth is, the forest needs the animals equally - they are both inter-dependent and we should make efforts to preserve both,” says Dr. Anil.

“A few days ago, I saw in the camera recording that a family of wild dogs and seven small puppies from that family were trying to attack a Sambhar just in front of my house gate. They were born a few days back and now had grown up. So, the fact that each puppy survived is commendable. That means the sanctuary is a good host to all these wild animals,” says Pamela.

The couple has grown 10-12 acres of coffee and around 15 acres of cardamom on the land. The sanctuary also runs completely on solar and alternate energy. For days of heavy rainfall in the monsoon, the three small windmills meet the needs of providing enough electricity to the sanctuary.

When Malhotra couple started this sanctuary, they invested their own money and it now runs on donations which get tax exemptions.

The sanctuary also won the “Wildlife and Tourism Initiative Of The Year” award by Sanctuary Asia in conjunction with Tour Operators for Tigers in 2014.

The Military Islands plans -CHINESE SHIPYARD LOOKS TO BUILD GIANT FLOATING ISLANDS

Floating Island

che at lt.cjdby.net

This CGI shows one of JDG's floating islands, which is likely the largest 120m X 900M configuration. The floating island can support both civilian and military missions, including supply, landing aircraft and basing of amphibious vehicles.

China, not just satisfied with turning South China Sea reefs into airports, is looking to expand its naval basing activities by building giant floating islands.

Important Guests

Huang Bohai News

The April 2015 press conference of the Jidong Development Group included interesting guests, like this PLA officer. Considering that the first floating island will be based as a deep sea support project in the South China Sea, the PLA could have dual use interests in JDG's technology.

The Jidong Development Group (JDG), a construction company, and Hainan Hai Industrial Company (Hai is Mandarin for ocean) are proposing to build a floating sea base for multipurpose usage, such as tourism, shipping, power generation and offshore fossil fuel extraction. The floating sea base would be based in the South China Sea, for logistical support activities.

Shell Australia Prelude

News Australia

Shell Australia's Prelude, was built in South Korea and displaces 600,000 tons at full load. It extracts natural gas from undersea fields, and liquifies them to offload for transport by LNG carriers.

Currently, the largest offshore floating platforms are natural gas and oil production facilities, of which Australia Shell's Prelude is the world's largest. Built by Samsung Heavy Industries and Technip, the Prelude is 488 meters long, 74 meters wide and has a full displacement of 600,000 tons. The Prelude has a catamaran ship's double hull and is currently anchored off northwest Australia's eponymous gas field.

Airport and Port

che at lt.cjdby.net

The floating island can be outfitted to accommodate both port terminal facilities, fuel bunkerage and airstrips, raising all sorts of interesting new logistical capabilities. For instance, this air-sea port would be able to be shifted towards disaster zones, with airplanes loading humanitarian relief for quick delivery inland.

JDG's floating island designs are modular, being assembled from multiple semi-submersible hull sections. They would come in three sizes. The smaller island is 300 meters long and 90 meters wide, the medium sized island is 120 meters wide and 600 meters lond, while the larger island is 900 meters long and 120 meters wide. Assuming a hull draft of around 16 meters, full displacement of the islands could likely be around 400,000 and 1.5 million tons, respectively.

The design though would allow the islands to scale much larger, by attaching more semi-submersible hull modules, just like Lego bricks. Despite the large size of the individual modules, the floating islands could be easily assembled in deep offshore waters by linking together modules transported by semi-submersible heavy lift ships from landbased shipyards.

That's no island!

che at lt.cjdby.net

This JDG floating island island is even larger than the currently planned 900m long floating island. With a length of 2 kilometers (the cargo ship alongside it would be around 400 meters long), its large size is made possible by the modular construction of JDG's shipbuilding technology. The islands can also travel at speeds of up to 18 kilometers an hour.

Such giant bases could house battalions of marines and a wing of fighter/attack aircraft, and unlike fixed island bases, they can be redeployed away from enemy missiles.

The technical description of the JDG floating island is a "deep sea support base." That is, unlike an actual island, they will be mobile. JDG General Manager Wang Yandong said that the islands can move at speeds of up to 18 kilometers an hour. The floating islands could serve as an offshore wind farm, oil production and as a rapidly deployable offshore port. While JDG has mentioned the island's potential as sea mobile resorts to move between northern Bohai Bay in the summer and tropical Hainan during winter, the presence of a PLA officer at the JDG press conference raises interesting questions about future military interests in the JDG's floating islands.

Project Habbukak

diseo.net

During World War II, Britain attempted to build a 2 million ton aircraft carrier big enough to support larger anti-submarine warfare airplanes (to combat German U boats). Project Habbukak was built from pyrite (a frozen, lighter than water mixture of sawdust and water).

Floating island plans in war have ranged from the Royal Navy's Project Habbukak, a massive ice and concrete aircraft carrier built in prototype in World War II, to US Navy's Joint Mobile Offshore Base plan in the early 2000s, of which studies called for being able to accommodate a 1.5 mile long airstrip. The goal of such programs is that a mobile floating island could carry many times more aircraft and soldiers than a carrier or amphibious assault group. An additional military advantage to China's modular floating island design is that its large size and compartmentalized construction would make it very difficult to sink (an opponent would have to strike a large number of the modules to compromise the island's seaworthiness).

Joint Mobile Offshore Base

Popular Mechanics

The JMOB was an American proposal in the mid 2000s to use 300m by 150m steel/concrete floating modules to build large ocean going bases. The JMOB was intended to replace bases in places such as Saudi Arabia and Japan, though most JMOB configurations would be much smaller than this maxed out version.

For China, a floating island airbase, besides obvious deployments to disputed islands, could be a new kind of tool for global military projection, notably addressing one of China's strategic weaknesses compared to the US, its dearth of foreign military bases. In the near future, China could stage anti-piracy missions and humanitarian relief from well stocked floating islands. More forceful uses of floating islands could be temporary or permanent deployments off the waters of potential battlefields.

Thanks to: Hongjian, Jeff Head and Henri 

How a Delay in Landing of his flight made him the pioneer of terrace gardening in India!

How a Delay in Landing of his flight made him the pioneer of terrace gardening in India!

Dr. Viswanath Kadur, An Entomologist by profession, who pursued a course in film production and made agriculture films and documentaries upon his return to India, has become one urban terrace gardener who knows the secrets behind a healthy organic terrace garden.

“For some reason we were not able to land on time and were flying over the city. That’s when I saw the rooftops of houses and thought about the rising temperature of Bangalore city. The idea came to me that if these open rooftops could be covered, it could help to reduce the temperature, and that is why I thought about bringing terrace gardening into the picture,” he says.

It was a delay in the landing of his flight that made him a pioneer and a go-to name when it comes to urban terrace gardening.

The family’s experience of kitchen gardening came in handy and he started growing veggies on his own terrace. “Earlier in Bangalore, every house had a kitchen garden in the backyard. That culture got lost somewhere. I wanted to bring it back by recreating the garden on the terrace,” he says.

He thought of putting his experience and knowledge to use and started organizing workshops on terrace gardening in 1995. “Though we charged a fee, the response was great. We got over 100 people for the first workshop itself, which gave us the confidence that people are interested in this,” he recalls.

They also started a Facebook group to bring all interested people together. The group which started with just 9 members now has over 23,000 members from across the globe.

With the efforts of people like Dr. Kadur, Bangalore has over 5,000 terrace gardens now, with an increasing interest among youngsters.

One of his favourite gardens is located in Hyderabad which is the oldest terrace garden in India which hosts trees like Banana, Guava and Sapota. Dr. Kadur believes that with the government’s support, the country should be able to meet its vegetable needs through urban gardeners.

Dr. Kadur has started the practice of organic farming amongst the school students and the model is implemented successfully in BM English school, Hennur.

Today Kadur and his team of urban gardeners organize an urban terrace gardening workshop every month. They have started a mela called ‘Oota from your Thota’ to promote Gardening is going to be held and this will have demonstrations and exhibitions on organic farming inputs.

“Put your soul into it, throw seeds and take care of them,” he concludes.

Man who is reviving the NAXALS

Swapnil Tewari : The man who reformed the lives of Naxalites, rescued troubled families, gave a marketing platform to endangered artisans and brought people from the brink of suicide.

His larger-than-life story will leave you more spellbound than any Bollywood movie script! 

Born as a dyslexic child, he had a difficult childhood. But things got worse when his father died in a car accident. Swapnil was just 13 and when he became suicidal and almost popped his mother’s sleeping pills.

“As I was about to take those pills, a thought struck me. I realised that all my heartbeats, my body parts – everything is alive. And they want me to live. Since that day, I decided to give a chance to happiness,” he recalls.

After finishing his graduation and MBA, Swapnil shifted from BOI to RBI. Having an urge to do something better with his life, Swapnil started a socio-creative venture for tribal artisans.

But a phone call completely changed his life. He called an artisan one day and the man’s daughter picked up his call and said, “Daddy is dead.” Before Swapnil could process this, the girl further added, “The Pradhan of the village takes mummy every night to his house and leaves her back in the morning. She keeps crying all day.” -

This is when he quit his job and went to Madhubani to locate the family. He brought them to Delhi having spent his savings and faced unspeakable trouble. He helped the family sustain by asking them to make art of Madhubani and helped them to market the paintings.

He started a company called Naked Colours in 2011 to support the struggling endangered tribal artisans of India and give them their share of credit.

He was just 23 when he first went to a Naxalite area as he was determined to bring a change in their community.

When he entered the Naxalite area, he was kidnapped and tortured for several days.

“Those guys would torture me for several hours and then go out. And while I was still there, I would teach their kids and spread awareness about hygiene among the ladies. I think they gradually started accepting me. They realised they have captivated a wrong man and finally freed me,” he recalls.

Swapnil came back to Delhi and started working on his new idea for women safety – The Pink Whistle Project. He has designed a whistle called Shakti which can be worn as a bracelet. In times of danger, one can press a button on the whistle, a 2 inch knife comes out of it which is sufficient to wound the attacker.

At 25, Swapnil was the youngest Social Entrepreneur in the world to be featured in Forbes magazine’s Changemaker list. He is currently working with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for AIDS prevention. His invention is an oral external contraceptive for HIV & STD prevention, and has reached Phase 2 of the challenge. 

Story on how Dr. Shahnaaz Teing risked it all to save young mothers!

On the morning of September 6, 2014, when Kashmir woke up to the biggest flood of the century.

When J&K witnessed a horrifying flood, several doctors and patients spent four days in a hospital without food, medical supplies and electricity. From operating without resources and delivering C-section babies, these doctors did everything they had to do to save the stranded flood victims.

Dr Teing found herself stuck with hundreds of patients and their attendants at Lal Ded. With the entire hospital plunged in darkness, there was mayhem everywhere.

Dr Teing encountered a pregnant woman admitted for her third delivery and had a low-lying placenta. She was bleeding profusely and needed immediate surgery to save her life and that of her child. But to perform the Caesarean section Dr Teing needed electricity – for giving anaesthesia, oxygen supply and the operation theatre lights. Besides this, she required at least seven units of blood and dressing material. Nothing was available.

Dr Teing created a makeshift operation theatre. The patient was administered spinal anaesthesia. if the spinal anaesthesia wore off mid-procedure, there was no general anaesthesia available to switch over to. Nonetheless, in the haze of natural light, she picked up the knife and went ahead. A healthy baby boy was delivered that day.

Eighteen staff members, including an eight months pregnant gynaecologist, 300 patients and 400 attendants were trapped in the hospital for four days. The patients and their attendants were hungry and the infants on ventilators and incubators, which run on electricity, were freezing in the cold and gasping for oxygen. Dr Teing distributed dextrose saline water for drinking among patients and their attendants.

When the incubators stopped functioning, she taught mothers of the sick neonates the technique of Kangaroo Mother Care and demonstrated how they could keep their infants warm by holding them tightly to their bodies.

Fortunately, on the evening of September 7, two local boys managed to come to them in a boat carrying candles and biscuits. Their arrival cheered up the hundreds stranded there. Dr Teing performed six deliveries in candlelight and six healthy babies were born.

Fortunately, by then, rescue teams got to them. Dr Teing was taken out of Lal Ded in a boat and she saw her husband searching for her among the rescued.

“As there was no power, I used my diesel generator to conduct surgeries. When the diesel ran out, I operated in torchlight. I pleaded with government officials and fuel dealers to provide diesel to no avail,” she shares.

A month down the line, the waters have receded from Srinagar, leaving death, destruction and disease in their wake. However, as long as there are courageous doctors like Teing, Ali and Farooq, patients can at least be assured of a fighting chance.

How Technology saved life

How did NASA technology help in saving lives during Nepal Earthquake!

A unique suitcase-sized device that can detect human heartbeats and breathing patterns of survivors buried even 30 feet below crushed rock, revolutionized the search and rescue operations in Nepal.

“In Nepal’s village of Chautara, NASA's FINDER prototypes discovered four men who had been trapped under collapsed buildings. The men had been buried beneath as much as 10 feet of debris for several days.”

Nepal is still reeling from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck near Kathmandu on April 25, 2015. The quake has flattened three quarters of the city’s buildings and killed thousands of people. The village of Chatuara was no different; over ninety percent of its homes destroyed, rendering hundreds homeless. Rescue teams from around the world, including India are continuing to provide medical assistance, food, water and other essential items.

Using space age technology, American rescuers were able to locate and rescue four men buried alive under a collapsed building in the village of Chautara in Nepal. They used a device that could detect the heartbeat or breathing of the men who were buried under the rubble.

The prototype device, soon to be commercialized, is named FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response).

Originally, FINDER was developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), USA, as part of their Deep Space Network program to monitor the movements of their spacecraft flying millions of miles away.

How does it work?

About the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, this state-of-the-art portable heartbeat detector device uses low power radar microwaves, about one-thousandth of a cell-phone’s output, to scan for survivors trapped under rubble.

It’s sensitive enough to discern the difference between a human heartbeat and that of an animal, as well as someone who’s conscious versus one who’s unconscious, which can influence how search-and-rescue workers decide to dig the person out. And it can provide feedback in less than a minute, which is important when there are lives on the line.

Just like a RADAR that tracks airplanes, FINDER emits a signal and waits for that signal to bounce back. The longer the signal takes to come back, the farther away the body is.
Best of all, the unit is small and lightweight, making it optimal for any sort of disaster scenario.
NASA scientists have now added a new feature to the prototype – a ‘locator’ – a kind of a GPS device that can help in precisely locating survivors.

Though FINDER was put to the test in various disaster simulations, this is the first time the technology has managed to save lives in a real-world emergency.

Hand Washing Device Just at Rs. 35/-

The man who made a Hand Washing device and saved lives in just Rs.35!

Dr.Pawankumar Gulabrao Patil was one of the seven students selected for a two-year fellowship programme at Nirman’s SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health), in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra. The programme encourages students to work in areas affecting rural communities and being a physician, Dr. Pawan chose to work in the health sector.

When Dr. Pawan found out about the unhygienic living conditions in Gadchiroli, Maharasthra, he created a hand-washing device in just Rs.35 that has been saving the lives of the villagers.

Living in the community, he realised that there were several diseases persisting in the village, those that could be prevented by merely drinking clean water or paying more attention to cleanliness. He promptly did a study that revealed that of the 64 families living in the village, only six families used soap for washing hands.

The fact that diarrhea was the second largest contributor to infant mortality made him easily diagnose, prevent and treat many children dying from it. An act as simple as washing hands could save so many lives!
It was at this juncture, he heard about the Tippy Tap concept introduced in New Zealand. The idea simply involved a few sticks, a string and a soap to set up a low-cost hand-washing device.

For Dr. Pawan, the first challenge came in the design itself. When he first installed the device, goats would eat the soap and the kids were getting their pants soiled and so on. For six months, he solved the design issues one by one. And then, Nirmal, the robust Indian washing device, was born.
The next bigger challenge lay in getting the villagers to actually use this device. He smiles, “It is not that they did not have soaps, they had everything from Lux to Santoor. But for them, soaps were for beautification and not to remove dirt,” he says.

He took up his Nirmal device and with the help of school children, he set it up in the primary school of Kudakwahi village. This ensured that the kids had a sense of ownership towards the device. In a way, he says the kids co-developed the device with their suggestions to improve the design.

At a cost of 35 rupees, Pawan set up the community’s first hand washing device (with soap being the only recurrent cost). But this would not suffice. For sustained usage of the device, he knew that behavioral change was necessary.

In order to bring a permanent behavioural change, he initiated games such as Frisbee and engaged them with interactive songs that had conveyed a message against uncleanliness and negative effects of tobacco. He has now set up 83 Nirmal devices in 16 villages across Maharastra,

ISRO Bags the Space Pioneer Award

The Space Pioneer Award for the year 2015 was presented to Indian Space Research Organization during the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference held at Toronto in Canada. 

Here's why we think it is the most amazing space mission in the world and undoubtedly deserved the merit. 

1. The Mangalyaan mission cost India 450 crores which is even cheaper than an eight-lane bridge in Mumbai and extremely cheaper than the movie Gravity. Ergo, making it the most cost-effective inter-planetary space mission ever.

2. In real terms, when distributed over the population of 1.2 billion, every Indian has contributed Rs.4 per towards the mission.

3. Mangalyaan will observe the environment of Mars and look for various elements like methane (marsh gas), which is a possible indicator of life. It will also look for Deuterium-Hydroden ratio and other neutral constants.

4. The orbiter weighs 1,350-kg, which is even less than the weight of an average sports utility vehicle.

5. The manufacturing of Mangalyaan took 15 months while NASA took five years to complete MAVEN.

6. Mangalyaan is the first spacecraft to be launched outside the Earth’s sphere of influence by ISRO in its entire history of 44 years.

7. ISRO will be the fourth space agency in the world.

8. Considering that Mars is about 670 million kilometers from the Earth, the cost of the ride works out to about Rs.6.7 per kilometre – cheaper than what even autorickshaws charge anywhere in India!

Thus, India has truly excelled as the pioneer of astronomy In all achievable ways.
Read more: http://bit.ly/1uGFIZW

When India and Pakistan had dinner together

How a simple dinner helped bridge ties between India and Pakistan!

Meet Eric Maddox : The man who introduced the virtual dinner project to solve conflicts between two rival countries. 
Maddox, a documentary film maker, came to India for a little break a few months ago, but unable to put work aside, or resist the urge to facilitate connections wherever he travels, he quickly found opportunities towork on the project with local partners.

He recently organized a virtual dinner between citizens from Bangalore, India and Islamabad, Pakistan and had them discuss critical issues of politics and society on a lighter note. By cleverly merging the two agents, Maddox is trying to resolve the complex issues by getting the participants to break bread over the internet in order to encourage camaraderie and understanding.

Imagine a dinner table that starts in one country and extends into another.

The start
The idea first came to Maddox when he was making a documentary film in Palestine and Israel. He realized that while the larger audience will understand the conflict, the people actually involved in the conflict might not be able to see both sides of the issue.

How it works?

A typical virtual dinner consists of two parts. The first part requires the guests to discuss the recent and most prevalent news of the respective countries. The discussion is moderated and the guests are selected from various universities, NGOs and media centres.

Each community is given a topic by the other one and both the teams are expected to go out on the streets, ask the questions from general public and make a small film for the next dinner, which is organized after two weeks. By this time, both the teams are ready with the short films comprising of interesting responses from the people of one country for another.

The documentaries are later uploaded on the official website and Vimeo to make them accessible to everyone.

The challenges

The biggest challenge is to be sustainable. The lack of funds was a big obstacle which Maddox had to fight in the initial days and still does at times. The project, which requires extensive travel, runs with the help of various grants and donations. Another challenge came with the language barrier which resolved by trying to get people who spoke English and is trying to resolve the problem by providing subtitles in the movie.

As this unique dinner project takes off, it gives a way to clear the misunderstandings between the two nations without resorting to the shellings and threats that seem to be the order of the day. With the success of the India-Pakistan we can’t wait to know about Maddox’s next dinner plans. 

The Dream of a Caste less India

The story of three men who are fighting for a caste-less society in India.

Gopinath, Haran Suba and Kishore are the three doting fathers who have decided to free their children from the century-old caste system by simply not choosing to fill a small box in the admission form. 

T. Gopinath is a creative media professional who rejects the doctrines of caste system. He narrates how he stood by his belief during the admission of his six-year old son as he recalls it like it happened yesterday,

“We had just filled the admission form when the lady in charge returned it with a smile, ‘Sir, you have, by mistake, given NA in the caste column. Please check it.’ I replied, ‘No, I didn’t forget it. I don’t know what caste he is.’ She shook her head and said that I need to fill something. ‘If you don’t give a caste then your child will not get any Government benefits slotted for that caste.’ I laughed, ‘He is my child and not the government’s, so I trust I can take care of his future.’ His admission was sealed and hopefully, a new path has been set for my next generation, all thanks to my supportive wife.”

Haran Suba, a 35-year old father with a UGC NET in hand, took the decision of keeping his seven-year-old daughter Surekha out of the caste equation. He knocked the doors of several colleges, only to be turned down by minorities who preferred candidates from their own religion.

When questioned about societal inequality, he says, “In fact, even people from the so-called lower castes treat certain sub-castes within their community as secondary citizens. It is just pathetic.”
He believes that for equality to prevail one has to remove caste-based oppression of every kind.

Haran Suba currently runs his own firm ‘Hello Talent’ academy that encourages extra-curricular activities in children.

Another freethinker is Mr. P. Kishore, a Chennai-based software professional whose origins made him a firm believer of social equality.
“My parents come from different castes and religions and yet that never was a problem at home. I have watched them lead a peaceful life. Social equality is possible; we just need to remove our resistance to change.” -

When asked about his opinion as a father, he says, “My daughter Shauna will not have a caste and I know she needs to compete under the open category without any quota, but so be it. I believe the next generation will change for the better.”

While reservation may be needed till caste-based discrimination is fully erased, these men have taken a small step towards a bigger dream – a society that discriminates none. 

200 Cr water project turns massive

Public contributes Rs 200 crore to Maharashtra government's water project.

A water project that was initiated by the government to resolve water crisis in Maharashtra has now turned massive owing to the proactive endeavor by 6,000 residents who have contributed nearly Rs 200 crore to the effort.

This seems to be the only project that has seen joint collaboration from various political properties including NCP and opposition party such as Peasants and Workers Party. The government however is doing its part by airing the project online.

Of 40,000 villages in Maharashtra, 25,000 have been hit by drought for three consecutive years. Launched by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis four months ago, the project has so far seen 93,447 water conservation works completed in 6,202 villages in the divisions of Nashik, Amaravati, Nagpur, Pune, Konkan and Aurangabad.

But the beauty of this project lies in the unity showed by people from different villages. “The overwhelming response along with their enthusiasm for the work is an eye-opener for the government. People in the villages have started taking up the projects in terms of physical support and also raising funds,” Fadnavis said.

Thus, such endeavors prove the fact that when people unite, wonders do happen.Public contributes Rs 200 crore to Maharashtra government's water project.

The Temple with a Crocodile Guard

This mighty Vishnu temple is guarded by a crocodile day-in and day-out!

Ananthapura Lake Temple in Kasaragod is the only lake temple in Kerala which is known for the legend that a divine crocodile named 'Babia' guards the temple, and when one crocodile dies, another one appears in the lake mysteriously! 

The crocodile that guards the temple is believed to be living here in the pond for over 60 years. After worshipping the deity, the ‘prasad’ by the devotees is given to Babia who eats it only when offered by the temple’s management team. Babia is fed like an elephant by putting food in its mouth. This crocodile is believed to be vegetarian and does not harm anyone, not even other species in the pond.

It is said that in 1945, a British soldier had shot dead the crocodile. The soldier died within a few days by a snake-bite. People believe it to be a revenge by the serpent God Anantha. Soon, another crocodile appeared in the tank and even now, if one is fortunate, one can see it.

“We have a strong belief that this crocodile is a messenger of God and always alerts us when there is any unusual thing about to happen in and around the temple premises,” says Ramachandra Bhatt, a trustee of the temple

The presiding deity, Lord Ananthapadmanabha, is seated on the serpent God Adisesha. Local belief is that the Lord had settled down here originally.

About the temple

The temple is dedicated to Lord Ananthapadmanabha Swamy (Lord Vishnu) and is surrounded by a lake that is 2-acres large and gives a beautiful view of the landscape all around it.
The original idols are of a unique mixture of more than 70 medicinal materials called ‘Kadu-Sharkara-Yogam.’ These idols were replaced by Panchaloha metals in the year 1972. Efforts are now being made to replace them with idols made with ‘Kadu-Sharkara-Yogam.’

The temple’s walls are surrounded by paintings and there is a cave that opens to a water tank where water level remains constant regardless of climatic changes.

Inspiring Trully............. inspringgg

Meet The Paralympic Sportsman Who Broke P.T. Usha’s Records

Sharath Gayakwad: the paralympic who won over 90 medals and is now the first Indian to win six medals in a multi-disciplinary sport event. the Asian Para-games in Incheon, South Korea, 2014. He broke the record of legendary P.T. Usha who had won five medals at the 1986 Asian Games!

Sharath was a born with a deformed hand and took up swimming as a mandatory activity in school and gradually developed a passion for this sport.

After school, Gayakwad continued to pursue swimming as a fitness activity and participated in his first national level competition where he won four gold medals. After that, Gayakwad just went from strength to strength, as he was selected for 2003 FESPIC Youth Games in Hong Kong where he won one Silver and four Bronze medals.

Gayakwad’s passion for the sport and dedication has won him over 39 international medals and 55 national medals so far!
“How many people have a talent that can save someone’s life? Which sport enables you to help others? It is swimming. It is not just a sport activity but a life-saving skill and that is why I am so fond of it,” he says.

The disability is something which he doesn’t think about much now.

“It is a part of me and I have accepted it and even found a way where it doesn’t matter anymore. Yes of course I am at a disadvantage, but it doesn’t stop me from doing anything that I actually want to do,” he says.

Apart from the obvious difficulties, another challenge which Gayakwad faced was financial constraints. Arranging funds for the training, resources, etc. was something Gayakwad had to struggle with.

“I guess, this is the case with most para-athletes and not just me. There should be better facilities available,” he says.

A champion swimmer, Gayakwad is also an amazing coach and trains many students in swimming. An athlete or a coach, which part does he enjoy the most? “Coach!” he responds instantly.

“It gives an immense pleasure that I can pass on this skill to someone else. Of course I enjoy swimming too, but there is a different kind of satisfaction which comes with coaching,” he says.

We congratulate Gayakwad on his achievements. Indeed a charming personality, Gayakwad has inspired many people at such young age and we hope for a great performance from him at the next Paralympics.

Wipro's First Blind Marketing Manager

Meet the man who did not let disability come in his way and is now the Wipro's Marketing Manager

Ankit Jindal lost his eyesight when he was 13 and today he is a successful Marketing Manager at Wipro. From following an ambitious career path and dealing with competition to finding the love of his life, here an amazing story of success.

He was in school when a regular visit to an eye doctor broke this news to his family – that he had been suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a disorder which causes progressive vision loss.

"When I was 13, most of the kids of my age would go out, play, and plan a bright future. But I had to deal with the harsh reality that I would soon be blind,” recalls Ankit Jindal.

By the time Jindal turned 20, he had lost his vision entirely, and was completely dependent on others for even basic tasks.

He started pursuing an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi and when no one found time to handhold him, he would get the notes converted into audio format.It was a college project that got Jindal the recognition that he truly deserved. He led a team which stood at second position at the Tata Business Leadership Awards.

Today he is working as Marketing Manager for Wipro Infotech and is apart of Global Infrastructure Services for three years now and this requires him to travel frequently, meet new people and plan strategies, which he enjoys to the core.

Helping the disabled
Jindal had the desire to do more and reach out to other people with disability to make their life easier. A meeting with an inclusion activist Vidhya Ramasubbam converted into an amazing initiative called Kickstart cabs. Along with Ramasubbam, Jindal launched these cab services in 2013 that catered to the needs of people with disability.

No story is complete without a happy ending in the personal life, and Jindal got that when he met his wife Kanika. A match fixed by Jindal’s parents soon transformed into love and today Kanika is his biggest strength and stands tall with her genius husband. “It was an arranged love,” laughs the couple.

The Future
An adventure enthusiast, Jindal never lets his visual impairment stop him from enjoying his thrills. From white-water rafting to cliff jumping, he has done it all. “I would like to do bungee jumping too,” he says. Content with what life has given him so far, Jindal wants to climb the success ladder even further and become CEO of a company some day.

Willing to continue his efforts in the inclusion sector, he has big plans in store which he promises to reveal only when they take proper shape. We indeed are waiting for this amazing man’s future endeavours and wish him good luck.