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.