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.