Friday, July 17, 2015

PANCHAAMRITAM 277

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PANCHAAMRITAM 277
(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam is nectar)
Amaavaasya / Kali Yugabda 5117 / Manmatha Aani 30 (July 15, 2015)


ONE

 

A young woman was behind the wheel today (June 30, 2015) when the Chennai Metro rolled out for the first time on a signal from Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The Chief Minister, who was connected through video conference from her office, pressed a button and on cue, 28-year-old Preethi drove the train out of the Alandur station. A year and a half of training has built up to this moment. She drives at a speed of 80 km and drives "safe."  Preethi, who has a diploma in engineering, quit her first job and applied to the Chennai Metro. "She was the first woman to get selected," said her father. From the Alandur metro station, Preethi drove the train to Koyambedu, covering the 10 km stretch in 18 minutes. Officials said with four coaches, the train will have a capacity of 1,276 passengers (Based on a report by Sam Daniel in NDTV, June 30, 2015).

TWO

 

Service rendered to the community by a Dalit girl has brought laurels to her and Isayankulam. Sushri P. Thayammal (28) of Isayankulam, a village in Srivaikuntam taluk in Thuthukudi district (Tamilnadu, Bharat), was presented with the Woman Exemplar Programme - 2015 Award of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which carries Rs. 3 lakh and a medal by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on April 6, 2015. Thayammal, a fatherless woman who hails from a poor family, is involved in providing free coaching for rural students to ensure better academic performance. She is one of the seven children of the family and the first to have earned a Master’s degree in Commerce. She developed a skill for teaching after overcoming hurdles as a slow learner. Her father, a farm labourer, was struck dead by lightning while at work on October 21 last year. She began coaching children at an anganwadi centre opposite her house. Now she coaches 30 students from class six to eight in the evening. . She has persuaded 35 children, identified as school dropouts in 2007-08, to continue their education. She also offers free coaching to those appearing for competitive examinations besides helping villagers fill up applications for government assistance. Her brothers are working in stone quarries. (Based on a report by Shri Praveen Paul Joseph in THE HINDU, April 14, 2015).


THREE


Whenever 67 - year old Shri Katnam Bala Gangadhara Tilak, ventures out in his car, he is on the lookout for tar mixed gravel dumped on roadsides. Tilak's mission is to collect the unclaimed tar and gravel and fill potholes elsewhere. Tilak is a resident of Hydershakote near Rajendranagar, Hyderabad (Telengana, Bharat). Starting his day at nine in the morning, he travels along different routes and scouts for potholes. (His score: 1,125 potholes!) The moment, he spots one, he immediately stops his car and puts up two red flags to alert road users. Using a crowbar, spade, broomsticks and tar mixed gravel, he then takes up the task of filling the pothole, even as passersby watch him puzzled. After retiring as a senior section engineer from South Central Railway (SCR), Vijayawada, he got a designer engineer's job at Infotech Company, Manikonda. While going to office, he was a witness to few road accidents. Several youngsters were crushed to death under the wheels of heavy vehicles after their motorcycles skidded off the road due to a crater. Such situations do not allow him to concentrate on his job. He spends over Rs.500 towards fuel expenses every day. Impressed with Tilak's initiative, GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu lauded him for contributing for the society's development. He directed officials concerned to arrange a vehicle with required material to assist Tilak to take up patch up works effectively (Based on a report in THE HINDU, June 9, 2012).
FOUR

  

On January 8,  2013, Hemraj, 38, a Jawan of the Rajputana Rifles, Indian Army, was killed by terrorists while on duty at Sunevali in Rajauri sector of Poonch district in Kashmir and his head was severed by the killers.  Hemraj hails from village Shernagar in Kosikalan Police Station area of Mathura (Uttar Pradeh, Bharat). Another Jawan from Madhya Pradesh also attained martyredom in the same incident. The Army was on the lookout for the perpetrators. On July 14, 2015 the news broke out that Mohamed Ansari, one of the terrorists involved in severing the head of Hemraj, was gunned down in an encounter by the Army. Village Shernagar celebrated it by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets. But  Dharmavati, wife of  Hemraj, expressed her desire that the head of the terrorist who severed her husband’s head should be brought to her. She also wanted the Army to sanction promotion for those brave Armymen who neutralised the terrorist. (Based on a report in AMAR UJALA, Hindi Daily on July 15, 2015).

FIVE




It is quite easy to locate Dr. K.Ramaswamy’s small clinic tucked away in an old building along the Kulasekaranathar Kovil Street of Thenkasi, a municipality in Thirunelveli District (Tamilnadu, Bharat). A mere mention of “ten rupee doctor” will do. For the last 33 years he treats ailments of the people of the town and several villages around by charging just Rs 10 as consultation fee. Early during the period, it was just Re 1. The hike is for paying the salaries of his assistants, the kind hearted doctor informs. This MBBS doctor, a skin specialist, had settled down in this town after serving in government hospitals in many towns. He married off his only daughter and having few needs, Ramaswamy and his wife Bhagavathi have chosen to lead a frugal life serving the needy. His contact number: 04633-224922. (From FACEBOOK).
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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

PANCHAAMRITAM 276

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PANCHAAMRITAM 276
(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam is nectar)
Poornima / Kali Yugabda 5117 / Manmatha Aani 16 (July 1, 2015)

ONE



Stressed-out policemen take to yoga to unwind. But in Ajjipatti village in Jarugu panchayat  in Dharmapuri district (Tamilnadu, Bharat), Shri T Venkatesan (59), a retired police sub-inspector has become a yoga ‘guru’ and dedicated his life to spreading the benefits of the ancient Indian exercise regimen among the locals. He served in various police wings including intelligence and is now busy teaching yoga to school students and children in here.  Venkatesan said, “Ajjipatti, my hometown, is one of the most backward villages in Dharmapuri with a majority of residents being addicted to the bottle. In 2010, I introduced yoga in the village and went to each house and spoke to them about its significance. People gradually changed and started to learn the exercise system. I had set up a Manavalakalai Mandram centre in my village and donated my house to it,” the retired policeman claimed and added that after yoga training, more than 15 people in the village had given up their addiction to liquor. He has been giving yoga training to the students in the Jarugu Government Higher Secondary School for the past four years. He said, “The pass percentage has been increasing gradually after the yoga training.” Venkatesan received yoga training in 2002 at Manavalakalai Mandram, founded by Vethathiri Maharishi. (Based on a report by Shri  M Niyas Ahmed in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, June 21, 2015).

TWO



During the 1965 war, Field Marshal K.M. Kariappa’s son K C Cariappa, an Indian Air Force pilot, was shot down over Pakistan by Army officer Major Zaidi. He was captured and imprisoned as a POW by him, On realizing the identity of the wounded soldier at Dargil, Radio Pakistan immediately announced the safe capture of Flt. Lt K.C.Cariappa. Gen Ayub Khan, himself contacted Field Marshal Cariappa, who was living a retired life at Mercara (Madikeri), his hometown (Karnataka, Bharat), with information about his son's safety. When Gen. Khan offered to release his son immediately, the Field Marshal is reported to have scoffed at the idea and told him to give his son no better treatment than any other POW. "He is my son no longer", the Old Soldier is reported to have thundered. "He is the child of this country, a soldier fighting for his motherland like a true patriot. My many thanks for your kind gesture, but I request you to release all or release none. Give him no special treatment," the Field Marshal is reported to have said. (Quora.com)

THREE




Veterinary doctor-turned-IAS officer, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, 34, who has been selected for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration, is well-known for his innovative ideas that not just go a long way in solving problems but also set new trends in responsive administration. Choudhary has made a world of difference to the residents of Kathua district as the Deputy Commissioner with his simple solutions like using digital technology to facilitate interface between people and officials. Project Sahayta is one of his first initiatives in Kathua under which computers with video conferencing facility were installed in 24 government offices in remote areas. It was also publicised that public delegations visiting these offices could contact him through this facility at the Kathua district headquarters once a week. In September 2014, when Pakistan resorted to unprovoked heavy shelling, Choudhary pressed the entire state machinery into action for shifting 17,000 residents from border areas to camps. As Reasi Deputy Commissioner, he had initiated a voter awareness programme called Jashn-e-Jamhuriat, resulting in an unprecedented rise in turnout from 43 per cent to 81 per cent during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the district. Revenue officials, who issue route permits to Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes for their move to highland pastures during summers, were roped in to spread awareness on voting. The tribes delayed their journey and made a dramatic difference to the turnout on the polling day.
Based on a report by Shri Arun Sharma in  THE INDIAN EXPRESS, March 30, 2015.
FOUR
 


Swami Vidyanathananda (Mahan Maharaj), 45, has been awarded this year’s Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (Named after the founder Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), it is a rare distinction conferred upon scientists below the age of 45 for outstanding contributions to science and technology), the highest academic honour in the country. This brilliant mathematician monk has been working with hyperbolic geometry and topology for nearly two decades. “It is not possible to sum it up in layman’s language,” came the reply when asked about his work. In his youth Mahan Mitra, cracked IITJEE to enter the prestigious IIT Kanpur to study electrical engineering.  Soon, he realized that he was not enjoying this field of study and changed to pure mathematics. After completing his MSc, he went to University of California, Berkeley. And when he returned to Kolkata with an enviable set of degrees, he renounced the world and became a monk. He joined the Ramkrishna Mission order in 1998 and graduated to monkhood in 2008. “Maharaj has been exploring properties of geometrical spaces that do not change when they are stretched, pulled or twisted,” said Harish Seshadri, a mathematician at IISc, Bangalore, who has collaborated with the monk in a research paper on multi-dimensional geometrical spaces. Vice chancellor of the the Ramkrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Kolkata (West Bengal, Bharat), Swami Atmapriyananda said, “Maharaj is considered one of the brightest mathematicians in the world today. His findings and explanations are extremely sought after globally. He is the perfect synthesis of religion and scientific quest, a breed that Swami Vivekananda wanted to establish in his Mission.” (Based on a report by Smt Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey in THE TIMES OF INDIA, Kolkata; October 28, 2011).

FIVE
 

Sushma Varma, 15, the young prodigy from the Bargawan area on the outskirts of Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, Bharat), is now, perhaps, the youngest postgraduate in the country. She achieved this feat after the results of MSc (Microbiology) were revealed at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar (Central) University (BBAU) on June 20, 2015. "I now want to pursue Ph D, perhaps in agricultural microbiology,” she said. At the age of 5, Sushma was directly enrolled into class IX by her mother. In 2007, she entered the Limca book of Records as the youngest student to clear class X exams. She cleared her class XII in 2010 and then travelled all the way to Japan, on invitation, to beat many 35-year-old Japanese on IQ levels. And then she wanted to be a doctor, at a tender age of 10, for which she wrote the Uttar Pradesh Combined Premedical Test (UCPMT). This time bureaucracy and university rules prevented her from becoming a doctor and her result was withheld. After this, she decided to pursue a B. Sc course at Lucknow University and cleared it in 2013 before pursuing M.Sc., at BBAU. So what makes this victory a special one for the prodigy who is used to such feats. She is graduating from the same college where her father is a sanitation worker. (Based on a report by Shri Deepu Madhavan in www.rediff.com June 21, 2015).
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