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VIDEO: WiFi Trash Cans? This Mumbai Startup Has ‘Bin’ There, Done That
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IIT-B Students Bring Internet of Things to Dharavi and Make Shopping There a Virtual Dream
These beacons can communicate with smartphones that have internet data, GPS, and Bluetooth. The beacons are part of a grant from Google, which is helping IIT-B with this experiment.
Image for representation only. Photo source
If you are in the area and your phone data is turned on, it will immediately let you know about the shops nearby and the products on sale. This will make shopping all the more effective and successful. Shop keepers and owners will be able to provide a more engaging customer experience thus growing their businesses.You may also like: These Ingenious IIT Students Are Using Scrap Tyres to Build a Library and Playground for Needy Kids
"This enhanced shopping experience aims to not only boost the customer-seller relation but attract more buyers to the markets of Dharavi. In the greater scheme of things, this will bring a change in the way Dharavi is perceived," read an IIT-Bombay statement in The Hindustan Times. Shops that are part of this pilot have posters urging their customers to turn on their Bluetooth. Students who are spearheading this pilot will submit a report to Google once it is over and the organisation is likely to provide more grants to the ambitious venture. The next time you are in Dharavi, make sure your phone is prepared to help fulfil all of your shopping dreams.
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Mumbai Chief Medical Officer Uses Local Trains, Even Traffic Jams, to Spread Awareness About TB
He is so dedicated to the cause that he parks his car during traffic jams and personally goes from car to car to spread awareness.
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Image for representation. Photo source
"Everyone talks of active TB, people who are already suffering, facing drug resistance or side effects of medicines. But I want the city to focus on latent TB that we carry in our bodies too. We need to understand how to keep the latent bacteria lying low," he told The Hindu.
Image for representation. Photo You may also like: This Pioneering Doctor Discovered the First Case of HIV in India 30 Years Ago
TB is one of the deadliest diseases in India. According to the World Health Organisation, there were 2.2 million TB patients in the year 2014 in India alone (forming a large portion of the 9.6 million patients spread across the world). Dr. Anande's efforts began in 2013 when Mumbai was exposed to Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. The government rejected his study but he realised that more in the country ought to know and recognise the threat that this disease poses. Today, he even speaks at residential societies, colleges, and schools. His only goal is to reach 1.5 crore residents of Mumbai to help put an end to this deadly threat. Truly, a worthy cause!
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EXCLUSIVE: “Sport Allows You to Escape, but Escape into the Real World,” Says Harsha Bhogle
On the ease or difficulty of switching careers to do something completely different:
All I want to say to people who want to change careers is – don’t change careers and do something just because it sounds cool. If you want to do it, do the best you can. If you are giving up something to do something else, then you have no choice but to be among the best in the country at it. Because if are giving up what you know, to go and do something that you don’t know much about – you have no option but to be the best at it because you have given up your strength, and there is no point in doing it otherwise.
But I worry about the romance and the publicity associated in our media with all this stuff – I fear that a lot of people who would have done very well in normal traditional careers, might just go astray because it is considered to be cool to be different…Because people are doing it, you also don’t have to do it because your strength might be something else. So I worry a little, because I am hugely energised by young India. This is the finest generation India has ever had. And that is why I am so pissed by the negativity that abounds in the media because India, I believe is going through its most positive phase.
On the need for positivity in the media:
The energy of India is incredible, and it’s our generation and people just after mine who are making them negative and disappointed and disillusioned – when India is poised to be among the great nations in the world. The problem is that from the start, from the day news appeared, bad news was good news for the industry. And good news was just like – yes it’s there. So I suspect, especially with the competition in news channels these days and with a lot of people coming in the media for the wrong reasons, there is relentless search for sadness, for the gory, and for negativity. And there is a feeling that that’s all India is about because you are screeching and screaming and shouting trying to hold people for the next 10 seconds, which is what clickbait journalism is. Clickbait journalism will vanish very soon. I don’t know of a clickbait journalism portal in India that is making money. So I am personally going through a phase where I am very disillusioned with mainstream media in India.On social causes that are close to his heart:
I don’t do as much as I should because I don’t seem to find the time, and I know that is a cop-out. So I do what I can, but I like to do it quietly.On whether sport acts as a healing factor for people in many countries:
It already is, enormously. Look at India and Afghanistan. See what cricket has done to Afghanistan. Suddenly, Afghanistan is an identity. Cricket is forming a bridge between India and Afghanistan – politically it is right or wrong is a different story. All of a sudden Afghanistan has gone from being level five, to playing T-20 world cup. It is the most incredible story. Sport has been a huge healer there. Sport is an escape. It allows you to escape, but very differently from the way movies allow it. They allow that in a very fantasy-driven way. Sport allows you to escape, but escape into the real world.
On how psychology plays a role in cricket:
Sport is no different from anything else in life. Sometimes we put halos over sports people and think oh wow, these are nice cool guys. There are the same insecurities; they are affected the same way as anybody else. So the role of psychology, psychiatry, the role of mental healing in sport is just as powerful as anywhere else. Sport as a profession is seen to be glamorous and different. But it comes from the same insecurity that any other profession does.On what he does when not working on cricket commentary:
When I am not doing cricket, I do a lot of corporate speaking programmes, because I love sport passionately. I see sport as something beyond numbers. I keep telling people that if numbers are all that you know you hardly know 10% of sport. My wife puts it all together and we make corporate presentations on learning from sport for managers – talk about leadership, bonding together, playing together, understanding players, understanding weaknesses, understanding strengths, making change, how T20 has affected the test players – so we talk a lot about what sport can teach young managers.His tips to young-aspiring commentators:
Find another profession, because it doesn’t exist. When I started the profession did exist because it was a government-controlled media, but today the profession definitely doesn’t exist because people are fishing in the wrong pond. People are searching for batting and bowling averages and career records. The correlation between them and a good broadcast has never been established. So if you are a very bright young kid who understands the game, feels the emotion, follows analytics, and tells a great story, it's not the television channels alone that are looking for you but also a plethora of websites. You need to have a mix between analytical and emotional commentary, because sport is drama and you cannot forget the drama around sports.
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For the First Time in India & Only Second Time in the World, an Organ Recipient Also Donated an Organ!
According to medical professionals, such a transplant could potentially change the entire field and create new avenues for both organ donors and recipients.
Image for representation. Photo source: Wikimedia
Speaking to the Times of India, professor Vimal Bhandari, director of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), said, "Such a case has never been reported before. This is perhaps the first case in India where a donor who was herself a kidney recipient donated her liver that gave a new lease of life to another needy patient."
You may also like: Donate Life: What You Need To Know About Organ Donation in India
In India despite there being the need, not too many step forward to become donors themselves due to the prevalence of superstitions among other reasons. It has been reported nearly 5 lakh people in the country die every year due to scarcity of organs. A breakthrough like this is sure to save thousands of lives. You can pledge to be a donor here
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Meet Aunty 72: She Ran 500 Kms in 100 Days, Runs Mumbai Marathon Every Year, Will Inspire You Too!
“I have always been fond of running. Even when I was in school and college, I was quite the athlete and would run and walk. This didn’t change after I got married and when my three children were born – I ran with them!” she says with an infectious laugh. Primla says that age has never hindered her quest to be healthy all her life; in fact, in addition to the running and the aerobics, she has also joined a dance class!
You may also like: A Dynamic Marathoner from North East India is Training Indian Runners to Bring Home Olympic Gold Some Day
Apart from running herself, she has also recruited many of her friends and family to join her in many races. “Even this Sunday, there are 10 of us meeting at the Andheri station to reach the venue at 6.30 a.m. and we are all participating in the seniors’ category,” she says.
Primla also says that she has been able to combine her love for fitness with her passion for charitable work. “A few years ago I ran in the Dream Run category at the Mumbai Marathon with the kids from the Asha Kiran Charitable Trust. Even right now, we help train those children in running, so they can participate in marathons themselves one day,” she notes.
Primla has always loved taking up fitness challenges. Completing 500 km in 100 days was part of a challenge she undertook on behalf of a popular race 'Pinkathon', an event that raises awareness about breast cancer. Once she had completed it, she set herself another challenge – she calls this one the ‘Aunty 72 challenge’.
“I am 72 years and I want to cover a distance of 125 km in 25 days. I started this challenge on January 1st and the goal is to cover some amount of the distance every single day. I do a brisk walk but my brisk walk is like jogging.”
You may also like: Bengaluru Runner Helps an Accident Victim during a Marathon & Raises Rs 5 Lakh for His Treatment
And for Primla, no excuse is good enough to stay at home locked away. She especially eschews any mention of age or gender as being a barrier to leading an active life. “I know that there are responsibilities that we women have that can take up time but there are 24 hours in the day. There is nothing wrong in keeping 1-2 hours for yourself. Leave the house, be healthy and go out and meet people,” she advises. But it’s important to err on the side of caution and not get too carried away. “People have to remember that at the end of the day, they are running for themselves. One shouldn’t overreach. It’s important to listen to the body. And even if one can only walk for 500 metres in the beginning, they should do that. It’s important to keep doing something.” With three children who are all married and a husband who has retired, Primla sees no need for stopping any time soon, if ever. “I hope to continue like this for as long as I can. I have a few other races in the pipeline this year including the Pinkathon and the DNA iCan Half Marathon. My body is fit. I am very healthy. I can do this!” Those who make the mistake of telling Primla to slow down do so in vain; the odds are she’s run too far ahead to hear.
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This Group of Poets, Musicians & Storytellers Creates Mesmerising Art from Life Stories
On Kommune’s YouTube channel, one comes across a vibrant mix of storytellers and poets, telling different stories. They talk about numerous things - being homeless in Mumbai, being an introvert, being an atheist, about falling or not falling in love, and about being fine and not fine at the same time.
[embedvideo id="JiUB316qnSQ" website="youtube"] They share one commonality -- they all talk about something very personal to them, revealing a tiny part of their souls in front of the camera. The stories are near and dear to the performers themselves and therefore, instantly capture the attention of the audience.“That’s the key, you see. People need to see something they can relate to. That’s why personal storytelling has become so popular. We, as humans, can relate more to the stories of vulnerability than stories of human success. People connect more with the storyteller who is comfortable with his or her imperfection and isn’t looking to hide it. They need to take away something from your story,” says Roshan Abbas, co-founder of Kommune.Roshan co-founded Kommune with two of his friends Gaurav Kapur, a television personality; and Ankur Tewari, a musician in 2014. Roshan, having worked for a long time in theatre, radio as well as television, wanted to create a space where stories could be told with passion and free from commercial pressures.
“I and a bunch of my friends, including Ankur and Gaurav, would meet up and stage small performances. It was just for our fun, artists’ retreat, so to say! And when we’d meet up, we’d wonder, why isn’t there as much quality performance art created? That’s when we thought of starting something like Kommune - a platform for performance artists to come together and create something. We held a small meeting in a friend’s bungalow. A total of 15 people came to the meeting; it wasn’t like everyone knew everyone; it was more like friends of friends of friends getting together. It went really well and that’s when we saw the potential of the idea,” says Roshan.
Also read: The Amazing Journey of This Indian Drag Queen Is Both Heart Breaking and Inspiring
About the same time, Vijay Nair, CEO of OML and a friend of Roshan’s, was planning the Stage 42 festival. When he heard about Kommune, he expressed an interest in witnessing a formal event. Soon, the team had a deadline in place. The first official Kommune event took place in February 2015 in Mumbai. After that there was no looking back.
“People’s attention spans are going down really quickly. And to be able to hook people’s attention, you need a great story and you also need a great performer. Our focus is on the method as much as on the content and the medium!” Roshan explains.
They started with the series The Storytellers that brought together some celebrity speakers with other speakers to perform.
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Actor Tisca Chopra performing at Kommune's event 'Storytellers'[/caption]
The Storytellers’ sessions were a place to experiment with the format, where the storytellers were aided by workshops to help them hone their skills. The only rule: every story needed to be based on reality. Soon, Kommune started experimenting with poetry, coming up with spoken word poetry and beat poetry performances.
Following the great response in Mumbai, Kommune started hosting shows in Delhi and Bengaluru and has plans to tour smaller cities in the near future.
“Although so far we have only been actively promoting and curating poetry and storytelling, we do wish to venture in other performance arts as well. Say, experimental theatre or dastangoi, for example. We are trying to look at forms which translate well to video. It has been a conscious decision to master these two verticals first! We also wish to organise our own festival soon,” says Shamir Reuben, spoken word poet and content head at Kommune.
Roshan feels that Kommune’s role, as a curator of performance art, is much-needed at present.
[caption id="attachment_82240" align="aligncenter" width="960"]
Roshan Abbas[/caption]
With new avenues for the genre opening up, the quantity of content being generated has vastly increased. There’s just too much of content out there, a blundering amount, says Roshan.
“There are so many diverse narratives in digital storytelling. And there’s an open platform for everyone! Earlier, only those who had all the resources could tell their story -- be it in any form. Now with the advancement of the technology, there’s power in everyone’s hands. It’s a good thing, because now the other side of the coin is also getting exposure. People who earlier had no place in storytelling now have the power to tell their story in their own way. Today, your only excuse for not telling the story is your own lack of energy,” says Roshan.While technology seems to have levelled the playing field for artistes and amateurs alike, it also creates an important requirement, one that Kommune targets their efforts at.
Roshan explains, “The one thing that is lacking is curation. There’s so much content being generated every moment! And there’s no curation at all. We are trying to bring that to the storytelling space.”
Also read: “Every Artist Needs a Stage” – And This Art Community Is Offering Just That!
To know more about Kommune, their events, and workshops, check their official website here, and Facebook page here. To watch their video stories, visit the YouTube channel here.
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The Untold and Inspiring Story of Anna Rajam Malhotra, India’s First Female IAS Officer
Here is the inspiring story of this gutsy, determined and stubbornly honest woman who didn’t let anything hold her back from succeeding in life.
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Anna Rajam Malhotra[/caption]
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Born on July 17, 1927, in Niranam village in Kerala as the daughter of Ottavelil O. A. George and Anna Paul, Anna Rajam George (née Malhotra) was the granddaughter of Malayalam author Pailo Paul. She grew up in Calicut and completed her intermediate education from Providence Women's College. After earning a Bachelor's degree from Calicut's Malabar Christian College, Anna moved to Madras where she obtained her Masters in English Literature from Madras University. In 1950, Anna decided to attempt the civil services examination and qualified for the interview round. Back then, she did not know that she was the first woman to do so. In 1951, when she appeared for the next round of the exam, she was discouraged from joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) by the distinguished board which interviewed her (it comprised of four ICS officers and was headed by R.N. Banerjee, the Chairman of UPSC). Instead, the Foreign Service and Central Services were offered to Anna as they were "suitable for women." However, Anna was determined to get the post her rank deserved. She convincingly argued her case, stood her ground, chose Madras cadre and picked up her rank. Incredibly, her appointment order had these lines: "In the event of marriage your service will be terminated". However, after a couple of years, the rules were changed. [caption id="attachment_82448" align="aligncenter" width="342"]
Anna Rajam Malhotra (right) with a friend[/caption]
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Posted to the state of Madras, the first Chief Minister under whom Anna worked was C. Rajagopalachari. In principle, Rajagopalachari was against women entering public service and was not keen to post the new recruit in the field. He was convinced that she would be unable to handle law and order situations, if and when they arose. So instead of the charge of a district sub collector, he offered Anna a post in the Secretariat instead. But Anna, who had undergone training in horse riding, rifle and revolver shooting and in using magisterial powers , knew that she was at par with her male counterparts. For the second time in her fledgling career, she fought for a chance to prove herself, arguing that she was equally competent to men in handling any situation that might arise as a part of her job. Eventually, she was posted as sub collector in the Hosur district, becoming the first woman to do so. However, gender remained an issue for some years for Anna. As a sub collector of Hosur, when she visited a village in the taluk on horseback, she was informed that the village women wanted to see her. [caption id="attachment_82452" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Present-day Sub-Collector's office in Hosur[/caption]
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When Anna went to meet them, they just walked around her, looking at her and an old lady said, 'she looks just like one of us.' It was then that Anna realised their disappointment and knew that people expected something different from a woman who had made it as an officer. Talking about her experience in a later interview, Anna recalls how back then most men used to apprehensive of a woman's capability in taking decisions regarding public administration, using discretionary acumen in handling magisterial powers, of handling a lathi charge or police firing. So Anna had to prove herself time and again to stand up against gender prejudices. However, she does not hold this against the men but says it was the conservative mindset that prevailed at that time that made them react that way. While Anna's journey as India's first female IAS officer brought new challenges everyday, it was rewarding as well. After a few years of her service, Anna learnt that Rajaji ( as C. Rajagopalachari was called) had appreciated her work in an official report and, at a public meeting in Trichanapalli, even mentioned her as an example of progressive women! [caption id="attachment_82453" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
J N Nehru (left), C Rajagopalachari (centre) and Sardar Patel (right)[/caption]
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Even the then-UPSC Chairman commended her performance and said that it was a reason for him to recruit more women into the service. However, Anna says that her performance should not be a criterion for recruiting women candidates. Her reasoning behind this is that suppose she had failed, then this criterion would have prevented another woman from getting her chance. So, she strongly believes that women should be enrolled on merit and given a fair chance to prove their capability.You May Like: Meet India’s First Woman PhD in Botany – She Is The Reason Your Sugar Tastes Sweeter!
While her administrative brilliance fetched her widespread respect in the official circles, it was her thoughtfulness that endeared her deeply to the common man. For instance, early in her career, Anna had to negotiate a sensitive issue when six elephants entered a village in Hosur. Her love for the gentle giants, coming from her village roots, forbade her from issuing shooting orders for six elephants so she decided to consult her senior on how she could resolve the issue.
"Use your head, Ms. Anna," was an unhelpful senior's retort on requesting for advice. Not the one give to up, Anna persevered and managed to save the jumbos by using her knowledge of pachyderms and plain common sense to cleverly manoeuvre them back to the forests!
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Over the years, Anna served under seven chief ministers. She worked closely with Rajiv Gandhi in the Asiad project in 1982. With Indira Gandhi, her tryst was brief but impressive. Given the responsibility of agricultural inputs, she had to accompany Ms. Gandhi on an eight-state tour, giving information about food production, which had declined. A stickler for rules and deeply committed to her duty, she undertook the tour despite a fractured ankle. Away from the line of duty, Anna bided time to finally marry her colleague, batchmate and sweetheart, R. N. Malhotra who became the RBI governor in 1985. "It was worth waiting for,” she would say with fondness about a man in whom she found "exceptional humane qualities". Malhotra had earlier served as the Finance Secretary when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister and was posted as India's Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington when they married. [caption id="attachment_82455" align="aligncenter" width="340"]
R N Malhotra, Anna's husband and former RBI Governor[/caption]
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It was when Malhotra returned to India to take up the job of Governor of the Reserve Bank of India that Anna got her most notable assignment: building India's first computerised container port, Nhava Sheva, in Mumbai. By the late 1970s, concern had begun to be voiced about congestion at India’s ports and policymakers had decided it was necessary to augment handling. This meant planning and development of facilities for sea and land modes of transportation. The Bombay Port Trust, the leading port in India at that time, was in no position to do that, prompting the government to identify Nhava Sheva as the location for India’s first container port. [caption id="attachment_82458" align="aligncenter" width="922"]
Nhava Sheva, India's first computerised container port[/caption]
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Anna, who had not handled such a project before, had to start from scratch in what was then marshy, salt pan land. Everyday, she would leave early from her residence on Carmichael Road in South Bombay to catch a boat at 7 am from the Gateway to set out for Nhava Sheva, then just a deserted cluster of villages. The then-Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi visited Nhava Sheva a few times while construction was under way. Thoroughly impressed with Anna's work, the only concern he had, apparently, was the less-than-delicious food that Anna would arrange! The greenfield port of Nhava Sheva opened in May 1989 and a year later, Anna was awarded the Padma Bhushan. However, despite her pioneering role, Anna wears her achievements lightly and warmly recalls how her finest hours as a bureaucrat were spent with villagers in rural India. People like Anna Rajam Malhotra come along very rarely. Civil servants like her are rarer. The hard-working and stubbornly honest lady lived a life only a handful of other women of her time lived, inspired many others to take up the challenge of civil service in the coming years. A woman who broke barriers and set examples, we salute her spirit and exemplary service to the nation.Also Read: From a Child Bride to India’s First Practising Woman Doctor: The Untold Story of Rukhmabai
Like this story? Have something to share? Email: contact@thebetterindia.
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Once Upon a Time: The Inside Story of Rudyard Kipling’s Mumbai Connection and ‘The Jungle Book’
"Neither by service nor fee Come I to mine estate – Mother of Cities to me, But I was born in her gate, Between the palms and the sea, Where the world-end steamers wait," wrote Rudyard Kipling in an ode to the erstwhile Bombay.Generations of Indians have read and loved The Jungle Book. But not many are aware that the author of this beautifully rendered and visually arresting masterpiece, Rudyard Kipling, shared an intrinsic bond with India, especially Mumbai.
To understand what inspired some of Kipling's greatest works, here's an humble attempt to see India through the eyes of the "Bard of the Empire".
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Rudyard Kipling (right) with his father, John Lockwood Kipling[/caption]
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The most visible link of Kipling to Mumbai is a green-painted wooden bungalow with a tarnished bronze bust on a plinth in its porch. Peering at its plaque, one can just make out the words "Rudyard Kipling, son of Lockwood Kipling, first dean of Sir JJ School of Art, was born here on December 30, 1865." Almost consumed by the spreading trees leaning against its roof, with peeling paint and rotting wooden balconies, this bungalow was the official residence of the JJ School of Art’s dean. Rudyard’s father John Lockwood Kipling served as the first dean of the school and the Kipling family lived on campus. The original house of Kipling's birth was, however, demolished as it crumbled away. The present structure, called the "Kipling House" which came up adjacent to the original bungalow, was constructed in 1882 almost a decade after Kipling had left for England. The structure has bravely stood the test of time as plans for its restoration have fallen through time and again. [caption id="attachment_82593" align="aligncenter" width="1600"]
Kipling Bungalow[/caption]
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However, while this heritage building may be the most tangible of Kipling's connections to Mumbai, it isn't the only one. The author has also left behind a lasting legacy of words to describe the Bombay as he knew it. Kipling wrote about the "far-going Arab dhows" that he sighted on the shores of Bombay as well as the "gaily dressed Parsees wading out to worship the sunset" Kipling, who later in his life wrote vividly of jungles and jungle life, also described about his morning walks to the Crawford Market and his evening strolls around the Mahim woods. In his autobiography, he also recollected how he once got scared by a Bombay hen (he describes it a "winged monster as big as myself") while on his way to the JJ school workshop!Also Read: Malgudi Revisted: Remembering R K Narayan, the Master Storyteller Who Enchanted a Nation
Kipling's days in Mumbai were, however, few. He was shipped off to London at the age of six and returned to the city only once. At the age of 17, he stayed in Mumbai for a few days before heading off to Lahore to join the staff of the Civil and Military Gazette (CMG). Although he called his time at the Gazette "hard", it was an ideal literary apprenticeship, as he accumulated deep layers of detail about Indian life.
For several years, as a young newspaper reporter, Kipling covered "the season" in Shimla – or Simla as it was called in the days when the British fled the scorching summer plains and ruled one-fifth of humanity from it for half the year. He spent several summers in Shimla for the Civil and Military Gazette, picking up gossip for his columns and short stories at the aptly named Scandal Point and getting lost in the "crowded rabbit warren" of bazaars that spill down the mountainside below the fashionable Mall.
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North Bank, Kipling's house in Shimla[/caption]
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For Kipling, this picturesque Himalayan hill station was the place where "every right-minded story should begin". It was here that his character Kim was inducted into the art of spycraft by the mysterious Lurgan Sahib, whose shop was "full of things that smelt like all the temples of all the East". Lurgan Sahib was actually inspired by A M Jacob, a mysterious, almost mystical jewellery and curio dealer. Interestingly, 'Kim' was Jawahar Lal Nehru’s favourite novel.
His time in Shimla also gave him plenty of material for 'Plain Tales from the Hills', his sometimes wry, sometimes tragic, stories about the idiosyncrasies of British India and the uneasy relationship between the rulers and the ruled. This was also when he graduated from journalism to writing fiction.
Also Read: #TravelTales: Exploring the Kumaoni Village Where Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Nehru Vacationed
Shimla is a far cry from Seoni in Madhya Pradesh. A rocky terrain with little streams passing through the hills, surrounded with swathes of bamboo and deciduous tree, this setting is often cited as the inspiration for the landscapes in Kipling's 'The Jungle Book'. Published in 1894, 'The Jungle Book' proved to be a hit with young and old alike. The series of stories of a human boy named Mowgli, raised by animals in the wild, made for riveting reading. In these tales, the animals proved to be both Mowgli's allies and adversaries. Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Shere Khan the tiger have all become famous characters in children’s literature. They even appeared in Kipling’s sequel, 'The Second Jungle Book', which was released in 1895.
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In truth, Kipling never visited this part of India and wrote the stories while he was actually living in Vermont. Kipling had returned to England in 1889, and with his reputation preceding, had quickly become acclaimed as one of the most brilliant prose writers of his time. His fame was redoubled upon the publication in 1892 of the verse collection 'Barrack Room Ballads', which contained such popular poems as 'Mandalay', 'Gunga Din' and 'Danny Deever'. In 1892, he married Caroline Balestier, the sister of an American friend, and the couple moved to Vermont in the United States, where her family lived. The couple named their home Naulakha (which translates to 'jewel beyond price' in Hindi). Their two daughters were born there and it was here Kipling wrote 'The Jungle Book' based his jungle descriptions on other books, photographs and conversations, referring to Seoni's jungle as Seeonee at various instances in his tales. Kipling's startling accuracy in describing a place he never visited is credited it to his reading of Sterndale's Gazetteer. Sterndale was a district officer in the mid-19th century who wrote 'Seeonee or Camp Life on the Satpura Range' (1877), based on his life in Seoni from 1857 to 1864. His book gives an account of Seoni as a wild, tiger-infested country during the First War of Independence. Scholars have also traced back the Mowgli story to incidents related by British official W.H. Sleeman and his pamphlet, 'An Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in Their Dens'. [caption id="attachment_82596" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
Nestled amidst the Satpura Range, Seoni is home to the Pench National Park[/caption]
Photo Source
Kipling spent much of the next decade on children's books, producing the jungle tales of Mowgli, as well as such bedtime favorites as 'Rikki-Tikki Tavi' and the glorious 'Just So Stories', which he illustrated himself. Interestingly , other than the adventures of Mowgli, Baloo and Bagheera, 'The Jungle Book' series also present quieter, related tales such as 'The Miracle of Purun Bhagat', the life of a kind saint, beloved by animals. He later moved back to London and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, the first English author to be so honoured. In 1930, he revisited his birthplace before passing away in a London hospital in January 1936 at the age of 70. Although Kipling eventually left India, India never left Kipling: it made the man who would go on to make literary history. On his 82nd death anniversary, we remember the literary giant who captured the flavour of India to a point where it became folklore.You May Like: This Little Known Himalayan Village Was the Much-Loved Summer Retreat of Rabindranath Tagore
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TBI Blogs: How a 20-Year-Old Went from Selling Newspapers to Working at a Multinational Company
Shashikant, shying away from the camera.[/caption]
“I follow Babasaheb’s writings. They are remarkably insightful, especially when all around people are so strongly divided by caste,” Shashikant says. His grandfather came to Mumbai 60 years ago. He spent almost his entire life as a daily wage worker, and put all his savings in setting up a cloth shop in Wadala. He married twice—Shashikant’s father is the son of his first wife. Due to domestic feuds, Shashikant’s father was not allowed to participate in the family business. He found himself in the same place as his father—selling peanuts in the day and working as a guard in the night—till he joined a mill as a daily wage worker with a salary of Rs. 3,000 per month.
“My father’s income went towards buying food for a family of four. We had to borrow money in case any of us fell ill, or to buy books for school,” Shashikant shares. With no extra income to support his education after Class VII, Shashikant took to doing odd jobs like distributing newspapers and helping political parties set up their billboards to make money. “I would earn Rs. 500 a month and give it to my mother. All of it went to pay my school fees,” he says. There were insurmountable hardships. There were also some eye-opening lessons.
“Despite extreme poverty, my mother was not expected to step out to work. Women stepping out in public to work and earn is still looked down upon in my family. When my elder sister finished her Bachelors, I negotiated with my parents to let her get a B.Ed degree. In reality, I fought with them and their mindsets. My sister always wanted to be a teacher. She is married now, but I am happy that she is still keen on getting a job,” he observes.Shashikant believes that a gender-equal society is possible, but the change has to begin at home. This conviction had its roots in the training he underwent in Magic Bus as a Youth Leader. “In Class X, I felt this strong urge to do something for my community. I wanted children here to go to school and learn well. It might seem to be a most ordinary, achievable dream outside Mahatma Phule Nagar, but it is not so in a community of so many out-of-work youth taking to substance abuse, a community that is yet to wake up to the importance of education. As a Community Youth Leader, I get to mentor these children using a deeply engaging activity-based curriculum. I also run support classes for children in my neighbourhood so that they can keep up with the pace of learning at school,” he shares. [caption id="attachment_82558" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
His community[/caption]
Shashikant dreams of opening a school in his neighbourhood for underprivileged children, a learning environment modelled after the gurukul system of education.
“Every child nurses a dream. Poverty stifles that very dream. My education will hold a light to those who are fighting to save their dreams from the clutches of poverty,” he explains.Although he started working in Class VIII, Shashikant was aware that only a salaried job can put an end to the financial distress at home and also support his dream for further education. “I was in the first batch of Magic Bus’ Livelihoods programme at Vikhroli. Back then, I was certain I could be an entrepreneur. Through the Livelihoods training, I actually got an insight into my skill sets and drawbacks. They helped me develop a road-map for my career,” he says, adding, “It has been three years since I completed my Livelihoods training. Yet I still fall back on my mentors from the Centre to guide me on my career decisions. I have firm faith in their ability to suggest the best way for me.” At present, Shashikant works as an Account Representative for multi-national software company Accenture, earning Rs. 25,000 per month. Most of his income goes towards paying off the family’s debts, but he saves enough to support his further education and also his dream to own a house of their own in their hometown. Despite balancing a demanding work life with education, Shashikant is still bhaiya for numerous children in his locality—someone they laugh with, share their sorrows and anxieties with, and listen to. If you are to pass Mahatma Phule Nagar on a Saturday and Sunday, you might meet an enthusiastic 20-year-old, surrounded by an excited bunch of children much younger and smaller than him, matching him in step and energy. [caption id="attachment_82559" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Still camera shy![/caption]
Support Magic Bus by making a contribution here, or give a missed call at 1800-200-6858, and we will call you back!
Picture Credits: Shrishti Somani & Zil Shah
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VIDEO: This 40-Year-Old Autorickshaw Driver has Planted Over 350 Saplings in a Year
Watch his story here:
[embedvideo id="vKvIrqXarRc" website="youtube"]Transcript:
Thane-based Purushottamlal Gupta has vowed to reduce the air pollution levels, by planting saplings & revive the shrinking green cover in the massive concrete-metropolitan Mumbai. He started his initiative in Jan 2016. Today 40 more rickshaw drivers have joined his cause! The saplings he planted have a survival rate of 80% and he has now taken up the mission to plant more than 1,500 saplings by mid-2017. Their movement is called ‘Sadbhavana Hara Bhara Bharat’ & they organise plantation drives every weekend. Gupta spends his monthly income of rs 15,000 on his children’s education & saplings. Bringing a green change, one sapling at a time!Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!
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Why an Engineer Living in Mumbai Is Working Hard to Set up a Public Library in Rural UP
The sad reality is that Rambali’s is hardly the only family in the region that had to give up on quality education due to various reasons – sometimes because of poverty and sometimes due to the lack of required infrastructure.
For 31-year-old Surya Sen Singh, this was a crisis way too close to home and not one to be ignored. In fact, it is still the reality of his birthplace – Kansaharia, a village located about 100 km away from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Being one of the lucky kids in the village who could move to Lucknow for higher studies after Class 10, Surya went on to become an engineer and is currently working in Mumbai. But the boy who left still has his heart in the village. Whatever he did in life, Surya always knew that giving back to his community and its children is his duty. And he has been trying to fulfil it for over a year now.
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In April 2015, Surya founded a school named Ajivam in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh for children from nearby villages to obtain education. “There are other schools in Ghazipur too, but I wanted to start something that would encourage children from the villages to come out and study,” he says. With classes from lower kindergarten to Class 5, the school follows the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum and runs with permission from district-level authorities. The school will also receive CBSE affiliation once it starts teaching students up to Class 8.
Around 30-35% of students in the school come from underprivileged backgrounds and the monthly fees vary between Rs 200 and Rs 500, based on the financial situation of the children.
Surya’s elder brother and father live in the village and oversee the school’s daily operations. Surya is in Mumbai and he calls the school once every week to speak to the teachers. While the school had 49 students in the first year, it has now grown to 160 students and nine teachers.
“Once, a man had come to the school for his daughter’s admission. He was very nervous. After all the formalities were completed and we asked him to send his daughter from the next day, he had tears in his eyes. She was the first person from his family who was going to school. I was extremely moved by his emotion. It is things like these that drive me forward and encourage me to work harder,” says Surya.
As the school grows, Surya is now working on opening a public library in Ghazipur.
With this library, he wants to serve local communities by providing free and easy access to a broad range of knowledge resources, information and training. He also wants to promote the idea of higher education of girls and self-dependence through better employment for the villagers.
Interested in supporting Surya? Here's the link to his crowdfunding campaign!'
Unable to view the above button? Click here
There were three major issues that Surya felt were prevalent in his village, which motivated him to work towards the construction of a library:
1. Plight of female education in the region:
“After a certain point, many girls in these villages are pulled out of schools and not allowed to pursue further studies. I have seen this with my sisters and close family members as well, and that made me think about creating resources for girls to gain knowledge,” he says. With three sisters, Surya feels that the presence of equal opportunities has helped them become independent. After he left for Lucknow, his family also felt the need to give their daughters equal opportunities for higher studies. One of his sisters currently works as a software engineer in a robotics company. “It takes a lot for girls here to push and come out to pursue a career. Boys are always the priority. Growing up, I used to feel everything was okay until that one moment when I realised that so many boys are going out, studying, making their choices – but not girls. That moment changed everything. I knew that all they needed were equal opportunities like the boys had.”
2. Lack of resources:
“I come from a place where most people are daily-wage earners. They don’t have access to any kind of knowledge resources, and even if they send their children to school it becomes very difficult for them to finish the entire course. So the idea was to provide them with all the resources they need, in terms of books and computers, etc., at one place,” Surya adds.
3. To increase employability among young people:
The students who finish schools in these villages and start competing for higher education or employment, have no way to pursue the required knowledge. Surya says, “For example, when I was studying, only 2-3 students from my batch could make it and are well-settled now. Most are still in the villages, working as farmers or daily wage labourers. All of them had good knowledge of different subjects. There was no problem with their understanding, but it was the lack of resources that restricted them.” The library will provide latest information on employment opportunities based on a student’s education and preferences and will help with necessary study materials and training sessions.
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While Surya started the school using his own money, he is now raising funds to equip the library with the required resources. You can donate to help him here.
“I feel that I am in a position where I can give back to society, and that can have a lot of impact. Thanks to my education, I can do certain things today and I don’t want to waste this time and the money that I own. I want to influence and lead as many people as I can to make sure that they are getting the resources they need to achieve best education. The kids in these villages should get the same opportunities that I received from my parents,” he concludes.
Interested in supporting Surya? Here's the link to his crowdfunding campaign!'
Unable to view the above button? Click here
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Meet the 15-Year-Old Mumbaikar Who Has Recycled 350 Kgs of e-Waste Already!
True to his own word since that time, he has successfully collected 350 kg of batteries and e-waste to ensure they are recycled and disposed of in an eco-friendly manner.
“One day after I had gotten sick and recovered, I was about to chuck some batteries in the dustbin. But the batteries themselves had a cautionary warning against doing that. So, I went on the internet and did some research and found out that you are not supposed to do that. Batteries tend to explode in the heat and that’s why the fire in my neighbouring junkyard had escalated so much,” explains Nishant.
Armed with this new information, he went to his friends and family and asked them if they knew that it was dangerous to dispose of batteries along with the other trash and found to his surprise that no had a clue. It was at this time that he decided to take matters into his own hands and start collecting batteries at home and at his school. He spoke to his classmates and his school’s faculty and started a collection by himself. But he wanted to scale up and make it bigger.
And it was Amitabh Bachchan who came to his rescue.
“I was watching some television show in which Amitabh Bachchan was interviewing people from an NGO called Children’s Movement For Civic Awareness (CMCA). The NGO had helped a girl build toilets in her village and I thought I could reach out to them for help. With their assistance, I am now working with 13 schools in collecting batteries and e-waste,” notes Nishant.
You may also like: Thanks to This NGO, There’s Now a Forest in the Middle of the Concrete City of Gurgaon
The internet often came to Nishant’s rescue whenever he wanted answers to some practical problems such as disposal. “I went online and found out that there are companies that collect batteries and e-waste and they also recycle them. So we started contacting them and seeing if they were willing to partner.”
Nishant’s plan is to scale up significantly in the next few months and add 30 schools to his program. Despite having to study for his Class 10 board exams, he has put together a schedule that will help him study and work on his advocacy.
You may also like: TBI Blogs: “Are We Your Priority?” An Open Letter from India’s Children to the Prime Minister of India
“I wake up really early and start studying for a few hours. And then I go to school. After I return, it’s time for lunch and then sometimes I head out to different schools to give presentations on proper disposal of e-waste and batteries. And then I will study for another hour or so and then I enjoy my free time after that.” So committed he is to his project, he has created WhatsApp groups to ensure he is in touch with his point of contacts in all the schools he works with. Today, Nishant is working furiously to get the government’s attention in spreading the word about his cause. The young lad has gone from pillar to post trying to talk to anyone and everyone from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to strike a deal. He has also written a letter to the Prime Minister and is hoping to hear back from the government. The goal for Nishant and his family is not just to effect change in his immediate community but have the government also make this a priority moving forward. For now, Nishant has collected over 350kg of e-waste (that includes mobile phones, laptops etc) and says that along with CMCA he hopes to create such programs in other cities across the country too. But the bright young kid has an important message to other children. “Everyone has told me that studying is important and I am making sure to follow through. I just want to tell other kids that it is very possible to do such projects and focus on your studies too. You just need to focus on your priorities a little.” With more kids like Nishant, the country and the world just might be in safe hands. To contact Children’s Movement For Civic Awareness (CMCA), click here.
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How Tata Memorial Centre Saved 9,000 Cancer Patients a Trip to the Hospital
According to the centre, 9,000 patients specifically were able to cut down on a trip to the hospital directly due to the system.
Image for representation. Photo source
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Gitika Srivastava, founder of Navya Network said, “Availing information and clarity about treatment is a mammoth task for a family distressed by the news of cancer being diagnosed. Secondly, patients coming from every part of the country to TMC for referral treatment opinions have numerous pre- and post-treatment queries and it’s challenging for oncologists to resolve all of them in a brief appointment."
You may also like: This Man Has Spent Decades Providing Meals to Underprivileged Cancer Patients & Their Families
The system has been developed to provide a holistic overview on all queries that patients and their families might have. There is an "evidence engine" that provides database of clinical trials and the latest medical options available for patients whose results have tested positive. It also sports an "experience engine," which, true to its word, contains information about medical cases that were treated at TMC. Users have to input their data into the system and they will, in a matter of a few hours, be provided with an informed analysis of best treatment options for their condition. Apart from the advanced online system, the centre has also recently announced plans to open four other cancer hospitals in the country and the government will be funding them Rs 2,000 crores to do so. The hospitals will be built in Varanasi, Chandigarh, Guwahati, and Visakhapatnam. To contact TMC, click here
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TBI Blogs: The Interesting Account of a Young American Woman’s Journey Documenting Rural India
That’s what it means to be part of the PARIvar. There’s no place here for hierarchies or ego.
[caption id="attachment_84447" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
First encounter with my incredible mentors, Shalini Singh and Siddharth Adelkar.[/caption]
It’s you and one of the foremost journalists of our age dusting cobwebs. Browsing online pizza menus. Talking about cabbage. Parivar, the Hindi word for “family”, conveniently contains our organization’s acronym—a happy linguistic accident, perhaps. But it’s no accident that we’ve chosen this pithy moniker to describe our scrappy band of journalists. The family ties don’t end at our doorstep…All of India belongs to the PARIvar. The Archive is a truly collective undertaking of, for, and by the people to whom it owes its existence.
Every three years, PARI plans to commission a total of 95 fellows to report directly from rural areas. A team of volunteer translators renders content in a dozen regional languages. The ongoing Faces project, which aims to compile at least three photographs – one man, one woman, and one child – from every rural district in India, now boasts over 540 published entries from 121 districts (out of India’s 687), with scores of contributions directly from the public.
Moreover, the PARIvar is not bound by India’s borders. I was a member of the PARI Family back in my bright yellow Seattle apartment when I perused the archive for the very first time, laughing in delight over the potato song. On days when I feel very much The Stranger in a Strange Land – when the kela vendor returns my proffered smile with a suspicious glower and a sad, squashy banana; when I give up trying to stay dry in the monsoon rains and submit to the gutter waters coursing freely over my chappals; whenever I feel my muscles clench against the pressing crowds and my heart clench against the relentless stares; when, in desperate need of laundry detergent, I walk past seven successive dry goods stalls because I’m too ashamed to expose my feeble Hindi – climbing those five flights of stairs to PARI Command Central reminds me that I am, in some small way, part of the larger Indian community. Maybe not by birth or credential or creed, but by adoption into the PARIvar.
I’m part of a mission transcending divides to empower a people to write their own histories and chart their futures.
[caption id="attachment_84445" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Birthday celebration with PARI’s crew of journalists (even on Skype!)[/caption]
That’s a family motto I can get behind.
So, welcome to the PARIvar. Have some chai and stay awhile.
Find out how you can help PARI document everyday lives from rural India here.
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Here’s Why This Mumbai Cop Totally Deserved the Jeevan Raksha Padak Awarded by the President
This story has a good ending because on Republic Day, Tejesh was honoured with a President’s Medal for having saved Bigyan on that fateful day.
Image for representation. Source: Facebook
Speaking to the Indian Express about that incident, Tejesh recalls being empathetic towards Bigyan upon reaching him. He spoke to him briefly asking him if he wanted to speak to someone in his family. Bigyan gave him his brother's number, but that call also proved to be fruitless as upon completing it, Bigyan continued on his way up to the terrace. At this point Tejesh himself spoke to the brother who entreated him to save Bigyan's life at all costs. While all the police officers at the scene were doing all they could to reach Bigyan, they were also afraid of spooking him.Tejesh notes, "Sand had taken off his jacket and was trying to tie it around his eyes. When that did not work. He swung it in the air and threw it. He then folded his palms together, closed his eyes and prayed." Seizing that moment, despite risking his own life, Tejesh jumped in and pulled Bigyan to safety.
You may also like: This Police Constable Climbed a Hill Barefoot to Save a Man from Committing Suicide
And now, close to a year later, Tejesh has been rightly awarded the Jeevan Raksha Padak by President Pranab Mukherjee, recognising his brave and selfless act of putting duty first and saving a civilian's life.
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TBI Blogs: Does Your Child Have Poor Reading or Math Skills? This New Learning App Can Help.
mGuru is a learning app for K-5 students, focusing on English and Math. The app provides an interactive learning journey for children, with the explicit aim of accelerating learning outcomes in an engaging way. mGuru is using stories from StoryWeaver on their English app.
From Archimedes to Newton, from inventors to entrepreneurs, that fleeting flash of inspiration is what generates great ideas, makes human progress, and keeps the world moving forward.
For Adam Korakhiwala, founder of the K-5 learning app, mGuru, his “Eureka!” moment came in the form of a grim statistic in the 2014 Annual Status of Education (ASER) report, “Only one-in-four Class V students can read basic English sentences.” At the time, Adam was a student of Public Policy with a minor in Computer Science at Stanford University. “I read the report as a Public Policy student, but when I started thinking about how I could be a part of the solution to a problem like this, my background in Computer Science kicked in,” shares Adam, founder of mGuru, a Mumbai-based ed-tech startup aimed at the K-12 sector of students in urban, peri-urban, and rural India.“I remember thinking how affordable smartphones were becoming and reaching so many households and people in India, and that very soon, all families would have the world’s collective knowledge in their pockets. That thought was the starting point for the idea that is now mGuru.”[caption id="attachment_84336" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Members of the mGuru team say cheese![/caption]
Armed with his degree, Adam returned to India with the idea to use mobile technology to help improve literacy and numeracy skills of children, “The first thing I did was spend time in classrooms as a silent observer to study teacher interactions and student responses. I wanted to understand how different stakeholders in schools felt about education, so I extensively interviewed students, teachers, parents, and NGO leaders to get as holistic a view as possible.”
After spending months at the Educo-run BMC Sai Baba Path School, Mumbai and classrooms in Akanksha and Teach for India schools, Adam’s seed of an idea began to germinate. He put together a team using “hustle and passion” by posting on LinkedIn and techie job boards.
mGuru is a mobile learning app for K-5 students, focusing on English and Math. The apps provide an interactive learning journey for children, with the explicit aim of accelerating learning outcomes in an engaging way. The vision of mGuru is to package the best learning practices and research into a platform for the masses, so that any child can have the tools to gain basic literacy and numeracy skills.
“We aim to significantly increase learning outcomes at scale, and we hope to build a platform that delivers that.” avers Adam.While smartphone penetration is on the upswing across India, the mGuru team is cognizant of other infrastructural issues related to internet connectivity that much of the country still faces, “The apps function largely without internet, and are designed to work as well on low-end smartphones as they do on high-end devices.” Once the initial prototype of the application was ready, the team tested it with 100 Class III and IV public school students in Mumbai. “Our team would go in every week to see how children were reacting to the app, what they liked, what they ignored…and then every week we would go back and incorporate those learnings into the app,” remembers Adam.
After multiple rounds of tinkering, and a complete redesign to be more “pedagogically sound and engaging for kids”, the mGuru app was officially released in August, 2016.
[caption id="attachment_84335" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Students using mGuru on tablets in the classroom.[/caption]
mGuru’s English app is particularly successful with children as it gamifies the learning process. Within mGuru English, there is a reward system in the form of mangoes. By completing various activities, Manu the monkey collects mangoes, which the child can then use as currency to purchase stories to read available on the app. All these stories are from StoryWeaver, an online digital repository of multilingual children’s stories from Pratham Books.
“I first read about StoryWeaver when the platform was launched,” Adam says. “At the time, we were looking for stories to include in the English app that were fun and engaging for children to read, along with being culturally relevant to them. StoryWeaver offers all this, and the biggest bonus is that since the stories are openly licensed and in open formats, we can use them for free and in different ways on the app, with subtitles and audio elements that we have built in-house.”
The stories have been immensely popular with the students. Teach For India Fellow Vishal DB says, “The English app keeps students across all reading levels engaged. The app’s child-friendliness, the interesting stories, and the novelty of the tabs keep the students hooked.”
While the stories are in English, the child can read the story in another language they are more fluent in. Currently, mGuru English teaches English via Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi. However, they plan to expand this to integrate more major Indian languages such as Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Urdu. “The stories from StoryWeaver have already been read 45,000 times by students who have done over 185,000 activities!” Adam shares enthusiastically.
The stories offered are regularly updated so that children always have something new to read and enjoy.
mGuru has partnered with NGOs such as Teach for India, Akanksha, and Yuva Unstoppable. The app is currently used by 17,000 students all over India, and contains 185,000 activities.The team measures impact by looking at various statistics such as the time students spend on the app. They also measure how often they return, the number of stories they read, and improvements in the scores of students.
“During research, we learned that almost all students in the schools we visited went for ‘tuitions’ after school. This showed that parents wanted to improve their child’s learning. If parents were willing to pay anywhere between Rs. 300-600 for tuition, then we felt they might be willing to pay an affordable Rs. 30 per month for our app. We reach out to parents to tell them about, and help download, the app at school PTAs. So far we have had a very positive response from them,” shares Adam.
An enthusiastic parent from Sai Baba Path Public School, Mumbai, shares, “Sir, pichhle do din se mere dono bachhe app ko chhod hi nahin rahe hain. Baki game khelna toh unhone band hi kar diya hai, badi baat yeh hai ki woh hamare bina bhi sab istamal karna seekh gaye hain. Hum se jyaada mobile ke baare mein unhein pata hai!” (“Sir, both my kids have been using the app for the last two days. Not only have they stopped playing other games, more surprisingly, they are using it without our help. Now they know more about the mobile than us!”)
mGuru is also experimenting with other novel ways of getting their app into the hands of more children.
[caption id="attachment_84337" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Students share tablets and play games, and help Manu the Monkey get mangoes.[/caption]
Starting next month, they are tying up with a Kolkata bakery chain, where each bakery will also “distribute” mGuru. “Every time someone shops at the bakery, they'll get three weeks free access to the mGuru English app. We’ll have someone there to help them download the app and do a demo if needed. If this pilot works, we will look at ways to replicate this in other geographies,” Adam reports.
The team has exciting future plans, including a math component, adding more languages, and videos and diverse activities. “Everyone on the team is passionate and wants to bring great educational technology to any child, anywhere,” shares Adam.
The mGuru app is available as a free download for Android users on the Google Play Store.
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Pink Actress Taapsee Pannu Takes a Bold Stand Against Fairness Cream Brands
When she realised that one of the events she was attending was being sponsored by a fairness brand, she pulled out.
Photo source: Facebook
Ironically, the event to be held in Jaipur was actually all about propagating women’s rights. Given that she is a staunch supporter of feminist causes, she was slated to talk during the event. But when she found out about the main sponsors, she realised it would go against her personal values to promote fairness as something that should be aspired towardsConfirming to Hindustan Times about the incident, Taapsee says, “I agree it was a last minute call, but when I found out that I would have to pose at the event with fairness brand in the background, I decided to take my name off the event. I have actually lost quite a few films because of being fair, so I will not propagate fairness in any way.”Taapsee joins a list of actresses who have taken a stand against fairness products because they promote a harmful image of beauty in a country that’s already far too obsessed with fairness. Kalki Koechelin has noted that while she endorses an anti-ageing product, she has made it clear she won’t be putting her name and face to sell any product that promises to make the user fair.
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Most famously, one of the most outspoken actresses in Bollywood, Kangana Ranaut, turned down a Rs 2 crore contract offered to her by a fairness cream and has since been a vocal advocate against such products. This Pink lady certainly has taken a fair stand.
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This Made-In-India 3D Printer Can Revolutionize the Affordable Tech Space in India!
Seeking to make these next-gen devices more accessible and affordable, tech startup Maher Soft has created Indie, a made-in-India 3D printer.
As many a design or tech geek will excitedly confirm, 3D printers are almost magical in the capacity to swiftly create an object from its design using the machine. Think crockery, miniature animals, jewellery—while industries can use it to create prototypes, personal 3D printers can bring about a complete transformation in creativity and consumption.
Maher Soft, the company behind Indie, is a 3D Printer manufacturer and service company based in Mumbai, and believes in making technology simple and accessible. Karan Sangani, the company’s chief sales officer says, “Building 3D printers is easy. Building reliable 3D printers is definitely not.”
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The company’s frustrating experience with consumer-grade 3D printers led it to develop its own version, a compact and affordable device that can be used with the user’s desktop. “We are using a combination of industrial grade parts, conventional manufacturing techniques and 3D-printed parts to deliver superior value.” 3D printers are often limited due to exorbitant pricing, costing over a lakh for a quality model, and high maintenance requirements. The price tags make it virtually impossible for small businesses or students to invest in the machines.
Karan says, “3D printers available in the market are of poor quality, plus they are difficult to maintain. Furthermore, they are expensive. Our goal is simple: We want to bridge the part-quality and performance gap between Industrial and Desktop FDM 3D Printers. Our team has spent a year on Indie, designing each component to make it reliable and replicable by sourcing the right manufacturers in India and at the same time getting the moulds ready for production.”
Among Indie’s biggest advantages are its affordable pricing and low consumption of power.
Indie printers are also integrated with open-source technology, so that users do not have to rely only on proprietary tools and solutions.
“We initially started building the most basic prototype with an idea to deliver to our customers a product that can print functional models at an affordable cost,” says Karan. The model has gone through 8-10 design iterations to its present state.
“Manufacturing a hardware product in India comes with lots of challenges, like getting access to right materials for manufacturing the printed circuit board, hardware components, machine body or machine packaging. We spent a lot of our time to find the right suppliers and vendors who helped us streamline the manufacturing and sourcing.”
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The team is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to secure their production budgets. Karan says, “We are one of the very few tech startups from India taking the crowdfunding route to validate our product around the world. We have been able to raise $20,000 in just 15 days with backers from more than 10 countries. Crowdfunding is the most efficient and effective way to reach customers.” You can contribute to Indie’s crowdfunding campaign here. To contact the Maher Soft team, click here.
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55 Countries in 8 Months: This Mumbai Couple’s Epic Road Trip Will Give You Wanderlust
From May 2016 to January 2017, this couple from Mumbai drove to 52 countries and in the process also raised money to help the underprivileged.
Photo credit: Facebook
It was another Indian family's epic road trip that inspired the D'Souza's to start planning their own. When Janet and Louis read about the Baid family that had covered 11 countries in 111 days, they decided they could do the same. So, they reached out to the Baid family directly to get help with planning the trip. Once the logistics were settled, all that was left was for them to do was hit the road.And that's exactly what they did.
Photo credit: Facebook
Chronicling their journey on their Facebook page, the D'Souzas began their trip from Mumbai and drove all the way to London and back. Along the way some of the countries they hit were China, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar and more. But they also ensured that their trip while enjoyable also served a noble purpose. For every kilometre they covered, they put aside Rs 10.Thus by the end of the journey, they had collected Rs 5 lakh. They also raised another Rs 6 lakh and would be donating the total sum to two of their favourite charities - Muskaan and White Doves.
Photo credit: Facebook
As it is with every road trip, there were some hiccups along the way. For the couple, it meant driving an additional 2,000 km to go to Thailand, so they could enter Myanmar. They also suspended their road trip briefly at that time, left their car behind in Myanmar and returned to India to celebrate Christmas. Of course soon enough they were back to the country to continue with their journey.You may also like: TBI Blogs: The Interesting Account of a Young American Woman’s Journey Documenting Rural India
While it won't be surprising for most people to suffer from traveler's fatigue at this point, the two say that they are already planning their next drive - this time they want to go to Australia and New Zealand. For all intents and purposes, they have just got started. White Doves can be contacted here
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