Engineering – Page 45 – Take off with Natarajan

40 years on, victim of Vietnam napalm attack, Kim Phuc, finally gets burns treatment……

October 25, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Kim Phuc shows the burn scars on her back and arms after laser treatments in Miami. Phuc was burned by a napalm bomb in Vietnam more than 40 years ago. Picture: AP Photo/Nick Ut

IN the photograph that made Kim Phuc a living symbol of the Vietnam War, her burns aren’t visible — only her agony as she runs wailing toward the camera, her arms flung away from her body, naked because she has ripped off her burning clothes.

More than 40 years later she can hide the scars beneath long sleeves, but a single tear down her otherwise radiant face betrays the pain she has endured since that errant napalm strike in 1972.

Now she has a new chance to heal — a prospect she once thought possible only in a life after death.

“So many years I thought that I have no more scars, no more pain when I’m in heaven. But now — heaven on earth for me!” Phuc says upon her arrival in Miami to see a dermatologist who specialises in laser treatments for burn patients.

Late last month, Phuc, 52, began a series of laser treatments that her doctor, Jill Waibel of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, says will smooth and soften the pale, thick scar tissue that ripples from her left hand up her arm, up her neck to her hairline and down almost all of her back.

Even more important to Phuc, Waibel says the treatments also will relieve the deep aches and pains that plague her to this day.

With Phuc are her husband, Bui Huy Toan, and another man who has been part of her life since she was 9 years old: Los Angeles-based Associated Press photojournalist Nick Ut.

“He’s the beginning and the end,” Phuc says of the man she calls “Uncle Ut.” ‘‘He took my picture and now he’ll be here with me with this new journey, new chapter.”

A 9-year-old Kim Phuc, centre, runs with her brothers and cousins after a South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on its own troops and civilians. Picture: AP Photo/Nick UtSource:AP

It was Ut, now 65, who captured Phuc’s agony on June 8, 1972, after the South Vietnamese military accidentally dropped napalm on civilians in Phuc’s village, Trang Bang, outside Saigon.

Ut remembers the girl screaming in Vietnamese, “Too hot! Too hot!” He put her in the AP van where she crouched on the floor, her burnt skin raw and peeling off her body as she sobbed, “I think I’m dying, too hot, too hot, I’m dying.”

He took her to a hospital. Only then did he return to the Saigon bureau to file his photographs, including the one of Phuc on fire that would win the Pulitzer Prize.

Phuc suffered serious burns over a third of her body; at that time, most people who sustained such injuries over 10 per cent of their bodies died, Waibel says.

Napalm sticks like a jelly, so there was no way for victims like Phuc to outrun the heat, as they could in a regular fire. “The fire was stuck on her for a very long time,” Waibel says, and destroyed her skin down through the layer of collagen, leaving her with scars almost four times as thick as normal skin.

While she spent years doing painful exercises to preserve her range of motion, her left arm still doesn’t extend as far as her right arm, and her desire to learn how to play the piano has been thwarted by stiffness in her left hand. Tasks as simple as carrying her purse on her left side are too difficult.

“As a child, I loved to climb on the tree, like a monkey,” picking the best guavas, tossing them down to her friends, Phuc says. “After I got burned, I never climbed on the tree anymore and I never played the game like before with my friends. It’s really difficult. I was really, really disabled.”

Kim Phuc now lives in Canada. Picture: Nick UtSource:AP

Triggered by scarred nerve endings that misfire at random, her pain is especially acute when the seasons change in Canada, where Phuc defected with her husband in the early 1990s. The couple live outside Toronto, and they have two sons, ages 21 and 18.

Phuc says her Christian faith brought her physical and emotional peace “in the midst of hatred, bitterness, pain, loss, hopelessness,” when the pain seemed insurmountable.

“No operation, no medication, no doctor can help to heal my heart. The only one is a miracle, (that) God love me,” she says. “I just wish one day I am free from pain.”

Ut thinks of Phuc as a daughter, and he worried when, during their regular phone calls, she described her pain. When he travels now in Vietnam, he sees how the war lingers in hospitals there, in children born with defects attributed to Agent Orange and in others like Phuc, who were caught in napalm strikes. If their pain continues, he wonders, how much hope is there for Phuc?

Ut says he’s worried about the treatments. “Forty-three years later, how is laser doing this? I hope the doctor can help her. … When she was 18 or 20, but now she’s over 50! That’s a long time.”

Waibel has been using lasers to treat burn scars, including napalm scars, for about a decade. Each treatment typically costs $2000 to $2700, but Waibel offered to donate her services when Phuc contacted her for a consultation. Waibel’s father-in-law had heard Phuc speak at a church several years ago, and he approached her after hearing her describe her pain.

At the first treatment in Waibel’s office, a scented candle lends a comforting air to the procedure room, and Phuc’s husband holds her hand in prayer.

Phuc tells Waibel her pain is “10 out of 10” — the worst of the worst.

The type of lasers being used on Phuc’s scars originally were developed to smooth out wrinkles around the eyes, Waibel says. The lasers heat skin to the boiling point to vaporise scar tissue. Once sedatives have been administered and numbing cream spread thickly over Phuc’s skin, Waibel dons safety glasses and aims the laser. Again and again, a red square appears on Phuc’s skin, the laser fires with a beep and a nurse aims a vacuum-like hose at the area to catch the vapour.

The procedure creates microscopic holes in the skin, which allows topical, collagen-building medicines to be absorbed deep through the layers of tissue.

Waibel expects Phuc to need up to seven treatments over the next eight or nine months.

Wrapped in blankets, drowsy from painkillers, her scarred skin a little red from the procedure, Phuc made a little fist pump. Compared to the other surgeries and skin grafts when she was younger, the lasers were easier to take.

“This was so light, just so easy,” she says.

A couple weeks later, home in Canada, Phuc says her scars have reddened and feel tight and itchy as they heal — but she’s eager to continue the treatments.

“Maybe it takes a year,” she says. “But I am really excited — and thankful.”

Source…..www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Joke of the Day….” Who Washes his Face …” ?

October 25, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Bill, a fresh computer graduate from a world-class University, goes for an interview in a software company.

The interviewer is Steve, a grubby old man. And the first question he asks Bill is, `Are you good at logic?’

`Of course,’ replies Bill.

`Let me test you,’ replies Steve. `Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one would wash his face?’

Bill stares at Steve. `Is that a test in Logic?’ Steve nods.

`The one with the dirty face washes his face’, Bill answers wearily.

`Wrong. The one with the clean face washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face.’

`Hmm. I never thought of that,” says Bill. `Give me another test.’

Steve holds up two fingers, `Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?’

`We have already established that. The one with the clean face washes his face.’

`Wrong. Each one washes one’s face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face. When the one with the dirty face sees the one with the clean face washing his face, he also washes his face. So each one washes one’s face.’

`I didn’t think of that!’ says Bill. `It’s shocking to me that I could make an error in logic. Test me again!’

Steve holds up two fingers, `Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?’

`Each one washes his face.’

`Wrong. Neither one washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean too. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty too. But when the one with clean face sees that the one with the dirty face doesn’t wash his face, he assumes it is because the dirty face guy is seeing his clean face so he doesn’t wash his face either. So neither one washes his face.’

Bill is desperate. `I am qualified for this job. Please give me one more test!’

He groans when Steve lifts his two fingers, `Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?’

`Neither one washes his face’, Bill replies, `I have learnt this logic.’

`Wrong, again. Do you now see, Bill, why programming knowledge is insufficient for this job? Tell me, how is it possible for two men to come down the same chimney at the same time, and for one to come out with a clean face and the other with a dirty face? Don’t you see the flaw in the premise?'”

Source…unknown….input from a friend of mine

Natarajan

Why Are Little Kids in Japan So Independent….?

October 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

In Japan, small children take the subway and run errands alone, no parent in sight. The reason why has more to do with social trust than self-reliance.

A schoolgirl walks through a Tokyo subway station. (Toru Hanai / Reuters)

It’s a common sight on Japanese mass transit: children troop through train cars, singly or in small groups, looking for seats.

They wear knee socks, polished patent leather shoes, and plaid jumpers, with wide-brimmed hats fastened under the chin and train passes pinned to their backpacks. The kids are as young as six or seven, on their way to and from school, and there is nary a guardian in sight.

Parents in Japan regularly send their kids out into the world at a very young age. A popular television show called Hajimete no Otsukai, or My First Errand, features children as young as two or three being sent out to do a task for their family. As they tentatively make their way to the greengrocer or bakery, their progress is secretly filmed by a camera crew. The show has been running for more than 25 years.

In this English-subtitled segment from My First Errand, a brother and sister head out to buy groceries for the first time, not without a few tears.

Kaito, a 12-year-old in Tokyo, has been riding the train by himself between the homes of his parents, who share his custody, since he was nine. “At first I was a little worried,” he admits, “whether I could ride the train alone. But only a little worried.”

Now, he says, it’s easy. His parents were apprehensive at first, too, but they went ahead because they felt he was old enough, and lots of other kids were doing it safely.

“Honestly, what I remember thinking at the time is, the trains are safe and on time and easy to navigate, and he’s a smart kid,” Kaito’s stepmother says. (His parents asked not to publish his last name and their names for the sake of privacy.)

“I took the trains on my own when I was younger than him in Tokyo,” his stepmother recalls. “We didn’t have cell phones back in my day, but I still managed to go from point A to point B on the train. If he gets lost, he can call us.”

What accounts for this unusual degree of independence? Not self-sufficiency, in fact, but “group reliance,” according to Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth. “[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others,” he says.

This assumption is reinforced at school, where children take turns cleaning and serving lunch instead of relying on staff to perform such duties. This “distributes labor across various shoulders and rotates expectations, while also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a toilet, for instance,” Dixon says.

Taking responsibility for shared spaces means that children have pride of ownership and understand in a concrete way the consequences of making a mess, since they’ll have to clean it up themselves. This ethic extends to public space more broadly (one reason Japanese streets are generally so clean). A child out in public knows he can rely on the group to help in an emergency.

A young girl riding the Tokyo subway alone (tokyoform / Flickr)

Japan has a very low crime rate, which is surely a key reason parents feel confident about sending their kids out alone. But small-scaled urban spaces and a culture of walking and transit use also foster safety and, perhaps just as important, the perception of safety.

“Public space is scaled so much better—old, human-sized spaces that also control flow and speed,” Dixon notes. In Japanese cities, people are accustomed to walking everywhere, and public transportation trumps car culture; in Tokyo, half of all trips are made on rail or bus, and a quarter on foot. Drivers are used to sharing the road and yielding to pedestrians and cyclists.

Kaito’s stepmother says she wouldn’t let a 9-year-old ride the subway alone in London or New York—just in Tokyo. That’s not to say the Tokyo subway is risk-free. The persistent problem of women and girls being groped, for example, led to the introduction of women-only cars on select lines starting in 2000. Still, many city children continue to take the train to school and run errands in their neighborhood without close supervision.

By giving them this freedom, parents are placing significant trust not only in their kids, but in the whole community. “Plenty of kids across the world are self-sufficient,” Dixon observes. “But the thing that I suspect Westerners are intrigued by [in Japan] is the sense of trust and cooperation that occurs, often unspoken or unsolicited.”

Source….

SELENA HOY….www.citylab.com
Natarajan

Most Important Airplanes of All Time….

October 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Ever since the Wright Brothers managed to get their Wright flyer airborne in 1903, the history of aviation has been dotted with a number of fascinating, landmark moments. This list will run through 14 of the most innovative, important and incredible airplanes ever to grace the skies, and tell the remarkable stories that made them such trailblazing groundbreakers.

1. Wright Flyer

The first plane to successfully take flight

Important Airplanes

Image: US Library Congress via wikicommons

The Wright Flyer is famous for being the first airplane to successfully take flight. Designed and built by pioneering inventors and entrepreneurs Orville and Wilbur Wright, it achieved its feat on the beaches of Kitty Hawk, when Orville Wright piloted the airborne plane for 12 short seconds, covering 120 feet. The flight may have been short, but it was to prove one of the moments of the century, and the brothers toured with their plane to show off their achievements to skeptical audiences throughout the world. It was during this tour that they flew about Le Mans in France and kick-started an aviation revolution across Europe that was to change the world.

2. Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

The fastest airplane ever built

Important Airplanes

Image: Amstrong Photo Gallery via Wikicommons

The Lockheed SR71 Blackbird was a long range, strategic reconnaissance aircraft operated by the US Air Force. Despite the fact that the Blackbird last flew in 1999, it still holds the record for the fastest flight speed ever recorded by an air-breathing manned aircraft at 2,193.2mph (3,529kph), a record that it has held – remarkably – since 1976. It once flew from London to New York (a distance of 3461.53 miles or 5,570.79km) in a ridiculously fast 1 hour 54 minutes in 1972, but Incredible speed was not the Blackbird’s only selling point. Throughout its commission it was also the highest flying plane in the world, capable of flying at an altitude of 85,069 feet or 25,929m. Of course, these attributes were not just for show, they helped the plane carry out crucial reconnaissance missions without detection, and evade missile fire when under attack.

3. Spitfire

The only plane to be manufactured throughout World War II

Important Airplanes

Image: Flickr Airwolfhound

The Supermarine Spitfire was used extensively by the British Royal Air Force and other Allied countries during and beyond World War II. It has achieved iconic status for its role during the Battle of Britain when used by heavily outnumbered allied pilots to repel invaders from the German Luftwaffe. It was also produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft, and was the only plane to be continuously manufactured throughout the war. It remained in production until 1954.

4. Benoist XIV

The first plane to fly a paying passenger

Important Airplanes

Image: Florida Photographic Collection via Wikicommons

The Wright Brothers had proved that man’s dream of flying could become reality, but it was left to a tiny plane called the Benoist XIV to bring that dream to the paying market. The small plane was specifically designed in the hope of carrying passengers, but suffered problems in its early days. The summer of 1913 saw its first attempts to establish itself as a passenger plane, but the plan failed and the aircraft was a wrecked. It wasn’t until the winter of 1914 that the designer Thomas Benoist partnered with businessman Percival Fansler to offer commercial flights between the Florida cities of St Petersburg and Tampa. Finally, on January 10th 1914 pilot Tony Jannus flew former St Petersburg mayor Abram C. Pheil across the route for the princely sum of $400.00. Although regular flights were priced at $5.00, Pheil had paid more at auction for the honor of being the very first passenger.

5. de Havilland Comet

The first commercial jetliner

Important Airplanes

Image: wikicommons

The de Havilland Comet is regarded as both a trailblazer and a tragedy by aviation historians. It was the first jet-powered passenger plane, capable of cruising at high altitudes – and brought with it new levels of comfort and fresh possibilities for passenger flights. However, the Comet was beset by design faults leading to a number of awful accidents including three incidents in 1954 where planes broke up in mid-air. The tragedies ushered in a new era of extensive accident investigation and informed future aircraft design testing as engineers learned from the mistakes made by the Comet’s designers, including the use of catastrophically inadequate airframes.

6. Messerschmitt Me 262

The first jet-powered military plane

Important Airplanes

Image: Flickr user Peter Gronemann

The German built Messerschmitt Me 262 become the first jet-powered fighter aircraft when it was first commissioned in 1942, bolstering the Luftwaffe fleet in the middle of World War II. Allied attacks on fuel supplies and problems with the reliability of the engines meant that its impact on the direction of the War was not as great as the German military hoped, and it was not in production for very long. However, its jet engines offered a degree of maneuverability and speed that was not replicated elsewhere at the time, and its design would inspire future military aircraft into the jet-powered age.

7. Gossamer Albatross

The first human powered aircraft to cross the English Channel

Important Airplanes

Image: NASA via wikicommons

At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Gossamer Albatross was the product of aviation experimentation in the early 20th century. However, it was actually designed and built in the late 1970s. Paul B. McGready was the man behind the concept, and the Albatross was intended as a man-powered craft capable of long distance travel. On June 12th 1979, it achieved its ultimate goal when amateur cyclist and keen pilot Bryan Allen successfully flew it from England to France in 2 hours 49 minutes, reaching a top speed of 18mph. The super-lightweight composition of the Albatross has gone on to inspire the design of solar powered electric aircraft seen today.

8. Cirrus SR22

The first plane to have a life-saving ‘whole-airplane parachute’

Important Airplanes

Image: planesmart.com

The Cirrus SR22 has been the best selling single-engine, four-seater aircraft since it was introduced in 2001 – and for good reason. It features a composite construction fitted with a parachute that works on the entire plane. The parachute system has saved well over 100 lives over the course of the Cirrus’s production run, and has given confidence to budding pilots who can take the controls without the same levels of danger associated with other light aircraft. 19 year old Ryan Campbell flew in a Cirrus when he became the youngest pilot to fly around the world in 2014.

9. Concorde

Brought supersonic flights to the masses

Concorde

Image: Flickr user Dean Morley

Concorde is one of only two supersonic jets to ever carry commercial passengers and became synonymous with luxury travel and wealth. It first flew in 1969, but was not actually the first of its type – the Soviet built Tupolev Tu-144 beat it into flight by two months and the two types of plane were to be pitted in a commercial battle for years to follow. However, it was Concorde’s distinctive design that became best known throughout most of the world, and it remains an iconic symbol of aviation history today, even though it took its last flight (in a blaze of publicity) in 2003.

10. General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

The first military ‘drone’

Important Airplanes

Image: U.S Air Force via wikicommons

The MQ-1 Predator was the first ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’ (more commonly known as ‘drone’) to be used in conflict. It is capable of being piloted remotely for up to 14 hours, monitoring its target and completing missions before returning to base. The plane has been used on reconnaissance missions primarily but is also capable of firing missiles, making it a trailblazer for a new era of drone warfare that is changing the face of military conflict.

11. Blériot XI

The first plane to cross the English Channel

Important Airplanes

Image: Bain News Service via Wikicommons

The Blériot XI was designed and piloted by Frenchman Louis Blériot, becoming the first aircraft to successfully fly the 22 miles of the English channel on July 25th 1909. The accomplishment was one of the foremost achievements of the ‘pioneer era’ of aviation in the early 20th century, and sees Blériot take his place alongside the likes of the Wright Brothers as one of the most influential innovators of early aircraft design. His achievements changed the way aviation was viewed and inspired the famous ‘Britain is no longer an island’ headline from British newspaper the Daily Express once news of the successful Channel crossing broke.

12. Boeing 747

The original high passenger capacity ‘Jumbo Jet’

Important Airplanes

Image: Flickr user Kevin White

The Boeing 747 was the original ‘jumbo jet’ built to transport more passengers than ever to faraway vacations. Much of the increase was provided by the ‘upper deck’, typically reserved for first class passengers. For 37 years it held the record for passenger capacity, after being originally introduced in 1970, and its design was even more impressive considering engineers had to hand-draw 75,000 technical sketches in the days before computers could do the job for them. The design was so good, in fact, that further advancements stalled and commercial passenger aviation remained unchanged for a number of years.

13. Bell X-1

The first aircraft to break the speed of sound

Important Airplanes

Image: U.S Airforce via Wikicommons

The Bell X-1 was the product of a research experiment by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the US Air Force, designed in 1944 and built in 1945. It was intended to break the sound barrier, and it did, achieving the first Mach 1 flight ever on October 14th 1947, in a plane pilot Chuck Yeager named Glamorous Glennis after his wife. The legacy of the Bell X-1 was vast as the research techniques informed future designs of supersonic aircraft and the flight data was crucial to American military design in the latter half of the 20th century.

14. Solar Impulse

The airplane powered by the sun

Solar Impulse

Image: Flickr user Reflexite

Solar Impulse represents the fruits of a Swiss led project to build a solar powered aircraft capable of flying long distances. The project has been in development since 2003 and has achieved a number of successes, included manned test flights, a continental flight across the USA and a re-design that saw the development of Solar Impulse 2, a second model that is currently on a round-the-world trip conducted in 13 stages over two years. As of the 23rd of October 2015, Solar Impulse 2 has completed 8 of those stages and sits in Hawaii ready to complete the final 5 stages of its journey back to Abu Dhabi, from where its journey began in March 2015.

H/T popularmechanics

Source…..www.ba-bamail.com

natarajan

” No One in My Family Knows what IIT is …”….Says Basant From Bihar…

October 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Their families are poor and do not know what IIT is, but these children dream of IIT and working for ISRO and NASA one day. One man and his family have helped 333 such children turn their dreams to reality.

As Bihar goes to the polls, Archana Masih/Rediff.com salutes its greatest success story.

IMAGE: Basant is the son of a village farmer whose family doesn’t know of IIT. He says he didn’t even dream of making it to Super 30. Photographs: Archana Masih/Rediff.com

In a narrow, ordinary lane, running by the side of a railway track in Patna, lives an extraordinary man.

The neighbourhood has several slender gullies and his house stands at the end of one. It is called Shanti Kutir, named after his dadi, where he stands on the verandah in a t-shirt, shorts and chappals.

“Namaste, swagat hai aapka (Namaste, welcome),” says Anand Kumar, undoubtedly one of India’s greatest teachers, who tutors underprivileged children free of cost for the IIT entrance examination with tremendous success.

Anand Kumar’s Super 30 has attained legendary status. In the 12 years since it began, 333 poor students have passed the IIT entrance exam. When he began in 2003, 18 students had been successful; since then, most among the entire batch of 30 students have made it to the IITs year on year.

IMAGE: Anand Kumar is a mathematician who has been tutoring underprivileged kids to clear the IIT-JEE.

It is a hot Saturday morning and the students have been given a week’s holiday for Durga Puja. This group of 30 only has boys. There have been 15 to 17 girls in past years that have been successful in passing the IIT-JEE.

The last batch had one girl, Nidhi Jha, who stayed with Anand Kumar’s family while the boys reside in a rented hostel nearby. She was the daughter of an autorickshaw driver and featured in a French documentary for her wonderful achievement. Nidhi is now studying at the Indian School of Mines.

Another girl, Pragya Verma, went to IIT-Bombay and is now at the University of Minnesota.

Abhishek Raj — whose mother laboured to supplement the household income to pay for the notebooks, pencils of her children at the government school — went to IIT-Kharagpur, then to the US and is now in England.

Shashi Narayan, the son of a hospital worker in a government hospital, who won the Erasmus Mundus scholarship for research in France, has recently taken up a teaching position in England.

Their tutor sits opposite me and speaks about his graduates with pride. “I had got admission in Cambridge, but could not go because we did not have the money,” he says, “Par mere students mere sapney mein rang bhar de rahe hai (My students are fulfilling my unrealised dreams).”

IMAGE: Boys in the current Super 30 batch. Thirty children are selected after an entrance exam. 333 have cracked the IIT-JEE so far.

While I have talk to Mr Kumar, he briefly leaves the room and returns with a cup of tea that he has made himself. I tell him he shouldn’t have taken the trouble and he says it was no problem at all — he didn’t want to trouble the ladies of his home who are busy with something else.

His wife Ritu is an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee and helps the students with their notes and scholarship applications. They have a little boy who recites a poem about how voters should not vote under duress or bribe but with their own clear conscience.

Some students from his current batch sit in the next room. They have trains or buses to catch in a few hours that will take them to their homes for the short holiday. They are shy, simple, boys who sit on a bed in a room full of framed citations for Super 30 and Anand Kumar.

This is where they come for their classes every morning from their hostel which is a short walk away. The classes are conducted by Mr Kumar and two other tutors, while the administration is looked after by his younger brother Pranav. The meals are cooked in Mr Kumar’s home by the ladies of the family and sent to the hostel.

Till they found a rented space a few years back, the students lived in the same house, while Mr Kumar’s mother cooked for them all.

IMAGE: Anand Kumar with his mother, who along with other ladies of the family, cooks for the 30 boys.

“Getting into Super 30 is very difficult. It is like breaking a matka with a kankar (grain of sand),” says Rohit Kumar, a graduate who has come to visit.

Rohit bears the confidence that a college campus in a city instills in students. The four village boys who sit with him and are in the current batch have a raw innocence about them. Two of them say their parents don’t know what IIT is.

One of them is also called Anand Kumar. The other is Basant Kumar. They are both 17.

“No one in my family knows about IIT. I want to do computer science and then do something for the country,” says Anand, the son of a farmer from Gorakhpur.

Sitting cross-legged in a pink checked shirt opposite him is Basant, the son of a farmer from Maniyar Bigha village near Gaya.

“No one knows what IIT is in my home either. I had read about Super 30 in a newspaper, filled the form and sat for the entrance test in Patna,” says the lad who wants to first get a good rank and hopes to join ISRO or NASA.

All the four boys sitting with me are from government schools. I ask them how good was the teaching and they say there were one or two teachers who taught well, while most of the studies, they had done on their own.

They had no tuition, no extra classes. Getting a seat in Super 30 was unbelievable and introduced them to a whole new world of study. “I have never studied math like what Anand Sir teaches us,” says Manjit Kumar from Gurmia village.

IMAGE: Manjit and Anand stand in front of their pasted study notes in the hostel.

Basant, who is getting late for his bus, excuses himself politely, but before rushing out, says, “If I had a dream within a dream, I could never have dreamed that I would be in Super 30. I can’t even say this is a dream come true because I never had such a big dream.”

The boys are sitting with their bags, some have bottles of water. Anand and Manjit haven’t decided whether they should go home. Their studies will get hampered at home, they say, and they cannot afford it.

I ask them to take me to their hostel and on the way Manjit tells me that he has decided not to go home. His books are kept in a bamboo rack left behind by a student from the last batch. Physics equations written by hand are pasted on sheets of paper on the wall. The boys’ stay, meals and coaching is free, but they pay for personal expenses like phone bill, books etc.

They tell me they need around Rs 400 per month from their parents for their expenses. Not more, that is enough, says Anand.

Mr Anand Kumar sustains his band of 30 from the money earned by providing coaching in the evening to those students who can afford it. He also plans to launch an online tutorial for a fee. Super 30 does not accept any donations.

IMAGE: The boys each have a bed, study tables and keep their books around them.

The boys take me around their modest rooms just as lunch time approaches. I ask Anand what he thinks is needed most in our country today.

“”Good teachers,” he says with the sincerity of a student who has experienced the shortcomings of our education system.

One of the last things Mr Anand Kumar says before I left is this: “A good teacher is the harbinger of the biggest change. Noneta can do what a teacher can.”

As the boys leave for the day, one by one they touch his feet.

“People ask me to stand for election, but I feel the respect I get from my students I will never get as a neta.”

He takes me inside to introduce me to his mother whose hand-made papads he would sell house to house to buttress the family income in those early days.

When he had started Super 30 a decade ago, this house where he conducts the classes and lives, was small. It is still not very large, but has a heart big enough to accommodate 30 bright minds each year — and within its walls are some of our country’s greatest success stories.

Archana Masih / Rediff.com

Source….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Message for the day… ” What is the Minimum Qualification for Seeking the Grace of God…” ?

October 23, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Sathya Sai Baba

Just as you prescribe minimum qualifications for every profession, the minimum qualification for grace is surrender of egoism, control over senses and regulated food and recreation (ahara and vihara). A person is made or marred by the company kept. A bad person who falls into good company is able to shed their evil quickly and shine forth in virtue. A good person falling into evil company is overcome by the subtle influence and slides down into evil. The lesser is overpowered by the greater. A drop of sour curd transforms milk, curdling it, separating the butter and turning it into whey. Sacred books are also equally valuable for this transmuting process, but they have to be read and pondered upon, and their lessons have to be put into daily practice. The Gayatri Mantra is a Vedic prayer to the Supreme Intelligence that is immanent in the Universe to kindle the intelligence of the supplicant.

The Beautiful Scenery of the Atacama Desert….The Driest Place in the World …!!!

October 23, 2015October 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is famous for being the driest place in the world. It is a virtually rainless plateau that sits across a location nearly 600 miles wide and is 50 times drier than the Death Valley in the United States, with an average rainfall of just 1 millimeter per year across the region, while some weather stations have never reported any precipitation since they started keeping records.

Atacama’s landscape has been carved by volcanic activity in the area and looks like no other. When you see the beautiful colors of the lagoons, volcanic peaks and vast salt basins that cover the desert, you will see why it is one of the most up-and-coming travel destinations in the world.

Lake view near Piedras Rojas (Red Stones) at over 4000m altitude

Source: Flickr User Haz14 A view over part of Salar de Talar with beautiful red rock volcanoes in the background.

Source: Flickr User Jim Trodel

Laguna Miñiques, a high altitude lake sitting in a volcanic crater.

Source: Flickr User pirindao

Given that the Atacama Desert is famous for being the driest place on Earth, it may come as a surprise to many to see a series of high altitude lagoons dotting across the area and providing a beautiful color contrast against the red volcanic landscapes. However, many hundreds of years ago, small periods of heavy rainfall caused water to accumulate in basins and create small lakes. Other lagoons formed from melting glaciers during the last ice age and have remained until this day. The lakes are generally extremely salty and given that more water evaporates in the area than falls, the lakes are technically drying up – although they will still be around for a while.

View over Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley) near the town of San Pedro.

Source: Flickr User Otavio Piske

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) is so named because the landscape is often compared to our moon.

Source: Flickr user Alexander Schimmeck

Walking around the desert gives visitors a sense of being on ‘another planet’.

Source: Flickr User Pablo Flores

Many visitors flock to the area to experience its famous ‘otherworldly’ landscape. The comparisons with faraway lands are not just aesthetic either – they are grounded in science. Samples of soil taken in the desert have been found to have a similar composition to samples taken from Mars. NASA even uses the area to test roving vehicles and other instruments before they depart on missions for the red planet.

Flamingos at Laguna Chaxa.

Source: Flickr user Ana Elisa Ribeiro

Vicunas are closely related to llamas and live in large herds close to water sources.

Source: Flickr user Haz14

Viscachas are inquisitive residents of the desert and recognizable for their big ears and curly tails. They are closely related to chinchillas.

Source: Flickr user Haz14

Despite the harsh conditions, nature (as it so often does) has found a way to thrive. Many varieties of weird and wonderful plant life add some color to the landscape, and a number of animal species have made the desert their home. Llama-like vicunas, small and furry viscachas and the elusive South American Grey Fox are among the mammals of the region, while a variety of birds can also be spotted including three different types of flamingos.

A bright summer’s day at Laguna Chaxa.

Source: Flickr user Mariano Mantel

Clouds and red rock volcanoes reflecting in the altiplanic lagoons of the plateau.

Source: Flickr user Mike Green

Snowcapped, perfectly conical volcanoes are everywhere.

Source: Flickr user Mariano Mantel

The desert was at the center of a huge land dispute between Chile and Bolivia in the 1800s. Because the area is home to the largest supply of sodium nitrate, it is a lucrative source of economic possibilities. The mining industry remains a big business today, and there are many abandoned towns that provide a reminder of the mining practices of yesteryear. Chile won the land dispute, which is still the cause for some resentment across the border today.

The conical peak of the Lincancabur Volcano.

Source: Flickr user Marcio Cabral de Moura

Volcanic activity is extremely noticeable at the Geysers del Tatio.

Source: Flickr user Mariano Mantel

Two types of white: the salt of Salar de Tara in front of snowy peaks.

Source: Flickr User Mike Green

The desert is largely isolated with a just a few small towns dotting the landscape. Visitors can arrive by air or overland into the largest town in the region – Calama – and most head for San Pedro de Atacama, from which many tours of the region can be arranged. The remoteness of the desert and lack of ambient light ensure it is a special place to be after night falls, offering not only spectacular sunsets above ethereal scenery, but also incredible views of the stars after nightfall. It is a one of the best places in the world to gaze into the milky way and it’s easy to arrange stargazing trips to please any budding astronomer.

Sunset over the salt flats.

Source: Flickr user richd777

Source: Flickr user Alessandro Caproni

Info source: traveladvisortips.com

Source…..www.ba-bamail.com

Natarajan

This Made-In-India Chip Can Use TV Spectrum to Take the Internet to Rural India….

October 23, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

An Indian organization has come up with a technology that can help increase internet connectivity and take it to the rural parts of the nation as well.

A postal stamp-sized chip, called Pruthvi might have the potential to connect India’s rural population to the internet.

Developed by the Bangalore-based semiconductor firm, Saankhya Labs, the chip powers a system called Meghdoot that can use television White Space to transmit internet to many households.

chip

Picture for representation only. Photo Credit: Matt Laskowski/Flickr

White Space refers to the underutilised portion of the radio frequency spectrum. According a report in CNET, networks often leave a buffer between channels for safety purposes. Thus, large portions of the spectrum, usually in the 470 MHz to 790 MHz band, allocated for television broadcasting are unused or wasted, like the spectrum traditionally used for over-the-air transmission using TV towers and rooftop antennas. These spaces are at a lower frequency, and therefore a longer wavelength. This gives the signal a longer range, which can be used to deliver fairly low-speed Internet access over a wide area.

Saankhya Labs was founded in 2007 by Parag Naik, Hemant Mallapur and Vishwakumara Kayargadde. Pruthvi’s use is to allow Meghdoot to connect to a user-side modem to translate the white space signals to the more common internet bands that smartphones, tablets and computers use.

This technology can provide internet for up to a radius of 10-15 km depending on the height of the antenna tower and transmission power. The range can also be increased.

Saankhya labs is set to carry out field trials across the country in collaboration with IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Hyderabad. Discussions with Microsoft are also going on with the view of conducting trials in at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh.

“World over regulatory authorities are using or planning to use this spectrum for their respective connectivity programmes. India can take the lead in both technology and the markets for TV White Space-based broadband delivery,” Parag Naik, CEO and co-founder of Saankhya Labs, told The Economic Times.

The chip is crucial in today’s times when the country is taking various measures to increase the impact of digital India, and also when various technology companies are working on similar goals. Saankhya Labs has now joined the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

The Meghdoot product line is also compliant to the Wi-FAR standard. This makes it suitable for use in other countries as well. The organization is also engaged with partners in the Philippines, the US and Singapore for trials.

Source….Tanaya Singh …www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

These 2 Indians Scaled an Unexplored Mountain Peak. And Named It Mt. Kalam …

October 23, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

They wanted to inspire young people of India to take up mountaineering. So Arjun Vajpai and Bhupesh Kumar scaled a 6,180 metres high unexplored peak, becoming the first people to do so.

Two mountaineers, Arjun Vajpai and Bhupesh Kumar, have become the first people to scale a ‘six-thousander’ peak located near the Bara Shigri glacier.

The term ‘six-thousander’ refers to a peak that is 6,000 metres high, or taller. This particular peak is 6,180 metres tall. It overlooks the Spiti Valley, and gives a view of the Himalayan landscape from an altitude of over 19,000 feet. Bara Shigri glacier is the largest glacier in Himachal Pradesh.

The duo wanted to go for an unexplored peak to inspire young people to take up mountaineering, and they completed the mission on Oct. 14, returning on Oct. 20.

They also named the peak Mount Kalam in the memory of the former Indian President. –

Arjun, who had climbed Mount Everest in May 2010, comes from Noida. He had also tried to scale Mount Makalu in Nepal this year, but was stopped because of the earthquake. Bhupesh hails from Bulandshahr and he has scaled 17 Indian peaks till now. –

Bhupesh Kumar

It is a technically challenging mountain with lots of deep snow, hidden crevasses and abundant rock. Climbing the mountain in an extremely cold environment was difficult. But we scaled it successfully,” Arjun told The Times of India. According to him, around 300 peaks in India are ‘six-thousanders’

They had left Noida on Oct. 8, reaching Batal camp in Himachal Pradesh on Oct. 9. From there, they climbed to Scout Camp (4,100 metres), Intermediate Camp (4,400 metres), Base Camp (4,750 m) and Summit Camp (5,500 metres). On Oct. 14, they scaled the peak and hoisted the Indian flag there.

All pictures: Arjun Vajpai/Facebook

Source…..Tanaya Singh …..www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

5 Interesting Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The New State Capital of Andhra Pradesh…. Amaravati …

October 23, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The foundation stone for building of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital city, Amaravati, was recently laid. Did you know that the small city is very rich in terms of its heritage? Here are five interesting facts you should know about the country’s newest state capital.

After a long wait, Andhra Pradesh is finally ready to welcome its new capital city, Amaravati. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the state’s new capital on Thursday. Here are five interesting facts about the city:

1. Amaravati has about 2,000 year old heritage

amra

Photo: www.trollntroll.com

It is one of the oldest cities in Indian history. A small town in Guntur district, Amaravati has about 2,000 year old heritage. It was the capital of Satavahanas during 2nd and 3rd century BCE. After the fall of kingdoms like Pallavas, it was later captured by Britishers during the colonial period. Its rich heritage includes Amareswara temple, Mahachaitya (the great stupa), Buddhist sculptures and slabs with Buddhist inscriptions.

2. Asia’s largest chilli market is located near Amaravati in Guntur.

amra2

Photo: Alexsoddy.Wikipedia

3. Gautam Buddha, taught the holy ritual of “Kalachakra” in the town of Amaravati, which is home to many ancient Buddhist monks.

budhha1

Photo: JM Garg/Wikimedia Commons

A huge Buddhist stupa was built during Ashoka’s time. The stupa was also carved with panels that depict Buddha’s history.

4. It has India’s biggest railway station, which is the second largest in Asia.

Vijayawada_station

Photo: Abhijitsathe/ Wikipedia

Vijayawada railway station which was constructed in 1888 is one of the busiest railway stations of India. It has more than 250 express and 150 freight trains passing through it, serving 50 million passengers every year. The railway station has ten platforms and is the only station in India to have five entrance gates with booking counters.

5. The world famous Kohinoor diamond came from “Kollur mines” in Kollur Village, which is now part of the Amaravati.

kohinoor_diamond1

Photo: themystery2012.blogspot.in

Source….Shreya Pareek in http://www.thebetterindia.com

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