human

Message for the Day…..” Never forget that Nothing is as Powerful as God’s name to Protect us “

NatarajanLeave a comment

Arms and bombs cannot save the world. God’s Grace alone can save the world. Hence your foremost duty is to pray for His grace. Prayer is supremely important and this awareness is needed in your daily living, at every step. Never forget that nothing is as powerful as the Lord’s Name to protect you. When you sing alone, your heart is merged in the song. When many sing together, the prayer acquires a divine power. Hence Guru Nanak commended community singing. With melody and rhythm, you must impart feeling to your song to make the bhajan a sacred offering. A tune (raga) without feeling (bhava) is a disease (roga). Giving up conceit and exhibitionism, sing bhajans in a spirit of humility and devotion, with the full awareness of the power of the Lord’s Name. This is the right way to dobhajans. When all participants sing in unison, sacred vibrations are produced, and the divine energies released fill the whole universe.

Sathya Sai Baba

Breaking stereotypes: ‘We are stronger than we think’ !!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

We had asked you, dear readers, share your experience if you’re a woman who has broken stereotypes.

Here, Vandana Chaudhary shares her story.

Vandana Chaudhary

I am Vandana Chaudhary, 33 years, and presently live in Vizag.

I have always enjoyed sports like badminton and cricket.

I also run marathons occasionally. But cycling, and that too 80 kilometres, is something I never fathomed in the wildest of my dreams.

It all started in August 2013, when I first bought my Firefox (MTB) and enjoyed riding it casually on Dolphin hill (my residence).

In the first few months, I could barely do 4 to 5 km at a stretch, without running out of breath.

Gradually, I improved my timing and was able to do 12 km (with a steep elevation) within six months.

However, I never thought I was good enough to participate in a cycling tour, which had professional cyclists as participants.

In December 2014, the ‘Tour of Eastern Ghats (TEG)’ was organised.

It was time to send in our names and I was still in two minds if I would be able to ride half the distance, let alone complete it.

Nevertheless, with immense encouragement from my husband (Anand V), I decided to give it a shot, with my humble six geared cycle.

Vandana Chaudhary at the start line

On the D-day, while standing at the starting line, I felt terribly intimidated by shiny, sleek Cannondales, Treks and Meridas around.

My heart sunk further, when I saw all of them zooming past me on their 24-geared bikes.

With low spirits already, I decided to continue, slow and steady, with my hubby following me in our black Santro.

Every time I would slow down, he would shout out aloud a word of encouragement like , “C’mon Vandana, you can do it, you are almost there”.

When the group stopped for a quick lunch, I was the last one to reach.

Post lunch, many participants decided to drop out due to exhaustion. That’s when I decided, it is not important to win the race, but it’s important to complete it.

I started with rejuvenated vigour and cycled my way through the fields, mountains and lakes. All this while, Anand trailing me and cheering me.

At one point of time, the organisers asked me to stop and use the towing truck, like others had as it was getting too late.

Sensing my disappointment, Anand stepped up and said, “She will not give up even if it meant riding in pitch dark”.

In the end, I proudly wish to reveal that there were just three of us who completed the entire route, the other two being Naval officers.

That day, for the first time I realised, what a little bit of will power and self belief can achieve

I still feel a sense of pride when I think of how I decided not to give up despite the darkness, pain and exhaustion.

“We are stronger than we think” — I will never stop believing this!

Photographs: Kind courtesy Vandana Chaudhary

Source…….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

India’s Water Warrior Has a Solution for India’s Droughts. The Best Part – We Can Play a Role Too!

NatarajanLeave a comment

Ayyappa Masagi has successfully implemented water conservation projects across states, industries, farms, and homes.

For anyone who is worried about India’s water crisis, Ayyappa Masagi’s solution is simple – conserve. This man – popularly referred to as Water Magician, Water Gandhi, and Water Doctor – firmly believes that by the year 2020 India can manage its water resources well and be a water-efficient country. And if Ayyappa has his way, the country may just end up achieving this goal.

Ayyappa is famous for reversing the fortunes of thousands by getting them to practise rainwater harvesting and water conservation.

masagi1

He has also recharged more borewells and constructed more lakes than probably anyone else in the country.

But he hasn’t always been actively involved in conserving water. In fact, for many years, Ayyappa was an engineer for Larsen and Toubro (L&T), before he started working in this field. Ayyappa was born into a family of poor farmers in Gadag district in Karnataka. And it is his experiences with agriculture that made him study water in his later years.

“In my childhood we faced plenty of water problems. I used to wake up with my mother at 3 am to go and fetch water. This used to happen so often that I took an oath to try and conserve water every day. In fact, throughout my growing years, I thought of ways to conserve water,” he says.

Ayyappa went through many struggles before he could get an education and get employed. His mother sold her gold so he could complete his diploma in mechanical engineering. He worked at BEML, Bengaluru, before joining L&T, where he worked for 23 years.

During his years in L&T, Ayyappa found it hard to resist the call of the earth.

He gave in and purchased six acres of land in a village in Gadag.

masagi4

“In this dry region, I planted crops like rubber and coffee. I wanted to prove that one could grow these crops with whatever rain one gets. Though I was successful in the first two years my crops soon dried up due to a severe drought. The year after that, they were destroyed by floods. Though people mocked me at that point, I didn’t take it to heart. I was determined to find a solution,” he says.

This is how Ayyappa started researching how water, which is abundant at least once a year, can be conserved for the dry season. In his quest for answers, he met with experts like Anna Hazare and Rajendra Singh of Rajasthan.

After a long study, Ayyappa realised that recharging borewells and practising non-irrigational agriculture methods were the answers to the water problems farmers faced.

“I decided to use my farm as my own R&D lab. I implemented these techniques and reaped a good harvest in the two subsequent years, in the face of flood and famine. I was encouraged by the success and started spreading the message about borewell recharging and non-irrigational agricultural techniques. I tested these methods on the farms in my neighbourhood and found they worked there as well. This is what prompted me to reach out to more people,” he says.

Gradually, he quit his job at L&T and decided to work towards making India a water-efficient nation.

“We always blame nature. But that is unfair. It is we who have encouraged uncontrollable development and encroached upon land. Then how can we complain when a place like Chennai receives the rain meant for a year in three days?” asks Ayyappa.

In 2004, Ayyappa received the Ashoka Fellowship for his conservation efforts.

masagi3

A year later, he established the Water Literacy Foundation, in a bid to reach out to more people and spread the message of conservation.

In 2008, Ashoka approached Ayyappa to start a for-profit wing of the Water Literacy Foundation. This is how Rain Water Concepts was launched.

Today, he finds solutions to water problems based on the size of the farm, the availability of resources, and the person’s budget. Ayyappa has orchestrated thousands of conservation projects across 11 states. He has also created over 600 lakes in the country, for which he found mention in the Limca Book of Records.

Ayyappa’s ideas are simple. He considers the earth to be the biggest filter. He captures the water, filters it and then stores it underground. His pit-based rainwater harvesting system is a structure made of boulders, gravel, sand, and mud. When it rains, water trickles through the gravel and sand. It slowly charges the subsoil. This process continues and ensures the soil is always charged with water. This method also prevents water from evaporating.

He also specialises in watershed management, inter-basin water transfer, recycling of water, etc.

masagi2

“Do you know how much water every person wastes while having a bath? This water is not bad water. It can actually be reused,” he says.

Ayyappa not only provides services to individuals but to corporates and other educational institutions as well. He has also managed to create a community of ‘water warriors’ who practise his methods and educate others about them.

“Our country doesn’t need grand plans like river-linking to tackle the problem of water shortage. In fact, that project is an unnecessary expense for the government. If we need to save water, every farmer and ever organisation should plan ahead. And if they do, this country will soon become water-efficient,” he says.

Ayyappa Masagi can be contacted at waterliteracyfoundation@yahoo.com

Source…..Meryil Garcia in http://www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

Chennai floods have passed, but this city crew continues its clean up …

NatarajanLeave a comment

Image: Chennai Trekking Club volunteers

More than 30 young people were assembled on the banks of the Adyar River next to Surya Nagar in Kotturpuram early in the morning on March 2. Armed with orange gloves and white rags, they were on a cleaning mission as part of the Chennai Trekking Club’s efforts to clear the area of all non-biodegradable waste.

According to Peter Van Geit (44), the founder of the Chennai Trekking Club, “This is the 14th session of the cleanliness drive that we are carrying out in the city. The waste that is seen on these banks has not been dumped by the locals but has been washed in during the floods. There were thick layers of garbage here but now it has reduced as we have been cleaning this place for the past two weeks.”

On the other side of the river, heaps of garbage still dot the bank, and the river runs an alarming black colour. “We can reach the other side of the river but the land is too steep for us to clean it up. The water is black in color as many illegal sewage connections are connected to the river,” said Peter.

Most of the waste that can be seen on the slope consist of cloth, glass bottles, plastic bags and other household trash. Peter and his team of volunteers have been gathering together all the non-biodegradable waste for transportation to the common dumping ground in Pallikaranai by trucks of the Chennai Corporation. –

The Chennai Trekking Club began the cleaning drive in the city two months ago, in the aftermath of the Chennai floods. “We started the relief work in different places like Cuddalore and Pulicat. Many slums were in a very bad condition and all the drainage water was inside their homes. We were helping them out in Cuddalore and Pulicat. Later, we decided to start cleaning near the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai.”

The cleaning drive came about as a result of a shared passion among the club’s members for the environment, says Peter. “The Chennai Trekking club carries out trekking trips to beautiful natural locations like virgin forests, mountain ranges, rivers or lakes. Nature is very close to our hearts. So that’s where we started. It also helps to create awareness and reach out to thousands of people and sensitizing people about the issues.”

Building awareness, Peter feels, is an urgent task, as waste disposal is a crucial problem for Chennai. “There are 6000 tonnes of garbage which leaves the city every single day. Most of it ends up in water bodies, rivers and the ocean, which are our lifelines. Chennai has the highest per capita waste generation in the country. There is no segregation of waste in the city and all of it is accumulated in Pallikaranai, one of the few wetlands remaining in India. 90% of our garbage footprint can be reduced immediately by segregating dry (recyclable) and wet (compostable) waste at our home.” –

For the volunteers, many different reasons have drawn them to the initiative. Roopa, a doctor said, “I joined this initiative to help people in cleaning the place but it has changed many things for me. Now, I go home and try keeping the place clean and segregate the waste.”

Bensh, an engineer, said that he comes from an agriculture background and was drawn to an earlier tree plantation initiative. He later joined the cleanliness drive as he thinks it is the social responsibility of the people to do such things. For Mohan, it is about making new friends and enjoying time spent usefully in cleaning such places.

In the past, the group has carried out cleanliness drives in Chitra Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Pallaikarnai and few tree parks.

Peter Van Geit began the Chennai Trekking Club about eight years ago. “I’m a very active person in sports. I wanted a platform to connect. I set up a website and started sharing stories and images of trips and in some time people started joining me for cycling, swimming, running and trekking trips.” Now, the Chennai Trekking Club has more than 27000 members.

Besides their current cleanliness drives, the Club also carries out tree-planting initiatives, an annual coastal clean-up drive, workshops on nature, restoration of historical sites and organic farming. It also organizes trekking trips on weekends, swimming classes, triathlons and marathons.

Inspired by their example? Surely a task as large as cleaning up the city could use many more volunteers.

Source…..www.thenewsminute.com

Natarajan

 

A Kashmiri Boy Dreamed of Playing Cricket Even After Losing His Arms. Today, He Plays for His State….!!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

Amir Hussain Lone was eight year old when he lost his arms in an accident with a bandsaw when he visited his father’s sawmill to deliver lunch to his brother.

Today, at the age of 26, he is the captain of the Jammu and Kashmir state para-cricket team.

amir

“I was taking some food for my brother who worked at my father’s sawmill. I used to play with the sawmill machine, but on this occasion both of my arms got entangled in the machine,” he told Mail Online. Ironically, the sawmill used to manufacture cricket bats.

Amir never let his misfortune come in the way of his dreams. Cricket has been his passion since childhood, and he worked extremely hard to make himself capable of playing. But the journey till here was not an easy one. Amir’s father had to sell his sawmill to arrange the money for his treatment, and the society started treating him like someone who would not be able to achieve anything in life. His treatment took three years and when he resumed school after that, his teachers told him to stay at home. This was when Amir started his journey of becoming self-reliant by selling walnuts to purchase books and by practising his sport. He holds the bat between his neck and shoulder and bowls with his toes.

“When I tried to play cricket for the first time after the accident, people used to make fun of me. Now they are very supportive,” he says.

He wants to play like Sachin Tendulkar one day. Watch Amir’s inspiring journey here:

The video was originally published here.

Source…Tanaya Singh in http://www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

This 12-Year-Old Singing Prodigy Was Born with 40 Fractures. But That Did Not Break His Spirit….

NatarajanLeave a comment

Sparsh Shah, a 12-year-old singing prodigy who lives in the US, was born with almost 40 fractures. He has given more than 45 performances in just the last year-and-a-half. Read his inspirational story here.

Sparsh (aka Purhythm) has written 10 songs – “This Love Will Never Fade,” “There’s Always Tomorrow,” “Why’d You Have To Leave Me?”, “You Are My Heroes,” “Count on Me,” “A Little Bit of Respect,” “Turn Around,” “Birthday Wishes,” “You’re The One,” and “No One Knows.” He has composed the music for most of them too.

Listen to him pay homage to his favourite Eminem here:

Aren’t you still feeling that beat? Sparsh has been learning Hindustani classical music for the last seven-and-a-half years and American vocal music for the last three years.

Sparsh is multi-talented. He performs at community events and has appeared on local radio stations and television shows, besides hosting shows as an MC.

He has memorized 250 digits of Pi, can say the 12 longest words in the English dictionary in less than 18 seconds, and can speak in four different accents in English. He has written several poems, short stories, motivational/funny speeches (“I am Disabled”), etc., and acted in the developmental reading of a play called The Greatest Choice at the Crossroads theatre in New Jersey. He was able to spell a 45 letter word, “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,” at the age of 6.

Hiren and Jigisha Shah migrated to the US some 14 years ago. In 2003, when Sparsh was born, they could never have imagined their little boy would touch millions of hearts soon.

Sparsh1

Sparsh Shash (Purhythm)

His parents, however, could experience the joy of holding their baby only after six months of his birth – Sparsh had broken 35-40 bones while emerging from his mother’s womb.

Sparsh was born with an incurable disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

sparsh

This condition makes his bones extremely fragile and brittle – even a hard handshake can break his bones. He cannot bear weight on his hands and legs, so he cannot walk or run like other normal kids. He has had more than 125 fractures in the first 12 years of his life already and the doctors cannot predict how many more are to come.

In April 2015, Sparsh participated in and won the prestigious talent competition Young Voice of NYC, and was honoured to be made the ‘Youth Ambassador’ for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He now supports the hospital in spreading awareness about the fight against pediatric cancer.

Sparsh has been a catalyst in helping raise over half a million dollars for various philanthropic organisations.

Sparsh3

Sparsh, at the Chennai floods fund raising programme

Sparsh was also a member of the Watt NXT Robotics team that won at the state and regional levels in the US. He participated in the first World Robotics Championship in St. Louis, MO in 2015. Sparsh won the first prize in the speech competition about Dr.Ambedkar at the Indian Consulate in New York City in November 2015. Sparsh also participated won the Swardhara Singing Competition organized by Marathi Vishwa, New Jersey, in February 2016.

He always thanks his parents and grandparents for his success:

“I don’t see myself as disabled. I just dis the ‘dis’ from disabled. Most people with disability always keep thinking about their disability and that makes others think about it too. I want to be the courage of such people,” says Sparsh with a smile.

When Sparsh was just three years old, he started learning the keyboard and reading books. However, as his bones kept breaking, it was difficult for him to continue to learn the keyboard and he had to stop playing.

Watch him say hello to The Better India readers here. (Thank you Sparsh for this!)

https://youtu.be/45Yh_cV1jj0

Once, when he was three-and-a-half, his family was travelling in the car and his father switched on the radio. To his parents’ surprise, Sparsh remembered the song that was playing on the radio and started singing along. They thought that he perhaps knew the song because it was a well known one. But then, he sang the second, the third and even the fourth song that was played on the radio. When they asked Sparsh about this, he said his preschool bus driver played the same channel  and that is how he had memorized all the songs. This was the beginning of the making of this gifted singer and musician.

“Dreams are not enough, Hard work is what turns them into reality! And so, he makes sure that he works hard enough to make his dreams come true,” says Jigisha Shah, Sparsh’s mother.

Sparsh started learning Indian classical music at the age of 6 and is a student of Pandit Jasraj Institute of Music (PJIM) since 2009. He also learns American vocal music.

“All we tell him is that no matter what situation you have in life, never limit yourself!. We believe that Sparsh is a miracle who has come to this world to do something extra special,” says Hiren Shah (Sparsh’s father)

A 7th grader, Sparsh is also excellent in his studies. He has a 5-year-old brother named Anuj who plays video games with him.

SparshWithFamily

Sparsh with his family.

Sparsh has gone through multiple surgeries for his brittle bones. His parents help him write when he has fractures, or he uses voice to text technology to do his homework.

When asked how he deals with the pain, he says: “There is not much you can do about pain…isn’t it? Crying is just a natural response to pain but you need to smile. This is what my Papa taught me since I was small. He said that I should tell my bones to smile whenever there is a fracture. If I don’t smile at them, they won’t respond to me with a smile. And so, whenever there is an x-ray after a fracture, I look at my bones and say – Smile please bones.”

Sparsh loves rapping as he believes that rap makes even sad songs come alive; rapping keeps the spark going. This huge fan of Eminem also loves Bollywood songs. “Abhi mujh me kahi” by Sonu Nigam is his favourite Hindi song.

He met musician Neel a year-and-a-half ago, at a Karaoke competition. They sang together. Since then, Neel and Sparsh have been inseparable musical buddies and they have written a wonderful motivational duet: “Count On Me.”

Sparsh recently auditioned for America’s Got Talent and is waiting for the results, which will be out by March 2016.

He won the first prize in Gaan Nipun Spardha, a prestigious singing competition organized by PJIM and was awarded a certificate of recognition by none other than the stalwart of Hindustani classical music, Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj, on February 27, 2016.

SparshWithPtJasraj

Sparsh, with Pandit Jasraj

Despite all the challenges he has faced, Sparsh’s spirit is unbreakable. He aspires to sing in front of a billion people one day.

“I want to leave the marks of my footprints (aka wheelchair tracks ;)) in the sand of legacy so deep that not even a tsunami can erase them,” concludes Sparsh.

Join this miracle boy’s journey to fame and help him make his dream come true by sharing his latest sensational cover song: “Not Afraid” with all your friends and family members.

To listen to Sparsh’s magical music, log on and subscribe to his YouTube channel. You can also connect with Sparsh and keep updated on his progress by liking his Facebook page or following him on Twitter or Instagram .

Source….Manabi Katoch in http://www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

This Photographer Will Annoy You And Leave You In Anxious Anticipation…!!!

NatarajanLeave a comment

For Kinfolk Magazine’s recent Adrenaline Issue, photographer Aaron Tilley and Director Kyle Bean were asked to recreate that awful moment when something terrible is just about to happen.

The project emphasizes the curious relationship between what the mind perceives and how the body reacts. The anticipation causes the body to release adrenaline, even if nothing actually happens, and it is believed that this reaction is closely connected to the fight-or-flight response that was so essential for the survival of our early ancestors.

Take a look below to see what they came up with. The pictures are designed to invoke a sense of anxiety and discomfort as we anticipate the sometimes disastrous event that’s just about to occur. Feeling slightly uncomfortable yet?

More info: Aaron Tilley (h/t: Kinfolk Magazine, designboom)

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-1

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-3

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-5

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-6

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-2

in-anxious-anticipation-aaron-tilley-4

Source….www.boredpanda.com

Natarajan

Message for the Day…” Need for experiencing the Holy Essence and Bliss …”

NatarajanLeave a comment

Kind-hearted doctors run medical institutions here and there, serve the diseased and cure the afflicted. Similarly if we had ashrams here and there of holy personages who were experts in the treatment and cure of the ‘birth-and-death disease’, then people could be cured of the afflictions of ignorance, untruth, immorality, and self-aggrandisement. Ignorance produces wickedness, and it can be cured only by the medicine of the knowledge of Brahman (Brahma-jnana), with supplementary doses of the drugs like peacefulness, fortitude, self-control (santhi, sama, dama), etc. Instead, the ‘great men’ of today, for the sake of name and fame, give those who approach them the medicines they demand and the drugs their patients relish! The so-called ‘great’, on account of their weakness and foolishness, fall into perdition even before they taste the spiritual bliss themselves! The holy essence has to be experienced and realised. One’s selfish needs have to be sacrificed.

Sathya Sai Baba

Message for the Day…” It is your mind that makes you a good or bad person…’

NatarajanLeave a comment

Your mind, destiny, position, and wealth (mati, gati, stiti, andsampatti), are gifts of God. You must use it to develop the qualities of equality, solidarity, integrity, and amity. But people today have changed their mind (mati) into a wicked mind(durmati). It is your mind that makes you a good or bad person. Improper use of mind will make you egoistic. Modern youth and students aspire for wealth, friendship, and high position but not virtues, and indulge in ostentation. Many students waste their time in bad company, bad thoughts, and bad behavior. Brass and gold, both look alike. But a vessel of brass makes much more noise than one made of gold. Students should not indulge in showmanship and tall talk. Always talk sweetly and softly, with humility. You cannot always oblige, but you can always speak obligingly. Always talk lovingly and respectfully, and conduct yourself fittingly as an ideal devotee, an ideal student.

Sathya Sai Baba

Message for the Day…” Understand the Real Meaning of Mankind and Humanity…”

NatarajanLeave a comment

It is said, “The proper study of mankind is man”. You should cultivate the qualities of kindness and compassion. Only then does one deserve the title of human. You are not only people, but humanity! Today people use the word mankind or humanity without understanding its real meaning. One can rise to the level of the divine only if you develop virtues. God is not somewhere else, you are God. You are not different from God if you have a pure heart. God is the eternal charioteer, who is always present in your heart. He is only a charioteer and not the owner; you are the owner. Lord Krishna is called Parthasarathi because He became the charioteer (Sarathi) of Arjuna (Partha).Similarly, when you develop purity of heart and sacred feelings, God will be your charioteer and take you on the right path. Therefore choose God as your charioteer and lead an ideal life.

Sathya Sai Baba