India

One Doctor Is Quietly Building a World-Class Cancer Hospital for the Poor in Assam….

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Dr. Ravi Kannan’s vision has turned a small cancer centre into a full-fledged hospital in Assam’s Barak valley.
Barak Valley is a remote area on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam. For years, the people in the area had limited access to medical care. In fact, the nearest hospital was in Guwahati, which is 350 km away. This journey would often take 24 hours to complete, due to the difficult terrain as well as the threat of landslides.

The high incidence of cancer in the region, possibly due to extensive tobacco use, prompted citizens of the valley to come together and set up a hospital in 1996.

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The Cachar Cancer Hospital Society faced multiple challenges, including a severe financial crunch and lack of infrastructure, right from the start. In fact, the hospital got its first radiation unit only in 2006.
The first qualified nurse came on board in 2008. Though there were other trained personnel in the region, they were choosing to migrate to bigger cities in search of better employment.

The hospital continued to reel under all these problems till 2007, when it got a saviour in the form of Dr. Ravi Kannan.

“When I got the offer to come and work in Assam, my wife was hesitant. But after coaxing her, we came and spent some time here. I worked at the hospital and interacted with the patients. Meanwhile, my wife and daughter mingled with the members of the community. All of us realised that there was much work to be done here and this is where we should be,” he says.

So Dr. Kannan, who was a renowned oncologist at the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, and his family, packed their bags and moved to Silchar.

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It was a big change for the family. For instance, his daughter, who studied in a school which didn’t have exams, had to take her first exam to get admission into Kendriya Vidyalya. The weather was different and so was the language. And life here was harder in comparison to their hometown of Chennai. However, slowly, they all settled into the new place and Dr. Kannan got to work.

“From day one, we just kept reacting to situations, whether they were related to finance or manpower or infrastructure,” says Dr. Kannan.

Over the years, this doctor and his incredible team managed to turn the place around.  There were only 23 staff members when he joined. Today, there is a 200-member strong team.

From 25 beds, the hospital now has 100 beds. And from 6, the number of nurses has grown to 102.

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It is his selfless service and vision that have transformed this unknown cancer hospital into a comprehensive cancer centre that is providing free and heavily subsidised treatment to thousands of poor cancer patients every year,” says Rajeev Kumar, Dr. Kannan’s colleague.

In the early days, Dr. Kannan noticed that only a few patients who came for the initial check-up would come back again for a follow up. Every year, the hospital would conduct a review and find that most patients didn’t return a second time. Finally, it dawned on the administration that most people couldn’t afford the treatment.
Over 60% of the patients visiting the hospital have an income of Rs. 3,000 or less per month. As many as 80% are daily wage earners – labourers, tea garden workers and agricultural workers.

“We realised that most of them were the sole breadwinners of their families. They couldn’t afford to not work. The challenge was to figure out how to get them to undergo medical treatment, without taking away their daily bread,” he says.

This is how the hospital started home visits. The doctors started going to the villages to provide treatment to cancer patients. The patients do not have to pay for home-based care and follow up. Slowly, the hospital started satellite clinics for patients who are unable to travel long distances to visit the hospital. The doctors also provide phone consultations and stay in touch with patients who have returned home with prescriptions.

Dr. Kannan and his team discovered yet another way to get the patients to come in. They started employing those who come as attendants with the patients. These attendants help out in the garden or do other small tasks. Initially they were paid Rs. 30 but now they get about Rs. 100 per day for their work.

According to Dr. Kannan, because of the free food available at the hospital and the opportunity to work, some patients stay behind even after their treatment is completed.
The hospital has a desk in the outpatient department where the staff proactively assess the economic needs of the patients and assist them in getting treatment from the hospital at subsidised rates or for free.

They also provide patients with a better understanding of their treatment options.

“We make efforts to offer the best treatment possible to all the patients, irrespective of their socio-economic status. No one should be denied access to treatment due to want of money,” Dr. Kannan says.
The hospital now has a strict follow up policy. The supervisors of each ward are given cell phones. They are required to call up people and find out why they have missed their appointments. They maintain contact with patients and their families and motivate them to complete their treatment as advised.

At present, the hospital has an annual inflow of 3,000 new and 14,000 follow-up patients. It also gets patients from other states, as well as from neighbouring Bangladesh.
For Dr. Kannan and his team, every day presents a new challenge.

“There have been times when my colleagues and I have conducted surgeries in fields we have not specialised in. The patients cannot always go rushing to Guwahati. How can we say no to someone who is critical? By taking up these surgeries, we have also been pushed out of our comfort zones,” he says.

The hospital runs on the funds it receives from various organisations and individuals. A grant from the Indo-American Cancer Association helped establish the Department of Pain and Palliative Care in the hospital in 2011. A Department of Dental Surgery has also been set up. The pharmacy offers medicines at highly discounted prices. An ICU was started from the contributions made by individuals and NGOs.

The hospital is now awaiting permission to set up a blood bank in the region.

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“The expenses just keep increasing. We rely on contributions to run this place and provide treatment to so many people. My amazing team has chosen to work here despite the fact that they would be better remunerated in bigger cities. The satisfaction we get from serving the community here is indescribable,” he says.

The Cachar Cancer Hospital Society is raising funds to support cancer patients. For more details visit its page onKetto.
To get in touch with Dr. Ravi, mail him at ravi.kannan@cacharcancerhospital.org

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

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Meeting Latha: A woman mechanic fighting stereotypes in Theni …!!!

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“I really don’t think there is any job that men alone can do,” says Latha.

Untouched by the pomp and fanfare of the women’s day celebrations elsewhere, Latha is busy looking at the punctured tyre of a bike that has left its owner stranded.

Latha is such an inconspicuous figure under a tamarind tree on the Theni-Periyakulam road that she can be easily missed. She runs her vulcanising shop from under the shade of a tamarind tree.

“More often than not, many people see our equipment first from a distance and come closer. But when they see me handling it all, they pause and sometimes prepare to leave. I tell them I can fix their tyres and do it in no time. After all, I have been doing it for two decades now” she says with an unmistakable pride in her voice.

At 43, Latha is a good mechanic. “I have four brothers and a sister. My father was a mechanic and as a child, I would keenly watch the way he would fix a punctured tyre. But he would never allow me to touch any of it.”

At 20, she got married to a man who ran a small textile shop. Her father had to sell his vulcanising shop to settle the debts of her sister’s wedding. “My brothers refused to take care of my father and I accommodated him in my place. After discussing with my husband, I took his help and with an investment of Rs 13,000 started this shop.”

Until recently, she would take care of the punctured tyres of all vehicles including lorries and cars. “But now due to ill-health, I do only two-wheeler tyres,” Latha says. Students from an Industrial Training Institute nearby often visit her shop to get hands-on experience. “I really don’t think there is any job that men alone can do.”

Though her father never allowed her to touch any of the two wheelers he was working on, he was a role model for Latha. “He treated all of us equally. I never felt I was a daughter and hence inferior. That was not the case with many of my friends. Even when I was young, I had learnt to drive almost all vehicles. With that kind of encouragement, I think any woman can do what a man can – sometimes even what a man can’t. I only wish the government encouraged women more.”

Perhaps the only woman mechanic of Theni district, Latha has a dream: To have a properly constructed shop. “I only have this thatched roof for a shop all these years. I have never been to a government office or approached any politician for help. But I do wish they will help me get a shop. I can even train students if need be”, she says.

For someone who speaks so passionately about the need for women to be independent, Latha had both her daughters married off before they turned 18. “I had little choice. We are living in such a system which does not support independent women. Also I come from a village and you know how it is. My poor health is another reason. I wish it was different though.”

All photographs by Satheesh Lakshmanan

Source…..Satheesh Lakshmanan in http://www.the newsminute.com

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Woman I admire: ‘My daughter is a super hero’….

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Here, Jaya Alex writes about her daughter, who, despite the odds, chose to teach in a backward and underprivileged district in India.  

Woman I admire

Justey P Alex

My elder daughter Justey P Alex is presently working among the tribes in Kalahandi district of Odisha, the second most backward and underprivileged district in India.

There she is teaching in a mission school which provides education to poor children. It is the only English medium school in that area.

After her graduation from the Delhi University (BA English Hon), she told us of her desire to serve the needy and downtrodden children through education. She had taken the decision during a visit to this place when a tour programme was conducted by the Youths of Church Mission.

Being parents of a grown-up girl child we were very worried about her decision.

Woman I admire

Jaya Alex with her daughter Justey

All other family members, friends and our well-wishers were also against it because of her well-being.

The place where she was planning to work is prone with diseases like malaria, jaundice, typhoid, etc.

Death due to these diseases is very common there. The nearest hospital is at least 20 km away from this remote village. If you want to buy a pen, book or even recharge your mobile phone you have to travel at least 20 km.

Everybody asked her to rethink the decision, but she stood firm on her ground as she felt that it was right.

At last we agreed and allowed her to go and work there. We thought that she will be back within a month because it is not so easy for a child, born and brought up in metropolitan city. to work in such a remote area.

But she got the willpower to overcome all hurdles and hardships by seeing the happiness of the poor kids studying there and has now completed 10 months. She is one among the three graduate teachers in her school. She is also pursuing her post graduation from IGNOU.

I think an ordinary girl cannot think in this way and I feel that my daughter is a ‘super hero’. I am proud of her.

Source…..Jaya Alex in http://www.rediff.com

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Nine super-achieving women Bengaluru should be proud of …..

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On the occasion of International Women’s Day, here is a list of 9 women achievers from Bengaluru who are recipients of the Namma Bengaluru Foundation Awards for the year 2015.

The Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) is an independent organistation and inclusive social platform founded in 2009, which is committed to the betterment of the city through collective social engagement.

 

Twenty-year-old Aishwarya Hebbar has made over 21,000 kids happier through her project Let’s Write Together. She collects pens discarded by school and college students around the city, and restores them so that kids who can’t afford stationery can write. –

Ashwini Angadi manages a trust that runs the Belaku Academy, a school for the visually impaired, working with differently abled children with an aim of integrating them with the mainstream. She has been chosen as the UN Special Envoy to receive the Youth Courage Award for Education and the Queen of England’s Young Leader Award in 2015.  –

Suparna Ganguly ended the cruel practice of electrocution of stray dogs and co-founded Compassion Unlimited Plus Action – CUPA, an organization that took over the Koramangala dog-pound and over the years helped create a more humane world for strays. –

Gloria Benny put together a network of volunteers called Make a Difference (MAD) who would mentor children with skills and confidence and equip them for life after they left the shelter homes at the age of 18.  – 

Dr Rohini Katoch Sepat is the Director of the State Forensic Sciences Lab and has been instrumental in enabling the police force with technological advances such as the iBeat app and CCTV cameras on police vehicles to help the cops serve communities better.  –

Geetha Ramanujam set up Kathalaya, The House of Stories, with a vision of making positive social change in education through storytelling. The International Academy of Storytelling set up by Kathalaya has trained over 70,000 people to become storytellers and touched the lives of over 5 lakh children over the years.  –

Prarthana Kaul started Giftabled, an e-commerce venture that sells both gifts made by the disabled and merchandise for the disabled, thereby transforming many lives.  –

Ashwani is a news reporter with RajTV, who brought Mavallipura landfill garbage crisis into focus. As a result of her efforts, health camps were conducted and drinking water facilities were improved.  –

Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang’s strict action concerning extortion calls allegedly made to Government employees for bribes in return for immunity in corruption cases resulted in the filing of 5 FIRs and 11 arrests.  –

Source…..www.thenewsminute.com

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

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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

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

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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“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

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

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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

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

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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.

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“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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

The Extraordinary Story of Janarthanan, a Mouth Painter Who Exemplifies Grit and Determination…

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Janarthanan is a 24-year-old mouth artist. He lost both his hands in a devastating accident at the age of eight and has been facing each day like a challenge since then. He has won more than 150 prizes in painting competitions since 2003, including two national awards. This is his story of determination and grit, narrated with his beautiful art.

“People always feel that they can’t do something or the other because they concentrate on a lot of negativity. But remember how we used to play many different games as children? We would focus on something – a puzzle to solve or a game to finish, and be completely positive that we will be able to achieve success. If we could think that way as kids, why can’t we have the same attitude as adults? One just has to feel positive,” says Janarthanan, a young man who lost both his hands and a leg after an accident when he was 8 years old.

Today, this Chennai resident is an accomplished mouth painter and has won over 150 prizes at different painting competitions

Mouth Painting

Janarthanan

It was March 4, 2000 – just another day for young Janarthanan who returned home after school and went to the terrace to play with his friends.

“I found a seven feet long iron rod on the terrace and started playing with it. I was spinning it while standing near the edge of the terrace and didn’t notice a high tension electric line adjacent to the building. The rod suddenly came in contact with the line,” recounts Janarthanan.

He fainted due to the electric shock and the nearest transformer burst into flames. Hearing the noise, his parents and neighbours rushed to the spot to find the little boy burnt and unconscious. He was immediately taken to a nearby private hospital but the doctors there had never seen such a case. Janarthanan had suffered 99% burns and they didn’t know how to treat him. So his father was advised to take him to the Government Stanley Hospital. A group of 13 doctors, headed by a child specialist named Dr. Seeniraj, treated Janarthanan.

As the injuries were very deep, they had to amputate his right hand up to his shoulders, left hand up to the elbow, his left leg till the knee, and the toes of his right foot.

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His family

“I was cured after eight months and eight operations. Dr. Seeniraj told my father that this child has got a second chance and it means that he will achieve something great in life. It gave my parents a lot of hope,” smiles Janarthanan.

He asked his doctor a simple question during the recovery period – “How will I go to school after all this? How will I go normally, like I used to go earlier?” And the even simpler answer to this question changed his life.

“The doctor just told me that he knows many people who write with their mouth, and I should also try. I started trying that evening only. And kept practicing for days till I finally succeeded,” he says.

Mouth Painting

After his treatment, Janarthanan went to the Government Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in Chennai to get a prosthetic leg. His family had spent a lot of money on his treatment by then, and this was the maximum they could afford. Soon, he started walking, after fighting immense pain with his unbeatable determination during the practice sessions.

All this while, Janarthanan also continued to practice writing with his mouth. One day, he saw his mother drawing some flowers in a notebook. It struck him then that he could try drawing and painting as well. So he did.

And after several days of hard work, he succeeded at that too – painting with poster and water colours.

Mouth Painting

This was when some people at the rehabilitation centre advised him that he should participate in painting competitions because his work was so impressive.

Mouth Painting

He writes, draws and paints with his mouth

“Earlier, I used to feel very shy and bad about going out. But when I did finally participate in one competition, I ended up winning the first prize. It really encouraged me. Everyone was talking about my victory and there were posters about my recovery at the hospital to encourage other patients like me. Every time I saw those posters, I used to get motivated to participate in more competitions,” says Janarthanan.

He practiced his art himself and never joined any training centre to learn painting or drawing. Since his first victory, he has participated in many big and small events, winning in most of them.

Mouth Painting

The first time he participated in a national level competition was in 2005, through Bal Bhawan in Chennai. The competition was held at three levels – zonal, district and state.

Janarthanan went on qualifying at each level to finally reach the finals, which were organized in Delhi.

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“I didn’t participate with children with physical disabilities. The competition was for everyone, and it was really tough. A few months after the event they sent me a letter saying that I was selected for the National Award and had to go to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to receive it. I didn’t expect anything like that, and it was a priceless moment. I met Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. ‘You should be a role model for others,’ he told me. I am still living by his words,” the artist remembers.

He has won more than 150 awards since 2003, and received a recent one from musician A. R. Rahman.

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Receiving an award from A.R. Rahman

Janarthanan wrote all his exams with his mouth, including his class 10 board exams for which he was granted some extra time.

Mouth Painting

With his desire to become a computer graphics designer, Janarthanan did a course in multimedia, followed by a visual effects course from Loyola College.

After that, he joined a media channel and worked there for three years.

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With Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

Currently, 24-year-old Janarthanan is working as a freelancer in the field of film editing and is concentrating on learning more about film direction.

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He is exploring the filed of film direction

“I face each day like a challenge, and without the support of my parents and sister, I would not have reached so far. I just want to continue being positive and do what I love,” he concludes.

Janarthanan, you really are an inspiration for many. Here’s wishing you the very best for all your future projects.

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

Natarajan