The New York Public Library has digitized and released a collection of about 1,80,000 items, including pictures, manuscripts, posters, paintings, etc., and all of them are free for download and use by everyone.
From maps of Asia to amazing photographs of New York City, the collection has them all. Amongst these is a vast collection of 178 original coloured paintings of India, illustrating the trade, costumes, and culture of the country. The paintings were made between 1780 and 1858, and their digital versions look excellent. With camels and elephants, salt trade and temples – the amazing collection will take you way back in time.
Here is a look at 11 of these beautiful paintings:
Hunting scene – leopard attacking one of two elephants
Man ploughing field with two oxen
Two elephants pulling an elaborate carriage, with mahouts and attendants
This incident took place in early February when my relative Manish went to an ATM in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. He was just about to withdraw some money when he noticed a woman’s handbag lying unattended in the kiosk. He looked around for the owner but there was nobody. When he opened the bag, he saw a good sum of money and a lot of jewellery in it.
Manish is a small-time clerk in the accounts division of a manufacturing unit in Noida. His salary is not more than Rs. 25,000 per month. But his values are definitely in place.
There was no address slip inside the bag. He even asked the guard at the ATM if he knew anything about the lady who left it behind. But he had no clue about the bag and said the person probably left it in a hurry.
Manish took the bag home. On looking some more, he found a small clue in the bag in the form of a bill from a jewellery shop. A girl’s name was written on it but there was no phone number or address. He decided to use this to go looking for her.
The next day, he went to his office as usual. During his lunch break, he went to the jewellery shop and tried to find out about the girl. Luckily for him, the shopkeeper told Manish that he had received many calls from a girl asking about the whereabouts of her bag, which she had lost the previous night. After getting her number, Manish contacted the girl and asked her to come and collect the bag from his office.
In the evening, around 5 pm, the girl, accompanied by her husband, came to meet Manish.
She broke down on seeing that everything was intact in her bag. Though Manish asked her to count the cash, she refused, saying it looked like it was untouched. She had left the ATM in a hurry and had forgotten the bag there. “Due to God’s grace you found the money and jewellery and returned it to me in the same state,” she said.
The girl had even approached the police but they refused to file an FIR. According to them, they could only file an FIR if the bag was stolen, not lost.
I chose to share this story as it is rare to expect this kind of honesty and integrity today. I hope Manish’s example will inspire many others to do the right thing.
When Vijay Thakur, a mechanical engineer, lost his first child just because he did not get a taxi to get to the hospital on time, he left his job. To become a taxi driver who would help the needy.
Vijay Thakur was working as a mechanical engineer with Larsen and Toubro, Mumbai, in 1982. He earned a handsome salary. Once married, life became even better with his wife Saroj by his side. They soon learnt they were going to be parents too and Vijay’s joy knew no bounds.
But one night in March 1982, when Saroj was just 3 months pregnant, she had pain in her abdomen. Vijay rushed out to look for a cab to take his wife to the hospital. It was 2 am and no taxi was ready to stop for him. He kept waving and pleading but did not get a taxi. Finally, he ran till Andheri station and brought a taxi back home by paying Rs. 300 (almost like paying Rs. 3000 in today’s money) to take Saroj to Nanavati hospital. But, unfortunately, by the time they reached the hospital Saroj had a miscarriage.
Vijay and Saroj lost their first child just because no taxi driver was willing to do his job. Vijay was thoroughly shaken up by the tragedy. He kept thinking no one should go through the same experience his wife and he did.
“I was earning quite well then and so I could afford to at least pay double and get a taxi. But I started thinking about those people who cannot even afford to hire an auto rickshaw,” says Vijay.
Vijay now wanted to do something for such patients. But his long hours at work did not leave him with much time to think. He was still struggling between his career and his desire to help people when Larsen & Toubro introduced a voluntary retirement scheme in 1984. Thakur took up the offer and decided to become a taxi driver, promising himself that he would never decline a passenger. He bought a Fiat car for Rs. 66,000 and got a taxi permit.
He made himself available to passengers always.
“I don’t sleep between 2 am and 4 am because that is the time an emergency patient may need a taxi,” says Vijay.
Despite opposition from his wife and family, Vijay kept doing his work. But then, life again took a tragic turn in the year 1999 when his younger son was hit by a ball on his knees while playing cricket. Initially, his wife and he ignored the injury, thinking it was just a small cut. But within a week the knee had swollen so much that they took him to a doctor. There, the small cut was diagnosed as cancerous and the 19-year-old boy left within 16 days.
Vijay was devastated; he had spent all his savings on his son’s treatment.
“Once, I had to pay a bill for Rs. 43,000 for my son’s treatment. I was short by Rs. 10 and the cashier refused to accept my money. A stranger offered me the balance and only then did the cashier take the money and issue a receipt. This incident strengthened my resolve to help people in need,” says Vijay.
After this incident, Vijay stopped charging fares from poor patients and painted a sign to the effect on the rear window of the taxi. Anyone in Mumbai can give him a call any time and he never says ‘No.’
When asked about his most memorable experiences, he describes quite a few. One of them happened almost 15-20 years back. He was driving on the night of December 31, around 3 am, when he saw a car ramming into a tanker. When Vijay looked inside the car, there was a couple along with an 8-month-old baby girl. He rushed them to Cooper hospital immediately. Unfortunately, the mother died but the father and the child were saved because they got treatment on time. The lady was wearing jewellery worth Rs. 2 lakhs, which the doctors gave to Vijay. Once the victim’s relatives arrived at the hospital, Vijay handed over the jewellery to them and left. Later, he came to know the accident victim was film producer Sudhakar Bokade’s wife. Mr. Bokade offered him money once he was back home with his daughter but Vijay refused to take anything.
“I don’t do this for money or publicity. I don’t remember the people who I have helped once they are fine,” says Vijay.
Vijay Thakur was felicitated by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan on his show Aaj ki Raat Hai Zindagi,where he met his all time favourite star Jeetendra.
Pic source: Twitter
“It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I never ever thought I could meet Jeetu ji. I am a huge fan. I used to bunk school and watch his movies. I have watched the movie Farz some 31 times just because of Jeetendra,” says Vijay.
Pic source: Hotstar
But this man, who left his lucrative career and took up the job of a taxi driver, helped more than 500 needy patients and ferried thousands to their destinations without any complaints, needs your help now.
He is 73 years old now and was recently diagnosed with cervical spondylitis.
“The doctor said it needs to be operated on. He also said that I will either die or will be paralyzed after this operation. But people say I have so many blessings, nothing will happen. I believe them,” he says.
If you wish to help Vijay Thakur, you can call him on +91 9819001689.
Source…….Manabi Katoch in http://www.the betterindia.com
He is 44, was born with dwarfism, is 4 feet 2 inches tall, and is super passionate about sports. This is the inspiring story of K Y Venkatesh, a para-sportsman from Bengaluru, whose short stature never disheartened him from moving forward in life.
Meet K Y Venkatesh, a 44-year-old para-sportsman who did not let his disability come in the way of his dream to make a mark in the field of sports. Venkatesh has achondroplasia, a condition that leads to dwarfism.
“I never faced many problems when I was growing up. The only challenge was that whenever I used to go to a new place or my native village, strangers would often stare at me and talk about my height behind my back. But my family always supported me and that helped me in keeping myself motivated,” he recounts.
Today Venkatesh has his name in the Limca Book of Records for winning the highest number of medals in the World Dwarf Games, 2005.
He made himself proud with a successful career and is still working hard to promote different sports among people with disabilities.
Born and brought up in Bengaluru, Venkatesh started his career in 1994:
“This was after I heard about C.N Janaki, a woman who was afflicted with polio since the age of two. She swam across the English Channel in 1992 and her victory motivated me a lot. That was where this spirit and love for sports arose in me. I thought if she can do something like this without having any mobility in her legs, why can’t I try? I took that spirit and built my sports career on it,” he says.
Venkatesh represented India at the first International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships held in Berlin, Germany in 1994.
“I felt extremely proud while entering the stadium in which the Indian hockey team had won gold,” he says.
Venkatesh never looked back after that day. He is interested in multiple games and has achieved excellence in athletics, badminton, basketball, hockey, soccer, and volleyball. In 1999, he won his first international gold medal for shotput in a multi disability championship held in Australia. “It was like a dream come true. I could not express my feelings. It was my first international medal and that too gold. My family was exhilarated. It was like my parents saw a dream and it turned into reality,” he smiles. Since he was new to the field of sports, people around Venkatesh used to help and guide him a lot during coaching sessions.
In 2005, Venkatesh became the first Indian athlete to represent India at the fourth World Dwarf Games. It was here that he won six medals – two gold, one silver and three bronze. These were for athletics and badminton events (singles and doubles). The World Dwarf Games are similar to the Paralympics, where people with dwarfism compete at an international level. The Games are held every four years at locations around the world.
Recently, the Limca Book of Records honoured Venkatesh with the People of the Year award for his achievements.
“The experience of playing at the World Dwarf Games was really unique. So many people from other countries come in and we have a really good time. India is slowly gaining awareness about these games and the sportspersons are being recognised. We had to arrange for funds ourselves to participate in the games because the government didn’t sponsor us that time. So we also had to worry about finding sponsors and that was one of the major troubles for us. People from other countries did not have to worry about those things,” he says.
While Venkatesh stopped playing after 2012, he is contributing largely to the administration, development, and promotion of different sports among people with disabilities. He is the secretary of the Karnataka Badminton Association for the Disabled that conducts national badminton tournaments every year. “First we identify the people, bring them to the national level, and if they are very good, then we prepare them for the international games. Recently, two people from the Association won medals in world championships. This way, I am trying to encourage talented players,” he says. Later, he attended the IPC accredited coaching, technical and classification course in wheelchair basketball to promote the sport in India.
Seeing his contribution to sports for people with disabilities, the Government of India sent Venkatesh as the team escort for many international level sports meets to help wheelchair bound players.
He also played a key role in getting the international affiliation for India from the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF), Canada; International Para Equestrian Committee (IPEC), Switzerland; and International Dwarf Sports Federation (IDSF), UK.
Venkatesh was the youngest kid in his family with an elder brother and four sisters. His father was a government ayurveda doctor who played a huge role in developing Venkatesh’s interest in sports. He used to coach him in chess when he was in high school, giving young Venkatesh a chance to participate in several interschool championships.
“My family has always supported me. Nobody in my family has reached such heights in sports, and they are very happy about my achievements. They keep searching on Google and show me the different places where my photos come up,” he says.
Venkatesh completed his graduation from MES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bengaluru.
“Seeing other people who are living with more severe disabilities but are moving forward in life, I always think that when they can achieve so much, we can too. That is what I tell people. We should not be restricted by our disabilities but move ahead, contributing to the country’s success as well,” he concludes.
Robin Chaurasiya is one of the co-founders of Kranti, an NGO that empowers girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas to become agents of social change. She has been shortlisted for the $1 million Global Teacher Prize 2016. She will compete with teachers from the UK, US, Kenya, Palestine, Japan, Finland, Australia, and Pakistan.
Names of the 10 shortlisted teachers were announced by renowned scientist Stephen Hawking in London.
“I wasn’t the easiest person to teach. I was slow to learn to read and my handwriting was untidy. But, at the age of 14, my teacher, Dikran Tahta, showed me how to harness my energy and encouraged me to think creatively about maths. He made me wonder. He made me curious. He opened up new worlds to me. That is what a great teacher can do,” Hawking said during theannouncement.
Robin, who refers to her students as krantikaris (revolutionaries), runs a school for daughters of sex workers and victims of human trafficking in Mumbai.
The students are between the ages of 12 and 20 and the curriculum includes English, computers, dance therapy, meditation, photography, theatre, field trips, education through music, and more. The students are encouraged to become peer teachers and community leaders.
30-year-old Robin was born in Los Angeles and served with the US Air Force for many years. She co-founded Kranti in 2011 and volunteered with an anti-trafficking NGO in Uganda.
The Global Teacher Prize was created last year by entrepreneur Sunny Varkey of UK-based Varkey Foundation. It is an annual award given to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession, and is widely referred to as the Nobel Prize for teachers. The top 10 have been shortlisted from 8,000 nominations and applications received from 148 countries around the world. This award celebrates the exceptional work of teachers around the world who inspire their students. The finalist will be announced on March 13 in a ceremony in Dubai.
“I hope her story will inspire those looking to enter the teaching profession and also shine a powerful spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over India and throughout the world every day,” Sunny Varkey said while talking about Robin.
According to their website, the Global Teacher Prize Judging Academy includes public officials, head teachers, academics, journalists, entrepreneurs, company directors, scientists, and entertainment industry personalities from around the world.
You can show your support for Robin by sharing her work on social media with #teachersmatter. Watch her talk about Kranti here:
From hacking into the social media accounts of his friends, to finding more than 90 security flaws for Facebook – Anand Prakash has come a long way with his love for technology and interest in ethical hacking. This is his story.
It was while preparing for his engineering entrance exams in Kota, Rajasthan that Anand Prakash first became interested in hacking. “I had a smartphone and Internet packs were very costly at that time. I came across some kind of proxy setting and figured out a way to use the Internet for free,” he says. The service provider rectified the loophole after some time when many users came to know about it. But for Anand, it was the beginning of a very eventful journey towards building a career in the field of hacking – the kind that’s ethical.
“What I do now is called security research, not hacking,” he is quick to correct.
Today, the 23-year-old is a security engineer with Flipkart, uses the Internet in a more responsible manner, and has been rewarded by many organizations for finding flaws in their software or technology setups.
Anand Prakash
Anand, who is from the town of Bhadra in Rajasthan, was always interested in computers.
“It was always the same with me. I used to score better in technical subjects, but when it came to subjects like geography, environmental studies, etc., I used to face a lot of problems,” he recalls.
As a student, Anand strengthened his newly acquired knowledge of hacking by experimenting among friends.
“I used to practice phishing on my friends’ accounts with their permission. It is the most basic process in hacking. It involves extracting information like usernames, passwords, etc., by sending out emails to the victims in a way that they will trust them enough to open the links,” he says. Getting access to the password of a friend’s Orkut account was Anand’s first hack.
After Kota, he joined Vellore Institute of Technology to pursue a course in computer science engineering. Anand continued to polish his knowledge about ethical hacking and different programming languages in college, and practiced whatever he learned among friends.
“Up till then, I only knew about hacking processes that involved using some automated tools. And that did not interest me after a point. Finding security flaws in systems is completely different from what I was doing then,” he says.
In the third year of college, Anand came to know about Facebook’s Bug Bounty Program. It offers recognition and compensation to security researchers who find vulnerabilities in Facebook and report them according to the organization’s responsible disclosure policy.
By then, Anand was well-versed in languages like PHP, JavaScript, etc.
“I liked to analyse codes. And when I learnt that Facebook has given monetary compensation to someone for finding a bug in their technology, I thought of giving it a try,” he says.
He utilised the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), which is an initiative by OWASP Foundation for the improvement of software security in different organizations around the world. The project provides users with open source study materials to understand application security over the Internet.
“I started learning with the help of OWASP, followed experts on Twitter, and read up a lot about security research. Fortunately, I found a bug on Facebook in just a month. It was a loophole that enabled me to find people online even if they had turned off their chat,” he says. Anand received his first bounty of USD 500 for reporting this issue.
Then he learned that many such organizations welcome people who find security vulnerabilities for them. And the work turned out to be so interesting that there was no turning back for the technology enthusiast. To date, he has found about 90 bugs for Facebook, and ranks fourth in the Facebook wall of fame 2015.
The highest bounty Anand received from Facebook was a sum of USD 12,500 for finding a major security flaw because of which a user could post anything on his/her profile using someone else’s account. “For example, I could post a picture, a video, or text, and it would be visible on my Facebook wall as a post from your side,” he explains.
After college, he did an internship with the Cyber Police Investigation Branch of Gurgaon Police. There he worked on finding the different strategies used by cyber criminals.
After the internship
He has also reported issues to companies like Twitter and Google and has earned Rs. 1.2 crore in the process. He was able to hack into the systems of the restaurant discovery and search application Zomato to gain access to the accounts of their 62 million users. He disclosed this issue to the company and they fixed it in two day, appreciating his efforts.
“I always first report the issue to the organization without exposing it elsewhere. It is called responsible disclosure. Then I take permission from them and post about it on my personal blog if they allow it.”
But Anand is not very happy about the way many Indian companies treat security researchers:
Some companies are very responsive. They fix the bugs immediately and also give monetary compensation without much delay. But if you report bugs to many companies in India, they reply saying they will take legal action against you. The condition is very bad in terms of security here. But it is changing slowly. I have come across some companies that are now open to security research.”
With new technologies coming up every day, Anand’s hunger for learning keeps developing. His advice to those who want to pursue a career in security research: “Try and report bugs to companies in a responsible manner. And do not disclose the issue unless you have permission. Security research is a great thing if done ethically.”
Find out more about how he finds different bugs, here.
Sreenivasulu M.R. has always had a fascination for the arts. He started painting at the age of seven. He enrolled himself in a dance school and is now accomplished in Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, and folk dance. However, his biggest fascination is making miniature models.
Sreenivasulu honed his skills as a child by making miniature house models from wedding invitation cards. He also had a habit of collecting pen refills from his friends.
Being an environmentalist, he conducts various programmes to spread awareness on global warming. At the ‘Say No to Plastic’ programmes, which he organises in schools and colleges, he keeps pen refill collection boxes.
These refills later turned into raw materials and Sreenivasulu started making monuments out of them.
Through this, Sreenivasulu is driving home the idea of recycling. He began by making a model of the Eiffel Tower. It took him eight months and over 200 refills to create it. Since then, there has been no stopping Sreenivasulu.
Today, this software professional has made the Charminar, Big Ben, Taj Mahal, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Gateway of India, Seattle Space Needle, and Sydney Harbor Bridge from used pen refills. His miniature Taj Mahal, made from 700 pen refills, even found a place in the ‘India Book of Records’ in the year 2012.
Image copyrightAnushree Fadnavis/Indus ImagesUma Tembulkar began performing in ad films at the age of 70
In the youthful world of Indian advertising, Uma Tembulkar, 78, is an unlikely celebrity model.
Ms Tembulkar is the lead in the advertisement, British Airways: Fuelled by Love, that has gone viral on YouTube and has Twitter tearing up over her.
The six-minute film, uploaded a week ago on YouTube, has had more than one million visitors and made Ms Tembulkar a welcoming face that’s beaming from a billboard at the Mumbai airport.
“Ms Tembulkar brings on a heavy dose of emotion to the ad; meaningful not melodramatic,” says advertising expert Vidhya Sankarnarayan.
“It resonates with Indians like the granny who feels dislocated on flights and connects at a human level,” she says.
An emotional flight
Ms Tembulkar said the British Airways ad was easy to enact because it had “two strangers who show kindness and compassion to each other, breaking cultural and generational barriers”.
A look at the ad would explain why she’s spot on.
The film shows a septuagenarian returning home from visiting her son in London.
She struggles while fastening the seat belt and bending over her arthritic knees to pull on her socks. A young stewardess, Helena Flynn, on her maiden flight to India, comes to her help.
The lady wells up, missing her son. The stewardess comforts her and is invited home by the elder woman.
A visit to the south Indian home is full of effusive Indian hospitality, good food and a slice of culture and a high dose of warmth.
Image copyrightAnushree Fadnavis/Indus Images….Uma Tembulkar lives with husband Mahesh Tembulkar in Mumbai
Image copyrightAnushree Fadnavis/Indus ImagesImage captionUma Tembulkar lives with husband Mahesh Tembulkar in Mumbai
“I wanted the ad to debunk the stereotype of the uptight British person and rude Indian traveller and Ms Tembulkar touched the right chords,” says director Neeraj Ghaywan, feted recently at the Cannes film festival.
This was the indie filmmaker’s first venture into ad filmmaking and he found Ms Tembulkar “just the perfect face of dignity and affection”.
And the social media response has been effusive praise for the ad.
Today, Ms Tembulkar gets grabbed for selfies on her morning market run to buy vegetables and milk.
Global granny
“It was an honour to act in the British Airways ad and I thoroughly enjoyed travelling to London,” she says.
Ms Tembulkar has been married for 60 years and led life as a homemaker with an enduring passion in Indian classical music that helped her “overcome fear of performing before an audience or the camera”.
She now watches over a brood of grandchildren, who are students in Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, travelling frequently to holiday with her scattered family across the globe. “My passport is the fattest,” she chuckles with quiet pride.
“My life as a model began at 70,” she speaks carefully in English, though she is also fluent in her native tongue Marathi, and Hindi, Bengali and a smattering of Gujarati too.
The actress in her was discovered by young friends at a family gathering and in the last eight years, she has acted in more than 60 advertisements for products as varied as insurance companies, furniture, cooking oils, biscuits and more.
“Look at her: she’s the quintessential Indian granny and her predicament while travelling alone is real. That has made the ad work,” says Mr Ghaywan.
He praises her as a “super granny” who travels alone frequently to visit her children and grandchildren, and understands the “emotional palette with her restrained, yet powerful performance”.
Image copyrightAnushree Fadnavis/Indus ….Ms Tembulkar is the archetypical Indian granny who lives in a busy suburb in Mumbai
Ageism
Experts say ageism has never been a problem in India and has always helped in selling products.
“Like the grandpas from India and Pakistan for the Google ad, age never goes out of style in Indian advertisements,” says Ms Sankarnarayan.
Unlike an earlier generation, the granny in the British Airways ad travels business class in comfort, though not schooled in global travel; she represents the old setting off alone to connect with scattered families across the world and makes a human connection that makes the ad tick.
Many say the ad helps to debunk the stereotype of the rude Indian in-flight traveller.
“Ms Tembulkar does a fantastic job of giving the contemporary Indian traveller a face,” explains Ms Sankarnarayan.
Given the soaring success of the advertisement, the sky is the limit for this granny.
In this September 27, 2013 photo, Sri Srinivasan takes oath as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan is pictured in this undated file photo courtesy of the United States Department of Justice. Srinivasan is among President Barack Obama’s likely options as he looks for a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday.
He was Mr. Obama’s principal deputy solicitor general, most notably working on the successful fight against the Defence of Marriage Act.
Death of a serving judge of the U.S. Supreme Court has set off acrimonious exchanges between the Democrats and the Republicans on whether President Barack Obama should nominate a new judge in the last year of his presidency. Mr Obama has declared that he would nominate a replacement for Antonin Scalia who died on Saturday at 79, ending a controversial tenure through which he steered the court towards right with a series of pronouncements.
India-born Srikanth Srinivasan whose family came to the U.S from a village in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu figures as the most probable choice to succeed Scalia, according to media reports. Forty-nine year old Srinivasan is currently U.S. Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which served as a stepping-stone for at least three judges of the SC. Scalia too was in the Court of Appeals for DC before President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court.
Judge Srinivasan’s appointment was confirmed by the Senate unanimously in 2013, a rare event given the Republican majority in the chamber. His bipartisan acceptability is among the reasons cited by a lot of U.S. commentators who believe President Obama could pick him for the post. Judge Srinivasan graduated from Stanford University in 1989 and Stanford Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1995. From 2011 to until his judicial appointment, Judge Srinivasan served as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He has also taught at Harvard Law School.
U.S. Supreme Court has eight judges other than the chief justice and on several sensitive issues the judges have split 5-4, with conservative views maintaining a lead of one vote. For instance, the Supreme Court, through a 5-4 vote settled in 2010 a judgment that allowed unlimited spending by corporations in election campaigns. Campaign financing is a hot topic of debate in the current election season. With the passing of Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court is evenly split and the stakes are high for both the conservative and progressive camps, in selecting the next judge. Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed for their lifetime. The President nominates the judges and the Senate must confirm them.
Two of the remaining eight judges are in their late seventies and one is 82. The fact that the next President may likely nominate several Supreme Court judges has been a recurring talking point on both sides of the American political divide. The sudden death of Scalia allows Mr. Obama the opportunity to nominate one more before his term ends. He has nominated two already.
“I plan to fulfill my Constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor (to Scalia) in due time….There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote,” Mr. Obama said.
But the Republican presidential candidates and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that they would not cooperate with the President. “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President,” Mr. McConnell said. Senator Ted Cruz said during the Republican presidential debate on Saturday that the President should not be allowed to nominate a liberal to the Supreme Court. “The Senate should not abdicate its constitutional responsibilities for partisan political reasons,” said Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Pointing out that the Supreme Court has before it cases affecting women’s health, immigration, workers’ rights, and other important issues, Neera Tanden, president of the Centre for American Progress, said the President and the Senate must move forward without delay, “to ensure a full court makes these critical decisions.” “Seventeen Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during presidential election years,” she said.
These high school students are introducing technology to senior citizens in an effort to help them overcome loneliness and social isolation – all because of respect and love for their grandparents, who they consider their superheroes.
The 2001 census of India showed that the population of senior citizens in India has crossed 100 million. Today, India is home to one out of every 10 senior citizens in the world. Yet, very few in the country are looking into the problems faced by this ageing section of our society.
An emotional and psychological problem tormenting elders in our country is loneliness.
A student helps a senior citizen learn how to use a computer.
This is due to the growing ‘empty nest syndrome.’ Children go away to far-off countries in search of economic betterment. Even if they live within the country, due to the spread of western ideas such as ‘space, privacy, individualism and non-interference,’ nuclear families are becoming the norm even in villages.
Poor social interaction with family and friends, poor social networks, and lack of family support are some of the difficulties faced by senior citizens. At the other extreme is the young generation today, highly dependent on social networking to stay connected with family and friends and build connections. Two high school students from Delhi are helping bridge the gap between the two generations.
Vibhor Rohatgi and Suyesha Dutta were in their 11th grade in Shri Ram School Mouslari, Gurgaon, which follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) board.
Suyesha (on extreme left) and Vibhor (second from right) with their teacher
Creativity, activity, service (CAS) are the three essential elements of a CAS project that every student must complete as part of the Diploma Programme (DP) in the IB board internationally. For many students, these projects provide experiences that are profound and fulfilling.
Vibhor and Suyesha decided to take up a CAS project that would prove to be not only life changing for them but also for a much ignored segment of our society –senior citizens.
“When CAS is discussed in school, most students think of helping the underprivileged, the needy or the slum kids. We have this belief that only those who are deprived of money need help. But there are people who have it all but still feel emotionally empty. We wanted to help them – our grandparents,” says Suyesha.
Bridging the generation gap – senior citizens with students.
Suyesha, who had spent a lot of time with her grandparents till she was in her teens, lost her grandfather three years ago. She saw her grandmother spending most of her days alone after that. So she decided to connect her to technology to help her overcome her loneliness. Once she saw how successful that experiment was, she wanted to gift technology not just to her own grandmother but to as many other grandparents as she could as a tribute to her grandfather.
Suyesha and her friend Vibhor are great fans of the comic superhero Silver Surfer, a humanoid with metallic skin who can travel space with the aid of his surfboard-like craft. Since this superman is an icon of technology himself, they decided to name their initiative the Silver Surfer Programme.
“The Silver Surfer Programme (SSP), a social initiative started by us, is the epitome of the maxim ‘age is just a number.’ Age is a measure of experience, inefficiently gauged by how many candles one blows out every year. To this plenitude of experiences, we, looking to bring about a social change in society, decided to add one more…the experience known as technology,” says Vibhor
“We called it the Silver Surfer Programme because Silver Surfer is a superhero and we consider our grandparents to be superheroes. His senses enable him to detect objects and energies light years away. Similarly, grandparents have strong intuition and can detect any problem or trouble in their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. He has even proven capable of time travel on occasions, just like our grandparents take us back to their times by narrating stories from their childhood,” adds Suyesha
The Silver Surfer Programme is an effort to better acquaint grandparents with the delights of modern day technology.
SSP aims to make the lives of grandparents simpler, faster and efficient. The programme includes two hour modules on three Saturdays every month for the grandparents. The programme, which began in May 2015, includes the following learning sessions:
Introduction to the programme and its aim.
Introduction to email – how to write an email.
Introduction to Facebook and Twitter – how to open and set up an account, send requests, etc.
Familiarization with smart phones and tablets and an introduction to WhatsApp – how to set up an account, send and receive messages, etc.
Introduction and use of specialist apps, such as, Grofers, Flipkart, BookMyShow, News InShorts/ Times of India, Ola and Meru Cabs, etc.
Net banking through HDFC, SBI, etc.
Paying utility bills such as electricity, phone bills, etc.
The programme, which started with the help of a few volunteers and their teacher Amrita Sai Marla, became so close to their hearts that they decided to continue it even after the CAS project was over.
The classes were conducted in the computer hall of their school, so they took special permission to continue with the classes. Now, as they have graduated from school, they plan to hand it over to their juniors.
Suyesha and Vibhor do not want to stop getting the blessings of grandparents even after they bid farewell to school. They are now planning to take the initiative forward by going to old age homes and teaching the grandparents who are staying there.
“We raise concerns over environmental degradation or the lack of education of the underprivileged, but seldom have we ever touched upon the most experienced in our society, the grandparents. As we feel that grandparents are the cornerstones of our lives, this is how we’ve decided to do something for them, show them our love and support. We work really hard towards our modules, undertake new challenges and come up with some interesting and essential things for the grandparents to learn, while constantly keeping them engaged. The blessings that the grandparents shower upon us make us feel accomplished and we don’t want to miss a single chance to keep those jubilant smiles on their faces,” says Suyesha
One of the defining moments of the Silver Surfer Programme came when a grandmother from a foreign country came to learn about Facebook from them.
Grandparents are overjoyed at connecting with old friends through Facebook.
Now in her 70s, this grandmother had not seen her friends ever since she was in her 20s and had to leave her country due to political instability. The prospect of even getting a glimpse of her school friends made her so eager to learn that within minutes Vibhor and Suyesha helped her set up her very own Facebook account. After intensive searching for an hour, they finally found her old friends.
“Never did a click ever make someone this happy. Overflowing with emotion she was as she got to speak to her friends, her smile radiating light on a cloudy, rainy day. It is for moments such as this that we had started this initiative,” says Vibhor.
“The journey of the Silver Surfer Programme has instilled in me vital life lessons that have helped me develop and grow as a person. For instance, I have learned that learning, in its candid, most humble form, is not bound by time but that it is in fact imperishable. Learning is a well-oiled machine that never stops, a beating heart that gives life. I have learned that there is no ‘right’ age and it is never ‘too late’ to learn,” adds Vibhor.
Suyesha narrates another happy moment when one of the grandmothers came to her after the class and requested that she teach her how to download songs. Initially, Suyesha was reluctant to do so. She explained to her how it would be an act of piracy. However, the grandmother insisted by saying that it was her favorite song and no one was helping her download it, even though she saw her grandchildren doing it all the time.
“It was an Atif Aslam song, Jiya re Jiya re! I can’t describe the glow in her eyes after it downloaded. She left me with numerous blessings that day,” says Suyesha
The Silver Surfer Programme has now evolved to also start providing the benefits of technology to workers and guards of their school. Their next series of modules is aimed at computer literacy, wherein they will teach the guards and workers everything about the basics of using computers – using the mouse, keyboard, internet, etc.
……About the author: A mechanical engineer, Manabi Katoch has been brought up listening to Tagore’s poems and stories, so she is kind of an emotional person within. She loves writing poems and stories on social and political issues. Few of her poems can be viewed on http://www.poemocean.com and satires on http://www.mindthenews.com. She has worked with Wipro, Frankfinn and Educomp in the past.
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