| Today, I want to take a moment to say ‘Thanks Be to God’. Today, I want Him to know how grateful I am, for all that I have encountered in my life: the people that have given it more meaning, the opportunities that I have learned much from, the challenges that I have had to overcome, and for each new day that I awake, and am given the opportunity to live my life once again. Thank You God!
Source…www.ba-bamail.com Natarajan |
Photography
This Flower Garden … A Paradise on the Land …!!!
This beautiful flower garden, found in the Al Ain Paradise garden in the United Arab Emirates, is one of the most beautiful and colorful gardens in the world. Every year, thousand come visit this aromatic and colorful place.
Watch a video tour of this incredible garden
Source….www.ba-bamail.com and http://www.youtube.com
Natarajan
” Even in Difficult times, You Must learn to Trust Yourself …”
‘In June 2014, I got placed as associate software engineer at Quickr for a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh.
‘Back in my village, my grandfather could not believe that I could earn so much.
‘I had to show him my bank passbook to convince him I was doing well for myself.’
Anup Raaj, 23, describes how Super 30, a free IIT-JEE coaching institute located in Patna, Bihar, changed his life. Divya Nair/Rediff.com listens in.
I come from a small village called Chenw which is located in the Aurangabad district of Bihar.
Ours is a joint family… our clay house is shared by 22 people.
I have two elder brothers; I am the youngest.
My father, Rampravesh Prasad, had a bachelor’s degree in history; he was one of the most educated persons in our village.
After completing his education, my father could not take up a teaching job nearby so he chose to work on our family farm, helping the family grow paddy.
Growing up years
Anup Raaj studies inside his clay house in Chenw. Photograph Courtesy: Anand Kumar
Like all other children in my village, I never went to a school until Class 5.
Chenw used to be a Naxalite area. There was no functional primary school in the village.
When I grew older, I learned that the only primary school in our village was shut down by the Naxals.
A group of five-six prominent people in our village had joined the Naxal movement and they had warned the teachers to stop coming to the school.
They wanted more people to join their movement against the government.
This group did nothing productive — they would just gather near the temple grounds, do some performances and make speeches.
Since going to school was out of question, young kids spent their childhood helping their families in the farm.
We would kill our time playing goli (a game played with marbles).
I was good at it and had a collection of close to 1,000 marbles.
My father, however, insisted his children should have basic education.
Every time he went to Rafiganj, the nearest town, he would buy second-hand textbooks and teach us basic mathematics and grammar at home.
Sensing my willingness to learn, my father decided to approach one of his friends who worked at the Jain Missionary School in Rafiganj.
Usually, the school management would not enrol non-Jain kids but my father’s friend managed to convince the authorities to consider my case.
It helped that I was smart for my age — I could solve basic mathematical problems and understand grammar.
I was admitted into Class 5 at the age of 10. This was in the year 2002. I studied there for a year.
Anup crawls out of his house in Chenw which was shared by 22 people. Photograph Courtesy: Anand Kumar
When you are living in a village, you can survive even with one square meal a day, but the day you send your children to school, your family will start feeling the pinch of expenses — books, uniforms, etc.
After I joined school, I could not work on the farm because I had to study, attend school, do my homework…
In 2003, I directly applied for admission into Class 7 at Ranibrajraj High School, Rafiganj.
I was asked to take a test in mathematics and I stood fourth in the exam. I was enrolled into Class 7.
During this time, I decided to help my family.
I started taking home tuitions in Rafiganj.
There were about three to four students and I would get Rs 250 per month, per student, to teach all the subjects.
Fortunately, the school I went to was funded by the government which meant I paid a nominal Rs 10 per month as the school fee.
Everything was going smoothly until, in August 8, 2006, my father left home never to return.
He did not leave behind a note or message.
We searched for him everywhere, at all possible places.
We registered a missing complaint at the police station too.
The incident shattered us.
My mother stopped going to work. She would cry and pray all day, hoping my father would return home.
I was in Class 10 and could not focus on my studies for at least four months.
I kept hoping he would return soon and our lives would get back to normal, but the day never came.
Meanwhile, since we were living in a joint family, my grandfather and relatives started feeling the financial burden and indirectly conveyed to us that they would not be able to help us for long.
We realised that we would have to fend for ourselves financially.
Taking over responsibilities
Anup with his mother in Chenw
I went back to taking home tuitions.
It was a challenging time for my family. It wasn’t easy to accept the fact that our father had left us and gone, just like that.
My friends and teachers from school helped me get through the dark phase and focus on my studies so that I could prepare for the board exams.
My hard work paid off and I ranked No 15 in the state examination conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board.
For the first time, I felt there was hope for me and my family.
Travelling to Patna
I scored 84.8 per cent in Class 10 and secured admission at Gaya College in Gaya, Bihar.
Gaya is 40 kilometres away from my village.
I would leave home at 7 am and take an express train from Rafiganj.
I would reach Gaya by 9 am and walk for about a kilometre and half to get to my college at 10 am.
After college, I would take tuitions in Rafiganj and return home late in the evening. It was tiring but I did not have a choice.
The home tuitions took care of my college fees — Rs 1,300 per year.
Joining Super30
It was in Gaya that I learned more about engineering as a career option from my friends and seniors.
I had noticed numerous posters advertising JEE and medical entrance coaching in Gaya. But the fees for these private coaching centres were too high. I could not afford it.
I did not want to pursue medicine, so I decided to study without attending any coaching classes and appear for the JEE in 2009.
I scored three marks in JEE Chemistry that year.
Since I was from the Hindi medium, I could not understand most of the questions; the paper was set in English.
It was my first attempt and I realised I wasn’t well prepared.
After writing my Class 12 examination in April 2009, I had the opportunity to visit a Janta Darbar held by chief minister Nitish Kumar.
I drafted a letter detailing my financial condition and requested him for financial aid to pursue engineering.
When I took the letter to the party office, one of the workers suggested I meet Anand Kumar of Super 30.
I waited for the exam results. I scored 81.80 per cent, topped the district and secured 11th rank in the state.
In June 2009, I found the address of Super 30 and met Anand Sir.
Like all students, I was asked to appear for the Super 30 entrance examination.
After the exam, Anand Sir met me and I narrated my story. He could instantly connect with me — he told me of his own struggles as a student. He was impressed with my academic performance.
In August 2009, I was selected in Super 30 programme and since then there has been no looking back.
Life @ Super 30
Anup (sitting, fourth from left) attends a class by Anand Kumar at Super 30 in Patna
When I first reached my room on the ground floor, I was thrilled.
It was spacious and overlooked a green patch of land.
There were three or four beds in each room and it was quiet — just the kind of environment a student would need to prepare for his career.
Even the IITs, I feel, do not offer that kind of study environment.
Once you join Super30, your food and accommodation is taken care of till you appear for the exam.
A meal of rice, dal and bhujiya would be served for lunch and dinner.
On special occasions, we would look forward to a meal of kachori, kala chana ghugni and sevai kheer.
We never forgot we were there for a purpose and we were always motivated to work towards it. We used to study for 14 to 15 hours a day.
I was bad in Chemistry and there was another guy who was weak in Mathematics. We helped each other.
At one point, I had asked Anand Sir if I could appear for the paper in Hindi as I was weak in English. But he explained that I should not run away from my weakness.
He told me that even if I attempted the paper in Hindi, I would still have to deal with the English language when I joined IIT.
Anand Sir would help us if we came across new or difficult terms.
In the beginning, I would take longer to understand a question and solve it. Slowly, I got better and could attempt more questions.
I appeared for the JEE in 2010.
Despite all the preparation, I still skipped questions worth more than 20 marks in Physics because I could not understand them.
I scored 237 out of 400 in the entrance examination and was ranked 997.
I had the option of studying computer or mechanical engineering in any of the lesser known IITs. But I opted to study civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay because I wanted to come to Mumbai and become an entrepreneur.
wanted to start something of my own and knew Mumbai would be my dream city.
With the help of Anand Sir, I secured an education loan from the Patna United Bank which would take care of my engineering fees.
I still have a year to go before I start paying off the EMIs.
Bombay dreams
Coming to Mumbai was a culture shock.
The schools in Rafiganj did not have more than four or five classrooms.
When I reached IIT, I was quite shocked to see so many hostels and buildings for students.
My grandfather didn’t believe me when I told him that the IIT-Bombay campus was bigger than our entire village. He thought I was exaggerating, but it is true.
As far as challenges were concerned, it was just the beginning.
I still did not have a good command over English and most of the students at IIT-B spoke very good English. I did not know how to strike a conversation.
In my first year, I had a lot of difficulty in understanding the subjects. I would carry a dictionary to class. I’d mark all my doubts and ask my teachers for help.
For the first few months, I kept to myself. By the time I reached second year, I took extra classes to learn programming and coding and that kept me busy.
I realised that computing is the only language that does not require you to communicate face-to-face with the other person.
In my second year, I managed to convince my bank manager to help with an extra loan to buy a laptop.
Travelling to Dubai
Now that I had a laptop and an internet connection, I subscribed to several groups of young coders across the country.
The internet became my best friend and guide. If I did not know something, I could always Google and learn without feeling embarrassed.
Towards the end of third semester, I had learned to create websites and write programmes.
After attending lectures, I would build websites and write programmes for start-ups.
I would earn anything between Rs 5,000 to 10,000 for a project. At one point, I was making Rs 60,000 a month.
In my third year, I travelled to Dubai for two months for a summer internship with AlumNexus. The experience was unforgettable.
When I landed in Dubai, I felt the way I did when I first reached Mumbai.
Everything seemed so glamorous — the multi-storeyed buildings, the clean roads — I was awestruck.
My office was on the 54th floor and the view from there was splendid.
My work experience in programming helped immensely during campus placement.
It did not matter that I was a civil engineering student.
In June 2014, I got placed as associate software engineer at Quickr for a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh.
Back in my village, my grandfather could not believe that I could earn so much.
I invited him and my mother for my convocation last year. I had to show him my bank passbook to convince him I was doing well for myself.
An entrepreneur at last
In January 2015, with the help of a group of friends — Pratik Chinchole, Shirin Shinde and Rahil Momin — I founded PSTakeCare, a healthcare start-up.
Pratik and Rahil are from IIT-B and Shirin graduated from the Institute of Chemical Technology.
With this start-up, I feel my journey has finally begun.
I feel fortunate to have come so far.
A lot of things have changed for me ever since I joined IIT. People’s attitudes have changed. They look at us with respect.
When I visit my village, people come and ask me how to pursue higher studies, a thought that was non-existent until some years ago.
Teachers like Anand Kumar have taught me the importance of patience. It is the greatest of all virtues.
Even in difficult times, you must learn to trust yourself.
In 2013, I had the opportunity to receive our late President, A P J Abdul Kalam, as the chief guest for 54th foundation day of IIT-Bombay.
During the brief interaction with Kalam Sir, he shared an advice I will never forget.
He said: ‘If one person decides to do something for himself, s/he is sure to excel, but if s/he decides to do something for the betterment of others, the society, or nation, s/he will do 1,000 times better.’
It was Kalam Sir’s dream to create more jobs in India for our youth; I hope I can contribute in some way to that dream.
Divya Nair / Rediff.com….www.rediff.com
Natarajan
This Ashram Left A Lasting Impression On The Minds Of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs.
During the town hall meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mark Zuckerberg revealed an interesting fact about him and Steve Jobs that made them successful.
Deeply influenced by the Indian spiritualism in the 70s, Steve Jobs, once a college drop-out used to visit Kainchi Dham Ashram, in Nainital, Uttarakhand.
It is believed that in the Ashram of Neeb Karori (often called Neem Karoli) Baba, Jobs got his enlightenment to build Apple.
Facebook, launched in 2004, had its fair share of dark days during the initial years. It was Steve Jobs, Zuckerberg went to during those hard times. Apparently, he followed most of Job’s advice when his company was going through a rough patch and it might have inspired him to turn into a visionary.
The Facebook CEO spent a month in India and spent two days in the Ashram which is a small temple complex on the banks of the Kosi, a river in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.
This is what he revealed in front of Modi and the whole world:
“…he (Jobs) told me that in order to reconnect with what I believed as the mission of the company I should visit this temple that he had gone to in India early on in his evolution of thinking about what he wanted Apple and his vision of the future to be. So I went and I travelled for almost a month, and seeing people, seeing how people connected, and having the opportunity to feel how much better the world could be if everyone has a strong ability to connect reinforced for me the importance of what we were doing and that is something I’ve always remembered over the last 10 years as we’ve built Facebook.”
Though Neeb Karori Baba passed away in 1973, his followers include some well-known personalities, including Hollywood actress Julia Roberts and Larry Brilliant, former director of Google.org.
His ashram went on to transform two unknown faces into billionaires – Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
Amazing, isn’t it?
News Source: The Times Of India
Source…Shuvro Ghoshal..www.storypick.com
Natarajan
At 94, This Man is Trying to Get Mangaluru’s Traffic in Order…….
94-year-old Joe Gonsalves has been appointed Chief Traffic Warden for Mangaluru
October 1 is observed as World Elders Day – but for some, age is clearly just a number – and no reason to take the foot off the accelerator and apply the brakes. Meet Joe Gonsalves, a spry 94-year-old – and he plans to get the traffic of Mangaluru into some kind of order. He has volunteered to work with the traffic police in his home town to set up a Traffic Warden Squad.
“I have been driving for the last 75 years in Mangalore city. It was a pleasure to drive. I realised there is a radical difference in traffic from what I knew then and what it is today. Very often people tend to criticize what the traffic department is doing. But have we asked a question to ourselves, what are we doing about it? Pointing a finger at anyone is very easy but we should not be on fault-finding missions but on fact-finding missions. Then we will find an answer,” Mr Gonsalves told NDTV.
Mr Gonsalves has been appointed Chief Traffic Warden for the city after choosing to be the change he wanted to see.
AC Vinay, a corporator, is impressed. “This is an indication to youth and other citizens of Mangalore city to join with Gonsalves,” he said
“I am not working alone. I am working with the department coordinating their efforts at the same time providing them with manpower to the best of my ability. We directed our attention to colleges… We told students their role was not just to study and get degrees but to reach out to people. We told them the best way is to try and avoid road accidents and deaths. It is my turn to return something to Mangalore and the people of Mangalore,” Mr Gonzalves said.
The members of the new Traffic Warden Squad will have a marvelous example to follow. As will all of us.
Source…www.ndtv.com
Natarajan
The 79-Year Old Who Knocks on the Doors of the Rich to Collect Medicines for the Poor ….
At his age, he walks 5-7 kms a day collecting leftover medicines from the rich in Delhi. Meet Medicine Baba, the selfless man who dreams of setting up a medicine bank for those who cannot afford treatment.
Omkarnath Sharma, better known as Medicine Baba, is a retired blood bank technician on a very difficult mission. He wants to start a free medicine bank for the poor and needy.
And for this, he walks around the streets of Delhi, knocking on one door after another, collecting medicines from the upper- and middle-class houses in the city.
Omkarnath Sharma collecting medicines
Bachi dawai daan me, na ki kudedaan me. Medicine baba ka ek hi sapna, gareebo ka medicine bank ho apna.” (Leftover medicines should be donated, not discarded. Medicine Baba has only one dream, that the poor should have a medicine bank of their own).
This is Medicine Baba’s daily call at the doors of the well-heeled people of Delhi, those who don’t even often know that they have an abundance of unused medicines lying around in their homes.
Medicine Baba documenting the details of his collection
At an age when many people choose to rest and spend time with their families, Medicine Baba has no plans of hanging up his shoes. He has been working like this since 2008, when an under-construction Delhi Metro bridge in Laxmi Nagar collapsed and Omkarnath witnessed many injured people suffering because of the lack of adequate medical care.
He saw how the nearest hospital turned away patients saying it did not have the required medicines. For no fault of their own, the injured people had to rush here and there to find a place that could provide proper treatment. Omkarnath was shocked.
He found this situation painfully ironic—on the one hand there were no medicines in the hospitals for people who were dying and on the other there were large quantities of usable medicines being discarded by households every day.
He wanted to do something that had never been done before—to collect these medicines and create a bank of medicines for the poor. And so began his journey.
People come in to take medicines from Omkarnath for free
Omkarnath goes out every morning, takes a bus, and visits a different neighbourhood of Delhi each day. Here he walks around for about 5-7 kms, collecting unused prescription and non-prescription medicines from houses. Over the years, he has been successful in gaining some regular contributors, who sometimes call him to say that he can come and collect the medicines.
Ask him if he has any difficulty walking around so much at this age, and he says, “It is difficult, but if you are worried about difficulties and challenges, how will you work?”
He scans the collected medicines carefully, and maintains a record of all of them. Some of these medicines are stored in a small room he has rented next to his house in Manglapuri, New Delhi. Those who cannot afford medicines can visit him here between 4 and 6 pm.
Medicines in his collection that can be useful to hospitals (like those required for the treatment of cancer), are donated to hospitals like AIIMS, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Hospital, Lady Irwin Medical College, and a few ashrams and dispensaries in Delhi. He says that he donates medicines worth Rs. 4-6 lakhs every month.
Medicine Baba says his main mission is not just to collect medicines. The priority is to create awareness among people so they think twice before discarding useful prescription medicines.
Out on his mission
For himself personally, the satisfaction that he experiences on seeing people get healed with the help of medicines he donates, is enough. He is proud of his work and this is what gives him the inspiration to keep moving forward despite his age. “I feel so happy when I see them going to work all healed and healthy,” he says
As a retired person, Omkarnath faces difficult times trying to make ends meet sometimes. His family includes his wife, a son, a daughter, and a granddaughter. He manages his work with the help of donations he receives from people from time to time. Other than that, he is also sometimes seen in buses and metros, letting people know about patients who need financial help.
If he manages to collect some money this way, he uses it to donate medical equipment like oxygen tanks, hospital beds, etc.
Medicine Baba is a blessing for many people. At present, he is trying to help some people suffering from cancer and kidney ailments. He is trying his best to arrange money for their treatment. Moving around in Delhi, wearing an orange shirt that highlights his phone number and his mission in bold, Medicine Baba is a source of hope for many. We can only wish that his dream of setting up a medicine bank gets fulfilled.
To know more about Omkarnath and donate to his mission, you can visit his website here or write to him at helpingbaba@gmail.com or you can call him on +91 9250243298.
Source……..Tanaya Singh….www.the betterindia.com
Natarajan
China opens glass-bottomed bridge named ‘Brave Men’s Bridge’….
Visitors walk across the terrifying glass-bottomed bridge in China. Picture: Chinatopix Via AP/ CHINA OUT
THIS is not for the faint of heart.
China has opened a glass bottomed bridge hovering 180m metres above the valley floor in Pingjiang county in Hunan province.
Stretching 300 metres long, the glass suspension bridge is named Haohan Qiao, translating in English to ‘Brave Men’s Bridge’ and it’s not hard to see why.
The bridge was originally wooden until its conversion using glass panes 24mm thick and 25 times stronger than normal glass.
Don’t look down. Picture: Chinatopix Via AP/CHINA OUTSource:AP
It’s a long way to the end. Picture: Chinatopix Via AP/ CHINA OUTSource:AP
China also has plans for another glass-bottomed suspension bridge in the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon area, about 300 kilometres northwest of Shiniuzhai.
When completed, it will be the world’s highest and longest glass bridge at 430 meters long and 300 meters high.
Visitors wear protective shoe coverings as they walk across the bridge. Picture: Chinatopix Via AP/ CHINA OUTSource:AP
Source….www.news.com.au
Natarajan
5 Things you Need to know about India’s First Space Observatory…
This mission will study astronomical phenomena, puts India in select group of nations
Astrosat is compared to NASA’s Hubble telescope. Photograph: ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday successfully launched the Astrosat satellite. Through this launch, India has joined a select group of countries that have their own space observatory satellite.
Here are five things you need to know about Astrosat.
1.
This is India’s first attempt at setting up an observatory in space, a place from where it can study cosmological phenomena.
2.
The mission is aimed at obtaining data that will help in a better understanding of the universe. The mission is to study astronomical phenomena. Astrosat is carrying five payloads, including an ultraviolet imaging telescope.
3.
Astrosat is generally described as India’s version of the Hubble telescope that NASA had put in space in 1990.
But experts say it is not right to call Astrosat India’s Hubble, as the NASA version is 10 times heavier than Astrosat and is said to cost $2.5 billion, while India’s satellite costs around Rs 180 crore.
4.
Astrosat will put ISRO in a very exclusive club of nations that have space-based observatories. Only the United States, European Space Agency, Japan and Russia have such observatories in space..
5.
For the third time an Indian rocket will be launching seven satellites in a single mission. In 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go, including India’s Cartosate-2A satellite.
Source….www.rediff.com
Natarajan
Something for you to start your day with a Smile ….
I Wanted You to Smile, So I Sent You This Video!
Do you want a few minutes of uninterrupted happiness? Then take a minute to enjoy the company of the cutest, furriest little golden labrador puppies. They are so full of life, love and happiness, it’s impossible not to catch it.
Source……www.ba-bamail.com
Natarajan
Image of the Day….” Moon On the Hand…”
Jenny Ortolaza wrote: “I told him that he could hold the universe in his hands and he said ‘I’ll start with the moon.’” Photo credit: Gina DiNapoli in Rochester, New York.
Source……www.earthsky .org
Natarajan
Take off with Natarajan 