Do you remember Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody, and their constant endeavours to save the day?
Well, a school-going teenager from Kolkata is giving them stiff competition!
Aryamaan Lakhotia, a 17-year-old student at St James’ School, has collected and distributed thousands of toys to underprivileged children, through his organisation, the Toy Joy Foundation.
In doing so, he has managed to accomplish one of the most basic yet difficult tasks—to bring back innocent smiles on the faces of hundreds of children.
A solely student-led organisation, Toy Joy was established three years ago, after a trip to Jaipur made Aryamaan realise the importance of toys, and the difference they could make.
“I was in Jaipur for my cousin, Anoushka Sahoo’s 16th birthday. We were returning from the party in a car which was full of gifts when we halted near a traffic signal. It was then that a boy came and knocked on our window, and his eyes were fixated on the gifts. That look touched something in both of us, and we saw how such toys that don’t mean much to us anymore could truly make a difference to others. That incident made me look inwards, and I decided to start collecting my toys, and those belonging to my family members and friends, to give them to the kids who truly need and value them,” said Aryamaan, while speaking to The Better India.
Aryamaan started Toy Joy in May 2016, with the help of Anoushka and her friend Rashi Chaudhary, who were both in Class 11 at the time.
He is also helped by his sister Ananya, Class 11 student at La Martiniere for Girls school.
However, he credits his grandmother Asha Lakhotia, as the real backbone of the organisation. “Without grandma, I could never have started this or would have been able to expand it to almost seven cities now. It is all her encouragement and support,” he added.
The next step was to spread the word among family members, extended relatives and friends, and once that was done, the donations began to arrive. An entire room in his house is now dedicated to storing the collection.
“We have thousands of donated toys, of which many are old as well as new. But, we make sure that the kids don’t receive the ones that are dirty, tattered or broken. Those that can be cleaned, repaired and made like new are selected and taken to the NGOs, orphanages and evening schools, where they are distributed,” said Aryamaan.
What started as a concerted effort to change a social situation, has now spread across seven cities—Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Noida, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Nawa (Rajasthan)—where school students like Aryamaan are leading such collection and distribution programmes through the foundation.
“We are also planning to expand to Nagpur and Bhubhaneswar,” he added.
All these centres individually operate under the foundation, through personal contact and the Facebook page, which has more than 1000 followers.
Aryamaan recently received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (formerly known as the National Bravery Awards) in the field of social service, from the President himself.
Still reeling in ecstatic disbelief, he said, “It is a great honour, and I can hardly believe it. But, honestly, over the years, it is these smiles of pure joy, that have filled our hearts. That’s our true reward, and I hope that more youngsters are inspired to take leadership and to do something for the society.”
The Better India is extremely pleased that our video series, ‘Reach For Better’ has picked up not one, but twotrophies at this year’s vIDEA Awards!
The series received prizes for ‘Best Branded Video Content’ and ‘Best Storytelling’, which we are extremely stoked about because storytelling is what we’re all about.
TBI was felicitated alongside heavy-hitting brands like LG, Reliance Jio, Eros, LinkedIn, MTV and talented creative agencies like iProspect and Red Dot Entertainment.
‘Video’ used to be a fancy content format, but it has since morphed into a platform of its own. It’s visual and universally engaging nature makes it a very powerful tool for storytelling in today’s highly digital world.
Now all brands want to leverage video, and the mushrooming of talented boutique video agencies has resulted in a highly competitive landscape for video.
It is for this reason that it is doubly exciting for us that our content collected two spots at this year’s vIDEA Awards.
The ‘Reach For Better’ series took us on a long and trying journey, and resulted in six inspiring stories of resilience, grit, and ultimately success. The protagonists that we were able to cover for this series range from a 15-year-old inventor to a transgender radio jockey. Each of these stories speak of struggles, and a value that helped them overcome their hurdles.
For Team TBI it was especially difficult- but gratifying- because of the roller-coaster of emotions. Yes, these stories filled us with hope, but there are also some heart-breaking parts in there too.
“Working for the Franklin Templeton ‘Reach For Better’ project was a very memorable one. The film making process was very fulfilling because the protagonists were so very inspirational. They kept us going in the scorching Indian summers because we were hell-bent on doing justice to their stories.” says Krishna MV, a producer on the series
Thousif Raza, the lead producer for the series, speaking about one of the stars said, “The protagonists really are heroes. One of them said something that really touched me – he said that he is willing to let farmers learn the technology he has developed for free provided each one of them helps ten other farmers learn it. That’s such dedication to the service of others! And each one of the protagonists is a stellar life example in their own way.”
These stories go to show that with a little bit of ingenuity and a whole lot of courage, anything can be accomplished. Just look at what the six protagonists of this series have done and the life values they represent, and click here to know more about the campaign:
Stay Resilient: This video is about a transgender who fought the dismissal and harshness of society to achieve her dream of becoming an RJ and a respected citizen in her community. Watch the video!
Step Up: Despite being born visually impaired and with limited mobility in his arms, 29-year-old Shankar Chandrashekar is a digital guru and helping other visually-impaired people become tech-enabled. Watch the video!
Start Early: A 15-year-old son of daily wage labourers builds a unique garbage-collection cart that is winning awards, proving that innovation can come from anywhere if given the right support and encouragement. Watch the video!
Never too late to begin: A child bride at 12 and a mother at 13, Baby Halder escaped a life of abuse, took up a job as domestic help, and went on to become a bestselling author. Her book has been translated in 21 local and 13 foreign languages. Watch the video!
Seek Guidance: Biplab Ketan Paul, water sector expert and social innovator, has created a unique rainwater harvesting technique that is transforming 40,000 barren acres and can hold up to 40 million litres that will last farmers 7 months! Watch the video!
Have A Goal: Pabiben used to fetch water for Re.1 a day. A female artisan in a village in Kutch, she defied social diktats to invent her own art form, and now her art trade employs women in the village and has an annual turnover of Rs. 20 lakh. Watch the video!
The video series was a success for the brand- Franklin Templeton India- as well. We amalgamated their brand philosophy with an engaging format of video storytelling woven around important life lessons which can also be adopted when it comes to one’s investments (resulting in the themes stated above).
The campaign generated more than 27 million video views, achieved over 124 million impressions, and engaged with half a million people. It has since become one of the most successful campaigns in the brand’s history.
vIDEA, The Video Media Summit & Awards 2019 has been conceived by Inkspell to recognize and acknowledge the champions of the video content and media industry, and push us all to create even better content. Inkspell Media is an avant-garde digital solutions enterprise.
What is impact? Broadly speaking, the impact that TBI is constantly talking about can be defined as making someone’s life a little bit better. The effort is not just about easing suffering, but enabling people to lead fuller lives.
But with so many people in India and so many issues, how can we possibly reach them all?
That’s where amplifiers come in. An amplifier, in this case, means someone who makes something larger.
There are many individuals out there who are doing fantastic work that reach many people at once, and who regularly go above and beyond the call of duty to do so.
And yet, in many cases the scope of their efforts is confined to a fraction of what it could be if only more people were aware of it.
That’s where TBI comes in, because we are trying to be an amplifier of impact.
When we publish a story about someone’s work and it goes viral, it sometimes leads to a chain of events that dramatically increases the exposure of their work. Then suddenly they are in a position to impact tenfold more people than before.
Good work then reaches more individuals, as it should. The impact has been amplified.
In 2017, we had published this story about Kavita Gupta, co-founder of ‘Win Over Cancer’ and designer of an affordable prosthetic bra (for post-mastectomy patients).
Kavita Gupta distributing free prosthetic bras at AIIMS
That story went viral and cascaded into huge coverage of their work – and recently Kavita’s first national award!
(Read more about their work at the end of this article, or in the original article here).
Here’s how it happened:
Kavita and her husband Arun had been doing work for ‘Win Over Cancer’ for over five years, but they were facing a lot of difficulties. The way Arun tells it, they were working against strong perceptions and stigmas. They often struggled to convince people they were trying to help!
On February 16, 2017, TBI published the story of ‘Win Over Cancer’. What followed was a whirlwind of exposure.
“Suddenly people started appreciating our work. They wanted to be involved with us. Their perception was changing,” says Arun.
Arun Gupta speaks for ‘Win Over Cancer’ at an event
But it didn’t end there. What followed is even more incredible:
Their NGO’s volunteer wing (Delhi University students’ wing) started receiving calls from the placement cells of different colleges inviting them for internship placements. The demand for this came from students of these colleges themselves!
Until that point, Kavita and Arun’s work was confined to the north of India, and they always dreamed of operating in the south. However, they lacked the financial and manpower resources. Then after a leading Telugu newspaper, Enudu, covered their story on the front page, they received support from NGOs and doctors in the south to bring their program to patients in the region. Soon after, two patients received subsidized oncology medicines, and 12 patients requested the prosthetic bra. And that was just the beginning.
They were running a fundraiser for a 17-year-old boy fighting leukemia. Post publication of our original article, the fundraiser received donations to cover for 60% of the target within 10 days, including CSR from three companies
Zee News got in touch with them and did an 8-minute story on them. Zee News also supported their efforts. They were told that their NGO is the only one in India that has this program for cancer-impacted families.
In March of 2017, Arun wrote to us saying, “You have been the change catalyst for us. What we tried for so many years you have made this possible in the last two weeks. I know that the cascading impact of your post is going to increase in the coming days.”
This is absolutely huge! The exposure and recognition that they received contributed greatly towards Win Over Cancer’s services reaching and helping more people. Kavita and Arun attribute a large part of that to the article TBI wrote.
Fast forward to 2019, Kavita received an ‘Exceptional Women of Excellence’ award by the Women Economic Forum, recognizing her efforts towards empowering distressed breast cancer survivors.
Kavita Gupta speaking at WEF 2019 where she was awarded
Kavita spoke to us after being recognized by the Women Economic Forum. She says,
The Better India is the most credible portal for positive news in India. It is followed by millions. One coverage by The Better India helped us spread so much awareness.It will encourage people to use our services which are free, and also increase the acceptance of cancer-impacted families in jobs. We expect more and more companies to come forward and post vacancies on our job portal.
The seeds that were sown two years ago continue to flower. The amplifying effect goes on, cascading into the future.
It stands as a testament to the power of positive content. And we will shout it from the rooftops every time it happens. Because this victory is also yours, the readers, because you made all of this possible by reading these stories and sharing the positivity.
That is the power you have with the click of a button.
About ‘Win Over Cancer’
The Agenda of ‘Win Over Cancer’ is to:
Provide emotional support and professional counselling
Increase awareness about cancer
Reduce cost of treatment
Make treatment available to distant geographies
Create sustainable earning opportunities for survivors and relatives of deceased patients
As of publication of the original article (two years ago), Kavita had channelized more than 140 students to this movement as volunteers, organizing awareness camps among college students in innovative ways and managing skill development programs for the NGO. Some 9.2 lakh savings were afforded to patients due to the services provided by Win Over Cancer. Since then, they have served many more.
The prosthetic bra proved to be a boon to breast cancer survivors in India, particularly the poor. Although the doctors highly recommend a prosthetic bra to patients, most don’t end up using it as the commonly available silicon-based prostheses cost more than Rs.8,500, and the patients are already overburdened by costly treatment and think it is only for cosmetic purposes.
However, there is actually a medical reason to use such a device. The post-mastectomy patient deals with balance and alignment issues that can negatively affect the spine, shoulder and neck. Quite often, this post-mastectomy side effect can be avoided simply by wearing a prosthetic bra.
The prosthetic bra, designed by Kavita, is skin-friendly and medically approved by AIIMS. It costs far less to make than the silicon-based prosthetic bras, and Kavita distributes them for free to cancer survivors!
One of the highest civilian awards in the country are Padma Awards. The three categories of the Padma awards are:
-Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service),
-Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher-order) and
-Padma Shri (distinguished service).
For the very first time in the history of Indian sports, all the athletes whose names have been forwarded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports are women.
Mary Kom has been recommended for the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, after the Bharat Ratna. She was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2013 and Padma Shri in 2006. Mary Kom has many feathers to her cap; she is the first Indian woman boxer to win a Gold Medal in the 2014 Asian Games and the same at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
While there is no dispute about what she has done for the sport, she has also helped many girls enter the boxing world. You may certainly have read and perhaps even seen her in action, but here’s a heartwarming video of this rockstar singing.
This Badminton superstar received Padma Shri in 2015 and has now been nominated for the Padma Bhushan. Earlier this year she scripted history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a gold at the BWF World Championship 2019. She did this by defeating Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in thirty-eight minutes.
It’s not just her victories that are inspiring, but what is equally impressive is her journey. Sindhu travelled for almost 56 km every morning to get to Pullela Gopichand’s Academy, where she would train for four hours each day. For more about this nominee, do click here.
This wrestler from Haryana is the first Indian to be nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Sports Award. In 2018, Vinesh won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, silver in the Asian Championships and gold medal at the Jakarta Asian Games. The country is looking to the 25-year-old to secure a medal for India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In this article here, you will read how her coach, Woller Akos, who was in Budapest at the time, instructed Vinesh via Whatsapp on how to tackle her Japanese opponent.
Her knock of 171* against Australia at the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup is now etched in history. The sports ministry has forwarded Harmanpreet Kaur’s name for Padma Shri this year. Having grown up harbouring dreams of representing India in cricket, Harmanpreet made her ODI debut at the age of 20, against Pakistan Women’s cricket team. Harmanpreet also became the first Indian cricketer to be signed by an overseas Twenty20 franchise in June 2016.
It was at the age of six that Haryana’s Rani Rampal set foot onto a hockey field. At 14, she made her debut in the Senior Indian Women’s hockey team as its youngest player. In 2016, when India qualified for the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years, it was Rani who made the winning goal.
Having had to fight many societal prejudices, in this interview with The Better India, she says, “They[family] did not think sports could be a career path, not for girls at least. Besides, my relatives would often tell my father, ‘What will she do playing hockey? She will run around the field wearing a short skirt and bring a bad name to your family’.”
This year, the sports ministry has forwarded her name for the Padma Shri. You can read more about her journey here.
As of January 2019, Manika is the top female table-tennis player in India and 47th in the world. Manika led the Indian women’s team to a stunning gold medal finish in the Commonwealth Games, with a 3-1 win over a formidable Singapore team. At 24, Manika has many awards under her belt and is also the only Indian to receive “The Breakthrough Star Award” by International Table Tennis Foundation.
Her name has nominated for the Padma Shri. You can read more about her here.
Nominated for the Padma Shri, Suma is a former Indian shooter who entered the sport in 1990 and in 2002, and created history by winning a gold medal in 10m air rifle pairs (with Anjali Bhagwat) at the Manchester Commonwealth Games.
At the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, she won a silver in the 10m air rifle team event.
8. & 9. Tashi and Nungshi Malik (Mountaineering)
Nungshi and Tashi Malik
What started as a casual vacation course of mountaineering has today resulted in the twin sisters being nominated for a Padma Shri. Tashi and Nungshi have made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the first twin sisters to climb Mount Everest.
They are the first twins to scale the Seven Summits – Mt Kilimanjaro (South Africa), Mt Everest (Asia), Mt Elbrus (Europe), Mt Aconcagua (South America), Mt Carstensz Pyramid (Australia and Oceania), Mt McKinley (North America) and Mt Vinson Massif (Antarctica).
They are also the World’s first siblings, first twins and youngest women to complete Explorers Grand Slam and the Three Poles Challenge. Click here to know more about the twins.
We will now have to wait until the eve of Republic Day, 2020 (January 25th) to see which of these nominations were accepted and awarded. We wish all of them the very best in their lives and careers.
While Indians are celebrating the Nobel Prize win of Indian-origin economist Abhijit Banerjee, a lot of relevant debates are surfacing. One of the most trending discussions being – Why India has not secured a single Nobel Prize in core sciences since Sir C V Raman earned the sole honour in Physics in 1930.
In this article, we trace the life and legacy of six brilliant Indian scientists nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, the ultimate honour eluded them, but their researches have paved the groundwork for future Nobel-worthy discoveries.
Despite multiple nominations, these six Indian geniuses failed to make it to the final list of Nobel Laureates. However, it is high time we revisit their contributions to the scientific scene of India.
1. Meghnad Saha
A pioneer astrophysicist hailing from Bengal, Meghnad Saha introduced the world to Thermal Ionisation Equation (better known as the Saha Equation) which demonstrated the relationship between an element’s ionisation state to the temperature and pressure. The equation helped his scientific successors to perform accurate spectral classification of stars.
Born in 1892 in Dhaka of undivided Bengal, Meghnad Saha was the fifth child of eight. Though he came from a considerably lesser privileged background, he persevered through all hurdles to emerge as one of the leading scientific men of the time. During his lecturership at the Calcutta University College of Science, Saha wrote some brilliant papers that could not be published owing to budget constraints of the college.
In 1919, he earned the Premchand Roychand Scholarship for his dissertation on ‘Harvard Classification of Stellar Spectra’ which helped him travel to Europe to work with leading scientists for two years.
It was in Europe in 1920 that Saha discovered his equation. After coming back to India, Saha built the first cyclotron in the country. He also started Indian Science News Association (1935) and Institute of Nuclear Physics (1950).
In 1930, 1951 & 1955, Saha was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics by Debendra Mohan Bose and Sisir Kumar Mitra. In 1937 and 1940, Nobel Laureate Arthur H Compton also nominated Saha’s name. However, despite seven nominations, Saha was never awarded the prize.
2. Homi Jehangir Bhabha
Hailed as the Father of Indian Nuclear Programme, Homi J Bhabha was an Indian nuclear physicist who was nominated five times consecutively for the Nobel Prize in Physics between 1951 and 1956, by French Mathematician Jacques Hadamard.
However, the Prize eluded the man behind two of India’s elite scientific institutions – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
Born in 1909 to an influential business tycoon in Bombay, Bhabha attended the Royal Institute of Science in 1927 after completing his schooling in Elphinstone College. He later joined Caius College of Cambridge to pursue Mechanical Engineering as per his family’s wish. However, in Cambridge, his interest piqued in theoretical physics, and he devoted himself to that domain.
In 1933, Bhaba published his first paper – “The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation” – where he attempted to explain the concept in a novel way. His brilliant potential as a budding researcher took him to work with Niels Bohr directly. In 1935, Bhaba calculated the cross-section of electron-positron scattering – a phenomenon later renamed as Bhaba Scattering in his honour.
After his return to India in 1939, he worked under Sir C V Raman at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He failed to return to Cambridge for further research due to World War II. In India, he later went on to develop a conducive scientific temper for atomic energy research in the country and convinced the then Prime Minister Nehru to establish the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948.
Throughout his life, he was a strict advocate of peaceful use of nuclear energy. He was even appointed the President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955.
3. Satyendra Nath Bose
His name now reverberates at the very foundation of Particle Physics through the Bose-Einstein statistics, Bose-Einstein condensate as well as the subatomic ‘boson’ particle christened after him. He was, in fact, a pioneer figure in the field of Quantum Mechanics. And yet, Satyendra Nath Bose never won a Nobel Prize in Physics, though, several of his successors earned the honour by furthering on his work.
Born on 1 January 1894, in a middle-class family of Calcutta (Kolkata), Bose topped both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mixed Mathematics from Presidency College. Later, he found his forte in Einstein’s freshly published theory of relativity and pursued his research in the nascent domain of Quantum Physics.
At that time, French or German scientists were publishing most of the pathbreaking research works. The language barrier, coupled with the advent of World War I, took a toll on the pursuance of advanced research in India. So, Bose, along with his contemporary Meghnad Saha learnt French and German languages and co-published ‘The Principles of Relativity’ in 1920 – the first-ever English translation of Einstein’s works in both German and French.
Bose’s next research at the University of Dhaka was one of his most important deductions – as it would go on to derive German physicist Max Planck’s Quantum Radiation Law without any reference to classical physics.
In June 1924, Bose corresponded with Einstein himself, sending him details about his groundbreaking derivation. Amazed by Bose’s conclusions, Einstein translated his entire theory in German and got it published in Europe with the personal note – “Bose’s derivation of Planck’s formula appears to me an important step forward. The method used here gives also the quantum theory of an ideal gas, as I shall show elsewhere.”
He earned the opportunity to work at the Laboratory of Maurice de Broglie in France where he mastered advanced techniques of X-ray spectroscopy and crystallography. He also met Einstein, Paul Langevin and Madame Curie in person.
After his return to India, he devoted himself to escalating his research to the next stage. He also took a keen interest in translating all his research into Bengali, as he was a staunch advocate of practising science in one’s mother tongue.
Bose’s first nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physics came in 1956 from Prof. K Banerji. Later he was also nominated by D S Kothari (1959), S N Bagchi (1962) and A K Dutta (1962). The missed Nobel Prize did not deter him in the least as he was famously quoted saying, “I have got all the recognition I deserve.”
4. Dr Upendranath Brahmachari
The discoverer of Urea Stibamine, the life-saving drug for the deadly Kala-azar, narrowly missed India’s first and only chance at the Nobel Prize in Medicine till date. He was nominated for the first time in 1929 by Indian biochemist and pharmacologist Sudhamoy Ghosh. Later, 1942, Brahmachari received five nominations for the same from distinguished medical personalities.
U N Brahmachari was born in 1873 in Jamalpur, Bihar to a family with a medical background as his father was a noted physician. Though Brahmachari would finally earn his PhD in medicine for his thesis on Hemolysis, he had started his higher education with a dual degree in Mathematics and Chemistry. Later, he switched from a Master’s course in Chemistry to pursue a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree.
During his stint as a practising physician at Campbell Medical School, Kolkata, Brahmachari simultaneously executed his research work on Kala-azar. In a tiny, ill-equipped room, he would painstakingly conduct experiments with the bare minimum medical equipment and chemicals. He finally tasted success in 1922 after discovering an agent against Kala-azar, the urea salt of para-aminophenyl stibnic acid, which he named Urea Stibamine.
Though he did not receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine, he was bestowed with a Knighthood by the British Government in 1934 for his lifesaving contribution to the field of healthcare.
5. Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran
To any student of Biochemistry, the Ramachandran plot is a basic necessity. However, it is hardly remembered that unsung Indian physicist behind the famous Ramachandran plot was India’s first-ever nomination for the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Ramachandran was nominated by the Nobel Laureate Sir C V Raman himself in 1964. In fact, he was a research scholar under Raman’s supervision at the IISc.
Born in 1922 in Ernakulam, Kerala, Ramachandran studied BSc honours in Physics from St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli. Later, during his Master’s and PhD at IISc, he delved into the study of crystal optics and crystal physics.
Between 1947 and 1949, Ramachandran went on to work at the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where he earned his doctorate in X-ray diffuse scattering.
Upon his return to India, Ramachandran concentrated on developing a ‘yardstick’ to assess structures of all polypeptides – which led to the discovery of Ramachandran Plot in 1962.
He was honoured with the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London.
6. Thiruvengadam Rajendram Seshadri
T R Sheshadri was a Padma Bhushan Indian chemist whose remarkable research in organic chemistry earned him a Nobel Prize nomination in Chemistry in 1966. Prof N V Subba Rao nominated him. Seshadri’s work on Indian medicinal plants is indeed praiseworthy.
Seshadri was born in 1900 in Kulithalai village of Tamil Nadu to a humble family of seven. He pursued his Bachelor’s degree with financial assistance at the Presidency College, Madras.
In 1927, he joined the University of Manchester with a scholarship and pursued his doctoral research under Nobel Laureate chemist Sir Robert Robinson. At this time, he developed several anti-malarial drugs and other medicinal compounds.
He set up advanced laboratories for flavonoid research and also the Department of Chemical Technology and Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Andhra University during his tenure as the Head of Chemistry there.
Later, after an unfortunate pause his active research due to World War II, he joined Delhi University and established a new research school for studying natural plant-derivatives, such as terpenoids, alkaloids and quinonoid.
His career ended at its peak when his research grant was stopped in 1972, as well as his ill health. Seshadri breathed his last on 27 September 1975.
Source: IIT Delhi
This is how Nobel Prize nomination process works.
The Nobel committee extends invitations to distinguished scientific dignitaries in each field – Physics, Chemistry and Medicine – who are requested to nominate a deserving scientist of their choice.
No individual is allowed to nominate himself/herself for the coveted Prize. The secretive procedure also prohibits the disclosure of the names of the nominees until after 50 years from the nomination.
With Australian bushfires wreaking havoc through the continent’s prized biodiversity, coastlines slowly submerging, and cities, including our own national capital, experiencing the coldest spells of the century, it need not be explicitly said that the world is in the midst of a full-blown climate crisis.
Amid the dire consequences, a handful of people are working for the protection of wildlife and natural habitats in India, and like every year since 2000, Sanctuary Asia chose to honour these Earth Heroes.
Speaking about them, Bittu Sahgal, the founder and editor of Sanctuary Asia, said, “The women and men we honour with the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards are nation builders in every sense of the word. They are the heroes we want young India to look up to. They will be recognised as freedom fighters who saved our world from ourselves for generations to come.”
Here’s a look at them, and their incredible stories:
1. Vinod Rishi
The retired Indian Forest Officer and Former Additional Director General of Forests was honoured with the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards in the Lifetime Service category.
True to the honour bestowed upon him, he has spent a lifetime in pioneering India’s forest conservation movement. From anti-poaching actions to climate strategies, Rishi has left his mark in all aspect of wildlife conservation.
An engineering graduate from IIT-Delhi, he shifted his career trajectory to pursue a post-graduation degree in forest conservation from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.
In a career spanning four decades, Rishi actively worked for implementing novel conservation strategies at leading sanctuaries of India like Sunderban Tiger Reserve, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Singalila National Park, NeoraValley National Park and Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary. Interestingly, he was appointed the very first director of Project Elephant.
He also led exceptional projects like breeding of snow leopards in South-East Asia as well as the Red Panda Conservation Programme in Singalila National Park.
One of his prime focuses has been the reduction of human-wildlife conflict, especially in regions inhabited by forest-dependent communities.
Rishi is also a Founding Member of Wildlife Institute of India (WII). He continues to work for the wildlife in personal capacity even after his official retirement in 2006.
2. Nehara Pandey
A student of Class XII, Nehara Pandey, a resident of Goa, is an aspiring marine conservationist, who received the Young Naturalist award.
Nehara has started young and wears many hats. She is a rescue diver and emergency first responder, has shot and produced short films on water conservation, and has represented India at multiple global events like the World Ocean’s Day Organisation’s International Youth Advisory Council and the 2014-2015 Tetra Pak Youth Ambassador Program.
In 2015, she was honoured at the National Institute of Oceanography for ‘Initiative by a young person in the field of ocean conservation.’
Nehara wishes to pursue higher education in marine biology while remaining an active crusader of marine biodiversity protection.
3. Taukeer Alam
The teenager from Uttarakhand belongs to the pastoralist Van Gujjar community, known for safeguarding the natural wealth of the Himalayan foothills for centuries.
Financial constraints compelled Taukeer to drop out of school after Class 8, but he soon found his passion in the preservation of wildlife.
Taukeer worked as a cook and then as an assistant with a team of researchers from the Centre for Ecological Sciences.
Under their guidance, he learnt how to conduct ground surveys and monitor the movement of different species of bird. Soon, he emerged as one of the leading birdwatchers of Uttarakhand, with an impressive follower base on eBird—an online global database on bird observations.
At present, Taukeer is a field assistant with Nature Science Initiative, Dehradun who also spreads awareness about birdwatching about local residents. He conducts educational workshops at schools to kindle the children’s passion for the environment.
4. Laxmi Maravi
Laxmi Maravi, who won the Green Teacher Award, is a forest guard and an anti-poaching squad member from Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh.
A native of the small hamlet of Ajhwaar, Maravi was the first woman from her village to join the Forest Department.
Since her recruitment in 2005, Maravi has excelled in her duties of patrolling the tiger reserve, fieldwork and data collection for Tiger Conservation Plan.
She has had tons of terrifying encounters with wild beasts on many accounts, including an incident where she defended herself against a wild boar with an umbrella!
Maravi’s fierce courage and extreme dedication led her to be chosen for Kanha’s Nature Education Program, where she conducts an outreach programme for school children.
She is in charge of arranging educational tours at Kanha’s buffer zone. Alongside, Maravi also empowers the women from the Baiga tribal community to earn by handcrafting traditional jewellery.
5. Abhijit Rabha
Rabha is a Senior Forest Officer and anti-insurgency specialist from Assam who was awarded in the category of Wildlife Service.
He hails from Assam’s indigenous Rabha community, and in his initial years as an Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF), he pioneered the prohibition on timber poaching in the Nagaon Territorial Division.
He was actively engaged with Project Tiger as a key facilitator for 12 years, during which he revolutionised tiger conservation methods with the induction of modern technology like VHF radio, GIS and GPS tracking systems, and Long Range Patrolling.
Under his strict vigilance, the illegal trade and poaching of wild deer, monkeys, bears, porcupines, tigers, and exotic birds was brought down by a large extent. He also succeeded in rehabilitating and reforming 75 former poachers into foot soldiers for the Forest Department.
In March 2012, Rabha was abducted by Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT) militants. He has survived over seven assassination attempts by militants and poachers operational in the region.
Till today, he continues to remain a daunting force in the Forest Department of Assam.
6. Arun Prasad
The founder of Devalsari Samiti, an organisation which facilitates community conservation and biodiversity Protection in Uttarakhand, 29-year-old Arun Prasad is a resident of the Bangsil village in Tehri Garhwal and was one of the awardees in the Wildlife Service category.
Arun grew up amidst the mountains and trained as a bee-keeper from the mere age of 8. Later, he would go on to win a national science project award for his innovative approach towards bee-keeping.
In 2015, after graduating from Garhwal University, he noticed his batchmates leaving their homes in the mountains to pursue mainstream jobs in the city.
The exodus upset him deeply, and he decided to work towards reversing the trend of migration.
Soon afterwards, Arun set up the Devalsari Paryavaran Sanrakshan Awam Tekniki Vikas Samiti through which he created sustainable and profitable livelihood programmes for his community as well as launched nature conservation projects.
Arun’s venture excelled in the prospect of eco-tourism—which offers an enriching experience to travellers through birdwatching, nature trails, butterfly-watching, trekking, local cuisine and local heritage.
Additionally, Arun has championed natural conservation by protecting the forest habitats, fighting illegal poaching, preventing forest fires and raising widespread awareness.
He has also rained hundreds of local farmers in bee-keeping, to open up an additional source of income for the seasonal cultivators.
7. Chandni Gurusrikar
A software engineer and a wildlife conservationist, Chandni Gurusrikar was also among those who received the award in the Wildlife Service category.
Since 2008, she has been actively volunteering in conservation project across the state’s Tiger Reserves at Bandipur, Nagarahole and Bhadra, and is presently an acting trustee and volunteer at Vanodaya Wildlife Trust which works towards conservation in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary—Karnataka’s largest protected area.
Along with her husband Ashwin and an expert team of volunteers, Chandni advocates community conservation through awareness workshops, multi-level stakeholder engagements, conservation training for youths and efforts to mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in the region.
Chandni’s repeated RTIs and petitions resulted in the implementation of road closures at night in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary to thwart the entry of poachers.
Her team also works in coordination with the Forest Department to aid in waterhole mapping and anti-snare drives as well as poaching prevention. Her close camaraderie with the ground-level forest staff has also catalysed several protective campaigns.
At present, Chandni is an Academic Coordinator of the Post-Graduate program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, a collaborative program between the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS).
8. Debadityo Sinha
A prolific environmental writer and activist, Sinha is the founder of Founder and Managing Trustee of Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation who was awarded for ‘Wildlife Service.’
Born and brought up in Kolkata, Sinha pursued his graduation in Zoology from Delhi University, and later a Masters in Environmental Sciences from Banaras Hindu University.
Later, he specialised in Tropical Forest Restoration from Yale University.
At BHU, he set up its first-ever eco-club called ‘Eco One’ which went on to receive the Environment Equity and Justice Partnership fellowship, 2011 for its remarkable conservation efforts in Mirzapur, especially the revival of several waterfalls and streams.
Debadityo Sinha (left) with school students
When environmental clearance was given to build a 1320 MW thermal power plant through a forest in Mirzapur, he challenged the directive and thanks to his persistence, the National Green Tribunal revoked the clearance and ordered the restoration of the forest.
In 2012, Sinha set up the Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation. He is also a member of several leading environmental organisations including Wildlife Trust of India, Ganga Today, Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, Earth Matters Foundation etc.
He also guides other environmental activists to execute environmental litigations related to dams and power projects in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
9. Kheer Babu and Mahila Bai Pardhi
The duo are members of the nomadic Pardhi community from Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, and were jointly awarded in the ‘Wildlife Service’ category.
Traditionally infamous for their hunting practices, the Pardhis found themselves marked as a ‘criminal’ tribe after hunting was adjudged as a crime.
Kheer Babu
Over the past decade, Kheer and Mahila Bai have championed the rehabilitation of Pardhis from their ancestral vocation into being active guardians of the Panna forest.
With support from the Panna Forest Department, WWF India and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, they have worked hard to educate their community about wildlife conservation and change their primitive mindset.
Mahila Bai (centre) with kids
They have also helped to set up residential schools for young Pardhi boys and girls to make them eligible for mainstream career options. Several of their students have achieved academic and professional success.
Finally, their efforts have resulted in reviving the extinct tiger population of Panna—from 0 to 54 in just ten years!
“In one birth, I have led two lives,” 42-year-old Usha Chaumar says with a sense of wistful happiness in her voice. Having made it to the elite list of Padma Shri awardees of 2020, the mother of three exudes a determination to change the society.
“I want to cleanse the society of the concept of untouchability,” she says with grit. The former manual scavenger and beacon of inspiration for thousands of women in India, Usha Chaumar is a true superhero in every sense of the term.
In a heartfelt conversation with The Better India, Usha shares her inspiring journey – a story of indomitable spirit and persistence in an unforgiving society.
A manual scavenger at 7, a child bride at 10
“I started the work quite early, at around 7 years of age,” Usha recounts her childhood days when she was introduced into manual scavenging by her mother. Born in Deegh village of Bharatpur, Rajasthan, Usha and her clan were the noted Dalit ‘untouchables’.
The women in her family had ancestrally engaged in the inhuman profession and did not know their way out of it. Even if they had aspired to break free of the curse at some fleeting moment, the rural Indian society made sure to remind them of their ‘position’ in the social hierarchy.
Usha’s earliest memory of her mother was watching her wake up at the wee hours of dawn, grab her basket, bucket and brooms, and set out for the village toilets. An indelible cloak of shame shrouded her as she stealthily walked through the village lanes. As Usha grew older, she was advised to accompany her mother, so that she can be inducted in the profession as early as possible.
“There was no other option for us. Our kind was literally meant to spend life rotting in a hellhole,”
Shares Usha. By 7, when other children of the village headed for school, Usha was venturing out with her mother as a manual scavenger. She was married off by 10.
“I was a child bride. I was sent to my in-law’s house at the age of 14.”
Her husband was a cleaner with the local municipality in Alwar while her mother-in-law was also a manual scavenger. Inevitably, Usha had to continue the same work.
“Humara sirf ghar badalta tha, kaam nahi (Only our homes changed, not the work).”
The work was abhorrent, to say the least. As Usha, her mother or her mother-in-law spent their days wading through other people’s filth, they did not even have the assurance of the next meal. A mere daily wage of 10 to 20 rupees was reluctantly handed over to them once they had completed the job. Their monthly earnings never went beyond a paltry 200 to 300 rupees.
“The families sometimes used to give away their leftover food to us. We did not have money to buy clothes. We wore their hand-me-downs and discarded apparel,” shares Usha.
The turning point
For Usha, life at that point was a bleak lane. There was no escape from the abyss of ‘shame’ her birth had pushed her into. In 2003, she was already a mother sustaining her family as a manual scavenger. Little did she know her life was about to take a drastic turn.
“Dr Bindeshwar Pathak from Sulabh International came to our village and insisted on meeting with us, the manual scavengers. Before then, I had never dared to talk to a man other than my husband. But when he asked us why we are still doing this work, I had to answer.”
Usha bravely told Dr Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International, that women like her were not allowed to do any other work. She still recalls the surprise and shock on his face when she revealed her monthly earnings.
When Dr Pathak proposed the idea of an alternative lifestyle for Usha and her counterparts, they chuckled in disbelief. For the women seasoned for ages by the society’s blatant ostracisation, it was an absurd idea to be employed in other professions.
Usha accompanied the social workers to her slum in the neglected outskirts of Alwar. Teaming together, the women tried to explain how improbable the idea of other professions was for them.
“Who will buy our clothes if we do tailoring? If we sell vegetables, who will eat them?” Usha raised the starkly relevant questions. Dr Pathak assured that they will find buyers on behalf of Sulabh and promised them a standard payout of Rs 1500 a month.
Usha (front) learning how to stitch
Overcoming the fear and insecurity in her heart, Usha decided to step into the proposed programme, as other women followed suit. Soon, Sulabh set up the local NGO Nai Disha for the erstwhile manual scavengers, where they were provided various skill development training.
Breaking free of the vicious cycle
A different life was thus afoot for Usha. She no longer had clean other people’s filth every morning. Her day now started with a fresh bath and clean clothes, before heading to the centre. Amid laughter and conviviality, the women learnt the craft of stitching bags, making lamps or preparing jams, achaar (pickle) and papad. They were also treated to tea and snacks every day.
“I felt so clean and confident, like a different person altogether. We would all stay so happy the whole day,” she recalls. She felt blessed to be permitted inside the village temple, like any other person.
“I remember the time they (NGO team) took us to Delhi. It was the first time I had stepped out of my village. All of us were ecstatic to travel like any other citizen, stay in hotels and eat fancy food. We tried newer recipes every day. And when the schoolgirls greeted us with chadar (shawl) and mala (garland), I got goosebumps. I had never received such honour and respect from anyone before,” Usha’s voice quivers a little as her eyes well up.
Upon her return from Delhi, Usha started convincing other women to forsake manual scavenging, including her mother-in-law. But, if one woman came forward to quit, somewhere else another would be coerced into the heinous practice. It seemed like a vicious cycle that knew no end.
Usha and other women from Nai Disha at the Statue of Liberty, USA
The root cause of the problem was the lack of proper sanitation in the village. The primitive toilets needed cleaning and no privileged person was willing to do that by themselves. In addition, the centuries-old custom of marginalising the Dalits added on to their plight and despair.
That’s when Sulabh advocated the building of toilets in all homes of the village. The need for manual scavenging itself was thus eliminated altogether.
Flying on wings of newfound freedom
Usha broke off from the practice in 2003 and her sincerity & hard work at the NGO soon propelled her to a leadership position. She was soon appointed the president of the centre, taking hundreds of women under her guidance.
“We recognised an immense potential inside Usha. We taught her to read and write. She has a keen intellect and promptly grasped the tricks of the trade. She grew adept in marketing and business and showed excellent prospects as a mainstream leader,” says Dr Suman Chahar, the Coordinator of Manual Scavenger Rehabilitation program in Alwar.
With support from Sulabh, Usha has visited the USA, Europe and Africa and addressed the crowd there, sharing her remarkable life story. She has also been awarded by the Prime Minister of India and has met him several times.
The prestigious Padma Shri is the latest and perhaps the greatest honour in her crown, till date.
Even now, Usha seethes at the sight of a woman being forced to engage in manual scavenging. She explains to them how quitting the work will transform the trajectories of their lives entirely. Today, Usha’s inspiring journey has prompted hundreds of women to give up manual scavenging.
“Nobody wants to do this work on their own will. We make sure we don’t let anyone continue the practice. Why should we clean your filth? You should clean it yourself,” Usha states with a sanguine confidence.
Aside from being an award-winning activist, Usha is also a proud mother. Her two sons, both of whom are married, now run their own successful business ventures. Her daughter is a final year BA student. She wants her daughter to complete higher education and build a mainstream career for herself. The resolute mother has no plans to think about her marriage anytime before that!
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi
“I want to build a society free of untouchability”
Receiving the Padma Shri was beyond Usha’s wildest dreams. She was also not completely aware of the stature of the award before she herself earned the honour on 25 January 2020.
She jovially recalls the eventful day. “I got a call from someone in Delhi who was reconfirming my name and house address. I did not pay much attention to the call until I received a follow-up call in the evening the same day. They said ‘Madam, Congratulations! Aapko Padma Shri Milega (You will be receiving the Padma Shri).’ I was at a loss of words.”
Usha called up Dr Pathak immediately afterwards, whom she considers as a messiah in her life. She admits to being on cloud nine ever since, flooded by calls and congratulatory messages from everyone. People in the streets now look up to her with tremendous respect and awe.
Usha had had the long-time dream of opening a high school for girls in her village, most of whom are compelled to drop out in adolescence. She hopes to turn her dream into a reality soon.
“I want to eradicate manual scavenging entirely from our social fabric. Women are not meant for staying at home, cleaning dirt and taking care of children. I want every woman to be independent through dignified jobs. That is how we will build a better society, free of untouchability,” Usha asserts aloud with grit.
“I have always enjoyed doing something meaningful for people and serving them,” says 13-year-old Parikul Bharadwaj, who was bestowed with the National Bravery Award this year, under the Social Service category.
Parikul has been working along with her doctor parents in the high altitude Kedarnath region, tending to pilgrims and tourists, and providing them with medical attention.
Having made a name for herself in the India Book of Records as the youngest social worker of the country, her recognition this Republic Day makes her and her parents the proudest.
Not only is her work courageous but also fraught with dangers. The weather is often harsh in this region.
Speaking to The Better India, Parikul says, “The place where I work, Kedarnath, is about 14,000 ft above ground level, where the temperatures often dip to -9°C.”
Parikul, however, is unfazed as she has been doing this for a few years, and says that it has become ‘second nature’ to her.
Why social work?
“In 2009, my parents started working in Kedarnath, providing medical assistance to trekkers. I joined them about four years ago, with little assistance, like providing water to those who queue up outside the temple. The queue is often almost three kilometers long and has many senior citizens who find it difficult to sustain for so long.”
Many who line up also suffer from medical conditions that require timely medication, but they do not want to leave their spot in the queue. Parikul sees that they have their medicines at the stipulated time.
“I go there and give them food, warm water, and their medicines. In case we feel that someone requires focused intervention, we take them to the hospital that we have established near the temple,” she explains.
2 June 2019
In action.
What started as just another day, soon turned into something that she would perhaps never have imagined.
“I was going with two other team members on our regular rounds when I saw a lady standing in the queue with her family. She seemed to be in great distress and was unable to breathe. Upon checking her oxygen level, we found that it was way beyond the permissible limit.”
The lady was clad in many layers, so Parikul started removing some of them to help her breathe better.
Recollecting that day, she says, “I gave her half a tablet of medicine that is usually prescribed in such cases and rechecked her. Even that did not seem to help, and her levels were consistently dipping.”
While attending to her, Parikul noticed that her husband too had difficulty in breathing. The girl did not get overwhelmed and saw to it that the couple were air evacuated and taken to the hospital. Her presence of mind in the situation was admirable.
She is also skilled in rappelling, slithering, river crossing, and mountain climbing. And since her parents are doctors, she has also been trained in providing first aid.
Father speaks
With President Kovind.
Before Parikul could be a part of the team, she underwent intensive training. “Mountain medicine is one of the toughest services in India, and we are immensely proud of our daughter. She has undergone training with services such as Border Security Force (BSF), and Air Force. She joined us during her summer vacations to put all that training to use,” says Dr Pradeep Bharadwaj, her father.
A student of class 9 at St Mary School in Delhi’s Cantonment area, Parikul spent her 45-day summer vacation last year serving the pilgrims and trekkers at Kedarnath.
This sense of service came to her naturally as she always saw her parents put their patients first. She says, “I am not sure I know of a life other than this. I feel happy when I can do something for people and help them out.”
For saving the lives of the two pilgrims in Kedarnath and being one of the youngest social service workers in high altitude, Parikul was given the National Bravery Award this Republic Day. The family was in Jaisalmer when the news reached them. Her father gushes, “It is a matter of great pride and honour for the entire family.”
When I asked Parikul how her peers at school reacted, she says, “Nothing has changed. I am still a friend, and other than the occasional comment, it is all just as it was.”
Does she wish to follow her parents’ footsteps and become a doctor? She answers, “I wish to write the civil services examination and become an IAS officer. I also want to establish an institute where we train people to work and serve at high altitude areas.”
28-year-old Akhil Raj S reached his hometown, Kerala’s Wayanad, last November to enjoy a sabbatical. He was due to return to his job in a UK-based cruise ship in April, 2020. However, by the time April came about, the whole world was on a sabbatical of sorts, thanks to the pandemic. And while Akhil did not have any particular idea what he would do now that he was stuck in Kerala for the long term, a place in the India Book of Records and thriving new business thanks to his leaf art was probably only a remote possibility then!
“From childhood I had an interest in art. I used to paint and do craftwork. But I didn’t get enough time to focus on it, as I spent more time on my education and graduation,” Akhil tells The Better India.
After completing his BSc, Akhil got a job in Mumbai. He joined a cruise company in the UK four years ago. “There we have a contract of working for nine months and they provide leave for three months. That is how I came to Kerala in November,” he says.
Akhil’s family includes his grandmother, mother, brother, sister-in-law, their baby and his wife, all of whom live in the same house. When lockdown started, Akhil couldn’t step out of that home. So, like so many others, he began spending more time on social media platforms. That’s how Akhil came to notice leaf art on YouTube. Inspired, Akhil too tried his hand at the craft, with some leaves at home.
Akhil says, “Initially I was carving intricate designs on jackfruit leaves. Then I began carving designs on peepal leaves. That’s how all it stated. My friends used to give me suggestions and with practise, I became good at making portraits.”
“Many celebrities have contacted me seeing their portraits and it motivates me,” he adds,
Akhil slowly began posting videos of his leaf portraits of actors on his Instagram page. And this turned into an unexpected business venture, since he started to receive orders from Instagram users. Today, he charges Rs 900 for a framed leaf portrait of a single person. A couple portrait costs Rs 1700. Presently Akhil earns approximately Rs 25,000 in a month through his art.
“Anyone can place their order without much complications. I get orders from different parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Delhi. Those who wish to place an order can visit my Instagram or Facebook page and message me. Once you provide me with a photograph of the piece you want in the leaf, I start to work on it,” he says and adds, “I take a maximum of 5 hours to work on the portrait. First I draw the portrait on the leaf and then I carve out the portrait. Then I’ll leave the leaf to dry. I later apply a polish on the leaf to keep fungus away and then frame the leaf. So basically for the whole procedure, it takes 10 days.”
Akhil has also found a place in the India Book of Records and Asian Book of Records for his leaf art. “I applied on the website and received an email from India Book of Records. Everything happened quickly. The India Book of Records asked me to choose a topic and later, in one hour, I carved 25 international car brand logos on leaves and got into the Records,” he adds. Within days Akhil received a medal and a certificate from them.
He says that the Asian Book of Records also had the same procedure and now he is waiting for his certificate and medal from them as well.
Akhil receives orders via DM on Instagram and Facebook. Please have a look at his profile here.
Often referred to as an ‘earthy talent’, actor Manoj Bajpayee has had to tread a rather difficult path to get to this position of success. The son of a farmer — Manoj spent many summer vacations home from boarding school, tilling the field. He mentioned in an interview that even though his father was a farmer, the desire to ensure that his children completed their education was very strong.
“He (father) in fact wanted me to become a doctor, a dream that he had for himself and could not realise. However, I think I was born with a dream of becoming an actor. It wasn’t something that happened along the way,” Manoj said. Watching movies was something that he enjoyed along with his parents. But he was all of 7 when he was sent away to the hostel and spoke about how he was often bullied by the seniors at the hostel.
The 67th National Film Awards ceremony that took place on 25 October presented the actor with the Best Actor Award for his performance in Bhonsle (2018). We take a look at his difficult yet scintillating journey so far.
Rising Like A Phoenix
Manoj Bajpayee
It was only after reading an interview of Naseeruddin Shah in a magazine that the thought of applying to National School of Drama (NSD) struck Manoj. He did not know of its existence until then. This desire to get into NSD in Delhi was further strengthened when he found that actors like Raj Babbar and Om Puri were all alumni of this prestigious institute. The first rejection at NSD was hard on Manoj. He also spoke about breaking down and crying when he could not get a seat there on The Anupam Kher Show.
“I was close to committing suicide, so my friends would sleep next to me and not leave me alone,” the actor said in this Humans of Bombay (HOB) post. He was so distraught that many of his friends were worried he would attempt something untoward. His friends had divided the responsibility of always being with him and watching over him. After coming out of this shock, he went back to street theatre and continued to work and the second time he went for the NSD selection, he was rejected again.
This then led to Manoj working with Barry John, who took him on as an apprentice. This earned him a small salary. But none of this dampened his desire to join NSD and Manoj went back for a third time and applied for the seat.
Unfortunately, he was rejected yet again. However, they offered him the position of a faculty member.
Early theatre days.
In 1994, his life would go on to change forever. “That year, I was at a chai shop when Tigmanshu came looking for me on his khatara scooter — Shekhar Kapur wanted to cast me in Bandit Queen (1994)! So, I felt I was ready and moved to Mumbai. Initially, it was tough — I rented a chawl with five friends and looked for work, but got no roles. Once, an Assistant Director (AD) tore my photo and I also lost three projects in a day. I was even told to ‘get out’ after my first shot. I didn’t fit the ideal ‘hero’ face — so, they thought I’d never make it to the big screen. All the while, I struggled to make rent and at times even a vada pav was costly.”
From 1993 to 1997, Manoj earnestly did the rounds of all big and small studios in Mumbai and often describes that period as a difficult one. Being in a new city with no one to turn to was not easy. “The hunger in my stomach couldn’t dissuade my hunger to succeed. After four years of struggle, I got Rs 1,500 per episode — my first steady income,” the actor shared in the HOB post. Things changed with his casting in Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya (1998) and the rest as they say is history.
The recipient of several notable awards, the 67th National Award for the Best Actor is yet another feather in his studded cap.
Among the recipients of the Padma Shri in 2020 and 2021 from the Government of India are incredible women from the Northeast, who have not only excelled in their field but also positively impacted their fellow citizens and preserved the best facets of their traditional cultures.
(Image above of Padma Shri awardees Trinity Saioo on the left and Birubala Rabha on the right)
While these awards may have shone some light on them, it’s imperative to consistently highlight and reiterate their incredible contributions. Here are five women from the Northeast who received the Padma Shri in 2020 and 2021, whom you should know about:
Trinity Saioo
A school teacher from Mulieh village in West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, Trinity began cultivating turmeric about 18 years ago. Through her own research and knowledge obtained from ancestors, she understood that the Lachein variety of turmeric—largely grown in West Jaintia Hills district—was low on yield and the cancer-fighting curcumin content. Instead of Lachein, she saw the Lakadong variety as a more viable option. While your regular supermarket varieties of turmeric usually have 3 per cent to 5 per cent curcumin content, Lakadong Turmeric goes as high as 12 per cent.
“Farmers, especially women, were intrigued when my family started earning three times higher from lakadong farming. This curiosity made it easy for the Spices Board and me to impart training to them. As days passed, the number of people cultivating turmeric increased,” she told The Better India. As word got around, Trinity got invitations from village heads to involve their farmers in the programme. Today, more than 900 farmers in the state are growing Lakadong.
President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Smt Trinity Saioo for Agriculture. A school teacher by profession, she motivated farmers to grow Lakadong variety of Turmeric in West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. pic.twitter.com/1MuxSnCpBC
What she noticed was that women from marginalised communities, lacking formal education, struggled to access formal banking services. To address these concerns, she first started a Mahila Samiti in 1983 at Dakshin Sarbaibandha area of Jorhat district, where she worked with many economically and educationally deprived women. Even though some of these women were engaged in activities that were generating income, they lacked financial literacy.
She then started KMUCB in Jorhat, with an initial capital of Rs 8.46 lakh, in 1998. The bank received its licence from the Reserve Bank of India in 2000.
Today, her bank employs only women (21 of them full-time), and has four branches and 45,000 account holders, who are mostly women. The bank has assisted thousands of women in Jorhat, Sivasagar and Golaghat districts.
President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Smt. Lakhimi Baruah for Social Work. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Konoklota Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., the first and only all-women bank in the entire Northeast region of India. pic.twitter.com/5qKaDsLUaM
Radhe Devi, who is fondly known to many as Abok (grandma) Radhe, is an octogenarian who till this day makes exquisitely tailored Potloi Setpi (traditional Manipuri bridalwear designer). A native of Wangjing Sorokhaibam Leikai in the Thoubal district of Manipur, Radhe has devoted nearly six decades designing bridalwear and preserving this traditional craft. To the uninitiated, Potloi is a traditional bridal wear adorned by many Meitei Hindu women in Manipur.
Radhe’s story from a child bride at the age of 15 to a recipient of a Padma Shri award is truly remarkable. She began apprenticing under Thounaojam Priyosakhi, a woman in the neighbourhood whom she called eche or elder sister, in the craft of making Potloi Setpi to find better means of supporting her family since her husband, an astrologer, was struggling to provide for the family. Despite being in no mood to retire, Radhe is feeling her age as she approaches 90, and wants to open a school where she can teach the skills she has perfected.
Birubala Rabha
For decades, Birubala, a native of the remote Thakurbhila village in western Assam’s Goalpara district, has been crusading tirelessly against witch-hunting. Showing no fear, she has faced angry mobs with weapons to save women accused of being a ‘daini’ or ‘witch’ in different villages across Assam and Meghalaya. In 2000, when a public meeting near Lakhipur town in Cachar district decided to brand five women from a village as witches, she challenged the mob and proclaimed: “There are no witches, witchcraft does not exist.”
Through her organisation called the Thakurvila Mahila Samiti, she has visited many villages challenging superstition and raising public awareness against practices of witch-hunting and other social hills. As her campaign against witch-hunting began in the mid 1980s, she also joined other women’s organisations in the state like Greater Borjhara Mahila Samiti, who appointed her as a secretary, and the Assam Mahila Samata Society in 1999.
No surprise, it’s women who are often caught at the sharp end of the witch-hunting stick. “Every village has an oja, a medicine man and astrologer. He is the one who reads our fortunes,” said Birubala and added, “And if he mentions someone as a witch, everybody believes him.” Women branded as such are often killed or chased away and their family’s land and other assets are seized.
(On the Left): President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Hanjabam Radhe Devi for Art. (On the Right): President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Dr Birubala Rabha for Social Work. (Images courtesy Twitter/President of India)
Pi B. Sangkhumi
Sangkhumi comes from a long tradition of activists in Mizoram fighting for the rights of women. A former public servant, she went on to lead the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP), an apex body representing several local women’s groups and a prominent pressure group in Mizoram, in different capacities for decades. Challenging archaic laws, customs and the violence meted out to Mizo women, her shining moment came in late 2014 when the State Assembly passed the landmark Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014. This law for ordinary Mizo women was the result of a struggle that MHIP led for over a decade.
“The newly enacted law called the Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act, 2014 will allow divorced Mizo women to inherit property of their former husbands. This would also ensure protection to the women from being divorced at the drop of a hat by their husbands,” notes this report in the Press Trust of India. This piece of legislation had its share of shortcomings, but it shouldn’t undermine the work of activists like Sangkhumi.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
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Karnataka’s Tulsi Gowda, a member of the Halakki Vokkalu tribal community, was conferred the Padma Shri Award in 2021 for her relentless, decades-long efforts to protect forests.
This ‘encyclopedia of the forest’ has an incredible knowledge of nearly every tree species in her forests, gained through a lifetime of service. She knows every little detail of any plant and can even recognise its condition by a simple touch.
Here’s the video of a barefoot 72-year-old Tulsi approaching the dais and receiving the honour from President Ram Nath Kovind:
Her life has not been a bed of roses. Hailing from the tribal community in Ankola, she never attended school and was married off by age 12. But once she got to work in the forest, there was no turning back.
Tulsi worked as a day labourer for the Karnataka forest department from a very young age, which eventually gave her a permanent job. Even after retiring, she continues her efforts to revive forest covers by planting native trees. She spent a significant part of her life protecting the forest cover and continues to do so today.
Tulsi is undoubtedly one of the greatest naturalists the world has ever seen.
President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Smt Tulsi Gowda for Social Work. She is an environmentalist from Karnataka who has planted more than 30,000 saplings and has been involved in environmental conservation activities for the past six decades. pic.twitter.com/uWZWPld6MV
Children’s day celebrations in India date back to 1956. While prior to the death of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru Children’s day was celebrated on 20 November, after his death a resolution was passed to commemorate his birth anniversary as Children’s day.
The Bal Shakti Award was launched in 1996 as the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement. In 2018, the awards were recognised as Bal Shakti Puraskar. It is given to children for extraordinary accomplishments in innovation, scholastic achievements, social service, arts and culture, sports and bravery. Any child who is an Indian citizen and is between the age of 5-18 years is eligible for the award.
Here’s 15 child prodigies who are doing exceptional work and earning accolades in their field.
1. Ameya Lagudu – Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Ameya Lagudu
Having started learning classical dance at the tender age of four, Ameya has more than 100 performances to her credit till date. Within two years of having started learning the dance form she performed her arangetram at the age of six. During the 2 hours 45-minute performance she performed 14 different traditional dance items. She has eight international and nine national awards to her credit. She has also been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for her excellence in the field of Arts & Culture.
2. Khushi Chirag Patel – Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Khushi Chirag Patel
The 15-year-old skating champion from Ahmedabad made India proud when in 2016 she bagged three gold medals at the 17th Asian Roller Skating Championship. In doing so she became the first Indian woman to clinch three gold medals. Besides this she has also won medals at several national and district championships. She has been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for her excellence in the field of sports.
3. Mantra Jitendra – Rajkot, Gujarat
Mantra Jitendra
Mantra is the youngest athlete from India to win two gold medals in swimming at the World Summer Games — Special Olympics held at Abu Dhabi in March 2019. He was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth but displayed an affinity to swim and his parents encouraged this. He started by participating in district level swimming competitions and made his way to bigger platforms. He has been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for his excellence in the field of sports.
4. Palak Sharma – Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Palak Sharma
Palak holds the distinction of being one of India’s top-ranked divers. She won one gold and two silver medals at the 10th Asian Age Group Championship. She developed an interest in swimming at the age of eight and was encouraged by her parents to pursue this. While the lockdown was dampener in her practise routine she managed to find a way out of it and with the help of the district collector Manish Singh, who allowed her to use the local pool, was able to continue her practise schedule. She has been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for her excellence in the field of sports.
5. Hemesh Chadalavada – Hyderabad, Telangana
Hemesh Chadalavada
Moved by his grandmother’s plight, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, 14-year-old Hemesh developed a wristband to monitor the elderly and disabled at all times. Any unusual movement or activity carried out by the person wearing the wristband raises an alarm with their caregiver immediately. He is listed amongst the recipients of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakti Puraskar 2021 for his excellence in the field of innovation.
6. Arshiya Das – Agartala, Tripura
Arshiya Das
Arshiya is the first and only girl chess player from the North East of India who has received an international gold medal and is also a national chess champion. She began playing chess when she was all of five. During the lockdown, she spent her time rather constructively and competed in more than 500 online tournaments organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), All Indian Chess Federation and many other online tournaments. She has been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for her excellence in the field of sports.
7. Vyom Ahuja – Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Vyom Ahuja
This young boy from Lucknow plays nine different instruments – the flute, the mouth organ, drums, the synthesiser, conch, table, guitar, the Doumbek (Goblet drum), and the Glockenspiel. Vyom is also known as a versatile flute beatboxing performer. He has performed in more than 300 shows and has over 28 records to his credit in the field of performing arts. He has been awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021 for his excellence in the field of Arts & Culture.
8. Kaamya Karthikeyan – Mumbai, Maharashtra
Kaamya Karthikeyan
At 13, Kaamya is the youngest girl in the world to scale any peak above 20,000 ft. She has conquered Europe’s Mt Elbrus, Australia’s Mt Kosciuszko and South America’s Mt Aconcagua. She is on a mission called SAHAS, to become the world’s youngest person to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam. She is one of the recipients of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Shakthi Puraskar 2021.
9. Anand Kumar – Kota, Rajasthan
Anand Kumar
Anand is known for his excellence in Mathematics. He has also been nicknamed as ‘Jupiter’ among his classmates. Anand won the Ramanujan Fellowship Award in 2020 for his exceptional display of mathematics prowess. He has also authored several papers on various mathematical concepts. He is also the recipient of the Pradhan Mantri Rasthriya Bal Shakti Puruskar 2021.
10. Sonit Santosh Sisolekar – Pune, Maharashtra
Sonit Sisolekar
Known as a geology prodigy, Sonit is among the youngest volcanologists and planetary geologists in India. His research on the effects of ionising radiations on the reddening of the soil on Mars even helped him win the NASA-CIS competition. He was also awarded the Best Scientist Award at the age of 11. He is also an accomplished table player who has received several awards for the same. He is amongst the 32 recipients of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for 2021.
11. Prasiddhi Singh – Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu
Prasiddhi Singh
This year’s youngest awardee, Prasiddhi Singh is a social volunteer from Chengalpattu district in Tamil Nadu. She has been awarded for her social work. Founder of Prasiddhi Forest, her name is also featured in the India Book of Records for being the youngest fruit forest creator in the country. She has already planted over 13,500 fruit trees and has created 8 fruit forests.
12. Shreenabh Agrawal – Nagpur, Maharashtra
Shreenabh Agrawal
This young genius from Nagpur has many achievements to his credit. He won first prize in ‘The International Youth Math Challenge’, one of the biggest Maths competitions for students worldwide. His contribution to the agricultural sector has also transformed thousands of farmers’ lives. He has already published more than 200 scientific articles, two books and seven research papers.
13. Namya Joshi – Ludhiana, Punjab
Namya Joshi
A resident of Ludhiana, Namya received many accolades from Satya Nadella for creating course material for teachers using Minecraft. She has trained over 100 teachers through her innovative game-based learning. She is also the youngest recipient of the Global E-Innovation award 2019. Click here to read more about her work.
14. Mohammad Rafey – Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
Mohammad Rafey
Mohammad is a gymnast from Uttar Pradesh who made India proud by winning the first-ever bronze medal in the first Junior Artistic Gymnastics Asian Cup held in Mongolia in 2019. He has also won several accolades at various National competitions and championships.
15. Ayush Ranjan – Sikkim
Ayush Ranjan
Hailing from East Sikkim district, Ayush is a serial innovator. His interest lies in software development, having developed many award-winning software for which he has been felicitated at the national level. His creations include DigiSmart Bin – a garbage billing platform that generates bills based on how much you throw, and MushroomArc – a Mushroom Artificial Intelligence (AI) Classifier, which classifies edible and poisonous mushrooms, thus saving lives.
The Gymnastics World Cup 2018 in Melbourne will go down in history as India got its first ever bronze medal in the women’s vault event.
The feat was achieved by Aruna Reddy, who finished after Slovenia’s Tjasa Kysslef and Australia’s Emily Whitehead, with a score of 13.649. A total of 16 countries were part of the World Cup series event this year.
The 22-year old dedicated her stupendous win to her late father, B Narayana Reddy, who had been instrumental for his daughter’s entry into the field.
Realising that Aruna had the agility and build for a gymnast, Narayana had her enrolled at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad at the age of five.
“I owe everything to him, and if he had been alive and seen me on the podium today, he would have been so happy. He was there in my days of struggle, but couldn’t watch me win,” said an emotional Aruna to The Indian Express.
The Hyderabadi lass, who is a former black belt and Karate trainer, had initially trained under the guidance of coaches Swarnalatha and Ravinder. Later, Swarnalatha’s husband Giriraj took over as Aruna’s mentor after realising her immense potential and was her instructor until his untimely death in 2008.
Then, coach Brij Kishore took Aruna under his wing, and it is under his guidance that the budding gymnast blossomed and went on to clinch many medals at three National Games she had participated in, with the first one being in 2005.
In 2014, Aruna had aroused some hope for Indian gymnasts when she secured the 14th position at the qualification round of Vault apparatus at the Commonwealth Games along with a ninth place finish at the Asian Games.
Aruna came back to the fore when she had finished sixth in Vault during the 2017 Asian Championships.
The young athlete is determined to give her finest performance in the upcoming international events.
“The sad thing about this sport is that once you cross the age of 23-24, it becomes difficult to perform because the body doesn’t remain as flexible. A gymnast’s career is short. That’s why I want to make the most out of things before I turn 23,” she told Deccan Chronicle.
Aruna is also part of the Indian gymnastics contingent for the 2018 Commonwealth Games which will be held in Gold Coast, Australia.
We congratulate the young woman on her extraordinary win and wish her luck in all her future endeavours.
When AR Rahman, Gulzar and Resul Pookutty had won the coveted Academy Award for the movie Slumdog Millionaire in 2009, the country had staked a claim upon the British film as one of its own and left no stone unturned to celebrate the historic achievement, believing that the Indian Oscar dream had finally been realised.
However, unknown to many, the first Indian to ever receive an Oscar had been Bhanu Athaiya, a costume designer, way back in 1983 for the movie Gandhi, Lord Richard Attenborough’s magnum opus.
Bhanu held the prestigious distinction for 26 years before the Slumdog Millionaire crew stole the show.
Here’s everything you need to know about the revered doyenne of Indian film costume designers and her illustrious filmography spanning five decades and 130 films:
Bhanu Athaiya, the revered doyenne of Indian film costume design. Source: Facebook.
1. Born on 28 April 1929, Bhanumati Annasaheb Rajopadhye hailed from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, and her father Annasaheb was a painter.
2. With artistic flair in her blood, Bhanu’s tryst with art began at an early age and soon after completing her schooling, she pursued a degree in fine arts at Mumbai’s Sir JJ School of Art and graduated with quite literally flying colours and a gold medal.
3. Shortly after, Bhanu started off as a freelance fashion illustrator and worked for various women’s magazines in Mumbai, including the popular magazine, ‘Eve’s Weekly.’
4. It was when the magazine’s editor opened her own boutique and broached the idea of costume designing with Bhanu that the young lady took to designing clothes and discovered that she had an affinity for the profession.
The Designer with Sir Ben Kingsley on the sets of Gandhi. Source: Facebook.
5. Her designs found a rising popularity, and even actors began coming to Bhanu for her costumes. Encouraged by the momentum, Bhanu decided to enter Bollywood and made her foray into the filmdom as a costume designer for Guru Dutt’s film C.I.D in 1956 and went on to design the outfits of actors in all the films made under the Dutt banner. Some of her iconic works under this period include Pyaasa, Chaudhvin Ka Chand, and Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam.
6. Bhanu’s hour of fame came in 1983, when she won the Oscar along with her British counterpart John Mollo for costume design in the great biopic Gandhi. To this date, she continues to be the only Indian woman to have won the Academy award.
7. Her work in films like Lekin (1991) and Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) fetched the talented designer two National awards. The last film for which she worked as a costume designer was the 2004 film Swades.
8. In 2010, she published her book ‘The Art of Costume Design,’ which sheds light upon Bhanu’s pioneering vision that helped shape some landmark Indian film costumes, set the fashion trend of the 1960s and 70s, and won Indian cinema the highest acclaim in the international arena.
You can watch legendary Bhanu Athiaya receive the Academy award here:
When Sister Jude Emmy Rose, a native of Malayattoor, which is a village in the Ernakulam district, was appointed to work at the Fatima Hospital located in the village of Maunath Bhanjan in Uttar Pradesh by the Medical Sisters of St Joseph in 1977, it was nothing more than a little dispensary that was frequented by those who were in their final stage of their disease.
In a span of 40 years, she has singlehandedly managed to change the face of the little dispensary to a fully operational hospital that has 352 beds along with all kinds of medical departments under its jurisdiction.
And it is in recognition of her hard work and dedication that has saved countless women and babies from precarious and perilous deliveries, that the Uttar Pradesh government has honoured the selfless woman with the Rani Laxmi Bai Award for her exemplary services in the medical field.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently presented the award to the 76-year-old.
One could say fate conspired in an interesting manner in Sister Jude’s life. Since she was a child, she was inclined towards the idea of leading a holy life, and her dream led her to pursue Gynaecology from Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi and subsequently take up the reins of Fatima Hospital.
With no sleep or break, Sister (now Doctor) Jude took on every single case that came along her way to the extent of attending 382 patients on a single day!
Her ceaseless commitment to her work finally had the mother superior of Mau Diocese, and one of the founding members of the hospital, put a 200 patient per day limit on doctors to lessen the impossible burden on Sister Jude who wouldn’t have stopped otherwise.
Also known as Mother Teresa of Mau, Sister Jude’s dedication is the ultimate epitome of compassion and service to humanity for the underprivileged people in the region. The septuagenarian only takes a week off every year from her fully occupied professional life to visit her family in Kerala once every year.
While Sister Jude might not have attained the dream that she had once envisioned, she is nothing less of a saint for the numerous people she has saved in the course of the last 40 years, using her healing powers.
A salute to the unstoppable woman of steel, who would always choose a patient in distress over herself any day.
The 2018 edition of the world’s most glamorous film festival, Festival de Cannes, kicks off on the French Riviera from Tuesday. Scheduled to run from May 8 to 19, the highly anticipated event is expected to bring many surprises this year as a whole lot of new-gen directors are in the running for the festival’s coveted honours.
India will be represented at the prestigious film jamboree by Nandita Das’s biographical drama Manto (starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the legendary Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto) and Rohena Gera’s Sir (starring Tillotama Shome as a domestic worker who falls for the son of her upper-class employers) in the Un Certain Regard and Critics Week categories respectively.
Interestingly, four National Award-winning regional films have also been hand-picked for screening by the official Indian delegation heading to Cannes 2018. With the aim of celebrating the exceptional talent in India’s regional cinema, these four films will be showcased at the festival’s India Pavilion, organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with FICCI.
Here are the four amazing regional films selected for Cannes 2018. If you haven’t seen them yet, check the out now!
A coming-of-age Assamese film written, edited, co-produced, and directed by self-taught fimmaker Rima Das, Village Rockstars is about a little girl in a village in Assam who wants to own a guitar and form a band. A story of hope and profound simplicity, this refreshingly original movie has been shot in the nondescript hamlet of Chhaygaon, with the cast being made up of mostly local villagers.
Incredibly, apart from winning the National Award 2018 for best film, Village Rockstars also won the awards for best editing, best location sound, and best child actor.
2. Bhayanakam
Made by ace Malayalam film-maker Jayaraj, Bhayanakam bagged three awards – best director, best adapted screenplay and best cinematography – at the 65th National Film Awards. The beautifully depicted film is based on a chapter in Kayar, the epci novel written by Jnanpith award-winning Malayalam writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
Through the life of a postman (played by Renji Panicker), Bhayanakam tells the story of Kuttanad in the pre-Independence era when youths in large numbers joined the British India army to fight in World War II.
3. Sinjar
Made in Jeseri (the dialect of Malayalam spoken in Lakshadweep) by short film director Sandeep Pampally, Sinjar bagged the titles of the Best Jeseri Film and the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Director at the 65th National Film Awards. The movie traces the journey of two housemaids in Iraq who are taken hostages by the ISIS along with the Yazidi women and flee from captivity only to end in a closed society.
Interestingly, the film takes its name from the Sinjar massacre of 2014, in which thousands of Yazidi men and women were targetted by ISIS terrorists.
4. Nagar Kirtan
Helmed by acclaimed director Kaushik Ganguly, Bengali film ‘Nagar Kirtan’ won big at the 65th National Film Awards, with four honours to its credit – Special Jury, Best Actor, Best Costume and Best Makeup Artist. The moving drama revolves around a flute player, played by Ritwik Chakraborty and a transgender, played by Riddhi Sen.
The movie also stars Manabi Bandyopadhyay, Bengal’s first transgender to complete a PhD and become a professor. She is also India’s first transgender college principal. Read more about her here.
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The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Awards, in their present form, were introduced in 1999 to motivate DRDO scientists, engineers and the organisation’s partners in industries and academic institutions, to contribute towards the cause of national security and self-reliance.
The award scheme has various categories—from the lifetime achievement award to awards recognising DRDO’s laboratories.
This year, the DRDO Awards were jointly conducted for the years 2016 and 2017 and were presented by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on May 14, on the occasion of National Technology Day.
Source: Twitter/ArmyRecognition.com
As reported in the Times Of India, P Sivakumar, a distinguished scientist and the Director of Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), won the award for Technology Leadership (2017) for his significant contribution to the development and design of transmission systems for armoured vehicles.
He was also involved in the design, development, manufacturing, test evaluation, user trails and technology transfer and induction of the iconic Arjun MBT Mk-I tank.
The publication also reported that YST Raju of CVRDE won the Scientist of the Year (2016) award, for his substantial contribution to the development of multi-disciplinary engineering subsystems of the Integrated Fire Control System for the Arjun MBT Mk-II prototype, trials of MBT Mk-I, development of an electric turret drive and gun drive hardware for futuristic AFVs, and retractable landing gear for UAV Rustom-II.
The Arjun MBT Mk-I tank is a 1400 hp main battle tank developed by the DRDO, for the Indian Army. It is integrated with an Indian turbocharger and epicyclic train gearbox with four forward and two reverse gears.
Source: Wikipedia/Army Recognition
A Ministry of Defence press release reported that the Arjun exhibited excellent performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, and accurately hitting targets—both stationary and moving—with pinpoint accuracy.
Additionally, Arjun displays accurate and quick target acquisition both during the day and night missions—in all types of weather! It also has a very short possible reaction time during combat engagements.
The Arjun MBT Mk-I tank is a pioneer amongst defence vehicles and the two Chennai scientists P Sivakumar and Raju, deserve to be recognised for their work!
What is natural capital? In a broad sense it everything we have around us. The global stock of natural assets – encompassing plants, animals, air, water, soils and minerals – which make human life possible is collectively defined as natural capital.
It is from these resources that humans have derived an expansive range of services (known as ecosystem services), giving us everything we have today. The most obvious of these services include the food and water we consume, along with the plant materials we use for fuel, building materials and medicines.
In India, the dialogue on natural capital has been championed since 2013 by YES Bank – through its ‘Natural Capital Awards’. These dialogues include shedding of light on how natural capital is consumed and the accounting mechanisms and conservation efforts from industries and civil society.
Through this platform, the organisation seeks to encourage people towards conservation and help usher in positive policy-related changes. To realize this, YES Bank has been identifying, rewarding and showcasing individuals, groups and organizations dedicated towards spearheading biodiversity growth and environmental stewardship.
One of the prominent facets of the Awards is its ‘Pixel Perfect’ and ‘TrailBlazer’ segments – inviting photographers from across the country to showcase the marvels of our biodiversity through their frames. This year, a special category titled ‘Capturing the Ganges’ was added to show the organisation’s support to ‘Namami Gange’, the flagship conservation programme for rejuvenating the river Ganga under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
“Natural Capital Awards (NCA) is a platform which gives much deserved recognition to photographers like us. It helps create awareness and a sense of natural capital conservation through the medium of photography. I have been participating in NCA for the past 3 years and it has been a wonderful journey. I would like to suggest to the budding wildlife photographers that don’t do wildlife photography only for the sake of a recognition or competition, do it for the sake of environment conservation,” says Baiju Patil, Winner 2013, Runner up in NCA 2015, and 2nd Runner up in NCA 2017.
Here are some of the best photographs from previous editions of the YES Bank Natural Capital Awards, which has become a national platform for wildlife and nature enthusiasts to showcase their passion and help bring out important stories through their periscopic view:
Credits: Shivang Mehta.
Credits: Deepak Sahu
Credits: Saurabh Sawant.
Credits: Sumanta Basu.
Credits: Sudipto Das.
Credits: Baiju Patil.
Credits: Shantanu Prasad.
Credits: Satpal Singh.
Credits: Kallol Mukherjee.
Credits: Anoop K & team
Apply now for the 4th edition of the Yes Bank Natural Capital Awards, 2018.
The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an annual competition for secondary school students, which aims to promote physics and the development of international contacts in physics education. It is one of the International Science Olympiads.
The first edition of the IPhO took place in Warsaw, Poland, in 1967, with only five participating countries. Since then, IPhO has become a global event, where more than 400 competitors, from 85 countries compete against each other.
India has been participating in the IPhO since 1998, and for the first time in 20 years, all the five participating students from India bagged gold medals in the 49th IPhO this year!
AtThe IPhO in Libson. Source: Twitter
The five boys—Lay Jain and Pawan Goyal from Kota, Bhaskar Gupta from Mumbai, Nishant Abhangi from Rajkot and Siddharth Tiwary from Kolkata—were selected by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education after a rigorous selection process.
As reported in the Indian Express, this year’s edition of IPhO took place in Lisbon, Portugal, and saw the participation of about 396 students from across the world, of which 42 won gold medals.
The IPhO competition consists of a theoretical and an experimental examination, each of five-hour duration. This year, the theoretical examination had questions based on LIGO detection of gravitational waves, the ATLAS instrument at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the physics of blood flow in living tissues and growth of tumours.
Speaking about the experience to the Times of India, Pawan Goyal said, “The experimental component was difficult, but the theoretical exam was easier, and the three of us scored between 29 and 30 out of 30 marks.”
Out of all the participants, the top 8% who scored the highest are awarded gold medals.
Praveen Pathak, a scientific officer at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, a national centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which led the International team, spoke to Times of India and said that India performed exceptionally well with this being the best performance yet so far.
