Category Archives: Inspiration / Positive News and Features

A friendship bond stronger than steel

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features

Allahabad :

In the present time, when people are fast losing faith on each other and best of friends forgot each other while negotiating with the challenges of fast moving lifestyle, two friends of the city, Honorary Captain Dharma Deo Singh and Haveldar Paras Rai, are living together, along with their respective families, for the past 50 years, sharing ups and downs of life under the same roof and same kitchen.

If one listens to the story of their friendship, it sounds like a perfect script for a hit film. They belong to different caste, Singh being a Thakur and Rai a Bhumihar. They met in 1960 when Singh arrived at Deoria for getting admitted in class XI. “I met him outside a cinema hall and it was a spontaneous chemistry between us. The same strong bond is also among our children and grandchildren,” said Dharma Deo Singh.

Singh joined Indian Army in 1962. Rai followed his friend after around a decade and that too after Singh persuaded him.

After retiring in July 91, Deo wanted to settle down in his native village but when his elder brother and other relatives showed no interest to support him or his family. It was Paras who supported him and floated the idea of constructing their own a house with a common roof.

The house has a common boundary wall, common entrance and the common inner courtyard. The two half’s of the house are mirror images of every minute things, be it the tiles of kitchen or toilet, utensils, windows, water taps, electric fittings etc. Everything is located exactly at the same location and point as in the other portion of the house.

When a visitor comes, he or is often perplexed on identifying the real parents. “The children respond with the word ‘papa’ or ‘mummy’ irrespective of who had called them,” said Chanda, daughter of Singh.

These friends were born on July 1, 1944, and got retired from the Indian Army in 1991. It is not only the festivals which are celebrated together in this large family, even the marriage cards have the names of both the parents and members of two families.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / TNN / August 03rd, 2014

NBRI organizes workshop for physically disabled

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration / Positive News and Features

Lucknow :

National Botanical Research Institute on Thursday organized one-day training programm on “Dry Flower Technology” at NC Chaturvedi School for Hearing Impaired, TilakNagar in Aishbagh. About 30 students and teachers of the school participated in the programme. The programme was meant to help students with physical or mental disability in developing, self confidence, reinforce to their creativity, small entrepreneurship and an effort to change their disability into ability so that they can earn some money and become self-dependent.

In the first session Dr AK Dwivedi, senior principal scientist introduced them with the technique and its significance. Dr Kamla Kulshreshtha, principal scientist, NBRI addressed the students and expressed best wishes to them for the work they have done for their betterment. A demonstration to make the greeting cards, three dimensional paper weights and decorative items was given to them in the session ‘learning by doing’. A number of items are made by the enthusiastic students and were kept in the college for their own future programmes and demonstrations.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Time of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Arunav Sinha, TNN / July 31st, 2014

Lucknow unites for safety of women

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders

Lucknow :

A campaign titled, ‘Save women safe women’ has been initiated by citizens of the city to sensitize people on women’s safety measures and to take a pledge to run a regular civil society movement.

Anupma Foundation and Rann-Samar Foundation will get people from all walks of life together so that a healthy viable ambience is adopted. A seminar-cum-group discussion was held on Friday in which activist, educationists, police officials and members of judiciary participated.

Abha Singh, advocate and president of Rann-Samar Foundation said, “There needs to be a certain kind of fear among the male members of the society that no one is above law and anyone who has the audacity to mess with law will be booked.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / August 02nd, 2014

Hardoi village boy tops CPMT

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Lucknow :

Small town students excelled in the combined pre medical test results declared late on Monday night. While Shams Mohammad Khan of Tumurki village in Hardoi topped the exam, Abu Asim of Azamgarh bagged the second place.

Shubham Malhotra and Alia Zehra bagged the thrid and fourth positions. Priyanshi Swarup from Lucknow bagged the fifth position. Shobhit Garg, Mohd Arshad, Saurabh Kumar Patel, Kushagra Srivastava and Neelansha Varshney filled the remaining five slots in the top 10.

Controller of examination, prof AK Singh said that candidates would be able to see the result on the KGMU website www.kgmu.org/www.upcpmtee2014.com after 12 noon on Tuesday.

He said that the counseling schedule would be uploaded on the website www.dgme.eu in a day or two.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / July 29th, 2014

Girl from Sangam city grabs headlines in US

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, World Opinion

Allahabad :

A girl born in Allahabad and now studying at the University of California, Berkeley, has made the city proud by winning the ‘price money question’ of $ 64000 (approx Rs 38 lakhs) by asking former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, “If you don’t represent women in politics in America as future president, who will?”

Daughter of an ex-faculty member of Allahabad University, Vrinda Agarwal’s family moved to Sacramento, California some time back. Vrinda, a junior studying political science at UC Berkeley, is the founder and CEO of 100 strong (onehundredstrong.org), which works to empower underprivileged high school women by providing them with mentors and leadership training.

She won the ‘price money question’ at an event called ‘Everyone’s Mind’, organized recently at the Clinton Global Initiative University conference at Arizona State University, Tempa, US. Vrinda has done her early schooling in the city.

Such was the impression of Vrinda’s priced question that former US president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton shared the stage with her and assured her all help in future. Her question elicited a standing ovation from the jam-packed hall, Hillary Clinton’s answer reverberated across the country, grabbing front page spaces across the entire American print media and prime time news bytes on all TV channels.

Vrinda assured Hillary that she was prepared to proudly run her presidential campaign to which Clinton replied, “I appreciate the sentiment. I’m obviously thinking about all kinds of decisions.”

“There is so much inequality around the world, including America, for women which we see in public education, where women have lower graduation rates in poor areas; or in corporate America, where women earn less than men; and even in politics, in which women are significantly underrepresented,” said Vrinda, via e-mail.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Rajiv Mani, TNN / May 21st, 2014

Clinton to visit Lucknow today

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, World Opinion

Former US president Bill Clinton will visit the state capital on Thursday during which he is scheduled to take part in a student interaction in a school.

Clinton will spend about two hours in Jabrauli village under Mohanlalganj tehsil of here, and is also scheduled to take part in a Clinton Foundation Health Initiative programme during which he is likely to interact with children and their mothers.

“Former US president Bill Clinton will take part in the programmes organised in a school in Jabrauli village, “district magistrate Raj Shekhar said. “Programmes have been organised in three groups.. he will interact with students of class VI to VIII besides assessing the working of self-help groups”, the DM said. The DM said that elaborate security arrangements have been made in view of the former US president’s visit.

After Jaipur mid-day meal kitchen, Clinton to visit a Jabrauli school in Lucknow today
After Jaipur mid-day meal kitchen, Clinton to visit a Jabrauli school in Lucknow today

Besides senior police officers, large number of police and PAC personnel will remain present at the programme site. Shekhar said that Clinton Foundation is working in the field of health in several districts of the country.

As part of his tour, Clinton on Wednesday served chapattis to children at a government school in Jaipur after witnessing preparation of mid-day meals for thousands of students at a kitchen run by an NGO there.

Jaipur and Lucknow are on the itinerary for Clinton as part of a visit to the Asia/Pacific during which the former US president is also scheduled to travel to Vietnam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia to take stock of the work of the Clinton Foundation and deliver remarks at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Australia.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / IBN Live / Home> IBN Live> India> Uttar Pradesh / Press Trust of India / July 16th, 2014

CCSU to help visually impaired in NET preps

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features

Meerut :

Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) is all set to help the visually impaired prepare for the National Eligibility Test (NET).Under recent UGC approval, Braille booklets of 44 subjects will also be distributed.

“The exam, which will take place on June 29 will have facilities not only for the visually impaired as per the UGC approval, but also for physically handicapped students who might need a helper while taking the test,” said Dr. N.C. Lohani, nodal officer and observer of counseling in the university.

He further claimed that though according to rules, students who need a helper had to apply a week before the exam, CCSU has relaxed the rules and will accept such requests till June 28.

The university will also allow the visually impaired to use assistive devices like talking calculator, tailor frame, Braille slate, abacus and geometry kit. “If students are in doubt about the acceptance of their application forms, they can check the university’s website, where a list of students whose forms got rejected is displayed,” said Lohani.

He further claimed that students can bring their application forms with them if they have not received their admit cards.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Meerut / by Ishita Bhatia, TNN / June 26th, 2014

Sulabh to build toilets in Badaun village

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Shocked by the Badaun gang-rape and murder case, Sulabh International, which works in the field of sanitation, has decided to construct toilets in all households at Katra Sadatganj village where the horrific crime took place.

Founder of the non-governmental organisation Bindeshwar Pathak decided to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to begin a campaign to build toilets in each household across India and end the problem of open defecation.

“By providing toilet facility in the village, we want to exhort the government and corporate houses to come forward and participate in providing toilet facilities to poor people in villages and towns across India. Lack of toilet facility was the main reason for the rape and murder of the two girls … By adopting this village, we are just setting an example,” Dr. Pathak told The Hindu.

“We will make all efforts to ensure proper toilet facilities in as many poor households as possible. I urge the corporate sector to donate freely to ensure that no house in India remains without a toilet … Each corporate house and big company should adopt one village for this purpose. It will not only address this social evil but will also help in tackling several diseases that happen due to open defecation.”

Dr. Pathak said it was the duty of the government to provide toilet facilities, which would also help check crimes. “Any woman defecating in the open is vulnerable and the government must acknowledge this,” he noted.

Welcoming Sulabh International’s initiative, former Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the Centre as well as all State governments need to work collectively on the issue of sanitation and women safety. “It is clear from what has been seen in Bihar and now Badaun that open defecation is not just an assault on the dignity but also on security of women,” he told The Hindu.

Referring to Mr. Modi’s slogan “Toilet first, temple later,” he said, “Building toilet at every household will herald an effective social change in society … I will urge the Prime Minister to make it his government’s top priority.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Sandeep Joshi / New Delhi – June 02nd, 2014

A historic temple of religious amity

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features

Lucknow :

From an ancient temple of Lord Jagannath in Chinhat bearing Awadhi Muslim architecture to a Muslim putting up water kiosks during the yatra, tales of religious amity dot the cultural landscape of the city.

Historian Yogesh Praveen, said, “The temple was built by a devotee of Lord Jagannath, but given a facelift by the then-Nawab of Oudh Asaf-ud-Daullah in 1785. The temple’s uniqueness can be spotted on its dome. Instead of the traditional chakra or trishul, there is a crescent.”

In Aishbagh, Rafiq ‘bhai’ for the past decade has been putting up water kiosks at Tikaitganj, the first halt of the yatra by Shri Bhagwan Jagannath Seva Samiti, to help the hundreds of chariot pullers quench their thirst.

“It gives me immense satisfaction that I am able to help hundreds of devotees,” said Rafiq.

Thanking him, office bearer of the Samiti Saket Sharma said, “We hope the practice continues”.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / June 29th, 2014