It was the loss of his father that made Vishal Singh question many of his life decisions. Through the illness, he saw the ups and downs of the family. From leading comfortable lives, there came days when there was no money to even buy food.
In conversation with The Better India, Vishal Singh shares how he founded Vijay Shri Foundation, named after his father, to provide food for hospital attendants in Lucknow.
“I have experienced what it is like to go to bed on an empty stomach night after night. It was almost 14 years ago that my father was admitted into a hospital in Gurugram. I remember sitting there beside him and thinking about many others, who like me, would be going to bed hungry. I wanted to do something, and my father’s death pushed me forward,” he says, sincerely.
The beginnings
Soon after his father’s demise, Vishal moved to Lucknow, where his sister was married. There, he started looking for ways to help those less fortunate than him.
He recalls, “I did whatever it took in the beginning. I ran a tea stall for a while, and with the money I made, I started something new and so on.”
“People in worse situations came to me, and that kept me going.”
Outside the hospital
He speaks about a time when he started making and selling candles. It did well enough for him to start cooking at home for a limited number of attendants in a hospital in Lucknow.
Under a banyan tree
Balrampur Hospital in Lucknow has a big banyan tree, under which, Vishal would set up the food. From 1-3 pm each day, attendants of poor patients were fed a wholesome, nutritious meal.
Vishal says, “The hospital provides food only for the patients, while their attendants are left to fend for themselves. The cost of being admitted is so high that there is often no money left.”
A regular day
He urges us to visit the lunch site one day, just to see the happiness that the food brings to their faces. He says, “Being in the hospital with someone who is unwell is already very sad. On top of that, if you are unable to get even one good meal a day, it is terrible. This is the least I can do.”
11 years and counting
It’s been over a decade that Vishal has been feeding the attendants. He started at the Balrampur Hospital and now, runs a free kitchen at King George’s Medical University, and another at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
He says, “We do not accept monetary contributions; it helps in being transparent as well. We encourage people to contribute raw material that we need for the cooking. In very few instances when people are in other places and can only contribute financially, we ask them to send us the money into the account we have set up.”
There is complete transparency in the manner in which the food is served as well.
Volunteers serving
Each morning, at the said hospitals, the medical staff hand over 250 coupons to the attendants who need it the most. The attendants then line up to show their coupons and have their lunch.
There have been close to 6 lakh attendants who have been fed at the King George’s Medical University alone.
Food–a great equaliser
“Feeding all those who come to us is important to us; what’s even more important, is how we do it. I have seen various people serve food for the sake of doing so; very often the rotis would just be flung at the receivers, so I was sure I would never do that,” he shares.
Vishal ensures that each person has a good meal and leaves satisfied. “Nutritious food served with love–that’s my motto. In fact, one will never even imagine that this is the food served outside a hospital, as it is always so tasty,” he says, with pride.
A regular meal comprises–roti/poori, dal, sabzi, rice, salad, papad, chutney, and a sweet.
A look at the wholesome food being provided.
He says, “The little time they spend outside the hospital eating, is a time when we want them to forget all their troubles and feel like kings.”
Way forward
Vishal is hopeful of constructing a centralised kitchen so that he can feed many more people. “As of now, this is a one-man-show, but I get a lot of help from various quarters. I would be happy if this model can be replicated in other states as well. My aim is that no attendant waiting beside someone in the hospital should ever be hungry,” he says.
If you wish to contribute in any way, contact Vishal on +91-9935888887 or visit his Facebook page.
He was born to a marginal farmer in Pune’s Mulshi taluka. Right after he completed Class 10, Dnyaneshwar Bodke started working on the family farm.
Following traditional farming, the family of eight would toil in the field all day, growing rice. But their meal never went beyond a plate of rice and milk.
When he realised that it was a lost cause, Dnyaneshwar decided to quit farming.
His sister knew a builder who helped him earn the menial job of an office boy in Pune city.
He shares, “I worked from 6 am to 11 pm for ten years, often without realising who it was that I was living for. Somewhere in my mind, I knew I wanted to do something for the farming community.”
Dnyaneshwar Bodke
But what could he do, was the question.
The answer came in the form of a newspaper article. It documented the success story of a Sangli-based farmer who practised polyhouse farming in a 1,000 sq ft area and earned Rs 12 lakh a year.
Dnyaneshwar made the impulsive decision to quit his job and return to farming. He attended a two-day workshop on polyhouse farming in the Horticulture Training Centre in Pune.
His father was agitated at his rash decision.
Dnyaneshwar says, “Everything they taught was theoretical, with no practical demonstration. I wasn’t highly educated, so it flew right over my head. But I knew I couldn’t give up. I got in touch with the authorities and told them that I wanted to work with them and learn.”
Over the next year, he travelled 17 km every day on his cycle to reach the centre. Working from 7 am to 7 pm, while he did not earn a penny, he says he earned knowledge “that was worth crores”.
Soon after he finished his training, he applied for a loan to set up a polyhouse in a 1,000 sq ft area.
In 1999, he started cultivating decorative flowers like carnations and roses in the polyhouse. When the florists would sell them in the local mandi (market) he tied up with decorators and hotels. Soon, he started exporting flowers to Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.
He shares, “I was once struggling to get a regular income, but now, I was even getting advance orders for my produce. Certainly a first, in my farming journey.”
The biggest impact of polyhouse farming reflected in how he was able to repay a loan of Rs 10 lakh within a year!
“When the bank manager first came to our house and asked for my father, he thought we had lost our land in some debt and refused to come out of his room. The bank manager stepped into our home, touched my father’s feet, fed him sweets and said, ‘Your son has begun a revolution. He is the first farmer to repay a loan of Rs 10 lakh to our bank within a year’!”
Soon, the local news channels covered this success, and many farmers started getting in touch with Dnyaneshwar to understand polyhouse farming and horticulture.
“I helped several of them in the marketing, in applying for and repaying loans. Within two years, my responsibilities had increased. I was travelling to different farms all day and couldn’t give my own farm the attention it required. The same bank manager who congratulated us told me that I should make a group, instead of doing everything myself. It would help divide responsibilities and get more work done!”
The year was 2004. With the help of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the farmer got together with 11 others and formed Abhinav Farmers Club. While a few handled marketing, others took charge of transport. The idea was to farm in a group and share profits.
Within no time, the members increased to 305.
The farmers who previously earned Rs 25,000 a month, started earning double the amount, almost Rs 5 lakh a year. The group even bought close to 300 Maruti cars to quicken the delivery process and received a national award by NABARD for their hi-tech farming.
Everything went well for a time, but the end of the year saw a massive drop in the rate of flowers. From Rs 2.5 a piece, they fell to 0.85 paise. They were running into losses and fights erupted within the group. The group narrowed down to 23 members.
It was around the same time that several malls started coming up in Pune. “It is an irony in our country that shoes are sold in a mall and vegetables along the road,” he laughs.
Where Indian vegetables were getting a rate of Rs 10/per kg, exotic vegetables were procuring Rs 80-100/kg.
And so, the group decided to tie up with these malls and grow exotic vegetables like broccoli, Chinese cabbage, parsley, cherry tomato, celery, zucchini, among others.
“We had used plenty of chemicals during floriculture. But we were adamant that we wouldn’t grow or supply vegetables that required even a drop of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. So we went 100 per cent organic. Each farmer was earning up to Rs 700-800 per day. Within no time, we were able to recover the losses.”
But sooner rather than later, competitors did the same, and sustenance became difficult.
Dnyaneshwar decided to use a fool-proof technique that wouldn’t ever die out. He came up with a 1-acre hi-tech integrated organic farming project.
The concept was simple. One acre of a plot, 10,000-20,000 litres of water, two hours of electricity and the entire family’s labour for just four hours.
This 1-acre plot was divided into four sub-plots. One area was used to grow 12 types of fruits (native bananas, oranges, mangoes, native papayas, sweet lime, figs and custard apples); another was used to grow exotic vegetables; a third for pulses; and the last for leafy vegetables.
This produce was directly delivered to the doorsteps of customers without any middlemen. From Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Nagpur, Delhi and Kolkata, these were sent in luxury buses and trains.
This farm also had a native cow that would give 10-12 litres of milk a day. While two litres were saved for the household, the rest was sold for Rs 50/litre in the locality. Cow dung was used as manure and also to produce biogas, which was later used for cooking. Even the slurry from the plant was used to fertilise the plot. Gomutra (cow urine) was sold for Rs 10 a bottle.
Just one cow was able to give each farmer additional income!
Where engineers earn Rs 12 lakh a year, a class six farmer in rural Maharashtra was earning the same amount, with integrated farming technique on a 1-acre land.
To avoid the issues of lack of labour for delivery, Abhinav Farmers Group also connected with women self-help groups who packed, graded and delivered the produce in 126 vans.
With daily wages ranging from Rs 300-800, a day, these women are now self-sufficient and even sending their children to English-medium schools.
Today, the impact of Abhinav Farmers Club is spread across six states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. With over 1.5 lakh farmers and 257 farmer leaders nationwide, the annual turnover of the group is about Rs 400 crore!
The leader farmers meet every three months and also connect via WhatsApp to resolve any issues that their peers face.
The business that retail grocery shops make within 15 days is earned by the farmers within three hours of their sale system.
Dnyaneshwar was also one of the first Indian farmers to be invited as a TEDx speaker, receiving a standing ovation from the audience with his story, wit and sense of humour.
When asked, he says, “Everyone has seen celebrities, entrepreneurs, stand-up comedians and YouTubers being invited to these talks. But for the first time, someone gave the Indian farmer a chance to speak, not about the agrarian crisis, but about the success of farming as a profession, which often doesn’t get reported. The media, for a very long time, has always covered farmers in a negative light – whether it is protest marches or farmer suicides. But this platform helped me show them the greener side.”
Motivation and a commitment to buy the produce directly, without any middlemen, is what a farmer needs from people, he says.
He continues, “The farmer breaks his back 16 hours a day to feed the 125-crore population. So is asking for the right price for his toil and produce too much?”
The children of these farmers have become agriculture graduates and engineers. Moreover, they aren’t leaving the villages but helping their parents increase their profits, by taking up tasks like marketing, packaging and delivery. Several young engineers are also building low-cost machinery to automate their family farms.
“None of them go to the gym. They farm with their parents because that’s the best way to stay fit,” he smiles.
In his message to farmers, Dnyaneshwar says, “Don’t be dependent on the government for subsidies and loan waivers. Try to understand what the customers need and deliver it exactly at their doorsteps.”
To people, he pleads, “You can choose to help a farmer by buying his produce directly. Not only will you eat 100 per cent pesticide-free produce but also spend less on your medical bills that burn a hole in your pockets. When you start buying from a farmer directly, not a single one will ever feel the need to kill himself.”
Any public discourse on the Indian freedom struggle against British colonialism, primarily revolves around its key protagonists—Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Patel to name a few.
This is not to suggest their contributions weren’t critical but often forgotten in these discussions are the foot soldiers who often paid the ultimate price for the collective vision of an Independent India.
One such hero of the Independence movement was Bābu Genu Said, an illiterate cotton mill worker and labour unionist, who bought into Gandhi’s vision of Swadeshi and made it his life’s work to defeat the forces of economic colonialism, using non-violent means.
Bābu was only 22-years-old when he was mercilessly run over by a truck carrying foreign-made clothing on in the Kalbadevi area of Mumbai, while he was trying to prevent the truck from passing through the area.
Today, the area is home to a long-standing Swadeshi market.
Born into a poverty-stricken agricultural household in 1908 in the Mahalunge Padwal village of Pune district, Bābu never received any formal education. His father, a farmer, tragically passed away when was just a two-year-old. The turning point came when soon after his father’s passing, the family bullock, a prized possession used for farming, also died.
This incident left Bābu’s mother with little choice but to leave her village and find work in Mumbai. She left Bābu, his two elder brothers and sister, in the care of neighbours, while finding work as a house help in Mumbai. A few years later, he joined his mother in the city.
Since his mother couldn’t support him, Bābu soon found employment as a casual labourer in the mills of Mumbai (then called Bombay).
Despite his lack of formal education or inability to find regular work, he didn’t sit idle and actively engaged with the local political forces of the day against colonial rule. Even though he was deeply admired personalities like Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, it was Gandhi who had the most significant influence on him.
Gandhi’s ideas about non-violence and satyagraha deeply resonated with the young revolutionary. However, it’s his engagement with the Swadeshi Movement—the economic strategy aimed at removing the British Empire from power and improving economic conditions in India by following strategies involving the boycott of British products and the revival of domestic goods and production processes—which had the most influence on him.
He participated in multiple protests organised by activists of the freedom struggle against the import of foreign-made cloth. In fact, Bābu’s legacy as a revolutionary freedom fighter stems from the price he ultimately paid for defending the Swadeshi Movement.
“He [ Bābu] understood that the geo-strategic interests of British Rule in India. He knew that economics was the driving force of British rule; establishment of the British Raj was merely a ruse to perpetuate the economic dominance of the British over India. It is in this context Bābu Genu understood the socio-economic-politic arguments propounded by Gandhiji and its significance. That meant that should the British rule were to be economically unsustainable it would collapse as there would be hardly any incentive for the British to continue their rule in India. He knew economic independence of India was interlinked, intertwined and integrated to the political independence,” writes Sri Kashmiri Lal, a member of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch.
Understanding these dynamics, on December 12, 1930, Bābu and his fellow activists in the freedom struggle, staged a protest against the transport of a truck carrying foreign-made cloth through the Kalbadevi area.
George Frazier, a cloth merchant from Manchester, who owned the consignment of foreign-made clothes, was afforded protection by the British police.
“They were protesting by laying themselves prostrate on the road, refusing to let a truck pass. Though there are differing accounts of the precise events of the afternoon, history books maintain that Genu was run over by a truck in a deliberate act of police brutality,” reports The Indian Express. Other accounts, however, present a fascinating, yet tragic sequence of events.
Protesters stood in front of the oncoming truck carrying a consignment of clothes but were soon forced aside by the police party accompanying it. Even though the police were doing their utmost to prevent Bābu and his colleagues from participating in this movement, they remained firm in his resolve. The truck driver—Balbir Singh—a fellow Indian drove the truck close to the protesters but never had any intentions of running over his fellow countrymen.
The police once again stepped in and physically dragged the protesters from the road, thus allowing the truck to pass through. However, Bābu Genu gave them the slip and once again lay down on the road as a mark of non-violent protest, pleading with the driver not to drive the truck, and singing the praises of Gandhi and the freedom movement.
Babu Genu was a brave foot soldier of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence driven Swadeshi Movement.
When the police ordered driver Balbir to run over Bābu, he responded by saying, “I am Indian and he is also Indian, So, we both are the brothers of each other, then how can I murder my brother?”
“Seeing the procrastination of the Indian driver the British sergeant lost his temper and took on himself to drive the truck at full speed over Bābu Genu crushing his head and leaving behind a pool of blood and mass of flesh,” says this graphic account of the incident.
Bābu was taken to the nearest hospital but soon succumbed to his injuries. What followed was a massive wave of strikes and protests organised throughout the city with its residents raging against what was essentially a murder. The British administration had the gall to call it an “accident”, but the city residents didn’t see it that way. His spirit and sacrifice
In today’s context, Bābu’s ideas may seem a touch anachronistic, but he was a man of his times. He knew what British economic imperialism was doing to the local economy, and stood against it.
His spirit and sacrifice have been commemorated in Mumbai, Pune and even Delhi. There is a Babu Genu Road in Mumbai with a street-side plaque commemorating him. There is even a ground with his name in Navi Mumbai and a Chowk in Pune. However, ask anyone walking around these parts, and many wouldn’t know who the man actually was and what he stood for.
We hope to change that.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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The village of Kadbanwadi in Pune’s Indapur taluka is known for two reasons. First, for being an Adarsh Gaon (model village) and second, for the man behind making it drought-proof–Bhajandas Pawar.
Once counted among 300 nondescript drought-prone villages in Maharashtra, where even drinking water was a luxury, Kadbanwadi moved on to having 100 farm ponds, three percolation tanks, 27 cement nala bunds, and 110 earthen bunds.
All thanks to the continuous efforts of the retired teacher.
It was this love and passion for the betterment of the village, agriculture and the environment that Bhajandas passed down to his son, Vijayrao.
Vijayrao Pawar
Growing up, Vijayrao studied in the same school where his father taught.
But after completing his BSc in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture in Pune in 2010, he decided to enter the Maharashtra Public Service Commission. Agriculture took a backseat, and the young man decided to study for the same at the Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth.
Two years had passed, but despite attending rounds of interviews, Vijayrao couldn’t get a job.
Disheartened, he returned to his village.
He worked at a petrol pump for a while. But realised it was wasting his agricultural degree.
He recalls, “I knew I couldn’t take up traditional farming because it wasn’t financially viable. I had learned about controlled farming, which is also known as polyhouse farming. But despite having a degree in agriculture, I hadn’t practically used the method until then.”
At this point in our conversation, he mentions the irony of how the BSc Agriculture course is taught in colleges. “My classmate, who was the topper of the batch, once told me that she had never set her foot or even gotten her hands dirty working in a field. So, it is indeed unfortunate.”
But that did not stop the young man from stepping up for the challenge. “It is only when we use practically all that we have learned in theory, can new-generation farmers become successful,” he says.
And that is exactly what he did.
What is polyhouse farming?
Polyhouse farming refers to a controlled and protected method of farming inside a structure, where a variety of flowers and/or vegetables are grown.
The way in which it differs from traditional farming is that crops in an open field cannot withstand adverse weather conditions like heavy rains, scorching heat or extreme cold.
But crops inside a polyhouse grow regardless of the weather conditions, because the atmosphere can be artificially controlled with motorised screens and ventilators to facilitate crop growth. Also, the poly film on the structure doesn’t allow even a drop of rain to enter the structure.
While the initial cost of setting up is high, it extends the life cycle of the crop, produces better yield and is water-efficient (since it mostly uses drip irrigation).
From vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, bottle gourds, cabbages, and capsicums, high-end decorative flowers like chrysanthemums, roses and carnations can also be cultivated in polyhouse.
Speaking to The Better India, Vijayrao adds, “I attended a one-week workshop at the Horticulture Training Centre in Pune. After that, I applied for a loan of Rs 30 lakh from the bank under the National Horticulture Mission Scheme. After my loan was approved, I set up a polyhouse in a 1-acre land at Shelgaon.”
This was in February 2018.
He spent another ten lakh rupees for the raw material which included soil, drip irrigation, ropes, and other facilities.
His market research had shown that coloured capsicums earned good returns, and so he decided to grow the yellow and red varieties of the exotic vegetable. The first harvest followed in mid-April, where it procured Rs 35-40 per kg.
And while the returns didn’t seem too profitable at first, today, he earns Rs 170 per kg for these coloured capsicums.
Apart from Pune, he also exports them to Delhi and Mumbai.
In the last ten months, the young farmer has managed to earn Rs 13 lakh!
Also, his impressive work in the polyhouse was inspected by government authorities from the agriculture department, earning him a subsidy of Rs 18 lakh!
“Setting up a polyhouse may seem like an expensive investment at the start. But over time, it not only helps you recover your initial investment but also earn good profits,” says Vijayrao.
He continues, “Ideally, once you plant the saplings, they have a life cycle of nearly a year and can bear about 40 tonnes of produce. My polyhouse has yielded 30 tonnes from February to December. I am hoping for ten more tonnes of capsicum till February 2019.”
Govt officers at the inspection for subsidy
When asked how he keeps pests at bay, Vijayrao answers, “I maintain a 50-50 ratio between bio-pesticides and chemical ones. Chemical pesticides or fertilisers can damage crops and kill important bacteria that improve the fertility of the soil. But there are several pests and crop diseases that cannot be controlled with organic pesticides alone. So, I maintain a balance.”
To farmers, he says,
“We have seen adverse and uncertain climate conditions ruin acres of crops. In a scenario like this, polyhouse cultivation is not only a safe choice for your crops but also a method that guarantees income. Try to break away from traditional farming and get into the market to understand what the consumer needs. Use your theoretical knowledge practically to grow these crops. And you will only earn profits.”
Vijayrao’s polyhouse attracts a host of farmers from across the district. They come to him to seek guidance and information about replicating the model. And just like his father, the young man readily agrees to help all those who come to him.
If you have questions about polyhouse cultivation, get in touch with him on pawarso12@gmail.com.
Imagine being seated on a chair, with no one else in the room with you, other than a pesky mosquito buzzing near your ear. You want to swat it away; you try and move your arms to do it. Your brain has instructed your arm to move, but the signal hasn’t reached your arm, and you have to sit there and endure the mosquito’s buzzing until someone walks into the room and helps you.
Can you imagine anything more frustrating than this?
This is perhaps something that S Ramakrishnan and many others like him go through regularly.
S Ramakrishnan
S Ramakrishnan, a sexagenarian, had a million dreams as he was growing up in Ayikudi in Tamil Nadu. He went to the Government Engineering College in Coimbatore, and during his fourth year, applied for the armed services, hoping to make it to the navy.
Ramakrishnan went through various endurance and intelligence training programmes in Bengaluru. But the year 1976 changed everything for him.
During one of the sessions, he was to jump from a tree to a platform. Before he knew what happened, he had leapt off the tree but was on the ground, wincing in pain.
He was rushed to the military hospital, but the damage was done–he was immobile from below the neck.
S Ramakrishnan
The medical term for what he had suffered was tetraplegia.
Ramakrishnan came back to Ayikudi and tried hard to keep his spirits high, but it was difficult. He tried to start a printing press in his village but got no encouragement from anyone. There weren’t many people who wanted to trust a disabled entrepreneur.
What kept him going were the words of Air Vice-Marshal Dr Amarjit Singh Chahal, who would often say that there was much more to his life than a frail body.
Rehabilitation at Amar Seva Sangam
This prompted Ramakrishnan to start Amar Seva Sangam, an organisation dedicated to the upliftment of the disabled.
We, at The Better India, spoke to Sankara Raman, the Hon Secretary of Amar Seva Sangam. Raman is a wheelchair user, affected by Muscular Dystrophy, who joined Amar Seva Sangam in 1992 after a lucrative chartered accountant practice in Chennai.
What does Amar Seva Sangam do?
The intent behind starting this organisation was to make a ‘valley for the disabled’. The Sangam rehabilitates and empowers people with physical and mental impairments. In its three decades, it has embraced more than 330 villages in four blocks of Tirunelveli district, touching a population of over six lakh.
Raman says, “The organisation is fully disabled-focused, providing solutions for various disabled-centric issues. We take on children from birth and have designed different programmes according to their ages–from early intervention to programmes for the youth.”
Recollecting his own growing up years, he says that he was self-confident because of how his parents had brought him up. The muscular dystrophy that Raman suffers from was discovered at three, and at every step, his parents encouraged him to challenge himself and achieve more.
“Seeing how much of a difference that push can make, I wanted to give that support to others, who like me, go through a problem,” he says.
Sankara Raman
He continues, “The concept of disability is slowly diluting – and people have to survive, whether they are disabled or non-disabled. So we are creating the environment of an inclusive society, where a disabled person is just another person. Disability should not be construed as a constraint; it is only a condition which they can overcome, and contribute towards the society as well,” says Raman.
What started with five students in kindergarten under a thatched roof has grown into a movement in itself.
Changing lives
In one of the videos about this organisation, a beneficiary of the programme, says, “I came here when I was all of 12. I could not use my legs at all since it was polio-affected. After being here, I am now not only able to stand on my feet literally but also metaphorically,” she says.
What the organisation instils in everyone who lives there is immense confidence.
Whether wheelchair-bound or mentally disabled, the ability to do their work and be self-reliant is taught here.
Medical care to the disabled
Another young lady, who has been living at the Sangam, says, “Every time we would step out, people would either look at us with curiosity or pity. Here, none of that happens. We fall, we laugh, we pick ourselves up and keep going. I haven’t felt this liberated ever before.”
How can you help?
While the organisation is working to empower the disabled, it also provides them with self-confidence and mental strength to find their feet in society.
Get in touch with them at mail@amarseva.org or +91-4633-249170 to know more.
Here’s hoping that Amar Seva Sangam continues to inspire and change lives.
From plane systems failing to the floods that ravaged Kerala, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that 2018 was a challenging year for India. However, through it all, several heroes emerged to save the day.
Whether it was a 10-year-old who saved over 20 girls from an illegal shelter, or a man with a limp who ran a distance of 3 km to prevent a train accident, we brought you numerous stories showcasing the exceptional courage and bravery of ordinary people.
As the year comes to an end, here are 14 stories of people who deserve to be praised for their courage, and have inspired us to follow in their footsteps.
A young man who was allegedly discovered with a girl at a temple complex was being harassed by an angry mob, when Sub-inspector Gagandeep rushed to his help. The man was being thrashed because of his religion.
In a video that went viral, you can see Gagandeep with his arm around the man, shielding him from the violent crowd. Soon enough, his colleague joined him in controlling the crowd.
While the mob was pressurising the cops to let go of the young man, they refused to budge. Irrespective of the politics and communal angle of the incident, one cannot deny that Gagangeep displayed exemplary courage.
35-year-old Latha Unni was in a school bus, along with eight students of a playschool, when it got stuck in the slush and fell into a pond on Kattithara Road near Maradu, Kerala.
As soon as Latha, who was a nanny, understood the gravity of the situation, she started pushing the children out of the bus.
Latha could have perhaps chosen her own safety first and escaped from the stuck vehicle, but she chose to save the lives of the kids before anything else. When the rescue authorities took Latha to a hospital, she was declared dead on arrival, along with two other children. However, we must laud her presence of mind and courage that saved the lives of six young children.
To know more about the inspirational nanny, read her story here.
In August, an inferno broke out between the 12th and 16th floors of a high-rise residential building in Mumbai, restricting the use of lifts. Thankfully, 11-year-old Zen’s quick thinking saved many lives in this disastrous situation.
First, she opened the windows of her house allowing air to pass. Then, she knocked on the doors of all her neighbours till they came out, and alerted them about the fire. She even remembered to ask each one of them to put a wet cloth over their mouth to prevent suffocation. Read here to know more about the Mumbai fire and the young girl’s courage.
On the morning of July 8, 2016, Bidhan Shreshta was on his way to the summit of Stok Kangri in Ladakh. The summit was a few hundred metres away when the engineering student saw a climber falling about 15-20 meters off a cliff.
Fortunately, Bidhan saw exactly where the trekker had fallen and rushed to help him. The climber was bleeding heavily but had fortunately not suffered a single fracture.
Speaking to The Better India, Bidhan said, “His forehead was cut and bleeding badly, but he was fortunate enough not to have suffered any major fractures. His head had probably hit a rock. There were cuts on his eyebrows, lips, hands and the legs as well.”
Bidhan immediately took out his first aid kit and started treating the victim, whose name was Udesh. The good samaritan shouted for help and stayed with Udesh for over four hours till the rescue team finally arrived. The trekkers lost touch after parting ways at the base camp, until two years later.
TBI published a story about this incident in June this year, which as it turns out, was instrumental in reuniting the climbers! Read here to know about how Bidhan’s courage saved Udhesh’s life.
A courageous 10-year-old girl took advantage of a suitable moment to run away from a dubious women’s home, and lodge a complaint with the police.
The shelter, Ma Vindhyawasini Mahila Prakishan Evam Samaj Sewa Sansthan, was quite possibly running a human trafficking racket. The 25 girls in the shelter were taken away in “white, black and red” cars every night only to be dropped back in the shelter early in the morning.
The young girl finally found the opportunity to escape the shelter home and file a complaint with the police. The police, on their part, acted swiftly and supposedly reached the shelter within half an hour of the girl approaching them. Together, they successfully sealed the shelter and rescued the remaining 24 other girls. Read the story here.
Krishna Poojary was diagnosed with an ailment in his leg a few months ago. A worker at a roadside eatery in Udupi, he does not have enough funds to purchase regular medicines, so his doctor advised him to go on walks every morning to strengthen his muscles.
One morning when Krishna was on one of his regular walks, he spotted a crack on the railway track which set alarm bells ringing in his mind. He was aware that two trains would pass this very track every day, around the same time he had spotted the crack. As the first of these trains passed, the crack widened, and Krishna knew that this could spell danger to the next train.
Even with a limp and an ailing leg, Krishna Poojary ran over 3 km to the nearest railway station. He wanted to alert the officials, and an injured leg was not to come in his way.
The officials halted two trains as soon as they were informed and rushed to the spot to fix the issue. This is how Krishna averted a major train accident and potentially saved thousands of lives that day.
Read the story about the Udupi hero in detail, here.
Yenkappa is a 28-year-old groundnut farmer in Bagalkot, Karnataka. One day in November, he was carrying a 30-feet haystack in his tractor through the narrow lanes in his village when disaster struck.
For Yenkappa, carrying such a tall stack of hay is routine, but that day, the stack hit an electric fence. The hay caught fire in a matter of seconds, and suddenly the farmer saw sparks fly.
Yenkappa was in a narrow lane, surrounded by houses and knew that the fire would soon spread out to the entire stack and cause immense destruction. Without losing a moment, the brave farmer hit the accelerator and drove his tractor right into a lake.
While he was injured and suffered losses to the tune of approximately Rs 30,000 in the incident, he ensured that the fire was quickly contained and no one else was hurt in the process.
“The incident happened in less than 20 minutes. One mistake would have landed the whole village into trouble, [and] we would have lost houses and livestock. What Yenkappa did was extraordinary,” a villager told the Times of India.
The villagers have shot the entire episode on their mobile phones, and you can watch the video here.
Milan Tare, a humble farmer from Maharashtra always dreamed of being “recognised”, but he would have never imagined that he would shoot to recognition for saving 12 lives!
Tare, along with his fellow fishermen had ventured into the sea, post-sunset, to cast their nets. There were a total of seven boats, each at a distance of about one kilometre from one another. The mutual understanding was that some fishermen would take a nap while the others kept a lookout.
It was about 3:00 a.m. and Tare was on the watch when he heard a scream of “vachva” (help) on his wireless. One of the boats had capsized, and the fishermen were at the mercy of the high waves. Even though they had their lifebuoys, the dangerous sea posed a threat to their lives, so Tare steered his boat towards them, calling out to other fishermen to join him.
Soon enough Tare and the others reached the struggling fishermen and got them aboard their own boats, saving 12 lives. You can read in detail about Tare’s bravery here.
9. Kanayya Kumar
Video going viral in Kerala A rescue official ran across a bridge and saved a child’s life, few minutes before the bridge went under water in Idukki. A real comrade! pic.twitter.com/hQDZFJaKt0
During the Kerala floods earlier this year, the shutters of over 20 dams, including Idukki’s Cheruthoni dam, were opened.
The opening of the Cheruthoni dam saw people running helter-skelter to save their lives, and among them was a young child who was struggling to make it to the other side, before the bridge went completely underwater.
This is when Kanayya Kumar, a rescue official, swooped in, picked up and carried the child to safety. Later, the 30-second video of this rescue went viral.
A number of people displayed immense courage, compassion and unparalleled humanity during the floods, and Kanayya was one among them, In this feature, he represents all the heroes of the Kerala floods.
When a strange woman tried luring a 2-year-old from a housing complex in Thane, his brother, who is ten years old, decided that this was highly suspicious, and followed her.
The two brothers were playing with their cousin outside their house, in a crowded area when the woman approached the youngest child and started talking to him. She then lured him with chocolates, picked him up and started walking away.
He started following her, instructing his cousin to rush home and alert their parents about the situation.
“I kept walking behind her and kept asking where she was taking my brother. When I tried to catch her, she ran faster. This alerted passers-by, and by then my relatives and neighbours rushed to the spot to rescue the child. When she noticed a crowd, she left the boy and fled,” the young boy told Mirror.
The boy’s presence of mind is certainly worthy of praise. Here is his full story.
A real-life Superman, Kapil was working his regular shift in a JCB vehicle when he saw a bus filled with passengers slipping and hurtling towards a ravine. Without losing a moment, Kapil put his vehicle in gear and headed towards it.
The JCB was well-equipped to manoeuvre over the hilly, muddy terrain and Kapil is experienced enough to handle it. In the nick of time, he reached the bus and held it firmly with the front handle of his JCB. An unimaginable feat but Kapil did it nonetheless.
He kept the bus in that position till all the 80 passengers, who were tumbling towards certain death, could safely escape. It took them about an hour to do so, but Kapil ensured that the bus did not slip. Only after all of them were on firm ground, did he push the bus onto a road.
In June this year, a 12-seater Beechcraft King Air C90 model aircraft, which took off from the Juhu airport, lost control a short while later. It was flying over the densely populated Ghatkopar area when the pilots realised that the system had become defunct.
Anant Kandhor, an onlooker and resident of the area, spoke to the Hindustan Times about how close the plane was to his house, saying, “The plane went past my balcony and was so close I thought it would crash into my building.”
The pilots, PS Rajput and Maria Zuberi, used what would be their very last moments to find a relatively empty space for the crash landing, and found an under construction site in the middle of densely populated buildings and busy streets.
The workers had gone out for lunch and that gave the brave pilots the perfect place to crash land. Even in the face of death, the captain and co-pilot made sure that several lives were saved.
Swapan Debbarma was with his daughter, Somati, climbing down a hill in Dhanchara, Tripura. As they were walking, they saw a passenger train approaching. The only worry? It was headed towards a point where there were no railway tracks!
Heavy rains and massive landslides had dislocated the tracks and the train was headed towards inevitable disaster. As soon as he understood the situation, Swapan took off his shirt and started running towards the train, waving it. He wanted the locomotive pilot to notice him and stop the train. Somati too joined her father in alerting the pilot.
Together, they were able to stop the train from a tragic accident, thus saving about 2000 lives! “If we had not spotted the signal and stopped the train, it could have met with a severe accident,” the driver told the media.
You can read more about them and the incident here.
When a fire broke out on the first floor of a Gurugram residential building and reached the fifth floor, it was a 32-year-old mother, who was instrumental in saving many lives.
After the fire broke out that fateful night, the smoke from the electric shaft that caught fire, entered Swati Garg’s home around 2:00 a.m.
She immediately alerted her husband, daughter, mother and a friend who was staying with them, instructing them to get out of the house. Swati was afraid that the fire would spread to an electric shaft on her floor and escalate further.
Once her family was out of the house, she started going to every house on her floor, alerting the neighbours about the fire. The residents had to go to the upper-level floors since the fire had blocked the exit beyond the third floor.
Showing immense courage, Swati kept knocking onto the doors of houses on her floor and even one floor above her home so everyone could be safe. Finally, she went up to on the tenth floor, trying to open the door of the terrace.
Unfortunately, she lost consciousness there and died of asphyxiation.
The incredibly brave Swati ensured that all her neighbours were safe, prioritising their lives over her own. She has been rightly hailed a hero after this incident and you can read more about it here.
Nearly four years ago in January 2015, eight-year-old Naga girl Mhonbeni Ezung became the youngest person to receive the National Bravery Award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What did the young girl do?
Well, on January 28, 2014, Mhobeni was fishing with her grandmother at a river near the Chudi village of the Wokha district in Nagaland. Suddenly, her 78-year-old grandmother, Renthunglo Jungi, suffered a bout of cramps, then a stroke and fell unconscious into the water body.
The little Mhonbeni had the wherewithal to drag her grandmother out of the river, run 4-5 km (7 km according to some accounts) through the dense jungle all alone to the village crying out for help.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presenting the National Bravery Award to Mhonbeni Ezung. (Source: Twitter)
Help eventually arrived as Renthunglo was taken to the nearest primary health centre in Wokha district and later referred to Dimapur. Speaking to the press, Mhonbeni said that it was her deep-seated love for grandmother Renthunglo which inspired this act of bravery.
Once Renthunglo recovered, Mhonbeni said that her grandmother gave her “lots of love.” Speaking to the Times of India, Mhonbeni talked about wanting to become an engineer when she grows up.
Fast forward to 2018, and Mhonbeni’s story has been adapted to a successful Nagamese-Hindi film Nani Teri Morni, directed by Akashaditya Lama and produced by the Children’s Film Society of India. It was recently featured at the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival in Guwahati.
Mhonbeni Ezung (left) & film poster (right) (Source: Twitter/Twitter)
With narration from Mhonbeni’s grandmother, the film not only revolves around her brave act but the art of oral storytelling. Like any other child, Mhonbeni loved hearing stories that spoke of courageous actions and other Naga tradtions—elements that would eventually inspire a young child to save her grandmother.
During the film, we are told of Mhonbeni’s favourite story of Ranchan, the brave tribal leader who fought off a man-eating tiger all alone to save his tribe, which had lost all hope in him and moved to another village.
It isn’t hard to gauge where Mhonbeni derived all her courage from. Watch the trailer below:
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
For fitness enthusiast Aryan Pasha, bodybuilding was never just a way to enhance his physical self, but to make a powerful statement.
And he did so by winning the second place in the Muscle Mania contest on December 1, 2018. In doing so, Aryan became the first transman from India to win a bodybuilding competition.
26-year-old Aryan, who is also a Delhi-based lawyer, was always enthusiastic about staying fit. Bodybuilding, which was a part of his fitness routine, soon became his passion.
When he saw a Facebook post about a bodybuilding competition for transmen in the USA; he decided that he would participate in it. Following three years of rigorous training, he was finally in a good place and applied for the competition.
“The rejection somehow made me stronger and more focused to get over my inhibitions and compete at national competitions. So, that very day I began to write letters to all the national bodybuilding associations and federations, and eventually received a positive response,” said Aryan to The Better India.
The ‘positive response’ was a reply from the officials of the Indian Body Builders Federation (IBBF). He was encouraged to participate and was assured that his gender identity would not be an issue; all they wanted were athletes with a good physique.
Bolstered by the support, Aryan resumed his training. For him, the routine was to be much more intense, as building muscles take longer for transmen as compared to the cisgender male, who naturally can produce testosterone.
He would eventually go on to participate in the Men’s Physique (Short) category in Delhi and create history.
His effort to make a powerful statement has further resonated in the international corridors of bodybuilding. “I hope to see more people adopt the sport and now, fortunately, the International Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (IBFF) is going to recognise transgenders in the competition,” he added.
Unlike the Trans FitCon, a bodybuilding competition conducted in the USA which is only for transgenders, the IBFF allows all genders—male, female and now transgenders—to participate. “Although, this year it will only be an initiative from IBFF India, we hope to have the category accepted in other countries as well,” said Aryan to TBI.
Aryan’s battles against the society and its stereotypes had begun early in his childhood. At the age of six, he decided to confront his father and stop wearing a girl’s uniform to school. He even decided to change schools, to be able to make a fresh start in a new environment. At that time, he had not revealed his gender identity to anyone.
It was only at the age of 16, that he came out to his parents, and initiated the transition at 18.
After all these years, his battle continues, but Aryan has now found a concrete direction as he dreams of continuing on this path and pave the way for more people from his community to join in.
Satyajit and Ajinka Hange grew up alternating between two very different worlds.
One was their Anglo-Indian boarding school in Pune city, and the other was their rural agrarian family, some 150 km away in Indapur taluka’s Bhodani village, where their father toiled in the fields to ensure they got the best education.
From kindergarten to post-graduation, the sibling-duo lived in the city. Having completed their Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Pune University, they climbed the corporate ladder to work for top MNCs like Citibank, DBS, HDFC, and HSBC for nearly a decade.
The monthly paycheck and lifestyle were cushy, but there wasn’t satisfaction or inner peace. Their weekend trips to the village had instilled a love for farming in them.
When they mustered the courage to leave their lucrative jobs to turn to organic farming full-time, the immediate reaction from everyone, including their own father, was utter shock.
The Hange brothers
The voices around them echoed, “Farming is not a profitable option. You don’t study in the city and return to your village to toil in the field!”
But they decided to drown this noise and follow their passion for the soil.
The Hange brothers, who started on a small parcel of land, today practice organic farming on a 20-acre farm, making an annual turnover of Rs 3 crore!
Success comes to those who persevere, and the story of this sibling-duo is a testimony to that.
The Big Switch
In Western Maharashtra, where sugarcane was chemically grown on a grand scale, the duo decided to go natural with a mixed fruit orchard. It water-efficient, required lesser tilling and had a longer shelf-life.
Speaking to The Better India, Satyajit recalls, “Early into our farming journey, we realised how chemicals fertilisers and pesticides were ruining the productivity of the soil by killing the rich microbes, and also affecting the quality of produce. In this time of crisis, the experienced workers and retired farmers within our village, along with the internet, became our teachers. Each of them reiterated how cow dung and urine could single-handedly ensure good soil health.”
And thus, they began natural farming with two acres of land, where they grew native varieties of pomegranate and desi tur dal (pigeon pea), and 20 indigenous Gir cows.
(L) Ajinkya (R) Satyajit
The first four years, they ran into losses.
“It was a very difficult time. We had left our jobs and also turned the farming model around. The biggest hit was when we harvested a ton of desi papayas. As sweet as jaggery, these papayas, when taken to the local mandi (market) only fetched Rs 4/per kg,” says Ajinkya.
The middlemen had turned them helpless. When they approached malls–vendor codes and documentation were required. But time was running out, and their orchards were already fruiting!
With no logistics, the two brothers put the papayas in a commercial tempo and turned to the local haath gaadi (hand-cart) vendors under bridges.
“They refused to buy it from us for Rs 20/per kg, so we asked them to sample them free of cost. Most customers came back because they loved the produce. We ended up selling the entire orchard at a profit,” beams Satyajit.
They worked with these street vendors for eight months, until the head of a Star Bazaar tasted the papayas. A meeting with the people who owned the enterprise went from 15 minutes to nearly two hours. They were given a rack at each of the mall outlets with no extra charge or rent!
They moved on to have a successful stint selling with top retailers, but over time, they realised how there were hardly any dedicated organic markets which would fetch them the price their top-notch produce was worth.
“On the floor of a mall, our produce was being sold like any other crop which was grown chemically. To us, we were growing gold. So we wanted someone who would sell that gold with the same vigour,” says Ajinkya.
This is how their journey into farmer markets began. Apart from selling at existing and famous farmer markets over the weekends in Bandra, they set up a farmer market at Dadar.
Soon, they distanced themselves from middlemen and retail chains and worked for their produce to reach their customer’s doorstep too.
Today, their customer base, in addition to hundreds of organic food enthusiasts, includes top business tycoons and A-listers from Bollywood.
Methods
While cow dung and urine are used for manure, the brothers have made it a point not to stick to monocropping (single crops). Instead, they follow intercropping, where they grow a combination of monocot and dicot plantations. They heavily mulch and compost the fields to retain soil quality and have trees growing up to 30-feet around the edges, serving as boundary walls.
The trees act as windbreaks or windshields for the crop and also create a microclimate inside the farm. In case the temperature outside rises as high as 40° C, the climate inside will still have a 4° drop.
The seeds are strictly heirloom, with no space for hybrid or genetically-modified varieties. They grow crops ranging from pomegranates, papayas, drumsticks, tur dal, moong dal (green gram), urad dal (black gram), lobia (black eyed-pea), bananas, sugarcane etc.
The emmer wheat they grow is gluten-free, nutritious and diabetic-friendly, and their desi tur dal takes an additional seven months to grow, as against the regular variety, which grows up to 15-20 feet with bigger pea sizes and better nutrition.
Their farm has been vetted and certified by the global standards as a ‘100 per cent organic farm’ by the known French certification body, Ecocert.
From an annual turnover of Rs 2 lakh in the first year, to making a monthly turnover of Rs 30 lakh currently, the pair’s successful journey inspired many.
Their work garnered the attention of the government, which sends farmers from different states and districts to the ‘Two Brothers Organic Farms‘ as their startup is christened. The organic farmer’s wing of the government of Maharashtra, ATMA, has organised training visits of over 2,000 farmers.
Apart from this, people from over 14 countries have visited their farms to learn their organic farming methods. These include travellers, farmers, media experts and bankers from the USA, France, Germany, and Australia.
At the time of this interview, they had two Canadians working on their field. While their food and accommodation are completely taken care of, they are asked to put in 3-5 hours of work every day. One of them helped the brothers set up an Instagram page, and an Italian couple taught them to make ricotta cheese from excess buttermilk. Today, this ricotta cheese made by trained village women is being sold as a processed item on their online and offline stores.
The duo was also invited by esteemed institutes like the Welingkar Institute and IIM Indore for case studies and lectures. Their talk at Welingkar earned them 30 volunteers from the management batch to collaborate on the field. Even today, students from across the country come over to their farm to learn organic farming.
Alongside like-minded individuals, the brothers set up a community initiative called OrganicWe, where they set up their first farmer market at Dadar in Mumbai. They aim to do more in the organic space through it.
“We love selling in farmer markets, interacting with consumers and telling them our story. Every Sunday, we look forward to the 350 km ride to sell our produce. It was after the feedback from our customers that we decided to venture into processed items like desi cow ghee (butter), peanut butter, jaggery, jaggery powder, moringa powder, wood pressed oils, unpolished dals–all with no additives, preservatives, colours or binders. In their purest forms. Several boutique stores in Mumbai came forward to give our products space, with no high margins. Every time we travel to the city, they arrange for our stay and food too!” says Satyajit.
Their online organic store, Amorearth (a Spanish word for Love for the Earth), was set up ten months ago. It was rated the best store for curated organic products among Indian and imported brands in India by Vogue in April!
Their deliveries to over 250 households in Mumbai and Pune recently earned them greater customer loyalty, where the receivers not only became their brand ambassadors but also gave them testimonials on all platforms.
They sign off, “There is a big conception in our own villages that children once educated shouldn’t turn to farming. We want to break this while promoting the cause of organic farming. Educated people can leave their jobs and turn farming into a profitable business too. All they require is the passion and the never-give-up attitude!”
Who would have thought two brothers who started farming with a bootstrap capital would become one of the first farmers in the state to directly export their organic produce to international locations like Australia, Dubai, USA, Canada, and Switzerland!
If this story inspired you, get in touch with the Hange brothers on their website here or contact them on 9823136008 or 9850588883.
Spectators look on in awe when Dev Mishra performs callisthenics at Bandra’s Carter Road. He has no legs and performs the classic moonwalk with his hands!
The 22-year-old Juhu resident wowed judges in the first audition of the upcoming season of India’s Got Talent. He shares his incredible story with The Better India.
Dev was born in the village of Dhakjari in Bihar’s Begusarai district to Vandana Devi and Raj Kumar Mishra. The youngest of three siblings, he was only six-months-old when his father passed after a prolonged illness. All his mother’s savings were spent on his treatment.
When they ran out of money, Raj Kumar died a painful death leaving Vandana to raise three kids alone.
Dev Mishra
She toiled all day as a landless labourer on farms and worked as domestic help. There were nights when hunger pangs kept her awake, but Vandana did not let any of her children sleep on an empty stomach.
Dev had started working at the age of five, helping his mother in domestic work and grazing cattle. In class eight, financial crisis at home pushed him to drop out of school and take up odd jobs.
On June 1, 2015, Dev was travelling to Hyderabad to work as a welder for a contractor. He had no idea that the trip would change his life.
Just as he prepared to board the train entering Barauni station, he felt a strong push from the frenzied crowd behind him. The train was hardly ten steps away. But the teenager had fallen onto the tracks.
In the flash of a second, the train that he thought would take him to his destination, ran over him, amputating his legs above his knees.
He was 19-years-old then.
Speaking to The Better India, he recalls,
“I kept screeching in pain. Nobody reached out to help. Just when I thought the situation could still be salvaged, another speeding train ran over me. Some people picked me up and left me at the corner of a platform. I was lying there for the next three hours screaming and begging people to help me. They stopped and looked. But did not help. I was rushed to the hospital only after my friend arrived.”
Six hours after the accident, he finally reached the hospital. He had lost a lot of blood in that time.
“Doctors said it was impossible to save me. But I survived. It was my second shot at life,” says Dev.
He spent a month recovering in the hospital and still has a pending loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from his treatment.
When he returned home, his mother took care of him. For the next three months of recovery, she did not leave his side.
“What killed me wasn’t the pain of losing my feet, but the fact that my own brother had turned on me after my recovery. It was the day I realised that until I was an able-bodied man who could contribute to the family, he respected me. When I was bedridden, he considered me useless. He told me, ‘You won’t be capable of doing anything in your life. Tu jeeyega toh meri badaulat, marega toh meri badaulat (Whether you live or die, you will be dependent on me.’’ It broke me completely. This was the brother I had loved and looked up to all my life,” he says, emotionally.
Dev decided to not dwell upon it, but make something of his life.
He travelled to Jaipur to consult doctors about getting prosthetic legs, but he was told that his existing limbs were too short, so the procedure wouldn’t be possible.
“My only hope of standing back on my feet was shattered,” he says.
That day at Jaipur railway station, on a whim he boarded a train to Mumbai.
“In a hopeless world, I knew the city of dreams was my only hope. Nobody who enters here returns empty-handed. So, my journey began at Kurla station. I hardly knew anyone. I lived off alms, slept on the footpath near Carter Road, ate leftovers and often slept hungry. When I asked people for work, they refused.”
He travelled to Bandra and Juhu, waiting outside the bungalows of top celebrities in search of work. Actor Jackie Shroff was gracious to hand him an envelope of Rs 5,000.
Exactly a month later, fate smiled on him when he met jewellery designer, Farah Khan Ali.
With his guardian angel Farah Khan Ali
“She is like God to me. Wherever I am, she is the driving force behind it. The day that I met her, I told her I found it difficult to walk, and was in need of a job to survive in the city. Moved by my story, she immediately got in touch with some of her workers and bought me a tricycle. On the same day, she gave me Rs 10,000 for food and other expenses. She found me accommodation too and has been taking care of my expenses ever since. She told me, ‘Till the day I am alive, I will help you in every way I can.’”
Farah was also the guardian angel who made Dev’s dream of standing on his feet come true. Spending over Rs five lakh, she helped him get prosthetics.
With his prosthetics
“I knew I had to make the opportunity count. So I started out by getting into body fitness. I would practice callisthenics at Carter Road to build my upper body strength since the entire weight of my body was often on my hands.”
Ten months ago, during one such practice session, a dance instructor spotted him. This was the beginning of Dev’s journey into dancing.
This instructor was Vishal Paswan.
When he introduced himself, Dev asked to learn a few moves. To Paswan’s surprise, Dev had picked them up quickly.
“He told me to use my skill, chase my dreams and inspire people. Dance in a manner that everyone who looks on goes, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’ I am indebted to him for teaching me everything I know about dancing.”
After performing at several stage shows, the young lad decided to audition for the popular talent show, India’s Got Talent.
At the time of this interview, Dev was preparing his act for the show’s second round. Along with this, he is also pursuing his Class 12 privately.
What’s next after the reality show, I ask him.
He smiles and says,
“I really want a job that can help me sustain. I study, dance, cook, eat and live, all by myself. I know I am not highly educated and don’t have certificates to prove any skills. But I am a hard worker. I am willing to learn if given a chance. I am living my second life only for my mother. She continues to live alone in the village. My dream is to give her a comfortable life and make her proud.”
In a final message to everyone who took the time the read about his journey, he says, “Don’t give up. Life will throw all kinds of obstacles and problems your way. Don’t run away from them, fight them. Problem aapko nahi, aap problem ko bhagaiye (Don’t let problems scare you, instead you scare them away).”
In light of World Food Day and World Poverty Eradication Day being observed this week, here is an ode to Mr P U Thomas who has been striving to improve the quality of life for the downtrodden.
For Mr P.U. Thomas, 69, fondly known as ‘Thomas Chettan’ in the villages of Kottayam, the day starts out on a very busy note. There is no time to spare, even for a cup of chai. He begins his day by visiting the members of his organisation, the Navajeevan Trust.
Sitting and chatting and giving words of comfort to over 200 people has become a routine for him. These words of comfort have become a source of joy for them.
In the afternoons, Thomas and his group of volunteers set out to provide around 5,000 packets of homemade food to the patients and visitors of three different hospitals in Kottayam, followed by tea, as well as dinner.
The love that the people of Kottayam have for him goes a long way.
About 40 years ago, Thomas was diagnosed with a peptic ulcer. He had to suffer in the general ward of Hospital, Kottayam for almost 22 days, with no money in hand.
While there, he witnessed the misery of patients struggling to find money for a single meal. That left a deep impression on the 19-year-old boy.
At 20, Thomas got a job as the mess boy at the Kottayam Medical College Boys Hostel. He was paid Rs 151 as his salary.
From this, he would spend Rs 5 to buy medicines for poor patients at the Medical College. He would also make sure to buy two packets of lunch every day, one for himself and one for any patient who couldn’t afford a meal.
On seeing these gestures of kindness by their mess boy, the students at the medical college started contributing to his cause and even collected excess food from nearby hotels.
A few years later, Thomas was appointed as an attendant at the Medical College and this paved the way for him to further connect with doctors and patients. He received generous contributions and recognition from the hospital and from people in and around Kottayam, as word about his work spread, leading to the beginning of Navajeevan Trust.
The experiences he faced in his own life instilled in him a compassion for the downtrodden, inspiring him to start this Trust.
The main activity of the trust has always been the rehabilitation of the homeless and mentally challenged patients. They are brought to the Navajeevan Bhavan by volunteers and the very next day, they are taken to the hospital.
Most patients recover after a few months of regular treatment and are sent back to their homes. If they are not welcomed there, they remain in the ‘Bhavan’ as volunteers.
The Trust, however, does not spare any effort to find the relatives of the abandoned. Thomas tells The Better India that the joy of getting back a relative needs to be seen to be believed.
Currently, there are more than 200 residents, from different parts of India, of whom 25 are permanently bedridden patients.
Unlike other rehabilitation centres, there are no armed guards or cells.
On asking Thomas if there is any language barrier in communicating with these patients, he says, “I don’t find any difficulty speaking with them, because the language of love overpowers everything else.”
Over 4,000 patients have regained their mental balance after coming to the Navajeevan Bhavan and some continue to be volunteers at the Trust.
The Trust’s food distribution system, which Thomas started at a micro-level at the Institute of Child Health, Kottayam, in 1970, gradually gained momentum.
Today, over 5,000 patients from three different hospitals in Kottayam are given home-cooked meals on a daily basis. During bandh and hartal days, these numbers escalate.
The patients at the hospital say that they could have never have dreamt of a complete meal if it wasn’t for Thomas Chettan. The Trust also provides boiled medicated drinking water in the Medical College hospital during summer.
The Trust has also expanded its services with free Ambulance services, finding blood donors, providing medical camps and check-ups for the underprivileged, palliative care etc. and about 100 deprived families, that live near the Trust, are provided with free rice every week.
Navajeevan began an initiative called ‘Clean and Green’ to ensure proper cleanliness and hygiene in the surroundings of the Medical College Hospital by clearing waste, planting trees and decorative plants.
One of the most important missions of the Trust is to generate a sense of awareness among society to be a source of comfort for those in need. The ‘Hands of Compassion’ initiative was introduced to encourage students to volunteer and inculcate compassion for the underprivileged. On visiting various schools, Thomas reached over 1,20,000 students.
Thomas’ family consists of his wife Laisamma and his five children. His youngest child was born paralysed and mentally challenged. Thomas believes that God gifted him this child because he had trust in him.
The concept that he follows is to live ‘one day at a time’. He never had a day when there was a lack of volunteers to help out or when he ran out of money to provide for the underprivileged. There were always people who were generous enough to help him in his cause and it is this belief in humanity that keeps him going.
“It is always easy to get money from the government and other foreign agencies. But this defeats the purpose of our mission. Which is why we only take contributions from well-wishers.”
Today, the daily expense of the Trust comes up to Rs 1 lakh.
Thomas Chettan remains an inspiration to the villages of Kottayam and the work he does is cherished by both the young and old.
If you wish to donate to Thomas, here’s how:
SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT NO: 57011374494 ( STATE BANK OF INDIA , MEDICAL COLLEGE BRANCH, KOTTAYAM)
IFSC Code: SBIN0070111
(As the Trust is not registered under FCRA, NRIs may use their NRE/NRO Account for donations to the above account by cheque, NEFT/RTGS through Internet Banking Facility.)
Peera Ram Bishnoi is a mechanic who earns his livelihood working at his small puncture repair shop near National Highway-65. But there’s something extraordinary about the story of this ordinary man.
In the last decade, he has saved over 1,180 injured and distressed wildlife!
Peera Ram at work
When I ask him what keeps him going, he reiterates the words of slain Amrita Devi Bishnoi that every Bishnoi child is asked to memorise from the time they start to speak.
‘सर सान्टे रूख रहे तो भी सस्तो जाण’
(If a tree is saved even at the cost of one’s head, it is worth it.)
Amrita Devi had yelled at the kingsmen of Marwar in 1730, as she and her three daughters (Asu, Ratni, and Bhagu) and 300 other Bishnois were beheaded, while they clung to the Khejri trees to prevent their felling.
“‘Jeev Daya Palani’–Be compassionate to all living beings and ‘Runkh Lila Nahi Ghave’–Do not cut green trees–these were philosophies that I was not only taught as a Bishnoi child but also encouraged to live.”
Peera Ram was born to marginal farmers in a border village of Western Rajasthan, with Gujarat on one side and Pakistan on the other.
As a child, when he toiled with his parents on the farm, he often saw peacocks, rabbits, deer, and other wildlife enter their fields from the forest areas. They would run around the fields, devour the crops and sometimes just rest there with careless abandon.
“I remember asking my parents, ‘These wildlife species are damaging our crops, why do we let them? Can’t we drive them away?’ And my father had said, ‘It isn’t the wildlife that causes damage to humans, it is the other way around. The existence of the entire universe is dependent upon the Pancha Maha-Bhoota, (five great elements)–earth, sky, wind, fire, and water. And every living being that co-exists with us, has to be protected. If they dwindle into extinction, how will humans survive?’”
Through a decade of experience, Peera Ram rescued rare species like the Chinkara, Blackbuck, Hanuman Langur, Indian Hare, Migratory Demoiselle Crane, Common Crane, Small Indian Civet, Peacock, and Desert Fox among others.
Trudging down memory lane, the humble mechanic recalls the incident that triggered his journey into wildlife rescue.
“When I would run my tire puncture shop close to the highway, several drivers would tell me how wildlife crossing the road would often be run over or killed by speeding motorists, four-wheelers, and heavy-duty vehicles. A 300-km radius around my shop which was close to the forest area had no guards or authorities to keep a check. But back then, I often felt helpless. How could one man stop it?”
But the Bishnoi blood in his veins was running strong.
It was a regular day when Peera Ram was travelling from his home towards the highway when a speeding motorist ran over a chinkara.
“The chinkara was severely hurt and dragged itself across the road before collapsing. I saw it gasp for breath, cry in pain for help. My heart shivered. I ran to the spot, picked the distressed animal in my lap, hailed a vehicle and took it to the veterinary hospital.”
He paid for the treatment from his own pocket, and when the hospital asked him to take the treated animal to a shelter, he decided to take it home.
For the next five years, the work continued, where he took all kinds of distressed animals and birds home, nursed them back to health with home remedies. His family, animal lovers themselves, extended their complete support to him.
While he couldn’t register for an NGO independently, he set up the ‘Shri Jambheswar Paryavaran evam Jeev Raksha Pardes Sanstha’ on June 5, 2012 (World Environment Day), along with four different activists.
His work inspired people around his village of Dhamana and neighbouring villages to bring him any casualties. But it also drew ire from hunters, poachers, and trophy hunters. Some of whom complained to the forest authorities that he was keeping wildlife within the confines of his home against the law and not taking good care of them.
He shares, “The forest authorities and the police arrived at my home with their team with the intention of arresting me, but when they met me and looked at the love with which my family and I took care of the animals, they congratulated me. I showed them my membership as part of the larger organisation conserving wildlife, and they decided to help me. They helped us acquire government land. While we did not get any financial help from the government, we set up a small centre to treat distressed wildlife. My opposers were either unsatisfied by the work or wanted to sabotage it.”
The forest department ensured that he was given guards to patrol the sensitive area regularly.
But that was not all.
He also faced a few threats on his life. Was he scared, I ask him.
“If I watch someone shoot wildlife, I’d rather die protecting it than watch that brutal massacre. I will not bow down to these hunters and poachers. We have a legacy of sacrificing our lives to defend trees and animals. These species are more precious than our own lives. Recently, about 365 km away, one of our activists was shot by a few Rajputs while trying to protect an injured deer. Despite the attempt on his life, he managed to save the deer and get one of the hunters caught as the other two escaped.”
Whether it was 25-year-old Bhinya Ram Bishnoi who chased poachers to save blackbucks or 38-year-old Gangaram who was killed while saving deer, hundreds of Bishnois have been martyred for the cause of protecting the environment and the wildlife, says Peera Ram.
When they began a 50×50 ft shelter, Peera Ram put in his own money to the construction, facilities, medicines, and food for the animals. But it is the goodwill of his well-wishers that has helped the shelter in its functioning over the years. They have donated fodder, medicines and water tankers, among other things.
The shelter, which is a lush farm, is now spread across 2.5 hectares, where 450 animals are cared for. It requires Rs 1 lakh every month. And his group has 2,000 people.
In the last five years, he has saved over 1,180 animals, of which 100 were released into the forests after full recovery.
“When an injured animal is brought in, it is very difficult for them to recover fully. We try our best. Our survival rates at 45 per cent are higher than the veterinary hospitals, which are as low as 11 per cent. Sometimes with fractures in the neck, limbs do not heal completely, rendering them dependent on lifelong care. But finding their own species or families in the shelter help many of them heal faster.”
I ask him about the difference in the care at his shelter and a veterinary hospital.
He answers, “In government veterinary hospitals, people work in shifts and for salaries. Our work, however, is ruled by emotions, is straight from the heart and round-the-clock. Many times, wildlife do not get follow-up treatments in hospitals, but here, we keep a strict check on their progress.”
Peera Ram was recently bestowed the Earth Heroes Award by the Royal Bank of Scotland Foundation at the eighth edition of the award.
Being felicitated
Speaking to The Better India about the award, N Sunil Kumar, Head of RBS Foundation, says, “Peera Ramji is an example of how an individual has brought his passion to an extent where he is not only putting in a significant amount of time and resources but has also managed to build a community around it. Conservation and compassion are two different things. And Peera Ramji’s work is taking compassion to an institutional level.”
“If a farmer’s son can rescue over a thousand wildlife, imagine the work we could do together if we all join hands. Devote your time and energy. At several times, rescuers working on the ground don’t have the financial backing to sustain their work. If privileged people back them up financially to make a replicable model, we could make the world a more compassionate place,” Peera Ram signs off.
When 33-year-old Ashish Sood made his way to Australia from Ludhiana in 2007 on a student visa to study Hospitality and Commercial Cooking with very little money, he was homeless for two weeks living on the streets and sleeping in a park. Life was really hard for the newly-arrived immigrant in Australia.
All Sood ever wanted was to set up his own restaurant, and after struggling for a decade, he has made just about enough to full his dreams. Today, he is the owner of a small takeaway joint called ‘Ginger and Garlic’ in Brisbane which serves Indian food.
However, remembering his struggles as a homeless student, Sood has for the past nine months been serving the remaining curries, samosa, naan, and papadams to the homeless on Adelaide Street in Brisbane CBD, Australia, before closing shop.
“It felt bad to throw all that food every day, but I’m glad that now instead of going into the bin, it [the food] makes a lot of people happy and lets them sleep on a full stomach. We have at least eight to nine homeless people, mostly men, who come to us for food every single night since the past four months. They start lining up outside the restaurant from 8:30 pm onwards, while we only start serving after 10:30 when the restaurant closes,” Sood told the SBS Punjabi publication.
Ashish Sood (Left) and his food joint which serves food for the homeless. (Source: Facebook/Twitter)
Sood knows all the homeless who come over to his takeaway joint towards the end of business day.
In a conversation with the ABC, he says how paying customers are further encouraging him to continue this service. “People are so happy. They’ve given me thumbs up …they’re helping me to keep doing more. I’m really happy about it. I’m doing my best, that’s all I can do for the homeless people. That makes me feel proud.”
Besides offering food to the homeless, such services also bridge the gap between them and the local community. Establishing such social connections are particularly crucial for homeless persons considering the social stigma they exist under.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
The planet and nature will be saved not because of the efforts of one person who does everything, but the combined forces of several people for the cause.
While we are flooded with news about animal deaths, forests being cut down and droughts etc., The Better India has also brought you numerous stories about exceptional individuals who are coming up with innovative solutions to save the oceans, forests and minimise our carbon footprint.
As we are on the horizon of the new year, here’s a shout-out to 10 such initiatives that made 2018 better and can act as inspirations for the steps we take in 2019 to save Mother Earth.
The reaction of pure hydrogen gas (H2) with oxygen (O2) in the air forms water (H2O) and also releases energy in the process. This energy can be used as fuel.
Dr Govinder Singh Pawar, a scientist at the University of Exeter, UK, is leading the research to make the fuel obtained from photosynthesis (or water-splitting) a reality. In fact, the team has already developed the material for the same.
The only by-product of this clean energy source? Water!
Speaking to The Hindu, a researcher from the team said, “Our material has excellent stability where, after 21 hours of testing, it does not degrade, ideal for water splitting purpose.”
You can read the details about this inexpensive and scalable method to obtain fuel from sunlight, here.
After rice grains are separated to be polished, what remains behind is the lighter, larger residue—rice husk. Harshit Garg, Shivendra Gautam, Priyank Sangani and Rajat Maheshwari, four students of IIT-Kharagpur have developed a way to turn this light yellow residue into beautiful, sturdy furniture!
Briefly explaining the process, Garg said, “We pour adhesive and chemical in the rice husk to produce a sheet, which can be used to produce the body of ball pens, kitchenware and pitch boards.” The team was competing for the Hult Prize, a national competition among students to find solutions for social problems like food security, energy, environment etc.
You can read more about the team, their innovation and the $1 million prize that they are on the path of winning, here.
We discard tonnes of plastic in our life—everything from shampoo bottles to plastic packaging. Even with minimal use of plastic, one cannot really avoid such plastic pollutants.
But what if these plastic materials could be upcycled as pavement tiles?
Swachha, a Bengaluru based non-profit organisation has developed a way to do this and add a pop of colour to the otherwise monochromatic and dull pavements. Not only are the tiles aesthetically appealing, but are also inexpensive and easy to install.
V Ramprasad, the project lead told The Better India, “These tiles are non-porous, flexible and durable. Our tiles remain steady despite heavy traffic and footfall. They can be installed directly over damaged or problem floors with minimal sub-floor preparations. Moreover, they are resistant to most solvents, chemicals and abrasions, and simple to maintain, reconfigure or remove.”
An excellent way to minimise plastic disposable kitchenware, this innovation by Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) in Tamil Nadu is both eco-friendly and tasty!
The team has developed a way to utilise the thorny, thick exterior of the humble jackfruit and convert it into plates that can be eaten or discarded.
Speaking to The Hindu, C Anandharamakrishnan, the director at IIFPT explained, “… We wanted to develop a healthy-yet-tasty cone to hold the millet ice cream. We searched for a suitable base and found that the jackfruit’s bracts, axis, seed and the fleshy, sticky, fibrous nut holders offered a healthy and economical alternative to the regular cones made of atta and corn flour.”
A study by the Delhi Electricity Distribution Company (DISCOM) shows how you can utilise and share rooftops to install electricity panels and cut your monthly electricity bills by a large margin.
Solar electricity, without a doubt, is one of the cheapest and most efficient of alternatives. However, due to the lack of domestic infrastructure and inability to invest in the panels, many people do not switch to the eco-friendly electricity solution. The model developed by DISCOM in association with BYPL and CEEW, two other power suppliers in the capital, allows communities to come together to share the cost and benefits of solar energy.
Every winter, we read extensive reports on how Delhi is suffocating in thick smog and how apart from vehicular and industrial pollution, stubble burning is the reason behind the air-pollution. Keeping the urgency of finding a use for the stubble residue in mind, a team from IIT, Delhi has developed a way of turning it into paper plates!
This innovation will not only curb stubble burning in the states of Punjab and Haryana but will also provide a sustainable income to the farmers who burn it because the storage or transportation of the ‘useless’ stubble becomes quite expensive for them. With IIT Delhi’s innovation, farmers can earn up to 100% profit from the paddy straw!
You can read about the innovation and its utility for farmers here.
According to Al Jazeera, in the next 30 years, there will be more plastic in the oceans that are fish. The shocking statistics prompted 12-year-old Haaziq Kazi to work on an ocean cleaner ship that could suck in plastic waste from the waters, analyse and segregate it according to size.
The preteen started intensive research on his prototype and designed a 3D model for his submarine vessel. Although his prototype couldn’t handle the waters of his bathtub for more than 7 seconds, this only encouraged him to work harder.
Going a step ahead with his innovation, Haaziq is also working on the logistical management of waste that his vessel would collect from the oceans. Speaking for the TED-Ed clubs, the young prodigy says, “There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who create problems and the ones who solve them. I want to be in the latter category.”
You can read more about this inspirational student here.
8. Temple flowers give a pop of colour to khadi clothes
Thanks to Praveen Chauhan, a social entrepreneur from Bihar, flowers offered in religious institutions don’t just wither away with time. Instead, they are used to make natural dyes for khadi clothes.
Chauhan started a social enterprise called MATR to revive the Khadi culture and help local artists get more respect and exposure. MATR has collaborated with an Australia-based sustainable clothing line, ‘Because of Nature’ and taken the work of local weaver communities and the khadi culture to international platforms in London, New York, Paris and Milan.
Not only is Chauhan helping in the revival of a humble weaving art, but he is also utilising the tonnes of flowers that go waste every day to do so. Read all about his story here.
By returning to their roots, Riyaan Bakhda, Shreya Agarwal and Vanishree Iyer, all 16-year-olds from Mumbai, have developed a way to use banana leaves as a food packaging alternative.
Speaking to The Better India, Vanishree said, “The prototype that we have built follows a multistage process to complete the packaging. From cutting the leaf to scanning it for safety, followed by boiling, drying, sterilising and folding, it does it all.”
The plastic and foil packaging that our food is delivered in has health implications in the long run. They also cost more than banana leaf packaging. Taking note of this, the team decided to research on how the otherwise fragile banana leaf could be developed to be sturdier and become an efficient packaging option. You can read all about how the young prodigies transformed the humble banana leaf into a viable packaging option and its benefits here.
The accumulation of about 150 kg of barnacles, algae or molluscs on the hull of ships results in an additional weight of 6000 tonnes on the vessels. This ‘biofouling’ causes resistance in the movement of ships, increasing its fuel consumption too.
To tackle this, anti-fouling paints were developed in the 1960s. However, they were found to contain containing toxic chemicals which would enter the marine food-chain, hamper the environment and cause irreparable damage.
However, researchers at the Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu have developed a solution that can potentially end the woes of sailors without harming the environment. In fact, this anti-corrosive material they extracted is from a seaweed called Turbinaria ornata.
You can read in detail about how this tiny seaweed species can save our vast oceans here.
Rajagopalan Nair, a former Indian Navy officer, established his firm, Hi Tech Bio Solutions in Maharashtra after retirement. The civil engineer developed a portable biogas plant that can be used for both, domestic and commercial purposes.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Nair said, “My aim was to introduce a system that can eliminate wet wastage produced in scores of households like vegetable and fruit peels, discarded meat, chicken and fish waste, and other forms of wet garbage. With my plant, the wastage produced in the household kitchen can be converted into different types of by-products like cooking gas and liquid manure.”
The fibre-glass biogas plant received an ISO certification earlier this year and Nair has started manufacturing the device in Vasai. You can read more about him here.
Krishna Mckenzie was only 19, fresh out of the J Krishnamurti School in the UK, when he came to India and settled in Auroville.
For the uninitiated, Auroville is an experimental township in Puducherry, which houses over 50,000 people from around the globe, practicing sustainable and eco-friendly living.
25 years ago, when this young teenager with no degree made the journey from England to Tamil Nadu, he hardly had an idea about how life-altering the decision would be.
Cut to 2018, Krishna in his 30s, is sort of a mini-celebrity in his town.
This isn’t solely because of the amazing music he composes for his YouTube channel or the band he belongs to (which has travelled the country and the UK for gigs) or even the fact that he is an England native who speaks fluent Tamil.
It is because of the revolution he has started with natural farming.
Krishna’s earliest exposure to farming was in college when he helped run the Victorian vegetable garden at Krishnamurti School.
He refers to himself as a Iyarkai vivasayi (organic farmer) who follows his guru, Masanobu Fukuoka. The man behind the ‘One Straw Revolution’, a zen master and farmer who is celebrated for being a proponent of ‘natural farming’ or ‘do-nothing farming’.
Krishna reiterates the words of the visionary saying, “Nature is perfect, you cannot do anything to improve it. And so, natural farming is non-interventional.”
Using the basic principles of this technique, today Krishna’s labour of love, ‘Solitude Farm’ has over 140 varieties of plants ranging from wild greens, flowers, fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, cereals, grains, grams and pulses, spread across six acres of land.
From custard apple, mangoes, papayas, guavas, sweet potatoes, carrots, wing beans, long beans, bitter gourd, bananas, pumpkin, palm fruit, varieties of spinach to medicinal plants like guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), giloy (heart-leaved moonseed), nut grass, tapioca, turmeric, the natural farm is home to crops of all kinds.
100 per cent organic, pesticide-free and chemical-free food is also served in a cafe that honours nature from the farm and serves it straight on your plate.
Speaking about the motivation behind Solitude Farm, he asks, “Where does your food come from? Do you know where it was grown, who grew it, did they use chemicals, what kind of chemicals and in what proportion?”
He continues, “We eat food three times a day and yet we are completely divorced from the entire concept of where it originates, is stored and processed before it reaches our plate. At Solitude, we are moving against the tide of industrialised and high machinery agriculture, and increasing the nutritional profile of our society, while also conserving nature.”
The number of microorganisms and living beings in the soil are equal to its fertility, adds Krishna.
And so, even biomass like the leaves that fall off trees are never burned or swept away. They thrive on the soil and turn into manure by these microorganisms, thus enriching soil health.
He notes, “Today, in our cities, a coin decides what we eat. When you pay a coin for a banana, all you get is a single banana. But when you walk into a field untouched by chemicals, or unadulterated by genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers, you get a banana flower. Every part of this flower can be used to make something. It could be used to make vadas, curries, sabjis, salads.”
“Similarly,” he continues, “a juice of the banana stem could be highly effective for those suffering from kidney stones, the actual fruit can be consumed, made into chips, planted yet again or crushed into a flour and mixed with ragi to make delicious and healthy dosas. This is what we not only serve in our cafe but also teach those interested in learning how to utilise the diversity of the nutrition in workshops.”
Chicken spinach, which is usually considered a weed and grows in abundance, is used to make a smoothie, vegan sugar-free ice-cream, pesto sauce for salads, curries and soups, the green papaya is used to make chutneys, kimchi and their classic cordon bleu lemongrass coconut milk soup.
The leaves of the soursop tree, he says, are considered to be “10,000 times more effective than chemotherapy for cancer” whereas shankhpushpi and hibiscus juice are good for memory and uterus health.
“These plants are the shining lights of Ayurveda but we rely on medicines sold in brown bottles,” he smiles.
Apart from helping community members and all those who visit Auroville understand the marvels and benefits of natural farming, Krishna also holds several workshops and helps schools, colleges or groups set up their own garden circle.
The impact of this initiative reflects in how the method, combined with intercropping, helped a group of school students reclaim a wasteland and become self-sufficient for their food needs.
From having to build his own home from scratch to making a place which struggled with water and electricity, Krishna has come a long way. It is now a home with a loving Tamilian wife and kids and helps a community promote sustainable agriculture.
But the man is looking forward to getting more people and organisations on board to extend the concept of natural farming across Tamil Nadu.
“Let’s join our hands together, spread awareness about natural farming and begin a nutritional revolution. It is only when we change the concept of farming from economic gain to nutritional benefit, will we, in the truest sense, address people’s needs. You will not just be farming but also protecting the well-being of those you serve,” he signs off.
Krishna with his band Emergence. He also hosts an eco-music festival called Lively Up Your Earth (LUYE). Source: Facebook
If this story inspired you, get in touch with Krishna on his website at or visit his YouTube channel here.
There have been more than 5,000 incredible stories that we, at The Better India, have covered over the last 12 months. Our protagonists have been celebrated across the country, and some even found global acclaim.
In this article, we bring to you 10 such people who not only did some amazing work but also brought in accolades for India.
An Indian-born scientist, Abhay was fascinated with physics concepts and realised rather early on in life that while art and literature are subjective to cultures, people, and even places, physics is a constant.
He is a theoretical physicist specialising in general relativity, cosmology and quantum gravity. With years of work in the field of quantum gravity, this year, he was awarded the Einstein Prize by the American Physical Society (APS).
With over 270 scientific papers and nine scientific books on general relativity, cosmology, and quantum gravity, Abhay is certainly a name to reckon in the field of quantum gravity.
In July 2018, Dhivya made history by becoming the first female Chief Financial Officer of US-based MNC, General Motors (GM). With Dhivya’s elevation we, in India, also have a lot to cheer about, since this 39-year-old hails from Chennai.
Dhivya lost her father early on in life and was brought up by her mother, who ensured that the best education exposure and opportunities were provided to her.
Joining GM at 25, Dhivya has worked her way to this top job. In 2016, she won the Automotive New Rising Star, an award instituted by Crain’s Detroit Business 40-under-40.
According to government estimates, there are about 4 lakh mentally ill patients across the country. The work that Dr Bharat Vatwani, a psychiatrist based in Mumbai, has been doing since 1988 has helped rescue, rehabilitate, and reunite more than 7,000 such patients.
Having established Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation with his wife, Smitha, the couple has been instrumental in helping many across Maharashtra. In recognition of his work, he was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is also referred to as the Asian version of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The plight of a schizophrenic BSc graduate drinking water from a gutter prompted Dr Vatwani to work for the destitute.
An architect par excellence, Balkrishna Doshi, at the age of 90, was bestowed with the highest honour in the field of architecture–Pritzker Architecture Prize. Not only did he get the award, but he is also the first Indian to do so.
Born into a family of furniture makers, Doshi had the opportunity to study in fine institutions and was exposed to various kinds of styles and techniques from early on.
In 1950, he worked in Paris as an apprentice under Le Corbusier, known as the master of modernism. Some of his iconic works include the IIM Bengaluru, IIM Lucknow, Tagore Memorial Hall, and National Institute of Fashion Technology.
Nicknamed ‘Dhing Express’, Hima Das is an Indian sprint runner who created history and made the world take note of her when she created a national record in the 400 meters race with a timing of 50.79 seconds. After a difficult childhood and upbringing, Hima’s successes are truly inspirational.
Until 2016, Hima spent her time playing football in the village. Being noticed by her physical education teacher is what changed her life around.
With 18-months of training, this young lady managed to make everyone take note of her. As an Indian, watching Hima run towards the finish line, not only gave me goosebumps but also made me extremely proud.
If you enjoyed the stunning cinematography in Dunkirk, then you have Pune-born engineer Vikas Sathaye to thank for it. Having spent his younger days in India, Vikas moved to New Zealand to work at Shotover Camera Systems.
It was here that Vikas was part of a four-member team that designed a mount which could fit on a helicopter and minimise the vibrations that reach the camera, thereby smoothening the shots.
Not only did the film fraternity appreciate it but also gave it global recognition when it bagged an award at the Oscars in the Scientific and Technical category “for the concept, design, engineering and implementation of the Shotover K1 Camera Systems”.
This star wrestler scripted history by becoming the first Indian wrestler to clinch the number one rank in the world in the 65-kg category. Punia hails from Haryana, a state that is referred to as the cradle of Indian wrestling.
Being exposed to the sport rather early on, Punia started training at the age of seven.
In a report published by Inside Sport, Punia says, “I consider myself blessed to get the desired support from all quarters to come this far. This is a reflection of India’s overall growth in wrestling.”
For thousands of officers of the Indian armed forces posted 12,000 feet above sea level in Ladakh, access to uninterrupted power supply was always an issue. Without 24/7 power supply, they would often resort to using firewood and kerosene to keep warm. Given that these alternates are not the most environment-friendly, Sonam Wangchuk’s innovation came at just the right time.
He developed a pre-fabricated solar heated mud hut, which is an eco-friendly solution, requiring little external heating. It is seemingly the perfect solution to the cold for many soldiers who come from the warmer plains.
It was Wangchuk that Aamir Khan’s character was portraying in the movie 3 Idiots. Earlier this year, he was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Pratyush Kumar’s journey as an 11-year-old to the national capital from a remote village in Bihar which did not even have electricity or road connectivity changed the course of his life.
An engineering graduate from IIT Delhi, Pratyush was recently selected by US-based aircraft-maker Boeing to lead its advanced F-15 Fighter Jet Programme.
During his tenure in India, Pratyush worked towards advancing the company’s interest and in establishing a strong foothold in the Indian aviation industry. Acknowledging his contribution, he has been rewarded with this new role at the company.
The 15-year-old budding science enthusiast. Source: Facebook.
16-year-old Samay Godika won the Breakthrough Junior Challenge with his innovative submission in the Life Sciences category. In this challenge, students between 13 and 18 years of age are invited to create original videos that illustrate a concept in the physical or life sciences.
By winning this challenge, Samay has won prize money worth $400,000, which converts to Rs 2.9 crore, and also a state-of-the-art science lab costing over Rs 36 lakh for his school.
Samay’s submission was in the Life Sciences category and broke down the concept of circadian rhythm. This refers to the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiences or activities, whether waking up for school or jet lag.
“Namaste didi”, was how I was greeted by Gaurav Seth, one of the founder-members of Mini-NGO, an organisation based in Ludhiana working towards the betterment of society.
All of 16, Gaurav is perhaps a rare breed of teenager, who at a time when others his age are thinking about the next movie to watch or party to attend, has chosen to help the less privileged.
The Better India caught up with Gaurav to find out more about Mini-NGO and their work.
Inception
A group of five friends, all in the crucial year of their education–class 10–were sitting around the park one evening. They saw a group of underprivileged people being fed by an organisation nearby.
One of them broached the topic of wanting to do something for the betterment of his immediate surroundings and help people. Within no time, the others were nodding in agreement.
Feeding the needy
Gaurav says, “The motivation was just to work for the betterment. Initially, we were just a group of friends. I remember during the Kerala floods we got together and collected money to send across. While the amount was not of great significance, it brought us all together.”
With each deed they did, more volunteers came forward and joined them. Today, they have 82 volunteers with Mini-NGO.
The story behind the name
Since all the members of this group were children between the ages of 12 and 16, those who saw them work referred to them as “chotte bacche“.
Gaurav says, “That name just stuck to us and we decided to call ourselves the ‘Mini-NGO’. While there has been no registration yet, we will do all that once we turn 18. As of now, we are just happy doing the work and have realised that there is no age at which one can start helping others.”
All through my conversation with Gaurav, he keeps reiterating how this is a joint effort.
The force behind Mini-NGO
He says, “Didi, please do mention everyone’s name. This is not just something that I am doing. We have managed to do such good work over the last one year because of each member’s contribution.”
Of all the members of this organisation, some of the earliest are Vishesh, Bhanu, Gaurav, Shivam, Uday, Nikhil, Shiven, Nikit, Jagmeet, Mehakpal, Joban, and Chetan.
Gaurav’s request to include all the names is such a refreshing change. Most often, we see people refraining from sharing credit and acknowledging the work put in by others. So much to learn from these teenagers!
Projects
Each month, every member of this organisation contributes Rs 50 and once collected, they decide together what project they can undertake and complete that month.
Gaurav says, “We have undertaken various kinds of projects. From raising awareness on climatic changes by participating in a cycle rally to feeding the poor, and even providing clothes to some of the underprivileged.”
“One of the first things we did was when all we had was Rs 170,” recollects Gaurav.
Birthday celebrations.
“We bought packets of biscuits and distributed them among poor kids sitting outside Devi Talab Mandir. The joy and happiness that it brought them was what prompted us to do more,” he says.
On birthdays and other special occasions, members tend to contribute more towards a good cause. “We encourage our members to spend their money in a good way,” says Gaurav.
With 82 members now, each of them nurtures a different dream. While some plan to study engineering, others aspire to become doctors.
Gaurav says, “No matter what we all do or where we end up, we will always be connected to Mini-NGO; and working towards it will always be a priority.”
Here’s how you can help
Contact Mini-NGO on +91-9530677035 or find them on Facebook.
Here’s wishing the members of this unique NGO all the very best!
For IRS officer V Sai Vamsi Vardhan clearing the coveted civil services exam is a way to serve the nation.
He achieved his goal after securing the 220th rank in the civil services examination of 2016.
However, Vamsi didn’t sit back and relax with his achievement. He has been actively lending his hand for the welfare of the society in every way possible.
Recently, he donated his wedding gifts worth Rs 1.25 lakh to an NGO named Aakanksha.
Speaking about his decision, Vamsi said, “I always believe that society is my extended family and I think this donation is not a charity but my responsibility towards the society.”
Vamsi and his wife donating wedding gifts worth Rs 1.25 lakh to the NGO officials.
He added, “The donation also upholds my responsibility, inspires others and reaches the needy.”
The NGO, Aakanksha Vfabs (Vision for a better society), has been nurtured by Vamsi. Based in Thimmanayunipeta village in the Kolimigundla mandal of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, the NGO has been doing transformational work in the education sector.
The NGO supports the education of over 60 students. It has set up digital labs in three government schools in Kolimigundla mandal.
So far, it has nurtured two doctors and a software engineer. Moreover, two of its students, Asif and Asifa, bagged international medals in a karate championship held in Nepal last year.
It is rare to see officers like Vamsi who always think about society, going to the extent of pledging half his salary towards social activities each month.
Thayammal is a 75-year-old rockstar. You will agree with me as you read this article.
Having retired from her teaching profession a few years ago, the only thing that she wanted was to spend time amidst vast expanses of greenery.
She earned herself the title Marangalin Thayar, which means ‘Mother of Trees’, and there couldn’t be a better way to describe her.
In an exclusive interview with The Better India, she speaks about the mini-forest she has managed to grow and her motivation behind doing it.
Beginning
For Thayammal, nurturing came rather easily. “Even when I was a teacher at the government school, my husband and I owned a piece of land where we had many coconut trees. Post-retirement from my job, I had more time on my hand, and also had the money that comes in every month from my pension. I thought it would be best to use the money to grow things.”
She goes on to say, “I am hale and hearty, and decided that I could spend time and energy on growing things.”
Thayammal
She spent 37 years of her life teaching geography, history and mathematics to students up to class 8.
“After retirement, I not only wanted something hands-on to do but was also looking for something that would give me atma-trupti (satisfy my soul),” she says.
Against all odds
One imagines that to have achieved this, Thayammal had the backing and support of many from her village. However, the truth was that everyone around her demotivated from taking this step. Fellow teachers from the school to the villagers, everyone discouraged her from sinking in all her money into land and cultivation.
She did not pay any heed to these suggestions and did exactly what she wanted to.
Her husband, Naranasamy, now deceased, stood by her and supported the dreams that she nurtured.
Her pride
While everyone is talking about what she has achieved today, it has been an uphill task for her. She would spend hours poring over books on agriculture, soil types, and other such topics, just so that she would be equipped to handle the land on her own.
She also spoke about the time when the entire region went through a terrible drought, and all the wells had dried up.
These days, she visits the land once every three to four days, and during the season of harvest, she is there every day.
“I have employed a caretaker who waters the coconut trees every day, while the other medicinal plants and trees need watering once every ten days. During the season when the work increases, I hire more helping hands,” she says.
NGO Vanathukul Tirupur
Over the last three decades, Tirupur has developed industrially, but that has come at a cost to the environment. Vanathukal Tirupur is an NGO that works to increase the green cover in the city by planting saplings in all vacant plots, after seeking permission from the plot owners.
Thayammal is a member of this NGO and has benefitted hugely by the expertise that they provide.
With her family
She says that she has spent close to Rs 4 lakh on the trees that she has planted.
“My daughter, son-in-law and my brothers pitch in whenever the need arises. They have been of great support to me,” she concludes.
Scribbled in black ink, about 130 unlabeled pages with mystifying mathematical equations that made no sense at the first glance was gathering the proverbial dust in a quiet corner in a box with assorted bills and letters at the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, for about fifty years, until accidentally chanced upon by Prof George Andrews of Pennsylvania State University one fine day in 1976.
Once rediscovered, the pages electrified the world of mathematics. They were what the physicist Freeman Dyson remarked “flowers that grew from seeds that ripened in Ramanujan’s garden”.
Containing a unique family of identities, which Srinivasa Ramanujan called `mock theta functions’, these sheets were written way back in 1920s, just days before he passed away. Even hundred years later, these esoteric and abstruse formulae continue to tantalize mathematicians around the world.
Mathematicians use the bizarre mock theta functions to explore how to make internet more secure, and physicists use them to comprehend the incomprehensible black holes and understand how fundamental particles interact with each other.
During his lifetime, fellow mathematicians were awe-struck. His mentor, benefactor and a world renowned mathematician himself, G.H.Hardy had said “I have never met his equal, and I can compare him only with Euler or Jacobi….with his memory, his patience and his power of calculation, he combined a power of generalisation, a feeling for form, a capacity for rapid modification of his hypothesis, that were often really startling, and made him, in his own peculiar field, without a rival in his day.”
How did this mathematician, who studied in the small city of Kumbakonam in south India, had failed in his university examination and faced death at 32 due to a mysterious disease make a discovery that eluded the most brilliant minds for so long?
Ramanujan and one of his featured works.
Perplexity, enigma and bewilderment are often associated, arguably aptly, with the personality and cryptic mathematical discovery of Ramanujan. Yet another equally important trait in his persona is his perseverance and tenacity even in trying circumstances.
Once, K.S Srinivasan, a friend from Kumbakonam, bumped into Ramanujan in Chennai. Srinivasan said, with reverence, “Ramanujan, they call you genius”. Ramanujan retorted “What? me, a genius? Look at my elbow, it will tell you the story”.
A curious Srinivasan peered intently at his elbow. It was rough and black. Ramanujan explained “Night and day I do my calculations on slate. It is time consuming to look for a rag to wipe it with. I wipe the slate almost every few minutes with my elbow. I suppose my elbow is making a genius of me.”
Srinivasan asked “So, you are industrious. Why use a slate when you have to do so many calculations? Why not use paper?” To this, Ramanujan’s sombre reply was: “when food itself is a problem, how can I find money for paper? I may require four reams of paper every month.”
Another friend, T. Srinivasacharya from Pachaiyappa College in Chennai, recalled that for want of paper, Ramanujan would sometimes write in red ink on paper already written upon. His notebooks are testimony to this. Using pens with different colours, Ramanujan had filled the sheets with more than one set of computations, top to bottom, bottom to top and at times even from left to right.
Although his mathematics was obscure to most, Ramanujan became an icon for Indian nationalists struggling for freedom from British colonialism. P. V. Seshu Iyer, a mathematician and nationalist, referring to Tagore, J.C. Bose and Ramanujan wrote in 1917, “the poet went out, sang and was honoured with a prize and a knighthood. The scientist struck famous academies of Europe and America in tremulous wonder and S. Ramanujam is in a fair way to do a similar thing for mathematics.”
For a generation yearning for independence and progress, Ramanujan was an inspiration. Subramanyam Chandrasekhar, later to be a Nobel laureate, got inspired in his childhood days when his mother recounted Ramanujan’s story to him.
Mystification induces awe, but the narrative of determination inspires. He did not give up though he failed many times in college, was dogged by medical problems, and was married to a 10-year-old girl named Janaki, when he was barely 21 and was trying to meet both the ends. He supported himself and his family by giving maths tuition, and pursued his maths dream even publishing in newly launched Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society in 1911.
“Ramanujan is a role model for the possible,” says Ken Ono, a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Emory University and also an advisor and associate producer of a recent film on Ramanujan, The man who knew infinity. He has set up a project called ‘Spirit of Ramanujan project’ that aims to support research initiatives of emerging engineers, mathematicians and scientists and in particular those who, like Ramanujan, lack traditional institutional support, and are young in the age group of 12 and 18 years.
A series of events are being organised by Vigyan Prasar across India on December 22 to mark the National Mathematics Day.
For a documentary film on the life of Ramanujan click here.
A rescue official ran across a bridge and saved a child’s life, few minutes before the bridge went under water in Idukki. A real comrade! 
