Keeping Kolkata Klean

Kolkata for a Green Cause, NDTV Video

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IIT dreams come true for Patna students

Viny Mishra, Tuesday May 26, 2009, Patna

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The IIT entrance exam results were declared on Monday and there were many happy children from Patna, who managed to clear the test. The sweet taste of success was felt at "Super 30" coaching institute in Patna. Mathmetician Anand Kumar started this institute in 2003 and every year 30 children from economically weak backgrounds are coached here for one of the toughest examination in the world. And all free of charge.

Says Vishwaraj Kumar, who cleared the exam: "I worked very hard for this.... I want to work for ISRO in the future."

Founder of Super 30 Anand Kumar says: "From this year, I want to pick up 90 students and work with them, I want to help more and more students."

Until last year Anand Kumar used to run super 30 with Abhayanand, who is the Additional Director General of Police in the state.

This year, they parted ways and the police officer set up another coaching institute. But the good news is, all his students too got through to the IIT.

Vikas Kumar, who too cleared the exam, says: "My father is a clerk at the Patna High Court. He has great expectations from me. I am happy I have managed to do well."

It is a giant leap forward for these students. And perhaps the future of many more such aspirants from the poorer sections of society is in safe hands.

Love for green: Healing the hills with trees

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Madhu Bharathi
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Sachidanand Bharti is known as the treeman in Uttarakhand, where he has been dedicatedly planting trees since the last 25 years. He has succeeded in greening about 30000.
Few hills in Uttarakhand were once barren, but now they are lush green, all due to his efforts. Bharti is a school teacher by profession but his real calling is as a climate crusader.

"The holy Ganga emerges from Uttarakhand and nowhere else. So if we do not work dedicatedly and with a pure heart for Uttarakhand, then we will not be able to save it," said Bharti.
Seeing the hills of his childhood turning barren prompted Bharti to use his Sundays for planting trees and soon his mission inspired 15 villages.

"All these hills were barren before without any plants or trees. We started with planting one tree, then two, then three and slowly all the villagers got together and turned this area into a jungle," said Kishan Pandey, a local resident.

Today, more than 25 lakh trees planted by him have created a jungle that supports rivulets.
Sachidanand is now a satisfied man as the hills are green again. However, now his only worry is protecting the forests he created from the timber mafia.

Slum Millionaire

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"Slumdog Millionaire" is the favorite at Sunday's Academy Awards and was largely inspired by a real location, the Dharavi Slum. Seth Doane reports.

A population that thrives in the shadows is now thrust into the international spotlight.
"Yeah! Everyone is speaking about Slumdog Millionaire, Slumdog Millionaire," says Jaison Thangaraj.
The Dharavi slum - the setting for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" - defies definition.
Even the film's 8-year-old star was shocked by the poverty.
"There are many people who had stayed in road, near gutters - ate near gutters all mosquitoes on their bodies," says actor Ayush Mahesh Khedekar.
It's known as one of Asia's largest slums - about a million people live here, packed into an area that is less than one square mile. Somewhere around 50 percent of Mumbai's population lives in a slum like this one - and while there are the stories of struggling you might expect - there are also ones that might surprise you.

Twenty-one-year-old Jaison Thangaraj grew up here and shares a tiny home with his parents and sister. He's working hard to get out - by studying for an engineering degree.
"It's a mindset for people - Dharavi is just a slum, slum, slum," Jaison says. "Have they ever come and saw this?"
Maybe not before - but the movie generated business for slum tours - "Reality Tours" lets outsiders explore Dharavi.
"It's really shocking how organized it all is - that there are commercial districts and residential and that there is water and electricity - and services...and schools," says Dages Keates of Brooklyn, N.Y.

But, tours are not the only business.
A maze of makeshift homes and 10,000 small businesses generate an annual GDP of more than $600 million - all in an area smaller than New York City's Central Park.
There's gem-stone embroidery, stones chipped to grind grain and a leather industry which employs 40,000 people.
Believe it or not, Dharavi slum means opportunity for some, Doane reports. Some boys make just about $50 a month here making small leather wallets - but there were no jobs at all where they came from.
Two-thirds of India's population lives on less than $2 a day.

In one small shop, kids say that while education would be a way out, their families depend on their earnings.
But earning a million dollars here - even on the Indian TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" - seems out of reach.
"The movie is false," says Arvind, who has lived in Dharavi for 40 years. "A guy from Dharavi would never be considered for the show."
When the movie opened here, it sparked scattered protests among those offended by the word "dog" in the title.

"Indians have always been sensitive to the way that Indian poverty and the lack of development among vast sections of the Indian population have been portrayed in cinema," says film critic Nandini Ramnath.
Still, "Slumdog Millionaire" was the 4th-biggest weekend box office opening ever for any Hollywood film released in India. It's the kind of success that Jaison hopes believes could generate hope and investment in a place that could use both.
"Yeah, I'm definitely proud of living here," Jaison says. "I want to change the whole face of Dharavi, you know?"
And that would be a real Hollywood ending.