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.

'I want to slog, earn and eat. I don't need freebies'

Text: Vicky Nanjappa in Shira | Photograph: Dominic Xavier

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Malleshaiah, 55, a farmer from Shira taluk, Chitradurga in Karnataka is one of the very few farmers who still feel that he has to slog it out to earn his bread and butter.

"Stop feeding us with free or subsidized rice. It is only making farmers like us lazier by the day. Every candidate who comes by my house seeking votes, I make it a point to tell him that the promise to give out free rice is not only ridiculous but also ends up causing loss for the government at the end of it.

"I want to slog, earn and eat. I don't need the freebies. All I need is the infrastructure and the basic amenities from the government.

"I know for a fact that in order to fulfil such stupid promises, the government will end up importing rice from other countries. Not only will the government be spending more on this but will also end up killing the Indian market. Apart from importing the rice, they will buy rice from us for more and then sell it for less, which will only add to the burden.

"Once a person realises that he is getting his food cheap and so easily, there is a tendency of sitting back at home and relaxing which in turn will contribute to laziness.

"If the newly elected government has some concern about the people in this area, then let them improve the water facilities in this place. I hope they build small dams so that water can be stored. This will ensure that we can till our fields with no worry and earn and then live on our own strength.

"I feel, in Chitradurga, the BJP has a chance. We have given the Congress enough and more chances and no candidate has addressed the basic problem of water and infrastructure. I think the overall mood in our constituency is to vote for a change and I was told that it is better to have the same governments at the centre and the state level because, work gets implemented sooner."

Meet Pravin Deshmukh, Vidarbha's net-savvy farmer

Piyush Pushpak / CNN-IBN
TimePublished on Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 10:27, Updated on Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 10:39 in Sci-Tech section
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In a CNN-IBN special series Mera Gaon Mera Bandwidth, we are trying to highlight how the Internet is transforming lives in rural India.

Vidarbha: Forty five-year-old Pravin Deshmukh is the new age farmer of Vidarbha. After suffering heavy losses in cotton farming, and incurring huge debts, a desperate Pravin he turned to what he thought had all the solutions - the Internet.

"On the Internet, I found that turmeric is better than cotton. I got so much information, and ideas,” says Pravin.
The journey from cotton fields to turmeric for the net-savvy farmer has truly been an incredible one. He used the worldwide web to come out of the suicide web that cotton farming brings in this part of the world. Pravin is now spreading the good word.

Pravin has doubled his profits in just one year. Now, he travels from village to village, holding chaupals for other farmers and introducing the Internet to them too.
"It's encouraging that it worked for him. Years of cotton farming has only caused suicides. Maybe his technology will change this,” says a cotton farmer, Vishwas Anandrao Pandey.
In the last five years over 3,000 cotton farmers have killed themselves in Vidarbha. Pravin says the Internet didn't just help him make profits. It also saved his life.

S U R V I V O R

Vicky Nanjappa in Haveri, Karnataka | July 2, 2008

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You think India is on the march -- that lifestyles have changed dramatically, and the standard of living has improved tremendously. Well if you thought this is how the real India lives, then read on.

In a small village near Haveri in northern Karnataka, Kattigere Thimappa and his wife toil day after day on a small patch of land so that they can make two meals a day. The meal is ragi roti with onions -- they eat this every day.

Haveri is 375 kilometres from the IT capital, Bangalore, and the lives here are in stark contrast.

Kattigere is 27, he has two acres of land and a family of four to support. The land is of little consolation as the monsoon has played havoc with his hopes. With no water source anywhere close to the field, he is entirely dependent on the mercy of the rain gods. The last two years have been a disaster -- the previous years the rains had failed and this year, excess rainfall destroyed the cotton crop.

Dejected that he could not depend on his land, he started working as a coolie at the local bus stand. Somakka, his wife, went to work at a construction site and with them went their two children.

"Manjunath is four-years-old and goes with his father, while I take Anita, the two-year-old along. There is nobody to take care of them," she says.

Together they earn around Rs 75 a day if they get work and spend all the money on food and some other basic necessities.

"The last time I bought a sari for my wife was a year back. I cannot afford to buy it for another year I think," says Kattigere, "The crops have failed due to heavy rains and the grant promised by the government has not come as yet."

Every morning, the couple set out for work by 7 and return by 6 pm. After that, till darkness falls they work in their field along with the children. Although there is not much work in the field at the moment, they ensure it is kept clean because neglecting it will worsen it.

With an annual income of Rs 8,000, this family has no special days -- time is spent toiling just to be able to subsist.

They hope for a better life, but find their hopes dry as their land. They dream of watching television which they say they have never done so far, and they want to send their children to school.

"We want them to be able to study and are hoping that out condition improves next year so that we can send Manjunath to school," says Somakka.

The last time they had a good meal was around five months ago when Somakka's employer, a construction worker gave her some extra money when work was completed on the building. "It sure was a joyous occasion at our house," she says.

The couple knows no other life apart from their work. Their only pleasure is their children and whatever free time they get is spent playing with them. "I really hope we can give them both a better life. It is not about hard work, it's that our destiny depends on the rain gods. If the rains are good, we are good or else we have to settle for the worst," says Kattigere.

In their misery they never forget one thing -- to pray to god for a good monsoon. They say that is the only hope for a better life.

Vicky Nanjappa responds to those who want to help Kattigere Thimappa:

When Mr Thimappa was informed that Rediff.com readers wanted to help him, he said he was very touched by their thoughtfulness. He, however, declined to accept any monetary help because he said the government was going to give a grant for cotton farmers, which was his legal right and could not be denied to him.

He did ask for one thing, though -- he asked well wishers to pray to the rain gods for a good monsoon.