Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, September 25 Sunita Williams could not contain her emotions while speaking of her friend and fellow astronaut, the late Kalpana Chawla, at an event organised at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad on Tuesday. “Kalpana was a great friend and also my greatest role model,” said Sunita stifling sobs. She recounted an [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Patan/Kutch/Amreli, September 19 No one in Rafu village of Sami taluka in Patan district remembers when the building of the primary health centre (PHC) collapsed. The new set of buildings being financed by the European Union in the name of post-earthquake development programme, are no where near completion. Rafu PHC presently functions from [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Fatehgarh (Rapar, Kutch), September 17:Fatehgarh village in Rapar taluka in Kutch district is on a fast-track to an environmental disaster. The frantic mining in the clay belt of Fatehgarh and adjoining villages in Rapar, has spelt disaster not just for land but also the livelihood in this region. The agricultural productivity of the [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, August 28: Until 2004, Kanuben Katesia, of the remote Gundala village in Rajkot district, earned Rs 50 a day as an agricultural labourer on others’ farms. On her own 2 acres of land, she grew cotton, a water-intensive crop, completely unsuited to the drought-prone arid zone in South Gujarat. The meagre savings [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, August 21:Born with clubfoot (congenital deformity of the foot usually marked by a curled shape or twisted position of the ankle and heel and toes) in the small town of Viramgaon, 60 kilometres from Ahmedabad, Bhupesh Modi does not know what it is to walk without a limp. The handicap may have [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, August 3:Unlike many other children who are forced to fend for themselves or left to die, an infant found a poor, haggard woman and a community of autorickshaw drivers rallying to take care for her. For four days before the police and NGOs came to take away the baby, the poor woman [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, July 28: TULSI Ram (15) unscrews a stabilizer and removes the battery, the circuit board from its plastic casing. His brother, Gehri Lal (12), uses hammer, chisel, his bare hands and teeth to disassemble clumps of copper wiring from a brass frame. Tulsi and Gehri are kabadiwallahs, who disassemble electrical goods and sell them [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, July 27: On the eve of his 89th birthday, Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and an anti-apartheid activist, announced the formation of The Elders — a club of world leaders to discuss ways to tackle problems plaguing the world. Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), is one [...]
Pulkit Vasudha Ahmeadbad, July 4: In the wake of the controversy surrounding the sale of Mahatma Gandhi’s letter, which is considered by many to be a national heritage, there seems to be renewed efforts to trace anything and everything written by Gandhi. The chief trustee of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Amrut [...]