Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 23 Sabriye Tenberken can read and write in the dark. She even teaches her students to do the same. No, Tenberken does not possess miraculous powers, nor does she belong to the world of wizardry. She is blind, but as she says, that doesn’t prevent her from being a visionary.Along with her partner Paul Kronenberg, Tenberken runs the ‘Braille Without Borders’ initiative for blind children in Tibet. By June next year, Tenberken’s ‘dream factory’, an International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE), will open its doors to blind and sighted persons from all over the world amidst the backwaters of Kerala.
Set on the banks of Vellayani Lake in Thiruvananthapuram, IISE will spread the message of ‘Braille Without Borders’ by facilitating an exchange of ideas and honing the management skills among its students and trainers to groom them as social entrepreneurs. Every year, 40 students from all over the world will learn management, project planning, public speaking and soft skills which will equip them in kicking off a startup project in their own countries, within their own contexts.
“The institute is for those who have a passion and the perseverance to do a lot of problem solving. We believe blind people are naturally good problem solvers and they should not just limit themselves to being beneficiaries in society. In fact, they have a lot to give to society and should be given the opportunity to do so,” says Tenberken.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:blind children, braille system, braille without borders, kronenberg, sabriye tenberken, social entrepreneurs | Categories: Activism, Rural Development, Smiles, The Indian Express, Women | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 18 A snuffed-out candle, a half-eaten cake, a little girl’s frock, and a road roller. Strangely these are among the 69 symbols allotted to Independent candidates and unrecognised parties contesting the elections in the state by the returning officer. No wonder, the symbols have evoked murmurs of protest.
“Symbols should be free from any kind of bias,” says Mukul Sinha, chairperson, New Socialist Movement (NSM). “In the list of free symbols released by the Election Commission are bangles, frock, necklace and ladies’ purse — all directly related to women. Such symbols have an obvious gender bias.”
The symbols range from furniture to fruits, accessories, clothing and cutlery.
Independent candidates have a reason to crib. “The election symbols available to unrecognised parties are unimaginative and apolitical. A symbol should be able to convey a message,” says Sinha. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:2007, elections, Gujarat, party symbols | Categories: Politics, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 14 Low ranking police personnel in Gujarat are now eagerly awaiting the re-recognition of their association by the Gujarat High Court, which was dismissed by the erstwhile director general of police of the state on grounds of low strength and attendance.
The association of police sub-inspectors, head constables and constables was formed with the aim of raising their voice against the harassment at the hands of senior officials within the establishment.
Harassment of junior police personnel by their seniors is not new in Gujarat. As Khuman Ghusabhai, a constable of the Gujarat Police who had levelled corruption charges against SP RJ Sawani and was dismissed by the latter, said, he has not taken home his monthly salary of Rs 7000, for the last 18 months. His daughter’s postgraduation fees and his son’s school education are now entirely dependent on the pension of his deceased father.
According to him, Sawani alone has dismissed over 50 policemen, and with the police employees’ union having been dissolved in 1989, the khaki clad are taking a regular beating at the hands of their superiors. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, bureaucracy, Gujarat, heirarchy, police, struggle, union | Categories: Activism, Of the people, Politics, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Captured on camera, the colours of his canvas are raking rave reviews in film festivals from art and cinema connoisseurs. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone V), Ahmedabad, Ajay Chaudhary’s abstract scratches and hatches in black, white and shades of grey have carved a niche for themselves in the world of colours.
When filmmaker Dharmendra Nath Ojha decided to make a documentary on abstract paintings, Chaudhary’s work was the perfect medium for Ojha to script the journey of abstraction. Ojha’s 20 minute documentary A Stroke with Square required two months of research and seven days of shooting. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, art, camera, colours | Categories: Men, Odes, Of the people, Smiles, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 13 If their father had returned home from patrolling on November 8, nine-year-old Kiran and five-year-old Jaydeep would have celebrated Diwali the next day. But that was not to be. Vinay Yadav (32) was shot dead by two miscreants when he was keeping a vigil in the vicinity of LG Hospital.
“So far, the police department has offered neither help nor compensation to the bereaved family,” says Manoj Yadav, the brother of the deceased.
The police department has announced that all its employees would contribute a day’s wages for Vinay Yadav’s family. The gesture, however, is inadequate as it fails to recognise the responsibility of the police department towards Yadav’s wife and children.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, diwali, government job, head constable, high court of gujarat, LG hospital, police department | Categories: Activism, Politics, Teardrops, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 6: A 65-year-old retired infantry jawan stands exhausted at the gate of the Ex-Sevicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinic at Airport Circle in the scorching afternoon sun. The pain in the chest of this erstwhile jawan of the Indian Army has only worsened since 8 am when he left his house in Vejalpur and took a bus to the military cantonment in Shahibaug. The medical officer in the polyclinic referred him to the military hospital for an ECG and to the medical specialist, who prescribed him a list of drugs.
The military hospital being over three kilometres away from ECHS, he took an autorickshaw to return to the polycinic to pick up the prescribed drugs from the dispensary. Since not all the drugs were available there, the ex-jawan had to return to the specialist in the hospital to get authorisation to get the medicines from the hospital dispensary. The pharmacist in the dispensary, however, told him that he would have to buy the medicines since they were low on stock and had to save their medicines for the serving soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, army, defence, ECHS, ex-servicemen, Health, military hospital, Mumbai, personnel | Categories: Development, Health, The Indian Express, Urban Developement | No Comments »
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 5 THE firecrackers have already started lighting up the night sky and a mildly pungent smell of exploding crackers hangs still in the air in anticipation of Diwali. In addition to wishing everyone a happy and prosperous Diwali, some residential societies across the city are urging people to celebrate the festival as a clean and green day.
“We will advise the residents in our society to keep noise and smoke at bay this Diwali. It is a better idea to light diyas and electric lamps instead of bursting crackers,” says M Ravindran, block chairperson of Chinmay Crystal Apartments in Vastrapur.
Some societies have also tried to raise awareness about the adverse effects and consequences associated with the lighting of crackers. In a notice issued to all its residents, Dhaval Shah, chairman of Dhananjay Towers in Satellite, states that the manufacture of crackers involves child labour and lighting crackers promotes chid labour.
The notice also states that wasteful expenditure on crackers amounts to ‘a huge financial loss, which could otherwise be directed towards fruitful and constructive purposes.’ Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:child labour, diwali, Environment, Festival of Lights, firecrackers, gujarat pollution control board, pollution, sanjeev tyagi | Categories: Environment, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Express Feature Services, Pulkit Vasudha
Actor and supermodel Arjun Rampal was in Ahmedabad for the launch a showroom on Wednesday. Here’s more about his forthcoming film Om Shanti Om and his wish to travel to Antarctica.
What makes Arjun Rampal behind the image of an actor?
Films from my profession, not passion. Apart from doing films, I love travelling and reading.
How much are you able to travel with your busy schedules?
My shooting schedules are quite arbitrary. I might be shooting for 90 days at a stretch and then have a fortnight off. I take time out to holiday with my family. I have to coincide my holidays with those of my kids. We went to Turkey this summer when my kids had a vacation. Since I love sailing, we hired a boat and went out into the Mediterranean Sea.
Which are the places you are planning to hit next?
We have been to Spain but it is such a beautiful country that we want to travel more extensively there. I like travelling to offbeat locales, Jerusalem and Russia. I am quite adventurous, so I wish to venture out to Antarctica sometime, even South Pole, if possible. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, arjun rampal | Categories: Men, Of the people, The Indian Express | No Comments »
Ahmedabad, October 24 Here’s a look at the fresh blood fighting the elections in Gujarat this year. Whether they stand a chance agaisnt the prominent, politicial heavyweights or not, it is surprising how determined they are in their political stance.
Pravin Mishra, 31 The youngest of eight siblings and born into a poor family in Murshidabad, Pravin Mishra was only nine when he began working as a painter to pay his school fees. The affair with colours began as he hung suspended in mid-air by a rope around his waist, painting chimneys and hoardings. A graduate in fine arts, Mishra came to Ahmedabad eight years ago and began studying at the National Institute of Design.
Things changed drastically with the 2002 riots. Pravin witnessed the violence across Gujarat with a camera in hand. A year later, he made Dharamveer, a short film exposing the political and religious ideology underlying the communal violence. The film won the critics’ award at the Mumbai International Film Festival. “As young people, we have to take a stand in life. It is definitely not the easy way out but it is the only way to understand the context and contradictions of our times,” says Pravin, who joined the New Socialist Movement (NSM) and mainstream politics. He was the photographer and media advisor for Modi during his last campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:ahmedabad, assembly elections, dinesh parmar, Gujarat, maya valecha, MS University, mukul sinha, nsm, Politics, pravin mishra, surat, tapan dasgupta, vatva | Categories: Activism, Politics, The Indian Express | No Comments »