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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
Gauri Srivastava and her sister Anshika burnt the midnight oil for their CBSE board exams as riots raged just metres away from their house in northeast Delhi''s Bhajanpura in February and their hard work paid off as both came out with flying colours.
Defying all odds, Gauri, a Class 10 student of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Yamuna Vihar, scored 97.67 per cent and topped her school, while her elder sister Anshika, a student of Hansraj Smarak Senior Secondary School, secured 85 per cent in her Class 12 CBSE Board exams.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

It has not been an easy ride for the sisters as their exams were first affected by the riots and then the coronavirus-induced lockdown that first led to the postponement and subsequently cancellation of their exams.

"I would keep myself updated about the news of riots but I kept my daughters away from social media and the news channels.

"I did not want them to feel scared and did not want their concentration getting affected by hearing about the riots," their father, Vinay Srivastava, a businessman, who deals in electrical goods, told PTI.
I ensured that my daughters stayed away from watching the news and social media, which was abuzz with stories about the tension outside.

He said even though the riots were taking place on the main road and their house is located inside a lane, the people in their locality stood united and would guard the area so that rioters could not enter.
Gauri, who was appearing for her Class 10 exams, said it was a "fearful situation".

She said had the riots not been there, she would have scored higher. Even her father said had the situation been better and her two exams-- English and Hindi-- would not have been cancelled-- she would have scored 99 per cent.

"We would constantly keep on hearing cries of people through the day and I was not able to study during that time. I would spend time solving test papers during the day and study during the night when the situation was a bit peaceful. Me and my sister kept each other motivated during the period," she said.

Gauri has now begun preparation for the IIT and has started taking online coaching classes. She wants to become a software engineer.

Her elder sister, Anshika, has filled the form for agricultural engineering at Banaras Hindu University.
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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
Coming to the aid of a visually impaired couple, a top district official on Monday gave them Rs 25,000 from his personal funds after they pleaded for help on learning that their savings were worthless, being in Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes demonetised nearly four years ago.
District Collector C Kathiravan gave Somu (58) and his wife Palaniammal, who eked out a living by selling incense sticks, a cheque for the amount, Rs 1,000 higher than the face value of the scrapped notes they had saved over ten years, official sources said.

Playing the role of a good Samaritan two days after Somu of Pothiya Moopanure village in the district made an appeal to the government for help, the Collector arranged a vehicle for them to come to his office and handed over the cheque, they said.

He directed officials to present the demonetised currency notes with a total face value of Rs 24,000 to the district Lead Bank for processing as per rules.

Somu and his wife thanked the Collector for his prompt response and gesture, official sources said.

Somu had said he came to know about the scrapping of the high-value currency notes in November, 2016 only on Friday when he took the savings to deposit in a bank so that they can utilise the interest to meet their requirements.

Since they could not make earnings in the last four months owing to COVID-19 lockdown, he had taken the cash, kept with his illiterate mother, to a bank for depositing when the officials there told him that the notes were demonetised.

He had said the money was saved by him and his wife over ten years from sale of incense sticks and camphor in nearby Anthiyur and surrounding areas.

All the three were not aware of the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes, he had told reporters on Saturday.
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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
The 29-year-old singer already owns five homes in the area.
According to a source to The Sun Online, the singer has told the owners of three other buildings that he is willing to give them the "best price" if they sell the houses, situated between his houses and the lake, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"The homeowners know that Ed will give them the best price if and when they decide to move on. The homes are right in the middle of Ed's land on the main road, so it will just neaten everything up if he can get his hands on all three over the coming years," said the source.

The source added: "The gardens of the homes jut into the middle of fields owned by Ed and mean that he must take the long way round if he wants to visit a lake on the far edge of his property."

The singer bought the first property in his estate in 2012. Over the years, he has built a swimming pool, a two-storey treehouse, and a pub within his grounds, and in 2018 he applied to build a chapel.
Sheeran owns 22 properties in London, which were bought for cash.

"He has a great portfolio of properties and he owns the lot free and clear. There was no need to borrow the cash from a lender because he already had it. Some people have the cash tied up so need to raise a mortgage but Ed has piles of the cash in the bank so there was no point in letting a bank earn money by lending him the money. He just bought them outright," said a source previously.
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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
Three teenaged friends in Maharashtra''s Nagpur district have used their creative skills to raise funds for those at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 and for mentally challenged children and an orphanage here.
Soumya Dalimya (17), a Class 12 student, Presha Bhattad (15), a student of Class 10, and Ditya Thapar, who is in Class 8, utilised the lockdown time to make 44 paintings. They have so far raised Rs 84,000 through the sale of their art works.

They intend to donate 50 per cent of the amount to the Prime Minister''s CARES Fund and the remaining to an orphanage for girls and a centre for mentally deranged children.

Soumya, who has been painting since she was in class 3, told PTI that after seeing people suffering at this time of crisis, she and her two family friends thought of using their creative skills to help the needy.

"We made 44 paintings and promoted their sale through social media. I have an art page on Instagram through which the paintings were put up for sale. We also made paintings on order," she said.

Initially, they faced problems in getting the painting material during the lockdown, but a shop owner helped them by fulfilling all their requirements, considering the cause taken up by them, she said.

They also came to know about an orphanage for girls in the city and another centre for mentally challenged children through ''Swacch Nagpur'' NGO and decided to contribute money to them also.

Soumya said they plan to donate 50 per cent of the amount to the PM CARES Fund and from the remaining amount, they will provide health care necessities, like sanitary napkins and hygiene kits, as well as books to the orphanage for girls and the centre for mentally challenged children.

Talking about their initiative, Presha said after seeing people losing jobs and many not having enough food, they decided to help them.

"We started painting and selling our art works. We got a good response and got more painting orders. I was also inspired by my mother as I have seen her doing a lot of charity work," she said.

"It feels nice to do our bit for the society, and people are supporting us a lot," she added.

The girls said they still have a lot of painting orders to complete and their target is to raise Rs 1 lakh for the causes.
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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
A doctor at a Goa hospital for COVID-19 treatment has been giving a warm send-off to recovered patients by hugging them to send across a message to the society to accept these people and not ostracise them.
Dr Edwin Gomes, the Goa Medical Colleges medicine department head who led a team of doctors at the Margao-based ESI hospital for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, has hugged almost 190 patients at the time of their discharge in the last three months.

Back home after 98 days of duty at the hospital, Gomes told PTI, "I hug all the patients when they are discharged after testing negative."

The doctor said this is his way of sending across a message to everybody to not reject these patients, whom he termed as "COVID angels".

"Their plasma can be used to treat other COVID-19 patients as they have the antibodies," he said, adding that the recovered patients are the best persons to share their health experience with others.

On his experience of treating coronavirus cases, Gomes said there is a symptom called ''shortness of breath''.

"If one misses that and goes into the breathlessness phase, then it becomes difficult to save the person. One must seek medical help when there is shortness of breath, which these people (recovered patients) know, he explained.

He also lauded a patient, who after recovering from the infection helped other patients in the hospital.
"After recovering, this patient from Mangor Hill (a COVID-19 hotspot in Vasco town of Goa) helped other patients by feeding them, putting the bed pan. He was like a nurse. If some patient had a query, he would answer, he said.

Gomes said such kind of people could be roped in to work at the COVID care centres set up by the state government.

The doctor also said that many COVID-19 patients who came to the hospital from Mangor Hill area were in a bad health condition.

"At least 25 per cent of the patients from Mangor Hill have got a second life," he added.
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- Friday, July 17, 2020 0
Meera has been awarded the most prestigious accolade a young person aged 9-25 years can receive for their social action or humanitarian work.
Mehta is the proud recipient of The Diana Award, established in memory of Princess Diana of Wales. The Award is given out by The Diana Award charity and has the support of both her sons, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex. "We congratulate all our new Diana Award recipients who are changemakers for their generation. We know by receiving this honour they will inspire more young people to get involved in their communities and begin their own journey as active citizens," states Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award.

Inspired by the vision and guidance of her spiritual mentor Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai, founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, Meera was nurtured with a desire to serve selflessly since a young age. For the benevolent initiatives of the non-profit, she has been dedicatedly raising funds to uplift the underprivileged sections since the past 10 years.

Since the tender age of six, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai inspired Meera to volunteer for various projects for the remote communities of South Gujarat with the belief "Make compassion your nature, not hobby, habit or mood."

Talking about how through this holistic experience, deep virtues of empathy and compassion were sown within her, Meera shares, "I will always remember the day at the first tribal camp I visited. When I gave a tribal child a gift, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai encouraged me to say thank you to that child and told me that it is a privilege to be able to serve the less fortunate... What Pujya Gurudevshri taught me changed my entire perspective towards fundraising. While I continue to actively raise funds, I am also studying hard to become a doctor, and help tribal children in more ways than one."

Implementing this teaching, Meera raised enormous funds for many benevolent initiatives including the health and education projects, tertiary healthcare for a rural charity hospital, a Science college for the tribal students, primary and secondary education for indigenous communities, an ICU unit for new-born, and a skill development program for rural women.

Having raised over Rs 33 lakhs to support vulnerable communities during the pandemic, Meera has been instrumental in sponsoring 2 buses for migrant workers to return to their hometown in Bihar, providing over lakhs of meals for daily wagers and support to thousands frontline workers with PPE Kits, masks etc. For Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care's recent initiative for proving migrants' workers leaving in Mumbai for their hometown with nutritious meal for their journey, encouraged Meera to prepare handmade meals too. She aims to raise Rs 50 lakhs to support Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care's extensive Covid relief work, that committedly provides safety and sufficiency to lakhs across the globe.

Meera was also selected as an 'Inspirational Change Agent' at the Mumbai Marathon 2019, alongside the eminent boxer Mary Kom, for her impactful fundraising endeavors. Across her 10-year journey, she has raised over Rs 1.5 crore, garnering massive support from corporates, celebrities and organisations. In addition to several awards and accolades won for fundraising, Meera was also presented the 'Youth Leader 2015' award by The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, India for her unique social impact project 'Poster to Shelter'.
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