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This is the other half of another thread with a similar name . One of the lessons life has taught me - Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems to be . This is a collection of uplifting news from India. News that fill me with hope. If you come across uplifting stories or have stories of your own to share, please participate and share. It brings joy to lot of hearts here.

Recently BBC ran a series about unsung Indians. I will start this thread by first two posts from that series . The

Here is the link for the article


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35379231


[QUOTE][h=1]Ganesh Rakh: The doctor who delivers India's girls for free[/h]By Geeta PandeyBBC News, Pune

31 January 2016


From the sectionIndia

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Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionDr Ganesh Rakh says the 2011 census figures made him realise how skewed India's gender ratio wasAn Indian doctor is on a unique mission to save the female child - he waives his fee if a girl is born in his hospital.
Dr Ganesh Rakh calls it his "tiny contribution" to improving the lot of the girl child in a country where a traditional preference for boys and an easy availability of antenatal sex screening has resulted in a skewed gender ratio.
In 1961, there were 976 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven. According to the latest census figures released in 2011, that figure has dropped to a dismal 914.
Dr Rakh, who started a small hospital in the western Indian city of Pune in 2007, says that whenever a pregnant woman came for her delivery, all her relatives would come with the hope that the baby would be a boy.
"The biggest challenge for a doctor is to tell relatives that a patient has died. For me, it was equally difficult to tell families that they'd had a daughter," he says.
[HR][/HR][h=2]Unsung Indians[/h]This is the first article in a BBC series Unsung Indians, profiling people who are working to improve the lives of others.
[HR][/HR]"They would celebrate and distribute sweets if a male child was born, but if a girl was born, the relatives would leave the hospital, the mother would cry, and the families would ask for a discount. They would be so disappointed.
"Many told me that they had taken treatment to ensure the birth of a male child. I was surprised, as I wasn't aware of any such treatment. But they spoke about consulting a holy man, or would talk of putting some medicine into the mother's nostril to ensure she delivered a boy."
The 2011 census figures were an eye-opener for Dr Rakh, who dotes upon his nine-year-old daughter, his only child. They made him realise how grim the situation really was.
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionThe hospital celebrates each time a baby girl is born in the hospitalCampaigners likened female foeticide to genocide, while then prime minister Manmohan Singh described it as a "national shame" and called for a "crusade" to save India's girls.
On 3 January 2012, Dr Rakh began his own "crusade" - by launching the Mulgi Vachva Abhiyan (which translates from Marathi into "campaign to save the girl child").
"I decided I would not charge any fee if a girl was born. Also, since a son's birth was celebrated by the family, we decided we [at the hospital] would celebrate a daughter's birth."
In the four years since he launched his campaign, 464 girls have been born in his hospital and he has not charged the parents any fee.
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionThe hospital staff have named the one-day old baby AngelOn the day I visited him, the hospital was celebrating the birth of Nisha and Rahul Khalse's first baby - a girl.
The parents, who had come from a village 50km (31 miles) from Pune, were yet to name her, but the hospital staff decided to call the one-day-old Angel.
Dr Rakh and his colleagues presented flowers to the parents, candles were lit, and a chocolate cake brought in. The staff and family gathered around, everyone clapped and sang "happy birthday Dear Angel".
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionDr Rakh wanted to be a wrestler but was discouraged by his mother"There are hospitals closer home, but we came here because Dr Rakh doesn't ask for money," says Rahul Khalse who works as a day labourer on construction sites.
"He's a good man," says his mother, Alka Shahji Khalse.
Dr Rakh says he didn't really plan on becoming a doctor - he actually wanted to be a wrestler.
"But my mother discouraged me - she said you'll overeat and finish everyone's food."
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionDr Rakh's father Adinath Vithal Rakh supported his son's decision to waive the fee if a girl child was born in his hospitalHer concern was genuine - his father worked as a porter in the grain market, carrying sacks on his back, while his mother cleaned dishes in other people's homes. The family's meagre income was barely enough to feed Dr Rakh and his two brothers.
So he concentrated on becoming a doctor.
It was not an easy decision to waive his fee for the delivery of baby girls, and he was predictably opposed by his wife and brothers.
"We are economically not well off," his wife Trupti Rakh said. "So when he told me about his decision, I was worried as to how I would run the house."
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage captionTrupti Rakh (right) says she was initially worried about her husband's decision, but is "very proud" of him nowBut his father Adinath Vithal Rakh supported his decision whole-heartedly.
"He told me to continue with the good work. He said he would go back to work as a porter if needed," Dr Rakh says.
Today, his efforts have begun to bear fruit - ministers and government officials are appreciating his work and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has described him as a "real hero".
"I started a small thing. I didn't know it would be received like this," he says, adding, "but sometimes small things impact minds in a big way".
Over the past few months, he has contacted doctors around the country, asking them to do at least one free delivery and, he says, many have pledged support.
Image copyrightANUSHREE FADNAVISImage caption"I want to change attitudes," says Dr RakhHe has also been organising marches through Pune's streets to convince people that a daughter is as precious as a son.

The second post in the thread is from the series about a man from my city - Hyderabad . A pensioner who used his pension to repair pot holes in the city after seeing a young man die in an accident. There are many other profiles that can be read from the BBC news website

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35966747
[QUOTE]The man who uses his pension fund to fill potholes

17 April 2016

From the sectionIndia

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Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAGangadhara Tilak Katnam is a retired civil servant who uses his pension fund to repair potholes in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. The BBC's Geeta Pandey spends a day with the man christened the "doctor of roads".
It's only 8am but the merciless hot summer sun is scorching.
Mr Katnam puts out red flags to cordon off a part of the road and, assisted by a group of 16-year-old students, begins work on three small potholes in the middle of the road.
Orange gloves are donned, broomsticks are used to sweep away the dirt, a shovel is used to remove the debris, a knife is used to tear open bags of tar and a pounder is used to level it once it's been poured into the potholes.
[HR][/HR]Unsung Indians

​This is the 12th article in a BBC series Unsung Indians, profiling people who are working to improve the lives of others.
More from the series:
The doctor who delivers girls for free
Cancer survivor bringing joy to destitute children
A messiah for India's abandoned sick
The woman whose daughter's death led her to save others
The man saving Mumbai water one tap at a time
The man who chases fires
Nurturing slum children's passion for cricket
The woman who electrified a village and took on a mafia
Helping villagers ask uncomfortable questions
Bangalore wig-maker weaves a happy story
The woman who hunts the witch hunters
[HR][/HR]Someone had taken a photo of the spot and sent it to Mr Katnam a day earlier after a little girl was injured there when her mother's scooter fell in the pothole and tumbled over.
"Every abandoned shoe tells a story," he says, pointing to a discarded slipper on the side of the road.
"The child was injured and some passers-by took them in their car to the hospital. Because time was crucial to save the little girl's life, they didn't stop to pick up her slipper."
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAMr Katnam says that each day in Hyderabad, several people are killed or maimed in totally avoidable road accidents. "Potholes also cause invisible injuries like leg and back pain."
An engineer with the Indian railways for 35 years, Mr Katnam retired in October 2008.
A year later, he was hired by a software firm on a monthly salary of 70,000 rupees ($1,054; £740).
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAImage copyrightSORAYA KIRAHis obsession with fixing potholes began in January 2010.
"I was driving to work one morning when I came across a pothole filled with muddy water. As my car wheel went into it, the muddy water splashed some children who were walking to school with their parents. I felt horrible," he says.
Most people would have soon forgotten about it, but Mr Katnam hired two labourers, bought six trucks of road fixing material and filled the pothole. Over the next two days, he went around the city fixing more than 60 potholes.
The next time he passed the children and their parents on their school run, they recognised him and stopped his car to thank him.
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAImage copyrightSORAYA KIRAIn the days that followed, Mr Katnam says, he witnessed two accidents caused by potholes.
"A biker was hit by a car when he swerved to avoid a pothole. In another accident I saw, an auto-rickshaw driver was killed.
"I went to the police, I wanted them to record in their complaint that these deaths were caused due to potholes, but they did not take any action."
His complaints to the municipal authorities to fix the gaping holes in the roads also did not elicit any response.
So he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAHe would drive around the city, picking up discarded material from old roads that civic workers would dump on to the pavements. He would fill it into sacks, carry it around in his car and use it to fill potholes around the city.
He also spent his own money to buy any additional material he required.
"As people started telling me that I was doing a good job, I got hooked," he says.
In 2011, Mr Katnam quit his job and took to fixing potholes full-time.
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRABut with no salary coming in and most of his 23,000 rupee monthly pension being spent on potholes, his finances began depleting fast.
Moreover, his work meant he had to be outdoors in the sun for hours and his wife worried that he would get a heat stroke.
"In June 2012, she called our son, a software engineer in the US, to come and help drill some sense into my head."
His son, he says, was "very reluctant" for him to carry on with his work and they had "massive arguments".
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRA"And then a miracle happened. While my son and I were in the midst of a heated argument, a biker fell down in front of our eyes because of a pothole. That's when my son realised the value of my work, changed his mind and decided to help me."
He set up a Facebook page about his father's work and that brought him some recognition.
It also prompted civic authorities to start supplying road repair material to him free of cost and in the last six years, he says, he has filled 1,244 potholes.
"When I started fixing potholes, people though I was a very stingy contractor who worked on his own," he laughs.
But as word spread, many people have come forward to volunteer and help. His Facebook page is full of appreciative posts and last year, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan felicitated him.
Image copyrightSORAYA KIRAWhile I watch him at work, a jogger stops by to tell him how wonderful his work is, and Mr Katnam tells him to spread the message: "If an old man can do it, so can you."
He is bitter that no state politician has taken up his suggestion to fix potholes and says that it will not just save lives, but also save authorities hundreds of millions of rupees in medical costs.
And he offers a simple solution to ensuring smooth roads - traffic police can take photos of potholes and send them to civic authorities who can then fix them.
In the last year, health issues have forced him to scale down and he now works two to three times a week.
I ask him how long he intends to carry on fixing potholes?
His answer is immediate.
"Until my last breath."

On the one hand, it is nice to read about such things.

On the other, it ought to impress upon the NRI to stay the **** out of India, make more money, and (perhaps through NGO's) help the right sorts of retirees to make a difference in India.

Not an Indian but a person of Indian Origin.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/27/16-year-old-teen-devises-way-to-make-deadly-breast-cancer-more-t/

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2016/08/29/16-year-old-indian-origin-student-devises-way-treat-deadly-breast-cancer



16-year-old Indian origin student devises way to treat deadly breast cancer
[QUOTE]Krtin has tried to turn this ‘difficult to treat cancers’ into something that responds well to treatment.
[QUOTE]“Most cancers have receptors on their surface which bind to drugs like Tamoxifen but triple negative don’t have receptors, so the drugs don’t work,” Krtin was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
“The prognosis for women with undifferentiated cancer isn’t very good, so the goal is to turn the cancer back to a state where it can be treated. The ID4 protein actually stops undifferentiated stem cell cancers from differentiating, so you have to block ID4 to allow the cancer to differentiate,” he has said.
“I have found a way to silence the genes that produce ID4 which turns cancer back into a less dangerous state,” Krtin added.
Krtin has also discovered that upping the activity of a tumour suppressor gene called PTEN allows chemotherapy to work more effectively, so the dual treatment could prove far more effective than traditional drugs.
The therapy idea saw him shortlisted for the final of the U.K.-based young scientists programme titled ‘The Big Bang Fair.’

Here is the story of a dedicated civil servant.

Here is the link

http://www.thebetterindia.com/66805/bairiya-balia-sdm-arvind-kumar-saves-people-from-flood/

[QUOTE]Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), who thought on his feet and acted quickly, was able to save hundreds of villagers from drowning in the Balia district of UP.
Over 2 million people from over 1,000 villages in Bihar have been affected by devastating floods this monsoon season, forcing 1.7 lakh people to take shelter in 179 relief camps set up in various affected areas. The Ganga and Ghagra rivers in the central Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand regions have also breached the danger mark.
Recently, a small village called Bairiya in Balia district was alerted that it was in danger of being flooded. However, a ring dam built on the Ganga in Dubeychapara district, although over 60 years old, had been protecting Bairiya and about a dozen other surrounding villages from this calamity.
Repairs to the dam were ongoing because the force of the water was building up, but the structure itself was expected to hold up.
[h=2]On August 26, SDM Arvind Kumar of Balia received a call from one of his officials that the villagers in the area had abandoned repairs and were running away from the work site because the dam was about to collapse.[/h]
Arvind Kumar quickly got into his car and drove to Bairiya, getting there at 2 am. He had to use a boat to get to the dam?s repair site, where he witnessed panic and confusion firsthand. The first thing he tried to do was to restore some calm by letting people know that he had heard the water level was falling upstream near Allahabad.
[h=2]He then made announcements, asking the villagers to evacuate their homes and climb to higher ground near the national highway.[/h]

SDM Arvind Kumar ( left ) making the announcements.

Arvind Kumar had his staff wake up the local boatmen to help rescue the people. He paid the boatmen from his own pocket to get diesel and other essentials needed for the purpose.
While arranging for help, Kumar noticed several geo-bags lying at a construction site near the dam. Geo bags are synthetic bags made from polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene and are used to protect hydraulic structures and riverbanks from severe erosion and scouring.
All Arvind Kumar realized he needed now was manpower to place these bags on the dam in such a way as to prevent water from entering the village.
[h=2]When he found no one around him willing to come forward to help, he started to lift the bags himself and place them where needed.[/h]

He started to lift the bags himself and place them where needed.

Watching him do this, some workers started to come forward. Elderly people from the village also started helping. Slowly, about 100-150 people made a human chain to pass the bags to each other and, within an hour, there were around 400 people trying to save the 3.5 km long dam.
[INDENT]?The elderly people started helping me first. I could see the fire in their eyes. They would do anything to save their houses. Someone asked me to stop as there were 400 people working there already. But I was no longer just the SDM of the village. I felt like one of the villagers trying to save his home,? said Kumar.
[/INDENT]Once the situation looked under control, Arvind Kumar called the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team at Navranga, 8 kms from Bairiya. The team responded quickly and took over the rescue effort of evacuating villagers. However, many of the able-bodied villagers continued to work at the dam repair site, keeping the structure intact for another 36 hours before it finally collapsed due to the damage that had taken place on the other side.
[h=2]However, thanks to the efforts of the SDM and the locals, everyone had been evacuated safely by then.[/h]

Arvind Kumar kept contacting the local officials to ensure safety of the locals.

A follower of APJ Abdul Kalam, Arvind Kumar belongs to a poor family of Banaras and has struggled a lot during his life. His friends would gather money to somehow pay his college fees so he could complete his education. Arvind was 28 years old when he started his job as SDM of Balia in July last year.
[h=2]Kumar has been working for the upliftment of the villagers under his jurisdiction ever since then.[/h]

Arvind Kumar helping an elderly woman.

[INDENT]He was so moved by the manner in which they came together to stop the dam from collapsing that he said, ?I was overwhelmed by their response. They worked with such dedication and trust after seeing me pick up the bags and work with them.?
[/INDENT]The villagers, on their part, are thankful to have an SDM who is so concerned about their welfare.

Like everywhere else and any one else , India/Indians have a good side /ugly side . It is very easy to get demoralized by the ugly side , but it takes some mindfulness to appreciate that human beings are the same every where and most Indians try to do a decent job of helping the other human being despite all the limitations India imposes. People like this inhabit the same land the owners of Antilla inhabit


One of my neighbors in my middle class neighbor hood was an inspiring figure. A trusted farm hand in his native village died leaving behind young children. He convinced the dead man's family that the children should get educated , took personal interest in their schooling , paid for the education for the children for their entire schooling. A similar example is below

BTW - this website is inspiring, whenever you get discouraged by the other Yeh Hai Mera India thread, head to this website


http://www.thebetterindia.com/about/

[h=1][QUOTE]Residents of an Apartment Complex in Bengaluru Came Together to Fund School Fees & Tutor Their Domestic Helpers? Kids[/h] Tanaya Singh
August 26, 2016
Bangalore, Changemakers


[HR][/HR]Spread the wordTweet it



Every Sunday, the children of domestic workers in the Tata Sherwood residential society of Bengaluru come together for afternoon tuition classes conducted by the residents of the society. These residents are members of a voluntary group called SEE, which helps fund the annual school fees for children of maids, cooks, drivers, cleaners, and other helpers in the apartment complex.
[h=2]As a group of eight active volunteers, SEE members refer to themselves as SEEkers and have expanded the scope of their work from just funding the kids? education to teaching them too.[/h]
[INDENT]?It all started with an unfortunate incident in 2014, about two days before Diwali. We heard that a cook working in the society had collapsed at his home. His family took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with some severe problem in the intestines. The hospital estimated that immediate surgery would cost the family about Rs. 4 lakh,? says one of the volunteers.
[/INDENT]Some of the society residents came together and started thinking of ways to crowd source this sum for him. They spoke to the hospital authorities, government agencies and also residents in the society itself, who turned out to be extremely helpful. One email on the society?s Google group and they collected a sum of Rs. 3 lakh in just 96 hours. Some other friends and family members also chipped in and the total amount finally stood at Rs. 4.5 lakh. The surgery was successful and the cook recovered soon. At the end of all this, some of the residents formed a group. The first item on their agenda was to figure out what to do with the money left over from the donations.
[h=2]?After putting in a lot of thought on how the money could be used, we decided to utilise it for the welfare of the domestic helpers working in Sherwood,? says the volunteer.[/h]
The group created a plan to collect more funds from the residents and pay the annual fees of children of all 150 domestic workers. The residents agreed and in the very first year they were able to collect enough money to fund the education of 40 children studying in Classes 1 to 10.
?We were happy but also concerned that what we had done was a somewhat lazy way of doing good. After all, it was just a month-long activity in a year and, more importantly, the money was paying the school fees but not necessarily helping the kids with their education,? says the volunteer. This was when the group decided to go one step further and conduct tuition classes for the children.
They met with the parents, learnt more about their needs, found out that most domestic workers were not aware of what their children were learning in school and how they were faring, and finally came up with a plan. They now conduct tuition classes on Sundays from two to four in the afternoons and teach English and Maths to over 20 children from Classes 4-9.
[h=2]?None of us are teachers by profession but we try and keep the curiosity and excitement of the kids alive in the context of their school books. We are also trying to deploy modules for personality development, communication skills, etc. We are happy to see how the children are enthused about attending our classes,? adds a SEEker.[/h]

This year, the group again collected money and will be funding the annual school fees of 75 children. Another development is that they will now be teaching children from Class 10 as well. Additionally, some homemakers have came on board and they now conduct after-school classes for seven Class 10 students, six days a week ? teaching all core subjects.
[h=2]Other than the eight active volunteers, their are six more people who volunteer time whenever they can.[/h]
?Many people hope that they will do something somewhere that will change things. But in 99% of the cases, it just remains a hope. For us, this was an opportunity that we never imagined we?d get. And we are giving it our best,? says another volunteer.

This child has very nice hair....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5447[/ATTACH]

okonomi;637377This child has very nice hair....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5447[/ATTACH]

Perhaps Shani is well placed or even a Yogakaraka ?

desi4ever;637381Perhaps Shani is well placed or even a Yogakaraka ?

Authors of post 7 and 8 : there is a reason banter thread exists . Please feel free to make full use of it . Pleaae Consider moving your posts to the banter thread

killbill pandey;637364Like everywhere else and any one else , India/Indians have a good side /ugly side . It is very easy to get demoralized by the ugly side , but it takes some mindfulness to appreciate that human beings are the same every where and most Indians try to do a decent job of helping the other human being despite all the limitations India imposes. ...,

Yes! And thanks for bringing that viewpoint out by starting this thread!

Out of 300 odd self centered owners (me included )in our apartment complex in CBE, there was a guy who volunteers n neighboring municipal School, provides books and also tries to match employment for the nearby slum youngsters with many mill owners in our complex. His wife collects used newspapers from residents, and sponsors a medical treatment or surgery of one under priveleged kid out of that money every month! And heard she has expanded the to few more apt complexes!

Easy to do for a month,but he has been sustaining it for 3 years now! Hats off to such people!