TIMES IMPACT

Now, robotic crabs to be used for race

Vijay Singh | TNN

Mumbai: The first ever ‘Great Indian Crab Race’ that is to be held in Mumbai on March 11 will now not feature live crabs, and instead battery operated robotic crabs will be used at the charity event organised by the American Alumni Association (AAA).

An AAA spokesperson told TOI on Wednesday: “We were earlier going to use live crabs for the race, and then set them free in their natural environment. However, respecting the sentiments of animal activists, who had asked us not to use live crabs, we have replaced them with robotic crabs.’’

She further added, “There was really no cruelty involved in our original crab race. However, since it is a charity event, we did not want to upset any group or party, and so decided to use mechanical crabs for the event so that everyone is happy.’’

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA India) had earlier written to AAA asking them not to use crabs as they can feel pain and stress. “We thank AAA for listening to our appeal. So finally, all’s well that ends well, in case of the forthcoming ‘Great Indian Crab Race’. May the best (toy) crab win!’’ exclaimed PETA India’s campaigns coordinator, Dharmesh Solanki.
vijay.singh@timesgroup.com

City youngsters all set for China trip to study solar eclipse

Srinivas Laxman | TNN

Mumbai: Ten star-crazed Mumbai youngsters, five of them physics and computer science students of Mumbai university, are all set for a trip to China where they will study the solar eclipse on July 22.

All of these “spaced-out’’ youths will study the sun under the banner of Helios Astronomy Group, a seven-year-old organisation. Chintamani Pai, a member of the group, told TOI that the focus of their research would be to study the solar corona and the “flash spectrum’’. The minimum cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 8 lakh.

The students will use equipment from the Western Regional Instrumentation Centre located on the university’s Kalina campus. Pai said the group had been divided into three units. The first will conduct the experiments, the second will provide computer and electronics support—that is handle data and deal with image-processing and trouble-shooting—and the third will handle the logistics. “Through our reserach, we hope tolearn more about the sun’s characterestics, solar flares and solar corona,’’ Pai said. Team leader Jatin Rathod said the group would study the eclipse from Wuhan, about 400 km west of Shanghai. “We have chose a remote place like Wuhan as there will be a few people and that way, we will be able to concentrate on work,’’ he said.

If the team is unable to make it to China, it will watch the eclipse from a North-eastern state, either in Arunachal Pradesh or Meghalaya. The solar eclipse will be visible from a narrow corridor spanning northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean. In India, the eclipse will be total in Surat, Varanasi and Patna and will last for six minutes—the longest in the 21st century

2 Indian girls set to reach out for stars

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETS

Srinivas Laxman I TNN

Mumbai: They could be future Kalpana Chawlas and Sunita Williams. After a gap of four years, Indian girl students are once again aiming for the stars.

What better proof of this than two of them—Jeevana Priya from Secunderabad and Nidhi Pashine from Durg in Chhattisgarh—who will participate in prestigious astronomy meetings to be held in China and Iran this year.

The announcement about their selection was made on Saturday at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.

The programme is jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space and is organised by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.

Said Aniket Sule, academic co-ordinator, Indian National Astronomy Olympiad, “After four years, girls are representing this country. This is a good sign and we are sure they will perform well.’’

Priya will take part in the International Astronomy Olympiad to be held at Hangzhou in China from November 8 to 16, while Pashine will participate in the International Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Tehran in Iran between October 18 and 27.

Sule said from an estimated 14,000 students who appeared for the first round of the national olympiad, 40 from Stds VIII to XII were chosen to attend the camp at Mumbai from April 27 to May 16.

Of these, 11 were finally chosen—six for the astronomy olympiad and five for astronomy and astrophysics meet.

srinivas.laxman@timesgroup.com

Darkness at noon in city on July 22

Srinivas Laxman | TNN

After a gap of 10 years, a major celestial event, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of India on July 22.

Nehru Planetarium director, Piyush Pandey, said in a press release on Wednesday that in Mumbai the eclipse will be a partial event, with the sun appearing like a bitten-off biscuit. In the city, the sun will rise at 6.12 am when the eclipse would have already begun. At 6.22 am, 96 per cent of the sun’s diameter will be obscured by the moon. The partial eclipse will end in Mumbai at 7.19 am, he said.

“July is a month of rains. No one can predict with any confidence where you will have clear skies and no rainfall on July 22. Analysing the weather pattern of the past 20 years it seems Patna, Varanasi and their neighbourhood offer better viewing prospects for enthusiasts,’’
Pandey added.

He said the eclipse will begin at Surat, Gujarat at 6.21 am and leave India at the border of Arunachal Pradesh at 6.36 am. “It will zoom from one end of India to another in about 15 minutes, faster than a jet plane,’’ he said. He added many Indian cities will come in the eclipse’s path and it will roughly have a 200-km wide belt. At Surat the totality of the eclipse will be 3 minutes and 17 seconds and it will increase to 4 minutes and 20 seconds, north of Dibrugarh, in Assam.

The greatest duration of totality on Earth will be in the Pacific Ocean, south east of Japan, where the totality will last for 6 minutes 39 seconds.

When does a solar eclipse occur?
On New Moon, when the Moon passes between the Earth and Sun. If the Moon’s shadow falls upon Earth then a portion of the Sun’s disk is ‘eclipsed’ by the Moon

Partial eclipse
Areas which fall within the Moon’s faint outer shadow witness a partial solar eclipse

Total eclipse
Total solar eclipses are visible in places within the Moon’s dark inner shadow

Precautions
Eclipses, especially partial ones, are dangerous to look at because the un-eclipsed part of the Sun is still very bright

Permanent eye damage can result from looking at the Sun directly, through a camera viewfinder, binoculars or a telescope or even using sunglasses

Only use special solar filters or a specially created pinhole camera to watch an eclipse. Even while using a filter, take care not to stare at the Sun for long. Watch the eclipse through the filter briefly and then look away

Mumbai
will witness only a partial eclipse. In the city it will start before sunrise at 6.12 am and, after peaking at 6.22 am, it will end at 7.19 am

WHIZZKIDS AT WORK

Thane kids make it to science event

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Thane: A team of five children from Sonale, a sleepy village in Thane, studied the weather in their village during the monsoon this year for a science project that made it to the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC), much to their surprise.

The event will be held in Nagaland this month. The children were guided by an NGO, Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST). The kids—Tejal Raut, Nirgun and Niranjan Tikhande, Shailesh Vishe and Sopan Mhaskar—come from families of farmers or masons.

The kids worked with rudimentary instruments, like a raingauge made out of a water bottle cut at the top, with the upper half inverted inward like a funnel. Often, cattlegrazers would knock down the bottle raingauges, mistaking them for trash. “We lost 20 bottles this way,’’ said Shailesh. Sometimes, villagers would mistake them for birdfeeders and fill them with water.

The children also made their own weather gauges and used glass tumblers filled with water to measure evaporation.

Initially, their parents weren’t too keen on them wandering about the village, collecting data instead of studying. “The parents didn’t feel that the project was an essential part of their learning,’’ said Nilesh Nimkar, a founder of QUEST. It’s only after the kids began winning the district, zonal and state level contests that their parents sat up and took notice. Now, even the sarpanch has put up a hoarding outside the village, congratulating the children.

The only girl from the group, Tejal, will represent the team in Nagaland. Her parents want her to go to Nagaland as they feel “the exposure will benefit her”.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

Helping them take the walk of life

Kumar Sambhav I TNN

Mumbai: Meera Devi is patiently sitting with her 12-yearold son on her lap in a corner of a hall, overflowing with more than 400 children and their parents, at Bandra’s Lilavati Hospital. With every bite of lunch she feeds him with her hands, the Worli resident nurtures a dream to see his son break into a walk.

In the same hall, Kalyan resident Anand Kadam is pushing a wheelchair with his twin daughters sitting on it. Besides the timing of their birth, nine-year-olds Komal and Kajal have another thing in common: they cannot walk due to a knee disorder.

Like Mukesh, Komal and Kajal, more than 500 children with varying degrees of disability thronged the free children’s orthopaedic corrective surgery camp organised at Lilavati Hospital on Saturday.

Meera believes the camp will help his son, who suffers from cerebral palsy and has not been able to walk since his birth, lead a pain-free life. “We want to send him to school. Right now, he can’t even stand on his own. We hope this camp helps him,’’ said Mukesh’s father Mohan Lal.

Kadam said it was an opportunity for him to give his daughter “expert treatment’’ that was affordable. “This camp is for a noble cause. I really believe it will change the lives of many children,’’ he added.

The camp was organised and funded by Child Foundation, an NGO set up by paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Ashok Johari. It promises to not only take care of the immediate operation, plasters or botulumin (botox) shots, but also of follow-up visits for up to a year, that too, free of cost.

At least 50 doctors from all over India were deployed for check-ups and surgeries at the camp. “The surgeries will start from Saturday night and continue till Sunday. The operations will also be conducted on the 15th and 16th of this month,’’ said Dr Johari.

It is estimated that 5% of children in India suffer from some physical handicap, their numbers adding up to almost 20 million. Dr Johari said with his small efforts, he wants to bring a change in the lives of such children.

“Our main objective is to spread awareness about orthopaedic diseases. There are many deformities that can be fully cured if they are treated at the right time. But in many cases, even doctors are not aware and deny the treatment. Those deformities take severe shape with time,’’ he added.

“Child Foundation aims to raise awareness on how to help such children . We want to offer a platform for various philanthropic organisations,’’ says Ashiana Dhillon, a trustee of the foundation.

GOOD DEED: A free children’s orthopaedic corrective surgery camp was held at Bandra’s Lilavati Hospital on Saturday.

Street children line up to take the best course

Ranjani Rajendra I TNN

Mumbai: Long queues snaked through the Don Bosco School grounds at Matunga as hundreds of children, unmindful of the scorching heat, patiently waited their turn as the lines wound closer to the stalls. No, this was not a scene from a regular school fete. In progress was a career mela for street children and marginalised children, offering them a host of options to keep them off the street and help them build a stable future.

Pioneered by Don Bosco, the mela saw companies like Mahindra and Mahindra, Lamprell, Otis, Union Bank and Ahar (the restaurant association) step forward to offer career guidance and training courses to the children. As the children pored over forms, counsellors explained what each option entailed and the course of action to be taken. “Most of these children didn’t look beyond masonry, welding and carpentry.This capacity building exercise will offer an opportunity for children from this segment of society to explore diverse career options, foster independent decision-making with regard to career choices and enable them to become financially independent as they move to the world of work in future,” said Father Barnabe D’Souza, director, Don Bosco Shelter, Mumbai.

While some children had come merely to have fun at the mela that also had cultural programmes, most seemed serious about making use of the opportunity. “I want to become a cricketer or join a musical band. I never knew what would be the best way for me to realise my dreams. But the didi at the stall explained what I should do if I wanted to be successful,” said 14-year-old Rahul Shirkar, who plays the drums along with his father at weddings.

Similarly, 18-year-old Rupesh Londe who wants to get into hotel management was guided by Ahar. His father has a menial job with the BMC, and Rupesh is determined to do something different, like a computer course. Others like Mohammed Gouspeer and Bashir Hakim who are interested in the technical aspects of the industry have been recruited by Lamprell, an offshoring company, to be trained in welding and then be sent to Dubai as company employees.

In a new venture, Don Bosco in association with the Union Bank and FINO (Financial Information Network and Operations Limited) provided the children with a chip photo card. With this card they can deposit the savings from their daily wages in the bank. The card will also serve as an ID to get a driver’s license or a ration card.Said Sanjay Kuberkar,Chief Operating Officer, of FINO. “We expect through this scheme to work out a feasible solution that will empower street children by enabling them to open regular accounts with banks and save their earnings.”

“According to our research, we found that 90% of the children we had helped with jobs ended up back on the streets. The reason being they didn’t possess the necessary skills to retain the jobs. Hence we decided that we needed to attend to the root of the problem itself,” said Fr Barnabe.

FOR A BETTER FUTURE: Candidates apply for training courses and jobs at the street mela organised by Don Bosco School, Matunga on Friday.

Next Live Earth concert in city

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The world’s coming to rock India. Former US vice president Al Gore and the organisers of the Live Earth series of music concerts have announced that the next edition of the mega event will be held in Mumbai on December 7 at the Andheri Sports Complex.

Nobel laureate Rajendra Pachauri, director Shekhar Kapur and actor Amitabh Bachchan announced their support for the initiative which uses the power of the world’s celebrity musicians to draw attention to the climate crisis caused by global warming. A record two billion people around the world watched the first series on July 7, 2007. American rocker Jon Bon Jovi will perform at the Mumbai show.

Addressing the international press at a suburban club on Thursday, Live Earth founder Kevin Wall said the proceeds would go to fund R K Pachauri’s Light A Billion Lives project which aims to put a solar lantern in a billion homes.

While Bachchan said he was sufficiently alarmed by Pachauri’s doomsday prediction to speak up for climate conservation, Kapur noted that his favourite rivers and forests in Mussourie had become brown and barren over time. The star moment came when Al Gore hooked up via a video link from the US. Admitting that his own country was perhaps the largest polluter in the world, he cautioned Indians against falling prey to similar trends in consumerism.

“It is undesirable for a country to promote and subsidise dirty fuels like kerosene, paraffin and coal when it could use cheaper and better alternatives like electricity,’’ he said. “India is clearly emerging as a world leader in many ways, and it could show the path to other countries by converting to healthier energy resources.’’

‘Concert aimed at educating Indians’

Mumbai: TERI (The Environment Research Institute) ch i e f and Nobel laureate Raj e n d r a Pachauri will be the Indian face of the Live Earth concert slated to be held in the city on December 7. The Bachchan family will provide the star wattage.

Addressing a press meet in the city on Thursday via a video link from the US, former vice-president and Nobel winner Al Gore said the music concert had a serious motive—educating every Indian consumer about the right to a clean environment and the duty that comes with it.

At this point, some mediapersons asked if the concert itself would not become a source of environmental pollution, as was alleged last year. The organisers sheepishly said they would try their best to avoid such a situation.

Meanwhile, expressing his support for the Indo-US nuclear deal, Pachauri said, “While we are on the subject of modern, non-polluting resources of energy, I must say I consider nuclear energy to be one of the cleanest and best alternatives. There are no side-effects to its use.’’
toireporter@timesgroup.com

ROCK THE WORLD: Madonna at the Live Earth concert in London last year

Al Gore

IITians do a bloody good deed at Mood Indigo

Mumbai: Students queued up in large numbers outside Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) on Thursday for a blood donation camp as part of the institute’s cultural festival Mood Indigo, which will be held from December 20 to 23.

The festival’s stamp this year is “RETRO: Reborn to Rock’’. Ishank Gupta, core group member of the festival, said, “Through the blood donation campaign, called Khoon Chala, we want to tell the world that the youth is capable of rocking and reaching out to the country. On day one, we had over 450 IITians donating blood.’’

IIT-B has partnered with the state blood transfusion council, Doctors for You and Rotaract District 3140, which will conduct the camp. Donation will be open for IIT students and staff for a week beginning Thursday.