JOURNEY OF A DIFFERENT KIND

This train will teach them basics of business

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha I TNN

Mumbai: Passengers: 18 to 25-year-olds
Route: Delhi to Kanyakumari
Duration: 18 days
Destination: Entrepreneurship and leadership
Unlike most train journeys, passengers hopping onto a 16-bogey train at Mumbai Central on Wednesday aren’t waiting to reach any destination. For the youngsters on board, the journey itself is their destination. The excursion organised under the aegis of the Tata Jagriti Yatra aims to inculcate entrepreneurial skills among the 350 youths on board.

From the dabbawalas of Mumbai to the barefoot college in Tilonia, Rajasthan, to Anand in Gujarat, the group will explore innovative ventures, interact with role models and get a dekko into social entrepreneurship.

“The aim is to get the youth to connect with the genius of India and the focus is on enterprise-led development. Today, enterpreneurship and enterprise are no longer a luxury, but a necessity and we hope to spark interest in the youth,’’ said Shashank Mani, an ex-IITian and one of the founders of the concept, adding that they hope to make this an annual feature. The group had organised a similar trip called Azad Bharat Rail Yatra in 1997 and many of them felt their experience deserved to be shared with others. That’s how the seeds for this journey were sown.

Explaining that the format wasn’t a classroom session but a see-and-learn experience, another organiser Raj Krishnamurthy offered an insight into their itinerary. “There will be conferences inside the train and stopovers to meet role models such as scientist R A Mashelkar (who formerly headed the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Dr M S Swaminathan who is known as the ‘father of the green revolution in India’ and Ela Bhatt who founded SEWA,’’ he said.

The youths would get a peek into successful enterprises, be it the Kuthambakkam village in Chennai which is acclaimed as a ‘model village’ or the sprawling Technopark in Thiruvananthpuram which is a hub of IT offices. The eclectic bunch will also participate in six televised panel discussions which will dwell on topics such as ‘poverty to self-help’ and the ‘power of one’.

They received applications from 10,000 youngsters and finally selected 350, including 25 foreigners. The youngsters who are waiting to hop on are predictably high on adrenaline. Suman Chennamaneni (24) from Hyderabad couldn’t have hoped for a better platform. An arts and law graduate who has dabbled in social ventures since he was 21, he said, “I recently interned with an NGO which promoted small entrepreneurs such as plumbers and electricians through the internet. I am keen to learn how social models are scaled up and made sustainable.’’

Breach Candy resident and dentist Neha Parekh is excited about interacting with likeminded youngsters. Summing up the excitement is a blog post by a youngster from Chennai, Abhishek Seth, who says he expects the trip to be “a turning point in his life’’. They may just throw up many success stories in the making.

City youth can now get voter I-cards from colleges

Anahita Mukherji | TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Enthusiastic collegians keen on exercising their franchise but put off by the daunting task of getting themselves registered as voters will now have absolutely no excuse for not voting. In what’s probably the first-ever exercise of its kind in the country, the state election commission has brought the registration process right to the college campus.

Maharashtra’s chief election officer Debashish Chakrabarty has launched a campaign for ‘voter awareness and registration’ among college students. He was recently approached by the NGO AGNI (Action for Good Governance in India) and iVote-Wear the Mark, a student organisation, asking him to “catch ‘em young’’.

“Data during the Lok Sabha elections shows that only around 10% of Mumbai’s youth between 18 and 25 are voters,’’ says Chakrabarty, who responded to the appeal with alacrity. He has already sent out letters to about 50 colleges in Mumbai asking for their cooperation and is in the midst of communicating with the remaining colleges in the city.

The letter has asked colleges to allow AGNI and iVote volunteers to help with the campaign on campus. If the campaign works in Mumbai, Chakrabarty will consider starting it in other cities in Maharashtra. Colleges now have the power to certify a student’s date of birth and address for the election commission. Chakrabarty has enclosed a simple format of the certificate in his letter to principals.

Principals who are keen on participating in the campaign can invite AGNI and iVote volunteers to the college. “We will then put up posters across the college, address students on the need to vote and distribute voter registration forms to them. Students will then fill in these forms on campus in the presence of AGNI and iVote volunteers, who will address any queries that students may have while filling out their details. We will ensure that there are no mistakes on any of the forms,’’ said Gerson da Cunha, convenor, AGNI.

The completed registration forms, along with the certificates from colleges, will be collected either by AGNI and iVote volunteers or by officials from the Election Registration Office who will then route the forms to the election registration officers in charge of the areas where the students live. The processed voter ID cards will be sent to the colleges which can then pass them on to the students.

Principals thrilled with voter drive

Mumbai: Chief election officer of the state Debashish Chakrabarty has some dedicated college students participating in his voter awareness campaign. Natasha Kewalramani, a 20-year-old St Xavier’s College student, began iVote last year when she was faced with the task of getting herself registered as a voter. She wanted to simplify the process for other students.

Kewalramani compiled a great deal of matter on the topic and has actively canvassed for the need for citizens to vote at several city colleges. A large number of collegians joined hands with her. It’s while she was looking up information on how to vote that she came across the AGNI website and subsequently got in touch with da Cunha.

Several principals are thrilled with the latest initiative. K C College principal Manju Nichani says she’s excited about the project and wants to ensure that all her students understand the importance of voting.

St Xavier’s College has also held talks for students on the need to vote. “I think there’s been a great mobilisation of young people in the city even before the recent terror attacks. The youth are eager to do something for the country,’’ says Xavier’s principal Fr Frazer Mascarenhas. anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

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

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

He puts his heart and soul to model a picture perfect train

Roana Maria Costa | TNN

Mumbai: He takes a photograph and converts it into a blueprint. Raw material is painstakingly moulded into miniature parts. For hours on end, he crouches over a cluttered work table to build perfect little models of train engines, keeping alive a passion that revved to life nearly 20 years ago.

C L Singh, a section engineer at the tool room at the Parel workshop of the Central Railways, is the proud creator of 38 miniature train engines, including a 1928 rock engine used in steam trains. For Singh, everything starts with a picture.

Perched on a high stool in his home at the Trombay Railway Quarters in Chembur, Singh, who looks relaxed in army pants and a light brown tee, says his workshop is where he finds nirvana. “I was always artistically inclined, and never dreamt of joining the Railways. But my parents passed away when I was six, and I moved from Jhansi to Mumbai to stay with my sister. Her husband worked in the Parel workshop and after I finished my SSC, I joined as an apprentice,’’ says 56-year-old Singh, as he cuts white sheets of tough plastic which will be shaped into windows grills of an electric train engine.

Singh’s workshop—one of the two bedrooms of his flat—is lined with ceiling-high shelves stocked with prototypes in glass boxes bearing the names of the train engine models. “The family accommodates itself in the other room, besides there is always space in the hall,’’ he says. “I have all the tools I require. Some of the materials I use are very fine. I get them from old umbrellas, cycle spares and used fireworks.’’ In the room are a plastic cutting machine used to cut synthetic sheets, bench vices, a hacksaw, a grinding machine, a buffing machines and air compressors used for spray painting. Somewhere in the corner is a black bicycle. “Work ends at 3:45 pm. After that it’s a train from Parel to Kurla, from where I pick up my cycle parked near platform number 9 and peddle home,’’ he says. This practice helps him keep fit, save time and a few rupees.

Friends and colleagues, intrigued by his hobby, are always ready to help with pictures of rare train engines and raw material. A model takes at least a month to finish with a minimum of four hours of work every evening. His wife Usha is a great cook, he says, but when he’s midmodel, not even her food can entice him.

Singh, whose largest replica is a 140-tonne crane that weighs over 10 kg and is six-and-a-half-feet long, has exhibited his work at various railway exhibitions at CST, the Thane Railway Institute and the Lokmanya Tilak Engineering College. He is grateful for the support he has received from his employer. “I started making train engine replicas twenty years ago, after I married Usha and we moved into the Railway quarters. My daughter Deepti and my son Devendra help me out but are not hands on,’’ he says.

Usha enters the room at this point. “I never clean his desk. I sweep the room but never touch the desk since I don’t understand the importance of the small parts lying around,’’ she says. Singh enjoys listening to old Hindi film songs, but when he starts working, the music, like everything else, fades into the background. “I am not a person who enjoys going out. At the end of tiring day, this is where I find solace.’’

All his work is self-funded—as much as 30% of his salary goes into indulging this hobby. He is undeterred by this and the increasing strain on his eyes ever since he had a cataract operation in 1997. He refuses to sell his work. “People approach me but I can never think of selling my work,’’ he says. “Each creation is added to the collection. I never make the same piece twice. Usha never complains, who will she complain too? My family is very supportive.’’

TRAINED HANDS: C L Singh, a section engineer with the Central Railways, works on protoypes of train engines as a hobby.

Workers digging earth find gold coins in Pune

Pune: They literally struck gold but the discovery put them behind bars. While digging the earth for construction of a swimming tank being built by the Pune civic body in the city, three workers halted work as their instrument hit a metal vessel , deputy commissioner of police Anil Kumbhare told reporters on Saturday.

T h e y took it aside and found the jar full of gold coins. According to the police, the site from where the gold was spotted was in the vicinity of the relics of the historical Shanwarwada, the palace of Peshwa rulers of the 18th century.

The workers who tried to sell the historic coins to a goldsmith in Khadki area were arrested along with the shop owner on Friday evening, Kumbhare said. The gold coins numbering 847 and weighing over 3 kg are embossed with words in Persian dating back to 1551-1592, police said. AGENCIES

‘I am addicted to my passion for teaching’

60-Year-Old Lily Sawant Gives Lessons in Maths, English And Moral Science As A Volunteer

Ketan Tanna I TNN

The best way to describe 60-year-old Lily Sawant is that she is a serial volunteer. For the last 38 years, Sawant has been teaching students in Delhi, Aurangabad and Mumbai. When asked why she didn’t opt for teaching as a profession, she giggles. “I am addicted to teaching and not to money.

Mana lagli chand, Govind Govind,” she says, quoting a Tukaram abhang, which translates as, “I got addicted to my passion for teaching.” It all began in 1972, when she joined her research scholar husband at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “During the holidays, especially in the afternoons, many teachers would take a nap and their children would play in the hot sun. One day, I decided that I should make them utilise their time constructively. I had graduated in chemistry and was very fond of maths. So, I devised puzzles and stories to teach them maths and even English,” she says.

When her husband got a job in Aurangabad University, she continued to teach in that town. In 1984, there was a drought in Aurangabad and other parts of Marathwada. The armed forces had advertised for entry-level posts and hundreds of youngsters from peasant families wanted to get in. To do so, they needed to pass an entrance exam and English was compulsory. Sawant was contacted by a colonel who asked if she could help. “All my boys passed. It was a cent per cent result,” she says proudly. “They came to me with a box of pedas and told me that whichever part of the world they ended up in, they would never forget me.”

Sawant moved to Mumbai with her husband in 1988. For the last 10 years, she has been teaching her favourite subjects—mathematics, English and moral science—as a volunteer in different schools. In 1995, when she was teaching science to students at a municipal school, she had to use a projector for a slide display. Her mind started ticking and she wondered how the visually impaired learned their lessons. Curiosity took her to Vikas Shorewalla, a visually challenged person from Charni Road, who taught her the basics of Braille.

A few months later, someone told her that children from a home for the blind were looking for a maths teacher for their board exam. The hitch was that though Sawant had learnt basic Braille, she didn’t know maths Braille, which had its own rules. But she started learning it and taught not only the students of that batch but four other batches as well. “My entire batch passed with good marks. When some of them got jobs, they came to me with gifts. That’s my reward. I don’t need money or a proper job to get satisfaction. Helping people grow and do well in life has its own joy,” she says.

For four years, Sawant has been teaching underprivileged children at the Baljivan Trust in Santa Cruz. She teaches them maths and science in Marathi, English and Hindi. She also trains students in disaster management.

Now that she is 60 and getting on, does she plan to take a break? “Not at all,”she retorts, aghast at the very thought. “I like to teach and I like to talk. If I don’t do both, I will go mad.”
(Lily Sawant can be contacted on 022-26670213)

ON A MISSION: For four years, Sawant has been teaching deprived children at Baljivan Trust in Santa Cruz