Aisa bhi hota hai!

2009-06-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

The man with a green thumb

Ahmedabad: He is a man with a green thumb. Jitendra Patel, an environmentalist known for his penchant for planting trees, is now busy transforming a dry creek into a thickly wooded land replete with fruit and spice-bearing plants.

He has taken up this Herculean task in Derol village in neighbouring Sabarkantha district, about 80 km from Ahmedabad. He has purchased the land to transform it into a nature lover's paradise.

"This new park is coming up on 68 acres of land and rests on a dried-up creek on a riverbed refill and is similar to my Tirupati park," Jitendra Patel, a civil engineer by qualification, told IANS.

Patel had earlier planted more than 200,000 trees in his Tirupati Nature Park in Mehsana district, 100 km from here.

"I believe nature is a kind mother and trees are sacred objects. You respect nature and she will keep you healthy. It is the way our life functions and we must understand at all times that we are part of nature," says Patel.

He is a recipient of the prestigious Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi Vruksha Mitra environmental national award, which carries a cash prize of Rs.50,000.

Born into a farming family and a diploma holder in civil engineering, 47-year-old Patel says, "The main charm of the place lies in its creeks and estuaries. This is where modern man, exhausted as he is from pollution and tension, can enjoy the freshness of nature far from the madding crowd."

"A combined effort of a farmer within and an engineer without helped me design my dream," Patel says.

The park promises to be a refreshing getaway for people from towns like Himmatnagar, Modasa and Disa.

"It won't be long before the area will be agog with the chirping of migratory birds and wildlife - even crocodiles and snakes, if the forest department allows me to bring them here. I am fond of snakes, they are good friends."

Apart from a building, the open areas consist of a nature trail, space for camping, a future botanical field, and recreation and training programmes.

According to Patel, the park has almost all varieties of fruit - bananas, oranges and almonds. There are as many as 150 spice trees and ayurvedic plants commonly found in the Balaram-Ambaji wild sanctuary in north Gujarat and in high altitude areas in northern and southern India.

"I want to plant one million trees here," says an optimistic Patel.

Patel has also built 15 check dams to meet the water needs of the Derol park. Solar energy will be used to run the park.

The park sits on a one-metre deep garbage fill, which is a reclaimed part of the creek. Several projects, including landscaping, a water reservoir and recreation centres are the main attraction of the garden.

"We have more than 200,000 plants to make the park green," said A.K. Patel, a former joint director of agriculture who shoulders the responsibility of the plantation drive jointly with Jitendra Patel.

"Through the collaborative efforts of the National Orchard Board as well as people, the park intends to demonstrate the reversal of pollution and is bent on providing a thickly wooded area," he said.

Inspired by Jitendra Patel's enthusiasm, Banaskantha district official R.J. Patel has now approached him.

"I have invited Jitendra Patel to turn the large tracts of barren areas in Banaskantha into a green belt as he has done elsewhere in Mehsana and Sabarkantha district. I have asked him to plant 10,000 neem trees," R.J. Patel said.

2009-06-09T03:14:00.000-07:00

Music on the streets!

New Delhi: Adheer Ghosh, 20, is very busy like many other Delhi University students who are juggling daylong extra-curricular activities in addition to academics. But there is a distinction in this young guitarist's weekly schedule - a two-hour session when he conducts music workshops for street kids at Shastri Nagar in north Delhi.

Ghosh is a volunteer with Music Basti, an initiative of young musicians of the city to interact at a forum with street and homeless children.

At present these informal interactive workshops are conducted for small boys under the age of 12 at a non-custodian boys hostel at Sarai Basti, supported by NGO YP Foundation.

"I enjoy the sessions, it's an interactive informal forum. Each time I take something back with me," Ghosh, a third year English-honours student at Kirori Mal College, told IANS.

Ghosh is a part of his college music society Musoc and is also member of Five8, a popular youth band.

"The first time I came it was just to watch and the experience of watching these kids bubbling with enthusiasm and asking questions about how an instrument works was an eye-opener," Ghosh admitted.

Since July 2008, when the project began, there have been 12-odd sessions.

"This is the coming together of musicians with a purpose - while the music is competent professional music the audience here is not the usual gig," said Suhail Yusuf Khan, a sarangi (Indian string instrument) player of the Advaita band.

When Khan pulls out his instrument and plays a soothing raga or sargam (pattern of notes), it seems to have a calming effect on the otherwise boisterous kids.

With gleaming eyes and rapt attention they listen, ask questions about the music and how the strumming sounds the way it does - soon they too croon along, singing songs originally composed by Advaita.

Muhammad is an eight-year-old staying at the Uma Pandey children's home run by NGO Aman Biradari. The boy is a regular at the sessions and specially enjoys listening to the sarangi.

"I like it here, I used to roam around in the streets earlier, now I got admission in a school," said the enthusiastic child.

"I like it when they (the young musicians) play. I look forward to it - the music gives a sense of peace of mind," Muhammed told IANS.

Avinash Bhagel, a violinist and member of Musoc, who has helped conduct a couple of the workshops, pointed out: "Their interest is overwhelming. They grasp things quickly and remember - things that often an accomplished musician can't get."

The concept of using music as a forum to interact with underprivileged children is the brainchild of Faith Gonsalves, a student of history at the Lady Sriram College.

"I really love music and wanted to use a different medium to interact the kids," Gonsalves said.

These sessions according to Gonsalves, serve a dual purpose.

"Most NGOs focus on teaching maths, Hindi, English to the children - which too is really commendable. Through these music interactions, the kids can learn music and the sessions are also meant for recreation," Gonsalves said.

The music played at these sessions is not the popular Bollywood jamboree; it is in fact a blend of Indian classical and western music.

Music Basti has a simple process to volunteer for anyone interested. To extend any help - musical and non-musical, one can send an email at musicbasti@gmail.com with personal information and details of how they would like to volunteer or work.

"After talking to them and seeing if they can interact with kids, we accordingly set them up. Any form of volunteering requires commitment, even if it is a one-off thing and the interaction needs to be tailored to the age and interest of the kids," Gonsalves added.

In 2009, Music Basti hopes to conduct workshops in multiple locations in the city. Workshops were on till November 2008 conducted on a bi-monthly basis after which they were suspended for the winter - when many of the student volunteers had exams.

"We hope to conduct workshops at least three times a month in a location. It is a small project; any expansion will be gradual."

The reason is that all the volunteers are mostly college students or working individuals who are doing this part-time.

But the whole lot appears very optimistic and determined.

"It takes just two hours each week - there is no reason not to do it," Adheer said.

"We may not have the logistics to give each kid an instrument on which he can learn, but we do generate a lingering positive interest in a few children," Gonsalves added.

2009-06-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

Ghari baba will make your wishes tick

Nandshri Chawkri (Gujarat) At the shrine of Hazratwala Pir here, one can find hundreds of clocks hanging at any given time - all offerings made by pilgrims after their wishes came true.

People from all communities have been coming to pray at the shrine of the Pir, widely known as Ghari Baba, for more than a century.

"This mazaar (mausoleum) is more than 100 years old. Individuals offer clocks to the Baba once their wishes are fulfilled on time. This has been the tradition here. These clocks indicate the right time of wish fulfilment," Haribhai Patel, one of the trustees, told IANS.

Situated on National Highway 8 between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the shrine attracts attention because clocks of all shapes and sizes adorn its walls.

"Around four to five clocks are offered to the baba every day," Patel said.

Patel and other workers of the mazaar, about 100 km from Ahmedabad, are happy that the shrine is frequented by Hindus and Muslims alike.

"There is no distinction of caste and creed here. Anyone can come and offer flowers and clocks to the Baba," said Patel, a Hindu himself.

The trust gets funds for maintaining the shrine from donations made by devotees and from the annual festival held in December. Abdul Fahim, 48, has been visiting the shrine for the last eight years. A truck driver by profession, he has come all the way from West Bengal to offer a clock to the Baba.

"My wish was fulfilled by Baba and that's why I'm here to offer him a clock," Fahim said.

Khalid, a Vadodara resident, had also come to pray at Ghari Baba's mazaar.

The 30-year-old said he has been coming to the shrine since childhood.

But a worker at the shrine said: "Majority of the people visiting this place are Hindus."

Asked what they did with the hundreds of clocks given by devotees, Patel said: "We give away these clocks to schools. But they have to come with a letter from the school authority."

2009-06-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Kerala village has over 200 pairs of twins

Malappuram: It was a phenomenon that had gone unnoticed for several years, even by the residents. But now a village in Kerala with over 200 twins and a few more on the way is in the limelight.

"None of us was aware of this phenomenon and now many have started thinking of this. There is also a new association for these twins," said Kunju Marikar, president of the Nannambra panchayat (village council) under which comes Kodinhi village that boasts of the record.

Of the 20 wards that fall under the council, Kodinhi has seven wards, each having a population of around 2,000.

"The surprising thing is that this phenomenon does not prevail in other wards of the panchayat," Marikar added.

Following the attention to the village, Pullani Bhaskaran, 51, the father of a pair of twin boys aged 16, formed the Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), exclusively for the parents and the twins.

"We have recently formed an 11-member executive committee and have begun registration of twins. So far we have zeroed in on 230 pairs of twins and we are trying to rope in all the twins irrespective of their age. We feel the number could swell to more than 300 pairs," said Bhaskaran, a contractor.

According to the information collected by TAKA, the 85-year-old Mohammed Haji is the oldest living twin, with his sibling having died a few years ago. The oldest living twins are 65-year-old Pathukutty and Kunji Pathukutty.

The latest pair (both boys) were delivered May 6 by Ramla, 24. TAKA's inquiries have revealed a few more are on the way.

Yusuf, an autorickshaw driver, has three pairs - all girls. His wife delivered the first pair seven years ago and the third pair about three months ago.

"We are happy and my wife and my two tiny girls are hale and hearty," said a pleased Yusuf.

A team consisting of G.R. Chandak from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, and Kaumudi Godbole, of the Centre for Human Growth and Development, Pune, met about a dozen pairs of twins of the village last November and examined their food habits and other factors.

However, the villagers say they have not heard from the team since then.

"We have not heard from them. Now what we are doing is to document the entire details of all the twins. Our preliminary findings show that among the twins, girls lead the pack. The maximum number of twins is in the age group of 5 to 15. Shortly we will come out with all the details," said Bhaskaran.

2009-05-11T03:55:00.000-07:00

A frog that changes colour attracts crowds

Thiruvananthapuram: A frog that changes its colour frequently is drawing crowds to the home of 35-year-old Reji Kumar in the city suburbs here.

Kumar, a lift operator at the city medical college, was startled to find a frog in dazzling white colour while watering his plants in his garden Friday.

"I immediately caught it and put it in a glass bottle. The internal organs of the frog were clearly visible. And I was even more surprised when the white frog soon turned yellow," Kumar told IANS.

But the excitement of Kumar and his family did not end here. They soon found that the frog had turned a grey colour.

"By night, it changed to dark yellow. We are all very excited and surprised. We are willing to hand over the frog to an expert for any sort of studies," said Kumar.

Professor of Zoology at the Kerala University Oommen V. Oommen said that it is common for animals to change colour.

"Frogs do change colour to scare away predators, but what I have heard of the frog at Kumar's place changing colour so frequently is a bit unusual. Anyway I will collect that frog for study," Oommen told IANS.

And now Kumar has a problem. He is trying to feed the frog but does not know what it eats. All his attempts to feed the frog have failed.

2009-02-16T00:30:00.000-08:00

Girl married to dog to ward off evil spirits

Ranchi: A 12-year-old girl was married off to a dog in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur city to ward off evil spirits, a tribal priest said.

Soni, a resident of Ulidih colony in Jamshedpur, around 140 km from here, was wedded to a dog Sunday because she had developed additional teeth, which is considered a bad omen among tribals in the region.

"In a tribal society, if a girl develops additional teeth it is considered a bad omen not only for the girl, but also for her family members and society. To ward off the evil spirit, we get the girl married to a dog," said Naresh Manki, a tribal priest.

"The marriage is solemnised like a normal marriage and a feast is also organised for those who participate in the ceremony," he added.

2009-02-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Hot iron rods pressed on 16-month-old to cure fever

Raipur: A 16-month-old baby in a Chhattisgarh village was shockingly subjected to treatment by hot iron rods, leaving burn marks on his body - all to cure the child of fever and vomiting!

The small boy was given the hot iron rod treatment about 100 times by villagers with the consent of his parents in Surjula village in Jashpur district, some 450 km from here, health officials said Monday.

The villagers who treated 16-month-old Deepak told the family that the baby was possessed by a ghost and the only cure was to press hot iron rods on his body.

The shocking incident took place Saturday and little Deepak has now been admitted to a hospital in the district headquarters of Jashpur Nagar. Doctor there found over 100 burn marks all over the baby's body, said P.K. Singh, block medical officer posted in Jashpur.

"A few villagers brutally subjected the child to hot iron rods to treat his vomiting and fever by freeing him from a ghost. It is inhuman. We have enough health workers in the rural areas but the illiterate villagers still believe in superstitions," Singh told IANS on phone.

2009-02-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

Sene warns against noodle straps, V-day revelry

Hubli, February 4, 2009 (IANS): Undeterred by the hue and cry over the Mangalore pub attack, Sri Rama Sene has said it will continue with its moral policing on February 14 and stop couples from celebrating Valentine's Day.

The right-wing group also urged police to ban Valentine's day celebrations across Karnataka. "Celebrating Valentine's Day is a vulgar culture. We will not allow it. We will attack places where it is celebrated," Sene's state secretary Krishna Gandalekar told reporters here.

Muthalik, granted conditional bail in the pub attack case, also said the Sene would oppose Valentine's Day celebrations. Reports of fresh threats against ‘indecent dressing’ to young women in Mangalore are also doing the rounds.

Local goons are reported to have issued threats to young women to desist from wearing ‘noodle straps’ and ‘tight jeans’ or face action, in the run-up to Valentine’s Day on February 14.

2009-02-04T02:40:00.000-08:00

Patient killed as stretcher breaks
Alappuzha, Feb 01, 2009, PTI: In a state that boasts of quality healthcare services, a 49-year-old man died after the stretcher carrying him broke into pieces, an official said here on Sunday.

Congress legislator from Alappuzha K C Venugopal said Abdul Salam, a casual labourer, died at the state-owned Alappuzha Medical College Hospital. <

"Salam was admitted to the hospital a few days back after he complained of severe chest pain. Today (Sunday) morning his condition worsened, and he was asked to be shifted to the intensive care unit. He was being taken to the ICU when the stretcher broke into pieces. Salam fell and died," he said.

Venugopal added that he has already informed Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and state Health Minister P K Sreemathi about the accident.

"Salam hails from a very poor family. I have asked the state government to extend financial assistance to his family. He did not even have a home of his own," said Venugopal.

As soon as the news of Salam's death spread, angry activists from various political parties turned their ire towards the hospital administration and created unruly scenes at the hospital.

2009-01-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

Villagers celebrate as every home gets a toilet

Purulia (West Bengal), Jan 29 (IANS) The setting up of toilets to end open defecation may be a mundane affair in urban India but it became a cause for celebration in a cluster of villages in Purulia district of West Bengal.

Members of self-help groups and youth clubs gathered here Wednesday to witness the fruits of their labour and celebrate as Matha gram panchayat became the first cluster of villages to end open defecation in the district.

Bilasibala Sahis, the beaming district council chief, proudly declared that Matha Gram Panchayat now has 100 percent toilet coverage.

"By 2010 we will make sure that 50 percent of Purulia's gram panchayats will be open defecation free," she said while addressing a rally attended by a jubilant crowd of over 10,000.

Matha gram panchayat is a predominantly tribal area of Purulia. All 1,929 households in this village cluster live below the poverty line. The primary source of their income is agriculture or farm labour.

Around 124 women self-help groups active in this area have been being prime motivators in the campaign to end open defecation. They closely worked with the local district administration, civil society, elected members of the panchayati raj institutions and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

"The efforts of self help groups here are praiseworthy and this could act as a catalyst to scale up sanitation coverage in the district," Unicef's child environment specialist S.N. Dave told IANS.

"The West Bengal government has already started engaging self help groups to improve sanitation coverage across the state now," he added.

"Purulia is an Unicef intervention district in West Bengal. The state has a high sanitation coverage of 76 percent but some districts like Bankura, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur and South Dinajpur have low levels of sanitation coverage," another Unicef official said.

2007-03-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

Dine with the dead

Ahmedabad, IANS: From the outside, the joint in Ahmedabad’s old city looks hardly the sort of upscale eatery where you would want to have a candle-lit meal.
But the candles and lamps at Lucky Restaurant keep burning right through the morning.
Take a close look and you’ll see it’s not the tables the flames are placed on. They are flickering on graves of the dead flanking the tables —right inside the restaurant — the final resting place of a Sufi family from five centuries ago.
Welcome to Ahmedabad’s “graveyard eatery”, creepy to the squeamish but charming enough for its band of loyal patrons to be coming every day, and haunting enough to inspire the country’s best-known painter.
Breakfast or dinner, whether it’s by the light of the diyas or after they’ve blown out, is perennially romantic at Lucky Restaurant.
At least, it would be if the hubbub would die down for a moment. From five in the morning till it closes at midnight, the joint remains one of the city’s busiest, with most customers affording barely a glance at the 24 graves separating the tables.
Well-off or working class, old or young, they throng the eatery to relish its specialities: tea, south Indian food and the famous maska bun, with a spread of jam over the butter.
Gulambhai, 45, one of the junior partners who runs the eatery, says the average daily turnover is Rs 50,000.
Jitendra Patel, 40, has been coming almost every day here for the last 15 years — from the time Lucky was a small tea shop before the restaurant came up in the late 1990s. The government contractor loves the tea whose standard, he says, has never slipped.
The rates are affordable: Rs 6 for a cup of tea and Rs 9 for the maska bun. What Patel likes best is the joint’s location — in the heart of the city, with the furthest government office hardly a 20-minute drive.
Don’t the graves make him uneasy?
“Actually, I get a feeling that the place is blessed. I do my business meetings and deals here. Gulambhai doesn’t mind even if I keep sitting here for over two hours,” Patel says.
But don’t Muslims feel offended that a cemetery has been turned into a restaurant? Gulambhai takes care that they don’t.
All the graves are maintained impeccably, and railings have been built around them so that no one touches them. Every morning, Gulambhai cleans the graves, lays fresh flowers and lights the diyas — or candles if it’s a religious occasion.
The 16th-century cemetery itself was left unmolested when the walls came around it, leaving only one of the 25 graves outside. The concrete floors were built around the graves, leaving intact the original earth under which the dead lie buried. The tin roof makes room for a tree trunk to jut out towards the sky.
“There is nothing irreligious or objectionable about the restaurant,” says Ashif Kadiwala, a religious preacher and regular visitor. “The owners maintain the graves well; they seem genuinely respectful.”
But Ahmedsahab Alvi, the high priest of the Sajjadnashi of Hazarat Shah Vajihiuddin Alavi Dargah, disagrees: “The very idea of a restaurant in a graveyard is objectionable.”
Although he has never raised any objections, he says, “Islam does not permit it. The graveyard is a sacred place where you are supposed to read the holy Quran and observe solemnity. But here people walk in wearing shoes. It’s disgusting.”
The 25 graves, according to 80-year-old Urdu writer Varis Alvi, are from the period of Sufi saint Shah Vajihiuddin (1504-1589), whom he claims as an ancestor.
Alvi believes the graves are those of Hazrat Sayyed Kabiruddin — a Sufi saint believed to be a distant relative of Vajihiuddin — and his family.
The cemetery, bang opposite the famous Siddi Sayed Mosque in Mirzapur locality, close to where the Sabarmati flows, was once owned by a private trust run by Varis Alvi’s cousin Sayyed Mohmed.
In the early ’50s, Mohmed, struggling to make ends meet, leased a small part of the land adjoining Kabiruddin’s tomb to a Malayalee from Kozhikode, K. Mohammed, to start a small tea shop. Mohammed named it “Lucky”. It lived up to the name.
“It started as a very small kiosk selling paan and tea but it kept growing,” Alvi said. Finally, Mohmed sold the entire land — the graveyard had been unused for centuries — to Mohammed.
“Before he died a few years ago, Mohammed entered into a partnership with a Mumbai-based businessman from Gujarat,” Alvi said. Masulumbhai, from the Chelia community of Gujarati Muslims, is the senior partner in the eatery.
“Initially, people were cagey about eating at a joint with graves in between the tables. But once they got over that, they become regulars,” says Gulambhai.
“I have been coming since I was a student,” says Yashin Sheikh, a 35-year-old transporter. “The tea here has a unique flavour.”
Unique enough to draw Maqbool Fida Husain whenever he is in Ahmedabad. The artist has been visiting Lucky for over five decades, since the time it was a tea stall.
Four years ago, he gifted the restaurant an untitled work of his, which now takes pride of place on the wall.
A local art gallery had offered Gulambhai Rs 55 lakh for the painting, but he said a firm “no”.
“Gifts are not meant to be sold or auctioned, no matter how much money they might fetch,” he says.
Whether they are from the 16th century or the 21st, Gulambhai knows that some things are eternal.