The last time S Krishnan saw his 10-year-old brother was on an afternoon in February 1988, when they ventured out to play a game of hide and seek. Twenty eight years later, Krishnan still seeks his little brother, who vanished during the game they played in their East Tambaram neighbourhood in Chennai.

Despite relentlessly sharing and uploading his little brother S Venkatesan’s pictures, Krishnan, who is now based in the US, has been unable to trace him.

Picture for representation only. Photo Credit: Pixabay

Recently, he came across IT professional Vijay Gnanadesikan’s office in Adyar, whose team makes use of their ample repository data of missing children, and tracks them with the help of facial recognition. With the help of social media and several Central and state government websites, the team has been able to put together a bank of photos of almost 3 lakh missing children.

“If you feed in a photo, our software automatically links it to children who look similar in our database,” Vijay told a TNN reporter.

Currently, a closed application called Facetagr has helped track over 100 children across India. There are talks between Vijay’s team and the anti-child trafficking unit in Tamil Nadu along with the directorate of social defence to include facial recognition in its tracking system. The Centre has a public website to register missing children called ‘Khoya Paya’, and ‘Track Child’ through which the police, government and charities can coordinate repatriation.

According to a report by the Track Child portal, between January 2012 and March 2017, 2.5 lakh children have gone missing. This means that on an average, five children disappear every hour. Rummaging through lakhs of photos of missing children is understandably not an easy task. According to Vijay, sometimes the spellings of the child’s name may differ in the lost-and-found database, or the family might not have a picture of the child. In that case, a photo of the missing child’s sibling can also be helpful.

The recently formulated Standard Operating Procedure by the Union ministry of women and child development aims to expand the scope of the search and improve rehabilitation, but it comes with its share of criticism. Vijay’s team has also been trying to track families of about 15,000 trafficked children from Nepal into India. The volunteers there will be given 15 handsets with the app, according to Vijay. Although the app faces several challenges despite its rich repository of data, it definitely speeds up the process thanks to its face recognition software. P M Nair, chair professor and research coordinator on human trafficking at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, also told TOI that the face recognition technology will be a “big boost to trace children.”

Featured image for representation only. Source: Flickr

(Written by Deepika Bhardwaj)

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Rice emerged in India 14,000 years ago and with a single variety. Farmers experimented and amplified the genetic diversity and in the course of the last 10,000 years, there emerged 1,10,000 varieties of rice of which only 6,000 now survive. The diversity was lost after the introduction of the green revolution in 1970 with its emphasis on mono culture and hybrid crops.

For Sheela Balaji, chairperson and Managing Trustee of NGO AIM For Seva, this variety was something she wanted to bring back. So she not only grew these lost gems but also made sure that people could taste them and encourage farmers to grow them once again.

While working in Manjakkudi, a village in the Cauvery Delta region in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu, Sheela would always find herself surrounded by paddy fields. Around that time, she happened to see a farmer spraying pesticide on the crops ruthlessly. She could see the farmer getting exposed to the dangerous pesticide too and tried to explain to him the health hazards. However, the farmer explained her that the rice he grew was a hybrid variety and could not be harvested without the use of chemicals.

This was an eye-opener for Sheela, and she was hell-bent on looking for a solution to the farmers’ concerns. During her many farm visits, Sheela started to learn about the diversity of rice that India once had. She also researched the different nutrients and medicinal values that these rice varieties contained. Being indigenous, these varieties grew well in Indian soil and climatic conditions without any chemical input. She then decided to grow only indigenous varieties in the 40 acres of land that belonged to the NGO.

Sheela also came across a festival of grains called Nel Thiruvizha being organised in one of the villages called Adirangam and started conducting this festival in Manjakkudi in 2013.Through this festival, Sheela met more than 500 farmers each year who helped her get the seeds for the indigenous varieties of rice.

She started with just four varieties of rice and within four years, she has preserved nearly 30 varieties.

“I was sure about one thing right from the beginning, that no chemicals will be used in our farm. We have 43 cows, which are organically fed, and their dung and urine was enough to make excellent manure for the entire 40 acres. The first variety that we grew was Mapillai Champa. The rice is very good to keep our body in balance and is an excellent energy booster,” informs Sheela.

You may also like – How a Farmer From Madhya Pradesh Is Growing 110 Varieties of Rice in Just 2 Acres of Land

After the first festival, more farmers came to know about the success of AIM for Seva’s farm and joined them in the next year’s festival. This year, Sheela took the opportunity to spread awareness among these farmers about the benefits of growing indigenous varieties organically. Many farmers were convinced by these sessions and took up organic farming of indigenous varieties.

“Nearly six farmers converted to organic after the second festival and now I know 9 of them who grow these varieties organically. I know it is just a small drop in the ocean. But then sometimes these drops fill an ocean. It is so satisfactory to see them change,” says Sheela.

However, even after knowing the health benefits and medicinal value of the rice varieties, farmers started growing these varieties only for their consumption and not for selling as there was no demand.

“After the second harvest we were left with so much grain that I started asking people if they want to buy it. But people were used to eating white rice. They did not even know the taste or aroma of these varieties. I understood that just growing them cannot save them forever. Best way to save them is to make people consume them. We need to popularise these varieties. Every individual can do it. Know your indigenous varieties and demand for it. When people will demand, automatically traders will ask the farmers to grow them,” Sheela says.

This idea gave birth to a store, Spirit Of The Earth in the Mylapore area of Chennai. Spirit Of The Earth stocks these varieties of rice for now – Kaatuyaanam, Kalajeera, Karuppu Kauvuni, Kichili Champa, Iluppai Poo Champa, Mapillai Champa, and Thooyamalli.

In a view to retain the essential nutrient value in all varieties of rice, all grains are hand-pounded and semi-polished to retain the husk, which would enhance richness and provide nutrients to the body.

The rice packaging has a line drawn map of Manjakkudi and a paddy stalk on the side, and the sticker has printed details (like rice variety name and if single or double par-boiled). Cooking instructions and health benefits are available in a brochure called Grains of Goodness. There are also trained staff at the store who guide visitors on how they can use the produce.

You may also like – Going Grocery Shopping? These Organic Thelas Ensure That Farmers Get Best Prices Too!

According to Sheela each of these rice varieties has different medicinal and health values. Some of them are as follows –

Kaatuyaanam-

This rice variety is light red in colour. It is mainly cultivated in Tamil Nadu and grows upto over seven feet tall. It has the ability to hide an elephant; hence the crop was given this name. (‘Kaatu’ means forest and ‘Yaanam’ means elephant). The rice is said to keep diabetes and arthritis under control, boost immunity and protect against skin problems.

Kalajeera –

This is an aromatic rice variety. It is also known as the ‘Prince of Rice’ and its informal name is ‘Baby Basmati.’ A darker shade, it looks like cumin seeds. It is believed to increase hemoglobin levels and body metabolism. This fragrant grain is also said to have antispasmodic, stomachic, carminative, hypolipidemic, antibacterial, astringent and sedative properties. Ancient text explains that Kalajeera improves memory and controls diabetes.

Mapillai Champa-

This variety is believed to cure mouth ulcers and even cancer. It is very good for people with diabetes as it lowers blood sugar.This fibrous rice keeps the mind and body alert.

In red rice, the bran layer is rich in polyphenols, anthocyanin and has antioxidant properties. Their zinc and iron content is two to three times higher than what you would get in white rice.

“In 1910 the first rice milling machine came to India and that changed our entire eating habit. Today it is believed that white rice is harmful for our health. But every grain is as good as other, we just have to eat it right. In India, the first thing we give to a baby to start solids is rice and we spread rice at someone’s death too. Rice is so much a part of our culture because our geography and our climatic condition make rice the least allergenic and most nutrient grain. So don’t be afraid of rice. It is the queen of cereals. There is no better cereal in the world than rice if you eat it well,” she concludes.

Spirit of The Earth is located at 3^rd Floor, Srinidhi Apartments, No. 4, Desika Road, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. Phone Number – 91 95000 82142, 91 44 2498 7955 / 2498 7966

You can also mail Sumita at spiritoftheearth2017@gmail.com for more details or follow their Facebook Page.

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A young Indian-origin scientist has developed a device that she hopes will aide women in threatening situations through detection, communication and, ultimately, the prevention of sexual assault.

Manisha Mohan, a student of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has created a wearable sticker-like sensor, which, once attached to a person’s clothes, can sense foul-play and send distress signals at the touch of a button.

The design of the sensor also enables it to detect signs of an assault, including forced de-clothing, even when the victim is unconscious or not in the position to fend off their attacker and send a distress call to relative or friends in time.

Manisha Mohan, who is currently a second-year Master’s student in the Living Mobile group at the MIT Media Lab, has a keen interest in wearable technology for safety, “We don’t need bodyguards; I think we should have the ability to protect ourselves,” she says in her explainer video on MIT official website.

You may also like: In a Country Struggling With Sexual Harassment, These 5 Initiatives Are Fighting Rape Culture

How it works.

The device connects via bluetooth to the wearer’s phone and needs to be registered by downloading an accompanying app. The user enters five emergency contacts for the app to contact in case of distress. The app also alerts emergency services for help.

The device has two settings – passive mode and active mode.

In passive mode, it is assumed that the wearer is conscious and able to manually press the alert button. Once activated, the device sends out a series of loud distress signals, or alarms, alerting people in the vicinity.

In active mode, it is the sensor that detects external threats and steps in to help the wearer by sending an automated SOS call to their family or friends. In such cases, a message is sent to the smartphone to confirm if the act was done with consent. If a response is not received within 30 seconds, a loud alarm sets off for 20 seconds. If no response is received from the wearer, an alert is sent directly to the assigned emergency contact.

When asked what inspired her to create the device, Mohan spoke of her time spent as an engineering student in Chennai, “Female students on campus were not allowed to work beyond certain hours. You were expected to be back in your dorm by 6:30 pm… Instead of asking them to remain indoors, I think we should provide more safety for them,” she said in her video.

You can watch the video here to find out more.

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How often have you thought of leaving the concrete jungle and living in the lap of nature, leading a simple life and having healthy organic meals? That’s exactly what Arul Futnani hoped for when he left his city life to start The Farm, which he has meticulously built over the last decade.

As a child, Arul spent his weekdays at school in the city and weekends at a family farm near Chennai started by his father in 1974. The landscape around the farm changed over the years—in the last two decades, the IT Highway and various residential buildings cropped up nearby. But while others around him took up corporate jobs, Arul wanted to spend his life at his farm.

With the help of his family and business partner Shalini Phillips, Arul opened The Farm for visitors to experience the joys of rustic living and organic farming.

What made them commercialise their farm? Arul says, “It was in the late ’90s when development and commercialisation swept near our place too. It had become difficult for us to make ends meet. Since we were adamant on having and continuing this lifestyle of having our own farm and dairy, I came up with the idea of getting a hospitality business model incorporated with our traditional farm.”

The Farm opened its restaurant and food store, housed within the premises, in 2009. Arul and his team serve and sell fresh organic dishes, most of which is grown or produced in-farm, at the restaurant and the store respectively. From fresh and chemical-free grains to all types of gourds, tomatoes, beans and peas, you will find your daily dose of edibles here.

You might also like: How This Mumbai Couple Juggles Careers With Running an Organic Farm in Rural Maharashtra

Also on over is a variety of cheese, butter, ghee, jams, pickles and even bakery products including breads—most of the things are made at the farm itself! As for those crops that cannot be grown in Chennai’s climate, they are sourced from trusted organic farmers across the country.

Arul gives an example, “One of my employee who works at the restaurant is from Dehradun. Whenever he goes back home, we ask him to get organically grown rajma from Uttarakhand. In fact we are very particular about whom we tie-up with for out-sourcing organic food items at our restaurant.”

Arul and his team at The Farm try to work on a self-sustaining model as far as possible.

Sharing more insights about this, Arul says, “We don’t buy milk from outside nor do we sell milk from our dairy farm; instead we use it to make milk-items including sweets. The ovens used in our restaurant’s kitchen are wood ovens. So the ash from the oven is used as a natural pesticide and for scouring bigger pots.”

They even collect the day’s leftover squeezed lemons, add them in big vessels of water with soapberries and keep this in the warm oven at night. Next morning, the concoction transforms into a detergent-less solution used to wash the cutlery. Cow dung from the dairy farm is added to the fields as manure. Even the restaurant is made up of bricks and has no tiles and the furniture is made from wood procured from the farm.

“During the Chennai flood and cyclone, many trees in our farm got uprooted. Instead of throwing them away, we used their wood to make more furniture. In fact, 70 per cent of the wastage produced on our farm is used for composting and producing natural manure,” he adds.

Over the years, The Farm has also increased the number of animals and poultry on the property. Apart from cows, water buffaloes, goats, chicken and turkeys, The Farm also boasts six beautiful horses—Omega, Foca, Princessa, Chicklet, Spice and Ray.

The Farm has also tied-up with schools in and around Chennai to start hosting educational trips for students.

From educational tours and fun activities for the kids, to peaceful and scenic village vibes for the adults, the property has something to offer for all age groups.

You might also like: How Our Father’s Love for Nature Inspired Us to Ditch City Life & Start a Farmstay in Uttarakhand

Like any other enterprise, the initiative has had its share of struggles in its initial days. “Initially, when I moved here and then started the restaurant and store, people didn’t understand the concept of The Farm,” Arun recalls. “They used to ask ‘why did you leave the city life to live in the farm’ or ‘why are you using wood ovens instead of the normal ones’. In comparison, people today understand and appreciate our efforts in creating an organic farm much more.”

As for their expansion ideas, The Farm plans to come up with pop-up as a tie-up with artisans across the country.

For more information on The Farm, head to their website.

Written by Surabhi R. All images: Facebook

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For 27-year-old Sneha, her pregnancy was a surprisingly smooth ride. But while information, solicited and otherwise, was galore about the trials of childbirth, one aspect was conspicuously absent.

“While everyone prepares you for delivery, labour pains, and even false labour pains, no one ever tells you a thing about breastfeeding. It is assumed that a new mother will take to it naturally,” she exclaims.

For a little over two decades now, the first seven days of August are celebrated as World Breastfeeding Week. During this time, many hospitals conduct seminars and campaigns to create awareness about breastfeeding, and also to shatter the myths associated with it. We spoke to a lactation consultant and psychologist, Rekha Sudarsan, who torched a light on some of the common myths that surround breastfeeding.

Myth #1: Not every woman can produce enough milk.

“Only in cases where the mother has a serious medical condition will she be unable to produce milk,” says Rekha It is assumed that soon after childbirth, the mother’s body is unable to produce a lot of milk. This, coupled with the fact that we often naively associate a baby’s cries with hunger, leads to the flawed deduction that a mother may not be producing enough milk.

Emphasising on the fact that a new mother must be given all the support and help she need, Rekha says, “We forget that a new mother goes through so many hormonal, physical, and emotional changes. We overlook all that and expect her to become a responsible within minutes of delivering the baby. And the responsibility begins with breastfeeding.”

Myth #2: You must watch what you eat while you are breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding moms can eat and drink whatever they want. They should not alter their diet unless an issue arises. It is important to remember that babies are just fussy sometimes, and it will pass. Loading her with ‘ghee’, ‘ladoos’, and carbohydrate-rich foods isn’t the best thing to do. Instead, she should be eating protein rich food and enough vegetables. As for drinking water, breast milk compromises of 88% of water and hence there is absolutely no reason why she should be deprived of water. “Keep yourself well hydrated and eat well.”

Myth #3: Breastfeeding causes sagging.

Breastfeeding does not lead to the breast ptosis or sagging. What could lead to ptosis is improper support for the breasts. It is imperative that women wear the right brassiere while nursing the child, and after that too. Researchers from the University of Kentucky found that breastfeeding doesn’t have a significant effect on breast ptosis. Factors that could lead to breast ptosis are the pregnancy itself, body mass index (BMI), and smoking.

Myth #4: A nursing mother should not exercise as it decreases the production of milk

Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr

No, exercising while breastfeeding does not have any impact on the milk production. What it does instead is, release endorphins which make the mother feel good about herself. What you can do is feed the baby before you go out to exercise and about half an hour post workout.The benefits of exercising are far greater. It also alleviates depression symptoms in those with the disorders.

Myth #5: If you have undergone a C-section delivery, breastfeeding is not for you

The answer to this is an emphatic NO. After a C-section, we may delay the process to let the anaesthesia wear off. Even in cases where the mother has had a C-section, we have helped her nurse soon after the delivery with no problem at all. It’s true that it does take a little longer for mothers who deliver via C-section to initiate breastfeeding than those who deliver vaginally. This, however, is nothing to worry about.

Myth #6: Breastfeeding will cause some pain and that is normal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

No, breastfeeding does not cause any pain to the mother. If you are a new breastfeeding mom, you might initially feel a tingling sensation in your breasts while feeding. If it is painful, then it isn’t being done right. Rekha suggests looking at either the latch of the baby or a possible tongue tie issue.

If you are a new mother or know someone who is and needs help with breastfeeding, reach out to lactation consultants who can guide you through this. Rekha also urges all pregnant women to attend ante-natal classes during which discuss various positions and techniques of breastfeeding.

Rekha Sudarsan can be reached at Seethapathy hospital, Chennai. For consultation call – 044-28133014.

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Imagine being able to explore the deepest of oceans and stumbling upon shipwrecks and treasures.

An adventure straight out of a movie, isn’t it?

A team of scientists in Chennai have come up with a preliminary design for a manned submersible that will soon make deep-sea exploration a reality in India.

Designed by the scientists at ESSO-National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), this will be India’s first manned submersible that will reportedly accommodate a three-member crew.

The submersible is expected to delve as deep as 6km into the oceans, which could prove beneficial towards finding precious metals and discovering lesser-known life forms.

Having submitted a proposal and currently awaiting approval from the government, the project is estimated to be operational in a span of five years, with a budget of ₹500 crore.

“Once we get the nod, an expert committee with members from scientific institutions like ISRO, DRDO and IIT will review and fine tune the design,” said Satheesh Shenoi, who is the director of NIOT, reports TOI.

Shenoi explained that the craft, which will be lowered into the sea from a carrier ship, would permit the crew to be underwater for 8 to 10 hours. With a 3.2-diameter titanium sphere where the scientists will lie prostrate, the craft will have a robotic arm equipped to collect marine samples and a glass-viewing panel for the crew.

Currently, one of the major projects undertaken by the Union ministry is the Deep Sea Mission, under which polymetallic nodules and polymetallic sulphides are being probed in certain regions of Indian Ocean in collaboration with the International Seabed Authority.

According to Shenoi, the submersible will be part of the aforementioned mission once it’s ready. He added that the explorations would become simpler with the manned vehicle.

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However, the scientists plan on a dry run before proceeding with the ambitious project. A spherical submersible that can send people up to 500m into the Indian Ocean will be first introduced in the next three years, which will help prepare the scientists for the final mission.

“We are still debating on the material to be used and are looking for companies that can fabricate it here. Once the sphere is ready, we are planning to make other components indigenously. We are in discussions with ISRO too, as many aspects of the vessel are similar to a spacecraft,” Shenoi added.

Once the manned submersible becomes a reality, India will join the group of nations that has been conducting deep-sea exploration programmes. Currently, China, US, Russia, France and Japan are part of the list.

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How many of us follow weather updates everyday? They seem like a mundane feature of the news – a vestigial organ. What if I told you that there is an amateur weatherman – yes, a weatherman – with an almost cult-like following, whose forecasts people follow every day? And what if you learnt that he is not even formally trained, but receives thousands of questions every day about the weather?

Meet 35-year-old Pradeep John, a.k.a the ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’. For the last 7 years, this self-confessed Pluviophile (lover of rain), has been blogging and updating a Facebook page called Tamil Nadu Weatherman.

“In 2010 I started publishing interesting rainfall related information under different titles like ‘Top 20 rainfall stations in India’ and so on,” says Pradeep. Initially, the blog did not get much traction, but this didn’t deter him from posting articles regularly.

Today with over 2 lakh followers on social media, it would not be a stretch to say that this self-taught weatherman’s forecasts are more closely followed than the Met department’s! Pradeep, although untrained in meteorology, does have a degree in Computer Science, and an MBA in Finance.

What Pradeep does via his blog posts and Facebook is not just provide weather information, but also eliminate baseless rumours.

“I have taken on this role very seriously. One of the things I do is dispel rumours that keep floating around about the occurrence of cyclones in Tamil Nadu,” he says.

Some of Pradeep’s posts that were spot on and are indicative of his fan base are listed below:

On August 6, 2017 Pradeep put out this message: Chennai Rain Update – Sea breeze triggered Intense pop up over-head in Chennai. The abundant energy and moisture just made the small clouds intense one. It’s only Central City special. Will stop in 15 mins max.

As his post mentioned, most parts in Chennai received rainfall for only about ten -twenty minutes that day.

Another post made by him assured marathon runners in the city that an impending rain would not ruin the run. It read – Weather Report for Runners of Jawadhu Ultra Run on 6th August 2017. Don’t get fearful by night rains, it will be mostly clear by start of the run.

On 4th June, 2017, as all eyes were glued to the television for the India vs. Pakistan cricket match, many weatherman followers asked him if the rains would play spoilsport. His reply was accurate for the day – Another hot day for Chennai, only light rains are expected during India vs. Pakistan match.

Pradeep Ramakrishnan, a resident of Chennai and a follower of the weatherman’s posts, says, “I started following his posts during the Chennai flood. The biggest USP of the weatherman is the concise manner in which he gives out information. He breaks down the technical jargon for the layman to understand.”

His interest in the weather began as a 12-year old, fascinated by the power of nature, he witnessed his first cyclone in Chennai.

In the year 1996, Chennai, then Madras, received an unprecedented amount of rainfall in June, so much so, that most schools were shut for two whole weeks.

“I had the time of my life watching the rain then. When everyone at home would ask me to come in, and not linger by the window, I just sat there watching the rain in amazement. The sound of the rain calmed me. I knew that this was special,” he says.
He would make deep potholes in his colony so so he could measure the rainfall, and see how fast it filled up. Today, thanks to easy access to better equipment, – even school kids have access to high-end rain gauges, he says.

From 1996 to 2008, Pradeep continued to decode nature and get a better understanding of it. “It was difficult to gather information and clear doubts back then. It was the early-internet era, so I had to rely mostly on newspaper reports,” he says. But improved access to the internet changed the way he worked.

The floods that devastated Chennai in 2015 was a turning point for Pradeep. During this time, the city witnessed its worst rainfall in over 100 years.

In addition to the torrential rains, a reservoir gate was opened causing the Adyar river to overflow, which in turn submerged whole neighbourhoods.

People were in a state of panic and wanted some guidance and information about the expected rainfall. Activity on Pradeep’s Facebook page had reached its peak during this period. From about 1,000 followers on his Facebook page his posts on the predictions of rainfall went viral and almost overnight he had more than 70,000 followers.

In May this year, there was speculation about whether or not cyclone Mora would hit Tamil Nadu. Rumours started doing the rounds. But a post by Pradeep helped calm the storm. ‘First rainy day in Chennai City (Nungambakkam) after 4 months, these rains have nothing to do with Cyclone Mora. Cyclone Mora is going to make landfall tomorrow in Bangladesh and is not going to affect Tamil Nadu in anyway.’

“I remember once I posted something on Facebook, two hours later that same message got forwarded to me via whatsapp by a friend. That is when I realised the reach of social media.” It was this incident that made him realise how effective his posts were. The fact that people were relying on them, gave him a sense of purpose.

When asked how he collates and interprets his data, he says, “I collect it from various sources and make predictions. Essentially I am privy to the same data that is available to the met department. Sometimes they might get exclusive data during cyclones, but it all boils down to how it is interpreted.”

Outside of tracking the weather, he enjoys his work as a Deputy Manager at Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL). His wife, Hannah, and daughter, Laura, play a big part in his love for the weather.

With some trepidation, he tells me about the time he whisked his daughter out in the open, so she could experience a cyclone. “I wanted her to feel the wind, and hear the howls. I was given an earful by many relatives for this but something in me wanted her to experience it,” he says.

With pride he also told me about how Laura loves watching the various patterns that the clouds make.

Mentioning how important it is to have a good support system he says, “Given the volume of messages I receive nowadays, it is my wife who looks through the messages and helps me identify the ones that need an immediate response.”

“The trust that people have placed in me is immense, I cannot let them down,” he says. This ‘rain-chaser’ even plans holidays according to the rain pattern. More power to people like Pradeep!

For more information and to connect with him on Facebook click here.

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In 2014, a classroom in Vidyaniketan School, Chennai, transformed into a fashion show. Nathaniel Seelan divided his students into groups of choreographers, models and designers, and took them through the entire procedure of organising a show. Why bring fashion into the classroom?

After graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Nathaniel spent three years in the fashion industry. As he went from designing clothes to providing brands with creative direction to fashion forecasting, his interest gradually shifted to process design. Mulling over pursuing his masters, Nathaniel decided to try his hand at teaching. “I was taking a break, so I applied for the Fellowship. Because the way I looked at it, teaching was a process too. The plan was to get back to my Masters and design, if I didn’t like teaching. But I fell in love with the work that happens here and the creativity and design that takes place at Teach For India,” he says.

“Design has got a lot to do with problem solving. We are taught to arrive at the best solution given the constraints. At Teach For India, I had a bunch of kids, we had a bunch of problems to solve, and it was all about thinking critically and being creative.”

During the summer break between the two years of his Fellowship, Nathaniel was a resident volunteer at the Sadhana Forest in Auroville. Apart from taking up environmental protection activities at the reserve, the volunteers spent four hours on weekends with children from the local community, practicing a method known as ‘unschooling’.“

The children were given practical, hands-on experience with the environment. Some days they were taught how to grow pineapples or take care of baby rats! We also had sessions to discuss topics like politics, to encourage an exchange of ideas,” explains Nathaniel.

His experiences at Sadhana and in the mainstream education system shaped his current vision of creating a legitimate middle-ground by “taking the quality of alternative education to the scale at which mainstream education is functioning now”. After his Fellowship ended in 2015, Nathaniel spent six months as the Chennai City Coordinator at Youth For Seva, an organisation that mobilises volunteers in health, sanitation, education, environmental protection and women’s rights. “I realised that each sector is massive and has multiple battles to fight.

So I decided, after dabbling in all of them, to focus on education. I felt like we could impact all these other sectors via education,” he says.

In January 2016, he went back to work with Vidyaniketan as an Assistant School Leader, and has been there for the past year and a half. Quite early on in his Fellowship, Nathaniel had begun to see that the education system was “not as much broken as it was lopsided.”

“There were kids in my class who were academically inclined – ones who were good with numbers, or languages, or at memorising stuff; and the system catered to them fairly well. But I felt like there were these other kids, with different skill sets, that the system just refused to see,” he explains.

It was this imbalance that he went back to try and correct. After conducting research, he discovered that talent exists mainly in three pools – academic, artistic and athletic. “The reason academics is taken so seriously is because it is assessed,” he says.

His goal is to move towards a fairer system – one where all three pools could be at par, be assessed, and help spot potential.

This is, of course, a complex task. It was at this time that Nathaniel came across RASA: an organisation in Chennai that works with special-need individuals through theater. He collaborated with RASA to devise an assessment rubric, dividing each pool into further sub-pools. The arts were categorised into music, visual arts, drama, and movement. “With music, for example, we broke it down into rhythm, tempo, form, and other elements. We assessed each aspect to determine the student’s aptitude.”

The school ran this pilot program for the fourth and fifth grades, and explained to the parents that their children would be receiving three report cards that year – one each for academics, athletics, and the arts.

“We wanted the parents to understand that their child shouldn’t end up becoming a mediocre engineer when he/she could’ve become an excellent something-else!” says Nathaniel.

He managed to reschedule the students’ timetables in order to devote more time to arts and athletics. He believes that, “for the system to be truly fair, we have to work towards exposing kids the same or similar amount to arts and athletics as they have been to academics.”

This year the goal of his project, ImpART, is to develop intricate rubrics for each aspect that they focus on, create more transparent assessment procedures, and design a solid arts curriculum in consultation with professionals. Through this initiative, they also aim at providing support to artists who want to teach. Orchestrating such change was not an easy task. “My biggest strength is ideation and planning, and I feel like the Fellowship contributed a lot to it,” says Nathaniel. “My execution was relatively pathetic. I have now come to appreciate the people around me;

I realised that I could not do all of this alone.”

This spirit of collective action is what’s helping Nathaniel and others like him work to give every child an opportunity to shine!

Written by Ananya Damodaran – Communications at Teach For India.

Applications for the 2018-2020 Teach For India Fellowship program are now open. Please visit apply.teachforindia.org to submit your application by September 3rd, 2017.

To learn more about Teach For India, visit www.teachforindia.org.

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This independence day, we ask a group of individuals two simple, yet loaded questions.

• What does it mean to be Indian?
• What does freedom mean to you?

95-year-old Lt. Col. Gangadharan served in both in the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars from the front lines.

“Freedom demands a lot of responsibility. Government interference in an individual’s freedom of speech should be minimal. Free India should try to work towards improving basic infrastructure rather than woo people over through populist schemes.”

Chandra Sankaranarayanan, a former Central government employee, aged 70.

“Being Indian for me is being rooted to culture. I have a great sense of gratitude towards India. For me, the unity in diversity is a truly unique quality. I draw my strength from my culture and traditions. While I believe in my way of life, I also equally I respect that of others’. This respect for differences in thoughts, ideas and faiths, is our country’s biggest positive.”

Sukriti Chauhan, Director – Global Health Strategies, India.

“For me freedom means to live without fear of a person, a thought, and a belief system that is incompatible with mine. For me freedom is being me, and staying rooted in what I grew up fighting for. Freedom is to breathe free, at every step, till my last.”

Sriranjini, a data scientist based in the United States.

“Being Indian to me means being unstoppable. Being Indian means we are likely to be the most persistent and hardworking person in a room. Being Indian means we have a pre-built frugality meter, while also embracing a carpe diem style splurge once in awhile. Being Indian means holding onto and recreating all the memories (including food!) you’ve had of celebrations in India. Being Indian means never forgetting where you came from, while still embracing your adopted country.”

Arundhati Menon, age 5.

“I don’t know about India but the flag is not a toy.”

Ratika Kanwar, a corporate professional and the daughter of a retired army officer and her father, Retd. Col. Rajiv Kanwar.

Service towards the nation to Ratika means, “Pride, commitment, sacrifice, patriotism, courage and above all respect.” Col. Rajiv Kanwar says,  “It has been an honour and privilege to serve this country. This life teaches you many things – turns you from a citizen to someone who values the nation above all else. Teaches you not to take things for granted and value whatever you have.”

Nritu, age 13, and her mother, Upasana Luthra, age 46, the admin of a popular women’s online community based in Gurgaon.

“Freedom to me means acceptance for all to be who they want to be and live how they want to live,” says Nritu. Upasana says, “Freedom means no judging in any way. Neither for your size or shape, nor for your choice of career. Freedom from clichés and so called social norms.”

Madhumitha R, a student of class 12 in Chennai.

“India to me is diversity. It is one place where you find so many kinds of people who all seem to work so well together. Adaptability is another thing that comes to mind when one says India.”

Harish Anand Thilakan, an entrepreneur in the digital tech space.

“Growing up, I never saw much of my parents. Busy professionals, they spent a lot of time travelling and I spent a lot of my time growing up by myself. However, they did arm me with one very strong weapon – “Absolute freedom”. Most importantly, the freedom to make whatever decision I wanted, as long as I’d thought it through and promised to never regret it. Similar freedom was also granted to me by my high school. We were at liberty to decide what’s right and wrong (within boundaries) but never prejudiced beyond reason.

So whether I was deciding what to do with the additional Rs.10 over my Rs.40 auto-rickshaw fare, dropping out of law school to pursue building my business, or breaking norms and taking my mom on a luxury recovery vacation to Dubai after we’d just lost my dad, I did it all with equal ease.

I cannot think of a greater influence that has shaped me than the freedom of responsible decision-making.”

5-year-old Aadi Uberoi, a kindergarten student.

“Whenever I go to another country after some time I start missing India and want to come back. India is my home.”

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In only two years, a town of 5,000 households and 20,000 people has become completely environmentally sustainable and litter-free.

Mahabalipuram, or Mamallapuram as it is also known, is a UNESCO-declared heritage site in Tamil Nadu housing some of South India’s most magnificent temples and other historic monuments of the 7th and 9th centuries. The town is a popular tourist destination attracting thousands of national and international tourists.

It can now add ‘model village for waste management’ to it’s list of attractions as the town has become an example of what can be achieved with a little time and dedication and some simple attitude changes of local residents.

This incredible achievement came about with the help of NGO Hand in Hand India, a Tamil Nadu-based organisation committed to the development of rural areas through a variety of projects. The projects seek to empower people living in rural communities through a ‘bottom-up approach,’ teaching them skills and educating them to become self-sustaining.

General Manager of HiH, V.Parisutham told India Times that it was a long process to convince everyone in the town, and everything including awareness campaigns was built from scratch.

You may also like: How Moving to India Forced Me to Confront My Food Waste Woes and Helped Me Become More Green!

Here’s what exactly went into it.

With the installation of a waste collection and management system managed by HiH’s solid waste management wing, 85% of the town’s waste is segregated at the source, escaping the landfills, and it’s average daily food waste of 3 metric tons is converted into organic manure in the town’s new compost park.

Every household has been given a green coloured bin for biodegradable waste, a black coloured bin for non-biodegradable waste and a white bag for recyclable waste, and a team of educators and ‘green friends’ have been assigned to each household who educate them of the importance of waste segregation and to collect the segregated waste.

As women in the town handle around 80-90% of the waste generated, ‘lady motivators’ have been employed to help connect with these women and allow them to feel more comfortable and willing to be educated.

You may also like: This Goan Village Is Beating Open Defecation With Eco-Friendly Toilets That Turn Waste Into Manure

In association with the Mamallapuram Town Panchayat a bio-methanation plant was installed to efficiently manage bio-degradable waste, especially food waste, generated by the hotels in Mamallapuram. With a daily capacity to handle 500kg to 800kg of food waste, the plant converts food waste into methane before converting it into electricity of up to 10 KW per hour. Currently, the electricity generated is used to light up 30 street lights on the East Coast Road.

The town hopes that other cities around India will adopt the same model and work towards becoming waste-free and self-sustaining.

You can find out more about Hand in Hand India, here.

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The last time S Krishnan saw his 10-year-old brother was on an afternoon in February 1988, when they ventured out to play a game of hide and seek. Twenty eight years later, Krishnan still seeks his little brother, who vanished during the game they played in their East Tambaram neighbourhood in Chennai.

Despite relentlessly sharing and uploading his little brother S Venkatesan’s pictures, Krishnan, who is now based in the US, has been unable to trace him.

Picture for representation only. Photo Credit: Pixabay

Recently, he came across IT professional Vijay Gnanadesikan’s office in Adyar, whose team makes use of their ample repository data of missing children, and tracks them with the help of facial recognition. With the help of social media and several Central and state government websites, the team has been able to put together a bank of photos of almost 3 lakh missing children.

“If you feed in a photo, our software automatically links it to children who look similar in our database,” Vijay told a TNN reporter.

Currently, a closed application called Facetagr has helped track over 100 children across India. There are talks between Vijay’s team and the anti-child trafficking unit in Tamil Nadu along with the directorate of social defence to include facial recognition in its tracking system. The Centre has a public website to register missing children called ‘Khoya Paya’, and ‘Track Child’ through which the police, government and charities can coordinate repatriation.

According to a report by the Track Child portal, between January 2012 and March 2017, 2.5 lakh children have gone missing. This means that on an average, five children disappear every hour. Rummaging through lakhs of photos of missing children is understandably not an easy task. According to Vijay, sometimes the spellings of the child’s name may differ in the lost-and-found database, or the family might not have a picture of the child. In that case, a photo of the missing child’s sibling can also be helpful.

The recently formulated Standard Operating Procedure by the Union ministry of women and child development aims to expand the scope of the search and improve rehabilitation, but it comes with its share of criticism. Vijay’s team has also been trying to track families of about 15,000 trafficked children from Nepal into India. The volunteers there will be given 15 handsets with the app, according to Vijay. Although the app faces several challenges despite its rich repository of data, it definitely speeds up the process thanks to its face recognition software. P M Nair, chair professor and research coordinator on human trafficking at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, also told TOI that the face recognition technology will be a “big boost to trace children.”

Know more about Khoya Paya here.

Featured image for representation only. Source: Flickr

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Rice emerged in India 14,000 years ago and with a single variety. Farmers experimented and amplified the genetic diversity and in the course of the last 10,000 years, there emerged 1,10,000 varieties of rice of which only 6,000 now survive. The diversity was lost after the introduction of the green revolution in 1970 with its emphasis on mono culture and hybrid crops.

For Sheela Balaji, chairperson and Managing Trustee of NGO AIM For Seva, this variety was something she wanted to bring back. So she not only grew these lost gems but also made sure that people could taste them and encourage farmers to grow them once again.

While working in Manjakkudi, a village in the Cauvery Delta region in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu, Sheela would always find herself surrounded by paddy fields. Around that time, she happened to see a farmer spraying pesticide on the crops ruthlessly. She could see the farmer getting exposed to the dangerous pesticide too and tried to explain to him the health hazards. However, the farmer explained her that the rice he grew was a hybrid variety and could not be harvested without the use of chemicals.

This was an eye-opener for Sheela, and she was hell-bent on looking for a solution to the farmers’ concerns. During her many farm visits, Sheela started to learn about the diversity of rice that India once had. She also researched the different nutrients and medicinal values that these rice varieties contained. Being indigenous, these varieties grew well in Indian soil and climatic conditions without any chemical input. She then decided to grow only indigenous varieties in the 40 acres of land that belonged to the NGO.

Sheela also came across a festival of grains called Nel Thiruvizha being organised in one of the villages called Adirangam and started conducting this festival in Manjakkudi in 2013.Through this festival, Sheela met more than 500 farmers each year who helped her get the seeds for the indigenous varieties of rice.

She started with just four varieties of rice and within four years, she has preserved nearly 30 varieties.

“I was sure about one thing right from the beginning, that no chemicals will be used in our farm. We have 43 cows, which are organically fed, and their dung and urine was enough to make excellent manure for the entire 40 acres. The first variety that we grew was Mapillai Champa. The rice is very good to keep our body in balance and is an excellent energy booster,” informs Sheela.

You may also like – How a Farmer From Madhya Pradesh Is Growing 110 Varieties of Rice in Just 2 Acres of Land

After the first festival, more farmers came to know about the success of AIM for Seva’s farm and joined them in the next year’s festival. This year, Sheela took the opportunity to spread awareness among these farmers about the benefits of growing indigenous varieties organically. Many farmers were convinced by these sessions and took up organic farming of indigenous varieties.

“Nearly six farmers converted to organic after the second festival and now I know 9 of them who grow these varieties organically. I know it is just a small drop in the ocean. But then sometimes these drops fill an ocean. It is so satisfactory to see them change,” says Sheela.

However, even after knowing the health benefits and medicinal value of the rice varieties, farmers started growing these varieties only for their consumption and not for selling as there was no demand.

“After the second harvest we were left with so much grain that I started asking people if they want to buy it. But people were used to eating white rice. They did not even know the taste or aroma of these varieties. I understood that just growing them cannot save them forever. Best way to save them is to make people consume them. We need to popularise these varieties. Every individual can do it. Know your indigenous varieties and demand for it. When people will demand, automatically traders will ask the farmers to grow them,” Sheela says.

This idea gave birth to a store, Spirit Of The Earth in the Mylapore area of Chennai. Spirit Of The Earth stocks these varieties of rice for now – Kaatuyaanam, Kalajeera, Karuppu Kauvuni, Kichili Champa, Iluppai Poo Champa, Mapillai Champa, and Thooyamalli.

In a view to retain the essential nutrient value in all varieties of rice, all grains are hand-pounded and semi-polished to retain the husk, which would enhance richness and provide nutrients to the body.

The rice packaging has a line drawn map of Manjakkudi and a paddy stalk on the side, and the sticker has printed details (like rice variety name and if single or double par-boiled). Cooking instructions and health benefits are available in a brochure called Grains of Goodness. There are also trained staff at the store who guide visitors on how they can use the produce.

You may also like – Going Grocery Shopping? These Organic Thelas Ensure That Farmers Get Best Prices Too!

According to Sheela each of these rice varieties has different medicinal and health values. Some of them are as follows –

Kaatuyaanam-

This rice variety is light red in colour. It is mainly cultivated in Tamil Nadu and grows upto over seven feet tall. It has the ability to hide an elephant; hence the crop was given this name. (‘Kaatu’ means forest and ‘Yaanam’ means elephant). The rice is said to keep diabetes and arthritis under control, boost immunity and protect against skin problems.

Kalajeera –

This is an aromatic rice variety. It is also known as the ‘Prince of Rice’ and its informal name is ‘Baby Basmati.’ A darker shade, it looks like cumin seeds. It is believed to increase hemoglobin levels and body metabolism. This fragrant grain is also said to have antispasmodic, stomachic, carminative, hypolipidemic, antibacterial, astringent and sedative properties. Ancient text explains that Kalajeera improves memory and controls diabetes.

Mapillai Champa-

This variety is believed to cure mouth ulcers and even cancer. It is very good for people with diabetes as it lowers blood sugar.This fibrous rice keeps the mind and body alert.

In red rice, the bran layer is rich in polyphenols, anthocyanin and has antioxidant properties. Their zinc and iron content is two to three times higher than what you would get in white rice.

“In 1910 the first rice milling machine came to India and that changed our entire eating habit. Today it is believed that white rice is harmful for our health. But every grain is as good as other, we just have to eat it right. In India, the first thing we give to a baby to start solids is rice and we spread rice at someone’s death too. Rice is so much a part of our culture because our geography and our climatic condition make rice the least allergenic and most nutrient grain. So don’t be afraid of rice. It is the queen of cereals. There is no better cereal in the world than rice if you eat it well,” she concludes.

Spirit of The Earth is located at 3^rd Floor, Srinidhi Apartments, No. 4, Desika Road, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. Phone Number – 91 95000 82142, 91 44 2498 7955 / 2498 7966

You can also mail Sumita at spiritoftheearth2017@gmail.com for more details or follow their Facebook Page.

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For 27-year-old Sneha, her pregnancy was a surprisingly smooth ride. But while information, solicited and otherwise, was galore about the trials of childbirth, one aspect was conspicuously absent.

“While everyone prepares you for delivery, labour pains, and even false labour pains, no one ever tells you a thing about breastfeeding. It is assumed that a new mother will take to it naturally,” she exclaims.

For a little over two decades now, the first seven days of August are celebrated as World Breastfeeding Week. During this time, many hospitals conduct seminars and campaigns to create awareness about breastfeeding, and also to shatter the myths associated with it. We spoke to a lactation consultant and psychologist, Rekha Sudarsan, who torched a light on some of the common myths that surround breastfeeding.

Myth #1: Not every woman can produce enough milk.

“Only in cases where the mother has a serious medical condition will she be unable to produce milk,” says Rekha It is assumed that soon after childbirth, the mother’s body is unable to produce a lot of milk. This, coupled with the fact that we often naively associate a baby’s cries with hunger, leads to the flawed deduction that a mother may not be producing enough milk.

Emphasising on the fact that a new mother must be given all the support and help she need, Rekha says, “We forget that a new mother goes through so many hormonal, physical, and emotional changes. We overlook all that and expect her to become a responsible within minutes of delivering the baby. And the responsibility begins with breastfeeding.”

Myth #2: You must watch what you eat while you are breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding moms can eat and drink whatever they want. They should not alter their diet unless an issue arises. It is important to remember that babies are just fussy sometimes, and it will pass. Loading her with ‘ghee’, ‘ladoos’, and carbohydrate-rich foods isn’t the best thing to do. Instead, she should be eating protein rich food and enough vegetables. As for drinking water, breast milk compromises of 88% of water and hence there is absolutely no reason why she should be deprived of water. “Keep yourself well hydrated and eat well.”

Myth #3: Breastfeeding causes sagging.

Breastfeeding does not lead to the breast ptosis or sagging. What could lead to ptosis is improper support for the breasts. It is imperative that women wear the right brassiere while nursing the child, and after that too. Researchers from the University of Kentucky found that breastfeeding doesn’t have a significant effect on breast ptosis. Factors that could lead to breast ptosis are the pregnancy itself, body mass index (BMI), and smoking.

Myth #4: A nursing mother should not exercise as it decreases the production of milk

Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr

No, exercising while breastfeeding does not have any impact on the milk production. What it does instead is, release endorphins which make the mother feel good about herself. What you can do is feed the baby before you go out to exercise and about half an hour post workout.The benefits of exercising are far greater. It also alleviates depression symptoms in those with the disorders.

Myth #5: If you have undergone a C-section delivery, breastfeeding is not for you

The answer to this is an emphatic NO. After a C-section, we may delay the process to let the anaesthesia wear off. Even in cases where the mother has had a C-section, we have helped her nurse soon after the delivery with no problem at all. It’s true that it does take a little longer for mothers who deliver via C-section to initiate breastfeeding than those who deliver vaginally. This, however, is nothing to worry about.

Myth #6: Breastfeeding will cause some pain and that is normal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

No, breastfeeding does not cause any pain to the mother. If you are a new breastfeeding mom, you might initially feel a tingling sensation in your breasts while feeding. If it is painful, then it isn’t being done right. Rekha suggests looking at either the latch of the baby or a possible tongue tie issue.

If you are a new mother or know someone who is and needs help with breastfeeding, reach out to lactation consultants who can guide you through this. Rekha also urges all pregnant women to attend ante-natal classes during which discuss various positions and techniques of breastfeeding.

Rekha Sudarsan can be reached at Seethapathy hospital, Chennai. For consultation call – 044-28133014.

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Imagine being able to explore the deepest of oceans and stumbling upon shipwrecks and treasures.

An adventure straight out of a movie, isn’t it?

A team of scientists in Chennai have come up with a preliminary design for a manned submersible that will soon make deep-sea exploration a reality in India.

Designed by the scientists at ESSO-National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), this will be India’s first manned submersible that will reportedly accommodate a three-member crew.

The submersible is expected to delve as deep as 6km into the oceans, which could prove beneficial towards finding precious metals and discovering lesser-known life forms.

Having submitted a proposal and currently awaiting approval from the government, the project is estimated to be operational in a span of five years, with a budget of ₹500 crore.

“Once we get the nod, an expert committee with members from scientific institutions like ISRO, DRDO and IIT will review and fine tune the design,” said Satheesh Shenoi, who is the director of NIOT, reports TOI.

Shenoi explained that the craft, which will be lowered into the sea from a carrier ship, would permit the crew to be underwater for 8 to 10 hours. With a 3.2-diameter titanium sphere where the scientists will lie prostrate, the craft will have a robotic arm equipped to collect marine samples and a glass-viewing panel for the crew.

Currently, one of the major projects undertaken by the Union ministry is the Deep Sea Mission, under which polymetallic nodules and polymetallic sulphides are being probed in certain regions of Indian Ocean in collaboration with the International Seabed Authority.

According to Shenoi, the submersible will be part of the aforementioned mission once it’s ready. He added that the explorations would become simpler with the manned vehicle.

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However, the scientists plan on a dry run before proceeding with the ambitious project. A spherical submersible that can send people up to 500m into the Indian Ocean will be first introduced in the next three years, which will help prepare the scientists for the final mission.

“We are still debating on the material to be used and are looking for companies that can fabricate it here. Once the sphere is ready, we are planning to make other components indigenously. We are in discussions with ISRO too, as many aspects of the vessel are similar to a spacecraft,” Shenoi added.

Once the manned submersible becomes a reality, India will join the group of nations that has been conducting deep-sea exploration programmes. Currently, China, US, Russia, France and Japan are part of the list.

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How many of us follow weather updates everyday? They seem like a mundane feature of the news – a vestigial organ. What if I told you that there is an amateur weatherman – yes, a weatherman – with an almost cult-like following, whose forecasts people follow every day? And what if you learnt that he is not even formally trained, but receives thousands of questions every day about the weather?

Meet 35-year-old Pradeep John, a.k.a the ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’. For the last 7 years, this self-confessed Pluviophile (lover of rain), has been blogging and updating a Facebook page called Tamil Nadu Weatherman.

“In 2010 I started publishing interesting rainfall related information under different titles like ‘Top 20 rainfall stations in India’ and so on,” says Pradeep. Initially, the blog did not get much traction, but this didn’t deter him from posting articles regularly.

Today with over 2 lakh followers on social media, it would not be a stretch to say that this self-taught weatherman’s forecasts are more closely followed than the Met department’s! Pradeep, although untrained in meteorology, does have a degree in Computer Science, and an MBA in Finance.

What Pradeep does via his blog posts and Facebook is not just provide weather information, but also eliminate baseless rumours.

“I have taken on this role very seriously. One of the things I do is dispel rumours that keep floating around about the occurrence of cyclones in Tamil Nadu,” he says.

Some of Pradeep’s posts that were spot on and are indicative of his fan base are listed below:

On August 6, 2017 Pradeep put out this message: Chennai Rain Update – Sea breeze triggered Intense pop up over-head in Chennai. The abundant energy and moisture just made the small clouds intense one. It’s only Central City special. Will stop in 15 mins max.

As his post mentioned, most parts in Chennai received rainfall for only about ten -twenty minutes that day.

Another post made by him assured marathon runners in the city that an impending rain would not ruin the run. It read – Weather Report for Runners of Jawadhu Ultra Run on 6th August 2017. Don’t get fearful by night rains, it will be mostly clear by start of the run.

On 4th June, 2017, as all eyes were glued to the television for the India vs. Pakistan cricket match, many weatherman followers asked him if the rains would play spoilsport. His reply was accurate for the day – Another hot day for Chennai, only light rains are expected during India vs. Pakistan match.

Pradeep Ramakrishnan, a resident of Chennai and a follower of the weatherman’s posts, says, “I started following his posts during the Chennai flood. The biggest USP of the weatherman is the concise manner in which he gives out information. He breaks down the technical jargon for the layman to understand.”

His interest in the weather began as a 12-year old, fascinated by the power of nature, he witnessed his first cyclone in Chennai.

In the year 1996, Chennai, then Madras, received an unprecedented amount of rainfall in June, so much so, that most schools were shut for two whole weeks.

“I had the time of my life watching the rain then. When everyone at home would ask me to come in, and not linger by the window, I just sat there watching the rain in amazement. The sound of the rain calmed me. I knew that this was special,” he says.
He would make deep potholes in his colony so so he could measure the rainfall, and see how fast it filled up. Today, thanks to easy access to better equipment, – even school kids have access to high-end rain gauges, he says.

From 1996 to 2008, Pradeep continued to decode nature and get a better understanding of it. “It was difficult to gather information and clear doubts back then. It was the early-internet era, so I had to rely mostly on newspaper reports,” he says. But improved access to the internet changed the way he worked.

The floods that devastated Chennai in 2015 was a turning point for Pradeep. During this time, the city witnessed its worst rainfall in over 100 years.

In addition to the torrential rains, a reservoir gate was opened causing the Adyar river to overflow, which in turn submerged whole neighbourhoods.

People were in a state of panic and wanted some guidance and information about the expected rainfall. Activity on Pradeep’s Facebook page had reached its peak during this period. From about 1,000 followers on his Facebook page his posts on the predictions of rainfall went viral and almost overnight he had more than 70,000 followers.

In May this year, there was speculation about whether or not cyclone Mora would hit Tamil Nadu. Rumours started doing the rounds. But a post by Pradeep helped calm the storm. ‘First rainy day in Chennai City (Nungambakkam) after 4 months, these rains have nothing to do with Cyclone Mora. Cyclone Mora is going to make landfall tomorrow in Bangladesh and is not going to affect Tamil Nadu in anyway.’

“I remember once I posted something on Facebook, two hours later that same message got forwarded to me via whatsapp by a friend. That is when I realised the reach of social media.” It was this incident that made him realise how effective his posts were. The fact that people were relying on them, gave him a sense of purpose.

When asked how he collates and interprets his data, he says, “I collect it from various sources and make predictions. Essentially I am privy to the same data that is available to the met department. Sometimes they might get exclusive data during cyclones, but it all boils down to how it is interpreted.”

Outside of tracking the weather, he enjoys his work as a Deputy Manager at Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL). His wife, Hannah, and daughter, Laura, play a big part in his love for the weather.

With some trepidation, he tells me about the time he whisked his daughter out in the open, so she could experience a cyclone. “I wanted her to feel the wind, and hear the howls. I was given an earful by many relatives for this but something in me wanted her to experience it,” he says.

With pride he also told me about how Laura loves watching the various patterns that the clouds make.

Mentioning how important it is to have a good support system he says, “Given the volume of messages I receive nowadays, it is my wife who looks through the messages and helps me identify the ones that need an immediate response.”

“The trust that people have placed in me is immense, I cannot let them down,” he says. This ‘rain-chaser’ even plans holidays according to the rain pattern. More power to people like Pradeep!

For more information and to connect with him on Facebook click here.

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In 2014, a classroom in Vidyaniketan School, Chennai, transformed into a fashion show. Nathaniel Seelan divided his students into groups of choreographers, models and designers, and took them through the entire procedure of organising a show. Why bring fashion into the classroom?

After graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Nathaniel spent three years in the fashion industry. As he went from designing clothes to providing brands with creative direction to fashion forecasting, his interest gradually shifted to process design. Mulling over pursuing his masters, Nathaniel decided to try his hand at teaching. “I was taking a break, so I applied for the Fellowship. Because the way I looked at it, teaching was a process too. The plan was to get back to my Masters and design, if I didn’t like teaching. But I fell in love with the work that happens here and the creativity and design that takes place at Teach For India,” he says.

“Design has got a lot to do with problem solving. We are taught to arrive at the best solution given the constraints. At Teach For India, I had a bunch of kids, we had a bunch of problems to solve, and it was all about thinking critically and being creative.”

During the summer break between the two years of his Fellowship, Nathaniel was a resident volunteer at the Sadhana Forest in Auroville. Apart from taking up environmental protection activities at the reserve, the volunteers spent four hours on weekends with children from the local community, practicing a method known as ‘unschooling’.“

The children were given practical, hands-on experience with the environment. Some days they were taught how to grow pineapples or take care of baby rats! We also had sessions to discuss topics like politics, to encourage an exchange of ideas,” explains Nathaniel.

His experiences at Sadhana and in the mainstream education system shaped his current vision of creating a legitimate middle-ground by “taking the quality of alternative education to the scale at which mainstream education is functioning now”. After his Fellowship ended in 2015, Nathaniel spent six months as the Chennai City Coordinator at Youth For Seva, an organisation that mobilises volunteers in health, sanitation, education, environmental protection and women’s rights. “I realised that each sector is massive and has multiple battles to fight.

So I decided, after dabbling in all of them, to focus on education. I felt like we could impact all these other sectors via education,” he says.

In January 2016, he went back to work with Vidyaniketan as an Assistant School Leader, and has been there for the past year and a half. Quite early on in his Fellowship, Nathaniel had begun to see that the education system was “not as much broken as it was lopsided.”

“There were kids in my class who were academically inclined – ones who were good with numbers, or languages, or at memorising stuff; and the system catered to them fairly well. But I felt like there were these other kids, with different skill sets, that the system just refused to see,” he explains.

It was this imbalance that he went back to try and correct. After conducting research, he discovered that talent exists mainly in three pools – academic, artistic and athletic. “The reason academics is taken so seriously is because it is assessed,” he says.

His goal is to move towards a fairer system – one where all three pools could be at par, be assessed, and help spot potential.

This is, of course, a complex task. It was at this time that Nathaniel came across RASA: an organisation in Chennai that works with special-need individuals through theater. He collaborated with RASA to devise an assessment rubric, dividing each pool into further sub-pools. The arts were categorised into music, visual arts, drama, and movement. “With music, for example, we broke it down into rhythm, tempo, form, and other elements. We assessed each aspect to determine the student’s aptitude.”

The school ran this pilot program for the fourth and fifth grades, and explained to the parents that their children would be receiving three report cards that year – one each for academics, athletics, and the arts.

“We wanted the parents to understand that their child shouldn’t end up becoming a mediocre engineer when he/she could’ve become an excellent something-else!” says Nathaniel.

He managed to reschedule the students’ timetables in order to devote more time to arts and athletics. He believes that, “for the system to be truly fair, we have to work towards exposing kids the same or similar amount to arts and athletics as they have been to academics.”

This year the goal of his project, ImpART, is to develop intricate rubrics for each aspect that they focus on, create more transparent assessment procedures, and design a solid arts curriculum in consultation with professionals. Through this initiative, they also aim at providing support to artists who want to teach. Orchestrating such change was not an easy task. “My biggest strength is ideation and planning, and I feel like the Fellowship contributed a lot to it,” says Nathaniel. “My execution was relatively pathetic. I have now come to appreciate the people around me;

I realised that I could not do all of this alone.”

This spirit of collective action is what’s helping Nathaniel and others like him work to give every child an opportunity to shine!

Written by Ananya Damodaran – Communications at Teach For India.

Applications for the 2018-2020 Teach For India Fellowship program are now open. Please visit apply.teachforindia.org to submit your application by September 3rd, 2017.

To learn more about Teach For India, visit www.teachforindia.org.

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This independence day, we ask a group of individuals two simple, yet loaded questions.

• What does it mean to be Indian?
• What does freedom mean to you?

95-year-old Lt. Col. Gangadharan served in both in the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars from the front lines.

“Freedom demands a lot of responsibility. Government interference in an individual’s freedom of speech should be minimal. Free India should try to work towards improving basic infrastructure rather than woo people over through populist schemes.”

Chandra Sankaranarayanan, a former Central government employee, aged 70.

“Being Indian for me is being rooted to culture. I have a great sense of gratitude towards India. For me, the unity in diversity is a truly unique quality. I draw my strength from my culture and traditions. While I believe in my way of life, I also equally I respect that of others’. This respect for differences in thoughts, ideas and faiths, is our country’s biggest positive.”

Sukriti Chauhan, Director – Global Health Strategies, India.

“For me freedom means to live without fear of a person, a thought, and a belief system that is incompatible with mine. For me freedom is being me, and staying rooted in what I grew up fighting for. Freedom is to breathe free, at every step, till my last.”

Sriranjini, a data scientist based in the United States.

“Being Indian to me means being unstoppable. Being Indian means we are likely to be the most persistent and hardworking person in a room. Being Indian means we have a pre-built frugality meter, while also embracing a carpe diem style splurge once in awhile. Being Indian means holding onto and recreating all the memories (including food!) you’ve had of celebrations in India. Being Indian means never forgetting where you came from, while still embracing your adopted country.”

Arundhati Menon, age 5.

“I don’t know about India but the flag is not a toy.”

Ratika Kanwar, a corporate professional and the daughter of a retired army officer and her father, Retd. Col. Rajiv Kanwar.

Service towards the nation to Ratika means, “Pride, commitment, sacrifice, patriotism, courage and above all respect.” Col. Rajiv Kanwar says,  “It has been an honour and privilege to serve this country. This life teaches you many things – turns you from a citizen to someone who values the nation above all else. Teaches you not to take things for granted and value whatever you have.”

Nritu, age 13, and her mother, Upasana Luthra, age 46, the admin of a popular women’s online community based in Gurgaon.

“Freedom to me means acceptance for all to be who they want to be and live how they want to live,” says Nritu. Upasana says, “Freedom means no judging in any way. Neither for your size or shape, nor for your choice of career. Freedom from clichés and so called social norms.”

Madhumitha R, a student of class 12 in Chennai.

“India to me is diversity. It is one place where you find so many kinds of people who all seem to work so well together. Adaptability is another thing that comes to mind when one says India.”

Harish Anand Thilakan, an entrepreneur in the digital tech space.

“Growing up, I never saw much of my parents. Busy professionals, they spent a lot of time travelling and I spent a lot of my time growing up by myself. However, they did arm me with one very strong weapon – “Absolute freedom”. Most importantly, the freedom to make whatever decision I wanted, as long as I’d thought it through and promised to never regret it. Similar freedom was also granted to me by my high school. We were at liberty to decide what’s right and wrong (within boundaries) but never prejudiced beyond reason.

So whether I was deciding what to do with the additional Rs.10 over my Rs.40 auto-rickshaw fare, dropping out of law school to pursue building my business, or breaking norms and taking my mom on a luxury recovery vacation to Dubai after we’d just lost my dad, I did it all with equal ease.

I cannot think of a greater influence that has shaped me than the freedom of responsible decision-making.”

5-year-old Aadi Uberoi, a kindergarten student.

“Whenever I go to another country after some time I start missing India and want to come back. India is my home.”

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What is a security deposit?

A sum of money that a tenant pays to the landlord, which provides monetary security to the landlord, in case of damage to the apartment or failure by the tenant to comply with the agreement (such as moving out before the lease ends). This sum of money is then returned at the end of the lease, minus any deductions for repairs, to the tenant.

Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong – it is quite a controversial topic, and the innocuous security deposit morphs into various forms depending on the location, the kind of landlord, who the tenant is.

Now picture this – Shreya Ramakrishnan (name changed), moved to Bengaluru earlier this year to begin her very first job. The excitement of moving to a new city, staying in her own house, and doing it all up was very high.

She spent the first week looking for accommodation and by the end of the week was not just disappointed but frustrated at the amount of security deposit each landlord was demanding from her.

Ultimately because of not being able to afford the 10 months security deposit, she decided to stay as a paying guest in a house already occupied by three other working women. Not what she imagined, but this is what she could afford given the situation in Bengaluru.

Demanding a change in this system and wanting to standardise security deposits is Waseem Memon, a resident of Bengaluru and founder of The Drive Without Borders Foundation. He is making a case in favour of standardising the security deposit to be collected by the landlords – fixing it at 1 – 3 months.

The Government had mooted the concept of a Model Residential Tenancy Act in 2011, in which the idea of capping Security Deposits was introduced. It has been over 6 years now, to no avail.

In my conversation with Waseem, he mentioned how Bengaluru has a large population coming in from various cities and the high charges of security deposits make it rather difficult for young working professionals to find good accommodation. The norms pertaining to security deposit varies from city to city.

While in Delhi, landlords charge three to six months rent as security deposit, in southern cities of Bengaluru and Chennai, ten months rent, as the deposit is the general unwritten rule.

Waseem says, “For a landlord leasing his house, if he is able to get 10 months rent as security deposit and there is no law which prohibits him from charging it then why will he not? It is a tax-free deposit after all. Therefore, it is the need of the hour for intervention from the government to regularize this.”

Hema Chordia, one of the promoters of Shanti Builders in Chennai says, “ We usually lease out our properties to corporates who do not shy away from paying between 6 to 10 months rent as security deposit. We have a few individual leases, where we are fine with reducing it after mutual discussion. As the name suggests, the amount is taken just as a precautionary measure. We have had cases where the tenant just refused to pay maintenance or even rent sometimes, so we need to have a safety net.”

While there are views from both sides of the argument, a direction or a regulation from the Government would do a world of good to rationalize and standardize this practice.

Schemes of events:

2011 – The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation had drafted a Model Residential Tenancy Act, 2011 to all State governments to “debate, discuss, to hold consultations and implement it” in keeping with the states’ requirements. The Act had touched upon the issue of making it unlawful for a landlord to charge more than three months’ rent as security deposit.

2015 – A draft Model Tenancy Act 2015 was issued by the Union government and circulated to the state government for consideration. But till date, there has been no action from the state government.

August 16th 2015 – A representation was sent by Waseem to Chief Secretary of Karnataka to regulate rental deposits. The Chief Secretary forwarded the representation to the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore to consider the case. However, despite several follow-ups, nothing came out of it.

February 18th 2017 – A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Karnataka High Court. During the hearing, the Additional Advocate General brought to the notice of the petitioner that Secretary of Housing should also have been sent the representation.

March 7th 2017 – The PIL was dismissed with an order asking the Petitioner to send a detailed representation to the Secretary of Housing.

If you wish to reach him, do e-mail him.

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