Category Archives: Amazing Feats

Flown by four women pilots, Air India’s longest direct route flight lands in Bengaluru

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Passengers between Bengaluru and San Francisco can now travel seamlessly between these two cities without a stop over at any other palce.

Members of the crew are Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Captain Akansha Sonaware and Captain Shivani Manhas. (Photo | Ashish Krishna,EPS)

Bengaluru :

It marked a glorious moment for flyers when Air India’s Boeing 777-237 Long Range aircraft touched down at the Kempegowda International Airport at 3.07 am on Monday and later taxied to its bay by 3.25 am, a good 20 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

Passengers between Bengaluru and San Francisco can now travel seamlessly between these two cities without a stop over at any other palce.

What makes flight number AI176, the longest flight ever operated by an Indian airline, so special is that it is also an all-women crew. 

The four-member team of Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Akansha Sonaware and Shivani Manhas as well as Captain Nivedita Bhasin, Executive Director, Flight Safety Section, who accompanied were given a round of applause by passengers and visitors to the airport when they emerged out the ‘Arrivals’ gate.

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The New Indian Express@NewIndianXpress

Replying to @NewIndianXpressAir India’s all-women cockpit crew’s first non-stop flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru landed at the Kempegowda International Airport. Express Photos | @ashishhpendse @XpressBengaluru

8:34 AM . Jan 11, 2021 . Twitter Web App

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They had broad smiles on their faces with the joy of their achievement helping them overcome the fatigue of covering a distance of 13, 933 kms between the two cities in nearly 16 hours. Airport staffers also handed them red roses.

Among the first passengers to come out of the terminal was 78-year-old Govinda Naidu and his son Ramana Anugant. “I have waited 20 years for this day. I have brought my 78-year-old father and 67-year-old mother along. They both cannot walk properly and use wheel chairs. We do not have to change over at Delhi or Mumbai. It is such a relief.” 

71-year-old Subramaniam from Malleswaram who paid 1811 dollars for a business seat said, “I got stuck in my daughter’s house in California due to the Covid epidemic for a year now. I finally decided to come home and it is such a relief to have a direct flight like this.”

Agarwal, commander of the flight said, “Today, we created world history by not only flying over the North Pole but also having all women pilots who successfully did it.”

Billing the trip as “a fantastic experience” Aggarwal said that it  challenging to fly over the North Pole. We have to be very careful when we enter the Polar Region and have received training for it. When you come out, it is completely dark.

29-year-old Captain Shivani Manas from J & K said, “I have just four years experience. I feel blessed to be given such an opportunity. This is an unforgettable day in my life.”

At 2.30 pm, the flight from Bengaluru towards San Francisco (AI 175) will depart with an all male crew commanded by CV Madhu. All the 238 seats on it have been booked.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by S Lalitha, Express News Service / January 11th, 2021

‘Soorarai Pottru’: Sky is the limit for Captain GR Gopinath

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From being an Army man to an entrepreneur, Captain Gopinath speaks about his life and the events that inspired the latest Suriya-starrer ‘Soorarai Pottru’.

Air Deccan founder Captain GR Gopinath (L) and Kollywood actor Suriya (Photo | PTI and YouTube Screengrab)

Bengaluru :

Captain Gopinath’s phone has not stopped buzzing with congratulatory messages ever since the release of Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru, which is based on his life and stars actor Suriya in the lead role. However, he still finds fame awkward.

While Gopinath is quite happy with the way the movie has turned out, he tells CE that Girish Karnad was the first person to convince him that his journey should be made into a movie.

“After reading my book Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, he told me, ‘Captain, you have village, army, politics, helicopter, airplane… your story is so visually fascinating. It should be made into a movie’, but I was shy. He later told my wife Bharghavi too that if I am ready to give the rights, he is ready to wear the greasepaint,” laughs Gopinath, as he recalls the conversation that took place in 2017, two years before Karnad passed away.

Even when the film’s director Sudha Kongara approached him to get the rights of his book for a movie, Gopinath was still not sure.

It was when Guneet Monga, the co-producer of the movie, who has critically acclaimed movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, The Lunchbox, Masaan, Period. End of Sentence to his credit, reached out that something changed in Gopinath.

“Guneet Monga said the story held a special place for her because the first flight she ever took was Air Deccan. Then I researched her work and felt it would be good to give the rights of the movie,” says Gopinath, who was well aware that the makers would take creative liberty.

“My concern was that the message should not be lost. While there is masala, there is also meat beneath it. I am happy the message is loud and clear in the film,” emphases the 68-year-old, who shuttles between Bengaluru and his village Gorur in Hassan district, and remains busy with “writing, and mentoring inspiring entrepreneurs”.

Gopinath was also all praises for the makers for portraying the female lead as a “strong support than a subordinate”.

He says it was important to show the female lead playing his wife’s character as someone who had her own dream. “When there is a success story, there is usually a team behind it. My wife is that support for me,” adds Gopinath, whose wife still runs her bakery, Bun World Iyenger Bakery, which currently has four branches in Bengaluru, the oldest being the one in Malleswaram that was opened 25 years ago.

Talking about the scene in which Nedumaaran Rajangam (played by Suriya) asks Bommi (the wife, played by Aparna Balamurali) for financial help, Gopinath says no such thing happened in real life. “It was like a metaphor. Though I never asked for any financial help, she was my strongest support,” says Gopinath.

Thinking of a low-cost airline at a time when flying was still a luxury, he admits, was an audacious step. “One day, I was driving to my village and I came across a computer training centre, which was a new thing. It seemed like a new country, one with hungry consumers, where people had refrigerators and other electronic items displayed in their living rooms,” he says.

“It’s not always hard work and perseverance that brings success, it’s also optimism. It is important that you wake up and believe that things will work out.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Tamil / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 23rd, 2020

Hello, Hollywood

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Still reliving the experience of acting alongside Alec Baldwin in his debut film, B’luru boy Rohan Gurbaxani is now looking forward to three more Hollywood releases.

Bengaluru :

Even after acting alongside big names in Hollywood, Rohan Gurbaxani feels shy when people ask him about what it means to him to be living his Hollywood dream. The Bengaluru boy, after all, has shared screen space with Alec Baldwin, Malin Akerman and Bella Thorne in Chick Fight, the action comedy that was released last week. 

Ask him about acting alongside Baldwin and he says it was a “surreal” feeling, with him soaking the same excitement that any of the star’s fans would have. “This was my first film, and he has done many. But we had this common ground where he also went to NYU and one of his professors taught me too. That was a nice conversation-starter with him. I, of course, observed him a lot, and learnt from him. He was such an approachable person,” says the 23-year-old. 

The newbie is now looking forward to his next film, Knuckledust, which is an action thriller releasing in December. It stars Moe Dunford and Gethin Anthony. The ball doesn’t stop rolling here. In 2021, he has two releases – RED 48, featuring John Malkovich and Tyrese Gibson; and Confession, starring Sarah Hay.  Gurbaxani may be currently living the life many dream of, but for him, acting in Hollywood was never the goal. “My initial dream, since I was in Class 8, was to go to New York.

I still don’t know why I picked the city. I never even participated in plays, but it was just a far-fetched dream,” says Gurbaxani, who has a Bachelors in Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has also trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Stonestreet Studios, and attended the Tisch Stanislavsky and Brecht program in Berlin. 

While he continues to revel in the experience, it was not easy for him to live away from home, “in isolation”. Luckily, he says, by the third month, the shoot for RED 48 had begun. “It was an interesting experience as we underwent three Covid tests every week. By the end, I had around taken 10 tests. There were Covid supervisors on the sets,” says Gurbaxani, who was a part-time Covid supervisor as well. 

He calls it unsettling to be based in two cities – New York and Bengaluru – but now Gurbaxani is back home after two years and is glad he could spend Deepavali with his family here. And the young lad is all praise for the city he grew up in.

“In Bangalore, I studied in two schools. I initially started off in a public school and then Class 8 onwards, I moved to an international school. I loved to dance and got a chance to join troupes. I don’t think my life would have been the same if any of these things had not happened,” explains Gurbaxani, who is currently also looking at projects back home.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 19th, 2020

Bridging the gap

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

How a hole in a boat led to the emergence of Bridge Man of India.

Gudaari in Odisha

Mangaluru :

For him, it was not a bridge too far. Though a mechanical engineer, he learnt — that too by chance —   that one can transform lives by building bridges. In the last three decades, he has built over 130 such structures, the latest one being built in Telangana.

Girish Bharadwaj (70), fondly called the Bridge Man, is seen as a messiah by many villages. His journey started with a hole in the bottom of a boat. For decades, the poor people of Aramburu, a remote village in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada, were dependent on a country boat to cross the Payaswini river to reach the mainland for all their work.

Kanive in Kodagu, Karnataka

But whenever the only boat developed a hole in the bottom, the village used to come to a standstill until it was fixed or a new boat was built. Fed up, in 1989, the villagers decided to find a permanent solution to their perennial problem and approached Girish Bharadwaj, a young graduate in mechanical engineering who was running a fabrication unit, with a request to construct a footbridge to tide over the crisis.

Initially, Bharadwaj laughed at the villagers’ innocent belief that all engineers can build bridges. But he finally decided to give it a shot after the villagers refused to believe that a mechanical engineer can’t build bridges and also seeing their pathetic situation. With the help of engineering friends from other streams and referring to books on bridges, he designed a plan for a low-cost hanging bridge. It was a crowd-pooling project with some villagers even offering  ‘shramdaan’.

 Apart from other labour costs and sponsored construction materials, the project cost less than Rs 2 lakh. The villagers were immensely happy as the bridge ushered in a new life. Months later, the economical bridge caught the attention of a senior government official who had flown to Mangaluru from Bengaluru on some work and he called him.

After going through the bridge design, the official requested Bharadwaj to join hands with the government in providing connectivity to several isolated villages in Malnad and the coastal region.  The journey thus started took him to various parts of Karnataka and even Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha where he built more than 130 bridges in over 30 years and became popular as the Bridge Man of India. His contribution to the rural empowerment was recognised by the government and he was bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2017.

Fern Hill in Ooty, Tamil Nadu

Bharadwaj said he adopted the technology of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo, both suspension bridges and considered marvels of modern engineering, and simplified it to suit the local needs. His suspension bridges are cost-effective compared to conventional ones. Though they are built as a matter of temporary solution to last for 10-20 years, many of them have stood in good condition even after the estimated life. Also, the bridges saw advancements in designs over the years.

With his work, Bharadwaj has also built bridges in the hearts of several villagers as they consider him as a messiah who lifted them from their miseries. In most of the work sites, he and his team of 30-40 workers pitch camp till the work that takes 3-6 months, is completed. While a majority of bridges are government-sponsored, there are a few, constructed with funds pooled by the villagers. For such projects, he offers his services for free. In some cases, when the project could not be completed due to lack of funds, Bharadwaj has spent from his pocket to complete it.

Bharadwaj was delighted when he received an individual letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his support for Swachch Bharat in which he recognised his ‘Sethu Bandhu’ work to have empowered poor villagers and has connected them to the world of opportunities. Bharadwaj says the demand for footbridges is almost nil now as people with four-wheelers prefer big RCC structures. Now, Bharadwaj’s son Pathanjali Bharadwaj, who is an M.Tech graduate, is continuing the work.

FABRICATION WORKS
After completing his engineering from PES College, Mandya in mid 1970s, Bharadwaj had dreamt of becoming an MD of some factory. But his father who was an agriculturist, encouraged him to aspire to become an employer and provide jobs to others rather than being just an employee under someone. Thus, he set up Rational Engineering Works in Sullia which carried out general fabrication works and manufactured farm machinery

IN NUMBERS  

Bharadwaj has built 

95 bridges in seven districts of Karnataka

32   in Kerala

05 in Telangana

03 in Odisha

One more in Telangana is under progress now

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Vincent D’Souza / Express News Service / November 15th, 2020

 

Wipro’s Azim Premji emerges as most generous Indian in FY20

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Premji pipped HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar, who had earlier topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, by a wide margin.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji (File Photo | PTI)

Mumbai :

IT major Wipro’s Azim Premji donated Rs 22 crore a day or Rs 7,904 crore in a year to emerge as the most generous Indian in FY20 and top a list of philanthropy.

Premji pipped HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar, who had earlier topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, by a wide margin.

Nadar’s donations stood at Rs 795 crore for FY20 as against Rs 826 crore in the year-ago period.

Premji had donated Rs 426 crore in the previous fiscal.

Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries retained the third spot among the list of givers by donating Rs 458 crore as against Rs 402 crore a year ago, it said.

The raging pandemic had the corporate honchos repurposing their donations to fight the COVID infections, and the top giver on this turned out to be Tata Sons with a Rs 1,500- crore commitment, followed by Premji at Rs 1,125 crore and Ambani’s Rs 510 crore.

A bulk of the corporate commitments seemed to be given to the PM-CARES Fund, with Reliance Industries committing Rs 500 crore, and Aditya Birla Group donating Rs 400 crore, the report said.

It can be noted that Tatas’ commitment also includes a Rs 500 crore donation to the newly created fund.

Premji’s generosity pulled the total donations up by 175 per cent to Rs 12,050 crore in FY20, the list said.

Azim Premji Endowment Fund owns 13.6 per cent of the promoter’s shareholding in Wipro and has the right to receive all money earned from promoter shares, the report said.

The number of individuals who have donated more than Rs 10 crore increased marginally to 78 from the year-ago period’s 72, the report said.

With a donation of Rs 27 crore, Amit Chandra and Archana Chandra of ATE Chandra foundation are the first and only professional managers to ever enter the list.

The list has three of Infosys’ co-founders with Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), S Gopalkrishnan (Rs 50 crore) and S D Shibulal (Rs 32 crore).

The list of 109 individuals who have donated over Rs 5 crore has seven women, led by Rohini Nilekani’s Rs 47 crore.

Education is the highest beneficiary sector with 90 philanthropists, led by Premji and Nadar, donating Rs 9,324 crore, the report said, adding healthcare came second with 84 donors and was followed by disaster relief and rehabilitation with 41 donors.

The financial capital led by donor count at 36, followed by New Delhi at 20 and Bengaluru at 10.

E-commerce firm Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal was the youngest donor at 37 with a commitment of Rs 5.3 crore and the average age of the donors on the list was 66 years, it said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by PTI / November 10th, 2020

‘Aam Aadmi Clinic’ in Shantinagar

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It is modelled on the Delhi government’s mohalla clinic

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is starting an ‘Aam Aadmi clinic’, modelled on the Delhi government’s mohalla clinic, in Shantinagar on Sunday, which is celebrated as Rajyotsava Day.

The clinic will be run with donations from the savings of volunteers and supporters through a registered trust.

“This is a pilot project to show how primary health service should be provided by the BBMP and the government. It will function from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Saturday,” said former IAS officer Renuka Viswanathan, who is one of the five trustees.

“The clinic will have a doctor, a nurse, a lab technician and another person to help with patient registration. We will provide allopathic consultation, drugs and 60 diagnostic tests free of cost. While the blood samples will be collected at the clinic, we have tied up with a private lab for the tests,” she said.

The clinic, located on Basappa Road in Shantinagar, will be inaugurated at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, she added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / November 01st, 2020

NGO’s free plasma service

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Mercy Mission, a coalition of NGOs working for COVID-19 relief in Bengaluru, that runs a helpline to meet plasma needs of COVID-19 patients, has sourced 400 units so far. It has partnered with Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST TTK blood bank) and Healing Touch, an NGO to provide the free service.

Safeer Mohammed, a volunteer with Mercy Mission, told The Hindu that over 70% of their donors are volunteers themselves. “We prioritise requests for plasma and to ensure the request is authentic, we do a thorough check,” he said. “We cater to patients’ requests round the clock and do not ask for replacements.”

Patients can contact the Covid Plasma Helpline 080-47191133 (press 2)/ +91 8792025246.

Individuals can also visit Mercy Mission’s Twitter page (MercyMission1) or websites -http://healingtouch-society. comandhttps://covidhelpline bangalore.com/

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – October 22nd, 2020

Visually-challenged girl defies all odds, bags medals at University of Mysore centenary convocation

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Kavya S Bhat has studied carnatic music besides learning the keyboard, but since she wanted to become a teacher so she gave NET and cleared it with flying colours.

Kavya S Bhat (L) with her mother Ravikala. (Photo| EPS)

Mysuru : 

At the age of two, she was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, an eye condition resulting in the loss of vision. However, this did not dampen Kavya S Bhat’s dream to complete her higher education.

She was the cynosure of all eyes at the University of Mysore’s centenary convocation on Monday when she climbed the stage to receive two gold medals and two cash prizes for scoring the highest marks in MA (Political Science).

Like many of other specially-abled children, she completed her schooling in a blind school and graduated from Bengaluru. She relied on her parents, Srinivas Bhat and Ravikala Bhat, who helped her all through the way.

She then joined the University of Mysore for a PG programme. However, she hit a hurdle when several faculty members opposed her decision to take computerized exams here but she did not lose hope. She managed to appear for a computerized exam in all four-semester exams.

This also makes her the first person from the varsity to give computerized exams without the aid scribes. “I wanted to write the exam myself. So I requested a computerised exam for all four-semesters,” she said.

Kavya has studied carnatic music besides learning the keyboard, but since she wanted to become a teacher so she gave NET and cleared it with flying colours. Kavya said, “My father actually wanted me to have a career in the field of music. Though I love music, I wanted to prove myself and wanted to take up the teaching profession which made me choose this.”

When asked about how she accomplished this feat, she said, “Even we want to be more independent and that makes us find perfection in everything we do. This compulsion is what helped me accomplish this feat.”

She further added, “There will be people to support as well as oppose each of our decisions, but one must be strong to decide what they want.” Despite reaching her goal, she was still not very happy as two weeks ago her father passed away and couldn’t see her getting the medal. 

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Good News / by Karthik KK / Express News Service / October 20th. 2020

Initiative to gift a meal to those in need

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The pandemic has not been easy for anyone, more so for the economically and socially disadvantaged. While there have been several instances of an outpouring of help, now, you can do your bit too. Soon, when you walk into a few restaurants in the city, after you order your meal, you can also buy a token which will be used to provide a meal for people who may not be able to afford it.

This is an initiative of Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association and will begin on a pilot basis in around 30 restaurants in the city from October 2. The initiative is called Sanchigondu — one for the bag. The tag line of the project is ‘gift a meal, bring a smile’.

P.C. Rao, president of the association, said each hotel would fix a price of the token. “The customer can pay either for a meal or a beverage. We have told hotel owners to cap the token to a maximum of ₹100,” he said. He said they would conduct a sensitisation workshop for all the restaurant owners. “We want these tokens to help daily wage labourers, poor students, differently abled persons, and those who are unemployed,” he said.

Veerendra Kamat, treasurer of the association, said they started this project as they wanted people who were unable to afford food to get access to quality food. “During the pandemic, many people do not have a steady source of income and our effort is to help such people,” he said. He said once they finish the pilot project and understand the challenges, they would think of scaling this to other hotels in the city.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – September 27th, 2020

The Big Brother of Bangalore

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Janopakari Doddanna worked selflessly and tirelessly for Bengaluru

K. H. Ramaiah, a prominent personality of yesteryear Bangalore, often referred Gubbi Thotadappa as a fatherly figure (appa), Janopakari Doddanna as (Anna), elder brother. The services they rendered encompassed a very large strata of the city irrespective of class, cast and creed.

A vivid description of the life and contribution of Doddanna to Bengaluru is found Prof. V Krishna Setty’s book (1997), who had a long association with the institution founded by Doddanna.

Doddanna Shetty was born on February 3, 1840 to a pious couple Nanjundappa and Siddamma. They belonging to a vegetable oil extracting and trading community. They lived in Commercial Street in Cantonment area during 1830s. In addition to being god fearing and spiritual, the couple were also widely known for their charity and hospitality. Nanjundappa was the head of the community and was referred to as ‘Yajaman’.

Doddanna, got the education required for the family business, and after the death of his father assumed the post of Yajaman, and continued the family trade. He had also inherited the parents’ trait of charity and hospitality and without any bias, helped the downtrodden to live with dignity.

He used to go during night with a few of his associates to distribute good food and blankets to help the destitute and vagabonds on the streets and also the wandering monks who took shelter at Poornaiah Choultry which was located next to Tulasi Thota near Dharmambudi Tank, the present day Kempegowda Central Bus stand.

Paramount Theatre  

He renovated the Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple, his family deity, on Old Poor House Road in Cantonment and liberally donated for such work undertaken by other temples in Bengaluru. He had also given away a portion of his land near Bangalore East Railway station for the use of Buddha Centre. Because of these liberal contributions he used to be even referred to as ‘Daanashoora Karna’, a prominent character known for such charitable acts in the epic, Mahabharata. In spite of being benevolent to the society, as if to test his inner strength to face the adversities, he lost three wives, one after the other. Though two sons were born to the fourth wife she too died soon.

Yet, he recovered from these onslaughts of the fate and continued to serve his city. During 1898, there was severe plague attack in Bengaluru and the first son Lakshminarayana fell a victim for the pandemic. Realising that isolation is the sole solution to prevent the spread of the disease, Doddanna got about two hundred shelters built in a village Venkatapura for the benefit of the members of his community. The plague had also deprived the education to many downtrodden children. To groom the future generation on proper moral and ethical grounds, he took some space near the present day KR Market in 1900 and started a lower secondary school to impart free education especially for poor children. He treated these kids as his own and took personal care even in giving them oil bath, food and clothing.

Pouring a major chunk of his wealth he also started to construct a huge building to run the school. He wanted this structure to represent the culture and ethics of the land and should also be big enough to serve the purpose of a school, choultry, theatre and assembly hall. Later, his building became a landmark in the city as Doddanna hall and also as Paramount theatre.

Around the year 1900, the Mysore Government had started the construction of the building of Revenue Survey Office in Cubbon Park, near KR circle. The contractor, Tatayaa had given the responsibility of the construction to Rangappa. Everyday, while walking from Cantonment to his school in the City Market area, Doddanna used to pause a little and observe the construction and used to discussthe details with Rangappa. Finally, when the building was completed, he liked the elegant front elevation of the structure and the excellent quality of work. He wanted his building also to represent the native culture and tradition. He engage d Rangappa to give his dream a realistic shape.

Inspiration for Doddanna Hall  

The construction work under his personal supervision was going on. At this juncture, fate shot another major blow by taking away the life of his second and the only surviving son, Lakshminarasimha. Since the son died at the beginning of the construction, some elders advised him not to continue the work as his planetary positions were not in his favour. But, he accepted the adversities as challenges and proceeded with the work.

Doddanna’s philanthropic activities and his persisting efforts for the welfare of the downtrodden in spite of stumbling blocks, were known to the elite of the city.

Some other elders told him that his walking all the way from Cantonment to the City Market area was strenuous, Doddanna did not agree. “I can afford to have a personal coach for my movement. But, I feel, the money I spend for the same can be used to get few more cups of milk or oil to give bath to the poor little ones in my school…”

To continue…

sureshmoona@gmail.com

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Suresh Moona / October 01st, 2020