Champaner, Pavagadh, Gujarat ( A lesser explored beauty of India)

Champaner is counted in the world heritage sites; it is very famous for its rich historical background. The Pavagadh hill is famous for a Hindu fortress which was built under the Solanki Kings of Gujarat and later followed by the Kinchi Chauhans. It was overtaken by the Sultan Mahumad Begarah and was renamed as Muhammadabad.

It is a wonderful site to visit for anyone who has a taste for history as this place provides a beautiful insight to Indian Historical culture. The place is mostly famous for a series of fortresses which begins at the Pavagadh hill and end on the plains. These are built in a special style that comes under significant period when the sultans ruled the place.

Another interesting site here is the Champaner Pavagadh Archaeological Park, which is famous for its water retaining installations and military and agricultural structures which date back to the 16^th century. This place signifies the religious and cultural rich India, it also shows that over time how various cultures have renewed and some have disappeared. Visiting this place is like time traveling and looking at all the beautiful and significant historical sites.

Stay in this place is good, you can choose from a five star stay to cheap ad good places. There are good hotels along with commuting facilities. For commuting you can hire cabs or a car to be self-drive.

VN Parthiban- a 55 year Old Chennai professor who has 140+ Academic Degrees

It definitely won’t be very surprising or shocking if Mr VN Parthiban is chosen as the next education minister of the country. The man has achieved truly quite a lot in the field of education as he holds 145 degrees in various subjects. And here we painstakingly try to complete our masters’ just too able to sail through life.

Mr VN Parthiban has earned is 145 degrees in a short span of just 33 years. His degrees range in various subjects- from arts and sciences and commerce and business administration. There can’t be any major subject left that this man has not studied.by profession Mr VN Parthiban is a lecturer and a professor and has taught in various hundred colleges in Chennai. He says that it wasn’t hard at all, learning all of this was his passion he really enjoys studying and he will continue to do so. There are no Sundays, or holidays for him, for him there is a vast ocean of knowledge that has to be explored by him.

He has received many awards and has been honoured by many Indian universities on various orientation ceremonies. He still continuous to apply for various diploma or degree courses; There is one subject that he says is not his cup of tea, he has certainly has tried many times to ace this subject as well but he says everyone has a weakness. His weakness is the subject mathematics, however this in no way lessens his zeal to learn and grow more.

Sushant Rane- a 19 year Old Hyper-Realistic 3D Artist from Mumbai

Sushant Rane a first year Bachelor of Arts student at the Ramnarian Ruia College in Mumbai is a Mumbai based 3D artist. At just 19 years o age he creates mind-blogging and just amazing pictures that look so incredibly real. He has a very unique talent and form of art at is not very well known but is greatly appreciated. Creating art, making sketches or portraits in 3D requires a lot of time, effort, and determination also no art is complete without the artist having the talent. And Mr Rane is so perfect in this particular art field

He says that he learned to draw at very young age. He created or drew whatever he liked using any material. He officially started making art work and presenting it to the world through social media platforms in the year 2013. He started making portraits of various celebrities using very particular tools, like graphite pencils and colour pencil.

The hand drawn art work by this talented young boy is so incredibly real in its feels that you might just mistake it for real photographs. He draws various things like a packet of chips, a light bulb, a cell phone a burger and just about anything; he says he gets motivation from anything and everything or he sometimes simply wants to draw that particular object. He starts using a blank sheet of paper and copic markers and graphite pencils he turns it into a photographed illusion which is just as good as the real photograph.

Renjini – Monipally’s lone string puppeteer

A very ancient art that is puppetry which originated in the 5^th century BC Ancient Greece is a very unique4 form of entertainment across the world. It involves story telling through puppets which are moved using hands, string or any other form of movement. A story is narrated in the form of a song or a narration from a person or by using some sort of media. There are around 30 different types of puppetry forms in the world but the sad part is that all of these are on the verge of fading away. Most of the puppetry forms are no longer even known except in books.

One such puppetry art form is string puppetry also known as ‘Nokku Vidya Paava Kali’ in the local interior parts of India. A young girl with her talented fingers is trying to save this form of puppetry from fading away .K.S. Renjini, who is a student of 8^th grade is 16 years old. A resident of a very small village in Kottayam District in Kerala is trying to keep this art form alive.

Renjini learned this art form from her grandmother, who herself learned it from her grandparents at just 12 years of age but due to old age she couldn’t perform any longer and now Renjini is determine to take this legacy further. Renjini performs the epics- Ramayana and Mahabharata with the help of balancing puppets on a stick on her lips. She does this with the same ease as her grandmother. This required a lot of concentration and practice, but she is happy to log in extra hours to p[polish her art and keep this legacy alive.

Meenakshi Gurrukkal- Kerala’s 76 year old Kalaripayattu Teacher

Kalaripayattu is one of the oldest martial art form the Northern Kerala performed using swords. This art form dates back to 11^th century BC. Today this ancient art form is taught to the young generation by, possible the world’s oldest martial arts women, Meenakshi Gurrukkal. It has been 60 years since she has been practising and teaching this ancient form of martial arts.

She has almost 150 students in her school, named Kadathanandan Kalari Sangam. One third of which are girls and she is very proud of the fact that more and more young girls are eager to learn it. Classes in the school are held thrice a day from the months of June to September every year. Along with the northern style of Kalaripayattu, various massage techniques for aches and pains which are known as Uzhichil are also taught. All of these are passed down from generations to generations and now Meenakshi is determined to teach these ancient techniques to her students.

She runs a fees free school for children from all walks of life. She says that it’s important that everyone can gain any kind of knowledge without any discrimination. She says it doesn’t matter where you are from, but what matters is the age. The younger you start learning the better it is. She herself started learning this along with her sister right since when she was just six year old. Her father was determined to make his daughters excellent in this art.

Now she doesn’t only teach but she also performs in shows. She does around 60 shows per year. Her aim is to make the modern world know about this ancient holy martial art form.

Jasprit Singh- The rubber Man of India

Each one of us is born with some or the other kind of talent. We often call it the God gift or think of it as something instilled in us by nature, but when some of these talents are beyond our understanding we are more affected by them we call these talents mysterious or a magic of nature. One of such talent is of a mysterious person who is perhaps just like us, Mr Jasprit Singh Kalra.

Mr Jasprit of Ludhiana, Punjab is just a teenager, 16 years of age. He is student of Arya Model SR. Secondary School Ludhiana. His yoga teacher accidently discovered his mysterious talent while he was doing yoga pose at just 12 years of age. His teacher realised that he has an amazingly super flexible body. Soon after this within no time, with constant practice Jasprit could twist and turn his arms, neck and other body parts at a whole 360 degrees, without experiencing any kind of pain or discomfort in doing so.

Soon he realised his rare talent and took inspiration from the very well-known American Contortionist, Daniel Browning and polished his art with constant practice and determination. He believes that this skill can only be mastered by both this body and soul working in sync.

Today, Jasprit can-

·         Rotate his head at 180 degrees, dislocate both his shoulders

·         Rotate his each arm and torso separately

And so much more; He desires to take over the title of the current ‘Most flexible man’, from his hero Daniel Browning.

Uddhab Bharali- 55 year old Indian man with 140+ inventions

Born in Lakhimur in Assam, Uddhab Bharali is the only Indian man with more than 140 inventions. As a child he was excellent in academics and always had brain teasing question for his teachers but due to being from a poor family background he had to drop out of his college in the year 1987 but this did not affect his enthusiasm and zeal to create new things. Even after dropping out from college he took out time and continued to build gadgets.

He saved his house from the bank authorities after they issued a warrant for his father to vacate the house for not being able to pay his debt. Uddhab with his excellent creativity built a polythene generating machine and sold it just for rupees 67,000 when its original market price was rupees five lakhs.

After that he still continued to build new commercial use items but it was only in the year 2005 when the National Innovation Foundation recognise his talent and took him to abroad where he continued to work on his talent and creativity with full determination and came up with a pomegranate de-seeding machine which is the first one of a kind across the world and not just in India.

Till date he has won a number of noteworthy awards, he says that this is not the end of his innovations, he still has 53 projects that he is working on and is currently responsible for eight different project for every month. 

Avtar Singh Mauni- India’s first Turban man with world’s heaviest Turban

Mr Avtar Singh Mauni the proud owner of the world’s heaviest turban is a 60 year old resident of Patiala, in Punjab. His 100 pond turban has almost made to the world record. He claims that if his turban is unwrapped then it stretches to 645 meters which is equal to the length of 13 Olympic sized swimming pools.

He says that wasn’t always this big, he has been regularly adding on to it since past 16 years as the result of that today it continuous to getting larger. It takes him about six hours to put it on. He doesn’t view it as some kind of weight he says that his turban is a part of his culture and more importantly a part of himself. Without his turban he feels like there is some part of him missing.

It is in Sikh culture to wear turbans, and most of the Sikhs wear turbans that are about seven meters long but Mr Mauni took his turban to a whole different level. The current, heaviest turban owner in the world is Major Singh but when Mr Mauni’s turban’s length will be verified, he says he would definitely take over that place in the Guinness world book of records.

Carrying such a huge turban does poses many difficulties it is hard for him to cross doorways and getting into a car is just out of question. But he says that he will carry his turban with pride until the time he has no more strength in his limbs.

Shrikant Ingalhalikar’s eye catching Paddy Art in Pune

City bases engineer and an amateur botanist Shrikant Ingalhalikar introduced Japan’s well known art called Tambo Ata or Paddy Art in India. His very first creation which is a giant image of Lord Ganesha near Donje Phate on Singhagad road in Pune has already achieved a lot of attention from art lovers around the world.

This unusual form of art hails from Japan, which is well known for its rice growing heritage. Paddy art was originally invented by the peasants of Inakadate to celebrate two thousand years of their rice growing tradition in the year 1993.

Ingalhalikar was inspired by different varieties of rice with different colours and he merged them on field which then became a giant canvas for him to work on. Since then with the help of computer graphics which helps paddy art work to take up difficult challenges Shrikant has created images of Mona Lisa and Marilyn Monroe.

He says that the biggest challenge of this paddy art work was when he created the giant image of Lord Ganesha; he had to plant rice plants in pouring rain standing in knee-deep muddy water for hours on end.

This eye catching image of lord Ganesha is 40 meters in length and is in two colours this is certainly very much attractive but Ingalhalikar says that in future he wants to take up more difficult challenge and wants to motivate youngsters to take up careers in agricultural field and shouldn’t shy away from getting their hands dirty, they must work hard.

Shanti Devi- India’s first women mechanic

Shanti Devi who was born in the town of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh is India’s first and only woman truck mechanic. She is the mother of eight kids and is 50 years of age. She moved to Delhi when she was 5 years old and since then she has been living in outskirts of Delhi. She tells about her family saying, she comes from a poor family; her mother did odd jobs and went through many hardships to bring them up. She managed to save up for her wedding and got married and moved out.

She and her husband, Ram Bahadur started up a small tea stall which was opposite the depot and later the depot was built in a repair shop. She started working in the repair shop as an apprentice. The idea was to help generate more income for her family. Over the years with hard work and dedication she learned all the technical mechanic work under the guidance of a mistri.

She tells that her fellow men mechanics are quite happy to work with her and see her doing the same kind of work as they do especially when her name is mentioned all over the press, all of them feel proud to work with her. To her, it is very surprising when people react differently towards her when she changes tyres or does the work that men supposedly do, to her there are no gender rules when it comes to work. She says she follows her heart.

Akodara village- India’s first digital village

Demonetisation has brought a huge chaos in the country, but the village of Akodara has been functioning quite normally. As no one in this village, nor the shops neither the citizens use money in cash.

Situated 90 kilometres from Ahmedabad located in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district this is the first ever ‘Digital Village’ of India. Citizens of this village use e-banking for everything, From buying fruits and vegetables to drawing salaries and paying their bills, all monetary transactions which are above Rs10 are done through the internet. Everyone here uses mobile phones for their payments. This has enabled the citizens of Akodara to remain calm amidst the chaos of demonetisation in the country.

The ICICI bank on its 60^th anniversary adopted this village of 1200 citizens to demonstrate the power of digitalisation and how it can make our lives easier. The ICICI bank collaborated with the local administration of the village and helped every villager to be able to access the modern banking facility. Every villager has their phones linked to their bank accounts and they can easily use the facility of online banking by using the village Wi-Fi.

The aim to create a digital village was to show how the country can benefit in terms of motivating the people towards the habit of depositing money in banks which ultimately leads to more cash flow in the economy. The concept of digital village I based on three Cs-

·        1.  Cashless

·         2. Connected

·         3. Comprehensive

The Prime Minister 100% supports this initiative and said that this idea of going digital will be a role model for the rest of the country.

Seva café – A café where someone else pays your bills

At Seva café the line between home and a restaurant blurs completely. As soon as you enter the café you are warmly welcomed with a hug and a genuine smile. You may be are a complete stranger here but you will be greeted with lots of hugs and smiles. A smiling volunteer will walk you to your table and others who have volunteered as well will you with your meal.

Seva café follows the deep and ancient Indian view that a guest is God, therefore as soon as you enter the café all the volunteers will try their best to make you feel comfortable and at home.  At Seva café you are not viewed as a customer but instead you are a treasured guest.

The café is run by group of young kind hearted smiling volunteers the simple and delicious meals served here are cooked by the enthusiastic cooks who have volunteered to work in the café. To enhance the homely aura of the place there is also a young talented band which will play after the meals have been served. If you wish to volunteer then you are free to lend a hand in cooking or serving or simply helping out.

At the end of your meal you get a beautiful handmade folder with a note saying pay from your heart. At Seva cafe your meal has be already paid for by someone and you will be paying for their next guest. You can pay any amount you wish to give no one will judge you for that.

This place will truly make you feel at loved no matter, where you from, or who you are.

Mattur-The Only Sanskrit speaking Village of India

Sanskrit is the ancient most language of the world and also stands in the list of 22 scheduled languages of the Indian sub-continent. A lot of effort has been made to popularize and preserve this language in the entire country but the twin villages of Karnataka have made remarkable efforts.

Located on the banks of Tunga River, almost around eight kilometers from Shimoga, Matttur has a population of around 5000 people who are mostly Brahmins. They use Sanskrit even in their day to day affairs. And what’s more, there is one software professional coming from each family. The children are taught Vedas till they turn ten by the elderly people of the village.

One is amazed to know that these Sanskrit followers who are clad in white dhoti and drapes are well-connected to the modern world too. It is a normal scene to watch people riding bikes, wearing T-shirts, expanding the computer script in one hand and handling Sanskrit palm leaves from the other hand. They may be wearing jeans and flaunt expensive mobile phones but they are very well attached to their soil. A lot of IT professionals who are born here work in many foreign countries.

The language of the Gods or the deva bhasha, Sanskrit, the root of many languages is spoken by less than one percent population of India. Under such circumstances, the people of Mattur are making a commendable effort in passing on the legacy to not only the next generation but are also willing to teach Sanskrit to all who are interested. All the very best people!