#HeroesOfHumanity
“When I serve food, I see the happiness on people’s faces. That makes me happy, and their smile is enough for me,” says Sekar Poovarasan, who, along with his mother, S Kuppamal, serves humanity by feeding the underprivileged.
25-YO Poovarasan from Thenkodipakkam, #TamilNadu, has started a roadside food stall that allows customers to pay for whatever they can while the poor eat for free.
Equipped with an electronics & communication engineering diploma, Poovarasan lost his job a few months into the pandemic. He could only get odd jobs after that & nothing stuck.
“I was running around looking for jobs, but a chance encounter with an older man changed his life.
I decided to serve food to the underprivileged, which was my true calling."
Today, the stall serves breakfast and lunch. The mother and son duo wake up at 4 am for the preparations. They serve hot idlis, Pongal, vada, chutney, and sambar from 7-9 am.
(1/6) What if farm stubble could nourish the soil quickly instead of polluting the air for weeks?
(2/6) A recipient of Maharashtra's ‘Krishi Ratna’ and ‘Krishi Bhushan’ awards for excellence in agriculture Chandrashekhar Bhadsavale is the innovator of the Saguna Rice Technique (SRT) method of cultivation.
(3/6) The SRT method is eco-friendly and doesn’t require farmers to set fire to straw stubble, after harvest. Thereby, it does not contribute to air pollution while enhancing the organic carbon and microflora of the soil.
“In school, I used to think, ‘what are the Olympics?’ I never thought I would participate in the Olympics”, #PTUsha once recalled in an interview. @PTUshaOfficial
PT Usha’s historic run in the 400 m hurdles final in the 1984 Olympics was a heartbreaking loss for India but one that turned out to be as much of an inspiration as a victory.
In the years to come, she went on to set the tracks ablaze for the next few years, winning golds at the Asian Games and Asian Championships, setting records and being the darling of the crowd wherever she went.
“I received much more cow dung than I required in my farmland. That’s when I started thinking of an alternative for not letting it go to waste.”, says P Ganesan, an organic farmer who has been making #artefacts for the past five years, using nothing but cow dung and cow urine.
Hailing from Perungamanallur village in Madurai, 52-YO Ganesan has invented a unique and organic way of crafting handicrafts.
“I craft it by my hands. No machinery or mould is involved, and I don’t add ingredients other than cow dung and cow urine.
It is 100 per cent natural and eco-friendly.”
Currently, Ganesan makes over 150 different products, including utility and decorative items. A 6-foot tall Buddha statue made using 30 kg of #cowdung is one of their masterpieces created by him.
“A Mizo woman has never had any rights over property, whether moveable, immovable or even gifts. Husband can divorce her anytime and throw her out of the house without providing any financial support.”
#SangkhumiBualchhuak#Inspiration#WomenEmpowerment#SocialReformer
Sangkhumi Bualchhuak made it her long-cherished dream to stand against the injustice done against #MizoWomen.
While growing up in her home state of #Mizoram , Pi Sangkhumi witnessed various atrocities meted out to women.
Having worked hard on the legislation on marriage, divorce and inheritance, Pi Sangkhumi is getting essential laws related to domestic violence, rape and human rights translated into the Mizo language.
“Every dish has a hero protagonist, which is a plant,” said Vedika, owner of MharoKhet — an experiential farm which has been growing and supplying fresh produce all around Jodhpur for two years now.
When the couple took a trip to Kyoto, Japan, it put a lot into perspective, as they realised that the vegetables grown in Kyoto were famous all across Japan simply for their freshness. They learnt that the vegetables were even used by Michelin-star restaurants.
“If the Kyoto model was such a raging success simply because it was a farm-to-table model, could we replicate the same on our ancestral land, where we had been cultivating tomatoes and other vegetables for daily consumption for the last 12 years?” wondered Rajnush.
One morning, on my way to work, I was stranded by an Uber auto driver in the middle of the highway. I must have had a worried expression on my face, which made an old man driving a rickshaw stop and ask me where I wanted to go.
Sceptical at first, I told him I needed to get to my office at the other end of town and that I was already late. He said, "Please come in, ma'am. You can pay what you want", in impeccable English.
Taken aback by such kind behaviour, I said ok and what followed was a very enriching 45 minutes.
Of course, as a researcher, I couldn't contain my curiosity & asked him how he spoke such good English. To which he replied that he was an English lecturer!