#DidYouKnow#HockeyIndia#TokyoOlympics 1/ Odisha's Sundergarh district is known as the 'Cradle of Indian Hockey' - it has produced 5 national captains and over 60 international players.
2/ The home of Deep Grace Ekka (the vice-captain of the Indian women's hockey team), Sundargarh is arguably the most important centre of Indian hockey, producing five national team captains — Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey, Subhadra Pradhan and Jyoti Sunita Kulu.
3/ It has also produced more than 60 international hockey players including Olympians Lazarus Barla, William Xalco, Birendra Lakra and Sunita Lakra.
1/ From practicing with broken hockey sticks to leading the Indian women's hockey team in a historic triumph at #TokyoOlympics, #RaniRampal has come a long way.
Rani’s mother worked as a domestic help, her father was a cart-puller who earned around Rs 80 a day.
2/ Inspired by the players she would see at a nearby hockey academy, she too decided to take up the sport. However, her father could not afford to buy her a hockey stick, so she practiced with a broken one.
3/ In an exclusive interview with The Better India, she said, “I grew up in a place where young women and girls were restricted to the four walls of their home. So, when I expressed my wish to play hockey, neither my parents nor my relatives supported me..."
1/ “Years of hard work have paid off,” a beaming #GurjitKaur told the media after hitting the winning goal against Australia in the quarter-finals at #TokyoOlympics.
Drag flicker Gurjit was born in a farmer’s family in Miadi Kalan in Amritsar.
2/ She and her sister spent most of years in her village, where she didn’t know even know what hockey was, let alone playing the sport.
It was only when she moved to a boarding school 70 km away that she was first introduced to hockey.
3/ Gurjit knew nothing about the game, so she would spend the whole day watching the other girls play. This is what made her want to excel at the game.
Hockey soon became her passion.
1/ This is Savita "The Wall" Punia. She managed to save all the nine shots directed at her by world no. 2 Australia, a mighty unbeaten opponent.
And that's how Savita's heroics helped India stun Australia 1-0 to reach their first-ever Olympics semi-finals.
2/ Yet few know that, as a young girl, Savita used to travel 30 km six times every week from her village (Jodhkan) to Maharaja Agrasain Girls Senior Secondary School in Sirsa to hone her hockey skills.
3/ This school was the only place around her village that had hockey coaches as well as training infrastructure. Interestingly, before Savita, no one in her family had ever taken up any sport as a career.
In the olden days, it was a common custom for shopkeepers to keep a small chair outside the shop as soon as they opened the shop in the morning.
As soon as the first customer would arrive, the shopkeeper would lift the chair from that place and take it inside the shop. (1/6)
But when the next customer would come, the shopkeeper would look around the market. Pointing to a shop with a chair still placed outside, he would say to the customer. (2/6)
"You will get what you need from that shop." I have already got my bohni (the day's first business) in the morning."
This was because having a chair outside the shop was a sign that the shopkeeper had not received any customers yet. (3/6)
#Odisha's beautiful Krushi Bhavan won the People's Choice Winner at the prestigious AZ Award 2020 in the Social Good category. (1/7)
Located in Bhubaneswar, the structure was designed by Studio Lotus and has been inspired by the farmers of Odisha. Here are some interesting features: (2/7)
> Over 100 highly-skilled artisans have created a vibrant and contemporary narrative of traditional Odia craft at Krushi Bhavan, depicting agricultural folklore and mythological stories. (3/7)
Portraits of the Rabari, India's wandering tribe famous for their bulky turbans and familiarity with all things camel -- clicked by Natty Singh. (1/5)
The Rabari, a tribal caste of semi-nomadic cattle herders and shepherds, are believed to have migrated to Rajasthan from Iran via Afghanistan a thousand years ago. The main occupation of this tribe is to raise cattle, camels and goats. (2/5)
To ensure pasture for their herds, they wander from one place to another, chasing seasonal rains. But this ancient way of life is changing. (3/5)
Nolen gur or date palm jaggery, that highly prized seasonal produce that lends a smoky sweetness to milk, occupies a place of pride in Bengal’s already accomplished mishti-making history. (2/13)
As far back as the 4th century BC, Panini wrote, Gurasha auang desho goura, which means Gour is the place of gur. (3/13)
#DidYouKnow#TimeLapse
According to Kanailal Basu’s book 'Netaji: Rediscovered', the Azad Hind Bank was formed in Rangoon (now Yangon) in Burma (now Myanmar) in April 1944 for the purpose of organising funds to finance the war effort against the British. (1/11)
The bank printed Indian currency notes and managed contributions from Indians from across the world. (2/11)
In the 1980s, Ram Kishore Dubey, a retired contractor with the State Irrigation Department, discovered one of these note in his grandfather’s Ramayana book, but did not realise its historical significance till later. (3/11)
(1/15) About a decade ago, a Boston-based social entrepreneur and cognitive scientist of Indian origin, Venkat Srinivasan along with Sanjay Gupta, previously Chairman of American Express India came together to build a unique company, @EnglishHelperEH
(2/15) They wanted to use technology to provide learning solutions for students in government schools. What started with a few hundred schools has now managed to expand its impact to thousands.
3/15) Helping millions of students learn & use the English language to further their academic & professional careers. Deployed in various forms to benefit individual students, teachers, schools & young adults, English Helper launched an initiative called @RightToReadInin 2013.
"As an artiste, Leonardo Da Vinci is my hero. The great scientist Einstein was born with learning disabilities. Confined to a wheelchair, legendary physicist Stephen Hawking also overcame disabilities,” (1/7)
Says Swapna Augustine, who was born without arms at Paingottoor in Ernakulam.
Swapna's parents -- Augustine, a farmer, and Sophie, a homemaker -- enrolled Swapna at a home for the disabled in Changanassery when she was six and she attended a school nearby. (2/7)
Perhaps, it was this early life away from home that made the eldest child independent and confident despite her disability. (3/7)
1/ In a rather courageous act, a pet cat prevented a mishap after she stopped a cobra from entering her owner’s house in Bhubaneswar. Videos of the incident have gone viral on social media.
2/ The incident took place in the Bhimatangi area of the city where Sampad Kumar Parida and his family live with their pet cat Chinu. Chinu instantly reacted when the reptile entered the premises of Parida’s house from the backyard and ran towards it.
3/ For 30 minutes, both of them engaged in a fight. However, Chinu didn’t budge an inch from its place.
Sampad immediately called Snake Helpline for help. Arun Kumar Baral, a volunteer from the helpline, reached the spot and found the cat guarding the house.
#DidYouKnow#JagannathRathYatra 1/ Aswini Mishra, an engineer from Brajrajnagar, Odisha, used his skills to develop brakes for the majestic chariots back in 2006, to make the chariots safe.
2/ After reading about a tragic death of a devotee, Mishra came up with a brake system that can stop the contraption in case of any incidence, which also increases ease of use. He showcased his brake system to the temple administration, which accepted it with open arms.
3/ The brake system used earlier consisted of a wooden log that sat in front of the Ratha's wheels. Applying the brakes meant pulling a lever so the log would stop the wheels in motion.
Raised by her grandma after losing her parents, Revathi Veeramani would run barefoot as she couldn't afford shoes. She has just qualified for Tokyo Olympics. (1/6)
"My son-in-law and daughter died when the two girls were around 6 years old. I did not have the financial support to support Revathy's sports dream but she wanted to try her hand in it. She has won many medals since childhood. (2/6)
Then Coach Kannan spotted her and he is the one who helped us and helped in Revathy's training", says Veeramani Arammal, Revathy's grandmother. (3/6)
#DaraSingh#DeathAnniversary 1/ “May 29, 1968, I became the world champion.”
—– Dara Singh in his book, ‘Meri Aatma Katha’.
A one man institution, the legendary Dara Singh reportedly remained undefeated in 500 wrestling bouts worldwide.
2/ A legend who defeated some of the fiercest contemporaries of his time and gained fame globally, Rustam-e-Hind Dara Singh also became a household name in India when he played the role of Hanuman in Ramayan, the highest-viewed serial in the world.
3/ Those around him during the shoots would often struggle to understand this maddeningly simple man: he woke at four to undergo the five-hour transformation into Hanuman.
#HappyBirthday#PVSindhu 1/ A young Sindhu fell in love with badminton serendipitously, when she accompanied her father, a former Arjuna Award-winning player, to the volleyball court in Hyderabad, and became more fascinated by what was happening in the badminton courts next door.
2/ She started playing occasionally, and started winning often, until the news of fellow Hyderabad icon Pullela Gopichand's victory at the All-England badminton championships in 2001 converted her fascination into an obsession.
3/ Desperate to train under Gopichand, she managed to impress him enough for him to grant her solo sessions by the time she was 10. Back then, her routine was waking up at 3 a.m. to travel 27 km from Secunderabad to his academy for a solo 2-hour session that started at 4.30 am.
1/ Indian-origin #SirishaBandla will become the 2nd Indian-born woman after Kalpana Chawla to fly into space later this month.
Sirisga a will be one of the six space travellers aboard ‘VSS Unity’ of Virgin Galactic, scheduled to blast off to space on July 11 from New Mexico.
2/ As part of the six-member crew alongside the founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, her role will be that of a researcher experience.
3/ Sirisha was born in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Her grandfather Dr Bandla Ragaiah worked as a Principal Scientist in the Acharya N G Ranga Agriculture University, in Guntur. Her maternal grandfather R Venkata Narasaiah worked as a college lecturer in Chirala.
It was MS Dhoni, born in Ranchi, whose success provided the inspiration for young cricketers from small towns to suddenly believe they could play for India. (1/12)
The son of a pump operator with MECON Limited (a public-sector engineering firm), Dhoni grew up in a crammed one-bedroom apartment near the Ranchi's MECON Stadium. (2/12)
If you come from a middle class family job security is very important. It can be a tough decision to choose between job security and your dream," said Dhoni. (3/12)
Dehradun Social Worker Jai Sharma Has Adopted 20 Kids Who Lost Both Parents to COVID-19, Will Adopt 80 More. (1/4)
"When the second wave of COVID-19 started, we encountered five such families where both the parents had died, and the child/children were left alone at home. (2/4)
At that moment, it hit our mind that this unfortunate scenario is inevitable, and we were to come across more such cases as the pandemic rose," says Jai Sharma, a social worker from Dehradun and founder of Just Open Yourself (JOY). (3/4)
Jamwant, a special variety of jamun with more than 90% flesh, is produced by farmers in UP's Bithoor with help from CISH. (1/4)
Created by researchers at the Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), the dark-hued Jamwant is not seedless but has 90% pulp content. (2/4)
Incidentally, the mother tree of Jamwant (found at Rae Bareli Road in Mohanlalganj) had been chopped off for road widening. So this variety would have been lost had it not been found and grafted by scientists of CISH. (3/4)
“A man named Rajesh contacted us and told us that his 4-year-old twins have been starving for three days. Another woman reported that her relatives have been forcing her to get her 14-year-old daughter married because the child's father... (2/7)
...Who was the sole breadwinner of the family, had died.
Over the past year, we have met many children who have lost their parents, confidence and are scared for their future. (3/7)
