Real needs: Hamali maistry Lakshminarayana distributes clothes to residents of Kuppam.
Lakshminarayana collects old clothes and books for needy families in Kuppam
When Lakshminarayana saw the difficulties of many poor families, he decided to shift some of their burden on to his own shoulders. A load-carrying hamali worker in Kuppam, he is the go-to man at Muniyappa tea stall for poor families who cannot afford clothes, books, shoes and stationery for students when the academic year arrives.
Some people ask him for rice and provisions too, while others just want blessings on their children’s birthday. The hamalis’ charitable activity extends to payment of fees for students and even the passport application fee for youth seeking jobs abroad.
The worker, who hails from Shantipuram mandal of Kuppam Assembly constituency, is not literate. He has been pursuing social service along with his wife and children since they moved to Kuppam two decades ago in search of livelihood. His life as a hamali worker began at the Kuppam bus station. Over time he became maistry (leader).
The sight of two girls in tattered clothes loitering at the bus station two decades ago was the turning point for him. The children’s mother was dead and their alcohol-addicted father had deserted them. His first move was to get new clothes for them and send them to school, involving their relatives.
No cash donations
He put together essentials for migrant workers, needy families at Shikari colony and people abandoned at the bus station and elsewhere. But donations in cash are not accepted.
He also got a donation of ₹50,000 from the Hamali Union and presented it to Kuppam MLA and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to build Amaravati.
Recently, the hamali got praise, when he collected blankets, clothes and rice bags for the Charity Wall area of the police at the District Hospital in Chittoor.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by K. Umashanker / Chitoor – April 04th, 2018
This is the 13th such camp and 274 children have benefitted.
Doctors with parents of the children after surgery. (Photo: DC)
Vijayawada :
A team of doctors from the United Kingdom have completed 22 free surgeries for children organised at a private hospital in association with Healing Little Hearts, United Kingdom (UK). The surgeries were conducted from March 18-24. Cardiac surgical camp was performed in all 22 complex cardiac surgeries this week. Other surgeries will be done by local doctors as they are not very severe.
Hospital’s children services chief Dr P.V. Rama Rao addressed the media on Friday, Dr Rao said that the Heart and Brain Institute had organised Paediatric Cardiac surgical camp and performed about 22 complex cardiac surgeries successfully this week. He said that a nine-member UK doctor’s team from hospitals like Lady Cilento children’s hospital, Brisbane, Australia, Alderney children’s hospital, Liverpool, UK and Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester performed complex Paediatric Cardiac surgeries.
He said that the team includes paediatric interventional cardiologist, Paediatric cardiac surgeon, paediatric cardiac intensivists, perfusionist, paediatric intensive care nurses who were led by Dr Sanjiv Nichani from UK and Dr Vikram. Hospital MD Dr P.V. Ramana Murthy said that this is the 13th free camp for children since December 2015 and had successfully performed surgeries on 274 children. He said that Healing little hearts, UK team has visited thirteen times so far and many complex heart surgeries were done with their association. He said that surgeries were successfully performed with the team effort of Paediatric Cardiology, cardiac surgical team and Paediatric intensive care team.
Actor Mahesh Babu extended his support for the noble cause. Parents of the patients also expressed their happiness as they are poor. Dr Prem Venugopal, Paediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr Nayan Shetty, Dr Gopi, Dr Chellappan Subramanian, Anuradha, Anand Mohan Patil, Julia, cardiac surgeon Dr Dilip, cardiologist Dr Sreemannarayana and cardiac anaesthetist Dr Ramesh were present.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / March 24th, 2018
Tulasi Chaitanya recently swam from Bhimeeli to Vishakhapatnam
City’s head constable Tulasi Chaitanya is all set to swim the Palk Strait (from Sri Lanka’s Talaimannar to India’s Dhanushkodi), covering a distance of 32 kilometres on March 25. He is leaving for Rameswaram on March 17 to train for six days at Dhanushkodi under the watchful eyes of his coach Balaga Ganesh before taking the plunge. “My aim is to cover the distance in nine hours,” said Mr. Chaitanya.
The 30-year-old swimmer said the Palk Strait was at Triveni Sangam where both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal entered the Indian Ocean. “The water will be volatile with strong undercurrents and high waves,” said the swimmer, who was groomed under the special attention of Rajiv Trivedi, a top police officer of Telangana cadre.
Mr. Chaitanya, who had already won 14 international medals, will be taking all precautions such as applying of grease on his body to stay away from the jellyfish and sharks. “One pilot boat with GPS system will monitor my stay in the water. Both Sri Lanka and Indian Navy will give protection in their respective borders,” he said. He said he would use freestyle during his pursuit and whenever he needed relaxation he would take up breast and back strokes. “The water temperature will be 28 degree Celsius. Throughout my stay in the water I will be on liquid diet taking lemon water and other health drinks.”
Mr. Chaitanya recently swam a distance of 26 kilometres from Bhimeeli to Vishakhapatnam just to get used the sea and he covered the distance in less than 10 hours.
Next goal
“My next goal is to swim in Zurich Lake in Switzerland and cover a distance of 27 km,” signed off Mr. Chaitanya.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by J. R. Shridharan / Vijayawada – March 17th, 2018
Close your eyes, use other senses to live life for an hour, and you’ll realize how much we take the gift of sight for granted. While vision impairment often has no cure, the helplessness that comes with it can be tackled. Vision Aid Charitable Services in Visakhapatnam shows the way in the world of darkness.
Source Photo : YoVizag
With low vision or vision impairment often transferred genetically from the first to the third generation, the often untreatable condition hampers life right since childhood. Not only does it bring downgrades at school, it also brings down the person’s confidence. Dr. MS Raju understood the magnitude of this problem as he travelled the world, and compared the support that other nations are able to afford to the vision impaired, vis a vis India. And so, in 2004, at the age of 70 years, he initiated a change that would bring in low-cost assistive technologies for them. Vision Aid was thus established.
He shares that in India many aren’t even aware that vision impairment can be a genetic problem without a cure. With training and technologies being expensive, and Braille being limited in usage, he decided to address the challenges. Computers are universal in usage, he shares, showing us how computer keyboards and dialpads on phones are actually equipped to be tactile sensory, something that many don’t know.
Vision Aid trains students in using them. Not just this, students are taught to hone their other senses so that they can lead a life as independent as possible. Vision Aid is also one of the few in India to offer access technologies and assistive devices at low cost.
In the line of access technologies, the vision impaired are taught computer skills using audio assistance that reduces the margin of error. The low-cost assistive devices include magnifiers, object sensors, speaking calculators and even a camera mouse.
Their innovations have even earned them recognition like the Nasscom finalist award for social innovations in 2011, RA Rockefeller award as best NPO in Southern India in 2010 and NCP Mphasis award in 2009 among others.
Today this NGO encourages those with low vision to join their classes at no fee. In fact, their teaching model allows a student to join at any point in time and for anyone hour slot during the day. They are however required to complete 55 one on one sessions at the center.
For this, the organization also offers escort services.
Removing the obstacles that stand in the way of learning for the vision impaired, English language skills along with computers are imparted as well. Their helpline is open 24/7. With 20-30% of those they train getting jobs, some go for higher education while many benefits from browsing the Internet. From doing menial jobs, opportunities for these students are improving, and this not just enhances their performance but also boosts their confidence.
Along with creating assistive devices, Vision Aid also disseminates know how on handling vision impairment, with the material readily available for all those who wish to use it. Along with empowering students, they also hone teachers as the number of special teachers is still very low in the country.
Sharing that while the eye cannot be repaired, the helplessness of the visually impaired can be, this NGO shines a ray of hope in the world of darkness.
Ramachandraiah is probably the last such singer left in A.P. and Telangana
Sakine Ramachandraiah could easily have been awarded honorary doctorate by any university. An unlettered man from Koonavaram village of Manuguru mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, Ramachandraiah has oral histories of the Koya tribe on the tip of his tongue.
One only has to mention the story to have it cascade effortlessly from his vocal chambers, in Telugu as well as Koya language.
Belonging to the ‘Doli’ sub-division of the Koya tribe, which has been traditionally ordained with the duty of reciting the tribe’s clan histories, Ramachandraiah is probably the last such singer left in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“Some times, I cross the State border to perform in Chhattisgarh, where people want the songs in Koya language,” Ramachandraiah says.
He sings at marriages, at funerals, and he always sings at the biennial Medaram Jathara also known as the ‘Sammakka Saralamma Jathara’, which is touted as the world’s largest repeat congregation of tribal communities. The Medaram Jathara is to be held from January 31 to February 3 this year, at Eturunagaram of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.
Gazette
The Doli community is described as ‘professional beggars’ among Koyas by the Godavari District Gazette of 1896. Though their duties are priest-like and along with ‘Oddis’— the superior priest class — they can be classified as the ‘literate’ in the tribe, their status is still considered ‘inferior’.
Doli men sing oral histories based on the ‘Padige’s or pictorial scrolls inherited by various communities over centuries.
“Earlier, Doli families used to live in a hamlet called ‘Soppala’.
Now, nobody lives there. Few are left who can recite oral histories as accurately as Ramachandraiah,” says Jayadhir Tirumala Rao, academic and researcher of tribal communities.
Prof. Tirumala Rao is spearheading a project to document the oral history of ‘Sammakka-Saralamma’ as told by Ramachandraiah, and he vouches that the story, if fleshed out from the myth it is enmeshed in, could substantially aid historical research.
“Sammakka-Saralamma story is about the war waged against the Kakatiya dynasty by tribal women who challenged king Prataparudra when he had levied tax on them for the tanks he had got constructed in their forests. The Koya tribe had then lived on hunting-gathering, and never cultivated any land.
So, the king sought to send outsiders into the forest for cultivation, which was the last straw on the camel’s back. This story comes out very clearly from the song recited by Ramachandraiah,” Prof. Tirumala Rao says.
Apart from ‘Sammakka-Saralamma’, the balladeer sings the stories of tribal warriors such as Gari Kamaraju, Pagididda Raju, Irama Raju, Gaadi Raju, Bapanamma, Musalamma, Nagulamma, Sadalamma and others. He also knows and recites the stories behind the endogamous tribal sub-divisions and their surnames. “Now, nobody wants to sing the stories. Even my own son refuses to follow the tradition,” Ramachandraiah laments.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by Swathi Vadlamudi / January 10th, 2018
Once upon a time there was a huge steam ship filled with passengers leaving a quaint town. But, the ill-fated ship sank with all of its 400 passengers on board. Ever since, the location where the ship sank in the sea has been haunted, with the souls of the gloomy, dead passengers haunting whoever passes by at night. They moan and take out their anger on the living, begging for attention and some relief from their after-life.
Thus goes the legend of a mysterious wreck in the Bay of Bengal popular among the fishing community of Visakhapatnam. And till recently, the wreck was nothing more than an apparition; a bed-time tale told to scare toddlers. Or so it was believed. But Vizag-based scuba diver, Balaram Naidu claims he’s discovered the remnants of that doomed ship lying in the Bay of Bengal.
“I don’t want to reveal where the wreck is yet, but the fishing community here has always had many interesting tales to tell about it,” says Balaram Naidu, owner of an adventure sports firm in the city.
From the pictures of the remnants of the said wreck that Balaram shared with Vizag Times, one can see various parts of the ship scattered around. “The shaft, motor, furnace and the rest of the main body are intact. The keel, decks and other parts of the ship have spread all over the place. The furnace even holds beautiful aqua life in it and is filled with fishes, eels and turtles,” explains Balaram.
But how did the adventure enthusiast even find the wreck in the first place? “We have been struggling to find wrecks in the sea for three years now and been taking the help of the fishing community to find them. But they can’t dive deep into the water, so they point out possible wreck sites to us and we dive to see if they’re actually there. We learnt about this site from the fishermen’s tales. We found the debris during our first few dives and it took us a while to find the wreck too,” he says, elated.
While the mention of the eerie wreck brings out excitement in Balaram, it incites fear in the fishing community. The fishermen are dead sure that this is the sunken ship that their forefathers warned them about. “I don’t know how old the ship is and when it sunk there. But generations of our children have grown up listening to tales of how 400 passengers on board died when this ship sank. I heard the story from my father, who heard the story from my grandfather and so on. My father is 85-years-old now, I think the ship sunk 300 years ago maybe. But this is the first time I’ve heard of someone actually finding it,” says Satti, a fisherman.
But why does the ship-wreck incite fear in these fishermen? “It’s not just me, anyone who has fished around that area will tell you that they feel scared to venture there. Because a lot of us who fished in that area at night, have felt someone hitting us on our backs. That’s why we avoid venturing there at night. Even when we do go that side, we go in large numbers and prefer not to catch fish there.”
Balaram however wants to find the ship’s origins and believes it sunk while it was leaving Vizag harbour. “The shaft is towards Vizag, this could mean that it sunk while it was leaving the harbour. I want to find out more details about the ship and I’m hoping its records can be found at the court. They will hopefully have the navigation records.”
For Balaram the finding of a coral in the sea few weeks back and now, the wreck just reinstates the fact that Vizag has the potential to be an attractive dive site. “In fact, it could be the best dive site in India,” he says. “Scuba divers love reef diving and wreck diving, and the latter is something a lot of divers opt for because it’s exciting.”
Previously too, Balaram Naidu had told Vizag Times that he is planning to present a proposal to the tourism department to develop Vizag as a wreck diving destination. If the proposal does indeed materialise, then civilians would be able to access the wreck of PNS Ghazi, that only divers of Indian Navy are privy to so far.
“I know for a fact that the remains of Ghazi lie 30 meters deep in the ocean and that the debris is entangled in fishing nets,” he says. Apart from the wreck of PNS Ghazi, and now this steam ship, the debris of a goods ship lies at the continental beach near Dolphin Hill.
“I will soon submit a proposal imploring the Tourism Department to turn the ship wreck we discovered now and PNS Ghazi into wreck diving sites. It can transform the tourism scenario not just in Vizag but all of India,” he sums it up.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Visakhapatnam News / by Neeshita Nyayapati / TNN / January 06th, 2018
Young Rahath Malladi, an upcoming singer, will make an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by staging a musical concert in which he will be singing songs in 100 languages at Sri Rama Function Palace at Gandhinagar on January 6.
He will be aiming to enter the book under ‘most languages sung in a concert’. He will be singing from 11 am. to 9 pm.
The 14-year-old singer is recipient of awards such as Bala Ratna, Smart Champ, State‘s Best Child, Uthama Bala Ratna and Golden Child, for his achievements in singing, acting and oration. He was the anchor for Bol Baby Bol and has acted in a children’s film.
Deputy Speaker Mandali Budda Prasad, Minister for Tourism Bhuma Akhila Priya will be the chief guests.
Kuchibhotla Anand, Chairman, Kuchipudi Natyaramam, D. Vizia Bhaskar, Director, Department of Language and Culture, Golla Narayana Rao, secretary, Andhra Arts Academy, E. Siva Nagi Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, Cultural Centre of Vijayawadaand Amaravati, are some of the distinguished guests.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States>Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – January 03rd, 2018
A file photo of INS Sindhukirti, seventh Sindhughosh-class submarine of Indian Navy, being towed in the channel for undertaking sea trials in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: arranged
On December 8, 1967, when Commander K.S. Subramanian read out the commissioning warrant in freezing -15 degree Celsius at Vladivostok, submarine base in Russia then USSR, little did he know that he was heralding a force that would one day be a nuclear force and will complete the nuclear triad for the country. Cdr Subramanian commanded the first submarine of the Indian Navy INS Kalvari.
The submarine arm or the silent arm of the Indian Navy is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, and in the last five decades it has grown from a couple of Foxtrot class submarines to possess the Arihant class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) to the state-of-the-art Scorpene-class submarines.
The proposal to form a submarine arm was first envisaged in 1959 and a draft plan to acquire four submarines from UK at a cost of ₹16 crore with a recurring annual cost of ₹ 2 crore was moved. But it did not materialise, and it was again moved in 1962 and the government approved the proposal. A nine- member team led by Captain B.K. Dang was sent to UK to undergo training at HMS Dolphin. But the purchase proposal did not again materialise, as India wanted to buy the Porpoise or Oberon class and the British government offered the old ‘T’ class.
It was only in 1964 that the Soviet government agreed for transfer by purchase for four ‘F’ class or Foxtrot-class submarines.
About 16 officers and over 100 sailors received training at Vladivostok and a beginning was made when Cdr. K.S. Subramanian sailed into the Visakhapatnam harbour, braving 16,000 km of rough sea from Riga to Visakhapatnam, on June 6, 1968.
The submarine arm of the Indian Navy came into operation at Visakhapatnam with the then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral A.K. Chatterjee laying the foundation stone for the submarine base.
The silent arm grew with the induction of four more Foxtrot-class submarines such as INS Khanderi, Karanj and Kursura. All the four constituted the 8th Submarine Squadron and have played a key role during the 1970-71 Indo-Pak war. Today, all have been decommissioned and INS Kursura is transformed into a submarine museum and stands on Visakhapatnam beach.
The first full-fledged submarine base had come into existence in the shape of INS Virbahu on May 19, 1971 at Visakhapatnam.
The force grew with the acquisition of four more Foxtrot-class submarines from the then Soviet Union. INS Vela, Vagir, Vagli and Vaghsheer formed the formidable 9th Squadron with the base at Bombay now Mumbai.
From the Foxtrot class, the navy graduated to procure and produce the German-based HDW 1500 class or also called as the SSKs attack submarines, in mid 1980s. Referred to as the Shishumar class, four of them Shishumar, Shankush, Shalki and Shankul formed the 10th Squadron of the arm, based in Mumbai.
Keeping the tempo up, India negotiated with Russia to procure the Kilo-class or the Sindhughosh-class attack submarines. Equipped with the 3M-54 Klub (SS-N-27) anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of 220 km, for the first time India was on the offensive side of submarine warfare.
While Sindhughosh, Sindhudhvaj, Sindhuraj, Sindhuvir , Sindhuratna and Sindhurakshak (exploded and sank in Mumbai harbour on14 August 2013) were based in Mumbai to form the 12th Squadron. Sindhukesari, Sindhukriti, Sindhuvijay and Sindhurashtra were based in Visakhapatnam to form the 11th Squadron.
Nuclear era
The submarine arm entering the nuclear era began with the leasing of INS Chakra an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) from Russia in 1988 and it was based in Visakhapatnam.
Sources in the navy said Chakra was taken on lease to train officers and men with the futuristic idea to build its own nuclear fleet. After the lease of INS Chakra expired, a second Akula Class nuclear submarine INS Chakra II was taken on lease from Russia in 2012.
India built its first nuclear submarine INS Arihant under the Advanced Technology Vessel project at the Ship Building Centre in Visakhapatnam.
INS Arihant the first of the expected five in the Arihant-class is indigenously built with Akula-class technology.
Completing a full 50 years cycle, the Scorpène-class submarine is now being built for the Indian Navy at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai with French design, and they are named after the Kalvari class. The subs will be named after the first batch that served the navy such as Kalvari, Khanderi and Karanj.
President to present colours
As part of the celebrations, President Ram Nath Kovind will be awarding Presidential Colours to the Submarine Arm of the Indian Navy at a Colour Presentation ceremony to be held in Visakhapatnam on December 8.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Visakhapatnam / by Sumit Bhattacharjee / Visakhapatnam – December 07th, 2017
The Assembly on Saturday passed a resolution approving the appointment of Guntur-born Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth as Deputy Collector.
The Council of Ministers resolved, vide resolution CR No. 429-2/2017, dated November 2017, to provide employment to him in a post in Group 1 services (Deputy Collector) of the State in appreciation of his outstanding performance in badminton.
Four titles
Srikanth won four super series titles – Indonesian Open, Australian Open, Denmark Open, and French Open – in one year, and he was the only Indian and fourth player in the world to achieve the feat.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – December 02nd, 2017
She created two records on Sunday to enter the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records, and it’s not her first time!
When Dolly Shivani Cherukuri from Vijayawada was nearing two, she became the youngest Indian archer to score more than 200 points at a trial event.
And boy was she young!
Three years later, Dolly has done it again. On Sunday, the now 5-year-old created two records to enter the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records.
According to Deccan Chronicle , Dolly created the first record by shooting 103 arrows to a distance of 10m in just 11 minutes, 19 seconds.
She used the Indian arrow and a compound bow – one that uses a levering system to bend the limbs.
Dolly Shivani Cherukuri. Source: Facebook
She created the second record by shooting 36 arrows from a distance of 20m in 5 minutes, 8 seconds. Out of 360 points, she scored 290.
“The performance of Shivani was outstanding, and an archer in their teens cannot do the feat done by Shivani. It was a big challenge for her in this age, and we appreciate the efforts of Volga Archery Academy for their training,” B. Shravan Kumar, an official from Archery Association of India, told Deccan Chronicle.
Dolly comes from a family of archers. Her father runs an archery academy, and her older brother, who unfortunately passed away six years ago, was an international archer as well as coach.
The records certificates were handed over to Dolly’s father, Cherukuri Satyanarayana, by the officials of Asia Books of Records.
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> Andhra Pradesh> Quick Bytes / by Deepika Bharadwaj / September 2017
