Control freak wreaks havoc in education

Is Govt Taking Its Anger Out On Non-SSC Schools For Challenging Earlier Orders?

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: The state government’s latest diktats on school education seem to have born out of an urge to get even, say non-SSC schools and parents of kids who study in these schools. These institutions and parents have come together twice in the last one year to drag the state to court for its policies and have managed to convince the judiciary of their partisan nature both times.

The latest government move comes barely a couple of months after the state’s second defeat in court against non-SSC schools and parents who challenged its decision to reserve 90% of seats in junior colleges for SSC students. The Bombay high court rubbished the decision, calling it “self-contradictory’’ and “unconstitutional’’.

The HC ruling on the state’s percentile system in 2008 was as scathing. The court had found the system “hurried’’, “flawed’’ and “illegal’’ and said the new rule promoted “mediocracy over meritocracy’’ and hurt “students’ right to equality’’.

Non-SSC schools and parents of students going to these schools are again getting ready to challenge the decision. Teaching Schools A Lesson TOI gives in a nutshell the new law laid down by the state and how it impacts non-SSC schools and their students
THE NEW LAW ON ENGLISH

All schools, irrespective of their boards, will have to follow the SSC English curriculum from classes I to V.
THE QUESTIONS How will kids cope in Std VI?

Every expert agrees that the English curriculum followed in SSC schools is of a lower standard than that taught in most non-SSC schools. Educationists and schoolchildren’s parents are now worried that students may find it difficult to adjust to texts of a higher standard after being reared on a diet of “mediocre texts’’ for five years.

Should govt control other boards?
Why should the government want to control the curriculum of other boards? Then, what’s the point in having different boards?

Should other boards be dragged down to SSC level?
The SSC board has consistently been trying to upgrade its curriculum to match those of other boards. Now why does the government want to drag other boards down to the SSC level?

Why should schools’ freedom be curtailed?
Boards like ICSE and CBSE allow schools the freedom to create their own syllabi up to Std VIII; this allows flexibility and innovation. Why should ICSE and CBSE schools be deprived of this freedom?

THE NEW LAW ON MARATHI
All schools will have to introduce Marathi as a compulsory second language from Std I to Std VIII.

THE QUESTIONS
What happens if you have to move out of the state? Will kids, taught Marathi as second language till Std VIII, be able to take up another language in Std IX if they have to move out of the state?
Who’ll be responsible for the trauma?

A significant percentage of Mumbaikars have transferable jobs (people working in the government, defence forces, banks, multinational firms, the media). A transfer for parents can often be a little unsettling for the kids. Shouldn’t your children be spared of the additional trauma of coping with a new second language in school? Wouldn’t Hindi as an option make much more sense?

Meddling In Administration
The government has listed other new administrative rules that ICSE, CBSE, IB and IGCSE schools will have to comply with to get a no-objection certificate (NOC). Some of the rules will gladden parents, but there are several that schools fear can be used by the state to arm-twist them at will

NOCs will be given for three years after which they will have to be renewed. The first NOC will be given by the state; the following ones will be given by the deputy director of education.

NOCs can be taken back at any point by the government; schools must comply with its terms and conditions.
During the admissions, schools must procure bona fide birth certificates from students.
The government fee structure will be applicable to these schools.

Club for a CAUSE

The Monday Charity Club, Which Helps People In Need

Priya M Menon | TNN

This group of housewives gets together once a month, always on a Monday. And though they do take the time to catch up on each other’s lives, their concern extends to a larger section of society — the needy and the underprivileged. Topics discussed range from problems faced by working parents to discrimination against the girl child.

“I wanted to encourage housewives to do social work,” says 79-yearold Savithri Vaithi, who established the Monday Charity Club in 1970. From the age of 16, Savithri has been an untiring social worker, visiting the slums of Chennai.

The club, however, was established on a very modest note. “I used to teach women cooking and baking,” says Savithri, who holds a diploma in medico-social work. “I sounded them out about starting a charity club and we established it with the first group of students in my house in Alwarpet,” says Savithri. Kausalya Seshadri, 73, a founder-member and one of Savithri’s former students, says, “We wanted to start a ladies’ club not to just while away time but to do charity every month. Helping others gives us great personal satisfaction.”

Since the club consisted of housewives, Monday was a convenient day for them to meet. “We usually meet on the first Monday of every month, between 11 am and 1 pm,” says Kausalya. Any programme the club organises — be it lectures by eminent people or demonstrations — are also held on Mondays

Though they began with 20-odd members and the aim of doing one charitable deed a month, the club has grown exponentially over the years.

Today, it has 170 members and several ongoing charitable ventures. “We don’t just momentarily dole out help but are doing projects on a sustainable basis,” says 73-year-old Malini Kasthurirangan.

One of their older projects is the Book Bank, which helps college-going students. “They can enrol by paying Rs 20, borrow the prescribed textbooks for degree courses and return them after the academic year,” says Savithri.

Other projects to help needy students include funding poor students and Vidya Daan. “We request schools to recommend good students who need our help,” says Kausalya. They then ‘adopt’ students of Class VII, looking after their educational needs till Class XII.

The club was instrumental in setting up Vishranthi old age home. And the ‘Undrugol’ (literally meaning walking stick) project caters to people above 60 from lower socio-economic backgrounds. “We personally visit households and identify people,” says Savithri.

They are then given a photo-identity card. On the first Wednesday of every month, they come to the club to collect provisions — 5 kg rice, 1 kg dal, 1 kg oil and a little bit of tamarind, red chillies and dhaniya plus Rs 30 as pocket money. “This helps these elderly people live with their family and be independent at the same time,” says Savithri.

While the club has attracted sponsors over the years, today they are low on funds, admits Kausalya. Yet another concern is the fact that the club mainly consists of elderly people.

“Most of us started out together and are now grandmoms and even great-grandmoms, we are looking for younger members,” says Savithri. “Social work is our focus but we also do fun things together, like go on picnics.”

“We need younger people to take over from us, so I have enrolled my daughter-in-law and her sister,” says Kausalya. “We are even thinking of changing the day we meet to Saturdays as most women work these days.”
For more details, call 24994806
priya.menon@timesgroup.com

DIVINE SERVICE

This group meets once a month to spring-clean temples

Kamini Mathai | TNN

HAPPY TO HELP: Members of the group at work

For about eight years now, on the fourth Sunday of every month, a group of people from various parts of Chennai and its suburbs meet up to spring-clean a temple somewhere in Tamil Nadu. While it began in 2001 as four friends thrashing out their idea for service to society, today the group has expanded to more than 400. And they call themselves the ‘Uzhavarappani Group’.

The original four founders of the group are B Srinivasan, a cooperative store employee in Tambaram, artist T Saravanan, S Ganeshan, an auditor and S Ayyappan, a store owner. They are still the main planners and get the requisite permission from the temple authorities.

“Our mentor, whom we used to call Krishnamoorthy Ayya, the man who inspired us to start, passed away sometime ago. But the core team remains the same. Usually, the four of us narrow down on the temple and then inform the members of the group and decide where and what time we can organise pick-ups etc,” says 48-year-old Srinivasan.

Transport is arranged for members who live in different areas in the city with each bus carrying around 50 people. “No one has ever written about us, we have never advertised our services. Still, the group has grown so much. It is only because of the conscientiousness of the volunteers,” says Srinivasan. He adds that since they have been doing this for years, it is so well organised that word just spreads and the volunteers arrive.

“We try and get to the temple by 8am so we can work till 6pm. The members are divided into various groups, which have their functions cut out for them. It’s all very well planned — one group takes care of cutting grass, another does whitewashing, the third group cooks food for the entire group, while the fourth polishes all the brass in the temple.

We always pick a temple that is dilapidated,” says Srinivasan. The group has people from all walks of life — from artists and government employees to doctors, housewives and businessmen

“We never ask people for money as this is a free service,” says Srinivasan. “But we usually have donors within the group who voluntarily take on various expenses, like the food served or the bus charge,” he adds.
To date, the group has cleaned more than 90 temples in Chennai and its surrounding districts.

“We know there will always be temples to clean and we are ready to clean them. Kancheepuram district alone has more than 1,000 temples. So, we have our work cut out for us for years to come,” says Srinivasan.
kamini.mathai@timesgroup.com

Puri Rath Yatra festival 2009 June 24/.

KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE:

A priest at Uttaradi Mutt in Basavanagudi performs ‘Mudra Dharane’ on the occasion of Prathama Ekadash

Pilgrims get their foreheads marked with a ‘tilak’ on

Aashadi Ekadashi at Pundhalik temple in Vitthalwadi on Friday

45,000 MCD employees fake?

Weeding Out Non-Existent ‘Staffers’ Could Save Rs 1,000cr A Year

Ambika Pandit | TNN

New Delhi: Harried Delhiites have long fumed that MCD doesn’t work. Here’s probably why: 45,000 employees on its roster, who have been drawing salaries, have gone missing!
An elaborate exercise by the civic body to build a biometric identification database of its employees has opened a can of worms. About 85,000 employees have registered, while 45,000 are not traceable.
It gets worse.

According to a senior corporation official, though these numbers add up to 1.30 lakh, the total number of employees could be up to 1.75 lakh, which means the number of missing staffers could double.

This workforce, a big section of which exists only on paper, thrives on a Rs 207-crore monthly wage bill.
That such a scam could be perpetrated for years so brazenly in the civic body of the national capital puts a huge question mark over the functioning of the corporation, its officials and the political wing.

It would be naive to think that there is no complicity and that this could have gone undetected all these years without an all-pervasive rot.

The corporation’s vigilance department and the state government’s anti-corruption branch, it seems, were not so vigilant after all.

It was Commissioner K S Mehra’s decision three months back to extend the biometric identification system, already operational in Town Hall, to all the 12 zones of the corporation that blew the lid. The phantom employees never registered. ‘‘July 15 is the deadline for all the employees to register and after that only those who are registered will get their salary,’’ Mehra told TOI. He refused to comment any further.

A senior official said the scam is most rampant in the sanitation and horticulture departments where salaries are drawn by supervisors against ATM cards of non-existent safai karmacharis and gardeners. The official, who didn’t wish to be quoted, said weeding out of these names could yield a saving of Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore annually.
MASSIVE DRAIN
85,000 staffers have registered for biometric identification system, 45,000 are missing
Sources say number of fake MCD employees could be even more
July 15 deadline for staff to register if they want their salaries

MISSING CORPN OF DELHI

Vasant Kunj resident smelt a rat in 2004

Dipak Kumar Dash I TNN

New Delhi: While revelations about MCD’s ghost employees — particularly in the sanitation and horticulture departments — might have come as a shock for many, resident welfare associations (RWAs) in the capital had more than an inkling about it for long. So much so that many had demanded that salaries of sweepers and gardeners should be paid after their attendance was endorsed by the RWAs.

A resident activist had even nailed the rot in the MCD in 2004 after filing an RTI seeking details of the gardeners deployed in his pocket.
Anil Sood, secretary general of NGO Chetna and a resident of C-1, Vasant Kunj, recalled he filed the first RTI in May 2004 as his colony parks were severely neglected. ‘‘I asked how many gardeners were deployed in our pocket and what were their duty hours to which they said three full-time gardeners were on duty,’’ he said.

In a revealing submission, the MCD said gardeners were working from 9am to 5pm in the pocket and in the logbook, one tubewell was being operated 4-5 hours daily.

‘‘The three gardeners were drawing Rs 6,500 salary each. I even sought the fathers’ names and residential addresses of the three gardeners to verify them. But they didn’t provide anything more,’’ Sood said.
Finally, he wrote to the lieutenant-governor seeking a high-level inquiry and the LG marked an investigation to then municipal commissioner Rakesh Mehta. Later, the MCD marked a copy of the findings of the inquiry to Sood, which said that the gardeners were marking their attendance in D-3&4 and they were working as per the directions of their ‘‘superiors’’.

About their salaries, the corporation said salaries were being paid as per their attendance verified by the supervisory staff. The corporation also submitted that though the pump was working 4-5 hours a day, it did not receive any electricity bill and no payment had been made till then. ‘‘To hide their lie, they even claimed to have got a certificate from a resident that said the condition of parks and working of the gardeners were satisfactory. Though we challenged the authenticity of the endorsement, they never paid any heed,’’ Sood said.

CORRUPTION BLOOMING IN MCD

MCD in denial mode, cites ECS payment

Ambika Pandit | TNN

New Delhi: Senior MCD officials have acknowledged that an elaborate exercise to enrol the MCD staff for biometric identification has revealed that over 45,000 employees are missing. They simply didn’t turn up — it’s feared that most of them don’t exist. But a day after TOI exposed this shocking state of affairs in the civic body, many officials and their political masters were in a state of denial.

Leader of the House Subhash Arya said since the corporation was paying all its employees through the electronic clearance system, there was no question of there being any ‘‘ghost employees’’. He, however, failed to mention how supervisors were withdrawing salaries of many of these nonexistent employees by using their ATM cards. This seems to be common knowledge.

The MCD is paying its employees through the electronic clearance system (ECS). This means that every employee should have a bank account which is not possible to create without an identity and address proof. Hence MCD says that all its employees are accounted for. But officials clam up when asked for a figure. No one is willing to state how many employees the corporation has or hazard a guess.
Arya was defensive.

‘‘We are in the process of implementing the biometric system of attendance and there are still 15 days left for employees to get themselves registered. Any conclusion can be reached only after all heads of departments and zonal heads certify that all employees under their charge have registered.’’

‘‘Secondly,’’ he added, ‘‘the finance department will have to say that the salary is being paid as per certification by the heads of departments and zones. Finally, the firm undertaking the biometric work will have to certify that they have enrolled each and every employee according to the list provided by the heads of department and zonal chiefs.’’

MCD Commissioner KS Mehra too told TOI that any inquiry or action on the matter will be ordered only after the exact number of employees is established.

About 85,000 employees from various departments of the corporation have registered under the biometric system so far. Of this figure, 50,000 are in the sanitation department, 11,000 in engineering, 18,000 in health and 7000 in horticulture.
ambika.pandit@timesgroup.com

RTI reply: CIC pulls up PCB for being ‘casual’

Asseem Shaikh | TNN

Pune: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) for deputing a retired employee instead of a serving employee to attend the hearing of a second appeal.

The CIC also expressed its annoyance with PCB chief executive officer and the first appellate authority S K Sardana for not giving their comments on an appeal filed by Ranjeet Solanki, a resident of Bhavani Peth, opposite Poona college.

In its order delivered on June 16, Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra described the attitude of PCB officials as “casual” in dealing with matters under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The appellant Solanki had requested the central public information officer (CPIO), D D Modak, to provide information about the service record of his father Ashok Solanki. He had also sought details about the payments made to the legal heirs after his father’s death in an application dated October 26, 2006.

After the PCB transferred Solanki’s application to the CPIO of the accounts department, the appellant received a reply from the CPIO stating that on verification, no office record existed in his father’s name.

Dissatisfied with the reply, Solanki had preferred a first appeal before the CEO and the first appellate authority. The first appellate authority, in its order on January 16, 2007, had held that as per the index register maintained by the board, no file existed in Ashok Solanki’s name. The appellate authority further directed the CPIO to conduct a thorough search of the records and provide information within 15 days.
Solanki preferred a second appeal before the CIC after he received a reply from the CPIO stating that even after a second search no information sought by the appellant was available.

When the appeal came up for hearing before the commission in New Delhi, which was held via video conferencing from the National Informatics Centre here, Solanki brought to the notice of commission that the first appellate authority had not given its comments on the appeal even after the CIC making a communication on October 6, 2008.
Mishra stated: “It is deplorable that the PCB had failed to send its comments on the appeal even after 10 months of being asked to do so. This shows their utter lack of seriousness in matters related to right to information”.
Mishra further observed that “It is also very strange that the public authority deputed a retired employee to appear in the case instead of the current CPIO. Even if the CIC notice had been issued in the name of Smt D D Modak, CPIO and chief accountant, it was not desirable that the public authority should have summoned a retired employee to appear. It was the duty of the current CPIO to appear for the hearing”.

Modak submitted that she had replied to the appellant after the concerned section of the board had informed her that Sonlanki’s service record could not be traced, but she admitted the fact that she had once met him when he was alive.

“In any public authority, information about a former employee can be found by looking at several records like acquaintance roll, leave registers, seniority lists etc. Even if this particular person had passed away, the authorities concerned could have tried to find out about him from one or the other relevant records or documents only if they had tried hard and should not have casually dismissed the request by stating that no record in this name existed,” Mishra’s order stated.

Mishra directed the CPIO to once again search the records and files for finding out if there is any reference of the appellant’s father.

The CIC has sought an explanation from the CPIO.

A BUILDER OF YOUNG LIVES

Samarpita Banerjee

Pune: Renuka and Anjana enter the room with a twinkle in their eyes. And why not? They had a big news to announce. “I scored 87 per cent in my class VII exam,” Renuka announces. “And I 85 per cent,” chimes in Anjana.

What makes the achievement of these two girls worth acknowledging is the fact that they belong to poor, uneducated parents who work as nomadic construction workers. And for this marvellous achievement, full credit goes to their mentor, Nirmala Hiremath, or didi, as she is lovingly called.

Hiremath has been working for the children of construction workers across the city for the past 23 years and runs the Tara Mobile Crèche (TMC). The crèche takes care of some 6,000 children every year. “We have children ranging from the age group of 15 days to 15-16 years. At the moment, we are running 16 day care centres across the city and till date we have opened and closed 128 sites,” said Nirmala, elaborating on the structure of the TMC.

So, how did it all begin? “The idea of starting such a crèche first came to social worker Meera Mahadevan when she came across many half-naked children of construction workers playing on a site in Delhi. The sight moved and motivated her so much that she started a day care centre for such children in Delhi in 1969. The Mumbai and Pune branches opened in 1972 and 1980 respectively, and we work collectively under the name Mobile Crèches. Since then, the programme has grown considerably and all the three organisations now function as separate entities,” says Hiremath.

Elaborating on the aim of the organisation, Hiremath adds, “Even as thousands of people come to the city from other states to work as construction workers, and build the ‘Modern India’, their children are left to fend for themselves among piles of rubble and construction material. They do not get proper food and hygiene. They have to work as domestic helps at homes and most of them cannot attend schools. In the process, they lose their childhood. Our aim is to ensure that we are able to reach out to more and more such children and make them capable enough to enter the mainstream instead of following the path of their parents.”

Since its inception, TMC has faced many problems. “Initially, the developers did not support the idea because it becomes an added responsibility and they even had to give us a room which is in a good condition to act as a house for new-borns. This problem persists even today. At times, they give us a small room with a tin ceiling without a fan or water supply,” says Sandhya Gujar, a volunteer who has been with TMC for the last 17 years.

However, facing these problems as challenges, the TMC team, headed by Hiremath spreads awareness around the city about the fundamental right of every child — the right to education. “Today, the situation is much better. Because of the awareness, schools are accepting our children. Also, more developers and builders are giving us support by contributing one-third of the expenses.”

The organisation has also opened a hostel for students who do well in schools. “Since the parents are nomadic, they keep shifting from one site to another and it becomes difficult for us to track down the children. Continuity in education is very important. That’s why we have opened the Seva Sadan hostel. Today, we have 13 students staying there.”

Numerous students, who once were a part of the TMC, have now entered the mainstream and doing quite well. Twenty three-year-old Sidhu Kamde today works in a call centre. “I owe everything to TMC and didi,” says Sidhu.

A matter of great shame. Judicial processes are teriibly slow and convoluted. It benefits the criminal wonderfully.  Innocents especially the poor are always at the receiving end.

Over 40 undertrials stuck in prison, despite getting bail

They Can’t Walk Free As They Have None

To Stand Surety For Them

A Subramani | TNN

Chennai: That any arrested person is entitled to walk out of jail once he obtains bail and furnishes surety to the satisfaction of a magistrate, is common knowledge.

But do you know that more than 40 persons are languishing at Puzhal Central Prison-II though they have got bail but are unable to find persons to stand surety for them? Also, do you know that one such less-privileged prisoner — P Muthu of Kumananchavadi near Poonamallee — died of cancer after remaining in prison for nearly three years?

While Muthu and at least 43 others remained behind bars because they had no one to stand surety for them, 91 others are in Puzhal-II for more than a year as the police concerned had not filed a chargesheet as yet.

“Most of them are petty offenders, and are ready to plead guilty. Even if convicted, they would be sentenced only for a few months. But, unless the police file a chargesheet, the magistrate cannot dispose of the matter,” said a prison official. “Delaying chargesheet is a way of delaying their release,” he added.

Puzhal Prison-II has 116 inmates who are in jail for more than 90 days but less than one year. There are 43 others who are staying in jail between 60 days and 90 days. “In regular crimes, if the police fail to lay chargesheet in 60 days, the accused could avail the statutory bail benefit and walk out of jail,” said special public prosecutor for human rights cases, V Kannadasan.

The Puzhal-II is home to about a dozen inmates facing charges under Section 75 (public nuisance) of City Police Act and Section 7(1)(a) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. They are inside for periods ranging 3-4 months, in spite of the fact that if convicted they would be sentenced to serve only a couple of weeks in jail.

“Personal liberty is the most sacred of all fundamental rights,” said Kannadasan, adding, “prison authorities cannot be blamed for this sorry state of affairs.” He said that the data itself was being compiled only as per the directions of the director-general of police (prisons) R Natraj, to be sent to the legal services authority for redressal.

Even in the case of Muthu, the prison authorities took note of his poor health condition and forwarded his request to be sent out on own bond to the jurisdictional court. As there was no response either from the court or from legal aid authorities, he was admitted in the Government Royapettah Hospital in February 2009. Till his death on April 9, he did not get any help, lament prison staff.

He was arrested by the Poonamallee police on charges of preparing to commit robbery (crime no. 735/2006) in 2006, ahead of the assembly elections. “His three-year incarceration was meaningful in one sense. It exposed the insensitivity of the judiciary and ineffectiveness of the legal aid system,” said Kannadasan.

Christa Purana still moves faithful to tears

Ashley D’Mello | TNN

Mumbai: Avelino Rejoice Dhakul, 81, never fails to bring tears to people’s eyes when he renders the Passion of Christ from the Christa Purana, describing scenes from the crucifixion at the Good Friday service at St Francis Xavier Church, Vile Parle.

Dhakul, who has been singing solo for the last 25 years, is keen that others should step up to carry on the torch, but he says sadly, “I have no luck so far.’’

Singing of verses from the Christa Purana, which is written in the old Marathi script, is a looked-forward to ritual during the season of Lent in some of the old churches of suburban Mumbai, although the last three decades have seen a slow fading of this tradition.
Lent, commemorates 40 days of fasting and abstinence, before the death of Christ on Good Friday. The singing involves a mournful incantation of the verses, which detail the life and death of Christ. This is done during the Passu ceremony when the body of Christ is lowered from the cross for veneration by the congregation.

The Christa Purana is part of the religious and cultural tradition of Catholics in Mumbai, Goa and Mangalore. Written by an English Jesuit missionary, Thomas Stevens, who studied at Oxford and settled in Goa in the 17th century, the writing follows the Hindu puranic style and is regarded as an epic.

Dhakul states that most youngsters do not want to learn to sing the verses in the Purana. “The singing on Good Friday can sometimes last almost two hours, and most youngsters stay away from such a task,’’ he says. “The interest in singing in Marathi is also not strong any more. Youngsters prefer to sing hymns in English.’’

But for the D’Mello brothers at St Andrew Church in Bandra, Conrad (39) and Anselm (36), who sing, the experience is different. “The tradition of singing the Purana is still strong in our family but it has slowed down in Bandra over the last decades,’’ says Conrad. “We have the puran tradition since my great-grandfather’s time and probably even before that, we sang the puran verses regularly at home when we were growing up in Bandra.’’

Even among the Catholics of Vasai who speak and write in Marathi, the tradition is fading. Bishop Thomas Dabre of Vasai explains why.

“The Purana is no longer popular in Vasai because it is written in old Marathi, which is sometimes difficult to understand. The churches now use modern hymns,’’ he says.
Efforts to revive the epic are under way. Fr Simon Borges of Kurla has helped produce a CD of songs from the puran. The issue has also been taken up by Major Leon Fonseca, executive committee member of the East Indian Association. “We are discussing ways and means of preserving this centuries-old tradition. It should not be allowed to die,’’ he says.

Pune bishop
The bishop of Vasai, Thomas Dabre, has been appointed bishop of Pune by the Vatican. A Marathi scholar and a well-known Catholic theologian, Bishop Dabre is an authority on Indian mysticism and Sant Tukaram. One of his main thrusts has been interreligious dialogue and communal harmony. TNN

Head of Mantralaya mutt passes away

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Bangalore: The chief pontiff of Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt in Mantralaya, Sri Sushmeendra Teertha Swami, passed away on Saturday following a cardiac arrest. Swami Sushmeendra was 83 and breathed his last at 2.20 pm at a private hospital here.

He’d been admitted to the hospital a fortnight ago after he complained of age-related ailments, according to Rajagopalachari of Raghavendra Mutt. His body was taken to Mantralaya where it will be kept for public viewing between 5 am and 8 pm on Sunday before being taken to brindavana (temporary burial).

Born in Nanjangud near Mysore, Swami Sushmeendra at 59 joined the Mantralaya mutt in the temple town on the banks of the Tungabhadra in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh in 1985.

“He was instrumental in taking Mantralaya closer to people,” recalled Rajagopalachari.

Fighting palsy, she learns

the alphabet at 21, graduates at 30

Karthika Gopalakrishnan | TNN 

Chennai: Ummul Khair has made the journey of a lifetime in the last 10 years. Her body is affected by cerebral palsy but it is her mind that the sociology graduate has always relied upon to take her forward — from learning the alphabet at the age of 21 to completing her college education almost a decade later.

“I was at Vidya Sagar when I was five years old but I could not go to school once my family moved to Bangalore. I was at home for nearly 12 years. I watched my cousins study and wanted to be independent as well. I did not want charity,” she said after receiving her degree certificate at the 14th graduation ceremony of MOP Vaishnav College for Women on Sunday.

During a family visit to Chennai, Ummul got in touch with Vidya Sagar founder Poonam Natarajan and that helped her on her way.

“We had looked after her all along and were scared about letting her stay alone.

But Poonam akka convinced us that Ummul could study. We had only thought about making her walk, never about making her study. Today, we are extremely proud of her. When we cry, she gives us courage saying she will study and do well,” said her mother, 65-year-old Umaira Batul, with tears in her eyes.

The family currently resides in Bangalore’s Shivaji Nagar. Umaira’s husband Mohammad Azham Khan (85) used to sew plastic baby sheets with pillows, diapers and clothes for infants. Ummul’s younger brother works at a hotel.

Since she had never enrolled in school, Ummul learnt the alphabet when she was 21 and took three years to clear the class X board exams conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling. After completing her class XII on a sponsorship at Lady Andal Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Chetpet, she enrolled for a degree in Sociology at MOP Vaishnav College for Women.

“I am lucky to have got the opportunity to study. In all aspects, it has helped me learn. The teachers and students were always supportive. ‘Sari Day’ was one of the most memorable occasions as my classmates even helped me wear a sari. It was a lot of fun,” Ummul recounted.

Along with her internships in college — counselling alcoholics and working with a human rights organisation — her world view was further moulded after a trip to the US in June last year as part of the Global Leadership Programme.

“I participated in everything, even adventure sports where we were suspended 40 feet in the air. There is a lot of accessibility for disabled individuals in the US. I was able to go anywhere I wanted,” she said.

After returning to the city, Ummul went on to finish her course and is now pursuing a course in law at the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law College. Hoping to be able to fight for the rights of the disabled in a few years, Ummul was not at all taken aback by the standing ovation she received during Sunday’s graduation ceremony.

The dignitaries on stage rose from their chairs and the students cheered. Unfazed by it all, Ummul exuded confidence. She knew she deserved it.

THE HONOURS: Ummul Khair receives her degree certificate from BS Raghavan, former chief secretary of Tripura. (Below) Students of MOP Vaishnav College For Women take the oath during the convocation at Kamrajar Arangam on Sunday