My Dear Student Friends,
Greetings!
This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder,
Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement. Welcome to “Letter
to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 10”. Hope you enjoyed reading my
previous letter. These letters are reaching
all corners of our country, for one good cause, spreading Inspiring stories of
amazing people. Why should you read these letters? What you will gain from this
mission? Answer is simple. Stories of amazing people enable our dreams. They
set path for our prosperous life. Sometimes, they erase inhibitions in our
mind. Sometimes, they soften our hearts, sometimes harden for good mission. Sometimes,
act as torch bearers. Sometimes, help us live on the ground. Sometimes, give us
hope and courage to raise our flag. Sometimes, cut short our shortcomings.
Sometimes, increase our risk appetite. The beauty is they act like medicinal
pills based on our deficiency and need. Hope you agree with me.
In the previous issue, we discussed
about the importance of giving back, an incident between Herbert Hoover
and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, an amazing P C Musthafa's rags- to-riches entrepreneurial
journey, a school going girl, Lavanya, how she created impact to
build toilets in her entire village, how Shashank Singh Kachwaha is
trying to help building pond in water scarce Rajasthan, Gabrielle
Diamanti’s solar powered saline water purifier and so on.
Recently I was reading an article on
Millap.org regarding Ashok Deshmane, 26 year old software
engineer, from Parbhani district of Marathwada, who faced hardships in his childhood
due to poverty, now got settled in life, but not his spirit. Ashok started an
NGO, Snehwan, adopted more than 20 kids (8-15 age group) of families in which
the farmers committed suicides due to pestering drought and surmounting debts.
Today he is providing food, accommodation and education beyond books and school
so that next generation farmers are ready to serve our nation. Thanks to
Millap, which is helping in raising funds, Ashok's work is helping in healing
the wounds of those families affected, distressed and ruined. Thank you Ashok.
We encourage your good work.
In similar mission, A school dropout from Bangalore, Shivakumar
feeding thousands of people (poor,
orphanages, old age homes and so on) with leftover wedding food. Most of the
times, this leftover food gets dumped in the garbage. Shivakumar found a noble
destination to this leftover food. With his efforts, today he receives phone
calls from all over city, to collect leftover food. Thanks to yourstory.com for
covering this wonderful mission of Shivakumar. He estimates that minimum
100-150 people sufficient food gets wasted in every function. This class 10
dropout acts like a Sabari in Ramayana, tastes food before he packs it up. He wishes
to construct cold storage capacity to keep food for 10000 people. Recently, on Akshaya
Tritiya, the most auspicious day, he received 120 phone calls and distributed
food to 28000 slum dwellers. What kind of magnanimous heart Shivakumar has!
In this context, I would like to
share a wonderful story which I read it from my facebook posting. I don't know
the source of the story. Once a man was walking on scorching desert. He was
walking, walking and walking but could not able to find any water footprint in
the vicinity. He is moving towards water ponds, but after reaching there, they
turned out to be mirage. He is getting tired and dire need of water. After few
kilometers of walking, he found a village. His spirits raised. He walked to an abandoned
house. He found an unused boring pump. He started pumping, pumping and pumping.
He lost all his sweat but no drop of water came out. He lost the hope and
decided to witness his death next morning. Suddenly, he saw a bottle of water
in the corner. Immediately, he grabbed it. He was trying to open the cap but
was failing. It was extremely tight. He found a letter hanging to the bottle.
It was written that "pour this bottled water into the pump, then do the
hand pumping, you will get water". He was in a dilemma. If he pours this little
water into the pump and later if he could not able to fetch water, he immediately
loses his body. However, he drinks the little water available now and walks for
some more time, anyways he will die next day. He thought thoroughly, finally
left the decision to Lord. With the divine intervention, he got intelligence and made him to pour water into
the pump. Then he did hand pumping, and fetched gallons of water from the bore
pump! He drank enough, excess, stored in bottles and moved in his journey. He
thanked Lord for the divine intelligence provided. The moral of this story is "when
you want to take something from someone, you first create a habit of giving
someone". God makes sure, you will receive it in some useful form. Hope
you agree with me.
My dear student friends, summer
vacation is getting completed. Hope you are getting ready for next academic
year in your school / college / University. Welcome! You all need to work hard,
think smart and bring value to your life. Every minute is a wonderful opportunity
to you. Gift in your life. Don't waste time and energy. Don't lose heart and
despair. Remember, You are always on advantage position than some other
disadvantage. Time is precious. Once utilized, you cannot bring it back. In
this context, I would like to share few stories of the committed students who
are struggling to go to school every day due to their disadvantaged locations.
Recently I was viewing a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGwcqdzw-jo), that should send shivers down your spine.
What an amazing students they are! As per the video, The most remote school in
the world is located in Gulu, China. Students take 5 hours journey into deep
mountains on a 1 feet wide path, is most unusual and risky school journey! In
another case ( Zhang Jiawan Village), students take unsecured wooden
ladders to reach mountain top and reach school. Some kids in our Himalayan
region (near Zanskar), kids travel boarding schools crossing icy Himalayan
ranges. In Indonesia (Lebak), kids cross a damaged suspension bridge, crossing
river to reach school. In Colombia, kids are flying 800 meters on a steel cable
which is 400 meters above the Rio Negro River. In an extreme ride case, kids in
Pili, China take 125 mile Journey to
their Boarding School through mountains (http://www.gosocial.co/18-of-the-most-unusual-and-dangerous-routes-to-school-in-the-world/). In India, everyday many students in
remote villages cross streams, rivers, pass through jungles and reach schools. We
need salute to these students and teachers. Hats off to these people taking
this unsecured routes and enriching their knowledge. Dear Friends, if you are
one among them, I really hats off to you. if you are privileged to reach school
smoothly, you must do something big and create an impact in the society. Hope
you got my message. Hope you will work on your mission.
In this connection, I would like to
share another inspiring story of Dr. Achyuta Samanta, founder of
KIIT University, Orissa. When Dr Achyuta was 4 years old, his father expired in
tragic train accident. He is having 7 siblings (eldest 17 years old and
youngest 1 month baby during that time). There are no savings as father was
working as petty worker in industry. They moved to remotest village and lived
in extreme poverty, often skipping meals. This boy voluntarily helped mother by
doing some menial jobs. In spite of this condition, he used to save few coins
and share with his fellow friends. This boy used to walk 8 kilometers and reach
high school. Finally after great struggle, he could able to complete Masters in
Chemistry. He used to do job and run private tutoring to support his family and
needy friends, ignoring his personal comforts for almost 10 years. Finally this
young inspiring man, established Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology
(KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) with mere 5000 rupees in
rented building. At this juncture, due to surmounting loans (2.5 million
rupees), he faced extreme struggle. By the god's mercy, he could able to march
forward and face these odds. Today this university became abode for more than
25000 students across the globe and helping more than 25000 poor students in
terms of free education, free residential and boarding facility. This small
institute started with mere 5000 rupees indirectly became hope for more than 1
million people and aiming towards 10 million people by 2020! He still lives in
rented 2-bed room and not having any personal belongings. He remained as bachelor
to bring smiles in many children. He
received multiple civilian awards and 31 degrees of doctorate/ Doctor of
Letters from different universities across India and abroad. Dr. Achyuta
Samanta got elected as General President (2017-18) of 105th
Indian Science Congress. What an inspiring story! We need to learn wonderful
lesson from this personal experience! Do you agree my dear students? (http://www.achyutasamanta.com/biodata.html)
Couple of Years back, I read an
article in indiatoday about Manoj Machra, a resident of Amarsar
village, Churu district, 250 km from Jaipur, who was born with no hands, uses
his toes to write his answer papers, secured 78% in secondary examination and
cleared upper primary examination with 86%. He proved his academic excellence
despite of being disabled. What an
amazing person Manoj! He worked hard and practiced to write using his left leg.
We wish him to succeed in his aspirations (want to take up legal services
profession) and thank indiatoday for publishing such an inspirational story. God
bless Manoj and fulfill his aspirations.
In similar mission, Dhaval
Khatri who lost both his both hands at the age of 14, also asked to
leave school, took life seriously, continued his education and worked
passionately towards playing guitar and painting. Finally he became world-class
painter and made 300+ paintings till date. While he was flying with kites,
accidently his hands held onto an electric wire and both hands got amputated.
His mother made him to practice of holding pen or pencil. Later he started
learning sketching and painting. He started learning on this own as many of the
institutes rejected his case. Now he received orders from all over world. He
teaches us "there is no word called Impossible" and reminding us to
do much bigger wonders! Do you agree my dear friends! Wish you all the best
Dhaval Khatri and Thank you thebetterindia.com for spreading positive stories!
Keep posting and inspire all of us.
My Dear Friends, Hope you found
useful reading these inspirational stories! Inspire through storytelling, Innovate for Life turning! This is the
mission of this program. If you find any inspiring story, please do share with
me. I will include in my next letter. If
you have done anything amazing, please share it with me. Friends, I appreciate your valuable
time. I will again see you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this
great opportunity to write to you and help me to learn, unlearn and relearn in
this process. I personally thank all websites, authors who are publishing /
writing such an inspiring stories for common good and contributing for better
world. Thank you Authors and Websites.
With Best Wishes
Dr. Ravi Saripalle
About Author: Dr.
Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement. He is also Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of
Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to spread inspiration through real time case
studies in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters
(epistolary form) and sending them to thousands schools, colleges, universities
across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops to inspire students for
select institutions. Providing customized mentoring to specific inspired
students. Dr. Ravi is having 18 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training,
Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current misison, Dr. Ravi worked with
Wipro Technologies for more than a decade. Dr Ravi can be reached at saripalle.ravi@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or facebook.com/saripalle.ravi
Links to previous letters
1.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 9 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
2.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 8 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
3.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 7 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
4.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 6 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
5.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 5 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_01_01_archive.html
6.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 4 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
7.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 3 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
8.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 2 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
9.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 1 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
Disclaimer:
The goal of this i2iSM letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth
through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In
this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS
articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing
such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried
to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions,
grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the
readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t
involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution.
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