Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement- Letter to Student Series Volume 2 Issue 2

My Dear Student Friends,

Greetings!

This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder, Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 2 and Issue 2”. Hope you enjoyed reading my previous letter. These letters are e-transmitted across the country, for one good cause, spreading inspiring stories of amazing people. Our mission is to inspire youth by sharing positive stories of people who made difference in life in various domains. Today these letters are reaching all 686 districts of our country. These letters are  helping to build positive dreams and act as catalyst to youth aspirations.

Why should you read this letter? Your time is most precious.

ü  When an individual hears a Positive Story, it sets vision and provides strength to execute goals

ü  When an individual hears a Positive Story, it invokes his/her natural multiple intelligence

ü When an individual hears a Positive Story, it acts like Edutainment (Education + Entertainment)

ü  When an individual hears a Positive Story, he/she learns skill on their own rather external push

ü  When an individual hears a Positive Story, he/she tries to create his/her own positive story

ü  When a teacher starts class with a Positive Story, student learning productivity multiplies

In the previous issue, we discussed about Muskaan Ahirwar, 9 years old, who set up makeshift library in her slum, Sir C V Raman, renewed inventor & teacher, Anne Sullivan, an American teacher who made remarkable contribution as teacher to Helen Keller, Evandro Joao Silva, a Brazilian teacher, who raised money through music and helped poor children, Bharti Kumari, who dedicated herself for cause of education and teaching, Babar Ali, from West Bengal, named as youngest principal in the world at the age of 16, Jen Sculley, a teacher at Denver's East High School, Colorado, donated one of her kidneys to a student suffering from kidney disease, Stephen Ritz, USA, who developed food production program at New York City Public School, Madenjit Singh, from Indonesia, an extraordinary teacher and social entrepreneur, Friedrich Froebel, who started Kindergarten system, John Amos Comenius,  one of the finest educational theorists and philosopher. They are sharing humongous inspiration. Their dedication and determination cannot be measured. They are transferring the inspiration to the generations and benefits the needy. They are converting adversities to learning and developing the sustainable opportunities. They are rising hopes and aspirations! Every individual reading these bio-sketchs will have positive impact in their thinking and action. In this issue, I would like to share few exemplary and amazing inventors and innovators who strived to improve the standard of living with their innovations and helping humanity at large.

            Can you imagine you don't have modern clock at your home and don't have wrist watch! You must be running here and there in the morning at your home to reach your institution on time! Do You? Imagine you reached examination 10 minutes late due to missing watch at your home. Imagine you don't know when trains comes to railway station but you have to wait whole day to catch it. Every half an hour doctor at emergency ward gives medicine to ailed patient. Imagine life without watch. Life would have been big mess. Peter Henlein (born in 1485), famous locksmith is known as father of modern clocks. We don't know much about his childhood but his appearance in the history book was dated as 7 Sep 1504 where he was involved in fight in which his fellow locksmith, who is also his friend got killed. Post to this, four years he took shelter at monastery. Finally he returned to Nuremberg, Germany, became famous locksmith and developed small spring-powered brass clock. The first clock was made in 1510 and by 1541, he became famous for making small clocks as well as big tower clocks! Peter is the one who developed most important component of clock which is the mainspring. He died in 1547 but still we are using these watches (http://www.historyofwatch.com/clock-inventors/peter-henlein/). While we appreciate this innovation, we should not forget that way back in 500 A.D., Aryabhata, one of our Indian greatest mathematicians and astronomers, discussed the units of time in his compilation called Aryabhatiya. In the chapter Kalakriya Pada, he talked about year division into 12 months, month to 30 days, day into 60 nadis, nadi into 60 vinadis. A nadi is equivalent to 24 minutes and vinadi to 24 seconds. This division is very critical and foundation to development of such great innovation.  Babylonian priests made remarkable contribution in this field (based on shadow changes during the day). King Alfre, the Saxon King invented the candle-clock

(CBT Publications, http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/cbt30-Clock.pdf).

            

             Now let me share another most influential innovator of recent times, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of OYO Rooms (Indian hotel brand that owns standardized hotel rooms). He is youngest of 2000 employees of OYO. He started his first company Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. in 2012 and re-launched as OYO in 2013. OYO started with one city and one hotel in Gurgaon in Jan 2013 and by 2016, number increased to 65,000 rooms in 5,500 hotels in 191 cities across India including Malaysia, which is named as largest budget hotel chain. Unlike many CEOs of large ventures, Ritesh is college dropout. He provided technology solution for hotel booking and people are comfortably booking hotels in matter of 5 seconds through their mobile. He is just 22 years old boy but taking toughest decisions and building large hotel empire without buying anyone of these properties. If you see his heroic entrepreneurial deeds of childhood, they look terrific. He started coding at the age of 8 and got into Asia level global annual forum on improving science. He authored a book on top 100 engineering colleges. He started a consulting firm to felicitate foreign companies entering India. He did all these when he was below 19 years! What an amazing man Ritesh? OYO is bringing standardization, comfort, proximity but all these for 1/3 of the three star price! Ritesh says when electricity goes off in Gurgaon, OYO business goes up by 6%. Their current run rate is $100 million. Ritesh, I wish your business grow more than your current age % every year and expand across 196 countries! Thank you entrepreneur.com, gqindia.com and wikipedia for posting such a wonderful article.

(https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250907;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OYO_Rooms;http://www.gqindia.com/influence-list/50-most-influential-young-indians-innovators/)

            Now let me introduce another young inventor, Tenith Adithyaa, a 16-year old teenage Scientist. I was reading about Adithyaa on theunder18.com. I really astonished to see the credentials of Adithya. Till date, he made 17 inventions and 2 Guinness world record attempts. He is also professional coin collector, software developer, teacher and so on. He started learning computer applications in his 4^th standard itself. Now he has mastered more than 35 computer applications and 6 languages. He wakes up to 3AM and many a times, he misses to be on time to school and get punished. Once when he was doing some experiments, he inhaled poisonous gas and got hospitalized. However he didn't give up his journey inspite of restrictions at home! He developed an adjustable electricity extension board which is used for keeping any type of electric plug in the space available. He developed this for his own consumption as he uses various devices at same time. It works for 3 meters distance and now ready for commercialization. He developed make cups and plates using banana leaves so that plastic plates can be avoided. He developed technology to preserve banana leaves without any chemical preservatives! Amazing right? You know what, these leaves can withstand extreme temperatures and hold more weights than original one. Finally they can be decomposed to make manure out of it. This project got approved by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. He received IGNITE Award by National Innovation Foundation, India. In future, he wants to join ISRO and help our nation in space technology. Wish you all the best Adithyaa and Thank you theunder18.com for publishing wonderful article. It inspires thousand many other young aspirants (http://www.theunder18.com/m-tenith-adithyaa-16-year-old-genius-is-a-teenage-scientist/).

            I would like to share the story of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm,  Indian e-commerce website & mobile payment platform. Sharma born in modest family (son of principled school teacher) from Aligarh, UP. During college days, he had a difficulty in reading and writing English as he studied in Hindi medium. He had to teach himself English to get a engineering degree. Once he was not allowed to make an online donation via his mobile phone. This became genesis of the idea of Paytm. By 2015, Paytm has more than  100 million customers (http://www.gqindia.com/influence-list/50-most-influential-young-indians-innovators/). Infact in 1997, he started website indiasite.net when he was in college and sold it for $1 million after two years.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Shekhar_Sharma). Once he was struggling to make ends with Rs 10 in pocket but In 2016, Paytm is valued over $3 billion. Sabeer Bhatia and Yahoo are his inspiration. He aspired to go to Stanford but financial constraints made him to stay back and learn coding on his own. He developed content management system which was used by lot of media houses like The Indian Express. Later he joined MNC, quit in 6 months time and built his own company and also passed his college examinations!!He lost all his money and bankrupted. However he didn't give up. He skipped means, walked long distances to save little money to attend meetings and conferences. It was not easy going! But in 2011, he pitched this mobile payment ecosystem. Though board did not get convinced, he started! He also gave service of 24x7 customer care service to address the issues of customers. Paytm received Series A funding over several $100 mn. Alibaba, SAIF and Alipay are all joined hands. He is good people manager by giving 4% of his equity to the team, which in current value terms is about $120 million. People working in the organization are referred as 'Colleagues' or 'Teammates but never as Employees. Sharma is firm believer of GOD. What an incredible journey of Sharma! Thank you businessinsider.in for publishing such a wonderful and inspiring story of an entreprener

(http://www.businessinsider.in/Paytm-Founder-Vijay-Shekhar-Sharmas-incredible-life-story/articleshow/50497089.cms)

            

        Finally let me share the game changing social innovation article published by thebetterindia.com. Six school going girls from Bihar have renounced wearing gold jewellery till their parents build toilets in their homes! They are studying class X at government high school in Bihar’s Buxar district. They feel that this move is not only important in the view of public health but also upholds human dignity. Swachch Bharat mission is sensitizing people across India. thebetterindia.com also published another article on Government of Kerala's declaration on how state is going to become ‘open defecation-free’ (ODF) by November 1, 2016. Students are working hard in sensitizing people around and educating ill-effects of open defecation. Thank you thebetterindia for publishing such inspiring news. Keep going with same spirit.

            My Dear Friends, Hope you found useful reading these inspirational stories! Inspire through storytelling, Innovate for Life turning! Friends, I appreciate your valuable time. We 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.

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 instill inspiration through spreading positive stories of amazing people in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters (epistolary form) and sending them to thousands of schools, colleges, universities districts administration across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops in 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 mission, Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies for more than a decade.  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 2 and Issue 1 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_09_01_archive.html

2.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 12 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/07/inspire-to-innovate-storytelling.html

3.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 11 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/06/inspire-to-innovate-storytelling.html

4.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 10 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/05/inspire-to-innovate-storytelling_30.html

5.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 9 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/05/inspire-to-innovate-storytelling.html

6.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 8 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/04/inspire-to-innovate-storytelling.html

7.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 7 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016/03/inspire-to-innovate-i2i-storytelling.html

8.  Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 6 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_02_01_archive.html

9.  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

10. Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 4 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015_11_01_archive.html

11. Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 3 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015_08_01_archive.html

12. Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 2 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015/07/letter-to-student-series-volume-1-and.html

13. Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 1 (Inspire To Innovate (I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015/05/inspire-to-innovate-i2i-thinking.html

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.