Letter to Student Series : Volume 4 Issue 1

My Dear Student Friends,

Greetings!

This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder, Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 4 and Issue 1”. Hope you enjoyed reading my previous letter They are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ and Video Message series is available at https://www.youtube.com/user/Indianrichtalent. The goal of these letters and video messages are to inspire, educate, engage, entertain and empower the students and make them Future Ready.

Inspiring Story Series: Episode 10-Dr Chandra Sekhar Sankurathri, A "Visionary" who is working towards cause of "Vision": Dr. Chandra Sekhar established Sankurathri Foundation (SF) (Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh) in 1989 in the memory of his wife Manjari, son Kiran and daughter Sarada, who died in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, off the coast of Ireland on 23 June 1985. Today Sankurathri Foundation is doing amazing service in multiple areas. The most noted one is Eye Care, providing quality eye care to needy. Till date it served more than 28,30,866 out-patients and performed over 2,47,221 surgeries. To know more about this initiative, please do visit http://srikiran.org/aboutUs.aspx. You can listen to this inspiring story of Dr Chandra Shekar, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWETGVUS6r0 and get inspired!

Inspiring Story Series: Episode 11- Dr Bakthi Yadav, Doctor Didi, Giving Free Treatment since 1948 :  Dr Bakthi Yadav is an Indian doctor, the first female MBBS from Indore, famous for not taking any money and provide free consulting. She is famously known as Doctor Didi. Hear her amazing story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rjuQBp5xH8 and get inspired!

WAYU (Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit) , A device which can purify air over 500 SqM: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and National Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) developed a device which purifies the air in the vicinity of 500 Square Meter. Surprisingly this device only consumes half a unit of electricity for 10 hours. It requires Rs 1500 monthly maintenance cost. It costs around  Rs. 60,000. When cities are fast polluting, these kind of devices are great boon. Thank you CISR-NEERI for developing such a device which creates social impact. To read more about this, please do visit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/65956297.cms?utm_source= ontentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Arunachal Pradesh, India's second Open Defecation Free (ODF) state: After Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh became 2^nd Open defection free state. This hill state has 21 districts. Inspired by Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) SBM (G), central government sponsored around Rs. 12000 and state government around Rs. 8000, raising the grant to Rs. 20,000. The beauty of this movement is,  most remotest villages along the international boarder have also participated. Truly inspiring. In spite of communication challenges and strenuous trekking for days together to carry construction materials,  people of Arunachal Pradesh participated in this ODF movement. Hats off to you! You are true inspiration. To read more about this, please do visit https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/good-news-after-sikkim-arunachal-pradesh-becomes-second-open-defecation-free-state-in-india-419767

Harsukh Bhai, famously known as ‘the birdman’ who feeds thousands of birds daily: A bird lover and nature lover, Harsukh Bhai feeds more than 10,000+ birds everyday! Though he is 5^th class dropout, but in my view, he has done PhD in extending his love towards birds. He started this as a hobby when he met with an accident. During this period, he hung cobs (extracted from pearl millet) to his house which attracted a parrot. Gradually this number increased and now it became farm for birds! He made a stand of old pipes, each stand is good enough to hold 2,700 pearl millet cobs at once and fixed them in his farm land. This family change the cobs twice a day so that birds can comfortably feed on. Harsukh Bhai spends 1.5 lakhs per year to this noble act. His entire family is participating in this good deed. Great act Harsukh Bhai. To read more about this, please do visit https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/good-news-meet-the-birdman-harsukh-bhai-who-feeds-thousands-of-birds-daily-397109

The Interesting facts of Jaipur Foot Story: Jaipur foot (prosthetic limb) is considered as one of the biggest invention/innovation in orthopedic field-medical science. It is an indigenous invention made in 1968. Indian patients hold few cultural issues -should be low cost, people walk barefoot, sit cross legged, squat and work on uneven land! This invention has been evolved taking cues from these issues. It is a combined effort of Dr P.K Sethi and sculptor Ram Chandra Sharma (a real and unsung hero among many who are using these prosthetic legs). This effort has been supported by Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata  Samiti (BMVSS) which is started by a noble man, D.R. Mehta. In last 40 years, BMVSS is credited with helping more than 1.6 million disabled people. The medical procedure is all free of cost! Credit goes to BMVSS! BMVSS is also working on confidence building exercise and helping victims to get an employability skills and providing few job opportunities as well.  This invention costs just $20 as compared to a knee replacement which could cost thousands of dollars. For this, it received award by TIME magazine 50 best inventions in 2009. To read more, please do visit https://jaipurbeat.com/2017/07/01/12-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-world-famous-jaipur-foot/

Kere Kamegowda, 82-year-old man single-handedly built 14 tanks to conserve water: Kere Kamegowda, an uneducated but undoubtedly a great ecologist! This man singlehandedly built 14 tanks in Kundinibetta, near Bengaluru-Malavalli-Kollegal Road, Chamarajanagar district. Started this journey 40 years ago, he is truly visionary! He is highly technical in his approach- all 14 lakes are interlinked. He even used prize money to build more new lakes! Humanity prevails! To read more, please do visit http://achhikhabre.com/kere-kamegowda-ecologist/

Dear Students, Hope you completed Future readiness assessment. This is to help you to plan your life better and make you relevant in the context of 4th Industrial revolution. Please take this assessment every month without fail. It acts like reminder to 5 important activities- Inspire yourself through positive stories, get mentored from your role model, develop your natural intelligence, manage academics and do physical activity. Request you to answer the following five questions and calculate your Future Readiness.

1.         I read / hear stories of amazing people           

 (A) weekly once (10 marks)           (B) monthly once (5 marks)           

(C) Irregular reading (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

2.         I write letter / mail to my mentor (other than parents) for guidance (professional / personal)

(A) every 6 months (10 marks)      (B) yearly once (5 marks)               

(C) Irregular writing (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

3.         I practice my passion or natural intelligence (to know your intelligence https://goo.gl/vgyD54) 

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)      (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

4.         I manage my academics with consistent percentage or grade 

(A) A Grade and above  (10 marks)   (B) B Grade and above  (5 marks) 

(C) C Grade or below (2 marks)        (D)Consistent Failure (0 marks)

5.         I do physical activity and maintain good health  

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

Check Your Score and Title

I wish you should be either Performer (your score should be between 40-50) or Challenger (your score should be between 25-40). You should not give any scope to be  Lounger (relaxed) with 10-25 score or Laggard (slower than desired) with score less than 10.

My Dear Friends, Appreciate your valuable time. See you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity. You can also reach to me at sdindia2020@gmail.com. I am happy to respond to your letter.

With Best Wishes,

Dr. Ravi Saripalle

About Author:    Dr. Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement and 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 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 sdindia2020@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or https://www.facebook.com/RaviSaripalle

Previous letters are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/    Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/Indianrichtalent

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.