Letter to Student Series : Volume 4 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 4 and Issue 2”. 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 12-Subhash Palekar, A "Visionary" Indian Agriculturalist, promoter of Zero Budget Natural Farming: Subhash Palekar, an agriculturist, is practicing and promoting Zero Budget Natural Farming. Shubhashji completed Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture at Nagpur. He got truly inspired by Indian Vedic philosophy and practicing Gandhiji’s principles which are based on truth & non-violence. He is an ardent promoter of Zero Budget Farming which is based on natural farming. It brings lot of long-term results. Today, more than 30 million farmers throughout India are practicing Zero Budget Natural Farming. To his noble efforts, Shubhash Palekar received India's fourth highest civilian award - Padma Shri in 2016. To more about Shubhashji, please do visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Palekar.  You can listen to his inspiring story, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dK-xJVMp8 and get inspired!

Inspiring Story Series: Episode 13- Lakshmikutti (Popularly known as Vanamuthassi, Grandmother of Jungle), a great Poison healer using traditional medicine:  Lakshmikutti, a tribal woman from Kallar forest Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, known for her amazing poison healing capabilities. She can prepare 500 medicines through her sheer memory. She has been practicing traditional medicine for over 50 years. She has been invited by multiple agencies for expert talk. She is also famous as critic writer (poems, dramas) and teacher in the folklore academy. To know more about her, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmikutty. To her noble efforts, Lakshmikutti got awarded India's fourth highest civilian award - Padma Shri  in 2018. Hear her amazing story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpUKaKRTycQ and get inspired!

Dr P D Kameswara Rao , left career as nuclear physicist in USA to make a difference in poor rural people near Cheepurupalle, Vizianagagaram, AP: Dr P D Kameswara Rao, who was a researcher in Boston University and Rutgers University in USA (spent 11 years together), returned to his native place to understand rural issues and to uplift the lives of poor villagers. He established Sodhana Charitable Trust (SCT), 1979 in Cheepurupalle in Vizianagaram district of AP, and has been working towards rural transformation programs for last 40 years. To know more about Dr Rao's work, please visit http://sodhana.org.in/about.html and please do visit
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/66421882.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

IIT Bombay Team Unearths the Potential Maharashtra’s Hot Springs and geothermal energy sources/opportunities: Team from IIT-Bombay led by Dr Trupti Chandrashekhar in collaboration with IIT-Hyderabad, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (Amethi), and the University of Florence (Italy), studied 350-km stretch Maharashtra's coastline where natural geysers exists. They believe that more than 60 hot water springs  exist in that region. These springs got immersed in minerals, with temperature ranges from 40 and 72 degrees Celsius. They can be used for medical purpose and they are holding religious credit. They can be used as natural greenhouses, dehydration units for perishable food products, natural health spas. They will develop tertiary industries which helps in employment generation. Natural geysers/ geothermal energy promotes green energy. Great research work by the team! Thank you Better India for publishing such an inspiring news. To read more, please visit https://www.thebetterindia.com/163273/iit-maharashtra-hot-springs-india-news/

Jitendra Singh, a security guard writes 4,000 letters to families of martyrs and still counts: Jitendra Singh, 37-year-old private security guard from Surat, a native Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, also having family members serving Indian Army, has been writing to families of martyrs from last 18 years, right from 1999 Kargil war. He wants to bring confidence and show gratitude among those families. He has database of 38,000 martyrs and would like to work towards writing to all these families. So far, he wrote 4000 letters! Great spirit Jitendra ji. Thank you yourstory for publishing this article. For more details, please visit https://yourstory.com/2018/10/jitendra-singh-honour-martyrs/

Have you seen "talking bananas"?: Stacey Truman, the cafeteria manager at Kingston Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Virginia wanted to inspire students in the school. She started writing down little and inspiring messages on bananas and served the students! What an idea right? What kind of encouragement students get? Some of the messages were " Just Breathe", "You get what you give", "Keep Trying", " Never give up", "Make someone laugh", " You are loved" etc. Is it not great idea to inspire someone right? It is a healthy, curious and inspiring method to feed children. Can you implement this model in your vicinity? To read more, please visit https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lunch-lady-encourages-students-by-writing-messages-on-fruit/

13-year-old Indian Origin boy topped America’s Next Top Young Scientist: Rishab Jain created an algorithm which uses an artificial intelligence to accurately locate and target the pancreas in real-time during a cancer patient’s MRI radiotherapy. Pancreas cancer is third leading cause for deaths. He also received $25,000 prize. Good job Rishab. Keep the spirit. To know more, please visit https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/13-year-old-named-americas-top-young-scientist-for-drastically-improving-pancreatic-cancer-treatment/

Green Machine to Generate Clouds in order to generate Clean Water Wins $1.75 Million: Skysource/Skywater Alliance developed a container which sucks hot air outside and when mixed with cold air inside, causes condensation. The resulting droplets are collected in the water tank which is good solution for the rural and poor segments. The necessary power is supplied through biomass. This is also giving biochar as bi-product which helps in nourishing the farms. To know more about this innovation, please read https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/totally-green-machine-that-uses-biowaste-to-generate-clouds-for-clean-water-wins-1-75-million-xprize/.

Karthyayini Amma, 96-year-old woman, cracks Kerala literacy exam who is oldest among peers: A total of 43,330 students appeared for literacy examination conducted by the Kerala government. In this, Karthyayini Amma scored 98 out of 100, wherein she got  28/30 in mathematics, 30 out of 30 in reading test and 30 out of 30 in writing. Inspiring women right? This 96-year-old women never attended school in her life. She used to work as sweeper at temples and nearby households and raised family. Inspite of this background,  she has this great learning attitude which we all should appreciate. Thank you Indianexpress for publishing this inspiring news. To read more, please visit https://indianexpress.com/article/india/96-year-old-woman-oldest-among-her-peers-cracks-kerala-literacy-exam-5427962/

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.