Telugu writer and traveller Dasari Amarendra with the students of the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School at Bodlanka in East Godavari district. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Students ask him background of the story
It was a pleasant surprise for the students of Class X at the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School in the agency village Bodlanka, when they got a chance to interact with a writer, whose short-story was part of their syllabus. They posed him a series of questions ranging from the background of the short-story to the lifestyle of the writer during a session that lasted for about an hour. Some of the students even wanted to have a photograph with him. Amazed by their response, the writer also conducted a session on simple methods of learning English.
Dasari Amarendra, a retired engineer-cum-manager from the Bharat Electronics Limited by profession and a writer and traveller by passion, visited the school the other day, located about 70 km from Maredumilli, along with his friends and spent a few hours with the students. In the early 1990’s, he had translated a story for the National Book Trust and a portion of it had been made part of the State government’s syllabus.
During his interaction with headmaster Balu Reddy, Mr. Amarendra mentioned about the lesson ‘Chitragreevamu’ and expressed his desire to meet the students who learnt his story of a pigeon in their classroom.
It took a few minutes for the students to understand the fact that the man in front of them was the one who penned the lesson in the Telugu textbook. “By the time of writing this story, did you know that children would read it for years and answer questions on it in their exams?” asked Ganapathi Reddy, while his friends asked the writer’s intention in penning the story, duration and the immediate response from the readers.
Mr. Amarendra said he had never expected that his translation would become part of the curriculum and he would meet the students one day. Having been impressed with the enthusiasm of the children, Mr. Amarendra enquired with Mr. Balu Reddy about the pupils’ interest in other subjects. After coming to know that the students feel English as a tough nut to crack, he taught them simple methods of learning the foreign language. “The way the residential school is being managed is just amazing and the children here are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. They promised me that they would speak to me only in English by the Independence Day-2018 and invited me as their special guest of the function,” Mr. Amarendra shared his joy with The Hindu.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by K.N. Murali Sankar Maredumilli (East Godavari Dist.)
RECORD HAUL: The PSLV-C37 blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota with 104 satellites on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI
These include the country’s earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series.
India, a one-rocket fledgling in space transportation compared to its European and U.S. counterparts, created launch history on Wednesday by placing a record 104 spacecraft in their desired orbits.
The feat was performed on the old reliable launch vehicle, the PSLV, numbered C-37, which took off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 9.28 a.m.
Precise launch
C-37 was a largely commercial flight as all but three passenger satellites, small nanosats, belonged to six other countries. The 29-minute launch went off precisely as planned; it took just 11 minutes from the release of the primary Cartosat-2 series spacecraft to the last launch of a client satellite, ISRO said after the mega-payload launch.
The PSLV, in the category of launch vehicles that can lift relatively light loads to space, now marks 38 successful missions in a row out of a total of 39 flights.
This time, it took to space a total of 1,378 kg, of which the primary satellite was 714 kg.
The latest Cartosat is the fifth in the series of six Cartosat-2 spacecraft, starting from Cartosat 2 in 2007 and followed by what were earlier marked A, B, C, D and E. The last one is due.
“After a flight of 16 minutes and 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun synchronous orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degrees to the equator — very close to the intended orbit. In the next 12 minutes, all 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence, beginning with the Cartosat-2 series, INS-1 and INS-2,” an official communique said.
ISRO’s workhorse lives up to its billing
The PSLV, which created launch history on Wednesday by placing a record 104 spacecraft in their desired orbits, has totally launched 46 Indian spacecraft, most of them Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites.
As many as 180 small satellites of foreign customers contracted by ISRO’s commercial company Antrix Corporation have also reached space on this vehicle.
This time, it took to space a total of 1,378 kg, of which the primary satellite was 714 kg.
The latest Cartosat is the fifth in the series of six Cartosat-2 spacecraft, starting from Cartosat 2 in 2007 and followed by what were earlier marked A, B, C, D and E. The last one is due.
“After a flight of 16 minutes and 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun synchronous orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degrees to the equator — very close to the intended orbit. In the next 12 minutes, all 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence, beginning with the Cartosat-2 series, INS-1 and INS-2,” an official communique said.
The PSLV, 39 flights old since 1993, also launched the Indian Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 in 2008; and is set to launch a private lunar mission for Bengaluru start-up Team Indus in late December this year.
“It is confirmed that all 104 satellites have been successfully deployed in the orbit,” PTI quoted PSLV Project Director B. Jayakumar at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) as saying.
“After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over the control of the satellite,” the space agency said.
In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Special Correpondent / Bengaluru – February 15th, 2017
12 Venetian women sponsoring children of an NGO in Vijayawada visit to connect thoughtful links
In the sixteenth century, Niccolo de’ Conti, an explorer from the Republic of Venice, visited India. He found that the words in the Telugu language end with vowels just like those in Italian and referred to the language as the ‘Italian of the East’. The phrase has stuck ever since and is used whenever Telugu is praised. Vijayawada has been the heartland for Telugu from time immemorial, and has become even more so after the bifurcation of the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Many candidates contesting elections from Vijayawada have promised in their manifestoes that they will transform the city, which stands on the banks of the Krishna river and has two canals transecting it, into a Venice, where citizens can sail the waterways in modern gondolas. The incumbent State government has also promised to make Amaravati, the new waterfront capital, a sort of Venice in which boats will be an important mode of transport.
A group of 12 women travellers from the Venetian town of Pordenone visited Vijayawada as if to renew and strengthen the ancient ties between the two regions. Though their journey to Vijayawada is not as arduous as that of de’ Conti, it is nevertheless an “exploration”.
Calling themselves the ‘Lady Avventura’, the women came to spend time with children they have ‘adopted’, that is, they are ‘sponsors’ providing funds for underprivileged children’s food, education and healthcare via the Care and Share Charitable Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that receives most of its funding from hundreds of Italian sponsors. Several of the children are orphans and over 400 of them are HIV positive. “But for the funds we receive from Italy, these children from the poorest of poor homes would have succumbed to disease,” says Care and Share’s regional director Swati Mohanty.
Members of two working women’s groups — Panathlon International and FIDAPA (Federazione Italiana Donne Arti Professioni Affari) — formed the Lady Avventura group to travel to different countries and reach out to underprivileged children and women. Romanina Santin Nardini, who belongs to both Panathlon and FIDAPA, says that Lady Avventura, which is just three years old, has already made three trips. Beginning with countries in Africa, members went to Sri Lanka the following year, and to Vijayawada this time, drawn by their longstanding connection with the children at Care and Share.
Silvia Gramigna, one of the women, said she had come to Vijayawada more than once. She had been associated with Care and Share for over 20 years, she said, introducing a young man now working for the State Bank of India as her “adopted son”. All other members of Lady Avventura had adopted children in Vijayawada, she said, pointing to the youngsters in tow.
Promise to return
The dozen women spent all of Wednesday with children of different institutions under Care and Share, distributing small gifts and knick-knacks to them. “Giving away the knick-knacks gave us great joy, but we came to see how things were under the new management of Care and Share,” said Ms. Gramigna, referring to the recent change of guard at the NGO. She promised the group would go back to Italy and raise more funds for the children.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / G. Venkataramana Rao / Vijayawada – November 11th, 2016
City MLA Dr. Akula Satyanarayana has said that honouring freedom fighters is nothing but honouring the country and that is the reason they have identified and felicitated some freedom fighters in the city limits as a part of BJP’s “Tiranga Yatra”.
He spoke at Anam Rotary Hall after participating in the Tiranga Yatra on Saturday.
Later, he felicitated Krovvidi Satyanarayana couple, son of Krovvidi Lingaraju, Kusuma Sujatha Kumari, daughter of Kusuma Naganna, Keerthi Chakra Pandillapalli Srinivas’s mother, sons of Budhavarapu Suryanarayana and others.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Rajamahendravaram – August 21st, 2016
Samantha with her mother, Patricia Tavis. Photo: Special Arrangement
Eighteen years ago, Yasamma and Mariyamma Gedala were left in an orphanage in Kakinada. Yasamma, adopted by an American family, and now named Samantha Mari, has lived in the U.S. since 2000, but she still remembers her baby sister. The author pieces together the quest for reunion
On the 10th of June, 1998, in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaraju and Gowri Gedala had a baby girl, whom they named Mariyamma. They were very poor, and could not afford to feed her. On December 5 that year, they took her to Missions to the Nations orphanage in Kakinada. Ten days later, they brought their older daughter, Yasamma, born on October 17, 1996, to the orphanage too. The infant and the toddler settled into their life in the orphanage.
Then, thirteen months later, Yasamma’s life began to change again.
Over on the U.S. east coast, Patricia and Richard Tavis, then stepping into their middle years, had decided to adopt another child. They already had two sons, and each of them had a son from previous marriages. They decided to adopt a girl. And they zeroed in on India because, they were told, India did not require them to travel there in order to adopt; the orphanage would send the child to the U.S. “We have a child with autism and did not want to take the chance of something happening to us like a possible plane crash,” Ms. Tavis says in an e-mail interview.
Ms. Tavis contacted an adoption agency she found in the phone book. “Two days later they got back to me and said there was a three-year-old girl named Yasamma. I agreed to adopt her.”
While the adoption process was going on, the Tavises found out that Yasamma had a younger sister, who was also in the orphanage. They asked if they could adopt her too, but were told she had been adopted by a family in India.
A new beginning
Nine months after the first call, Yasamma arrived in the U.S., at JFK Airport in New York. “When I first came to the U.S., everything was big and scary,” she says in an e-mail. “I did not understand what was happening.” Ms. Tavis says, “When she was in the airport and we met her for the first time, we hugged and people clapped. She looked confused and bewildered after her long plane trip.”
The toddler, whom her adoptive family named Samantha Mari, settled in to her very different new life, with a family that doted on her. “When she first arrived, my mother gave her a doll with blond hair and white face,” Ms. Tavis says. “She promptly coloured her face with a brown marker! Today I don’t think it bothers her that we are a different race. We are her family. As she told one of her friends, ‘They are the only family I’ve got.’”
The Tavis family has never visited India, and after Samantha was adopted, she has never returned either. Ms. Tavis has another connection, more tenuous, to India: she began studying yoga, at a local school; she graduated in 2009, and now teaches gentle, chair and special needs yoga.
Samantha is now 19, has graduated from high school, has learned to ride horses at a local riding school, and has as full a social life as any American teenager.
Samantha at her graduation party. Photo: Special Arrangement
Shadows of the past
“My daughter still grieves the loss of her birth family,” her mother says, “and I believe this is the reason for the learning and behavioural difficulties she exhibited from the time she arrived in the U.S. It has been a difficult road; she has a learning disability, which of course, complicates matters. She learned English very quickly, though. She does not spell very well. Even though she graduated from high school, she was in special education throughout school. I hope if we find what happened to the sister, she will have some peace of mind.”
Because she was old enough to know what was happening all those years ago, Samantha remembers those days clearly. “I remember my newborn sister and sleeping in a railway car with my parents and her,” she writes. “I remember the railway car. I remember a boy at the orphanage who would bring me toys. He made me feel like a queen! I think he was my first boyfriend! I remember not having shoes and sleeping on mats. We ate rice. I remember Paparao [Papa Rao Yeluchuri, current director of the Mission to the Nations].” Ms. Tavis adds that she has at times also said that she remembers that she cried a lot, that she remembers being in the street, picking up papers, that she remembers being left at the orphanage.
“As soon as she could speak English,” her mother says, “she told me she was ‘very mad at mommy and daddy in India’ because they left her by herself. Truly this experience scarred her deeply even though her parents put her up for adoption to give her a good life. She has asked about the sister from the time she arrived, always wondering what happened to her baby sister. Even though she was young, I believe these memories are so vivid because they were so traumatic. She would like to know what happened to her, be able to talk and write to her and maybe one day meet her.”
This is something Ms. Tavis vowed to herself that she would do something about. But she had no idea how to even begin looking for Mariyamma; also, what if the younger sister’s adoptive parents did not want her to know she was adopted? She decided that she would wait until Mariyamma was a legal adult.
A quest begins
In June, Mariyamma would have turned 18. And Ms. Tavis made a Facebook post. Along with what little she knew of the Gedala family, she wrote, “I am asking my friends and family to share this far and wide so my daughter might know the baby sister she still remembers and longs to see again.”
That post, and another she made on a page she runs for her yoga practice, quickly went viral. In a couple of days, they were shared over 2,000 times, including in India.
Samantha as a toddler. Photo: Special Arrangement
In an update thanking people for sharing her message, she also addressed the concern about the wishes of Mariyamma’s adoptive parents. “I agree that this is a concern. This is why I waited until her sister was 18. I believe it is a basic human right to know where you come from and who your family is. Because my daughter was old enough to remember her family when she was brought to the orphanage, she has suffered a great deal of heartbreak. I am trying to give her back a little of what she lost.”
Dead-ends
In the days since, her post has been shared 5,327 times on Facebook, aside from numerous shares that did not reflect there because they were made on other social networks. While many reached out to help, the family has not got any leads so far.
The Hindu’s reporters reached out to both Mission to the Nations and the State’s Women and Child Welfare (WCW) department.
Mission to the Nations, an NGO in Kannaiahkapu Nagar, Kakinada, no longer runs an orphanage; they closed theirs some years ago, after an adoption racket surfaced in Andhra Pradesh. The government took over all its records and the organisation now only runs a church and a school. “The adoption was done through the court of law and the communications were made between the embassies of India and the U.S.,” said Papa Rao Yeluchuri, its current director. “Following the adoption, the girl’s parents never visited us in person and we do not have any detail about their whereabouts.” He added that the Supreme Court’s guidelines prohibit the disclosure of the details of biological parents to the adopted child.
In this Yeluchuri seems to be behind the times: there is, in fact, no Supreme Court guideline prohibiting an adoptive child from knowing her biological origins; such knowledge is part of a person’s essential right to know and right to privacy. It is left to the adoptive parents’ discretion to inform their minor child about her origins. There is also no restriction whatsoever on an adult about going in search of her biological parents. The lacuna in law on this aspect was cleared by the Supreme Court in its Laxmikant Pandey versus Union of India AIR 1984 SC 469 judgment. The new Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015 provides for revamped intra-country and inter-country adoption guidelines. On the rights of siblings, the interest and welfare of the child is considered paramount. There are many laws on guardianship and parental custody, and disputes are decided on a case-to-case basis. The courts are careful to not let the rights of a sibling and the custodial rights of parents cancel each other instead of complementing one other.
Sivanath Yandamoori, chairman of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), East Godavari district, toldThe Hindu that Yasamma has every right to know about Mariyamma, as the court is clear about retaining the bond between siblings. “This is a rare case,” Yandamoori said, “The CWC can help Yasamma meet her elder sister, provided she comes to India.”
While the Tavises were delighted to hear this, the news brought back an old dilemma.
Photo: Special Arrangement
The family lives a reasonably comfortable life in Howell, New Jersey — “near the famous Jersey Shore,” Ms. Tavis says — but they’re not wealthy. Richard is 62, and recently retired from Pepperidge Farm, where he was a manager. Patricia is 59, and has been running a yoga practice since 2009. An indefinite trip to India without solid leads to follow up on is a prospect that is too expensive for them at their time in life. While their older sons are married and have children, the two younger ones live with them. The younger lad, Christian, 20, balances college and a job at a supermarket. But James, 24, has an autism spectrum disorder. They worry about his future, about who will take care of him when they are gone; he’s also one reason why they don’t like to take air trips. But if they do find Mariyamma, Ms. Tavis says, they will try and help the girls meet. But that prospect is still dim.
Ms. Tavis has also stepped back from her Facebook campaign; the volume of people asking how they could help the family was staggering and touching, but it also brought out the darker side of such Internet interaction: “unwanted attention from men”, as she delicately phrased it, both for herself and Samantha.
The possibility has also come up, as a source (whose name Ms. Tavis does not want to reveal at this time) told her that Mariyamma may have been returned to an orphanage elsewhere and been adopted again. The paper trail is, in all probability, dead. So a documented relationship might be impossible to establish.
Hope lives
But science may be able to help. The least complicated would be a blood test, through which some degree of relatedness could be established. Any decent hospital, and a number of private organisations, would offer more sophisticated methods like genetic testing. A boy, for instance, would inherit his father’s Y chromosome, which is why that method is used to determine paternity.
Then there’s mitochondrial DNA (mDNA), which all humans inherit from their mothers: mDNA undergoes very little mutation over generations, so is considered a very accurate way to determine genealogies. Siblings like Samantha and Mariyamma will share the same mDNA. The tests are simple, but since India’s laws prohibit DNA being exported, Samantha and Mariyamma would need to be tested in labs on different continents.
This is only valuable if — and it’s a very big if — the search does bring forth a young woman who is a likely match. Mariyamma must be found. Which is where you, dear reader, can help. If you have any information for the Tavises, e-mail FindingMariya1@gmail.com or this writer (peter.griffin@thehindu.co.in). Because a story like this really, really needs a happy ending.
With additional reporting from K.N. Murali Shankar and B.V.S. Bhaskar, and inputs from Jacob Koshy and Krishnadas Rajagopal.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion> Comment / Peter Griffin / August 20th, 2016
Andhra University vice-chancellor Prof G Nageswara Rao paid tributes to Sardar Gouthu Lachanna on his birth anniversary by hailing him as one of the great real life heroes of Andhra Pradesh.
The vice-chancellor said not only did Gouthu Lachanna play a key role in emancipating the down trodden but was also a front liner during the freedom struggle.
He hailed him as man who dedicated his life for the betterment of mankind. TNN
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / August 18th, 2016
A matching liver from a brain dead patient was available and was allocated under Jeevandan scheme of AP
Visakhapatnam :
The first liver transplant without any blood or blood product transfusion in Andhra Pradesh was held at a corporate hospital in the Healthcity, Arilova recently.
The surgery was performed on a 54-year-old male patient on July 30.The patient has since recovered and is all set to be discharged.
The male patient hailing from Vijayawada was suffering from NASH (Non-Alcoholic steatohepatitis) related cirrhosis and decompensated liver failure. He had a very poor quality of life due to accumulation of excessive water in his body, episodes of bleeding in his gut and hepatic encephalopathy (liver failure related mental changes), said Dr Sandeep Chatrath, Central Regional CEO, Apollo Hospitals.
“In addition, his cirrhotic liver also had a cancerous tumour, which necessitated an immediate operation. Unfortunately his family had no matching live donor and therefore had no option but to wait for a cadaveric organ from a brain dead person. A matching liver from a brain dead patient was available and was allocated to him under Jeevandan scheme of AP,” informed Dr Manish C Verma, chief transplant surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad and Vizag.
This operation, which lasted for about eight hours is also a landmark operation as it is the first liver transplant in the state to be done without any blood or blood product transfusion. Dr Varma said, “Liver transplant has always been an operation which requires high volumes of blood product transfusions and this operation without any transfusion is a clinical benchmark which is rarely achieved.”
The team of specialists who performed the liver transplant included, Dr Manish C Varma, Dr Anand Khakhar, Dr Manjunath B, Dr Kirubakaran, Dr N Muralidhar, Dr Disha, Dr N. Srinivas, Dr Satish, Dr Atchyut, Dr Bhushan and Dr Sasidhar Reddy.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / August 11th, 2016
Rajamahendravaram city MLA Akula Satyannarayana felicitated freedom fighter Mullapudi Suryanarayana marking 70th Independence Day and BJP Thiranga Parva at Dowleswaram on Monday.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Rajamahendravaram – August 16th, 2016
An eleven-member United Kingdom paediatric team performed heart surgeries on 19 children in association with the Heart and Brain Institute of the Andhra Hospital Group.
In a meeting organised to thank the U.K. charity called the Healing Little Hearts, Andhra Hospitals managing director P V Ramana Murthy said that this was the second year that the Healing Little Hearts had performed the surgeries free of cost on underprivileged children who were suffering with congenital heart and other cardiac disorders. Complex cardiac operations were performed on 17 children last year. Heart operations were performed on another 15 children in March this year and within six months operations have been done on 19 children this month, he said.
The kids are doing well
All the 19 children are doing well and they would be discharged in a few days, he said. The team members came from hospitals of international repute like the Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, Glenfield Hospitals, Leicester, Royal Liver Pool Children’s Hospital of U.K. and the Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia, he said.
Paediatric interventional cardiologist from Leicester Vikram Kudumula, Paediatric intensive care specialists Marijuana, Julia and Nayan Setty from Liverpool led the team.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – August 14th, 2016
The International Business Council (IBC), New Delhi, has presented the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award to Montessori Educational Institutions founder and correspondent V. Koteswaramma.
The award was presented recently for her outstanding achievements in the field of education. “I got many awards and the new award has added one more feather in the cap of Montessori Institutions. I thank the college and school principals, headmasters and teaching and non-teaching staff for their commitment and hard work, which helped me in achieving the awards,” said Koteswaramma, who expressed satisfaction at bagging the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award.
Montessori Colleges Joint Secretary Avirneni Rajiv, Degree College Principal R. Padmavathi, Junior College Principal Y. Mangatayaru, B.Ed College Principal G. Padma Tulasi, High School headmistress K. Suhasini and other staff felicitated the institutions’ founder for her achievement, at a programme held on the college premises on Friday.
Montessori Educational Institutions, which started with a meagre staff and students about six decades ago, is now running many schools and colleges for girls, said Ms. Koteswaramma.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff Reporter / Vijayawada – August 06th, 2016
