Milana - JNVG Alumni Association
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Inside: Why is That? P1 Prez Zone P2 Namma Taaregalu P4 Meluku P8 Helale Bekada Kathe P11 Nodi Ee Cinema P13 Navodaya Mess P15 Kavana P18 Am I Special P18
I was very much determined to achieve my goal and my wife Manjula supported me by solely taking up family responsibilities. She managed her job and children very smoothly. I am very happy that I got her as my beloved wife. - Budeppa J3, Assistant Commissioner (Revenue), Bijapur
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Flash of a genius! Towers are guide points for the travellers. Yes! things fall into place easily. In earlier days, worshipping was the most important part of the routine in everyone's life. No matter where you are, you are supposed to worship without fail. Travellers would go in search of temples even during their journey.
Entrance to the World Famous Beluru Chennakeshava Temple
But does it make sense today? Do we still need towers to guide travellers? -Quester
Why temples have towers?
I like travelling and it is hardly possible in India to travel for a long distance without encountering lots of villages, small towns if not cities. What strikes me at every one of these human habitats is the number of temples. On an average there are at least two temples in every village where there are more than two streets. And there is a striking similarity among all these temples. Almost all of them have a tower to welcome you to the premises of the temple. What is the point of the tower? I couldn't find an answer for this until I started observing mosques and churches. Almost all of them also have a tower in the premises.
Entrance to Balaji Temple, Birmingham
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Prez Zone: Hello Everyone, March was relatively a low key month for the ex JNVGians. But, it was 'The Turning' point for almost everyone of our +2 students at the school. Our Juniors are all entering into a very critical stage of their life.Its indeed a life changing experience for many JNVGians to pass out from the school. +2 students have all completed their life at Navodaya. They all come out of the school and the build their life in the Real world. Alumni wishes all the +2 students a successful life ahead. Hope they all have done well in the exams and are well prepared to purse their dreams. We also, wish 10Th students good luck and hope they all come back to school stronger and in better shape to pursue their dreams.
Few volunteers have come forward to offer social service and a team Milana_Care has been formed. The main objective of the team is to carry out social service activities. Its still in very nascent
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stage and we are all collecting everyone's ideas. We will have a plan and road map ready for this soon. Interested Alumni who have time and energy to invest in social activities can contact me or Deepthi Kargal (J9, 8971987400). To start with, we wanted to conduct counselling to our +2 students. Unfortunately, we could not do this. We believe our juniors (specially +2 n 10Th) need guidance and knowledge. We want to help the students by sharing our experiences and knowledge, which help them to prepare well for life outside Navodaya. Apart from this, March witnessed unusual rain in Bangalore. Its been a while (guess 5 yr), since Bangalore received rains in March. But, Bangalore is getting hot and the mercury level is increasing. If this is the situation in March, God knows how it would be in May-June. Lets hope it rains n rains n rains... International Women's Day (IWD) was celebrated across the world on March 8Th. I really didn’t knew how and why its celebrated. RJs were all shouting on this day on Radio and some companies conducted some activities. All I know is, its got to do something with socialist movement in USSR and later given prominence as international women's day.
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Holi - The Festival of Colour was celebrated followed by Good Friday. It was waterless and a dull Holi in Bangalore. I did see some guys/gals in all colour on the streets. But yes it appeared that Bangaloreans were less enthusiastic on Holi.
Maha Shivaratri was celebrated on March 10th. We all have got fond memeries on Shivaratri, specially the nightout (Jaagaran). It was a special night as everyone in the colony,street gathered and watched the films,played cards and somehow managed to stay awake. But now, it ends in a visit to nearby Shiva temple.
- Jagadeesha Y - Manoj Kumar
Happy Shivaratri
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Sammilana_201303 Dr. H.B. Budeppa, Assistant Commissioner, Bijapur
Pooja - There are all kinds of professions that are open to us. We cannot blame the high number of engineers because there is huge requirement for them. Usually it is our family, extended family, friends influence on what profession we choose. If one of your cousin is a Chartered Accountant, you might have a better information about what kind of work he does and chances are high that you get influenced in the process. Usually in a family of doctor it is easier for a doctor to bloom. It is always good to have first hand information about how the work that each one of does makes a difference to the society. Administrative jobs is another interesting and challenging career path anyone with any background can choose. This month we are introducing our alumni group to Budeppa J3, who is now the assistant commissioner of Bijapur. May he be the inspiration for JNV students and extended JNV family.
Tell us about your preNavodaya days. Family, friends, school life before you joined navodaya. How was it like to be selected for Navodaya School? Tell us more about your first day in Navodaya? First of all, I would like to thank our sammilana team, publishers and my dear beloved JNVG stars for recognising me through this magazine. As for as my preNavodaya days are concerned I am from a small farmer family and though my mother and father were illiterates I was very much dedicated to my studies. Especially with the incredible support of my mother. I credit my selection to my primary school head master without whom I would not have been selected to my JNVG. I was screened in the second list. Because of which I had to face the first internal exam directly without studying anything. I am very grateful to god for segregating me from my remote village and putting me in an esteemed institution for my career building. As soon as we heard from my teacher that I was selected for Navodaya, my mother started crying. With great difficulty our teacher convinced my mother and finally I got admitted to school with a lot of inferiority complex coupled with a great joy.
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Did you enjoy your life in Navodaya School? Which was your favourite activity in school? What is your most memorable moment in school? Yes, definitely I enjoyed throughout my jnvg stay with my all beloved friends, teachers. With all my studies, games, cultural events, food, scouts and guides etc.,. My favourite activity was umm.. I was jack of all, master of none and even today I have that deficiency in me.The most memorable day in the jnvg was when I was got selected as a leader to lead my scouts and guides to Delhi for a camp.
taking civil service exam at that time.
Which teacher influenced you the most in Navodaya School? Why? What is the best thing you learnt from school? I was very much encouraged by my beloved scouts and guides teacher Mr.Ravi sir, Mr.Shekharbabu sir and Mr. Walmiki sir. They knew that I was from kannada medium and that too from a very remote village. I was struggling very hard to study. They supported me like anything. I recognised that once I left Navodaya. Navodaya made me like a parthenium plant, to adjust in any situation and reinforced in me a lot of confidence to reach the my goal.
After school what did you do? What stream and what career path did you choose? Soon after I finished school I joined for a degree course. I dropped from degree course for one year because of financial problem (My friends Arun, Prakash, Shambhu, Guru know why) Somehow I managed to join next year and completed B.V.Sc & AH and finished M.V.Sc with three gold medals. Cleared ICAR NET twice, entered government job as a veterinary doctor and got selected to a University as a assistant professor. I got bored of teaching profession and took UPSC and KPSC exam and finally landed up with KAS as a Assistant Commissioner and Sub Divisional magistrate.
Did you ever read Competition success review in school? If yes, did you even consider civil service at that time? Yes, I used to just glance csr by taking issues from my friend Shanmukha and I never thought of
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When and what made you decide to take up civil service exams. Were you confident from the beginning of cracking the exams? The respect and the power of taking policy decisions of administrator motivated me to choose this field. And I was confident that I can handle any worst situation to achieve my goal. How did you prepare for the exams? So many try at civil service exams and not all succeed. Tell us about the challenges that you faced before clearing KAS. I was very much determined to achieve my goal and my wife Manjula supported me by solely taking up family responsibilities. She managed her job and children very smoothly. I am very happy that I got her as my beloved wife.
service examination. Regarding the exam pattern it comprises of both multiple choice for prelims and descriptive for main examination. Training helps us a lot to tune our personality for execution of a great task. I did not have any mentor. My wife is my inspiration. As far as current responsibilities are concerned I need to look after welfare of my subdivision consisting of three taluks. Being subordinate to my DC, I assist him.
How easy or difficult is the whole civil exams process. Exam pattern, interview, training. Did you have any mentor? What is your current responsibility? Civil service is nothing but our cent-percent dedication to look after the welfare of the society through different policy formulation, implementation and execution in an impartial manner. This has to be practised from the beginning of our career and if practices and put into a theoretical way with a little bit of intelligence it is nothing but all about our civil
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Does your line of work cause tension in your Home/Personal life? Do you think you balance work and life well? No, not at all. Because my wife manages so well that I cannot even feel that I have to look after the family and I am really grateful to her. I am well planned and handle both family and my work equally and my family is very happy for what I am doing.
What do you like the most about your job? It is a very respectable job in the society provided we are people friendly. What do you think are the main problems of our society? What do you think is the solution to these problems? How do you make a difference to the society? The main problems of our society would be illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, underemployment and the caste system. What would you have done, if you hadn't become a KAS officer I would have continued with my teaching profession concentrating mainly on the research field.
Tell us more about your family? My wife Manjula.V.R is a Commercial Tax Officer. She is basically a veterinary doctor. Shreevalli studying in second standard and Thanmaya(LKG) are my sweet and cute daughters.
Would you like to convey any message to JNVG Alumni? We jnvg people have lot of potential to achieve anything with dedication, determination and perseverance in all the fields. Wherever possible, we should focus our efforts on uplifting the society especially economically weaker sections. As I see from my past experience everybody is interested in doing engineering and medical. I believe JNVGians having passed out from a great esteemed institution must enter civil service so that they can do a miracle in the society. Be prepared to achieve your field of interest in the different fields.
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Meluku:
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When I was a kid studying in 5Th class, I performed small experiments at home. I had rooted an onion on a bottle with water and watched it grow. I had dissolved salt in water and boiled it until I found out salt in the vessel. I had poured various oils in a common bottle to distinguish them from their densities. I had no clue what I was doing, I performed every experiment which was mentioned in my class. I enjoyed it. Later things changed as I joined JNVG. Amidst the induced homesickness by my surroundings I had preserved a fantasy with my scientific adventure.And, I met Sameer, one of the extra smart dude I have ever met. He possessed a lot of things which he denied to share with, as well was a book gifted by his Mama named ‘101 Science experiments’. It ignited our flair for Science. It is purely hilarious and sheer innocence that were exhibited when I recall all the incidents. Here it goes on and on.
Intestine, liver etc.. Sameer was even appreciated by Aruna madam for his endeavour.
Tonic: I was mixing all the things I could find into a bottle. I vaguely remember it began with Agarbatti powder, Chalk powder, Ink, Vibhuti powder and some other ingredients. Sam joined in while I was doing this aimless experiment. We decided to experiment this on an animal. Unluckily we saw a dog which seemed sick lying in front of our dormitory. We used a pen led as a straw by opening its nib to make dog drink the solution. Luckily it didn’t bite us as it was a puppy. After that we kept our hawk eyes on it.Observed that the dog turned extremely active. So, we concluded that we discovered something that can cure dog sickness. We started making a datasheet with all the ingredients and its quantity. Even before the data sheet was ready, the dog had disappeared. Forever.
Dissection:
Sam discussed among a bunch of guys which included me also to find a frog and dissect it. Alas, I was not involved in the hunting process, I believe it was done by Adi also named as Dodda Kada. But later I joined in for the dissection process. We tried to cut the skin with a blunt blade. Failed. At last some hardcore did accomplish cutting the skin of the frog, I guess it was Adi again. I had no guts to see and touch the innards of frog. So I left. After a while I saw the group coming with a sheet of paper decorated with various parts of frog. Page 8
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Devara Aata: This was not an experiment instead was a noble debate among the scholars of 6Th class on the existence of The God. There were two teams, I was among theists with many other and the other team had GD & Sam. It began and went on and on. He is there. He is not there. Then show him to me. He is in air, water and everywhere. Bullshit. Bullshit. Are you not scared of God? Of course not. Then stamp on Saraswati’s poster. Sure. Okay, lets go get the poster. Poster was stamped. There was no cyclone, no thunderstorm, no lightning, bird didn’t fly. Something much worse happened. Bheema started crying and turned furious, the one who was not involved in the game at all. It seemed like someone had stamped on his innocent heart. He even warned Adi who was the wing leader to compliant to Bhat sir else he would be given Shaapa by Bheema. Things got uglier as Bhat sir was alerted about it. For the other’s team misfortune, Bhat sir being a Theist hurried to the dormitory with anger. He called upon GD and Sam. Rum.. rum.. rum...Pattarrr.... Taparrr... Bhat Sir: Eega Helappa, Devru idano ilwo? GD (with loads of tears): Idaane Sir, Idane. Bhat Sir: Good Innond Saari Ee Vishaya Barakoodadu... Ever since, Bheem and Sam never spoke for seven great years.
was in Neeti house with Malta and Sam. Sam had a book on Hypnotism. We chose Malta as our subject as he seldom spoke which seemed easier to hypnotise him. During sports hour, we rendezvoused in store room. And began with.. "Paada Sadila Aagta ide..Kaalu sadila aagta ide..Hotte sadila aagta ide..Ede,tale,kannu....Antar Manase baa, Antar Manase Horage Baa, antar Manase Baa Horage Baa antar Manase." Malta’s body was shivery shaky with lips parting, whispering like a witch. We made him rise a hand and then asked him a lot of things. Who are you? Where are you from? How are you feeling? Who is the lover of that senior? What is the first question of maths paper? and we would end it by Hogu Antar Manas Olge Hogu. When we asked Malta after passing out of the school about this experiment. He said that he pretended to be hypnotised. H2O and Kasi (Grafting): I was taught a new equation for water 2H2 + O2 = H2O in 7Th class. After a few weeks I found out a water bottle that was lying under my cot. I observed a few water droplets in the bottle. I was pretty sure that was not even a single drop of water when I had closed it. Eureka. Eureka. I believed and concluded that, if air kept in a closed container for a longer time, it can turn into water due to the above equation.
Sammohana: We were in 7Th class and I
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If you see one of the house now, there are two mango trees that are grown with a little history. We had planted a lot of mango trees in front of Neethi house. And in the science class we were told about bonsai and grafting. Sam insisted on experimenting it. Firstly, Sam squelched all the buds to make the plant grow shorter with a lot of branches. Secondly, we cut most of all the plants in VShape and grafted with the other. Patched the branch with cow dung. Guru was annoyed at us cutting all the plants and warned Sam not to touch two plants else ‘Adanna Kasi Maadidre, Ninna Kasi Madteeni’ which are grown into huge trees now. Random Pick from fb..
There are many more innocent and adventurous things that every one of us had in Navodaya. This is just a piece of it. Characters: I - Suresh H S, GD - Chandrashekar G D, Sam Sameer A M, Kada - Adarsh S, Adi - Adarsh H R, Bheema Bheemesh D A, Malta - Maltesh B. Navodaya Teachers at SJC Function
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another city. He’s driving a red Plymouth Signet car. It’s a long drive and the two lane highway has less traffic. As the car is speeding on the road, an old rusty Tanker truck appears, travelling slower than the speed limit with thick fumes of diesel exhaust.
1971 movie DUEL, made for Television. Director: Steven Spielberg Tag line - A duel is about to begin between a man, a truck, and an open road. Where a simple battle of wits is now a matter of life and death.
Well, there are best of the best movies directed by legendary director Steven Spielberg, we all know that. Before starting his four decades of glorious career of main stream movie direction, he directed few movies which were made only for television and DUEL is one among those. Boy what a thriller it was. An electronics sales man Davin Mann has to meet a client in
Mann overtakes the truck and there begins a scary highway drive, a lonely car driver’s nightmare. Suddenly Mann sees through the mirror that the truck is picking up speed with long air horn blast. Truck overtakes the car and again slows down forcing Mann to follow the truck. Thinking that it’s a simple battle of highway wits, Mann over takes again and moves past, but the truck speeds up again this time almost hitting the car from behind. He realizes that it’s a battle of life and death and tries to accelerate, but the truck follows with equal speed and continuous air horn. Mann stops at a gas station, truck stops too a little behind on highway. He tries to approach the truck driver, but truck starts moving behind. Car starts moving and the truck too and bumps into car several times until car goes off the road.Scared to death, Mann stops at a booth and tries to call for help and the truck roars up and plows into the telephone booth, with Mann jumping clear just in time.The race and chase continuous until when an attempt by truck to crush the car, leads the truck to the edge of a cliff from where it plunges below and busts into flames.
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As the movies ends with Mann sitting on the cliff clueless, we see that the truck had a couple of number plates, mostly of those cars crushed by the mammoth truck in the past. Neither Mann nor we get to see the maniac truck driver.
90 mins of driving experience with suspense and thriller and action, it’s a good watch. Amazing cinematography with beautiful highway landscapes. If you like highway driving, give this movie a try. IMDB rating – 7.7 Rotten Tomatoes – 86% - Barge, J8
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Navodaya Mess:
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MY PASSION…COOKING
- Jyothishree S Biradar Let me share my cooking experience with you all….n I want it to start with my favourite green leafy vegetable………Fenugreek, which is also known as Methya (in Marathi), menthya (in Kannada), Vendayam (in Tamil), Menthulu (in Telugu), Uluva (in Malayalam) , Uluhaal ( in Sinhalese), Methi ( (In Oriya,Bangla, Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi). In Persian it is Shanbalîleh, and in Arabic its name is Hilbeh. Fenugreek belongs to the plant family “Fabaceae”. It is available and used both as a herb (the leaves of the plant) and as spice (the seed). It is cultivated worldwide as a semi-arid crop. It is frequently used in curry and is a very famous Indian leafy vegetable which resembles clover leaves. It has a very light bitter taste (which might require getting used to) and has a spicy taste to it.
The fresh leaves undoubtedly have lots of mud and debris in them. Hence cleaning is very essential. Before that, chop off the roots of the leaves. Pick the leaves of the stem. Very tender stems can be left in. Wash very well in cold water. Chop it lightly and coarsely. You can now use this in varied recipes. The benefits are multitude. The seeds have been found to contain protein, vitamin C, niacin, potassium, and diosgenin (which is a compound that has properties similar to estrogen).
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Due to its estrogen-like properties,Fenugreek has been found to help increase libido and lessen the effect of hot flashes and mood fluctuations that are common symptoms of menopause and premenstrual symptoms to treat arthritis, asthma, bronchitis, improve digestion,maintain a healthy metabolism, increase libido and male potency,To cure skin problems (wounds, rashes and boils), To treat sore throat and cure acid reflux. Recent studies have shown that Fenugreek helps lower blood glucose and cholesterol levels, and may be an effective treatment for both type 1 and 2 diabetes. Fenugreek is also being studied for its cardiovascular benefits. It is a very good source of iron. That is why fenugreek, both its seeds and leaves are considered medicinal for curing anaemia. It is also thought to be a galactagogue and it is often used to increase lactation. Fenugreek is also a component in natural breast enhancing treatments. Along with its benefits we need to know some of its side effects like Nausea,gastrointestinal discomfort (diarrhea and/or gas). Use of fenugreek is not advised if you are pregnant since it’s known to induce labour, consult with your doctor. If you are consuming any oral medications then it is important to use fenugreek at least 2 hours before or after these drugs since
the fibre in Fenugreek has the potential to interfere with the absorption of oral medications due to its mucilaginous fibre (which gives it a moist and sticky texture). Divide the dough. I made 15 pieces but depending upon your preferred size and thickness you might get more or less.On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a small circle. Heat a pan (med-high) and when hot, add the chaptti. Trickle some ghee/oil by the sides and cook for 1-2 minutes or until brown spots starts appearing at the bottom. Turn and cook likewise. Repeat for the rest of the dough. It tastes great as it is but you can enjoy it with some pickle and curd or any accompaniment of your choice. Serve hot. I use Methi as alternative to coriander leaves……most of my dishes include Methi ……among all, my favorite one is Methi paratha or Methi chaptti……its one of the easiest n healthiest preparation a working women like me can add into breakfast, lunch n dinner. Let us go to recipe….required ingredients are very few…… - 2-1/2 cups Chapatti flour - 1 cup Fenugreek Leaves - 1 tsp Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp Oil (optional) - Salt to taste - Water as per requirement
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Heat a pan (med-high) and when hot, add the chapatti to it. Trickle some ghee/oil by the sides and cook for 1-2 minutes or until brown spots starts appearing at the bottom. Turn and cook likewise. Repeat for the rest of the dough. It tastes great as it is but you can enjoy it with some pickle and curd or any other curry of your choice.
And the preparation goes like this………… Remove the leaves from the stem. Discard any yellow leaves. Wash the leaves well. Give it a coarse chop. Add this along with rest of the ingredients. Give it a good mix and then add little water, until it comes together into dough - not too soft or dry. Knead it for few minutes until it feels elastic and soft (not sticky). Set aside, loosely covered, for about 10 minutes. Divide the dough. Depending upon your preferred size and thickness you might get more or less. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a small circle
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Bariyalu Kulithe Ondhu sundharavadha Kavithe Bhavavu hommalu nannane marethe Jothege padagala korathe Lekani chelli mareyali avithe Thaleyalli meeritthu gelathiya nenapina alathe - Manoj Kumar, J10
Kavana:
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Am I special? In ancient literature it is mentioned that one has to be really fortunate to be born as a human and science says you are the winner among a race of 250 million. In either of the cases you are really lucky. Being happy with those facts and thanking god for whatever you are today is good, and to then realize you are just one among the 7 billion. Every child is blessed with mother’s love and father’s affection and there is no second thought about it. You are reading this and definitely you were opportune to have education from the society but again there are millions out there like you.
school and learnt to communicate and gained some knowledge. Of course you proved your intelligence when you cracked JNV entrance exam. I spent a lot of time thinking about this exam, I feel a kid studying in 5Th standard just does what he is guided to do. If he/she were told to study for JNV entrance exam just because its good for the future he/she would blindly follow it. The kid is really not matured enough to see the big picture. Thanks to the exam it filters out who are really really intelligent and keeps the bookworms and dumb ones away.
So what is it all about? As a small kid you started to go to Page 18
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The brightest kid among thousands enters into JNV system. The kid gets a new set of friends who is as bright as him/her. The kid is fortunate to get friends who are oblivious to rich and poor, caste and creed, good and bad. They become friends with the base being innocence and human values, this makes them to be friends for the life time. The love and affection towards the friend is same even when if you are leading a plain normal life or having a lavish lifestyle because the roots of the friendship is deep and existed before the money did. One should be blessed to get a friend like this.
In JNV the kid gets independent and self reliant. Learn real and practical lessons of life in every activity. Outperform any normal student of same age group in literally every aspects of life. The kid is confident and envisions a promising future as he/she sees their successful seniors who are ruling every part of the world in terms of knowledge. JNV gives an immense confidence and a sense of pride to every kid who comes out. Makes him/her feel good by looking at their well settled seniors, upcoming batch mates and innovative juniors. One don’t have to examine each grain of rice to check if its cooked, an Individual Navodayan speaks for the entire community, that you are THE ONE from THE BEST. I am a Navodayan and I am definitely a special one. -Chandrashekar GD J13
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