First India-Ahmedabad Edition-13 July 2020

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD

CORONA

25°C - 36°C

ALERT AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLD

5,69,368 1,29,46,620 CONFIRMED CASES

DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA 10,289 DEATHS 2,54,427 CASES

DELHI 3,371 DEATHS 1,12,494 CASES

RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 228

INDIA

23,186 8,78,593 DEATHS

CONFIRMED CASES

TAMIL NADU 1,966 DEATHS 1,38,470 CASES

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GUJARAT

2,047 DEATHS

UTTAR PRADESH 934 DEATHS 36,476 CASES

41,906

CONFIRMED CASES

RAJASTHAN 510 DEATHS 24,392 CASES

The CHALLENGER

 PILOT CLAIMS GEHLOT GOVERNMENT IS NOW IN MINORITY!  WILL NOT ATTEND MONDAY MORNING CONGRESS LEGISLATIVE PARTY MEETING!  PILOT LIKELY TO JOIN BJP BUT NADDA UNSURE IF PILOT HAS REQUIRED ‘STRENGTH’

Aditi Nagar

New Delhi: The biggest battle in Rajasthan politics, in the past years, came to an abrupt halt on Sunday night when deputy chief minister and PCC Chief Sachin Pilot claimed, from New Delhi, that he has support of more than thirty legislators and that the Gehlot government in Rajasthan is in minority.

The development caused ripples across the state’s polity with the remaining MLAs trying to ‘adjust’ their course according to their political future.

According to sources, after a detailed dialogue with JP Nadda on Sunday evening, till the

Ashok Gehlot

World lauding India’s Corona fight: Shah Gurugram: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the whole world was appreciating India’s successful fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking ahead of the mega tree plantation drive of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Officers’ Training Academy in Kadarpur village here, the Home Minister also lauded the contribution of security forces in the battle against COVID-19 in the country. “India is one of the most populous countries. Everyone thought how will a

Union Home Minister Amit Shah plants a sapling at CRPF plantation drive, in Gurugram on Sunday.

—PHOTO BY ANI

country like India battle COVID-19, there were apprehensions but today the whole world is witnessing how one of the most successful battles against COVID-19 has been fought here,”

the Home Minister said.

“In India’s battle against COVID-19, all of our security forces are playing a huge role, nobody can deny it. Today, I salute these corona warriors.

Turn on P6

news was sent to print, Pilot was all set to join BJP on Monday in the presence of saffron party’s top leadership, including JP Nadda, but sources close to Nadda revealed that the BJP Chief is still sceptical of Pilot having the requisite number of at least 25-30 MLAs to join along with him.

Therefore, if Pilot really fails to produce at least two dozen congress MLAs in New Delhi on Monday morning to join BJP, then Nadda, in consultation with top leaders of BJP, may even postpone the joining ceremony, at least for the time being.

However, a Pilot camp insider claims that In-

spite of all the ongoing drama, Pilot will not join BJP. So what to say? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

However, till the report of his formally joining BJP fold came about from New Delhi, Jaipur was abuzz with the million dollar question of what would be Pilot’s next move? Joining BJP or creating a third front?

There was suspicion that if Pilot goes the third front way, BJP is likely to support his government from outside but still there is a difference of opinion in BJP to provide only outside support or to be a part of Pilot government, if it really becomes a ground reality?

This is being thought of because since day one, Pilot was reluctant to join BJP and therefore, he could opt for this third front route.

In all this disturbing scenario, Gehlot still sounds very confident of his massive majority, in case, it is put to trial to prove his majority on the floor of the house in any case. According to sources, Pilot’s game plan may be to rope in the Governor in this entire controversy by virtually compelling His Excellency to ask the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of house in a week or 10 day’s time and if unfortunately, Gehlot fails to prove the numbers, Turn on P6

Hafiz Saeed’s bank accounts restored

Parl Monsoon Session likely in August

Islamabad: Pakistan has restored the bank accounts of top five leaders of defunct Jamaatud-Dawa (JUD) and Lashkar -e-Taiba (LeT), including its chief and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The restoration of bank accounts has taken place following formal approval of the Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), The News reported on Saturday. The other members of defunct JUD/LeT who got their bank accounts restored include Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, Haji M Ashraf, Yahya Mujahid and Za-

New Delhi: With Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi confirming on Sunday that the monsoon session of Parliament will be held, talks are underway over various options to conduct the proceedings.

Sources in Parliament told ANI that the monsoon session might begin from either the second or the third week of August. The biggest challenge in front of the government is to decide how the proceedings of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be conducted in view of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. P6

far Iqbal. All of them are UNSC’s enlisted terrorists though and currently facing sentences ranging 1 to 5 years in Lahore jail for terror financing cases filed against them by the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

The sources claimed that each one of the defunct JUD leaders had appealed to the United Nations Turn on P6

Sachin Pilot

CORONA GRIPS B-TOWN CELEBS New Delhi: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her eightyear-old daughter have also tested positive for the coronavirus, a day after Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan revealed their diagnosis. Aishwarya and her daughter have been isolated at home in Mumbai, Abhishek Bachchan tweeted.

Jaya Bachchan has tested negative. All the four bungalows of the Bachchan family—Jalsa, Pratiksha, Janak and Vatsa—have been declared as containment zones and have been sealed. Meanwhile actor Anupam Kher too revealed that members of his family, including mother Dulari and brother Raju, had tested positive for COVID-19.

P11

RISING NUMBERS

State records highest active cases tally at more than 10K

 Fresh

cases 879, Discharged 513, Deaths 13  Total Tally 41,906, Discharged 29,189, Deaths 2,047 Haresh Jhala Gandhinagar: Even as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths drop in Ahmedabad, the worries of the state government and health department have not ceased. This is owing to the fact cities such as Surat, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Mehsana and oth-

er districts in that state have been reporting a jump in numbers every day. On Sunday, the state recorded its highest tally of active cases in a single day at 10,661.

A surge of 601 active cases emerged from the state in just 24 hours.

Going by the death toll, Ahmedabad has not reported deaths in dou-

—FILE PHOTO

ble digits for the first 12 days of this month. The last time that happened on June 28 when the city reported 13 deaths. In the beginning of June, the average positive cases per day totalled more than 300. And, against that, the average in July has been less than 150 cases.

But, this relief in numbers has been limited to Ahmedabad, as post Unlock 1.0, the transmission of the virus has spread to cities, towns and villages across the state, with an average of 28 to 30 dis-

tricts reporting COVID-19 cases. More than 200 cases have been emerging daily from diamond city Surat. It reported 251 cases in the past 24 hours, of which, 205 were from city areas and 46 from rural ones.

Therefore, the city’s total tally now stands at 7,112 with 1,260 cases in rural areas taking the district’s tally to 8,372.

In the past 24 hours, eight doctors and 13 diamond workers have tested positive in the city. Also, four more staffers at the New Civil Hospital have been in-

fected with the virus.

On Saturday, the Ahmedabad district reported 3,619 active cases, of which, 3,177 cases emerged from the city as per local civic body Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

Over 587 cases were recorded in the West zone, North West Zone (502), East Zone (474), South Zone (465), and the remaining from other four zones.

On Sunday, Vadodara broke all its previous records as 75 new cases emerged in the district, Turn on P6

NEWS

02

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

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After Hardik, Congress to have

TWO MORE WORKING PREZs

The party is planning to have 3 working presidents who would be assigned South, Central Guj and also the Saurashtra region Gargi Raval Ahmedabad: After appointing young Turk Hardik Patel as the working president of its Gujarat unit, the Congress party is likely to effect similar changes in the zonal structure in the near future. The new zonelevel appointments are being made to check any internal fighting among the leaders.

According to reliable sources, the party is likely to have at least three working presidents in Gujarat. “This is a new formula to strike a fine balance between the young faces and old leaders,” a senior leader revealed.

He added that ahead of the formation of a new state body, there will be three working presidents. At present, the entire organization stands dissolved, excluding Amit Chavda, who continues to retain as post as the state president.

The announcement of the new faces is expected soon, keeping in mind the upcoming assembly by-elections.

“After the Rajya Sabha election debacle, Delhi

Patidar leader trolled for ‘one-third’ gaffe Masuma Bharmal Jariwala

—FILE PHOTO

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) office.

A meeting of senior Congress leaders at the GPCC office in Ahmedabad.

is not in a mood to leave any loose ends.

There will be presidents for south Gujarat, Saurashtra and

central Gujarat. These appointments will balance the caste factor and regionalism,” said the source.

Karjan incharges take lead, hold meet in constituency

—FILE PHOTO

Sources said the appointment of Patel as working president has not gone down well with many senior leaders

who were looking for top posts in the party. “Reshuffle in the party is due since long. After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, both the party president and leader of the opposition had tendered their resignation.

The formation of a new organization that was due last year and many leaders, who were defeated in the assembly and in the general election have been eyeing key posts. Appointment of Hardik has put a question-mark on the political survival of several seniors,” another leader told First India.

Rajkot: A day after Hardik Patel was appointed as the new working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), he sought the blessings of Goddess Khodiyar at the Khodaldham temple in Kagvad village near Rajkot on Monday.

While addressing the media after visiting the temple Patel said that the party will win with a onethird majority in the by-elections. He later took to his Twitter handle and posted the statement. Netizens soundly trolled the Patidar leader for his miscalculation as any party requires a twothirds majority to win an election.

Later, Patel corrected his tweet and changed it to read

Hardik Patel.

‘two-thirds majority’. He also stated that the party had not assigned him a position but handed him a challenge, which he will ensure that he successfully completes.

With education, health, employment, and farmer issues some of the major problems prevalent in the state, it is likely that Patel’s priority would be to travel to villages and counsel

—FILE PHOTO

the people to vote for Congress by addressing their problems.

He also said that the impending byelections were the quarter-finals and the forthcoming taluka-level elections were akin to the semi-finals in the lead up to the finals of the 2022 Gujarat Elections where the party will prove its mettle by winning with a two-thirds majority.

Cops pick up Dhanani as he sits on protest, all alone

BJP meeting at Karjan chaired by (L-R) Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja and BJP State General Secretary Shabdsharan Brahmbhatt and Bharuch MP Mansukh Vasava.

First India Bureau Vadodara: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already commenced preparations for the impending by-elections of eight State Legislative Assembly seats reportedly set to take place in September this year.

On Saturday evening, a meeting was held at Karjan, where constituency incharges State General Secretary Shabdsharan Brahmbhatt and Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja set the tone by indicating that indiscipline within the party will not be tolerated.

The meet, which was attended by party leaders, took place at the APMC market yard. According to sources, Jadeja had a stern message for former MLA Satish Patel to toe the party line and that he was aware who he had

been trying to shake hands with lately. Although this was a private conversation between Jadeja and Patel, but, the message was passed down to several other members.

Party spokesperson Bharat Pandya later informed the media

Jadeja & Brahmbhatt worked out strategies to ensure landslide win in by-polls and stated that boothwise planning was the topic of discussion at the Karjan meet. Both incharges also worked out a strategy to ensure that the party candidates who contest the by-polls win with big margins.

Only top leaders of the Karjan and Sinor taluka were present at the official gathering.

Pandya also ruled out

that there were any differences between party leaders in the constituency and claimed that everyone plans to work together as a team to ensure that the chosen party candidate wins the Assembly seat.

In 2017, Congress candidate Akshay Patel had defeated BJP candidate Satish Patel from the Karjan constituency.

Last month, Akshay Patel resigned not only as an MLA but also from the Congress party and defected to the BJP. As of now, it is almost a foregone conclusion that BJP will be fielding him as a candidate for the upcoming by-elections. This development has not gone down well with existing members of the party who are dissatisfied with the party’s decision but have chosen not to come out and speak up against the party leaders’ decision, said sources.

Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani staging a sit-in at the Civil Hospital premises in Amreli; being detained by Amreli police for his symbolic protest.

Gargi Raval Ahmedabad: Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Paresh Dhanani was on Sunday whisked away by the Amreli police from the premises of the Civil Hospital, minutes after he began a symbolic protest demanding a laboratory for Covid-19 tests.

He was all alone, wearing a mask, and had asked his supporters to express their solidarity virtually.

Dhanani may have just sat on the floor when the police swooped down on him

-- they took him away while he was heard saying that this was worse than the British rule.

“Our battle for independence was fought mainly with protests and demonstrations against the British Rule. There was no permission required at that time. When I had announced a symbolic protest demanding a laboratory in Amreli, I had stated that I alone will stage demonstrations and my supporters will convey their protest virtually, on social media platforms,” he

told First India.

He said he had been asking for a laboratory in Amreli district for quick test results. “At present, at least 25 or

The LoP advocated RT-PCR test as opposed to antibody rapid test kits more samples are sent to Bhavnagar everyday for testing. It takes 24 to 48 hours for the reports to come,” he pointed out.

“Meanwhile, the suspected patients are kept in an isolation

ward, there is risk of infection if a person is not using the same infrastructure,” Dhanani asserted.

The LoP advocated RT-PCR test as opposed to antibody rapid test kits. “The government has allowed antibody rapid tests, which are not accurate. Last week, 10 people tested positive with the kit, but RT-PCR tests found only two persons to be positive,” he went on.

Amreli district, which is Dhanani’s constituency, daily receives many people from Surat, and he fears that in the com-

ing days Amreli will surpass all the districts in Saurashtra with the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases.

The LOP said, “Those coming from Surat are often found to be infected.

In a week, there will be a sudden rise in the positive cases.

There is a dire need for hospitals here. I have asked the authorities to add up at least 600 beds in Amreli, Savarkundla, and Rajula.” He said there is only one designated COVID-19 private hospital, Radhika Hospital.

GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

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Kanani’s son, two others detained, bailed out in hrs

Constable Sunita Yadav championed by netizens, called ‘Lady Singham’ for her actions Gaurav Tiwari & Gargi Raval Surat/Ahmedabad: After Constable Sunita Yadav resigned from her post, police filed a case against six people and arrested three including the State Minister of Health & Family Welfare Kishor Kanani’s son Prakash for allegedly violating the lockdown and night curfew in Surat on Sunday. All three were later released on bail within hours. Yadav was seen outside the police headquarters in Surat in the evening.

On Thursday night, Prakash Kanani got into a verbal altercation with Yadav in Varachha area of Surat. Yadav had stopped Kanani’s friends from roaming around in a car at 10.30 pm when the night curfew was enforced to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. After being told off by Yadav, Prakash’s

LACK OF JUSTICE

A video grab of Constable Sunita Yadav in a verbal spat with Kanani on Thursday night.

friends called him to the spot seeking to get bailed out of the situation through him. But, when Yadav protested their violation of the lockdown, Prakash engaged in a heated argument with the constable. A few audio clips of the exchange of words also went viral on sharing platforms on Saturday.

Due to the controver-

sy, Yadav later resigned from her post but found support from netizens online who hailed her as ‘Lady Singham’. Being pressured by the overwhelming support in favour of the constable, Commissioner of Surat Police RB Brahmbhatt ordered an inquiry into the matter and handed over the investigation to CK Patel, Assistant

One Paliyad priest tests +ve, 12 -ve

State to receive heavy showers over next 5 days

First India Bureau Ahmedabad: The monsoon season this year has ensured a continuance of rains in the state albeit with a low intensity. On Sunday, the South Gujarat region received the highest maximum rainfall with Umargam of Valsad district receiving 129mm of rainfall, followed by Kamrej of Surat district, which received 63 mm rainfall.

According to the weatherman, a few places across the state

could receive heavy showers for the next five days. “Heavy rainfall is very likely at isolated places in the districts of Aravalli, Mahisagar, Navsari, and Valsad.

Light to moderate rain or thundershowers may be witnessed at several places in all the districts of Gujarat including Ahmedabad,” stated a weather bulletin.

On Sunday, Ahmedabad received intermittent rain showers, and the city recorded rainfall of

14mm in just two hours between 4 pm to 6 pm. However, half an inch of rain was enough for the local civic body to receive several complaints regarding the state of road resettlements in the city. In its official statement, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation admitted road damage in the South Zone. To keep a watch over waterlogging across the city, 1,108 CCTV cameras have been in operation round-theclock.

port to Yadav and tweeted, “During my service, I saw SPs whose calibre was worse than that of constables. I also saw constables who would have become better SPs given the opportunity. #i_support_sunita_yadav & appreciate her courage & commitment.

Violators of the law must be booked whosoever they may be.”

Bootlegger files complaint against three policemen First India Bureau Rajkot: A criminal complaint was lodged by a bootlegger against a police subinspector and two constables with the Gandhigram police station in Rajkot on Saturday. According to the complainant Ankit Shah, three police officials had been trying to coerce him into helping them set up a senior police officer in an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) trap and build a bootlegging case against him. They had also threatened him with false bootlegging cases, kidnapping and murder if Shah did not comply with their plan.

Shah has alleged that police sub-inspector MB Jabeliya, head constable Prashant Rathod and constable Pratap Karpada had been threatening to drum up a false bootlegging case against him, if he did not help them lay a trap for

Gandhigram police station.

Trio sought to trap a police inspector by trapping him in a bribery case Gandhigram police inspector KM Vala. The three police officers reportedly held a grudge against Vala, as they suspected that he had been behind their transfer out of the Gandhigram police station.

Vala had accused the trio of police officers of extorting money from people who had ventured out during the lockdown. He had also

—FILE PHOTO

stated that they had taken bribes of Rs1.5 lakh in a bootlegging case.

In revenge, the trio demanded that Ankit arrange a meeting with Vala and try to get him to take a bribe, to no avail.

On June 18, Gandhigram police had conducted a search at Ankit Shah’s residence near Madhapar Square and seized 28 Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) bottles from the compound of his house. The police arrested the complainant’s brother Naman Shah, since Ankit had been out of town.

BLESSINGS OF THE RAIN GODS

First India Bureau —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

A cyclist pedalling along in the rain in Paldi area of Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Commissioner of Police (A-Division).

Support has poured in for the constable who scolded the minister’s son for violating several rules- misusing an MLA’s nameplate, roaming around the city during night curfew and flaunting political power.

Former IPS DG Vanzara also lent his sup-

03

Gandhinagar: After missing the religious congregation, the big question that has arisen before the Gandhinagar district administration is whether the entire village of Paliyad will have to undergo COVID-19 test or only those who had attended the gathering on Friday. Post a primary round of tests, one priest has tested positive for novel coronavirus.

According to sources, the district administration had asked all 21 Brahmins present at the yagna to undergo testing for Sars-CoV-2. Out of them, the report of 13 priests has come back of which 12 have tested negative for the virus. As per sources, the sons of the priest who tested positive had also participated in the yagna. Samples of the brahmin’s sons have also been sent for testing and their reports are awaited.

Hoping to make the best of the rainfall this monsoon season, a farmer sows seeds in a paddy field near the AhmedabadDholka Highway on Sunday.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Youth kills man for mobile, 5 booked First India Bureau Ahmedabad: City police on Sunday arrested five people including two minor girls in connection with the murder of a youth which took place on Guruji Bridge on Saturday evening.

Isanpur police officials were taken aback when the accused Shyam alias Lucky Rathod admitted to not even

knowing the victim Umang Darji. He was murdered for resisting the theft of his phone by Rathod, who wanted to ‘gift’ a mobile phone device to his minor girlfriend.

The accused Shyam

alias Lucky Rathod, Krunal Dalwadi, Hardik alias Chimanlal Agrawal and two minor girls were a group of friends who used to roam together. One of the minor girls was involved with Rathod and she demanded a mobile phone as a present from him. Unable to put together the money he required to buy a new phone, ‘Lucky’ resorted to theft.

On Saturday, the group found Darji on Guruji Bridge when Rathod tried to snatch it. A scuffle followed and ‘Lucky’ pulled out a knife and stabbed Umang, who died on the spot.

Rathod and his girlfriend fled on a bike to Western Ahmedabad.

The police were tipped off about a couple speeding on a bike and chased them down.

EMPOWERING YOUNG MINDS

Social Justice dept to establish campuses in districts across the state Social Justice dept to build campuses in districts across the state



Haresh Jhala Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is set to dedicate three Adarsh residential schools and five Baba Saheb Ambedkar Kumar Chhatralays to be established by the Department of Social Justice through an e-launch on Monday.

With an investment of Rs61 crore, three residential schools will be built in the districts of Vadodara, Anand and Navsari. These schools will provide admissions to girl students belonging to the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe(s).

The motive behind this initiative is to ensure that no child be-

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

longing to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe(s) is deprived of the fundamental right to education.

Similarly, ‘Kumar Chhatralayas’ will be established in the districts of Gandhinagar, Anand, Bhavnagar and other places across the state for boys.

Over 1,200 girl students will potentially receive the benefit of these residential schools and enable

them to get an education as well as accommodation.

Currently, there are 61 Aadarsh residential schools, 143 government hostels across the state, where over 7,002 students are enrolled.

Now, even students from developing communities are being extended these facilities with admissions being granted to 7,771 students. Therefore, the total tally of stu-

dents at these schools stands at 14,773 students.

The state government has also set up 17 Samras Hostels for kids from Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe(s) in several district headquarters across the state. Over 12,500 students belonging to these communities are being benefited by the state infrastructure while pursuing higher education.

Doing its bit to help empower these children, the state government has also increased the budget allocation for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe(s).

Recently, when implementation of Schedule Five surfaced, CM Vijay Rupani had stated that Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) had been enforced during his tenure.

PERSPECTIVE AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

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04

Kothari’s deep love and passion for the teachings of the Vedas is like the thread which binds the pearls of the Alphabets detailed in Akshar Yatra , making it a sparkling necklace to be worn to increase the beauty of the heart and mind

ANITA HADA

anita.hada@firstindianews.com

T

he two series ‘granth’ by Vidhyavachaspati Gulab Kothari titled ‘Akshar Yatra’ is a must-read for each and anyone who is interested in the world of literature, words, and spirituality. Kothari has beautifully drawn out the importance and the beauty of the alphabet in our lives and how the alphabet derives its very definition from the universe itself.

Kothari rightly sets out at the beginning itself that the future belongs to intelligence but at the same time there will be no readers of the text of Vedas and Upanishads, the root of all knowledge in the World, though the philosophy of these ancient texts will continue to be a point of discussion. Life will increasingly be individualistic and indepth meaning and pure scientific thoughts will have little place in the world.

Akshar Yatra does not just table the philosophy or literary importance of the alphabet. It is a deep look into the pearls of the alphabet, their structure, form, and ethos. The Alphabet in itself and as part of a word is the universe. Our Mantras are proof that the alphabets are the way to connect with the Almighty and Universe, Kothari cites the example of ‘Om’ the alphabet which is complete in itself and it’s chanting connects the speaker to the Universe.

The two parts of Akshar Yatra are available on all Digital platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.

With 308 chapters and 621 pages is the first part of Akshar Yatra is more or less equal to the 325 chapters and 279 pages Part two of the same. Both

Part-1 (Pg.567)

Part-1 (Pg.366)

the parts take the reader into a beautiful intellectual journey of the Hindi alphabet and as they connect the reader to the depth in each alphabet drawing a connection from everyday life and deeper consciousness. He connects the alphabet to words and the deep-rooted meanings within, the word is connected to its meaning, the meaning to knowledge and knowledge leads to desire. Desire leads us into action which finally is what

we showcase to the world as an achievement. Which is why the Hindi alphabets are the complete universe in themselves and based on science.

The phonics and alphabets in the chanting of the mantras is the key to consciousness. A knowledgeable human pays deep attention to both, his daily speech and the prayers that he utters. To know truth one must first discard and reject the untruth, this is imperative to gain knowledge of the Truth.

A person’s thoughts when putting into words also lead to a vibration deep within and partly his speech and actions but since humans have intelligence, they manage to control this aspect and the vibrations and outward actions do not always match. Kothari gives the example of animals to explain his point that since their intelligence is of basic survival they do not subvert and the vibrations of pain and pleasure are directly converted into sound and produced herewith.

Kothari powerfully draws up the essence of communication when he says that ‘Siddhe Shabdarth-sambhandhe’Word, Meaning and their Connection is for always and forever. Till the word exists it will remain connected to its meaning and till any item/emotion exists in the universe, it’s the word will remain necessary to express it, whether anyone knows the meaning or not is an entirely different matter.

One of the most powerful chapters which shook me to the core was Draupadi in part 1 of Akshar Yatra which talks about

her, Ahilya, Sita, Tara, and Mandodari as the five women who have impacted not just our mythology but also the women of today. Today we know of their life, struggles, and learn from them because we have the alphabets, words, and the books which bring it to us. “Panchkanyaha: Samarniya Samre ni nityam mahapatak nashinihi:”, many a woman has been strengthened learning from their lives, Kothari says that these five women characters celebrate the same power and their remembrance is a tool to be absolved of our sins. For me, one of the best things about the Akshar Yatra is its powerful positive communication about Shakti, women’s power.

The Akshar Yatra series is not just to be read, it is to be savoured. It is a learning process that has to be lived and will change our perception of the usage of alphabets, words, and language forever. Kothari goes into all the necessary details about vowels, sound waves, vibration, and the importance of

correct pronunciation in communication.

A carry home point from the reading of these books is something which directly impacts our daily life, Kothari sets out that vibration if of two types, a word without power is of no use, it has no vibration and just flows with the wind to disappear. On the other hand, a word spoken with power, vibration, and proper flow with correct pronunciation makes an impact on self and others as a conversation. To speak out words properly, ‘Uccharan’ the words must rise from the ‘naabhi-navel’, to vibrate through the throat reaching into deepest recesses of the brain before coming down to spoken through the mouth. I want the readers to try speaking the most powerful ‘Om’ like this. Spoken casually without depth, it will have no impact while speaking ‘Om’ correctly through proper connotation, and vibration from navel to the top of the head will connect you to the universe.

Part-2 (Pg.647)

Vol 1 Issue No. 228 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad.

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‘RaGa met Chinese Ambassador ‘secretly’ amid Doklam stand-off’

05

UP govt forms panel to probe Dubey’s encounter

BJP President JP Nadda urged workers of UDF, LDF & Congress to join BJP to make the nation stronger New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was meeting the Chinese Ambassador ‘secretly’ during the Doklam stand-off and alleged that his love for the nation is ‘fake.’

“The people of India know that Rahul Gandhi was meeting the Chinese Ambassador secretly during the Doklam stand-off and you misled the nation and did not inform the country. India got to know only when the Chinese Ambassador broadcast your picture with him online. This ‘love for your nation’ is fake. You’ve missed all 11 defence committee meetings. This is how you run a country?” he said after inaugurating the newly constructed BJP District Committee office ‘Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Mandiram’ in Kasaragod, Kerala.

‘What happened that China took away sacred land of Mother India?’

BJP National President JP Nadda addresses while inaugurating BJP district committee office ‘Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Mandiram, Kasargod (Kerala) via video conferencing, in New Delhi.

The BJP President also urged the workers of United Democratic Front, Left Democratic Front and the Congress to join his party.

“UDF, LDF, Congress have always kept the nation in the dark. I call upon the workers and people of Kerala to leave LDF, UDF and Congress to join the BJP and make the state stronger,” he said.

Notably, earlier today

Gandhi had targeted the Central government over the June clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers and asked what had happened that China “took away” the sacred land of India.

“What had happened that China took away the sacred land of Mother India during Modi ji’s tenure?” the Congress leader asked on Twitter (translated from Hindi). He also

posted an article by a news website about the Galwan valley clash.

20 Indian soldiers had lost their lives in a violent face-off in the Galwan valley on June 15-16 when Chinese troops attempted to unilaterally change the status quo during the deescalation.

India & China have been involved in talks to ease the ongoing border tensions. —ANI

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi again targeted the Centre over June clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers, and asked what had happened that China “took away” the sacred land of India.

“What had happened that China took away the sacred land of Mother India during Modi ji’s tenure?” the Congress leader asked on Twitter (translated from Hindi).

He also posed an article by a news website about the Galwan valley clash.

O ve r the Rahul Gandhi

Nepal landslide sweeps eight houses, 11 people missing

‘Heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over northeast India in next 5 days’ New Delhi: India Meteorological Department on Sunday said that heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over northeast India in next five days.

“Heavy to very heavy falls over northeast India, West Bengal and Sikkim, Bihar and adjoining East UP likely during next five days,” IMD said. It said that isolated extremely heavy falls also very likely over Bihar and Assam and Meghalaya on July 12 and over SubHimalayan West Bengal and Sikkim on July 12 and 13. The intensity of rainfall over these regions is likely to reduce gradually thereafter.

A boatman sails across the Hooghly River, as monsoon clouds hover in the sky in Nadia district on Sunday.

“A cyclonic circulation lies over East Bihar and neighbourhood at mid and upper tropospheric levels. The convergence of southwest-

MADHYA PRADESH: CONGRESS MLA QUITS PARTY, JOINS BJP Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Pradyuman Singh Lodhi resigned from the party and as member of the state Assembly, & joined BJP on Sunday. Lodhi, who was a legislator from Bada Malhera seat in Chhatarpur district, joined the BJP at the ruling partys state headquarters here in the presence of Chief Minister

Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

On the occasion, state BJP chief V D Sharma announced Lodhi’s induction into the party fold.

“I have resigned as MLA. My resignation has been accepted. Only the BJP can develop my Assembly seat areas. The chief minister also approved developmental schemes for my area,” Lodhi said.

erly/southerly winds from Bay of Bengal in lower tropospheric levels very likely to continue over northeast and adjoining east In-

dia during next two days,” IMD said.

While heavy rainfall is likely in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharashtra till July 16. Chhattisgarh’s Raipur received heavy rainfall. IMD has predicted generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers, for this week.

Meanwhile, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre said that widespread moderate to heavy rainfall and at isolated places very heavy rain likely over Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada districts of Coastal region. —ANI

ACCUSED IN GOLD SMUGGLING CASE BROUGHT TO KERALA Thiruvananthapuram: The two key accused in gold smuggling case in Kerala, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, were brought to the state on Sunday, a day after being taken into custody by NIA in Bengaluru, as Congress workers staged protests against them at several places. They were taken to Aluva hospital in Ernakulam for COVID-19 test before being produced in NIA court in Kochi. Congress & BJP attacked LDF govt, seeking to know how the prime accused could flee when a triple lockdown was in place.

Kathmandu: At least 11 people were missing after a massive landslide triggered by incessant rainfall swept away eight houses in Nepal’s eastern Sankhuwasabha district, officials said on Sunday.

Landslides and floods triggered by the heavy rainfall washed away the houses in Besinda village of Sisuwakhola on Sunday morning, The Himalayan Times reported.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Nawaraj Malla said that the police personnel were carrying out a search operation to rescue the people who have gone missing.

A team of armed forces and Nepal Army are on standby at the district headquarters in Khandbari.

According to the Baraha Dal Battalion of Nepali Army, an army helicopter in Itahari was on standby.

Meanwhile, several roads have been damaged or washed away in the floods. —PTI

past few weeks, the Gandhi scion has been repeatedly criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over the border issue with China.

20 Indian soldiers had lost their lives in a violent face-off in the Galwan valley on June 15-16 when Chinese troops attempted to unilaterally change the status quo during the de-escalation.

India and China have been involved in talks to ease the ongoing border tensions since last month.

—ANI

—File Photo

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday constituted a one-member commission to probe the Kanpur ambush and the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey.

The panel will be headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Shashi Kant Agarwal and submit its report in two months, a government statement said.

It will be based in Kanpur.

According to the statement, the panel will also probe the gangster’’s “relationship” with police and

people from various departments.

It will suggest ways so as to prevent such a repetition in future, it said. An official said that the killing of eight policemen in ambush on night of July 2 and 3 by Vikas Dubey and his henchmen and the gangster’s encounter on July 10 is a “subject of public importance”.

“Hence, its probe is essential,” the spokesperson said, adding that panel will also probe “all encounters in the period from July 2-3 to 10”. —PTI

‘All the country’s land is with our security forces’ Gurgaon: As Chinese and Indian troops move to disengage in eastern Ladakh after a tense standoff, the chief of ITBP and BSF on Sunday said all the country’s land is under ‘full possession’ of our security and defence forces.

S S Deswal, Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Border Security Force (BSF), was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a plantation drive held at a BSF camp in Bhondsi.

“All the country’s land is with us. Our land is in full possession of our security forces,” Deswal told reporters here.

He made the remarks when asked to comment on the current military standoff along LAC in eastern Ladakh.

“All our borders are safe, be it the eastern, western or northern.

The security forces of the country are very active, capable and dedicated.

“They are capable to protect the borders against any kind of enemy with all their

INDIAN STUDENTS CONCERNED AS US ANNOUNCES NEW VISA RULES New Delhi: Fear of deportation in the middle of a global crisis, unpaid loans, rising risk of COVID-19 infection, dropping out a semester and the possibility of never being able to return to campus are among the concerns of Indian students in US after announcement of new visa regulations. In a

Vikas Dubey

move that is expected to adversely impact thousands of Indian students, the United States of America immigration authority has announced that foreign students will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only classes in this fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

S S Deswal

SAFEGUARDING THE NATION

W

might and efficiency,” the 1984-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer said.

According to people familiar with the development, Chinese military has further thinned down its presence in the ridgeline of Finger Four and removed some boats from the Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh ahead of another round of Lt Generallevel talks between In-

dia and China aimed at finalising modalities for complete disengagement along the LAC. “The morale of army troops & border guarding forces is very high.

Since independence, the security forces have made numerous sacrifices to protect the country’s borders and for security of the country whether is is external threat or internal security,” he said. —PTI

4 SECURITY FORCE MEMBERS KILLED IN CLASHES IN BAGHLAN Kabul: At least four security forces members were killed and 10 others sustained injuries in Northern Baghlan province on Saturday, Tolonews reported citing security sources on Sunday.

As per the report, the clashes occurred on Baghlan-Samangan highway in Chesmaye Shir and Bagh-e-Shamal area after the Taliban attacked security forces. “The highway was closed to traffic for several hours and four Afghan forces humvees were also damaged in the fighting,” sources were quoted as saying by Tolonews.

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06

‘Govt will fulfill duty of calling Parl’s Monsoon Session’ New Delhi: Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal on Sunday said, “It is the constitutional duty of the Centre to call the Parliament Session within six months and the government will surely fulfil its responsibility.”

The statement from the Union Minister came after rumours were mongering that this year the Monsoon session would not be held due to the coronavirus epidemic. Meghwal further said that a

Arjun Ram Meghwal

meeting was also held between the Speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu pertaining to the guidelines to be followed during the Parliament Session in a bid to contain the spread of the lethal infection.

“As many as eight new rules have been made and are being issued by the Parliament.

These rules include mandatory wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing and sanitizing hands,” he added.

MAKING A REMARK

T

“Preparation are underway for the conduction of the Parliament session and I believe that it will be held soon,” the Union Minister said in his concluding remark.

With Union Minister

for Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi confirming that the monsoon session of Parliament will be held, talks are underway over various options to conduct the proceedings.

Sources in Parlia-

ment told ANI that the monsoon session might begin from either the second or the third week of August.

The biggest challenge in front of the government is to decide how the proceedings of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be conducted in view of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Although the final decision over the functioning of both the Houses will be taken only after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary

Affairs (CCPA), the biggest issue is over the seating arrangements of the members, with social distancing measures being followed.

For seating the MPs, the halls of both the Houses apart from Central Hall and GMC Balayogi hall are also being considered.

The MPs are also being asked to give their opinions on available options & suggest ideas of their own through the Secretariats of both the lower and the upper House. —ANI

COVID-19 UPDATE

India’s recovery rate improves to 62.93%, says Health Ministry New Delhi: Focussed and coordinated action by the Centre along with states and UTs, effective clinical management of coronavirus and timely diagnosis led to a consistent increase in the number of recovered cases in the country, the Union health ministry said on Sunday.

The number of recovered cases exceeds active COVID-19 cases by 2,42,362 as on date, it said. “The recovery rate has improved to 62.93 per cent,” the ministry said.

“As more people are recovering due to allround efforts, the recovered cases exceed active cases by 2,42,362,” it said.

There are 2,92,258 active coronavirus cases in the country.

In the last 24 hours, a total of 19,235 people were cured of the coro-

Dr Harsh = wearing a PPE suit, interacts with a Corona patient at Radha Soami Beas, Chhatarpur.

navirus infection. This has resulted in the cumulative total number of recovered cases among COVID-19 patients rising to 5,34,620 on Sunday. India, meanwhile, added a record 28,637 cases of coronavi-

rus infection on Sunday, pushing the country’s COVID-19 tally to 8,49,553. The death toll climbed to 22,674 with 551 people succumbing to the disease in a day, according to the ministry’s data.

Mumbai: 16 at Raj Bhavan test positive Mumbai: Sixteen personnel at the Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai have tested coronavirus positive, a civic official said on Sunday.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Ko-

shyari denied reports that he is in self-isolation, a Raj Bhavan official said.

“I am perfectly alright, and not in selfisolation. I underwentrelevant tests, the re-

sult of which came negative. There are no symptoms of COVID-19 either,” Koshyari said in a statement. He said he was discharging his duty by strictly adhering to coronavirus protocols.

for our leaders to run their affairs. Not only this it would have also raised questions how our leaders are running their families so we approached the authorities as it was in our favour whatever facility we have got in terms of restoration of our bank accounts is legal and with the approval of United Nations” said a key leader of defunct organisation on anonymity.

These leaders in their request to the government of Pakistan had also mentioned about their financial income and sources of earning.

The same was forwarded to the UNSC along with their bank account numbers and other related details. —ANI

their lives during the COVID-19 crisis phase and paid tributes to them.

“I have talked to families of those jawans and today once again I thank them, your sacrifice will not go waste.

Whenever the history of the human race’s fight against COVID-19 is written, the contribution of India’s security forces will be mentioned in golden ink,” he said.

He also hailed the plantation drive and said that trees planted today should be taken care of by the jawans till they reach maturity, he added the trees chosen for plantation today consisted mostly those which had a long life and would help the generations to come.

Together the CAPFs have targeted to plant around 10 lakh tree saplings across the country today. Heads of all the CAPFs or their representatives were present in the event held at Gurugram. —ANI

FROM PG 1 State records... meaning one positive case was reported every 20 minutes. As per recent data, the district has 799 active cases, of which 141 are on oxygen support and 38 on Bipap.

Other districts which reported a rise in case numbers included Rajkot and Bhavnagar with 46 cases each, Junagadh (42), Mehsana (23), Ahmedabad rural (20), Gandhinagar (29), Surendranagar (21) and Morbi (19). Meanwhile Amreli, Valsad and Kheda reported 16 new cases each.

The state tested 7,580 samples in the past 24 hours and reported a total of 10,661 active cases, of which 67 are on ventilator support and 10,594 are stable.

Hafiz Saeed’s... for restoring their bank accounts so that they could run their family affairs.

“Initially we did not want to file an appeal but we were advised to file it as it was difficult

World lauding...

They have proved that they not only know how to fight terrorism but also against COVID with help of people,” he added.

The Union Home Minister said that many jawans have given up

The country at present has 1,370 dedicated COVID hospitals, 3,062 COVID health centres, and 10,334 COVID care centres.

The Centre has so far provided 122.36 lakh PPE Kits, 223.33 lakh

N95 masks and 21,685 ventilators to various states, Union territories (UTs) and central institutions, the ministry said.

Enabling factors like removing all impediments to COVID-19 testing and facilitating widespread testing by states and UTs continue to result in a steady rise in the total number of samples tested every day, it said.“As a result of these efforts, the testing per million for India is presently 8,396.4,” the ministry said.

According to ICMR, a cumulative total of 1,15,87,153 samples have been tested till July 11, .

A crucial supporting factor in rise in testing numbers is a continuous expansion of diagnostic lab network, the ministry added.—PTI

Nepal PM wishes speedy recovery to Bachchan family Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday wished veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan “good health and speedy recovery” after they were tested positive for coronavirus.

“Wishing legendary actor of India @ SrBachchan and his son actor @juniorbachchan good health and speedy recovery!” Nepal PM tweeted.On Saturday, Amitabh Bachchan and son Abhishek Bachchan took to social media to confirm that they have detected positive for coronavirus. He is reported to be ‘stable.’

Dr Harsh Vardhan @drharshvardhan “Dear Amitabh ji, I join the whole Nation in wishing you a quick recovery! After all, you are the idol of millions in this country, an iconic superstar! We will all take good care of you. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! @ SrBachchan @niorbachchan #AmitabhBachchan #COVID”

AP records single day high of 1,933 cases, 19 deaths Amaravati: A new daily record of 1,933 cases pushed the coronavirus tally in Andhra Pradesh to 29,168 on Sunday. The COVID-19 toll escalated to 328 as the state reported a fresh singleday high of 19 deaths, the government said in its latest bulletin.

In the last 24 hours ended at 10 AM, a total of 846 patients were discharged from hospitals upon recovering from the infection, it said.

So far, 15,412 coronavirus infected patients had recovered in the state, leaving 13,428 active cases. The gross 29,168 positive cases included 26,336 locals, 2,403 from other states and 429 foreign returnees. Guntur district now crossed the 3,000 mark, with 3,019 cases behind Kurnool.

PILOT CAMP CONFIDENT OF SECURING SUPPORT OF 38 MLAS BY MONDAY From PG1 then the state may be kept under President rule for a week or two to give a fair opportunity to the ‘contenders’ and bring an alternate government formarion proposal.

In an ongoing political drama in New Delhi for the last 48 hours, by now it appears that a defiant Pilot perhaps is not likely to return.

Since Saturday, Pilot rejected all sort of ‘conciliatory efforts’ made at different levels by various high ups in the Congress so far. It is claimed in Congress circles at Jaipur that he had not even responded to a Sonia-Rahul advice on Saturday night to come with a clean and clearly worded clarification or contradiction saying that there is no move to destabilize the Chief Minister or his government and his supporting MLAs have a complete faith and trust in the Congress and its central leadership. In one more similar incident, Pilot also didnt reply to a ‘sensitive’ Avinash Pande message to talk to him on this entire subject. A seasoned Pande, who was updating Sonia on an hourly basis on Rajasthan developments,

was deeply disappointed with Pilot’s poor response. In a private conversation, a towering Ahmed Patel also felt disappointed with all these developments and shared his view with someone saying that Pilot is not moving to the ‘right direction’. He feels that time and age are in Pilot’s favor and he could have waited for an appropriate opportunity in Congress itself rather showing his disappointment or frustration in this way.

There was a media report suggesting Ahmed Patel meeting with Sachin Pilot but it was quickly denied by Ahmed Bhai. According to sources, by maintaining a complete ‘distance’ from the party high command, Pilot camp did not sought any appointment with Sonia or Rahul to ‘clarify’ their stand and to protest against the chief minister. So, the message was very clear that atleast at this moment, Pilot is keeping himself completely aloof from any dialogue or communication with the party high command or any other senior leader.

According to a Pilot camp spokesperson, Pi-

lot was deeply upset, the way SOG has issued notice to him to appear before the agency to record his statement, in ongoing ‘MLA poaching’ investigation. However, CM Gehlot had already clarified on Saturday that everybody is equal in the eye of law and the law of the land should be allowed to take its course.

However, the situation for Gehlot government turned turtle when Pilot announced Gehlot government being in minority and that he would not be attending the 10.30 AM Legislative party merting at CMR on Monday.

By making this public announcement, Pilot has shut doors on Congress by leaving no chance of return to his parent party at any stage.

It also became clear that Pilot’s statement is part of a well thought and well structured strategy, under which Pilot is likely to address a press conference in the presence of 30 supporting mlas in the next 24 hours preferably in New Delhi. There were reports since Saturday night that 24 MLAs were already present in New Delhi and the ren-

ning six were also likely to join Pilot by Monday morning. Once this figure of 30 was secured, the remaining 6-7 non congress legislators, may be some independent or BSP lot are scheduled to be arranged by ‘unknown forces’ in Delhi and Jaipur. In this way, the required magic number of 35 to pull down the Gehlot government on the floor of house is planned to be achieved.

Before issuing such a bold and daring statement, virtually challenging Gehlot’s ‘existence’ as the chief minister, Pilot had a 40 minute long one to one political discussion with his close friend Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is already operating as a ‘link’ between BJP top leadership and Pilot.

According to sources, a last minute effort was also made during the day on Sunday to ‘pacify’ Pilot but he was reportedly adamant on the change of leadership in the state, but this idea was not acceptable to either Sonia or Priyanka and therefore, the idea crashed at the runway itself, before its take off.

Meanwhile on Sunday night, Gehlot was all set

to reshuffle his cabinet and to ensure the shifting of Pilot from PCC but this sudden ‘development’ through Pilot’s statement has changed the ground situation where nothing will happen in haste and Sonia, Rahul and Ahmed Patel will like to follow the policy of wait and watch at least for the next 24 hours.

Prior to Pilot’s statement causing the political ‘rupture’, ten legislators including Dr Raghu Sharma, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Harish Choudhary and others conducted a press conference where they pledged their support to Gehlot and Congress party and claimed that the Gehlot government will function for five years.

Interestingly, during this presser, in a plausible move by master strategist Gehlot, three Pilot camp MLAs - Rohit Bohra, Danish Abrar and Chetan Dudi - came out in complete support of Gehlot and made a joint statement that although they had gone to Delhi, however, it was for person reasons and said, “the high command has made CM Gehlot our leader. His government will function for full tenure in Rajasthan.”

TALKING POINT AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

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erhaps no single character has been as iconic a symbol of Twitter as the now-ubiquitous hashtag.

The syntax of the hashtag has a few simple rules: it consists of the hash symbol (#) immediately followed by a string of alphanumeric characters, with no spaces or punctuation.

It is used routinely in social media communication across a number of platforms including Tumblr, Instagram, and even Facebook, but its most important point of emergence and polarisation has been in Twitter.

The hashtag remains most comfortable in Twitter, and it was Twitter that turned it into a highly significant, multi-functional feature. The hashtag has made its way off the internet, appearing regularly on television, in advertising, on products and on protest signs around the world.

From its beginnings as a geeky tool designed to help individual users deal with an increasingly fragmented information stream, Twitter made the hashtag a new and powerful part of the world’s cultural, social and political vocabulary.

The @ feature helped people organise into pairs and create conversational streams. The hashtag, which organises tweets into topics, publics, and communities, goes to the heart of a crucial question: how is the internet organised and for whom?

ADDING VALUE Although its use on Twitter was new, the # has a prehistory both as a punctuation mark and as part of internet communication. Imported from elsewhere, as was the @, the hashtag brought some of its prior conventional understandings with it.

Known as the “octothorpe” by typography experts, in early computermediated communication the hash or pound symbol was used to mark channels and roles in systems like Internet Relay Chat (realtime, online text messaging used as early as 1988).

It therefore worked to both categorise topics and group users.

The # also became closely tied to crowd-sourced content tagging systems.

On the music-streaming site Last.fm, users could tag artists and songs. The site used these tags as information to “learn” about music, fuelling recommendations and radio streams, and laying the groundwork for Spotify and other apps’ current recommendation algorithms.

User-contributed tags were important on the Flickr photosharing website, where they helped direct people to images and to one another — a practice that was carried over to Instagram. Crucially, users could add as many tags to their Flickr photographs as they liked, creating a system that was less a taxonomy (an expertly ordered system based on exclusive, hierarchical categories) and more a “folksonomy” (a crowdsourced one, based on inclusive tags and aggregation).

Folksonomical ordering, in the mid-2000s, was widely imagined as a more efficient, organic way of ordering content than categories or directories, and it was this model that underpinned the popular social bookmarking ser-

TWITTER AND THE WAY OF THE HASHTAG The hashtag remains most comfortable in Twitter, and it was Twitter that turned it into a highly significant, multi-functional feature. The hashtag has made its way off the internet, appearing regularly on television, in advertising, on products and on protest signs around the world

vice del.icio.us.

The Flickr folksonomy of usercontributed tags was paradigmatic of the Web 2.0 ideology — marked by a shift from the web 1.0 idea that web development was about serving content to audiences to one where the goal was building architectures for participation of users (sometimes distinguished from passive website “visitors”) and the expectation that the user community’s activities would add further value.

Reddit’s systems for upvoting usercurated content, subreddits and modern Twitter’s aggregated trending topics are contemporary versions of this early tagbased co-curation model.

A #SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM

on widely until a particularly acute and sufficiently significant event — the San Diego brushfires in 2007.

With this event, Messina achieved wider take-up of the hashtag as a tool for coordinating crisis communication by actively lobbying other lead users and media organisations.

Although this rapidly unfolding disaster demonstrated a clear and legitimating use case, the broader meaning of the hashtag and its possible uses remained ambiguous. Despite this, Messina, as a tech-industry insider and lead user, continued to widely advocate for its use — even reportedly pitching it to the Twitter leadership.

Journalist

the new users they alienated but whom the company badly needed to sustain its growth. The hashtag provoked contestation between Twitter’s different cultures as it was taken up both for the serious uses – such as disaster and professional discussion Messina had envisioned – and to create sociable rituals and play.

From the beginning, there was debate around the right way to use hashtags.

As Messina’s historical documentation and that of others show, there were several competing models of how and why to coordinate Twitter activity as the flow of tweets started to grow beyond an easily manageable size.

Perhaps the

07

include a number of academic and tech conferences (#EconSM, #netc08, #interact2008) and sporting and entertainment events (#idol, #yankees, #REDSOX), and tweet categories (#haiku). Hashtags were used for coordinating discussion topics and finding like-minded users (#seriousgames, #punknews, #college, #PHX), brands and products (#gmail, #firefox), and even people (such as Wired journalist #ChrisAnderson).

Back then, the most tweeted hashtags were represented as amassing tweets numbering in the tens or at most hundreds, a reminder of the modest scale of Twitter at the time. Uses of hashtags, such as for humour, activism or second-screen television viewing, had yet to emerge.

MORE THAN CHATTER Ever since those early debates about whether Twitter needed “channels” (of topics) or “groups” (of users), hashtags have continued to play both structural and semantic roles: that is, they coordinate both communities and topics, helping users find each other and encounter a range of contributions to the discussion of issues and events.

The hashtag has fostered the rise of Twitter as a platform for news, information and professional promotion, yet the forces that allowed hashtags to become influential are deeply rooted in its conversational and sociable uses.

The capacity of the hashtag to help people navigate real-time events

As far as we know, the hashtag’s use in Twitter was first proposed in mid-2007 by Chris Messina in a series of blog posts.

In Messina’s view, the hashtag was a

solution to a need. At this time, it was still possible to see a public feed of every single tweet from a public account. Topical conversations among people who did not follow one another were incoherent at best.

The users advocating for the hashtag were technically proficient (many of them also developers) with an active online presence, who positioned themselves as participants in a community of lead users.

While some users were experimenting with hashtags, Messina’s vision for them didn’t catch

Nick Bilton relates an encounter between Twitter founders Biz Stone and Ev Williams and Messina, at the Twitter offices, as follows: ‘I really think you should do something with hashtags on Twitter,’ Chris told them. ‘Hashtags are for nerds,’ Biz replied. Ev added that they were ‘too harsh and no one is ever going to understand them.’

CULTURE CLASH Twitter had begun wrestling with the problem (which still haunts it) of conflict between the cultures of expert users that made the platform work for them and

# was a tag, designed to help organise collections of tweets on shared topics? Or was it a way to form channels, or groups of users interested in those topics?

Underlying these different models of what the hashtag could become were different models of Twitter: as an information network, a social networking site or online community, or a platform for discussion and the emergence of publics (organised communities).

Such ideas were still new and hotly contested at the time. Though the informational seems to have won out over the conversational model of Twitter, the hashtag remains, and is used for an astonishing array of social, cultural, and political purposes — some of them vitally useful, not all of them serious, and some of them downright toxic.

The website Hashtags.org was launched in December 2007, and provided a real-time tracking and indexing of hashtags before Twitter implemented search. Participants at an event, for instance, could visit the website to see other tweets from the same event.

The hashtags in the earliest archived version of the Hashtags. org homepage, from April 2008,

such as disasters, protests and conferences, and to expand and solidify social connections and community, proved particularly ideal for social movements and activism.

Such uses have in many ways come to define both the hashtag and, increasingly, Twitter itself. Perhaps the most notable confluence of hashtags and bodies-inthe-street activism has come from #Blacklivesmatter. As US academics Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and Meredith D. Clark document: The Twitter hashtag was created in July 2013 by activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in the wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for second-degree murder of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin.

For more than a year, #Blacklivesmatter was only a hashtag, and not a very popular one: it was used in only 48 public tweets in June 2014 and in 398 tweets in July 2014. But by August 2014 that number had skyrocketed to 52,288, partly due to the slogan’s frequent use in the context of the Ferguson protests. Some time later, Garza, Cullors, Tometi, and others debuted Black Lives Matter as a chapterbased activist organization.

It’s easy to dismiss hashtag activism as a form of slacktivism rather than real political engagement. But the rise of #Blacklivesmatter and its ties to street protests and unjust policing serves as an important reminder of the embodiment and liveness of many events that might look merely like “data” or chatter when viewed as hashtags.

n SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION n CONCEPT: DIVYA HEMNANI n DESIGN: SITARAM SHARMA

Do whatever needs to be done.

Just add a little passion and risk-taking for success to be yours.

2ND FRONT Who Cares?Amdavadis say bye to masks —Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

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08

Though Covid-19 cases are increasing, people in Ahmedabad behave as if it wasn’t the re ever; give social distancing norms a go-by Shishir Awasthi Ahmedabad: With Unlock 2.0, Amdavadis seem to have returned to their complacency -- masks are off, spitting in public places has started and social distancing has been given a goby.

All this, when the government guidelines demand adhering to rules like wearing a face mask, maintaining social distancing and a ban on spitting in public places, besides every call from their mobile phones issue warnings and advisories.

What else could explain this but the fact that the AMC and the

city police have fined as many as 70,486 offenders and fined them Rs 60.29 lakh till July 4.

And when caught flouting the rules, people often come up with innovative excuses for not wearing the masks.

Be it in a queue outside an ATM, shopping at street markets or visiting malls, people can be spotted without masks. Some even keep their masks dangling on their necks. “I see a lot of people not wearing masks when they go out, especially while driving,” says Sharvin Patel, who works with a pharma company in the city.

He adds, “I have even

STRICT PENALTY?

All norms of wearing masks and social distancing given a go-by in Ahmedabad.

gotten into arguments with people when I told them that they should put their masks on, they feel bad though I don’t say anything of-

fensive.”

The scenes on the roads are shocking instances of how people have almost f orgotten that the lock-

down has gone, but not the scourge of corona. Even the daily updates of cases repeatedly flashed by the media -- print, TV

Sonam hails cops’ action on Vadodara man

and online -- don’t seem to worry people any longer.

The traffic snarls are more frequent during busy hours and even

the other public places like malls, street markets, ATMS and shopping complexes are witnessing a rise in the number of visitors.

Even shopkeepers complain that some of their customers enter the shops without wearing a mask, risking everyone present inside, including the staff members.

Hetal Farkiwala, owner of a general store at Naranpura says, “We are very particular about following the safety guidelines and whenever there are customers who come without wearing a mask, we don’t allow them to enter our shop.

I know it’s a loss of

business. But we can’t compromise on safety.

Even restaurant owners are making sure their customers wear masks while they dine in or come for a takeaway order.

Owner of a restaurant cum bakery shop, Vishal Meni, says “It has happened with us a couple of times that a few customers were not wearing masks and the cops came and fined them. Since then we have become very strict with our policies. I myself have seen people without masks. This is a safety issue and everyone should follow the rules.”

NEW HEAD

First India Bureau Ahmedabad: After Gujarat Police’ prompt action against man hurling abuses and giving rape threats to standup comedian Agrima Joshua, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor took to her Twitter handle to thank them for ‘listening’.

Shubham Mishra, residing in Gujarat currently, shared a video online slamming Joshua with abusive and offensive language for poking fun at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s upcoming

Car thieves gang busted; kingpin from Vadodara First India Bureau Delhi: The Delhi Police has busted a gang of car thieves, with the arrest of its 31-year-old gang leader, officials said on Sunday.

Tarun Nathani alias Seth, a resident of Vadodara, is allegedly involved in six cases of vehicle theft, police said.

With the increase in cases of auto theft in the southeast district, a team was formed to identify the culprits and acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid near Madanpur Khadar traffic signal on July 8, police said.

“Around 7.30 am, when a white-coloured car was seen coming from Badarpur, our team signalled him to stop but the driver, Tarun Nathani, tried to escape. He was arrested,” DCPolice (Southeast) RP Meena said.

Shubham Mishra statue in the Arabian Sea (an old video of the comedian).

Meanwhile, Joshua on Friday evening apologized for hurting the sentiments of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s followers

and said that video was taken down. “I am sorry for having hurt the sentiments of the many followers of the great leader Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. My heartfelt apologies

Gujarat Police ordered Vadodra City Police to take ‘necessary action’ and Sonam thanked them ‘for doing what is right’. Swara Bhasker too came out in support and wrote, “Report this man on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and everywhere.. He is a remorseless rape advocate. #arrestshubhammishra. Dear @Vadcitypolice This Shubham Mishra is a resident of Baroda.. pls take suo moto cognisance. #arrestshubhammishra”

to followers of the great leader, who I sincerely respect.

The video has already been taken down. Please amplify,” she tweeted.

In the one-minute seven-seconds video

Guj-bound truck catches fire, disrupting traffic for an hour First India Bureau Valsad: A truck carrying plastic granules burst into flames on the MumbaiAhmedabad Highway in Talasari in Palghar on Sunday morning, leaving traffic stalled for over an hour as firemen tried to douse the blaze, an official said.

The incident happened at around 9 am and the truck was on its way from Bhiwandi to Sarigam in Gujarat’s Valsad district, a Talasari police station official said.

that went viral, Joshua is seen cracking jokes on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s upcoming statue in the Arabian Sea. She goes on to tell “funny things” that she read on Quora.

Jitendriyapriyadasji Swami has been appointed spiritual successor of PP Swami at Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi.

State Governor to chair meet urging teachers to propagate natural farming First India Bureau

A truck burst into flames on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai highway on Sunday. Nobody was injured.

“The fire has been put out but the truck is fully gutted. There are no reports of in-

juries. Traffic was stalled for over an hour but has now resumed,” he informed.

Gandhinagar: Roping in State Government teachers to propagate the concept of natural farming among farmers, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat will be chairing a webinar on Monday which will be attended by government primary, secondary and higher secondary teachers from all districts.

A letter issued by the state education department to the presidents of various teachers’ as-

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat.

sociations on July 10 stresses on the ongoing campaign promoting natural farming and how government teach-

ers may contribute towards it. “To increase the prevalence of agriculture in the state, work is ongoing in a

campaign mode since the last nine months, in which the Governor has shown keen interest. As per the recent meeting held at Raj Bhawan, it was learnt that government teachers in the state are themselves farmers. Thus, they can adopt natural farming and make other villagers aware about the same, so that others, too, can adopt this approach of natural farming,” states the letter issued by the director of the primary education office.

SHOCKING APATHY

And unquiet flows Vishwamitri through the serene MSU A key tributary that flows through the reputed MS University has been neglected by authorities for long 

First India Bureau Vadodara: A Vadodarabased environmentalist has shot off a letter to the vice-chancellor of the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda, nationally known for its academic standing, expressing concern of the state of

an important tributary of the Vishwamitri river that passes through its campus.

Called Bhukhi Nala, the tributary passes through MSU and merges into Vishwamitri, the most important river of Vadodara. In his letter, Prajapati, who is with the Par-

Environmentalists are concerned over the neglect of a tributary of Vishwamitri river flowing through the MS University in Vadodara.

yavaran Suraksha Samiti, known for its environmental cam-

paigns, says the university authorities are treating the tributary

in a way that violates the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016 and the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, besides a Supreme Court order.

A copy of the letter has been forwarded to the municipal commissioner, Vadodara, senior environment, forest and urban development officials of the Central and Gujarat Governments, including the Gujarat Pollution Con-

trol Board.

“We seek to draw your attention that you, individually and institutionally, seem to choose not to pay attention to the dire situation in which the University, under its very nose, has put the Bhukhi Nala that is passing through and along the MS University,” Prajapati states in his letter. Over the last few decades, and especially during the last five to ten years

or so, right from the northern-end near the Samras Girls Hostel and Polytechnic Campus to behind the Commerce Faculty in the south, the University, and the local authorities have systematically neglected and degraded the tributary and its environs. He said environmentalists have drawn the University’s attention earlier too towards this issue.

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KUCH KESARIYA SA...

Orange is a colour that symbolises energy, excitement, warmth and good health and doesn’t fail to visually stand out!

NEHAL NAYAR

nehal.nayar@firstindia.co.in

O

range is said to be a colour which is very vibrant yet soothing at the same time. As it is the colour that symbolises energy, excitement, warmth and good health, there are various versions of it that have different vibes. For example, darker oranges give a sense of comfort, while lighter oranges are healthy and soothing. Can you feel it already?

The colour orange is symbolic to Autumn (you are visualising a scenario with orange leaves on an empty road during the fall season, aren’t you?).

There are various unique meanings of this colour in various cultures likeit is an auspicious colour in India, the colour of prison in the United States, colour signifying a Roya l

family in France and a colour that has an extremely religious significance in the United Kingdom. There are various common shades of orange, like saffron, peach, apricot, carrot, terracotta and burnt among others. A fun fact about the colour orange is that it attracts the eyes very easily and is the easiest colour to view in a low lighting or low visibility, and even next to water; well, that is the reason why most of the life jackets you see are in orange colour and so are the traffic cones and signages.

Relating the colour orange to the human body, it is the colour of the ‘Sacral Chakra’, also known as the ‘Svadhisthana’ which is located right under the navel and close to the genitals; it is linked to the reproductive system. This chakra revives emo-

tions and sexuality.

This colour, when paired with yellow, stimulates the feeling of fire and heat.

Similarly, when paired with green, it stimulates the feeling of tropical destinations and adventure. Psychologically, orange colour rejuvenates the spirit and uplifts the mood; this is the reason why it is suggested to be used in daily life, so as to bring in positivity.

Sadly, orange is one of the most underused and rejected colour of all time, even after the fact that it brings in positivity and warmth!

09

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PARENTAL BURNOUT Student Stress and the Online Classes

SHALBHA SARDA cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

I

dren is on top of my priority list but in the current scenario, the schools fail to understand the situation they are setting off at home with their elaborate weekly plans for classwork and homework. My eighth-grader has a 5-hour session of class every day excluding Sunday. Although he is self-sufficient to fix the technical issues of the class but a significant portion of his day post the online classes is spent completing the sheets he has missed out because of the fast-paced lecture or the pile of homework assigned to him for the day. Being a teenager, I have started to worry about his wellbeing when

FA CE OF TH ED AY

t has been almost four months since the coronapoclapyse. Barely a week after the onset of the crisis I had shared a happy post on Instagram where both my children were sitting in front of a computer attending their online classes. I had flaunted how using technology for my kids was much more than binge-watch lost in space on Netflix or playing Pub-G with their friends.

What I was unaware then was this online school model was here to stay for longer, at least for the next few months.

Post the unceremonious summer vacation I read a message from the school that other students could also enroll in the school from anywhere in the world. Which meant that the schools weren’t to reopen physically anytime soon. Moreover, parents were not mentally prepared to send their children to schools, which is fairly understood and absolutely necessary.

Despite all the understanding for many women like myself, this wasn’t a piece of comforting news. Do I miss my routine of getting up early each morning, pack lunch for the children, dress them up, feed some cereal, and wave them byes? Hell yeah!.

Those were the days when I almost forgot about their existence for the most part of the day. It allowed me to have a peaceful work- life routine.

Yes, the education of my chil-

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

most of his time is spent by himself in a closed room in front of the laptop rather than being with the family. The largely propagated familial bliss during the lockdown seems to have a short life now. Ironically when he went to school I had more quality time with him rather than when he is at home all day.

On the other hand, my 3rd grader has a 3.5-hour online class daily. His classes need far more active involvement from my side. Every other message on my WhatsApp contains detailed instructions from the class teacher regarding sheets that are to be printed, which I barely

YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

have time to read. In addition to that, there are experimental activities that require entailed gathering objects ranging from quilling strips to an aloe vera plant. Needless to say, I don’t have bandwidth left to continue to do so after 4 long months. But a missed online experiment of my 7 years old never gets off the chart without parent guilt. Even the incomplete class work sheets, the pending homework assignment make me feel short as a parent focused on the education of my children.

I understand that the remote learning model is better than watching Netflix and playing

ductive on my work front?

Amidst the rock and a hard place in a grim economic climate rife with job losses, if a parent isn’t able to work well because of online classes and puts his job at stake is not a good news for the school as well (as we are still to pay the full fee). The school has to understand to avail the fees there has to be a way to have a balance where they can conduct such classes without creating both the parental burnout and student stress.

Considering the time of the global crisis as a regular academic year is unfair for everyone. Neither the students feel like sitting in front of the computer for the whole day nor the parents feel like clicking pictures of their assignment, and I am sure even the teachers are not interested in reviewing them back. A few missed chapters in the overall scenario are better than compromising the wellbeing of the children, parents, and even the teachers.

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

Agitator’s company should be avoided at any cost, they will bring no peace.

You have some extraordinary talent and it can potentially make you a global star.You will enjoy your work today. You may plan to buy a vehicle as public transport are no more safe.

Bestow your good wishes on anyone or everyone you meet today and it will come back multiplied in hundred. You will manage to get your work done from someone else on work front. You may have to take an important decision today regarding your house or property.

Coddling someone at home is indicated as per your chart. You will get some fantastic ideas to start a small business. You are always in limelight for your talents.

Be practical in life and avoid day dreaming. You love to play sports which help you in shredding sweat.

Delving too deep in someone’s past is not a good idea. You are financially stable but you want to take big risks to earn more.

Those involved in trading business will get an excellent opportunity today to expand.You will get time to relax and breathe in peace.

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

Fractious people are all around its depends on us how to deal with them.

Concentrate on building terms not spoiling. Good health is your God given gift but to maintain it is the result of your sincerity. You are a modern dresser and you love to experiment with colours.

Gagging someone from expressing their opinion isn’t a good thing to do, Allow people to express themselves freely. Investment in business that serves people’s need in current scenario. A good friendship is what everyone wants so be that good friend for someone.

Your success is imminent as per your cards and this time when many are going down, you will find your way up. You often invest yourself emotionally. Sort out your matters with your boss and start afresh.

Inspiring your kids is only possible when you are doing good in life.

Jocular friends’ company is what you enjoy the most. You never worry about money as you are a firm believer that money comes in & goes out. Indulge yourself in enhancing your skills. Talents go wasted if direction is not given. You are stubborn with your goals.

MAR 21 - APR 20

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

APR 21 - MAY 20

AUG 24 - SEP 23

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Laborious , diligent and a person of a strong vision is how you can be defined. You are a good hearted soul but sometime your own people mislead you and you are easily fooled. You are rich by heart and you are emotional too. Someones go beyond your limits and try and explore yourself.

Rollicking, flying free is all you want right now. You are generous by heart but you don’t get fooled by people easily. Respect your elders even if sometime they don’t say things that you like. Inlaws can cause some trouble but instead of fighting try and find a permanent solution.

Profanity shouldn’t be tolerated and you must break all your ties with such people. Your mantra of life is to live and let people live, you believe in freedom. You my hit a jackpot in stocks today. Your sweetheart may get demanding today. Buying a property for parents is possible today.

Marginalising the urgent needs of business is not a good decision rather pay attention if you want your business to run successfully. You are going to do social work today. You are selfless by nature and you believe in always helping people. You children will be very supportive.

NOV 23 - DEC 22

AVNEET KAUR, Actress

games all day and by no means, I’m dismissive about the amount of hard work of the teachers who also had to adapt to a new model of teaching. Despite government orders of a fee reduction or waiver of school fees I am still paying the usual fee for both my children to support the teachers for the work they do. On the contrary because of the amount of parental involvement for an online class to function smoothly it has become increasingly difficult to strike a balance between work from home, household chores, and an added burden from such classes. Which in turn has resulted in being less pro-

10

DEC 23 - JAN 20

JAN 21 - FEB 19

FEB20 - MARCH 20

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AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

11

B’TOWN ON RED ALERT L

egendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday evening. He shared the news himself on his Twitter handle and noted he has been shifted to hospital, and the other family members and staff have undergone tests for the virus. After the results were out, Abhishek Bachchan was tested positive too later that night. Jaya and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan were tested negative in the first round, but in the second round on Sunday, Aishwarya and Aaradhya Bachchan’s test results came

out to be positive.

Veteran actor Rekha’s security guard has also tested positive for COVID-19 and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed the actor’s bungalow ‘Sea Springs’.

Later on Sunday, actor Anupam Kher informed that his family members, including mother Dulari, brother, sister-in-law and niece have tested positive for coronavirus. However, he has tested negative. The actor put out a video on Twitter wherein he shared the news.

—ANI

Abhishek, Aaradhya and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Anupam Kher with his mother Dulari and brother Raju

Amitabh Bachchan

IN FEAR

M

eghan Markle is concerned that her and Prince Harry’s oneyear-old son, Archie hasn’t had enough opportunities for social interaction with other toddlers in the last few months because of lock-

down. The Duchess reportedly fears she is too famous to take Archie to baby classes.

“Meghan said she would love to be part of a ‘Mommy & Me’ community, but knows this is impossible even if there was no COVID-19 because of who she is,” they added. “She said she’s just too well known to do normal things.”

A source close to the couple said: “Meghan said Archie needs to learn emotional and social skills by being around other young children, something he can’t do with adults.”

Although the couple has been staying in touch with friends and family through Zoom calls, the source said “it’s not the same as in-person” —Agency

‘Smart and well-read’

T

o wish Shloka Mehta on her birthday on Saturday, Tina Ambani shared an unseen photo of Nita Ambani’s daughter-in-law and wrote a heart-felt note.

She wrote, “Bright and open, warm and loving, smart and wellread… the most wonderful addition to the family.

It’s been lovely to Tina Ambani’s post see you blossom over the years Shloka! On your special day, here’s wishing you love and laughter, happiness and joy in abundance.”

—Agency

Shloka Mehta

Being a Woman

CELEBRATING

SUPER-30 S

T

ahira Kashyap has finished writing her fourth book while at home during the lockdown. “I’ve finally finished writing ‘The 12 Commandments Of Being A Woman’ and it’s been such an enriching experience. I think a lot of women will relate with the book and men will find it an interesting read. The Lockdown period was perfect for me to finish and give enough time to it,” Tahira shared. Tahira is planning to release her book by the end of this year.

Apart from writing, Tahira has also tried to take proper care of her health during the lockdown.

With ease in the lockdown re-

Tahira Kashyap

strictions, Tahira started doing cycling outside her home.

“I took to cycling as a sport and also to declutter mentally.

But I realised I was viewing the same roads, trees and houses with a different perspective. I was finding beauty in nature that I had never before appreciated, let alone acknowledged. It is extremely therapeutic. Earlier on it meant only exercise for the physical aspect but now it has become a therapy for my mental well being and happiness too,” she had shared.

—Agency

PARTH TESTED POSITIVE! Meghan Markle Parth Samthaan

TV serial ‘Kasauti Zindagi 2’ actor Parth Samthaan tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. The shooting for the serial has been put on hold for the time being.

uper 30, a film on the math genius, Anand Kumar clocked a year of release on Sunday.

Hrithik Roshan, the lead actor, who played his part and got hugely applauded for his unconventional performance, got nostalgic about it.

He shares, “Can’t believe it has been a year! For me, the success of Super 30 is way more satisfying than the success of any of my other films. My journey from being myself to becoming Anand Kumar in front of the camera was a very special one. Reminiscing about the process of picking up the body language, learning the nuances and transforming for it, always leaves a smile on my face.” Hrithik Roshan, who is known for his world class good looks and glamorous personality, shed all vanity to play the part of a math teacher hailing from Bihar.

—Agency

Hrithik Roshan

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CITY FIRST RAJASTHAN & GUJARAT

I

n today’s world, every single person owns a phone, and it’s one of their most prized possession.

The one accessory that is your friend, must be trendy and hence fancy phone cases are the next must-have. Earlier phones or phone cases were a luxury, but with changing times, they are a must now.

A variety of different types of phone cases are available in the market, depending on the needs of the user. For example, some people don’t like hiding their phone behind a cover, but they still want protection so they can go for transparent silicon covers, or some people who are extremely clumsy and need a rock-solid cover can go for a bumper cover, and for those who are absolutely obsessed with their phones and their styles, can have an over the top phone cover to display their love for their everyday use accessory. It’s all out in the market, you name it, and it’s there.

Your phone cover says a lot about what kind of person you are, and now it all comes down to only one basic question, who you are and what your choice is.

City First got in touch with a few of its readers about what kind of phone covers do they prefer, and why? cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

What’s Your

CHOICE?

Helping the ones in need

I like to use Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club covers. I like leather covers and also like silicon sturdy covers and I don’t change the cover often. Nowadays cover shows the personality of a person- the dirtier the cover the more shabby the person. I always buy in bulk, so I don’t have to shop again and again.

—NIDHI MANAN SHAH

R

obert Vadra on Sunday took to Facebook and shared a video where he expressed how everyone’s lives have changed due to COVID-19.

He wrote, “It’s almost 4 months now that our lives changed due to COVID-19.

The economy is down & Vikas has died. The sufferers are mainly the poor - migrant labourers; daily wagers. I, along with my supporters, have been in a constant endeavour to “feed the hungry” from organising Bhandara to providing food/rations to people at the railway station; bus stops or whosoever has been needy.

The worst is not yet over! In fact, due to the lack of jobs & lesser economic activities, things are only going to get worse.”

He added, Help the poor & the underprivileged- that’s the need of the hour. I am doing whatever I can with my sup-

Robert Vadra porters. Join hands with me in Feeding the Hungry. Stay safe, stay healthy this Sunday.”

—Vaishali

WHAT’S HAPPENING!

I would like to use a phone cover with positive energy one line quote and I actually prefer cover with my mom’s picture which always reminds me to be strong enough in each and every situation. It reminds me that life is not a waste on but to live more for a family for ownself.

I think phone covers with neckstraps are the best and most comfortable for the people who are on their phones constantly. Also, it’s better than carrying your phone in a pocket or in a purse! I am using it for a very long time and I love it.

—ANKITA VALAND

—SHRISHTI BHARDWAJ

CITY FIRST

RAJASTHAN: Kusum Yadav planted a sapling in Jagatpura with the President of the Namo Namo Morcha and all the other officials. During the event, Kusum Yadav shared that all of us should plant more trees so that our nature can become green and beautiful. All the officials swore that at least 5000 saplings will be planted by Namo Namo Morcha.

CITY FIRST

I

G and demonstrating what has been written on the glass. It’s useful for presentations, for recording video lectures and for micro-lectures.

Rahul Singhi, Director, Poornima Group informed that unlike traditional classrooms, the Glass Board Studio helps in creat-

ing a more engaged, natural, relaxed and interactive viewing experience for instructors and students.

Here, the instructor writes normally, left to right, and then the recorded image is flipped so students can view the notes correctly through a monitor. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

eetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur has taken a very important step forward by getting recognition from the (NABL) National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories. It has become the first medical college and multi super speciality hospital in entire southern Rajasthan to provide the testing facility of COVID-19. Investigation of COVID-19 has started in Geetanjali Hospital, and now the results of corona examination can be obtained in a single day. In Geetanjali Hospital, all the norms are being followed with caution and at the same time, the hospital premises and every department is being constantly sanitized.

CEO Pratim Tamboli said that Geetanjali Hospital has always been a pioneer in healthcare, quality and research and has been carrying out its responsibilities. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

SURGICAL TIPS

CITY FIRST

he Cadaveric Dissection Skill Lab at JNU Hospital is a perfect opportunity for hands-on Cadaveric workshops for Neurosurgeons, ENT specialists, Plastic Surgeons and Orthopaedic Surgeons all across the world, who are interested in holding Cadaveric Dissection workshops for their particular field.

A worldwide webinar was or-

ganised at this lab on Cadaveric Basic knee Arthroplasty by Orthopaedic surgeons of JNU hospital in collaboration with Rajasthan Orthopaedic Surgeons Association. Over 1000 orthopaedic surgeons across the globe participated in this mega event. Dr Sandeep Bakshi, Chancellor Jaipur National University said that cadaveric training workshops are a helpful forum for specialists to refine their surgical techniques. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

RAJASTHAN: A ceremony was organised to honor the newly elected President of All India Pareek Mahasabha for the State, Ramakant Pareek at Hotel Royal Lalit on Sunday.

During the occasion, the Chief Guest Joint Director, Department of Health, Government of Rajasthan, Govind Pareek; National Vice President of All India Pareek Mahasabha, Girdhari Lal Kasot; Youth Wing State President, Lovejit Pareek; Youth Wing Jaipur President, Gaurav Purohit; among many others were present.

Music Producer and Vocalist, Kritika Soni, is going to train students on the basics of classical in Bollywood music and Western Music. 25 % of the fees will be contributed to corona victims.

Students of JECRC University, Jaipur took the live session and she was the judge of the music competition held at Jaipur National University (JNU).

Dr Sandeep Bakshi with the team of Doctors at JNU Hospital

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INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY Recognised n this unprecedented time, Poornima Group has adopted innovative teaching methods. As everywhere else, Poornima Group is also running online classes for its students.

The teaching staff is using a studio equipped with ‘Glass Board Technology’.

The Glass Board Studio is a new technology for recording lectures that helps instructors to write lecture notes while maintaining face-to-face contact with students. This studio consists of a transparent glass board that offers faculty the ability to create high quality, compelling recordings of themselves delivering content by writing in glowing letters with neon markers while facing the audience. It allows for natural eye contact with the camera/students, gesturing

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020

RAJASTHAN: The shooting of a short film titled ‘The Mask’ took place in the walled city of Jaipur on Sunday. The director of the film Mohsin Badgujar said that the use of masks is very important to protect ourselves from a pandemic like Corona.

Through the short film, they have explained the importance of masks in these times. Soon this short film will be screened on online platforms.

An Instagram Live session titled ‘The New Normal in the Media Biz’ was held on Sunday, where Namita S Kalla shared that looking at the media layoffs in the pandemic times, freelancing will emerge as the ‘new normal’ of the media industry. This will be a win-win situation for both the publications as well as the reporters.