Saving souls for six decades

The

stands, was given to Sue and Leonard by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

BY NANDITHA SURESH

Two World War II veterans, one foundation with the sole aim of providing relief to those suffering, 60 years and counting.

Nestled in the cosy outskirts of Dehradun in India, is a safe haven for those in need to live with dignity. Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre, also known as Raphael, is an inclusive facility for those dealing with leprosy and its after effects; the centre also extends its care for the family of those suffering or cured from the disease to live together. In addition, Raphael provides special education services to people with intellectual and associative disabilities; they offer free tuberculosis treatment and are equipped with a 26-bed facility; and organise rehabilitative workshops, which engage the more able residents in production activities such as weaving and other crafts.

Sydney couple Christine and Graeme Hannan recently visited the centre to mark the Founders Day where they celebrated 60 years of Raphael since its foundation in 1959. Brimming with history, the centre’s origins are remarkable. The couple are also the President and Secretary respectively of The Ryder Cheshire Foundation in NSW whose parent body is Ryder Cheshire Australia (RCA).

“Raphael was founded by a beautiful couple, WWII veterans and humanitarians, Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, OM, DSO, DFC, and his wife Baroness Sue Ryder,” Christine shares about the history of the centre’s beginnings. According to her, both of them were deeply affected by the impact of war: Leonard had been a British observer at the atomic bomb raid on Nagasaki.

When the war ended, the duo founded separate charities to provide relief and support to the disabled and those in need. “The couple met in the ‘50s and married in 1959 in India. In the same year, the 23-acre land on which Raphael currently

“It was given knowing their laudable commitment to charitable work under the condition that the funding came from outside India,” adds Graeme.

With humble beginnings, Raphael merely had tents providing shelter to those affected by leprosy and its debilitating after effects. “The couple were deeply affected by the lepers who were ostracised by the society, trying to get by along the Ripasana riverbanks,” Christine recounts. “It motivated them to provide them and their families with a place of relief and care, and to live with dignity.”

Through his contacts from the Air Force, Leonard approached people in Australia, New Zealand and the UK to contribute to improve the lives of the residents. Funding came through in the form of scholarships, fundraisers and individual and contributions.

“Raphael started developing over the years and began to spread its wings to offer more support and relief to others in need. A stigma-free space, the facility is what over 200 children and adults call home, the youngest resident being 9 and the oldest, Kisni, an 86-year-old woman, who came to live in the centre in 1959.”

Sue and Leonard visited Australia to obtain support for the new home in India soon after it was founded, and the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation was launched in Australia. Ryder-Cheshire Australia supports homes in India (including Raphael), Australia and Timor-Leste. Operated autonomously, RCA is separately incorporated Foundations in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

The RCA has since raised funds and created sponsorships for the clients of Raphael.

As a teacher, Christine heard about RCA and Raphael when her school sponsored a little boy called Patrus. “The boy was living in the facility with his family. He is the son of one of the many there affected by leprosy. The kids in my school played a vital role in raising funds towards this sponsorship,” recalls Christine. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s when Christine had lunch with the then President of RCA that she was convinced she needed to play a bigger part in the foundation’s work.

Another aha moment for Christine was when she heard about Patrus - who left Raphael to complete his secondary schooling and undertook vocational training - returning to Raphael to extend his services to where he grew up.

“He came back to Raphael, married one of the girls Kanti, also a resident like him at the centre, and dedicated their lives to giving back to the place that opened a world of possibilities to them,” she shares.

Now a 60-year-old man, Patrus and Kanti are grandparents, working in Raphael. He is the superintendent of all the residential centres (male and female), and the two assisted independent living programmes; Kanti is the warden for the male hostel.

“Patrus’ story reinforces my belief in how a simple act of kindness comes back, and the cycle never ends,” Christine muses.

The Hannans have since taken on the roles of President and Secretary of Ryder Cheshire Foundation, NSW. They were part of Raphael’s Golden Jubilee celebrations a decade ago and now recently went back to India for its diamond jubilee, which was filled with cultural events and laying of the foundation stone for another building.

Just as in any not-for-profit organisation, funds and commitment sustain Raphael and RCA. “RCA has been contributing to Raphael and other homes in Australia and Timor-Leste since its establishment,” informs Christine. “Our members are aging and funds too are limited as we are a small organisation unlike big foundations backed by corporates and large marketing budgets.”

According to Christine, approximately 38% of the annual operating costs for Raphael come from Australia. She is appealing to the Indian diaspora to come forward and help those in need in their homeland.

“We are seeking support from the Indian expats here in Australia to help us continue supporting a cause that has stood the test of time,” says Christine.

This pre-monsoon season second driest in 65 years

The pre-monsoon season this year is the second driest in 65 years, with gross rainfall deficiency recorded at 25 per cent, said private forecaster Skymet.

The country witnessed 99 mm of rainfall in the three-month pre-monsoon season that ended on May 31, against the average of 131.5 mm, it said.

All the four regions of the countryNorthwest India, Central India, East and Northeast India as well as South Peninsula -- have recorded deficit rains of 30 per cent, 18 per cent, 14 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

"This has been the second driest premonsoon season in the last 65 years, with the lowest being recorded in 2012 when countrywide cumulative rainfall deficiency had mounted to 31 per cent," Skymet said.

"In fact, pre-monsoon rains in 2019 have exactly performed the same as in 2009. That year too saw similar rainfall, resulting in 25 per cent lag in rains."

It also said there was similarity between 2009 and 2019 as "they have been El Niño years. Thus, rains have been reacting in a somewhat identical pattern".

Skymet has expressed concerns over the performance of monsoon this year, saying the "mere presence" of El Niño could affect it.

"We had seen mild El Niño in 2009, with Niño 3.4 indices juggling between 0.5 degree Celsius and 0.7 degree Celsius. However, it resulted in a severe drought to the tune of 22 per cent," it said.

"Coming to 2019, there has been excessive warming in the Pacific Ocean and Nino 3.4 indices have been settling in the range of 0.7 degree Celsius to 0.9 degree Celsius so far. It is already affecting monsoon season as we expect below normal rains during the onset month of June by at least 23 per cent."

Skymet has predicted "below normal" monsoon this year to the tune of 93 per cent of the long period average (LPA) of 887 mm.

The average or normal rainfall in the country is defined between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of the 50-year average for the entire four-month monsoon season.

It also said that this year the country's southern and central states might witness late and weak monsoon and advised farmers to postpone the sowing of kharif crops to at least the second week of June.

ITBP joining operations to retrieve climbers' bodies

Well-versed and equipped to carry out highaltitude rescue operations, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will join the efforts to retrieve the bodies of eight national and foreign climbers who went missing while on an expedition to Nanda Devi.

The operation will be launched by the district administration of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh in a day or two, depending on the weather conditions.

ITBP's PRO Vivek Pandey told IANS that the district administration had sent a request for the ITBP to join the effort.

"We have high-altitude mountaineers who are well-equipped and trained to carry out such operations.

"The district administration has held several meetings with the Indian Air Force and the ITBP. The operation to retrieve the bodies will be through a helicopter-borne sling," he said.

Five bodies were spotted during aerial reconnaissance. But when the rescue team will descend in the area, then hopefully, more bodies could be found, he said.

The eight mountaineers were from Britain, the US, Australia, as well as India, and were reported to be heading towards Nanda Devi East at around 20,000 feet.

Rescue pilots also spotted equipment, backpacks and bodies - open and partially buried in snow - near the unclimbed peak.

Sahara to roll out electric vehicles this year

Sahara India Pariwar has announced its foray into the automobile sector under the brand name, 'Sahara Evols'. It will launch the largest range of electric vehicles (EVs) in India, along with advanced allied services.

The product portfolio of 'Sahara Evols' comprises variants of electric scooters, motorcycles, three-wheelers and cargo vehicles.

The company will also launch a network of battery charging-cum-swapping stations. Starting from Lucknow, 'Sahara Evols' will establish its ecosystem in tier II and tier III cities in a phased manner by the end of this financial year.

Subsequently, in the next financial year, it will roll out products and services across India.

The company said the cost of driving Sahara Evols EVs would be as low as 20 paise per km against Rs 2 per km in petrol vehicles, entailing direct and substantial economic benefits to the users.

"For the first time, we are introducing a complete EVs ecosystem in India. Sustainable and environment-friendly modes of transportation are the need of the hour to cut the country's burden of crude oil imports and also benefit our future generations," said Subrata Roy, Sahara Pariwar chairman.

According to the company, 'Sahara Evols' will bring a complete 360-degree ecosystem for EVs, which will have higher torque for better performance and network of fast charging systems with docking facility.

'Sahara Evols' vehicles would be equipped with smart tech features, like GPS tracking, which would allow users to trace their location with the help of the free 'Sahara Evols Mobile App', as well as ask for 24X7 on-road and off-road assistance. The mobile app would also allow the users to lock the vehicle, it said.

The vehicles would also have distress alarm buttons for women's safety and an anti-theft alarm to prevent break-ins, the company said.

Jiggs Kalra was way ahead of his time: Obituary

Back in the early 1970s, when J. Inder Singh Kalra began writing "Platter Chatter" on food for a leading daily, there were many who sniggered. But Jiggs Kalra was way ahead of his time and doggedly pushed his way through to earn monikers aplenty and show the path ahead to more than a generation of food writers - and, indeed, raise the art of gastronomy to new heights.

Along the way, in a career spanning five decades, he strove to revive lost cuisines as well as cooking styles and re-introduced age old delicacies such as the galouti and other kebabs served in India's royal kitchens; and established some of the country's most highly-acclaimed and best performing restaurants - one of the most notable being Masala Library that is run by his son Zorawar Singh, apart from Punjab Grill and Made in Punjab.

Ever one to be modest, he said of his culinary journey in a magazine interview some years ago: "I come from a typical Punjabi family; my father was from the Indian armed forces and a stickler for discipline. He expected me to follow in his footsteps but I had other plans. Reading and writing were a passion from a very young age. My exposure to the kitchen happened, thanks to my grandmother. Her mutton beliram still remains my favourite. My mother is one of the finest cooks I've ever known. I consider them my mentors."

And some mentors they proved to be - along with Khushwant Singh, the then editor of the Times of India in Bombay who was quite taken in by Kalra's constant griping: who's going to tell me about the best places to eat in this city?

The answers came with a vengeance and stretched way beyond Bombay to span the entire country as Kalra honed his skills on the job, as it were, his meticulous research translating into 11 books on Indian cuisine, including Prashad that many a chef till today consider his bible.

"Parshad has now gone into its 44th reprint. It's the one book a mother-in-law gives to her daughter-in-law and to her daughter. My younger son Ajeet's wife cooks everything out of that book," Kalra had been quoted as saying.

Then came Daawat - India's first television reality show - and that too in the Doordarshan era.

Pushpesh Pant, no mean foodie himself who was associated with the show and later penned a coffee table book on it, said: "The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating, and another adage cautions that too many cooks spoil the broth. Accepting the challenge meant defying conventional wisdom. We, in turn, began by inviting dozens of chefs - young and oldaccomplished masters and promising talent, men and women from the four corners of our vast and varied land - to showcase the fabulous culinary heritage of India."

Jiggs, "never the one to be happy unless the labour undertaken is prodigious, suggested - and his suggestions have the tendency to end up as dictates - we give the viewers something new in addition to what was expected. Why not research the ayurvedic basis of Indian cuisine and incorporate interesting useful information about the ingredien ts being used? What started as a lark has now become an obsessive quest for both of us but that is a different story," Pant added.

Motocross riders take part in the annual Mogrip National SuperCross Championship in Bangalore, India, 2 June 2019. Over 200 participants across India took part in Novice Class, Private Expert Class1- SX1 Foreign Open Class Group A (250CC to 500CC) and SX2 Group Class (upto 250CC).

This, more than anything else, explains the mark of a man who, along the way, suffered a heart attack but bounced back after a bypass surgery in the US.

Recalls senior Mumbai journalist Mark Manuel of Kalra's post-operative days: "I told Jiggs that the only other person I knew about who popped over 60 pills a day was Sylvester Stallone. 'I should open a company with him, maybe a chemist shop, naam se chalega, he joked."

Since the time he had returned from the hospital after recovering from his stroke, he had done two books, helped to open three restaurants, held nine food festivals from Delhi to Calcutta, become the brand ambassador for Basmati rice, travelled overseas with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Malaysia and organised his meals, planned the banquet at Agra's Jaypee Palace Hotel for President Pervez Musharraf, and was back on Jet Airways as the food caterer.

"All this for a man who is only half a man," Jiggs chortled. "People tell me I have achieved more from the bed than if I had been walking around. I don't agree."

This also explains Kalra's major role in the culinary success of major chains like the Oberoi Group, ITC Hotels and the Park Group as also some international properties. Honours came his way aplenty, including induction into the International Food & Beverage Gourmet Hall of Fame (the first Asian to be so elevated), besides numerous awards and accolades, both national and international.

Vishnu Makhijani

Sikh man dons rainbow turban for Pride in California

Jiwandeep Kohli, a San Diego-based neuroscientist who is bisexual and a Sikh, is ringing in this year’s Pride Month with a rainbow turban that has gone viral on social media.

Sharing an image of the elaborate creation on Twitter that has received nearly 30,000 likes, Kohli, who was also a former contestant on The Great American Baking Show, celebrated what makes him unique.

"I'm proud to be a bisexual bearded baking brain scientist," he captioned the image. "I feel fortunate to be able to express all these aspects of my identity and will continue to work towards ensuring the same freedom for others."

Pride Month kicked off on 1 June and honours the LGBTQ community while commemorating New York's Stonewall riots in June 1969 that signalled a turning point in the movement for equal rights.

In an interview to Buzzfeed News, Kohli said: "A few years ago I saw a photo of another Sikh man at a pride parade who had a few colours in his turban. I was looking at that and I realized the way I tie mine, it had the exact right number of layers to make a rainbow."

He wore his rainbow turban to the San Diego Pride last year, but re-shared it on Twitter for this year's Pride Month.

There were a few people asking where they can get their own rainbow turban. Kohli in response, said he wanted them to know that turbans were a responsibility for Sikhs and it's not the same as throwing on a rainbow hat.

"I wouldn't want people to have the impression that I'm just wearing it as an accessory," he said. "A turban is a sign to the world that you're a person the world can turn to for help."

Kohli also runs a website called "Bearded Baker Co", where he showcases his culinary prowess along with recipes for those who want to give his food a try.

Jaipur milkman's daughter tops Rajasthan Year 10 board exams

Milkman's daughter Sheela Jat has topped the Rajasthan Board's Class 10 exams by securing 595 marks out of 600 or 99.17 per cent, as per the results declared this month.

Sheela, of Jaipur, secured 100 each in Maths and Science, 99 each in English, Hindi and Social Science and 98 in Sanskrit.

She hails from a poor background and her parents are illiterate. While her father Mohanlal Jat, who owns four buffaloes, sells milk, her mother is a housewife.

Sheela says she wants to study medicine.

"I want to become a neurosurgeon so that I can treat patients suffering from brain cancer," she says.

She also has a message for her fellow students. "One should never get disappointed with low marks. I have scored low in my earlier exams in school. I learnt from my failure to attain this score," she added. "My father could not study in his life, however, he motivated me to study. He taught me that life can be difficult if one is not literate.”

7 Indian-American kids win 2019 Spelling Bee

Seven Indian-American children were among the eight winners of this year's edition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, that saw more than one champion for the first time in its 92-year history.

The winners were Erin Howard, Rishik Gandhasri, Saketh Sundar, Navneeth Murali, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rohan Raja.

The finals went on more than an hour and half past the scheduled time with words like omphalopsychite, Geeldikkop and auftaktigkeit.

Five rounds and 47 words in a row were spelled perfectly. Each of the eight champions will receive a $50,000 prize.

This year's competition started with 562 spellers - all of whom are 15 or younger but have not passed eighth grade - who made it to the national stage.

Contestants came from all 50 US states, as well as several territories and other countries including the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.

Last year, Karthik Nemmani, a 14-yearold eighth-grader from Texas, was named the winner.

In 1985, Balu Natarajan became the first Indian-origin child to win the Spelling Bee.

The Spelling Bee is not merely a memory test of exotic words as it also requires learning about the origins of words and the languages they are derived from.

Two-thirds of AIDS treatment drugs supplied globally by India

Taking a lead in the global fight against AIDS, India is supplying the world with twothirds of the drugs to treat those infected with HIV, according to Indian diplomat Paulomi Tripathi.

"These affordable generic medicines have helped scale up access to treatment across developing countries," Tripathi, a First Secretary in India's UN mission, told the

General Assembly this month.

"India is contributing in the international fight against AIDS: almost two-thirds of the antiretroviral drugs used globally are supplied by the Indian pharmaceutical industry," she said during a discussion on the Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the political declarations on HIV/AIDS adopted by the General Assembly in 2001.

Tripathi emphasised the importance of continued political commitment to ensure that competing financing demands and changing priorities did not affect efforts to provide adequate resources to fighting HIV/ AIDS.

Domestically, "the focus is on reduction in new infection, elimination of mother to child transmission and elimination of stigma and discrimination by 2020," she added.

New infections have declined in India by more than 80 per cent from peak of epidemic in 1995 and deaths from the disease have come down by 71 per cent since its peak in 2005, she said.

Tripathi ascribed the progress to the involvement of communities, civil society and people living with HIV in policy and delivery of services and through intensified information, education and communication drives.

India, which is described as the pharmacy to the world has a special licence the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool to manufacture anti-AIDS medicine Tenofovir Alafenamide (TAF) for 112 developing countries.

According to a 2017 study by Harvard Business School, low-cost generic antiretroviral drugs from India "have been integral to the rapid scale-up of HIV treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries".

"A common first-line regimen of treatment decreased from $414 per person per year to $74 per person per year for Indian generics," it said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his report that when the General Assembly held its first session on the AIDS epidemic in 2001 a "world without AIDS was almost unimaginable".

However, "the global determination to defeat one of history's greatest health crises has produced remarkable progress", he said. IANS