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Publication: mediamds@vsnl.com
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Pancha is five in Samskritam and
amritam is nectar.
ONE
A sustained public and political
campaign by two small regional Australian towns has resulted in the 13-year-old
son of an Indian doctor couple being granted a visa. Treating Shivam Agrawal's
application for ministerial intervention as the rarest of rare cases, Australian
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has overruled an earlier decision
by her department and granted visa to the Indian teenager. The Agrawals
are overwhelmed by the public campaigns to keep them in Australia. Earlier
the rural community living in and around Wellington and Dubbo in New South
Wales was up in arms against an Australian Immigration Department decision
to deny visa to Shivam Agrawal as he suffers from haemophilia. The non-extension
of the Indian youngster's visa would have forced his parents, general practitioner
Sunita and paediatrician Rajiv Agrawal, to leave their jobs as doctors
in two public hospitals and return to India with Shivam. Such scenario
enraged the residents of Wellington and Dubbo who already suffer from an
acute shortage of competent medical staff in their rural community. The
doctor couple is being referred to as "valued" doctors in the regional
media. Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and the federal MP
from Parkes, John Cobb, approached Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone
for extension of visa to young Agrawal. Various community groups, meanwhile,
lodged signature campaigns supporting his endeavour. "The concern and support
everyone has shown has been overwhelming," Sunita Agrawal told Dubbo Liberal
Times after the decision was conveyed to her. "Patients have been asking
me what is happening and offering to sign petitions," Dr. Sunita said.
Support extended to her paediatrician husband was of a different hue. "They
said they would chain me to a hospital bed if I tried to leave," Agrawal
jocularly told reporters about his supporters' sentiments. "I have
never seen such support for a family and this is further evidence of just
how valued they are," Cobb told a local newspaper, Wellington Times. The
intensity of the campaign is gauged from the fact that all the schoolmates
of Shivam, Shivi to his friends, signed a petition and submitted it to
the local MP requesting him to get his visa extended.
(Based on an IANS report in The
New Indian Express, November 1, 2003).
TWO
Mumbai is not peopled by "mechanical"
office-goers, after all. Within half an hour of an ambulance bringing in
the first casualties of today's (August 25, 2003) blasts to the JJ Hospital,
Byculla, Mumbai, serpentine queues were visible outside the casualty ward
- all offering their services, including blood. An eager crowd appealed
to the hospital administration to let them help. Some manned the traffic
outside, kept the gates free for ambulances, more insisting to the hospital
security staff that they wanted to donate blood.''Nek kaam karne aaye to
kaise roke? (How does one stop those who want to help?)'' asked one guard.
Outside the blood bank, an encore was unfolding. Six stretchers, donors,
doctors, nurses and paramedical staff - all collecting blood from donors,
some breaking the queue in their eagerness. ''Even women are braving the
sight of blood to offer help,'' said a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit.
Those turned away didn't lose heart. Like Nandkumar Shenoy, they helped
ward boys wheel out trolleys, soaked in blood.''I think everyone needs
to help and assist at times of such crisis,'' says Mohammed Iqbal (40),
a stone trader and resident of Zaveri Bazaar, Kalbadevi. Iqbal was seen
collecting scattered body parts of the dead and injured at the site of
the blast, a plastic bag and gloves in hand. The soft-spoken man looked
everywhere, under taxi seats, beneath rubble, at street corners. Then,
pointing at various collected items in his bag, he said, "These fingers,
teeth and bones will aid doctors in making accurate identification". Balwant
Rajpurohit (29) was at work when he got to know. He rushed from Bhuleshwar
to Zaveri Bazaar and began pulling out people trapped in Navnidhan Bhavan,
which had caught fire. A salesman and designer at a jewel manufacturing
unit, he carried almost 25 bodies to taxis, to be ferried to JJ Hospital.
(Indian Express of August
25, 2003).
THREE
Sundar, an engineer by profession,
and a PANCHAAMRITAM reader, shares an experience he had: "This happened
12 years back. One morning, around 7.00 A.M, as all of us in the family
were at our regular chores, we heard a "thud" sound at the back portion
of our house. It was my sister. She was studying, sitting on the parapet
on the terrace and had a fall. She became unconscious and all of us in
the house were shocked. Our neighbour, an autorikshaw driver, brought his
auto to our house immediately, put my sister as well as my parents in it
and drove to the nearest hospital. This act saved my sister's life. She
fully recovered, thanks to his timely help. He refused to accept any money
from us though his income was meager. He was neither a social worker nor
did he attach any publicity to this. I am awaiting a chance to serve him
or his family during my lifetime."
(Based on an email from Shri. R.
Sundar in May, 2003).
FOUR
Date: May 22, 1999. Place: Tololing
hillside in Kargil, Jammu & Kashmir, Bharat. Captain Ajit Singh of
the '18 Granediars' had to make a crucial decision. He was inching his
way up on the 80-degree steep hillside towards the top where the enemiy
was very well entrenched. The climb was rendered a nightmare by the weight
of the arms, ammunition and the ration. Every excess gram on his back hindered
the progress. The options Ajit singh had: to drop the gun or the food pack.
He had been climbing for the past 11 hours in a temperature between minus
5 degrees celcius to minus 11 degrees at an altitude of 16,000 feet. Without
any hesitation, Ajit Singh dropped his food pack. He went without food
for three days in all. Every soldier in '18 Granediars' took the same decision
at that spot. That led them to victory. They reached the top and eliminated
the enemy. This hill top had a great strategic significance; the Kargil
conflict that could have otherwise prolonged for another month was over
in the next six days with the quick fall of all the hill top positions
once Tololing became enemy-free. And that had hinged on this crucial decision
by those dutiful soldiers like Ajit singh.
(Based on the cover story of India
Today of July 5, 1999).
FIVE
Meet Chitra (40), a resident of
Laspet, Pondicherry, Bharat. A chemistry graduate, a post-graduate in Hindi
and English, and a star holder in physical education, Chitra is now a garment
manufacturer. She visited the Swadeshi exhibition held in Coimbatore. Utensils
made of the bark of arecanut tree displayed at one of the stalls caught
her imagination. She set out to work on that. She visited several states
and gathered information about processing arecanut bark. Short of climbing
an arecanut tree, she did everything. Now she procures raw bark from half
a dozen places in truckloads and employs 40 women to produce seven types
of utensils like dishes and plates. They are a cheap and eco-friendly replacement
for the plastic, the bane of modern development, says an upbeat Chitra
netting a profit of Rs. 15,000 every month in this new venture.
(Based on areport in Aval Vikatan,
June 20, 2003).
