Positive news for the young and curious
Hello, hello this month is all about you . . . The youth!
We have featured singers, artists, musicians, writers, and more . . . So much talent has been discovered and so much is yet untapped.
I believe that every child is born with at least one gift. It could be mimicry, the ability to speak with animals, create objects of beauty or discover them, sport, find fascinating treasures in nature, climb, swim, knit, embroidery . . . Find it, make it your passion and the sky is the limit!
Be the reason someone smiles.
Be the reason someone feels loved.
Believe in the goodness of people.’
. . . Roy T Bennett.
Guru Nanak was the Sikh (meaning seekers of truth) founder, a poet, a philosopher and a singer who denounced ritualism as well as discrimination against women. He fused elements of Hinduism and Islam and believed that God transcends religious distinctions.
This year marks the 552th birth anniversary of this great man.
He inspired everyone to achieve their goals in life and live in peace and tranquility. . Some of his teachings that can help youngsters in their budding years:
*Honesty and truth overpower everything.
* Equality and brotherhood go hand in hand.
*See or hear no discrimination.
*Avoid being evil, greedy, angry.
The word ‘kindness” has its roots in the Old English word ‘kyndness’ meaning courtesy.
Many people are so focused on their own lives. They forget to take a moment to think about others. Celebrating kindness and the benefits we derive from this aspect of the human condition is valuable. Emotional warmth releases oxytocin which dilates the blood vessels and therefore lowers blood pressure. The stress hormone, cortisol, also reduces considerably when one is kind. Kindness is contagious…a study in the Neuro-science Laboratory at Stanford found that when someone is kind, it gets spread around. Kindness, generosity, and love can change the world.
Being kind to yourself and others is the most important action one can make.’
‘Compassion for others binds us together’
A small act of kindness helps
A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
Give compliments.
Help with house chores.
Smile at people who help you. maids, shopkeepers, and drivers. Thank them.
Hold a door open.
Distribute ‘kindness cards’
Stop bullying. Teach kids and adults to be kind.
Wear blue or green on this day
Hug your friends and loved ones. They might wonder what got into you, but they will appreciate you.
This day commemorates Pandit Jawaharlal’s (Chacha) Nehru’s birthday.
It also recognizes Abdul Kalam’s contribution to education and students.
Both these days are primarily intended to honor future leaders,
raise awareness, and improve the welfare of children worldwide.
On this date, in 1959, The UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of
the Rights of the Child.
This day offers parents, teachers, activists, the media, politicians, and the children themselves the to advocate, promote and celebrate the rights of children and to build a better world for them.
One should have Big Dreams and go after them.
Born on 27th December 2013 in
Tokyo. His family moved to Mumbai two years later.
At 5, he started learning Indian classical music.
In 2020, during lockdown, Ayaan began playing the keyboard on his own, with the help of online tutorials. Looking at his rapid progress, his parents enrolled him in the special music programme at the SOI Music Academy at NCPA Mumbai. He gave his first public performance in 2021, playing Mozart, Chopin and the other Classical greats and got a standing ovation.
He loves composing his own music.
Watch Ayaan Deshpande – Mountain stream – composed and played by him – https://youtu.be/fcV-iYSACa0
Watch Ayaan Deshpande debut piano recital – https://youtu.be/M4mSuq-PXHo
Ishaan was 6 years old in 2020, when he started singing old favourites like the Beatles with his father, Gaurav Chintamani, who is a well-known guitarist and has his own band. He is so good with tunes that the dad and son duo Instagram posts have gone viral (VIDEO of A Million Dreams)
Young Musicians… There are so many prodigies in music around the world.
Watch Ishaan Chintamani – https://youtube.com/watch?v=GJXCH-6vFq8&feature=share
Born on 30th September in 2013 in Iran. Moved to England when he was 5 to join the Liverpool Academy. When he was 5, his father uploaded videos of his training, first to be a gymnast and then seeing Arat had a natural instinct with a football, as a football prodigy.
Watch – Football prodigy Arat – https://youtu.be/iSZn2e69R5Q
Born 19th November 2005, a young scientist, author, engineer and activist. She won the Discovery Education Young Scientist Challenge in 2017. In 2020, she was featured in “The Time Magazine” as ‘the kid of the year’.
She invented a device to measure lead levels in the water.
In 2021 November, she was awarded as a Laureate of the Young Activists Summit at UN Geneva.
Gitanjali Rao – Science – https://youtu.be/W47RlKGbZRs
…born 3rd January, 2003, is a Swedish environmental activist. She challenged world leaders to take
immediate action for climate change. She first started at home, where she persuaded her parents to adopt life- style choices that reduced their own carbon footprints. In August 2018, she staged a protest outside the Swedish Parliament, holding up a sign that said ‘school strike for climate ‘ in Swedish. This picked up momentum and there was a global strike on 15th March 2019, with more than one million strikers in 125 countries. Fridays for Future (FFF) or Youth Strike for Climate is now a huge movement to demand action for the fossil fuel industry to transition to renewable energy.
Watch – Greta Thunberg – https://youtu.be/KAJsdgTPJpU
Watch – Greta Thunberg’s interview with Trevor Noah – https://youtu.be/rhQVustYV24
She has been campaigning to make new laws to curb climate change, global warming, and high pollution. She is one of the youngest climate activists and addressed world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid in 2019.
She also protested outside the parliament house to get the Indian Prime Minister’s attention.
Amaira’s choice – Rap Song about the environment – https://youtu.be/Xy9wR1sp2Po
Youngest mountain climber…(born July 12, 1996)
…13 years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. Upon successfully hiking the Vinson Massif in December 2011 at the age of 15 years, 5 months, 12 days, Romero became the youngest climber in the world to complete the Seven Summits (the highest mountains on each of the continents), a title pre- viously held by George Atkinson.
After this experience, Romero wrote a novel for children called “No Summit Out Of Sight”
From Mumbai, was 10 years old when she reached the base camp of Mount Everest. She is also a national champion in artistic skating. When she noticed the garbage strewn around the mountains Rhythm turned into an environmental activist.
Watch Rhythm Mamania – https://youtube.com/watch?v=SvAnVyDFMzc&feature=share
Watch Rhythm Mamania – – https://youtu.be/uSz6Fk-V5kk
Erik Weihenmayer is an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist and motivational speaker. He was the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001.
At 15 months old, he was diagnosed
with juvenile retinoschisis, with blindness
the expected outcome by age 13
is an Indian mountaineer. On 25 May 2014, Poorna scaled the highest peak of Mount Everest and, aged 13 years and 11 months, became the youngest Indian and the youngest female in the world to have reached the summit. She scaled Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia and in Europe on 27 July 2017.
Watch a video about Malavath Purna – https://youtu.be/eYz-4wvdDHk
(Born November 4, 2003) is an American mountaineer from Naperville, Illinois. She became the youngest American woman to climb Mount Everest when she reached the summit on May 12, 2022. Westlake is an avid runner, who started competing at an early age in various races and competed throughout high school in cross country and track and field. By age four, she had convinced her parents to allow her to race in her town’s 5K race. In her final high school race on November 7, 2021, she set a personal best in a three-mile race with a time of 16:55.54 at the Illinois Girl’s Cross Country Class 3A State Championship while running for Naperville North High School. She placed ninth and Naperville North placed seventh overall. She is also an elite triathlete in the USA Triathlon Junior Elite Series.
Lucy Westlake Mount Everest – https://youtu.be/tTl4tr0SF80
Here Is The Story Of Janhavi Panwar, The 14-Year-Old ‘Wonder Girl Of India’
Fourteen-year-old Janhavi Panwar is no short of a wonder. The fact that she was titled the ‘Wonder girl of India’ at the age of nine should testify that. Janhavi is already pursuing the second year of Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Delhi University when most kids of her age are in Class 8. To add to it, she has mastered eight foreign accents, in addition to basic French, basic Japanese, English, Hindi and Haryanavi languages.
Janhavi’s father Brijmohan Panwar recently in an interaction with The Better India shared how he could easily tell that Janhavi was a gifted child when she was merely a year-old.
He shares, “When she was only one, her vocabulary was equipped with 500-550 English words. When she turned three, she wasn’t admitted to Nursery but directly to Senior KG because she had picked most things at home. As years passed, when we spoke to the school management, they realised Janhavi’s potential by looking at her scores, and she was given special permission to clear two classes in the same year.”
While Janhavi’s mom is a housewife, her father is a school teacher and thus they have always had limited means. Despite that Brijmohan ensured that his daughter received all the facilities that she required to hone her skills right after he realised that she was exceptionally talented.
Some are born talented, some work hard towards developing talent, while some spend their whole life searching for that one spark of fire which we all call passion. And then comes the rarest of the rare known as ‘God-gifted’
or ‘Natural Talent’ who are born with special capabilities, perplexing brainpower, and the ability to invent a solid foundation for any field of subject. These people are among the very few who are selective of any century and stay forever in the memory of the world for their contributions, creations, and achievements that help the humankind in upgrading the way we all see and perceive anything.
Soborno is the recipient of the ‘Global Child Prodigy Award’ from Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.
At the age of 4, Soborno had received recognition from former President Barack Obama for his accomplishments in math and science.
At the age of 6, he had received recognition from Harvard University for his problem- solving abilities and was accepted into New York City’s gifted and talented program.
Soborno Isaac Bari – https://youtu.be/CeSDuXOKibw
Indian Independence Day
We are proud Indians,
Celebrating our independence
As we get overwhelmed of our bravery’s sentence,
Stories written in stone,
Connect us, skin and bone,
Our pride lies in our rigid tone.
As for our culture,
And our history filled with war, pain and plunder,
Binds us like sutures.
We read through our history’s achievements with respect,
Our true martyrs we resurrect,
And strive to make our developing country perfect.
Thousands have laid down their lives,
To make this country more than suffice,
We shall never forget their sacrifice.
And even though I don’t really know Hindi,
Or put on a big, red Bindi,
I am Indian for eternity.
We proudly let our tiranga fly,
As we fondly remember ‘do or die’,
And as our flags light up the sky,
Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Mumbai,
MY INDIA IS MINE.
I often wondered why the lyrics say “Hello darkness my old friend “ – Here’s the story behind it
It is the story of a poor boy, American, of a Jewish family, from Buffalo, who wins a scholarship at Columbia University. There, he befriends a boy who turns out to be a great friend and his roommate. But in his freshman year of college, watching a baseball game, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he went blind.
The doctor said it was conjunctivitis and it would go away.
It didn’t, it was a cataract that had damaged his optic nerves.
The boy became blind, went into depression, dropped out of school, and returned to his hometown.
This friend, his roommate, went there and convinced him to return to the University.
The friend said to him: – the darkness will accompany you and I will be your light.
The friend started to help him with everything. He read him the tests, the books, everything.
This blind guy ended up graduating with a law degree, then got a master’s degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Oxford. He became a well-recognized attorney and became a Counselor in the White House. He worked advising American presidents such as Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
This is a beautiful story of overcoming adversity and showing the value of a true friendship. It’s the life of Sandy Greenberg.
But going back in time, in 1964, the roommate who helped him graduate, Arthur Ira Garfunkel; of the duo Simon & Garfunkel; borrowed $400 from Sandy. He needed the money to release a record.
Sandy lent him the money.
The record was released in 1964, and later became one of the most listened-to songs…
It was the song that the roommate made in honor of his friend Sandy Greenberg, a song that everyone knows, but no one knew the story behind the lyrics.
Hearing the music and knowing the story has another meaning.
