Excerpt from CG+, reported by Rahul Khilnani on 15th May 2010: Read Full Article

Gurusharanlal Awasthi with UK’s foreign minister David Milliband (above) and Labour party MP Claire Ward (below)

“I guess people in UK need to know more about our country. The increased awareness in UK about the growing opportunities in India will increase their respect towards our country,” says Awasthi. This labour party candidate, who is just about to be formally initiated into the political system of UK, is not new to the social or political scene back home in Mumbai. His father, Late Ramrup Awasthi, a Congressman, was a highly influential and greatly respected political leader and SEO from Chembur.
”I have been actively involved in politics and social development with my father since childhood. He was my inspiration and worked closely with local leaders from the area. I decided to settle down in London around 8 years back,” he informs and adds, “Chembur has witnessed various social welfare activities spearheaded by my father.

It is indeed a great personal accomplishment for me to stand for these elections here. I firmly believe that one should make meaningful contributions towards the society one lives in. Be it India or the UK. The issues that I have taken up in public are Anti Social Behaviour, Neighbhourhood Watch and Crime Prevention to name a few.”

Ajay Jayram, the Chembur based international badminton player has once again made a mark by clinching the Men’s Singles title at the recently concluded Smiling Fish International Series 2010. The tournament was held at Trang, Thailand. In the semi finals Ajay beat Robin Gonansa 21-11, 21-13 and in the decisive finals he beat his opponent Iskandar Zulkarnian Zainuddin of Malaysia 21-10, 21-4 to bag the title.

Born in 1987, Ajay did his schooling at OLPS Chembur and went to R A Podar college for his graduation. It was during his college days that he took the decision to pursue professional badminton. Currently he is training under Prakash Padukone at the Pakudone Academy in Bangalore.

According to Ajay’s father Jayaram Goapl, “My son learnt to play with the racquet at the Chembur gymkhana and even now whenever he is in town he plays there. Ajay is now an international player who is ranked No 2 in India. For the year 2009, he was ranked No 1 but moved to rank 2 after the nationals where he lost to Anup Sreedhar in a closely contested match. With the victory at Thailand, his world ranking has improved from 71 to 63.”

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Excerpt from CG+, reported by B B Nayak on Saturday, May 01, 2010: Read Full Article

Dr C R Venkateswaran planning his moves on the carrom board at the tournament

The state level carrom competition was organized by Dr Prakash Vaze Sports Foundation at Mulund Gymkhana, Mulund on Sunday. Venkateshwaran made good use of the striker and grabbed second runners-up crown amidst tough challenge. Out of five round robin matches he cleared hurdles in three matches to accumulate 6 points. He lost two fine encounters to the winner and first runners-up.
“I went to see my old friends whom I met long ago and Dr Prakash Vaze, the organizer, coerced me to sit across the table for a strike or two. I was not at all ready for the bouts since I have been out of active participation and training for a prolonged period. But I played relatively well. Barring a few players most of the competitors were of my level which gave me an edge to capitalize on the advantage. And in the process, a third prize was worth enough,” said an elated 50-year-old Venkateshwaran.

Excerpt from Jyothi Bhave’s BLOG : Read Full Article / Visit her blog

My gardening efforts took off in 2000 when I shifted to ground floor flat with a small empty patch by the side of my flat. Wanting to be a true gardener first i bought all the tools and started digging the land. Planted few flowering plants like Anant, Jaswandi, Sonchafa Sadafuli so also Kadipatta and Tulsi. As the days passed I realised that growing plants gave me a feeling of growing children and i started observing them, taking care of them and loving them.

Last year when I tried to grow Bottle gourd, Okra and Palak, for my project, my first attempt to grow vegetables, I realised that I dont know the right way of growing them organically except adding dried cow dung to the red soil. The need to know about organic farming made me surf the net and I came to know about Preeti’s terrace garden. The flowers, fruiting trees and variety of vegetables grown in just 3000 sq ft motivated me to know about her techniques which is Natueco Farming.

After attending 7th June 09 workshop I was eager to make Amrut Mitti myself. For me procuring cow dung, cow urine and biomass was a challenge initially but when there is a will there is a way. I tied up with a lady outside a temple to provide cow dung and cow urine and started picking biomass from the nearest municipal public garden. I also procured two plastic drums one to prepare Amrut jal and second to store heaps of biomass. The only difficult factor for me was to really wait for 100 days to get perfect matured soil

After I made the first heap in July, I could hardly wait for 30 days and planted a drumstick plant in the semi decomposed biomass. After that I must have made the heaps 4/5 times but i dont remember the dates and used it all for my already existing plants like banana, amla, bamboo, sonchafa, arvi, neem, lemon and few more. Amla has already started fruiting and sonchafa has started bearing beautiful flowers (both 3 yrs old). Arvi leaves, my mum-in -law has cooked thrice so far and I have cooked drumstick leaves for one time vegetable and what can I say……its a great feeling to cook and eat home made vegetable. drumstick plant has started flowering in Feb, now I am waiting for fruiting of Banana and lemon tree.

Best Wishes ,

Jyoti Bhave

… Read Full Article @ Jyoti’s  blog

Excerpt from Mumbai Mirror, as told by Lekha Menon On January 16, 2010: Read Full Article

Nisa Godrej swaps balance sheets for a session of story telling at Jafari English High School, Govandi, as part of the TFI initiative….

As executive vice president, business development, Godrej Industries, Nisa Godrej is hardly new to presiding over meetings, issuing orders or commanding attention in clinical settings.

But on Friday, the 30-year-old Harvard graduate was a tad nervous before stepping into one. Reason? Her audience were not suited-booted executives, but a class full of boisterous, noisy and energetic eight-year-olds.

It was quite a change of role for Nisa who played teacher to Class 2 students of Jafari English High School in Govandi. She was there as part of Teach For India’s (TFI) efforts to get sector leaders engaged in the issue of education inequality. The visit also served as a unique finale for the 2009-2010  Fellowship recruitment campaign which ends on January 17.

The contrast couldn’t have been more striking. Here was a corporate hotshot educated in some of the world’s best institutes and on the other hand, were students, hailing from middle to lower-middle class backgrounds in one of the poorest suburbs of the city. But for once, the ‘teaching session’ that lasted almost an hour showed how corporates could effectively contribute towards change, if motivated in the right direction.

The excitement ran high in the corridors  as Nisa entered the premises. Clad in a striking black dress, she had an interesting task ahead of her - to read out a chapter from a story book and interact with students. And the lesson for the day was surely a far cry from balance-sheets and bottomlines that the Godrej scion must be used to - about a pup, Pepper, that has three cakes, ignoring his mom’s advice and falls ill.

Accompanied by a TFI ‘fellow’, Neha Jain, a former publishing industry executive who had given up a corporate career to become a teacher in the school, Nisa soon overcame her initial inhibition and mixed freely with the kids - reading out to them, asking them questions, complimenting them and engaging in light banter. Soon, she had the girls eating out of her hands.

Excerpt from CG+, reported Saturday, December 05, 2009 : Read Full Article

December 3 was observed as World Disabled Day. This day is an occasion to showcase to the world, the achievements and accomplishments of the differently abled lot. “Contrary to popular belief, disability does not mean ‘born with a defect’ because disability can strike anyone at any point of time” maintains Harvinder Walia, popularly known as Happy Singh.

This 40 plus resident of Chembur, had the misfortune of suffering acute agony owing to four fractures and three disc dislocations. Today, he has overcome these problems due to his sheer grit and determination thus spelling hope to all those who are suffering in a similar situation.

Excerpt from CG+, by Sujatha Subraman reported On Saturday, December 05, 2009

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Varun Padhye and Pratik Chothani both class eight students from OLPS school, Chembur bagged the under-14 title in badminton during the state level tournament organised by the District Sports Organisation (DSO). DSO tournaments are an initiative by the education department that holds tournaments in various sports for all school student and junior college students following the state board syllabus.

Varun and Pratik at OLPS along with the principal and school manager

Excerpt from www.pharmabiz.com, reported  on Tuesday, November 17, 200: Read Full Article

A first-of-its-kind abdominal surgery- Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) without stitches was performed successfully by Dr Roy Patankar on a Mumbai based 67-year-old patient, at Joy Hospital in Chembur.

A completely stitch-less abdominal surgery called as NOTES was performed by Dr Roy Patankar of Joy Hospital. Dr Patankar treated the fluid accumulated in the stomach with minimal pain and has assured quick recovery for the patient. Being a operation without stitches, it has left the patient with no scars on the outer surface of the abdomen. Doctors at Joy Hospital confirm the surgery as first of its kind performed in Mumbai and Western India.

Narrating the patient’s medical history, Dr Patankar said, “the patient was brought to the hospital with a bloated stomach also faced problems related to difficulty in consuming food, loss of appetite and severe pain in the stomach. Intake of regular medicines showed no signs of recovery. ”

“Subsequently CT scan, blood tumour markers and fluid removal with analysis had been unable to clarify the exact cause of the disease. In the past the patient had also undergone surgery twice whereby fluid was removed from the stomach. But to her misfortune the fluid continued to form and recollect rapidly causing loss of appetite and severe pain,” added Dr Patankar.