Udaybhai Jadav If you are in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, India, and you engage Udaybhai’s autorickshaw, you will be in for surprises. You will find newspapers and magazines to read, free snacks and water, and even a dustbin. But the biggest surprise comes when you get off at your destination. Udaybhai’s meter reads…
Category: Individual
074. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Notorious RBG!
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18, 2020, served as a judge of the US Supreme Court for 27 years. Only the second woman to be appointed to the Court, RBG (as she came to be known) was outspoken and instrumental in advancing reproductive rights, gender equality, healthcare access, and…
073. Dr. V: Lifelong mission to eliminate preventable blindness
Dr. G. Venkataswamy Dr. G. Venkataswamy, popularly known as ‘Dr. V’, graduated from Stanley Medical College, Chennai in 1944. He joined the Indian Army Medical Corps but had to retire in 1948 after developing rheumatoid arthritis. The condition became so severe that he was bedridden for over a year. For a time, he struggled even…
070. Gregory Boyle: Transforming gang members in Los Angeles
Father Greg Boyle Gregory Boyle joined the Jesuit Order more than three decades ago. He was sent to the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles, which, at that time, was the poorest parish in the city and had the highest concentration of gang activity in the world. Father Greg witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence…
068. Jadav Payeng: The Forest Man of India
Jadav Payeng In 1979, floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar of the river Brahmaputra near Jorhat in Assam, India. After the waters had receded, 16-year-old Jadav Payeng saw the dead reptiles. That changed his life forever. “The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and…
066. Rosa Parks: Not giving up her seat in a bus, sparking a movement
Rosa Parks On the evening of 1st December 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks was sitting in the front seat of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, US. Those days, there was segregation in buses with the whites sitting in the front and the blacks in the back. Rosa was in the first row of the black section….
064. Underground Railroad: The escape route for slaves
Harriet Tubman The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with tracks and trains. It was just a series of routes and hiding places that slaves from the American South used in order to reach places of freedom in the North. It is said that slavery began in America in early 17th century. Black Africans…
059. Jyoti Kumari: Biking home 1200 km carrying injured dad
Mohan Paswan and Jyoti Kumari On March 25, 2020, the Government of India imposed a countrywide lockdown to prevent the spread of corona virus. The citizens got just a few of hours of notice. The lockdown was a shock to all but specially so to India’s millions of migrant labour. With the stoppage of all…
056. Popatrao Pawar and Hiware Bazar: From Poverty to Prosperity
Popatrao Pawar Hiware Bazar is a village in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra, India. A resident, Raosaheb Rauji Pawar, recalls how things were in the village about 50 years ago: “We lived in a poor village, but were happy with our simple lives. But, after the drought of 1972, the peace was shattered. People became irritable…
055. Desmond Tutu: Standing for justice, truth, and reconciliation
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa is a great living moral icon of our time. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Anglican Church of South Africa. Desmond Tutu played a key role in…