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Boy who Became a Golfer by Accident
July 22: Eighteen-year-old Ashok Kumar is a golf champion in the making. But barely six years ago, he was accused of stealing at the same club where he plays winning game after game, today. He has won many golfing titles in the junior category and also amateur or beginners titles in prestigious golfing events. Ashok was a poor boy from a village in Bihar. He came to Delhi to earn some money for his family back home....
Talkie Star from the Silent Era
Talkie Star from the Silent Era [] August 19: At times the story of an actor’s life is no less adventurous than the exciting roles he plays on the film screen. P Jairaj was such an actor, who chose to leave the comfort of an aristocratic life for the ups and downs of a career in the magical art of cinema, which was a big novelty then. The acting bug that bit him during his wide-eyed viewings of the films of India’s first filmmaker, Dadasaheb Phalke, never left him....
Green Fields in a Concrete Jungle
August 5: Imagine green paddy fields and a calm pond next to it. The breeze that blows over the still waters is cool and refreshing in the afternoons. Imagine all this in the middle of a city. Sounds dreamlike? Actually that is what Govind Mhatre’s farm is like. Like a dream. It looks like it has been displaced from a picture book and placed in a wrong setting. Govind’s farm exists in the middle of a bustling city — complete with its concrete buildings and polluting vehicles –in the suburb of Borivli in Mumbai....
The Little Magician
The Little Magician [] Five-and-a-half-year-old Bhagyanath can tell a story real well, especially the one about how a teacher caught him sharing a Coke with his friends in the school canteen. “I hid the bottle inside a book and when the teacher asked me to show what I was hiding, I opened the book. There was nothing there,” says the bright-eyed boy.” Indeed, there wasn’t! The little boy on stage had just managed to make a Coke bottle disappear in thin air....
For the Olympic Heights of Stamina
September 7: The horse is a symbol of strength, power and stamina. Ever wondered about the secret behind its energy? It is the kind of food the animal eats. Ask the person who has to keep up the energy levels of one of the world’s costliest racehorses, Fusaichi Pegasus, worth all of $4 million (approximately 1.8 crore rupees). That is the reason why US Olympic swimmer, Gary Hall, is all set to imitate Fusaichi Pegasus’ diet in the hope that it will work wonders for him at the forthcoming Olymic Games....
Destination Mir
Destination Mir [Illustration by Shiju George] August 19: Dennis Tito is a very excited man. This businessman-cum-space-enthusiast has won the first prize in a game show called Destination Mir. He is now all set to be the world’s first space tourist, and is training at Russia’s Star City space-base for his unusually long journey. Russia has launched a television game show to revive interest in its ageing space station, Mir. The winner of the show gets to shoot into space, straight to the Russian space station Mir, which has been in space for 14 years now....
Who's Stealing the Doctors' Clothes?
August 5: Some thieves are lurking in the corridors of Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Hospital. They steal clothes. But, not any clothes. It has to be a doctor’s clothes. Or perhaps, the clothes are the only items of value around that place as all other valuables are locked carefully. For over a year now, doctors who go into the operation theatre after leaving their clothes in the changing room, have not seen them again. Doctors change before getting into the operation theatre to leave behind any germs of infection that their clothes might carry inside....
Little Ali's Heart
August 12: One-year old Ali Haider was very sick. His tiny heart had a gaping hole in it. He also had an enlarged liver; lungs clogged with fluid, and he was terribly underweight. His parents searched high and low for someone who could cure their child, but in vain. Little Ali’s Heart [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] The doctors in Pakistan, their own country, did not have the skills to cure Ali. Doctors in the US did not want to risk operating on such a tiny child, either....
The Woman who Jailed Bihar's Dons
Bihar is known for its vast coal mines. It is equally well known for the mafia lords or dons who control these mines and carry on all kinds of illegal activities. But the same mafia lords are trembling in their boots today. The reason for their fear is a young woman called Shobha Ohatker. After becoming the Superintendent of Police in Hazaribagh, Shobha has put the biggest names in the coal mafia in jail – most of them, anyway....
Eastward Ho!
Britain wants Indian engineers to help modernise their London-Glasgow railway link, and that’s a real about turn! Nearly 150 years ago, Britain was the first country to use steam locomotives. The British also built the first rail tracks in India and set up India’s railway network with one purpose – they wanted to collect raw material such as cotton from different parts of the country so that they could be shipped to Britain. And later, when the ready-made products came back to India, they used the rail network to sell them by reaching different corners of the country....