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Inspiring story of founder of Pune’s Mahatma Gandhi School that shelters over 350 underprivileged children

Vinayak Deokar

Vinayak Deokar?

After distributing meals to around 8,500 needy families amid COVID-19 pandemic, Pune’s Mahatma Gandhi School, a free English medium school, developed to support underprivileged students, on the occasion of Diwali, has taken up an initiative to distribute over 350 food kits and new clothes to children and their respective families. 


?Mahatma Gandhi School takes children for Diwali shopping 

Here’s the founder of the school Vinayak Deokars awe-inspiring story:

After my biological parents abandoned me at the age of three, a couple (which was in its 50s and worked as daily wage earners) adopted me, . I lost my father during my 10th boards and my mother, at the age of 25 to mouth cancer. 

I had to skip my 10th boards; got married soon after. Since I could not receive proper education and had responsibility of my family, I was forced to serve at tables at a small restaurant and sell lottery tickets. In 2001, at the age of 28, I was diagnosed with a serious cardiac disease, which left me devastated. I felt like the world was ending for me.

However, my life changed its entire course since then. A few days later, a woman, along her four-year-old son visited me. The son was suffering from a heart disease and required financial support, which made me rethink of what was I doing. I decided to choose the path of a social worker to help others in need.

I went on to establish Jeevan Mitra Pratishthan Charitable Trust. Many of my close ones told me that it wasn’t going to work out and that it wasn’t possible for me to help so many people for free. But, with faith and hope, the trust was inaugurated on January 18, 2002, by the hands of Padma Bhushan awardee Late Mr Balasaheb Bharde, in presence of Founder of Ruby Hall Dr KB Grant.

Later on, after the success of my trust, I founded Mahatma Gandhi School in 2013 to support the education of children who came from financially distressed families.
Mahatma Gandhi School, Pune

Mahatma Gandhi School, Pune

Speaking about adaption of Gandhian philosophy in his school, I feel, today’s academic pattern has become very competitive, due to which students don’t really learn to acquire knowledge, but compete for a position, which adds very less meaning to their lives. As Gandhian philosophy says, don’t run for money, money should be a need and not your destiny. If money bore such power, then great men like Lord Gautam Buddha, Lord Mahatma or Mahatma Gandhi wouldn’t have sacrificed their riches for the greater good.

Today, my students know much more about life of Mahatma Gandhi than any other child from a well-off school would know. We surface Gandhijis achievements as a freedom fighter, but it does not define him. To know Gandhiji, one needs to do a detailed study on him.

Getting admission into reputed schools and colleges may guarantee you a good career, but we need to run our society and our country as well. So how good of a human have we become plays no role in such money-oriented mind-set.

Some years back, I decided to reach out to a person who was a merit student in 10th boards some 15 years ago. I check up on where did he reach in his life. As I visited him and asked about his whereabouts and what he had done, he constantly kept on telling me about his achievements and his investments. I wondered a man who scored 98 per cent in boards definitely has a mind of an extra-ordinary person, but what he shared to me was nothing more than what a common man did in his daily life.

We have been born to do something extra-ordinary in our lives rather than just working, eating and sleeping. This is what I have learnt from Gandhiji ? that anyone has the potential to serve if they want to. I believe that a common man, who gets his day-off during weekends, must at-least dedicate some hours of his day into social service. If we wouldn’t do it, then who will? 

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Devendraji (Fadnavis) takes pride in me earning more than him: Amruta Fadnavis interview

Published

3 years ago

on

February 24, 2022

By

Radhika Dhawad | Mumbai


Banker, social activist and singer Amruta Fadnavis, in a freewheeling chat on Nation Next Adda, speaks about her latest song, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, her courtship and marriage with husband and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and much more.

 
Watch the complete interview here:

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Elderly couple mauled by tiger on their way from Narsinghpur to Nagpur

Published

4 years ago

on

January 25, 2022

By

Nation Next Newsroom | Nagpur

Representational image (Picture by Sarosh Lodhi)

Representational image (Picture by Sarosh Lodhi)

An elderly couple was mauled by a tiger in Chor Bawali on January 25 while on their way from Narsinghpur (Madhya Pradesh) to Nagpur on January 25. The couple was accompanied by their 25-year-old son in a car. Following the tiger attack, the couple was admitted to Kingsway Hospital in Nagpur.

While on their way to Nagpur, the family of three stopped near Chor Bawali for passing urine. When the 58-year-old woman got out of the car, the tiger, which was probably wounded by a previous vehicular assault, caught hold of the woman’s hand and bit her thumb. When the woman’s husband stepped out of the car to help his wife, the tiger attacked him as well and injured his right leg. A terrfied son started throwing stones at the tiger, who eventually ran away.

The couple was given first aid by the bystanders before being driven to Nagpur by the son to Kingsway hospital. Speaking to Nation Next, treating surgeon Dr Prakash Jain informed that the family was terrified when it arrived at the hospital. Dr Jain said: “The couple is now stable. Tiger mauling is always serious. The couple was lucky to have sustained minor injuries in the incident.”

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‘Dolo 650’ memes take social media by storm as 3rd COVID wave boosts paracetamol sales

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4 years ago

on

January 25, 2022

By

Nation Next Newsroom | Mumbai

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has made terms like ‘oximeter,’ ‘saturation level,’ ‘quarantine,’ and ‘N95’ a part of our daily vocabulary. Another thing, which has gained immense popularity over the last two years is the paracetamol tablet ‘Dolo 650,’ which has been prescribed by doctors during 1st, 2rd and now the 3rd wave of the pandemic in India.

The popularity of tablet, which is manufactured by Micro labs, has led several to several memes on the internet. Dilip Surana, Chairman and Managing Director of Micro Labs, expressed his surprise at the unexpected popularity of the drug in an interview with Money Control. He said: It has always been a popular brand among doctors across India. However, we did not expect the kind of popularity that Dolo-650 gained recently because we have never advertised the tablet directly to the public.

Here are some of the hilarious ‘Dolo 650’ memes doing rounds on the internet:

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