99tthh AANNNNIIVVEERRSSAARRYY && CCHHIILLDDRREENN’’SS DDAAYY SSPPEECCIIAALL EEDDIITTIIOONN SINCE 2007 | NOT FOR SALEVOL 2 | ISSUE NO. 6 | NOVEMBER 14, 2016

TM

ANOTHER DREAM TAKES WINGPlacid Vidya Vihar Senior Secondary School becomes the first educationalinstitution in India to get enrolled with the Billion Beats Innovation Lab

By Team Billion Beats

YYet another dream of Guru Kalam taking off thisChildren’s Day. Placid Vidya Vihar SeniorSecondary School in Changanassery, Kerala,

becomes the first educational institution to get enrolledwith Billion Beats Innovation Lab (BBIL), which is alsoknown as Billion Beats Inspiration Lab.Inspired Indian Foundation (IIF), Bangalore

and Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Foundfation(AKIF), Rameswaram chose Placid for thisrare honour on November 5th when GuruKalam’s elder brother A P J M Maraikayarturned 100 years.“We are launching yet another mission

closer to the heart of Guru Kalam. BBIL willgive schools an opportunity to take part in vari-ous activities of IIF and AKIF,” says Dr NaseemaMaraikayar, grand niece of Guru Kalam.A student of Placid -- Ms Devi Unni Maya -- was

selected as the Brand Ambassador for IIF in May 2016for her achievements in the field of dance. She was pre-

sented the Youth Icon Award 2016 for supporting thecauses of unsung heroes.Fr Scaria Ethirett CMI, Principal, Placid Vidya Vihar

Senior Secondary School, said he was happy to be asso-ciated to a cause backed by Guru Kalam.

“I am aware that Billion Beats had a special placein the heart of Guru Kalam. I am delighted thatfrom now on every student of our institutionwill get a chance to be part of this inspiringmission,” Fr Scaria said.House of Kalam now wants BBILs to be

taken across the length and breadth of thecountry. IIF is forming a team to executethe mission and has already appointed aNational Student Coordinator to interact

with the schools.Mission BBIL will be implemented in different

phases. In the first Phase in addition to the enrolmentevent, schools will be given an opportunity to invite IIFspeaker(s) for motivational talks. Fifty schools are beingtargeted in the next one year to set up BBILs. bb

DOODLE DELIGHT AJ

HAPPY 100 By Team Billion Beats

JJanab Haji Md Muthu MeeraMaraikayar, elder brother of GuruKalam, turned 100 years on

November 5. People of Rameswarmfrom all walks of life came together tocelebrate the occasion.House of Kalam gifted him a box of

special attar, preserved by the formerPresident for his brother. The eventsaw prominent politicians, film stars,scientists and educationists sharingtheir experiences and interacting withMaraikayar.The organisers had a tough time

controlling the crowd, with popularTamil actor Vivek making repeatedattempts to convince them. Viveklater spoke about his mission of plant-ing 1 crore saplings, inspired by thevision set by Guru Kalam. Allthrough the event, Maraikayar, whowas silent, was seen blessing every-one who came to greet him.For Maraikayar, living for a century

wasn’t any extraordinary achieve-ment. For him it was just another dayin life. “I am thankful to God for giving me

good health all these years. I amhappy that I was born in a family thatgifted India an inspiring President.How you live is important than howlong you live,” says Maraikayar, whowas a coconut farmer. He also ownedfishing boats and was active with itsactivities till he was 75 years.

On having an illustrious brotherlike Guru Kalam, the man of themoment said: “I am sad that mybrother (Dr Kalam) is not here withme today. I knew that he was longingto be my side to see me celebrate 100years. It was his biggest dream to behere in Rameswaram. I miss him. Wehad a great family re-union when Iturned 98 in 2014. My brother too washere then. He said Guru Kalam’s ele-vation as President in 2002 was theproudest moment in his life.

“He was a great soul and he livedtill the last moment for the countryand that is why he was called as thePeople’s President. I will be a happyman if the people followed the greatthoughts of my brother. He touched achord with the people of this countryand we are overwhelmed to see thelove people have for him even now,”he says.He asked Team Billion Beats to focus

on success stories of teachers in vari-ous schools across India. bb

Dr Naseema offers sweets to birthday boy A P J M Maraikayar at a simple event heldat Ramesawaram on November 5. Guru Kalam’s friends too joined the cerebrations.

By Gulaam Khwaja Moinudeen

WWill DigitalCurrencybecome a

new normal?The biggestnews this monthis demonetiza-tion of Rs 500and Rs 1000

notes in India to combat counterfeiting.We also saw ATM and credit cards fromIndia were compromised around globallocations. This takes us back to thequestion of physical versus digital cur-rencies. When the digital currency,Bitcoin was introduced, it attracted alarge number of users while good num-ber of people were skeptical.The BLOCKCHAIN system used by dig-

ital currencies may be looked at byWorld nations for the distributed recordkeeping and encryption. This also pres-ents business opportunity for mobilewallets and other form of payment sys-tems. In the days of demonetization,those who had mobile wallets managedbetter, however, not many in this coun-try belong in those group with internetand online bank accounts.The Government may push the people

to manage their money digitally.Considering this in terms of careerprospects, as most of the money mightbe managed digitally, we might needprofessionals in the confluence of bank-ing, finance, computer science andencryption technologies together. bb

(The author is grand nephew of GuruKalam and a trustee of Dr APJ AbdulKalam International Foundation.)

TECH TRENDS

Here’s National Student Coordinator(Billion Beats) Anpama Jaiswal capturingthe spirit of Children’s Day, doodle way.

billion beats is an e-paper published by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam International Foundation headquartered in Rameswaram. It is edited, designed and uplinked by a team from Inspired Indian Foundation (www.inspiredindianfoundation.org), Bengaluru. billion beats will hit the web every month and you are free to use thecontent by giving due credit to the publication. THE TEAM | Mentor: A P J M Maraikayar | Editorial Advisors from House of Kalam: Dr Naseema Maraikayar, A P J M Jainullabudeen, G K Moinudeen, A P J M J Sheik Saleem, A P J M J Sheik Dawood, A P J M S Nagoor Roja | Editor: Dr Anantha Krishnan M |

National Coordinator (IIF): Sindhu A | National Student Coordinator (Billion Beats): Anupama Jaiswal | Desk: Vyasa, Anil | Design: Anup | Email: billionbeats@gmail.com | Twitter: @HouseOfKalam | FB: https://www.facebook.com/BillionBeatsOfficial/ | Phone: +91 77080 04744

2 NOV 14, 2016 ‘ If you want to shine like the Sun, firstburn like the Sun. -- Guru Kalam

By Tintu Mathew

DDyslexia isone of themajor

threats faced byIndia. They aredisorders thatinvolve difficultyin learning to reador interpret words,letters, and other symbols, but thatdo not affect general intelligence.InIndia, even 10 years ago, we were notdealing with learning disabilities inschool. The Bachelor of Education(BEd) training programme for teach-ers in India did not have any specialmodule to identify learning disabili-ties in children and address them. There are a few schools in Delhi nowlike Educare, Orchid and Action

Dyslexia, but the states have no suchfacilities. In India, researchers sayonly 10 percent of children sufferfrom learning disabilities, but thenumber is growing because of par-ents' expectations and fasterlifestyles.People often hesitate to tell a parentthat their child is dyslexic. But I don’tthink that this hesitation would bringa solution to it. Anyhow the parentshould be aware of it. Even teachersalso hesitate to reveal this and thechild remains the same throughouthis life, unattended. Even I too was hesitated when Irealised that one of my relative’schild is dyslexic. Whenever I visitedhim his mother used to complaint tome, about his academics. I believedshe wanted a solution for this from

me, as I am a teacher and a person towhom she could talk frankly. I triedobserving him for a few days. I lis-tened to her very carefully to findout what his exact problem was.While observing I realised that helacks the coordination of his fingersespecially when he eats his food. I went through his note books andsaw a lot of corrections in it made byhis teacher. Even the way he wrotethe letters were also extremely differ-ent. He wrote ‘b’ instead of ‘d’. Hehad his own spellings like ‘paret’(parrot), ‘colam’ (column) ‘color’(colour) etc. It reminded me of thefamous movie Tare Zamin Par. But Iwas sure that I could never be AmirKhan in this case. This was really a very sensitive casefor me because his mother was much

worried of him. I was totally con-fused and could not do anything as Itoo was hesitant like others to revealthe truth. At this time I got a goldenopportunity to attend a seminar ondyslexic children. I bought a bookfrom the seminar which dealt indetail regarding this along with theremedial measures to be taken with alot of real life examples. I gave thisbook to my relative and she was real-ly shocked to see that most of thesymptoms mentioned in the bookcould be found in her child. Later, she along with her husbandtook this child to a specialist forfurther consultation. I am eagerlywaiting for the result as I pray forhim. bb

(The writer is a Post-Graduate Teacher,English, Placid Vidya Vihar.)

I couldn’t do much, but I’m keeping him in my prayers

Let’s make India a better one(By Ashna Ansar, 1XB)

India had the glory of celebrating its 70thyear of independence. It has adorned thecrown of being the second populous and

has accepted the fact of possessing theworld’s largest human resources. Are we on

the stand to beproud of these state-ments?India is a develop-

ing country. Growthseen in the upcomingyears is noteworthy.Development startswith the citizens, Ibelieve. One smallinitiative may lead toa revolution. M S

Swaminathan’s contribution of Green revolu-tion, Mahatma Gandhi, who earned us inde-pendence, Varghese Kurien who broughtWhite revolution, Homi J Baba who con-tributed to first nuclear reactors, Aryabhattaand Shushruta who contributed wide knowl-edge in mathematics and millions of otherswho contributed to our motherland. Soldierswho safeguard us, doctors, teachers andengineers who contribute with their service tosociety, NGOs and movement activists doingtheir bit to enlighten and nurse the darkerside, dream for a better India tomorrow. Sowe Indians seem to excel in all fields. Ournation produces around two lakh doctorsevery year, yet we find shortage in our gov-ernment hospitals. That concludes that wedo have the skills but we don’t share itamong us.From ancient times we have welcomed

foreigners, products, and customs.Consequently the youth finds pleasure incalculating the number of likes for their self-ies. Why don’t they empower the illiterates ororganize a street play to enhance socialawareness? Our lives do not end up in thefour walls of our room. It is spread across theboundaries of India. So be the change youwant to be!

If not us, then who else?(By Irin Anna Cherian, 1XG)

Dream, dreamand dream.Think, think and

think. Dream trans-forms to thoughts andthoughts result inaction. These are thewords of ‘dream man’of India Guru Kalam.We all have dreamsabout our home, pro-fession, colleges etc. Have we ever dreamedof our country?Often we compare India with developed

countries. But as citizens, have we evertaken a single step to uphold our country?We always convince ourselves that ‘we arenot responsible for changing the country’ or‘what change can we bring? But just think ifnot us, then who else? Steve Jobs once saidthose who are crazy enough to think thatthey can change the world usually do it. Letus be crazy to think that we can create adeveloped nation because every revolutionbegins with some simple thought. About 60 percent of India’s population is

youth. But with such skillful youth why arewe not able to develop our country? This isbecause the IITians and IIM graduates of thecountry work under big cooperate of foreigncountries. During a conversation between

Bill Gates and George Bush, the thenPresident asked that why he was notemploying more citizens of foreign countriesthan of USA. The answer was really amazing.“If I do not employ foreigners, especiallyyouth from India, then they will start anotherMicrosoft in their country.” The world nationsare truly aware of our skills. But our country-men are not even concerned about suchstuff. We are the youth, we are the leaders ofour country, and we are the one who muststand up for a revolution. Don’t relay theresponsibility on others. Let us take it up forthe welfare of our motherland. Be proud tobe an INDIAN.

From Israel to India(By Amshuda Rose Dominic, 1XF)

Afew monthsago, I visitedIsrael. It was a

very happy trip forme but one incidentmade it the mostmemorable. I wasadmiring each andevery part of thecountryside.The tourguide informed thatthe government pro-vides grants to all who were interested inagriculture and they supported agricultural-ists and peasants in a highly influentialway.The people preferred working hardrather than enjoying hereditary grants andthis was clear from the lush green fields.I thought about India. Our country was

obviously better than them in terms of soilfertility, climate and availability of water. Butthe people are very lazy. We prefer gettingour work done, rather than doing it. To my surprise, I found an Indian. His

name was Debashish S Chathurvedi, aBengali. His factory produced ready-to-eatfruit slices and salads. According to him itwas a very profitable business, but involveda lot of work. Debashish worked 14 hours aday operating and analyzing the work of theslicer. He earned 1400 Shekel a month, anokay amount under Israelite standards.I said: “All Indians are quite lazy, they pre-

fer bunking work.” He smiled and replied:“My child, Indians are not lazy but areamong the most hardworking races of theworld. I work for my family in India. I sent mysalary to Kolkata every month. It may not lastme much here but it is the least I can do tomy family. Not all of us enjoy hereditarygrants, a majority of us earn the bread of oursweat. We are ready to cross all the seas forour bread. It’s not you, it’s not me but it’sus.” He said with a grin.Unknowingly, a tear slipped from my eye.

I felt quite guilty yet proud to be an Indian.Truly India does have a future.

E-literacy must be expanded(By Roshini Trisa Benoy, 1XF)

Guarded by the Himalayas from theNorth, adorned by the rivers andforests and surrounded by the great

oceans on the three sides’ lies our beautifulcountry India. There is no other county in theworld other than India which has a vastdiversity in languages,food, clothing and his-torical sites. In spite of this, the people havebecome some big dirty patches on its beau-

tiful face. Thisneeds to bewashed off immedi-ately.Corruption by

politicians and gov-ernment officials,bribery, caste dis-criminations, dowrydeaths, gendergaps, poverty, mal-

nourishment are only some problems fromthis never ending list. These social evils arebecause of the high illiteracy rate and fakeimpersonators whom people blindly followand fall into the pit of these rotting wastes.Also the performance of India in theirOlympics was very dissatisfactory.To overcome these problems some steps

are to be taken. A vigilant eye is needed overthe ministers and government officials toprevent corruption and bribery and othertypes of nepotism. Peace talks and treatiesare to be held with our neighbours especial-ly Pakistan for a peaceful Kashmir. Our citi-zens should be watched carefully to preventterrorism and radicalism. Satellite systemsshould be strengthened for increasing ournational security and to predict the weatheraccurately so that the death toll due to natu-ral calamities is low. People should be madeliterate and e-literacy should be expanded.Women should be made self capable to earnmoney and there should not be any discrim-ination between them in the work place.Poor and underprivileged should get equaltreatment and basic amenities and dailygoods should be made available to them ataffordable prices. Sports should be added inthe school curriculum and students who aregood at sports should be given training at ayoung age, so that they bring laurels for thecountry.These dreams are not just my dreams.

These are the dreams of every Indian in theirheart. If accomplished, our country will reachthe top level being a model for the world.

Development is the key(By Aleen Abraham, XB)

India begins with‘I’….I that is ‘me’. Ihave a dream “The

India of my dreams”.As an Indian, I preferthe best for my coun-try. India’s gloryshould reach at itspeak point. India isgreatly renowned forits heritage, cultures

and traditions. It is a great nation that dis-plays unity in diversity. Even with these qual-ities India needs to be more developed.In my dream India, there will be develop-

ment not only in the field of science, but alsoin the fields of agriculture, literature, econo-my and in the society. Along with the talent-ed and hardworking scientists, India hasgained glory and will gain glory. We will treatour farmers as professionals and will even beproud to be one.India will nurture the great writers and

poets of the modern world. Women and eld-ers will be treated with respect and dignity.They will be able to live without any fear ofbeing harassed. The society will stop objec-tifying women. The birth of a girl child will becelebrated. Girls will be encouraged to go toschools.My dream India will be free from gender-

bias and inequality. The diversities withinIndia will be preserved be it language, cul-ture or religion. bb

INDIA OF MY DREAMS:PLACID PAGE

Incredible IndiaIn my dreamsMy place is beautiful and looksparadise United by love and faithMy sisters are set free,Physically and sociallyTheir ambition touches the skyAll I say is my place is full offreedom.Meanings of corruption,povertyTerrorism, war,untouchabilityMy place doesn’t know.It is very clean and safeIt is full of green and blueMy people are strong not weak.My place will not die but otherswill.My place offers “dream jobs” formy people Oh my god, oh my godso beautiful my place is;and the place is my INDIA My dream, my only dream forINDIAmy dream must be our futurefor our Incredible INDIA. (By Johns John, XB, Placid)

My IndiaIn my dreamsComes the India which was agolden birdBut now reality is different In my dreamsComes the India which was in thelap of culture and diversityAt, present in the trap of corrup-tion and poverty.In my dreams,Comes the Indians with virtues ofhonesty, satisfaction and kind-nessUnlike present, indulged inimmortal things with full blind-ness.In my dreams there is an IndiaOnce famous as a land of snakecharmersBut now, a land of suicides ofhardworking farmers.In my dreamsComes the India with a peacefulatmosphere and no fearsConflicting today, terroristattacks, accidents and WarsThe Eyes are full of tears.We heard “Dreams are dreams,they never come true”But having faith and confidencemakes us them, thoughLet us take a vow on this NewYear,To make India “An INCREDIBLEINDIA“ is coming few years.

(By Siddharth R Nair, XB)

Together, we shall...The land of my forefathersIndia, my motherlandThe land that emerged from theseaA land fill with pride;and a part of my forefathersdream.The nation where truth stillstandsand justice commands.Where knowledge and wisdomstill existThe ideas of peace and harmonystill amidstWhere the rivers still flow,Carrying untold stories inencrypts.A country of festivals and tradi-tions,A land of devotion and worship.The songs are still sung,to all in different tongues,about the wars that were foughtfor freedom sake.My love for my mother will neverBut I still dream of a bettertomorrowAnd together we shall stand,For the nation where unity wasborn.To the land,My mother landwhere my forefathers were born.(By Anitha Rose Joseph, XI G)

MotherlandThe land that boreYour footprints;The land that gave youYour identity;The music of landWhich formed Language of it’s owna language which madeYour tongue to createA world of communication.It is a place:Where you began to spreadYour wings of dreams,A place where you wereTaught to dream.But the point comes,When the jointsOf your solidarityTakes you away fromYour mother’s palm…Your home becomesA guest house for you,Your life is now left With pain of missing…Absence of the origin ofYour breath.Makes you miss the joy ofachievements at times…(By Neema Maria Biju, XI E)

POETRY POINT

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