Inspirers: Shourya Saluja

This is the first of my Inspirers series of posts. This is to highlight and showcase special people who from an ordinary life make extraordinary things, through their ideas, determination and talent. The first post here is about a 17 year old boy, Shourya Saluja. I read about him this morning in the Times of India and I thought that I must share this with you.

Shourya Saluja, a Class 12 student of Bangalore’s Indus International School is devising a curriculum For Classes IX to XII which will create awareness about cyber safety. While most kids his age are freaking out on social networking sites, he’s rather wary of dangers lurking within these. Now, he’s developing a curriculum on cyber security with the help of Infosys which will be taught first in his school and later perhaps adopted by CBSE.

"Children disclose too much information in their profiles, they upload photos and accept random people as friends just to increase the number in their friends’ list. They don’t know what dangers this can lead to," said Shourya. Kids will also be taught how to protect themselves from dangers like phishing messages, things to look after in a Local Area Network (LAN), internal security. Shourya plans to rate the success of his programme after six months and then seek the Central Board of Secondary Education’s approval to include it in the curriculum. He says he got the idea when his 10-year-old sister asked him to create a Facebook profile with all her information. "I realized that many children are ignorant about consequences of this," he said.

While I searched the net for more info about this inspiring kid, I came across one more of his positive endeavours that will help society. Shaurya organised a Squash workshop, which was conducted by Satinder Bajwa, Harvard University Head Squash Coach, with proceeds going to a Squash academy that coaches rural children. “The best way to promote sports is through communities. If we can support the needy through such initiatives, even better,” says Shaurya. The proceeds will go to Khelshala, an organization in Attawa village in Chandigarh, which was founded by Bajwa himself with the aim of making squash accessible to underprivileged children in the villages nearby. A good squash player himself, Saluja plans to train further and play professional squash. He was ranked ninth in Malaysia, where he lived a few years back, in the Under-15 category at the Kuala Lumpur Junior Open Squash Championship 2007.  After moving to Bangalore a couple of years back, he has been participating in interschool and state championships.  His other interests include basketball, judo and football.

I’m sure Shaurya has more plans and ideas up his sleeve, that willgeneral brighten up this society more. Imagine if we could all take measures to imitate his work in the way we can. Are you an expert in singing? Couldn’t you train your watchmen’s children to sing if they’re earning just to pay for the singing classes? Imagine the speed at which our country will develop if all of us share our powers. Shaurya is a name truly deserved. Keep it going…

You can find Shaurya on Facebook or Twitter… but yes, I guess he will add you only if he knows you well. You can also visit the Khelshala Fan Page on Facebook.

Courtesy: The Times of India, Mangalore, Monday August 2nd, 2010 and Citizen Matters, Bangalore

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Mangalore's City Centre: Reality or Rumour

Today we all are witness to the undoubtedly most marvellous man-made structure in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Never did Mangaloreans ever see such a location in this small city before. City Centre is that one more feather in Mangalore's hat! But there are certain realities or rumours that one must know while there is a great part of the world that still lives in poverty and they cant afford to even look at such structures.

City Centre and buildings like these don't stand up on their own and with straight ways. This is known truth and in India many kinds of such "truth" go unnoticed for a long LONG time. But I want to shed light on certain things that at least all Mangaloreans must know:

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  There was a big furore and quarrel on the land sharing or land acquisition before the construction began. Built close to Lighthouse Hill in Mangalore, posed a risk to acquiring more land than given. Now this was a danger to the buildings near by, apartments and houses that stand on the Lighthouse Hill and have been there for years. By 'digging the land' below for the mall, could have loosened the ground and could have led to the collapse of the nearby buildings. We don't know how this case was pushed under the table, or how did the nearby residents keep silent later, or whether the case is still pending!
  
  


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  There were rumours that the management of the mall did not submit the completion report on time and hence the Municipality did not approve of electricity to the building. Yet, the mall was opened without it and supposedly is running on diesel ever since using electricity generators! What a waste of fuel!
  
  


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  The disputes did not stop there. There are sources from the Mangalore Corporation who have said that City Centre was supposed to have three more floors above those of the parking lot. If that had been done it would have been the 5th biggest mall in India. Currently its at 10th position. The reason being that the corporation again did not give the necessary permission to build those additional floors. Hmmm so do we have a strict Corporation here? I hope so.
  
  

Mall culture is increasing at a rate that is just not necessary at times. If it adds to the economy without hampering anything else and eating through other important resources like land, etc... then we need more malls! Mangalore is a small city and there seems to be race of "mall building" and its crazy! Currently there are 3 malls open (including City Centre) and 3 (or more) under construction! Here is how we stand in Karnataka:

1. Mantri Square Mall, Bangalore, 1,625,000 sq ft


2. City Centre, K S Rao Road, Mangalore, 800,000 sq ft


3. The Forum, Bangalore, 625,000 sq ft

The Plama Mall, Kulshekar, Mangalore is under construction with an estimated area of 900,000 sq ft which will make it the second largest in the State and thus Mangalore will be that city having two of its malls in the state's top 3! Here are the stats for the malls across India:

All said and done I love malls and its the best place to meet up with friends or spend time when you have no other place to decide on, especially in this "busy" world today. My concern is to the incredible speed of just 2-3 years that change the faces of small cities, States and India too. And while we're at the topic of malls, Mantri Mall is not going to be the biggest by the end of next year, because its position will be taken by the upcoming Mall of India, in the National Capital. Check out the list of malls in India.

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