Issue no: 01

Prayukti
{A Voluntary Group of Like Minded Youth}

Fortnightly Edition
Month,
October 1st -15th

Releases:

Manthan
{A Fortnightly news letter especially for the visually challenged} This edition includes:
Short Story Biography of Erik W English Grammar Current Affairs / Jokes About Matthur, karnataka Mysore Dasara Science Trivia
This Editions Contributors: Praveen Y S Mahesh R Chetan J Dixit

Prayukti in association with Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind

C.A Site No 14, 6th A Cross, 5th Phase, Yelahanka New Town Bangalore -560064 Ph No: 080-28463992 Email Id: teamprayukti@gmail.com / mathru_india@yahoo.com
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Prayukti
Prayukti is an informal forum of like minded people who are committed to a social cause helping to build a better society to live in. The motive of Prayukti is to train, teach and empower the specially challenged kids in additional fields apart from their academic schooling. The intention behind this is to inculcate a talent in their field of interest which might lead to their career development. The following extracurricular activities are identified:
Classical Music Tabala Keyboard Dance Bharatanatyam

Professionals in each of above domains train groups of genuinely interested kids and Prayukti takes care of the remunerations towards the training. Prayukti is privileged to have a cherished association with Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind, Yelahanka New Town, whose students are trained under this program. Prayukti formally came into being on 4th June 2011. Prayukti in Sanskrit means motivation. The team consists of mostly of young minds, most of whom are working professionals in premier companies. Currently the active volunteer strength of Prayukti is around 40. The current location of operation of this project is Mathru School. Apart from the regular training, Prayukti also strives to contribute to the all-round development of the students by conducting various kinds of activities. Storytelling, quiz, theatre, counselling sessions and newsletter circulation are some the activities that are currently being carried out.

Manthan
Hello Friends, We the Team Prayukti, release the first edition of Manthan, a fortnightly news letter especially for the visually challenged community free of cost. This first attempt from our end tries to cover a wide range of information for all age groups. Team Prayukti along with the Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind, Yelahanka, Bangalore is circulating this initiative. We wish that this fortnightly helps you in career building. We would like to get your suggestion and feedback about this news letter. You can share your opinion with your teachers or with us directly by contacting to the mentioned below number or through email. Contact Number: 9972315573/080-28463992 Email Id: teamprayukti@gmail.com We wish to dedicate this first edition of Manthan to Helen Keller. Best Wishes, Team PRAYUKTI Have a wonderful time reading this .......

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Short story

A story is told of a farmer who owned an old horse. The horse fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the horse. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer felt sorry for the horse, but decided that neither the horse nor the well was worth saving. Instead, he called his neighbours together and told them what had happened and asked them to help haul dirt to bury the old horse in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially, the old horse was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbours continued shovelling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back: he should shake it off and step up! This is what the old horse did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed, the old horse fought "panic" and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! You guessed it! It wasn't long before the old horse, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, actually end up blessing him. All because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

Inspirational biography: Erik Weihenmayer

Erik Weihenmayer was born on September 23, 1968 in a state called Colorado in USA, this person had climbed all the seven summits of the world, seven summits are the tallest mountains in the seven continents. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Vinson Massif in Antarctica , Kosciuszko in Australia, Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia , Everest In Asia , Elbrus in Europe ,Mount McKinley North America and finally the Aconcagua In South America. When this man climbed the Mt Everest at 10:00 a.m on May 25, 2001,he had achieved a unique feat that no human had achieved, the entire world was astonished by the task this young man had achieved, there were people who have done this before but this man was different , later in the year 2008, when he stood on top of Carstensz pyramid , Erik completed his quest to climb the Seven Summits ,that day this man shocked the world not just because he had climbed all the seven summits , around 100 people have done this before him , but he was the first BLIND ever in the history of mankind to climb all the seven summits. He had proved to the world that most important in life is the will to achieve your goal, there will obstacles, you will be pushed to ground repeatedly but the person who fights this and reaches the goal is the one who is respected.

Places of Importance in Karnataka:

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Matthur: Matthur is a small village near the city of Shimoga in Karnataka which is renowned for the usage of Sanskrit for day-to-day communication. It is famously referred to as the Sanskrit Village. Almost nearly all the people of this village have the unique ability to converse in Sanskrit effortlessly. A population of around 8,000 and odd, this sleepy hamlet embraces a forgotten culture that was perceived to be so well established in ancient India. Children are taught Sanskrit right from their early age. Slogans and messages related to cleanliness and manners are painted on walls in Sanskrit everywhere. The practice of speaking Sanskrit wasn't born yesterday. History has it that the Vijayanagar emperor gifted Matthur and neighbouring Hosahalli, known as centres of learning for Sanskrit and Vedic studies from time immemorial, to the "people" in 1512. The gift deed inscriptions on copper plates have been preserved by the archaeology department.

Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha, Bengeri: This is a manufacturing federation located near Hubli and has the unique distinction of being the only unit in India that is authorized to manufacture and supply the National Flag of India. Every national flag of India that is hoisted proudly on numerous occasions, right from Red Fort to Vidhana Soudha is manufactured by this unit in Bengeri. There are 100 specialist spinners and 100 weavers employed in making the flag. The flag is manufactured conforming to the standards laid by Bureau of Indian Standards.

Festival of the month: Dasara

Mysore Dasara is the state-festival of the state of Karnataka. It is also called Navaratri and is a 10-day festival with the last day being Vijayadashami, the most auspicious day of Dasara. Dasara usually falls in the month of September or October. Vijayadashami denotes the victory of truth over evil and was the day when the Hindu Goddess Chamundeshwari killed the demon Mahishasura. Mahishasura is the demon from whose name, the name Mysore has been derived. The city of Mysore has a long tradition of celebrating the Dasara festival and the festivities there are an elaborate affair, attracting a large audience including foreigners. The Dasara festival completed 400th anniversary in year 2010. The Dasara festivities were first started by the Vijayanagar Kings in 15th Century,The Mysore Palace is lit up on all the 10 days of Dasara. The ninth day of Dasara called as Mahanavami is also an auspicious day on which the royal sword is worshipped and is taken on a procession involving elephants, camels and horses. The main attraction of this procession is the idol of the Goddess Chamundeshwari which is placed on a golden mantapa on the top of a decorated elephant. This idol is worshipped by the royal couple and other invitees before it is taken around in the procession. Dasara is celebrated from 28th September to 6th October this year (2011).

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English Section Basic Grammar

1. The Sentence: A group of words which makes complete sense is called a sentence. Example: Krishna sat in a corner. 2. Noun: A noun is a word used as the name of a person, place or thing. Example 1: Ashoka was a great king. In this sentence Ashoka is a Noun. Example2: The sun shines bright. In this sentence Sun is a noun. 3. Pronoun: A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. Example: Rama is absent, because he is ill. In this sentence he is a pronoun. 4. Verb: A verb is a word used to say something about some person, place or thing. Or it is also called as an action word. Example: The girl wrote a letter to her cousin. Here wrote is a verb. 5. Adverb: Adverb is a word used to as something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Example: The flower is very beautiful. Here the word very is an adverb.

List of opposites 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Light Dark Smooth Rough Wide Narrow Young Old Absence- Presence Arrival- Departure Deep-Shallow Glad-Sorry

Thoughts for the week:

1. 2. 3. 4. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. - Hellen Keller What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. - John Maxwell The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said. Anonymous

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Current affairs:
International news: Four lakh people asked to evacuate as typhoon heads to Japan Floods and landslides in China caused by a week of heavy rain have killed at least 57 people and forced more than a million from their homes. National news: Earthquake in Sikkim, 60 dead across India Indian hockey team wins the Asia cup Dhoni loses his first series as captain of Indian cricket team in England Rahul Dravid retires from one day international cricket. Anil kumble is named as the chairmen of the national cricket academy in Bangalore City news: Current Chief Minister of Karnataka is Shri Sadananda Gowda from 4th August, 2011. Justice Shivaraj Patil stepped down from his position as Karnataka Lokayukta. Special news: Kannada poet and playwright Chandrashekhara Kambar has been selected for Jnanpith Award, Indias highest literary honour, till now 8 poets from Karnataka have got this award. The list of all the eight people is as below. 1: For the year 1967 Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa (Kuvempu) got for Sri Ramayana Darshanam 2: For the year 1973 Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre got for Nakutanti (Naku Thanthi) 3: For the year 1977 K. Shivaram Karanth got for Mookajjiya Kanasugalu (Mookajjis dreams) 4: For the year 1983 Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar got for Chikkaveera Rajendra (Life and struggle of Kodava King Chikkaveera Rajendra) 5: For the year 1990 V. K. Gokak (Vinayaka Krishna Gokak) got for Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi 6: For the year 1994 U. R. Ananthamurthy got for his contributions to Kannada literature 7: For the year 1998 Girish Karnad "for his contributions to Kannada literature and for contributions to kannada theater (yayati)" 8: For the year 2010 Chandrashekhara Kambara got for his contributions to Kannada literature

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Joke
1.

Why is the math workbook always Unhappy. Answer: Because its full of problems

2.

How can a SARDAR kill a LION? SARDAR thinks & thinks hard... & comes to a conclusion: "I'll drink POISON... & let the LION eat ME"

Science Trivia:
1.

The world's smallest flowering plant is the Wolffia, whose one full bouquet of flowers can fit on the head of a push-pin. Honey does not spoil. The Sun is 330,330 times larger than Earth. The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven. The lightning bolt is 3 times hotter than the sun. The Dead Sea is so dense with salt, you can easily float on it without drowning. The biggest egg in the world is the ostrich egg. It could take as many as 30 chicken eggs to equal its volume, and up to 2 hours to hard boil. The lightest organ in the human body is the lung. The nerves in our body are most concentrated in our fingertips. Mosquitoes like the scent of estrogen, hence, women get bitten by mosquitoes more often than men do. An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 80 kms (50 miles) long. It is estimated that a plastic container can resist decomposition for as long as 50,000 years.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10.

11. 12.

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