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A dream come true

Wishes do sometimes come true. At least they did for 15-year-old Shikha Jain when she got a chance to meet her "inspiration", Super Cop Kiran Bedi, this past week.

The brave teenager had been diagnosed with cancer in her right kidney and subsequently endured painful treatment procedures to fight the disease. When approached by "Make-A-Wish Foundation of India", she jumped at the opportunity and expressed a desire to meet her role model.

Happy now after finally meeting Dr. Bedi who she admires for her strength and courage, Shikha presented to her a wall hanging made by her as a gift. "I would like to be like Dr. Bedi when I grow up,'' said Shikha.

For her part, Dr. Bedi warmly welcomed Shikha at her office and thanked her for the wall hanging.

Speaking about her meeting with Shikha and the Foundation, Dr. Bedi says: "I am thankful to this non-profit organisation as it is through them that I have been able to meet such a wonderful and strong girl like Shikha. We live in two separate worlds and there would have been no way of meeting Shikha unless she wished to meet me. That is the power of a wish, it brings people closer.''

- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Children's newspaper

To mark the fourth anniversary of the Gandhi Media Literacy Programme, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti launched a Hindi edition of its children's newspaper, "The Yamuna", on Monday.

Samiti director Savita Singh recalled that during the freedom struggle Mahatma Gandhi used journalism as a tool to reach out to the masses. "Similarly students need to take a cue from the Father of the Nation and use journalism as an instrument to serve humanity,'' she added.

Stating that the English edition of the newspaper was launched as part of the centenary celebrations of "Indian Opinion" in 2003, Dr Singh said: "One of the greatest success of `The Yamuna' is that now we not only have children reporters from different parts of the country but even abroad."

She said there was an imminent need to make the newspaper a forum to raise divergent social issues confronting people of all generations.

UNICEF Communication Officer Augustine Veliath said plans were afoot to organise a national meeting of children reporters. He called for a coalition of children reporters from across the world for a more focus-oriented approach and a medium to raise issues of social action.

The Gandhi Media Literacy Programme is aimed at developing critical understanding of the media among children.

The first Hindi edition carries stories on the declining traditional handicrafts, the contribution of a poor woman following Gandhian ideals to conserve the environment and stories of girl stars being projected by UNICEF as role models.

-Madhur Tankha

For a noble cause

If a little boy, barely six years old, stops your car in the middle of a colony road, you would imagine it must be an emergency or simply that the boy had rather unwittingly strayed on to the road. But what if you realise that he was using the "technique" to draw attention to a noble cause.

This is exactly what happened to a friend this past weekend as he was about to reach his home in East Delhi. The little boy, holding a banner roughly about his size, stood in front of his vehicle and in a sing-song voice said: "Sorry Sir, I know it is not good to stop someone in the middle of the road like this. But what I am going to tell you is important."

He informed the friend about a blood donation camp being organised in the vicinity, even adding why blood donation was important.

Even as the friend was parking his vehicle on the side, he saw the boy running towards another elderly woman. "Excuse me, excuse me, Ma'am. Sorry to stop you like this when you are in the middle of your walk but what I am going to tell you is important... " he continued.

Whether it actually added to the number of blood donors could not be ascertained, but the young enthusiastic soul certainly ensured that quite a number of residents of the society came to know about the blood donation camp being organised in the vicinity.

Prashant Pandey

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