EVERY THURSDAY

This fortnightly section deals with some role models in our society who are setting an example for others. In other words, those who are an inspiration for all of us in some way or the other.

WHEN ABILITY IS TOUGHER THAN DISABILITY

Imagine being born without arms. No arms to wrap around a friend ; no hands to hold the ones you love; no fingers to experience touch ; no way to lift or carry things. How much more difficult would life be if you were living without arms and hands? Or what about legs? Imagine if instead of no arms, you had no legs. No ability to dance, walk, run, or even stand. Now put both of those scenarios together… no arms and no legs. What would you do? How would that affect your everyday life?

These are the lines from www.lifewithoutlimbs.org which tells us the story about Nick Vujicic, born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia, without any medical explanation or warning, came into the world with neither arms nor legs. The website with a punch line, “Life without Limbs…from no limbs to no limits!” is itself inspiring.

He had a childhood which was full of anxiety and he faced times of depression and loneliness when he would see other children but he managed to overcome all hurdles. Having obtained a double Bachelor’s degree, majoring in Accounting and Financial Planning from Griffith University in Logan, Australia, Nick who is now 27 is the president of an international US based NGO called Life without Limbs and also has his own motivational speaking company and has travelled across the globe.

HE EARNED THE RUPEE, BUT FOR A CAUSE

He smiles, and then laughs and even gets emotional as Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam as he talks to me exclusively for The Sip of Lifeabout his experience in designing the symbol of Indian rupee. The young man is today happy not just because his entry was chose from 3000 designs, but because he would donate his 2.5 lakh award for a cause, which he humbly refuses to disclose.

“When I had submitted my entry I had then only planned to donate the entire prize money for some cause, which I cannot tell”, he says as he talks to me over the phone from IIT Guwahati, where he has recently joined as the Assistant Professor in the Department of Design.

D. Udaya Kumar a PhD from Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay also has a Master’s degree in Design (Visual communication) and Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. He is simple yet articulate and intelligent as well and reaching out to him took me just a day after he responded to my email asking him to share his journey of coming up with a perfect symbol for currency of the world’s largest democracy. He was quick to send me his phone number I had asked for, and Wednesday evening around 7 he was available for a tete-a-tete with The Sip of Life.

“The competition was announced on March 5, 2009 by the Indian government to create a symbol for the rupee. I made it sure that it has to be something that depicts the Indian culture. The design philosophy of the symbol is derived from the Devanagari script, a traditional script deeply rooted in our Indian culture. The symbol also seamlessly integrates the Latin script which is widely used around the world. This amalgamation traverses boundaries across cultures giving it a universal identity, at the same time symbolizing our cultural values and ethos at a global platform”, he says, adding, simplicity of the visual form and imagery creates a deep impact on the minds of the people. And makes it easy to recognize, recall and represent by all age groups, societies, religions and cultures.

Udaya says that his PhD research is on Tamil script so he is well versed with other Indian scripts as well. The symbol is designed using the Devanagari letter ‘Ra’ and Roman capital letter ‘R’. The letters are derived from the word Rupiah in Hindi and Rupees in English both denote the currency of India. The use of Shiro Rekha (the horizontal top line) in Devanagari script is unique to India.

“Devanagari script is the only script where letters hang from the top line and does not sit on a baseline. The symbol preserves this unique and essential feature of our Indian script which is not seen in any other scripts in the world. It also clearly distinguishes itself from other symbols and establishes a sign of Indian origin. It explicitly states the Indianess of the symbol”, he proudly says.

When I ask him about how he felt when he was told that his entry had been selected, he smiles, “I was just too happy and in a few minutes the entire media was all around me”. On being asked how much time it took him to come up with the final design, he says, “I worked on it every day and in about three months time, it was ready.”

On how it feels to be the much talked about celebrity now, Udaya laughs. “When I am out, people recognize me. They come to me, ask for an autograph and even want themselves to be photographed with me. My parents are just too happy”.

His elder brother is an engineer, younger one a specialist in textile designing and a younger sister who is now married. Since childhood, Udaya Kumar, who is now 31, has actively participated in several extra-curricular activities and won numerous awards. “He loves cooking, designing jewelry and accessories from junk material. Most of the weekends, he spends his time in interior decoration. If you don’t find him in playground then he may be in a garden doing Gardening”, as his website www.dudayakumar.com says about him. I loved some of his pictures in which he is seen planting saplings, which are addressed by him as his children.

He Even Designed The Paisa Symbol!

This is a symbol for paisa can has also been designed by Udaya Kumar using the same concept. He says, “It would be in harmonious with the rupee symbol as one family and can also be considered by the Indian Government later.”

What Makes It The Winning Entry?

The derivation of letters from these words conveys the association of the symbol with currency rupee. The symbol straightforwardly communicates the message of currency for both Indian and foreign nationals. In other words, a direct relationship is established between the symbol and the rupee.

The two horizontal lines with an equal negative white space (imaginary space) between them create a foreground and background effect of three strips (tricolor). The strips subtly represent the tricolor of our Indian national flag flying at the top.

The horizontal lines also denote the arithmetic sign ‘equal to’. For a common man, a quick indicator of his/her countries economy is the comparison of currency values. In other words, a countries economy is defined with respect to the currency value.

One always compares once economy (currency value) with the other nations currency, it is always relative to the other. The arithmetic sign denotes that relationship of comparison of currency values. The equality sign also signifies a balanced economy, our economy should be secured and stable forever.

The symbol is designed in harmony with the other existing currency symbols of the world.

It forms a part of the family and at the same retaining its individuality. It does not stand out radically but is in unison with other symbols. This uniformity establishes a clear understanding and association of the symbol with currency across the globe.

The interplay of letter ‘Ra’ and ‘R’ makes it comprehendible for both local and global people. Familiarity of the visual form accentuates the recognition of the symbol and quickly registers in the people’s mind. It also makes the sign very easy to adapt.

The symbol is designed with minimal of three strokes. The simple and clean form gives it a high recall value and strengthens its legibility. It also makes it very easy to write, construct, reproduce and design. Embedding Devanagari and Latin script makes it convenient to write for both national and international users.

SMALL POCKET, BIG HEART!

Image Source: The Times of India

This time we have an inspiring story of Khimjibhai Prajapati a beggar with a small pocket but a big heart. This beggar in Mehsana in Gujarat recently donated clothes to 11 poor hearing and speech-impaired girls at Shrimati Kesarbai Kilachand School for the Deaf.

It was indeed touching to see the beggar share his savings for a good cause, especially when he is himself on crutches and in tattered clothes. Ironically he got new clothes for the girls out of his savings of Rs 3000. He had once even helped an orphan girl by getting her married

Prajapati begs outside the Simandhar Swami Jain temple and Hanuman temple and seeks alms from the devotees. In a recent interview to an English daily, he said, he earns just to have his two meals and some amount he sends to his wife in Rajkot to cure her ulcers and lung infection and since long had a wish to do something for girls. He used to run a tea stall in Rajkot but had to shut down because of losses, finally resorting to beggary.

IT’S TEE TIME FOR ERIK COMPTON

Now that’s what you call determination! It’s a ‘heartening’ story of Erik Compton who recently made it to the US Open Golf championship. And Compton, a two time heart-transplant recipient from Miami has won accolades for his inspiring story.

Image Source: www.palmbeachpost.com

It was in 1992 that he was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, which is a disease which enlarges the heart muscle and restricts blood flow. And he had to get a new heart on February 22 that year because of the disease but recovered and became a top junior golfer, which won him a scholarship to the University of Georgia and even has to his credit two wins on the Canadian tour. His diseased heart was replaced by the surgeons at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital with one from a 15-year-old donor Jannine who had been killed by a drunk driver.

Compton in September 2007 suffered a heart attack and in May 2008 had to be given another heart. He received the heart of a University of Dayton volleyball player Isaac, who had been killed in a road accident and again in six months he was back on the golf course and participated in the PGA Tour Qualifying School.

He is now 30, when he qualified for the US Open, he is taking the best sips of his life by following his dream. The man who has had three hearts in 30 years of his life still has the heart to play. And he has no feeling in his upper left leg, and that’s because the heart/lung machine lines run between his groin and thigh.

INDIAN ORIGIN TOP COP SETS AN EXAMPLE

Image Source: www.harrowtimes.co.uk

It’s an honour for all Indians as Chief Superintendent Dal Babu, Borough Commander for Harrow, was given the award for services to the police and community last week after 27 years on the Met Police force. Babu, the Indian origin top cop has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to policing and community, and thus makes it to The Sip if Life Inspiration today.

There is a lot life can give us, but it’s for us to give life our best and that’s what has been the motto of Babu all these 27 years he has served with the police and has now dedicated his award to his late mother. “My one sadness is that my mother and father, who were the most inspirational and remarkable people I have ever known are not alive today to share this moment with me personally”, he said in an interview soon after he was awarded last weekend.

It’s delightful to read his posts on www.harrowtimes.co.uk on which he writes about simple things like wearing a helmet while cycling or even thanking the citizens for cooperating with the police to curb crime, all that takes towards a safer life.

Today he has done us proud after being named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He has since 1983 after joining the service worked in different roles. A father of two daughters, Babu holds Master of Science Degree from London University.

The online edition of Harrow Times describes him, “He is committed to ensuring Harrow remains one of the safest boroughs in London and working with all sections of the Crime and Reduction Partnership to help reduce crime and bring offenders to justice”, adding that he has performed a combination of operational, community, public order and partnership roles. He will be remembered for 27 years of his life he has put in and the years to come as well.

THE CHAI CART STORY

It’s an amazingly inspiring story of Paawan Kothari, who sells tea on the streets of San Francisco. What is extraordinary in her story is that she quit her high profile job for this.

Paawan Kothari was a marketing strategist for IBM, but can now be seen driving down the streets of San Francisco on a bicycle converted into a chai cart and sells cups of tea.

In a recent interview in a newspaper, she said she quit IBM because she was burned out, adding she wanted to be creative and wanted to engage with people. The idea came to her mind, as street food carts have become a trend in the San Francisco Bay Area. She noticed that there was no food cart selling ‘authentic’ tea.

It was in August 2009 that after this idea stuck her mind, within 10 days she had a bicycle trailer made, got carafes and a thermos, made two flavours of chai — ginger and mint and now has many to her credit. Her most popular flavours today are Cardamom, Mint, Green Chili and of course Masala. She has a dedicated website to make her chai cart dream come true that tells her success story at www.thechaicart.com.

When contacted by us, she told The Sip of Life via email, “I was bored at work and was looking to do something different. I thought I would sell chai while I tried to figure things out. Little did I know that the chai cart would become this popular? While I was still working, I spent my weekends and some evenings taking the chai cart out (instead of hanging out with friends). Everyone loved the chai so much that I kept doing it, even though I made very little money (which I didn’t really need as I was still employed). Eventually, it led me to conceive Green Coriander – which is a meal delivery and catering service for healthy and organic Indian food. I finally quit my job in December 2009 and decided it was time to do what I really wanted.
I still do the chai cart but mostly for events that I get invited to. I am working on a plan that will allow me to serve chai everyday as well as run Green Coriander kitchen at the same time. The chai cart group is there on Facebook as well!

SHANTI TERESA: SERVING THE HUMANITY

Shanti Teresa Lakra is a 35-year-old health worker is being featured today in this column for her well-deserved contribution of serving the primitive people on an island, which happens to be in one of India’s remotest corners.

Lakra recently also received the National Florence Nightingale Award, 2010 from the Indian Vice-President for her service to the India’s tribal community. She received the award for her exceptional service, particularly after the tsunami that ravaged the islands in 2004.

It was about ten years back in 2001 that Lakra was posted to a sub-centre in Dugong Creek, an island in Little Andaman and started visiting the Ongees, an indigenous Andamanese people. They spoke an ancient language, which she could not understand. She would trek through a dense forest and cross two rivers to reach the settlement of these people.

The sacrifice made by Lakra doesn’t end here, as she is living without her son who is six years old now. After Tsunami, the situation was so grim than it did not allow her to keep her year-old son along. She could not take his proper care and could not even feed him properly. Her mother-in-law, whom he now calls Mama, took him away to her home in the Middle Andaman and he is still with her in-laws. Lakra’s husband Shaji Varghese was her greatest strength, who has a coconut- and supari-processing unit.

A recent report in The Indian Express said, “In the five years from 2001 in which Lakra worked closely with the Ongees, their population rose to 100. Government efforts to save the tribals, however, suffered a severe setback a few years ago, when a number of them died after drinking contaminated water. There are only 72 Ongees left now.”

FROM MOPPING FLOORS TO MAPPING INDIA

Mopping Floors to Mapping India! This is an apt description given by The Times of India to the life story of Ramesh Sojitra, who made it big even when he hailed from a small town in Gujarat and today is The Sip of Life Inspiration.

As a teenager colour prints always fascinated him and at the age of 18 he fled from his house to find a job in Mumbai.

He mopped floors at a printing studio there and even worked as an office boy, but success came to him soon when he along with his friends started a small printing business in Mumbai.

Today at 44 he has given a new dimension to the Indian Geographic Information System (GIS). He came up with mapping software described as “revolutionary” by none other than former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman R. Madhavan Nair. It is not only a big help to the Indian armed forces but is also making the task of governance, by mapping India, easier and cheaper.

This has applications in sectors like defence, telecom, infrastructure, urban planning, agriculture, environment, power, disaster management and health care. Sojitra a commerce graduate had returned to Ahmedabad to float his own firm in 1986 and it was a big day for him when ISRO decided to develop indigenous GIS software in 2003 and Sojitra outbid 13 big companies, including some multinationals, to bag the project, and it took his firm six years to be ready with it.

LALITA’S SCHOOL – AN INSPIRING STORY

Watch this two minutes and thirty three seconds video and you are bound to be left inspired.

This time our inspiration is a 15 year old girl of Madhya Pradesh in India. Lalita makes it to this column today for being the lone student at the Government Girls’ Middle School at Sherpur village in three grades. Now the school is popularly known as ‘Lalita Ka School’ (Lalita’s school) in this small village having a population of just 700.

It was her determination to study that also motivated other girls in the village to join the school from where Lalita studied for three years from Class VI to VIII. She even being the lone student continued with her studies for three years even when she had to travel 50 km from her village and there were three male teachers who helped her out in all subjects.

She scored a first division in her Class VIII and has moved to another school for further studies. She has just left the school but these three years of hers have inspired other girls to take up studies. After Lalita, now 15 girls have taken admission in the school.

Her father happens to be a government employee who encouraged Lalita. Now her parents on seeing her interest in studies have shifted her to another school where she is not alone.

WHEN LOVE DID BLOOM FROM A CHAT ROOM!

Image Source: www.expressindia.com

This time, the sip of life inspiration is a deaf and dumb couple, who got married recently after three years of courtship, traversing boundaries between two different countries. Their love story was reported on April 19 in the Indian Express newspaper. While the girl, Yi Yan Yun (34), is from Shaoguan in China, the boy, Muhammed Jasim (26), is from Malappuram district in Kerala.
They are the inspiration for standing up for their love amidst family opposition and boundaries. They were not bogged down by family pressure, while at the same time, got hooked only after the family approval.
As per the paper, their love story began in a chat room. While Yun is the president of the Handicapped Union, Guangdong, and a member of the Deaf Persons’ Association there, Jasim is the president of the Deaf and Dumb Association in Nilambur Taluk. The report says Jasim used to spend long hours at the local internet café. He would turn up at the café at the hour of opening and stay on till late night. Sometimes, the café owner would forcibly send Jasim home. When Yun came to know about this, she sent Jasim money to purchase a computer and the rest of the equipment so that they could video conference without any interruptions.
This went on for about three years. On March 19, Jasim failed to turn up for video conferencing for several days, says the news report. Anxious Yun then contacted some mutual friends from the Deaf and Dumb Association in Nilambur and learnt that Jasim had met with a minor accident and was in hospital. On April 5, Yun landed at the Kozhikode airport and went to the hospital to see Jasim. His family was told that Yun was a friend, married and the mother of a child. When Jasim was discharged, Yun accompanied him to Nilambur, where she checked into a local hotel.
When Yun asked Jasim to meet her at the hotel, his family objected. As per the newspaper, Yun then threatened to commit suicide. It was only then that the couple told his family about their three-year-old relationship. Yun also informed her family back in China. The two families then sat down for some video conferencing, with the help of interpreters on both sides and finally agreed.
The duo at the moment is caught in some visa tangles, but hope to overcome it through their love. Kudos to the two for listening to their hearts, and having the courage to battle it through.

THE QUEEN BEE ANITA KUMARI

For 22-year old Anita Kumari of Patiasa village in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, the other name is Queen Bee. She was just another girl who completed her schooling by teaching younger children to pay her school fee, and after school her ‘sweet idea’ really worked when she became the first woman in her village to keep bees.

She started beekeeping around eight years ago and now she keeps as busy as a bee. She is now involved in tending around 250 boxes of honeybees (Each box has around 30 to 35,000 bees) to harvest honey to a number of firms even far away from her village and she has gained so much popularity that now her name even figures in the NCERT textbook of environmental studies in Class IV in a chapter called ‘Anita and the honeybees’.

Anita also has the distinction of receiving the Best Bee Farming award from Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa in Samastipur. While for us today she is The Sip of Life Inspiration, for Anita, her father was the person who encouraged her to take this up when he brought her two boxes and she has also undergone training at Pusa Agricultural Institute to learn ways to produce good quality honey. Today even her family supports her in the business.

TIGER WOODS: TOWARDS A NEW BEGINNING

What you do when life knocks you down uninvited, more so when you are a public figure, and the whole world is witness to your downfall. Either you quit or take charge of your life and try to put pieces together, just like Tiger Woods, who is The Sip of Life’s inspiration this week.

But why he, many of you would wonder, after his “sexual escapades” were discovered some five months ago, that tore apart his life. He would be anything, but an inspiration. But yes he is, in spite of his wrong deeds, for having shown the courage to admit to his mistakes, and making an effort for a new beginning, in whatever way he can.

On April 5, he played his first public round of golf in nearly five months in Augusta. “The fact I won golf tournaments is irrelevant,” Woods said of his success while leading a double life. “Winning golf tournaments is unimportant compared to all the damage I’ve done.” “I hurt so many people close to me. I lied to myself,” Woods said. “It’s pretty brutal. I take full responsibility for what I have done.”

Quite an effort, I would say. Answering a query during the press conference, he said the most difficult things in the past few months were, “Having to look at myself in a light that I never wanted to look at myself; that was difficult. How far astray I got from my core fundamentals and the core morals that my mom and dad taught me; and having to break all that down, and as I said in the interview, with all of the denial and rationalization; to cut through that, I had to really take a hard look at myself. And that’s what I started finding strength and peace.

And the other is the other difficult part I think over the past few months has just been the constant harassment to my family. My wife and kids being photographed everywhere they go; being badgered, that’s tough. That’s tough on them, because it’s really hard for us to heal and try and get through this as best we can.”

He can’t completely do away with what he has done, but as we say, falling is not a sin, but not getting up after a fall is. He has shown immense courage in accepting that he wronged, went for a rehab, put his head down in shame for what he did to his wife and kids, and finally, taking his first steps down the road to redemption.

(Press conference excerpts from net)

CHITAMMA – THE WOMAN BEHIND ‘SEA CHANGE’

65-year-old Chitamma has brought a sea change in Katturu, a coastal village in Orissa’s Ganjam district. She is the woman behind Samudram, a federation of fisher people in 21 coastal blocks of Orissa, which now has a total membership of 3,080, all traditional fishermen. The federation trains women to be economically independent.

She is also the person behind Kali Amma Nari Shakti Sangh, registered in 1991-92, which fights on common issues like water, PDS, healthcare, etc. Initially, when the Sangh was formed, its members started mobilizing people on issues of concern and it was in 1995 that Samudram was formed.

Chitamma was born in Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Her parents worked with the Scindia Shipping Company in Visakhapatnam city, where her father was a mason and her mother did odd jobs with the company. She had to drop out of school while still in Class 5 to take care of the home.

She was married to a fisherman at the age of 20. At that time, not many knew she would one day be the driving force behind woman empowerment in this village, which did not even have proper drinking water facilities, a school or a hospital. As villagers mostly depended on borrowing money for their basic needs, she started mobilizing women to save money by forming their groups.

Samudram’s major thrust area today is to tackle cheating in the fish and prawn trade, by middlemen, which today boasts of Samudram brand of products. It has five procurement centres for fresh and dry fish in different areas run by trained fisherwomen. It embarked on a sustained marketing blitz with support from OXFAM, ActionAid, the Orissa Traditional Fisher Women’s Union (OTFWU), and the College of Fisheries (a Government of Orissa undertaking). It also has technical assistance from the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai.

A HOPE BLOOMS IN OLYMPIC FLOWERS

The Sip of Life today brings a very unique inspiring story of Olympic flowers, which not many of you must be aware of. Athletes are given a bouquet of flowers after every Olympic event and they come from Just Beginnings Flowers and Margitta’s Flowers in Surrey, British Columbia.

Now the inspiration behind these flowers is June Strandberg, the owner of Just Beginnings Flowers who teaches art of floristry to women who have left prison, recovering addicts, those suffering disabilities or who have been the victims of violence. This noble work has surely helped in bettering the community and Strandberg has even taken this noble cause behind bars, where she educates convicts. 75 year old, Strandberg’s work earned her a YWCA Woman of Distinction award in 2003.

She has set up her shop in Phoenix Centre, near Surrey Memorial Hospital. The bouquets which are made under strict regulations are 20 to 30 centimeters tall and about 25 centimeters across. For the Vancouver Olympics the florists made 1,800 bouquets, 1,707 of which will be given to medal-winning athletes in the Olympics and Paralympics held in February and March.

The Vancouver Sun in January this year profiled Strandberg in an news story, “Hope blooms for the disadvantaged”. An extract from it states, “Life hasn’t always been easy for Tandice Bartlett. As a teenager, the 22-year-old Surrey resident found herself heading along a dark and troubled path. She had dropped out of school and struggled with addiction. Then she met June Strandberg and good things started to bloom — quite literally.”

“It’s not about what happened yesterday with these women, it’s about what road they’re on today, it really is. They have to be in the right space and aimed in the right direction. That’s how we help them”, says Strandberg in Surrey Now when she was profiled in 2008.

Between 80 and 150 bouquets were made each day, and when you consider the societal benefits behind these flowers, it almost makes the bouquets as valuable as the medals. Hope today’s sip leaves a lasting taste for all those reading this, and will be a source of inspiration in every endeavour of yours in times to come. Do visit http://www.justbeginningsflowers.com/ to read more about JBF, which is indeed a beginning towards bringing a positive change in the society.

Just Beginnings Flowers
13686 94A Avenue
Surrey, British Columbia
Canada V3V 1N1
Phone: 604.582.8298

info@justbeginningsflowers.com

70 DAYS, 2817 MILES IN THE ATLANTIC

Katie Spotz is The Sip of Life Inspiration this week. Today’s post is a bit longer but you will love reading it as we at the SOL present a well-researched piece today bringing interesting content on one platter just for our readers.

This 22 year old became the youngest person to cross the Atlantic Alone. She spent 70 days, 5 hours and 22 minutes in the Atlantic in which she crossed 2817 miles and what makes her our inspiration today is that she raised more than $ 70,000 for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, which finances drinking water projects around the world.
Besides her latest feat she also became the first person to swim the entire length of 325 mile Allegheny River, Cycled 3,300 miles across the United States from Seattle to D.C., and ran 150 miles across the Mojave and Colorado Desert. Spotz had set off in her 19ft British built yellow rowing boat from Dakar, Senegal, on January 3rd and survived on freeze dried food and energy bars.
Spotz took two years to raise the money for the £60,000 cost of the adventure, which is another reason why she is the chosen one on this site today.

“Welcome to Guyana” – a sentence I’d been waiting to hear for 70 days, 5 hours and 22 minutes!

It appeared as darkness fell, starting as a soft glow on the horizon. As the night progressed, it turned into dotted lights and, by the morning, had turned into trees and buildings. Even hearing new sounds that I hadn’t heard for two months was a revelation. As relieved as I was to see land, I didn’t allow myself to become too excited until my feet were planted on terra firma, as I knew these final miles could be the most treacherous.”

These are her own words in her blog post written yesterday, three days after she arrived on March 14 in Georgetown, Guyana, in South America.. If you want to read more about the whole venture you can visit www.rowforwater.com.

You can also find her on Facebook where she already has over 2347 fans! While Katie is available on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Katiespotz, here are some her tweets in the last one month, which are worth sharing which have been represented in their original form exclusively for The Sip of Life readers –

So amazed when I woke up today! I forgot what it felt like to be rested and well fed. I really am starting to feel human again.9:16 AM Mar 15th via web

Oh my! I nearly fell over walking down a set of stairs and everything still feels like it’s moving.12:08 PM Mar 14th via web

Perfect day for rowing. Waves not too big, not too small. Wind not too strong, not too light…. Read more at http://bit.ly/9n1fuT4:49 PM Mar 11th via The Remote

Over 2 months at sea and I’m still seeing the same white birds and strange looking fish.4:46 AM Mar 11th via The Remote

It feels like rowing through glue when I’m going into a headwind. At least I have some help from the current.9:00 AM Mar 9th via The Remote

All I can say is “oh my!” Just had a boat with 10 Venezulan men stop by. First sight of earthlings in 2 months!4:53 AM Mar 9th via The Remote

I think I’m close enough I can almost smell land. Or wait, is it the other way around?!7:26 AM Mar 7th via The Remote

The subject of my email tonight: “Is this normal?” with a picture of the latest and greatest rash development. It keeps getting worse!3:16 PM Mar 6th via The Remote

Noticing more and more boats showing on my gps. A sign I am getting closer to South America!1:56 AM Mar 3rd via The Remote

Breakfast on land: organic fruit with greek yogurt sprinkled with wheat germ. Breakfast at se… Read more at http://bit.ly/duq1n24:38 AM Mar 2nd via The Remote

I m having trouble figuring out where the water ends and sky begins with tonight’s rowing. It’s like rowing into a black hole!!3:41 PM Mar 1st via The Remote

No more cookies or edamame or gum. And the nearest store? Over 500 miles.2:06 PM Feb 27th via The Remote

I’m convinced someone wrote “hit me” in permanent marker on my back. Just got hit by two flying fish at once!6:17 AM Feb 21st via The Remote

Eek. Tinkering with the rudder in the back hatch and was hit by a wave. Looks like I am sleeping in one wet bed tonight!10:40 AM Feb 18th via The Remote

Katie had with her a GPS tracker, which she used to update her position on her blog. She also carried along her iPod on which she used to play audio books of Zen meditation.

We are sure Katie’s story must have inspired you a lot. We at The Sip of Life are now looking for inspiration in our lives. Shortly we plan giving this column a new look featuring some unsung heroes (once a month) who cannot be found on the Google Search Engine. If you have anyone in your life, share it with us. Send a brief write-up along with the photograph of someone you would like to feature here along with contact number of your inspiration at amit@thesipoflife.com

If your entry is chosen, you get a surprise gift from The Sip of Life

VICKY ROY – A RAGS TO PICTURES STORY

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.monsoontrust.org

His journey from New Delhi to New York is not an ordinary one. He has been even termed as Delhi’s Slumdog Millionaire and is today The Sip of Life Inspiration too. He is Vicky Roy, a rag picker turned lensman, and his inspiring story sets an example for all of us. The ‘Guardian Weekly’ had once profiled him describing his story as that of ‘rags to pictures’.

Today he is 22 and has grown from a street kid to a reputed photographer. Can you believe that Vicky, hailing from Bihar, who stole his dad’s money and boarded a bus to New Delhi 11 years back, has even flown to New York City, where he went on a scholarship to photograph the rebuilding of World Trade Centre (WTC).

After he came to Delhi, he has done all kinds of jobs, from selling water at the New Delhi railway station to picking rags, or even washing dishes and making chapattis at a Dhaba. The same rag picker now hosts his own website, www.vickyroyphotography.com.

He was spotted by a volunteer in the national capital, given education and did manage to complete his Class X. Photography always inspired Vicky and even managed a diploma in photography and finally got a break with a Delhi based fashion photographer as an assistant, which actually helped him take off in his passion.

Vicky has never looked back after that and even went on to bad the Duke of Edinburg Gold Award six years back. He even managed his first exhibition called ‘Street Dream’ at the India Habitat Centre in 2007. Today he has a whole lot of collection captured his Nikon camera (which he bought by selling his works at an exhibition) and his works focus on children rights with most of his black and white photographs showing street children.

FREDA ROSENFELD – THE BREAST MILK CONSULTANT

Picture: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Ever heard of a breast milk consultant? If you haven’t then Freda Rosenfeld is the woman, a 52 year old crusader in the US who moves around with a sticker on her minivan ‘Got Breast milk’.

She is a certified lactation consultant. Rosenfeld was certified in 1990 and though she charges for her ‘services’, but she is a saviour for many. She has visited 2,000 new moms, some of them multiple times, and many with multiple babies at once and is available round the clock helping breast-feeding mothers to suggest measures to increase their milk supply.

A website describes her as “A religious Jew, she starts each day with morning prayers, followed by yoga and 20 minutes jumping on the trampoline in the basement. Her face is makeup-free, usually framed by dangly earrings”. The New York Times recently profiled her, and you can follow this link to read the detailed feature on her http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/nyregion/21freda.html?pagewanted=1&hp

The Sip of Life also came across another website working for a cause on the same and it can be visited here athttp://milkshare.birthingforlife.com. This is an organization started by a mom Kelly Faulkner who, due to a congenital abnormality, could not produce milk. More than 30 moms donated milk for her child. At this site, you can donate or locate milk donors. Another inspirational story worth sharing with our readers.

LIZA: A RAY OF HOPE

LIZA RAY

India Today may have sold many copies of its recent issue featuring a cover story on the new hope for cancer patients, but more than that the issue was surely an inspiration for millions of those suffering from the disease.

The cover page was surely eye-catching with 37-year old actor and model Liza Ray shaven head bringing hope and despair too, in the sense that she is trying to survive a tough battle. But the news feature aptly starts with her only, bringing out her grit to fight the incurable bone marrow myeloma.

She was diagnosed in June last year and today as she fights the disease, Ray shares her experiences and developments in cancer treatment through her blog and she is optimistic too.

The Yellow Diaries, her blog, which has already got more than 588,816 hits, has a petite photograph of her and on the top says, LIZA RAY, NEVER STOP FIGHTING.Her January post, which is her latest one, has got 333 comments supporting her in every way for the source of inspiration she is for others.

An extract from her this post: “Stem Cell Transplant: It was an odyssey. A trip to the core. The marrow had its way. Now I’m full of cheerful stem cells, like fields of sunflowers I travel inside and watch them turn their small, yellow faces towards me. They giggle and beam. Go forth and multiply.”

Another extract from one of her posts is touching. It says, “I’m happy I’m losing my hair. It’s a trap, but I’m entitled to this happiness. This increment of everything. So I enjoy the increasing spread across my head. There is a lot to be said for the impact of a shiny scalp. And never again will it be so acceptable for someone to find your hair in their food.” One can also see pictures of her hairless scalp on the blog.

Liza is definitely a ray of hope. She brings a smile on the face for setting an example for cancer patients. She is The Sip Of Life Inspiration undoubtedly.