“Hard times don’t create heroes. It
is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.” – Bob Riley
Last weekend, I happened to meet one such hero from Pune over a cup of coffee and toast omelet sandwich at Goodluck Cafe, my regular hangout place. A young lad with dreams to make this world a better place and inspire people to live a better life. We spoke for more than an hour about his life, motivation to do such work and his future plans at the busy cafe. Before biding good bye he left me with this remarkable thought – “Knowledge should be free and accessible to all and language, technology or disability should not be a barrier.”
The youngster who hails
from Solapur is a scientist, a social worker, curator and licensee for
TEDxPune, Campus Ambassador for Wikipedia and International Student Ambassador
for Youthistan. He is Abhishek
Suryawanshi.
As I write this story,
he is in the United States doing what he believes – “Making the world a better place
to live and inspiring people to do well.”
I have known Abhishek
for a while now due to the initiatives he has successfully pulled out in Pune
over the last few years. However, this was my first extensive meeting with him,
a day before he boarded the US flight.
Dressed in a black
hoodie, carrying a big backpack and headphones attached, the tall and lean guy
walked towards me to say a hello just outside the cafe. While we were taking
our seats, Abhishek excitedly revealed that before coming to meet me he was getting
his new visiting cards done. The new card highlighted that he is now the Vice
President, Wikimedia, New York City.
A childhood lost in illness
These are the good days
that have just begun to open up their doors. The hero’s story starts with his
birth, a chronic disease convinced doctors that the child wouldn’t live long. “My childhood wasn’t a normal
one, I was diagnosed with a serious asthma problem and many a times faced
strong asthma attacks,” shared Abhishek while sipping his coffee and recollecting his
childhood days.
“As a kid most of us want to be a
pilot or engineer or doctor or actor, for me I wanted to enjoy an ice-cream or
get wet in the rain. Those things were a luxury to me.”
His health problems
ruined his childhood, he missed the joy of playing with kids, going to picnics
and many a times he had to skip exams. “My
teachers were scared to take me to any event or gathering because of my health
issues. My life was confined in a room and I started losing interest in
living.”
I first had an ice-cream
at the age of 14 and got wet in the rain at 15
A young scientist gets
discovered
Life changed for
Abhishek at 14 when he completely recovered from his health problems. As a kid,
Abhishek was quite attached to nature but at the same time coming from a rural
background made him aware of the water scarcity problem.
While studying in Jnana
Prabodhini in 8th standard, he learned about National Children Science Congress
– a program that provides children in the age group of 10 to 17 years an
opportunity to use their scientific temperament and knowledge to make their own
dreams come true.“Water is a very
critical issue in Solapur region. Hence I chose to work on
irrigation methods, under the guidance of scientist Arun Deshpande.”
This opportunity opened
up news doors in his life, he innovated Suction Method of Irrigation for
farmers. Abhishek informed that Suction Method of Irrigation is an ancient
Indian Irrigation Method which was used for surface irrigation. “In ancient methods, farmers used
to take help of porous pots, and these were placed adjacent to trees. In new
Suction Method of Irrigation, brick is used as medium for supplying water to
the roots. Brick is placed below 2 feet of soil near the roots. Roots absorb
water with the help of root pressures from the brick. As root pressure is used,
the tree itself acts as a pump, and water is provided to the tree.”
This method when
implemented saves 1/10th of water as compared to other methods including Drip
Irrigation and Sprinkler Irrigation. “Suction Method of Irrigation
requires only brick and pipe as essential tools. Thus, it’s much cheaper than
the traditional methods which require a lot of instrumentation and
electricity,” informed Abhishek.
Later he presented his
research work at National Children Science Congress (2004) held at Guwahati led
by the then President Hon.Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Abhishek not only
received a good response and awards at the event but his meeting with Kalam was
a life changing movement. His research work also got him selected from
Maharashtra State for Hum Honge Kaamyab, T.V.
Series for young scientists.
In 2005, his research
work was also recognized by the Maharashtra Government but then it came after
tough convincing by the young scientist. The state level irrigation conference
organized by the government was only for Post Graduates and PhDs, Abhishek was
still in the 9th standard so he was refused to showcase his
work. “I requested them to give me a slot to show and represent my
idea, so that other scholars may pick up as their research subject and also
provide their views on my work,” he recollected.
The research work not
only got heard but the judges were so impressed by Abhishek’s idea that they
gave him a cash prize from their pocket as his entry was not among the entries
competing for the cash-prize.
Suction
Method of Irrigation today has been implemented at some places in Solapur but
hasn’t got its due. Lack of government support, lobby of agriculture companies
and orthodox ways of farming have been the major reasons for curtailing the
growth of the project.
Journey with TED, Wikipedia
and Gates Foundation
TED talks have been an
inspiration for Abhishek and he has spent hours watching and listening to great
personalities on the program. In 2009 when TED came to India, Abhishek applied
for a fellowship. He got rejected due to his age but TED was launching TEDx for
which they asked his help. This led to the beginning of the relationship and in
2010 TEDxPune happened which was a success.
This
motivated Abhishek to take the inspiring TED videos to the under privileged
communities who have been left behind by society. This led to the beginning of
TEDxPune for the under privileged people and seeing this initiative Gates
Foundation came forward to bear the required costs.
“Our objective was to show the
brighter side of the world to the underprivileged children for whom the world
ended with Bollywood and Cricket. After showig the TED videos over a period of
six months with Marathi subtitles, children were also interested in
personalities like Pranav Mistry and wanted to be a doctor or a scientist.”
The success of TEDxPune
saw Wikipedia approach Abhishek to join hands. He then founded the Wikipedia
Pune Local Community and in 2010 he also organized Wikipedia’s 10th Anniversary
program in Pune. “From the beginning I
have been a fan of Wikipedia as a primary source for any information, so I was
really excited to organize the event and later on I also got selected as a
Campus Ambassador for Wikipedia.”
Over the time Abhishek
has worked closely with Wikipedia to set up its base, educate students about it
and promote its use in all 21 regional languages.
Meanwhile, Gates
Foundation, impressed by Abhishek provided him a scholarship to attend a TED
conference in US. However, the dream to fly to the US was met with a big jolt
since his visa was rejected not once but thrice.
Finally after Hillary
Clinton wrote a letter to the US Consulate after Gates Foundation requested,
Abhishek was granted a 10 year multiple business visa. While the dream to fly
to the US became a reality for him, this also unknowingly, opened up another
door for him. The US Consulate India was quite curious to meet him and find out
what did he do to have Hillary Clinton request for a US visa for him.
“After giving the visa US
Consulate India spoke with me and they were quite interested in supporting what
I do. This also gave me an opportunity to launch Spoken Wikipedia inside the US
Consulate that made content available in voice,” he
shared. This initiative caught the eyes of other consulates and UK Consulate
was the next embassy to approach Abhishek to work with them. “UK
Embassy came forward and became one of our TED event sponsor.”
Last year Abhishek got
the chance to visit NASA to interact with young scientists and later on visited
Sudan.
Life has come full
circle for the young lad who was once bed ridden and had lost all hope; he is
now going places with a motive to give people hope, inspiration and make the
world a better place.“I have spent half of
my life on the bed but I had inspirational people in my life that helped me to
survive. There are thousands of kids like me who are dying every day, I want to
give them inspiration to live for life.”
Today Abhishek’s urge
to live and do well for society has motivated him to go places and share
platforms with enlightened minds. In this journey so far, he gives due credit
to the Pune educational institutes who have not only supported but given the
much required help for all his events and workshops.
In fact during the
Wikipedia event in Pune, Facebook was of great help for the promotions along
with the local digital agencies in Pune known to him personally.
“It is the WHY that has motivated
people to come and join hands with me,” said Abhishek before
leaving me awestruck with his journey so far. While Abhishek categorically
denied that he is a real life hero but I think this is how a real life hero is,
they focus on the WHY rather than the HOW and WHAT.
ARTCILE FROM –
http://www.business2community.com/world-news/death-bed-inspiring-people-better-society-r/al-life-heros-journey-far-0949535#oPkCbVxPFpFV5Ilg.99
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