Bail Pola is a thanksgiving festival which acknowledges the domestic and agricultural importance of bulls and cows. It is widely celebrated by the farmers in the region of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, on the Pithori Amavasya in the Marathi Calendar. This year, the day falls on 26 August. On this day, farmers wash their bulls and oxen and decorate them with ornaments. Then the animals are brought to the village field, accompanied by joyful music and dance.
International Dog Day is celebrated every year on 26 August. The day is observed to recognize the efforts made by dogs in saving human lives and to promote dog adoption. The day was established by Animal Welfare Advocate and Pet Lifestyle expert, Colleen Paige. On this day, dog lovers can buy toys for their dogs, take them to their favourite place and take care of their health and well-being.
The Government Model Higher Secondary School for Boys, a 203-year-old educational institution in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, admitted girl students for the first time. S. Fiya Mary and Profulla S. Vijay, two of the 12 girls, admitted to the science and humanities streams, on 23 August, 2022, will be a part of the first batch of girls who would graduate from the institution. Principal Felicia Chandrasekharan said that they are expecting more girl students to join the institution in the coming days.
Aanchal Gupta, a panipuri seller in Kolar, Madhya Pradesh, came up with a unique initiative to celebrate the first birthday of his daughter. He installed 21 stalls under a large tent, on 17 August, 2022, and distributed 1.01 lakh pieces of panipuri for free with the message ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao‘ (nurture girls, educate them). His move was applauded by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who tweeted the incident and by local MLA Rameshwar Sharma, who attended the function.
57-year-old Sowdamini Mallapragada and her 61-year-old husband, Ravi Kishore Mallapragada, the power couple from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, began their trek on 25 July, 2022, to reach Gilman’s Point on Mount Kilimanjaro. The couple successfully reached the top of the mountain in six days, in extreme cold weather. They also created new records as Sowdamini became the first woman from Andhra Pradesh to achieve the feat at the age of 57 and Ravi Kishore became the second man in the State to reach the summit at 61.
58-year-old Mary,a craft teacher at Dr B.R. Ambedkar Residential Government School in Ragigudda, Karnataka, has been training interested children and other craft teachers, in craftwork, for decades. Since 2016, she has been teaching them on how to convert waste cloth and paper into decorative pieces, free of cost, in order to achieve a zero-waste footprint. She also offers similar decorations to churches, halls and events like weddings, birthday parties and naming ceremonies, totally free.
Janmashtami is around the corner. The festival is celebrated nationwide on the eighth day of the Krishna Paksha in Bhadrapada month. Janmashtami is marked to celebrate the birth of Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This year, the celebrations will begin from 9:21 pm on 18 August, 2022 and will end at 10:59 pm on 19 August, 2022. On this auspicious occasion, devotees observe fasts and pray to Krishna.
33-year-old Prafulla Shashikant, from Beed district, Maharashtra, wanted to provide quality education to children from low-income families in the state and help thousands of teachers and students to adopt to an easier and inclusive way of learning. Hence, he developed a free online platform and app, named ‘VSchool’, that would help students with the resource material based on their preferred language medium. Prafulla said that the platform can be replicated with any state, district or syllabus.
This year, the Janmashtami celebrations at Udupi temple, will witness the tiger dance (Huli Vesha), which will be performed by seven differently-abled people, as they wish to add their own uniqueness to the dance. The dancers are currently undergoing a 15-day customised training under Ananda Sherigar. The troupe is being trained daily for two hours from 4 pm to 6pm, without compromising on the spirit of the traditional art.
Every year, International Youth Day is celebrated globally on 12 August. The day is observed to acknowledge the contribution of youth in various fields and to spread awareness about the problems faced by them such as health, employment and many more, across the globe. The theme for this year is ‘Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages’. Currently, India has the largest youth population in the world.
