47-year-old Raja Sur, from Kolkata, successfully underwent two-staged Robotic-Assisted Partial Nephrectomy (RAPN) surgery, at Rela Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to remove tumors in both his kidneys. Dr Vasantharaja, who performed this surgery, said that RAPN is an advanced procedure, performed to remove complex tumours without damaging much of the kidney itself. Post-surgery, Raja Sur was discharged on the second day. He was neither required further dialysis nor an ICU stay.
Maths is a dreaded subject for most children. To remove the fear of mathematics from the minds of children, Subash Chandra Sahu, a school teacher in Bargarh district, Odisha, has built a ‘Maths Park’, on the premises of the government primary school in Pujharipali village. He built this unique park to teach the subject to his students in an interactive manner. Every feature in this park, from canopy and benches to painted rocks, represents geometrical shapes, mathematical symbols and numbers.
Every year, World Malaria Day is observed globally on April 25. Malaria is caused due to the bite of the female Anopheles mosquitoes that are infected by the plasmodium parasite. The day is observed to create awareness about this deadly disease, which has claimed the lives of 6.27 lakh people across the globe in 2020. The day also aims to highlight the need for its eradication, prevention and control.
World Penguin Day is celebrated across the globe, annually, on April 25. Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds, which are becoming endangered due to drastic climate change. The day is marked to create awareness about the importance of these aquatic birds in our ecosystem. This day can be celebrated by watching penguin documentaries, visiting zoos, researching the species and working towards lessening our carbon footprint.
13-year-old Amey Sanjay Gawale, from Adilabad district, Telangana, became the youngest person to reach the south base camp of Mount Everest. Accompanied by his parents, Amey started his trek on 4 April, 2022, towards the Everest Base Camp (EBC), located at an elevation of 17,598 feet (5,364 meters), from Lukla, Nepal. The class 8 student was inspired by Malavath Poorna, who became the youngest girl to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in 2014.
Forty-two-year-old Vijay Pathak, in Ranchi, Jharkahand, has been running a food bank for the past 2.5 years, to battle hunger. . Through his initiative named Roti Bank Ranchi, launched on 1 March, 2020, Pathak has been serving homemade food to around 200 economically underprivileged people, free of cost. Pathak also collects prepared food from marriage parties and other ceremonial gatherings, to distribute among the poor.
Visitors to Chinnamanur police station in Theni, Tamil Nadu, can now engage themselves in the world of books, while waiting for their turn to file a complaint. A small library has been set up at the police station to engage the public with a collection of seven hundred books in various genres, including periodicals and newspapers. Most of the books in the room are donated by volunteers and the place can accommodate 20 visitors at a time.
32-year-old robotics scientist, Balaji Thirunavukarasu, from Kandachipuram near Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu, hopes to inspire government school students by creating a small module on robotics and introducing the subject to them. In 2014, Balaji started a company to invent small-sized robots for day-to-day work. It was through his first small commercial invention, Lillibot, which was easy to dismantle, that the students began to learn how robots worked.
World Heritage Day is celebrated across the globe every year, on April 18. The day is marked to create awareness about the cultural heritage and diversity on our planet. There are a total of 3691 monuments and sites in India. Among those, 40 including the Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves, and Taj Mahal, are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The day can be celebrated with visits to heritage sites and monuments.
Every monsoon season, 73-year-old Kallur Balan, a resident of Mankurissy town in Palakkad district, Kerala, plants saplings in different parts of the district, due to his love for nature. Over the past ten years, he has planted lakhs of saplings on roadsides and public places. During summer, Balan also collects damaged fruits such as oranges, apples and mangoes, from wholesale shops, as they would otherwise be dumped and get rotten in the drains or garbage . He then delivers them to the forest fringes in Mundur and Ayyarmala to feed animals and birds.
