On My Radar: Maya, Bobby and Roobi Back From Kabul

Maya, Bobby and Roobi Back From Kabul

As the Taliban took over Kabul, Maya, Bobby and Roobi left the panicked city in the nick of time to return home in India safely. Known as the K-9s, they are prized sniffer dogs and belongs the Indo-Tibetan Border Police “ranks”. They had a three-year gruelling stint in Afghanistan. Aged 5-7 years, their job was to protect Indian diplomats and assets amidst a high threat perception. They are now awaiting fresh “posting” at the force’s Chawala camp in Delhi.They were trained at ITBP’s National Centre for Training Dogs near Chandigarh. In Kabul, their responsibilities included safeguarding access control to the embassy compound and anti-sabotage checks. Sudhakar Natarajan, Deputy Inspector General (Veterinary), ITBP, told that these disciplined dogs had detected many IEDs and protected lives of not only the Indian diplomats, but also local civilians working in the embassy.

 

Honour for Deaf & Dumb Indore Girl

Indore’s deaf and dumb Varsha Dongre (24) has fulfilled her father’s dream—she has become the “Star Line Miss India’, beating 1,000 contestants in a contest in Agra. In 2018, she won the “Miss Deaf-Deaf India” title. A B.Com second-year student, Varsha belongs to a poor family. Her mother and sister are also deaf and mute. Mother does sewing and embroidery work. Varsha’s father, who died three years ago, used to encourage her to become a model. He told her to make her place in society by participating among the general participants. Varsha’s mother collected Rs 60,000 for her to participate in the Agra beauty contest. Varsha prepared herself by watching international beauty Queen contests on YouTube and bought her costume from Delhi. Now,Varsha is dreaming to become “Miss Universe”.

Opinions of a Teenager

Using spare time from online education during Covid-19 pandemic, a class nine Delhi student Shreyas Kumar, 13, has written his a book “Opinions of a Teenager”. A student of Amity International School, Kumar’s parents are former army doctors; father Dr (Col) Gaurav Kumar is a paediatric cardiac surgeon and mother Dr (Col) Rakhee Goyal is a paediatricanaesthetist. The kid author says that parents generally tell growing children: “Don’t behave like a kid! Don’t watch this on Netflix, it is only for adults! You should not go out so late!” In Kumar’s opinion, teenagers are neither kids nor adults. Nothing is designed for them—clothes, too small or too big; TV shows—cartoons for kids, rest for adults; books—oh, don’t even ask! “I am not surprised why teenagers have no voice…nobody hears them. They are just hanging around in the school (now home!) as just an appendage, with awful pimples, pointy moustache, uncertain beard and much more like that,” says Kumar, adding “the last 18 months have been worse—time concentrated in the confines of household, probably in the same shapeless T-shirt and loose shorts.” “Whose fault is it anyways?” wonders Kumar. “Nobody chose to be a teenager. Everyone wants to be a big adult and all that. So, why shouldn’t teenagers be heard? Why can’t they express themselves, un-edited? “May be this brings the ‘already adults’ some insight and can help the young minds pave a better future for themselves. It will give them immense confidence in themselves… something that they really need.” The author told that adults should not get offended if some child tells them where they were wrong.

Khattar Bans Expression ‘Gorakh Dhanda’

In Haryana, no one can now use the expression “Gorakh Dhanda”—generally used to describe unethical practices—as it has been banned in “official communications”. A decision to this effect was taken by CM Manohar Lal Khattar following his meeting with a delegation of the Gorakhnath community on Wednesday.The delegation asked Khattar to ban this expressionas it hurts sentiments of followers of Saint Gorakhnath. It is not known whether the followers would also urge other states, especially BJP-ruled ones, to ban the “Gorakh Dhanda” expression. Also, not known is why Haryana was chosen for this mission.

At 86, Chautala Gives Supplementary Exam

There is no age for education. Former Haryana CM and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala (86) has proved it. He appeared in the supplementary examination of the State’s Board of School Education on Wednesday. The “Veteran student” was given a writer—a class nine girl student—to assist him in the examination as he had told the Board that he had suffered an injury in his right hand. Chautala emerged smiling after the test at a government girl’sschool in Sirsa. Chautala was jailed in 2013 in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case. He was on emergency parole since March 26, 2020, due to the Covid pandemic. Chautala, who was serving a 10-year prison term, was released from Delhi’s Tihar Jail in July. Although Chautala had earlier passed matriculation, he needed to clear a mandatory language paper “for pursuing further studies.” That’s why his result was kept on hold.