Navdeep Salam, a teacher at the Government Primary School, Nathukonha village, Dhamtari district, Chhattisgarh, redefines the grim ground reality by creating a room-to-read where none existed.

The road leading towards Nathukonha, the only one connecting it with the rest of the world, is undoubtedly its most recent and significant development. Nathukonha is a small, remote village of the Gond tribe. 

Reeta Mondal, a teacher at the PG Umathe Upper Primary Government School, Raipur, volunteers to colour the doomsdays of lockdown with her bag of crayons.

When the countrywide lockdown was imposed last year, we witnessed three kinds of people. The first were those who locked themselves inside their houses. The second were those who couldn’t afford to do so like, the migrant labourers. And the third were those who had no option, like the doctors, medical staff, and police...

(Yes, I teach... Will you learn?)
Story of an inspiring teacher who sets up classes where most desired but none took the initiative.

Friends, this story belongs to the period when corona had stretched its arms wide across our country. The way this pandemic spread worldwide, it seemed as if this planet was welcoming it willingly. Gradually, it spread into the nook and corners of our villages as well.

On 21st March 2020, the lockdown was imposed in Uttar Pradesh. We were asked to beat our ‘taali aur thaali’ (claps and plates) to destroy this airborne virus...

A standing ovation to those who actually do something about the problems they see around them—a story of a simple teacher who rescues kids without a future.

Namaste friends! My name is Amit Rajbhar. I stay in Chaknapur (Kosda) village, which lies in the Araji Line Block of Varanasi. Since the past 15 years, I have been working as a school teacher in the Asha Samajik Vidyalaya. It is run by an ngo called 'Asha for Education'...

One fine day, we woke up and found our city, country, whole wide world and everything else come to a standstill. Something absolutely unexpected, not even in the worst of our dreams, had happened. Then, suddenly, all the related challenges began hitting us.

There came in the role of a teacher. I have been a person who is not so tech-savvy and struggles to overcome her anxiety about going online. In fact, just as me, there were many teachers, mostly at the verge of retirement, who were trying their best to connect with their students. We were aware that life shouldn’t stop because of the lockdown and that the show must go on. 

“You got the vaccine!?” Babbi screeched excitedly. She was talking to her 13-year-old cousin, Manu, in the US. “Did it hurt? Did you get fever? And did you get the clot?” Babbi could barely sit still during that video call.

“Nah… nothing happened,” Manu assured her, behaving like a responsible older brother. He didn’t experience any major adverse effects after the COVID-19 vaccine. But he understood why Babbi was worrying. He too had been scared of the vaccine and had read up extensively about it. Not wanting to lose this chance to show-off, he offered to explain how the vaccines work to Babbi.

A Freedom Pledge against child labour— a promise to provide and protect everyone’s rights equally.

Scientists have discovered viruses nearly 15,000 years old in two ice samples from the Tibetan Plateau. The study conducted by the team from Ohio State University has been published in Journal microbiome. The researchers analyzed ice cores taken in 2015 from the Guliya ice cap in western China. Most of those viruses are unlike any viruses that have been catalogued to date, says the study. 

When will children in India get inoculated against COVID-19? It could be as early as August 2021, if the health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is to be believed.He said this at a recent BJP parliamentary party meeting.There are concerns about the impact of an impending third wave on children.A vaccine would enable the reopening of schools and the resumption of outdoor activities. A timeline for September had been given earlier according to data from clinical trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. 

Last year, when the lockdown was announced nationwide, I felt very excited at the thought of not going to school anymore and getting a break from studies. I had thought that this would go on for a couple of days and once the situation becomes better, everything would be back to normal. But then, the days turned into months, and I never expected it to go on for a whole year!

Attend classes, study, eat, sleep, then rinse and repeat. Sounds peaceful, doesn’t it? It sure did to me, at least in the first few weeks of lockdown. Though now, instead of the noisy interruptions by many loud students, my classes are punctuated by silence.

‘All’s well that ends well.’
My lockdown experience is the exact opposite of this commonly used quote from the famous play by William Shakespeare.

My first reaction:
When I got to know about the lockdown in the entire country, I got excited thinking that I will get more time to spend with my family, more time for TV, and no more school! Most of my friends felt the same way.

We all like pandas, don’t we? Those cute furry little creatures with big shiny eyes who do nothing all day but roll on the grass and munch on bamboos!

But unfortunately, pandas live mainly in temperate forests, high in the mountains of southwest China, or in the zoos in which your parents will never take you because they’re six hours away from your house. I mean, why go to the zoo when you can solve 15 math problems from RD Sharma in those six hours and actually be ‘productive’ in that time!?

I blinked in confusion, “Psychics, yet again!” As I kept jotting down notes in my copy, I started another episode of daydreams in my mind. My friend messaged me in between asking, "Hey, which page is Ma'am teaching?" I frowned.

"Maybe 39 or 40," I replied.

I missed my friend because, in school, we never talked about which chapter we were being taught or what books we should bring...

We are reminded repeatedly to wash hands, wear a mask, maintain distance, and improve immunity. But an important factor that can fight against corona is, the food we eat. Though, we experimented with our culinary skills during the lockdown—from cakes and firangi cuisines to Dalgona coffee—we need to 'Be Wise' and 'Choose Wise'.

Avoid white bread, maida, pasta, sweets, chocolates, processed and canned foods, carbonated drinks, canned juices, and fried food to keep your lungs healthy. Keep fighting corona!