Meet the teacher from TN who turns ‘Appa’ for his students

Meet the teacher from TN who turns ‘Appa’ for his students

Fondly called ‘Appa’ (dad) by students, C Appavu (56) has been shelling out his money to buy uniforms for over 300 students studying in Classes 9 to 12 every year.

Published: 21st November 2021 05:58 AM | Last Updated: 21st November 2021 05:58 AM 

Appavu, a Mathematics teacher, handing over school uniforms to students | EXPRESS

By P Thiruselvam

Express News Service

ARIYALUR: A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart.” So goes an adage, and this mathematics teacher at Sripuranthan Government Higher Secondary School in Ariyalur district has been doing exactly the same for the past 12 years.

Fondly called ‘Appa’ (dad) by students, C Appavu (56) has been shelling out his money to buy uniforms for over 300 students studying in Classes 9 to 12 every year. Once a year, he also arranges a feast for all students in the school and provides Kadala Mittai (peanut candy) on occasions like school reopening, Independence Day, Republic Day, and such. The story goes a long way. Born in an economically poor family in Pasumbalur, Perambalur district, Appavu completed his MSc., B.Ed., MPhil., MA., and BL. He lost his father 30 years ago and his mother when he was a child. He has lived all alone since then.

His experience growing up in a poverty-stricken household helped him bond with the rural students when he got in his first posting as a teacher on January 19, 2009. This was a turning point in his life. Appavu came to know about the government providing uniforms for Classes 1 to 8 students and realised he should help the higher class students and motivate them too. This year, after schools reopened, Appavu provided 399 school uniforms to students at a cost of Rs 1.60 lakh.

Speaking to TNIE, Appavu said, “I suffered during my younger days because my family was poor. But once I started earning, I did not want students to suffer like me. I have been helping students who have been asking me for help. Over the years, this led me to help more students. I started buying uniforms for the students when I came to know that students come to school without uniforms because they were not able to afford one. And also, I want my students to have good food and I arrange a traditional feast with payasam and vadai for them every year.”

He decided to stay off marriage so as to continue with his service to the children.“Perhaps, if my mother had not died, I would have got married by now,” he smiles. Appavu pointed out that he was against discrimination among students. “I have been told by people many times to provide uniforms for only those who cannot afford it. But, I have been providing it to all because they should know all are equal.”

Proud of students calling him ‘Appa’, he said he doesn’t need anything more.”Education is important and my service will continue for students even after retirement.” K Kaniya, one of his students from Class 12, said, “My parents are working as agricultural labourers, and they are working hard to provide me with an education. Appavu sir is helping a lot of students like me. We are very happy and lucky to have him with us. I am enjoying school for four years because of him.”

C Kannan, father of Kaniya, thanks Appavu profusely for reducing their burden. “He is not only providing uniforms but doing all the necessary help including buying notebooks. He treats students with so much care.”

Assumed dead, mother-daughter duo make a surprise return

Assumed dead, mother-daughter duo make a surprise return

Nearly four days after a 35-year-old widow and her 7-year-old daughter were thought to have died by suicide, they returned to the village on Friday to everyone’s shock.

Published: 21st November 2021 05:34 AM 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Nearly four days after a 35-year-old widow and her 7-year-old daughter were thought to have died by suicide, they returned to the village on Friday to everyone’s shock. A resident of Panambakkam village, V Nirosha, allegedly went missing with her second daughter on November 15. While her mother-in-law suspected the worse, she had actually gone to her relative’s house. Upon reading the news about their possible death, the duo came back.

Police said Nirosha’s mother-in-law G Kumari, who searched for them, came to know that the two last visited the Selliyamman temple, and subsequently lodged a complaint at Vengal police station the next day. Kumari told police that Nirosha had observed her husband’s death anniversary two weeks ago and suspected that she, along with her daughter, jumped into the Kosasthalaiyar river in Tiruvallur.

The police and Fire and Rescue Services personnel launched a search, but abandoned the operation since they could not be traced. Upon return, Nirosha reportedly informed the police that she left for her uncle’s house in Thirumazhisai.

“She never had such intentions, but circumstances made everyone believe so. She had also lost her mobile phone,” said a police officer.

KGMU profs, students felicitated for research

KGMU profs, students felicitated for research

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow: 21.11.2021

As many as 21 faculty members and five students were felicitated with ‘eminence in research’ awards at the Annual Research Showcase 2021 organised by KGMU’s research cell on Sunday.

The Prof Dhavendra Kumar Gold Medal for Young Investigators went to Prof Smriti Agrawal in gynaecology and Dr Siddharth Agarwal in ophthalmology for their innovation and research.

The best PhD thesis award was bagged by Dr Shilpa Trivedi from the oral and maxillofacial surgery department for her work on isolating stem cells from dental tissues.

Prof Abhijit Chandra from surgical gastroenterology was awarded for the best surgical clinical paper for developing novel innovative techniques for management of rectal prolapse.

The award for best preclinical paper was given to Prof Shailendra Saxena for finding novel application of sedative drug belladonna in Japanese Encephalitis management.

Prof Geeta Yadav from the pathology department got the best para-clinical award for her work on a strong activation immune system in Covid patients. Prof Hardeep Singh Malhotra from neurology got the best clinical medical paper award for his work on neurological impact of tuberculosis.

Among PG students, PhD scholars and MSc nursing students, Dr Deep Chakrabarti from radiotherapy was awarded for the best paper. In UG category, Ahmad Ozair was awarded for his work on safety and efficacy of antibiotics in management of irritable bowel syndrome.

UG students Kausal Singh, Sujeet Rao and Shubham Trivedi were facilitated with ICMR studentship award.

The intramural research grant proposal award went to Dr Parul Jain, Dr Suruchi Shukla, Dr Arpita Bhriguvanshi, Dr Suresh Chand, Dr Satyendra Kumar Singh and Dr Ayush Shukla.

Vice-chancellor Lt Gen (retd) Prof Bipin Puri felicitated Prof UC Chaturvedi (microbiology), Prof Shally Awasthi (pediatrics), Prof RK Garg (neurology), Prof Amita Jain (microbiology), Prof Santosh Kumar (orthopedics) and Dr Sujita K Kar (psychiatry) for securing a place on the list of top scientists by Stanford University.

GO on in-service quota for govt hosp docs sparks row among med students

GO on in-service quota for govt hosp docs sparks row among med students

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:  21.11.2021

A day after the Kalolji Narayana Rao university of Health Sciences issued GO-155, announcing in-service quota in NEET-PG for doctors working at government hospitasl, the announcement became a bone of contention for two sets of medical students.

While MBBS students (junior and senior residents) at government hospitals who have been working in rural and tribal areas for two years stand to benefit from move, they are demanding the quota be increased. As per the latest GO, 20 per cent reservation for clinical and 30 per cent for non-clinical seats has been announced. This is however a reduction from the earlier GO-27 — issued in 2017 — which had 30 per cent reservation for clinical and 50 per cent for non-clinical seats.

Irked with the reduction, public health doctors demanded an increase in quota and said they will protest. On the other hand Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) demanded that the quota be done away with.“Public health doctors and contract doctors as well as all other government doctors will hand over mass leave papers on Monday to DMHOs in all districts and would fight in stages till the cancellation of GO-155 and revival of GO 27 is done,” said Dr Katti Janardhan, founding president Telangana Public Health Doctors Association.

Meanwhile, TJUDA demanded that GO not be implemented. “Giving special reservation quota to these candidates will be a bias towards regular candidates who strive for years together to get a competitive seat,” TJUDA said.

Rains disrupt over 100 trains, many stranded

Rains disrupt over 100 trains, many stranded

Three Major Breeches In Railway Tracks

Amrita.Didyala@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad: 21.11.2021

With tanks overflowing and causing breeches in railway tracks at three locations in the South Central Railway (SCR) zone, SCR authorities have cancelled 42 trains, while nearly 70 other services were impacted. The cycloneinduced heavy rainfall in Andhra Pradesh over the last 24 hours and its impact on train movement, left many stranded. Also, there are long delays in running of many trains.

“My family needs to travel from Kacheguda to Jhansi (12707) and Jhansi to Siwan (11123). The gap between trains were 2 hours. The train is delayed by 7 hours and still waiting to board train at Warangal station. Please help. Elderparents and children are in stress,” tweeted Jitendar from the twitter handle @jitenda04646583. “Is Rayalaseema Express from Tirupati to Secunderabad running? We are at the Tirupati station and no one is giving correct information. Kindly inform usplease,” tweeted CVNS Vedavyas from the handle @cvnsvedavyas.

Others had to cancel their travel plans too. “Train number 12734 has been cancelled suddenly today without prior notice, even I got text of chart preparation, I booked to and fro ticket for Chirala. I’m at Secunderabad station, need solution right now,” tweeted Arif from the twitter handle @smarif4u taggingrailway authorities.

Among the trains cancelled are Chennai Central-Vijayawada express, Chennai Central- Hyderabad express, Tirunelveli- Bilaspur express, Nagarcoil-Shalimar Gurudev express, Guntur- Vijayawada MEMU and Vijayawada-Chennai Central Janshatabdi express among others.

Meanwhile, three of the major breeches in railway tracks that had disrupted the movement of over 100 trains in the last 24 hours were identified on the Nandalur-Razampet section, Nellore–Padugupadu section and Dharmavaram- Pakalasection of the SCR zone.

“These three locations have had major breeches in railway tracks, due to nearby water tanks overflowing. For normalcy to return, the rains have to stop and the tanks have to stop overflowing. Currently, we are in the process of repairing the tracks,” SCR chief public relations officer Ch Rakesh said.

Passengers wait for their train at the Secunderabad Railway Station on Saturday

More rain forecast for city in next 24 hours

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad

: Light to moderate rainfall occurred in several parts of Hyderabad on Saturday. Siddipet, Rangareddy, Medchal, Pedapalli and Nagarkurnool also witnessed brief spells of rain.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad, director K Nagaratna, several places in the city will most likely witness rain in the next 24 hours. “The temperature will be between 22 degrees celsius and 28 degrees celsius in the next 24 hours in Hyderabad,” the director said. In the last 24 hours, the temperature recorded in Hyderabad was between 21.5 degrees Celsius and 27.7 degrees Celsius.

“There will be light to moderate rains in few places in the southern and northern districts of Telangana in the next 48 hours,” said Nagaratna adding that thereafter, there will be a slight reduction in rainfall in the state.

The highest temperature, 32.3 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Adilabad and the lowest, 19.8 was recorded in the Medak.

4 reasons to eat cauliflower

4 reasons to eat cauliflower

21.11.2021

1 Cauliflowers contain potassium, which helps to control blood pressure.

2 They are high in vitamin C, which we need for the production of collagen in the body to help strengthen muscles and skin.

3 They are a good source of phytochemicals, called indoles and glucosinolates, which may stimulate helpful enzymes that protect the body cells from oxidative stress and damage caused by free radicals.

4 Cauliflowers are rich in vitamin E, which helps to neutralise damaging free radicals in the body and promotes healthy skin and hair.

— DAILY MIRROR

HC: Court can’t enter into guesswork about probe

HC: Court can’t enter into guesswork about probe

Ajay.Sura@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:  21.11.2021

The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that it cannot pass any order on a plea to direct the investigating agency, which has summoned a person as witness in some cases, to give advance notice to the person in case he is required to be arrested.

“If such petition is entertained, then it could open up Pandora’s box in as much as every person apprehending arrest would come to the court and file a petition under section 482 CrPc in order to enquire from the investigating authorities or police authorities as to “what they are going to do next”, HC has held. The court was also of the view that intervention of the court in such cases can seriously prejudice the investigation.

Justice Vikas Bahl passed these orders while dismissing a petition filed by Punjab PWD work inspector Harmandeep Singh. The petitioner has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under section 160 CrPc as witness in connection with Punjab’s narco-terror case involving Hizbul Mujahideen. HC was informed that he has apprehension that when he would appear before NIA in pursuance of the notice dated August 8, 2021, he would be arrested and thus, he had sought direction for giving him an advance notice in case he was required to be detained or arrested. Opposing his plea, NIA contended that in this case, the petitioner had not challenged the notice under Section 160 CrPc and is indirectly seeking anticipatory bail which even as per the case of the petitioner, could not have been granted.

NIA also submitted that the petitioner wants HC to enter into guesswork as to what would happen in the course of investigation and in order to preempt the same, the present petition has been filed.

It is submitted that such a petition is legally not maintainable. It is also sought to be argued by relying upon some documents, it is apparent that the petitioner has falsely stated in his petition, on affidavit, that on15.08.2021, the petitioner was on duty on the occasion of the Independence Day, whereas documents from the employer/senior of the petitioner would show that he was on leave.

After hearing both the parties, Justice Bahl observed that as per the facts on record, only a notice under Section160 CrPc has been issued to the petitioner for appearance before the NIA. “This court cannot possibly enter into the realm of conjectures and surmises and foresee by guesswork as to what would be the further course adopted by the investigating agency. At one stage, learned counsel for the petitioner was wanting that the counsel for NIA should disclose as to whether they wish to arrest the petitioner or not… Moreover, the offences alleged to have been committed in the present case are very serious and thus, NIA is to be given a free hand to investigate, so that all the culprits can be brought to book and all the material which is necessary can be collected. The NIA informed that the main accused who has been arrested with Rs 29 lakh in his possession is in fact an over ground worker of banned terrorist organization Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen (HM),” observed the court.