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2 THE HINDU MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
AAP begins reorganisation bid
The Haryana unit of the AamAadmi Party (AAP) held a
meeting of its volunteers at Sukhrali village here on
Sunday to assess the situation and rebuild the party. Page 4
Emergency immunisation drive to tackle encephalitis
The death of 44 children in Bihar over the past month due to
encephalitis has prompted the Union Health Ministry to order
100-per-cent immunisation of children. Page 5
GURGAON: Official gures
state that 33,000 people ride
everyday on the Rapid
Metro, a three-coach train
that when compared to its
older, bigger cousin in Delhi
resembles a toy train
navigating the Gurgaon
skyline. This privately built
Metro line services a 5.1 km
long route that has six
stations, three of which are
named after its sponsors a
British telecomcompany, a
bank and an Indian phone
manufacturer.
In this entirely elevated
route that presently runs a
loop service that begins and
ends at Sikanderpur, the
footfall is highest in the
Phase-3 station which is
closest to Cyber Green and
building numbers 7, 9 and
14. According to the officials
at Rapid Metro, the station
named after the bank
IndusInd Bank Cyber City
which has been operational
for only about a month now
will in the next quarter see a
jump of 30 per cent in its
ridership gures.
Skyrocketing parking
charges at the nearby Cyber
Hub, a place described as a
heaven for foodies by the
online community for its
range of restaurants, may be
the reason for this estimated
jump in ridership at this
station. A Rapid Metro
spokesperson concurs.
Recently, I saw a large
for the elite. Gurgaons
population is a mixed crowd
of residents, commercial
enterprises and officer goers
and it is important to tailor-
make approaches to
convince each of these
groups to switch from
private vehicles to the train.
The Delhi Metro, he said,
held multiple street plays for
instance in slums and
residential areas when its
rst line came up more than
a decade ago to convince
people to use the train. The
transport systemis after all
for public consumption and
it is important that it reects
the sentiment of the people.
defers in his views on how
the line is currently being
managed.
The line has been
constructed very well but
lacks in operational aspects.
Gurgaon is a multi-cultural
and multi-strata society and
it is important for people to
be convinced to use the
Metro, he said.
Citing an example where
the Rapid Metro organised a
programme for company
CEOs to walk and ride on the
Metro, the official said: If
you only do programmes
that target the top bosses of
companies it will appear that
the Metro train is reserved
The Rapid Metro was to
carry nearly 1 lakh people
daily but officials claimit is
too early to judge the success
of this private project. We
commissioned the line in
November 2013 and we only
made the IndusInd Bank
Cyber City operational a
month ago so its unfair to
say we havent reached the
estimated daily footfall
levels. In fact, we expect this
new station to soon be the
one which sees the highest
footfall, said the
spokesperson.
An official who worked
very closely with the Rapid
Metro project, however,
is far more convenient to
just take an auto directly,
she said. Aparna was using
the Rapid Metro for the rst
time this week, only because
she was travelling to Delhi.
I feel connectivity is a
huge problemfor people
who live in Gurgaon. Maybe
for people who come in from
Delhi and Ghaziabad this
Metro service is convenient.
Id rather use autos to get
around, she added.
Vaishali-resident Pankaj
Saxena and Lajpat Nagar
resident Shobit both of
whomwork in one of the
many high-rise buildings
here are cases in point.
Upadhyay lives in Gurgaons
Sector-14. Every day she
spends Rs. 100 on an
autorickshaw, which takes
her directly fromher home
to her place of work at DLF
Square, closest to the
Vodafone Belvedere Towers,
the third station on the loop
service. Travelling anywhere
on the line has a xed rate of
Rs. 12.
If I take the Metro, I
would end up spending Rs.
70 to go to the M.G. Road
station on the Delhi Metros
Yellow Line, then change
trains at Sikenderpur to
travel to my office. I will end
up saving maybe Rs. 10 but it
group of women and
children travelling on the
Rapid Metro to Cyber Hub.
Due to the exorbitant
parking charges and lack of
space on weekends many
people choose to park their
cars either in Sikanderpur or
Huda City Centre stations
and take the train, said the
spokesperson.
Yet, how many of the
33,000 people who ride on
the Rapid Metro are
Gurgaon locals? This week,
The Hindu took a ride on the
Rapid Metro and
interestingly found more
number of out of town
commuters travelling in
fromDelhi and Noida as
compared to locals.
24-year-old Aparna
Sowmiya Ashok
Are Gurgaon residents game for a smooth ride on the Rapid Metro?
The Rapid Metro track running through Gurgaons commercial area. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
A young commuter inside the Rapid Metro in Gurgaon. PHOTO: MONICA TIWARI
It has been said that 33,000 people ride every day on this privately built metro line. The Hindu takes a ride on the Rapid
Metro and nds that there are more number of out-of-town commuters travelling on this route than the locals
NEW DELHI: Entrepreneurship
is the new fashion mantra
that todays youth not only
wear, but also carry well
with an lan.
In the innite horde of
aspirations, young students
are trying hard to build their
own identity while basking
in the joy of working for
themselves.
Some of the popular areas
which have witnessed young
entrepreneurial activities
are IT services, e-commerce,
product development,
counselling, photography
and entertainment.
SanyamBajaj, a business
economic graduate from
Maharaj Agarsen College,
has come up with his own
photo studio.
This 21-year-old
photographer started his
career with zero
investment, using the
money won in 36
competitions a sumof
about Rs.36,000 to buy
himself a Canon 600D.
He has covered some
major projects and insists
that determination was his
mantra.
For 23-year-old Ruchika
Batra, who loves to
meditate and do yoga in her
oversized T-shirts, as per
her twitter prole, the
passion to help people made
her launch Yoga of
miracles website.
She started with a website
in her name and now
conducts yoga workshops
and life coaching sessions
for youngsters in 20-30
age-group.
It took me a while to
bring traffic to my website
specically because of my
young age but the future is
bright for online businesses
and if it serves the society it
is sure to go big, insisted
Ruchika.
Teamwork is an
important pillar of strength
for youngsters who dabble
in business.
CustomT was co-founded
in 2012 by three friends who
sought to simplify the way
people order customT-
shirts online.
Videt Jaiswal fromNSIT,
Delhi and co-founder of the
merchandising venture,
said: We all were in our
rst year of college and we
started with a gruesome
experience with a local
dealer who ruined our
society t-shirts. We had
spent a week designing the
t-shirts and collecting the
money fromour batch
mates but when the t-shirts
came post-printing after 14
more days, they were
horric! This incident was
an inspiration and we
translated it into action.
Since youngsters are
passionate about sports,
some have identied
lucrative business
opportunities in this.
Pranav Harmilapi, 21,
founder Delhi Soccer
League, says don't lose
hope is the moral that
drives him.
It all started when I was
repeating Class XI. I was
under peer pressure and
knowing that I had unk in
the class, I was determined
to prove that I was way
better than others. I was
motivated to do something
in life and never let failure
affect me, he said.
He has done around 20
events since November 2010
and hopes that DSL Season
7 will be another triumph to
his kitty.
Some youngsters have
also used technology and
scientic advancement to
build their own careers
while bridging the gap
between innovation and
technology.
Aishwariya Goel, founder
of EmbedLearn is an
engineer by profession who
rather than taking up a job
decided to build her own
business.
She has since organised
around 20 workshops and
winter camps in Delhi for
around 1,000 students.
EmbedLearn
Laboratories was conceived
with a dreamto improve the
element of Learning by
Doing pedagogy in the
Indian education system.
Through her venture she
strives to provide quality
education by ensuring that
students get adequate
practical knowledge apart
fromacademic learning.
Now, Aishwarya said, she
is working to set up
customised Labs in different
parts of Delhi. By mid-June
we will be launching our
rst IDiscover Lab in an
NGOin Karol Bagh.
The rise young
entrepreneurs in the
National Capital is a sign of
economic development. It
reiterates the belief that
employment is not
generated but created and
for it to happen it is very
important to have a climate
where young entrepreneurs
not only grow but are also
able to sustain their growth.
Young entrepreneurs and their tales
Lakshi Bhatia and
Parul Garg
NEW DELHI: Aspirants of bank-
ing exams made a bee-line on
Sunday morning for the
banking seminar organised
by Career Launcher in collab-
oration with The Hindu. The
jam-packed Kamani Audito-
riumeagerly awaited Abhish-
ek Gaike, a serial banking
examtopper to beginwiththe
session.
Mr. Gaike talked about the
various opportunities in the
banking eld. Mr. Gaike is a
former manager of ICICI
Bank, Mumbai, and holds a
Post-Graduate Diploma in
Banking.Through interaction
with the participants, he also
claried several myths asso-
ciated with banking exams
and gave the aspirants a new
perspective towards the
banking eld.
Besides Mr. Gaike, Praveen
Tyagi was also part of the ses-
sion. As an academician, who
has been associated with CL
over the past 11 years, Mr.
Tyagi shared techniques that
would help aspirants in mak-
ing speedy calculations dur-
ing entrance examinations.
Mr. Tyagiexplained in detail
how with smarter question-
solving techniques, one can
avoid tedious calculations.
Smarter way to
crack banking
exams
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: In the last three
years, Venkatesh Kandunoori
and his friends have travelled to
eight States with his large
sketch of cricketer Sachin Ten-
dulkar and collected 98 auto-
graphs of national and
international personalities on
it. All thats left are autographs
of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and Congress president
Sonia Gandhi. After getting
these, Venkatesh plans to pre-
sent the painting to President
Pranab Mukherjee.
However, after spending for-
ty days in the Capital, Venka-
tesh has still not got an
appointment witheither leader.
While Mr. Modi is expected to
return from Bhutan by Tues-
day, Ms. Gandhi is leaving for
the United States for medical
treatment and will only return
after three weeks.
I started on this sketch just
before the cricket World Cup in
2011. It took me six months to
complete it. In the last three
years, I have spent Rs. 5 lakh
travelling and approaching re-
nowned persons to sign my
painting. I nanced this by sell-
ing other works of mine, Ven-
katesh told The Hindu.
The four-and-a-half foot por-
trait of the legend is surrounded
by national symbols and small-
er sketches of personalities
linked to cricket, Sachin or the
nation.
These include former cricket
captains Kapil Dev and Sunil
Gavaskar, national and spiritual
personalities like Mahatma
Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda
and Sathya Sai Baba, Indias
rst cricket captain C.K. Nayu-
du, Sachins rst coach Rama-
kant Achrekar, cricketers Don
Bradman and Vivian Richards.
It also features the Indian
Koh-i-noor Diamond on the
British crown.
This, according to Venka-
tesh, symbolises that even
though we dont have the dia-
mond with us these people are
our koh-i-noors.
Those who autographed this
epic painting include President
Mukherjee, former President
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the chief
ministers of Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Mah-
arashtra and Uttar Pradesh, for-
mer Delhi CMArvind Kejriwal,
social activist Anna Hazare,
musicians Lata Mangeshkar
and A.R. Rahman, the 2011 Indi-
an cricket team which includes
Sachin himself and lm stars
such as Amitabh Bachchan,
Madhuri Dixit Nene, Hrithik
Roshan, Aishwarya Rai.
The person who played the
most hard to get so far, was Mr.
Kalam. It took me two years to
get his autograph. Finally, I got
it during this visit to Delhi...
Travelling everywhere by train,
I spent sleepless nights protect-
ing the painting. I have done
this to attract government and
the public to support and fund
sports, explained Venkatesh
who is currently put up with
friends in Saket.
A student of the Jawaharlal
Nehru Architecture and Fine
Arts University in Hyderabad,
Venkatesh has also created a re-
alist statue of Sardar Vallabhb-
hai Patel. The foot-tall brass
statue, which has UNITY em-
bossed on its base in silver, re-
sembles Soviet-style statues
with owing garments and chi-
selled expressions.
I have already planned my
next work. It will be a timeline
of Indian History from 3000
BC. But rst, I need these two
autographs to complete a cen-
tury and give it to the President.
I have already spent Rs. 60,000
inDelhi. A taxi, to transport this
painting to and fromvarious of-
ces, in order to get an appoint-
ment with the leaders, costs Rs.
2000a day. But I wont give up,
he told The Hindu.
A long wait for the last two autographs to complete Sachins sketch
Pheroze L. Vincent
Venkatesh Kandunoori with his works in New Delhi.
PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT
NEW DELHI: The School of Open Learning (SOL)
will nally open its admission gates on Tuesday,
a day after Delhi University shuts its application
process. The move comes after a series of pro-
tests by the Staff Association and the SOL Stu-
dents Union. Previously, admissions for SOL
began along with the admissions for regular
colleges.
As per the schedule, application forms will be
available online and offline.
The online forms are free and the offline
forms are available for Rs. 100. The online forms
will be made available from Tuesday whereas
the physical forms will be available at the SOL
only from June 25. The last date for applying
without a late fee is August 21.
Thereafter a late fee of Rs. 200will be charged,
and the nal last date for seeking admissions is
September 15.
The SOLis currently offering courses like B.A.
programme, B.Com, B.Com (Honours), B.A.
(Honours) English and B.A. (Honours) Political
Science.
SOL to issue applications
from tomorrow
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: Everyday, we con-
sume copious amounts of in-
formation from sources such
as the internet fora, blogs,
web applications, podcasts,
webcasts, news, emails and
the signicant social media
bandwagon including Face-
book, Twitter, Pinterest
,Tumbler. Becoming our own
assimilators, we create a dig-
ital identity for ourselves.
We are drowning in the age
of information and yet, starve
for knowledge, remarked
American author and public
speaker John Naisbitt.
Massive amount of infor-
mation can be counter-pro-
ductive and impact decision
making sensibilities. Caught
in the uninspiring rut, we
have witnessed the tempestu-
ous loss of our very owntradi-
tional habits such as reading
offline.
From reading emails to
managing updates, we are
breathing, walking and talk-
ing information.
Shruti, a 20-year old Delhi
University student agrees.
While there was a time when
access to information was al-
most a luxury, today even
while there is a glut of infor-
mation, it is sometimes a bit
of a letdown. Revamped con-
tent, innumerable argu-
ments, different schools of
thought but no conclusion.
No matter how much you
have read, theres another
person who has dug in varied
information and that person
can make us feel miserable,
she says.
Nabeel K. Adeni, a social
media evangelist and consult-
ant agrees that with the in-
cessant amount of content
coming in through different
social media, it has become
challenging to consume in-
formation.
Social Media has given the
power to every individual to
create, consume and share
content of all sizes and for-
mats. Like all good things,
even this has side effects,
said Mr Adeni.
It has become difficult to
decipher knowledge, infor-
mation, and data from each
other. The information over-
load has made it difficult to
search for and process the re-
quired information, thereby,
making it cumbersome to do
analysis and make decisions.
This is where we need to pick
and choose our sources, he
added.
Many ascribe the easy ac-
cess as the spoiler here, oth-
ers feel that they have to be
careful on the ill-effects it has
on the stakeholders involved.
Childrenare not equipped to
seize information that they
view. Any kind of information
arouses interest. I have to
keep a constant watch on
what my kids are doing, says
Shalini Manchanda, a teacher
and a mother of two.
Even too much informa-
tion is good for me as it tells
me about different aspects of
the same thing. It facilitates
comparison. Tabulating in-
formation is the solution for
me to deal with information
overload says Palash, a mar-
keting professional. Others
say they nd it to use the in-
ternet as and when it is re-
quired.
I dont feel the need to re-
main connected through so-
cial media. My work is
enough to help me connect
with people, says Rohit Bha-
tia, a Delhi-based property
developer.
But with a thousand voices
trumpeting from different
sides, which one do you be-
lieve? The key is to be a know-
ing observer who is aware,
circumspect and can commit
to detachment from this for-
ever-connected mode from
time to time.
Lakshi Bhatia
Perils of gleaning knowledge
from a ood of information