Category Personalities

An interview of young achiever Palakh khanna – Chief executive officer –break the ice

My journey from a student to a social entrepreneur and a youth changemaker has  been amazing, and at the same time, quite enlightening. I’m very grateful to get the support of not only prominent individuals, but also my family, organisations, and even young changemakers. I have wanted to create change since I was 10. Initially, my efforts were restricted to protecting the environment. It was during the pandemic that I overheard a conversation between my mom and my domestic help where she was hesitating to talk about something as basic and natural as menstruation. That’s when I realised that in order to change an individual’s mindset, society’s mindset needs to be changed. I set up Break The Ice with this mission in mind. Recently, I was invited as a panelist and a mentor for Business Blasters, the Delhi government’s start-up programme.

Tell us about your organisation Break The ice.

Break The Ice is an international youth organisation working towards discussing all things taboo. We aim at creating a community where everyone can talk about anything they want to without any judgment and hesitation. We do believe we have started that chain of enlightenment by reaching 16,000+ individuals and expanding the team to 50+ young changemakers, across 10+ countries. We are a UN SDSN youth member organisation and are working with the Crimson Youth Entrepreneurship Society, a Why did you want to educate people to feel free to talk about anything?

I want society to understand that taboo and stigmatised topics need to be talked about because they are important. Unless we talk about them, they will simply be pushed under the carpet of ignorance and we will not grow as a society.

Why do you support SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) number four (Quality Education)?

SDG 4 talks about providing quality education to everyone. I believe it’s the base to achieve all the other SDGs. Unless people are educated, they won’t be able to take conscious action.

Tell us about The Cohort Collective programme.

The programme taught us about career development as well as personality development. I am honoured to be the youngest cohort of the programme and be among the eight people selected out of a pool of 100+ applicants. It’s a year-long programme where we get ongoing support.

What are your future plans?

I love Psychology and English, and wish to explore them as a career option. I am also inclined towards the work the UN does and wish to be associated with it in whichever capacity possible. Along with my team, I want to take Break The Ice to a level where we become a global safe space.

Throw light on your other projects.

I am a mentor under the government’s Desh Ka Mentor programme. I am working with GirlUp India as a cohort member. I am also a global lead ambassador for climate change, and a tutor for less privileged children.

Who is your inspiration?

It would definitely be my mom. She has always supported me in every venture of mine. Whether it is some help, or working with me till night, or just the confidence she has given me, she is truly the pillar of support in my life. Even when I thought of opening Break The Ice, she was the one who motivated and encouraged me to give action to my idea.

How do you manage time between studies and work?

I try to keep to-do lists for all the work I have. They usually work well for me and give me time to relax as well. Along with that, I try to finish my work well before the deadline so that it doesn’t pile up in the end. I do have periods of procrastination, but it also helps me understand how well I work under pressure.

What are your hobbies?

I love to dance, I’m a classically trained dancer. I also love to write. Whether it’s short stories or poems, I love to express my thoughts and emotions on paper. I’m a published poet, an achievement I’m proud of.

What is something about society that you wish to change?

I wish to be in a society where equality prevails. I want to erase every bias that exists in society, and eradicate discrimination as well as stigmatisation.

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11-year-old boy finds 30,000-year-old woolly mammoth?

YEVGENY Salinde, an 11-year-old Russian boy, has found a 30,000-year old perfectly preserved mammoth carcass near his home in Russia’s far north. Experts believe this is the second most well preserved mammoth specimen ever discovered. A similar find like this hasn’t been encountered in a century.

Paleontologists did not only find a skeleton, like initially expected, but a complete carcass – skin, meat, fat hump, organs and a tusk. Scientists estimate the mammoth was 15 to 16 years old when it succumbed in the summer because it lacked an undercoat and had a large.

The total weight of the remains is more than 500 kg, and that includes the right half of the body with soft tissue, skin and hair, skull with one ear, a tusk, various bones and even reproductive organs, the Dolgano-Nentsky administration website announced.

It is believed to be the second best preserved mammoth discovery and the best mammoth find since 1901, when another mammoth was discovered near Beryozovka River in Yakutia, the paper reported.

Zhenya discovered the body 3 kilometres from Sopkarga polar meteorological station, where he lives with his family.

His parents informed scientific experts about the discovery after which the mammoth was taken to Dudinka in a helicopter and put in an ice chamber there. After the remains are studied, Zhenya the mammoth will move to Taymyr natural history museum as a showpiece.

Credit : NDTV

Picture Credit : Google 

What is the life story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” stories are considered to be milestones in detective fiction. However, it’s not widely known that Doyle also helped investigate a real-life crime in the 20th Century and came to the rescue of a British Indian lawyer who was wrongfully convicted. In a new book, “The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the case of the foreigner in the English village,” which released on March 10, London-based author and historian Shrabani Basu digs up details about this long forgotten case.

According to the book, George Edalji, a barrister, wrote to Doyle in 1907 asking for his help. Edalji was jailed for allegedly committing a series of mysterious crimes in Staffordshire in England. But Edalji claimed to be innocent.

Doyle, who published “A Study in Scarlet”, had become a household name in England and was often flooded with letters from fans asking him to help investigate crimes. Usually, Doyle did not take up any of these cases, but made an exception for Edalji. In a true Holmes like fashion, Doyle gathered all the clues and successfully proved that Edalji was wrongly convicted and framed on account of racism.

Rings a Bell?

Doyle was born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859. He developed a love for storytelling from his mother Mary Doyle. Surprisingly, he chose to pursue medicine instead of arts-his family consisted of reputed artists. At med school, Doyle met his mentor, Professor Dr. Joseph Bell, whose keen powers of observation inspired him to create the famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Writing and cricket

Although a doctor by profession, Doyle’s interests lay in writing and cricket. He frequently contributed to magazines and newspapers. One day, inspiration struck and he started writing a mystery novel, which would later become “A Study in Scarlet” marking the birth of the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes.

Cricket too played an important role in Doyle’s life. He joined a team of cricketers named Allahakbarries, which translates to Heaven Help US. The side was made up of literary luminaries such as Jerome K. Jerome, PG Wodehouse as well as the son of Alfred Lord Tennyson.

In fact Doyle named Sherlock Holmes after two county cricketers – Sherrinford and Shacklock. Sherlock’s mysterious brother, Mycroft too is named after another cricketer and so is his archenemy. Moriarty.

A remarkable legacy

Doyle passed away on July 7, 1930 at the age of 71. But his legacy is unparalled. The genre of detective fiction grew leaps and bounds because of his contribution.

WHAT’S NEW?

  • Sherlock Holmes has been adapted to the screen multiple times. But the latest eight-part series by Netflix, gives Sherlock a supernatural twist. “The Irregulars”, set to release on March 26 follows a group of teenagers who and embark on dark adventures. They are manipulated into solving crimes by a sinister Dr. Watson.
  • In October 2020, the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle filed a lawsuit against the creators of the film “Enola Holmes” for portraying Sherlock’s softer side. The estate claimed that the film about Sherlock’s sister infringed the copyright by depicting a warmer and emotional Sherlock. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed.

OH REALLY?

  • The other side of the coin: Although Doyle gained recognition writing tales of the analytical and rational detective, he became obsessed with supernatural phenomena in the latter part of his life. This was a result of the untimely deaths of his children and brother in World War I.
  • Doyle was a first-class cricketer and is famous for taking the wicket of the legendary W.B. Grace. But did you know that Doyle even played football? He played as a goalkeeper for Portsmouth FC under the pseudonym AC Smith
  • Doyle brought back dinosaurs! His book, “The Lost World” was the inspiration behind films such as “King Kong” and “Jurassic Park.”

Picture Credit : Google

By whom the electric light bulb was born and how?

Thomas Edison had discovered in his experiments that there were certain bodies through which electric power flowed more easily. He called these good conductors and other bodies that resisted the flow of electric power he called bad conductors. When electricity tried to travel along a bad conductor the latter would resist so much that it glowed until became white-hot.

A carbon filament, for example, gave out a good deal of light; but the light did not last very long because the carbon would soon burn itself up as it was in contact with the oxygen in the air.

Edison then carried out an experiment inside a glass bulb from which he had removed all the air. This time the light of the glowing filament lasted much longer and the fist electric light bulb was born.

Carbon filaments have now been replaced by tungsten wire as its high melting point, low rate of evaporation and low electrical consumption make it most suitable for use in light bulbs. A further improvement has been the introduction of an inert gas in to the bulb. This was at first nitrogen but is now a mixture of 88 per cent argon and 12 per cent nitrogen.

 

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How many women have flown in space so far?

As of December 2019, of the 565 total space travelers, 65 have been women. There have been one each from France, Italy, South Korea, and the United Kingdom; two each from Canada, China, and Japan; four from the Soviet Union/Russia; and 50 from the United States. The time between the first male and first female astronauts varied widely by country. The first astronauts originally from Britain, South Korea, and Iran were women, while there was a two-year gap in Russia from the first man in space on Vostok 1 to the first woman in space on Vostok 6. The time between the first American man and first American woman in space was 22 years between Freedom 7 and STS-7, respectively. For China, this interval was almost eight and a half years between the Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 9 space missions, and for Italy, there was approximately twelve years between the STS-46 and Expedition 42 spaceflights.

A span of 19 years separated the first and second women in space. They were cosmonauts on the Vostok 6 and Soyuz T-7 missions. Though the Soviet Union sent the first two women into space, only four of the women in space have been Russian or Soviet citizens. However, British, French, Italian, dual-citizen Iranian-American and South Korean women have all flown as part of the Soviet and Russian space programs. Similarly, women from Canada, Japan, and America have all flown under the US space program. A span of one year separated the first and second American women in space, as well as the first and second Chinese women in space, taking place on consecutive missions, Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10.

 

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In 2006, which astronaut with Indian ancestry established a world record for women with four spacewalks?

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record of the longest space flight (195 days) for a woman, arrived at her new home amid stars with an international cast of crew for another four-month stay.

In 1993 she became a naval test pilot, and she later became a test pilot instructor, flying more than 30 different aircraft and logging more than 2,770 flight hours. When selected for the astronaut program, she was stationed aboard the USS Saipan.

Williams completed an M.S. in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne in 1995, and she entered astronaut training in 1998. She traveled to Moscow, where she received training in robotics and other ISS operational technologies while working with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) and with crews preparing for expeditions to the ISS.

 

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