Famous Personalities - Premchand

Premchand

Born: July 31, 1880
Died: October 8, 1936.

Achievements: Premchand brought realism to Hindi literature. Premchand wrote on the realistic issues of the day-communalism, corruption, zamindari, debt, poverty, colonialism etc. He avoided the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi and instead used the dialect of the common people.

Premchand popularly known as Munshi Premchand was one of the greatest literary figures of modern Hindi literature. His stories vividly portrayed the social scenario of those times.

Premchand's real name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava. He was born on July 31, 1880 in Lamahi near Varanasi where his father Munshi Azaayab Lal was a clerk in the post office. Premchand lost his mother when he was just seven years old. His father married again. Premchand was very close to his elder sister. His early education was in a madarasa under a Maulavi, where he learnt Urdu. When he was studying in the ninth class he was married, much against his wishes. He was only fifteen years old at that time.

Premchand lost his father when he was sixteen years old. Premchand was left responsible for his stepmother and stepsiblings. He earned five rupees a month tutoring a lawyer's child. Premchand passed his matriculation exam with great effort and took up a teaching position, with a monthly salary of eighteen rupees. While working, he studied privately and passed his Intermediate and B. A. examinations. Later, Premchand worked as the deputy sub-inspector of schools in what was then the United Provinces.

In 1910, he was hauled up by the District Magistrate in Jamirpur for his anthology of short stories Soz-e-Watan (Dirge of the Nation), which was labelled seditious. His book Soz-e-Watan was banned by the then British government, which burnt all of the copies. Initially Premchand wrote in Urdu under the name of Nawabrai. However, when his novel Soz-e-Watan was confiscated by the British, he started writing under the pseudonym Premchand.

Before Premchand, Hindi literature consisted mainly of fantasy or religious works. Premchand brought realism to Hindi literature. He wrote over 300 stories, a dozen novels and two plays. The stories have been compiled and published as Maansarovar. His famous creations are: Panch Parameshvar, Idgah, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Poos Ki Raat, Bade Ghar Ki Beti, Kafan, Udhar Ki Ghadi, Namak Ka Daroga, Gaban, Godaan, and Nirmala.

Premchand was a great social reformer; he married a child widow named Shivarani Devi. She wrote a book on him, Premchand Gharmein after his death. In 1921 he answered Gandhiji's call and resigned from his job. He worked to generate patriotism and nationalistic sentiments in the general populace. When the editor of the journal _Maryaada_ was jailed in the freedom movement, Premchand worked for a time as the editor of that journal. Afterward, he worked as the principal in a school in the Kashi Vidyapeeth.

The main characteristic of Premchand's writings is his interesting storytelling and use of simple language. His novels describe the problems of rural and urban India. He avoided the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi and instead used the dialect of the common people. Premchand wrote on the realistic issues of the day -communalism, corruption, zamindari, debt, poverty, colonialism etc.

Premchand's writings have been translated not only into all Indian languages, but also Russian, Chinese, and many other foreign languages. He died on October 8, 1936.

Famous Personalities - Jaya Bachan

Jaya Bachan

Jaya Bachan is one of the most brilliant actresses of Indian film industry. She has made an incredible contribution in the growth and prosperity of the Indian cinema. She was born as Jaya Bhaduri on the 10th of April in 1948 in Jabalpur district.

Life History

She was born as the daughter of Indira and Taroon Kumar Bhaduri. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's Convent school, Bhopal. She is an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. On June 3, 1973, she tied her wedding knots with the famous Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachan. The couple has two children, namely Shweta Bachan-Nanda and Abhishek Bachan. Abhishek is also a great actor.

Film Career

When Jaya was fifteen, she was offered a small role to play in the Bengali film Mahanagar produced by Satyajit Ray. Her next movie Guddi, which was in Hindi, was a big hit in the box office. In this film, she was portrayed as a school girl, who had a major crush on the superstar Dharmendra. She was simply obsessed about him. Thereafter, she signed plenty of films like Jawani Diwani, Uphaar, Anamika and many more.

Participation in politics

Jaya Bachchan at a later stage began taking interest in the politics of the country. She was a part of the Samajwadi Party and also has been a Member of Parliament. There has been a lot of controversy regarding her holding the position of profit side by side with the post of MP.

Awards & Recognitions

Filmfare Awards (1975, 1980, 2001, 2004, 2007)
Omega Award for Excellence: Lifetime Achievement (1998)
She is a recipient of the Yash Bharati Samman, the highest award in Uttar Pradesh

Notable Works of Jaya

 
Zanjeer
Abhimaan
Chupke Chupke
Sholay
Laaga Chunari Mein Daag
Silsila
Annadata
Sholay
Mili
Parichay
Kal Ho Naa Ho

Famous Personalities - Arun Sarin

Arun Sarin

Born: October 21, 1954

Achievement: CEO of global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc.

Arun Sarin is the Chief Executive Officer of the British based global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc. He is one of the few Indians to head a global multinational company.

Arun Sarin was born on October 21, 1954 at Panchmari, Madya Pradesh. His father was an army officer and Arun Sarin did his schooling from military boarding school in Bangalore. After schooling, Arun Sareen joined IIT Kharagpur and graduated in 1975. In 1977, he did his MS in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and subsequently did his MBA from the same university in 1978.

 

Arun Sarin started his professional career in 1978 as an environmental analyst for a Washington, D.C., consulting firm. In 1981, he joined Natomas in California as a corporate development manager. Arun Sarin entered telecom industry in 1984, when he joined Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. At Pacific Telesis Group, Arun worked closely with Sam Ginn, the legendary telecommunications entrepreneur. He worked with Pacific Telesis in various professional and executive positions for 10 years, and was later appointed vice president of corporate strategy. Arun Sarin left Pacific Telesis in 1994 when it split its mobile and paging businesses.

In 1995, Arun Sarin followed his mentor Sam Ginn to a newly formed wireless-communications company, AirTouch Communications. He was President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch from February 1997 to June 1999. In 1999, AirTouch and Vodafone, a large British wireless communications company joined hands to create Vodafone-AirTouch. Arun Sarin was made chief executive of the newly formed corporate entity. In April 2000, Arun Sarin resigned from Vodafone-AirTouch and took the CEO position at InfoSpace, an Internet infrastructure company based in Bellevue, Washington. As CEO Arun Sarin led the merger of InfoSpace and Go2Net, a consumer-portal company, for approximately $4 billion in a stock swap.

After an eight-month tenure at InfoSpace, Arun Sarin resigned. In July 2001, he joined Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) to lead a new telecommunications venture called Accel-KKR Telecom. After an eighteen month stint at Accel-KKR Telecom Arun Sarin resigned and on July 30, 2003 he was installed as the CEO of Vodafone.

Famous Personalities - Jamini Roy

Jamini Roy

Born: 1887
Died: 1972

Achievements: Developed a personal painting style inspired largely by traditional Indian folk and village arts, particularly those of Bengal. Through his paintings he gave expression to the scenes of everyday life of the people of rural Bengal

Jamini Roy was one of the most significant and influential painters of the 20th century. He was born in a middle-class family in 1887 at Beliator village in Bankura district of Bengal. His father Ramataran Roy was an amateur artist who, after resignation from government service, spent the rest of his life in his village amidst the potters.

In 1903, at the age of sixteen, Jamini Roy came to Calcutta and studied at the Government School of Art. He learnt academic methods then in vogue in the West, and achieved his early fame as a portrait painter in the European tradition. However, soon Jamini Roy cultivated a personal painting style inspired largely by traditional Indian folk and village arts, particularly those of Bengal. Jamini Roy, through his oil paintings, gave expression to the scenes of every-day life of the people of rural Bengal.

For his paintings, Jamini Roy selected themes from joys and sorrows of everyday life of rural Bengal, religious theme like-Ramayana, Sri Chaitanya, Radha-Krishna and Jesus Christ, but he depicted them without narratives. Apart from this he painted scenes form the lives of the aboriginal Santhals, such as 'Santhals engaged in drum-beating' 'Santhal Mother and Child' 'Dancing Santhals' etc.

In his career as an artist Jamini Roy earned fame by evolving his own language of painting which he termed as 'Flat Technique'. Jamini Roy used cheap indigenous pigments for his art to make them within the reach of the affluent as well as the poor. Like the pata-painters of Bengal he proposed his own paintings from indigenous materials like lampblack, chalk-powder, leaves and creepers.

The exposition of Jamini Roy's works were first held in British India Street (Calcutta) in 1938. Jamini Roy's pictures become very popular during the 1940s and clientele included both the Bengali middle class and European community. In 1946, his work was exhibited in London and in 1953 in New York.

Jamini Roy was honored with the Padma Bhushan in 1955. He died in 1972 in Calcutta.

Some of his famous paintings are:

• Santhal Boy with Drum
• Cats Sharing a Prawn
• St. Ann and the Blessed Virgin
• Makara
• Cats Plus
• Seated Woman in Sari
• Krishna And Radha Dancing
• Kitten
• Virgin And Child
• Crucifixion with Attendant Angels
• Ravana, Sita And Jatayu
• Warrior King
• Krishna with Gopis in Boat
• Krishna and Balarama

Famous Personalities - Matha Amritanandamayi

Amritanandamayi

Mata Amritanandamayi is a great spiritual leader, who is affectionately known as 'Amma' by her followers. People have a lot of reverence for her. She was born as Sudhamani on 27th September1953 in a small village of Parayakadavu. Also called the "hugging saint" by the people, she is a wonderful woman with a beautiful soul.

Early Life

She comes from a family, mainly engaged in fishing. Therefore, they did not have adequate means of livelihood. When she was just nine, she left her studies and assumed the household responsibilities and took care of her younger siblings.

Earned fame

The worshippers of Mata Amritanandamayi are of the say that, she was a mystic right from her childhood. Since the year 1981, she has been delivering lectures on spirituality all over the world. She is the founder of the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, which carries out various kinds of philanthropic activities.

Recognition

In the year 1993, Amritanandamayi Devi was one amongst the few people who represented Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. In October 2002, she served as the keynote speaker at The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders that was held in Geneva. In the year 2002, The World Movement for Nonviolence at the UN General Assembly Hall presented Amritanandamayi with the Gandhi-King Award for her contribution towards motivating people to adhere to the principle of non violence.

Darshan

Amritanandamayi embraces all the people who come to meet her. She gives them a warm hug and it is said that, in a day, she hugs more than 50,000 people. In the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, "Darshan - The Embrace", a film based on the life of Mata Amritanandamayi was chosen for showcase. It was wonderfully directed by the award winning filmmaker Jan Kounen.

Notable Works

Mata Anandamayi Devi has taken up a number of humanistic and charitable projects like constructing homes and hospitals for the poor and needy. Other activities consist of establishing women's shelters, orphanages, eye clinics, community aid centers etc. There are myriad centers of Amma in the United States that run 'Mother's Kitchen', or 'vegetarian soup-kitchens'. The volunteers cook meals for the poor and underprivileged people.

Mata Amritanandamayi Math runs nearly 12 temples, 33 schools etc. It builds houses for the homeless people. There are about 35 welfare centers of Amma world over. Mata Amritanandamayi Math has made the announcement of making the donation of 23 million dollars for the welfare of the victims of the 2004 tsunami. In the year 2005, the math contributed a large amount of $1,000,000 to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund. In March 2007, the trust declared that it will offer help of Rs 200 crore for the wellbeing of the distressed farmers of Maharashtra, Kerala etc.