My Science School

Virginia Apgar was an American physician, who developed the Apgar Score System, a method employed in hospitals around the world to quickly evaluate the well-being of newborns. Apgar scoring has helped decrease infant mortality to a great degree. Virginia Apgar was born as the third child and raised in Westfield, New Jersey. Her older brother died early from tuberculosis, and her younger brother had a chronic illness. This perhaps strengthened her determination to become a doctor. She graduated with a degree in zoology in 1929 from Mount Holyoke College. Along with studies, she learnt violin, played sports, acted in plays and wrote for newspapers. Apgar graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 and from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933. She joined as the anaesthesiologist at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, in 1935. Anaesthesiologists are doctors who specialise in giving patients anaesthesia, a medicine which controls pain during surgery. In 1937, she became the first female board-certified anaesthesiologist.

Apgar also became the first woman to head a specialty division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

She was appointed a director of obstetric anaesthesia, and researched the effects of maternal anaesthesia on newborns and how to lower neonatal mortality rates. In 1952, she formulated the Apgar Score as a way to assess how well a baby has endured delivery. It was published in 1953, and today is still administered worldwide.

What's Apgar score?

Apgar score is administered within the first few minutes of a baby being born. The baby is quickly assessed and scored against five simple criteria namely Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration (backronym of APGAR). A score above 7 is normal, from 4 to 6 is considered fairly low and a score below 3 may indicate that the newborn needs medical attention. Teratology Apgar was also a name to reckon with in the teratology (a study of birth abnormalities) field of medicine.

She joined the National Foundation-March of Dimes in 1959, where she remained employed until her death in 1974. In 1972, Apgar co-authored a book called 'Is My Baby All Right?' with Joan Beck. It explains the causes and treatments of a range of birth defects.

Virginia Apgar was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.

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Back in August of 1977, a team of astronomers studying radio transmissions from an observatory at Ohio State called the "Big Ear" recorded an unusual 72-second signal—it was so strong that team member Jerry Ehman scrawled "Wow!" next to the readout. Since that time, numerous scientists have searched for an explanation of the signal, but until now, no one could offer a valid argument. Possible sources such as asteroids, exo-planets, stars and even signals from Earth have all been ruled out. Some outside the science community even suggested that it was proof of aliens. It was noted that the frequency was transmitted at 1,420 MHz, though, which happens to be the same frequency as hydrogen.

The explanation started to come into focus last year when a team at the CPS suggested that the signal might have come from a hydrogen cloud accompanying a comet—additionally, the movement of the comet would explain why the signal was not seen again. The team noted that two comets had been in the same part of the sky that the Big Ear was monitoring on the fateful day. Those comets, P/2008 Y2(Gibbs) and 266/P Christensen had not yet been discovered. The team then got a chance to test their idea as the two comets appeared once again in the night sky from November 2016 through February of 2017.

The team reports that radio signals from 266/P Christensen matched those from the Wow! signal 40 years ago. To verify their results, they tested readings from three other comets, as well, and found similar results. The researchers acknowledge that they cannot say with certainty that the Wow! signal was generated by 266/P Christensen, but they can say with relative assurance that it was generated by a comet.

Credit : Phy.org 

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In 1907, Rutherford took the chair of physics at the University of Manchester. There, he discovered the nuclear nature of atoms and was the world's first successful "alchemist": he converted nitrogen into oxygen. In 1919, he succeeded Sir Joseph Thomson as Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. He also became Chairman of the Advisory Council, H.M., Government, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; Professor of Natural Philosophy, Royal Institution, London; and Director of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory, Cambridge.

Under Rutherford's directorship, Nobel Prizes were awarded to James Chadwick for discovering the neutron, Cockcroft and Walton for splitting the atom using a particle accelerator and Appleton for demonstrating the existence of the ionosphere. His research was instrumental in the convening of the Manhattan Project.

By 1911, after studying the deflection of alpha particles shot through gold foil, he had established the nuclear theory of the atom. In June of 1919, Rutherford announced his success in artificially disintegrating nitrogen into hydrogen and oxygen by alpha particle bombardment. Rutherford then spent several years directing the development of proton accelerators (atom smashers).

Knighted in 1914, Rutherford was raised to the peerage as the first Baron Rutherford of Nelson in 1931-a barony that ceased to exist after his death. He died at Cambridge on October 19, 1937, and was buried at Westminster Abbey, in London.

Credit : Atomic Archive 

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In recognition of the increasing importance of science, the University of Cambridge had recently changed its rules to allow graduates of other institutions to earn a Cambridge degree after two years of study and completion of an acceptable research project. Rutherford became the school’s first research student. Besides showing that an oscillatory discharge would magnetize iron, which happened already to be known, Rutherford determined that a magnetized needle lost some of its magnetization in a magnetic field produced by an alternating current. This made the needle a detector of electromagnetic waves, a phenomenon that had only recently been discovered. In 1864 the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell had predicted the existence of such waves, and between 1885 and 1889 the German physicist Heinrich Hertz had detected them in experiments in his laboratory. Rutherford’s apparatus for detecting electromagnetic waves, or radio waves, was simpler and had commercial potential. He spent the next year in the Cavendish Laboratory increasing the range and sensitivity of his device, which could receive signals from half a mile away. However, Rutherford lacked the intercontinental vision and entrepreneurial skills of the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who invented the wireless telegraph in 1896.

X-rays were discovered in Germany by physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen only a few months after Rutherford arrived at the Cavendish. For their ability to take silhouette photographs of the bones in a living hand, X-rays were fascinating to scientists and laypeople alike. In particular, scientists wished to learn their properties and what they were. Rutherford could not decline the honour of Thomson’s invitation to collaborate on an investigation of the way in which X-rays changed the conductivity of gases. This yielded a classic paper on ionization—the breaking of atoms or molecules into positive and negative parts (ions)—and the charged particles’ attraction to electrodes of the opposite polarity.

Thomson then studied the charge-to-mass ratio of the most common ion, which later was called the electron, while Rutherford pursued other radiations that produced ions. Rutherford first looked at ultraviolet radiation and then at radiation emitted by uranium. (Uranium radiation was first detected in 1896 by the French physicist Henri Becquerel.) Placement of uranium near thin foils revealed to Rutherford that the radiation was more complex than previously thought: one type was easily absorbed or blocked by a very thin foil, but another type often penetrated the same thin foils. He named these radiation types alpha and beta, respectively, for simplicity. (It was later determined that the alpha particle is the same as the nucleus of an ordinary helium atom—consisting of two protons and two neutrons—and the beta particle is the same as an electron or its positive version, a positron.) For the next several years these radiations were of primary interest; later the radioactive elements, or radioelements, which were emitting radiation, enjoyed most of the scientific attention.

Credit :  Britannica 

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Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand-born British physicist, who postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, which led to the exploration of nuclear physics. He discovered alpha and beta rays, and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He is often called the father of nuclear physics".

Ernest Rutherford was born in 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand. Ernest received a double major in Mathematics and Physical Science from Canterbury College, the University of New Zealand, Wellington in 1893. He was awarded an Exhibition Science Scholarship, enabling him to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, the U.K., as a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory under JJ Thomson, who was an expert on electromagnetic radiation. In 1895, Rutherford developed a simple apparatus to detect electromagnetic waves, or radio waves.

Early breakthrough

Along with Thomson, he studied the effects of X-rays on the conductivity of gases, resulting in a paper about atoms and molecules dividing into ions. The work led to the discovery of the electron by Thomson. Rutherford, meanwhile, went on to study the radioactivity of uranium. In 1898, he left for Canada to become the Macdonald Chair of Physics at McGill University, Montreal, and continued his research there. The same year, he discovered that there are two distinct types of radiation and he named them "alpha" and "beta". He also described some of their properties. It was later determined that the alpha particle is the same as the nucleus of helium atom consisting of two protons and two neutrons and the beta particle is the same as an electron or positron. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for this discovery.

Other scientific contributions

Rutherford discovered that thorium gave off an emanation that was radioactive. Rutherford came up with the concept of radioactive half-life-he found that a sample of a radioactive material of any size invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay. The half-life is unique for each radioelement and thus serves as an identifying tag.

In 1907, Rutherford took the chair of Physics at the University of Manchester. There, he became an "alchemist" of sorts when he successfully converted nitrogen into oxygen by bombarding nitrogen gas with alpha particles.

Throughout his career, Rutherford worked with leading scientists. He was knighted in 1914 and was buried in Westminster Abbey after his death in 1937.

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In 1932, Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas. When he was three years old his family moved to a five-room farmhouse on 20-acres of land in the town of Dyess, Arkansas. The Cash family was accepted into a federally-assisted planned community created during the Great Depression as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. This “second chance” for his family from the government instilled a deep sense of patriotism in Cash.

In his own words, from the song Man in Black:

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, but is there because he's a victim of the times."

It’s been reported that Cash wore a black shirt at his first performance at a Memphis church because he wanted to look “smart,” and that he continued to wear black for good luck in every performance after.

Later, the Man in Black had this to say about his apparel:

“I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion - against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas.”

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Did you know a black tarantula has been named after legendary American singer, songwriter and actor Johnny Cash? Scientifically called "Aphonopelma johnnycashi", this tarantula was discovered in 2015 near Folsom Prison, California. It was named after Cash in honour of his song Folsom Prison Blues."

The spider doesn't sing, but it's black and can be found near the California prison that was the setting of Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

The researchers also collapsed the number of U.S. species from 55 to 29, including Aphonopelma johnnycashi and Aphonopelma atomicum—named, with a wink to "Tarantula" and other sci-fi B movies, because it was collected near the atom bomb test site in Nevada.

"This is unequivocally the most important work on tarantulas ever done. It sets an incredibly high standard for taxonomy which few will be able to attain," Robert Raven of Australia's Queensland Museum wrote in an email after reading the paper.

The 340-page study by biologists Chris Hamilton and Jason Bond of Auburn University and Brent Hendrixson of Millsaps College "will be referenced for many many years," Raven said.

Credit : phy.org 

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An iconic Nobel laureate and a veteran human rights activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is known for tirelessly spreading peace, justice and democracy in South Africa. Both the black majority and white minority considered him the nation's conscience. "Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour" is how he was described by his longtime friend Nelson Mandela.

He was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. His father was a teacher and his mother was a domestic worker. Young Tutu was baptized as a Methodist, but the entire family later joined the Anglican Church. He was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School. Though he wanted to study medicine, his parents could not afford it. So he became a teacher but resigned later to protest against the Bantu Education Act, which lowered education standards for black students.

Tutu was ordained an Anglican priest in 1960 and left for England to pursue theological study. Having taught theology for few years, he was appointed Dean of St Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and began to establish the organization as a major force in the movement against apartheid. His voice was a powerful force for non-violence in the anti-apartheid movement.

Under Tutu's leadership, the council established scholarships for black youths and organized self-help programmes in black townships. He spoke out against the establishment of tribal "homelands" and used the council as a platform to urge foreign investors to pull out of South Africa. He often used to say, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

As the government became gradually oppressive detaining black people, establishing arduous laws - Tutu became increasingly outspoken. In his human rights work, he formulated his objective as "a democratic and just society without racial divisions", and set forth demands for its accomplishment. He coined the term "rainbow nation" to describe the new South Africa emerging into democracy. The Peace Foundation, which he launched in 2015, aims at extending his vision for a peaceful world in which everyone values dignity and interconnectedness.

Tutu's most characteristic quality was his readiness to take unpopular positions without fear. He spoke against President Ronald Reagan's policy of 'constructive engagement which was intended to show impartiality in South African domestic affairs. He even criticized his own government for backing Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, who had a long record of human rights abuses. He was arrested several times for raising voice against the government.

Tutu's moral leadership, combined with his winning personality and unyielding ideals made him something of a global celebrity. The Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 is just one among numerous awards and recognitions bestowed on him. Apparently convinced of the virtues of modesty, he never seemed to accustom himself to the perquisites of fame and high office.

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world" is the firm conviction and living testimony of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who is remembered globally for his holy activism and righteous indignation against every form of injustice.

Credit : Dr. Sajith Cyriac (The Teenager Today)

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Carolina Norbu is an upcoming, passionate singer songwriter from the picturesque hills of Arunachal Pradesh who also doubles up as a dentist by profession. She plays narrative of how and what she feels.

She believes music is a language that has no boundaries.

Her first performance was at The Urbane Solace, Bangalore, in 2013, after which she was a finalist at the K-Pop Contest the same year. She has since performed at the International Jazz Day in Itanagar, Ziro Festival of Music, Orange Festival and Arunachal Literature and Art Festival to name a few, carving herself a place in the hearts of her audience. Norbu is an artist to watch out for.

VERUS FERREIRA spoke to 31-year-old Carolina Mum Norbu to trace her journey into music and dentistry.

Tell us how music started for you.

Well, I've loved singing since childhood. My family loves music and I grew up listening to my father's cassettes of Boney M, Abba and Bee Gees. And coming from a Christian background, I was always a part of singing groups since childhood.

What were your childhood and teenage days like?

My childhood days are the best memories I have. I grew up in a small town with a population of not more than 3000 then. We stayed near a field where all the kids from the nearby colonies would gather to have fun, play, sing, dance and hang out. By the time I was in high school, I got more into literature and started writing poems to express myself. This caught the attention of some of my seniors at church and they requested that I write a gospel song, given that I had learnt basic guitar skills by then. I tried my best and gave them my first song Almighty. Thereafter, I was so inspired by all the positive feedback that I took an interest in songwriting which followed through into my college life as well.

How did the decision to take up music come about when you were practising as a dentist?

Music had always been my first choice. I joined BDS (Bachelor of Dental Science) to study, and I continued to keep my passion for music alive. The college study was so vigorous, I hardly had time for music. But I made sure that whenever an opportunity came, I participated. While still in my third year, I posted one of the songs I composed and recorded on my phone to SoundCloud. It was so warmly received that I decided to pursue recording it properly in a studio, and then down the road I began pursuing both dentistry and music.

Tell us about your job and how you prepared for it.

I graduated from Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences and hospital (BIDS) in Karnataka. I currently work as a dental surgeon in a private clinic in my hometown, Itanagar.

Who are your favourite artists whom you look up to?

I really love Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran's songwriting skills. I admire Jacob Collier, Finneas and many other musicians.

How do you define your music and which style would you put in?

Indie-pop or Indie-folk

Which musical instruments do you play?

I play the guitar and ukulele. I am learning how to play keys (keyboard) as well.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Who's been that one person who acts as a source of motivation?

Inspiration is everywhere. The books I read, the things I experience, the stories I hear, the situations we go through; inspiration can be anything. My mother has always been my guide.

You released a three-song EP last month. Tell us what they are about?

Eve is a song about a girl trying to court and ask a guy she likes to dance with her. It's a fun song. Under The Sheet is about lazing around on a rainy day, getting cozy with your partner and not going out. A song made for rainy lockdown days. Chemistry speaks about falling for someone who is unexpected and with an uncontrollable feeling.

Are you planning on releasing music videos for them?

Yes. I got to work with an amazing team and we conceptualized a story for all the three songs clubbed together into one music video, which has a running time of approximately 10 minutes. It's on YouTube on my channel, so do give it a watch.

Do you have a regular band that you play with?

Not a regular band, but yeah, the session artists/musicians I mostly play with are members of AIMF (Arunachal Independent Musicians' Forum).

How do you go about your songwriting?

It's always good to have a motive before starting the process. Once I have an idea, I work on the melody and then the lyrics alongside. Sometimes it's the melody first and lyrics later. Sometimes it's the lyrics first and melody later.

What is the selling point that makes your music different from any other vocal groups?

My songs are mostly inspired by and talk about human emotions. I try my best to embody an emotion in the best possible way so the feeling is conveyed to the listeners having no specific gender or age group.

In a male-dominated music industry, have you faced any sexism? Do you want to see a change?

I did, but very subtly. The world is becoming more and more aware and I am hopeful that we are headed towards change.

What do you want changed in the music industry for girls?

I want the music industry to care less for outward appearances and more for talent and hard work. I hope girls don't have to compromise their work ethics just to get the work done.

Surely many young men have taken a fancy to you... do you have a boyfriend?

Ha, ha, ha! They do actually, and it humbles me. I am grateful that they look up to me or fancy me. And no, I do not have a boyfriend.

What are your future plans?

Work on producing more songs, go on tour, play more gigs, meet more people, artists and musicians. Personally, I want to do and achieve a lot of things which I couldn't in 2020 and 2021. I think it's the same for everyone's resolution for 2022. Fingers crossed.

Your message to our young readers...

If you have a passion that you know in your heart is genuine, true and honest, pursue it. It's never too late. Don't wait for someone to come and make your dreams come true.

Credit : Verus Ferreira (The Teenager Today)

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Tanzanian author and retired British academic Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. A Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury Gurnah was awarded the prize for his work on exploring the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee. Gurnah has written 10 novels and several short stories.

His most famous novel is Paradise , which was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1994

"Gurnah consciously breaks with convention, upending the colonial perspective to highlight that of the indigenous populations. Thus, his novel Desertion (2005) about a love affair becomes a blunt contradiction to what he has called “the imperial romance,” the Nobel Prize added.

The twitter page also shared a recording of a near six-minute telephone interview with the writer. "I was just watching the announcement here on my computer. Who are you please?" Gurnah asks as an official from the Nobel Prize speaks. When the person later introduces himself and asks how he feels, Gurnah, sounding calm and composed, says, "I am still settling in, man. This is such a big prize."

Gurnah becomes the first Tanzanian writer to win the Nobel Prize.

Credit : Business Line

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Indian born Parag Agrawal became the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter after Jack Dorsey, the former CEO and co-founder stepped down from the post he helmed for 16 years. Agrawal is an IIT Bombay and Stanford University alumnus and was the Chief Technology Officer of Twitter before becoming the CEO.

Earlier in the year, Twitter was also in the news for permanently blocking former United States President Donald Trump's account stating that his posts were glorifying violence and went against the company's rules. The social media giant banned several accounts belonging to Indians who were supporting the farmers protest.

Since December 2019, Agrawal has also been working on Project Bluesky, an independent team of open source architects, engineers and designers to combat abusive and misleading information on Twitter.

Bluesky is seeking to introduce a new decentralised technology, the idea being that Twitter and others will become clients of Bluesky and rebuild their platforms on top of the standard, Dorsey has said previously.

Before joining Twitter, Agrawal worked at Microsoft Corp, Yahoo and AT&T Labs Inc. in their research units, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Agrawal has a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, according to his profile on Twitter’s “about” page.

Credit : The Economic Times 

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We all love Google because it has answers to all our questions! But how many of us know the man behind the world's largest search engine? Pichai Sundararajan, popularly known as Sundar Pichai, who left for the USA at the age of 20 made revolutionary changes in one of the largest tech companies in the world - Google.

Sundar Pichai was born in 1972 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and brought up in Ashok Nagar, Chennai. His interest in technology began in the manufacturing unit of his father, an electrical engineer, who used to share with him the stories of his work challenges which always inspired Pichai.

Hailing from a lower middle-class family, Pichai grew up, along with his two brothers, in a two-room rented apartment. Due to lack of space, Pichai and his brothers had to sleep on the floor of the living room. His family could hardly make both ends meet and could never afford any luxurious items.

"I grew up without much access to technology. We didn't get our first telephone till I was ten. I didn't have regular access to a computer until I came to America for graduate school. And, our television, when we finally got one, only had one channel," said Pichai in his address to a graduating class of 2020.

Having completed his schooling and 12th grade from Chennai, Pichai proceeded to do metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, Kolkata. Being the brightest of his batch, he eventually earned a scholarship to Stanford University. His father spent for his first-time flight to the U.S., the equivalent of one year's salary. Even in the U.S., Pichai had a hard time living through the expenses and making ends meet. He also pursued an MBA from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pichai's entry into Google in 2004 was marked with the launch of the free mail service - Gmail! He started his career as a materials engineer and later as a management executive. In those days, Internet Explorer was the popular internet browser. Pichai wanted to create a new Google browser but his seniors discouraged him on account of the expense involved. Being an engineering genius known for his innovative ideas and passion for new technology, he convinced his higher ups, and launched Google Chrome in 2008 which became a huge success with people switching their browser from Internet Explorer to Chrome. Till date, Chrome is the most sought-after web browser in the world under Pichai.

Pichai's expertise is also reflected in the development of Google Gears, Google Toolbar, Google Pack, Google Drive, Gmail Apps, Maps, and many more. In 2013, he added Android to the list of Google products. His series of incredible success stories led him to the post of CEO of Google in 2015, and in 2019, he also became the CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

The life and achievements of Sundar Pichai tells a different success story that has nothing to do with wealth or luck. "Success doesn't come to those who wait, but to those who put efforts in making it happen,' is the mantra Pichai keeps close to his heart and applies in his life. He delivered the following message to his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, in 2017: "In the real world, it is important to be well-rounded, try different things, take some risks. I would encourage people to follow their passions more!" Coming from the man who manages the world's biggest search engine and who took it to another level, it's something worth remembering and following!

Credit : Dr Sajith Cyriac (The Teenager Today)

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Margaret Hilda Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister and served three consecutive terms in office. She was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, England and trained to be a research chemist at Oxford. She later became a barrister and specialized in tax law.

In 1951 she married businessman Denis Thatcher. She became a Member of Parliament in 1959 and led the Conservatives to a decisive victory in 1979. She became the first woman prime minister of the UK that year!

She introduced many reforms, including the privatization of state-owned industries and enacted measures to curb trade unions in Britain. Her leadership during the Falklands War and the subsequent victory of the UK sealed a second term in office for Thatcher, earning her the sobriquet- ‘The Iron Lady’. Her government introduced huge reforms in all sectors and some of them were quite controversial. Thatcher’s extended tenure as PM was very significant in British history.

She battled memory loss in her later years due to a stroke and died on April 8, 2013, at the age of 87. In 2011, Meryl Streep portrayed Thatcher in the biopic ‘The Iron Lady’.

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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi’s whole life was spent on the forefront of history. Her grandfather Motilal Nehru was a prominent politician of the Indian National Congress. Her father, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was also a prominent leader in the freedom movement, as well as India’s first Prime Minister.

Indira was born on November 19, 1917 and lived her life watching India’s history unfold before her. When she was 5, she burned her ‘made in England’ doll in solidarity with the Swadeshi Movement in 1921. When she was 12 she led the ‘Vanar Sena’ - an army made up of children who helped in the freedom struggle by carrying secret messages, putting up notices, addressing envelopes and making flags.

She became the 3rd and only woman prime minister of India on January 24, 1966. She went on to mark her tenure by strong leadership and a global presence. She launched a war against Pakistan in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh and won. She implemented strong anti-poverty measures, ushered in the green revolution and clamped down a national emergency in June, 1975.

She lost power in the 1977 elections but won a landslide majority in 1980. Her fight against terrorism in Punjab led to her untimely death on October 31, 1984, when her own bodyguards shot and killed her.

At a speech at Bhubaneswar 2 days before she died, she said, “I spent the whole of my life in the service of my people...I shall continue to serve until my last breath and when I die, I can say that every drop of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it. “She refused to be intimidated by circumstances and changed history and geography as we know it. She was India’s ‘Iron Lady’!

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Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu or Mother Teresa as she is known was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia into an Albanian family.

Little Agnes knew that she wanted to be a missionary at the age of 12. When she was 18, she joined the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto, Ireland to learn English, which was the language used by the Order.

Named Teresa, after St Terese of Lisieux, she journeyed to Calcutta, in 1929, leaving her family behind forever.

She taught for 17 years as a nun but was deeply troubled by the poverty she saw around her. She experienced what she describes as a “call within a call” to leave the comfortable convent and tend to the poor on the streets. She obtained special permission from the Vatican to establish a new order of nuns called ‘The Missionaries of Charity’ in 1950.

The primary task of this Order was to love and care for the people that nobody cared for. She and her fellow missionaries gathered the poor and dying off the streets of Calcutta and cared for them. What started as a small seed community is now a congregation with more than 4,500 nuns and branches in 133 countries.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, but declined the ceremonial banquet asking that the $192,000 cost of the banquet be given to the poor. She was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1980.

She died on September 5, 1997, aged 87. She once said, “To be able to love the poor, we must be poor ourselves. So we possess nothing, we own nothing, we are the poorest of the poor”.

She had a different understanding of poverty as we know it. She once said that the poverty she found in India was easy to overcome with food and clothing, but the poverty she witnessed in the developed world was a poverty of spirituality and love, which according to her, was much more difficult to overcome.

She liked to repeat, “Do little things with great love”. She was declared a saint of the Catholic Church on October 19, 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

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