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Courtesy: Girish Kumar Juneja It is rare to come across prophets who are equally revered by the people of different religions, social milieu, and ethnicities. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is one of them. He was born in 1469 in the erstwhile Punjab province of India. From his childhood, he rebelled against the existing religious dogmas and social practices based on blind faith or mere superstition. He showed no interest in the mundane ritualistic life and, instead, advocated unconditional devotion to the true Lord Supreme, Sat Kartar. He had an inquisitive mind, which often led him into trouble with his teachers, who failed to quench the thirst of his curiosities. From his early life, he was an embodiment of compassion. When his father gave him money to start a business, he spent the entire amount feeding the deprived. On being questioned about his business, he replied that by feeding the hungry, he had performed the “true deal”, or a “Sacha Sauda”. For him, in th...

Mao Hosaka, JICA volunteer in Environmental Education at Manchester 4-H Club hands out sticky notes and coloured markers to students of Morgan's Forest Primary School in Clarendon, their task was to write things they are thankful for. Mao Hosaka has perhaps done it all – from delving into the uber megapixels of animation in Tokyo, finding eternal bliss meditating in a temple in Thailand, to kicking up a storm as she brushed up her Muay Thai (Thai boxing) skills, learning Bahasa (the official language of Indonesia), and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. “Even though the work experience didn’t last long, it made me realise that this kind of life in a big city was not for me,” she said. “Since then I started looking for something that I’m passionate about, something I’m happy doing as a part of my life.” In her quest for finding purpose and meaning, Hosaka travelled to Zimbabwe and also volunteered in a wildlife conservation programme in South Africa. Now a Japan International Co...

Ampofo Mensah Jr (right) with some of the staff and students of Lower Buxton Primary School, St Ann. One is often told – “You don’t look Indian,” to which the 1.2-billion dollar question is: “How do Indians look?”…What, one might ask, is the context of this statement? It stems from the fact that some notions are just that, notions and pre-conceived – for the celebration of a country’s unity lies in her diversity across the board. Trick question number two… “How do Americans look?”… Ampofo Mensah Jr was left to ponder this when his family moved from Ghana to the United States and settled in the Big Apple. “It was a revelation for me,” Mensah said. “I faced struggles with the paradigm of my immigrant family seeking to adjust to living in the US from Ghana, West Africa.” Mensah was getting a brush of the ‘big, bad world’ out there, but then again, his parents decided that they were going to go all out to encourage him and his siblings to focus on their goals, of acquiring ed...