Latest news with #Nagalakshmi
Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Nagalakshmi living her dreams through journeys of her children, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali
As the tense form of Vaishali sits on the board, blitzing out moves against elite opponents at the Norway Chess tournament, her mother Nagalakshmi makes herself comfortable on the last seat of the playing hall in a spot that's out of Vaishali's eyeline. Walk into the playing hall on any given day of the Norway Chess tournament, and Nagalakshmi will likely be there in that exact seat for an hour after 5 pm when the games start. Her face is usually impassive. Her eyes are trained on the facsimiles of the chessboards being projected up on the walls of the playing hall at the Finansparken Bjergsted for the audience to follow the action. She admits she doesn't understand the nuances of the sport — or even wants to understand them — but as Praggnanandhaa had said during the Tata Steel Kolkata Chess tournament in 2023, she can gauge what's going on on the board simply by the expressions on her kids' faces. 'But these days it's getting harder to do that,' she had told The Indian Express with a chuckle last year during the Norway Chess tournament, when again, you could find her on the same seat in the playing hall during each game of Norway Chess when both of her kids, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali, were playing. 'Both my kids usually have the same expression during games these days. It's hard for me to read it now. I don't know the game. And I don't ever want to learn the game. It's a conscious decision. If I learn the sport, then every move will be a source of tension. Because I don't know the sport well, I'm okay.' Thanks to her two children, Nagalakshmi has lived some of the dreams she had when she was younger. 'I'm on my sixth passport now. Four of them are completely stamped out,' Nagalakshmi beamed. She wasn't boasting, but you could sense the pride in her voice at what the passports had come to represent. When she was young, she had dreamt of a life abroad. 'I got my first passport when I was young and studying. I had a BSc degree in mathematics. Before I got married, I wanted to go abroad and work at a hospital in whichever country I could. But that passport expired without it getting any use. I wanted to pursue this further abroad. I also worked as a lab technician in Chennai. Twice in my younger days, I had a government job. But on one of those occasions, I was pregnant (with Vaishali), so I had to forgo the opportunity,' Nagalakshmi had told The Indian Express. If chess players are bound by game-time routines, players' parents such as Nagalakshmi find their own rhythms too for the five-hour-plus windows when they're just hanging about at the arena while their kids play. For the second straight year, Nagalakshmi tiptoes out of the playing hall as soon as the clash meanders into the middle game. She will be back during the endgame, usually carrying a fruit or a bar of chocolate in her handbag for Vaishali. This has been one of the routines that she follows at tournaments where she accompanies her kids around the world. She is also present within listening distance every time Vaishali does a media interview. Nagalakshmi is not the only family member of a player in the playing hall at Norway Chess. This year, Magnus Carlsen's father, Henrik, and his wife, Ella, besides Gukesh's father, Rajini Kanth, have been constants in the playing arena during every game. While Gukesh's father sits in the playing hall itself with barely any movement from the start to the end of a game, Carlsen's dad has a self-imposed prohibition about entering playing halls. So he withdraws to a backroom, out of sight from the rest of the world. Last year, the then world champion Ding Liren's mother would also make it a point to be in the playing hall for games, ensuring she sat at a spot where her son was in her eye line. Last year, at the official players' hotel, since the breakfast would end early, it was not unusual to see Nagalakshmi carrying plates of food for both Pragg and Vaishali back to their rooms. She would then get busy cooking lunch for both kids in their room, with the utensils she had brought along with her. Though the kids eat non-vegetarian fare, and there are a few Indian restaurants in Stavanger, they're always wary of what they might accidentally eat, so Nagalakshmi ensured they have a warm home-cooked meal for lunch before games. 'For breakfast, Pragg and I don't leave the room because we're usually sleeping. So our mother gets us plates of food with fruits and croissants in the morning. For lunch, she makes it all by herself. We don't contribute anything or help her prepare in any way. She makes sure that other things are set for us during tournaments, and we can fully focus on chess. She has done the same for us for about 15 years now,' Vaishali had told The Indian Express during Norway Chess 2024. The grandmaster sibling duo is so used to having Nagalakshmi in their corner at events that when they're both playing in different countries, things get tricky for whoever has to travel alone. 'I'm so used to travelling to tournaments with her that I feel the absence when she has to travel with Pragg. Last year, I went to Turkey to play in the Turkish league, when I was staying alone. My mother had travelled with Pragg because he had a more important tournament at the time. I had to cook for myself because I didn't like the food. I had to make my own lunch, so I had to prepare before games and then I had to wash the dishes myself. I really felt every day at that time that I wish my mother was here,' Vaishali had said. Ask her if she has any advice for parents of youngsters who dream of their kids becoming the next grandmasters, and Nagalakshmi said: 'Don't put pressure on kids. It's the kids who have to want to work hard (to be good chess players). The motivation has to come from within, not from you.' The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
The Hindu
16-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
GO on increasing honorarium of ASHAs by ₹1,000 issued
Following Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's announcement in this year's Budget, the State government on Thursday, May 15, issued a Government Order on the release of funds for increasing the honorarium paid to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) by ₹1,000. Of the 42,524 sanctioned posts of ASHAs under the National Health Mission, 41,000 are currently working. Of these, under team-based incentives, as many as 25,996 ASHAs have already been getting an additional honorarium. The GO issued on May 15 has enabled the release of additional funds for the payment of additional ₹1,000 to the remaining 15,004 ASHAs. Welcoming the government's move, All-India United Trade Union Centre State secretary D. Nagalakshmi said the ASHAs are eagerly waiting for a GO on the promised overall honorarium of ₹10,000. 'We have been following this up with the government and are hoping there will be some good news at the earliest,' she said.
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Services of 12,692 pourakarmikas in Bengaluru to be regularised from May 1
Nagalakshmi, 38, has been working as a pourakarmika, sweeping the city's streets for nearly 20 years now. She started under the contractors and was paid a meagre sum of ₹1,000 a month for the back-breaking work. She is one of the 12,692 pourakarmikas whose services will be regularised by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on May 1. 'Working under the contractors was a very bad phase. Not only was the pay less, but there was also harassment we had to brave. We found relief in 2016 when we were brought under the Direct Payment System (DPS). We presently get around ₹18,000 take-home salary apart from several other benefits. Now, with our services being regularised, our salaries are expected to almost double. Naturally, we are overjoyed and we feel our work is finally being recognised,' she said. Depending on seniority and pay scale, pourakarmikas will get salaries on par with other D group employees of the civic body. Considering the 7th pay commission, on an average, they are expected to get around ₹35,000, a senior BBMP officer said. Currently, there are 15,400 pourakarmikas being paid through DPS. Of them, only 12,692 are being regularised, keeping 2,708 still under DPS. BBMP has adopted a criteria that the services of those who have worked for at least two years under DPS and are below the age of 55 years will be regularised. Most of those left out are above 55 years of age, sources said. 'Regularising the services of these pourakarmikas has been our long-standing demand, and we also urge that the services of other pourakarmikas who have been working on DPS mode in other corporations across the State should also be regularised,' said Maitreyi Krishnan of BBMP Pourakarmikara Sangha. Long struggle This is a result of a long fight that started in 2013, said Clifton D'Rosario of BBMP Pourakarmikara Sangha. 'Following recommendations of the Chandrashekhar Committee Report formed in 2013 and our struggle demanding its implementation in full, the then Congress government made a Cabinet decision to regularise services of all pourakarmikas in 2016. That decision is being partly implemented now,' he said. Both sweepers and waste collectors were working under contractors till 2016, amidst allegations of double billing and misappropriation of funds. BBMP introduced biometric authentication of all pourakarmikas, which brought down the numbers from the claim of 32,000 to around 18,000. Contrary to the cabinet decision, these sweepers were brought under a DPS and given minimum wages, a hardship allowance, and other facilities like EPF, gratuity and health insurance. 'As we continued the struggle for regularisation of their services, and to bring waste collectors also on the rolls, the BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai formed a committee under (IAS officer) Rakesh Singh to formulate modalities to regularise their services. Even as that committee did not submit its report, the government announced regularising services of only 4000 odd workers, which was vehemently opposed. Siddaramaiah, who was leader of opposition, assured us that if Congress came to power, they would regularise the services of all pourakarmikas. So after Congress returned to power we restarted our struggle to reach some success now,' Mr. D'Rosario recounted.
New Indian Express
22-04-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Stuck & ‘powerless', 13 families left to brave elements at Chennai's Moolakothalam
CHENNAI: As Samuthira, an 8-year-old girl, plays alone in the debris-covered street of Ramdoss Nagar in Moolakothalam, her laughter echoes on the empty street. She lives with her mother and sister in one of the few remaining houses in the area, as the others were demolished as part of resettlement. With electricity to the left-out houses disconnected, Samuthira could barely sleep at night. The girl's mother S Nagalakshmi (40) is among the at least 13 families who were left behind when over 300 families from Ramdoss Nagar and Pirivil Thottam were moved into newly built tenements by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) in Moolakothalam in September 2024 from the corporation-owned land. Of those families left behind, seven are single women-led households. Despite claiming to have the necessary documents to prove long-term residence status in Ramdoss Nagar, these families were allegedly denied housing. Nagalakshmi's application was rejected allegedly because she couldn't produce a 'deserted woman certificate' to prove her husband had abandoned her six years ago, she said. 'For the certificate, I have to file a complaint with the police. The police refused to file my complaint, saying it's been years since my husband went missing,' she says. She now lives with her two daughters, aged 8 and 10, in an abandoned structure, once occupied by a neighbour who was relocated to the tenements. She moved out of her house after it became home to many snakes. In the area, barely 13 makeshift houses remain, and is surrounded by broken walls and heaps of debris. As per a G.O. issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department on January 25, 2022, applicants may submit Aadhaar and any 'one' of the following as address proof: Ration card, electricity bill, gas bill, birth certificate, or voter ID. Yet officials insisted on only the ration card, the families said. When they produced the ration cards now, they are being told that the beneficiary contribution has risen to Rs 4.5 lakhs- three times more than the Rs 1.5 lakh paid by their 300 other neighbours. 'How can the initial scheme end after including us in the enumeration? Are they selling our houses to others?,' a resident questioned. Most of the residents are daily-wage workers, earning only Rs 300 a day or less, he said adding, paying Rs 1.5 lakh itself is difficult, and Rs 4.5 lakh is just out of reach. With the demolition of most houses, electricity connections to their houses have been disconnected. 'We tap power from the streetlight poles,' Nagalakshmi, who works as a housekeeping staff, says. 'One night, nearly a month ago, a man tried to enter our house while we were asleep. I woke up to the sound, screamed, and he fled.' Since the power connection depends on the streetlights, they are able to use lights until 6 am after which the power automatically goes out along with the street lights. Rainy nights pose even greater risks, said R Devi (48), another resident who lives with her 13-year-old daughter, 'Last week, during the rains, two snakes entered our home - they even crawled over my daughter. She had a fever for two days after that.' Devi's husband abandoned her when her daughter was just a year old. 'Despite being part of the enumeration process, I was excluded. The reason again - no husband, no house.' TNIE also found disabled individuals among those left pumps in the street have been removed, leaving residents with only an exposed pipe emerging near a shallow pit. They now collect metro water in unsanitary conditions. A daily wager Pangajam (66), who has a locomotor disability, lives with her son Raja, who has hearing impairment. They said they managed to pay Rs 10,000 as an initial contribution in September 2024 with the help of loans. 'We received the payment receipt and Form 2 for allotment, but when we ask officials, they keep telling us to wait,' she said. 'Since most houses were demolished and a graveyard is located just on the opposite side, we now sleep in the tenement's parking area because of insects and snakes.' There are two such families who, despite paying the initial beneficiary contribution, have been told to 'wait.' A senior official from the TNUHDB said, 'We will write to the Greater Chennai Corporation to include these left-out families in the Rs 1.5 lakh scheme. However, they noted there is currently no space available in the Moolakothalam tenement.' Meanwhile, the residents have demanded allotment to be made in Moolakothalam, as their workplace and source of livelihood are located here. Speaking to TNIE, GCC Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran assured, 'We will ensure that these families are included in the Rs 1.5 lakh scheme and are allotted houses.'
