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Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Pune Inc: How a couple moved to the Himalayas and became one of India's homestay pioneers
More than two centuries ago, the poet William Blake wrote, 'Great things are done when men and mountains meet; this is not done by jostling in the street.' In the misty, green landscape of Landour, Uttarakhand, a hotel entrepreneur from a bustling peth area of Pune realises each day that he has taken the right kind of risk to set up a business – and his life – under the gaze of the changeless Himalayas rather than a familiar, fast-moving city. In the process, he has shown that it is possible to marry enterprise with serendipity. Amarjeet Kudle and his wife, fellow hotelier Sunita Kudle, had not wanted to raise their infant daughter in a metropolitan city. They wanted to give her an upbringing rooted in a small and quiet place. The couple was on holiday in Landour, Mussoorie, in November 2009, when they came across 'this very beautiful and quaint 106-year-old house' that was available on the block. The house had been built by a 27-year-old medical missionary during the colonial era. 'We didn't have the bandwidth to buy so we shared our vision for the property with the religious organisation that owns it, and they agreed to lease it to us for 33 years,' says Amarjeet. 'We decided to quit our jobs and move into the mountains, to the Himalayas,' he adds. With this property, La Villa Bethany, the Kudles became pioneers; one of the first businesses to register under the Incredible India Homestay Scheme, which the Government of India launched in October 2010. The Kudles wanted to offer a slice of the tranquility that they had found in the hills to visitors from across the world without disrupting the historic charm of Landour. From its start in May 2011, La Villa Bethany carved out its revenue model as carefully as it refurbished its interiors and fashioned its aesthetics. 'We try to attract like-minded people who will respect the environment. They will value the sanctity and privacy of the other guests who are staying, appreciate the surroundings and Landour's history as a convalescent depot for British officers who were suffering from tropical diseases, and be curious about why the town is called the Peanut Butter Capital of India,' says Amarjeet. It was a tall order to sustain a fledgling business without opening up to commercial tourists from Delhi and Amritsar, among others. But, the Kudles reached the right people. The niche traveller – including a lot of single women – gravitated towards the Enid Blyton-esque appeal of the property and the bow to JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit Home and Uncle Tom's Cabin in the log cabin. House guests eat at least one meal together at the dining table, where strangers become friends. La Villa Bethany's insistence on solar energy for cooking and heating water and its 80,000 litre capacity of rain water harvesting (that is being increased) strikes a chord with guests. The homestay is not only booked but also winning awards globally. Today, the Kudles has eight homestays in a 25 km radius, such as Purkul, Dhanaulti, and Buranskhanda. When the business started, procurement used to be a challenge but e-commerce has solved that. What remains a task is to get labour in a region where communities are small and people value respect and dignity. 'If an entrepreneur develops a reputation for being difficult or hostile, local people would not want to work for you. The mountain teaches you oodles of patience. The thumb rule is that the mountains don't change for you; you have to change for the mountains. You have to give in to their pace; you have to slow down,' says Amarjeet. Though he visits Pune regularly, he looks forward to returning. 'I am a ghati who got promoted to being a pahadi,' he says. Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More
Miami Herald
21-03-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
It's time to honor the women who taught us, watched over us and championed our dreams
During Women's History Month, we pay homage to the great women of this country who helped to make it what it is today — and rightfully so. But while I appreciate the likes of Sojourner Truth; Harriett Tubman; Harriett Beecher Stowe, whose book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' exposed the cruelty of slavery to the world; Louisa Mae Alcott, abolitionist, 'Little Women' author and strong advocate for women's rights; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; Dr. Mary McCloud Bethune, founder of Bethune Cookman College (now university) and human rights activist; and the work they all did to help make America great, I also think about all the unknown women who helped build this country by touching one life at a time. They were teachers, like the late Naomi Carr, who after working hard teaching third graders at the then Frederick Douglass Primary (now elementary) School in Overtown during the 1940s, spent many evenings searching for the addresses of children in her class to learn why they had missed more than one day of school. She did this for me when I missed school because of a sprained ankle. Or the late Marian Shannon, who taught journalism to her high school students at a time when a career in journalism for Blacks at a major newspaper – especially in the South — was almost unheard of. Still, Shannon pushed her students to excel. One of them (yours truly) became the first Black female reporter at The Miami Herald. And, thankfully, she lived to celebrate with me. Or like Jane Lewis, who taught shorthand and typing to her students even when there were no jobs available for them to use their skills. I was able to use what I learned in her class when I applied, by letter, for the file clerk position in the Miami Herald's library in 1965 and was hired. While there were many more outstanding teachers who made a difference in my life, the memory of Carr, and Shannon and Lewis stand out, like it's etched on the breastplate of my heart and mind. It amazes me that so many of the women in my life had the audacity to dream dreams for me and other Black youngsters as we grew up during the Jim Crow era. That, you may remember, was when there were signs everywhere reminding us of our 'place' in society. Signs that said 'Colored Only' over public water fountains. And signs on public transportation that told us, 'Colored Seat from Rear.' These women dreamed because some women before them had dreamed for them. In so doing, they never had to settle for the lowly, underpaid job as a washer woman, or an ill-treated domestic worker that some of their foremothers had been. But it wasn't only the schoolteachers who nurtured me, taught me how to be a strong woman. Before them, there was my mom. I've said it before: Mom was my hero. She taught me to tunnel through any situation, even when I was scared. She showed me by example, that being scared doesn't mean you don't have courage. It took courage to leave an abusive marriage when she was only 24, with a 5-year-old (me) and a 2-year-old (my brother). Although she was 'scared silly,' she kept her faith, which gave her courage and kept her moving forward. There were other women in my life. You wouldn't know them. They were the women in the neighborhood, the true unsung heroes, who served as surrogate moms to the neighborhood children when there was no proper childcare. They always kept a watchful eye on us children, gently scolding and dispensing love for free. They were the likes of the late Doris (Doll) Dorsett, who with eight children of her own, found time to 'mother' a working mom's children. There was Ms. Mae Bodey, who found the time to read to a neighbor's child, opening up a whole new world to her by teaching her to love books, or a Ms. Early Mae, who did not have children of her own at the time but poured out her love on me. Then, there was Ms. Birdie, who was our next-door neighbor when we lived in the Liberty Square Housing Project. An excellent seamstress, Ms. Birdie had two little girls — Maomi and Joyce — when I met her. The pretty dresses she made for them would rival any that the upscale Burdines carried. It was Ms. Birdie who taught me the skill of sewing. It would come in handy years later when I was able to sew a suitable wardrobe for my new job at The Miami Herald. These are just some of the women who encouraged me when I dared to share my dreams with them. Against all odds, these brave and courageous heroes kept on teaching, nurturing and giving hope to youngsters like me even when hope for some of them had died before it was born. Yet, they never let us doubt that there would be a better day for us. And they were right. So today, to all the women who have touched my life, and your life, in positive ways that cannot be measured – I salute you with love and respect.
Chicago Tribune
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Harriet Beecher Stowe's ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin' published
Today is Thursday, March 20, the 79th day of 2025. There are 286 days left in the year. Today in history: On March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel about slavery, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' was first published in book form after being serialized in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era; it would become the best-selling novel of the 19th century. Also on this date: In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his 'Hundred Days' rule. In 1854, the Republican Party of the United States was founded by opponents of slavery at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison; she was released after serving 22 months and was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.) In 1987, azidothymidine (AZT) became the first medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat HIV/AIDS. In 1995, in Tokyo, packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were opened on five separate subway trains in a domestic terror attack by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, causing 14 deaths and injuring more than 1,000. In 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.) In 2014, President Barack Obama ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a major bank that provided them support, raising the stakes in an East-West showdown over Ukraine. In 2018, in a phone call to Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump offered congratulations on Putin's re-election victory; a senior official said Trump had been warned in briefing materials that he should not congratulate Putin. Today's Birthdays: Actor Hal Linden is 94. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley is 80. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr is 77. Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan is 74. Film director Spike Lee is 68. Actor Holly Hunter is 67. Model-entrepreneur Kathy Ireland is 62. Actor David Thewlis is 62. Actor Michael Rapaport is 55. MMA commentator and former champion Daniel Cormier is 46. Actor-singer Christy Carlson Romano is 41. Tennis player Sloane Stephens is 32.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
On This Day, March 20: Sarin attack on Tokyo subway kills 14
March 20 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was published. In 1854, in what is considered the founding meeting of the Republican Party, former members of the Whig Party met in Ripon, Wis., to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. In 1963, a volcano on the East Indies island of Bali began erupting. The death toll exceeded 1,500. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the Alabama National Guard to provide security at a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery the next day. Earlier marches turned violent and deadly, but the third march was considered more of a success both in terms of safety and in spreading the message of the right to vote for black Americans. In 1976, San Francisco newspaper heiress and kidnapping victim Patty Hearst was convicted of bank robbery. Hearst served 22 months in prison and eventually was granted a full pardon. In 1987, the U.S. government approved the sale of AZT, a treatment, but not a cure, for AIDS. In 1995, 12 people were killed, and more than 5,000 made ill in a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. A 13th victim died a day later and a 14th in 2008. The perpetrators, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, were executed in 2018. In 1996, the world learned of "mad cow" disease from a British government report questioning the safety of beef in Britain. In 1997, the Liggett Group, fifth-largest U.S. tobacco company, agreed to admit that smoking was addictive and caused health problems and that the tobacco industry had sought for years to sell its products to children as young as 14. In 2001, five days after explosions destroyed one of its support beams and killed 11 people, the largest oil rig in the world collapsed and sank off the coast of Brazil. In 2003, U.S.-led coalition forces begin military operations in Iraq. The Iraq War officially ended In 2004, after narrowly escaping assassination the day before, Chen Shui-bian was re-elected president of Taiwan with about 50 percent of the vote. In 2007, former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged in Baghdad for his part in the 1982 deaths of 148 Shiites. In 2010, the first eruption of a volcano in southern Iceland since the 1820s forced the evacuation of 450 people, but there were no reports of injuries or major property damage. In 2016, President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928 after normalizing relations between the two countries. In 2019, the Walt Disney Co. officially completed its $71.3 billion purchase of a large chunk of 21st Century Fox. In 2024, the Biden administration released a finalized new Environmental Protection Agency rule regulating vehicles that leans heavily on significant increase in electric and hybrid vehicles on the market in eight years. Less than a year later, the Trump administration announced a rollback of dozens of EPA regulations, including those seeking to reduce vehicle emissions.
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Today in History: March 20, sarin gas attack in Tokyo subway
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel about slavery, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' was first published in book form after being serialized in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era. It would become the best-selling novel of the 19th century. Advertisement In 1854, the Republican Party of the United States was founded by opponents of slavery at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wis. In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison. She was released after serving 22 months and was pardoned in 2001 by President Clinton.) In 1987, azidothymidine (AZT) became the first medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat HIV/AIDS. In 1995, in Tokyo, packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were opened on five separate subway trains in a domestic terror attack by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, causing 14 deaths and injuring more than 1,000. In 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.) In 2014, President Obama ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a major bank that provided them support, raising the stakes in an East-West showdown over Ukraine. In 2018, in a phone call to Vladimir Putin, President Trump offered congratulations on Putin's re-election victory. A senior official said Trump had been warned in briefing materials that he should not congratulate Putin. Advertisement
