Foooootball in the village

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Bodhgaya has been a great place to stay and we are regretting having to leave to Kolkata tomorrow. But we are trying to stick to one month in the north and the second in the south so we've got to get moving to make it by the 15th. We came across a wonderful school in the nearby village and have been helping out with the orphans that stay there. Today we played a soccer match in a field by the river and ate lunch with the kids. The school children that do have parents are very poor. The parents are usually farmers and only make about 50 cents a day. And these people are working much harder and longer than almost everyone in the US. It actually only costs 60 US dollars to sponsor a child for and entire year. This includes everything they need for school. If anyone is interested in donating take a look at www.niranjanaschool.org. The school is in need of funds, especially for more space. They are trying to increase the capacity for their orphanage so they can take in 68 children instead of only 8. Bean gave a donation from the money he got at Farview, and it will be used for shoes, books, uniforms, or food for the orphans. This has been a great experience and really makes you realize how wealthy we are in America and that it is so easy to help many children with just a little bit of our coveted US currency. We are going to visit the school tomorrow again and we will probably get to do a little teaching.

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IAS Topper
IAS Topper is Manish Kumar IIM, Lucknow. Date:12/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/12/stories/2005051212651300.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Front Page Railway official from Tamil Nadu is IAS topper Staff Reporter NEW DELHI: Railway traffic service official Srinivasan Nagarajan has bagged the top spot in the Union Public Service Commission Civil Services (Main) Examination. The results were announced here on Wednesday. In all, 422 candidates, including 67 women, have been recommended for appointment. While the top 20 includes six women, 193 candidates have been selected from the general category, including three physically challenged persons, 118 from Other Backward Classes, 64 from Scheduled Castes and 47 from the Scheduled Tribes category. The number of vacancies reported by the Government for IAS, IFS and IPS is 91, 20 and 88, for the Central Services Group `A' 235 and the Central Services Group `B' 19. It may have been his fourth and last attempt but for Tirunelveli-based Mr. Nagarajan, it could not have ended on a better note. A B.Tech from BITS Pilani, he had sociology and geography as options. Professionals have clearly scored, with the top 10 comprising an engineer, two doctors and an IIM graduate. Basant Garg and Gaurav Uppal are both doctors and hold the second and third ranks this year. Basant has cleared it in his first attempt. Manish Kumar, ranked fifth, is an IIM graduate. He had to choose between a New York posting with handsome salary and one that would help him serve his own people. "I decided to take the UPSC exam when I got the offer for a job in New York. Although the money was great, I wanted to do something here. I was not sure if coming back would be easy once I went there, so I decided to write the exam instead. It is my third attempt but I am glad to have finally made it," he said. Interestingly, at least six of the top 10 were trained at an institute here. "We were confident of having our students in the top 10 but six of them, including the top three, was completely unexpected. It has been a brilliant year for us," said Sri Rangam, the man behind the Delhi branch of Sri Ram Institute. © Copyright 2000 - 2005 The Hindu - Alok Ranjan