Aung San Suu Kyi

"If you're feeling helpless, help someone. "

― Aung San Suu Kyi

• Aung San Suu Kyi leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), a minority grouping in Myanmar's army-dominated parliament.
• Aung San Suu Kyi was born on June 19th, 1945, daughter of Burma’s independence hero, Aung San, who was assassinated when she was only two years old.
• Aung San Suu Kyi was educated in Burma, India, and the United Kingdom. While studying at Oxford University, she met Michael Aris, a Tibet scholar who she married in 1972. They had two sons, Alexander and Kim.

• She spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. Her crime? Winning a landslide victory in a 1990 election, held two years after she made her political debut in the country then known as Burma.
• In 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi traveled to Burma to tend to her ailing mother, but was soon drawn into the political ferment. Opponents of Burma's military rulers sought a leader after student-led pro-democracy protests were crushed by Burma's army leaving some 3,000 dead and thousands more in jail.
• Her first political speech that summer drew some half-million people. As the daughter of a post World War II independence hero, she was the obvious choice for many, despite spending much of her life outside Burma married to a British academic with their two young sons.

 

• As Aung San Suu Kyi began to campaign for the NLD, she and many others were detained by the regime. Aung San Suu Kyi was banned from personally standing in the election. Despite conditions around the elections being far from free and fair with Aung San Suu Kyi and other democracy activists being detained, biased media, and intimidation of politicians, the voting on the day was relatively free and fair. The NLD won a staggering 82% of the seats in Parliament. The dictatorship never recognised the results of the election, and refused to hand over power.
• Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest until July 1995. When released she faced restrictions on travel.
• Her husband Michael Aris was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 and died two years later. The Burmese rulers denied him a visa to visit his wife despite a terminal diagnosis. She refused to leave Myanmar to visit him, as she feared the Myanmar junta would never let her return. The last time Aung San Suu Kyi saw her husband was in 1995.
• In 2000 Aung San Suu Kyi was again placed under house arrest after repeated attempts to leave the capital, Rangoon, to hold political meetings in other parts of the country.

• In 2002, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest and with freedom to travel around the country. The release was part of a deal negotiated by UN Envoy on Burma, Razali Ismail. He had facilitated secret meetings between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military. Confidence building steps had been agreed, including that the dictatorship would stop the vehement attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi in the media, and the NLD would stop publicly calling for sanctions, although its policy of still supporting targeted economic sanctions remained.
• International Support-Aung San Suu Kyi has won numerous international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has called on people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma, saying “Please use your liberty to promote ours.”

   

• She has spent more than 15 years in detention, most of it under house arrest. She was released from her current third period of detention on Saturday 13th November 2010.

• Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, has come to symbolise the struggle of Burma’s people to be free.

Deepa Malik

-An Indian swimmer, biker and athlete.  

• Deepa Malik is an Indian swimmer, biker and athlete.  She has won numerous accolades for her participation in various adventure sports.  

• Malik is not an ordinary person. She is a paraplegic, paralysed from waist down, but that has not stopped the 41-year-old from taking up challenges.
• The mother of two and wife of an Army officer, in fact, turned adversities into opportunity and success.

• "Disability brought my life into focus," Deepa Malik.

• Life took a twist when a spinal tumor made walking impossible 12 years ago. It was a tough time for Malik family. Her husband Bikram Singh Malik was fighting the Kargil war and at home Deepa was struggling with her tumors. Finally the family won both the war. India won Kargil. 
• Despite three spinal tumour surgeries and 183 stitches between shoulder blades, she came out a winner and has never looked back. 
• Deepa also runs a successful restaurant by the name Dee’s Place in Ahmed Nagar.

• National and international medals in swimming, shotput and javelin throw are just a few of the exhaustive list of activities that can be attributed to Deepa Malik. 

• A promising athlete, she had participated in the formidable motor sport event the Raid De Himalaya in 2009 and was honoured with the ‘True Grit Award for outstanding courage and also in the desert rally storm.

• Dr V K Batish, the neurosurgeon who operated upon her at the Research and Referral Hospital of the armed forces at Delhi, is amazed by her progress. “In the 25 years that I’ve been a neurosurgeon, I have never come across a person like her. Deepa’s recovery and her subsequent achievements are amazing. She’s the kind who can teach doctors and the society at large,” he smiles.
• Before her surgery, says Deepa, she was happy being a housewife. “I was very busy wearing branded clothes, decorating the house, getting into the typical rat race. Disability gave me focus. I am now on a mission called ‘Ability beyond Disability’,” she says matter-of-factly.
• Deepa says she wants to change the outlook of patients and the society alike towards paraplegia. “The first thing paraplegics do is stay indoors. They must understand its all right to be paralysed. You are alive, so live your life to the fullest. I agree we have a bladder and bowel issue, but there are ways and means of managing it. The world is there for you, provided you are ready for the world,” she says cheerfully. For a woman who featured in MTV Roadies, Deepa admits that she is “a true roadie in mind and soul.”

Mother Teresa

" As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."-Mother Teresa

•  'Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta' as she is known to the Catholic Church, or Mother Teresa as she is commonly known, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu . Although born on the 26 August 1910, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday".
• Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.
• For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Herbeatification by Pope John Paul II following her death gave her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".
• She was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. Her awards include the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Pacem in Terris Award, an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the Order of Merit from both the United Kingdom and the United States, Albania's Golden Honour of the Nation, honorary degrees, the Balzan Prize, and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize amongst many others.
• Mother Teresa stated that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family."