Andrakashari Mastanamma, India’s oldest YouTuber aged 107 years, has passed away. Hailing from Gudiwada in the Krishna district from Andhra Pradesh, she rose to fame with her YouTube channel ‘Country Foods’. With over 1.2 million subscribers, she had gained followers from all around the world.

Started and managed by her great grandson, K Laxman, the channel has videos on traditional Indian recipes like delicious egg dosas, fish fry, bamboo chicken biryani, watermelon chicken, rich eggplant curry and spicy catla fish, cooked in traditional style with local ingredients.

Her traditional, unique and unusual local delicacies, made her an instant internet sensation soon after the launch of her channel back in 2016.

Breaking prejudices with her indomitable spirit at a ripe old age of 107, she truly is a source of great inspiration for all. Her warmth, smile and amazing recipes will be truly missed.

Sumeet Vyas is a face that every Indian youngster is familiar with today, after Sumeet broke out as lead actor of India’s top web series Permanent Roomates & Tripling thereafter.

From writing scripts for short films when unemployed to bagging enviable roles in web series, actor Sumeet Vyas is redefining ‘cool’. He has become a recognisable face through his appearances in movies like Parched, English Vinglish and the popular series Permanent Roommates.

His character Mikesh was fun and goofy which made him forge an instant connection, especially with the youth. He’s an effortless actor with a great deal of flair. Watch the video to see how he became one of the finest actors as described by Sumeet himself.

This talk was recorded at Josh Talks Mumbai, 2018.

Click here to watch it now.

Source: Josh Talks

Eliciting a flash of smile, or a giggle, which carries great momentous merriment, that too from an absolutely invisible audience; one can say is a job of a great performer, but what about a performer who is taking this effort every single day? A performer who is present for his audience, at surprising hours with delightfully humorous content making the viewers go into flavours of laughter.

Ashish Chanchlani talks about his journey from an engineering student to becoming an Internet celebrity. He talks about how Internet is so wide and the freedom one can get over the web. He motivates the upcoming content creators by giving them an idea about the content on the web.

Ashish is a Viner, has over 2.3m followers on Instagram. He makes short funny videos across all of his social media profiles. He’s also an aspiring actor who wishes to make it big in Bollywood someday. He says he’s never going to stop entertaining people throughout his life.

Click here to watch the full video here.

This budding artist has bagged a role in an upcoming web series after cracking auditions and a series of failures. Not only that, he is also working on his own ideas and is soon coming up with his own project.

Source: hindustantimes.com

In a male dominated society where women pilots are a handful, Anny Divya, born in a small town in Punjab with a dream to become a pilot. Yes, she was a kid who had dreams of flying really high, when the society told her not to. But, Anny had dreams of being one and of not taking the doctor-engineer career route. Luckily, her parents supported her but she faced resistance from her relatives.

Anny, born in Pathankot to an army man, wanted to be a pilot ever since she was a little kid. After her father took voluntary retirement, her family shifted to Vijaywada. When Anny turned 17 in her 12th standard, she got through Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), the pilot training institute in Uttar Pradesh. Her family took a loan to fund the course to fulfill her dream to fly.

There she faced challenges of her own. While she could read and write well in English, Divya was very conscious of her English-speaking skills. She worked on her english speaking skills and gained expertise over it.

Source: hindustantimes.com

In a recent interview given to Hindustan Times, she said;

“The cultural change from a small town to a big city was overwhelming for me. I had difficulty adjusting and speaking English. People used to mock me for my poor English and that hurt me a lot. At times, I thought of going back. However, I didn’t. With my parents’ support, I worked hard enough to win a scholarship.”

The resolute woman was not ready to give up. At 19, she finished her training and landed a job with Air India. Then, she flew a Boeing 737 when she was sent to Spain for training and when she turned 21, she went to London for another training and flew a Boeing 777!

Source: indiasamvad.co.in

From there on, there was no looking back for her. Anny traveled the world and proved her capabilities to everyone who ever opposed her.

“I am proud to say that India has taken lead over rest of the world including developed countries when it comes to the number of female pilots. In India, 15% woman fly as airline pilots, while globally, it is an average of approximately 5%.”

Living by the mantra of hard work, Anny Divya’s small piece of advice to everyone is:

“Your parents are your biggest support, so trust them to keep you grounded. And there’s no substitute for hard work.”

Source: Hindustan Times & ScoopWhoop

“I felt like my whole body was burning! My skin just seemed to come off “, recalls 32 years old Laxmi, who was just 15 at the time, she suffered acid attack. What was her fault? She rejected the undue advances of the man twice her age and in the process hurt his ego. That was enough for the man to get hold of her on that dreaded day in 2005 and throw acid on her face. He damaged her face, her body, but could not succeed in damaging her spirit.

Yes, Laxmi was down and out for quite some time due to the mental and physical scars, but she managed to stand up again to face the world, which treats the women a second class citizen.

She decided to help other victims, as she knew how it was difficult to fight the battle alone against all odds. Thus, she ensured that the other victims couldn’t be alone in their battle.

Laxmi started her career as a campaigner with ‘Stop Acid Attacks’ campaign. She worked as a campaign coordinator in initial days. Soon, Laxmi became a voice for the survivors of acid attacks, across the world. She received multiple awards in India for her work to curb the sale of acid and to rehabilitate the survivors of acid attacks through her foundation.

In 2014 Laxmi started hosting a television show, Udaan, on New Express.

Laxmi happens to be a beautiful woman, beautiful for the fact that she has dedicated her life for other’s cause, beautiful for the fact that she is standing against something that is seriously wrong in our society.

Today, she is the director of Chhanv Foundation, an NGO, which is dedicated to help the survivors of acid attacks in India. Laxmi received a 2014 International Women of Courage award by US First Lady Michelle Obama. She was also chosen as the NDTV Indian of the Year.

In her personal space, she had once given up on finding a partner thanks to the stares and comments she received in public left her too ashamed to leave the home, but went on to find love through her campaigning work to stop other women suffering the same fate.

Things took a turn in her personal life when she met activist Alok Dixit and both of them fell in love and decided to stay together forever.

Today, they are the proud parents of a baby girl Pihu.

The people from all walks of life and from all over the country show sympathy for Laxmi. They narrate the story of her bravery loudly. But has the society really changed? Has the “man” in the society understood that No means No from a girl. It does not entitle him to hurt and cause any harm to the woman. Has the society gathered courage to stop an acid attacker on the streets if they see the one happening any day? Will the ones, who lauds Laxmi on TV, accept an acid attack victim as a bride for themselves or for their family? These things remain unanswered. Laxmi’s dream would come true only when these questions stands answered.