PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, March 8: It was a memorable day for the children and womenfolk of Pendadih, a tribal village located some 80 Kms away from Ranchi, who got an opportunity to interact with Shelbi Mishra, the first woman pilot of Odisha on the International Women’s Day on Tuesday, on a virtual mode.
The nearly one- hour- long interaction over Zoom App was arranged by Shubhasish Chakraborty, who wears several hats while discharging his duties as a senior official in a global conglomerate based in Mumbai.
As an individual Subhasish donates his salary to transform the tribal village based in the Ranchi district.
” People living at the village look up with amazement when a flight whooshes off in the sky. Curious children ask their parents and elders, How do these aeroplanes fly? The endless questions keep rolling out of their mind. This prompted me to organise today’s interaction with
Shelbi Mishra, the first woman pilot of Odisha who too hails from a small tribal village in Keonjhar district, ” said Shubhasish, who too was present with the children and the women at Pendadih during the interactive session.
The curious young minds of that village asked several questions to the woman pilot as to how aeroplanes fly, what it ( an aeroplane) is made of and how the flying machines land and take off.
Notably, Shelbi is one of the youngest pilots of the country who got a commercial licence as a pilot in 2011 at the age of 21.
During the one hour long interaction between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm she also encouraged the children and the womenfolk to take up challenges in life.
About 60 children and women from that rural village participated in the interactive session.
Shubhasish is an expert on tribal affairs, an award-winning filmmaker, poet and short story writer who works tirelessly in the field of community development.
He has been donating a substantial amount from his salary for over 10 years in helping and transforming the underprivileged communities in Jharkhand.
He adopted Pendadih, a village in the Sonahatu block of Ranchi district, where the majority of the population belonged to the rural and tribal communities, to bring holistic development.
He has been trying to develop the village into a model village.
Significantly, by his efforts, Pandadih is still a Coronavirus free village and almost 100 per cent eligible people are vaccinated at that village.
Through Chhau dance involving the children and adults he is getting success in spreading the message of vaccination for Covid -19.
A former official of Jusco ( now Tata Steel Utilities and Infrastructure Services Limited) Shubhasish has been instrumental in bringing the pioneers of the country to talk to the villagers and share their wisdom and life experience.
In January this year Hansa Yogendra, a noted Yoga expert had interacted with the villagers of Pandadih.
