Ivanka Trump praises Indian girl who cycled down 1200km carrying ailing father
Washington: US President Donald Trump's daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump has praised 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari, who cycled down 1200km carrying her ailing father during the nationwide lockdown in India, terming her act as a "beautiful feat of endurance and love".
Stuck in Gurugram in Haryana due to the COVID-19-induced travel restrictions and lockdown, a tenacious Jyoti asked her father to sit on the rear side carrier of her cycle and took him to his native place in Bihar, covering 1200km in seven days.
Ivanka took to Twitter on Friday to highlight the story of the Indian girl, a class eight student, whose journey has become an extensive talking point even on social media where there has been talk about whether she has it in her to pursue cycling as a career.
"15 yr old Jyoti Kumari, carried her wounded father to their home village on the back of her bicycle covering +1,200 km over 7 days.
"This beautiful feat of endurance & love has captured the imagination of the Indian people and the cycling federation!" Ivanka said in a tweet.
Ivanka, who is advisor to President Trump on job creation, has visited India twice, most recently in February this year along with her father. In 2017, she led the US delegation at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India.
Impressed with the doggedness with which Kumari pedalled her way to Bihar from Gurugram, carrying her ailing father, the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) will invite Kumari to appear for a trial next month, in what could be a life-changing opportunity.
CFI Chairman Onkar Singh recently told PTI that if Kumari passed the trial, she will be selected as a trainee at the state-of-the-art National Cycling Academy at the IGI Stadium complex here. Jyoti's father, Mohan Paswan, an autorickshaw driver in Gurgaon got injured and the lockdown left him without any source of income. He had to return the autorickshaw to the owner.
The father and daughter duo started their journey from Gurgaon on May 10 after buying a cycle with whatever money they had and reached their village on May 16.
15 yr old Jyoti Kumari, carried her wounded father to their home village on the back of her bicycle covering +1,200 km over 7 days.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 22, 2020
This beautiful feat of endurance & love has captured the imagination of the Indian people and the cycling federation!?? https://t.co/uOgXkHzBPz
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Indian-origin man among 4 killed in temple collapse in South Africa
Johannesburg (PTI): A 52-year-old Indian-origin man is among four people killed after a four-storey Hindu temple under construction collapsed in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, officials have said.
The New Ahobilam Temple of Protection, situated on a steep hill in Redcliffe in north of eThekwini (formerly Durban), was being expanded when a section of the building gave way on Friday while workers were on site.
The exact number of workers and temple officials believed to be trapped beneath tonnes of rubble is unknown.
While two people, a construction worker and a devotee, were confirmed dead on Friday, the death toll rose to four on Saturday after rescue teams recovered more bodies.
Of the four deceased, one has been identified as Vickey Jairaj Panday, an executive member of the temple trust and manager of the construction project, local media reported, quoting officials.
Panday had been deeply involved in the development of the temple since its inception nearly two years ago, the reports said.
Sanvir Maharaj, director of Food for Love, a charity affiliated to the temple, also confirmed that Panday was among those who had died.
Rescue workers, who spent two days trying to recover a fifth body that had been located, had to suspend operations on Saturday afternoon due to inclement weather, Reaction Unit South Africa spokesperson Prem Balram told local media.
“At this stage, it cannot be confirmed whether additional individuals remain trapped beneath the rubble,” he said.
The temple was designed to resemble a cave, using rocks brought from India and excavated on site, and the family building the structure had claimed that it would house one of the world's largest deities of Lord Nrsimhadeva.
The eThekwini municipality, in a statement, said no building plans had been approved for the project, suggesting the construction was illegal.
Initial rescue efforts had been guided by cellphone calls from one of the trapped persons, but communications ceased late Friday evening, officials said.
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thulasizwe Buthelezi visited the site on Saturday and pledged that rescue operations would continue for as long as necessary, even as experts noted that there was little hope of finding more survivors.
Buthelezi expressed gratitude to the combined government and private teams involved in the search and rescue operation, including a special dog unit from the Western Cape.
