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This is the story of one boy’s indefatigable spirit. Spirit to save his family from hunger and from poverty. William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, Africa. He was fourteen when he was forced to drop out of school in 2002, for lack of money to pay the school-fee. In the same year, Malawi was hit by the worst famine in 50 years, forcing thousands across the country to die of starvation. As a boy, he was always enchanted by the workings of the electricity and the wonders it can do. He had a goal to study science in Malawi’s top boarding schools.

He refused to surrender to fate even after getting dropped out of school. He gained access to a local library where he continued his education. When he saw the picture of a windmill in a book, he was fascinated to know that electricity can be produced by harnessing wind power. He thought, this would be his defense against hunger and decided to build a windmill for himself.

People in the neighborhood thought he was crazy when he actually started working on the windmill using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves. But, he persisted till he produced electricity from his own windmill which powered few bulbs in his house and a radio to start with.

Watch the following videos to know more about this exceptional story of the African teenager who took the destiny into his hands. Get inspired!

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Video: William Kamkwamba speaking at the TEDGlobal Conference July 2009 in Oxford UK.

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Video: William Kamkwamba’s  first talk in public at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania.

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Video: Following is the short film ‘Moving Windmills’ which is being made into a feature-length documentary

William Kamkwamba, with the help of  Bryan Mealer as a co-author, written a  new book about his story of building the windmill.

Book: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first chapter starts with the following line:

Before I discovered the miracle of science, magic ruled the world.

I am planning to order the book from BetterWorldBooks.

Hope you liked this post. Please use comments form to share your thoughts.

Images are taken from http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

There are times when I randomly stumble upon few videos on the Internet, read few articles, which I want to share with my friends. I usually share with few of my friends and then forget. I decided it would be better to archive that stuff here on this blog so that the content is available to anyone who is interested in such stuff.

Hope you will like them when published.

Thank you!

The name of the program is ‘Black’. It provides a platform for visually challenged people – those who cannot see – to showcase their singing talent. I was really moved by the way the participants sang and their enthusiasm to participate despite the disability.

One girl who was eliminated from the show said that she will practice well and try to sing well when she gets another opportunity to prove her talent. If you ever watched a reality show or any other show where people compete, I am sure, you might have seen people crying when they are eliminated from the show as if they have lost everything in life. But this girl who cannot see, has really shown so much maturity that its all part of the game. In a competition only one wins but not everyone.

I think even though the show is specially for visually challenged people, most of them were competent enough to participate in regular shows. The passion with which they participated was really inspiring.

Unfortunately there are many reality shows which we cannot watch with our families. I often wonder of what use these reality shows are in a larger context except adding more money into the pockets of the producers. I feel we need more shows like the one I have watched.

And I was reminded of a book which has been in racks from a very long time. The book is written by Helen Keller and the name of the book is ‘The Story of My Life‘. I bought this book few months back and stopped reading after few pages, though I must say I found it very interesting. Now, I have decided or rather inspired to finish it as soon as possible and gonna write a review after I am done with the book. If you have not heard of Helen Keller before and do not have enough time to go through the Wikipedia page, here is quick info for you. Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to graduate from college.

I have somehow managed to find a small video of this program on Internet. Watch it here: http://ishare.rediff.com/filevideo-ETV%20special%20black%202-id-545241.php

You should read it if you haven’t already.

Link: You’ve got to find what you love – Jobs Says

I am reproducing few interesting points which I liked.

1. I never graduated from college. Truth be told.
2. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
3. I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life.
4. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.
5. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.
6. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Video of the same speech is available on YouTube.