Who are Earle and Wisdom?



The Midway Atoll is a territory of the U.S. that is roughly equidistant from both North America and Asia. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument includes 10 islands and atolls and is a World Heritage-listed U.S. National Monument.



Sylvia Earle is an American oceanographer whose work concerns marine biology mainly. (Oceanographers, as the name suggests, study oceans. The science of oceanography, however, covers a wide range of topics, which includes, but is not limited to, marine life and ecosystems, plate tectonics and geology of the sea floor, ocean circulation, and physical and chemical properties of the ocean.)



Her 2012 photos show her talking to a Laysan albatross amidst marine debris that has drifted into the Midway Atoll and observing another Laysan albatross named Wisdom.



Why are they important?



Earle, who was born on August 30, 1935, was the first woman to become chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her first oceanographic expedition was in 1964 and there’s been no turning back ever since.



Wisdom, the albatross, is not just the oldest confirmed wild bird in the world, but is also the oldest banded bird in the world. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she is “a world renowned symbol of hope for all species that depend upon the health of the ocean to survive”. While it is impossible to know precisely, we can say for certain that she has laid nearly 40 eggs during the course of her lifetime, which around 70 years now.



 



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In 1936, who became the first Indian woman to fly an aircraft?



Sarla Thakral was India’s first ever woman to take to the skies. She got an ‘A’ grade license after 1,000 hours of flying, making history as she was the first one to do so. 



Married at the tender age of 16, Sarla Thakral was mother to a 4 year old when she created history. In pre -partition times, the young woman took off in the two-seater plane in 1936 in Lahore. 



Sarla Thakral turned out to be a natural pilot. After only eight hours and ten minutes of training, her instructor deemed her ready to fly solo! Sarla, clad in a sari, climbed into the cockpit of a Gypsy Moth plane. She proceeded to climb to the required altitude and managed to land the plane on her own, passing her first solo with flying colours. She then underwent intensive training and successfully earned her “A” license after accumulating more than 1,000 hours of flying, becoming the first Indian woman to ever do so, that too at the age of 21.



When India gained Independence in the year 1947, Sarla was still living in Lahore, which was now in Pakistani territory- because of the Partition of India, which had created the two independent states of Pakistan and India. Thakral’s neighbour, worried about her safety because she was a Hindu, warned her of potential threats and advised her to leave Lahore with her daughters. Soon, Sarla and her daughters got on a train headed to Delhi and came back to the city where she was born.



Sarla Thakral passed away on March 15, 2008, at the age of 94, leaving a glorious legacy behind. Juggling the roles of a wife, a mother, a pilot and eventually a successful businesswoman, she not only inspired other women to navigate the skies, but also became an epitome of perseverance and resilience.



 



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Who is the first woman school teacher in India?



Savitribai was the first female teacher of the first women’s school in India and also considered as the pioneer of modern Marathi poetry. In 1852 she opened a school for Untouchable girls.



Savitribai was born in Naigaon village in Satara district to her mother LaxmiBai and father Khandoji Navse Patil, who was the village chief. Savitribai was just nine years old when she was married to JyotiRao Phule (age thirteen) in the year 1840.



SavitriBai had been given a book by a Christian missionary before her marriage which she brought with her to her in-laws house. This shows the attraction she had for words and books despite being uneducated. SavitriBai set up a school for SagunaAau on 1st May 1847 in a backward community. This was their first school.



However, apart from all these oppositions, Savitribai yet continued to teach the girls. Whenever Savitribai went out of her house, groups of orthodox men would follow her and abuse her in obscene language. They would throw rotten eggs, cow dung, tomatoes and stones at her. She would walk meekly and arrive at her school. Fed up with the treatment meted out to her, she decided to give up. But it was because of her husband that she continued with her efforts. He told Savitribai that Jyotirao, who was working for women’s education, had started the first girls’ school and required women teachers to assist him.



Jyotirao and Savitribai opposed idolatry and championed the cause of peasants and workers. Both faced social isolation and vicious attacks from the people whom they questioned. Savitribai’s letters give us a good idea about the experiences of women during this social movement. On her death anniversary, a postage stamp was released by the Department of Post and Telegraph.



 



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Who is the only boxer in the world to win eight World Championship medals?



After defeating Columbia's Valencia Victoria 5-0 at the World Women's Boxing Championship on Wednesday, MC Mary Kom added an unprecedented eighth World Cup medal to her tally. Mary has 6 gold medals and a silver in the 48 kg category but this will be her first in the 51 kg category. Apart from 7 world cup medals, the southpaw from Manipur also secured an Olympic bronze medal in 2012, five Asian titles, besides other international honours in the Commonwealth games.



Kom was accompanied to London by her mother. Kom's coach Charles Atkinson could not join her at the Olympic Village as he didn't possess an International Boxing Association (AIBA) 3 Star Certification, which is mandatory for accreditation. She had all her luggage and passport stolen on the way to the selection camp in Bangkok, Thailand for her first Asian Women's Boxing Championships. The first Olympic round was held on 5 August 2012, with Kom defeating Karolina Michalczuk of Poland 19–14 in the third women's boxing match ever to be fought at the Olympics. In the quarter-final, the following day, she defeated Maroua Rahali of Tunisia with a score of 15–6. She faced Nicola Adams of UK in the semi-final on 8 August 2012 and lost the bout 6 points to 11. However, she stood third in the competition and garnered an Olympic bronze medal. In recognition, the Manipur Government awarded her Rs 50 lakhs and two acres of land in a cabinet meeting held on 9 August 2012.



Mary Kom set a new standard in amateur boxing without ever competing in professional boxing. In 2015, Kom became the first amateur to surpass several professional athletes in India in earnings, endorsements and awards. She is the first amateur athlete to win the Padma Bhushan.



 



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In 1959, which swimmer from Kolkata became the first Indian woman to cross the English Channel?



The reason Arati is famous is because back in 1959, she became the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel. She was just 19 at the time. Of course while that is the highlight of her career, there is more to her than just crossing the water body. Her story is one of courage, perseverance and of course endurance. 



She was born into a middle class family in 1940 in Kolkata. Her father was in the armed forces and she lost her mother when she was a toddler. At the age of 4 she used to go with her uncle to Champatala Ghat to bathe and that was where she learned to swim. Her father recognised her interest in swimming and started getting her trained.



Arati's specialties were 100m freestyle, 100m breast stroke and 200m breast stroke. She dominated the nationals in 1948 and at the 1951 West Bengal state meet, she clocked 1 minute 37.6 seconds in 100m breast stroke to set an all-India record which was previously held by Dolly Nazir. 



She was the toast of the nation and later that year she married her manager Dr. Arun Gupta. A Padma Shri was awarded to her in 1960 and she had also joined Bengal Nagpur Railway.



 



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Who became the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly (in 1953)?



In 1953, India’s Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, pictured at UN Headquarters alongside the then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, was elected as the 8th and first woman President.



Vijaya Lakshmi's father, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), a wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community, served twice as President of the Indian National Congress during the Independence Struggle. Her mother, Swaruprani Thussu (1868–1938), who came from a well-known Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Lahore, was Motilal's second wife, the first having died in child birth. She was the second of three children; Jawaharlal was eleven years her senior (b. 1889), while her younger sister Krishna Hutheesing (b. 1907-1967) became a noted writer and authored several books on their brother.



In India, she served as Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964, after which she was elected to the Indian parliament's lower house, Lok Sabha, from Phulpur, her brother's former constituency from 1964 to 1968. Pandit was a harsh critic of Indira Gandhi's years as Prime Minister especially after her niece had declared the emergency.



Pandit retired from active politics after relations between them soured. On retiring, she moved to Dehradun in the Doon Valley in the Himalayan foothills. She came out of retirement in 1977 to campaign against Indira Gandhi and helped the Janata Party win the 1977 election. She was reported to have considered running for the presidency, but Neelam Sanjiva Reddy eventually ran and won the election unopposed.



 



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As a member of the Expedition 14 crew, which astronaut of Indian origin “established a world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes” way back in 2006-2207?



 Williams launched with the crew of STS-116 on December 9, 2006, docking with the International Space Station on December 11, 2006.  As a member of the Expedition 14 crew, Williams served as Flight Engineer.  While onboard, she established a world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes.



Williams launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, along with Russian Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, on July 14, 2012. They were welcomed on the International Space Station on July 17, 2012, by NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts, Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin. Williams spent four months conducting research and exploration aboard the orbiting laboratory. She landed in Kazakhstan on November 18, 2012, after spending 127 days in space. During their Expedition, Williams and Hoshide performed three spacewalks to replace a component that relays power from the space station's solar arrays to its systems, and repair an ammonia leak on a station radiator. With 50 hours and 40 minutes, Williams once again held the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut (has since been overtaken by Peggy Whitson with 10 spacewalks). In addition, Williams, who has spent a total of 322 days in space on two missions, now ranks sixth on the all-time U.S. endurance list, and second all-time for a female astronaut.



 



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Born in Haryana, which freedom fighter and politician became the country’s first woman Chief Minister in 1963?



Sucheta Kripalani became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1963.  Born in 1908 in present-day Haryana’s Ambala, Kripalani completed her education from Delhi’s Indraprastha College, before moving on to teach Constitutional History at Banaras Hindu University. Kripalani also established the women’s wing of the Congress party in 1940.



Her role in shaping the contours of an independent India is notable, for she was a member of the Constituent Assembly tasked with formulating the seminal document that would be governing the newly-independent country. She took over as the chief minister of UP from Chandra Bhanu Gupta and occupied the top post till 1967.



Sucheta was married to prominent freedom fighter and politician, Acharya JB Kripalani.



Interestingly, while Acharya became a prominent opponent of Congress and even established a party called Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP), Sucheta (apart from a short stint with KMPP) continued to be loyal to the Congress.



 



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In December 2019, which Sub-lieutenant became the first woman pilot in the Indian Navy?



Sub-lieutenant Shivangi became the first woman pilot for the Indian Navy on Monday. Shivangi was born in the city of Muzaffarpur in Bihar.



Shivangi was commissioned into the Indian Navy last year after her initial training. Shivangi joined operational duties at the Kochi naval base today.



She will be flying the Dornier surveillance aircraft of the Indian Navy.



Shivangi Singh was born on 15 March 1994 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India to school teacher Hari Bhushan Singh and house wife Priyanka Singh. Shivangi hails from a humble agricultural background. During her childhood, she was captivated by the sight of seeing a politician using a helicopter to attend a political gathering in her native village, which inspired her to become a pilot. Hari Bhushan Singh, her father, is now the principal of a girls-only government school constructed on land donated by Shivangi's great grandfather, who donated it to enable people to overcome the conservative abhorrence of educating girls. Her mother Priyanka is a housewife.



She obtained a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical engineering from Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology and subsequently studied at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology for her Master's degree.



She is aged 24 (as of 2019) and does not keep a surname.



 



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Who is the youngest tribal woman in the world to set foot on the six tallest mountain peaks across six continents?



In a major feat of mountaineering, 18-year-old Malvath Poorna from Telangana scaled Mt Vinson Massif, the highest mountain peak in Antarctica. Mt Vinson Massif is 4,987 metres above sea level.



With this, Poorna has become the first and youngest tribal woman in the world to set foot on six tallest mountain peaks in six continents. Poorna now aims to become the first and youngest tribal woman to scale the seven tallest summits located in seven continents.



Poorna is an undergraduate in the state's Social Welfare Residential College for women and is currently a fellow at the Minnesota State University as part of the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program, USA.



Poorna is now gearing up to scale Mount Denali, North America’s highest mountain peak), to achieve her goal of scaling the seven tallest summits located in seven continents.



 



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Who is the author of book "Song of India"?



Reading a Ruskin Bond is very easy. All you need is a quiet corner, a comfortable chair and steaming cup of coffee. Ah, and don’t forget to wrap yourself in a cosy shawl or a blanket. Why? Because it can get chilly, up there in the mountains, where most of Bond’s stories unfold.



Set in the hills and valleys of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where he spent the most cherished moments of his childhood, Bond’s books give you a glimpse of life on the snow-covered and Deodar-dotted landscapes. Like the misty mountains, Bond’s stories unravel slowly, and leave a deep impression on your mind. Before you know it, Rusty, Binya, Uncle Ken and Rakesh Bond’s unforgettable characters – have become your companions.



Such is the magic of Bond, Ruskin Bond. Generations and generations have grown up reading his books – he has been writing for 70 years now – and yet the bespectacled, rosy-cheeked storyteller from the hills, never seems to run out of yarn.



And last month in July, the octogenarian marked his seventh decade in his literary career, the only way he knows how – by writing another book. This time a part of his memoir series.



Telling his story



Set in 1951, the illustrated book “Song of India” traces the beginning of Bond’s writing career. It follows a 16-year-old Bond as he leaves for England, where he found his calling as a writer and worked on his first book “The Room on the Rook”.



The fourth installment in his memoir series, “A Song of India”, continues Bond’s reflection on his life which began with “Looking for the Rainbow” (2017) and “Till the Clouds Roll By” (2017), “Coming Round the Mountain” was the third book in the series.



What makes his work – the memoirs as well as his other books – special is that Bond always leaves a piece of himself in his stories. And as we get familiar with his characters, we get to know the author himself. So here’s a look at some of the classic Bond characters over the years.



Meet Bond’s classic characters



In a career spanning over 70 years, Bond has written over 600 stories




  • Rusty: In “The Room on the Roof”, we meet the willful and rebellious Rusty, a character Bond partially based on himself.

  • Mehmood: The pride Mehmood takes in making his kites will make you fall in love with this character from the story “Kite Maker.”

  • Uncle Ken: A character based on Bond’s maternal uncle, his eccentricities and misadventures make him a complete laugh riot. And so the stories he appears in are also aptly named “Crazy Times with Uncle Ken” and “At Sea with Uncle Ken.”



Did you know?




  • Bond received €50 for his publication “The Room on the Roof”.

  • Some of Bond’s stories like “’The Blue Umbrella’ and ‘Susanna’s Seven Husbands” have been adopted to Bollywood films. The Hindi film J”unoon” is based on Bond’s historic novella “A Flight of Pigeons.”

  • His favourite and the first book he read in his childhood was Ali in Wonderland: And Other Tall Tales.

  • He wanted to be a tap dancer when he was young.

  • Some of his famous works are “School Days”, “Funny Side Up”, “Garland of Memories”, “Rusty – The Boy from Hills”, “The Room on the Roof”, “Landour Days – A Writer’s Journal”, “A Town Called Dehra”, and “Angry River”.

  • He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for “Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”, his novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.



 



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Who is the author of book "Friends Behind Walls"?



During the recent coronavirus lockdown, friendships, were tested. Locked up in our homes, we couldn’t meet our friends for months. Daily chats, gossip sessions, and even birthdays moved online. Video calls and phone calls continued to strengthen the bonds. Friendship overcame the walls put up by the pandemic, and that’s exactly what author Harshikaa Udasi’s new book. “Friends Behind Walls” is all about.



Set in the sleepy town of Deolali, close to Nashik in Maharashtra, it is a story of two children, Inu and Putti who form an unlikely friendship despite the animosity between their families.



Putti, a city-bred boy, is excited to spend his summer vacation in Deolali. But he soon finds out that the town doesn’t have any kids of his age to play with, except Inu. But his parents forbid him from even talking to Inu because of a long-standing feud between their families.



Not wanting to give up on their newly formed friendship, the duo decide to solve the mystery behind their family feud. On their quest, they are helped by Mr. Om Namaha and Dr. Solanki. But Inu and Putti have to visit the fearsome Tekdichi Mhatari, who lives up the hill to find answers!



What inspired the book



When Udasi visited Deolali for the first time 15 years ago, she was struck by how deserted the place looked – there were no children to be seen anywhere. “There are many sanitariums in Deolali, so a lot of elderly people stay here because it is beautiful and green, but there were hardly any children,” says Udasi, who now has a second home in Deolali.



One day, she observed that a couple of children in her neighbourhood had actually made a hole in the wall between their houses so that they could talk to each other. “These two would use the hole to sneak into each other’s houses. And so I imagined what it would be like if the kids were doing this because the families were at loggerheads with each other,” says Udasi.



In fact, she had a similar experience when she was growing up. “There was a family which never got along with my family so I never got a chance to be friends with their kids,” she adds. “So I put the two concepts together and come up with the book.”



The message of bonhomie



“Friends Behind Walls” explores why its important to preserve the bond of friendship and not fight over trivial things. “Friendships born in childhood are really the biggest bond one can have,” says Udasi.



The book begins with a striking sentence, “There should be a big giant eraser for all our past wrongs.” Udasi credits her 10-year-old son Krishang for coming up with this line when they were having a discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act. “I was talking to my son about the conflicts between different religions and ethnicities when he said that this is all so complicated, I wish there was a giant eraser for our past,” says Udasi.



Know the author



Harshikaa Udasi is a journalist and author from Mumbai. She forayed into children’s writing after spending 19 years in journalism. Her first children’s book “Kittu’s Very Mad Day”, published in July 2017, is the story of a 10-year-old physically challenged boy who is accidentally left behind by his family in Madhya Pradesh. He comes across a skate park and learns to skate and face his fears. It won the prestigious 2018 FICCI Publishing Award for Best English Children’s Book and was shortlisted for the MAMI Word to Screen 2017.



She also runs a reading club, “The Book Trotters” to encourage children to think creatively and independently. During the lockdown, the club meets online.



Popular works



“I Absolutely Totally Instantly Have to Have A Dog” and “Kittu’s Very Mad Day”. She has contributed short stories to “On Your Marks: The Book of Crazy Exam Stories” and “Flipped: Adventure Stories Gost Stories.”



 



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Who is the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh?



Alan Alexander (A.A.) Milne’s collection of children’s stories about a little boy named Christopher Robin and his beloved little bear made him a household name.



Generations of children all over the world grew up loving the tales of Winnie-the-Pooh and the friendly animals of the Hundred Acre Wood.



But while the poems and stories continue to enthrall readers even today, their creator Milne himself was never able to enjoy his success. The honey-eating bear overshadowed all his other work and was the cause of a bitter feud with his son, the real-life Christopher Robin who had inspired Milne to create the fictional characters.



Who was A.A. Milne?



Born in London on January 18, 1882, Milne was the son of John Vine, a headmaster of a small boys’ school in England. Milne had an extraordinary flair for writing from a young age. Despite a graduate degree in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, Milne chose to pursue a career in literature. His first big break was working for the leading British humour magazine Punch.



War experiences



Milne served in the British Army during World War I. Fighting in the Battle of Somme, he witnessed the harsh realities of war. His best friend was “blown to pieces just as he was settling down for tea,” while another friend was killed by a German sniper. Disturbed by his war experiences, Milne took refuge in writing. He became a successful playwright and a screenwriter.



Milne and Robin



Christopher Robin, born on August 21, 1920, was Milne’s son. On his first birthday, Robin received a stuffed bear as a present and named it Edward. The child soon accumulated a collection of similar animals, which inspired Milne to spin whimsical stories around the toys. He created the world of Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood, along with illustrator Ernest Shepherd who brought the tales to life through his expressive drawings. The first book, a collection of children’s poems titled “When We Were Very Young”, came out in 1924, shortly after Robin’s fourth birthday. It sold more than 50,000 copies in eight weeks. Three more short stories followed.



Rift with Robin



But as the popularity of the series grew, it made life incredibly difficult for Milne’s young son., Robin. He was bullied in school for resembling the eponymous fictional character. His classmates taunted him by reciting lines from Milne’s books and poems.



The 2017 biopic, “Goodbye Christopher Robin” an iconic scene between the father and son, shows his agony – “You asked me to write a book for you” says the father. The son replies: “Yes, for me not about me!”



Robin has elaborated on his feelings towards his father and character in his memoir “The Enchanted Places.” “At home I still liked him (his father), indeed felt at times quite proud that I shared his name and was able to bask in some of his glory. At school, however, I began to dislike him, and I found myself disliking him more and more the older I got,” it reads. The father-son relationship strained as a result.



Bear in mind



Even Milne eventually came to resent the honey-eating bear as it eclipsed all that he had accomplished as a poet, playwright, peace campaigner and novelist. As he put it in 1952, he created Winnie-the-Pooh, “little thinking/ All my years of pen-and-inking/ Would be almost lost among/ Those four trifles for the young”.



Did you know?




  • The first volume of Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” series published in 1926, consisted of 10 short stories, which were later adapted by Disney into a cartoon series. It was followed by the second volume “House at Pooh Corner” in 1928.

  • Milne also wrote for different audiences spanning different genres such as war and politics. In 1922, he wrote a mystery novel called “Red House Mystery.”

  • Milne and Arthur Conan Doyle played on the same cricket team Allahakberries.

  • A talented mathematician, Milne won a scholarship to study at one of the world’s most restricted institutions, Trinity College, Cambridge.

  • The original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by Ernest Shepherd sold at an auction in Sotheby’s in London for 430,000 pounds, a record price for a book illustration.

  • The name Winnie came from a brown bear that young Robin visited in the London Zoo. The bear was rescued by a veterinarian doctor from Canada, Harry Colebourn in 1914, who named it Winnipeg, after his hometown.

  • The character has always been referred to as a ‘he’ in the literary works and films.



 



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In his work “A Christmas Carol”, who used the phrase “as good as gold”?



The phrase is used several times in literature in the following years. The change from the use of 'good', as meaning 'genuine' to 'good', as meaning 'well-behaved' didn't take long. Charles Dickens used it in the latter sense in A Christmas Carol, 1843:



"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit...

"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better.



The idiom as good as gold has changed a lot from its original meaning because it initially referred to something that was real and genuine. In the past, many people conducted business using credit notes, a document that promised payment within a certain amount of time. Some customers paid on time but others delayed payment or used forged or counterfeited credit notes to avoid paying altogether. Being distrustful, many business owners much preferred being paid in gold and silver, as this form of currency was real, tangible and more importantly, the payment was immediate.



 



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Which is the actor who bagged the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress category for the 1969-film “Cactus Flower”?



The founder of the Hawn Foundation, which works for the underprivileged children, is Goldie Jeanne Hawn, an American actress who is also a producer and a singer. Goldie Hawn had been one of the reliable stars of the latter part of the twentieth century.



Goldie’s first major film role in ‘Cactus Flower’ in 1969 brought her the Golden Globe as well as the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress. Her Academy Award catapulted her into the club of successful actors with comedies like There’s a Girl in My Soup and Butterflies are Free.



Goldie proved herself to be a versatile actor excelling not only in comedy but also in drama. Pictures such as The Girl from Petrovka, The Sugarland Express (which incidentally, was Steven Spielberg’s directorial debut) and Shampoo are proof enough.



She also received the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award in 1999. This is an award given by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Society at Harvard University.



Goldie, with author Wendy Holden, wrote her autobiography A Lotus Grows in the Mud in 2005.



 



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