PANCHAAMRITAM 171
ONE
"On the birthdays of Mahakavi Bharathiyar and Dr Abdul Kalam, 150 members of `Kodambakkam 2020'assemble in one particular colony or area ay 7 AM and start their service like cleaning the street, creating awareness on various issues like health care, environment, etc. to the people, planting of trees, etc. They do this service till the evening. Of course, the team informs the residents in advance about this `Rapid Action Service', and they say, 50 percent of the residents join the activities. This creates awareness amongst the residents to keep their area as a model area. There are 26 such activities initiated by Shri. M.A. Balasubramanian. I met Shri. Balasubramanian and his team and understood the great initiative. I appreciate Shri. Balasubramanian and his team for this unique initiative for brining change in thinking, development and peace in Kodambakkam region (in Chennai) before the year 2020. Like `Kodambakkam 2020', every ward, village, town, district and state should have a vision and work towards this."
Former president of India, Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam addressed students at the Beverly hills at Los Angles, USA, on September 15, 2009,. He devoted the best part of his speech that day to the `Kodambakkam 2020' experiment by a former pracharak of the RSS, Shri M.A.Balasubramanian of Chennai. The anecdote above is from the text of the speech posted inwww.abdulkalam.com
TWO
On Sunday, September 27, 2009, Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Uzafa Shah, a Pakistani national and his two associates, entered Rukhsana's house in Shahdra Sharief village in the Rajouri district in Rajouri, 160 km north of Jammu (Jammu-Kashmir, Bharat), and beat up her parents as they suspected her father to be a police informer. They had also planned to abduct 18-year-old Rukhsana. The brave girl snatched the AK 47 assault rifle from one of the terrorists, axed and shot one to death, injured another and sent the other running for their lives. The Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N.Vohra wants to honour the teenager at the Raj Bhavan (governor's residence) in Srinagar, according to an official release. The police have also announced an award of Rs 20,000 for Rukhsana for her courage.
From www.kashmirlive.com (September 29, 2009) and other media reports
THREE
When Lakshmana fell unconscious, near death, hit by an arrow from Ravana's son Meghnad, Hanuman approached the Lankan Royal Physician Sushena for advice.Sushena asked Hanuman to rush to Dronagiri Hills and fetch four plants: Mruthasanjeevani (restorer of life), Vishalyakarani (remover of arrows), Sandhanakarani (restorer of the skin) and Savarnyakarani (restorer of skin colour) (Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, 74th chapter, Yuddakanda, Slokas 29-34).Hanuman, not able to pick the four from the multitude, brought back the entire hill. And Lakshmana was revived from near death back to life, and to victory. Of the 4 plants, Mruthsanjeevani or simply Sanjeevani is the most important since it is believed to bring one from near death back to life. What then is this plant, where does it occur, and does it do what the Ramayana describes? We now seem to have zoned in on one of two plants, thanks to a focused approach taken by Drs. K. N. Ganeshaiah, R. Vasudeva and R. Uma Shaanker of the University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore and College of Forestry, Sirsi, Karnataka, Bharat (Their paper in the 25 August 2009 issue of Current Science, downloadable free on the net). The trio searched around the Indian Bioresources database library of the common names of most Indian plants, in about 80 languages and dialects. They searched for the term Sanjeevani or its synonyms and phononyms. Result — they found 17 species, which could be further filtered to 6 plants based on the widespread use of the terms across languages. Of the six, only 3 - Rudanthi, Sanjeevani Bhooti and Jeevaka - had the closest reference to the term Sanjeevani. But the scientists conclude that more work is needed.
Based on a report by Shri. D. Balasubramanian -`In search of the Sanjeevani plant of Ramayana' - in THE HINDU of September 10, 2009.
FOUR
Chitrakut (Madhya Pradesh, Bharat) Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Shri. Surendra Singh Gaharwar donates his salary to provide higher education to talented students from downtrodden families by forming a trust. He mentioned that Scheduled Caste (SC) - Scheduled Tribe (ST) people comprise major portion of his constituency's population and their children despite being intelligent were unable to continue studies following financial problems. ''My five months' salary from January 2009 has been deposited in the treasury and this procedure will continue in future,'' assured the MLA, adding that more than Rs 4 lakh would deposited in the treasury in a year. Gaharwar said that amount would be given to ST and SC students who secured about 60 and 75 per cent marks in a single attempt. ''General category's talented but poor students will also be provided aid if they secure about 80 per cent marks,'' he added. Based on a UNI report, June 9, 2009.
FIVE
An organisation of Hindu-American parents, which had filed a law suit against California education board alleging that information about Hinduism was distorted in the school text books, has decided to withdraw its litigation in an out of court settlement. The California Department of Education and the State Board of Education have agreed to pay nearly Rs 79 lakhs (US $ 175,000) to the California Parents for the Equalisation of Educational Materials (CAPEEM), the organisation formed by Hindu American parents, to fight the case against the California State."Believing that its points had been clearly understood by the defendants, CAPEEM opted not to prolong the litigation. The State entered into negotiations with CAPEEM and agreed to pay CAPEEM US $ 175,000 in exchange for a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit," CAPEEM said in a statement. CAPEEM had filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Eastern District of California in 2006. In its lawsuit, CAPEEM had said the civil rights of Hindu school children are violated by advancing an inaccurate and derogatory picture of Hinduism in sixth grade school textbooks.
Based on a report by Shri. Lalit K Jha (in Washington); PTI , June 10, 2009.
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