Thursday, September 29, 2011

PANCHAAMRITAM 220

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Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Chennai

 PANCHAAMRITAM 220

Pancha is five in Samskritam, Amritam is nectar

  Amavaasya/ Kali Yugaabda 5113 / Kara Purattaasi 11 (September 28, 2011)

 

ONE

Smt Shakuntala Meena, 25-year-old Pradhan of Sapotra Panchayat Samiti in Karauli district (Rajasthan, Bharat), ensured unhindered access of the rural populace to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and check corruption in its implementation ever since it began in her block. Shakuntala had ensured appropriate use of the sanctioned funds to provide employment to the poor people and brought about transparency in the scheme's execution. She also got the Bajna Panchayat Secretary suspended for preparing fake muster rolls and defying the guidelines that no machines could be brought to work and only human labour had to be used. When she received reports that the people in Chandelipur village were being dissuaded from filing applications, she instructed the Panchayat Secretary to be present in panchayat samiti and receive applications. As a result, 45 persons were provided employment in the village in May this year. In another village, Kanarpura, the clever tricks of bureaucrats were thwarted to give work to those submitting applications in June.  THE HINDU, Aug 18, 2007.

TWO

Tumbang saan —in this Indonesian village near the heart of Borneo's great, dissolving rainforest, Udatn is regarded as a man of deep spiritual knowledge. He speaks the esoteric language of the Sangiyang. His is a key role in the rituals of Kaharingan, one of a number of names for the ancestor-worshipping religion of Borneo's indigenous forest people, the Dayak. The world's most populous Muslim-majority country is no Islamic state, but it is a religious one. Every citizen must subscribe to one of six official creeds: Islam, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism. Kaharingan, like dozens of other native faiths, does not officially exist. Even in this village, a frontier where land clearing and mining is fast erasing ancient forest, people have long seen their faith under threat from officialdom. "When I was in school I was a Catholic," said Shri Udatn. "For us, if someone wanted to keep going to school then they had to convert to another religion." Now, however, things are changing, and the missionaries are being held at bay. That is because villagers have seized on a strategy being used by many Dayak: Most of the people of Tumbang Saan are now followers of Hinduism, the dominant religion on the distant island of Bali. Few here could name a Hindu god or even recognize concepts, like karma, that have taken on popular meanings even in the West. But that is not the point. In a corner of the world once famed for headhunters and impenetrable remoteness, a new religion is being developed to face up to an encroaching modern world and an intrusive Indonesian state. The point, in short, is cultural survival. "The Hindus have helped us," said Mr. Udatn. "They're like our umbrella." Based on a report in www.nytimes.com September 25, 2011. Also THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, September 25, 2011.

THREE

R Kavitha, an employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) who lost her bag, sent an email complaint to Selaiyur assistant commissioner of police Dhanraj on Tuesday (September 27). On Wednesday, the police called to say they found her bag. Kavitha had left the bag behind while she was loading luggage onto the car from her house in Rajakilpakam near East Tambaram. The abandoned baggage containing 20 sovereigns of gold and a laptop was recovered by another software engineer, R Madhusudan, who worked for CSC Computers. He found the bag containing the valuables lying on the road near Rajakilpakkam and handed it over at the local police station. On Wednesday, Kavitha and Madhusudan were called to the Greater Chennai police commissioner's office in Egmore (Tamilnadu, Bharat), where the recovered valuables were handed over to Kavitha in front of assistant commissioner of police (PRO) A D Mohanraj. Kavitha commended Madhusudan and the police personnel for retrieving her missing valuables. THE TIMES OF INDIA, September 29, 2011.

FOUR

It was her sheer determination and hard work. Smt Fathima M, a middle-aged farmer in Pathiyarakkara near Vadakara (Kerala, Bharat), lives on the banks of Murad river. For the past five years, she has been engaged in the cultivation of arrowroot(koova) and is earning rich profits. Her success has added sweetness because the place is commonly known as non-conducive for cultivating most of the agriculture products other than coconut, owing to its closeness to sea and the presence of salt in the soil. Fathima narrates her success story: "I tried orchid and mushroom cultivation. Owing to the presence of salt in the soil, it did not click. Later, I happened to read an article about the arrowroot cultivation. I started doing it in a small part of land five years ago. It yielded 50 kilograms of arrowroot in the first year itself." At present, she is cultivating in five acres of land and produces more than 500 kilograms of arrowroot powder per year. She has also become an entrepreneur by starting a firm Reem Arrowroot Products to market the powder and is earning more than Rs 2 lakh every year. Fathima does not use pesticides and is practising organic farming.  "As the arrowroot is considered as a medicine our main objective is to provide the best quality products for the people", she adds. Based on a report by Shri Sam Paul A in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, September 29, 2011.

FIVE

As our country deals with the rapidly progressive threat of an epidemic of A(H1N1) flu, it is useful to remember that the A(H1N1) virus is spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by infected persons. Sometimes, people may become infected by touching a surface or object with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Therefore, the Centre for Disease Control in the U.S. has made the following recommendations to prevent the spread of this illness: Individuals who do not have any symptoms should avoid close contact with sick people, should avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth (because this can help the virus spread), and should also clean their hands frequently by washing with soap and warm water for 15 – 20 seconds, or by using alcohol-based hand wipes or gel. There is another precaution that is applicable particularly in India that has not been highlighted so far, either in the media or in the recommendations of the health authorities, the avoidance of shaking hands when greeting other people. Shaking hands is a Western form of greeting that, with increasing globalisation and westernisation has been widely adopted in India, especially in urban areas. Today, shaking the hand of another person can mean that you are picking up the virus from that person's hand and exposing yourself to the risk of being infected with a virus that can be lethal. Therefore by folding our hands and saying "Namaste," the risk of person-to-person transmission of the virus can be eliminated, says Dr. Gautham Suresh, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre, Lebanon, NH, USA in an Open Page write up in THE HINDU, August 23, 2009.

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Monday, September 12, 2011

PANCHAAMRITAM 219

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Vishwa Samvad Kendra,Chennai

PANCHAAMRITAM219

Pancha is five inSamskritam, Amritam is nectar

 Poornima/ Kali Yugaabda 5113 / Kara Aavani 26(September 12, 2011)

ONE

The judiciary has enhanced the anti-corruption fightof the state Government of Bihar by confiscating the multi - storied edifice ofIAS Shiv Shankar Verma who was suspended by the Vigilance department on hisdisproportionate income. The Special Vigilance Unit raided Verma's house on 6thJuly, 2007 and found the entire movable and the fixed properties mounting to Rs1.43 crores, that made up the largest share of his unaccounted income source. Theillegal and unaccountable property of the official has been confiscated by thecourt and handed over to the HRD ministry of the state. The Chief Minister ofBihar Nitish Kumar decided to open up a school for the poor children in thispalatial house on Bailey Road, Patna (Bihar, Bharat). http://headlinesindia.mapsofindia.com/state-news/bihar    August 22, 2011.

TWO

Dr. Meera Krishna is the project coordinator for theSiruvani branch of Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development (CORD). A fewyears ago, illiteracy, poverty and alcoholism prevented development of any kindat Thennamanallur, Coimbatore district, (Tamilnadu, Bharat). Most houses didnot have toilets. Women rarely stepped out of their homes. But things changedonce Meera set up a CORD office in the village. "I've always wanted to serve ina rural set-up," says 48-year-old Meera. "After 16 years of practice inChennai, we moved to Coimbatore for my daughter's education. She studied at theChinmaya International Residential School in Siruvani." Meera passed by Thennamanallurwhenever she visited her daughter. She thought it was a perfect place for herclinic. "I volunteered here for a year," she says, till CORD identified her in2006. Meera has been on her toes ever since. "It's all about bringing peopletogether. Self Help Groups (SHGs), magalir mandrams and farmers' clubs havebeen formed. So far, we have 19 SHGs and three farmers clubs in Thennamanallurpanchayat", says Meera. Through CORD, Meera has also facilitated additionalincome generation activities for the women. In Puthur, for example, Angathalmakes winnows and Devi makes paper covers. Old Kannamal and Palanichamy mixphenyl. A shop in Thennamanallur is dedicated to products made by the women.They sell homemade pain balms, handmade sanitary napkins, paper bags, paperpackets, wire baskets and vegetables straight from farmers. With the loans fromlocal banks, over 170 families have built toilets at home after Meera told themabout the importance of hygiene. (Email - cordsiruvani@gmail.com From THE HINDU, July 21, 2011. (Idea: Dr.M.Jayaraman)

THREE

Shri Mohammed Ansari, an Amdavadi (Ahmedabad,Gujarat, Bharat) auto-rickshaw driver, on Saturday (September 9, 2011) morning,returned a bag containing Rs 20 lakh worth of diamonds to the trader who hadforgotten it in his three-wheeler without checking the contents. He was laterfelicitated by the trader and police. Ansari has to feed his family of eight.On Saturday, his first customer was Rupesh Jain, a diamond trader from Jaipur,who had come to the city to meet his ailing mother. He hired Ansari from theKalupur railway station to a private hospital in Thaltej. "Ansari hadloaded Jain's bag into his rickshaw and driven off assuming that the passengerwas already in the backseat. However, Jain was left behind at the station withhis other luggage and the diamonds in the rickshaw. "Ansari realised hismistake when he reached Dilli Darwaza and drove back to the railwaystation," said D S Patel, inspector of Kalupur police station. By then,Jain had reached the police station and narrated his tale of missing diamonds.When the complaint was being recorded, Ansari came there. Jain rushed to thebag and was overwhelmed to see the diamonds still there. THE TIMES OF INDIA, September 11, 2011. (Idea: ShriRaghuraman).

FOUR

Smt Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy, better known as Mrs.YGP, began her career 50 years ago and is still going strong. The concept ofcontinuous assessment was practised in the schools she founded much before theCBSE implemented it recently. You can be forgiven for being acutely embarrassedwhen a well-dressed young man falls at your feet with the greeting "Sri GurubyoNamah" on a sidewalk in New York. But for Mrs. YGP it was a moment of joy. Shesaw in that spontaneous gesture, the success of what she had set out to do 50years ago, under the temporary roof of her terrace. Here was her student,western in dress and location, but Indian in speech and manner. Her school washer answer to the irony of Indians abandoning their pre-independencenationalism for unrestrained Westernisation. She retained English as the mediumbut the message strongly reflected Indian mythology, Vedic scriptures,traditions and values. The suspension her son suffered for carrying an idol tohis school only firmed up her resolve. Her school walls echo with the Bhakti ofclassical music, dance and drama along with Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. It was hercrusade for the "Indianisation of our children."Based on a report by Smt Geeta Padmanabhan in THE HINDU, September 10, 2011.

FIVE

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) has prepared patent formats of nearly 900 yoga asanas (postures), toprevent European and Americann companies involved in fitness-related activitiesfrom claiming them as their own. These asanas will all be included in thedigitalised Traditional Knowledge Library (TKDL), set up by CSIR to collect andrecord traditional treatment therapy knowledge. Medicines and yoga asanasregistered with it enjoy the status of being patented. "Video recordingsof the asanas are also being made and recorded to prevent them from beingstolen," said TKDL director Dr VK Gupta. The CSIR began the project in2006. These 900 asanas have been collected from Patanjali's classic work onyoga, as well as other ancient classics like the Bhagwat Gita. Gupta said anumber of countries had already laid claim to around  250 of these postures. Some foreign companieshave even patented some of them. Foreign companies have been selling some ofthe yoga postures as therapies to relieve stress or backaches."How cansomeone else patent these asanas which are a part of our traditional treatmenttherapy knowledge? They should not be allowed to use them for commercialpurposes," Dr Gupta said. www.hindustantimes.com June 7, 2010.

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