PANCHAAMRITAM 265
(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam
is nectar)
Amavasya / Kali Yugabda 5116 / Jaya
Thai 6 (January 20, 2015)
ONE
Most
students in Pakistan are surprisingly keen to learn about Hinduism, despite the
hostility that has prevailed between their country and India in the previous
sixty years. According to Dr Maureen Korp, an art critic and a religious
studies scholar based in Canada, the students in Pakistan were different to the
ones she was used to teaching in Canada. Korp, is visiting Lahore at the
invitation of the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), said she had given an
assignment to her students in which they were asked about religions including
Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism. "Surprisingly, I found
that most students were keen to know about Hinduism despite the enmity, which
India and Pakistan have," the Daily Times quoted her, as saying (Based
on a report in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS May 26, 2008).
TWO
The
Flower Bazaar Police Station in Chennai turns into a picnic spot as nearly 50
children, about eight or nine years old, walk in to explore the place. All
staffers here are on call, not for any crime or panic but for a guided tour for
the little student visitors. As part of their Joy of Giving celebrations, they
take them around explaining the role of the police and the police station,
showing all places from the reception to the lock up room for the accused. The
young visitors who are largely afraid of the police are also told about the
helpline numbers they can dial to get police help besides tips on filing police
complaints. The idea is to make children feel comfortable visiting a police
station and helping them to shed fear towards men in khaki. "Earlier I
used to be scared to go to police. Now I have no such fear. I see police to be
good. They are like friends. Only when we do wrong we should be scared of
them," said a student Praveen. Another young student N Upendran says,
"now I know we should dial 104 to rescue any old person". The
children also got to lay their hands on police weapons like the old bayonet and
pistol besides demonstrations by experts. The two-hour exercise had a positive
impact. Now many want to become police. Though a small gesture by police, it
generated a lot of goodwill among generation next, something their routine hard
work often fails to achieve. (Based on a report by Shri Sam Daniel Stalin in
NDTV, October 8, 2014).
THREE
For
the past 40 years now, every evening at the Sathyavageeswara Temple, Karamana,
Thruvananthapuram (Kerala, Bharat), Sekhar Anna (Shri H. Parameswaran, retired
Deputy Chief Engineer, PWD, Kerala) has been taking classes for men and women,
from children and senior citizens to professionals and homemakers, all of those
who are interested in learning the scriptures. He keeps the classes short, at
the most, half an hour or 45 minutes. He teaches two to three batches of
students every day. He starts out by teaching them small and easy to understand
and memorise slokas and kritis, in order to familiarise them with the
intricacies of Samskritam. He goes to Sree Padmanbhaswamy temple to chant the
Yajur Veda every morning along with a handful of other devotees. They consider
it as an offering to the deity. Apart from this, he takes classes for women on
Sundara Kandam, Devi Mahatmyam, Bhagavad Gita and so on, and on weekends, in
his house, he hosts a discourse on the Yajur Veda. Says Sekar Anna: “At the end
of the day, I too am only a student of the Vedas. I am currently learning the
Yajur Veda under Venkatachala Ghanapadigal, an eminent Vedic scholar, one of
those rarest of rare people who can recite the entire text from memory”.
(Based on a report in THE HINDU, November 5, 2014).
FOUR
Majuli
is the largest river island in the world formed in the midst of the mighty
river Brahmaputra, located in Jorhat district of Assam. People of Majuli fondly
recall Ravi Sir’s seva there. Ravi Sir (Ravindranath Devendranath Savdekar)
belongs to Chandwad in Nasik district of Maharashtra. He is the only son of
Devendranath Savdekar who is a teacher. Inspired by the philosophy of Swami
Vivekananda, Ravindranath participated in Vivekananda Bharat Parikrama. He
completed the ‘Acharya’ training at Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari in
Tamilnadu. Ravindranath Savdekar left Chandvad in 2000. He served as a teacher
at Doyang school for two years. He was appointed as Principal of the school to
be opened at Majuli island. His school began with 53 students and two teachers
in a rented house. The major difficulty he confronted was that of language and
then to seek cooperation of the local people to resolve a number of problems.
He was not conversant with Assamese language. Then he started learning
Assamese. The similarity of words in Marathi and Assamese helped him adopt the
language with speed and at ease. Now he was capable of communicating with the
local people in their language. The locals were astonished to see him speak
their language! In 2004 Ravi Sir entered into wedlock with Poorva from
Ahmednagar. Poorva was ready to live on this Brahmaputra island. She also
started teaching in the school following her spouse. Today Ravi Sir is
Principal of Vivekananda Kendra School at Dibrugarh. “Had I served in
Maharashtra”, Ravi Sir says, “I would have become a good teacher but then we
could not do what we are doing here to bring these people into the mainstream
of Indian culture”. (From a report in ISHANYA VAARTA, December
2012).
FIVE
Defying
the popularity of pre-packaged snack-foods (mostly potato-based) made by
multinational companies, Aranthangi’s rice flour and jiggery based nibbles have
made their link to tradition their unique selling point. “Many of the
Aranthangi natives who work in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and
United States tend to buy our snacks to take back with them after vacations
here,” says Karpaga’s Murukku Company proprietor C. Subbiah, in the business
for 31 years. “Several people place large orders for marriages or religious
rites.” Subbiah says he has started adapting recipes and production to suit
modern health concerns. After frying, all the products at Karpaga’s are put
through a centrifugal device that drains off the excess oil, and prolongs its
shelf life by up to three weeks. On a busy day, his company can produce up to
120 kilos of the snacks, worth around Rs.15,000. Aranthangi in Pudukottai
district (Tamilnadu, Bharat) has as many as 34 companies involved in the
business of these deep-fried snacks, a south Indian staple. “Even though tastes
are changing, we are still seeing a steady demand for native snacks,” says Raja
of Sri Raja’s Murukku company, in business for 17 years. “My products are
costlier, because I use expensive ingredients. We supply to stores in
Pudukottai and Tiruchi regularly.” His last order was worth Rs.40,000 for a
marriage in Tiruchi, where he supplied 2000 each of murukkus and adirasams. (Based
on a report by Shri Nahla Nainar in THE HINDU, January 16, 2015).
OOOOOOOOOO
