Thursday, January 22, 2015

PANCHAAMRITAM 265

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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).
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Monday, January 5, 2015

PANCHAAMRITAM 264

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PANCHAAMRITAM 264
(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam is nectar)
Poornima / Kali Yugabda 5116 / Jaya Margazhi 20 (January 4, 2015)
Dear all,
This issue is devoted to contributions to society by women in different fields - from weight lifting to Samskritam.
Moderator.
ONE
A After a conference at Sonepat, Haryana , a group of 45 female students and staff from the MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai, had left for Delhi. They were scheduled to return to Chennai on December 16 by Spicejet flight SG 309 at 7 PM that day, which, however, was first delayed and later cancelled. “Since we had no way out, we reached the Delhi railway station in the cold winter night and were pondering over travelling in an unreserved compartment up to Chennai,” said Usha Ravi, professor at the Food Science department of the college who headed the group. Meanwhile, she managed to source the number of Union MoS for finance and commerce, Nirmala Seetharaman, and told her of their travails. “She is a minister, woman and from Tamil Nadu. After I personally spoke to her, she made some calls and arranged for our lodging at a hotel where our every need was taken care of,” she explained. Later, Nirmala Seetharaman spoke to officials in the Railway Ministry to arrange for a special coach for the group to return to Chennai. It was done. (Based on a report in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, December 20, 2014 and Vanathi Srinivasan’s Facebook page).
TWO
Smt Lekha Namboothiri (31), a native of Mavelikkara, (Kerala, Bharat) donated one of her kidneys to 35 year old Shafi Navaz, a poor Muslim hailing from Pattambi, free of cost, surpassing barriers of religion. Lekha spurned offers mounting upto Rs 15 lakhs, unmindful of her own poverty stricken background. The transplant took place in 2012. However it was not covered by media then. The matter came to light recently and Lekha was showered with praises. But this incurred the wrath of Shafi and his family. According to Lekha, Shafi is said to have spoken to her in a denigrating manner, after he claimed to have been taunted by his (relatives, friends and others in his community for having accepted a kidney from a Hindu woman. Lekha’s children attend RSS shakha and she says that it is to inculcate patriotic feelings in the kids. Lekha’s case has now been taken up by Human Rights Protection Council. An account has been opened in her name in SBT, in the Harippad branch (A/c 67286750448; IFC code 0000440). An appeal has gone out from Haindava Kearalam, a Hindutva website, to come forward and help this lady who lives with the motto “Manava Seva is Madhava Seva”. (Based on apost in the HAINDAVA KERALAM August 24, 2014).
THREE
Shweta Rathore, Ashwini Waskar and Karuna Waghmare are among the 17 women body builders from India selected to the finals of the sixth World Body Building and Physique Sports Competition in December 2014 at Mumbai organised by the The Indian Body Builders Federation (this is the only forum recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India). The three told Asian Age their stories about making an unconventional career choice, the obstacles they faced while pursuing their high powered dream and how, despite their success in the field, the going never really gets easy for them. But that’s when these tough women got going. “My neighbours keep saying how I am a point of pride in their Marathi culture, but when it comes to considering marriage, they keep their distance,” Ashwini, a fisheries department employee, a  chuckles. Shweta Rathore, is an engineer by qualification. She says, “I want Indian women to incorporate a fitness regime in their lifestyle. Ideally, however, every woman should have certain literacy about physical fitness.”Karuna Waghmare was into fitness right from childhood. Therefore getting into athletics was an obvious choice for her. A moment of clarity led her into becoming a bodybuilding champ. “One of my students at the gym got me a magazine which had a story with the headline Mother of Six and that woman had six-pack abs. “‘If a mother of six could have such a brilliant body, why can’t I?’ I thought,” Karuna says. That was in 2009 and since then Karuna has been building herself up for several national and international bodybuilding competitions. (Based on a report in ASIAN AGE, December 10, 2014).
FOUR
One who wishes to study Sanskrit in depth, traditionally Kashi is the destination. Now, also Bilaspur (Chattisgarh, Bharat). Dr. Pushpa Dikshit (71) is there to teach you. Any researcher will have access to the over 10,000 sanskrit books in her library. The much decorated Mahomahapadhyayaa offers free food and stay to anyone desirous of learning Sanskrit at her feet. Just knock at her door. For several decades, Pushpa Dikshit has been teaching  Sanskrit stotras to commoners of Bilaspur  in order to ensure that their pronunciation is flawless. The other tool for this purpose that Pushpa Dikshit uses is pravachan  - of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Not satisfied, Pushpa Dikshit enables smooth running of two Sanskrit institutions in Chattisgarh – to take Sanskrit to more and more learners. Her unique contribution: the modern and scientific approach to Panini’s Ashtadhyayi through which one can have a thorough grasp of the ancient master grammarian’s work in six months straight, according to Pushpa Dikshit. (www.pushpadikshit.com)    
FIVE
 “About 48 massacres by Maoists were reported in this region from 1980 to 2002, which, according to government statistics, claimed the lives of over 600 innocent people. The actual figure of the victims was more than 1000. But now the picture of Sikariya in Jehanabad region (Bihar, Bharat) has changed. A new hope of peace and progress has dawned in the village,” says local journalist Mritunjaya Kumar. This was brought about by the village chief Shanti Devi. She belongs to the section of the society which is called ‘deprived’. Shanti Devi is completely illiterate. Her husband Raj Vallabh Prasad is a daily wage labourer who had  lost one of his hands in an accident. Despite all these problems, development of the village is Shanti’s priority. She represents the society whose almost one generation was brought up playing with guns and bullets. It is due to her efforts that the children of the village now have pen in their hands instead of guns. They go to school and learn computer and internet. The main agenda of Shanti Devi is education, health and cleanliness. It is because of her efforts that every house has a toilet. She not only persuadved people in this regard but also provided money to certain families from the Panchayat fund. Self-help groups (SHGs) were constituted to financially help the women. Now many of them have started their own business.  She gives credit of all this courage to her husband who supported her in all circumstances. (From a report in SEVA SADHANA, March 27, 2009).
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