PANCHAAMRITAM 298

PANCHAAMRITAM 298

(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam is nectar)

Poornima / Kali Yugabda 5118 / Durmuki Vaikasi 8 (May 21, 2016)

Posted on May 25 2016.

ONE

Hindus in Mauritius with active support from Mauritius Government have built a Ramayana Centre in the capital city Port Louis to restore human values and peace. The Government has not only provided land for the Centre by duly passing an Act in the Parliament but also bears the recurring expenses. The roots of the project lie in the beginning of a Ramayana programme at Mauritius Radio in 1982 under the title ‘Manthan’. This Hindi programme continues even today. The basic Ground floor Plan is in form of a Tortoise, which has high regards in Mauritius. The government provided 1.5 acre land near Airport and the funds were raised by people collectively. “In the Learning Complex classes are conducted on Ramayana every day. There is a big hall with the capacity of 1,000 people. On top floor of the building Sri Ram Temple has been built.  Now the construction work of the temple is at final stage and it is expected to be inaugurated by early next year. We are carrying idols from India to be installed there,” says Shri Rajendra Arun who has been associated with the project since beginning. Shri Arun’s wife Smt Vinoo Arun is working on developing a ‘Ramayana Circuit’ to connect people from world over to the places associated with Ramayana in India. (Based on  a report by Shri Pramod Kumar in ORGANISER, May 22, 2016).

TWO

The 2,700 residents of  Devagiripatnam (Telangana, Bharat), are not worried about drought. Not just that, they also raise two crops a year. Making all this possible are  250 ponds dug by the villagers in their fields that harvest rainwater. And, when not raising crops, some of these farmers use their little ponds to grow fish for sale in nearby local markets. The sarpanch is Vankudotu Chandi. She  said that the village began suffering acute water shortage some 60 years ago. With black cotton soil covering majority of area, most farmers grow cotton during the Kharif season following the monsoons and during Rabi, usually switch to growing chillies. While most farmers said there usually is not a problem for kharif, the rabi season is dependent on rains during January and February. With no groundwater reserve in the village, the farmers resorted to digging small ponds as a community initiative. In most cases, a group of farmers, usually related to one another, join hands along with sharing the costs of the digging and lining the bottom with layers of crushed stone and sand. Once the pond is filled during the monsoon, as and when needed, the farmers take turns to irrigate their land so everyone in that group gets to share the water. the neighbouring Kasimdevipeta, Three neighbouring villages are now following the Devagiripatnam model. Based on a report in THE TIMES OF INDIA, May 15, 2016.

THREE

In a year’s time, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand, Bharat) will become our country’s first city to become a zero sewerage discharge city. Jamshedpur is located at the confluence of Kharkai and Subarnarekha Rivers. Subarnarekha is the principal river of Jamshedpur. Zero water discharge, usually referred as Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), is an innovative system for the total elimination of waste water discharging into the rivers. The ZLD System removes dissolved solids and other waste and returns distilled water to the process, basically recycling it. ‘The initiative to recycle and reuse 100 per cent waste water (sewerage water) has already begun. Work is well in progress to achieve the milestone,’  Deputy General Manager (Water Management) Shri Rabindra Kumar Singh of Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company Limited (JUSCO), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Steel, said. If things go as per plan, JUSCO could reuse the 40 million litres recycled water per day for industrial purposes in the city in the next one year's time. For all this, Jamshedpur is the only 10 lakh plus city in India without a municipal corporation. In 1980s when the state government proposed a law to end the Tatas' administration of Jamshedpur and bring the city under a municipality, the local populace rose in protest and defeated the government's proposal. Based on a report by Smt Surabhi Nijhawan  in http://www.indiatimes.com, May 19, 2016.

FOUR

Mamta Kumari (14) from Hapamuni village in Gumla (Jharkhand, Bharat), took the help of the district legal service authority (DLSA) to realize her dream of pursuing education. Police said the Class IX student of Ghaghra High School wrote a letter to the DLSA through one of her teachers and expressed her desire to study further and not get married as her parents are planning. The DLSA secretary shot it to the SP Gumla who asked Ghaghra police to take action. The police reached the village and brought the girl before the child welfare committee (CWC) Gumla on Febuary 2, 2016. Precisely at that time the groom’s family too reached Mamta’s house for the wedding. The state government sanctioned one lakh rupees to her for her resolve to pursue education. Eventually, Mamta was worried about the her father’s difficulty in repaying the loan he had taken for her wedding. Now she is admitted to Kasturba Government Residential School in Baghima, Palkote whereas she had to trudge 6 kms to school earlier. She is at class 9 now and she will get books, dress and  boarding free upto claas 12  (A report in BIRSA HUNKAR, Jagaran Patrika, Ranchi, February 28, 2016).

FIVE

Ten year old girl Kavibharathi of Balakrishnan Street, Mambalam, Chennai (Tamilnadu, Bharat) has decided to provide relief  to people from the scorching summer heat in her own way. She arranges an earthen pot full of cool drinking water at the gate of her house. As the sun ascends, she stands nearby and calls out at passersby to quench their thirst. It is the month of May and Kavibharathi spends her summer vacation in this manner for the last three summers. She is now at class 5. Mostly courier delivery boys, auto drivers, hand cart pullers, sweepers – all who toil in the sun - regularly benefit by her seva. Not simply cool water, Neer Mor  (dilute buttermilk)  too forms part of her menu. She serves over 75 littres of it on any day. Her thoughtful mother Smt Sreenithya procures organic milk at a higher price, converts it into curds, adds herbs and prepares Neer Mor for distribution by her beloved daughter. Otherwise it is just Aavin milk for domestic use by the family.  Kavibharathi quite often treats people to juicy water melon and Nungu. The funds? Kavibharathi has permission from her father Shri Kumar to empty her piggy bank every May for the purpose. Her classmates as well as her relatives pitch in with contributions. Other girls in the neighbourhood join her in distributing Neer Mor. Heartfelt blessing by the beneficiaries “nee nalla irukkanum thayee” (all the best, dear) is the constant inspiration for the family to continue the service year after year. (Based on a report by Shri L Murugaraj (murugaraj@dinamalar.in),

in DINAMALAR, May 7, 2016).

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PANCHAAMRITAM 297

PANCHAAMRITAM 297

(pancha is five in samskritam; amritam is nectar)

Amavaasya / Kali Yugabda 5118 / Durmuki Chithirai 23 (May 6, 2016)

ONE

On April 24, 2016, a train from Yashwanpura to Puri broke down at Rajamundhry (Telengana, Bharat) due to an engine fault and the passengers were stranded in the scorching heat 42 ⁰ C that is becoming common in Telengana this summer. A railway mechanic Ravindra Srinivas went under the engine (which was hot after running for few hundred kms) and repaired it in 18 minutes and rectified the fault. Salute this karma yogi, a real hero who placed his life at risk for duty. Rather than running behind tinsel town guys, appreciate people like Ravindra Srinivas and their sense of duty. (Based on a Facebook post).

TWO

An IAS officer. Let us call him Durairaj. He heads a state government – supported cooperative bank with branches all over the state (Tamilnadu, Bharat). On a particular occasion, nearly 100 vacancies in the organisation were filled up. But how? Durairaj brushed aside the transfer threat that is common on such occasions. That is how a ‘pliable’ officer is brought in, to handle the recruitments “benefitting” vested interests. Durairaj went ahead with the scrutiny of the applications and conducted the interviews. Addressing the selected candidates he said, “Look here, you are all here by virtue of your merit and nothing else. Take heart”. It goes without saying that not a single rupee changed hands by way of bribe in the entire process. I asked Durairaj later, “Did you have to suffer for the honest stand that you took?” He laughed heartily. Said, “Only others had to”. (It is late Shivaramji Joglekar (1917 - 1999), a veteran RSS pracharak, who recorded this anecdote. ‘Durairaj’ is one among the 1,000 honest persons in Chennai metropolitan city whom Shivaramji could spot in an informal survey during mid 1990s). (His birth centenary year began on May 5, 2016).

THREE

At the turn of the millennium, Gandhian K Neelakantan (87), a retired Hindi teacher of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kochi (Kerala Bharat), asked his son Sunil N, a retina surgeon, to do something for the villages. Dr Sunil was one of the top doctors at the Retina Department in Aravind Eye Hospitals, Coimbatore. He grew up in Kochi and did his Masters in Ahmedabad. With the decision taken, the father-son duo started looking for a place to set up an eye hospital. They zeroed in on Bela, home to the Koragas, a particularly vulnerable tribal group in Kerala. On June 9, 2001, Dr Sunil set up Koumudi Grameena Netralaya, in his mother’s name. The first year saw just five to six patients per week.When the going got tough, Neelakantan sold his 14 cents of land in Kochi to keep their dream afloat. When his brother Umesh Neelakantan, an MBA in hospital management, joined him, things started to turn around. They organised medical and awareness camps and community outreach programmes. Every week, 80 to 100 patients come from far away places like Kozhikode, Malappuram and Mangalore, too. Yet, the going is not yet smooth. Power fluctuation is so frequent that the hospital uses a generator for surgeries. The 500m road to the hospital is still kachha. Drinking water is not easily available. “Activating government agencies is a tough task,” he says. But he will not have it any other way. “Since earlier detection is the key to many diseases, hospitals should be in villages,” says Dr Sunil. (Based on a report by Shri George Poikayil  in EDEX supplement of The New Indian Express,  April 25, 2016).

FOUR

Guldasta, a school for the underprivileged, began in a village chaupal, travelled through parks and finally reached a four-room flat. And in the two decade long journey, its founder 81-year-old Vimla Kaul has brought a change in the lives of many young ones. “Education has the ability to give a new turn to life,” smiles Kaul. Kaul thought of equipping the young ones with the requisite skills to make them self-sufficient and strong. With permission from the village elders, Kaul began to teach tailoring to the women. And a girl from the village helped in getting together five children for the school. This school lasted for two years till the girl got married. Then, Kaul moved to a park in her immediate neighboruhood, where she taught. But she faced many problems with the neighbours complaining of the disturbance. And the school moved from park to park, until she found a MCD park where no one complained anymore, not even the authorities. Here education continued for a decade and more. Initially, the school was funded with the couple’s own savings but then she formed a NGO Vasundhari and started getting some help. She got the children uniforms, books, even meals at times. Two years back, she got funding from Malaviya Mission, a trust which promotes education, and then moved to its current location. Now the school is equipped with a library, computers and has regular activities such as health camps, dance workshops and even a 15-day electrician training course was held.  (http://www.askmeoneducation.com/inspirational-teachers-vimla-kaul-and-her-successful-project-guldasta) Idea: Smt. Ramadevi Prasad.

FIVE

Meet Shri. S Moorthy (mobile: 94426 42437) of Pudhkkottai, who lives in joint family comprising his brothers. Backed by the five desi cows that he rears, he has taken to organic farming. He does not sell the produce, but uses the organic rice he produces in his Karthik restaurant. Says he wants to care for the health of his customers. Thus he has turned his profession into service. He promotes blood donation through the ‘Sivakami Ammal Blood Donation Association that he founded in 2005. Touched by the plight of the relatives of patients running from pillar to post for blood he began donating blood. His brothers too joined him in this. “We conduct six blood donation camps in a year. Now there are 25 voluntary donors who respond to calls requesting blood, in addition to the 15 members of the association. We could donate so far 1,600 units of blood through 164 benevolent donors. The heartfelt thanks uttered by beneficiaries moves us and inspires us to go ahead with the life-saving service activity” says Moorthy. (As told to RSS worker Shri Chandrasekar of Pudhukkottai and carried by VIJAYABHARATHAM, April 29 2016).  

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