INDIA
A Cyber Portrait
Through eons of time, India has become honed and polished like a sparkling jewel. The subcontinent has incredible diversity in its heritage and culture, much more than can ever be expressed in mere words. In an attempt to capture this quality, India Heritage, a Living Portrait of India, (www.indiaheritage.com) has presented a comprehensive website devoted to the arts, history, religion, philosophy,
TEMPLE
Kerala
Serious misrepresentation of the ancient Guruvayurappan Temple in Kerala, India, found on several websites and the overcharging of devotees for kalabham, or sacraments, presented a challenge to the management board of the temple earlier this year. The problem was solved beautifully by a Kolkotta-based computer firm, Gamut Automation, who created a spectacular, comprehensive webpage as an offering to Guruvayurappan (www.guruvayurdevaswom.com). One can now travel to this famed temple to Lord Krishna at the click of a mouse. Masterfully constructed, the site gives detailed legends, history of the temple, descriptions of temple architecture and the Deities, information on their 51-elephant sanctuary and much more. Best of all, thepujasand offerings are under the careful administration of the temple management and can be requested online.
RESOURCES
Against Child Abuse
To help stop the abuse physically and mentally of children in public schools and society, log on towww.endcorporalpunishment.org, home of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, which started in April, 2001. The goals are to form alliances with human rights groups against corporal punishment, lobby state governments to ban all forms of corporal punishment and provide technical assistance to support states with such reforms and more. To date, only ten countries have banned corporal punishment to children entirely; 73 have eliminated it in schools. In the United States, 27 states have declared this form of punishment illegal. One especially useful page tells readers how to respond to common defenses of corporal punishment, like "It never did me any harm."
Visitwww.hindu.org
CULTURE
Music
The music of South India, richly endowed with historical connections and religious connotations, draws us inward. While many of us have the idea that South Indian music is carnatic in nature, the areas of expression are vast, and we seldom are treated to the idea that Tamil folk music exists and can be quite lively. South India musicwww.southindianmusic.comdelves into various types of music with samplings you can listen to. The many demos on the site are delightful to hear. A word of caution: pay careful attention to the download instructions for MP3 and read the FAQs located in the "How Gnutella Works" section. We found that downloading the whole file and playing it on Winampwww.winamp.comor Sound Jamwww.soundjam.comfor the Mac worked best.