UNITED STATES, August 1, 2021 (Indian Express by Geetika Sharma): When the US government tightened its immigration rules in the early 1900s, Punjabi immigrant workers, mostly men, were unable to bring their wives and families with them. Marriages between whites and people of color had previously been prohibited by anti-miscegenation laws in many states till 1967, and the new immigration…
UNITED STATES, July 30, 2021 (NY Times by Sara Aridi): When we were younger, my older sister Heba kept a photo on her dresser in our bedroom that always caught my eye. She said I was the young red-haired girl in the picture, but I was born with blonde curls and had light brown hair at the time. The girl…
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 (RNS): The Catholic bishop of Syracuse, New York, is speaking out against the Doctrine of Discovery and revealing plans to ask Pope Francis to repudiate theological teachings used for centuries to justify the subjugation of Indigenous peoples. In an interview with Religion News Service on Wednesday (June 30), Bishop Douglas J. Lucia explained he…
INDIA, July 30, 2021 (Unesco): Rudreshwara, popularly known as Ramappa Temple, has been added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. The ornate temple is located in the village of Palampet approximately 124 miles north-east of Hyderabad, in the State of Telangana. It is the main Shiva temple in a walled complex built during the Kakatiyan period (1123–1323 CE) under…
INDIA, July 27, 2021 (The Hindu): The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which was conceived as a US$2.68 billion program in 2014 to clean up the river has so far been allocated $2.02 billion. Of this only $1.4 billion, or about two-thirds, has been released by the Finance Ministry to the NMCG, a body under the Jal Shakti Ministry,…
KAUAI, HAWAII, July 28, 2021 (Hinduism Today by Claire Burkert): In 1988, in a mud wattle home in southern Nepal, I photographed a painting of Lord Siva. The artist, an elderly woman named Sita Devi, had chosen to paint Siva in hopes that He would bless the marriage of her nephew and his new wife. The image covered most of…
It is far more impressive when people discover your good qualities without your help.
ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, July 25, 2021 (The Hindu): The Sangameswaram Shiva temple was fully submerged in the backwaters of the Srisailam reservoir on Saturday when the water level in the dam rose above 855 feet, with close to 300,000 cusecs (cubic feet) of inflows recorded from the Jurala reservoir. The submergence of the temple is an annual feature. While the…
UNITED STATES, July 23 2021 (Salon by Matthew Rozsa): Dr. Martin Picard is an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, specializing in both psychiatry and neurology. Together, expertise in these two fields suits one well to understanding the essence of what makes one human. Picard is particularly knowledgeable about mitochondria, a structure found within nearly…
KAUAI, HAWAII, July 24, 2021 (Hinduism Today by Reiley Wilson): I had always thought of myself as spiritual but not religious (SBNR). Growing up, I attended a Lutheran church and I was taught gnostic teachings at home by my mother. I did not believe in what the church was preaching, yet I continued to attend with my parents as I…