GO TO SOURCE KOLKATA, INDIA October 14, 2002: The Purohit Paathshala on Haritaki Bagan Lane, near Amherst Street, is a unique priest-training school providing hope for the unemployed. During Durga Puja, 40-year-old Narayan Shashtri will be assisting the main purohit of Nayanchand Dutta Street, Sarbojonin Durgotsav. “I will earn $16 and will also bring back clothes, food grains, fruits and…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI,INDIA, October 18, 2002: People in Tamil Nadu are renovating temple tanks in their efforts to conserve water, a very serious problem in a region that is currently trying to procure a supply of water from neighboring Karnataka. The aim is to convert, or rather restore, the temple tanks into catchments for rainwater harvesting. The landscape of…
GO TO SOURCE USA, October 18, 2002: Veena Oldenburg’s book is a provocative view on the history of dowry in India that takes a fresh look at this controversial custom. The Hindu practice of dowry has long been blamed for the murder of wives and female infants in India. Oldenburg argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective…
GO TO SOURCE KOLKATA, INDIA, October 11, 2002: For those who wish to do a sightseeing of the magnificent temporary temples set up along the city streets for Durga festival) at their own convenience without the crowds and traffic, several sites are available for viewing right on your desktop. Sashti onwards, pujo4u.com will showcase 100 pujas (as the temporary temples…
GO TO SOURCE AUSTIN, TEXAS, October 17, 2002: Ph.D. candidate, Karline McLain, at The University of Texas, Austin, is seeking readers of Amar Chitra Katha comic books for a survey. “I am interested in the ways in which these comics combine text and image to retell classical mythological stories, as well as narratives of more recent historical events,” McLain says.…
GO TO SOURCE MONTREAL, CANADA, October 12, 2002: Celebrating Sanskrit and it’s contribution to Indian civilization, Bharat Bhavan Hall was filled with a capacity crowd. Various scholars spoke on the contribution of Sanskrit to the culture and civilization of India (sanskriti) and the role Sanskrit historically played as the cultural lingua franca of India. The question and answer session provoked…
GO TO SOURCE RHINEBECK, NEW YORK, October 5, 2002: Ram Dass, recognized as a New Age figurehead, was honored in Upstate New York recently where a library at the Omega Institute, a New Age retreat, was named for him. Ram Dass, formerly known as Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor fired for his experiments with LSD, met his guru in the…
GO TO SOURCE GUWAHATI, INDIA, Monday, October 14, 2002: Four people were killed and 18 others injured, some seriously, in two separate attacks on Durga Puja pandals by militants in lower Assam’s Bongaigaon district last night. Pandals are temporary festival roadside temples, often quite elaborate. Extremists hurled hand grenades at two puja pandals in Bongaigaon town and nearby Satipur, killing…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13, 2002: Students are getting involved in halting the practice of immersing icons made from plaster of paris into the Yamuna River. During the festive season many icons, painted with lead-paint or made with insoluble man-made materials, are immersed in the river adding to the existing pollution. Said Gunjan Doogar of Development Alternatives, “To…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 13, 2002: Close on the heels of the recently concluded 18th International Ramayan Conference, Durban, South Africa, will host an International Conference on Lord Hanuman, announced Lallan Prasad Vyas, International Ramayan Conference Secretary General. The Divine Life Society, Ramakrishna Mission of South Africa and Vishwa Sahitya Sanskriti Sansthan will jointly organize the three-day…