Source: San Jose Mercury News SAN JOSE, U.S.A., November 20, 2002: When leaders of the Hindu Temple and Community Center asked the city to abandon Persian Drive and rename it Mandir Drive after the Hindi name for “temple,” it started an emotional feud of national pride between local Indian and Iranian Americans. Stunned by a sudden outburst of objections by…
GO TO SOURCE PALANI, INDIA, November 20, 2002 : Named Dhandayuthapani, the presiding Deity at the famous Palani Hills Temple is Lord Karthikeya. The saint physician and composer, Bogar Siddhar, is believed to have crafted the existing statue using nine highly toxic herbs over 5,000 years ago. The aging murthi has been developing cracks and for some years abhishekams have…
GO TO SOURCE MARYLAND, U.S.A., November 22, 2002: The India Development and Relief Fund, a Maryland-based charity, has denied allegations that it is raising millions of dollars from nonresident Indians and American corporations and using the money to fund a “hate campaign” in India. A group of Christians have released in New Delhi a report accusing IDRF of being a…
Source: Hindustan Times TIRUKKALUKUNRAM, INDIA, November 19, 2002: It used to be a fascinating sight. At the stroke of noon every day, two eagles would appear from nowhere and descend on the Vedagiriswarar Temple atop a hill at Tirukkalukunram. There they would eat the rice pongal served by a temple priest, wash their beaks in a pond and fly away.…
GO TO SOURCE JAMMU, INDIA, November 18, 2002: For hundreds of ailing or aging pilgrims unable to make it to the Vaishno Devi shrine near Jammu because of the difficult terrain, a new helicopter service is a perfect alternative. The helicopter service will be available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., beginning November 19. The management says they hope to…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 20, 2002: The Center for the Study of Developing Societies, in collaboration with India International Center, will host a regional conference of the International Association of the History of Religions in New Delhi from December 18-21, 2003. The last date for submission of abstracts is December 15, 2002. The conference aims to encourage…
GO TO SOURCE November 23, 2002: This website states that “For a fee of $10 per word (5 word minimum), a customer can have a telegram delivered to someone who has passed away. This is done with the help of terminally Ill volunteers who memorize the telegrams before passing away, and then deliver the telegrams after they have passed away.…
GO TO SOURCE COCHIN, INDIA, November 5, 2002: Delegates to the world’s first conference on traditional medicine are leaving the southern Indian city of Cochin pledging to raise the global profile of ayurvedic remedies. More than 2,000 Indian and foreign delegates spent four days discussing the relevance of the 5,000-year-old tradition of herbal and alternative medication in the modern world.…
GO TO SOURCE PUNE, INDIA, November 13, 2002: Portraying Lord Ganesha using a digital printing medium, Pune-based artist Subhash Awchat has a showing for ten days at the Y. B. Chavan Center, starting November 22. Subhash says, “Lord Ganesha has been a part of me since childhood and has always intrigued me. I chose the Lord as a subject to…
GO TO SOURCE PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, November 18, 2002: Cambodian teachers are demanding the word God be removed from school textbooks amid an increasing encroachment of outside religions on a mainly Buddhist society. The rankling references appear in 12th-grade social science textbooks. According to the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA), mentioning God is a direct contradiction of the Constitution. CITA…