GO TO SOURCE RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA, November 9, 2002: After the ban on foreign taxi drivers, Saudi Arabia has now announced that all jobs in gold and jewellery shops, presently dominated by Indians, will be taken over by local people by next year. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif, who is also chairman of the Manpower Council, has ordered the total…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 10, 2002: A human rights group has launched a campaign here against Short Message Services, arguing SMS has become the root of divorces in India where mobile telephones are the latest craze. Activists with the National Human Rights Council staged a demonstration and burned a cellular telephone in a protest against the succinct…
Source: Paras Ramoutar TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, CARIBBEAN, October 25, 2002: The religious festival of Deepavali holds special significance for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. This year to commemorate the 16th annual Deepavali Nagar, Dr. Uma Mesthrie, a great granddaughter of the late Mahatma Gandhi, was asked to speak. Knowledgeable about the experience of East Indian immigrants who were brought…
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, October 27, 2002: Over 125 Hindus gathered at the Salt Lake Public Library to celebrate Deepavali. A performance of sitar and tabla by Shashi Kalaskar and Subhash Kirtane set the tone for the celebrations. Prathibha Marathe, member of the library’s Diversity Committee, from Bangalore, India, remarked, “We had a great response…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 6, 2002: An analysis of the 2001 Census data pertaining to New Delhi shows that more women have taken jobs in the past ten years, though the number is still much less than working men. But, the number of women employed in the agriculture sector and household industries is higher than that of…
GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, September 13, 2002: Gods and Goddesses were enlivened in elaborate Vedic ceremonies held the middle of September at the southeast London Maha Lakshmi Vidya Bhavan. Devotees from the United Kingdom, Canada, America, Finland, India, Guyana and Trinidad pilgrimaged to the 3-day event called the Murthi Sthaapna celebration. Spearheaded by Param Pujya Swami Gopal Sharan Ji…
GO TO SOURCE BANGKOK,THAILAND, November 10, 2002: An animal rights group has urged tourists to stop visiting Thailand, accusing the kingdom of abusing elephants for tourism. In a video released by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, a baby elephant was shown separated from its mother during what’s called a “Phajaan ceremony” at an elephant camp in the Thailand.…
GO TO SOURCE PATNA, INDIA, November 11, 2002: Christians in densely populated areas are increasingly turning to the Hindu tradition of cremation as cemeteries get more crowded. As younger Christians spruced up the graves of their ancestors recently for All Souls Day, many of them said they were willing to opt for cremation rather than burial when their time comes.…
GO TO SOURCE PATNA, INDIA, November 10, 2002: Patna’s Mahavira temple, one of the biggest temples in the country, is known for its break with tradition. Not only the traditional Brahmin priests but also Suryavanshi Das, a Dalit (“untouchable”), also performs religious rituals at the temple and has been a priest there for the past nine years. “We believe in…
Source: Vinay Krishna Rastogi, Lucknow AYODHYA : A high-power delegation from South Korea visited Ayodhya to revive two millennia-old ties with the temple town. The South Koreans discovered that a Princess of Ayodhya was married to Korean King Suro in the first century CE. Suro was the King of Kimhay kingdom or the present Korea. The Princess was married to…