group singing at nepali ashram, varanasi: vrindavan and

R.N.I. Regn. No. 49322/89

Maha Shivaratri: Maha Shiva Lingam was placed with a silver pitcher over the Lingam from which water dripped down continuously – this is how Lord Shiva is worshipped.

February 2014, ` 20/-

ISSN: 2230–7567

GROUP SINGING AT NEPALI ASHRAM, VARANASI: Vrindavan and Varanasi widows, under Sulabh care, singing together on the ghat of the holy city of Varanasi while everything on the horizon is bathed in light.

Shiva, The Ultimate Outlaw

Shiva has such an impossible character; all contradictions included. In acceptance of this character one will have no issue with anyone in the world including oneself. The idea is to show divinity as all inclusive no one against the other, as in identifying good and bad we

also divide the world and make the ultimate union unattainable.

When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we are referring to. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not.” Today, science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. The basis of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast nothingness. The galaxies are just a small happening, a sprinkling. The rest is all vast, empty space, which is referred to as Shiva. So Shiva is described as a non-being, not as a being.

At another level, when we say “Shiva,” we are referring to the Adiyogi or first yogi, who is the basis of yogic science. Yoga does not mean standing on your head or holding your breath. Yoga is the science and technology to know the essential nature of how this life is created and how it can be taken to its ultimate possibility.

This being who is a yogi, and that non-being which is the basis of existence, are the same, because a yogi is someone who has experienced the ultimate union – who has experienced existence as himself. To contain the existence within you even for a moment as an experience, you have to be that nothingness. Something can never hold everything. Only nothingness can hold everything. When we talk about Shiva as “that which is not,” and Shiva as a yogi, in a way they are synonymous, yet they are two different aspects. India is a dialectical culture, so we shift from one aspect to another effortlessly.

Transmission of yogic sciences happened on the banks of Kantisarovar, a glacial lake a few miles beyond Kedarnath in the Himalayas. This predates all religion. Shiva started a systematic exposition of yoga in a scientific manner to seven disciples, the saptarishis. He explored every nut and bolt of creation and brought forth yoga as a technology with which every human being can evolve consciously. This is a way of stepping beyond the limitations that physical laws impose upon us.

Physical nature has set laws within which all life needs to happen. But the fundamental nature of a human being is always longing to go beyond those limitations. Spiritual process is about breaking the laws of the physical. In that sense, we are all outlaws. And Shiva is the ultimate outlaw. You can’t worship him, but you are welcome to join the Gang.

If you wish to join the Gang, there is no better time than tonight, the night of Mahashivaratri. Planetary positions on this unique night are such that there is a natural upsurge of energy in the human system. This process of raising your energies to their ultimate pitch, to dissolve yourself and become a part of cosmic oneness, has happened in abundance on this night.

A nightlong festival has been established in tradition to make use of this possibility by remaining awake and keeping one’s spine erect. May this Mahashivaratri be not just a night of wakefulness, but a night of awakening.

(Courtesy from The Times of India)

Social Remorse: The seminar, sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, was more than an academic exercise which was clear from the speeches dripping with love and concern for the hapless widows. The audience, comprising faculty members and students, sat through the proceedings to listen to the stories of social apathy and family cruelty against widows. It was social remorse for the wrong done to widows by those who were their near and dear.

SULABH INDIA | FEBRUARY 2014 | 1

From the editor's desk02 Collective Social Responsibility

CoVer storY03 Academics unite to plead for fairer

deal to widows

CoNFereNCe06 Indian Science Congress : Jammu FoCUs09 Blue Dart Excellence and

Leadership Awards10 Sulabh Gesture to Handicapped

Artists11 Late Madan Mohan Verma

Eminence Award13 Odisha can Abolish open defecation 21 Vrindavan widows are victims of

prejudices and bad conscience

messAGe12 Sulabh can lead widow

redemption crusade40 Sharing and Caring : The Lesson for the Youth

JAYANti15 Guru Ravidas Jayanti Social

reform through bhakti

eVeNts17 Authors’ Guild of India at the

Book Fair

FestiVAL19 Maha Shivaratri Celebration

historY24 Alexander the Great

A Conqueror with Conscience

mUseUm27 Museum and Transformations

sANitAtioN30 Emotional messaging changes

handwashing behaviour

storY31 The Swimmer

From the Press38 Take holy dip in Ganga, visit

Kashi Vishwanath temple Vrindavan widows share experiences

38 Varanasi, Vrindavan widows’ sangam at seminar

distiNGUished Visitors41 Distinguished Visitors

stAtes News46 Andhra Pradesh46 Rajasthan47 Uttar Pradesh

ContentsVolume: 26, Issue 2: February, 2014

Editor-in-ChiefBindeshwar Pathak

Managing Editorkumar dilip

Editors.P.N. sinha

Joint EditorJanak singh

Editorial Advisory Boards.P. singhsidheshwar dhari sinhaArjun Prasad singhr.s. srivastavaAshok kumar JyotiC.P. NambiarGaurav ChandraPramod makkad

Art Directordebabrata Chatterjee

Design & LayoutAnil khanna,tarun sharmashashi dhar

Printed & Published byram Chandra JhaOn behalf of Sulabh InternationalSocial Service Organisation

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Editor's Name : S.P.N. Sinha

Entire contents (C) Sulabh International Social Service Organisation. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation in any language in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Requests for permission should be sent to Editor, Sulabh India. Opinions expressed in the contents are the contributors’ and not necessarily endorsed by the publisher who assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited material, nor is he responsible for material lost or damaged in transit. All enquiries/correspondence regarding editorial, advertisement, subscription or circulation should be addressed to the Editor, Sulabh India, and sent on the address given here in above.

2 |SULABH INDIA | FEBRUARY 2014

From the Editor's Desk

We live in a strange world of moral complexities, neither dialectical nor absolute, when the line between wrong and right is blurred. Every age defines its values but most time in human history, it was held that kings and queens were the representatives of God and, hence, they had the divine

right to rule. During the age of feudalism, it was said that feudal lords had the right to hold serfs and slaves. In sum, it was believed that the poor, who were many, had to work for the rich, who were a few. This was how the social values had been defined. Not now. Capitalism and Communism have re-defined those values. Both say that if society has to grow, it has to grow together.

But, this does not happen. Since human beings are endowed differently — tall, short, in different colours and vastly different abilities and skill — they cannot grow equally and together. A recent US report said that 84 persons own 50 per cent of world’s wealth. Joseph Stiqlitz, Nobel laureate, and a great American economist, says in his book, “The Price of Inequality”, that inequality will destabilize society and lead to unpredictable consequences.

As a result of these kinds of warnings and advice, big business houses have taken up projects under the “Corporate Social Responsibility” in a bid to salve their conscience and also in the true spirit of helping the poor. Such wind of change regarding philanthropy aimed at helping the poor and indigent, who fail to attract attention of the governments of their countries, has started blowing across India. Thus, the Corporate Social Responsibility, a concept accepted as a fact of life abroad, has happily started making inroads in this country. Already, there is talk that big corporate houses have agreed to allocate at least two per cent of their revenue for rendering relief to the poor.

In order to review the situation, an international conference on Corporate Social Responsibility was held in Bangalore (January 17-18) attended by about 300 delegates from industry, government, and media. The Sulabh Founder, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, was a special invitee.

Dr. Pathak talked about the various social projects which Sulabh has undertaken successfully without external help and assistance. He said Sulabh is more than sum of its parts; it is a moral crusade for good life, social justice and good living which is possible by working together in mutual respect. Being socially responsible people and organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity towards social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.

Dr. Pathak said: “We must mix ethics with work, in which case, we will earn money and also help others. It is no longer necessary, as was held in earlier times, that many people have to suffer so that a few can enjoy. Not now. We can be happy together. This has been my philosophy and belief which had been strengthened during the four decades of my work for scavengers who have suffered from bad sanitation, hunger and bad health only to die as untouchables so that society can live clean, healthy and happy. I can think of no social injustice greater than this since the slaves were sold in the Haitian open market by the weight of their flesh. While I am happy about the fact that the government and people trust me most, I also feel alone at the top; for it is a much greater responsibility than our celebrations can make me forget,” he said. While saying this Dr. Pathak lapsed into philosophical thinking and quoted the famous economist, John Maynard Keynes: “We must plan and think of life in short term: in the long term, we will be dead.” Who can disagree with him?

Collective Social ResponsibilityPoverty is not natural; it is manmade and can be abolished by society acting together


A resounding plea for better treatment of widows numbering about 36

million in India was made at the National Seminar on “Social Accommodation of Widows: State, NGOs and Society” at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on February 17 and 18.

That the seminar, sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, was more than an academic exercise was clear from the speeches dripping with love and concern for the hapless widows made by all the participants. The audience,

comprising some faculty members and many students, sat through the proceedings with rapt attention.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement, inaugurated the seminar without making any bones about the distresses of widows living as virtually pariahs abandoned by their kith and kin in Varanasi and Vrindavan and surviving on begging and charity.

Dr. Pathak said more than 50% of the widows in the country are old, infirm, disabled and have no source of income or livelihood. Their

position becomes all the more critical and vulnerable if they have dependent children to support and bring up. In many a situation, widows work as housemaids and take up menial jobs for survival. In extreme cases, they have no other alternatives but to resort to begging.

Dr. Pathak said that in spite of the enactment of laws, widow remarriage takes place only in a handful of cases. To date, in our country there are millions of unfortunate women, who lose their husbands untimely and become widows. Their number is nearly 3% of the total population of the country, i.e. about 36 million. The most glaring and moving example is provided by the plight of Uttarakhand widows, who lost their husbands overnight in the deluge that broke out in the hills in June last year.

Old and infirm Dr. Pathak, who is deeply involved in programmes for the welfare of widows ever since the Supreme Court of India directed his attention to this cause, said the plight of widows beggars description. “Ever since, I was called upon to do my bit for the widows in Vrindavan, I haven’t had a moment of peace: my thoughts are always with them

Cover Story

Academics unite to plead for fairer deal to widows

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak receiving a memento from Prof. S.R. Yadav, BHU Head of the Department of Sociology, for his remarkable steps towards the widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi


because they have none to take care of them.”

Dr. Pathak recalled various measures Sulabh has initiated to take care of the widows under its charge. Over 1,500 widows now are paid a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 each. Besides, Sulabh has placed at their disposal five ambulances for transporting them to hospitals should they suddenly fall ill or face some other medical problem. Sulabh has also provided the ashrams where these widows are housed, TV sets so that they could live like any other person, fully aware of whatever is happening in the world, besides watching entertainment programmes of their choice.

Sulabh also looks after Varanasi WidowsDr. Pathak said he had made similar arrangements for a group of widows in Varanasi also. The Sulabh staff has been instructed to meet their requirements and not let them live on begging or charity of people. “That our concern is not mere eyewash is obvious from the way we made the widows in Vrindavan play Holi, and celebrate Diwali and Christmas festivals. I myself visited widows who are under the Sulabh care in Varanasi on the occasion of the Raksha Bandhan festival. Sulabh distributed packets of sweets. Thus they were able to celebrate the Raksha Bandhan which they had not done since they became widows years ago”.

Violation of Human RightsProf. S. Tripathi, a former Senior Sulabh functionary, who is now a member of BHU faculty, painted a devastating picture

about the plight of widows in most of the developing and underdeveloped countries. He said Brazil and African countries do not take care of their widows although their number is pretty large in each nation. The treatment meted out to widows, who are often left with small families to raise and nobody to take care of them, makes a mockery of human rights. Problem of widows is a universal tragedy which can possibly be somewhat mitigated if not altogether forestalled only through education. Educated girls even if they become widows can stand on their own feet. It is imperative that efforts for the education of girls must be redoubled. At present the plight of widows is a shame for humanity.

Prof. Tripathi said Sulabh has only added feathers to its cap by taking remarkable

steps for the widows first in Vrindavan and later in Varanasi. “Dr. Pathak is no stranger to good work. His life is a glowing example of service to the most downtrodden section of our society: scavengers. He has embraced the cause of widows with equal zeal and dedication. If anyone deserves

Noble Prize for social service in India, it’s only Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak.”

Prof. S.R. Yadav, Head of the Department of Sociology, BHU, said in view of the distressing situation of the widows, it is necessary to build social awareness and to change the mindset of people towards them. It is necessary to educate girls, encourage them to be

independent and fight for their own rights. Education will give them a sense of independence and will help them become self reliant. This will change

Cover Story

From left: Prof. S. Tripathi, Prof. R.R. Jha, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Prof. Sohan R. Yadav and Dr. V.K. Lahari

Educated girls even if they become widows can stand on their own feet. It is imperative that efforts for the education of girls must be redoubled. At present the plight of widows is a shame for humanity


the attitude of people towards widows and they will not be treated as parasites in the society as is the case now.

Prof. Yadav said widows of all communities carried the stigma of inauspiciousness and were not permitted to participate in religious or auspicious social functions like marriages etc. They have to face several social, economic, emotional and cultural deprivations. Strong survival advantages of adult females (compared with adult males) are there in the South. There is large difference between male and female age at marriage in the South.

While there is high mortality rate among north Indian widows, widow remarriage is also common in the region. There is high incidence of widowhood among women (particularly in the older age groups). The main reason for this gender gap in the incidence of widowhood is a much higher rate of remarriage among widowed men, compared with widowed women. The mean age at widowhood for those widowed by age 45 years is

35.7 and the similar figure for widower is 34.9.

Social ConcernsIt indicates that early widowhood is a factor which reduces the length of fertile union. The estimates for urban widowhood/widower are higher than rural counterparts (Indicating a better adult mortality situation in the urban areas). Prof. Yadav stated that the concerns of Indian widows cannot be dissociated from those of other single women or indeed from those of women in general. There are many social concerns related to this issue like problem of survival of widows, customary belief, property rights and inheritance pattern, remarriage and employment.

Prof. Yadav, who has written a book focusing attention on the plight of widows in India, also exhibited at the seminar a couple of heart-rending episodes from a film on the plight of widows he has

directed. In one of the scenes, a widow says: “My life burnt on the pyre of my husband. I’m alone, struggling for survival, socially rejected. No one to care for me. .... I’m burden to the society. Is there any way

out or salvation is the only solution?” The portrayal of the plight of widows was so effective that it made many in the audience have moist eyes.

Since it was a seminar for focussing attention on the

plight of widows, Dr. Pathak took along with him a group of widows led by Manu Ghosh for participation in the seminar. Just as the plight of widows was being debated and discussed, each of the widows from Vrindavan was garlanded. As the first day’s proceeding was over, all the Vrindavan widows surrounded Dr Pathak, their saviour and as the widows themselves say, “messenger of Lord Krishna to help and take care of them.” Smilingly each one of them focused their eyes on the Sulabh Founder.

The following day the Vrindavan widows mixed and mingled with the widows from Varanasi, who are under the Sulabh care now. Singing Bhajans they sat in a motor boat and went for a joy ride on the Ganges. In the evening they witnessed the celebrated arti on the ghats of the holy city, as everything in the horizon seemed to be bathed in lights, twinkling somewhere, shining all over the ghats as priests chanted prayers with incense burning in copper bowls they held in hands.

Cover Story

Widows from Varanasi, who are under the Sulabh care are singing Bhajans sitting in the motor boat

It is necessary to educate girls, encourage them to be independent and fight for their own rights


-Aastha Singh and Arushi Sood

CoNFereNCe

Science has remained a human activity for the formulation of knowledge.

The generation of new body of knowledge continues to be the important preoccupation of scientists. In the real world, the deployment of formulated knowledge for solving social problems has been gaining importance. A survey of the lives of inventors reveals that almost all of them have aspects of character which are relatively rare in combination. Intense persistence, optimism, originality of approach, combined with an almost mystical conviction that there are more effective, more elegant ways of doing things. And, above all, an extreme independence.

Unquestionably, it is the case that if you invent a better

Indian Science Congress : JammuScience and technology have created the modern world

From man’s inventiveness has arisen the vast difference between his way of life and that of animals. Who are the geniuses who made our civilisation possible? From all the tens of thousands of millions of men and women who have peopled the earth, only a few thousand – say 00001 per cent – have had the creative genius to conceive something new and useful. Their inspiration did much more than raise our standard of living; it has changed the size and distribution of population, brought about great shifts in the location of political power, created new class systems, transformed education and much else, in ways which few of us can fully appreciate today.

mousetrap, give popularity. For example, the zip fasteners were made in 1893 but it took until 1913 to solve the manufacturing and design problems. But it then took until 1923 before zip

fasteners were commercially marketed and so saved their makers from bankruptcy.

These and other great issues of science and inventions were discussed at the 101st

Hon’ble Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, ex-President of India addressing the Indian Science Congress


Indian Science Congress (ISC) at University of Jammu on February 3-7. The Congress was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. Hon’ble Governor of J&K State, Mr. N.N. Vohra and Hon’ble Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and eminent scientists, including Hon’ble Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prof. Yashpal and other dignitaries visited the event along with many other distinguished scientists and scholars.

Addressing the Science Congress in Jammu, the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh said: “I am delighted to be part of the very first Indian Science Congress session to be held in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. I thank the President of the Indian Science Congress Association, Professor Sobti, for his initiative to bring this premier congregation of scientists for the first time to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Their presence here is a vindication of our commitment to achieving inclusive and

balanced development of our nation.

“The 2013 Science, Technology and Innovation Policy reflects our ambitions and outlines our broad approach. We have strengthened the research and academic base of the country as a critical foundation to achieve these goals. We have also taken a number of measures to make a career in science more attractive. We have worked to create a synergy of academia with research, research with industry, industry with economy and economy with the well-being of our people. All this has

made our progress in science in the last ten years very substantial.

“This would require greater support for education both at school and university level. We are succeeding in expanding quantitatively at both the school level and

in the higher education. The Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education has more than doubled in ten years and now stands at 19 percent. However, we must

recognise that the quality of education being imparted needs much more attention.”

Former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said: “In a society, we have to make innovations continuously. Innovations come through creativity. Creativity comes from beautiful minds. It can be anywhere and any part of the world. It may start from a fisherman’s hamlet or a farmer’s household or a dairy farm or cattle breeding center or it could emanate from classrooms or labs or industries or R&D centers. Creativity has multi-dimensions like inventions, discoveries and innovations. Creative mind has the ability to imagine or invent something new by combining, changing or reapplying existing ideas. Creative person has an attitude to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. Creativity is a process through which we can continuously improve ideas and find unique solutions by making gradual alterations and refinements to our works. The important aspect of creativity is seeing the same thing as everybody else, but thinking of something different. Innovation and creativity ultimately results into the culture of excellence.”

More than 4,000 delegates, including some Nobel Laureates from across the world, attended the Congress. The theme of the Congress for this year was “Innovations in Science and Technology for Inclusive Growth”.

The highlight of the Congress was the India Vision 2020 Mega Expo. Hon’ble Mr. S. Jaipal

CoNFereNCe

Hon’ble Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India with Hon’ble Mr. N.N. Vohra, Governor, State of Jammu and Kashmir and Hon’ble Mr. Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister, State of Jammu and Kashmir on the dais at the Congress

Creativity is a process through which we can continuously improve ideas and find unique solutions by making gradual alterations


Reddy, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences inaugurated the Mega Expo organized on the sidelines of the Congress. Several innovative technologies from across the country were on display. Many R&D organizations, including DRDO, DSIR, ICAR, and CSIR, national and international agencies, also participated in the innovation exhibition.

Sulabh ParticipationThe Sulabh International Social Service Organization participated in a big way at the exhibition. The Sulabh Stall drew heavy rush because of the innovation in the field of sustainable development and its focus on the sanitation technologies, innovations and products that have made impact on global low cost sanitation settings. The Sulabh International Stall was the first of its kind in the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, in which SMEs, farmers, corporate bodies and students showed great enthusiasm.

The Sulabh School Sanitation Club also drew large crowds, particularly from the students. Most of the educational institutions like Delhi Public School, Jammu, Heritage School, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, Jodhamal Public School, DPS, Udhampur, and Presentation Convent, Jammu sent their students to keep them abreast of the school hygiene intervention programmes undertaken by the members of Sanitation Clubs.

Most of the school students

CoNFereNCe

participated in the inter-active games that were on display at the sanitation club console.

The display by club members attracted people from all classes of the society. Live demos and direct interaction with students and scientists were the highlights of the Sanitation Club pavilion. Participants from the Children Science Congress

that was held on the sidelines also visited the Sanitation Club stall. Students from Manipur, Tripura, Odisha, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar, and Nagaland took keen interest in the activities of Sulabh School Sanitation Club and also in the two-pit model of Sulabh toilet that was on display.

Nearly 15,000 delegates from different parts of India and foreigners visited the five-day Congress. Delegates from more

than 65 countries participated in it along with numerous scientific institutions from across the country. Nobel Laureates Prof. Y. Lee, President International Council for Science, ICSU, Dr. Farid Murad and International experts were among the national luminaries who visited the Mega Expo.

It is widely accepted that the future generations would rely on the power of scientific knowledge to solve problems of food and nutrition security, affordable health care challenges, energy and environment-related problems, water and sanitation-related challenges, etc. Science, technology and innovation are the emerging three pillars from which future societies could not only benefit but also rely upon for facing social challenges. The goal of the sessions of the Indian Science Congress is to make many good things happen through science for shaping the future of India.

A view of the Sulabh Stall at the Indian Science Congress

The future generations would rely on the power of scientific knowledge to solve problems of food and nutrition security


FoCUS

Blue Dart Excellence and Leadership Awards

Blue Dart Express Limited, South Asia’s premier courier and integrated

express package distribution company, presented the third Blue Dart Global CSR Excellence and Leadership Awards at a glittering function at the Taj

-Sulabh Bureau

Mr. Yogesh Dhingra, Chief Operating Officer, Blue Dart (left) and Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (centre) presenting a trophy and a citation to Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement

The World CSR Day was observed by the World Corporate Social Responsibility Congress on February 17 and 18, 2014. The theme of the Congress was ‘CSR-Good to Great – the Path Ahead’.

Lands End, Mumbai, on February 18, 2014. The awards were in recognition of the corporate social responsibility and sustainability champions across various industries. Sustainability champions from over 50 companies were awarded.

The award giving started by honouring three NGOs for their leadership activities and their outstanding performance in their respective fields. The three NGOs were: New Hope Foundation, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation and Save Kids Foundation. Dr. R.L. Bhatia, Founder, World CSR Congress said, the Jury and the Council of Board Members selected Sulabh International for the award keeping in mind the social activist’s contribution in the field of public sanitation.

The programme began with a short film on national harmony showing different cultures and colours of India. The music was played bringing a feel of patriotism among the people.

After the inspiring clips of national harmony there were clips regarding the challenges that we face in the present scenario. The clips also presented a glimpse of eight global millennium goals. There was also an appeal that without the support of a common man it would not be easy for any government to achieve these goals.

The Global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal


FoCUS

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak receiving a foot painting made by Mr. Manoj Bhingare (left) Manoj had lost both his hands in a bus accident. Also seen is Mr. Paresh Padia (centre), Senior Manager, Indian Mouth and Foot Painting Artists

primary education; to promote gender equality and empower women; to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership.

Accepting the award Sulabh Founder, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak said, earlier it was GSR i.e. Government Social Responsibility but now it is CSR i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility. ‘The role of Corporate Social Responsibility is the resource of mobilisation, monitoring and service and for this NGOs will have to play the role of awareness, motivation, education, designing, estimation, i m p l e m e n t a t i o n , maintenance and follow-up because these things are very important', he said.

The commitment of Dr. Pathak towards helping the society was also revealed on the occasion when in an auction of a painting beautifully painted by a handicapped painter was bought by Dr. Pathak for Rs. 50,000 when all others sitting there were calling for Rs. 15-16,000 for it.

The Sulabh Founder, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak made a significant

contribution to the cause of the disabled artists by buying for Rs. 50,000 the painting made by Manoj Bhingare, a member of the Association of the Indian Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (IMFPA) at a charitable auction. The amount will be used for the welfare of the IMFPA artists.

Manoj lost both hands in a bus accident when he was only 10 years old. His dream was to become an artist and he decided to fulfill his dream overcoming his handicap. He has completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and wants to become a drawing teacher. In 1999, he won the Rashtriya Balashree Award in Painting which was presented to him at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The IMFPA is an international, non-profit organization

run by disabled artists to help themselves meet their financial needs. Its members paint with brushes held in their mouth or feet due to their disability sustained at birth, through an accident or illness.

Over the last 50 years IMFPA has brought to light the aesthetic creations of disabled artists by providing them a platform to show their artistic talent. Instilling a sense of freedom and dignity, the Association offers its members an opportunity to be self-reliant and secure and earn their livelihood through sale of their pieces of art.

Handicapped in body, but not in spirit

Sulabh Gesture to Handicapped Artists

The role of Corporate Social Responsibility is the resource of mobilisation, monitoring and service


The Journalists Association of Electronic and Print, Dehradun honoured Dr.

Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement along with other eminent dignitaries at the conference of journalists held at Dehradun on February 16, 2014 to pay homage to late Madan Mohan Verma.

Addressing the audience on the occasion the senior social worker, Mr. Avinath Kumar Gupta said, late Madan Mohan Verma was a member of the family of late Loknayak Jai Prakash Narain, belonging to Sitabdiara in the state of Bihar. He was a close associate of late Feroz Gandhi in the National Herald Group. He actively participated in the freedom struggle and went to jail many a time. On the advice of the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh late Dr. Sampoornanand he gave up his career in journalism and settled in Nainital working for provision of land to the landless for the cause of people.

Late Vermaji was a disciple of Acharya Narendra Deo. Unfortunately he expired at a young age of 40.

The function was graced by the presence of Hon’ble Mr. Harish Rawat, Chief Minister, state of Uttarakhand and Hon’ble Mr. Vinod Chamoli, Mayor, Dehradun Municipal Corporation. The programme started with the Chief Minister garlanding the portrait of late Vermaji and lighting the ceremonial lamp.

A symposium was also held on the occasion. The subject for discussion was the role of Media in making a harmonious society. Presiding over the discussion, the Chairman Mr. Jitendra Soni in his speech said, harmonious society is possible only if the media plays its role in association with the common man, free from the pressures of the market and the political scenario. Eminent participants in the symposium included Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Nag, Member, Press Council of India,

Mr. P.K. Sehgal, Major General (Retd.) Mr. Shatrughna Prasad, (Senior Journalist, Mumbai). They all agreed that the present scenario of political instability, price rise, corruption, scandals and the oppression of women is a painful situation. The youth and the media have to play big role in these circumstances.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement was honoured on the occasion, the award being received in Dr. Pathak’s absence by Mr. Satish Patel, Hony. Controller, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Uttarakhand State Branch. The other dignitaries who received the award were Mr. Kanakmal Doogar, Chairman and Chancellor, IASI Deemed University, Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardar Shahar, Churu, Rajasthan, Mr. Jitendra Soni, Chief Editor, Lokswami Group and Mr. Anil Singh, Chairman, Sadbhawana Sewa Sansthan.

Mr. Satish Patel, Hony. Controller, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Uttarakhand State Branch receiving from Hon’ble Chief Minister, Uttarakhand the felicitation on behalf of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement-Sulabh Bureau

Late Madan Mohan Verma

EminenceAward

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I have become aware of the circumstances that to date are still affecting many

widows in India, not only of Varanasi but of other regions as well. I have been a widow for over two decades and though I live in the western world, my Spirit reaches to those who share in my fate as widows and who I feel are calling from afar. While widows may not be considered lesser members of society in the United States, we still find ourselves having to survive by our own efforts, raising our children by ourselves and having to usually lower the standards of our living to make sure we survive. No family member takes responsibility for us or for our children, so in many ways there are similarities in the

decline of our social status but certainly nothing like what the widows of India must endure on a daily basis. My heart just broke to know there are those women with whom I share in their pain.

First of all, I commend you for all the efforts that your organization has done and continues to put forth on behalf of widows in India. I am so certain that many good fortunes will come your way. Second, I am not certain what I could do from here other than offer a very small donation to the funds provided for this effort, but I would need to know what is the best way to ensure it reaches your organization.

Lastly, I imagine there are many needs that can be met in other ways, if so, please let me

know if there is an office of your organization in the United States that I can contact.

I am not born or descendant of India, I am originally from Mexico but live in the United States.

I worked in the past as an immigration paralegal, thus was fortunate to have become acquainted with a good many people of India. We often laughed because there are many ways in which our cultures are very similar like food, families, crowded cities, bargaining and bartering, etc. Because I come from a country where many traditions are stronger than the laws that abolish them, I can somewhat visualize the difficulties you could have already encountered, the ones you have conquered with courage and determination and I can only but imagine the walls you need to still bring down in your effort to offer the widows a better way of life.

I pray that the Spirit that reigns over all living beings will continue to shine on your path and lead you in ways that will allow truth to bring peace and happiness to those less fortunate.

Grateful in my God’s service,

Any Tidwell “For God so loved the world...” John 3:16

MeSSAGe

Sulabh can lead widow redemption crusade


In most States, the record of Panchayati Raj Institutions has not been very good.

Attempts have been made in many States to weaken the existing Panchayati Raj structure by imposing other nominated bodies at the same level. Elections have been irregular and many times they are either delayed or postponed.

One of the weaknesses of

the existing Panchayati Raj Institutions and the urban local bodies is that they are starved of funds. They have very little resources of their own and they usually depend on the state governments for funds. Financial grants are given at the will and pleasure of political executive on an ad hoc basis. Unless the Panchayats are provided with adequate financial strength, it

will be impossible for them to grow in stature.

The Odisha Government has constituted the Fourth Finance Commission with former bureaucrat Mr. Chinmay Basu as its Chairman for devolution of funds to the Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies (ULBs). Most States do not have credible information on the finances of their local bodies. The

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Odisha can Abolish open defecation

-Rupak Roy Choudhury

Mr. Chinmay Basu, Chairman of the Fourth Finance Commission of Odisha, (right) and higher officials holding discussions with Sulabh Founder, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak on February 22, 2014

Dr. Pathak


same is the case with Odisha. Local bodies would continue to need funding support for building data base and maintenance of accounts. States may assess the requirement of each local body in this regard and earmark funds accordingly out of the total allocation recommended by The Finance Commission.

Consultative Meeting To evolve suitable criteria and make appropriate recommendations to strengthen the financial base of the urban local bodies, the present Chairman Mr. Chinmay Basu had invited Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement to Odisha for consultation. This consultative meeting was held on February 22, 2014 at the office of the Directorate of Local Fund Audit. Dr. Pathak in his address made a power-packed presentation driving home the point that the government of the day can succeed in its effort to declare Odisha Open Defecation Free, only if it worked hand in hand with profit organisations. He urged the commission to shift its focus from septic tank-based toilets to Sulabh two-pit toilets which can treat the effluent and waste on site instead of building sewers.

Mr. Chinmay Basu wanted to know if Sulabh can build toilets in the slums of Odisha where space is always a constraint. Dr. Pathak apprised him of Sulabh’s experience in building toilets in the smallest of space available. The Member Secretary of the State Finance Commission, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Biswal asked about the success of public toilets in rural areas of Odisha. Responding, Dr. Pathak said, in many parts of the country like tribal areas, household toilets are not the best option. The future emphasis needs to be on the development and targeting of appropriate levels of service, taking into account issues of affordability, willingness to pay, social and environmental conditions. Therefore more thrust is needed to provide community toilets with specific technological choices that address the issue of water scarcity. Sulabh toilets are a case in point, he remarked.

Mr. T.B.K. Shroff, Chief Engineer, PHED (Urban) opined that even in urban areas, where household and communal toilets are more prevalent, people still use toilets connected to septic tanks that are not safely

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emptied or use other systems that discharge raw sewage into

open drains or surface waters. He suggested that the services of Sulabh International could be made available to address such problems.

Dr. Pathak reminded the government officials

present that Odisha will have to address water and environmental sanitation and hygiene behaviour changes in a holistic manner in order to maximize impact in the districts. To improve their impact and long-term sustainability, water and environmental sanitation programme should be integrated with the health, education and livelihood sectors. He urged Mr. Chinmay Basu to consider training the women Self-Help Groups members and masons from different districts for this purpose. He assured Mr. Basu that Sulabh International can provide such training if requested by the Odisha State Government. Representatives from several Urban Local Bodies and government departments like Panchayat Raj, Municipal Corporations and Housing and Urban Development were present at the meeting.

LOVE AND LAUGHTER

The healthiest marriages are the ones in which partners exercise together. The least likely to succeed are those in which only the wife exercises regularly. So play together and stay together.

If you’re in the mood for romance, treat you loved one to a funny movie. After being stimulated by laughter, people are more responsive to other stimuli-including the opposite sex.

A hearty laugh gives a work-out to your stomach and chest muscles, heart and lungs. And though your blood-pressure and adrenalin go up during laughter, they drop to normal or below afterwards, releasing stress. Laughter is the best medicine.

States may assess the requirement of each local body in this regard and earmark funds accordingly


Guru Ravidas, also called Ruhidas in some parts of eastern India, was

one of the most outstanding religious poets of the 15th century. He lived and worked for social reforms by adopting Bhakti as a mode of expression. Born in an untouchable cobbler’s family Guru Ravidas was a Sant mystic of the Bhakti Movement. He revolted against the prevailing evil of untouchability through love and compassion for all human beings and absolute faith in God.

This was the time when the revivalist movement in medieval India was pioneered by Swami Ramanand and furthered by several other great spiritual masters all over India. The movement reached its peak with the arrival of Guru Ravidas on the scene, who proved himself to be a spiritual luminary of North India’s Bhakti Movement, especially the ‘Nirguna Sampradaya or Sant Parampara (sect or tradition of devotees of a formless God).

Being a cobbler by profession, he was considered an outcaste among the venerable upper class Hindus in some regions of Uttar Pradesh as well as Maharashtra. However, his devotional songs, verses and Bhajans made a lasting impact upon the emerging Bhakti Movement and thereby he was given the honorific title of “Bhagat” or “Sant”. Guru Ravidas is also founder of the Ravidassia Dharam.

The details of Guru Ravidas’ exact date and year of birth

JAyANtI

Guru Ravidas JayantiSocial reform through bhakti

are shrouded in controversy. According to some historians, he was born either around the year 1376 or 1399 CE, or even later, may be between 1450 and 1520. But majority among scholars and institutions believed that the Guru was born in the year 1377 AD i.e. Bikrami Samvat 1433 as per the Hindu calendar on the Magh Poornima day (February 16 in English calendar) and that being a Ravivar (Sunday), he was named Ravidas.

Pious FamilyHe joined his family vocation of repairing shoes after attaining maturity. But all the time, he used to sing Bhajans while making and sewing shoes. Interestingly, he used to donate most of his earnings from making shoes to the needy people. Ravidas’ parents were a little worried about this rare and unique trait of his character and they even feared that he might one day become a ‘Sanyasi’. To divert his attention towards worldly affairs, he was married to Lona Devi at a very early age, and according to the Ravidas Purana, he had a son named Vijaydas. A region between Ahmednagar and Benares is named after him.

Ravidas’ wife was also a pious and God-fearing lady, who turned out to be the right partner fully co-operating in Ravidas’ quest for self-realization. They spent their meagre savings in serving holy men and on godly pursuits. Subsequently, Lona

Devi also became famous along with Ravidas.

Service to HumanityOnce a saint visited Ravidas’ hut. He was very happy with the service being rendered by Ravidas to humanity. The saint had a ‘Parasmani’ that could convert a piece of iron into gold and he offered it to Ravidas. But Ravidas refused to accept the same though the saint demonstrated the mysterious power of Parasmani by turning Rambi (the iron tool used for mending shoes) into gold. But Ravidas had least attraction for Parasmani. Ultimately, the saint put the Parasmani on the roof of his hut.

After thirteen months the saint returned and he found the ‘Parasmani’ at the same place where he had kept it. It was not even touched by Ravidas. He was amazed at his lack of interest in worldly affairs. Ravidas’ followers believed that it was the Supreme power who came in the form of saint to test Ravidas. On another occasion, five gold coins were


JAyANtI

found in his charity box and Ravidas did not even touch them.

Caste BiasThose were the days when the society was afflicted with casteism. High caste people treated low caste people with disgrace and contempt. Finding that the followers of Guru Ramanand included Kabir, the weaver, and Ravidas, the shoemaker, the upper class people became jealous and they refused to sit with Guru Ramanand for meal. Several Brahmins kept themselves away. They even treated the activities of Ravidas as anti-religion.

Guru Ravidas was also a social reformer. The main

objective of his teachings was to take people towards right thinking, right path and right action based on Dharma. One could achieve Dharma only by trusting and surrendering oneself before God. He said realization of God means love everyone, high or low, rich or poor, equally.

Guru Ravidas also spoke against those who had no faith in God. There are also a number of mystical stories revolving round the Guru and his devotion to mother Ganga (Ganga Ma). Once Guru Ravidas gave a pair of shoes and a piece of ‘supari’ to a Brahmin, who used to take bath in Ganga everyday. He asked him to offer the ‘supari’ to Ganga Ma on his behalf. But the Brahmin

threw it from a distance into Ganga.

But to his dismay Ganga Ma suddenly appeared and received that ‘supari’ in her hands. He soon started praising Ravidas as it was due to his piety and devotion, he was able to have a ‘Darshan’ of Ganga Ma. This incident made Ravidas most famous in the entire Kashi. Ravidas also received a lot of blessings from Ganga Ma.

In 1545 (as per the Hindu calendar) the ruler, Sikandar Lodi, heard about Guru Ravidas. He called him in his court and listened to his preachings and joined the Satsang conducted by him. The King was very much impressed by his teachings and honoured him.

Messiah of DowntroddenGuru Ravidas expressed his spiritual and social philosophy composing and chanting poems. His poetry is full of radical fervour and boundless love for the formless God. His poetry reflected his vision of the social and spiritual needs of the downtrodden and underlined the urgency of their emancipation. He, therefore, is regarded as a messiah of the downtrodden. They respected him as devoutly as all Hindus revered their gods and goddesses, and the Sikhs their Gurus. They worshipped his image and showed their faith in his spiritual power. His hymns were recited every morning and night, and his birthday was celebrated as a religious event. They raised slogans like Ravidas Shakti Amar Rahe. (Let the spiritual power of Guru Ravidas live forever) during his birth anniversaries.

‘God is EvErywhErE’The Maharaja and Rani of Chittor became his disciples. Mira Bai, the famous saint poetess also adopted him as her Guru. Guru Ravidas composed many shabdas and his teachings are included in Ravidassia Holy Book Amritbani Guru Ravidas.

Gurus shabdas are packed with divine wisdom and in each of them, he advocates ‘Ram namjap’ and extols the efficacy of this great mantra. In his teachings, Guru Ravidas says, “God is everywhere in you and me.”How to escape? I recite the name Ram.Lord, if you are sandalwood, I am water;With the fragrance in all parts of my body.Lord, if you are a cloud, I am a peacock;Looking for you like a chakora for the moon.Lord, if you are a lamp, I am the wick;With a light burning day and night.Lord, if you are a pearl, I am the thread;Together like gold and bracelet.Lord, you are the master and I servant;thus is the devotion of Raidas

This song demonstrates several key facets of Ravidas ‘sant bhakti’. His similes for the divine – water, cloud, light, gold – suggest the one God and state that he himself is inseparable from that formless yet that he is the one who gives it form.

Guru Ravidas and Untouchability


On the concluding day of the World Book Fair on February 23, 2014

at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, the Authors Guild of India organized a day-long programme, attended, among others, by eminent Hindi litterateurs such as Dr. Sherjung Garg, Dr. Sarojini Pritam, Dr.

eveNtS

Authors’ Guild of India at the Book Fair

Kshama Sharma and Dr. Shiv Shankar Awasthi. The first engagement was the release of a few newly published books of half a dozen writers, some of them hailing from outside Delhi.

The second part of the programme was a seminar on “Bal Sahitya – Dasha Evam Disha” (Children’s Literature – Present Position and Future). In her keynote address,

Dr. Shiv Shankar Awasthi with Dr. Sherjung Garg, Dr. Kshama Sharma and Dr. Sarojini Pritam on the dais at the function

It was difficult to write for the tiny-tots and for which the writer was required to go back to the memory lane of one’s own childhood


Dr. Kshama Sharma, Editor, Nandan - a leading Hindi monthly for children - explained how it was difficult to write for the tiny-tots and for which the writer was required to go back to the memory lane of one’s own childhood. Dr. Sharma also recalled how, while in the Hindustan daily, she came in contact with the late Mr. Rajendra Awasthi, the founder-editor of Nandan, who persuaded her to write for children and with whose blessings, she became its editor later.

Dr. Sherjung Garg referred

to some legendary Hindi writers who had given adequate focus on children’s literature. In this connection, he mentioned the names of Premchandra, Babu Harishchandra, Bachchan and Nirala. He also recited some self- composed lines at the function.

The other eminent Hindi scholars, who graced the occasion were Mr. H.L. Bachhotia, Mr. Ram Prasad Gupta, Mr. Ram Pyare Tiwari, Dr. Gangesh Gunjan, Mr. Bageshwar Jha, Dr. Mani Bhushan Mishra and Mr. Ashok Jyoti.

Dr. Sherjung Garg addressing the Seminar

The last item was the ‘Kavi Gosthi’ conducted by Dr. Preetam with Dr. Garg in the chair, followed by the recitation of their Hindi poems by the Maithili poets Dr. Gangesh Gunjan and Mr. Bageshwar Jha (Shridev of Maithili). The programme went on till evening when about a dozen other reputed poets also recited their poems.

The Authors Guild of India deserves congratulations for maintaining such an exemplary literary tradition.


Liberated scavenger ladies from Alwar and Tonk in Rajasthan making Shivalingam on Mahashivaratri day: February 27, 2014

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Maha Shivaratri CelebrationMaha Shivaratri is

celebrated all over the country with ardent

devotion and dedication on the fourteenth day of the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) of the month of Phalguna. Bhagwan Shiva is worshipped across India right from north in Uttarakhand (Kedarnath) to south in Tamilnadu (Rameshwaram), that is from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. According to the beliefs in Hindu religion, there are three gods presiding over the universe as masters of creation, sustenance and destruction, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (another name for Shiva). All the three are supposed

to be perennial, above birth and death. Hence, the festival of Maha Shivaratri is celebration of Bhagwan Shiva’s marriage with Goddess Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya. Another interpretation of the pious occasion relates to the event of Samudra Manthan, that is churning of the ocean by gods and Asuras. Among the many things which came out as a result was Visha (or deadly poison) which was capable of ending all life on the planet, earth. Gods prayed to Bhagwan Shiva and persuaded him to drink the Visha to save life on earth. Bhagwan was gracious enough to do so but he was to be kept

awake for the whole night so that the poison might not adversely affect him. This was known as the great night of Bhagwan Shiva, that is, Maha Shivaratri.

The great festival is a regular celebration at the Campus of Sulabh International in New Delhi. This year (2014) the holy day fell on February 27. The entire campus was decorated with flowers and Belpatras. Arrangement was also made to cover the entire area for the worship of Bhagwan Shiva with water proof shamiana as the day was preceded and followed by rains. 1,25,000 shivalingas were made from the soil brought


from the Yamuna ghats. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and Mrs. Amola Pathak with their entire family sat along with the workers of Sulabh International and the liberated scavenger ladies from Alwar and Tonk in Rajasthan as well as Ghaziabad. Chants of Har Har Mahadeva reverberated all along the day at the celebration along with sacred fire and incense burning on the occasion. Among the worshippers were the ladies and gentlemen who joined the Pooja from the neighbourhood. Clad in dhoti and shawl Dr. Pathak with his wife Mrs. Amola Pathak, son Kumar Dilip, daughter Mrs. Madhubala and grand children made Shivalingas.

Maha Shiva Lingam was placed with a silver pitcher over the Lingam from which water dripped down continuously. The holy lingams made by all the participants were placed in the rectangular spot meant for

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placement. Learned Pundits kept on reciting holy Mantras and shlokas with the offerings of Gangajal, flowers, fruits, Naivedyam and Belpatras made on the lingams by all engaged in the worship. This was followed

by Havan performed in the Kund meant for the purpose.

The festival concluded with Aarti in the evening followed by Prasad distributed among the participants.

Dr. Pathak with his wife Mrs. Amola Pathak worshipping Lord Shiva along with family members

Dr. Pathak offering Gangajal, flowers and belpatras on the ‘lingams’ made by Sulabh volunteers


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There had been several social controls on widows in the country including

ban on wearing coloured clothes, not to participate in any celebrations or having good food etc., which made some 50 years ago widows come to Vrindavan, the land of Lord Krishna. Usually when a human is distraught he or she goes either to temple or to some spiritual leader and tries to live on. Under these circumstances, it was natural for them to take shelter at Vrindavan because they were not getting social justice in society. The yearning of these widows for coming to Vrindavan was to get ‘Moksha’ while praying to the Lord. Moksha is believed to be one of the four ‘Purusharthas’. These women pray to Lord

-O.P. Yadav

Krishna day and night and to feed themselves they used to ask oblation from five houses every day. They felt content with what they got. They never looked for any charity or any type of help from the government. Their aim was not to collect money to sustain life. Some of them are still living, Lalita Adhikari, who is 109 years-old is living in Ras Bihari Sadan, Vrindavan.

Of the few women who reached Vrindavan, some returned to their homes while others stayed on. 90-95 per cent of those who reached Vrindavan were from Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. Slowly, over a period of time, their number started increasing and women from other states also started reaching there and under the aegis of Lord Krishna started praying. For feeding themselves in this city they found begging the only way because Vrindavan is a place where a number of donors are ready to do charity as it is one of the famous pilgrim centres in the world. They get food, clothes, and cash easily from several donors visiting the holy city. When the number of these women reached

an alarming stage, the State G o v e r n m e n t desired to stop begging (because begging is a crime in India). Subsequently the government started two widows’ shelter houses under the Meera Sahbhagini Scheme – Ras Bihari and Leela Kunj. The capacity of these shelter houses was 150 widows each. Gradually, the number of such widows reaching Vrindavan increased. While doing bhajans they could also earn their livelihood. Because of the rapid increase in the number of women coming from West Bengal and Odisha, the Bharat Sarkar Mahila Kalyan Nigam, Government of Uttar Pradesh, under the Swadhar Yojana started the following shelters:

1. Sitaram Sadan – approved capacity – 101;

2. Chaitanya Vihar Mahila Ashray Sadan, Phase-2, First – capacity-250; and

3. Chaitanya Vihar Mahila Ashray Sadan, Phase-2, Second – capacity-320

A few NGOs also started some centres :

Vrindavan widows are victims of prejudices and bad conscience


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1. ‘Maa Dham’ started by Guild for Service – capacity-200

2. ‘Tarash Mandir’ started by Mahila Conference – capacity-30

From time to time, under the inspection and directions of Hon’ble Courts and high officials the government has tried to serve them under old age/widow pension scheme. For the last few years there is a provision in the budget of giving Rs. 500/- per month, besides Rs. 50/- as pocket money to each woman. This amount is being transferred to their bank account (if the budget so provides).

While hearing a PIL, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India ordered the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) to inquire if Sulabh International can take care of these women. Sulabh readily agreed and it is giving a help of Rs. 2000 per month to each widow. Besides this, Sulabh has also provided several other services free of cost like an ambulance for each shelter, a refrigerator, a large-size LCD, a CD player, a mike, and an inverter. Now the life of these women has become much happier than ever before.

The number of the widows in the Sadans increased when they saw they were getting so many facilities. Several young women also enrolled themselves in these shelters and started getting these facilities. Not only this, they started interfering in

the administration of the shelters that has resulted in deterioration in the condition of the shelter. For the whole day they are in the search of finding out where they can get more and better

facilities. They come to these shelters only on the date of payment and after collecting a good sum return to their homes. Sometimes they also sell the goods they get in charity. Some of them have brought their families along with them that stay outside Vrindavan. They carry the booty from shelters or these women take it to them.

To help the real needy women and to stop misuse of the provision for them as their number

from Odisha and West Bengal is increasing day by day, I have a few suggestions to make :

1. The shelters run under Swadhar or some other schemes are either constructed by the

State Government or are on rent. There is no provision for their repair and maintenance. This is why these buildings are getting damaged. It is, therefore, necessary that there should be budgetary allocation for the purpose. The State Government has been so requested through letters.

2. Submersible pumps were already installed at Chaitanya Vihar but the water is bitter in taste. There is an urgent need of a tubewell that is deep. Its maintenance should be given to Jal Nigam so that these women could get proper drinking water.

3. For ladies who come from outside to some shelter home under the Mahila Swadhar Scheme or Meera Sahbhagini Scheme, for sanctioning pension to them, opening bank account in their name or availability of food money usually there is some delay. Under such

The shelters run under Swadhar or some other schemes are either constructed by the State Government or are on rent. There is no provision for their repair and maintenance. This is why these buildings are getting damaged. It is, therefore, necessary that there should be budgetary allocation for the purpose


FoCUS

circumstances some amount may be given to them till the above-mentioned action is completed. This will be a great relief for such ladies whose number is limited.

4. As suggested by me earlier, as also ordered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, arrangement for a common mess in each shelter house may be explored. Effort has been made in this direction. (Whatever is given to the widows as food, money or pension, they are not willing to part with anything out of it and they want free meal). Under these circumstances, an aayah or a cook may be appointed according to the capacity of the shelter house under Swadhar Yojana, as done by the State Government under Meera Sahbhagini Yojana. Old and handicapped widows will thus be helped in cooking their food.

5. A policy should be formulated at the level of Women’s Commission or at the Administrative level as to how many clothes, soaps, beddings and other useful items are to be provided to each widow. And if anyone is found begging even after getting all these provisions she should be sent to her own home. This will also help stop begging.

6. Cremation is done as ordered by the Hon’ble

Supreme Court, in the presence of Chief Medical Officer or his representative, of all the widows who die in these shelter homes, but still there is no provision of any amount at the CMO’s level. An amount of Rs. 4,000 at least per woman should be sanctioned.

7. M e e r a S a h b h a g i n i is a scheme under the State G o v e r n m e n t and two shelter homes are being run under this scheme – Ras Bihari and Leela Kunj. Some are being run in rented buildings. Although two acres of land has been allotted under this scheme, the Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority has stayed the construction work on this land. If building can be constructed on this land after taking clearance from the said authority at least 400 women can be accommodated there. Thus there will be no need of taking buildings on rent.

8. There is no staff, not even a clerk or a fourth grade staff, to take care of these shelter homes. At least a clerk and a fourth grade employee for distribution of letters etc. should be appointed.

Important1. The ever increasing

number of women coming from outside is a matter of concern. Vrindavan may become a hub of beggars. It is also possible that these

women may become a problem for State Government and administration. This has also been pointed out by the Secretary, District Legal Service Cell, while inspecting these shelter homes. There should be an awareness camp arranged in the areas from where a large number of women are coming to Vrindavan

2. There are a few women in these shelter homes who are not widows, or aged but got themselves enrolled somehow. These women keep on fighting and creating problems. They should either be sent to their homes or should be transferred to some other places to keep these homes in proper order.

Most ImportantFor ladies living in the shelter homes in Vrindavan verification is desirable from the District Magistrate of the district mentioned in their address. If their family there is capable of keeping them they should be called and the widows should be pursued through counseling to go back to their families. This will, to a great extent, ease the problem leading to repatriation of the widows and prevention of their miserable life.

There is an urgent need of a tubewell that is deep. Its maintenance should be given to Jal Nigam so that these women could get proper drinking water


HIStory

Alexander the GreatA Conqueror with Conscience

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) conquered half the known world in thirteen years and swept aside the mighty armies of the Persian Empire and established his rule as far as Punjab. His colossal victories were followed by sympathetic understanding of the administration: he won the loyalty of the defeated, and conquered them twice. He spread the culture of Greece far beyond the mountains and seas. After his death, his mighty empire crumbled and decayed, but the influence of Alexander will last as long as the world itself.

The world that Alexander of Macedon won was as big as today’s Pakistan,

the whole of Middle-East and North Africa. Alexander wrote to his teacher Aristotle: “O Master, I have won the world you told me about; what do I do now”? The glory of his name so much haunts the world, that equivalent words in different languages were coined, like Kaiser, Caesar and Czar – these and many more had the link with Alexander.

Also there were two Macedonias in Eastern Europe; one was an independent country, Republic of Macedonia and the other was a province in Greece. Both the countries were quarrelling over the name Macedonia, where Alexander was born. Macedonia gained control over Greece after King Philip II’s victory in 338 B.C. And his son Alexander conquered the vast empire that later became part of the Roman empire, which was larger than the later-day Ottoman Empire that stretched from Anatolia,

-S.P. Singh


Middle-East Morocco, the crescent Libya and Levant.

Alexander was born in 356 B.C. to King Philip II of Macedon. Among the tutors of Alexander was Aristotle, one of the world’s greatest thinkers, and his teaching was doubtless a potent factor in moulding the mind of the soldier-statesman. But the youthful heir to the throne, in addition to being taught “to live worthily”, also studied with eager ambition the art of war. A well-thumbed copy of the Iliad found a place under his pillow at night. When Alexander was asked by his friends if he would compete in the Olympic Games, he replied that he would, if he might have kings to run with him.

He won in battle when he was a mere boy of sixteen. In the absence of his father, he took the field against the rebellious Medians, and stormed their principal town. In 338 B.C., Philip won the great Battle of Chaeronea against the Athenians and his son commanded the Macedonian cavalry, and played a decisive part in the victory.

When Alexander succeeded Philip to the Macedonian throne in 336 B.C., he was not quite twenty. He was dead before he was 33. But the 13 intervening years had witnessed such a vast and glittering panorama of conquest that men have been dazzled by it for 23 centuries. There were hostile agitations in Thrace, Thebes, Illyria and Thessaly. Alexander dealt promptly with the situation. He marched against the Thessalians, evaded their army by cutting a new path over Mount Ossa, and won a

bloodless victory. He conciliated not only Thessaly but other Greek states, and the Congress of the Confederacy at Corinth elected him supreme-general of the

Greeks for the invasion of Asia, which had been planned by his father.

DIALOGUE WITH DIOGENESIt was while at Corinth that he had a historic meeting with the eccentric philosopher, Diogenes.

Asked by the young king to name any boon he craved, the philosopher replied: “Stand out of the sun.” As he departed, Alexander remarked to his followers: “Were I not Alexander I should like to be

Diogenes.”Alexander overthrew the

Illyrians, and then marched on Thebes, where King Darius of Persia had stirred up a revolt against the Macedonian rule.

Thebes was taken by storm, and 6,000 of its inhabitants were put to the sword. The League of Corinth decreed that the city should be levelled to the dust, her

territory divided, and her women and children sold into slavery. It was an appalling punishment, and a severe lesson to would-be revolutionists.

The fall of Thebes and the restoration of peace to the Greek states ended Alexander’s campaigns in Europe. They had occupied little more than a year, but they had firmly established his brilliance in strategy and his boldness of resolution. He had shown those qualities which caused Napoleon to name him first of the world’s seven greatest captains – Alexander, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Prince Eugene and Frederick the Great. Now, at last the young commander was free to turn eastwards. Henceforth his life was spent in Asia, where his camp became not merely

HIStory

When Alexander was asked by his friends if he would compete in the Olympic Games, he replied that he would, if he might have kings to run with him


a military organization, but a centre of Greek culture, a moving metropolis of the arts and sciences.

The conqueror now set himself to the task of subduing Asia Minor. In Afghanistan he founded colonies at Herat and Kandahar, and in 328 reached the plains of Sogdiana, where he married Roxana, daughter of King Oxyartes. India was his next objective, and he pressed on to the Indus. Near the river Hydaspes (now Jhelum) he fought one of his fiercest battles against Rajah Porus. At the river Hyphasis (now Beas) his depleted troops refused to go farther, and reluctantly he turned back down the Indus and along the coast. They reached Susa in 324 B.C., where Alexander made Darius’s

daughter his second wife. He died in Babylon of malarial fever.

Darius, King of the Persians, called himself the “Great King”. He felt he was lord of the known world. He ruled all western

Asia and Egypt; but there were Greek cities under his rule, and they, and many other of his subject people, hated his rule and were only too willing to welcome Alexander and his free, cultured civilization.

Darius was, however, a weak king

and an incompetent general, but his army was five times as large as that of his enemy. Numbers, however, proved of no avail against skill and discipline. The Macedonians won a decisive victory. Alexander’s rival fled ignominiously from the field, leaving his mother, wife and

One Grows Better With AgeAging is not decaying. It’s like a fine wine that gets better over time.

When we treat the present moment as the most important time, we function more effectively, with less stress and more precision.

-Ron Krumpos

Accept Time with GraceTo accept aging or decaying that comes with age, one must be blessed with grace.

-Uma Bassi

Victory In The Battle Of LifeEvery age has its joys, griefs and blessings and resisting it

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SeekerS Have THeir Say

children in the hands of the conqueror.

When the Greek general returned from the pursuit, his first care was to send an assurance to the captive women that they would be treated with all the respect. This humane and generous attitude astonished Alexander’s contemporaries. The captive Queen Stateria, who was reputed to be the most beautiful of women, would undoubtedly have met with very different treatment from most conquerors in those days.

Palestine and Egypt fell before him. In Egypt he founded the city of Alexandria, and the history of this great port through more than 20 centuries proves the shrewdness and keen foresight of its founder. In Egypt, too, the conqueror visited the temple of Ammon where, it was said, the god recognized him as his son.

is futile. Like with everything in life, accept the inevitable. It is better to walk with grace out into the night. Resistance will only cause unnecessary pain and grief. Treat your wrinkles as the badges of honour that you have received on the battlefield of life, not as scars.

-Gudrun Hille

Life as a Gift from GodSuch a view of aging is taken only by the very positive-minded. Everything that comes our way naturally, should be looked upon as a gift from God, and that includes ageing.

So, why is one surprised at the appearance of wrinkles or

a slowing of your movements when we were not surprised at the beauty of our youth and enjoyed with pride whatever God gave us earlier? Look upon ageing as life’s great chance to focus all our energy in self-contemplation and wisdom. Live every moment and don’t live in apathy.

-Neetu Rana

Accept Life As It ComesIf only we were not so obsessed with youth, beauty, glamour – if we weren’t, we would be far, far happier.

-Indu Datta

When the Greek general returned from the pursuit, his first care was to send an assurance to the captive women that they would be treated with all the respect


On February 2, 2014, the bicentenary celebration of the Museums in India

was organized in Kolkata which was addressed by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. In the series of celebratory programmes, a two-day International Conference and Intensive Seminar was

MUSeUM

Museum and Transformations

-Bageshwar Jha

held in Delhi on February 10 and 11. It was organized by the National Council of Science Museums, in collaboration with Indian Museum, Kolkata, National Museum, New Delhi and Indian National Committee of International Council of Museums, (ICOM) and sponsored by the British

Council and some Indian banks.The conference was

inaugurated on February 10 at the National Science Museum by Hon’ble Mrs. Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Minister of Culture. She claimed that her family of Katoch and Rathore had a history of some 5,000 years. She narrated a few true

The inaugural ceremony of the International Conference on Museums


MUSeUM

stories about the relations between her family and the Mughal Emperors like Akbar and Jehangir. She wished if such stories could be documented and displayed in our museums. She regretted that due to lack of space, a large number of museum collections were kept in warehouses. The minister assured of all possible help from her ministry in this regard.

In the inaugural session, Dr. G.S. Rautela, Director-General, National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata, said that museums should be treated as a place for gaining experience. Dr. Saroj Ghosh, Museum Advisor to the President of India pointed out that museums have been projecting only the past and a bit of the present but nothing about future. He stressed that museums should also exhibit futuristic objects to enhance the thinking of the community.

Mr. P. K. Jain, Joint

Secretary, Ministry of Culture, also laid emphasis on reforms in museums. He said that the field needed expansion which required necessary fund. He assured that if the authorities in this field came forward with good ideas, his ministry would ensure allocation of the necessary fund. Dr. Hans Martin Hinz, President, ICOM since 2010, expressed happiness over the museum movement in India completing double century. He said that the ICOM has 30,000 members in 137 countries. Dr. Hinz suggested that the museums should care for the changing societies, so that the people could know about not only their own but others’ culture as well.

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, former Member of Parliament

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan addressing the conference

and former Secretary, Ministry of Education, in her keynote address explained the meaning of words like strategic and transformation and suggested their relevance to museology. She recalled how the Asiatic Society of Kolkata was converted into the first museum of India in 1814. It was not a bad record as the British Museum, the first modern museum of the world was opened in 1853. She was of the view that the knowledge system should get appropriate focus while developing museums. She further added that the sense of belonging would develop in people when they were empowered to run their museums.

The theme of the academic session was “Strategic Transformations: Museums in 21st Century”. The session was chaired by Dr. Saroj Ghosh in which research papers were presented by eloquent speakers like Prof Martin Roth of Victoria and Albert museum,

London, Prof. Amareswar Galla, Executive Director, I n t e r n a t i o n a l Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Denmark/Australia/India, Mr. S. Mukherjee, Director General, Chhatrapati

Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay, Mumbai, and Mrs. Tasneem Mehta, Hon. Trustee, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City museum.

The post-lunch session was presided over by Mr. S. Mukherjee. The main presenters on the theme were Dr. Gordon Rintoul, Director, National Museum of Scotland, Prof. Hongnam Kim, former DG,

If the museums have to maintain their relevance, they would have to undergo changes to conform to the societal changes


National Museum, Seoul, South Korea and Dr. B. Venugopal, Director, Indian Museum, Kolkata. In the post-tea session, with Dr A.K. Chatterjee in the chair, there were half a dozen speakers. They all felt the need of transforming the museums, mentioning the changes they brought about in their museums. They accepted that if the museums have to maintain their relevance, they would have to undergo changes to conform to the societal changes.

On the second day (February 11), the venue was changed to the National Museum auditorium, Janpath. After the welcome address by Dr. Venu Vasudevan, Director-General, National Museum Institute, New Delhi, the academic session started which was presided

over by Mr. A.S. Manekar, DDG/NCSM. The theme of the session was “Museums and Digital Domain”. The scholars who came forward with their audio- visual presentation were mainly related to concerned agencies and included Dr. Dinesh Katre of JATAN Software, Pune, Mr. S.M. Khened, Director, National Science Museum, Mumbai, Mr. Prakash Chandra Das, DG, Bangladesh National Museum and Dr. Abduraheem K. AMU.

The post-tea session began under the chairmanship of Prof. Amareswar Galla. The speakers were Dr Carolyn Royston, Head of Digital Media, Imperial War Museum, London, Mr. Ranjit Makkuni, MD, Sacred World, India, Mr. A.D. Choudhary, Director, Science City, Kolkata, Prof. B.R. Natarajan, President,

MUSeUM

Dr. Hans Martin Hinz speaking at the conference

Sangam university, Bhilwara, Mr. Gulshan Kharbanda, CEO, Akriti Designs, Gurgaon and Mr. Ankit Agarwal, MD, Innovatiview, Delhi. All the speakers in both the sessions touched in detail upon the existing and upcoming digital innovations in the market and urged upon the museums to adopt them quickly if they wanted to exist as a strong player. Some of the speakers showed on screen how they changed the system in some museums including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay, Mumbai. Thus the lesson learnt was to adopt technology including digitigation so that the museum could not be left far behind in the fastly changing societies.


SANItAtIoN

Emotional messaging changes handwashing behaviour

One of effective public health interventions and the most elementary hygiene ritual —

washing hands — can help prevent diarrhoea that annually kills 8,00,000 children aged below five years. Yet, surveys show that handwashing remains at best “suboptimal” across the world, whether in India, Ghana, China — or even in parts of the developed world such as the U.K. where access to water, soap and indeed information about the health benefits is rarely a problem.

But thanks to a public health campaign launched in May 2011, the rate of handwashing shot up from just one per cent to 37 per cent in six months in villages in Andhra Pradesh. The campaign, which was carried out by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and St John’s Research Institute, Bangalore, succeeded in doing so by changing an entrenched health

behaviour using an unconventional approach — emotional drivers.

The use of emotional drivers is very different from the conventional health risk messaging that public campaigns often tend to use, suggests a paper published today (February 27) in The Lancet Global Health journal evaluating the hand wash campaign “SuperAmma” in Chittoor district.

Through skits, animation films and posters, researchers experimented with four emotions like nurturing (“the desire for a happy, thriving child”) and disgust (“the desire to avoid and remove contamination”), to encourage people to wash their hands with soap before eating and cooking and after using the toilet or cleaning a child.

As part of the cluster-randomised community trial, 14 villages were selected, each with a population of 700–2,000 people, a state-run primary school, and an anganwadi. All households had a water standpipe within a few metres of their house. Open defecation was the norm in all the villages.

Half the number of villages were chosen for the intervention programme and the remaining seven were assigned as a control group (without a campaign) to assess the project’s effectiveness.

The team created a fictitious character called ‘SuperAmma’, “a forward thinking rural mother” to

help communicate their message in schools and to the community.

Six months after the campaign was launched, evaluations showed a 37 per cent increase in handwashing rates in the intervention villages (these rates sustained for 12 months), while the rates remained fairly unchanged in the control group (which saw a 4 per cent increase), establishing that the campaign had achieved its goals.

Handwashing with soap was higher among children than in adults at the end of the study period; it was much the same in men and women, and did not differ significantly by socioeconomic status, the evaluation found. And interestingly, the rates were almost identical in households with and without water access within their compound.

While efforts to change hand washing behaviour have so far used information about health benefits and risks, and have met with little success, the role of emotional drivers has not been adequately explored, says the paper.

Every year, diarrhoea kills around 800,000 children under five years old, and handwashing with soap could prevent perhaps a third of these deaths, co-author Val Curtis, from theLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says in a press release from The Lancet Global Health.

Courtesy : THE HINDU

The rate of handwashing shot up from just one per cent to 37 per cent in just six months -DIVYA GANDHI

It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around

saying, “I drank too much last night.” You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium, heard it from the golf links and the tennis courts, heard it from the wildlife preserve where the leader of the Audubon group was suffering from a terrible hangover. “I drank too much,” said Donald Westerhazy. “We all drank too much,” said Lucinda Merrill. “It must have been the wine,” said Helen Westerhazy. “I drank too much of that claret.”

This was at the edge of the Westerhazys’ pool. The pool, fed by an artesian well with a high iron content, was a pale shade of green. It was a fine day. In the west there was a massive stand of cumulus cloud so like a city seen from a distance—from the bow of an approaching ship—that it might have had a name. Lisbon. Hackensack. The sun was hot. Neddy Merrill sat by the green water, one hand in it, one around a glass of gin. He was a slender man—he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth—and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite

The Swimmer-John Cheever

on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room. He might have been compared to a summer’s day, particularly the last hours of one, and while he lacked a tennis racket or a sail bag the impression was definitely one of youth, sport, and clement weather. He had been swimming and now he was breathing deeply, stertorously as if he could gulp into his lungs the components of that moment, the heat of the sun, the intenseness of his pleasure. It all seemed to flow into his chest. His own house stood in Bullet Park, eight miles to the south, where his four beautiful daughters would have had their lunch and might be playing tennis. Then it occurred to him that by taking a dogleg to the southwest he could reach his home by water.

His life was not confining and the delight he took in this observation could not be explained by its suggestion of escape. He seemed to see, with a cartographer’s eye, that string of swimming pools, that quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the county. He had made a discovery, a contribution to modern geography; he would name the stream Lucinda after his wife. He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of

himself as a legendary figure. The day was beautiful and it seemed to him that a long swim might enlarge and celebrate its beauty.

He took off a sweater that was hung over his shoulders and dove in. He had an inexplicable contempt for men who did not hurl themselves into pools. He swam a choppy crawl, breathing either with every stroke or every fourth stroke and counting somewhere well in the back of his mind the one-two one-two of a flutter kick. It was not a serviceable stroke for long distances but the domestication of swimming had saddled the sport with some customs and in his part of the world a crawl was customary. To be embraced and sustained by the light green water was less a pleasure, it seemed, than the resumption of a natural condition, and he would have liked to swim without trunks, but this was not possible, considering his project. He hoisted himself up on the far curb—he never used the ladder—and started across the lawn. When Lucinda asked where he was going he said he was going to swim home.

The only maps and charts he had to go by were remembered or imaginary but these were clear enough. First there were the Grahams, the Hammers, the Lears, the Howlands, and the Crosscups.

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He would cross Ditmar Street to the Bunkers and come, after a short portage, to the Levys, the Welchers, and the public pool in Lancaster. Then there were the Hallorans, the Sachses, the Biswangers, Shirley Adams, the Gilmartins, and the Clydes. The day was lovely, and that he lived in a world so generously supplied with water seemed like a clemency, a beneficence. His heart was high and he ran across the grass. Making his way home by an uncommon route gave him the feeling that he was a pilgrim, an explorer, a man with a destiny, and he knew that he would find friends all along the way; friends would line the banks of the Lucinda River.

He went through a hedge that separated the Westerhazys’ land from the Grahams’, walked under some flowering apple trees, passed the shed that housed their pump and filter, and came out at the Grahams’ pool. “Why, Neddy,” Mrs. Graham said, “what a marvelous surprise. I’ve been trying to get you on the phone all morning. Here, let me get you a drink.” He saw then, like any explorer, that the hospitable customs and traditions of the natives would have to be handled with diplomacy if he was ever going to reach his destination. He did not want to mystify or seem rude to the Grahams nor did he have the time to linger there. He swam the length of their pool and joined them in the sun and was rescued, a few minutes later, by the arrival of two carloads of friends from Connecticut. During the uproarious reunions he was able to slip away. He went down

by the front of the Grahams’ house, stepped over a thorny hedge, and crossed a vacant lot to the Hammers’. Mrs. Hammer, looking up from her roses, saw him swim by although she wasn’t quite sure who it was. The Lears heard him splashing past the open windows of their living room. The Howlands and the Crosscups were away. After leaving the Howlands’ he crossed Ditmar Street and started for the Bunkers’, where he could hear, even at that distance, the noise of a party.

The water refracted the sound of voices and laughter and seemed to suspend it in midair. The Bunkers’ pool was on a rise and he climbed some stairs to a terrace where twenty-five or thirty men and women were drinking. The only person in the water was Rusty Towers, who floated there on a rubber raft. Oh, how bonny and lush were the banks of the Lucinda River! Prosperous men and women gathered by the sapphire-colored waters while caterer’s men in white coats passed them cold gin. Overhead a red de Haviland trainer was circling around and around and around in the sky with something like the glee of a child in a swing. Ned felt a passing affection for the scene, a tenderness for the gathering, as if it was something he might touch. In the distance he heard thunder. As soon as Enid Bunker saw him she began to scream: “Oh, look who’s here! What a marvelous surprise! When Lucinda said that you

couldn’t come I thought I’d die.” She made her way to him through the crowd, and when they had finished kissing she led him to the bar, a progress that was slowed by the fact that he stopped to kiss eight or ten other women and shake the hands of as many men. A smiling bartender he had seen at a hundred parties gave him a gin and tonic and he stood by the bar for a moment, anxious not to get stuck in any conversation that would delay his voyage. When he seemed about to be surrounded he dove in and swam close to the side

to avoid colliding with Rusty’s raft. At the far end of the pool he bypassed the Tomlinsons with a broad smile and jogged up the garden path. The gravel cut his feet but this was the only unpleasantness. The party was confined to the pool, and as he went toward the

house he heard the brilliant, watery sound of voices fade, heard the noise of a radio from the Bunkers’ kitchen, where someone was listening to a ball game. Sunday afternoon. He made his way through the parked cars and down the grassy border of their driveway to Alewives Lane. He did not want to be seen on the road in his bathing trunks but there was no traffic and he made the short distance to the Levys’ driveway, marked with a PRIVATE PROPERTY sign and a green tube for The New York Times. All the doors and windows of the big house were open but there were no signs

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Making his way home by an uncommon route gave him the feeling that he was a pilgrim, an explorer, a man with a destiny, and he knew that he would find friends all along the way


of life; not even a dog barked. He went around the side of the house to the pool and saw that the Levys had only recently left. Glasses and bottles and dishes of nuts were on a table at the deep end, where there was a bathhouse or gazebo, hung with Japanese lanterns. After swimming the pool he got himself a glass and poured a drink. It was his fourth or fifth drink and he had swum nearly half the length of the Lucinda River. He felt tired, clean, and pleased at that moment to be alone; pleased with everything.

It would storm. The stand of cumulus cloud—that city—had risen and darkened, and while he sat there he heard the percussiveness of thunder again. The de Haviland trainer was still circling overhead and it seemed to Ned that he could almost hear the pilot laugh with pleasure in the afternoon; but when there was another peal of thunder he took off for home. A train whistle blew and he wondered what time it had gotten to be.

Four? Five? He thought of the provincial station at that hour, where a waiter, his tuxedo concealed by a raincoat, a dwarf with some flowers wrapped in newspaper, and a woman who had been crying would be waiting for the local. It was suddenly growing dark; it was that moment when the pin-headed birds seem to organize their song into some acute and knowledgeable recognition of the storm’s approach. Then there was a fine noise of rushing water from the crown of an oak at his back, as if a spigot there had been turned. Then the noise of fountains came from the

crowns of all the tall trees. Why did he love storms, what was the meaning of his excitement when the door sprang open and the rain wind fled rudely up the stairs, why had the simple task, of shutting the windows of an old house seemed fitting and urgent, why did the first watery notes of a storm wind have for him the unmistakable sound of good news, cheer, glad tidings?

Then there was an explosion, a smell of cordite, and rain lashed the Japanese lanterns that Mrs. Levy had bought in Kyoto the year before last, or was it the year before that?

He stayed in the Levys’ gazebo until the storm had passed. The rain had cooled the air and he shivered. The force of the wind had stripped a maple of its red and yellow leaves and scattered them over the grass and the water. Since it was midsummer the tree must be blighted, and yet he felt a peculiar sadness at this sign of autumn. He braced his shoulders, emptied his glass, and started for the Welchers’ pool. This meant crossing the Lindleys’ riding ring and he was surprised to find it overgrown with grass and all the jumps dismantled. He wondered if the Lindleys had sold their horses or gone away for the summer and put them out to board. He seemed to remember having heard something about the Lindleys and their horses but the memory was unclear. On he went, barefoot through the wet grass, to the Welchers’, where he found their pool was dry.

This breach in his chain of water disappointed him absurdly, and he felt like some explorer who seeks a torrential

headwater and finds a dead stream. He was disappointed and mystified. It was common enough to go away for the summer but no one ever drained his pool. The Welchers had definitely gone away. The pool furniture was folded, stacked, and covered with a tarpaulin. The bathhouse was locked. All the windows of the house were shut, and when he went around to the driveway in front he saw a FOR SALE sign nailed to a tree. When had he last heard from the Welchers— when, that is, had he and Lucinda last regretted an invitation to dine with them? It seemed only a week or so ago. Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth? Then in the distance he heard the sound of a tennis game. This cheered him, cleared away all his apprehensions and let him regard the overcast sky and the cold air with indifference.

This was the day that Neddy Merrill swam across the county. That was the day! He started off then for his most difficult portage.

Had you gone for a Sunday afternoon ride that day you might have seen him, close to naked, standing on the shoulders of Route 424, waiting for a chance to cross. You might have wondered if he was the victim of foul play, had his car broken down, or was he merely a fool. Standing barefoot in the deposits of the highway—beer cans, rags, and blowout patches—exposed to all kinds of ridicule, he seemed pitiful. He had known when he started that this was a part of

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his journey—it had been on his maps—but confronted with the lines of traffic, worming through the summery light, he found himself unprepared. He was laughed at, jeered at, a beer can was thrown at him, and he had no dignity or humor to bring to the situation. He could have gone back, back to the Westerhazys’, where Lucinda would still be sitting in the sun. He had signed nothing, vowed nothing, pledged nothing, not even to himself. Why, believing as he did, that all human obduracy was susceptible to common sense, was he unable to turn back? Why was he determined to complete his journey even if it meant putting his life in danger?

At what point had this prank, this joke, this piece of horseplay become serious? He could not go back, he could not even recall with any clearness the green water at the Westerhazys’, the sense of inhaling the day’s components, the friendly and relaxed voices saying that they had drunk too much. In the space of an hour, more or less, be had covered a distance that made his return impossible.

An old man, tooling down the highway at fifteen miles an hour, let him get to the middle of the road, where there was a grass divider. Here he was exposed to the ridicule of the northbound traffic, but after ten or fifteen minutes he was able to cross. From here he had only a short walk to the Recreation Center at the edge of the village of Lancaster, where there were some handball courts and a public pool.

The effect of the water on

voices, the illusion of brilliance and suspense, was the same here as it had been at the Bunkers’ but the sounds here were louder, harsher, and more shrill, and as soon as he entered the crowded enclosure he was confronted with regimentation. “ALL SWIMMERS MUST TAKE A SHOWER BEFORE USING THE POOL. ALL SWIMMERS MUST USE THE FOOTBATH, ALL SWIMMERS MUST WEAR THEIR IDENTIFICATION DISKS.” He took a shower, washed his feet in a cloudy and bitter solution, and made his way to the edge of the water. It stank of chlorine and looked to him like a sink. A pair of lifeguards in a pair of towers blew police whistles at what seemed to be regular intervals and abused the swimmers through a public address system. Neddy remembered the sapphire water at the Bunkers’ with longing and thought that he might contaminate himself—damage his own prosperousness and charm—by swimming in this murk, but he reminded himself that he was an explorer, a pilgrim, and that this was merely a stagnant bend in the Lucinda River. He dove, scowling with distaste, into the chlorine and had to swim with his head above water to avoid collisions, but even so he was bumped into, splashed, and jostled.

When he got to the shallow end both lifeguards were shouting at him: “Hey, you, you without the identification disk, get outa the water.” He did, but they had no way of pursuing him and he went through the reek of suntan oil, and chlorine out through the hurricane fence and passed the handball

courts. By crossing the road he entered the wooded part of the Halloran estate. The woods were not cleared and the footing was treacherous and difficult until he reached the lawn and the clipped beech hedge that encircled their pool.

The Hallorans were friends, an elderly couple of enormous wealth who seemed to bask in the suspicion that they might be Communists. They were zealous reformers but they were not Communists, and yet when they were accused, as they sometimes were, of subversion, it seemed to gratify and excite them. Their beech hedge was yellow and he guessed this had been blighted like the Levys’ maple. He called hullo, hullo, to warn the Hallorans of his approach, to palliate his invasion of their privacy. The Hallorans, for reasons that had never been explained to him, did not wear bathing suits. No explanations were in order, really. Their nakedness was a detail in their uncompromising zeal for reform and he stepped politely out of his trunks before he went through the opening in the hedge.

Mrs. Halloran, a stout woman with white hair and a serene face, was reading the Times.

Mr. Halloran was taking beech leaves out of the water with a scoop. They seemed not surprised or displeased to see him. Their pool was perhaps the oldest in the country, a fieldstone rectangle, fed by a brook. It had no filter or pump and its waters were the opaque gold of the stream.

“I’m swimming across the county,” Ned said.

“Why, I didn’t know

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one could,” exclaimed Mrs. Halloran.

“Well, I’ve made it from the Westerhazys’,” Ned said. “That must be about four miles.”

He left his trunks at the deep end, walked to the shallow end, and swam this stretch. As he was pulling himself out of the water he heard Mrs. Halloran say, “We’ve been terribly sorry to hear about all your misfortunes, Neddy.”

“My misfortunes?” Ned asked. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Why, we heard that you’d sold the house and that your poor children . . . “

“I don’t recall having sold the house,” Ned said, “and the girls are at home.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Halloran sighed. “Yes . . . “ Her voice filled the air with an unseasonable melancholy and Ned spoke briskly. “Thank you for the swim.”

“Well, have a nice trip,” said Mrs. Halloran.

Beyond the hedge he pulled on his trunks and fastened them. They were loose and he wondered if, during the space of an afternoon, he could have lost some weight. He was cold and he was tired and the naked Hallorans and their dark water had depressed him.

The swim was too much for his strength but how could he have guessed this, sliding down the banister that morning and sitting in the Westerhazys’ sun? His arms were lame. His legs felt rubbery and ached at the joints. The worst of it was the cold in his bones and the

feeling that he might never be warm again. Leaves were falling down around him and he smelled wood smoke on the wind. Who would be burning wood at this time of year?

He needed a drink. Whiskey would warm him, pick him up, carry him through the last of his journey, refresh his feeling that it was original and valorous to swim across the county. Channel swimmers took brandy. He needed a stimulant.

He crossed the lawn in front of the Hallorans’ house and went down a little path to where they had built a house, for their only daughter, Helen, and her husband, Eric Sachs. The Sachses’ pool was small and he found Helen and her

husband there.“Oh, Neddy,” Helen said.

“Did you lunch at Mother’s?”“Not really,” Ned said. “I

did stop to see your parents.” This seemed to be explanation enough. “I’m terribly sorry to break in on you like this but I’ve taken a chill and I wonder if you’d give me a drink.”

“Why, I’d love to,” Helen said, “but there hasn’t been anything in this house to drink since Eric’s operation. That was three years ago.”

Was he losing his memory, had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?

His eyes slipped from Eric’s face to his abdomen, where be saw three pale, sutured scars, two of them at least a foot

long. Gone was his navel, and what, Neddy thought, would the roving hand, bed-checking one’s gifts at 3 a.m., make of a belly with no navel, no link to birth, this breach in the succession?

“I’m sure you can get a drink at the Biswangers’,” Helen said. “They’re having an enormous do. You can hear it from here. Listen!”

She raised her head and from across the road, the lawns, the gardens, the woods, the fields, he heard again the brilliant noise of voices over water. “Well, I’ll get wet,” he said, still feeling that he had no freedom of choice about his means of travel. He dove into the Sachses’ cold water and, gasping, close to drowning, made his way from one end of the pool to the other. “Lucinda and I want terribly to see you,” he said over his shoulder, his face set toward the Biswangers’. “We’re sorry it’s been so long and we’ll call you very soon.”

He crossed some fields to the Biswangers’ and the sounds of revelry there. They would be honored to give him a drink, they would be happy to give him a drink. The Biswangers invited him and Lucinda for dinner four times a year, six weeks in advance.

They were always rebuffed and yet they continued to send out their invitations, unwilling to comprehend the rigid and undemocratic realities of their society. They were the sort of people who discussed the price of things at cocktails, exchanged market tips during dinner, and after dinner told dirty stories to mixed company. They did not belong to Neddy’s

Story

Was he losing his memory, had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?


set—they were not even on Lucinda’s Christmas-card list. He went toward their pool with feelings of indifference, charity, and some unease, since it seemed to be getting dark and these were the longest days of the year. The party when he joined it was noisy and large. Grace Biswanger was the kind of hostess who asked the optometrist, the veterinarian, the real-estate dealer, and the dentist. No one was swimming and the twilight, reflected on the water of the pool, had a wintry gleam.

There was a bar and he started for this. When Grace Biswanger saw him she came toward him, not affectionately as he had every right to expect, but bellicosely.

“Why, this party has everything,” she said loudly, “including a gate crasher.”

She could not deal him a social blow—there was no question about this and he did not flinch. “As a gate crasher,” he asked politely, “do I rate a drink?”

“Suit yourself,” she said. “You don’t seem to pay much attention to invitations.”

She turned her back on him and joined some guests, and he went to the bar and ordered a whiskey. The bartender served him but be served him rudely. His was a world in which the caterer’s men kept the social score, and to be rebuffed by a part-time barkeep meant that be had suffered some loss of social esteem. Or perhaps the

man was new and uninformed. Then he heard Grace at his back say: “They went for broke overnight— nothing but income—and he showed up drunk one Sunday and asked us to loan him five thousand dollars. . . .” She was always talking about money. It was worse than eating your peas off a knife. He dove into the pool, swam its length and went away.

The next pool on his list, the last but two, belonged to his old mistress, Shirley Adams.

If he had suffered any injuries at the Biswangers’ they would be cured here. Love— sexual roughhouse in fact—was the supreme elixir, the pain killer, the brightly colored pill that would put

the spring back into his step, the joy of life in his heart. They had had an affair last week, last month, last year. He couldn’t remember, It was he who had broken it off, his was the upper hand, and he stepped through the gate of the wall that surrounded her pool with nothing so considered as self-confidence. It seemed in a way to be his pool, as the lover, particularly the illicit lover, enjoys the possessions of his mistress with an authority unknown to holy matrimony. She was there, her hair the color of brass, but her figure, at the edge of the lighted, cerulean water, excited in him no profound memories. It had been, he thought, a lighthearted affair, although

she had wept when he broke it off. She seemed confused to see him and he wondered if she was still wounded. Would she, God forbid, weep again?

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I’m swimming across the county.”

“Good Christ. Will you ever grow up?”

“What’s the matter?”“If you’ve come here for

money,” she said, “I won’t give you another cent.”

“You could give me a drink.”“I could but I won’t. I’m not

alone.”“Well, I’m on my way.”He dove in and swam the

pool, but when be tried to haul himself up onto the curb he found that the strength in his arms and shoulders had gone, and he paddled to the ladder and climbed out. Looking over his shoulder be saw, in the lighted bathhouse, a young man. Going out onto the dark lawn he smelled chrysanthemums or marigolds—some stubborn autumnal fragrance—on the night air, strong as gas. Looking overhead he saw that the stars had come out, but why should he seem to see Andromeda, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia? What had become of the constellations of midsummer? He began to cry.

It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life that he had ever felt so miserable, cold, tired, and bewildered. He could not understand the rudeness of the caterer’s barkeep or the rudeness of a mistress who had come to him on her knees and showered his trousers with tears. He had swum too long,

Story

Going out onto the dark lawn he smelled chrysanthemums or marigolds—some stubborn autumnal fragrance—on the night air, strong as gas. Looking overhead he saw that the stars had come out

StoryStory


he had been immersed too long, and his nose and his throat were sore from the water. What he needed then was a drink, some company, and some clean, dry clothes, and while he could have cut directly across the road to his home he went on to the Gilmartins’ pool. Here, for the first time in his life, he did not dive but went down the steps into the icy water and swam a bobbled sidestroke that he might have learned as a youth. He staggered with fatigue on his way to the Clydes’ and paddled the length of their pool, stopping again and again with his hand on the curb to rest. He climbed up the ladder and wondered if he had the strength to get home. He had done what he wanted, he had swum the county, but he was so stupefied with exhaustion that his triumph seemed vague. Stooped, holding on to the gateposts for support, he turned up the driveway of his own house.

The place was dark. Was it so late that they had all gone to bed? Had Lucinda stayed at the Westerhazys’ for supper? Had the girls joined her there or gone someplace else?

Hadn’t they agreed, as they usually did on Sunday, to regret all their invitations and stay at home? He tried the garage doors to see what cars were in but the doors were locked and rust came off the handles onto his hands. Going toward the house, he saw that the force of the thunderstorm had knocked one of the rain gutters loose. It hung down over the front door like an umbrella rib, but it could be fixed in the morning. The house was locked, and he thought that the stupid cook or the stupid maid must have locked the place up until he remembered that it had been some time since they had employed a maid or a cook. He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in at the windows, saw that the place was empty.

John Cheever (1912-1982)American short story writer and novelist, called the “Chekhov of the suburbs”. Cheever’s main theme was the spiritual and emotional emptiness of life. He especially described manners and morals of middle-class, suburban America, with an ironic humour which softened his basically dark vision.

John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachussetts. The young Cheever was deeply upset by the breakdown of

his parents’ relationship. His formal education ended when he was seventeen.

After leaving home, Cheever studied at Thayer Academy. He wrote synopses for MGM and sold stories to various magazines. After a journey in Europe, Cheever returned to the US. He settled in New York, where he was acquainted with such writers as John Dos Passos, Edward Estlin Cummings, James Agee, and James Farrell. In 1933 he attended the Yaddo writers’ colony in Saratoga Springs.

From 1956 to 1957 Cheever taught writing at Barnard College – a work he never liked much. However, he was teacher at the University of Iowa and at Sing Sing prison in the early 1970s, and Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Boston University (1974-75).

One of his most popular and most anthologized stories is “The Swimmer” (1964), which portrays a middle-aged man, who refuses to acknowledge his failures. The protagonist, Neddy Merrill, decides to swim his way home from his friend’s house to his own, from one pool to another. At the beginning of his journey, Neddy seemingly has everything (except clothes), but gradually the midsummer Sunday turns into a cold and dark evening. Cheever’s story inspired Frank Perry’s and Sydney Pollack’s film from 1968, starring the athletic Burt Lancaster, who radiated both strength and vulnerability in his near-nakedness. The swimmer’s stories about his success turn out to be a fantasy – his home is both locked and deserted.

The Stories of John Cheever (1978) won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Books Critics Circle Award, and an American Book Award. Cheever died of cancer in 1982, at the age of 70, in Ossinning, New York.

Story


It was a unique union of widows from two cities of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.Widows from Vrindavan

met the widows of Varanasi in the ashrams of Varanasi and exchanged their experience of life.

The widows from Vrindavan were brought to Varanasi for a holy dip in the Ganga river and prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The widows visited the Nepali and Birla ashrams situated on the bank of Ganga and sang bhajans. The widows

THE ASIAN AGE17 FEBRUARY 2014

AMITA VERMALUCKNOW, FEB. 16

Take holy dip in Ganga, visit Kashi Vishwanath temple Vrindavan

widows share experiences

had been brought to Varanasi to participate in a national seminar on the “Condition of Widows” at the prestigious Banaras Hindu University.

The widows said that their lives had witnessed a qualitative change after the NGO Sulabh International stepped in to help them. Sulabh takes care of around 1,500 Widows living in various ashrams in Varanasi and Vrindavan. The NGO made sure that the widows are gradually brought back into the social mainstream. In the past one

DECCAN HERALDMonday, FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Varanasi, Vrindavan widows’ sangam at seminar

LUCKNOW: DHNS: It was a union of a different kind during which they shared their experiences though many of them might not have wished a long life to the other.

year, the widows in Vrindavan have celebrated festivals like Holi Diwali, Christmas and Durga Puja.

Sulabh founder, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak said in a statement, “It is an effort to give the widows some joy at this stage of life. We are trying our best to bring them back into mainstream of the society.”

Dr. Pathak was recently honoured with the “Banga Moni” award, instituted by the Michael Madhusudan Academy in Kolkata.

On the verge of death, hundreds of widows converged in the holy city of Varanasi on Sunday and exchanged their experiences – mostly bitter and rarely sweet.

The widows from Vrindavan, the land of Lord Krishna got united with their counterparts from Kashi (the old name of Varanasi) at a national seminar on the condition of widows.

FroM tHe PreSS


The seminar was organised by Benaras Hindu University (BHU).

The atmosphere was a poignant mixture of joy and sorrow when the widows interacted with each other at the ‘ashrams’ in the holy town. “It is a lifetime experience for us”, said Manu Ghosh, a widow in her eighties.

Those from Vrindavan recalled their flight to ‘Kashi’ and the holy dip in the sacred waters of the Ganges and the ‘darshan’ (obeisance) at the Kashi

Vishwanath Temple.“The seminar will provide

an opportunity to the widows to share their experiences with the participant and the kind of treatment they had received from the society and their near and dear ones”, said Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, whose organisation Sulabh International had adopted as many as 1,500 widows in Varanasi and Vrindavan and providing them all help in living a life of dignity.

“They have had sad lives… We just try and make things a

little better for them. Every effort should be made to bring some joy and sense of belongingness to their lives”, Pathak added.

The efforts have borne fruit for the widows of Vrindavan and they have succeeded in observing Holi, Dipawali and other rituals which are not meant for Hindu women after death of their husbands.

“It is an effort to give them joy at this stage of life. We are trying our best to bring them back into mainstream of the society”, he said.

FroM tHe PreSS

Once upon a time, there lived a Brahman by the name of Deva Sharma

with his wife. His wife delivered a son and they were happy to have their first child. The Brahmin wanted to have a pet animal to protect the child which would also be a companion to the child. The Brahmin kept his proposal before the Brahmani. She found the proposal acceptable and the Brahmin went to bring a pet.

Deva Sharma went round the village and after much toil, got a mongoose as an escort to his child. Brahmani didn’t like the idea to keep a mongoose for her child. But as the pet was already brought, so she accepted it. Now, both of them started loving the mongoose as their own child. Yet,

The Mongoose and the Brahmin’s Wife

the Brahmani never left her son alone because she did not trust the mongoose, fearing that it could harm her son.

One day, the farmer and his wife had to go out of the house leaving the child at home. The farmer confirmed that the mongoose would take care of the child while they would be away. So, they left the mongoose and the child at home and went out. Soon after they left, a cobra entered the home. Finding danger to the son of the Brahmin, the mongoose attacked the cobra. They had a bloody combat and the mongoose succeeded in killing the cobra.

After this, mongoose heard the footfalls of Brahmin’s wife and went at the door to greet her. Brahmani was trembled to see

the blood stained mouth of the mongoose. She inferred that the mongoose had killed the child. Without a second thought, she threw a heavy box on mongoose and the mongoose died at the spot. Brahmani quickly entered the house to see her child and to her great surprise, she found her child sleeping quietly in the cradle.

As soon as she saw a snake bitten into pieces lying near the cradle, she realized that the mongoose had saved her child. The Brahmani was struck by grief that she had killed the mongoose that was like a sibling to her son. She cried loud at her hasty action.

Moral: Don’t act in haste. Think and Act.


MeSSAGe

Sharing and Caring : The Lesson for the Youth

One young academically excellent person went for an interview for a

managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview; But the director did the last interview and made the final decision.

The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result was excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the post-graduate research. Never was there a year he did not score. The director asked him, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "no".

"Did your father pay your school fees?", asked the Director. The youth answered, "my father passed away when I was one-year-old and it was my mother who paid my school fees".

To another question, “Where did your mother work?", the youth answered, "my mother worked as a cloth cleaner." He was requested to show his hands and the youth showed a pair of hands that was smooth and perfect to the director.

The director further asked, “Did you ever help your mother wash clothes before?" The youth answered, "never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother could wash clothes faster than I could"

The director said, “I have a request; when you go back today,

Learning from Home

go and help to clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that the chance of landing the job was high and when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. His mother felt strange. With happiness mixed with fear, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly and his tears fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and that there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that she shuddered when his mother's hands were cleaned with water.

This is the first time that the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to earn him the school fees and that the bruises in the mother's hand were the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, the mother and son talked for a very long time. The next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye and asked: "Can you tell me what you did and learnt

yesterday in your house?" The youth answered, "I

cleaned my mother's hands and also finished washing all the remaining clothes".

The director asked, "Please tell me what you felt"

The youth said:"Number 1, I know what

appreciation is now. Without my mother, I would not be successful today.

Number 2, Now I know how to work together with my mother. Only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.

Number 3, I know the importance and value of family relationship."

The director said, "This is what I am asking for, I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the suffering of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired."

Later on, this young man worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employee worked diligently and as a team and the company prospered tremendously.

Don’t Be OverprotectiveA child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he needs, develops "entitlement mentality".


33 students from Illinois University, USA, along with Prof. John Hademan, Prof. Jeremy S. Guest and Mr. Lynnea Johnson, Administrative Head, looking at the different artefacts displayed at the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

DistinguisheD Visitors 04/01 2014

04/01 2014Mr. Ravi Chunchula, artist, Mr.

Bhavin Mistry, artist/coordinator and Ms. Aruna Mathew from

the Niv Art Centre along with Dr. Emmanuel D’silva, Environment

Scientist, World Bank, receiving the Lok Sabha calendar from Dr.

Pathak during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

48 second year B.Sc. Nursing students from Safdarjung Hospital, seen with the erstwhile women scavengers from Alwar and Tonk, Rajasthan and Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

08/01 2014


15 students of School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), along with Ms. Rebecca, Programme Manager from John Hopkins University, Washington DC, seen with Dr. Pathak and the erstwhile women scavengers from Alwar, Tonk, Rajasthan and Muradnagar, after the prayer meeting at the Sulabh Assembly Hall

DistinguisheD Visitors 09/01 2014

09/01 2014

Mr. Ravi Mali from Dubai and Mr. Ravi Bhushan from New Delhi, looking at the different artefacts displayed at the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets

11/01 2014

70 visiting students under the INDO-US Collaborative Programme of Sri Ram

College of Commerce and Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Saginaw Valley State

University, seen at the Cutting and Tailoring Class of the Sulabh Vocational

Training Centre


Ms. Nikita Lalwani from Wall Street Journal, New Delhi, seen with the erstwhile women scavengers from Alwar, Tonk and Muradnagar, after the prayer meeting at the Sulabh Assembly Hall

16/01 2014

18/01 201435 students from SOS Nursing,

Faridabad, along with three tutors – Ms. Pankaj, Ms. Richa and Ms.

Ritu – being explained the Sulabh twin-pit technology of toilet,

during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

Mr. Louis Bonhoure, studying Anthropology and Human Rights from Bard College, New York, Mr. Raphael, Third Year Medical student from France and Ms. Charlotte, Student of Geography and Anthropology, Scotland, seen at the Sulabh Public School, during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

20/01 2014

DistinguisheD Visitors


Dr. V.P. Singh and Dr. Sukhvinder Singh from Gunjan Clinics, Noida, looking at the Sulabh technology of purifying domestic waste water through duckweed (a free floating aquatic plant) which cleans the water to a level where it can be safely discharged into any water body, during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

21/01 2014

24/01 2014

14 visiting teachers from Balnandan Nisargshala School, Jaamshet Thane, seen at the Cutting and Tailoring Class of the Sulabh Vocational Training Centre

27/01 2014

Eng. Mr. Bashiri J. Mrindoko, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of

Wateralogn, his wife Ms. Amina Mrindoko, Eng Mr. Archard Richard Mutalemwa, CEO,

DAWASA and Mr. Machumu Titus, Procurement Officer, DAWASA

from Tanzania, along with Mr. R.K. Agarwal and Mr. S.K. Mishra, seen

at the Sulabh Vocational Training Centre, during their visit to the

Sulabh Campus



Mr. Vinod Kumar Shukla, father of Mr. Punit Shukla, Secretary, Shri Mukund Charitable Trust, Ms. Sharika Kaul, Business and Media Strategist, Harnext Business and Communications Soln Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Mr. Sujay Jha and Mr. Santosh Goenka, Executive Director, Business India Group, New Delhi, seen with the erstwhile women scavengers from Alwar, Tonk and Muradnagar during their visit to the Sulabh Campus

29/01 2014

31/01 2014Ms. Kathleen Conte, Ms. Emily Madsen, Ms. Aditi Dalmia, Ms. Angela Chadhuri, Ms. Maadhvi Jairajan and Mr. Maarten from

Catalyst Management Services Private Limited (CMS), Bangalore, being explained the Sulabh twin-pit toilet technology, during their

visit to the Sulabh campus

30 GNM students along with their Instructor Major Meenakshi Manocha from Army Hospital R&R, New Delhi on educational tour,being explained the Sulabh twin-pit technology of toilet, during their visit to the Sulabh campus

01/02 2014



Hyderabad

ANDHRA PRADESH

The Republic Day was celebrated on January 26, 2014 with great joy

and enthusiasm in the campus of A.P. State Branch of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation. Two social workers of A.P. State Branch were selected as best social workers. They hoisted National Flag and were awarded Cash Prize too. They are Mr. Jata Shankar Mishra, Sanitation Manager, working at Sulabh Complex, Nampally Railway Station and Mr. Ravi Kumar Singh, Sanitation Officer working at Sulabh Complex, Osmania General Hospital. The National Anthem was sung by all the participants on the occasion. Addressing the associate members the Hony. Controller of the State Branch highlighted the importance of the Republic Day and stressed the need for

hard work and dedication in all activities. He also instructed the social workers to discharge their duties at deputed place in disciplined way for better

achievement of the targets. The Celebration ended with distribution of sweets among all present on the occasion.

The National Flag being hoisted by Mr. Jata Shankar Mishra and Mr. Ravi Kumar Singh, selected as the best workers of the Andhra Pradesh Branch of Sulabh

Kota

RAJASTHAN

Front view of the Public Convenience Centre built at Naya Pura Chauraha, near Mayur Talkies Front view of the Public Convenience Centre near Elan Hostel

StAteS NeWS


Lucknow

UTTAR PRADESH

A newly constructed 5-seater air-conditioned Sulabh Toilet Complex built at

Chowk Kotwali, Lucknow from the fund provided by Hon’ble Mr. Lalji Tandon, Member of Parliament from the MP Local Area Development Plan was inaugurated on February 4, 2014 (Vasant Panchami) by Hon’ble Mr. Tandon in the presence of Mr. Ramesh Kapoor (Baba), the local Councillor and Deputy

Hon’ble Mr. Lalji Tandon, M.P. inaugurating the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Chowk Kotwali, Lucknow

Front view of the Public Convenience Center at Rawat Bhata Road

Front view of the Public Convenience Centre at Gumanpura, near Chhawani Pulia

Front view of the Public Convenience Centre at Mahavir Nagar

of Mayur Talkies, Near Elan Hostel, Rawat Bhata Road, Mahavir Nagar and Gumanpura, near Chhawani Pulia. Constructed by Sulabh I n t e r n a t i o n a l Social Service O r g a n i s a t i o n the centres will be operated and maintained by Sulabh for a period of thirty years on pay and use basis.

Five 2-seater Public Convenience Centres, each built at a cost of Rs.

4.80 lakh with the collaboration of Municipal Corporation Kota were inaugurated by Hon’ble Dr. Ratna Jain, Mayor on February 21, 2014 in the presence of Mr. Prem Shankar Sharma, Adhishashi Abhiyanta, Assistant Engineer, Ward Councillor Mrs. Rajiya Pathan, esteemed citizens of the area and workers of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Rajasthan State Branch. The Centres are located at Naya Pura, in front

StAteS NeWS


Kanpur

StAteS NeWS

Front view of the newly built air-conditioned Sulabh Toilet Complex at Chowk Kotwali, Lucknow

Front view of the Sulabh Public Toilet Complex

built at Dargah Sharif in Jajmau, Kanpur

Hon’ble Mr. Prakash Jaiswal, Minister, Department of Coal, Government of India

Leader, Parshad Dal, esteemed citizens of the area and workers of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Uttar Pradesh State Branch. The complex has provision for hot water and drier. Hon’ble Mr. Tandon appreciated good work done by the organisation and called for proper operation and maintenance of the complex.

A five-seater Sulabh Public Toilet Complex built at Dargah Sharif

in Jajmau, Kanpur from funds provided by Coal India Limited under Corporate Social Responsibility was inaugurated on December 28, 2013 by Hon’ble Mr. Prakash Jaiswal, Minister, Department of Coal, Government of India. Present on the occasion were Mr. Mahesh Dixit, President, Congress, Kanpur, Mrs. Sabira Begum, Zonal

Councillor, esteemed citizens of the area and workers of Sulabh International Social Organisation, Uttar Pradesh State Branch. The Hon’ble Minister appreciated the quality of construction and hoped that the operation and maintenance of the complex would be properly done. He also gave assurance that public toilets would be constructed at other locations in the city as well.

Shiva, The Ultimate Outlaw

Shiva has such an impossible character; all contradictions included. In acceptance of this character one will have no issue with anyone in the world including oneself. The idea is to show divinity as all inclusive no one against the other, as in identifying good and bad we

also divide the world and make the ultimate union unattainable.

When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we are referring to. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not.” Today, science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. The basis of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast nothingness. The galaxies are just a small happening, a sprinkling. The rest is all vast, empty space, which is referred to as Shiva. So Shiva is described as a non-being, not as a being.

At another level, when we say “Shiva,” we are referring to the Adiyogi or first yogi, who is the basis of yogic science. Yoga does not mean standing on your head or holding your breath. Yoga is the science and technology to know the essential nature of how this life is created and how it can be taken to its ultimate possibility.

This being who is a yogi, and that non-being which is the basis of existence, are the same, because a yogi is someone who has experienced the ultimate union – who has experienced existence as himself. To contain the existence within you even for a moment as an experience, you have to be that nothingness. Something can never hold everything. Only nothingness can hold everything. When we talk about Shiva as “that which is not,” and Shiva as a yogi, in a way they are synonymous, yet they are two different aspects. India is a dialectical culture, so we shift from one aspect to another effortlessly.

Transmission of yogic sciences happened on the banks of Kantisarovar, a glacial lake a few miles beyond Kedarnath in the Himalayas. This predates all religion. Shiva started a systematic exposition of yoga in a scientific manner to seven disciples, the saptarishis. He explored every nut and bolt of creation and brought forth yoga as a technology with which every human being can evolve consciously. This is a way of stepping beyond the limitations that physical laws impose upon us.

Physical nature has set laws within which all life needs to happen. But the fundamental nature of a human being is always longing to go beyond those limitations. Spiritual process is about breaking the laws of the physical. In that sense, we are all outlaws. And Shiva is the ultimate outlaw. You can’t worship him, but you are welcome to join the Gang.

If you wish to join the Gang, there is no better time than tonight, the night of Mahashivaratri. Planetary positions on this unique night are such that there is a natural upsurge of energy in the human system. This process of raising your energies to their ultimate pitch, to dissolve yourself and become a part of cosmic oneness, has happened in abundance on this night.

A nightlong festival has been established in tradition to make use of this possibility by remaining awake and keeping one’s spine erect. May this Mahashivaratri be not just a night of wakefulness, but a night of awakening.

(Courtesy from The Times of India)

Social Remorse: The seminar, sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, was more than an academic exercise which was clear from the speeches dripping with love and concern for the hapless widows. The audience, comprising faculty members and students, sat through the proceedings to listen to the stories of social apathy and family cruelty against widows. It was social remorse for the wrong done to widows by those who were their near and dear.

R.N.I. Regn. No. 49322/89

Maha Shivaratri: Maha Shiva Lingam was placed with a silver pitcher over the Lingam from which water dripped down continuously – this is how Lord Shiva is worshipped.

February 2014, ` 20/-

ISSN: 2230–7567

GROUP SINGING AT NEPALI ASHRAM, VARANASI: Vrindavan and Varanasi widows, under Sulabh care, singing together on the ghat of the holy city of Varanasi while everything on the horizon is bathed in light.

group singing at nepali ashram, varanasi: vrindavan and

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