Panchaamritam 11- 15

Panchaamritam - 11

ONE

Adam Osborne, as you may know, was the co-founder of Apple computers (along with Steve Jobs). A few years back, he wrote for Dataquest magazine, inter alia, thus: “I was raised in Tamilnadu in South India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, My English father and Polish mother were dedicated followers of Sri Ramana Maharishi. After all, how could anyone, even an English boy, grow up in Tiruvannamalai, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, and not acquire a pride in his roots? I was surrounded by Indians who were proud of their nationality and heritage. They believed they had a lot to teach us Europeans. (Here the reference is to the ordinary Indian, the Indian proud of his nation). It is therefore with some misgivings that today I find myself dealing with Indians, many of whom do not feel proud of their Indianness. Indian Americans represent the wealthiest minority in America, ahead of Jewish Americans and Japanese Americans. This is a statistic and not an opinion. Indians are recognized throughout America as technically superior. Since the day Indians learn pride, India will rapidly move out of its third world status to become one of the world's industrial powers.”(Osborne returned to Bharat in search of solace and died in Kodaikkanal near Madurai).

Based on an email from Kalyan

TWO

Readers of the FRONTLINE magazine (of THE HINDU group) may remember how the then Rashtrapati Shri. K.R.Narayanan responded to an invitation from the Governer of Tamilnadu to His Excellency to stay in the Raj Bhavan in Chennai during the period of the President’s convalescence folowing an eye surgery at the Sankara Nethralaya of world renown. Shri. Narayanan declined the offer and is reported to have described the ambience in the Nethralaya as “homely”. This is obviously the outcome of dedication. Dedication by the employees and the management led by Dr. S.S. Badrinath. On occasions, such as Sri Kanchi Maha Swamigal Aradhana Day (falling in January), this dedication is symbolically expressed. Every year, almost all of the over 800 employees of Nethralaya contribute one day salary to their orginazation that day. This year, a few alumni of Sankara Nethralaya’s Post Graduate training centre also contributed on Maha Swamigal Aradhana Day “as their GURU DAKSHINA”, informs Shri. G. Shivaraman, Patient Relation Officer at the Nethralaya. More about Nethralaya: Now listen to what Shri. R.Venkataraman, another former President of Bharat, says: “In the late seventies, Shri. Deb Kant Barua, former president of the Congress party, consulted a leading eye specialst of Germany during his visit to that country. On studying the leader’s eye disorder, the doctor pointed out that the disorder could be rectified only after a major surgery and the facility for that was available in Bharat itself, in Chennai in particular and at the Sankara Nethralaya to be precise”.

Based on a FRONTLINE write up and on talks with Nethralaya officials.

THREE

At the Hannover fair in Germany, one of the largest engineering fairs in the world which opened on Monday, April 7, ELGI Equipments Ltd (EEL), one of the largest manufacturers of air compressors in Bharat, is showcasing what it claims to be “the world’s smallest screw air compressor.” Air compressors are used in sectors such as engineering, automobile, railways, defence, mines, textiles, construction, etc that needed air compressors to operate pneumatic tools, to start engines, lift, etc. Since the new screw air compressor is portable, companies can save on the infrastructure needed for operating conventional air compressors. The manufacture of such a compressor, which weigh only about 2 kg and is 4x4x4 inches in size, proves that Bharat can achieve a high level of sophistication in product development, an official of EEL asserted.

Based on a BUSINESS LINE news item.

FOUR

Shri. R. Ethirajan, 34, computer operator in the Thiruvottiyur (in Chennai) branch of the Central Bank of India, has to his credit unavailed sick leave of 447 days (14 years), casual leave of 120 days(10 years), and 240 days of ordinary leave. In other words, he has created a record of sorts by working continuously without availing any leave for the past 10 years. All the same, Ethirajan is not tied down to his desk. He has been the table tennis champion (singles) among various branches of the bank in Southern India since 1992 and also the champion (singles) consecutively for 15 years among the 38 branches in the city. Ethirajan is also a regular writer to the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column in various newspapers on social issues. He is also a regular blood donor. The branch manager adds that Ethirajan is a customer- friendly person and lauds him for maintaining a proper balance between sports and work. The general manager of the bank appreciates, in an official note, his punctuality. Ethirajan joined the bank as a clerk in 1986. Media Centre, Chennai, will be honouring him on May 1, at the Prize – Distribution function following its competition for writers to the ‘Letter to the Editor’ column.

Based on The New Indian Express, April 3, 2003; idea courtesy: Shri.M. Veerachami’s Email.

FIVE

Thalinji is a hamlet situated in the forest range of Udumalapet-Amaravati in Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu, Bharat. To reach Thalinji, you have to walk 5 miles in the dense forest of Champakkkadu. Thalinji is unique in that no resident of the hamlet owns any land. But the hamlet possesses 900 acres. One from each family cultivates a piece of land and takes home the produce. By a system of rotation, every piece of land is cultivated. River Thenaaru flowing close by the hamlet is perennial and so the villagers do not face any water problem. This agrarian organisation is the outcome of no economist. It is the beautiful tradition followed by the villagers -- of owning no land but participating in the collective endeavour.

Form an article by Shri. R.P. Murugesan in the Tamil Fortnightly Ore Naadu (March 1-15, 2003)

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Panchaamritam - 12

ONE

Shri A.K. Palaniappan, resident of Pappampatti, near Pappireddippatti, Dharmapuri district, Tamilnadu, Bharat, distributes water free of cost. In tanker loads, to be precise. This agriculturist owns a few trucks. In his plot of agricultural land, there are a few wells. On a daily basis, Palaniappan gets his tankers filled with water. They fan out to adjoining villages suffering from water scarcity. The villages that benefit by his thoughtful endeavour are Puduppati, Mookaratipatti, Irulappati, A-Pallippati and Adhikarappatti. Palaniappan’s trucks make four trips a day at his cost. With the entire Tamilnadu state declared as drought hit, this is not simply a good news for those few villages. It is a life saving service that they recieve.

Based on a Dinamani (Tamil daily) report of April 13, 2003.

Two

Kala and Anita are sisters. They belong to village Aramannum of Kanyakumari district of Tamilnadu state, Bharat. They had no other relatives except their mother. Driven by poverty, the sisters, both schoolgirls, went away to distant Andhra Pradesh coast and worked in a prawn farm there. Meanwhile, their mother died in Aramannum following an illness. They were penniless and were unable to conduct the funeral. They could not even find a place to bury their mother’s mortal remains. They knocked the door of an influential person for help. He called the meeting of the villagers. They decided to allot a piece of unutilised government land for the purpose. They also pitched in with every little contribution for the last rites. When word spread that the sisters have become orphans, a Christian priest, in his proselytising zeal, assured them to marry them off, if they convert. Kala and Anita firmly spurned the allurement. Either of the sisters asserted that she is a Hindu and shall marry only a Hindu. Soon after, Kala’s wedding took place. It was Shri.Iyappan, a youth of Ittakaveli village, who volunteered to marry Kala. Swami Chaitanyananda ji Maharaj of Vellimali Ashram officiated the wedding ceremony, with the local BJP panchayat member Shri.V.Thangamani assuming the role of bride’s father.

Based on a news item by THE MEDIA CENTRE NEWS, Chennai, of February 20 – March 4, 2003.

THREE

An unlikely duo of a Sant and a housewife has been doing for the temple city of Bhubaneshwar what the civic authorities have failed to do for years – ‘adopt’ cows that are abandoned after they have outlived their usefulness. The goshala of Ramdas Baba, a nonagenarian Naga Sadhu – turned –Sant and Tarangini Maa, a 65 year old housewife who donated her property to support the Baba’s cause, does not believe in ‘ridding’ the city of these stray animals. Instead, love for the animals is their calling in life - providing food, shelter and medicines are only manifestations of this devotion. 36 years back, Ramdas Baba saved a batch of cows from traders who were taking them to a slaughter house. As he roamed the holy city without any worldly possessions, he used to herd stray cows and bring them to a Kali temple enclosure. Soon, a sizeable number of cows were under his care. The Baba says that it was by a divine call that he took to this service. By and by, he became famous in the city and help came. The Baba had another vision. He was ‘instructed’ by God to look for his true mother who would help him in the mission. That led him to Tarangini Maa who donated a half-acre stretch of land with a pond and orchard. Here the cows now roam around freely without any fear of a butcher’s knife.

Based on a report by Purabi Das in the ‘Making A Difference’ column in OUTLOOK of June 4, 2001.

FOUR

Four decades back, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of Bharat, visited Chennai (then Madras). He attended a few official functions. He also addressed a meeting of Congress party workers. Latter, pointing out to this, the then Accountant General Shri.Raman raised an objection to Nehru’s Madras trip in an Indian Air Force (I A F) aircraft shown as an official visit. Nehru had to run for cover; he promptly directed his party to pay for his trip. All the same, he was good enough to pat the official for his straightforwardness.

Based on a reminiscent item in the ‘Between You Madras And Me’ column in THE HINDU.

FIVE

Meet Shri.Nitin Shrikrishnarao Deshpande, resident of Beed district in Maharashtra state, Bharat. He is a scientist. He has designed an electronic gadget by name ‘Anti Collision System For Heavy Vehicles’. When installed, it automatically switches the headlights of the vehicle from upper to dipper mode the moment it spots another vehicle in the opposite direction at night. This yields a two-fold benefit: spotting approaching vehicle without any difficulty; better visibility of the road ahead, since the original brightness of the vehicle is automatically restored once the two vehicles cross. This gadget was one of the exhibits at the Children‘s Science Congress Fair held in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) recently. The Indian Science Congress has selected this invention for practical application. Yes, Nitin is a schoolboy.

Source: VICHAR SAMACHAR (Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Mumbai) of February 10, 2003

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Panchaamritam - 13

ONE

This happened in late 80’s. As part of a nation-wide campaign, Swayamsevaks of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh accompanied by workers of other Hindu organizations were busy in a labuorers’ colony in north Chennai, going door to door, collecting signatures of the residents in a petition. The petition called upon the Central government to permit construction of Ram Mandir precisely at the Ram Jamnasthan in Ayodhya. The response was naturally overwhelming. This seemed to have irked a few toughs entrenched in the colony. They kicked up a quarrel with the volunteers. Peaceful campaign became impossible. The volunteers withdrew. Shri. Shivaramji, the veteran RSS Pracharak coordinating service activities of the Sangh in Chennai, came to know of all this. The younger volunteers, a few among them college students, were seething with anger. They wanted to avenge the setback. Shivaramji hinted at a novel kind of retort. Everyone instantly liked it. Accordingly, the very next week the colony witnessed inauguration of a free tuition class for students of X standard. The service was offered through the entire academic year. The result was telling. Parents (many of them daily wage earners) of quite a few of the beneficiaries were in tears at the felicitation function to pat the students who were successful in the examination. Thus Swayamsevaks could endear themselves to the people, neatly rendering the toughs totally irrelevant in the scene. That is the way Shivaramji went about bonding the Hindu society for over six decades in many parts of Tamilnadu. (Born on May 17, 1917, Shri. Shivaramji passed away in 1999).

Based on the narration of an eyewitness, reported in

VIJAYABHARATAM, Tamil weekly.

TWO

March 12, 2003 was proclaimed Narayan Kataria Day in Queens County, New York. The office of the President, Borough of Queens, Helen M. Marshall, issued a Declaration of Honor in favor of Shri. Narayan Kataria, a Hindu leader, freelance writer and organizer who has worked for the last 25 years selflessly to promote and propagate Hindu view point in USA. Narayan is fired with a zeal to unite and organize Hindu society. Narayan is connected with a dozen organizations in New York City. He is the founder of Indian American Intellectual Forum, a group based in New York, which has been organizing seminars and serving to strengthen Indo-American ties. The Declaration acknowledges Narayan Kataria as a dedicated community organizer. This was at the Hindu festival of Phagwah (Holi) organized by the Caribbean Hindus at Queens Borough Hall. Through his outstanding work, Narayan has made lasting contributions to the social, cultural and economic fabric of the borough and beyond. Messages from the Mayor of the New York City and the Governor of the New York State were also read.

Courtesy: ORGANIZER (May 4, 2003) Weekly, New Delhi

THREE

One of the central messages of the management guru, C.K Prahalad, to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) during the first week of May, as on previous occasions, was that India Inc's biggest problem is that it has consistently been underestimating its own potential. Dr Prahalad's way of pressing his point home is to present a series of examples in order to show just how competitive Bharat can be. For those who say Bharat simply cannot develop new products since it does not have the technological skills, he cites the examples of Telco's Indica and Mahindra & Mahindra's Scorpio - both are new products developed autonomously, at a fraction of the cost of buying finished technology overseas, and in a sense these have catapulted Bharat into the league of countries where advanced engineering can be done at low cost. Indeed, the prospectus for the public share offer by Maruti Udyog talks of how Suzuki plans to use Maruti as one of the only R&D centres that it has outside of Japan. For those who say Bharat cannot compete with China's low costs since it doesn't have a large enough domestic market, Prof. Prahalad cites the example of Aravind Netralayam (he calls it Aravind Eye Hospital) where the cost of a lens implant is just $16; this compares with more than $1,000 in US hospitals. Similar is the instance of the Jaipur Foot, which fits prostheses for as little as $30 (against $10,000 in the US). Dr Prahalad argues that Bharatiyas don't celebrate their small victories enough, certainly not publicly, and that's why good ideas don't spread and/or inspire others. That's true too; too many Indians spend more time on the bad news than on the good.

From a report in the BUSINESS STANDARD of May 1, 2003.

FOUR

March 30, 2003. Sindhupriya, a fifth standard student of Indira Nagar Government Middle School, Pondicherry, was on her way to school at 8.30 in the morning. She spotted a purse lying on the road. She gave it to her mother Sita, a domestic servant maid. Sita, in turn, took her daughter and the purse to her husband Ramalingam, a wayside artisan. They found a sum of Rs. 2,000, a credit card and a driving licence in the purse. Looking at the driving licence, they came to know that the purse belonged to an IAS officer, Shri. C.C.Girwal who had gone to Delhi. Ramalingam handed over the purse to Chief Secretariat officials. On his return, Girwal met the Ramalingam family living in Laspet in Pondicherry and honoured them. He also made a gift of Rs. 2,000 to Sindhupriya in appreciation of the poor family’s straightforwardness.

Based on a report in DINAMANI (Tamil Daily) dated April 25, 2003.

FIVE

Asifa, a post-graduate in Urdu, living in the Jama Masjid area of Delhi, does the role of Sita in the massive Ramlila celebrations at the Red Fort during the October Dussera festival in the national capital. This has been going on for the past eight years. Asifa takes no remuneration for this. “It is because I look upon Sita as the ideal of Bharatiya womanhood”, she explains. Likewise, Maqbool, an advocate of Bulandshahar, puts aside his black gown and gets down into Ramlila preparations a month ahead. His favourite role is that of Lakshman. Neither Maqbool nor Asifa is a stage artiste. Maqbool says Dussera (Vijayadasami) is not the festival of any one religion.

Source: PATHIK SANDESH (November 2002), Hindi Monthly from Jullandhar.

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Panchaamritam - 14

ONE

“The angles of the pyramid are the same as angles of the ancient Sri Chakras,” explains R.K Muthukrishnan, Founder of the Sri Chakra’s Anthro Uni Biometric Research and Development Center, Chennai, with an air of authority and confidence. Muthukrishnan hails from Bodinayakanoor, Tamilnadu. He enrolled for a course on draftsmanship. It took him hardly 2 months to crack the Sri Chakra puzzle. One of his early researches revealed that in all ancient temples, the original measurements of the prakarams and the size of the idols have been retained. This helped permeate positive vibrations. That is why they say that visit to a temple would help acquire positive energy. Muthukrishnan traveled to Egypt to study the Pyramids and their angles. “One look at the Pyramids and I knew that my theory was right. I knew instantly that the angles of the Pyramids are the same as the angles of the nine triangles of the Sri Chakra”, he says. The ancient Egyptians chose the angles of the triangle to form Pyramids. This he explains thus: They were aware that the pyramids give out bio-energy fields similar to those found in the Sri Chakra installed in the temples of Bharat. (The draftsman today earns his daily bread by offering advice to corporate houses and individuals on how they can work towards attaining positive energy).

Information provided by Shri Sivaprasad, Mahalingapuram, Chennai.

TWO

He is a hero of Hindu temple revival, so to say. The name of this retired marine engineer is Ramamurthy. He lives in Vadapalani, Chennai. At a considerable personal cost running into lakhs, he rebuilds temples that have been erased from public memory in districts around Chennai. He doesn't care for appealing for funds. He just bends down his head and carries on the work silently. He specializes in completing works with minimum possible cost and with remarkable results. This he is doing for over 12 years. He is said to have borrowed Rs. 1 lakh from a bank and completed Kumbhabishekam of a Shiva temple in a village recently. At any given time, he would be restoring 3-4 ancient temples. To his admirers, what appeals more is his fearlessness. Harassment by unsocial elements and vested interests could never deter him in his work, they say.

Information provided by Shri. Arun Venkataraman, Kottur, Chennai.

THREE

He might be an activist of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), but that didi not prevent the school teacher from playing a good samaritan to Muslim girl. Banambar Sahoo of the Jamdhar village adopted four-month-old Musruddin after her father died in an accident in 1981 and brought up the girl. Mr.Sahoo’s endeavour did not end here. He conducted Musurddin’s marriage to a well-setteled youth of the minority community in Mantipada locality, at his residence in the presence two “Moulvis” of Kendrapara. The teacher had himself put his signature on the ‘nikhanama”(marriage papers) along with the bridegroom’s father and two village elders, sources said. Mr.Sahoo aloowed Musruddin to offer “namaz” regularly in his residence, the sources said. The teacher had deposited Rs. 4000 in the name of his adopted daughter two decades ago and spent Rs. 30,000 on her marriage, which was attended by more that 400 people, added the sources.

A box news item in THE HINDU, May 26, 2003.

FOUR

Indian American student Naveen Neil Sinha was one of the 10 winners of the 2003 Intel Science Talent Search held in Washington. Sinha, who came fifth, was given a scholarship of $25,000 for his project titled "Bubble-based Resonance-Doppler Technique of Liquid Characterisation". Sinha, 18, is a student of the Los Alamos High School, New Mexico. For his award-winning project, Sinha combined passive listening and ultrasonic Doppler measurements to study bubble formation and growth, detachment and resonance, rise to terminal velocity and size, says an Intel statement. Sinha believes his technique will support development of inexpensive liquid characterisation sensors for use in quality and process control in a variety of industries.

Information provided by Smt. Rajalakshmi (email).

FIVE

The jungle is becoming so thick in Dhanturi village (in Vyara range of Gujarat, Bharat) and its neighbourhood that the forest department would like to cut some for the healthy growth of the rest. A process called 'thinning'. But the 5,000-odd villagers of Dhanturi, Palawadi and Mangalia would have none of this, despite being offered 50 per cent of the proceeds from the sale (which would run into lakhs of rupees). The residents say they don't need the money from the sale of trees because the forest is already giving enough. All the 70 wells in the three villages, which had run dry in the mid-80s, are now brimming over and are used round the clock. "The villagers netted about Rs. 40 lakh from the sugarcane crop alone last year," says Govindbhai Gamit, a school teacher."This year a businessman from Navsari has supplied hybrid seeds of ladies-finger to Dhanturi which is expected to yield enough for export," says range forest officer of Vyara, Subhash Negi, who himself offered 'shramdaan' (free physical labour) for two days recently when the villagers decided to dig up a small lake near Palawadi. A few weeks back, a panther strayed into Dhanturi's forests with her two cubs and decided to make it her home. "This is our reward," say the villagers. "Dhanturi is a success because the people here love their trees and would not even allow thinning of the forests in spite of being offered an incentive," says B P Pati, deputy conservator of forests, Vyara.

Based on a report by Shri. Bharat Desai in TIMES NEWS NETWORK,

MAY 19, 2003.

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Panchaamritam - 15

ONE

On 10 March this year, when 42 year old Ilango Rangasamy, the powerhouse panchayat president of Kuthambakkam (thirty kilometres from Chennai in Tiruvallur district, lies this predominantly-Dalit village) met President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam in New Delhi and briefed him about the revolution that is brewing in his village, Kalam was suitably impressed to exclaim, ``Ilango, this country needs many more like you.'' And the President promised he would visit the village one day. Ilango is the first Dalit from his village to obtain an engineering degree and take up a job with the prestigious Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), only to give it all up when he realised his village needed his committed expertise. Today, nearly seven years later, Kuthambakkam is self-sufficient in water and is moving towards zero-hunger and the `hutless village' concept. However, it is in optimising environmental resources that Kuthambakkam stands out. Through an intricate series of check-dams and rainwater harvesting structures, the groundwater table has improved dramatically and potable water is available at a height of less than ten feet. All nine ponds in the village have been desilted. The result: 2000 acres of the village's wetland now sport a lush green look and the village is now moving towards optimising dryland farming too. Organic farming is all set to receive a big push too. And the pioneering eco-friendly `hutless village' concept is catching on too. To satisfy rural housing needs, Ilango came up with the idea of using locally manufactured compressed mud and cement blocks to build houses under the State government's `Namakku Name' and `Samathuvapuram' schemes. Not only was the scheme cost-effective, it also provided employment to the villagers. The village has a website of its own bearing an obviously suitable name: www.modelvillageindia.org.

(Based on a NEW INDIAN EXPRESS report of June 5, 2003).

TWO

Hira Ratan Manek is 65. A Jain from Calicut. He is a mechanical engineer. He took interest in sun’s energy. It was when he had met the Mother of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry that he was told by the mother to contemplate on sun’s energy. Inspired as he was by the lifestyle of Bhagavan Mahavir, Hira meditated on Gayatri Mantra that sings the glory of sun’s potential. For the last 10 years he has done extensive research in this field. He uses a simple technique of gazing at the sun and walking bare-foot. He advocates gazing at the sun an hour after sunrise and an hour before the sunset (thus one could avoid the harmful effects of ultra violet and infra red rays). For the last 8 years he has been living just on water and energy from the sun! He says he has not taken solid food at all! On several occasions, national and international community of doctors had examined him. That has led to the NASA initiating a project on him called HRM Project, on survival on solar energy.

Based on a news item in The Times Of India of May 18, 2003.

THREE

Today, an IIT degree is held in the same reverence in the U.S. as one from MIT or Caltech, and India's
extraordinary leadership in the software industry is the indirect result of Jawaharlal Nehru's faith in scientific education. And yet the roots of Indian science and technology go far deeper than Nehru. I (Shashi Tharoor) was reminded of this yet again by a remarkable new book, Lost Discoveries, by the American writer Dick Teresi. Teresi's book studies the ancient non-Western foundations of modern science, and while he ranges from the Babylonians and Mayans to Egyptians and other Africans, it is his references to India that caught my eye. And how astonishing those are! The Rig Veda asserted that gravitation held the universe together 24 centuries before the apple fell on Newton's head. The Vedic civilisation subscribed to the idea of a spherical earth at a time when everyone else, even the Greeks, assumed the earth was flat. By the Fifth Century A.D, Indians had calculated that the age of the earth was 4.3 billion years; as late as the 19th Century, English scientists believed the earth was a hundred million years old, and it is only in the late 20th Century that Western scientists have come to estimate the earth to be about 4.6 billion years old.
If I were to focus on just one field in this column, it would be that ofmathematics. India invented modern numerals (known to the world as"Arabic" numerals because the West got them from the Arabs, who learned them from us!). It was an Indian who first conceived of the zero, shunya; the concept of nothingness, shunyata, integral to Hindu and Buddhist thinking, simply did not exist in the West.
The Sulba Sutras, composed between 800 and 500 B.C., demonstrate that India had Pythagoras' theorem before the great Greek was born, and a way of getting the square root of 2 correct to five decimal places. (Vedic Indians solved square roots in order to build sacrificial altars of the proper size.) Archaeologists also found a "ruler" made with lines drawn precisely 6.7 millimeters apart with an astonishing level of accuracy. The "Indus inch" was a measure in consistent use throughout the area. The Harappans also invented kiln -fired bricks, less permeable to rain and floodwater than the mud bricks used by other civilisations of the time. The bricks contained no straw or other binding material and so turned out to be usable 5,000 years later when a British contractor dug them up to construct a railway line between Multan and Lahore. And while they were made in 15 different sizes, the Harappan bricks were amazingly consistent: their length, width and thickness were invariably in the ratio of 4:2:1.

Excerpts from an article by Shashi Tharoor in THE HINDU of June 8, 2003. (URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/stories/2003060800310300.htm) Shashi Tharoor is the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and the author of seven books, most recently Riot and (with M.F. Husain) Kerala: God's Own Country. Anecdote Idea Courtesy: Email from Shri. Ashok Chowgule.

FOUR

Meet Smt.Sarojini, 62. She has initiated a silent educational revolution in her village, in her house, to be precise. The village: Malliyakundam near Meycheri in Salem district, Tamilnadu, Bharat. Though herself a vintage class ten drop out, Sarojini started teaching free the three R’s in the mornings and evenings to the poor boys and girls in the village just inside her residence. Twenty amog such youth who could become graduates came forward to teach, leading to hundreds of rural children taking to education. Sarojini has formed an association for educational service comprising her students who are graduates today.

Based on a news item in the Gandhian Tamil monthly BHARATAMANI, February, 2003.

FIVE

Two anecdotes having honesty as the common factor: 1) Smt. Kanniyammal living in Kembatti colony is a sweeper in the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation. One day, the Mayor (Shri.Gopalakrishnan) honoured her by presenting a wrist watch in appreciation of her honesty. A few weeks earlier, Kanniyammal had found a packet containing Rs.24,000 on the roadside and had handed it over to the authorities. It was duly sent to its owner Shri.Rajendran of Punjai Puliyampatti village near Sathyamangalam. 2) A noisy ‘quarrel’ attracted the attention of passers by in a Coimbatore street. It was between a shopkeeper and a woman customer. She had received Rs. 20 in excess as balance cash from the busy shopkeeper while making a purchase earlier. The latter could not remember the transaction details and so the woman had to raise her voice while making him realize his mistake. Yes, she was there to return the excess amount. He was requesting her to come back later as he was busy then. She won’t heed to that, exclaiming in Tamil “unga panam enakku edhukku? Adhu paavam” (Why shuld I retain your money? It is a sin.). A social worker among the passers by had a chat with the lady. He found out that she made her living by working as a rag picker.

Both anecdotes narrated by Shri. Rangarajan, an RSS worker of Tirupur.

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