About two years ago I came into the acquaintance of Ezra Vesapogu, an Indian national who claimed to have a powerful ministry in India that saw the planting of hundreds of Reformed Baptist Churches. As things like this often do, it turned out to be a complete farce. Ezra lied about a number of things including his testimony, the nature of his ministry, the number of his ministry, etc. A number of good people invested time and money into Ezra for nothing.
Yesterday I received a phone-call from Ezra requesting that I take my posts about him down from my blog. Instead of doing that, I left them up with an update briefly detailing the sad events. I also provided contact information for North Shore Baptist Church in New York – they were the ones who had supported Ezra the most and sadly were the worst effected by him.
Ezra claims to have been “restored” and that he made amends with everyone he hurt. I can personally attest to the reality that he did not do this. None of the people in New York have heard from him. He is now running a “ministry” called Share Ministries. If you hear from Ezra and are considering doing any work with him – please don’t! Contact North Shore first and find out the details of what happened. He also claims to be “Rev. Dr. Ezra Vesapogu.” I’ll tell you one thing, he has no doctorate worth it’s salt, and he surely ain’t to be revered!
(Ezra is the bald man with the mustache in the picture above)
Here are the links to the two posts that I updated about Ezra: http://ianhughclary.com/2006/10/19/an-indian-great-awakening/ http://ianhughclary.com/2006/11/10/ezras-testimony/
This blog strictly is for those of us with laziness, short lived motivation, endurance limitations etcetera as our perpetual virtues. Irrespective of what is taught in schools, laziness is not that bad in my opinion. Sometimes it is actually encouraging and mischievously rewarding too. And when luck adds to your laziness, you would see yourself smarter than others! Conservation of energy, economy of emotions, unlikelihood of disappointment are other advantages. So I guess living lazy can just be a lifestyle choice which under certain preconditions can turn out to be the right choice too. Of course, this theory is without proof and not everyone in the world should be lazy else the world itself would be boring. Some of us would have to work harder, stay motivated, and endure tough times to save us from climate change, polar icecap melts, to take us to the mars, to check for water on the moon, to campaign for human rights and to send food for Africa.
For us the thought of running a half marathon can immediately cause hormonal imbalance. Only Forest Gump would do that and that’s the reason they had him as a low IQ movie character! Short distance running is not enough of a challenge and long distance running is just too mundane as there is no win-loss. And it demands too much of self-motivation and discipline which in the first place are against our laziness ethics. We would rather play a sport than to run where we can beat someone. And if we are the beaten ones, we have plenty to load until our next chance with all the adrenaline, testerone and a mouthful of expletives – which are all effective antibiotics to laziness. So unless we find a strong enough motivation, running is definitely not our cup of tea.
But what in life can give us that motivation? We often see Indian boys and girls slimming around the time of their marriage. Perhaps they are inspired by the thought of their soon to be wedding album or may be their fiancee is already in a better shape. Staying fit, checking it off our bucket list; active lifestyles are other unlikely reasons. Anyways, like mathematical induction let’s just assume we find motivation.
Once motivated the next challenge is to stay motivated. Running a half-marathon is about a two hour activity which means you would have to run longer than a typical English movie. Not that it is a physically daunting task as running at an average speed is just a psychological thing but it can be boring. Especially during half-M training runs. To counter this you would have to find ways to stay enthusiastic and ofcourse being creative always helps. One of my friends who did a half-M said that he often finds a good looking girl and just runs next/behind her. May not be the perfect setting to ogle, but like beauty lies in the eyes of the runner, finding a nice girl and running alongside her is not a bad idea to stay motivated as long as it is done in a near-polite way, if such a thing is possible . And ofcourse the girls can do the vice-versa too. In addition, you could get yourself a very nice running shoe. It mostly will not be the shoe itself that will push you but the price you paid for it.
Apparently Anil Ambani hired a personal trainer to help him do a marathon by carrying his drinks, towels, cheer him and even tow him to the finish line if needed. Obviously a PT is beyond us but running with a group will help in staying motivated as you would find people fatter and older than you running relatively easily and you wouldn’t want to fall in your own eyes – not atleast right there, infront of them all. Though it is like comparing primitive hunting with rocket science, during the run when the going gets tough you could silently glorify your imaginations with a Lance Armstrong, Christiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher or someone climbing mount Everest, just for a temporary adrenaline rush.
So if somehow a miracle happens and you do cross the half-M running (and not walking!), make sure you take lots of pictures of yourself as it is very unlikely that you would run so far ever again (blame your lazy hormones). And when you tell your friends, family and even when you tell yourself, make sure you tell the distance you ran in kilometers as at that point 21 kms would sound lot more pleasing to ears than 13.1 miles.
P.S-> This blog’s title is inspired from a movie called ‘Run Lola run’ and also from a story in the 9th Standard English text book. Therefore the plagiarism is now legitimate. Not that someone would be interested nor that I have a loaded bank account as I would anyway have to file for bankruptcy if such a situation does arise but why even go through that trouble?
“Aye, main to kaam waali bai re! mere ko to khali ghar saaf karne ka bola!”
All our audience who are wondering why they are seeing only a blank screen today, here’s the answer; actually a robber broke into our house last nite and stole all our cameras.
“I am Pratibha Patil, and I am a witch doctor!”
“Okay, all the participants, we are going to leave five alligators in your bedroom tonite. All those who survive will face a vote out tomorrow.”
“Rakhi ji is going to marry you one by one, but you have to tell her one new story every night. If you run out of stories, she will kill you and marry next one.”
“For vote out today, we have Jaadu (from outer space), Krissh and Laloo Prasad Yadav”
“I am a psychic and I know I am going to win this show.”
“Shilpa, you cannot use race card every time.”
“This is Roadies Whiteout. This year we go to Antarctica and winner will get to drive back home on his Karizma Bike. Losers will be buried in snow for posterity.”
“Due to recession, there would be no vote-out today. We are just going to throw some of you out.”
“I am writer of this reality show. So everybody, listen…”
“TRPs are falling. So lets shed some clothes!”
“No Sashi, you can’t tweet everything that goes on in this house. Not even after using metaphorical language.”
“I used to be a cameraman on the amazing race, then I thought, why should I run behind participants holding a camera? I can be a participant myself!”
“Our house got foreclosure notice. Who the hell owns this place?”
Illyeas Kashmiri, a militant commander who fought in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s and is believed to have been killed in a recent US drone attack, was once rewarded by Pervez Musharraf for “slitting the throat” of an Indian Army officer in 2000, a media report said. Kashmiri, a commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehad al-Islami, was reportedly killed in a drone attack in North Waziristan last week.
He also served in the elite Special Service Group, a commando unit of the Army, and was deputed by the military to train Afghan mujahideen fighting the Russian Army in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, The News daily reported.
On February 26, 2000, Kashmiri reportedly conducted a guerrilla operation against the Indian army in Nakyal sector after crossing the LoC with 25 militants. He surrounded a bunker and threw grenades inside.
“He was able to kidnap an injured Indian officer whose throat he later slit, the report siad. Kashmiri came back to Pakistan with the head of the Indian officer and presented it to top army officials, including then army chief Gen Musharraf, who gave him a cash award of Rs lakh,” the report said. Pictures of Kashmiri with the head of the dead Indian officer in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers and h became very important among militants, the report said. Maulana Zahoor Ahmed Alvi of Jamia Muhammadia in Islamabad even issued a fatwa in support of slitting the throats of Indian Army officers. These incidents occured at a time when the then Corps Commander in Rawalpindi, Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed, visited Kashmiri’s militant training camp at Kotli and “appreciated his frequent guerrilla actions against the Indian Army”, the report said.
A resident of Kotli area of Pakistan -administrated Kashmir, he was an expert in mines and lost an eye during the jehad in Afghanistan. After the withdrawal of the Russian Army from Afghanistan, Kashmiri militants. He joined the Kashmir chapter of Harkat-ul-Jehad al-Islami in 1991. After a few years, he developed differences with HuJi cheif Qari Saifullah Akhtar and created his own ‘313 Brigade’. He was once arrested by the Indian Army in Poonch area and held invarious jails for two years before he escaped by breaking out of prison.
During tensions along the Line of Control in 1998, Kashmiri was given the task of attacking Indian forces and carried out assaults many time, the report said.
Kashmiri’s honeymoon with the Army generals reportedly ended after the creation of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Gen Ahmad wanted Kashmiri to join the JeM and accept Maulana Masood Azhar as his leader but he refused to do so.
Source – South Asia (MidWeek), Tuesday, September 22-28, 2009, page 13, issue # 38
“And this Quran is not such as could be forged by those besides Allah, but it is a verification of that which is before it and a clear explanation of the book, there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of the worlds.”
[10. Surah Yunis: Ayah 37]
“Do they not then meditate on the Quran? And if it were from any other than Allah, they would have found in it many a discrepancy.”
[4. Surah Nisaa: Ayah 82]
On Whom Quran is Descended?
“Surely We Ourselves have revealed the Quran to you revealing (it) in portions.”
[76. Surah Dahr : Ayah 23]
“And thus have We revealed to you an Arabic Quran, that you may warn the mother city and those around it, and that you may give warning of the day of gathering together wherein is no doubt; a party shall be in the garden and (another) party in the burning fire.”
[42. Surah Ash-Shura : Ayah 7]
“Say: What thing is the weightiest in testimony? Say: Allah is witness between you and me; and this Quran has been revealed to me that with it I may warn you and whomsoever it reaches. Do you really bear witness that there are other gods with Allah? Say: I do not bear witness. Say: He is only one God, and surely I am clear of that which you set up (with Him).”
[6. Surah Al-An'am : Ayah 19]
For Whom Quran is Descended?
“A Book of which the verses are made plain, an Arabic Quran for a people who know.”
[41. Surah Fussilat : Ayah 3]
“Therefore remind him by means of the Quran who fears My threat.”
[50. Surah Qaaf : Ayah 45]
When Quran is Descended?
“The month of Ramazan is that in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the distinction; therefore whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein, and whoever is sick or upon a journey, then (he shall fast) a (like) number of other days.”
[2. Surah Al-Baqarah : Ayah 185]
Why Quran is Descended?
“We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an, in order that ye may learn wisdom.”
[12. Surah Yusuf : Ayah 2]
“We have not revealed the Quran to you that you may be unsuccessful. Nay, it is a reminder to him who fears.”
[20. Surah Ta-ha : Ayah 2-3]
“And it is a Quran which We have revealed in portions so that you may read it to the people by slow degrees, and We have revealed it, revealing in portions.”
“Surely this Quran guides to that which is most upright and gives good news to the believers who do good that they shall have a great reward.”
[17. Surah Bani Israel : Ayah 106,9]
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This is a great day for the Annamani sponsorship group as li’l Bgarhav has been blessed with a sponsor and another supporter has decided to help out an additional child. A big thank you to both of these sponsors for their support!
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Reviving the interest of girl school dropouts in reading, writing and arithmetic is no mean task. But Mahila Shiksha Kendra residential schools have started making a difference in Uttarakhand.
Not far from a small village in Purola block in Uttarakashi district, the Mahila Shiksha Kendra residential schools are bustling with activity. Here, girls below 14 years are learning basics of mathematics.
Schools like these have begun to dot the landscape of Uttarakhand, spreading the light of education among disadvantaged girls.
These schools run by Mahila Samakhya have proved successful in reducing the school dropout rate among girls students. The schools are functioning at Kotdwar, Nainital (Bhawali), Nanakmata (Sitarganj), Champawat, Bhoradi (Tehri) and Purola (Uttarkashi).
Dette er annonsekampanjen Plan Norge Norge kjører for tiden.
Tvangsgiftes virkelig annenhver jente som barn i India? Dette syntes jeg hørtes mye ut. Kanskje har Plan falt i den kjente aktivistfella hvor de overdriver det de forsøker å bekjempe?
Plan oppgir ikke lett synlig kilde for tallet på nettsidene sine. Jeg ga opp Plan og fant disse tallene fra UNFPA som er fra 2005, men ingenting tyder på at det er blitt verre i 2009:
In some countries, more than half of all girls under 18 are married. Specifically, the percentage of girls (aged 15 to 19) married by age 18 is:
76 percent in Niger
74 per cent in the Democratic Republic of Congo
54 per cent in Afghanistan
50 per cent in India
51 per cent in Bangladesh
While age at marriage is generally increasing, it is not uncommon to find girls married before age 15.
In Ethiopia and some areas of West Africa, some girls get married as early as age 7.
In Bangladesh, 45 per cent of young women between 25 and 29 were married by age 15.
A 1998 survey in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh found that nearly 14 per cent of girls were married between the ages of l0 and 14.
In Kebbi State of northern Nigeria, the average age of marriage for girls is just over 11 years, compared to a national average of 17.
UNICEFs tall for India er:
Child marriage ; 1998–2007*, total
47
Child marriage ; 1998–2007*, urban
29
Child marriage ; 1998–2007*, rural
56
UNICEF definerer “child marriage” som ekteskap der jenta er under 18. Det er sikkert herfra Plan har sine tall. Og dermed kan de med en viss FN-tyngde hevde å ha sitt på det tørre.
Men det er ingenting i disse tallene som tyder på at halvparten av alle jenter i India virkelig blir giftet bort som barn. Det mest dramatiske tallet er altså fra den indiske delstaten Madhya Pradesh hvor nesten 14 prosent av jentene ble gift mellom 10 og 14 år.
I en annen undersøkelse publisert i Lancet (som ikke ser ut til å være representativ for hele India) som Reuters refererte, er det de færreste som gifter seg som barn:
Researchers analyzed data from a national family health survey that was conducted from 2005 to 2006 in India. The survey involved 22,807 Indian women who were aged between 20 and 24 at the time of the survey.
Of these, 22.6 percent were married before they were 16, 44.5 percent were married when they were between 16 and 17, and 2.6 percent were married before they turned 13.
Tenåringsekteskap ser ut til å være det mest vanlige. Det er ille nok.
Tvinges alle? Forsvarere av arrangert ekteskap legger stadig vekt på at man må skille tydelig mellom arrangert ekteskap og tvangsekteskap. Men når jenta er under 18 virker det ikke fornuftig å snakke om det arrangerte ekteskapets fortrinn.
Tillegg: Etter enda litt mer googling fant jeg dette på Plans nettsider: “I India giftes nesten halvparten av alle jenter bort før de fyller 18, og en av fem før de er fylt 16.”
I kampanjen deres er det blitt til: “I India blir annenhver jente tvangsgiftet som barn.”
Oceansat-2 and nano satellites inside the heat-shield of the PSLV-C 14. Photo: ISRO
Oceansat-2 beamed three images capturing a large swathe of land and water bodies from Kashmir to Maldives Island, including Arabian Sea on Thursday.
They were received at National Remote Sensing Centre’s(NRSC) Earth Station at Shadnagar at 12.40 p.m. The images showing ocean features and cloud formation were “very good.” The data were processed at the Earth Station and the product was later made available to the users, according to NRSC sources.
China aims to block India’s place in the sun Posted by: John Elliott
It’s probably the tip of the iceberg of China’s ambitions to thwart India’s emergence as a significant economic and maybe diplomatic and military power. I’m referring to what might appear to some to be a crazy article on a Chinese strategic issues website, which claims that China could “dismember the so-called ‘Indian Union’ with one little move”.
The writer has argued that India’s national unity is weak and that China could exploit this by supporting separatist forces, such as those active in India’s north-east state of Assam, and split the country into 20 or 30 sovereign states.
“There cannot be two suns in the sky. China and India cannot really deal with each other harmoniously,” said the article. That almost certainly reflects Beijing thinking, even though the founder of the website has claimed the anonymous writer has no known government links.
The article was posted last Saturday and was publicised in India yesterday, prompting the Indian foreign ministry to say it appeared to be “an expression of individual opinion and does not accord with the officially stated position of China on India-China relations conveyed to us on several occasions”. But what else could India say – especially since the article coincided with apparently cordial talks between the two countries on their border that has been disputed since China defeated India in a brief 1962 Himalayan war.
It is not unusual for China to fly such extreme kites. Philip Bowring of the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel website pointed out in a New York Times article two days ago that the arrest last week of two Rio Tinto executives in Beijing for alleged theft and corruption followed an internet article written by an official of China’s National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, which accused Rio of commercial “spying” that had cost the nation $100bn in higher iron ore prices – an accusation says Bowring that “does not stand up to the most casual scrutiny of trade data”. Bowring then points out that “although the article is no longer on the website, its claims have not been corrected and its imprint on Chinese minds will not disappear”.
The imprint of the India internet article will also not disappear because, whatever the two countries may say officially, it sums up what has been happening for years.
As James Lamont and Amy Kazmin explained a month ago in an excellent FT round-up of the two countries’ tortuous relations, China has been encircling India by developing influence and outposts in Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, and wants to usurp India’s major role in controlling the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
Pakistan, which China has armed and helped become a nuclear power, has been destabilising India first in Punjab (in the 1980s) and then in Kashmir. China has also for years been encouraging separatist forces in India’s north-eastern states, including Assam, and will no doubt use its growing clout in Myanmar – and Bangladesh – to increase those activities. In the future it could perhaps use its growing influence in Sri Lanka – where it is developing a naval base and advised the government in the recent defeat of the Tamil Tiger separatists – to cause unrest among linked Tamil communities in southern India.It has also strengthened its border claims – for example by opposing a $3bn Asian Development Bank aid project in Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian border state that China claims as “south Tibet”. And it tried to block international approval of the recent India-US nuclear deal with the US.
This is of course a dangerous game and sometimes India has to respond – recently for example by moving fighter jets to the China border and, of course, by meddling in other countries, as a comment by Abhyaan (below) explains.
I have heard a former senior Indian bureaucrat argue privately that China’s basic – and permanent – aim is to force India to focus on domestic issues and thus thwart it becoming a future international rival.
China, according to this view – which is surely correct – is determined to be the world’s sole superpower after America, and does not want that status to be upset by a strong and democratic India backed by the US and Europe. Its tactics have become more insistent in the past two years as it has become irritated by India’s growing links with the US, culminating in the nuclear deal.
Everything that China does in relation to India therefore has to be seen through that prism. India will not fragment into 20 or 30 pieces – it is far too unified for that – but there is no prospect of permanent peace and co-operation between the two countries because, as the internet writer has said, “there cannot be two suns in the sky”.
So by now everyone’s read Virender Sehwag’s interview on cricinfo and you’ve probably noticed how Viru said one of the great things about Kirsten’s coaching is that practice sessions are optional. Thats an awesome coach right there, Ganguly would have thrived under him. Don’t be too surprised if fielding levels continue to slip and one of two of the fitter guys end up with paunches in a few months.
But thats got nothing on Gary’s latest recommendation to the Indian players. “MAKE MORE LOVE, HAVE MORE SEX, PROCREATE!” commanded Kirsten to a more than just a few nervous giggles (and this is before Virat Kohli made his juvenile presence felt, speaking of which…). Yuvraj was probably like “Yeah, like we needed your permission Boss?” followed by “Oh WAIT! This means I can officially fuck around now, even when we’re supposed to be practicing.”
You’d have thought Gary would have taken into account that Yuvraj is a brash, gaatti, partying-till-the-sun-goes-up, fun kinda guy. You’d also have thought that Gary would have considered that Yuvraj is one of the few batsmen in world cricket who can take a score from 180-5 from 36 overs to 330-6 by the time the innings concludes. Which is why it shouldn’t be too hard for you to imagine the disastrous sequence of events that have led to Virat Kohli bringing his adolscent ass to the party:
Day 1: Arrive in South Africa. New Vision is read out. Yuvraj’s eyes light up and he immediately pats an annoyed Gambhir on the back and says “So, hows that groin doing?”
Day 2: GK: Hey Yuvi, me and the guys are going down to the wanderers to practice, you wanna come along?
YS: No thanks, I think I’ll make out in the gym and find a few fine wanderers there if you know what I mean.
GK: Haha Gotchya. Btw, I think you mean work out.
YS: Yeah yeah, whatever you wanna call it boss.
Day 3: GK: Hey Yuvraj, you’re up early. Wait, did you sleep at all last night? And why have you got pollen all over yourself?
YS: Urm no, I was busy practising my pick up and throwing skills first and then after that I did a lot of diving and rolling about in the fields. I’m gonna take a nap and recharge those batteries boss.
Day 4: GK: Hey Yuvi, would be nice if you could join us in the middle. MS says he’s like to face your bowling for a while?
YS: Sorry Boss, my arms are tired and the variety I’ve been adding to my balls has drained me both physically and mentally. I’ll go for a work-out in the evening, don’t worry.
Day 5: YS: Hey Boss, I need to talk to you…
GK: Oh Great, Yuvi, just the guy I was looking for. Hey whats up, you don’t look so good?
YS: You know all that vision and talk you were giving us boss. Well I was practising really hard, you know, taking one for the team. And I think I’ve broken my finger.
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«C’è vita sulla Luna?». «Poca, e solo il sabato sera». Questa battuta scema mi è tornata in mente leggendo un articolo del Times of India secondo cui siamo alla vigilia di una rivelazione importante: il satellite indiano Chandrayaan-1 (che si chiama così perché Chandra significa Luna) avrebbe scoperto l’esistenza di acqua sulla Luna. Il condizionale è d’obbligo fino a domani, quando la Nasa convocherà nel suo quartier generale di Washington una conferenza stampa per un «annuncio rilevante» sul progetto Moon Mineralogy Mapper, la cui strumentazione era appunto collocata sul satellite indiano. Ma la notizia sta ormai facendo il giro del mondo. Il Times of India aggiunge che i dati e le 70mila fotografie scattate dal Chandrayaan-1 (ora “defunto” ) saranno la base per le ricerche di esplorazione lunare del Chandrayaan-2, che sarà pronto nel 2012. Intanto, ieri dalla base indiana di Sriharikot sono stai lanciati contemporaneamente il satellite indiano Oceansat-2 e altri 6 nanosatelliti europei.
Nell’induismo antico Chandra, la Luna, era una divinità collegata al nettare degli Dei (l’amrita) e al ciclo della vita e della morte, con i relativi culti. Oggi, Chandra è un oggetto di studio dell’ISRO, l’Indian Space Research Organisation, che ha ambiziosi programmi spaziali in collaborazione con Usa e Russia. Per me, da sempre amante della fantascienza, lo «spazio, ultima frontiera» (chi riconosce la citazione?) è cosa di grande fascino. Ma oggi preferisco salutarvi, cari lettori, con un’ “altra” Luna, quella degli antichi versi di Yogeshvara: «Sorbisce dalla scodella del cielo/guizzando la mobile lingua del lampo/il grande gattto nuvola, ora/tiepido latte di luna».
Nova Novela das 8 da Rede Globo – VIVER A VIDA: Música Tema Viver a Vida – Música de Abertura Viver a Vida
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Seven satellites in 1,200 seconds. A launch similar to the one in April 2008 when ISRO launched
10 satellites.
ISRO is all set to put six nano satellites and one major ocean satellite into orbit on Wednesday from Sriharikota. The final 51-hour countdown began on Monday at 9am. Of the six nano satellites, four are from Germany, one is from Switzerland and one from Turkey. The seventh is a big one, India’s Oceansat-2 weighing 960 kg.
From the time of launch to ejection of satellites, time taken will be around 1,200 seconds. While Oceansat-2 is set to be ejected after 1,055 seconds, four nano satellites will be ejected in the next 45 seconds. Two others are meant to stay with the fourth stage of the rocket which will be on its own once the different stages of the rocket get separated.
The sequence of ejection is very similar to the April 2008 launch featuring one big satellite – Cartosat-2A and nine other nano satellites – 10 in all: once the PSLV takes off and reaches a certain height and velocity, it will first launch the Oceansat-2 and a few seconds later, the first of four nano satellites. Every 10-12 seconds, the PSLV will launch four satellites one after the other. (Two will remain with the fourth stage).
“The rocket re-orients itself everytime a satellite is to be placed in orbit. The re-orientation ensures one satellite doesn’t collide with another. The rocket effectively re-orients itself four to five times in the space of one flight,” a scientist explained.
The brain of the rocket would have made all calculations in advance – from ejection of first satellite to the fifth. The exact moment of ejection and then re-orientation for the next ejection is worked out in advance. All mathematical calculations on the ground, launch sequence and flight path have to work to zero error.
“There is no room for error. The rocket has to be in flight till the last minute which means all systems on board have to function to perfection. Once the first and second stages separate, and the fourth stage (the engines) stop, the ejection process begins until every satellite circulates in orbit,” an official said.
Oceansat-2, India’s second satellite to study oceans as well as interaction of oceans and atmosphere, is the 16th remote sensing satellite of India. It is in the shape of a cuboid with two solar panels projecting from its sides. The satellite will map fishing zones around India, measure ocean surface windspeeds as well as atmospheric temperature and humidity.
This will be PSLV’s 16th mission. From September 1993 to April 2009, PSLV has been launched 15 times. Fourteen launches have been successful continuously while only one has failed so far.
ISRO spokesperson S Satish told TOI: “It is known that PSLV has been a very successful launch vehicle. Countries realise it is a vehicle or rocket very well suited for launch of nano satellites. We were on to our 16th mission with PSLV and Germany and Swtizerland were looking for a mission. Our needs coincided and that’s how we have the six nano satellites.”
In the April 2008 launch, eight nano satellites were built by universities and research institutions in Canada and Germany.
A former devotee received a note from one clearly upset at dissent from Sathya Sai Baba. Its mood is fairly typical of emails former followers receive. It may be noted that, apart from a minority of former Sai devotees who don’t know their manners, there is a strong commitment among Sai Baba’s leave-takers to courtesy (just as, indeed, there is among Sai devotees too). The recipient responded as follows:
“Every group, from every land, contains those who seek the ‘tinsel and trash’. I am sad to see you single out any race, such as when you specify Westerners.
Many wonderful people, who have now left him, have spent decades in Sathya Sai Baba’s service, and in the utmost devotion and service to him, including those who held very high positions in the Sathya Sai Organisation, and they have left his side.To equate them with the voices of hatred and anger and so on simply does not state the facts.
Because some persons speak out of hatred does not mean that all former devotees do so. In the same way, it would be wrong to judge genuine Sai devotees by the hatred aimed so cruelly at those who have spoken out. It is not wrong to expect that serious allegations be aired. Will truth, or Sathya, flourish in an atmosphere of suppression and the lack of accountability? It is accountability that a great many organisations in democratic countries regard as a vital practice?
There are many former devotees who have been extremely libelled and slandered, and who have refused to deal hatefully with the matter. Most remain silent, so you will not, of course, have heard of them. It is,therefore, most inappropriate to judge of those whom you do not know. Have you, as dispassionately as you best may, attempted to read through the evidence? Is automatically damning of a different point of view a healthy thing? The abundant fact is that, although Sai Baba and his officials have sealed themselves off from normal processes of enquiry, there are many evidences of great duplicity, including of the sort that comes from examining of official Sathya Sai-related documents published over many years. There are many terribly contradictory statements, and misstatements of historical fact, as well as prophecies that have clearly not come to pass.
However one may interpret the accounts of miracles, there remains the fact that many good and decent individuals and families around the world have been profoundly shattered by what has happened in regard of their young male children, as well as other shocking experiences at the ashram.That focus on the miracles can so obscure normal and healthy concern for human beings is greatly saddening. One might have thought, given that many Sai devotees know how badly these individuals and families have been affected, that compassion would have been the first of all responses”.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Foto: CMI / Kusumpur es una de las muchas villas miseria que rodean Delhi. La mayoría de sus habitantes son dalit e indígenas.
Un equipo de representantes de iglesias de Europa, América Latina, África y Asia realizará una visita de solidaridad a iglesias, organizaciones ecuménicas y de la sociedad civil de la India, del 21 al 27 de septiembre.
Por CMI.
Observador Juvenil/El Esplendor.
La visita, de siete días de duración, se centrará en el testimonio de las iglesias de la India en favor de una paz con justicia en un contexto de pobreza masiva, exclusión social y violencia contra la mujer, los dalit y los cristianos. Habrá también encuentros con líderes eclesiales, activistas en favor de la paz y representantes de iniciativas de paz interreligiosas y de movimientos dalit.
En su visita, el equipo de Cartas Vivas irá a la capital del país, Nueva Delhi, y a los estados de Orissa y Andhra Pradesh en el sudeste.
Cartas Vivas son pequeños equipos ecuménicos que visitan un país para escuchar, aprender, compartir planteamientos y ayudar a afrontar los desafíos para superar la violencia, promover la paz y orar por ella. Se organizan en el contexto del Decenio del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) para Superar la Violencia con el fin de preparar la Convocatoria Ecuménica Internacional por la Paz en 2011.
Violencia contra cristianos y discriminación por razón de casta
En agosto de 2008, el estado de Orissa fue escenario de una ola de violencia organizada contra los cristianos por militantes radicales hindúes que los acusaban de la muerte de uno de sus líderes. Como consecuencia murieron unas 20 personas, 50 mil fueron desplazadas y cuatro mil hogares quedaron destruidos. Resultaron afectadas unas 200 aldeas y fueron quemadas centenares de iglesias.
En esa época, el comité ejecutivo del CMI expresó su preocupación “por la alarmante tendencia a un aumento de la violencia entre comunidades y de la intolerancia religiosa en la India”. El 2 de septiembre de 2009, el comité central del CMI aprobó una nota señalando “una disminución de la libertad religiosa en muchas partes del mundo y un aumento de la intolerancia religiosa”.
En otra declaración aprobada el 2 de septiembre, el comité central del CMI dijo que la discriminación por razón de casta está en contradicción con la enseñanza cristiana de que todos han sido creados iguales a imagen de Dios. Hay unos 260 millones de personas en el mundo que son consideradas como “intocables” por sus propias sociedades. En la India son al menos 160 millones y se las conoce como dalit u “oprimidas”, “aplastadas”.
Información y fotografías de la visita de Cartas Vivas a la India estarán disponibles aquí
Iglesias miembros del CMI en la India (en inglés)
Texto completo (en inglés) de la “Nota sobre la responsabilidad de las iglesias para con las comunidades víctimas de la violencia anticristiana” aprobada por el Comité Central del CMI
Texto completo de la “Declaración sobre la discriminación por razón de casta” aprobada por el Comité Central del CMI
Labor del CMI en solidaridad con los dalit
Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.
En el año 1998, Swami Premananda fundó la Juventud Premananda.
Como lo anticipa el nombre, la Juventud Premananda vendría a ser la rama juvenil de la misión espiritual de Swami, que se podría definir como un grupo juvenil y espiritual, inspirado en la vida y enseñanzas de su creador.
Se trata de un grupo totalmente abierto a cualquier persona, y a pesar de que algunos de los conceptos y prácticas del grupo parezcan muy relacionados con el Hinduismo, la esencia de la enseñanza tratada tiene su base en verdades y valores universales que han sido dictados por santos de todas las épocas.
En palabras de Swami: ‘La razón para crear grupos juveniles es mostrar qué es la felicidad real; ser amorosos con todos; ser humildes; ser pacientes; entender la situación de cada uno; debatir buenos temas; desarrollarnos en espiritualidad; tener un buen corazón; y expresar todas estas cualidades a los demás’.
Contacto
Cuando yo entré en contacto por primera vez con Swami Premananda, y con su único Centro oficial en Argentina, alrededor del año 2000, la Juventud Premananda ya estaba en marcha. Junto con mi hermano Rakhal, y otros pocos jóvenes que asistíamos a las reuniones del Centro de Villa Carlos Paz, oíamos encantados las historias de las actividades que estos grupos juveniles llevaban a cabo en Europa.
Si mi memoria no se equivoca, fue recién en el año 2004 que se realizó la primera actividad oficial de la Juventud Premananda de Argentina. Se trató de un ‘mercado indio’, en que mostrábamos distintos aspectos de la India, como comida, ropas, charlas explicativas, danza, canto, etc.
Desde entonces, la Juventud Premananda de Argentina ha seguido firmemente su marcha.
Personalmente, sin embargo, yo hice un cambio de rumbo, de manera literal, y en el año 2005 viajé a Europa en busca de una experiencia que venía posponiendo hacía tiempo, y en la que incluso Swami Premananda me había aconsejado.
Más allá de los temores normales de cambiar de vida, de tierra y de compañía, tenía ante mí ciertos obstáculos prácticos relativos a burdas cuestiones burocráticas, que me impedían trabajar o hasta permanecer largo tiempo en el Viejo Continente.
Fue gracias a la intervención de una devota de Swami Premananda, que entré en contacto con una miembro de la Juventud Premananda en Italia, quien me ofreció (junto con su madre, también devota de Swami) muchas facilidades para empezar la nueva vida.
Estando ya en Italia, tuve la chance de asistir a mi primer encuentro europeo de la Juventud Premananda, en Holanda, y así empezar a conocer y disfrutar de algo que desde hacía años deseaba.
Encuentros
El hilo conductor de la Juventud Premananda también guió muy siguientes pasos europeos, cuando al mudarme a Londres por unos meses necesitaba un lugar para vivir.
Gracias a una joven devota inglesa, conseguí una habitación en una tranquila casa, que a la sazón se convirtió en mi ‘familia’ adoptiva.
Si en Italia había entrado en contacto con la Juventud, en Londres me involucré mucho más, pues el grupo londinense era muy activo y había reuniones periódicas.
A esto se sumó mi asistencia a los encuentros europeos de los jóvenes Premananda.
Dichos encuentros suceden dos veces al año, en el verano boreal (agosto) y el invierno boreal (diciembre). En general se puede decir que estos encuentros juveniles son de una duración de cinco a siete días y tienen lugar en diferentes países de Europa, que van rotando cada año.
El país organizador se encarga de encontrar algún buen lugar para alojarse, que incluya contacto con la naturaleza, espacio propio para las actividades grupales, y la posibilidad de hacer servicio social.
En el pasado, en más de una ocasión se consiguió algún alojamiento a través de un organismo oficial (por ejemplo, el ayuntamiento), a cambio del servicio social de los jóvenes Premananda (por ejemplo, la limpieza de las calles del pueblo).
En otras ocasiones, son los jóvenes quienes deben pagar todos los gastos, pero siempre se intenta que sean bajos, pues muchos de los asistentes son estudiantes o menores, que deben ya de por sí hacer un viaje relativamente largo.
En su origen, la Juventud Premananda había puesto unos límites de edad, que luego fueron derribados por Swami mismo, al decir que ‘todo aquel que se sienta joven en el corazón puede participar’.
De hecho, en muchos de los encuentros juveniles hay adultos que participan, aunque sólo sea por una sola jornada; y en muchos casos, son devotos adultos los que brindan mucha ayuda organizativa, sobre todo para preparar las comidas.
División
Swami Premananda siempre hace hincapié en la importancia de dar servicio desinteresado a los demás, y él como ejemplo, es fundador de un gran orfanato y otros proyectos caritativos.
Siguiendo este idea, en el año 2005 se creó el Servicio Juvenil Prema, la rama de servicio social para jóvenes.
Si bien nace de la misma semilla que la Juventud Premananda, el Servicio Juvenil Prema se focaliza únicamente en cuestiones relativas al servicio desinteresado y el voluntariado.
La Juventud Premananda, en cambio, tiene un espectro más amplio que también incluye prácticas espirituales como los cantos devocionales y los rituales tradicionales de la India.
Evidentemente, para muchos jóvenes occidentales no es siempre viable acercarse a cuestiones ‘ajenas’ como las prácticas espirituales de la India. Por otro lado, hay jóvenes que no están interesados en ningún tipo de enseñanza espiritual y que no quieren ni oír acerca de los devaluados conceptos de Dios o religión.
Sin embargo, muchos de estos jóvenes siguen teniendo un gran interés social, y una gran pasión por ayudar a la humanidad.
Es por ello, que se creó el Servicio Social Prema, para diferenciarlo de la rama más espiritual, que sería la Juventud Premananda.
Si bien al inicio los miembros de ambos grupos puede que sean las mismas personas, con el tiempo se hace una diferencia.
De hecho, en los últimos años, se ha comprobado con las experiencias de los grupos juveniles alrededor del mundo, que se acercan más personas nuevas para visitar el hogar de ancianos del barrio, que para el ritual tradicional de una estatua.
Lo cual, de hecho, me parece muy natural. Y veo muy positivo, de todos modos, que tantos jóvenes estén interesados en el servicio desinteresado.
Justamente uno de los grandes objetivos del Servicio Juvenil Prema es ‘hacer que más jóvenes experimenten la felicidad que nace de dar servicio y vincularlos con otros jóvenes de la misma mentalidad’.
Conferencia
En el año 2008 la Juventud Premananda cumplió diez años de vida y hubo una gran Conferencia Internacional en Bélgica, donde asistieron devotos y amigos de todas partes de Europa.
En febrero de 2009, se llevó a cabo una Conferencia Juvenil Internacional en el Sri Premananda Ashram de la India.
Allí hubo tres días de actividades espirituales que estuvieron a cargo de los diferentes grupos juveniles del mundo.
Como ya dije en un post anterior, la espiritualidad en general da la posibilidad de satisfacer ciertos deseos o aspiraciones mundanas, pero a través de una forma más simple y útil.
Para algunos, este sublimar espiritual es la única forma posible de poner en práctica ciertos anhelos oxidados; para otros, que ya lo hacen en la vida diaria como profesión, es una forma de llevar su experiencia a campos más fructíferos, desde el punto de vista espiritual.
Sea cual sea el caso, esta posibilidad de sublimación, específicamente con la Juventud Premananda, es muy grande en una Conferencia, pues hay una gran cantidad de eventos y cada país o grupo se hace cargo de alguna actividad.
Justamente en febrero 2009, yo llegaba al Ashram junto a Nuria, muy sobre la hora, y teníamos sobre nuestros hombros la responsabilidad de preparar algún tipo de actuación.
Danza
Puede ser que escribir se me dé bien, pero para las artes escénicas en general, tengo pocas dotes.
Por suerte, en el Ashram estaban mi hermano Rakhal y su novia Celia, que equilibran la balanza familiar con su talento.
De hecho, al haber llegado antes, ellos ya habían preparado y ensayado una danza y coreografía, que estaba destinada al éxito.
Cabe decir aquí, que estamos hablando de dos profesionales de la danza y el teatro, y no de dos improvisados, como éramos los recién llegados.
Teniendo en cuenta que la Conferencia de este año tenía un tinte ‘ecológico’ y como eje principal estaba la idea de cuidar nuestro mundo y medio ambiente, la danza versaba sobre ello.
La canción escogida era en idioma Tamil, del sur de la India, y pertenecía a una película estilo Bollywood.
El estribillo decía algo así como ‘nuestra casa es el paraíso, limpiémosla’. Estas palabras venían perfectas si estábamos hablando del Sri Premananda Ashram, y si la audiencia principal eran los cientos de niños del orfanato y la escuela Premananda.
En palabras de Rakhal, ‘la idea era la de comunicar el mensaje de mantener nuestro lugar limpio, pero de una manera divertida y atrayente para los niños’.
Para cumplir con la primera premisa, se recurrió a una introducción explicativa para subrayar lo negativo de ensuciar. Fue aquí donde entramos en acción Nuria y yo.
No había necesidad de hablar, pues el texto era leído en off (en inglés y tamil), y tampoco había que bailar, sólo representar, con algo de estilo de mimo, a alguien que ensucia y a otro que limpia, hasta que el primero se da cuenta de su error.
Luego venía la danza tan arduamente preparada. Para cumplir con la premisa de ‘divertir y cautivar’, Rakhal decidió incluir una sección de ‘lucha danzada’, en la que al ritmo de la música los bailarines representan una batalla estilo karateka (patadas y puñetazos), y en la que el vencedor es obviamente aquel que defiende la limpieza y el reciclaje, sobre aquel que ensucia.
Para los niños indios, este momento de la actuación, que mezclaba baile con lucha, era la cúspide.
Éxito
De hecho, la danza fue un gran éxito en general, y todos fuimos felicitados, incluso los que, como yo, habíamos hecho menos.
La preparación total de la danza, con todos sus detalles, había implicado prácticamente un mes, y no era de sorprender que el resultado fuera tan bueno, sobre todo porque estaba a cargo de profesionales.
La cuestión es que el furor por la actuación fue tal, que Swami Premananda, de visita en el Ashram, pidió que se repitiera la danza por la noche, ya que por la mañana él no había podido verla.
Cualquier aplauso, cualquier reseña en el mejor periódico, cualquier estatuilla dorada con alfombra roja, no se puede comparar al pedido de tu Gurú para que actúes delante de él (o para que cantes, bailes, o simplemente estés delante de él).
Una vez más, los espectadores estuvieron muy contentos con la danza y la crítica unánime de los niños del Ashram, en su particular inglés, era, ‘¡Super dance!’.
Swami Premananda en el Ashram, febrero 2009
‘Nunca antes’, dijo mi hermano, ‘en toda mi historia sobre las tablas, me han aplaudido tanto’.
Esta es la resumida historia de cómo yo, conocido desde siempre por mis dotes de bailarín como ‘Cintura de Roble’ y también ‘Piernas de madera balsa’, logré el éxito y la fama en una calurosa noche del sur de la India.
Todo gracias a una genial coreografía hecha por mi querido hermano; gracias a la infinita inocencia de los niños del Ashram; gracias a las bendiciones de mi Gurú…
Y, sobre todo, gracias a la Juventud Premananda, guía infalible de cómo hacer de la espiritualidad una actividad divertida, que además te llena de gozo, para siempre.
When a bunch of teens get together, some shenaniganing is bound to ensue. It is what teenage years are for. So parents hiring detectives and now installing spyware on their mobiles to track the teen’s movements during Navratri is just really sad. Thank you TOI for not aiding and abetting by publishing where one gets the software.
What a world we live in! Spying or not, wishing all a very happy Navratri.
One thing that is distinctly Indian is the humble dabba. But we’ve come a long long way from the rickety wobbly aluminum ones back in the 70s! Check out these funky tiffin boxes (they call them Bento Boxes) from Plastica.
Eat healthy home cooked meals, and look totally cool doing it too! Kids will love the ones below, and they’ve got other colors for adults too.
How extended serves to you be renting? If it is for lower than a week, you will maybe do ideal provided a vital rental company, the as Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National or Thrifty. For rentals of a week or longer, you may get best price levels on local companies, particularly Automatic dealers. Remember, however, to be wary of local organizations if you bill to push a lot; if you break downhill or get to an accident, properties largely lack the substantiation services of the majors.
Always shop around. Check the grim booking engines and aggregator ones (such as Travelocity and Kayak) to get an thought of how expenses are available, but you given that too visit the car rental companies’ Web sites as far — they will often come up with exclusive discounts, and you will forestall booking fees. Don’t forget to look at out our opportunity of price cut car rental deals before rendering any reservations.
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Duty can have its own beauty, though it is far from an absolute form of it. There are, of course, more beautiful things in life than writing about Sathya Sai Baba and his movement. Though the thought of my own engagement in anything significantly-other courts disbelief among a prominent Internet detractor and gross defamer, my work on Sathya Sai Baba constitutes but a minor part of my frequently delightful and deeply fulfilling days. Working quickly, and having other life interests, is native to a number of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba who have stood forth to call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his core leaders.
Last April, deeply moved, as was so much of the rest of the world, by the singer Susan Boyle, I wrote of her in relation to having been the target of ageist discrimination not, in essence, unlike that shown by the Sathya Sai Baba proxy defender on the Internet in relation to Robert Priddy, Brian Steel and myself. See:
Susan Boyle. Unexpected Divine Chanteuse. Sweet 47.
Sai Baba Internet Man’s Attacks Based On Age and Physical Appearance
Susan Boyle Sings ‘Memory’. Worldwide Audience Not Likely To Forget (See Video)
After some hardships in facing her almost more than meteoric rise to super stardom Susan Boyle has now re-appeared. You can hear this wondrous voice and courageous personality singing ‘Wild Horses’ by clicking on the title below, which is at the music-related website: http://www.undercover.com.au
by Paul Cashmere – September 14 2009
Susan Boyle Covers Rolling Stones Wild Horses
The first single from the forthcoming debut album from Susan Boyle is indeed an interesting choice. She has covered the Rolling Stones `Wild Horses`.
The original Stones version was from the 1970 ‘Sticky Fingers’ album.
Boyle has taken the Stones acoustic track and reinvented it into a haunting Tori Amoseque version.
The album will be released in November and last week outsold the new Whitney Houston album on presales alone at Amazon.com.
This past week has been a somber one. Our nation observed and recounted the acts of heroism and the needless loss of life on 9/11/09. President Obama spoke in the memorial service at the Pentagon Friday. He did a really good job. I have determined to visit the sites of these tragedies. I will at some time make my way to the site in Pennsylvania where that plane plummeted to the ground killing all on board. It was a plane that was believed to be headed for our nation’s capital building and the law-makers there. Had not the passengers of that aircraft stormed the cockpit and resisted the terrorists, America’s grief and harm would have been much greater on that day. Then it was on to Ground-zero in New York City, where those twin monuments to man’s ingenuity and prosperity crumbled to the ground after being hit by two planes used as missiles by their terrorist pilots. Let us not forget that there is a third site. Our nation’s Pentagon was also targeted that day. The very heart of our military and defense was in the sights of those who hate us as a people and whose desire was to cripple us as a nation. I suspect that the feelings I will feel once there will be akin to those I felt when I stood on the battlegrounds of Gettysburg where thousands of American boys and men gave their lives on both sides for those things they believed. Or the time I stood on the western beaches of southern India where Thomas, the once doubting disciple of Christ gave his life slain by the very tribal people he came to share his faith with. I felt there a sense of awe and that I was stepping on sacred ground: where faith and ideology overcame the fear of death and from the common, and in some’s eyes,the mundane of humanity stepped forth heroes. Had they not, more would have been lost. These spontaneous warriors of faith and compassion gave all for their nation, their leaders and their brothers. They did not seek this title or our praise. They did not ask for your respect, honor or the tear of remembrance that ran down your face. They wanted to live as much as anyone, yet on that day they fell for you and I. I don’t want to just read about it and look at the pictures. I want to stand where they fell and thank them aloud for what the silence of their lives lost means to all of us. I have never had the priviledge, but I will some day stand upon the hill called Calvary and do there what I have been doing here for more than thirty-six years, praise Him aloud for being my Hero!
The article quoted below, in which Jens Sethi , a former devotee, recounts being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba, is from the magazine ‘BILD’ of Munich on 21 August, 2000. Wikipedia states that ‘BILD’ is “the best-selling newspaper in Europe and has the sixth-largest circulation worldwide”.
About a year earlier, NEXUS Magazine (Australia), August-September 1999, featured three articles on Sathya Sai Baba, containing serious allegations. One of these was the testimony of a German husband and wife, Jens and Gurprit Sethi who had been devotees, but had left him.The other articles were the testimony of Terry Gallagher, (who, on principle, had resigned as head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia) and Hans de Kraker, also Australia, who had likewise resigned his roles having investigated allegations of Sathya Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. Kraker was, for a number of years, head of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi, See here) .
Until the NEXUS article, mentioned below, I had dismissed for many years as absurd no fewer than nine accounts of sexual abuse by Sai Baba, five of which I had heard between 1978 and 1982, and two shortly before I read the NEXUS articles, the rest between 1997 and 2000. I must say, though, it was a relief when leading world organs such as the BBC, Telegraph, Guardian, Age, UNESCO, some academic institutions and many others, not known for sensationalism, took our team and witnesses seriously. Even these have been attacked by an unscrupulous zealot who is known to be assisted by those long and closely associated with Sathya Sai Baba.
BILD (Wolfgang Ranft) interview on Sathya Sai Baba
Translation of text:-
RESIDENT FROM MUNICH RAN AWAY FROM INDIA - GURU ALL OF A SUDDEN WANTS SEX
By Wolfgang Ranft
MUNICH – Jens Sethi was young, naive, full of religious expectations. In 1988 this resident from Munich who worked that time in a printing office travelled to India the land of the Hindu Gurus. The 24-year-old man was looking for new spiritual fulfillment. He found, what he was looking for. Sethi succumbed to the fascination of a Guru who was already 62-years old that time: Sathya Sai Baba. “I was totally fascinated by the Aura of Sai Baba”, he says today. “I surrendered in a way that I was mainly concentrating on him.” Every year he travelled together with his wife for four or six weeks to the Ashram of Sai Baba. During the festival time more than 20 000 devotees gather there.
The fascination remained for Sethi just an external moment as he never could approach the Guru during the first years. This happened only in October 1996 when Sethi finally decided to go to India where he settled down in Puttaparthi close to the Ashram. During the daily pilgrim-meeting he was called for an interview by the Guru, the utmost a pilgrim can expect within the Ashram. Sethi enjoyed his good luck. He, one of those rare devotees, who has been personally selected by the Guru.
But the conversation took a different course than he expected. Sethi appeared together with his wife. The Guru was outraged and has sent the woman away. Alone in the room the old man started to kiss the man from Munich, stroke him and went into the trousers. Shocked but still full of faith and naivety Sethi accepted two other meetings some month later. Again the Guru kissed him and finally touched his genitals.
Only then the young man ran away back to Germany. It took him three years to overcome the crisis and to separate himself mentally from his spiritual guide. During that time he did investigations in the internet and came to know about other young men from UK, Sweden, USA who underwent a fate of similar experiences.
Only this summer he did the final step to escape from the spell under the Guru: He brought a charge against Sathya Sai Baba at the public prosecutor´s office in Munich – because of sexual molestation.
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Related References
In its cover story on the allegations, the mass distribution, multi language edition magazine ‘India Today’ (4 December 2000) stated:
“In Australia too, The Sunday Age carried an article on Baba’s sexual abuse. In Munich, Germany, Jens Sethi, a former devotee who claims he was molested, has filed a complaint in the public prosecutor’s office. In Sweden, the central Sai group has closed down and so too has a school based on programmes devised by educationists at the Baba ashram in Puttaparthi …
JENS SETHI is a German settled in Munich. He was a Sai Baba devotee for 10 years. His charges were published for the first time by the Focus magazine on September 18.
Allegations (as sent in a signed affidavit to INDIA TODAY): “In the private chamber, Baba said ‘Come,’ and kissed me on my lips for a long time. I resisted and he gurgled, ‘Have no fear. This is a good opportunity, so many are waiting for months and will not get.’ He asked me to remove my trousers, unzipped my fly and went with his right hand into my underpants. Baba massaged the genitals unasked. He expected some erection but this did not happen for I didn’t feel any sexual excitement. I also didn’t come for such games to Puttaparthi. I was really disgusted. Baba was disappointed and had the impudence to say, ‘It is very weak, don’t waste energy.’ When I looked at him, I realised the truth about him. He had such an evil vibration that moment. Soon, he sent me out of the room without saying a word.”
STATUS: Sethi recently filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Munich. The Sai Baba Ashram has no comment on the allegations”.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Alex asked if he could look through my India pictures. “I like learning about who you were before we were together,” he said. That was the first time I could remember him asking to see them and easily the first time either of us had looked at them in three years. We sat on the futon and I showed him the Taj Mahal and my apartment in Delhi and the mighty Ganges.
“This is Jaipur,” I said, “I went here my second weekend in India. I can remember that because it was the weekend after September 11th.”
“So,” he said, “you were here exactly eight years ago.”
September, and those dual milestones, snuck up on me this year. But for some reason, being reminded of it in that way last night made the significance of the anniversary stick with me more today than usual.
Most times, I’m so focused on trying to remember September 11th the way that most of my friends and family seem to that I forget my own, personal memories of fear, grief and anger. Looking through my India pictures made my personal memories much more real.
The India memory that has stuck with me the most today was something that one of my housemates in Delhi said as we were watching the planes fly into the towers. She had immigrated to the US from Northern Ireland and at one point that night said to us “This is so awful. I moved from Northern Ireland to get away from this. Now we’re going to have this fear with us everywhere we go.”
I didn’t realize what she meant at the time, but in the coming months and years, I would think of her words when I rode an airplane or had to get my bag checked to enter an ammusement park. I thought of her words again when I went to Northern Ireland five years later and saw how the people there are so defiantly trying to overcome that same lingering fear. I hope that they (and we) will find that while perhaps nothing can give us back our innocence that doesn’t have to mean that we’re doomed to an eternity of fearfulness.
The Cure At Troy
By: Seamus Heaney
Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured.
The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.
History says, Don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.
Estamos habituados a escuchar la palabra filosofía y pensar inmediatamente en un conjunto de conocimientos teóricos, abstractos, muchas veces sin aplicación en la vida cotidiana. En la cultura occidental, esa palabra se asocia de manera refleja a los sistemas de pensamiento que prosperaron a partir de los griegos. En ellos, las respuestas a los problemas existenciales se buscan a partir de la deducción lógica, de la investigación mental. No se valorizan especialmente la experiencia práctica existencial, ni la coherencia entre las formulaciones filosóficas y el estilo de vida de quien las enuncia.
Sin embargo, en otras culturas, la palabra filosofía puede tener una connotación totalmente práctica, refiriéndose más a menudo a una visión particular del cosmos que es determinada por acciones concretas, cotidianas. Esa forma de percibir y de actuar se aprende a través de técnicas y a través del ejemplo.
¿Cuáles son las cualidades básicas a desarrollar para aprehender una filosofía práctica como es el Método DeRose?
For many years, Professor Alvin Drucker, an ex-NASA scientist, was one of those ’star turns’ well in demand as a keynote speaker within the international Sathya Sai Organization. In the seventies, he taught at the Sathya Sai College in Whitefield during part of the same time that I taught there, and lived within the compound that housed Sai Baba’s residence.
A common assumption was that Sai Baba had cast Drucker out because he had disobeyed his guru in marrying (or wanting to) Yaani. She is his wife to this day.
Will the Real Professor Alvin Drucker Be Upstanding?
However, we learn from reliable sources of the reason for Professor Alvin Drucker’s departing the side of Sathya Sai Baba:
Very distressed parents of young boys came to him desperate for some kind of explanation for actions bearing all the indications of sexual molestation. Al Drucker left for this reason, and got married.
There is no doubting the excellent standing of a number informants with whom Drucker has shared this information, and who have written to us over time. They would make excellent witnesses in a court of law or if interviewed by media or scholarly investigators.
Naturally, it would be of benefit were Drucker himself to make a clear statement. Or is he content to stand by while those who have done their best, against formidable obstacles, to bring out the truth are execrated as liars, spreading stories for money (Sathya Sai Baba has said), hallucinating (Dr John Hislop) , disgruntled, hateful apostates, and so forth.
One may add that Drucker has often written and spoken on the Vedas. Where, then, is his fearlessness? It is a notion that resounds through the Vedas.
…………………………………………………………
See former head of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organization Robert Priddy’s journal entry of which he refers as:
“Directly recorded notes from my long Brindavan stay 1994 – about V.K. Narasimhan and Al Drucker (scanned from 1994 notebook)”
Transcript:
SUNDAY 27/3/94 (Bhajan all day)
Afternoon darshan: Sat in chair at back. He came down to the last block and looked in my direction – but did not fixate gaze on me. [Same way?]
I had back problems again.
Comment: Once I had thought that Sai Baba had helped cure my spinal misalignment problems – caused by several falls from childhood onwards – especially though a dream. I later realised, when the problems returned and got worse, that it had just been some temporary placebo effect.
After darshan I was hi-jacked to the Warden’s room at the college by Narasimhan. He did not want to use my last chapter for Sanathana – he considered my view of the Organisation to be too positive.
Comment: Narasimhan had already occasionally expresses scepticism about the claims by leaders in the Sai Organization and he had suffered problems from Sai Baba because he had published things in the journal Sanathana Sarathi by a Central Coordinator which were intended to mislead him (about copyright), resulting in him being suspended as editor for a long period. VKN was particularly cynical about Antonio Craxi (brother of the then Italian PM B. Craxi – later convicted of embezzlements) because of his Mafia connections and his vile attacks on other leaders in Italy, like Marena who eventually replaced Craxi.
But he did not say why – just went on in his usual way, recounting life experiences at kibbutzim, in Massachusetts and so on and soon the Warden gave us Sai prasadam – and another (lecturer in English lit.) gave us a second lot – so I had for both Reidun and I. It was Mysore pak.
It turned out I had deserted Reidun – should have met her after darshan to visit Robert and Rita!! But I thought it was after dinner!
Heard about Al Drucker: he is literally excommunicated – can’t enter any of the ashrams or go to Sai centres in the US. It is because he married a young girl against Swami’s expressed wish. The girl was refused at the ashram when her identity was found out. But she later got Baba to take a letter (presumably by staying incognito somehow to the ashram staff). She is not allowed in, ever!! Swami once said to Drucker that he could not have realisation because he would first have to lose everything. Drucker said he wanted it anyhow. Who knows? Or perhaps he broke faith with Sai
Comment: Alvin Drucker was a long-term (US) resident at the ashrams and very active promoter of Sathya Sai Baba. I had seen briefly one day previously, and the news came via Reidun after a long talk she had with an American lady devotee who had recently come from the interview where Sai Baba had seen both Drucker and his new wife at the interview (possibly they had not yet actually married). Sai Baba He had warned Al that he would cut him off and had told Yaani that Al was dying of stomach cancer and he was far too old for her etc. (Yaani was later brutally raped on Shivartri night before a shrine to Sai Baba and who wrote and lectured about it, demonstrating her state of total psychological denial – see here,and here)
Transcript (black text) and comments (violet text):-
6/10/98 Changed room from B2 to B4, which Anne-Irene vacated before darsan. Missed darsan again therefore. New room cooler and various advantages. (Comment: However, this North block for Organization donors was daily enveloped for hours in a vomit-ghastly putrid smell of rotting faeces from an open sewage pit nearby which should have been replaced by an ecological system – but the officials stole the money given for the purpose! See the facts about this scam here)
Saw Narasimhan briefly – I wouldn’t stay. He was writing the preface for ‘From Bapu to Baba’ 3rd ed. His eye is very poor – but he may get a lease of new eyesight from glasses designed by an English specialist soon. (Comment: Battling on as editor of Sai’s journal at his command, VKN had taken an eye operation on Sai Baba’s advice and lost the eye as a result, despite vibuti applied by Baba after the op. See here.)
We saw a bearded Al Drucker when we came from darsan. He seemed not to have been to it. (Comment: Since Alvin Drucker was banned from th ashram by Sai baba personally in 1992 see here, he had not been seen at any Organization conferences either. He attended the ‘paduka’ (sandal) ceremonies but hid away from everyone the rest of the time. The beard seemed to be a disguise)
Saw Henk and exchanged a greeting. Wrote rest of letter to Ragnhild …. etc…
—
7/10/89 At benches by 6.19 Shenai and drum music. Still a few places. We were awoken at 5.30 by Oms and Suprabhatam just outside our window at full force. Then music, chanting, more trumpet and drum music etc. Also a dose of unstoppable feedback from the microphones, despite repeated late night “Testing, testing, one, two”’s
Went with Narasimhan in car, driven by his relative (brother’s son-in-law) who organised the entire Rayalaseema Water Project (he had come from the USA). (He had secured a copy of my book from the US too). N. and I had a chat about Sai Books and my book. He has told Devendra that my book would be a runaway success, so no problem with an edition there. The index he feels best in data form. (see about Suri’s misappropriations here)
Suri was removed on a good “pretext” by Swami – a book he published caused Swami’s ire … some Ma who claimed that she embraces Sai as a mother etc. N. said Suri is a rogue who still pretends he is in grace, sitting on the verandah. His wife, however, is a devoted server – as are her parents.
Damodar Rao is in B’lore & very ill. Hans is with him. Srinivas Rajendra is going strong and lecturing.
(Comment:Damodar Rao was an old follower of Sai Baba – a retired circuit judge – who visited the US once and told me his story at great length. He told me that he thought sexual abusers of children “should all be boiled alive in oil”!! A very extremist viewpoint for a judge? But perhaps not in India? This subject came up without reference to Sai Baba, who neither of us suspected (then). Hans was Hans Baerholm, a Danish follower i knew well too, who was living in Rao’s house in Bangalore.)
…………………………………………………………
Further Reading
Nothing Is Real, Strawberry Fields Forever
or ‘Yaani Drucker on how nothing was turned into nothing, by nobody’
by Reidun Priddy
Yanni Drucker and Sathya Sai Baba’s Advaitic Doctrine
A recipe for confusion and personality disorder?
by Robert Priddy
Ex-NASA Scientist and Wife Test Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Grace’
Note: Yaani and Al Drucker have publicly subscribed to the notion that Yaani – in a terrible event in a Sai center – Jaani was never raped. It was only her body that was raped. The lack of careful distinction between a philosophical of spiritual vantage-point is evident here, and the case is suggestive of the dangers of extrapolating a concept and servicing a psychological denial of events that need formal professional counseling. It is a view that too well lends itself to false notions of forgiveness, and to actually aiding criminals.It must, however, be said that the rapist in this event was convicted on Jaani Drucker’s evidence.
See the entire Christmas 2000 Discourse as translated verbatim by his students
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Azhruddin after being hit by his now dead father Mohammad Ismail
Mohammad Ismail, the same dad who beat his slumpuppy child in front of Indian paparazzi (or whatever they’re called over there, camelrazzi?) has died of tuberculosis.
Mohammed Ismail’s premature death will inevitably fuel the controversy surrounding the fate of the slum children who appeared in the movie. He died today in the new flat bought for the family by the trust set up by director Danny Boyle.
Ismail had been ill for some time and had twice been admitted to a tuberculosis hospital in Mumbai after being turned away by another hospital in the city, which refused to admit him in case he infected other patients.
It’s a sad day when anyone dies. Except for when that person is a child beater with no remorse. He pimped his kid out for a movie and now that he isn’t living in a disease infested wasteland, he catches a deadly virus and dies. That, my friends, is a reckoning. This dude must have done something horrible to that kid because God just shit in his mouth. He finally got to live a decent life and he contracts tuberculosis and dies. Repent ye slumdogs.
Well we’re a little behind on the blog now. Last time we wrote we were about to leave Manali for a 2 day bus journey to get to a village called Leh in the middle of the Himalayas. And what a bus journey that was involving a broken down bus, 2 landslides, a lot of altitude sickness and an extra day on the bus, It’s taken us this long to recover!
We left Manali on the Monday at 11am and were due to arrive in Keylong where we were camping for the night around 7pm. The roads – if you can even call them that – were very bumpy, windy dirt tracks; the bus ride was described in the Lonely Planet as a bone shaker! We made it three quarter’s of the way to Keylong and were stopped by a landslide, a rock the size of a small house was blocking the road. We had to sit by the side of the road for about 2/3hrs while men drilled into the rock and then eventually had to blow it with dynamite! Once they had cleared the road were we off again, only to have to pull into a bus garage on the way to try and get the gearbox of the bus fixed. We eventually made it to the stop-over about 9pm ready for our beds. Yes we did actually get army style beds in the tents. We were due to leave the next morning at 5am to arrive in Leh that evening. However in order to get the bus fixed it needed a new part, and guess what, the part was in Manali and had to be driven overnight all the way to us from the place we had just set off from that morning! Then of course there was another landslide in exactly the same place as were got stuck the day before so the car with the bus part got stuck too! The part eventually arrived on Tuesday morning and we were on our way about 11.30am after a lovely breakfast of jam sandwiches, hmm. We were never going to reach Leh that night so we had yet another stop-over in a place called Pang – basically a bunch of tents in the middle of nowhere at about 5000m above sea level. Everyone on the bus was suffering some sort of altitude sickness from headaches to vomiting and then we found out our sleeping quarters for the night was a tent with a giant bed in it to sleep 6 people, oh the joy of joys! There wasn’t much sleeping done (apart from Nick who was the only person comatose the entire night). At 6am we were on our way again. It was definitely the most terrifying bus journey I have ever done. The scenery was spectacular and we passed the second highest motorable pass in the world, but the roads were on cliff edges with a drop of about 2000m to one side and nothing stopping you from going over. They were also single track with two way traffic, mainly trucks coming in the opposite direction. I definitely saw my life flash before my eyes when the bus driver decided to reverse back along the road to let a truck past and the wheels were about a foot from the edge, bloody scary! A bit of blues brothers on the ipod calmed me down after that.
After three days on the bus we did eventually make it to Leh in one piece and spent our first day trying to plan our escape route without getting back on a bus. Luckily we eventually managed to get a flight (phew!) although it meant staying in Leh for longer than originally planned. Anything not to get back on that bus! Since then we’ve been pretty much taking it easy and doing a bit of sightseeing of the local monasteries while acclimatizing to the height here and saving money for the three day trek we booked.
I keep asking…what day is it? What time is it? We are 9 ½ hours ahead of our friends back in Boston. We had a good, long journey. We don’t know what we would have done without the 2 men at JFK that helped us with our luggage. It’s quite a feat to take 7 suitcases, 2 strollers, 7 carry-ons, and 2 car seats along with 2 kids half way around the world. Thank you everyone for your prayers!
A quick story about our journey… we know children in India generally don’t wear car seats, but we brought Anna’s seat hoping she would sleep in it on the plane ride. As we were boarding the last leg of our trip (Chennai to Bangalore), they asked us to go through another security check with our carry-ons. When they put Anna’s car seat on the belt, it was just small enough that it barely went through the machine. But, as the seat was passing through, it got stuck inside the machine and they couldn’t get it out. The security guards spent the next 20 minutes trying to dislodge the seat, only to cause a huge backup in line, bringing the airport to a sudden stand-still. Most of the security guards thought it was funny, but at one point a security guard starting yelling at me out of frustration for bringing the car seat and asked, “Why did you do this to us?” They finally brought in a mechanic who took apart the machine and got the seat out. That seat took the x-ray machine out of commission for a solid hour and I bet there were a lot of angry passengers wondering why everything was taking so long. Our dream was to make a difference in India, we just didn’t think it would happen on the first day (at least in this way). Welcome to India =).
BTW, we also created a Google Voice account so you’ll be able to leave us voicemails while we’re out of the country. We love getting emails, but we’d love to hear your voice even more. So, please feel free to just call and say you’ve been thinking (or praying) for us. Our Google voice number is (847) 485-9704.
Nesto domingo (06), Simone Spoladore escolheu um figurino bem ousado para usar no Festival de Cinema de Veneza.
A atriz, que é estrela do filme ‘Insolação’, está na mostra dos diretores Felipe Hirsch e Daniela Thomas.
Pedro Neschling e Juliana Trevisol estão namorando!
O mais novo casal chegou juntinhos à estreia da peça ‘As traças da paixão’, em cartaz no Teatro Augusta, em São Paulo.
A mãe do ator, Lucélia Santos, faz parte do elenco do espetáculo.
Juliana Alves recebeu na madrugada deste domingo (06) a coroa de ‘Rainha do Baile’.
A cerimônia aconteceu na Gafieira Estudantina, no Rio de Janeiro, que serviu como palco para as cenas de dança do núcleo da Lapa em ‘Caminho das Índias’.
A atriz passou a frequentar o local ao longo das gravações da novela.
Drica Moraes tirou a tarde deste sábado (05) para se entregar aos prazeres da maternidade.
A atriz levou o pequeno Mateus, de 5 meses, que adotou recentemente, para passear em volta da Lagoa de Freitas, no Rio de Janeiro.
Durante a caminhada, Drica encontrou com a atriz Deborah Bloch que aproveitou a situação para conhecer o garotinho.
Neste sábado (05), Sheila Mello pegou a sua mala e seguiu rumo à Nova Délhi, na Índia.
A loira vai representar o Brasil no ‘World Dance Festival’, um evento que tem por objetivo unir participantes de diferentes culturas e povos, usando a música e a linguagem corporal.
Meena’s our maid. Her association with my mother is longstanding, since they both value “professionalism”, are mothers, and are normally finding it tough to find time. Both, also push their children (;)) to study hard, and work, well hard. But the reason, we’re talking about Meena today is that she was my first interviewee (yaay! ).
Meena got mobile a couple of years back. Her husband was the first one to get the mobile at their place. But she’s now already got on to her second phone. All people at her home infact sport their 2nd phones. The household income would probably be Rs. 10,000- 12,000 a month. She is financially independent working as a maid in apartments in NOIDA, and earns about Rs. 4000 to 5000 a month. She’s got 2 daughters, and both are “mobile” savvy. One of them got married in “homeland” Bihar this year. On her wedding a mobile phone was a “wedding gift”- imagine!- we’re probably taking mobiles the Humara Bajaj way. The daughter thought, she was ready for a “camera” phone after having gone through a basic phone. So Meena had to revert the basic phone “gift” to herself, and buy a new camera phone for the daughter. And thus she now sports a Nokia 1200 with Hindi language settings on- which to be honest I found tough to navigate since I’m used to the English version. But Nokia phones are so similar and simple in their navigation, that probably I can now walk through them in my sleep .
Meena’s usage pattern was quite intriguing. She is on an IDEA prepaid. And is aware that for the connect she needs to pay Rs 300 for a year’s validity, after she showed her pehchaan patra(ID) and home address proof . She wasn’t quite sure of how much she spends in a month on the phone- which I felt was quite a thing. More so, cos we keep harping about price senstivity of the segment. So, maybe we need to take a fresh stock of what people want as opposed to assuming all they want is ‘how best to spend less money’. Oh, and got get me wrong, she duly sold her old mobile first before she got the new one!
Being the ’smart’ financially independent woman that she is, Meena knew that IDEA to IDEA calling would cost her less, and calling her daughter in Bihar would take much more. She infact talks as long as the pre-paid voucher lasts- which she picks up from the local shopkeeper. She typically gets a Rs 36 voucher which gives her a near about 100mins of IDEA to IDEA talktime. When calling Bihar, she typically buys a card and exhausts it in one go. Talking to the daughter takes precedence, she says with a mom-like glint-in-the-eye.
The most amazing part I felt was she can’t read, but she recognises numbers and thus knows who’s calling and how to call. She shows me her phone book with just numbers displayed, and when I ask her if she has saved names, she tells me (all knowingly) that “we can save names too” and then quickly resumes to show me a number saying – “this is from Bihar”. Quite fun. And then, ofcourse, like the young crowd these days, she promptly exchanges her number with me .
While we’re talking we’re interrupted twice with a “missed call” and a “message” – she uses these exact terms to describe them- which to me is a great thing- considering my mother (after all her University learning) refuses to learn and adopt “text messaging” (Oh, but ma knows Skype, mind you, cos she used to talk to her daughter everyday India-UK free! ). Anyhow, so after that we proceed to click her a picture with my N95- which I feel has completely made me camera free. After two attempts, and an unsatisfied Meena, we finally manage a “good” picture. While I’m fiddling with the camera, she quickly stops to tell me that her husband also has a camera phone
Meena with her mobile
I ask her if she uses any other mobile phone features. Oh the younger daughter, she yaps proudly can use games, songs, ringtones on any mobile, but Meena forgets how to use the apps, even after being taught! Point is, exactly when will things be simpler to use? I genuinely feel simplicity is the killer app!
Finally her husband calls to ask her whereabouts and she looks slightly uneasy about having spent a lot of time with me already. Though, she’s quite amazed that I transfer the phone pics to the laptop using bluetooth. She’s sort of shy – though overjoyed to see herself on the laptop . Finally, I ask her about what the mobile has changed for her. Slowly, but in a decided tone, she tells me, she can call anyone, anytime she wishes to. She talks to her daughter (frequently, not everyday) and her daughter has a direct number to call her too. Infact, it was just yesterday that she got a call from Bihar. She also feels, it eases her work, people whose houses she works in can call her directly. And with that, she smiles, and gets up in a hurried mode, already thinking about dinner that needs to be cooked, and the next morning, which needs to be started.
My mother’s very smart. It’s a Sunday, I was lazing in the bed, and she took the opportunity to wake me up with a- “you’ve got Meena’s number, she’s not in yet, I have to call her” -agitated tone. And thus, we made our first “work” call to Meena’s cell.
These stories never fail to amaze me. It’s like the Nokia ad, “mere paas bhi permanent address hoga, kismat ki ghanti bajegi”*. It’s truly just that, a sea of amazed users, a great connectivity tool, which makes it all seem possible, and for once people can feel the change and aspire for even more.
*I’ll also (one day) have a permanent address (for now I have a mobile, and a number). I’ll also (one day) hear (the ring) of a new (amazing) future, by happenstance.
Takspa Lekdan, the new General Manager at Anderson & Anderson, moves quickly to accelerate the pace of Internet dominance in anger management and executive coaching for “disruptive physicians”. During the month of August, Mr. Lekdan has dramatically increased the assistance provided to all Anderson & Anderson Marketing Affiliates, making it easier for them to be successful in selling our products and services through our Affiliate Program.
In addition, he has successfully completed an intensive 40 hour Certification Training conducted by George Anderson in the Anderson & Anderson model of Executive Coaching/Anger Management for physicians. This personal knowledge will increase Mr. Lekdan’s ability to explain and market this very popular specialized intervention program nationwide.
Finally, Mr. Lekdan has instituted a more business-like, customer service focus in the day to day operations of Anderson & Anderson programs and services. All current and new clients and customers can anticipate a friendly, helpful relationship with Mr. Lekdan and the Anderson & Anderson Professional Staff.
Dr. Arlie Stops, PhD, CAMF based in Las Vegas and Mr. Frank Morales, MA, CAMF, Director of Conflict Resolution Services at Family Services of Huntsville, Alabama become the first two providers to receive advanced training in Organizational Training/Emotional Intelligence in the Anderson & Anderson Model.
Dr. Stops and Mr. Morales will become the first Anderson & Anderson providers to be listed as Certified Providers in Organizational Training/Emotional Intelligence using the Anderson & Anderson Curriculum.
New Jersey joins California and Texas in adopting the Anderson & Anderson Anger Management Curriculum for use in its Parole programs for released defendants who were incarcerated for aggressive offenses.
Nancy Anderson, President of Anderson & Anderson and wife of Anger Management Guru George Anderson, was one of the trainers in the August training of a select group of Certified Anger Management Facilitators who were being trained in the Anderson & Anderson Model of Executive Coaching/Anger Management for Physicians. Nancy was warmly received and applauded by all in attendance.
George Anderson www.andersonservices.com
Anderson & Anderson
310-207-3591
