Press Release

ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 13,2013 (Press Release): The Kumbh Mela administration said today that a foolproof comprehensive planning is in place for the fifth bathing festival of Maha Kumbh of Basant Panchmi.

Allahabad Divisional Commissioner Devesh Chaturvedi today held a marathon meeting with all stake holders including railways, UP State Road Transport Corporation, Allahabad district administration, police and security forces to ensure safe and successful bathing. The Railways assured that it will continue to run the maximum number of special trains from different stations of Allahabad city to ferry the pilgrims for three days. These trains will be in addition to the trains passing through Allahabad junction and other city based stations and in each train a minimum of 20 bogies will be provided to accommodate maximum number of pilgrims. Similarly 1,500 additional buses will be pressed into service by UP roadways from seven different bus stands set up for the Mela. These buses will be put on diverted routes if jam like situation arises on normal routes.

Allahabad district administration will be setting up seven shelter places to hold the crowd of pilgrims adjoining to Allahabad and other important railway stations. All basic facilities will be provided to pilgrims at every shelter place free of cost. Arrangements are also being done setting up a network of Public Address Systems in the city area to inform the pilgrims about movements of special trains.

Steps are also being taken to provide medical facilities immediately in case of any urgency and four ambulances are being placed at Allahabad railway station and shelter houses meant for pilgrims. Seven ambulances will be parked at sensitive places in the city as reserve. The administration has also made arrangements to remove the vehicles from the roads in the case of any break down.

Every department involved in the Kumbh Mela are leaving no stone unturned for the success of the third Shahi Snan of Akharas and the fifth bathing festival of the Kumbh Mela event in view of the stampede at Allahabad railway station on last Sunday claiming 36 lives. Senior officials from most of the different departments will monitor the arrangements being done for Basant Panchmi bathing festival.

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HAWAII, U.S., February 10, 2013 (Star Advertiser): The recent union of Gitika Ahuja and Rajeev Kaul was a love match that holds promise for the state of Hawaii.

The New York couple brought about 150 guests from their native India and all over the world to their destination wedding on Oahu Island. The main event was a sacred Hindu ceremony February 1 at the Royal Hawaiian Golf Course in Kailua. The bejeweled groom arrived on horseback with a boisterous Bollywood-style entourage. The bride, who wore a custom-made white "lengha" with gold and ruby tones, looked regal. The helicopter flyover and orchid drop at the end of the ceremony cemented their VIP status.

But the nuptials were only one part of the festivities. The full celebration spanned several days -- a welcome event at the Sheraton Waikiki's RumFire, pre-wedding parties at the Kathy Ireland estate in East Oahu, a wedding reception at the Royal Hawaiian and a next-day family brunch.

"There were hundreds of people working on just this one wedding," said Mira Savara, owner of Indian Weddings in Hawaii, who coordinated the various events. "We worked with vendors from all over Oahu. They supplied everything from henna artistry to food and beverage to flowers and decorations, rentals, music, lighting, photography and videography, to transportation and more."

Couples like the Kauls who come to the isles for traditional Indian weddings represent a small but growing trend for Hawaii's tourist economy. Few visitors come to Hawaii directly from India, but the country's developing economy and the recent boom in local Indian weddings has put the country on the visitor industry's radar.

"As the second most populous country in the world, India has a growing middle class with disposable income and increasing demand to travel abroad," Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO Mike McCartney said.

According to estimates from HTA and the federal Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, 2,229 Indian visitors came to Hawaii through August 2012. While HTA has no details on the reason for their visits, some in Hawaii's visitor industry speculate that wedding invitations have fueled demand.

More at source.

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Free will is not free--it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect--but there is something behind the will which is free.
-- Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)

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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 10, 2013 (India Times): In a separate incident from the railway station disaster, two pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the Maha Kumbha Mela here on Sunday as over thirty million people converged for a holy dip on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, considered the most auspicious day during the 12-yearly congregation.

The stampede broke out in Sector 12 of the mela area this evening killing a woman hailing from Varanasi and a middle-aged man, who had come from West Bengal, sector magistrate Abhay Raj told PTI.

A few other persons received minor injuries in the stampede which occurred due to rush of devotees who were returning from the river banks, he said, adding the situation was under control and the injured were undergoing treatment.

A sea of humanity converged on Sunday at the sprawling city of tents, spread across 6,000 acres, making it briefly the most populous place in the world.

Earlier, Kumbh Mela officer Mani Prasad Mishra said, "As per our estimates, thirty million people have taken a holy dip till 3 pm. The influx of visitors has slowed down a bit since then but the turn-out has already exceeded our expectations."

A sea of devotees kept surging towards the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati throughout the day, while the 13 akharas (monastic orders) took out their processions for the second shahi snan (royal bath) during the Mahakumbh.

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NEW YORK, February 5, 2013 (NY Daily News): With German sausages, French duck and homegrown chicken, Francis Menezes is cashing in on the growing appetite for meat among Indians -- even in one of Mumbai's most strictly vegetarian areas. But Menezes, co-manager of the Cafe Ridge food store, says he does a brisk trade in "non-veg", especially with those who have studied abroad.

"Things like Thanksgiving, which was never celebrated over here in Mumbai, is now being celebrated every year. The new generation are cool with eating anything," he said.

India's booming middle-class is driving the demand for meat in a country with a traditionally low intake -- a survey in 2006 showed that 40 percent of the population were vegetarian.

Fish and meat have long been part of other Indians' diets but for many they used to be a rarity, said Arvind Singhal, chairman of the consumer consultancy group Technopak Advisors. "With rising disposable incomes, meat consumption is increasing," he told AFP. "Before meat would have been seen as for a special occasion."

Members of the Jain faith and some groups within India's majority Hindu religion hold vegetarianism as an ideal. Father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi espoused a meat-free diet as part of his non-violent philosophy.

There are no recent figures on overall meat consumption, but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2007 put India's per capita intake at 5.0 to 5.5kg -- the country's highest since records began, with further increases expected.

HPI note: Worldwide meat consumption is 46.6 kg/person, according to a chart at http://chartsbin.com/view/bhy. That same chart lists India as the lowest consumption in the world at 3.26 kg, Luxembourg the highest as 136.72 kg, the US and Australia tied for second at 123 kg/year.

Much more at source.

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I have nothing new to teach the world, Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills.
-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

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ALLAHABAD, India, February 12, 2013 (Times of India): HPI note: There are dozens of stories on the tragic events at the Kumbha Mela yesterday. This Times of India story is as complete as any. Hinduism Today reporter Rajiv Malik tells us by phone that the disaster has cast a gloom over all the pilgrims still at the Mela.

The Allahabad railway station seldom sees more than 15,000 passengers on any given day. But on Sunday, when over 32.5 million people thronged Kumbh for a shahi snan on mauni amavasya, 150,000 lakh people were waiting for trains in the same station a little after 6 in the evening, and the railways had no contingency plan in place. In the stampede that followed, 36 people have died so far, 50 others are seriously injured.

A day after the tragedy, chairman of the Kumbh Mela Committee Azam Khan resigned claiming moral responsibility. In a hastily convened press conference, UP chief secretary Jawed Usmani said a probe committee would look into "what went wrong" and turn in its report in a month. Railway minister Pawan Bansal, who visited Allahabad on Monday, also said a two-member committee would be appointed to investigate the matter.

But the way the events unfolded on Sunday clearly point to a serious lapse on the part of the railways. Crowds were allowed to enter the station till there was no room for anyone to move. Afterward, a desperate Government Railway Police (GRP) resorted to lathi charge to control the crowds. That was not all. After announcing the arrival of a train on platform no 4, eyewitnesses said, the railways made another announcement saying the train had arrived, instead, on platform number 6. Frenzied travelers, mostly travelling with several pieces of luggage, rushed in that direction. As they climbed up the stairs, they found passengers on the foot overbridge running towards them, fleeing from the lathi charge.

At that point of time, some 6,000 people were jostling for space on that overbridge. In the melee, people were pushed down the stairs, some killed, scores injured and a large number separated from their families. After the tragedy struck though, victims were also left unattended for over three hours, according to eyewitnesses. Till late into Sunday night, the administration also failed to give an exact count of the number of victims.

One eyewitness and volunteer, Mohini Singh, said, "We helped the people we could by picking up bodies and moving them to the side. No emergency medical aid was made available to the victims though. Several people could have been saved if the officials had shown a little more sympathy."

What is also strange is why the railways and the local administration made no contingency plan. The official estimates -- a 28% increase in the number of pilgrims over the previous Maha Kumbh in 2001 -- was available to the administration nearly one month before the mela began.

There were serious lapses on the part of the district administration as well. Every year, the mela administration puts together a formal traffic movement plan. On Sunday, a complete failure of the government machinery was visible, with only one route leading out of the Kumbh mela grounds. Though exit routes could have been planned from Jhusi, Phaphamau, Prayag and Rambagh, everyone who came out of Kumbh, was diverted towards the Allahabad railway station.

Allahabad division commissioner Devesh Chaturvedi said, by Sunday noon over 20 million people had bathed in the Sangam. A sizable percentage of this number was headed for the station.

Though the entire railways in the country could not have tackled the crowds that reach the station on Sunday, the extent of unpreparedness was shocking. All trains were running behind schedule, some even 21 hours late. This meant people who should have left the station after boarding their train were waiting while new passengers were entering the station. Station manager Girish Kanchan said, "The regular trains are running behind schedule as a result of the special trains. There are delays, but there is little we can do to control it."

Also, several trains that reached Allahabad had faulty signages: coaches indicating they were plying between Agra and Ajmer were, in fact, headed to Jhansi via Manekpur and Banda. In another instance, a Delhi-bound Duronto Express turned out to be a train headed for Mughalsarai.

To make matters worse, the public address system at the station was being used mostly for lost-and-found announcements instead of announcing the arrival and departure of trains, adding to the chaos and confusion.

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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 9, 2013 (Express India): Allahabad Sadhvis at Kumbh 2013 are gradually and surely going up the hierarchy in a predominantly male-dominated system.

Sai Maa Laxmi Devi, who was born in Mauritius and is a French citizen, was the first woman from outside India to be given the title "Jagat Guru" of the Vaishnavite Nirmohi akhara in the 2007 Ardh-Kumbh. A disciple of Sathya Sai Baba, who got her deeksha in the Sri Satua Baba lineage of Varanasi, Sai Maa says, "In 2007, we just had a small space in far-off Arail. This time, we have been allotted a bigger space and have better infrastructure to serve the people." One of her devotees said that while last time she would visit the camps of many sadhus to take their blessings, now it was almost the reverse.

Overall, the number of female mahamandaleshwars (scholarly sadhvis, who are consulted on various spiritual issues among akharas) has also increased this time, estimated to be over 30. "In Juna akhara, there are around 15 female mahamandaleshwars. The sadhvis have been traditionally less in numbers. But in terms of proportion, the number of female mahamandaleshwars is going up fast," says Shri Mahant Vidyanand Saraswati, secretary of Juna akhara, the biggest of the 13 akharas.

The Juna akhara has also, for the first time in Kumbh, accorded a separate enclosure for sadhvis and allowed them to use the name Sanyasini Akhara. Earlier, these enclosures, often without adequate facilities, were referred to as Mai Bara (enclosures for mothers). "But bara is generally used to describe a place where the occupants live in herds, like animals. It had a connotation of disrespect. They protested and now have got rid of that name," says Vidyanand.

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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 8, 2013 (NY Times): The South Asia Institute at Harvard has sent a team of public health specialists to one of the largest gatherings in the world, the Kumbh Mela in India, with a goal of assembling the largest public health data set ever among a transient population.

The pilgrims are there to bathe. The epidemiologists are there to study their health. They are analyzing data from the four hospitals that cater to the congregants to try to gauge who is ailing from what and when. By mapping "complaints, diagnoses, medications and geographical origins of patients," the researchers said, they hope to discover disease outbreaks and patterns.

The real-time surveillance, the researchers say, could be useful if disease breaks out this time and to plan for future Kumbh Melas. It could hold lessons for other countries looking to tap the power of data for public health.

"This will be the largest data set of its kind in a temporary mass gathering, its size allowing us to develop new metrics for detecting epidemics when total population size fluctuates widely from day to day," said Dr. Satchit Balsari, a fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard and a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

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There is no true path that leads away from religion.
-- Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001), founder of Hinduism Today

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INDIA, February 5, 2013 (BBC by Narayan Bareth): There is a remote and unique temple - a virtually undiscovered spiritual centre in the striking border wilderness between the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan - where you can get a written certificate for holiness. Gautameshwar is a pilgrim centre where you can submerge yourself in holy waters, wash away your sins and get a certificate to prove you are cleansed.

All Hindus believe that a dip in holy waters washes away sin and many from across the country travel to pilgrim towns like Haridwar and Pushkar to take the holy dip. But this is not simply about piety. Here it is also about holding together the fabric of local tribal communities.

People ostracized in their own villages come here to take a dip and then they can take back the certificate to prove themselves free of sin. It is possible to get a certificate in other places to prove you have partaken in certain prayers or taken a holy dip - but this appears to be quite an unusual kind of document.

It is a "centuries old tradition" and thousands of devotees come to offer prayers and get rid of their sins, says officiating priest Jagdish Sharma. Since 1947 six priests who serve at the temple have kept records of all the certificates issued.

This centre - dedicated to Lord Shiva - has been described as "the Haridwar for tribals". The site has a water tank called the Mandakini Kund, where people take a bath to purify their body and soul. The legend here goes that a sage named Gautam was blamed for the death of an animal and cursed as a result of that.

"Gautam came here and prayed to the gods. So the River Ganges appeared here in Mandakini's form - a tributary of Ganga. He took a holy bath and found he was free from the curse. Ever since then people have been coming here to wash away their sins," Jagdish Sharma said when relating the rest of the story.

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ST. LUCIA, CARIBBEAN, February 2, 2013 (The Voice): The local East Indian community is preparing to host a forum to discuss a number of issues affecting them. The event will be held on Sunday, February 10 from 1:00 pm at the Augier Combined School.

Among the topics to be discussed are:
*The positive contributions the East Indian population has made to Saint Lucia over the past century and a half
*The formation of an official organization to bring East Indians and other ethnic groups closer
*Seeking ways to keep the traditional values of Saint Lucia and the Indian Diaspora alive
*Creation of a database to document the family names within the local East Indian community
*Sourcing funds to undertake various projects that will benefit of Saint Lucians in general
*Keeping the channels of dialogue open in an effort to widen the social network

Last Sunday afternoon, scores of Saint Lucians of East Indian descent and other ethnic groups took part in a familiarization exercise at the Bexon Primary School. During that meeting, attendees were given a brief historical account of the East Indians arrival in Saint Lucia. Indian foods were also part of the highlights, as well as recognizing the elders present.

According to an account published by Richard B. Cheddie and James Rambally, 318 East Indian indentured laborers arrived in Castries, Saint Lucia aboard the ship, "Palmyra", on May 6, 1859. There were 240 male adults, 58 female adults, 2 male minors, 11 female minors, and 5 children (2 unaccounted for).

The "Palmyra" was the first of thirteen ships that brought 4,354 Indians to Saint Lucia. These Indian laborers were assigned to over 23 different estates and domiciles across the island to work in the sugarcane industry that was Saint Lucia's principal economic crop at the time. They all received wages according to the type of and number of tasks they performed and were also afforded certain basic human rights.

At the end of their initial contracts, some re-indentured while others did not. During the latter years of indentureship, free Indians could accept a parcel of land if they chose to remain in the colony, or apply for free passage back to India. It was these factors that set them apart from being slaves, although the work and the punishments were no less harsh. By the time indentureship ended in Saint Lucia, 2,560 Indians had returned to India, while the remainder of them stayed behind to help build their homes.

Today, the East Indian population in Saint Lucia is estimated to be between 8% and 10%, many of whom include people of mixed races. According to attorney Clarence Rambally, the new movement in no way attempts to create division among the various ethnic groups in Saint Lucia. Instead, he told The VOICE last Sunday, it aims to focus on how East Indians have been able to integrate themselves into the Saint Lucian society to the extent that racial discrimination is almost non-existent.

"This is a Saint Lucian thing, not just an Indian thing," Rambally said. "Nevertheless, we're noticing that the East Indian values are sort of dying out. For example, our foods, our dances and the things we do that are different and unique to us are dying out. This whole idea is to make the point that when our history is read down the line, we want to be seen as a people who embraced their culture while at the same time embraced the other values and peoples that reflect our national identity."

Organizer Benny Ghirawoo told The VOICE that the forum is not restricted to Saint Lucians of East Indian descent - all are welcome to next week Sunday's meeting. For further information, Ghirawoo can be contacted at 287 7664.

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PRAYAG, INDIA, February 8, 2013 (Deccan Chronicle): On the banks of Ganga and Yamuna, history was written silently and unobtrusively on Thursday when around 100 scavengers performed puja and took a holy dip at Sangam. Scavengers, termed untouchables, were brought from Alwar and Tonk districts of Rajasthan by social reformer Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, who heads the Sulabh International.

For the 100-odd "pilgrims" from Rajasthan, it was a new beginning as they stepped into the waters and after a few moments of hesitation, shouted out aloud, "Har Har Gange".

These visitors from Rajasthan were delighted to have top priests perform the puja for them. "We have been invited for a meal with the religious leaders and for us, this is an unbelievable experience," said Jhinu.

Dr Pathak, who is the founder of sanitation movement Sulabh International, said that his organisation had played a significant role in liberating untouchable scavengers from the sub-human occupation of cleaning night soil.

Dr Pathak said that so far Sulabh has converted 1.3 million bucket toilets into flush toilets and hundreds of thousands of scavengers have been freed from manual cleaning of human excreta and shackles of untouchability.

Sulabh has constructed more than 8,000 public toilets at important places all over the country which are being used by more than 15 million people everyday. 200 of them are linked with biogas plants.

Dr Pathak said after the human scavengers were relieved from this sub-human occupation, it was then a question of their livelihood -- to rehabilitate the scavengers and to bring them in the mainstream of the society which was the dream of Mahatma Gandhi.

"We have been giving them vocational education in different trades like making pappadam, noodles, pickles, stitching, tailoring, embroidery, and facial and beauty parlor training so that they can be self-reliant," he said.

The products made by them are being sold in the market, hotels and also in the same homes where earlier they used to go and clean the toilets," he said.

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No fault befalls a king who, in guarding and caring for his subjects, punishes wrongdoers--for that is his duty.
-- Tirukkural

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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 2, 2013 (India Real Time): The Kumbh Mela is frequently billed as the world's largest religious gathering. It is almost certainly true. But how can we know for sure? The two men with the challenge of counting up to an estimated 80 million people are divided on how to do it. They also come up with different numbers. They are Devesh Chaturvedi, the commissioner of Allahabad, and Alok Sharma, the inspector general of police in the city, which is hosting the Hindu festival.

The Commissioner reckons the number of pilgrims passing through the Kumbh Mela site on the banks of the Ganga between Jan. 14 and March 10 will end up somewhere between 60 to 80 million. Both men use different techniques for counting but agree neither method is scientific or water tight. Mr. Sharma is more conservative and estimates the final total will be around 40 to 60 million.

"We use thumb rules," says Mr. Sharma. His team positions counters at the entry points to the Mela area, which leads to the bathing ghats (banks). They calculate the maximum crowd capacity of 100 meters of road based on the assumption that each pilgrim will take up 1.5 square feet of ground. Then they measure the speed of the crowd by timing how long it takes a police officer to move 600 meters with the throng. "The pace of crowd keeps changing depending on the density," the Inspector General adds. Once they know how long it has taken the policeman to walk 600 meters they can work out how big a crowd has covered the same distance and how many people have passed. Vehicles arriving along the entry roads around Allahabad are counted manually and trains with up to 8,000 passengers each are also added to the total.

Mr. Chaturvedi has a different approach to the enormous population count. From a series of watch towers across the 14 sectors of the Mela site head-counters try to keep a tab on the number of pilgrims below. "It's not the most scientific way of doing it," Mr Chaturvedi says. "But that is the only estimate available to us." This year for the first time the Mela is also being tracked using satellite imagery. "Based on the color of the images they are going to tell what is the density of human beings," Mr. Chaturvedi says. Using calculations based on the average stay of pilgrims and photographs taken at different times of day, the Commissioner hopes it will provide a more accurate count.

Mr. Chaturvedi says that the biggest crowd so far, on the first day of the festival, was 8 million while Mr. Sharma puts it at between 1.5 million and 1.8 million.