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BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, February 20, 2008: Indian archaeologists say they have found remains which point to the existence of a city which flourished 2,500 years ago in eastern India. Discovered at Sisupalgarh, near Bhubaneswar, capital of Orissa, the items found during point to a highly developed urban settlement. The population of the city could have been in the region of 20,000 to 25,000, the archaeologists claim.

The excavations include 18 stone pillars, pottery, terracotta ornaments and bangles, finger rings, ear spools and pendants made of clay.
R.K. Mohanty of the department of archaeology, Deccan College, Pune, who is one of the two researchers involved in the excavations, said “The significance of this ancient city becomes clear when one bears in mind the fact that the population of classical Athens was barely 10,00.” Mr. Mohanty, along with Monica Smith of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, has been carrying out limited excavations at the site every year since 2005.

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INDONESIA, February 9, 2008: In 1991 I went on a two-week Smithsonian tour of Bali, the Indonesian island most famous for its dances, craft arts, and Hindu festivals. As I boarded a Garuda International flight in Los Angeles, I was impressed that a nation that is 90 percent Muslim would name its airline after a Hindu deity.

Starting in the 7th Century A.D., Hindus and Buddhists from India established prosperous kingdoms in Indonesia, and the largest Buddhist stupa in antiquity is found on the island of Java.

When the population of the area was largely affected by Muslim influence and converted to Islam, it chose to retain its cultural identity, though it was deeply rooted in another faith, Hinduism. Today Muslim shadow puppeteers entertain large audiences with night-long performances of the Hindu epics–the Mahabharata or the Ramayana, in an awkard mix.

But not so in Bali. The Balinese were a group not willing to convert. Today three million Hindus preserve their rich culture on that beautiful island.

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NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 24, 2008: Lounging in a smoke-filled cafe, Purvi Ahuja, 20, and her hip friends like their text messages to be fast, their cappuccinos to be milky and their cigarettes to be plentiful. “I know it’s so bad. My skin is even gross, my lips are black because of it,” sighed Ahuja, her ashtray filled with cigarette butts. Her friends agreed that it’s just not easy to stop smoking.

Young Indians, especially young women like Ahuja, represent one of the cigarette companies’ largest markets. Because they are so heavily targeted, they are also at particular risk of smoking-related death, according to health officials. There are 120 million smokers in India, half of them younger than 30.

The research was conducted across the country by a team of 900 field workers from India, Canada and Britain and the results published online in the New England Journal of Medicine last week. The study found that more than half of smoking-related deaths would be among poor and illiterate Indians. Forty percent of tuberculosis cases in India are due to smoking.

“The health risks are much bigger than previously thought,” said Prabhat Jha, director of the Center for Global Health Research at the University of Toronto in Canada and one of the report’s authors.

www.hinduismtoday.com

“Lead me in the center of thy silence to fill my heart with songs.” Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) celebrated Bengali writer who won the Nobel Prize Literature in 1913.
   

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BIHAR, INDIA, February 20, 2008: Mauritius PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam arrived on Tuesday at his ancestral village in Bihar’s Bhojpur district. Ramgoolam delivered a brief speech and expressed his gratitude to the waiting crowd, where he laid foundation stones of many development projects. On Monday, the Mauritius PM had announced $250,000 for the development of roads and a hospital there.

“It is no less than a festival for villagers here. After all, a grandson of this village, who became the Mauritius prime minister, visited to pay respects to his roots,” said Santosh Singh, a villager in his late 20s.

Until a month ago, Harigaon was like any other village in rural Bihar - without roads, electricity and a health center. But it has been given a facelift following its identification as the ancestral village of former Mauritius prime minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the father of Navinchandra. Now, all the dusty lanes have been covered by concrete, solar lights installed, and the village pond beautified.

Mohit Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister’s grandfather, was one of the hundreds of laborers forcibly taken by the British from Bihar to work in Mauritius sugarcane plantations in the 1870s. About 60 per cent of the 1.2 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin.

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