Bengal Durga Puja Gets Ready

uniindia.com KOLKATA, INDIA, October 3, 2005: As the countdown begins for Durga puja, Bengal’s greatest festival, Kolkata unfurls itself as a massive art gallery presenting India in art and decor. With barely a week to go for the three-day festival, activities have gone to a feverish height for community puja organizers to present newer themes combining the festivity with the…

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Udayan Care Advances in Care for Underprivileged Children

Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 2, 2005: Selfless work being done by Udayan Care, an organization working for the welfare of disadvantaged children under the able and dynamic leadership of its managing trustee, Dr. Kiran Modi, was praised by well-known educationists and social workers who had gathered at North West Delhi’s Mahavir Senior Model School on 29th…

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Hurricane Victim Prayer Controversy

Religion News Service USA, September 29, 2005: HPI note: The following is excerpted from a commentary by Rabbi A. James Rudin. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s errors and blunders are by now well known, including those I personally witnessed in an early September visit to hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston’s Astrodome. But Newsweek magazine recently reported another, more hidden, problem,…

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U.K. to Ban Junk Food Sales in Schools

www.nytimes.com BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, September 28, 2005: In Britain’s schools, chocolate and chips will soon be history. The government announced plans Wednesday to ban school cafeterias from serving poor-quality hamburgers and hot dogs, and to outlaw vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly told the annual conference of the governing Labor Party…

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Hurricane Relief Raises Church/State Separation Issues

www.tompaine.com USA, September 28, 2005: The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy is the president of The Interfaith Alliance, the national non-partisan advocacy voice of the interfaith movement. His article raises questions from the Christian community and others in the US regarding accepting government. It reads in part: Compounding the federal government’s stumbling and tragically inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, now…

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Security Forces To Guard Bangladesh Durga Puja Sites

nation.ittefaq.com DHAKA, BANGLADESH, September 28, 2005: Elite-force RAB will deploy its total strength alongside other law-enforcers to provide a security blanket for the upcoming Durga Puja, the largest festival of the Hindu community, across the country. Some 8,000 members of the Rapid Action Battalion will be put on guard in some 22,000 Puja Mandaps (prayer podiums) and surrounding areas across…

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Trinidad Pundits Renew Vows In Public

www.trinidadexpress.com REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 29 September, 2005: For the first time in the history of Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago the Shrawani Upakarma, a ceremony for the renewal of brahminical vows, was performed in public. For the past 160 years, this ceremony had been done in private. This year, on the day of the celebration of Raksha Bandhan,…

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Sabarimala Temple All Set For Facelift

www.thehindubusinessline.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, 29 September, 2005: Infrastructure development has opened an unusual avenue for investors looking for long-term returns which could be around major pilgrim centres in the country. The first major pilgrim site slated for such development and environment management would be the Sabrimala Temple of Lord Shree Ayyappan, in Kerala. The total project cost, estimated at US$227…

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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Meets Katrina Victims

in.rediff.com AUSTIN, TEXAS, September 29, 2005: Spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited Hurricane Katrina survivors, volunteers and public officials carrying out relief operation in Texas on September 27. Sri Sri was invited by Austin Mayor Will Wynn to meet with survivors of Hurricane Katrina, where the Art of Living and its…

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Astrology Student Analyzes Dutch Master Painters Era

Hindu University of America FLORIDA, USA, September 29, 2005: Jan Williem V. Van Doorn, student of Hindu University of America, has raised an interesting question in his master thesis titled, Master Painters in the Dutch Golden Age: A Study on Astrological Factors of Creativity and Innovation. Mr. Van Doorn asks, “What is it that the master painters in the Dutch…

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