GO TO SOURCE AUSTIN, TEXAS, October 17, 2002: Ph.D. candidate, Karline McLain, at The University of Texas, Austin, is seeking readers of Amar Chitra Katha comic books for a survey. “I am interested in the ways in which these comics combine text and image to retell classical mythological stories, as well as narratives of more recent historical events,” McLain says.…
GO TO SOURCE MONTREAL, CANADA, October 12, 2002: Celebrating Sanskrit and it’s contribution to Indian civilization, Bharat Bhavan Hall was filled with a capacity crowd. Various scholars spoke on the contribution of Sanskrit to the culture and civilization of India (sanskriti) and the role Sanskrit historically played as the cultural lingua franca of India. The question and answer session provoked…
GO TO SOURCE RHINEBECK, NEW YORK, October 5, 2002: Ram Dass, recognized as a New Age figurehead, was honored in Upstate New York recently where a library at the Omega Institute, a New Age retreat, was named for him. Ram Dass, formerly known as Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor fired for his experiments with LSD, met his guru in the…
GO TO SOURCE GUWAHATI, INDIA, Monday, October 14, 2002: Four people were killed and 18 others injured, some seriously, in two separate attacks on Durga Puja pandals by militants in lower Assam’s Bongaigaon district last night. Pandals are temporary festival roadside temples, often quite elaborate. Extremists hurled hand grenades at two puja pandals in Bongaigaon town and nearby Satipur, killing…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13, 2002: Students are getting involved in halting the practice of immersing icons made from plaster of paris into the Yamuna River. During the festive season many icons, painted with lead-paint or made with insoluble man-made materials, are immersed in the river adding to the existing pollution. Said Gunjan Doogar of Development Alternatives, “To…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 13, 2002: Close on the heels of the recently concluded 18th International Ramayan Conference, Durban, South Africa, will host an International Conference on Lord Hanuman, announced Lallan Prasad Vyas, International Ramayan Conference Secretary General. The Divine Life Society, Ramakrishna Mission of South Africa and Vishwa Sahitya Sanskriti Sansthan will jointly organize the three-day…
GO TO SOURCE BOMBAY, INDIA, October 5, 2002: Starting the day with a good laugh sounds like a wonderful way to begin each day on a positive note. If you feel this way, then perhaps you should look into joining a laughing club. Laughing clubs are very popular in India where more than 80,000 people participate in 800 clubs. In…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, October 11, 2002: The anti-conversion ordinance is “not directed against any particular religion, least of all any minority religion,” the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha, has said. In a statement, she clarified that it was “directed against the use of fraudulent means, allurement and force in enticing individuals into changing their religious denomination against…
GO TO SOURCE UNITED STATES, October 10, 2002: In a new survey of American religious beliefs, conducted by the conservative Christian Barna Research Group, 44 percent of those surveyed said, “The Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths,” while 38 percent of Americans disagreed with that idea. George Barna, president…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 6, 2002: Residents of the Kailash area of Delhi have been caught up in an ongoing debate with the Sanatan Dharam Mandir. Anju Sehgal Gupta, a resident who was recently threatened by 40 temple sympathizers said, “The character of the temple has changed and authorities treat it more like a three-star hotel. Parties…