Source: Hinduism Today, Pundit Ramesh Tiwari EDINBURGH, TRINIDAD: A recent newscast on state-owned television in Trinidad showed a 15-year-old Muslim girl with a spinal deformity, together with her parents, making a desperate appeal for financial assistance to have surgery done in Canada to allow their daughter Saadia to live a normal life. The Edinburgh Hindu Temple of Trinidad, being an…
GO TO SOURCE PARIS, FRANCE: A sharp increase in the number of cases of “Mad Cow Disease” in French herds has led to a national outcry over the safety of the nation’s supply of beef. Some meat from these herds had reached supermarkets. Many schools have taken beef off the menu, and the government is considering restrictions on the sale…
Source: Dainik Hindustan, November 6, 2000 MUMBAI, INDIA: With the wild success of the Mahabharata and Ramayana series on Indian television, which brought whole sections of the country to a halt during their showings, Indian TV is proceeding with more series based on Hinduism. The latest is not one, but two competing series on Lord Ganesha, Shree Ganesh on Sony…
GO TO SOURCE BANGALORE, INDIA (AP): On remote heights of the Himalayas, awe-struck women from yak-herding tribes sit in front of computers for the very first time. In a farming region, poor village women step into video e-mail booths to send messages to their husbands working in faraway cities. State officials have set up 40 such information centers in remote…
GO TO SOURCE LAMPANG, THAILAND: An elephant sanctuary in Thailand has trained a group of five elephants to play percussion instruments, xylophones and an elephant-sized harmonica. They’ve released their first tune, “Chang, Chang, Chang,” which means “Elephant, Elephant, Elephant,” and is a child’s song in Thai. Each elephant holds an instrument and plays it when prodded by its mahut. The…
Source: Bahrain Tribune, October 27, 2000 SITRA, BAHRAIN: The Indian ambassador, Surinder Singh Gill, was guest of honor at a grand Diwali celebration at the Al Bander Hotel and Resort in the Muslim country. Five hundred Hindus attended. A temporary temple was built at the hotel, and the resort’s lagoon was filled with candles set afloat by the children. “The…
Source: Punjab Kesari, November 6, 2000 ALLAHABAD, INDIA: Massive preparations continue here for the world’s largest gathering of human beings. Officials released their estimate of the expected crowds for the main days: January 9 (Paush Purnima), 5 million; January 14 (Makar Sankranti), 10 million, January 24 (Mauni Amavasya), 30 million; January 29 (Basant Panchami), 17.5 million; February 8 (Maghi Purnima),…
GO TO SOURCE MUZAFFARPUR, BIHAR, INDIA: About 27,000 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers will enter all the 28,613 villages of North Bihar state during the month-long national awakening drive from November 7 to tell the people that Hindutva is a way of life for every Indian and that it stands for nationalism and not for any community, according to Times…
Source: Singapore Straits Times, October 27, 2000 KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Police combed a Hindu temple for explosives for more than two hours yesterday after receiving bomb threats, forcing the evacuation of about 150 worshippers. The threat came two days after a powerful explosion rocked a nearby temple on the eve of the Deepavali festival holiday. The cause of that explosion…
GO TO SOURCE PARIS, FRANCE: Thousands of Hindus participated in the yearly chariot procession of Lord Ganesh on September 10 from the Sri Manika Vinayakar Alayam in Paris. The chariot carrying the image of Lord Ganesha departed the temple on its six-hour journey at 8am, pulled by a dozen bare-chested men on foot accompanied by the traditional nagaswaram horn and…