GO TO SOURCE WASHINGTON, D.C., January 3, 2001: According to a recent study, teenagers who take virginity pledges, promising to abstain from sex until marriage, often delay intercourse significantly longer than those who do not make a public commitment to chastity. The study, financed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, analyzed the answers of 6,800 students…
GO TO SOURCE ORISSA, INDIA: Hindu girls are forced to tuck their bangles and bindis into their school satchels before entering the premises of St. Mary’s Convent to attend school. Individuals have protested against the ban, including the mother of a young girl who said her daughter was beaten for wearing the traditional Hindu women’s attire to school. The state…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, January 1, 2001: Finnish composer and pianist, Eero Hameenniemi, has been taken with Carnatic music ever since he first heard it. Eero and his ensemble, aptly named “Nada,” are now in Chennai and were scheduled to perform with mridangam maestro Karaikudi Mani’s “Srutilaya” January 4 at the Narada Gana Sabha.The Finnish group has been experimenting…
GO TO SOURCE MOSCOW, RUSSIA, December 30, 2000: The mythological Grandfather Frost rooted in Indo-European culture delights children during New Year festivities in Russia by delivering presents. According to a Russian scholar, Grandfather Frost as the dear old man will be shedding his mask to reveal his true identity as Varuna, the Hindu Vedic God of the Seas. This revelation…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 30, 2000: With one life every ten seconds being claimed by fatal diseases such as lung cancer and chronic bronchitis, the Delhi government has decided to forbid the sale of tobacco products to youth under the age of 18 years. It is hoped that the new law will curb the wide-spread use of…
Source: Hindustan Times SANTINIKETAN, INDIA, December 28, 2000: Imagine tuning in to your favorite radio station and hearing Rabindranath Tagore’s verses sung to a catchy pop tune. The Visva Bharati Trust, to which Tagore willed all his words, is trying to interest young singers and musicians in over 2,300 verses penned by Tagore. According to Trust chairman, Dilip Kumar Sinha,…
GO TO SOURCE MUMBAI, INDIA, December 30, 2000: The Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Swami Jayendra Saraswati is in Mumbai to present the National Eminence Awards instituted by the South Indian Education Society. In an interview the seer spoke of his support of Bal Thackeray’s brand of Hindutva — regarded as extreme even by Hindu nationalists — and why he’s forgiven…
GO TO SOURCE RAJKOT, INDIA, December 31, 2000: Three Hindu organizations, the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena, have banned couples from dancing together during New Year’s parties in Rajkot, citing as their reason that it is against Hindu culture. Two hotels in the city, the Garden Water Park and Motel The Village, requested the police for…
GO TO SOURCE WASHINGTON, D.C., December 28, 2000: A leading US think tank has urged the incoming Bush administration to forge a special relationship with India and develop a foreign policy toward New Delhi independent of a “South Asia” policy that lumps India with all other nations in the sub-continent. The Rand Corporation, the Pentagon’s think tank, has called on…
GO TO SOURCE SINGAPORE, December 30, 2000: The Times of London reporter Fiona Terry winced when she met Hindu devotees at a Singapore festival. She writes, “It seemed an ungodly thing to do — parade two miles through the streets of Singapore with spears through cheeks, hooks piercing the skin and shoes of upturned nails. Yet this wasn’t some inexplicable…