DURGA PUJO, SHILLONG 2012

Durga Puja 2012 Kumari Puja, Shillong

Different Durga Puja Pandals on Mahashtami performed Puja of Goddess Durga here. At the Ramakrishna Mission in Meghlaya's capital city Shillong, the “Kumari” or the virgin Goddess Shakti was worshiped as per rituals.

Amongst the different forms of Goddess Durga, the virgin form is said to be the most dynamic. According to the Markandeya Purana Mother God appears as Virgin-Kumari, to save the virtuous from the evil. Each year, therefore, this form of “MahaShakti” is worshiped during the festivities.

According to Hindu scriptures, Goddess during her annual four-day visit to her parental home on Earth with her four children is worshiped in differnt forms. One of the forms is a virgin girl or Kumari. The ritual of performing Kumari Puja finds mention in all the holy scriptures of the Hindus such as the Veda, Puranas, Tantra and Upanishad.

“Every woman is a manifestation of divine motherhood. And it is most prominent in a virgin. The tradition of worshiping virgin God is therefore age-old,” the Ramakrishna Mission said.

The age of the girl signifies the different form of Goddess Shakti. A one year old is Sandhya form of the Goddess. A two year-old girl is in Sarasvati mould. A child of three years is Tridhamurti, a four-year-old is in Kalika form. A five-year-old child is Subhaga, the sixth year is Uma, on her seventh year she is Malini.

An eight year girl is called Kubjika. Kaalasandarbha is the ninth year. In the tenth year she is Aparajita, on eleventh she is Rudrani. On the twelfth year she is Bhairavi, she is Mahalakshmi on the thirteenth year, on fourteenth she is Pithanayika. In the fifteenth year she is Kshetragya, and she is known as Ambika on her sixteenth year.

The Ramakrishna Mission takes care in choosing the girl to be the Kumaris at the different Missions across the country and abroad. The unmarried young girl has to be “dynamic, pure and serene with a bright disposition” matching the Goddess.

Before the Puja, the girl is given bath and adorned with new clothes, ornaments and floral garland. Vermilion is put on her forehead and the feet is washed and smeared with Alta – a red colouring liquid. She is then seated on a decorated chair and the Puja articles are placed on her feet and worshiped as the divine Goddess.

This year, the Ramakrishna Mission chose a five-year-old girl, Ashmita Bhatacharjee, as the Kumari and was worshiped. The young girl sat for nearly an hour as people watched in reverence with the Maharajs (priests) of the Mission performed the Puja. Later, she was placed at a room at the Mission and people sought here blessings by touching her feet.   

The practice of Kumari Puja started at the Ramakrishna Mission way back in 1902 when Swami Vivekananda performed it at Belur Math, Kolkata. Ever since, the ritual is performed on Mahashtami at the Ramakrishna Mission and also other Temples.

BY GOD'S GRACE INMATES FIND WAY TO AIR GREVIANCES

Deprived of paper to pen their grievances at the overcrowded Shillong district jail in Meghalaya, northeast India, inmates are still dropping written complaints, albeit on Church brochures, distributed by clergymen as part of their counseling.

The matter came to light, after several of the complaints addressed directly to the higher jail authorities were found etched on religious brochures.

Sources said that the jail staffs have stopped handing out papers to the inmates probably fearing that they would start revealing the “inside stories” of the overcrowded jail.

However, the inmates, in the absence of  paper found the ingenious way and started to write down their grievances on church pamphlets and brochures, which are handed to them occasionally by the preachers who visit them.

“It is true complaints were written on the church brochures and pamphlets and the same were found in the two complaint boxes. This, was done, probably, as the inmates were not provided paper by the jail staffs,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.

The controversy-ridden Shillong jail, infamous for several jail breaks, some in collusion with jail authorities, set up two complaint boxes as per the direction of the National Human Rights Commission from August this year.

The British-era jail was established in 1895 and the capacity to house 150 inmates, however, there are over 300 inmates cramped in the jail. On the other hand, there were 30 Jail breaks between 1990 and 2009, averaging one jail break every nine month.

In the initial few days, the official said, inmates were given paper and the complaint on the general condition of the jail came thick and fast. “This led to the jail officials not distributing the papers,” the police official said.

Meanwhile, there is demand by the jail staffs to remove the Director General of Prisons, Kulbir Krishan alleging highhandedness. Krishan countered the allegation and said that some of the jail staffs are providing undue favours to some of the prisoners.

Incidentally, the matter of alleged collusion of some jail staffs and UTPs came to light in August this year. An internal inquiry to probe into the allegations is on.

No Indian Universities in top 200 list

Failure of Indian educational Institutions to make it to the top 200 University list of the world has been blamed solely on poor foreign faculty-student ratio, by Union human resource development minister, Kapil Sibal here today.

In the 2012-13 university rankings conducted by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), none of the Indian educational institutions made it to the top 100 or even 200 list. President, Pranab Mukherjee expressed dismay and urged all concerned to reverse this negative trend.

Sibal, however, was of the view that because Indian educational institutions had a poor foreign faculty and student ratio, of about 2 percent, the Universities did not make it to the top 200 list. But, what Sibal cleverly did not mention is the other parameters that QS takes into consideration while formulating its list of the top Universities of the world.

Six parameters are taken into consideration, Academic Peer review (40%), Global Employer Review (10%), Citation per faculty (20%), International Student Ratio (5 %), International Faculty Ratio (5%) and Faculty Student Ratio (20%).

Poor allocation of fund, just about 6 percent of the GDP, for the education sector and subsequently less fund for the Universities to conduct research has been one of the factors for the poor show of Indian Universities overall. This has also led to brain drain as the students find the stipend in foreign Universities much more attractive to carry on their research work.

Sibal argued that in the University ranking by subject, Engineering and Technology Institutions like IIT Mumbai, Delhi and others have ranked considerably well. “IIT Bombay was ranked amongst the top 50 Universities,” he said.

On the hindsight, the Minister said that getting higher ranking in the top global University list is just like “building a home, which takes considerable time and collaborative effort” of the central and state Governments and also the faculty and students.

“Most importantly it is the students’ effort that makes Institutions world class,” he said after laying the foundation stone of a permanent campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Meghalaya to be build on 200 acres of land at a cost of Rs 250-crore at Saitsohpen village in Sohra, East Khasi Hills in the northeastern state of Meghalaya.

In this year’s list, IIT, Delhi ranked 212, IIT Bombay ranked 227, IIT, Kanpur 278, IIT Madras 312 and Kharagpur 349 in the overall category of the top world Universities. IIT, Guwahati was ranked 551-600.

The top position was bagged by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, University of Cambridge, UK and Harvard University, US bagged the second and third spot respectively.

Meanwhile, Sibal said local issues needs to be tackled at the grassroots through research at an affordable cost.

Citing the example of Sohra, he said that the world’s wettest place needs to address the water shortage in the lean season through research. “These are the issues NIT must address through applied research,” Sibal said and hoped the institute turns into a “world class” educational institution.

ASSAMESE ON THE SWEETER SIDE LIKE FRENCH

Inside the cosy studio, mumbling to get the exact pronunciation right, Lou Majaw finally emerged exasperated, but chuckled: “Assamese language is on the sweeter side like French, but also a tongue twister.”

Majaw was recording the title track of an Assamese movie, Surjasta here today at the picturesque home studio of Sten’s. It is the first attempt by a Khasi singer to render voice in an Assamese track. Majaw, who is known for his rendition of Dylan numbers, was struggling to get the exact pronunciation.

“Kha…Khaa..,” music director and composer, Kishore Giri reminded the singer about the nuance of phonetics. Majaw dutifully obeyed and put in his effort with his baritone voice. The end result was a beautiful track that has its signature of a visibly undulating Khasi hills flowing over the meandering valleys of Assam.

“Assamese language is on the sweeter side like French and it is also a tongue twister for me, as I am not that much gifted as a linguist,” Majaw, said, attired in his trademark track pants, sleeveless T-shirt, only adding a Gamocha, tucked under his flowing locks.

The singer said that although it is difficult at times to get the correct accent of the language, but he anyway wants to sing the song with a “Khasi twang.” “If the song is sung with the correct accent than it would not be different. I want to sing in Assamese with a Khasi twang,” he reasoned.

He said that Giri first approached him to sing the title track and he jumped at the idea, taking it as an opportunity to “learn new things.” “We need to go beyond our limitations or else things gets so monotonous and boring,” the Desi-Dylan said.

Giri, on the other hand, said, he zeroed in on Majaw not just because he is a dear friend of his, but also to bring people of the two neighbouring states closer with such projects.

“When there is so much of conflict in this world, such endeavor would bring people together. Lou singing with a Khasi accent in Assamese is all about harmony in music that hopefully would resonate in the lives of the people of the two states,” the music director and also the composer said.

Meanwhile, the film’s plot revolves around busy parents in today’s world not getting enough time for their children. It is being produced by Rosy Bora; Pradyut Kumar Deka is the Director, while the title track was penned by Jitumoni Bora, a local journalist.

160 TUK-TUKs ON FIRE FOR WATER :RICKSHAW RUN

Sep 9, 2012– After the noodles were washed down with horse milk and vodka during the Mongol rally, the  3500-km Rickshaw Run, from Shillong to Jaisalmer, would experience “spicy” chapattis and “interesting” chutneys on the Indian roads.

160 adventurists would ride on auto-rickshaw,onomatopoeically called Tuk-Tuks, from around the world for the back-crunching journey from Meghalaya's (India) state capital, Shillong to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan to raise funds for clean drinking water. The Race comprises of 67 teams, including 30 women Tuk-Tukians.

Former Meghalaya Home Minister Robert Garnett Lyngdoh flagged off the Race from Shillong Club here today. The Auto rickshaws or “glorified lawn-mowers” are expected to blast the finishing lines on September 22.

The race is organized by UK-based group “The Adventurists.” It’s an initiative, by the not-for-profit social enterprise, Frank Water, to provide sustainable, affordable, clean drinking water for communities around the world, including India. The Current batch of adventurists has already raised over 50,000 Pounds for official charities in India.

“It is not a Race as there are no trophies waiting at the finishing line. The award of this  Race is the adventure on the road and getting in and out of the interesting pickles and getting to lick it through a lifetime,” Tom Morgan, founder of the auto-rickshaw run, said.

Steve Owens and John Spanswick, who took part in the 15,127.8 Km Mongol Rally in 2010, from United Kingdom to Mongolia, are raring to ride the Tuk Tuk.

“We reached Mongolia surviving totally on noodles washed down with mare’s milk and Vodka. We are sure to reach the oasis of Indian desert within two weeks whatever the Indian roads may be, we are pretty much excited,” Owens said.

Laura Salmon from United Kingdom is itching to ride her “Tuktanic.”  Hoping that her mean machine is not “inauspiciously named” she went on to say that the Tuk Tuk is the ultimate feat of “non-engineerance designed  for this ultimate long distance race.”