Newsletter March 2014

FTS Guwahati Chapter celebrated their Silver Jubilee on 11 & 12 Feb 2014 in JMC Auditorium.
Samnavya Varg’s inauguration was done by Sri Bajrang Bagra. The programs have participation of the General Secretary Sri Ravidev Gupta, Vice President Sri Ajay Parik, Chapter President Sri Pavankumar Agrawal. The program felicitated the best teachers and best workers. Annual Souvenir and 2014 Directory were launched. There were bhajan and patriotic song sessions. The Second day program had speeches of Sri Lakshmi Balla of Hindustan Times and Vice President Sri Arunkumar Bajaj. Sri Panalal of H.P. Institutes in his speech assured that his institute will promise that the outstanding children of Ekal Vidyalaya, Guwahati chapter will get proper training from centre and get good jobs. The program’s Chief Guest was Sri Mangilal Jain, in addition to other dignitaries of Ekal’s group.

 

All anchal samithi office bearers, members from 17 jillas, gram samethi, teachers, students and karyakartha’s presence added to the audience strength of over 2000 people.

On 23 November 2013, Bharat Loksiksha Parashid, Kanpur Chapter has organized a program by Ability Unlimited Foundation at the Ragendra Swarup Auditorium, Kanpur.
 

Sri Muktharul Ameen, Sri Surendra Gupta, Sri Ghanshyam Das Goel, Sri Indramohan Agrawal, Sri Vinod Agrawal, Smt Darshna Goel, Dr. A. S. Prasad and Sri Rakesh Suri participated. The inaugural speech was given by Chapter President Sri Surendra Gupta, followed by Sri Vinod, Sri Rakhi and Dr. Prasad.
 

The speakers highlighted the activities of Ekal and requested more and more people to join this noble cause. The program was coordinated by Smt Devika Mukarji and around 450 people participated. 

On the occasion of Makar Sankranthi, Mahila group of FTS Surat Chapter invited donations from urban community. This year they planned to felicitate last year’s major donors. On 9 Jan 2014, on the opening ceremony, Surat donors who have been supporting FTS for the last 13 years were felicitated with shawls. Mahila group which collected more than Rs. 20000 were also felicitated. This year, 107 centers were created for collections all over the city. Surat Mahila group President Smt Manju Mittal spoke on donation and its importance. Chief Guest Sri Jayprakash Sony and Smt. Sushma Agarwal also expressed their views.  Sri Ramesh Agarwal, Sri Pramod Kumar Choudry, Sri Babul Mittal, Sri Vidyakar Bansal and Sri Maheshkumar Mittal were some of the main invitees. 

After 2011, Sri Hashmuk Shah, Executive Vice President EVFUSA and his wife Jyotsna from USA, visited India again to see its development of EKAL activities through Gramothan. From the day he arrived at Delhi they enjoyed continuous travel to different states and their interiors where EKAL has been active. They had taken the Vanyatra after reaching Ranchi with other visitors to village Kala Mati. The entire village has been involved in vermicompost and Posak Vatika. The next one was to the mountain range and Karanjo where there was a Gramothan resource center since 2003. The school there has 250 boys and girls from different tribal villages and apart from education they were taught methods for better farming. These apart, sewing, computer education, jam making were also taught. The visit to the EKAL schools in the hills within the forest was a memorable experience. The school children were found to get better foundation in mathematics and the people were also enterprising using solar power to watch television! Satsang educates them on the vedic culture.
 

The next visit was to Orissa and Gramothan project near Janakloi. Here, the barren land has been converted into a cultivable one with fruit trees. It was heartening to note, when we crossed upper Orissa from west to east crossing over a number of fertile tribal villages, that EKAL has undertaken the efforts with measureable results in these villages.
 

The last part of the visit was in West Bengal with a trip to a EKAL village near Rampuhat which was about 200 kms north of Kolkata. The students there have been motivated well by EKAL workers’ efforts. Last three days in Kolkata covered visits to Belur Math and participation in the celebrations of 150th birthday of Swami Vivekananda and 25 years of EKAL movement’s achievements.

The 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda was celebrated by Tirunelveli Anchal and Dindigul Anchal in Tamilnadu on January, 2014. The Acharyas, students, committee members and the local people came in large numbers and made a memorable program. The Organizers took this opportunity to communicate the activities and purpose of Ekal to the people and also to motivate those already involved in its activities.

As planned we, myself, Madhavan, Executive Secretary and Sri Ananth, active member of SVO left for Kolli hills on 13th of Jan 2014 and reached Namakkal and were received by the Namakkal Anchal Samithy members Sri Sathyamurthy, Sri Vadivelu and  other active members. Various issues were discussed over the lunch provided by the samithi and then we left for Kolli hills and stayed in PA guest house by night. The dinner was austere because we were served with tasty fruits and sweet milk. 

Next morning our full timer Sri Palanichamy came to the guest house and we left for village to celebrate ‘Makara Shankranthi’, called as Pongal festival in Tamilnadu, in which the farmers thank the SUN GOD and their cows for blessing and supporting them in their farming for the whole year. We were earlier told by another full timer Sri Shankar about the customs they follow during the festival. He said there are two groups, one is called Aandi and another Servai. These groups on the first day of ‘Thai’ month (Tamil month) go to villages and sing in front of all the houses. While the Aandi wears simple costume, the Servai wears new clothes, dressed royally with anklets etc. They go to each and every house in the village, stand in front of the house and sing songs. The theme of the songs was invariably small episodes from Ramayan and Mahabharath. When we were going with these groups they were singing about Abhimanyu, the illustrious son of Arjuna being sent to school by his mother Subhadra. Here the groups were not only maintaining the link with the past but also insist through these ‘Ithihas’, the importance of education. It was, indeed, amazing that how our ancestors have diligently integrated the ‘moral education’ with ‘modern education’ and kept the links connected with the past. Kolli hills have hundreds of villages and that there are several groups of Aandi and Servai doing this as service and they accept whatever the people offer. Their only goal is to spread the noble messages from our ‘purana’s on this auspicious day. Later we went to Sri Shankar's house and celebrated Pongal festival there.

T.V.Seshadri, Secretary, Ekal Vidyashram, SVO Tamilnadu