One leg of an IITian is in India. The other in Air India' went a popular wisecrack of the late 1980s and early '90s. No longer. The brain drain from IITs has diminished to a trickle, with only 21 out of 3,980 BTech graduated going abroad in 2006. A quick look at statistics shows that in 2006, only three of IIT Kanpur's 273 BTech students and two from the five-year MSc intergrated course went abroad. All the others – 267 M.Tech students, two-year MSc grads and MBAs-stayed back in the country. At IIT Delhi, of the approximate 1,000 job-seekers, only one student went abroad to join Capital One, a financial consultiong firm. The slowdown is evident even at the older IITs. At IIT Mumbai, 95% of the students were placed in India while at IIT Madras, only two BTech students went on to join Lehman Brother at the Tokyo office.
From `Samvad' (Shree Vishwa Niketan, New Delhi)
Governor Brad Henry pronounced January 28, 2007 as "Yoga Awareness Day" for Oklahoma (US) and Mayor Kathy Taylor did the same for her city, Tulsa. During the first two weeks of January, through the country from the San Francisco Bay area to Boston to Houston, mainstream Americans joined with Indian-Americans in learning about and performing the yoga postures of "Surya Namaskar,"or "Sun Salutations." This year, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh-USA (HSS), a non-profit organization, organized the Surya Namaskar yagnas. This was a innovative campaign to raise health awareness using the ten-step yoga postures known as "Surya Namaskar Yagna," or "Sun Salutations offerings. With close to 4000 participants, Surya Namaskar Yagna achieved close to 450,000 Surya Namaskars across the country.
From Hindu Press International. February 7, 2007.
This is a story of sacrifice of an entire village to save a temple from being demolished. The village is Melur, near Madurai in Tamilnadu. There is a temple of Mandhai Veeran, a grama devata, on the South Street. Officials tried to acquire land for road widening. The temple too formed part of the land to be acquired. When the villagers came to know that the temple will be demolished to widen the street into a 4-lane road, they became angry. They declared that they are ready to pay any price to prevent the temple from demolition. They held consultations with authorities. Authorities informed them that atleast 100 houses nearby will have to be demolished as an alternative. The villagers readily agreed to that and they themselves started demolishing their own houses. To save the temple so dear to them these Hindus have paid such a huge price.
Based on a report in DINAMALAR, February 9, 2007.
FOUR
What was witnessed at the Hindu Resugence Conference (as part of Shri Guruji Centenary celebrations) in village Berigai, Dharmapuri district, Uttar Tamilnadu, was eloquently in tune with Shri Guruji's unifying thought. Hindu leaders spoke in three languages emphasizing the one theme, namely Hindu unity. 1,450 persons paid Rs. 5 each and took part in the conference. This is one of the 99 conferences organized by Swayamsevaks in the Prant during the cenetenary year. A total of 67,250 people from 4,450 villages came forward to identify themselves as Hindus and participated in these conferences. Among them 25,206 were women. The Thirukkanur (Puducherry) conference provided yet another reflection of Shri Guruji's integrating influence. The Hindu conference dais put up by RSS presented a picture of conflicting interests converging on a noble theme, the Hindu consolidation. A Congress leader and his adversary, as well as a leader of a breakaway group of the party were seen exhorting Hindus to unite.
FIVE
Latha Devi's father Parthasarathy is a Chennai carpenter, barely earning Rs 2,000 a month Her mother Selvi is a housewife. The family .had no money to buy new clothes for 20-year-old Latha. On many days the family went without food. What to say of paying her college fees of Rs. 53,000? All along the family managed to get a sponsor every time the need for money was found formidable. Add to that the hard work that Latha put in. The Computer Science student will soon be working at an IT company that interviewed 1,800 candidates. She was stunned to be presented with an offer letter with a salary of Rs 14,000 a month. "I called Amma and told her everything that happened and my salary and Amma was very happy," said Latha. She is so socially committed that she is going to use a lot of that money to help other poor children like her. "I will select poor children from a very poor background just like me and I will offer free uniform sets, books and whatever they need. I will do it," Latha said.
Source: ndtv.com, February 14, 2007;
