The 159th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore was celebrated without fanfare this year amid the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, with netizens taking to social media to mark the day with live discussions and cultural performances.

Taking to Twitter, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee quoted the lyrics of one of Tagores songs (Rabindrasangeet) to pay tribute to him.

Chironutaner dilo daak, pochise boisakh (this dawn invokes the new, marks new beginning). Homage to Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary, she tweeted.

The Creative Arts, a performing arts group, hosted an online programme on Facebook for children.

Visual designer and graphic artist Aniket Mitra shared an illustration of Tagore on social media, where the bard is shown discussing his ideas with other literary figures, including Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Nabanita Dev Sen, Bangladeshi writer Humayun Ahmed, at the iconic Coffee House on College Street.

Children from different countries, including US, England, Canada and Australia, recited Tagores Bharat Tirtho in a video presented by elocutionist-actor-presenter Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee.

Various cultural organisations hosted online events on Zoom, Skype and similar other platforms on the occasion.

At Rabindra Bharati Universitys Jorasanko campus, the ancestral home of the Tagore family, the usual crowd and flurry of activities were missing on Friday. Vice Chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Ray Choudhury paid floral tributes to the bust of the poet in a brief ceremony.

The scene was similar at Santiniketans Visva Bharati University, founded by Tagore, with Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, accompanied by a few ashramites (ashram members), gathering at the prayer hall, Rabindra Bhavan and Chhatimtala to fondly remember the Nobel laureate and his contributions.

The SFI unit of Visva Bharati posted a video of song- recitals by the students of the varsity on YouTube.

A short programme has been organised at Rabindra Sadan-Nandan area here later in the day, which will be conducted maintaining social distancing norms, sources in the information and cultural affairs department said.

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Netizens mark birth anniversary of Tagore with online performances - The Hindu

Image for representation.

An 83-year-old hotelier, Ashok Kumar, running a prominent hotel chain in Rajasthan and many educational institutes in Haryana, UP and Punjab, has used the lean period of lockdown to find out the itinerary of Lord Ram during his exile period in the atlas of present times.

Speaking to IANS, he said, "We have found 195 places which still have the memorials connected to the events narrated in the Ramayana which directly relate to the life of Ram and Sita. These include Tamsa Tal (Mandah in UP), Shringverpur (Singraur in UP), Bhardwaj Ashram (located near Allahabad), Atri Ashram, Markandaya Ashram (Markundi in UP), Chitrakoot, Pamakuti (on banks of the Godavari), Panchvati, Sita Sarovar, Ram Kund in Triambakeshwar near Nasik, Shabari Ashram, Kishkindha (village Annagorai in Karnataka), Dhanushkoti and Rameshwar temple (in Tamil Nadu) and many others.

"Today, when people watch the Ramayana serial which is smashing many TRP records, they often ask if it is a myth or a reality that Ram went for Vanvaas for 14 years", says Kumar.

"His travel itinerary is clearly seen on today's atlas. Lord Ram started from Ayodhya (still exists) to Janakpur (Nepal), returned through Bihar to go south via Chhattisgarh (Bastar region), Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and finally through Tamil Nadu, reached a non-descript place where he established a Shiva-lingam which was finally called as Rameshwaram. Nearby was the stone-bridge he created to walk up to Jaffna region in today's Sri Lanka," says Kumar.

In Ramayan, it is mentioned that Ram's army constructed a bridge over the sea between Rameshwaram and Lanka. After crossing this bridge, Ram's army defeated the demon king Ravana.

Recently, NASA had put out pictures on the Internet of a bridge, the ruins of which are lying submerged in Palk Strait between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka, he says.

"The Ashok Vatika or Sita Vatika exists in Sri Lanka even today and has been maintained as a popular tourist destination. It is over the highest hills in south of that country. They call it Sita Eliya. One has to first go to Lanka's hill station named as Nuwara Eliya. From there, people drive further up and reach Sita Eliya," says Kumar.

So Sri Lanka has maintained Sita's place "even 7,078 years after a historical incident" when Ram had to fight against Ravana to bring back his wife, Sita who was abducted by Ravana, Kumar says, adding that he followed Tulsidas Ramayan to track his itinerary.

He says the geography has naturally undergone a change over so many centuries. So to revive the same grandeur may be out of question. "But something may always be better than nothing", he says.

Running many prominent educational institutions in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, he has also asked a few professors to conduct a research on Ramayana, Mahabharat and Chanakya period to evaluate what kind of world existed in those years and how those times were different from today's.

"We are trying to bring out four maps of the four different periods to know how the world has changed," he says.

"I am also conducting a research on the period somewhere around 1200 years ago before the Mughal invasion of India", he says.

Ashok Kumar is the chairman of Seth Mukund Lal Memorial Institutions which have some 23,000 students. With around Rs 85-crore turnover, he runs his hotel chains -- Mansingh Hotels in Rajasthan.

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83-Year-Old Hotelier Maps Lord Ram's Exile Itinerary on Atlas to Pass Time in Lockdown - News18

ON Monday, April 27, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared that the country had won the battle against the coronavirus.

With cases trending downward to the point that the New Zealand health care system can handle any new infections, Ardern is confident that they had successfully flattened the curve and are ready to reopen some businesses.

Continue reading below

The day after, a coalition of three fitness groups the Exercise Association of New Zealand, the NZ Register of Fitness Professionals, and Yoga New Zealand sent a document to gyms and fitness studios around the country.

The document, Key Items to Consider When Considering Physical Re-opening, posed a set of questions to gym owners about things they should consider to avoid COVID-19 cases from flaring up again because of their operations.

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How will your facility limit the number of people to comply with social distancing requirements?

How will you enforce social distancing?

How will you deal with equipment shared between members?

What are your new cleaning protocols?

Will you continue to offer virtual classes?

In the Philippines, gyms will still remain closed, even after the enhanced community quarantine eases into a more relaxed general community quarantine. (However, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ao has said that this might change, pending further discussion.)

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To talk about how gyms will transition to the new normal, SPIN Life talked to two different studios.

The first, Evolution Wellness Philippines, might not be immediately familiar, but its one of the biggest players in the local fitness industry. It runs both Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness in the Philippines, and is one of the biggest gym chains in the nation, with about 30,000 members.

Meanwhile, Urban Ashram is an independent yoga studio founded in 2011, with two branches around Metro Manila.

Heres how both gyms will transition to a new normal in fitness.

COVID-19 has not been kind to Evolution Wellness.

This is understatement at a massive scale. The pandemic has not been beneficial to business, period. But gyms, which by definition operate on a face-to-face model where members show up to have a good sweat, have been hit particularly hard by shelter-in-place orders.

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A lobby at one of Fitness First's branches. PHOTO: Courtesy of Fitness First Philippines

Our business model is built on monthly membership dues as a source of revenue, explained Mark Ellis, country manager. Since the ECQ was imposed, we have not been billing our members and have therefore not been able to generate any income since March.

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Thats two months with no money. It employs hundreds of team members as the company calls its staff in multiple locations across the country. Full-time rank-and-filers can still continue to receive financial assistance, but senior executives have volunteered to take a pay cut over the next few months.

Like most of the fitness industry, Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness also had to make the tire-screeching swerve into an all-digital business. They were better prepared than most, as they were the local arm of a regional brand. Both gyms tapped into their Asia-Pacific network for online classes and content yoga lessons streamed from Malaysia, for example, or a lower body workout with a Singaporean coach.

To date, we have made available more than 200 classes, generating more than 5 million views, said Ellis. Some of these classes have even been opened to the public via their social media pages.

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But, he continued, We recognize that nothing can replace the experience of working out inside the gym.

In the early days of the virus, Fitness First was among the first gyms to publish a public advisory on the safety measures they were taking against COVID-19. Perhaps, at the time, they were only playing it safe who knew, then, that enhanced community quarantine would happen? But when their gyms finally reopen, members can expect a new level of stringent safety measures beyond temperature checks and barbell wipedowns.

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Contactless seems to be Evolution Wellnesss new watchword in the post-pandemic new normal. Personal trainers will have a no-contact policy, and some equipment will be rearranged and isolated. Numerous signs, both actual and on social media, will remind members, over and over, to maintain physical distance. It is even developing apps for both Fitness First and Celebrity Fitness for members to pre-book floor space and slots in group classes making it easier for club managers to make sure sessions remain at socially distanced levels.

Even as the final reopening date of gyms is still up in the air in the Philippines, Ellis is hopeful that demand will come roaring back.

The coronavirus scare has affected the attitude of Filipinos positively towards health as they became more concerned about keeping fit, he told SPIN Life. We expect this to translate to an increase in the number of individuals wanting to join a gym to sustain their physical and mental wellness.

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Of course, the reopening of gyms is a matter of "when" and not "if." In the meantime, as their gyms lie empty, doors chained and padlocked, some Fitness First team members are practicing a new way of improving community health: by donating food packs and household goods.

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The Taal eruption in January already feels so long ago. But it was that event an ashy foreshadowing of things to come that already sounded the alarm bells for Maricar Holopainen, who operates Urban Ashram.

News of infections at the tail end of Lunar New Year further convinced Holopainen that the situation would change rapidly.

A class at Urban Ashram, pre-COVID-19. PHOTO: @urbanashramyoga | Instagram

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Fearing that a health scare would kill a face-to-face business like Urban Ashram, We started recording our classes late February and provided online recorded classes to our community as early as mid-March, she said to SPIN Life.

And then the hammer dropped. Enhanced community quarantine closed down Urban Ashram, as well as many other gyms and businesses all deemed dispensable as the number of COVID-19 cases began its deadly upward climb.

In this time of pandemic, Holopainen credits the studios close, tight-knit community for keeping the bonds strong, even outside the four walls of the studio.

Because of the strong ties our team have with our student base, we were able to shift our loyal students to our virtual platform seamlessly, she said.

She continued: Members of our front line staff have been with us for at least three to five years. So they know our students well, and we have a very active social media and newsletter campaign that has allowed us to reach out to as many members as we can to bring them together.

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The virtual world is nothing new to Maricar. She and her husband Lasse a Finnish-Filipino who grew up in Cebu founded Urban Ashram back in 2011, but moved to New Zealand in 2017 in search of better opportunities. However, they still run the studio remotely; a challenging task that, nevertheless, prepared the studio for what was to come.

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[We had] to make the business as automated as possible: reports, transactions, finance and accounting and operations, she said, and yet keep the human connection by ensuring that we made the digital communication as personal as possible.

They now offer three to four online sessions a day. By April 15, Urban Ashram was confident enough in its offerings that it began to offer paid classes by April 15.

Maricar said, We continue to keep our staff doing the same work online that they did in the studios welcoming the students in class, taking attendance, answering their questions, and just checking in on them.

In these classes, trainers and instructors are still paid the same, even on an online platform. The studio is also looking into offering corporate and public yoga classes, funded by companies and other large groups.

For the foreseeable future, Holopainen believes that Urban Ashram will continue online.

Continue reading below

We most likely will be one of the last studios to reopen, to ensure that guidelines for the health and safety of our team are all effective, she admitted to SPIN Life. As such, we are prepared to stay virtual for the near term.

Its been a difficult, painful 2020 for Urban Ashram. When we asked how the coronavirus has affected the financial side of the business, Holopainen could only answer: Terribly.

Continue reading below

But she sees hope in a new virtual platform a new kind of fitness community that transcends the physical. Whether in face-to-face classes or through the glass of a devices screen, Urban Ashrams mission will remain the same.

The new normal is for us to even heighten our programs to help and heal more so now in these extraordinary times, she said.

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How will the 'new normal' look like for two gyms? - Sports Interactive Network Philippines

Prasar Bharati will be telecasting the play The Prophet and The Poet on May 7 at 10 pm, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Designed and directed by Vijay Padaki, a Founder-Trustee of Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation, The Prophet and The Poet is an internationally acclaimed play developed by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT). It is based on the exchange of letters and articles between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore over 25 years, against the backdrop of the Indian freedom struggle. The exchanges reveal how the two personalities differed significantly on many matters, including the form and content of the freedom movement. The differences widened over the years. However, they maintained genuine respect and love for each other in spite of the deep differences. It was the political maturity that prevailed in those times in India.

BLT was invited to stage the opening shows of the play at the places frequented by Gandhi and Tagore in their lifetime Sabarmati Ashram, Santiniketan (Visva Bharati) and Thakurbadi-Jorasanko (Rabindra Bharati). The play had a command performance for the President of India.

There have been over 108 performances of the play since its opening all over India and abroad. The play has had productions outside India as well. In 2014 Prasar Bharati commissioned a tele-film of the play. The film was telecast several times over Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti.

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Prasar Bharati to telecast Bengaluru play - The Hindu

Ash immersion rituals resume in Haridwar at Brahma Kund Har-Ki-Pauri on Friday(HTPhoto)

After over a month-long hiatus, ash immersion rituals have resumed at Haridwar from Friday onwards.

People were seen carrying urns of ashes from the wee hours on Friday to the sanctum sanctorum of Brahma Kund at Har-Ki-Pauri Ganga Ghat. Local priests, too, resumed work and conducted the ash-immersion rituals.

According to priests, normally in Haridwar, about 2000 to 5000 people arrive daily for ash-immersion rituals, post-cremation rituals and Pitra Karmakand (forefathers soul-related rites) which had been disrupted due to the nationwide lockdown affecting their livelihood.

Har-Ki-Pauri is considered to be an ancient place with religious significance. It is believed that nectar of the gods had fallen here after a tug-of-war between deities and demons, as per Hindu mythology.

Haridwar district administration, however, has specified that only two persons and a driver are allowed to accompany an urn to be immersed at Har-Ki-Pauri Ganga Ghat.

Cabinet spokesperson Madan Kaushik said that adherence to the guidelines issued by the local administration and health department regarding Covid-19 preventive measures like wearing of face masks, social distancing and time-bound return to their respective home destinations was a must for carrying out the rituals.

Terming the decision as a step in the right direction, office bearers of Ganga Sabha, the main managing body of Har-Ki-Pauri Ganga Ghat, said ash immersion should have been allowed a fortnight ago.

Ash immersion rituals are part of ancient tradition and customs which help in providing salvation (moksha) to the departed soul. Its quite sad that after funeral rites people had to keep urns of the deceased for quite some time, but now the government has taken the right decision to allow it again, said Pradeep Jha, president Ganga Sabha.

Haridwar priests, who had last week submitted a memorandum to the state government demanding the lifting of the prohibition at Har-Ki-Pauri, were quite busy as people with urns turned up at the Ghats from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR region, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and even beyond.

Akhil Bharatiya Yuva Teerth Purohit president Ujjwal Pundit said the lockdown has severely affected their livelihood as they primarily depend on last rites related rituals and special prayers for the deceased.

There are nearly 2000 priests in Haridwar involved in ash immersion rituals for several generations.

Meanwhile, the ashram and dharamshala owners have demanded the opening of some eateries and tea stalls at Har-Ki-Pauri for people coming from other states.

We have been waiting for more than a week to get the permission, finally Uttarakhand government has granted the same. We have been traveling for the past seven hours. We have reached Haridwar and it is overwhelming that finally, we will be able to immerse the ashes in the Ganga, said Vijay Singh from Haryana.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

Originally posted here:

Ash immersion in Haridwar begins after govts nod to rituals for the dead - Hindustan Times

In 1920, Rabindranath Tagore received a brief but poignant letter from Susan Owen, mother of the English poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. The latter was killed in action in France in November 1918. In her letter his mother wrote that on the day of his final departure from home, Owen had recited one of Tagores poems.

Her account of that moment is worth quoting ~ It is nearly two years ago, that my dear eldest son went out to the War for the last time and the day he said goodbye to me ~ we were looking together across the sun-glorified sea ~ looking towards France with breaking hearts when he, my poet son, said those wonderful words of yours, beginning at When I go from hence, let this be my parting word This letter from a grieving mother of a victim of World War I reveals how a poem written by an Indian poet touched the sensibility of a young English poet and soldier at a moment of crisis.

A part of the English Gitanjali (1912), this prose poem defines life as a beautiful spiritual experience. The voice speaking through it ecstatically declares that what he has seen is unsurpassable. This world is a play house of infinite forms where he has caught sight of him that is formless. Tagores songs, poems and prose offer a heavily nuanced perspective on the paradoxes and ambiguities of life. They celebrate the grandeur of life and, at the same time, acknowledge that suffering is a fundamental human reality.

In fact, his writings inspire us to have faith in the human capacity for resilience, resistance and transcendence. His insistence on the importance of faith and hope has acquired new relevance in todays world where lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by a pandemic. Tagores idea of the power of hope and faith is prominently present in several of his songs. One of these is the song Nibira ghana andharey (1903) which focuses on a metaphorical journey.

The poet assures himself that even in deep darkness the guiding star is shining brightly. The lone traveller must not lose his way in the vast ocean or let his songs cease. Instead of giving in to fear or despair, he must hold on to hope and have faith in life and in love. He must gracefully walk through the joys and sorrows of life. Not surprisingly, for numerous individuals Tagores writings have been a source of emotional solace and strength.

A French translation of The Post Office,the English version of his play Dakghar (1912), was broadcast on the French radio in June 1940 on the eve of the German invasion of Paris. It was a bold attempt to defy fear at a critical moment in the nations history.

In July 1942 the Polish-Jewish educator Janusz Korczak staged the play at an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the process, Korczak, the founder of the orphanage, flouted Nazi orders forbidding Jews to perform literary works by Aryan authors. In the play, Dakghar the protagonist is Amal, an ailing boy confined to his room and desperately yearning for emancipation. In a letter the playwright explained that Amals eventual death brings him awakening in the world of spiritual freedom. It is wellknown that death plagued Tagore persistently throughout his life.

It was not easy for him to endure the loss of several members of his family, friends and close associates. He grieved but refused to be overpowered by the burden of grief. In Biswa-shok, a poem written after the death of his grandson Nitindranath in 1932, the poet says that being obsessed with personal grief is shameful. We transcend grief once we begin to see ourselves as a part of a world where suffering is pervasive. Tagores life spanned a socially and politically turbulent era that witnessed many calamities including two World Wars and the Holocaust.

It is true that the poet underwent spells of deep depression. Each time his spirituality and his faith in humanity sustained him and helped him recover. During one such bout of depression he described it in a series of letters to his English friend, C F Andrews. In May 1914, in a letter to Andrews he spoke of it through densely metaphorical language ~ I am struggling on my way through the wildernessWearied, I lie down upon the dust and cry and call upon His name.

In another letter he wrote that he was trying to discover his own soul through the intense glow of the fire of suffering.

The letters he wrote during this phase demonstrate a conscious effort to attain spiritual renewal. The idea that suffering can lead to creativity and spiritual renewal is encapsulated in the song Aguner Parashmani (1914).

Within the thematic framework of this song, fire becomes a powerfully evocative metaphor for suffering.

The voice articulating the song hopes that the fire will enlighten him, purify his life and give voice to his songs. In an age of uncertainties and doubts Rabindranath Tagore, struggled to retain his faith in spiritual ideals. In his essay My School (1917) he proclaims that faith ~ I believe in a spiritual world ~ not as anything separate from this world ~ but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth, that we are living in God. Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance, drifting on the current of matter towards an eternal nowhere.

Tagores distinctive spirituality was grounded in his personal interpretation of the Upanishadic conception of the divine being that is immanent in the entire cosmos. Each being is a part of this eternal and all-encompassing entity.

What this spiritual vision offers is emancipation from the narrow self and from emotions such as fear, despair and grief. It formed the spiritual basis of Tagores strong faith in humanity and human potentialities.

The song Bipadey morey raksha karo e nahey mor prarthana (1906) rejects passive dependence on divine benevolence ~ I do not pray that you shield me from danger. This radically unconventional prayer emphasizes that the human individual must have the strength to face adversities on his own.

Tagore was a firm believer in ideals. A few years before his death, he urged the inmates of his ashram to reject cynicism ~ We must build upon faith and not upon the quicksand of skepticism and the spirit of negation Not to believe in things, to be cynical and to wag ones head to a constant no may seem up-to date and fashionable. But it cannot go on indefinitely. Today, it has become necessary for us to rediscover Rabindranath Tagores idea of inner strength and hope.

The Covid-19 pandemic is transforming countless lives throughout the world. The psychological, social and economic ramifications of this cataclysmic phenomenon are no less significant than the death toll. Because of the pandemic and the resultant lockdown we have become lonelier and susceptible to an uncanny sense of uncertainty. In these bleak times Tagores writings remind us that no one is alone and that we are a collectivity. His writings can inspire us to believe that through hope and through faith in ourselves we can face and overcome this global calamity.

The writer is a Tagore Researcher and Assistant Professor of English, Gushkara College in West Bengal.

Here is the original post:

Poet and the Pandemic - The Statesman

Indias rural-to-urban migrant population is estimated at 120 million. Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP

The highways connecting Indias overcrowded cities to the villages had not seen anything like it since the time of partition 73 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of workers were on the move, walking back to their villages with their possessions bundled on their heads.

On 24 March, Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a nationwide 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. States sealed their borders, and transport came to a halt. With no trains or buses to take them home, Indias rural-to-urban migrant population, estimated at a staggering 120 million, took to the roads. On 5 April a statement from the home ministry said 1.25 million people moving between states had been put up in camps and shelters.

The rest started walking. With their jobs in cities lost overnight, and no clear social welfare package, hunger is a more real threat to these millions of people than a pandemic.

Everyone is talking about migrants those who started walking back to their villages, said Anshu Gupta, founder of Goonj, a Delhi-based charity. There are also people who reached their villages, people who were stuck in the cities, and the millions already living in the villages. They are all in distress.

The lockdown was announced without a clear plan for the consequences and Indian civil society stepped in immediately.

With 92 partner NGOs, Goonj started work in 18 states. By 20 April, field teams had delivered rations to 17,700 families, and 16,600kg of rice, flour, lentils, potatoes and oil and 77,800 ready-to-eat meals to community kitchens. They had also produced 42,800 face masks and 24,900 sanitary pads.

Mahatma Gandhi Seva Ashram-Ekta Parishad is doing the same in 39 districts across 10 states. In Madhya Pradesh alone, they say, 99,225 migrants have returned home, comprising daily wage workers, landless farmers and tribals. Thousands of workers and volunteers are feeding migrant labourers and maintaining community kitchens, as well as distributing masks and soap and protective equipment for frontline health workers.

An India Today analysis established that in 13 states and union territories, NGOs are outperforming state governments in feeding people. It found that in states like Kerala, which has been praised for its response to Covid-19, and Telangana, all meals were exclusively provided by NGOs during the lockdown, while in states such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram, NGOs provided 92.8%, 91.7% and 88.5% of all the meals, respectively.

Days after the lockdown was imposed, the finance ministry announced a relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore (18bn). This included food, grains and cooking gas, but there was no roadmap for how this aid would reach people. Cash transfers of Rs 500 a month were announced for women with bank accounts under the governments Jan Dhan scheme.

An itemised analysis by IndiaSpend concluded that the financial package announced by the central government is not all additional funding for Covid-19, but a reallocation and often, reiteration, of existing budgets.

Some state governments announced cash transfers, while Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh announced money for destitute women.

But the chances of people ever seeing the money or provisions allocated to them are remote.

Even if the money has come into their bank account in the city, how do they access that now, in the village? asks Gupta.

The inadequacy of the states preparedness to tackle this crisis has led to local and central governments scrambling to build relations with civil society to deliver relief, a relationship that has been compromised over the past five years.

Between 2014 and 2020, the Indian government cancelled the licenses of over 20,000 NGOs to receive foreign funds under the Foreign Contributions Regulatory Act.

NGOs have been demonised, especially those working on human rights issues. Their bank accounts have been frozen, their staff have been harassed, and their intent has been questioned. Now, as the state grapples with a response to Covid-19, the government think-tank NITI Aayog has requested that more than 92,000 NGOs help the government fight the pandemic.

Gupta is unequivocal: Civil society NGOs and ordinary Indians are fully taking care of the hunger problem.

The sooner this government starts to see civil society as allies in fair and foul weather, the better particularly for Indias poorest and most vulnerable people over the next few, very difficult months.

Bharati Ramachandran runs Barapani, a communications agency based in Bangalore, India that works with NGOs across South Asia and Africa

Read the rest here:

Where Indias government has failed in the pandemic, its people have stepped in - The Guardian

Mahant Ramdas of Muktidham Ashram in Haryanas Mewat was attacked where a mob misbehaved, beat him up and also threatened to kill him. Mewat in Haryana is a hotbed of organised crime, cattle smuggling, illegal Rohingyas and mob violence. Speaking to OpIndia the Hindu organisations which have come out in support of the Mahant said that on April 29, 2020, the culprits made derogatory remarks on religious lines against Mahant Ramdas Maharaj and then threatened to drive away the Sadhus in the area by force.

When Mahant Ramdas went to the police to file an FIR, the police refused. When OpIndia reached out to the police, Punhana Thana SHO directed us to talk to the headquarters regarding the case. He also claimed that no such incident has taken place. The Hindu organisations are saying that the police are trying to avoid filing an FIR and getting Mahant Ramdas and the accused to talk over it and sort it out.

There is anger amongst people regarding the incident in Punhana as well as neighbouring areas like Pinganwa, Nagina, Firozepur Zirka, Nuh, Faridabad, Palval and Hodal. A complaint has been given to the local city police chowki. Religious and social organisations condemned the incident and demanded a fair probe by the police.

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Speaking to OpIndia, Mahant Ramdas said that on 28th April, 2020, he was returning home from a nearby medical store. Some men sitting there passed derogatory comments on the religion. The men said these babas and sadhu-sant have spoilt the environment here. We should drive them away from Punhana. If they dont get out, then set them on fire and kill them. They are such troublemakers, Mahant Ramdas explained how the events transpired. He said that when he objected to such comments, the culprits picked up sticks and tried to attack them. Somehow he managed to save himself and get away even as they threatened to kill him.

Mahant Ramdas Maharaj has demanded a fair probe and inquiry in the above incident. When religious and social organisations heard of the incident they gathered at the police station. DSP Ashok Kumar, SHO Ajayveer Bhadana and well as chowki in-charge Jagdish Chand have assured proper investigation into the matter. However, the Hindu organisations say that they too are trying to resolve the matter through talks and not filing an FIR.

According to the Hindu organisations, no police action was taken till 8:30 PM last night. Speaking to OpIndia, the Hindu organisation said that if the police does not take any action by 30th April, they will hold demonstration outside police station.

Speaking to OpIndia, the local people there said that this is a Muslim dominated area and this was third attack on the Hindus in past one week. Police has also not taken any action against the culprits. Few days back, a mob of 200-300 people gathered and misbehaved with a Hindu resident over his social media post, they said.

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Earlier this month, a mob lynched two Sadhus in Maharashtras Palghar even as two policemen stood there as mute spectators. Earlier this week, two Sadhus were found murdered in Uttar Pradeshs Bulandshahr. The accused was found roaming half-naked in an intoxicated condition with a sword in his hand.

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How troublesome are these Sadhus, just burn and kill them: Mob in Haryanas Mewat attacks Mahant Ramdas of Muktidham Ashram - OpIndia

The director behind Assassins Creed Valhalla has touched base on how the the game is balanced in comparison to the notorious bloat of its predecessor, and the good news is it sounds like players wont be burdened by excessive grinding.

Speaking with Press Start, Ashram Ismail, who also worked on the critically acclaimed Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, revealed that players wont be restricted whether they wish to follow the main narrative or venture off and build their settlement or explore.

Related Content Assassins Creed Valhalla Screenshots

With Valhalla, with the balancing of the game, our goal is to just let players play the content they want. Again we built a really intriguing world that takes place in Dark Ages England and Norway. By the way, when you leave Norway to England, you can always go back to Norway, so we built these really beautiful breathtaking living worlds, and we want players to play the content as they wish to play it. Thats the way the game is being balanced.

So, people want to focus on narrative, theres no issue there, people want to focus on their settlement, again, no issue there.

Its really up to players to decide how they want to consume the content. Thats always been our angle and again, this, were showcasing Eivos personal journey, were really focused on that. So again, if people want to focus on that

Assassins Creed Valhalla is scheduled for release on PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One in holiday 2020.

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla Is Balanced To Allow You To 'Play The Content You Want' - PlayStation Universe

By: Express News Service | Rajkot | Published: April 30, 2020 7:03:54 pm Kundanika kapadia is best known for her novel Saat Pagla Aakashma.

Noted Gujarati author Kundanika Kapadia died at her residence in Nandigram ashram in Vankal village of Valsad district on Thursday. She was 93.

She is best known for her novel Saat Pagla Aakashma.

Those associated with Nandigram Ashram said that Kapadia had received treatment for intestine cancer in 2018 and was leading a normal life thereafter.

But the disease recurred with metastasis and that is the cause of death. After the disease recurred, she refused to take rigorous treatment for the second time. Being an extraordinary soul, she was highly determined and knew her time was up. Her health had worsened over the last three-four days, Amiben Parikh, one the trustees of the ashram, told The Indian Express.

Kapadia and Makrand Dave, the Gujarati poet who was her life partner, had co-founded the Nandigram ashram in 1985 to serve the downtrodden. They had no children. Dave had died in 2005.

Kapadia was born in Limdi town in Surendranagar district in 1927. Her father was a homeopathy practitioner while her mother was a homemaker. Kapadia had graduated in History and Political Science.

She used to live in Mumbai before shifting to Nandigram. Her first collection of short stories, titled Premna Anshu was published in 1954. Later on she authored four other collections of short storiesVadhu ne Vadhu Sundar (1968), Kagalni Hodi (1978), Java Daishu Tamne (1983) and Manushya Thavu (1990). She also wrote three novels, Parodh Thata Pahela (1968) , Aganpipasa (1972) and Saat Pagla Aakashma (1984).

Saat Pagla Aakashma won her Gujarati Sahitya Academy award in 1985.

Her works explored philosophy, music and natural world. Premna Anshu and Kagalni Hodi are collections of good short stories. But her creative personality came into its own in her novels. Parodh Thata Pahela, which deals with pain and suffering of human life and how to find happiness by transcending them, is deeply philosophical. She broke new grounds by introducing in Gujarati literature self-assertion of women as subject matter through her novel Saat Pagla Aakashma (literally meaning seven steps in the sky). The subject of the novel was new to Gujarati literature as it talked of women as an independent entity, Prof Jignesh Upadhyay, Associate Professor of Gujarati literature at Dharmendrasinhji Arts College in Rajkot said.

Prof Upadhyay said that Kapadias work was influenced by Gujarati author Dhumketu, Ravindranath Tagore, Sharadchandra Chattopadhyay and William Shakespeare.

She had also published two collections of essays. Besides editing literary magazines Yatrik and Navneet she also edited Gulal and Gujar, a collection of poems written by Dave.

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Noted author Kundanika Kapadia dies at 93 - The Indian Express