November 14 Police received a call from Resident Life concerned that a student hadnt been in class. The persons roommates hadnt seen or heard from the person. Officer contacted person, and the person was at their home residence and stated that they would be returning to campus that evening.

November 14 Police received a fire alarm activation in ROCK apartments. Alarm was activated by burnt food.

November 14 Police received a call from a nurse stating that a vehicle was parked in Rhoads Hall Staff Lot running with its lights on for over an hour. Upon arrival, vehicle was not occupied and not running, but the lights were left on. Dispatch was unable to locate a contact number for owner of the vehicle.

November 14 Police received a fire alarm activation in Building D. Alarm was activated by burnt hair.

November 14 Police received a call from community assistant (CA) in Building E reporting an odor of marijuana coming from a dorm room. Officer on scene contacted residents who stated that they had just returned to room and the odor was already present. Officer checked area and no drugs were located. No further police action was taken.

November 14 Police received a call from CA in Building F stating that an odor of marijuana coming from a dorm room. Officers on scene spoke with residents of room and drug paraphernalia was located. Charges are pending.

November 15 Police received a call from CA in Building D stating water was backed up in a shower in a second floor dorm. Officer on scene noticed water was then leaking into the first floor ceiling. Maintenance was notified and responded.

November 16 Police received a call from CA in Building F for a possible alcohol violation in dorm room. Officer on scene spoke to people inside the room. Individual was highly intoxicated. Officer transported person to Health Center for treatment. Person was unruly and transported to the university police station. Individuals parent was notified and came to station to pick up their child. Jacob Osho, 18, was cited with an alcohol violation.

November 16 Police received a fire alarm activation from Mihalik-Thompson Stadium. There was a faint burning odor coming from visitors locker room area.

November 16 Police received a call from an individual stating that they are in the Weisenfluh Dining Hall building for an event and an alarm was activated. No alarms were present. Responding officer found that the alarm was from a person opening an Emergency Exit Only door. The door was propped open which caused the alarm to activate. The door was secured.

November 16 Police received fire alarm activation in Mihalik-Thompson Stadium. Alarm was set off by safety working on previous fire alarm activation. All was OK.

November 16 Police received a call from an individual in Building F that had not been heard from or spoken to his friend in over a week. Person does not live on campus. Caller called dispatch and advised that they had contacted person. Everything is OK.

November 16 Police received an intruder alarm activation in the Ski Lodge. Alarm was set off by event staff person that was having an event at the facility. Alarm system was reset.

November 16 Police were called in regards to an individual that was in Building F that had a no trespass and is not allowed to be in the building. Officer spoke to CA who stated that order was issued by Residents Life. Police were unable to find order through police dispatch. CA sent a copy of order to police department. Case is still under investigation.

November 16 Police were dispatched to Building E for an odor of marijuana coming from a dorm room. Police on scene contacted occupants. Drug paraphernalia as well as alcohol were discovered. Kathryn Bonczewski, 18, was cited with disorderly conduct. Jada Snowden, 19, was cited with an alcohol violation.

November 17 Slippery Rock Borough Police Department (PD) requested assistance with a loud party on North Main Street. University police assisted in removing occupants of house. No further action was taken by university police.

November 17 Police received a call for a highly intoxicated person in the hallway on the third floor of Watson Hall. Officer on scene identified that individual was of legal age, person was not sick and cooperating with responding officer. Person was having trouble maintaining balance. Police transported person to the Health Center for treatment. No further police action was taken.

November 17 Pennsylvania state police (PSP) requested back up for a traffic stop on Kiester Road with multiple occupants inside of vehicle. University police stood by and secured occupants while field sobriety tests were performed. PSP took driver into custody for possible DUI, and Prys Towing responded and towed vehicle.

November 17 Police received a call to check on a person in Building D. Police contacted person and everything was fine.

November 17 Police responded to a smoke detector activation in Watson hall. Police checked the room, and there was burnt food in the microwave.

November 17 Police were called for a person having a possible reaction and needed assistance in administering an epi-pen in Building A. While officer was administering the epi-pen, officer was hit by the needle. Officer was taken to the hospital for possible reaction to pen exposure. Caller was fine and refused further treatment.

November 18 University police assisted Slippery Rock PD with traffic control for a motor vehicle accident on East Cooper Street.

November 18 Police received a call from a concerned parent who stated that they received a call from their child that while working out, they had an elevated heart rate, but then the heart rate went back to normal. Parent was concerned that they havent heard from their child and was unable to make contact. While officer was responding, father called back and stated that their child was OK and is now swimming. No further police action was taken.

November 19 University police conducted a traffic stop near Smith Commuter Lot, which resulted in drug paraphernalia being located inside the vehicle. Devyn Nicolia, 18, was cited with disorderly conduct.

November 19 Police received a call of a suspicious male wearing a black suit driving a SUV. Male was looking weirdly toward caller and pulled closer to persons vehicle. Person was a limousine driver on campus and was picking up an individual to transport them to Pittsburgh International Airport. Person was looking for a place to park their vehicle. No further police action was taken.

November 19 Police received a call from CA in Building F stating there was an odor of marijuana coming from a dorm room. Officer on scene contacted residents. No drugs were found.

November 21 Police received a call from CA in Building E of an odor of marijuana was coming from a dorm room. Officer on scene contacted residents. No drugs were found.

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11/21/19 Blotter - SRU The Online Rocket

Reading fans have urged the club to sign a new goalkeeper in the January transfer window.

Brazilian shotstopper Rafael is the current no.1 having joined the club late in the summer window after ending his contract early with Sampdoria.

But there is little in the way of back-up for the 29-year-old with both Joao Virginia and Sam Walker failing to convince between the sticks.

With this in mind, supporters reckon the club should sign another goalkeeper in the New Year to provide cover for Rafael.

In a fan survey conducted by Berkshire Live, 31 per cent of fans said the goalkeeping department was the one most in need of strengthening at Reading.

Nearly 23 per cent said a midfielder was needed, while a new striker and a left winger were also high on the list.

Former Reading loanee midfielder Lewis Baker, who is currently on loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf in the Bundlesliga from parent club Chelsea, is the player most fans want the club to sign in January.

The 25-year-old had a highly productive loan spell with Royals in the second half of last season and played an instrumental part as former boss Jose Gomes steered the side to Championship survival.

Danny Loader and Chris Gunter were two popular picks for which players should be loaned out by Reading in January.

Both players are out of contract in the summer and their days in Berkshire appear to be numbered.

A good number of fans who took the survey said the club's younger players - such as Josh Barrett, Michael Olise, Ryan East, Tom McIntyre and Gabriel Osho - all need a temporary exit in January.

Senior outcast pair Vito Mannone and Sone Aluko, whose loans expire at the end of the year, were identified by fans as players who should be sold in the upcoming window.

Gunter, Loader, Tyler Blackett and Sam Walker were also 'popular' picks by those who answered the survey.

Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of fans who took the survey rated the season as three out of five - with one being disastrous and five as excelent. Almost 31 per cent gave the campaign a two.

A total of 78 per cent of fans said Reading were right to sack Gomes last month after the poor start to the season.

More than half who responded to the survey said midfielder Ovie Ejaria was the player of the season so far.

The Liverpool loanee has been in inspired form for Reading and is one of the top rated players in the league.

Ejaria was followed in the list by fellow midfielder John Swift and defenders Andy Yiadom and Michael Morrison.

Everton loanee Virginia has been named as the most disappointing player for Reading this season.

The 20-year-old has made just three appearances for Royals and has lost his place in the matchday squad after some high-profile errors.

Striker George Puscas was second in the list, with 16 per cent voting him as the most disappointing player so far.

The Romanian has scored just four goals in 16 appearances since his summer switch from Inter Milan. Pele and Loader were third and fourth respectively in the voting.

Fans appear to be fairly optimistic about what the season holds for Reading.

More than 60 per cent of loyal Royals said the club will finish between seventh and 12th in the Championship table come the end of the season.

Just over a quarter said Mark Bowen's side will finish between 13th and 21st in the standings.

Some fans (12 per cent) even predicted Reading to finish in one of the four play-off spots.

Keep an eye out on our social media pages for more Reading FC news - we are on Twitter @readingfclive and on Facebook Reading FC Live

Follow our dedicated Reading FC reporter on Twitter @jonathanl50

You can also get the latest news via the FREE Berkshire Live app - download it for Apple devices here and Android devices here

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Goalkeeper top priority for Reading FC in transfer window, say fans - Get Reading

A young charismatic Indian man, Bikram Choudhury, changed the face of yoga in America in the 1970s. Choudhury, with his distinct and grueling style of the ancient practice, earned a name amongst celebrities, counting stars like Elvis Presley, Shirley Maclaine, George Harrison, and even President Richard Nixon among his clients.

With extensive media exposure, Choudhury created a bad boy image for himself and spun tales of winning nonexistent yoga championships and purported health benefits of "hot yoga" which remained unquestioned at the time.

Choudhury, with enough recognition to go by, opened his own yoga studio and began offering $10,000 teacher training to the masses. His classes, however, were not what you would expect a typical yoga class to be. The massive auditorium with dozens of reverent disciples clinging to his every single instruction was vaguely reminiscent of the Rajneesh cult of the spiritual teacher Osho.

Through his classes, Choudhury had elevated himself to a godlike figure whose actions went unquestioned and unchallenged. His followers saw a father figure in him, and many believed he had changed their lives and bodies for the better with his trademark "Bikram Yoga."

His following and centers began expanding exponentially, making him the richest yoga guru in the world. However, that period is also when the red flags began showing. Netflix documentary 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator,' through a series of interviews of his students, details the months of unchecked abuse by the yoga guru who had become a predator.

Clad in just a black Speedo and a Rolex, Choudhury verbally attacked his students in class and then broke into melodious songs. His disciples, who had a cult-ish devotion to him, accepted their yoga guru's blatant abuse and even acquiesced to his demands of late-night massages. Sarah Baughn, Choudhury's student who completed her teacher training with him, was the first victim to publicly come forward, accusing him of sexual assault.

Baugh was midway through her training when the yoga guru first made his advances. She was called into his office where he asked her what were they going to do about their relationship.

The 20-something Baughn had no idea what he was talking about. Later that day in class, he placed her in standing bow pose in an entire room full of students and pulled on her leg, pushing her heart towards the floor. Choudhury then pushed his hips into Baughn as she stood vulnerable, and continued whispering in her ear, asking what should they do about their relationship. The unwarranted advances turned to abuse.

Baughn filed a lawsuit against Choudhury in 2014, alleging that he trapped her in his hotel room and forcibly attempted to initiate sex. Her public declaration resulted in floodgates being opened from other victims. They all had feared ostracism in the hot yoga community. Another student, Larissa Anderson, in the documentary, detailed how she was raped by Choudhury in his home while his wife and children were sleeping under the same roof.

Choudhury's first major lawsuit came from his former employee Micki Jafa-Bodden who sued him for unlawful termination after she began probing his predatory behavior towards his students.

Bikram Choudhury created a hyper-sexualized, offensive and degrading environment for women by, among other things, demanding that female staffers brush his hair and give him massages," Bodden said in her 2013 lawsuit.

He lost a $7.5 million civil lawsuit to Jafa-Bodden in 2016 and fled the United States, becoming a fugitive from the law. He has yet to pay Jafa-Bodden and has not faced any criminal charges.

Choudhury's story, however, is not yet over. He has continued to open centers in India and advertise for his teacher training classes, with the most recent being in Mexico, just a few hundred miles away from some of his victims.

'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' is streaming on Netflix now.

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'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator': Netflix documentary charts the rise of an empire through systematic abuse by a - MEAWW

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State

By Lati Abayomi

I read this epistle full of lies and half-truths by Lolu Aderogba, hoping he would tell us the real governance issues not being addressed by Governor Seyi Makinde. Alas, I was disappointed! Therefore, I am forced to address the alternative facts presented by Aderogba with facts in the public domain available to all. Then, I will point out what the governor has done in the last six months that has somehow escaped Aderogbas notice.

Lets start with the Ibadan Circular Road project. At no point did Governor Seyi Makinde revoke the contract for the Ibadan Circular Road. Had Aderogba expended the level of energy he invested in calling out Makinde, to read his Twitter timeline, he would have known that the governor only suspended the project pending a meeting with the contractors.

A tweet posted on October 31, 2019, reads We visited Ibadan Circular Road, Lagos-Ibadan Bye Pass, this afternoon for an on-the-spot assessment of the work done so far. The agreement for this project was signed in 2017 and the work done so far is about 5.5%. The concession value is N67B for 32 Kilometres of road. Ive asked that the work be stopped for us to take a holistic look at the project, which isnt proceeding as it should, for a road thats so important to Oyo States economy. Well meet with the contractors to discuss specifics like funding/work plan & decide the projects future.

Following that meeting (The Nation Ibadan Circular Road; Makinde Rescinds Stop-Work Order November 3, 2019) the governor rescinded the order after ENL Consortium Ltd (the contractors) assured him that they now had the required funds to execute the project. They admitted that inability to raise funds prevented them from executing beyond 5.5% in nearly three years. The contractors were told to deliver the project by May 2020, as stated in the agreement signed with the previous administration in 2017, and they agreed to do so.

So, Aderogbas claim that ENL Consortium Ltd threatened to take legal action against the governor and Oyo State Government for revoking the Ibadan Circular Road contract is false and a figment of his imagination.

Did Governor Seyi Makinde refer to the contractor who was awarded Moniya-Iseyin road as faceless? Yes, he did. But in the English language, faceless does not mean unidentifiable. It would be preposterous to think so. The contract documents were in the governments possession, so it is evident that the contractor awarded the contract was known to the government. A quick dictionary check on usage would reveal that the expression was to convey that the contractor was an unknown quantity without a track record, given the magnitude and importance of the work awarded to it.

Now, let us address Globus Nigeria Limited and the forest reserves. Oyo State has the following Forest Reserves; 1) Gambari Forest Reserves 11,431 Hectares 2) Osho Forest Reserves 3,704 Hectares 3) Ijaiye Forest Reserves 28,491 Hectares 4) Olokemeji Forest Reserves 7,511 Hectares 5) Lanlate Forest Reserves 7,507 Hectares 6) Igangan Forest Reserves 39,627 Hectares 7) Olaseinde Forest Reserves 686 Hectares 8) Ooko/Iroo Forest Reserves 2,300 Hectares 9) Opara Forest Reserves 248,640 Hectares.

What exactly was reversed? The Commissioner for the Environment and Natural Resources, Hon Kehinde Ayoola, explained this via a Facebook post on September 9, 2019. Senator Abiola Ajimobis government, hiding behind a nebulous Agriculture policy, allotted a total of 260,000 Hectares to himself (26,000 hectares -6,000 from Gambari and 20,000 from Opara), party members, friends and cronies; this is what was revoked by Governor Seyi Makindes administration.

Ajimobis administration permitted some investors to establish fishing and poultry business in about 2,000 hectares at Gambari Forest Reserve only. The company, Globus Nigeria Ltd, was the only company referenced in Aderogbas article. Also in the same Gambari Reserve, Kopek Nigeria Ltd was given about 300 hectares for quarry services.

Globus Nigeria Ltd which rears fish and poultry inside Gambari Reserve has as part of the conditions to use that place, the planting of 1,000 hectares of trees yearly, as an environmental impact mitigation measure. This is in addition to paying N10M ground rent annually. Ajimobis allottees have no such stipulations in their agreements with the state government. It is important to note that despite lauding Ajimobis policy of allocating 260,000 Hectares of forest reserves, Aderogba could only reference Globus Nigeria Ltd with only 2,000 Hectares as the one company which was utilising the land for agricultural purposes.

According to Hon Ayoolas Facebook post referenced above, What makes these acquisitions reprehensible, and environmentalists and conservationists will agree, is that Forests are very vital in the fight against Global Warming and its attendant problem of Climate Change. Nations of the world are looking to not only preserve their forest resources but they are adding to it. But our man was trying to take away from our forest. Of cos, with the concurrence of His Excellency GSM, I have revoked the illegal allocations. We shall collaborate with the Ministry of Justice to take further necessary action. The information is available in the public space.

Ironically, Aderogba claimed Governor Makinde cancelled the Schools Governing Board (SGB) when in fact, this is one of the policies of Ajimobi which Makinde commended, as various newspapers reported on August 1, 2019. The Makinde led government had upon assuming office, reviewed the mode of operation of SGBs to prevent the extortion of students in public schools. The claim that the government cancelled SGBs and reversed itself following an outcry is false.

On Oyo States debt, according to data available on the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website, Oyo States debt in December 2018 was $104,997,383.47 external debt (~N32B at the official exchange rate of N306/$1) and N91,515,756,366.15 domestic debt. That is in total, N123B. This does not take into account debt incurred between January and May 2019 before the Governor Seyi Makinde administration was sworn in. Aderogba lied when he claimed that Oyo State debt was below N100B and his claim that Oyo State isnt one of the top 10 most indebted states in Nigeria is only half true. Oyo State ranked 9 in the top 10 states with the highest external debt profile in 2018. Considering the fact that Oyo State is ranked 27th out of 36 states in the 2019 Budgit States Sustainability Index (up from 30th in 2018), its debt profile should not be treated with such levity.

It is extremely mischievous for Aderogba to suggest that Oyo State debt of N123B (as at December 2018) is mostly made up of the potential World Bank loan of N72B ($200M). This is an outright lie. To be clear, while the World Bank loan for flood management is potentially $200M (N72B at the exchange rate of N306-$1), the money is not paid out at once and anyone familiar with the way World Bank loans operate will know that this is the case. The Ajimobi led government accessed 25% of the amount $45M (N13.7B at exchange rate of N360-$1) which has already been added to Oyo States external debt profile of $104M.

So N72B ($200M) is what the Oyo State government will be able to access in total from the World Bank, but the money is not paid out at once, it is given in tranches. It is only added to Oyo States debt profile after it has been accessed. For the record, only $45M has been paid out till date by the World Bank, and this was paid out to the previous administration led by Ajimobi. Had the entire $200M been paid out by the World Bank, Oyo States external debt profile would have been a whopping $259M as at December 2018, not $104M. At the risk of being pedantic, I urge Lolu Aderogba to confirm facts before putting pen to paper.

On the N7.6B Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme, there is no record that the governor condemned the loan. Governor Makindes position was evident even before he was sworn in as governor. As Governor-elect, he instituted a suit in April 2019 to restrain the Ajimobi-led administration from accessing and spending the money a month to the end of its tenure. He was only against the loan being spent on agricultural equipment one month to the end of Ajimobis tenure as he believed that it would be embezzled. The governor shared the court documents via his social media accounts on October 10, 2019.

Upon assuming office, the governor then approached the Oyo State House of Assembly to approve a change of purpose for the loan so that the loan (which was already being repaid as a first line charge by the government) could be put to use. This new purpose farm estates in Eruwa and Akufo was approved by the Oyo State House of Assembly. All these facts are readily available in the public space for anyone interested in the truth and not looking to mislead with lies, half-truths and propaganda.

Since he was sworn in on May 29, 2019, Governor Seyi Makinde has gotten down to the business of governance, crafting and implementing people-centred policies. He has consistently stated that his administration is resting on four pillars Education, Healthcare, Security and the Economy.

In education, Makindes administration has scrapped all fees and levies leading to an influx of students into public schools, provided exercise books for both primary schools and secondary school students, provided textbooks for secondary school students, started renovating all public schools in the state in tranches of 100 at a time, increased the budget for education from 3% to 10% of total budget allocated, paid N500,000 bursary to the backlog set of Oyo State students of the Nigerian Law School, approved the hiring of teachers to meet current shortfalls and approved the retraining of teachers. Oyo State had 400,000 out of school children in the latest data released before Makinde assumed office. This is a ticking time bomb and the government must focus on improving access to and quality of education in the state.

In healthcare, the government has embarked on renovating and equipping of hospitals (Adeoyo and Jericho Specialist) and Primary Healthcare Centres across the state.

For security, the government has embarked on the nearly completed Light Up Ibadan project, provided an emergency contact number, 615 and recently distributed 100 security patrol vehicles to enable security agencies to react speedily to reports of criminal activities. The proscription of NURTW for security reasons still subsists.

On the economy, since June 2019, the government ensures the salary payment of civil servants on or before the 25th of the month, providing liquidity for the local economy. The government has also by improving revenue collection and plugging leakages, increased internally generated revenue by N400M without raising taxes. The re-awarded Moniya-Iseyin road when completed will aid economic activities in the state. In September 2019, the government entered into a partnership with agritech company, Farmcrowdy, to work with 50,000 farmers in Oyo State over the course of 3 years.

The government has transmitted Executive Bills on investment and financial crimes to the Oyo State House of Assembly which is still deliberating on these bills. Governor Makinde set up a Due Process Office in June 2019 to ensure that due process is followed for the award of government contracts.

These are some of the things the six-month-old government has done. There is still a lot to be done but with each passing day, Governor Makinde demonstrates that the people of Oyo State made the right choice in electing him to office with a wide margin of victory over his opponent. Lolu Aderogba should take his own advice and ensure he only communicates the truth about governance in Oyo State in his opinion pieces going forward.

Link:
A Rejoinder to Makinde: Let the Real Work Start - P.M. News

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Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872- 1950) went to England for education when he was seven. His political life began there in his teens. Although he qualified in the ICS examination, he was not selected as he chose to abstain from the horseriding test. He secured a First in Classics and a Tripos at Cambridge in 1892. Returning to India in 1893, he joined the Baroda College as professor of English, and later became its principal. In 1902, he came in touch with Thakur Saheb who was then the leader of a secret Maharastra revolutionary group, and was thus initiated into the revolutionary movement. Participating in the protest against the partition of Bengal in 1905, Sri Aurobindo left Baroda College.

The next year, in 1906, he settled in Bengal and joined the newly started National College as its principal. In 1907, he gave a revolutionary turn to the apolitical organization Anushilan Samiti which was founded in 1902 by its president, Pramathanath Mitra, of which he was a Vice-President. He reorganized it and made Sister Nivedita its member. Under his direction young men, including his brother Barindra Ghose, were making bombs and guns. Sri Aurobindo was a follower of Tilak when the latter left the Congress in Surat and took to extremism. Tilak was no longer prominent in Indian politics after 1908 when he was sentenced to transportation for six years and sent to Mandalaya jail on a charge of sedition.

Meanwhile, Sri Aurobindo was appointed Assistant Editor by another extremist, Bipin Chandra Pal, in his English paper, Bande Mataram,. He soon took charge of the paper as Pal was eased out of it in 1907. Swami Vivekanandas brother, Bhupendranath and Barindra, who were also connected with the work of Bande Mataram, found Pal half-hearted. Pals faith in revolutionary idealism did not last long. In 1913, he pleaded for the continuation of the British connection in view of the immense possibilities of federal internationalism. Sri Aurobindo was accused of seditious writings in Bande Mataram and was accused of involvement in the Alipore bomb case in 1908. While in jail, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das fought for him in court and proved that he was not guilty.

He was in Alipore jail for a year as an undertrial and was acquitted for want of evidence but Barindra was sentenced to transportation for life. After his release he brought out the English weekly Karmayogin and the Bengali weekly Dharma. Now his connection with revolutionary activity was open and clear. A warrant of arrest was therefore issued against him in February 1910 for writing an article titled To My Countrymen. Realising his impending incarceration, he secretly left for his home town, the French Chandannagar, from where he moved to Pondicherry and spent the rest of his life there in a spiritual quest. Deshbandhu described Sri Aurobindo as the prophet of nationalism.

But where did he get so much power and inspiration from? Prof. Subodh Chandra Sengupta has the correct answer: It was Swami Vivekananda who introduced the cult of Shaktiworship, which was taken up by a succession of brilliant men, the first two being Aurobindo Ghose and Barindra Ghose, who might be called the joint authors of Bhawani Mandir. It was a political tract the idea of which was Barindras and the writing of Sri Aurobindos. It was displayed in the Alipore Conspiracy case. Initially, Sri Aurobindo wasnt perhaps acquainted with Swamijis writings but felt their impact, which was the fountain of Swamijis pervasive influence.

Going through his works subsequently and by dint of his interactions with Sister Nivedita and others, he became knowledgeable about Swamiji. His knowledge about Sri Ramakrishna was also remarkable. Though he didnt meet them, their lives and spiritual ideas took deep roots in his mind. He however met Sarada Devi in 1910 on a Sunday and paid his respect to her at the Udbodhan House in Baghbazar. His wife Mrinalini Devi was an initiated disciple of Sarada Devi. Both were worshipers of Kali. Mrinalini Devi was a well-known spiritual personality by her own right and had a following. She stayed all her life at Chandannagar. Sri Aurobindo claimed that he received three messages on a mystical plane from Sri Ramakrishna between 1908 and 1912.

By his own admission, Sri Ramakrishnas influence on the development of his spiritual life was profound. He said to a disciple: Remember also that we derive from Ramakrishna. For myself it was Ramakrishna who personally came and first turned me to this Yoga. He also claimed that Swamiji mystically communicated to him various instructions in meditation during his imprisonment for a year. He said: Vivekananda in Alipore jail gave me the foundations of that knowledge which is the basis of our Sadhana. Considering these two statements alone, if one presumes that he held Ramakrishna- Vivekananda as his Guru one would not be wrong. Those two spiritual phenomena in his life are ample reason to believe that Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were pathfinders in his mystical journey.

That his mind was suffused with their thoughts is evident from many of his religious and philosophical writings which exude their ideas eloquently. In an editorial piece of Dharma (26 Poush 1316) with the heading Sri Ramakrishna O Bhabishyat Bharat, he said with an absolute faith to show that Sri Ramakrishna was the highest manifestation of the power of God. He wrote: The man appeared as Sri Ramakrishna is the Antaryami Bhagawan. He had also written unequivocally, Satya-yuga arrived on earth by the touch of Sri Ramakrishnas feet; the world is dipped in joy in his touch; with his Advent, the gloom accumulated over centuries disappeared. He established Yuga-dharma, and was the sum total of all the earlier Avataras. Sri Aurobindo was convinced that Sri Ramakrishna gave to India the final message of Hinduism to the world.

Similarly, his estimation about Swamiji was tremendous. He described him as a very lion among men. He said: The going forth of Vivekananda, marked out by the Master (Sri Ramakrishna) as the heroic soul destined to take the world between his two hands and change it, was the first visible sign to the world that India was awake not only to survive but to conquer. Sri Aurobindo was a prolific writer on the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. His interpretations of these important scriptures were in the non-sectarian spirit of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. In a treatise on Isha Upanishad he reflected on Sri Ramakrishnas precept of non-difference (abhedatwa) between Brahman and Shakti. Sri Ramakrishna is specially conspicuous in his book The Life Divine. He used in it in the parables and analogies used by Sri Ramakrishna. Developing Sri Ramakrishnas teaching that everything is possible for God, Sri Aurobindo claims that the infinite is illimitably free, free to determine itself infinitely, free from all of its restraining effect of its own creations.

Again, as Sri Ramakrishna said God is both with and without form, so also Sri Aurobindo said that the Divine Being is at once Form and the Formless. There are numerous such instances in his works which he believed deserve allusions for the benefit of the seekers of Truth and God. According to Sri Aurobindo, all religions express one Truth in various ways and move by various paths to one goal. In the final analysis Vedanta propounds that the Infinite Reality is at once personal and impersonal, static and dynamic, with and without form, immanent and transcendent.

He affirmed the harmony of all religions precisely on the basis of this non-sectarian Vedantic worldview, faithfully following Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The actual revolutionary activity of Sri Aurobindo spanned hardly four years. But his spiritual pursuit spanned four decades. Within this period he raised himself by intense sadhana to be an extraordinary yogi of distinctive character and epitome. Cutting across classes, communities and countries, he is now globally acceptable as a spiritual pathfinder for peace and harmony.

(The writer is with Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur)

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Revolutionary to Yogi - The Statesman

Shortly after dawn in Kolkata, India, musky plumes of incense waft through the passageways of Das Gupta & Co. bookstore, diffusing among the decades-old volumes on its steep mahogany shelves. The smoke billows out of the shops peeling, pale-blue doors and onto Kolkatas College Street, the largest secondhand book market in the world.

Each morning, as part of a common Hindu tradition known as puja, a daily prayer ritual usually intended to praise a deity, the bespectacled Arabinda Das Gupta swings a brass censer around his old shop. He is a fourth-generation bookseller; the object of his worship is the written word. Puja concentrates your mind on the books, he says. Theres chaos and movement before, but then the words go still like grains of rice. I need that sense of calm to go about my days work in this place.

Das Guptas shop is the oldest in the entire market. When Arabindas great-grandfather, Girish Chandra Das Gupta, arrived in Kolkata in 1886, he had little competition. Very few books were available at the time, so he imported them to meet demand, he says. The shop opened that year with a noble mission: the spreading of knowledge. It had just 50 books.

Nowadays, the market can trade that many books in a few minutes. College Street, known by locals as Boi Para (which roughly translates to Book Town), spans more than a mile and covers a million square feet. Bigwigs of Bengali publishing coexist with makeshift stalls hammered together from wood, bamboo, tin, and canvas, in a chaotic matrix that runs from Mahatma Gandhi Road to Ganesh Chandra Avenue.

College Street has every imaginable type of text, available in Bengali, English, Mandarin, Sanskrit, Dutch, and every dialect in between. Precious first editions and literary classics sit cheek by jowl with medical encyclopedias, religious texts, and pulp fiction, often precariously stacked in uneven piles that resemble jagged cliff faces. Wily booksellers peer from raised wooden stalls; bearded collectors rifle through stock; mothers drag first-year university students through the aisles to collect their required reading.

The old-world charm of College Street may not last forever, however. Flyovers and shopping malls have sprung up across the city, courtesy of rapid modernization projects that are flattening unique histories. More than a century after the book market was founded, some booksellers are worried that change is coming to College Street.

Kolkatas rich literary heritage dates back to the 18th century, when the East India Company helped to make it a major printing center. Under Lord Wellesley, the British colonial governor who organized construction of the citys central roads, the Hindu College was built in 1817, later followed by the Calcutta Medical College, the first medical school in the country, in 1852 and the University of Calcutta in 1857. These colleges set up a syndicate with several shops in the 1870s, catering to Indias intelligentsia and British colonizers alike, and College Street market was born.

Decades ago, the British poet and translator Joe Winter described College Street as a planet littered with books, a crazed sales pitch wherever one looks. His description still rings true. Yellow and green tuk-tuks, or auto-rickshaws, fly by; men drag carts of books; bicyclists squeeze through narrow gaps with bags of books balanced on their handlebars. Even more books arrive on the citys technicolor buses and yellow taxis, which are shaped like turtle shells.

Although books arent a necessity like they once were, with so many alternative ways of getting information, somehow we keep going, says Pinaki Majumdar of APC Ray, arms tucked pensively behind him. He wears the unofficial College Street uniform: a striped, short-sleeve shirt and a round belly that belies the sedentary lifestyle of a reader and Kolkatas fried street food. Majumdar is one of the longest-serving of the cheeky, chattering booksellers. APC Ray bookstore was set up in 1910, boasting of rare editions from Bengali greats such as Rabindranath Tagore and Jibanananda Das. Books are everything to me, adds Majumdar. I started reading when I was just five years old and never stopped. I even love them more than my wife.

But a new development could cut deeply into the business of the hawkers who have thrived here. For years, the state government has been pushing ahead with an ambitious, centralized book mall that will stretch over a million square feet, as large a floorspace as all of the existing bookstores combined.

According to the projects architects, the Barnaparichay Mall is to launch next summer, and will offer sleek, modern boutiques, a library, an auction center, translation services, and cafs. The mall is to enrich the book culture and habits of Kolkata, says Sankalan Tatar, of the architecture firm Prakalpa Planning Solutions. It will be an integrated book mall. Literature, life, and leisure will be under one roof. This will be the most happening place in north Kolkata.

Traditional booksellers fear that the mall will threaten the traditions of College Street. The place will be soulless, says Das Gupta. But Im worried that people will prefer the cheap prices and comfort of the book mall, so Im considering taking a place there. For some of the less-established booksellers, the malls rental prices will be prohibitive. The book mall is too expensive for me to move, says Ranjit Biswas, owner of a cupboard-sized stall full of dusty books. I couldnt even if I wanted to.

According to Tatar, some concessions will be made. For example, on Sundays, the malls escalators will be switched off for two hours, allowing the makeshift booksellers to come into the mall and ply their trade in certain spaces.

Many booksellers remain unconvinced. At the markets famous Indian Coffee House on Bankim Chatterjee Street, a historic meeting spot for Kolkatas writers and thinkers, the mall is a constant subject of adda, the Bengali art of wide-ranging conversation, often practiced here among students.

Akashleena Bhaduri, a third-year engineering student at the University of Kolkata, sips on a sugary coffee and makes the case for the book mall. This place is outdated, the roads are dirty, the hygiene is poor, and in the summer its unbearably hot, Bhaduri says. Ohit Banerjee, a postgraduate researching comparative Indian language and literature, fires back. My elders told me that Mahatma Gandhi bought a rare book from here, and that he said it was a special place, he says. We must protect it.

Whatever awaits Kolkatas College Street in its next chapter, the community has already survived innumerable challenges. It has been through two world wars, has managed to remain a center of political and literary activism since the 1930s, and witnessed the beginning of the revolutionary Naxalite movement in the 1970s. According to Das Gupta, violent protests broke out against the stocking of controversial books, such as D.H. Lawrences Lady Chatterleys Lover. On May 30, 2004, his shop suffered a fire that caused enormous damage and destroyed maps of Bengal dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.

Still, College Street has gone on to become the beating heart of Indias literary world, with intellectuals such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, a Harvard economist and frequent visitor, making it a home away from home. Institutions such as the fifth-generation Bani Library, known for its science collection, and Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, a religious center established in 1941, has made it a pillar in the citys identity. These achievements, the booksellers say, can never be taken away.

During a rare moment of afternoon calm, Das Gupta sits down for a chai masala, boiled in huge pots and served in tiny, ceramic cups. In the background, booksellers lean lazily over their stalls; others squat down low to gossip, or calmly leaf through thick tomes. There is a sense of togetherness. This is the way that I see it, he says, widening his silver eyebrows. Weve written this history and we wont be forgotten.

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The tribe finally completed a ceremony interrupted by a massacre in 1860.

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The Uncertain Future of the World's Largest Secondhand Book Market - Atlas Obscura

Posted: Nov. 23, 2019 5:54 pm Updated: Nov. 23, 2019 5:58 pm

HANNIBAL Head Coach Eric Hill and members of the Hannibal Pirates Varsity Boys Soccer team achieved success through a family atmosphere, looking back on a strong 2019 season with a 17-7 record.

Hill said many underclassmen stepped up for starting positions as the season began seniors Nathan DeStefane and Mason Tharp helped teammates lead by example, and players who secured starting positions during practice felt the need to perform their best in a competitive atmosphere with teammates who were also ready to take the lead. Several family members played together thisyear, like Parker Terrill, his brother, Tristen, and their cousin, Blayde; along with brothers Kolin Westhoff and Karson Westhoff and first-cousins Tharp and Kayne Whitley. From practice sessions to games, the players and their coach became a close-knit group.

They cared for each other and they wanted to win, Hill said. They talked each other up, tried to pump each other up, instead of getting onto somebody if they made a mistake. They tried get them to stay positive and keep it going for the next one.

The team members felt the same way about how Hill created a positive and challenging environment for each athlete, regardless of their skill level. He coaches boys and girls soccer teams from second grade through junior varsity and varsity levels, making himself available to athletes and parents on a daily basis.He also leads the athletes on a yearly Kickin' Cancer fundraiser to benefit the Patient Assistance Fund at the James E. Cary Cancer Center.

His personality is as good as his coaching, Kolin Westhoff said. DeStefane felt that Hill made a profound impact on his life.

Coach Hill has been a consistent role model for me these last four years. He pushes me to be successful on the soccer field and with my academics. Coach is someone that I look up to on the soccer field as well as in everyday life. His influence has had an impact on my actions how I carry myself (on or off the field) and how I treat others, DeStefane said. He develops a personal relationship with all students and players in an attempt to bring the best out of everyone. I would not be the athlete I am today or more importantly the person that I am today without the guidance, leadership and compassion that Coach Hill has used to greatly affect my life.

Tharp remembered how he came to Hill, who got him into soccer his freshman year with no prior experience. Hillkept pushing me all four years to get better and better. Looking back on his senior year and all the skills he developed, Tharp is now at a place where he can play for a college team.

He just never let me quit, Tharp said.

Hill said the season consisted of many close games consisting of one, two or three goals. Those games helped the players respond effectively to thetight level of competition and fight for every win. Hill said the hard work and willingness to step up from underclassmen along with the effective leadership from upperclassmen led to a successful result.

This team exceeded expectations for just about everybody, including myself, Hill said. I didn't think that we would have the record that we would have I thought that we would be OK I didn't think that we would finish 17-7.

Tristen Terrill said the team played together well based on trust between the teammates. He said it was pretty cool to have his brother, Parker, as goalie and his cousin, Blayde, playing defense as center back. And he was quick to commend all the other players who worked together.

Honestly, the whole team was kind of like brothers, and you could trust any of them always count on everyone, he said. Everyone's been like family.

tmcdonald@courierpost.com

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Band of brothers - Hannibal.net

DeShena Woodard is happy.

Shes working full time in her dream job as an RN, running her own financial blog and living in a suburb outside of Houston.

From the outside looking in, youd never guess this got-it-all-together professional was recently struggling.

Just a few years ago, Woodard was anxious. Every dollar she made at her part-time job was earmarked for a bill to pay someone else. She had nothing in savings and was growing weary of living paycheck to paycheck.

In this series, NerdWallet interviews people who have triumphed over debt. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Woodard was spending more than she earned, something she refers to as living extravagantly broke. (Appropriately, Extravagantly Broke is now the name of her blog.)

Thats when things changed. With her children getting older and her own education complete, Woodard was in a position to begin working full time. She upped her salary to approximately $75,000 in 2017 (a sizable increase from about $50,000 in 2016) and undertook a financial journey.

While her husband paid down household debt, Woodard worked on paying her own. She shifted her focus from habits like buying new clothes and overspending on Christmas to holding on to things longer instead of replacing them. She bought only what she needed and rarely what she wanted. Her lifestyle went from extravagant to frugal.

And it worked.

Between January 2017 and August 2019, Woodard paid off $51,754 in debt a combination of credit cards, auto loans and a personal loan.

She paid off a Nissan auto loan, hefty credit card charges for her schooling that had been building up and expenses for her daughter.

Nowadays, shes living comfortably and is still getting used to small victories like seeing money building in her bank account. The best part? Woodard says shes doing better emotionally.

I feel much happier not having any debt and driving a Nissan than I would having a lot of debt driving a Mercedes.

Heres how she paid off debt and what she learned along the way, in her own words.

What triggered your decision to start getting out of debt?

I was not happy with the current state of my finances. I was stressed and anxious about money all the time. I knew that what I was doing wasnt working and decided to make a change. I changed my attitude toward money and that is what led to a change in my spending behavior. I made the choice to live a comfortable life instead of an extravagantly broke one.

How did you prioritize your debts?

I was paying all of them at the same time, but I was paying more on some than others. For one credit card, I was paying $500 a month and the other one $300. On my car, I was paying double. But once I got both credit cards paid off, then I was able to pay triple on my car.

For me, I needed to see that they were all moving in the right direction. Thats just what worked better for me. For some people, it may be better to just pay one thing off at a time if thats what you can do.

How has your life changed for the better since you got out of debt?

My life has definitely changed for the better since being out of debt. For one thing, I can sleep better at night. Im not always worried about being able to pay my bills. I am now at the point where I forget when payday is. And I often go for more than a week before even checking my bank account to make sure that I did get paid.

How do you remain debt-free today?

I have become much more money savvy and I dont make spur-of-the-moment purchases. Every spending decision has to be well thought out. I stick to using cash or debit. And I budget for everything.

What made you start your blog?

I know there are people out there like me. For me, it took a mindset shift. Until we can change our thinking, its hard to change our behavior. In my writing, I focus a lot on mindset, trying to dive a little deeper. I can just give you tips, but until something changes mentally, it all just washes over people.

It really takes this sort of self-discovery. You really need to think deep and figure out what is the reason that you need that? Why do you need this car versus that car? Or do you really need another car? Whats wrong with the car you have? Would it be more affordable to fix that up or put a little money into it versus pay a monthly car payment that youre going to be responsible for for the next 60 months or however many months of your life?

What is your next goal?

Im working toward becoming a certified life coach so that I can begin coaching people on their mindset and their money to help them bridge the gap and get over the hurdle of why theyre spending.

How to ditch your own debt

In addition to shifting her thinking, Woodard implemented several money-saving strategies. Used in combination, they were effective in reducing her spending and paying down her debt. Here are a few you can try, too:

There are also some universal strategies to keep debt at bay. Here are a few of NerdWallets top tips:

More From NerdWallet

Courtney Jespersen is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: courtney@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @CourtneyNerd.

The article How I Ditched Debt: From Extravagantly Broke to Comfortably Frugal originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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She ditched more than $50,000 in debt and you can too: Heres how - OregonLive.com

As a writer, it's not often that I find myself at a loss for words. Friday night around 11 p.m. was one of those times.

I had just received a text from a good friend of mine, informing me that longtime Freeland girls' basketball coach Tom Zolinski had passed away. Initially, I simply could not believe what I was reading. My immediate reaction was, "That can't be true."

Unfortunately, as I quickly learned, it was all too true.

Once the reality of that news set in, my next reaction was sadness just piercing, overwhelming sadness. It's always stunning when someone you know pretty well dies unexpectedly. It doesn't matter how often one experiences that news. It never gets any easier, and it's always gut-wrenching.

Choking back some hot tears, I inquired as to the cause of Tom's death and was told that the cause was yet to be determined. As of this writing Saturday afternoon, it's still a mystery. What is not a mystery, though, is why I have been hearing so much feedback from folks in the local sports community sharing their thoughts, prayers, and memories of Tom and praising him for a life well-lead.

From what I can gather, he was loved, respected, admired, and cherished ... and he will be missed dearly.

Freeland coach Tom Zolinski meets with his players during a timeout in a Division 2 quarterfinal game vs. Cadillac last March.

Freeland coach Tom Zolinski meets with his players during a timeout in a Division 2 quarterfinal game vs. Cadillac last March.

Photo: Daily News File Photo

Freeland coach Tom Zolinski meets with his players during a timeout in a Division 2 quarterfinal game vs. Cadillac last March.

Freeland coach Tom Zolinski meets with his players during a timeout in a Division 2 quarterfinal game vs. Cadillac last March.

Kelly: Zolinski left wonderful legacy of humility, success, and class

It does not surprise me one iota to hear all of the aforementioned comments about Tom Zolinski. It's been said many times already today, but I will definitely say it again he was a great coach and even better person.

I think it is easy to overlook how good a coach Tom was based on the fact that Freeland has produced a string of excellent female basketball players over the past many years. But, as more than one coach has pointed out to me today, simply having good players does not necessarily result in multiple conference, district, and regional championships. Someone still has to guide them, to promote team chemistry, and to assure that the parts function smoothly as a unit. And by all counts, Tom was masterful at getting the very best out of his players both superstars and role players alike.

Having covered Tom's teams for the past 12 years, I can say without reservation that his Falcons have always been some of my favorite teams to cover for three simple reasons: they always played uber hard, they always played smart basketball, and (here's my favorite thing) they always played together SO well.

A great example of that was Tom's 2017 team, which had no superstars like Tori Jankoska or Taryn Taugher but which still managed to win its first 26 games and reach the Class B state semifinals before finally losing for the first and only time. No, that team didn't have a superstar, but what it did have was a bunch of girls who bought into the team-first concept, who shared the ball beautifully and crisply, and who valued the importance of defense. A lot of credit goes to those players for embracing that model, but a lot of credit also goes to Tom for fostering a team atmosphere where everyone understood her role and flourished in it.

Let's face it, a coach doesn't string together the run of conference, district, and regional championships that Tom did in his 12 years at Freeland without knowing what he's doing and without having the trust of his players.

And that brings us to Tom Zolinski, the man.

All day today I've been hearing stories of how Tom cared deeply about his players (a fact which was always evident whenever he'd talk about them in postgame interviews), about how he excelled at building relationships with his players, and about how he would even go have lunch with Freeland's elementary schoolers in order to form a bond with his future players early in their young lives. That, to me, is going above and beyond the norm, and that probably goes a long way toward explaining why Tom's players seemed to love playing for him.

My personal experience with Tom was nothing but positive. Of course, it's tempting to paint an individual in glowing colors after he or she is gone. But when folks call Tom Zolinski a "great man," I can honestly say without hesitation that my experience with him supports that claim 100 percent.

During his 12 years at the Falcons' helm, I had the pleasure of covering his teams dozens of times, including many, many postseason games. Never not once did Tom EVER treat me with anything but graciousness, respect, and courtesy whenever I interviewed him, and that includes some tough interviews following heartbreaking postseason losses.

He was never surly, never defensive, never standoffish. When his teams won a big game, he was polite and humble. And when his teams lost a big game, he was even-keeled and reflective. But never grouchy. One of his more endearing qualities was that, for all of his on-court success and hard work, he invariably gave ALL the credit to his players. As I've said, he was nothing if not humble.

I recall driving down to the Breslin Center or, rather, attempting to drive down to the Breslin Center for Freeland's state semifinal game in March 2017. Along the way, around St. Johns, my car broke down, and I was forced to sit in a cold car in a cold parking lot, watching the snow fall while awaiting assistance and knowing that I was going to have to miss the game. I was so disappointed. I felt that I was letting Tom down, I was letting his team down, and I was letting our readers down by not being there.

The very next morning, I called Tom and personally apologized for having missed the game. Rather than upbraid me for not being there (or rather than even hint at being disappointed by my absence), Tom's immediate reaction was to make sure I was OK and to give me some terrific advice. "Go see my brother at McDonald Ford in Freeland," he said. "He'll get you a good deal on a nice car. I guarantee it."

Well, I took Tom's advice, and sure enough: his brother Steve and the staff at McDonald bent over backward to get me financed for a low-mileage Chrysler 200 the same car I'm driving today and the best car I've ever owned. Suffice it to say that I was and still am very grateful to Tom and to his brother for that gesture.

More than a couple of people, such as local coaches and players and acquaintances of Tom's, have told me today that they will miss Tom greatly and that the basketball community will not be the same without him. All I can say to that is, "Amen." I, too, will miss Tom fiercely.

I will miss his smiling face. I will miss his easygoing demeanor. I will miss hisfirmhandshake and warm chuckle. I will miss watching him mold young girls into an incredible basketball-playing machine. I will miss his self-effacing praise for the players under his tutelage. But most of all, I will miss his friendship.

How will Freeland girls' basketball go on without Tom? Who will coach the team in his stead? Will future generations of Freeland basketball players enjoy similar success? I have no idea yet. But I do know that Tom's legacy will live on in the lives of the players he loved so dearly. And, hopefully, that dedication to molding young people into winners both in sports and in life will trickle down from his former players to many future generations to come.

In short, Tom may be gone, but I have a feeling that his positive influence will continue to be felt in more ways than he could've possibly imagined.

I think Tom would be so incredibly pleased to hear what Tori Jankoska had to say about him Saturday morning. I think she summed up Tom's impact on his players' lives beautifully.

"Coach Z ... coached all of us from the beginning (of our basketball careers), but it was never about the wins. He made us all laugh and fall in love with going to practice and playing the game we love with our best friends," said Jankoska, who is now coaching young women at Missouri State University. "He brought light to anyone around him. He guided us in life. He created memories that will last a lifetime on and off the court. I can only hope to touch players' lives the way he did mine."

Who can ask for a better legacy than that?

Fred Kelly is a sportswriter for the Daily News.

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Kelly: Zolinski left wonderful legacy of humility, success, and class - Midland Daily News