The umbrella yaga

June 23, 2011

Mangalore, June 23: Since there has been no rain in Dakshina Kannada for the past several days Baba Narendra Dev, decided to go on a severe fast unto death between breakfast and lunch.

As it was approaching lunch time, Devendra, the god in charge of rain appeared and told him that he would have been glad to give rain, but there were some 81 students of Gandhi Nagar Higher Primary school in Mangalore who would suffer as they had no umbrellas!

Said Devendra -o my son supply umbrellas to 81of them and I shall give you rain. So, it was decided to hold a yagna called as Chatri Yagna in other words the umbrella ritual! In the state of Karnataka or probably anywhere in India it is not considered as strange to marry frogs, donkeys, dig up dead bodies and perform prayers for rain. The Chief Minister B S Yaddiyurappa has gone on record that it was he who prayed and got rain for the state last year. But when floods resulted he blamed dams in Andhra Pradesh for them. Recently he and an ex Chief Minister of Karnataka had a dispute which they wanted to settle in the presence of a temple deity by taking oaths!

But of course the young children of the Gandhi Nagar Higher primary school would have none of that. Before handing over umbrellas to them we asked them whether it would rain if they were given umbrellas- they said no. When we asked them, whether performing marriages between frogs or donkeys causes rain they said no. When asked whether performing pujas would bring rains they gave a derisive laugh. So, it is the prerogative of the adults particularly the political class to bring superstitions into every aspect of life!

It was a group of happy children who received their umbrellas. In the past week we had given them note books which we have been doing since a decade. The help from us rationalists come without strings- we do not ask them to sing songs of worship to any god, we don't want our photos to be put up in their premises but we ask them only one thing- to put things to the test of reason before you accept them!

We know that this is no great aid but a small deed for us who have to use our hard earned money for such work. The Gandhi Nagar govt. higher primary school has been a recipient of such help from us. This school has students from the socially and economically back ward sections and we try our best to help them. Dr. Srinivas Kakkilaya an active member of our movement and an old student of the school was also present.

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News Network
May 26,2020

Newsroom, May 26: A migrant worker died of hunger while a 10-month-old boy suffering from fever and breathing difficulties died negligence in two separate incidents onboard Shramik Special trains in Uttar Pradesh.

The 46-year-old dead migrant worker’s nephew, who was accompanying him, said that the victim had not eaten anything in the last 60 hours.

Raveesh Yadav said that no food or water was provided on the train, which they had boarded from Mumbai to travel to their native place in Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav and his uncle were working as construction workers in Mumbai.

Yadav told the paper that the train had left the Lokmanya Terminal in Mumbai, at 7pm on May 20 and arrived at its final stop, Varanasi Cantonment station, at 7.30am on May 23.

“But my uncle, who was complaining of hunger and pain all over his body, fainted half an hour before we reached Varanasi Cantonment and died within a few minutes,” Raveesh was quoted as saying.

He added that he and his uncle were hungry when they boarded the train but could not find food or water to buy.

Railways’ apathy

Meanwhile, the family of 10 month old child, who died in the train, alleged that the railways did not arrange for a doctor despite their repeated pleas.

The railway doctors had been moved to Covid-19 hospitals and by the time a doctor was provided at Tundla railway station, it was too late, the report quoted the child's grandfather, Dev Lal, as saying.

Lal said that the family members had tried to speak to the GRP at many stations, including at Aligarh, where the train had halted. "But they showed no interest and said any help would be available only in Tundla,” Lal said.

Railways officials then took the kin to a quarantine centre in Tundla, as they suspected that the baby had died because of the novel coronavirus.  It was only on Monday that the incident came to light when another individual at the quarantine facility intimated journalists after the condition of the child's mother worsened.

Last November, the mother of the child, Priyanka Devi of Bihar's Notan village in West Champaran, had gone to visit her parents who reside in Noida with the baby, who was then just four months old. Her husband Pramod Kumar is a farmer, the report added.

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andh bakth
 - 
Tuesday, 26 May 2020

Vote for BJP and you need only hindutva dont worry about food, job etc.......jai modiji

very sad for baby:(

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mysuru, Mar 6: A woman was murdered by her husband in front of her father in the wee hours of Friday at her home in Hosakamanakoppal, Yelwal hobli here, police said on Friday.

The police said the deceased is Mamatha, a native of Periyapatna who was married to Nagesh of Hosakamanakoppal about seven years ago. The couple has a six-year-old son. Mamatha was Nagesh’s second wife as his first wife had allegedly committed suicide.

It is said that Nagesh was addicted to liquor and gambling and used to fight with Mamatha over petty reasons. 

Yesterday night too, there was a fight between the couple and Mamatha’s father pacified both of them and all of them went to sleep later.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Bhopal, Mar 7: Independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera on Saturday said that he was not in any kind of captivity in Bengaluru and he will meet Chief Minister Kamal Nath soon.

"I was in Bengaluru for my daughter's medical treatment. I was not in any kind of captivity. I will meet CM Kamal Nath soon," Shera told reporters here upon returning to Bhopal from Bengaluru.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh alleged that the BJP had escorted four Madhya Pradesh MLAs, including three from his party, to Bengaluru.

"Last night, two charter planes were booked by BJP to take MLAs to Bengaluru. One was a 9-seater plane while the other was 12-seater. In the 12-seater plane, four MLAs were taken to Bengaluru. Out of them, three Congress MLAs Bisahulal Singh, Raghuraj Kansana and Hardeep Dang and one Independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera," Singh had said.

He has accused BJP of resorting to horse-trading in order to bring down the Kamal Nath government.

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