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“There is always a place in my heart for you” Sadhguru tells inmates of TN prisons

By
The Commune
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Continuing Isha Foundation’s ongoing commitment to bring wellbeing to prisoners, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev interacted with inmates of prisons across Tamil Nadu in a one-hour live session on November 9. The interaction was organized by Mr. Sunil Kumar Singh, DGP, Tamil Nadu Prison Department.

Sadhguru spoke about icons like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela who used their prison terms for inner transformation and made lasting contributions to humanity. Stressing on the futility of resisting the inevitable, Sadhguru said that prisoners must work towards creating a joyful state within themselves regardless of external circumstances. For this, one must understand the basics of the mind, said Sadhguru. “Whatever you say you don’t want, will happen in your mind. Do not decide what you don’t want. Decide what you want,” he urged his listeners and demonstrated the mechanics of the mind by involving them in a short experiment.

“For the next 10 seconds, do not think of monkeys. Give it a try. Can you do it? Your mind is full of monkeys, isn’t it? Your mind is not doing what you want it to do. If you say, ’I don’t want monkeys,’ it will think only of monkeys.”  Isha’s Yogic practices are designed to bring inner balance and harmony and gain mastery over body, mind, emotions and energy.

Sadhguru answered several questions from the prisoners mostly related to mental wellbeing and dealing with crippling negative emotions such as fear, loneliness, guilt, shame and anger. Sadhguru encouraged daily practice of Isha Kriya and other modules that will help them recover from psychological trauma.

In response to the DGP’s question on how to make it easier for prisoners to find employment once they complete their term, Sadhguru suggested speaking with industry leaders to introduce a process that would make it easier for former inmates to find mainstream

In a Deepavali message to prisoners, Sadhguru said “You are not with your family.  But, I am with you. There is always a place in my heart for you. Make good use of the time you spend in prison,” he said adding, “No one can fix what happened yesterday but we can create what needs to happen tomorrow.”

Isha trained Yoga teachers conducted online Yoga sessions for a total of 8165 male prisoners, 3453 female prisoners and 3971 prison staff during the pandemic. The sessions were held at the request of the State Prison Department.  Isha has been conducting Yoga sessions, specially designed by Sadhguru for prisoners, for over two decades in Tamil Nadu prisons.

Indian-American Vivek Murthy to co-lead Biden’s COVID task force

By
The Commune
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Dr Vivek Murthy, an Indian American and a prominent face in the US, having served as a Surgeon General, has been selected to co-chair the COVID-19 task force commissioned by Joe Biden. He is one of the three co-chairs who will be guiding Biden in handling with the pandemic.

Murthy, whose family hails from Karnataka, received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, and pursued MD and MBA from Yale University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and later joined the Harvard Medical School as faculty in internal medicine. He has served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, and will have a tough job on hand tackling the pandemic, with the USA leading the world in COVID-19 figures.

Dr Beth Cameron and Dr Rebecca Katz are serving as advisors to the Transition on COVID-19 and will work closely with the Advisory Board. The Covid-19 Advisory Board will help guide the Biden-Harris Transition in planning for the President-elect’s robust federal response, the media release said.

Transwoman denied property rights by family, RDO invokes Transgender Persons Act

By
The Commune
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Oorvasi Gandhi, a transwoman hailing from Usilampatti has lodged a complaint with National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP) for being denied her share of property by her family.

A copy of the complaint accessed by The Commune stated that Oorvasi’s father and elder brother had refused her share of the property adding that they have even started cultivation in the land in question.

Oorvasi had approached the District Superintendent of Police of Madurai but only a namesake enquiry is said to have happened.

Following this, Oorvasi had submitted her complaint to the South Representative of the NCTP Mr. Gopi Shankar Madurai. It was confirmed by Gopi that the actual property documents mentions Oorvasi’s birth name thereby making her the rightful owner of the property.

He called for an urgent intervention citing Section 3 (g) of the The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 which says: “the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment with regard to the right to reside, purchase, rent, or otherwise occupy any property;” is prohibited.

An empathetic Usilampatti Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) K. V. Rajkumar, had invoked the same provision and made the family members agree to resolve the dispute. This is one of the first such instance where a sub-divisional magistrate had invoked the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act to secure the rights of a Transgender person.

Dampened fireworks, dampened Deebavali

By
The Commune
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Over the last few years, there have been several attempts by several ‘activists’ and lobbies to enforce a ban on crackers during Deebavali, citing air/noise pollution and ‘welfare’ of animals. This had already been a worry for the firecracker industry in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. The Wuhan virus pandemic and the announcements made by several state governments on a ban on bursting crackers pointing that it would lead to breathing trouble for COVID patients, has only added to their woes.

Now, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday (November 10) banned the sale and use of firecrackers across the country from November 9-10 till November 30-December 1 midnight in areas which fall under the ‘poor’ and ‘worse’ category. This has served as another death blow to the fireworks industry which has already been reeling under losses due to different factors.

Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu accounts for nearly 90% of the country’s fireworks production and has more than 1,070 firecracker units in and around the city. The firecrackers manufactured in factories at Sivakasi are valued at nearly ₹2,500 crore while the retail sales are estimated at nearly ₹6,000 crore. This year the production is valued at nearly ₹1,800 crore.

The NCR, Punjab, Rajasthan and other north Indian states are the major firecracker markets that accounts for around 40% of the Sivakasi fireworks industry’s sales. It is estimated that the ban will cause a loss of ₹800 crore to the industry this year and will directly and indirectly affect 8 lakh workers proving fatal to the Sivakasi firecracker industry, which trades worth ₹3,500 crore annually. There are several other industries like printing, paper boards, among others, dependent on the firecracker industry employing lakhs of people. All these will be impacted with the ban on fireworks.

Today, those seeking ban say that bursting firecrackers causes air/noise pollution. Tomorrow, they will come up with the some finding and say that light emitted by fireworks causes injuries to eyes. It is the urban ‘educated’ bourgeoise that mouths these arguments while sitting in the comfort of the airconditioned rooms and travelling in automobiles which does much more harm to the environment.

The argument that bursting firecrackersduring Deebavali is a no brainer as unlike the automobile pollution, the firecracker emissions are not dangerous and soon disperse in the air. Also, with COVID being repeatedly cited as the reason, it is to be noted that the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan saw entire Uttar Pradesh celebrating with fireworks when the number of cases were on the rise. Now, the blanket ban makes no sense as the cases too have been on the decline.

Firecracker manufacturers in Sivakasi say the demand for firecrackers has dropped by 35% since the onset of the Wuhan virus outbreak and that states like Goa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have not been able to buy large quantities of firecrackers during Ganesha Chaturthi this year. Also, with festivals and weddings that happen with great pomp and show getting toned down in celebrations, it has severely impacted sales.

With just a few days to go for Deebavali, many vendors are said to be canceling orders as many states continue to ban the firing and sale of firecrackers even after issuing licenses for sale. It is feared that the firecracker industry will suffer irreparable losses if this continues.

The industry has already been impacted by National Green Tribunal’s order on manufacturing ‘green fireworks’. Fireworks manufacturer associations lament that all the money, time and effort in producing green firecrackers this year as per the orders of the NGT has now gone in vain.

The loss to the firecracker industry is likely to affect the livelihoods of thousands of workers who have for generations involved themselves in this profession with no skilling in any other profession.

While there has been a lot of talk about making India ‘Atmanirbhar’, there seems to be incoherence in policies between the Centre and State governments in promoting native labour intensive industries. With the crackdown on Chinese fireworks domestically and a strong anti-China sentiment across the world, Sivakasi has the potential to become a world player in fireworks. Nowhere in the world has any country banned fireworks during the Wuhan virus while celebrating their festivals. However, the short-sighted move of several state governments and the NGT has dampened not just the fireworks but also the prospects of an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

(With inputs from IANS)

The 8-year old football player from Imphal who plays with a single limb

By
The Commune
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Kunal Shrestha, a Class 4 student from Imphal in Manipur has made the headlines after a video of him playing football with one limb went viral on social media. He belongs to a family that sells popsicles and snacks in their locality. While assisting them, he used to often chance upon ‘nobab’, the Chinese grapefruit, that he used to kick around. This developed a penchant for the sport in him. His parents reported that even as a kid, he had always shown interest in football more than cartoons.

Kunal was born with a single limb, which had, for a long time, been the cause of worry for his parents. But his mother had never wanted him to feel different from the other kids and said that Kunal had himself always been a kid with a high self esteem. She said that he had even learnt to ride a bicycle on his own.

Speaking to ANI, Kunal said, “I love playing football. Initially, I faced problems in balancing, I was scared but now I have gained confidence. My friends support me a lot. I hope I will score a goal soon.”

Kunal went on to say that his inspiration was Ajay Chhetri from Bengaluru FC, who is from the same area as Kunal, which is Kanglatongbi.

6 year old from Gujarat makes it to the Guinness book as the world’s youngest programmer

By
The Commune
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Arham Om Talsania, a 6-year-old boy from Ahmedabad in Gujarat has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records after becoming the world’s youngest programmer. This Class 2 student has cleared the Microsoft certification exam at Pearson VUE test centre.

“My father taught me coding. I started using tablets when I was 2 years old. At the age of 3, I bought gadgets with iOS and Windows. Later, I got to know that my father was working on Python,” Talsania told ANI. “When I got my certificate from Python, I was creating small games. After some time, they asked me to send some proof of work. A few months later, they approved me and I got the Guinness World Record certificate,” he said.

His father Om Talsania, who is a software engineer, had taught him how to program after observing that his son had been very much into tablets and such from a very young age. “Since he was very young he was very much interested in gadgets. He used to play games on tablet devices. He also used to solve puzzles. When he developed an interest in playing video games, he thought to create it. He used to see me doing coding,” he said.

Arham went on to tell ANI that he aspired to become a business entrepreneur one day and help the needy. He said that his aim was to create apps that benefitted the needy, as well as games.

Islamic State affiliate in Mozambique behead 50 people and dismember bodies

By
The Commune
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Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabab associated with ISIS has beheaded more than 50 people in the southern African nation of  Mozambique. Some of the dead include teenage children and authorities also found bodies of dismembered victims scattered across a forest clearing.

 

ISIS linked terrorists cried ‘Allahu Akbar’ and turned the football ground into a killing field beheading several innocents children. The terrorists also raided and abducted some of the women as per reports from the BBC.

The Islamic jihadists also attacked several nearby villages over the weekend where they indulged in looting and burning down homes before disappearing into the jungle.

Authorities said the killing was so brutal in nature, they could only send body parts to the families and the bodies had also decomposed.  

Since 2017, more than two thousand people have been killed by Islamists in Mozambique and four lakh people have been displaced as vast swathes of lands have also fallen under the control of this Islamic terror group. 

Mozambique has been under the grip of Islamic terror for a while and this attack gruesome attack comes as ISIS-linked extremists try to establish an Islamist caliphate.

PM Modi lashes out at Pakistan in SCO Summit

By
The Commune
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (November 10) slammed Pakistan without naming and said that repeated attempts are being made to unnecessarily bring bilateral issues into the SCO agenda.

In his virtual address at the 20th Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State, PM Modi said “It is unfortunate that there are unnecessary attempts to bring bilateral issues in the SCO agenda, which is in violation of SCO Charter and Shanghai spirit” adding that India has always been resolute working in sync with the principles laid out in the SCO charter.

In an indirect attack at Pakistan, Prime Minister Modi said “We have always raised our voice against terrorism, smuggling of illegal arms, drugs and money laundering.”

Prime Minister Modi also sent a message to China by saying that member nations must respect each other’s sovereignty.

“India has strong cultural and historical ties with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries. India believes that to enhance connectivity it is important that we move forward while respecting one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Modi said in his address at the SCO summit.”

PM Modi also pitched for a reformed multilateralism that reflects today’s global realities.

The 20th summit of SCO Summit Council Heads is happening virtually due to the COVID19 pandemic. Russian President Vladirmir Putin is the Chairperson for this edition. This was the first time PM Modi and China’s Xi shared the platform virtually after the Galwan Valley incident.

Tanishq takes down its ad once again, this time for preaching not to burst fire crackers during Deebavali

By
The Commune
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After receiving backlash for its ‘Ekatvam’ advertisement in which Tanishq glorified inter-faith marriages neglecting ground realities which was later pulled down by the company, another ad has put the brand in soup again for its unwarranted preaches on bursting crackers during Deebavali.

In its latest ad, four actresses Alaya Furniturewala, Neena Gupta, Nimrat Kaur and Sayani Gupta are seen sharing how they will be celebrating Deebavali this time. 

The ad starts with Sayani Gupta saying “I’m hoping to be able to meet my mum after really long. Definitely no firecrackers. I don’t think anyone should light any firecrackers. But lot of diyas. Lot of laughter hopefully and lot of positivity.“

The video then shows actress Alaya saying that she hopes to eat lots of sweets and food and spending time with her family and close friends.

The only part where something related to jewelry comes up in the ad is when Neena Gupta says that she is planning to “dress up well and wear nice jewellery.”

Soon after the ad was released #BoycottTanishq started trending again with netizens calling out the blatant attempt by the company of its selective targeting of Hindu festivals while a few came out in defence of the ad.

https://twitter.com/dishanksharma87/status/1325919647670001664

In response to Tanishq’s ‘advice’, some ‘adviced’ the company to ‘fire’ its ad firm.

BJP National General Secretary and Chikkamagaluru MLA C.T. Ravi slammed the company saying “Why should anyone advice Hindus how to celebrate our Festivals?” adding that companies must focus on selling their products and not lecture.

BJP leader Gaurav Goel said “Keep your advice to yourself and apply the same for your cheap publicity campaign”

Earning the wrath of netizens once again, Tanishq took down the ad from all its social media pages.

Sayani Gupta, the one who said “I don’t think anybody should burst firecrackers” said in tweet how a ‘universal problem of air pollution was getting ‘politicized’ and ‘bigotted’ in the name of religion.

 

Dalit Panchayat President decides to quit following continued discrimination and harassment

By
The Commune
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A Dalit woman panchayat leader in Sivagangai district has decided to resign following continued caste discrimination and harassment.

Rajeswari Pandi, hails from Kaalpirivu Panchayat near Manamadurai in Sivagangai district. Kaalpirivu Panchayat which was earlier a general constituency became a reserved one for the last election. Rajeswari, belonging to the Dalit community, was elected unopposed in the last local body elections as the Panchayat President.

It was reported that the Vice President of the Panchayat Nagarajan and other members were discriminating Rajeswari because of her caste background.

The Panchayat Council meetings are chaired by the Vice President Nagarajan who belongs to the AIADMK. Rajeswari alleged that apart other ward members of the Panchayat are being told by Nagarajan to not interact with her. She also complained that she was not being allowed to implement development schemes and perform her tasks adding that her bank passbook has also been withheld.

She has lodged several complaints with the Manamadurai Panchayat Commissioner but to no avail.

In light of this, Rajeswari has decided to resign from her post accusing the authorities of functioning in favour of the ruling party.

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
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