Sathya Sai Baba

Kg Ubi-Kembangan ward gears up for ageing population
By Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 April 2007

SINGAPORE: Kampung Ubi-Kembangan constituency is gearing up for an ageing population.

For example, some residents in Eunos Crescent may be getting lifts on every floor.

This was announced at a community event graced by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Twelve blocks in the area have been chosen for the Interim Upgrading Programme Plus.

This means that besides covered walkways, residents from more than 1,800 units will also get their lifts upgraded.

And more may get such improvements in future.

Dr Ong Seh Hong, MP for Marine Parade GRC, said: "Kampong Ubi-Kembangan, we actually have an ageing population here so we need to prepare both the software and the hardware. We need to build infrastructure to make this a barrier-free access precinct and work is in progress. At the same time, we are pushing for lift upgrading for all the blocks here. Besides this precinct, we have a few other precincts, namely one in Lengkong Tiga and another one on Eunos side, plus a few within Ubi. We hope that we can deliver lift upgrading to all the blocks within, maybe, next five years or so."

75 percent of the residents will have to vote in favour of the Interim Upgrading Programme Plus before any improvements can be carried in the next quarter.

Under the programme, the government and the Town Council will subsidise 90-95% of the total costs of upgrading.

The Kampong Ubi-Kembangan Citizens Consultative Committee has also teamed up with the Sathya Sai Social Service and the Southeast Community Development Council to start a dedicated and cheap transport service for the poor, elderly and disabled.

The Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple Association has donated a handicap-friendly van for this purpose.

The van can accommodate about 10 to 12 people and it will ferry residents to and from medical appointments at dialysis centres, hospitals and even polyclinics.

And for those who are disabled, it also comes with features that can help them move around.

"This van is equipped with wheelchair lift. So, for residents, they can move up and down the vehicle very easily. At the same time, we also have a staircrawl which is able to transport residents who do not live on lift landings," said Simon-Peter Lum from the Sathya Sai Social Service.

The cost of using this transport service varies between $2 and $10 for a round trip.

Sunday's town carnival at Kampung Ubi-Kembangan was the constituency's first.

Mr Goh, who is an MP for Marine Parade, presided over a vow renewal ceremony where 88 couples renewed their love and commitment to each other.

He also presented a certificate to the couple who had been married for the most number of years - 58 years! - CNA/ir

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Treating the disabled

During the Tamil New Year (Chitirai) on April 14, devotees went to the temples to pray for good health, peace and prosperity for the nation.

I attended special prayers with my wife at a local temple organised by the Taman Brown Sri Sathya Sai centre.

Disabled children from the welfare homes were treated as special guests. They arrived in wheelchairs and were taken into the temple to be blessed by priests.

After a meal of sweet food (prasatham), the children took part in a special bhajan (singing session). Vegetarian dinner was then served.

Energetic volunteers from youth groups provided excellent service.

While we celebrate happy occasions, we shouldn’t forget about the underprivileged.

It was truly a memorable weekend for us.

N. A. Sundrasekaran, Penang

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Sai Baba declares open new building for devotees

Kodaikanal (TN), April 28. (PTI): Spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba today declared open a new building constructed for accomodating devotees near the Kodaikanal lake.

He later went around the Rs 2.5 crore structure and also participated in a bhajan.

Telugu Desam MP Adhikesavalu received Sai Baba when he arrived for the function in the famous hill resort town.

Reference

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Tokyo's Indians in 'home from home'
By YUMI WIJERS-HASEGAWA
Staff writer

Hari Hara Krishnan knew no one when he arrived in Tokyo in 1997. But thanks to him, fellow Indians have brought a flourishing flavor of home to the government housing project where he lives in the city's Edogawa Ward.

"The objective in coming to Japan was to work and gain international experience," said Hari, 37. "Most of my friends who studied IT (information technology) with me wanted to go to the United States, but I think Japan is a much better country. There are so many good things here -- like convenience, safety and a satisfying job."

After seven years working as a computer engineer in Bombay, Hari first came to Japan to work on contract basis as an IT consultant for a U.S. bank. When the contract ended, he was asked to join the bank's joint venture with Tokyo Marine Co. -- and now he is Systems Director for its financial operations.

Hari's first home in Tokyo was an apartment he rented by the month. Later, when moving to Nishi-Kasai in Edogawa Ward, where an Indian friend he'd met lived, he discovered an area of government housing called Kasai Clean Town where the apartments were nice and also quite large. With the help of friends he was able to move to a home of his own there in 1999.

The huge 1,500-unit complex, built in the late 1980s, is surrounded by parks, a shopping center, three clinics, a post office, a bank, a nursery, a kindergarten and a primary school -- all within minutes of Nishi-Kasai Station on the Tozai subway line.

Hari has since married, and he has a 3-year-old daughter who attends the nursery. Although he was the third Indian to live in Kasai Clean Town, the others left and he is now the longest-standing resident. He has also been a bridge for at least 20 Indian families who have moved there, especially during the 2000-02 IT boom that brought many experts to Japan from India. There are now at least 200 Indian families in the complex, Hari said.

"The nice thing about having many Indians together is that it makes it easy to meet, especially as many husbands in IT come home late. They celebrate holy days like Diwali and Holi together, and they hold functions like Tamil community events, renting a hall when the group is big."

The large Indian community drew stores that cater to them. Long-term resident Jagmohan Chandrani runs two Indian restaurants, a grocery store, an Indian guesthouse and an Indian tea salon in Nishi-Kasai. He plans another eatery, near Kasai Clean Town, for this month.

Manager Manoj Kumar Dewan said the enterprises are run not just for business but to serve the more than 1,500 Indians living in the neighborhood.

"There are language problems in Japan and things are costly. Many Japanese don't know their neighbors, but we Indians help each other," for example by introducing new Indian people to take over from ones moving out, he said.

Dewan boasted that Spice Magic Bazaar, the grocery shop, sells up to 18 types of ready-made curries, 22 types of lentils and 29 types of Indian snacks. It also rents the latest Indian movies, and even sells Indian Colgate toothpaste ("which tastes different from the one here"). And they're all at low prices -- "even fresh coconuts at 650 yen."

"Every month, at least one or two Indian babies are born in the corner clinic. I hope more Indians will move to Nishi-Kasai because of us," Dewan said.

Although some Indians now also marry Japanese, for many it is still important to marry someone with similar background. In Hari's case, his family found his wife in India. She is from the same Brahmin caste, the same town in Madras, and is educated to the same level as him, with both having MBAs.

Some courtships, however, involve much longer distances. Shital, 30, who lives in the posh Aoyama district of Tokyo, was born and raised in Senegal, West Africa. Shital (not her real name) had only been to her ethnic homeland of India twice before she had an arranged marriage there at age 23 with her Indian husband -- who was born and raised in Japan, and who works in finance in Tokyo.

But she said that moving from Senegal to Tokyo wasn't a shock compared to marrying a stranger.

"If you are marrying someone you don't know, you don't care about the place. I was also mentally prepared to go anywhere," she said, explaining that her three Indian girlfriends in Senegal married Indian men living in Europe and the United States.

There are more women like her in Tokyo, she said, including an Indian woman who lived in South America and one who lived in Italy, but who both married Indians here.

Shital, who now has a 2-year-old daughter, said she enjoys her life in Tokyo, where she is actively involved in the Rachna Club, an Indian women's group that recently held a charity bazaar at the embassy for underprivileged children in India and Japan.

Asked how expatriate Indians kept their traditions, Shital said that, surprisingly, long-term foreign residents tend to stay more traditional.

In that sense, she said she is glad that neither her parents nor those of her husband are deeply traditional, although they lived many years abroad. Neither were focused on such matters as dowry payments, she said, adding that this was good as dowry "creates big, big problems in India like bride-killing."

"I also don't even know what caste me or my husband belong to, as my family don't believe in it. I have read about it, but it has not affected me."

What does affect many Indian people, though, is religion -- though tracking down a Hindu "temple" led this reporter to follow the scent of incense to a room in an apartment block in Yokohama between Chinatown and Yamashita Park. In the large room, owned by the Indian Merchants Association in Yokohama, Hindu prayers have been offered up on every full-moon day for the past 45 years, while for the last 25 years it has also been used twice a week by followers of the revered holy man Sathya Sai Baba.

Businessman Gul. T Sadhwani conducted the prayers. Though it was a weekday, and there were only seven people when he started just after noon, when the prayers ended three hours later that number had swelled to 41.

Another businessman there, V.B. Rupani, said there are about 20 locations in Japan where Indians can follow their religion, with at least three Sikh temples in Okinawa, Kobe and Tokyo, at least two Jain temples in Kobe and Tokyo and more for Hindus and Sai Baba followers.

Also in the hall, Vaishali Pai, from Bombay, sang a song in celebration of people of all religions -- Hindu, Islam, Sikh, or others -- being basically the same.

"I really like my life in Japan. But here I can feel more peace -- it would be difficult if I couldn't find this kind of place," she said.

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Shoppers join blood drive
ANA NIUMATAIWALU
Sunday, April 22, 2007

LAUTOKA shoppers took time out yesterday to donate blood as part of the Western Blood Bank drive in partnership with the Shri Satya Sai organisation's Lautoka branch.

The drive was held at the Sugar City Mall from 8am to 4pm

Western Blood Bank manager Janesh Narayan said the public should take the initiative and donate blood and not wait until something happens in their family. He said the public should not hold back when it comes to donating blood.

He said the drive was successful with the team collecting 43 pints of blood, from 65 people.

"Everyone of us some day or sometime will need blood," he said.

"When a member in our family gets sick and we need blood, we run to the blood bank. But when the blood bank needs help, people are not forthcoming.

He said the blood donation would help the Lautoka Hospital a lot.

Mr Narayan said the blood drive is done after every three months at the mall. He said the bank also approached business houses and schools for public awareness exercises and to recruit donors.

"We do it three times a year with the help of the Sai organisation's Lautoka branch," he said.

"It's an on-going program. The red pack cells have a life of 42 days and that's why we need to replenish stock."

Earlier this month students and teachers of Lautoka Central College took time out to donate blood to the blood bank. School principal Dip Chandra said students and teachers wanted to participate in such an event.

Reference

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Kochi's "Healing Museum"
By Juhan Samuel

Kochi, April 5: A 48-year-old artist will soon open a special "Healing Musuem" containing a variety of artworks done on glass.

Javan Chacko, a resident of Kochi, intends to set up this museum on the rooftop of his home.

The collection of paintings involves portraits of various personalities done tastefully on glass, using a special material that add distinction to it.Chacko began painting at an early age but his artistic inspiration found creative expression on glass only five years ago when he developed an urge to use the art form to make a difference in society.

It was during the hours of daily meditation that Chacko resolved to spread a message of love and peace all around through glass paintings.

"The inspiration for these paintings came from continuous meditation and an urge to do community service. I started painting about five years ago. I don't know how I got started, but I believe that there was an inner force that prompted me to do it. Most of my paintings are thematic and convey a message for the betterment of society," said Chacko.

Working on glass has never been easy for Chacko, though it has been successful in terms of appeal to the discerning art lover.

Chacko takes about two days to do one painting.

Watching her husband struggle with the tedious job, Chacko's wife, Reena, decided to be a helping hand.

"The attention and the encouragement of the people to this art form has motivated us to go ahead," says Reena.

Jacko's vast collection includes portraits of Jesus Christ, Lord Krishna, and holy men like Satya Sai Baba and Mata Amritanandamayi. It also includes portraits of President A.P.J Abdul Kalam, former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Mahatma Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan.

Chacko's next big work is The Last Supper, which he hopes to present to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

The museum will be thrown open to the public by the end of the year.

Copyright Dailyindia.com/ANI

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