Yog Science Workshop of Swami Ramdev ji in Los Angeles
Los Angeles: The first ever Yog Science Workshop by India's well known yoga guru and spiritual leader, Swami Ramdev, in Los Angeles was a grand success.
Hundreds of people in various age groups attended the five-day Yog Science Workshop from July 9 to 13 held between 6 and 8.30 am every day at the Anaheim Convention Center. Number of participants increase with each session, and more than 2,000 attending on the last day.
Against Reservation Quota
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 (New Delhi):
After the director of IIM Ahmedabad, it's now the vice-chancellor of Delhi University (DU) who's expressed doubts over the feasibility of increasing seats in the university.
The suggestion was one of the many made by the Group of Ministers to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to help accommodate quota students.
At a press conference, DU Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental expressed doubts over the government's suggestion to increase seats in colleges to accommodate more quota students.
Professor Pental said quality will suffer as a result of the seat increase. He also said very categorically that -
Even if the Centre were to give funds and it was carried out on a war footing, it would take 2-3 years to have the infrastructure in place in order to increase seats in DU.
Many teaching positions in DU were already lying vacant and teacher to student ratio not optimum.
Quality should be a priority for institutes even if affirmative action is to be carried out.
The other sideBut pro-reservationists holding a maha panchayat in the capital were dismissive of his claims.
"When the government is ready to help, then who is he to refuse," said one pro-reservationist.
"When the PM supports it, the HRD minister supports it and he constitution provides for it, then what is the point of the Vice Chancellor saying he cannot increase seats," said another.
Already IIM Ahmedabad has ruled out increasing the number of seats at the institute because quality will suffer. It also said that the institute lacked the infrastructure for the expansion.
This is more or less what the DU Vice-Chancellor also feels.
Meanwhile, the government is yet to announce how it plans to accommodate the increased quota.
--Courtesy - NDTV
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE FAMILY
May 15 is celebrated as the International Day of the Family. This day highlights the importance of families. It aims at fostering equality, bringing about a fuller sharing of domestic responsibilities and employment opportunities. The programmes undertaken to commemorate the day, work towards supporting families in the discharge of their functions. They tend to promote the inherent strengths of families, including their great capacity of self-reliance, and stimulate self-sustaining activities.
Family constitutes the basic unit of society. Hence, the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to families so that they fully assume their responsibilities within the community to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on Social Progress and Developments and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women.
What is a family?According to Murdock, an anthropologist, a family is "a group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more of their children of their own or adopted by the sexually cohabiting adults."
Distinctive Features of the Family Family has the following distinctive features:- Universality. In view of the fact that all aspects of an individual’s life, are considerably influenced and made possible by family grouping, it is found all over the world and at all levels of culture. Besides, there is no conclusive or convincing evidence that there ever was a time when this institution did not exist. Modern civilization has not so far succeeded in providing a complete and fully satisfying substitute to this grouping. Family is the most universal and the most important organization for socialization.
Emotional basis. The integrative bonds in a family are of mutual affection and blood ties. This emotional basis makes it ideally suited for the all-important role of early education, which makes it an institution of considerable importance as a transmitter of culture.
Educative role. The most plastic year of every individual’s life, that is, childhood, is spent in the family. It is here that one gets the earliest and the most fundamental lessons in socialization. One is mentally formed according to the norms of society, which get ingrained in one to re-appear in adult life as conscience or super-ego. The cultural traditions that are imbibed by an individual are imbibed in the familial setting, making the formative influence of the family supreme.
Limited size. The family, throughout the world, is characterized by its precision as compared to other types of groupings like the sib or clan for instance.
Nuclear position. With regard to all the different types of groupings, family plays an important role in so far as it prepares the individual for participation in all these secondary groups, for their demands and situations. It serves as the nucleus for the growth of other types of groupings which never deal with the cultureless creature that a newly-born child is.
Sense of responsibility among members. Even though emotions and feelings are the main basis of family life, it is not completely devoid of reason. A sense of responsibility among its members in relation to one another is an aspect, which is more rational and reasoned than emotional and instinctive. This feeling of personal responsibility towards one another is very important to ensure the smooth working of the familial grouping, and consequently of society as a whole; and, therefore, we find society stepping in to ensure it through customs and mores.
Social regulations. Society has to ensure, by evolving mores and folkways, that the individual members in a family do perform all those functions towards each other on the basis of which the wider network of social relationships is dependent for its success. For example, there are social restrictions on divorce varying in intensity, in almost every society.
Persistence and change. Whereas family as an institution is the most permanent and universal one in human societies, as an association it is subject to constant change in composition and structure, even within the same society.
Effect of Modernization on FamilyIn the simple and peasant societies, family was the unit of production as well as a primary unit of society. In the industrial society, the family has lost the place of being the unit of production and has been replaced by individual as the primary unit of society who works as a wage-earner or professional. The roles of family and marriage have undergone significant change in industrial societies. But even today, family occupies a unique place in industrial as well as pre-industrial societies. Families assume diverse forms and functions that vary from region to region, and express the social condition. It is seen that the family in Asia is moving slowly towards the Western nuclear family model, but retaining certain structural forms and traditional values
Happy Mother's Day -14 May
Pramod Mahajan continues to battle for life
Pramod Mahajan continues to battle for life
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 (Mumbai):
BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan's condition continues to be critical.
The senior BJP leader has been put on dialysis due to poor functioning of his kidneys. He is being given medication to support his blood pressure.
On Monday evening, a medical bulletin by the Hinduja Hospital said Mahajan continued to be "critical" and on life support system.
It also said that Mahajan's condition is being monitored every five to ten minutes and unless he shows any signs of improvement, there would be no further surgical intervention.
"Efforts are on to stabilise his condition as fluctuation continue to hamper his health," said Dr Anupam Verma, Director (administration) Hinduja Hospital.
Meanwhile, police continues to interrogate Pramod Mahajan's brother Pravin, who shot him on Saturday -
Courtesy - NDTV news
President George W. Bush's Visit to India
President George W. Bush and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exchange handshakes Thursday, March 2, 2006, after their press availability at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi. White House photo by Paul Morse
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"We have an ambitious agenda with India. Our agenda is practical. It builds on a relationship that has never been better. India is a global leader, as well as a good friend. ... My trip will remind everybody about the strengthening of an important strategic partnership. We'll work together in practical ways to promote a hopeful future for citizens in both our nations."
--President George W. Bush
March 2, 2006
Sare jahan se acha
