Rising Above Communities, This Muslim Man Presided Durga Puja Celebrations For 23 Years…

In these days where channels are filled with news about communal violence and the comments on every headline that even tangentially mentions any religion reek of hatred, finding anything on peace and harmony is heart-warming.

This story of a man from Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district is that Oasis in the desert.

Meet Sheikh Salim Niyariya, he is a 50-year-old man who has astonished many people around him by showing them that amity knows no religion. He along with two other members of the Muslim community has organised Durga Puja celebrations in the Handi Chowk area with full enthusiasm.

Image source

He is a Corporator, but he has not done this to impress the vote bank. Sheikh Salim Niyariya has been doing this for the last 23 years since 1992.

 

He has been well managing the ‘Handi Chowk Durga Committee’ by actively installing the Goddess idols in the area, managing the ongoing activities like decorating the deity’s pandals and finally the idol immersion on the ninth day.

Image source

He also holds the post of Speaker of the Raigarh Municipal Corporation and works for all communities through it. While speaking to PTI he said, “Peace and harmony of this locality is an example to the nation. Both Muslim and Hindu communities take part in each other’s festivals with full enthusiasm.”

Setting quite an exemplary example, isn’t he?

News Source: First Post

Source…www.storypick.com

Natarajan

This elite Nepalese warrior fought 40 train robbers all by himself…

If a bad guy wants to mess with someone, they should probably make sure that someone is not a Gurkha.

Gurkha are a legendary class of Nepalese warriors whose lineage dates back to the Middle Ages. Gurkhas fought first against the British during the colonial era, and the Brits were so impressed by their ability in combat, they decided to enlist them in their military efforts.

They’ve been with the British since the days of the British East India company, through to World War II, and even through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their distinctive knife, the Khukuri, is symbolic of their heroism, bravery, and skill in combat.

A true testament to their ability is praise for their prowess from friend and foe alike. Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, once stated “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha.”

Prince Charles once said, “In the world there is only one secure place, that’s when you are between Gurkhas.” Osama bin Laden once claimed he would “eat Americans alive” if he had Gurkhas on his side. Adolf Hitler said of them, “If I had Gurkhas, no armies in the world would defeat me.”

On Sep. 2, 2010, when Bishnu Prasad Shrestha was returning home after a voluntary retirement from the Indian Army, the train incident happened. At around midnight on the Maurya Express train from Ranchi to Gorakhpur, 40 armed bandits boarded the train and started looting the passengers.

He allowed himself to be robbed by the gun- and knife-toting train robbers. When they soon began to mess with an 18-year-old girl in front of her parents, who were watching helplessly, he couldn’t sit down any longer. Shrestha lost it.

He took out his Khukuri and fought the entire group of 40 robbers single-handedly, killing three of them and injuring eight others. The rest fled. After the incident, he explained:

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers. They had carried out their robbery with swords, blades and pistols. The pistols may have been fake as they didn’t fire. The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister.’ I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister. 

gurkha gorkha shrestha undergoing treatment

During the fight, he took a serious knife wound on his left hand and the girl took a small cut on her neck.

He was able to recover what the bandits stole, 200 cell phones, 40 laptops, a significant amount of jewelry, and nearly $10,000 in cash.

When the intended rape victim’s family offered him a large cash reward, he refused it, saying:

“Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier. Taking on the thugs on the train was my duty as a human being.”

Bishnu Prasad Shrestha held himself to the traditions of his Gurkha regiment and training.

Today, Gurkhas fight with British, American, Indian, Nepalese, and Malaysian forces all over the world. After their service ends, they usually return to Nepal to become subsistence farmers. In 2009, the United Kingdom granted pensions at settlement rights to any Gurkha who served the UK for at least four years.

Read the original article on We Are The Mighty. Copyright 2015. Follow We Are The Mighty on Twitter.

Source…..

http://www.businessinsider.com

Natarajan

Motivational Quotes For Today….

Today, you need to remind yourself of some important things you tend to forget. It’s useless to worry about what might happen, or what might not happen, in your life. Life is bursting with energy, and so is your soul. Do not lose this energy in thought – get things done now before you are regretful, and smile at the future, because what it holds is magical. Start today, by being positive about your day ahead.

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

These Quotes Are All That You Need to Get Your Day Started

Source….www.ba-bamail.com

natarajan

Few Pictures That Will Make You Feel Better About our World…

Heroes like this:

Heroes like this:

 

Owners like this:

Owners like this:

Paramedics like this:

Paramedics like this:

Tips like this:

Tips like this:

Professors like this:

Professors like this:

Families like this:

Families like this:

Animal lovers like this:

Animal lovers like this:

Source….www.stumbleupon.com

Natarajan

Message for the Day…” Desire for worldly and sensual objects will wane with constant spiritual practice…

When people are asked to do spiritually salutary acts, initially no one has any inner urge. Still don’t give up in despair. Until the taste sprouts, strictly follow the disciplines. This taste is a result of training. No one has it from the very beginning, but constant practice will create the zest. The infant doesn’t know the taste of milk. By taking milk daily, it starts liking it; in fact the taste becomes so dear that when milk is to be given up to be substituted with rice, it starts to protest. But the mother doesn’t despair; she persuades the child to take small quantities of cooked rice daily, and over time the child starts liking rice and eventually gives up milk. Milk, its natural food, is now replaced with rice again in a natural way. Indeed now if no rice is available for one day, the child becomes miserable. Similarly with constant practice, the desire for worldly and sensual objects and matters, will wane and good company(Satsang) will prevail.

Sathya Sai Baba

Message for the Day…” When Ego Fades away, Knowledge Shines as Wisdom…”

Sathya Sai Baba

Jnana Yajna is specially recommended by scriptures for all. Jnana does not simply mean knowledge gained from scholars and books, but actually conducting in accordance with that knowledge. Knowledge can never ripen into wisdom so long as the ego persists in craving for results to satisfy its desires. When ego fades away, knowledge shines as Wisdom. When yajnas are performed solely for the peace and prosperity of the world (Loka-Kalyan), they reach God. Jnana reveals that in every sacrifice, God is the Prompter, the Promoter, the Sacrificer, the Sacrifice, the Product achieved and the Recipient of the product. God is the consumer of every sacred offering (Yajnabhuk); He is guardian of the yajna (Yajna-bhrith) and its performer (Yajna krith). He is all; it is only when He is all that the act becomes a genuine yajna. If this attitude can soak into every activity, it will sanctify every moment of your life and make it a yajna.

Great Life Advice From Mark Twain….

Mark Twain is considered by many to be one of the greatest American authors in history. He wasn’t only a writer though, he was also a source of constant inspiration, a fountain of memorable quotes and a man with an incredible intellect. So when we say we have some words of advice for you from the mouth of Mark Twain, there is a very good reason to listen!

1. Age is in your mind more than anywhere else.
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
With this clever play on words, Twain is telling us age doesn’t matter as long as you don’t give it significance. It means that a young soul can dwell in an old body and all the limitations we put on age, other than those physical ones, are actually in our head.
This advice isn’t just about age, it’s also about self-confidence. When we believe we have a problem, we transmit that to the people around us and so bring it to pass. People can feel the lack of self-confidence in others and they will treat you as you treat yourself. So, once you make that mental ‘switch’, the enviornment will too.
2. Humor is one of the most important things.
“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”
“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
The simple act of laughing and responding to humor is one of the greatest experiences of the human condition. Life is nothing without laughter, just a sad shell, and although there are pleasures in life that have nothing to do with humor, they are always improved upon and made more palatable with a good side dish of laughter. Humor helps almost all situations and using it will draw people to you faster than anything else you may do.
3.Anger will hurt you more than help you.
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”
Anger is an inescapable human emotion; we all get mad once in a while. But there are ways to control out anger, and not let it control us. Just like laughter is transient in nature, so should anger be. A joke will make you laugh again and again if you think about it over and over, and anger is no exception, the more you think about it, the angrier you’ll become. So, when you are angry at something or someone, it’s important you let it die out naturally; don’t continue to feed it. Think of other things and apply your cognitive resources at things that make you happy.
4. The world doesn’t owe you, you owe yourselves.
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
The feeling of being owed something by the world is common in this generation. We all feel entitled to something, whether it’s a steady job, money, happiness etc. But these feelings usually lead only to frustration, bitterness, anger and resentment. Let go of these expectations from yourselves and from the world, and you’ll see that everything becomes a bit easier. You do deserve the best, but you’ll need to go and get it for yourselves.
5. Having a new idea is not a crime.
“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
When you see things differently than other people, expect mixed reactions. Some will support you, others ignore you, while still others will try to bring you down. Most people tend to hold on to their preconceived notions for dear life, and will even act aggressively or negatively when these are threatened by an opposing opinion. But remember, all great discoveries were once such novel ideas, and many of them carried negative reactions. You should say what you believe and act upon it, don’t let anyone tell you your ideas are ‘too weird’. After all, human flight used to be such a novel and strange idea.
6. Don’t let your thoughts dwell on the negative.
Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.”
You must watch your thoughts, because it is so easy to get into a habit of thinking negatively, turning our worries and troubles over and over in our head, until they seem as big as mountains and as dark as the night. Thinking positively is one of the best gifts you can give yourselves, and will ultimately lead to you doing everything a little better, with people reacting much better to your attitude. In the end, life is made up of ‘tasks’ we must accomplish, some small, some big and difficult. Try to look at any ‘difficult’ task as a challenge and as an opportunity to learn something about yourselves.
7. Instead of worrying about yourself, worry about others and help yourself.
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
There is something magical about making someone else smile or getting them out of a tough situation. Helping others not only makes us better people and buys us goodwill from those around us, it also makes our own problems seem smaller because we’re not preoccupied with them 24/7. If you help others without thinking, just jumping in and helping out, you’ll be the one who ends up with a smile on your face.
8. Try everything, regret nothing.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
A beautiful quote by Mark Twain and one that is full of truth. It’s always easier to delay things we want to do. After all, life usually gets in the way and we tell ourselves ‘well, we’ll try it later’. But as we get older, those opportunities become more and more rare, and the things we end up regretting the most are the things we simply never tried to do.
Failure shouldn’t scare us, it’s a part of life. What is scarier is having opportunities and never acting on them. So when you think you want to do something – do it. Failure may happen, but at least you’ll know the answer to the question: “What if?”.
Source….www.ba-bamail.com
Natarajan

 

This Flight Costs Just Rs. 60 and Goes Nowhere….!!!

Never been on an airplane? Here’s your chance to board one for as little as Rs 60, or even for nothing if you don’t have the money. Retired aircraft engineer Bahadur Chand Gupta will be happy to show you around.

I am in an aeroplane for the first time. I saw many things inside,” exclaimed an excited Jatin when he boarded the flight to nowhere.

He is one of many underprivileged kids who may never get a chance to fly on an actual plane. But he climbed the long stairway that took him to an orange and white aircraft set up on a patch of land on the outskirts of Delhi.

The plane, of course, is going nowhere. But it is giving an opportunity to people from some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city to experience what it is like to sit on the jets they see fly above them in the sky.

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When a retired aircraft engineer Bahadur Chand Gupta, who comes from the small village of Kasana in Haryana, started his career many years ago, the villagers curiously asked him what it was like to be in an aircraft. None of them had ever seen a real airplane and they wanted to get a glimpse of life in the aviation industry through Gupta’s eyes. –

Screen Shot 2015-10-17 at 11.05.32 am

For security reasons, Gupta was never able to take his fellow villagers inside an actual aircraft. But he always wanted to do something that would give them a taste of flying.

Finally, in 2003, Gupta sold some land and bought an old Airbus A300. He parked it on a vacant lot close the city’s domestic airport and started offering virtual ‘flights’ to the general public.

Screen Shot 2015-10-17 at 11.05.09 am

To make the experience close to real, the ‘passengers’ in his ‘flight’ are given boarding passes, shown safety instructions, and even offered in-flight snacks. Some even get to see the cockpit.

The passengers pay as little as Rs. 60 to board this flight and some can even get to be part of it for free (depending upon their financial condition). What adds to the amazing in-flight experience is the unique evacuation practice where the kids slide out of the the aircraft instead of taking the regular stairs.

 

Source….Shreya Pareek….www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

Everyone Should Have a Last Day at Work Like This 60-Year-Old Liftman ….

When was the last time you smiled at a liftman or returned the morning wish of a watchman? Appreciated the kind people who are at your service even when you don’t notice them? These college students from Delhi did something remarkable for a liftman who had been with their institution for 34 years. And, in the process, sent an important message to the rest of us as well.

The watchman, the peon, the liftman, the gardener – aren’t these some of the very first people one sees on entering a college building? And also the first few people whose smiles mark the beginning of a new day for most students who walk the same paths and corridors every day?

While students enter and leave colleges every four to five years, these people keep doing their jobs silently and perfectly, day in and day out. They play a crucial role in the smooth functioning of a college and also form a special bond of friendship with many students.

Dhaniram, the ex-liftman at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) in Delhi, is one such person.

DR1

This 60-year-old man, respectfully known as Dhaniram ji, spent 34 years of his life working as the liftman at the college. Be it students, parents, visitors, faculty members, or old students who have now become teachers, Dhaniramji knows one and all.

“He is a really nice guy, a very friendly human being and a very important part of the college family,” says Ayush Kamalia, a fourth year student at SPA.

And so, when it was announced a month ago that the liftman is going to retire on Sept. 30, 2015, students knew they had to do something for the man, something that would help him remember the college and its students forever.

So they got together, pitched in money, and organized a full-fledged, colourful, creative, and memorable farewell party for Dhaniram ji, leaving the old man both overjoyed and teary-eyed at the same time.

DR2

Dhaniram welcomed to his farewell party On Sept. 23, Dhaniram ji received a very warm and loud welcome by a gathering that had students, faculty members, administrative staff, and just about everyone from the college. –

DR4

“Everyone wanted to come together to thank him for his service, for his time and for his gleaming smile that brings out more happy wrinkles than the years he has given to the college,” says Ayush.

Being architecture students, everybody tried to contribute with their creative efforts.

DR3

Dhaniram ji was pleasantly surprised with a miniature model of a lift, inside which he found a scroll with a personal message thanking him for being his awesome self, and a memento marking his time in the college. Other gifts included a wallet, belt, wrist watch, and some cash. Faculty members gave gifts as well. One of the most incredible gifts was some graffiti – the students had painted Dhaniram ji’s face inside the lift, capturing his memory for years to come.

Students and teachers also took to the podium to speak about him and thank him – each sharing their own anecdotes and memorable experiences about Dhaniram ji.

The director and heads of departments, who have known Dhaniram ji since they were students, thanked him for understanding the college and contributing to its growth. –

This was followed by an event organised by a college society named Gupshup, which usually invites some eminent personalities from outside to come and give inspirational talks to the students.

This month, the chief guest and speaker at the event was none other than Dhaniram ji.

He was overwhelmed and really excited about the respect he was receiving at the place to which he had dedicated a large part of his life.

DR8

There was a ‘Wall of Thanks’ as well, and people wrote their messages on it throughout the day. –

DR10Wall of Thanks

“On days when we did not have our assignments ready, we would ask Dhaniram ji to speak with the concerned faculty and tell them not to take submissions that day. And he would joke around with us. That was the kind of relationship we had with him. First year students who used to enter the college afraid and anxious, always felt calmer after speaking with him. If you were in any sort of trouble, all you had to do was to speak to him to feel better”, says Ayush, remembering his first days at the college. –

Every college, school, office, and administrative building has a Dhaniram – the man or woman who knows every nook and corner of the place, every face, every emotion, and yet, always remains in the background. The SPA students, who took such a wonderful step for Dhaniram ji, have an important message for all – that people like Dhaniram should be given the respect and love they deserve for their extraordinary service. And once in a while, they should be made to feel as special as they make others feel! –

Source….Tanaya Singh …..www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

Scott Kelly Becomes U.S. Astronaut to Spend the Most Time in Space…

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly in the Cupola of the International Space Station with blue water of Earth visible through window

Just before the 15th anniversary of continuous human presence on the International Space Station on Nov. 2, 2015, U.S. astronaut and commander of the current Expedition 45 crew, Scott Kelly, is breaking spaceflight records. On Friday, Oct. 16, Kelly begins his 383rd day living in space, surpassing U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke’s record of 382 cumulative days. Kelly will break another record Oct. 29 on his 216th consecutive day in space, when he will surpass astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria’s record for the single-longest spaceflight by an American. Lopez-Alegria spent 215 days in space as commander of the Expedition 14 crew in 2006.

In this July 12 photograph, Kelly is seen inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the space station. On each additional day he spends in orbit as part of his one-year mission, Kelly will add to his record and to our understanding of the effects of long-duration spaceflight.

Kelly is scheduled to return to Earth on March 3, 2016, by which time he will have compiled 522 total days living in space during four missions.

Image Credit: NASA

Source….www.nasa.gov

Natarajan