The ugly side of a beauty contest
Justice T S Sivagnanam of Madras High Court, directed the State government to issue a circular banning beauty contests and pageants in colleges and universities. The order was delivered while the court examined the Petition of a woman student PS Akshaya. Akshaya, who won a beauty contest at an engineering college in 2013 was allegedly promised a prize of Rs. 25 lakh. The student's mother has said in court that when they tried to claim the money, the university said it was not aware of the event. “It is not known as to how walking the ramp would benefit a student pursuing a course in engineering," wondered the judge. One is reminded of Shri Guru ji’s candid observation: “I miss India in Miss India contests”.
The Shakti of Ghat nayaks established
Last Sunday (February 15) about 528 families numbering 1225 in Chennai and suburbs finished their noon meals. Took a nap. Then they set out – not to the zoo, marina beach or a cinema theatre. All the families converged at ‘Shakti’ the state headquarters of RSS. It was not for a programme. It was a non-programme programme. The families consisting men, women and children individually met sangh Adhikaris, had a chit-chat and received guidance or answers to questions arising in their minds. The Sangh Adhikaris who thus responded to those courtesy callers included: Kshetra Pracharak Shri Stanumalayan Ji, Kshetra Pracharak Pramuk Shri Govinda Ji, Prant Sanghachalak Shri M L Raja, etc. Children accompanying the families, occasionally the grown-ups too, enjoyed about a dozen traditional domestic games displayed in the fore court of the Karyalaya like Pallankuzhi, ammanai, Pamparam etc. Senior adhikaris made themselves present in individual rooms to receive and interact with all family members. Ayurveda and patti vaithyam (meaning traditional medical advice) to bring out the glory of our traditional medical treatment and their values. The families that converged at the Karyalaya that day were mobilized by the ghat nayaks of Chennai. Towards the end of the Sakthi Sangamam that took place from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. a boudhik and sangh prarthana took place. Shri Jawahar Chennai Jilla pramuk emphasized the importance of value filled kutumbam during his boudhik.
Jilla Boudhik Pramuk Shri Jawahar, UTN Prant Sanghachalak Shri M L Raja Ji, Chennai Vibhag Sanghachalak Shri Kalyan Singh Ji
The watchful village and the pluck of a Panchayat
Zameen Thevar kulam is the name of a Panchayat in Thoothukudi district in Tamilnadu. The energetic Panchayat chairperson Kamala Balakrishnan saw to it that every street in the village is under the vigil of CCTV. In addition, the public address system of the village keeps on broadcasting information useful to the villagers like the beginning time of the water supply, stock position in PDS shop etc. On one occasion, when a gold chain was stolen the CCTV was out of use. But the resourceful panchayat members announced over the Public address system that the thief had been caught on the CCTV and so the Chain should be returned failing which penal action could follow. That did the trick. The gold chain was recovered. The village boasts of absence of political party flags and banners, also the plastic nuisance.
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