VIRGIN ISLANDS, September 29, 2017 (Little India): No Indians were injured or killed in the two Category 5 hurricanes that devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands this month, but several have lost their homes and virtually the entire island is crippled without power. The 133-square-mile island was walloped by Hurricane Irma on Sept 7 and two weeks later by Hurricane Maria, killing three people. Pash Daswani, president of the India Association of the Virgin Islands, said Irma was more destructive for the infrastructure of the islands, but Maria brought down whatever remained. The Virgin Islands are running dangerously low on fuel, food supplies and water and officials are warning of an impending catastrophe.
D. V. Singh, consul for community affairs at the Consulate General of India in Atlanta, said: ”We have set up a 24/7 helpline. We are in regular touch with the community associations and leadership in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands and we are ready to provide all possible help to all Indian citizens and even PIOs.” He added that Indians in the islands are ”safe and sound” and thus far the consulate had not received any requests for assistance. The Virgin Islands are home to an estimated 1,000 Indians.
MADURAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA, October 5, 2017 (by Chennabasaveshwar, Oneindia):Under Swachhta Hi Seva (cleanliness is service) program, the Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai has been ranked the cleanest iconic place in the country. The historic place has topped the Taj Mahal, Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the Golden Temple, Tirupathi temple and Sri Vaishno Devi temple to grab the top slot. Madurai district collector K Veera Raghava Rao and corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar will collect the award at a function being organized by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation in New Delhi on Monday. The function will be held to mark Gandhi Jayanthi and the culmination of the Swachhta Hi Seva.
The Times of India reports that about 60 employees work to keep the temple clean and moreover, about 300 volunteers join in during monthly cleanliness drives. Industrial houses such as TVS and Thiagarajar Mills too participated with their staff for the cleanliness drives. Meenakshi Temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of Parvati, and her consort, Sundareswar, a form of Shiva. The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the 2,500-year-old city of Madurai.
MADURAI, INDIA, October 3, 2017 (The Hindu): Twelve years ago, 12 workers and two supervisors in charge of the upkeep of the world-famous Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai came together with the aim of figuring out ways to ensure that the sprawling premises is kept spick and span at all times. It could well be said that their efforts have paid off, with the temple winning the Swachh Iconic Place award. The temple has a footfall of about 40,000 a day. On festive days, the number doubles, and sometimes even crosses the 100,000 mark.
Initially, there was a proposal to install dustbins at select locations around the temple for devotees to discard items like plastic bags and other containers in which they bring flowers, camphor, oil, coconut and the like for the purposes of abhishekam and archana. The maintenance staff of the temple were sent to the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to study the procedure used for the collection and disposal of waste there, Thakkar Karumuttu T. Kannan recalled. Detailing the initiatives taken to promote cleanliness in the temple, he said that devotees were given counseling and flower vendors inside the temple premises educated by the staff to use dustbins. Some well-wishers of the temple provided able support by assisting with the herculean task of clearing garbage, he said.
Stop all your attachments to false values. In an ever-changing world there is nothing worthwhile for us to desire or weep for. Joys and sorrows are bound to come in human life; they are just two sides of the same coin.
— Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1992), founder of the Chinmaya Mission
