HPI NEWS

2. Three Day Kailash Mansarovar Mahasammelan Planned

rajivhtc@gmail.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 2, 2006: "There is a pressing need today to organize and monitor the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in a better manner and provide all possible assistance to those devout Hindus who undertake this holy pilgrimage by spending a large amount of money." These views were expressed by Shri Shashi Kant, President, Kailash Mansarovar Sewa Samiti (Regd.) while addressing a press conference in the Press Club of India on December 1 in connection with a three day Kailash Mansarovar Mahasammelan being organized by the Samiti in New Delhi's Talkatora Stadium from December 4 to 6, 2006.

According to Shri Shashi Kant, the main aim of the three day event is to raise funds for a proposed Kailash Mandir and Bhawan which would be built in New Delhi for the convenience of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrims who gather in New Delhi every year as the pilgrimage starts from here. Over 2500 pilgrims from all over India will be attending the event and will share their experiences and discuss the problems faced by them in connection with this arduous pilgrimage.

The three day event would be formally inaugurated jointly by His Holiness Swami Chidanand Saraswati Ji Maharaj (Muniji), President and Spiritual Head of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh and Shri D.R. Kaarthikeyan, Advisor-Law-Human Rights and will also have the blessings of Sri Sri 1008 Mahamandaleshwar Swami Kalyananand Giri Ji Maharaj, Palanpur, Gujarat, Sidhyogi Sri Siva Shankar Baba Ji Maharaj, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, and Mahayogi Pilot Baba Maharaj, New Delhi. The launching ceremony will be followed by a Kalash Puja ceremony to be conducted by Acharya Dr. Ravindra Nagar, head of Purohitya and Karam Kand wing of Delhi's Birla Mandir.

In an exclusive interview with Hinduism Today, Shri Shashi Kant said, "Very few people would know that the visas granted by the Chinese Government for the Kailash Yatra are given technically for the purpose of trekking and not for pilgrimage." He further said that two state governments, Gujarat and New Delhi, were giving a subsidy of US$559 and $223 respectively for this pilgrimage that costs around US$1500 per pilgrim and this was perhaps the reason that a large number of pilgrims undertaking this pilgrimage are from Gujarat. Shri Shashi Kant also told Hinduism Today that every pilgrim had to undergo a medical test costing US$51 from specific private hospitals of New Delhi and demanded that this test should either be conducted free of charge in a government owned hospital or the pilgrims should be free for having this test done at a hospital of their own choice where the cost could be considerably less.
3. Creating Gods for the World

economictimes.indiatimes.com

TIRUPUR, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2006: (HPI notes that the terms 'statue' or 'murthi' are preferred to 'idol,' a derogatory term.)

Knitwear capital Tirupur is literally carving a niche for itself in stone. It is now a familiar name in many countries for the export of stone idols of gods and goddesses from the Hindu pantheon to temples abroad. With demand coming in from all over the world, Tirupur has enough reasons to smile as most of the gods and goddesses that adorn the temples overseas were born in this town.

Around 40-45 units are engaged in the idol making business here, gainfully employing 2,000 people. The exquisitely chiselled statues, beams and pillars speak volumes for the workmanship of sculptors in this town. This unorganised sector generates business worth about Rs 1 crore per annum with the price of statues varying dramatically, from a mere Rs 5000 to over Rs 1 lakh a piece. Of course, the pieces that are exported are typically in the upper price bracket.

Mr T U Sambandham of Sri Navabharathi, a unit that exports idols, said currently the unit is sculpting statues for a Rs 100-crore temple to be constructed by the US-based The Hindu Temple of Georgia Trust at Norcross Bruke Hallow Parkway in Georgia state. To be built over a period of five years, the temple sources most of its idols from this region.

4. Meet The World's Most Famous Actor

www.timesonline.co.uk

The world's most famous actor and you've never heard of him. Amitabh Bachchan, India's most famous Bollywood actor, is in London for the opening of his latest movie.

When Bachchan falls ill, millions of Indians do penance. In 1982 he injured himself in a stunt scene and fell into a coma. "Some 80-year-old women said they ate only one meal a day and would sleep on the ground, praying for my recovery," he says. "One chap who lived 400km from Mumbai ran backwards from his village to the city and then backwards home again, a total of 800km."

Bachchan is in Britain for the launch of his film Baabul. Certainly there is no British actor alive who shares his fame. He is Tom Cruise, Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood rolled into one. And Chris Tarrant. He has been hosting (though is due to leave) the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, drawing a breathtaking 250m viewers. In a BBC online poll in 2000 he beat Laurence Olivier to be voted the greatest actor of the millennium; and yet most people in the West have never heard of him, though the Mumbai-based Bollywood industry churns out more than 1,000 films a year.

He is an ambassador for the International Indian Film Academy, an annual Oscars-style event to reward excellence in the Indian movie industry. It has become so popular that Dubai, New York and Amsterdam made bids to hold next year's event. It is significant, perhaps, that it will be held in Yorkshire.

On his recent trip to the UK for the IIFA inauguration he also found time to meet Gordon Brown, who gave him a book about Nelson Mandela. "With the large influx of Asians into Britain, it's almost like being home," he says.