Martyred's body reached new home on ‘Greh Parvesh’ day

Kurukshetra, October 31 --- Mortal remains of Mandeep Singh (27), who was killed at the border of Machhil sector of Kupwara, in Jammu & Kashmir on Friday evening was cremated at his home village Aantehri, 20 kms from here with full state honour on Sunday.

Earlier, his body was brought from Ambala cantonment on a helicopter at the helipad of Kurukshetra University from where it was carried by the armymen in a convey to his village with full state honour.

As luck would have been, his body was placed at a newly constructed house, in which he had planned to shift on Diwali day. His elder brother Sandeep said that Mandeep had started the construction of his new house in the village last year and had planned to shift here on the Diwali day. A ‘puja’ had started at the house on Thursday, and Mandeep had rang up to inform that he would not be able to come home as his leave have been cancelled. He asked us to go ahead with the ‘greh parvesh’ ceremonies and shift to the new house. Now his dead body is lying there, he bemoaned.

Mandeep was cremated adjoining to his new house, and his elder brother Sandeep lit the pyre.

Mandeep’s wife Parerna got fainted when the pyre was lit, and a few army men came to her help. Thousands of people including political leaders attended his funeral. Slogans like ‘Mandeep Amar Rahe’, ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ continued to echo the area. Atmosphere got more surcharged when hundreds of women also joined slogan raising.  

Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal visited the house of martyr and expressed his condolences to the family. He announced a grant of Rs. 50 lakh and one government job for the family member. He said that Mandeep sacrifice would not be forgotten and government would always be there to help the family. He said that his sacrifice would not be waisted and our soldiers would give befitting reply to the enemy.

Mandeep had joined 17 Sikh regiment about 8 years back. He got married to Parerna, who is working with Haryana Police, two years back and have no issue yet.

An atmosphere of gloom is prevailed in the village. Sarpanch Subhash Chander said that no body in the village illuminated their house or celebrating Diwali. They however, burned one ‘diya’ (earthen lamp) in each house in memory of Mandeep Singh.   

Geeta Jyanti to be celebrated on pattern of Yog Diwas

Brahmasarovar, which would be the epi-centre of ‘Geeta Jyanti’ celebrations.Add caption

Kurukshetra, October 27—Haryana government with the help of union government would celebrate ‘Geeta Jyanti’ on the pattern of ‘Yog Diwas’ at International level throughout the world, on December 10, next.

Though Yog Diwas have been recognised by UNO and the people all over the world celebrateed it as international day. Getting recognition from UNO for ‘Geeta Jyanti’ is difficult this year due to shortage of time, so it would be celebrated with the involvement and help of Indian Embassies, various religious organisations and wings of RSS (Rashtrya Swey Sangh) spread all over the world. A CD with selected ‘shalokas’ from holy Geeta would be prepared by November 7, next for this purpose.

This programme have been chalked out by Deputy Commissioner, Kurukshetra, Sumedha Kataria, and ‘Geeta Manishi’ Swami Gyana Nand Maharaj. Various committees associated with the Geeta Jayanti celebrations and State government had already approved the programme. As against Rs. One crore annual fund earlier, the state government had sanctioned an amount of Rs. 14 cores for this year celebrations. 

 Ms Kataria told that this programme would be sponsored by Government, but in foreign countries it would be organised with the help and support from Embassies, and religious organisations like Ramkrishan Mission, Chinmay Ashram, Shri Shri Ravishankar Art of living, Maa Amritmay, Maa Anandmay, Godiamath, ISKCON, Pantanjali, Swami Avdeshanand, Baba Ram Dev, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and various wings of RSS spread all over the world. The programme would be of 15 minutes’ duration and committees formed by the government would coordinate.

The programme would be organised at important places in the world like Times Square (US) and on the banks of Tams river by the followers of these organisations. Selfi with Geeta would be taken.

Geeta Jyanti falls on December 10 next, and ‘deep daan’ ceremony with ‘Aarti’ would be performed on that day at 6.30 at Brahmasarovar here. Before this 6.15 to 6.30, selected ‘shalokas’ from 18 chapters of Geeta would be recited and recoding made. This would be relayed on You-tube and live on TV so that people in other countries could join. Those who do not know Sanskrit may pray during this time.

Swami Gyana Nand said that efforts are being made to invite Prime Minister Narinder Modi to participate in ‘Deep daan’ ceremony here. However, if he could not come here, he would join the ‘shaloka’ recitation for 15 minutes wherever he would be. He said that he would personally meet President of India and Prime Minister to inform them about the details of the programme. President of India, Pranab Mukerji had already accepted the invitation to inaugurate the ‘Geeta Jyanti’ Utsav here on December 6 next.

Confluence of arts on Day 3 of Ratnawali

Photo- O.P. Dhankar (second from left) receiving memento from KU VC

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Confluence of arts on Day 3 of Ratnawali

Benchmark Haryanvi art with Punjab art and global audience

 

Kurukshetra October 26-- While speaking as Chief Guest on Day 3 of Ratnawali, the state level cultural festival, O.P. Dhankar, Minister of Agriculture, Government of Haryana exhorted upon the artists of Haryana to learn from the success of the artists of Punjab and benchmark their performances in terms of content and presentation to reach out to the global audience.

 

There is a lot of progress that has been made in the art and he applauded the contribution of Ratnawali in this regards, but he observed that a lot more has to be done. Tremendous opportunities lie in the hybrid art forms emerging from the fusion of Indian and Western art forms and Haryanvi artists should work on these possibilities.

 

Welcoming the Chief Guest, Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. Kailash Chandra Sharma said that Ratnawali arouses lot of enthusiasm in the minds of the people and by organizing and participating in such events, overall personality is developed. Ratnawali has become a hallmark of the culture of Haryana.

The events organized on the third day were Chaupal, Duet Ragini, Folk Song, Haryanvi Group Song, Quiz, Declamation. Turban adorned the participants and organizers of the event, which gave the look of a confluence of colours and music beats.

Middle in The Tribune: These Bonds Mustn't Break

Read my middle in the Tribune dated 4th October, 2016:

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/musings/these-bonds-mustn-t-break/304427.html

(Screenshot below)