Monday, February 15, 2010

siva nataraja orion

V.R.Devika gave an illustrated talk on Siva , Nataraja and the Orion constellation on the occasion of Sivarathri on 12th February 2010 at Janaki MGR College at the invitation of its Natya department.

Friday, February 12, 2010

The HIndu young world report of Sarvodaya day at Central

The Hindu Young World February 9, 2010
Progress for all
SELINE AUGUSTINE
Sarvodaya Day saw unusual activity at the Central Station with singing, dancing and spinning the charkha.
Mahatma gandhi coined the word 'sarvodaya' as the title of his translation of ruskin's tract 'unto this last'. sarva means all, and udaya means uplift.
All dressed up :Waiting to get the feet a-dancing.
As usual the Central railway station was crackling with life and frenetic movement on Saturday last. But as the passengers and their kin entered the main hall they did a double take on seeing half a dozen school girls busy spinning the charkha! It was Sarvodaya Day and the Aseema Trust, Anusuya Foundation for Women and Children, Gandhi Mission, Chennai, together with the Southern Railway had come up with the idea of paying tribute to Gandhiji on his death anniversary.
The founder director of Aseema Trust, V. R.Devika, said the reason for choosing the Central station is that “it is only in the railway station that you can see people of all hues, all dispositions and all status”. The girls from Avvai Home were adept at spinning and when onlookers were invited to try their hand at the charkha, a few foreigners were eager to volunteer.
Try your hand
There was this woman from Bihar who was waiting for her train later in the evening, Bemikaladevi — she came and took to it like a duck to water. It almost seemed like she had missed working on the charkha, Devika remarked.
The day's programme was to urge men and women of India to unite for peace and justice based on Gandhian principles of truth and non-violence. The date was chosen as it is on this day 62 years ago that the Father of the Nation fell a prey to an assassin's bullet.
Interestingly, it was Mahatma Gandhi who coined the word Sarvodaya as the title of his 1908 translation of Ruskin's tract, Unto This Last. Sarva means all, udaya means uplift. Thus the word signifies Progress for All.
Sowmya Madhanagopal and her students took the stage next and sang songs and bhajans dear to the heart of the Mahatma, beginning with Vaishnava Janato. A good many in the audience joined when the troupe came to “Shanti Nilava vendum”.
Then came the show stealers, the little dancers from schools in Anna Nagar. Trained by choreographer Premnath, the colourfully costumed kids danced to the song, Ahimsa devi (recorded by Bombay Jayashree) which described her 63 attributes. The Anusuya Foundation honoured all the artists and the programme came to a close with “Raghupathi Raghava”.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Spin a yarn in Cochin....

The Rotary International in Cochin had a conference on "World Peace for youth" February 5 - 7th 2010. V.R.Devika was asked to speak on "Gandhi's Ahimsa and pluralism". She was asked by Shyamala Surendran, managing trustee of Sarvodaya International, kerala chapter to do an outreach of Aseema's "Spin a yarn .." project by giving a presentation on Gandhi and ahimsa and a demonstration of spinning on the Charkha to two schools also. The response from the students of class 9 and 11 of Bhavan's Elamakkara and of classes 5 and 6 of Vidyodaya were tremendous as well as the two hundred and odd students of various colleges in Cochin who had registered for the conference judging by the number of students who came up to Devika to discuss during the lunch break.