Eritrea - An African Country

Eritrea - An African Country from Zulfir Sadat

Freed Indian fishermen cross border from Pakistan

Released Indian fishermen prisoners cross over the India-Pakistan Wagah border post on August 24, 2013. In a goodwill gesture to boost the peace process with India, Pakistan released 362 Indian fishermen, prisoners imprisoned for fishing in Pakistan territorial waters, officials said.
© AFP Narinder Nanu

LAHORE, Pakistan  – Nearly 340 Indian fishermen held by Pakistan for violating territorial waters crossed the border on Saturday after they were freed amid high tensions over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The move is part of an understanding between the nuclear-armed rivals to release those who mistakenly stray into each other’s waters.

It came after weeks of cross-border firing in Kashmir, with the two countries’ military forces blaming each other for the unrest.

“All 337 Indian fishermen including seven juveniles crossed the border into India from Wagah crossing point near Lahore,” Rizwanullah Jamili, a senior official of an aid group facilitating prisoners’ release, told AFP.

The release had been sped up by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture to India amid increasing tensions.
Sporadic firing in recent weeks across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, has sent tensions between the neighbours soaring.

Kashmir has been in dispute since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947, with both sides claiming it in full but controlling only part, and violence flares there from time to time.
The latest round was triggered by a raid on August 5 that left five Indian soldiers dead, with the incident blamed by Delhi on the Pakistani military. Islamabad has denied the claims and struck a conciliatory tone, urging restraint and dialogue.

Fishermen from both countries are frequently held for straying across the disputed and poorly defined maritime boundary in the Arabian Sea.

There are still 97 Indian fishermen and three other Indian nationals, including a juvenile, languishing in jails in Karachi.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/kghohax

Why is the Global Times Celebrating India’s Aircraft Carrier?

In one of those things that makes you go hmmmm…. The Global Times is celebrating the launch of India’s indigenous aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine. In the GT op-ed, Liu Zongyi of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies writes, “The launch of India's home-built aircraft carrier is indeed worth celebrating, because it marks a firm stride toward the indigenization of arms. The triumphant launch of the hull demonstrated India's progress in building giant surface carriers.”

After further praising India for its launch of a domestically built nuclear submarine so soon after the carrier, the author adds, “While helping boost the ruling Congress Party's election chances next year, they do mark India's achievements in localizing arms production.” Liu then goes on to argue that, “An aircraft carrier, in particular a defensive one like the INS Vikrant, will not cause drastic changes in Asia-Pacific strategic scenario.” Oddly, the headline the GT editors attached to the piece was “Indian carrier hints at regionally dangerous military buildup.” Liu did end the article by saying China should not forget the “existence of war even in a peaceful world.”

India is not sitting content, however. On Wednesday the Indian Air Force landed a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) airstrip. The Indian Express makes much of the fact that the DBO is the most-elevated airstrip in the world at about 16,614 feet. More importantly, is the fact that its right along the border with China, which seems to be a lesser focus on the article. Zee News explains the importance of the DBO to India, saying the base is “situated within shouting distance from the Line of Actual Control (LoAC).”

The F-35B completed its first-ever night-time vertical landing this week, even as the estimated operating costs of the F-35 fleet continue to drop to the still astronomic amount of just under $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, CSPAN recently visited Lockheed Martin's F-35 facility, and has an hour long program about the Joint Strike Fighter program to prove it. 

General Fan Changlong, the number 2 under Xi Jinping on China’s Central Military Commission, is apparently urging senior PLA officials to disclose their personal assets. Australia’s The Age has the story.

Over at Information Dissemination, Lazarus argues that the Goldwater-Nichols Act crippled the United States’ ability to conduct strategic planning

Source: http://tinyurl.com/nx9g8sk

Pak to release 365 Indian prisoners

Islamabad , Ministry of Interior is releasing 365 Indian prisoners which include 340 Fishermen and 25 crew members of Indian vessels through the Wagha Border on Saturday .

Representatives of Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Home Department Punjab / Sindh and Indian High Commission shall be present on the occasion.

340 Fishermen will be released from District Jail Malir, Karachi, while 25 crew members will be released from Gaddani Jail, Balochistan.

All these prisoners have completed their sentences and after confirmation of their National Status as Indians they are being released /repatriated to India through Wagha Border on August 24 as per agreement with India.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/kemoqn7

20 Kinnaur villages without power for 50 days

SHIMLA: In rain-ravaged Kinnaur district, residents in over 20 villages under Pooh sub-division are forced to live in darkness as the state government has not been able to ensure power supply since June 16, after flashfloods and landslides damaged the main supply line to this tribal area. While the residents are demanding early restoration of supply, officials claimed that partial restoration in these areas would be completed by August 15 while in some places, it would take another few months as damage is huge.

After heavy rainfall of June 16 and 17 resulted in flash floods and landslides along with road network and communication system, the power supply system also suffered extensive damage. While majority of roads in the district have been opened and communication network restored to most parts, the slow pace of restoration work on power transmission lines has left Kinnaur residents agitated.

A resident of Nesang village and former IAS officer R S Negi said it is pity that Kinnaur district, having major hydro power projects, is not getting electricity. "The state government is exploiting the hydro power potential of Kinnaur the most but is not showing interest in ensuring restoration of power supply to residents at the earliest," he said. In the absence of power supply, residents are finding it hard to complete their chores as neither candles nor kerosene is available to make alternate arrangements. "This is affecting the studies of children as well," he added.

Kinnaur district is part of Mandi parliamentary constituency where a byelection was held on June 27. Before going for polls, despite flood and landslides snapping road, power and communication lines, residents of this tribal district that shares its borders with China, were promised restoration work on war footing.

"But once polls were over, restoration work took back seat. People are without electricity in many villages as restoration work is being carried out at snail's pace. This shows how the government has forgot the miseries of Kinnaur residents after elections got over on June 27," said former Kinnaur MLA Tejwant Singh Negi.

Executive engineer of state electricity board at Reckong Peo, Ajit Negi, said that power supply to most of the villages under Pooh sub-division would be restored by August 15, while for Kunnu-Charang and Asrang areas, restoration of power supply would take time as huge damage to infrastructure has been caused there. Pooh sub-division suffered the maximum damage to power transmission system in the entire district, he said.

"So far we have already laid new main line of 30 km that includes installation of new poles and transformers. The restoration work got delayed as road was blocked since July 25 due to which supply of poles and other material could not reach us," he added.

Deputy speaker Jagat Singh Negi said that all required funds have been allotted to carry out restoration of power supply, but still around two dozen villages of KInnaur district are without power. "Compared to other departments, electricity department is lagging in restoration work," he added.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/n7dxa3g

Influences of Chinese Language

Jianzhen, a monk in Tang Dynasty who had tried to travel to preach for 6 times, but only succeeded at the last time. He died in Japan

In an earlier historical period, the Chinese character script was the only script used to write the languages of Japan, Korea and Vietnam, three countries that are China's closest neighbors. A number of Chinese characters are still used today to write certain Japanese words (the Japanese language has long since developed its own written characters, the hiragana and katakana scripts), and a lesser number of Chinese characters are still in use to write Korean.

On the other hand, the language of Vietnam, which belongs to the Austro-Asiatic family of languages of Southeast Asia rather than to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, has now gone over entirely to an all-Latin (i.e., Romanized) alphabet.

Finally, it goes almost without saying that many of the written Chinese ethnic minority languages are greatly indebted to the ancient Chinese character script.

THE CHINESE INFLUENCE ON WRITTEN JAPANESE

Even though the Japanese people could easily develop a new set of written characters to replace the hold-over Chinese characters that they still use – called kanji in Japanese – they have weighed the pros and cons of this and have decided that it is simply not worth the effort. There would of course be a great deal of hassle with such a change, since everyone would have to learn the new character system, and given that older people tend to be averse to radical changes, it would probably have to be done over at least a generation, where a new generation of school children learn both character systems, and once there is no one around who is dependent on the older, kanji characters, then a clean break could be made.
But why bother? Also, there may be some value in not severing the link to the ancient, heavily Chinese-influenced past; severing that link might also be construed as a form of denial. As it is, kanji is an integral part of Japan's cultural history, alongside the many other events, for good and for bad, that characterize Japan's relationship to China, so there is a certain degree of integrity involved in preserving the ancient written Chinese characters, an integrity that speaks well of the character, in fact, of the Japanese people, much like the recent natural disasters (viz., the earthquake and the resulting tsunami) tested and demonstrated the fine side of the Japanese people.

THE CHINESE INFLUENCE ON WRITTEN VIETNAMESE

An ideo- and pictographic written language for Vietnamese, Chữ nôm, was developed already in the 13th century, though written Vietnamese wasn't really widespread in Vietnam – even if Chữ nôm made a brief appearance in Vietnamese governments near the end of the 14th century/ the beginning of the 15th century (the Vietnamese continued to use traditional Chinese, or Hán tự ("Chinese writing"), as it was called) – until after independence from France in the middle of the 20th century, though by that time, Chữ nôm had been superseded by the new, Romanized script.
Chữ nôm was in widespread but limited use from the 17th century onward, though only as a literary language, while "Chinese writing", or Hán tự, continued to be the primary written language of Vietnam.
However, during the 17th century, thanks to a bit of help from Portuguese missionaries and traders (in particular, thanks to the Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Alexander de Rhodes), the Vietnamese people developed a Romanized script, Quốc Ngữ, which was eventually adopted throughout the country after independence from France.
During the colonial period, when Vietnam was under French influence, the French language replaced Chinese as the official language of government and of the state education system; in fact, many French words found their way into the Quốc Ngữ script and are still in currency today, just as English, German, the Scandinavian languages, etc., all have borrowed heavily from the French language. However, the greatest influence on the Vietnamese language in terms of borrowed concepts – irrespective of the final script system that would be used to express those borrowed concepts – is not the French but the Chinese language. It is widely recognized that about 60% of the modern Vietnamese lexicon can be identified as Hán-Việt (Sino-Vietnamese) in origin.

THE CHINESE INFLUENCE ON WRITTEN KOREAN

Not unlike the Vietnamese, who, as we have seen, developed their own language script during what is called the late Middle Ages/ early Renaissance period in Europe, though the indigenous Vietnamese script (aka "national script") never quite caught on until much later, the Koreans developed their own language script, hangul (yet, note the Chinese character-syllable "han" even here!), in the 1440s, when a team of scholars was commissioned for this very purpose by King Sejong the Great (CE 1397-1450), yet hangul first caught on during the period the late 19th century/ early 20th century. Prior to this, the Chinese script, hanja (literally, "Chinese characters", or in other words, "Chinese writing"), was employed by the Koreans.
It is a bit hard to imagine how the Koreans –and for that matter, the Japanese and the Vietnamese – could make do with a script that was designed to express Chinese thought when the spoken language of China's neighbors contained thoughts, or ideas, that were unique to those other languages. This must surely have put a straightjacket of sorts on expression. After the creation of hangul, indigenous Korean words – including spoken words that had not earlier been rendered in hanja – were thereafter written in hangul, even alongside (intermixed with) the hanja script.
For all its independence from the Chinese script in later years, the vocabulary of the Korean language, not unlike the vocabulary of the Vietnamese language, is made up of a great deal of Chinese words (called hanja-mal or hanja-eo (i.e., Sino-Korean)) – in fact, over 50% of the Korean lexicon stems from the Chinese language. Also, because both the Vietnamese and the Korean peoples continued to write texts in "Chinese writing" up until the modern period, a Vietnamese or Korean scholar of history is forced by circumstances to learn "Chinese writing" in order to study their respective ancient texts.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/mkp2hzw

Dalits told to keep distance from temple

ANAND: Dalits in Bamroli village of Anand's Petlad taluka have been banned from entering the village temple to goddess Khodiyar.

The decision was taken by the village panchayat after a dalit woman, Meena Shenva, requested the village priest to allow her into the temple to offer prayers on Vad Savitri on June 26. After being turned away, Shenva approached 50 of her village dalit community members from and raised the issue with them.

 A few days later, the village panchayat also resolved that dalits not be allowed to enter the temple and that offer prayers through a small opening on a wall 100 metres away from the main temple entrance. This shocked Shenva. The temple priest insisted that this was a tradition at temple. After few days the police registered an FIR against the temple priest Rajnikant Kiritbhai and the panchayat at the Mahelva police station. Meena now fears that she will be pressurized to withdraw the case.

Deputy superintendent of police, Anand, Rajendra Asari, told TOI: "It's true. We had arrested the accused but they are out on bail. Meanwhile district authorities too have been informed of the incident and asked to follow up. The case is now in court and sub-judice. I will not be able to comment any further."

"The wall, which is 100 metres away from the temple, had a small indent in which dalits were supposed to make their offerings to the goddess. We hope Meena's efforts will give voice to the problems of dalits who live in surrounding areas of Bamroli and want to pray at the temple," says Meena's brother, Amrut Shenva.

Amrut Shenva, who lives in nearby Simrada village added, "I hope the police action bears fruit. We also fear for Meena who took this bold step. There will be lot of pressure on her to withdraw the case."

Source: http://tinyurl.com/kpun4cm

Former nuclear bunker to get a new look as tourist center

ONCE designed to protect residents from a nuclear explosion, a fallout shelter in north China’s Hebei Province is to be transformed into a tourist attraction.
“The township government has planned to build a tourist complex inside the fallout shelter,” said Li Baoyun, chairman of the people’s congress in Shouwangfen Township in the city of Chengde, a famous summer resort about 250 kilometers from Beijing.
Located beneath the town center, the shelter stretches 2.5km from east to west and 1.5km from north to south. It was designed to accommodate a combat hospital of 2,000 square meters and a warehouse of more than 4,000 square meters.
The main corridor, which once led to an auditorium, cinema, power station and dwellings, is wide enough for two trucks to pass along side by side.
Four different areas are set to be developed based on the existing shelters and underground channels, according to local government documents released in late July.
With the complex expected to be opened by the end of 2015, the plan is for an entertainment “under-city” to be filled with catering and shopping attractions. A “haunted adventure land” will replace the hospital.
And a picture show giving information on how the shelter was used in preparing for war and storing food supplies for use in case of famine will also be included. Audiences will get a fresh view of history through simulations.
The government blueprint also mentions an area featuring a cinema with 3D film technology, a cafe and a zone themed  around science fiction.
Built in the late 1960s, the fallout shelter was initiated by China’s late chairman Mao Zedong as a response to the Vietnam War and a downturn in Sino-Soviet relations.
Li Baoyu, then 20, was actually involved in building the facility. “I was one of hundreds of workers carrying rocks and cement,” he recalled.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/n3pdk3h

Chinese Islam

The Tang and Song Dynasties are the initial stages of the introduction of Islam into China. In the second year of Yonghui period in the Tang Dynasty, the Dashi State sent an envoy to pay tribute to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty. The historical field of our country generally takes this year as the symbol year when Islam was introduced into China.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Islam had reached a considerable scale in China. The mode of Chinese Islam had also been basically established and Muslim groups that believe in Islam had also been developed. The Muslim settlement centering on the mosques had appeared in the vast cities and rural areas.
The late Ming and early Qing Dynasties are the mature period of Chinese Islam. At that time, Islam had been accepted by several national minorities besides the Hui Nationality. The Muslim of the Hui Nationality as the members of Chinese society and important carriers of Chinese Islam played an important role in all aspects of social life.
After the foundation of new China, under the lead of Chinese Communist Party, the policy on freedom of religious belief has been comprehensively implemented and the religious belief and religious life of Chinese Muslim have been under the protection of constitution, law and policy. At present, there are ten nationalities that believe in Islam in our country. They are the Hui nationality, the Uygur nationality, the Kazak nationality, the Uzbek nationality, the Khalkhas nationality, the Tartar nationality, the Tadzhik nationality, the Dongxiang nationality, the Salar nationality and the Bao’an nationality. The total population of Islamists is about twenty million. The distribution of Muslim population in our country has been dispersal in large-scale communities and concentration in small-scale communities. Now the whole country has more than 34000 mosques and more than 45000 Adian (Party branch secretaries) and Maola (abbots). Muslim of our country belongs to the Sunni Sect in belief and complies with Hanafiyah School in religious doctrines.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ng3cpj6

Mazu Belief

Statue of Mazu on Meizhou Island

Located in the southeast coastal region of Fujian, Meizhou Island has not only wonderful natural scenery, but also cultural charm of Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea in Chinese culture. Being hometown of Mazu and the birthplace of Mazu culture, Meizhou Island is praised as “Oriental Mecca”, a holy place for about 200 million believers from more than 20 countries and districts in the world.
In 2009, Mazu belief and customs was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO.

1. About Mazu
Mazu was born on the 23rd day of the third month of Chinese lunar calendar in 960 AC (during the Northern Song Dynasty of China). The original name of Mazu was Lin Mo. She was the youngest one of the 7 children of Lin Yuan and Woman Wang. Clever, brave and kindhearted, she could forecast the weather and offered medical services to fellow islanders. Lin Mo was deeply loved by the locals. After she had become a grown-up, she decided not to get married and made helping others her life-long enterprise. With her knowledge of medicine, Lin Mo cured the sick and taught people how to prevent illness and injury. Since she had grown up by the seashore, Lin Mo knew a lot about weather and was good at swimming. There was legend saying Lin Mo could go across the sea by a mat. Lin Mo encouraged the people to conquer nature and defeat evil; she was much loved and esteemed by the locals. Lin Mo died at the young age of 28 when rescuing shipwreck victims on Sep 9th of lunar calendar in 987 AC. To memorize Lin Mo, people built a temple for her, which became the first temple for Mazu in the world (Mazu Ancestral Temple). The temple was expanded by San Bao the merchant and had become rather large by Qing Dynasty.
Owing to her benevolence, Mazu had been given 36 titles such as “Madam”, “the Queen of Heaven” and “Holy Mother” from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).The number of the characters of title increased from 2 to 64. In the end, Mazu got the highest position of being the only god of the sea. The belief of Mazu was spread to all over the world by overseas Chinese people, sailors and ambassadors, making Mazu a world-influential goddess of the sea. With over 5,000 Mazu temples dotted around the world and 200 million believers, the Mazu belief has spread to more than 20 countries and regions across the globe.
2. Mazu Culture
After a development of more than 1000 years, Mazu has changed from a folklore belief to an influential folklore culture-Mazu culture, covering many fields such as politics, economics, diplomacy, military affairs, culture and affairs concerning nationals living abroad. It is a special culture form of Chinese nation and a part of Chinese civilization.
Mazu Culture has profound cultural connotation. In the field of academy, Mazu culture covers all kinds of subjects including history of religion, folklore, voyage, science, architecture, literature, arts, overseas Chinese and relationships between China and foreign countries. In the fields of language and folklore, mythologies and legends of Mazu are main contents of Mazu culture, the belief of Mazu and the related customs are also important parts of this culture. For example, the popular Mazu bun, Mazu coat, Mazu noodles, Mazu ceremony, Mazu figures on the boats, sacrifices before setting sail. Besides, the shipyard also worships Mazu and model of the ship. There’s legend that Mazu will bliss and protect babies. Thus many people go to Mazu temple to get infant names and scent bags for their children. Customs in Taiwan includes “fire joining”, sacrificial ceremonies in spring and autumn, Xiema drama, Xiangqing drama, Yige formation, Martial Club, Music Club, worshipping from far away, walking around the spot, crazy about Mazu in March, Dajia Mazu Sightseeing Festival and so on.
Generally speaking, Mazu culture includes Mazu’s convince of sacrifice, virtues of being true, good and her spirit of helping others, along with architectures, sculptures, paintings, calligraphy works, poems, antiques, folklores, mythologies, stories and believes about Mazu. Mazu culture is profound and abundant.
3. Sacrificial Ceremony
Mazu is the highest ranking goddess of the sea in ancient China. According to the ancient rites, people who prevent disasters, defend troubles, and make great contributions to the country can be offered with sacrifices. Therefore, emperors of all dynasties since Song dynasty honored Macau frequently and the court issued instruction to offer sacrifices. In Yuan dynasty, the imperial commissioner was sent to Meizhou to offer sacrifices for three times; after Emperor Kangxi of Qing dynasty united Taiwan, he sent courtiers to Meizhou to offer sacrifices for several times. Emperor Yongzheng of Qing dynasty ordered people to implement the courtesy of kneeling down at every three steps and knock head at every nine steps.
To promote the Chinese traditional culture and make Matsu ritual more standard, Meizhou Ancestral Temple Ceremony Notes came out in 1994 referring to the historical data and folk rituals. In recent years, people focused on the artistic process of festival music and dance so as to pursue a more perfect combination of religious rituals and art appreciation.
The sacrificial ceremony for Mazu Ancestral Temple is held on Mazu’s birthday on March 23rd (lunar calendar). The conducting of Meizhou Ancestral Temple Ceremony Notes will be at Mei Zhou Ancestral Temple Square or New Temple Queen of Heaven Square. The sacrificial ceremony lasts about 45 minutes, ranging from small, medium and great. During the ceremony, people do these things in order as below: 1. hit the drum and play the firework;2. the honor guards and groups of music players and dancers stand in position 3 the chef mourner and the assistants stand in position；4. welcome the god and burn incense to offer sacrifices；5. take the mourning silks 6. read the blessing passages 7. kowtow to the goddess；8. give the first sacrifice and play Heping Music; 9. give the second sacrifice and play Haiping Music;10. give the last sacrifice and play Xianping Music;11. burn the blessing passages and silks;12. kneel down at every three steps and knock head at every nine steps;13. send the goddess and finish the ceremony.
The music and dances in Meizhou Ancestral Temple Ceremony Notes was all about the three sacrifices, which can be divided into 5 parts: welcome the goddess, the first sacrifice, the second sacrifice, the last sacrifice. The music of the three sacrifices includes Haiping Music, Heping Music and Xianping Music. Male and female singers sing in chorus. As for the dance, there are 8 rows of pantomimes, including 32 males and 32 females. The males take feathers while females hold short flutes. The is the highest ranking education-dance in ancient China.
4. Significance
The custom of sacrificial ceremony for Mazu enjoys long history and profound effect. Mazu is very famous, especially in coastal regions, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and southeastern countries, where everybody knows Mazu. Mazu culture and customs in Meizhou is unique and worth studying on and protecting. It is especially important for promoting the communication between Ming Nan and Taiwan. On the Double Ninth Festival (lunar calendar) of 1987, about 100,000 Mazu believers across Taiwan Straits held the “Mazu Ceremony of the Millennium Festival”, which lasted for one week, in the Mazu Temple of Mei Zhou. An academic discussing meeting on memorial of one millennium after Mazu’s death is held, opening a new prelude for the communication between Taiwan and mainland of China.
Among thousands of Mazu temples all over the world, there are more than 1000 in Taiwan. Mazu is regarded as “Holy Mother of the Heaven” in Taiwan. Chinese Mazu Culture exchange Association is founded in Mei Zhou Mazu Ancestral Temple in Putian, Fujian, providing a platform cultural associations and staff from in and abroad to carrying out academic research, friendly communication, promoting Mazu culture and enhancing mutual understanding.
During the long history of development, Mazu culture is spread to coastal cities as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao in our country. It follows the steps of overseas Chinese to more than 20 countries all over the 5 continents of the world. Mazu culture has strong cohesion power for Chinese all over the world, especially in the southeastern districts. After 1000 years, Mazu culture has become an important part of the splendid Chinese culture, as well as cultural bridge and spiritual linkage connection Chinese people all over the world.
Mazu belief comes from the folk. There’s true person in history. The original name of Mazu was Lin Mo. She was born in Meizhou Island in Putian, Fujian in the year of Jianlong in Song Dynasty. The girl was clever, diligent, kindhearted and obedient to her parents. She could forecast the weather and offered medical services to fellow islanders. Lin Mo was respected by locals. Lin Mo was praised as the guardian goddess by people after she had passed away.
There are many folktales of Mazu when she’s alive. 15 stories are recorded in Tian’hou Notes, and 16 stories in Record of Goddess of Heaven Making Her Power Felt. Some of them are listed below:
5. Legends
Make the Island of Caizi Forever Green
There was a small island near Meizhou Island. It was said Mazu went to the small island to play one day. She threw seeds (caizi seeds) onto the ground and they grew up immediately. The land was soon covered by flowers. People did not need to cultivate and let the seeds grow themselves. The locals regarded the plants as magical flowers. Afterwards, people named this island “Caizi Island”.
Pray for Rain to Save the People
It was said there was severe drought in Putian when Mazu was at her ageof21. All the people in the county said that only Mazu could save them. Thus, the county official went to Mazu for help himself. Mazu prayed for the rain and said it would rain at 9:00 am on 12th. When that day came, there was no hint of rain because there was no cloud at all in the morning. However, it suddenly became cloudy at 9:00. Then a strong rain came, making the land full of vigor.
Hang the Mat to Sail on the Sea
It is said that one day Mazu wanted to sail across the sea by ship without paddles or sails. The captain dared not sail the ship; Mazu told him to set sail and suspend a straw mat onto the mast as a sail. The ship then rode over the waves and carried on swiftly across the sea.
Transform the Straw to Save the Vessel
It is said there was an important pass in the west of Meizhou Island. Once, a commercial vessel struck a rock because of the strong wind near the pass, causing seawater to flood the cabin. When the ship started to sink, the villagers dare not go and rescue. Mazu got some grass and threw it into the sea, which miraculously transformed into a raft, attaching itself to the vessel to stop it from sinking. People in the vessel were all rescued.
Subdue the Two Demons
It was said that two demons known as "With-the-Wind Ear" and "Thousand Miles Eye" lived in the northwest of Meizhou when Mazu was 23. The two demons often came out and hurt the locals. People required Mazu to punish the demons. In order to subdue the demons, Mazu went to the mountain with other girls in the village. After more than 10 days, the two demons finally appeared. When they came closer, Mazu reproached loudly. The two demons were afraid of Mazu and transformed to a beam of light to escape. Mazu waved the handkerchief in her hand, summoning a strong wind, making the demon lose their way. The demons took out their iron axe. Mazu prod them into dropping the iron, and they could not took it back. In the end, the demons admitted their guilt and left. After 2 years, the two demons appeared on the sea again. Mazu summoned the strong wind and stones with spells and defeated them. Then the demons subdued and became Mazu’s guardians.
Solute the Problem of Floods
It was said when Mazu was 26, it rained a lot in the first half of the year, bringing floods to the two provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang. The emperor ordered the officials to pray for the sun right away, but nothing changed. The local officials came to Mazu for help. Mazu said: “The disaster is caused by the bad deeds done by people. Since his highness is willing to save his people, I should pray to the god to bless my people.” Then Mazu began to pray. Suddenly, it blew and a dragon flew away from the edge of the cloud. The sky was clear and harvest came that year. The people were all grateful to Mazu and local officials told the emperor about the matter. Mazu was then rewarded.
Save Her Father and Find Her Brother
According to legend, when Mazu was at her age of 16, her father and brother went fishing one day in autumn. A terrible typhoon arose while they were out at sea. The boat was harmed and the situation was sticky. Mazu was sitting at a loom weaving. Suddenly, she closed her eyes and used all her strength to support the loom. Mazu's mother discovered her sleeping and tried to wake her. Mazu dropped the shuttle when she woke. Seeing the shuttle on the ground, Mazu cried and said: “Father was rescued, and brother died!” Soon there’s news came proving what she said was true. After her brother died, Mazu accompanied her mother to look for the body. Suddenly, Mazu found a group of sea creatures were gathering on the surface of the sea. Seeing this, people were worried. Only Mazu knew that the sea creatures were coming for her by the order of the god of water. Then, the water became clear and the body of her brother was seen. The body was taken back. After this, every time when Mazu’s birthday came, groups of fish stayed around Meizhou Island at night and did not leave until dawn. This day was also a day on which local fishermen did not go fishing.
Required to Cure the Patient
It was said when Mazu was alive, the plague broke out in Putian one year. The family of the county official was also the victim. Somebody told the official that Mazu could save them. Thus, the county official went to Mazu for help. Mazu decided to help him considering that he was not bad as and official and he came from other place. Mazu asked the county official to boil 9 pieces of changpu (kind of plant) with water and glue a piece of spell onto his door. The official did what he was told and he was cured after several days.
Get the Copper Nameplate
When Mazu was 16, she went out to play with a group of girls one day. When she was looking at herself in the water of the well, a god with a group of fairies behind him came up from the bottom of well, holding a bronze nameplate in his hands. The god handed Mazu the nameplate. All the girls were scared and ran away. Only Mazu accepted the bronze nameplate without doubt. After she had taken the nameplate, Mazu was able to perform all kinds of magic and spells. It was said she could go to another place immediately to help people in need. People regarded her as “ magical lady” and “daughter of the dragon”.
Get Across the River On an Iron Horse
It is said that Mazu wanted to go cross the sea one day when there was no boat.  Then, she saw there was an iron horse hanged in front of the house beside her. Mazu got an idea. She took the iron horse and waved the whip, making the iron horse come to life and carry her across the sea. After she landed on solid ground, the horse vanished in an instant. People who witnessed this were all astonished at her magic powers

Source: http://tinyurl.com/pkgn2c6

Ox Street Mosque

Located in Ox Street near Guang’an Gate, Ox Street Mosque is the longest and the most magnificent ancient mosque in Beijing. Firstly built in the Northern Song Dynasty, Ox Street Mosque got its name in the Ming Dynasty. It is largely renovated during Emperor Kangxi period in the Qing Dynasty.
And a lot of Muslims head to worship in Ox Street Mosque which has a more than 1000 years old history. It is not only a holy mosque to worship, but also a great place to know Islam culture and its development in China. The Ox Street Mosque is a popular Islam destination to visit in Beijing.

Nowadays, the architectures that visitors see are well-preserved ancient buildings in the Qing Dynasty. Ox Street Mosque is a typical mosque adapted with Han People’s traditional architecture style. The main buildings consist of the Prayer Hall (Libai Hall), Bangge Tower, Watching Moon Tower (Wangyue Tower) and Stele Pavilion.

Ox Street Mosque is typical Mosque which is facing west where the holy Mekka locates in. Based on traditional Chinese wooden palace architectures, it covers an area of more than 6000 square meters. With a symmetrical and compact layout, it has a typical Arabic-style of decoration such as plants and flower taboos. There are no human or animal figures as they are not the taboos for Islam. And there are well-preserved Arabic manuscripts and woodcarvings of Koran and incense burner of the Qing Dynasty.

The Prayer Hall

The most representative building in the Ox Street Mosque is the Prayer Hall. Unfortunately, it is only open to the Muslims at this moment. Occupying an area of 600 square meters, the Prayer Hall has a capacity of hundreds of worshippers. The gate of the Prayer Hall is decorated with scripts from the Koran and worship poems.

Travelers can see some scripts and poems are written in the ancient Arabic characters of Al-Kufi which is rare in China. With a large number of flower paintings, glass beads and colorful glass decorations, the Prayer Hall has a holy and solemn atmosphere.

Watching Moon Tower

With a 2 stories, Watching Moon Tower has a more than 10 meters height and a golden-glazed roof. It got the name as it was the tower for Islam’ fasting by observing position of the moon.

Bangge Tower

Bangge Tower is a square pavilion situated in front of the Prayer Hall. Firstly built in the Song Dynasty, it is used to report the time for Islam worshipers before prayer ceremonies, so it is also called Xuanli Tower or Huanxing Tower (Rouse Tower).

Stele Pavilion

Located at sides of platform in front of the Prayer Hall, there are some steles carved in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, travelers can also see two grave tombs whose owners are the Islamic presbyter from the Arab countries during the Yuan Dynasty in the Ox Street Mosque. With a long history, the steles in Arabic characters are vigorous and rare in China.
Tips: Travelers need to dress properly excluding shorts and slippers. The Prayer Hall is only open to Muslims and some other areas might not open to the public. So travelers need to read the information on the tickets carefully.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/p236rre 

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to open Kuril Flyover Sunday

Dhaka, Aug 3 (UNB) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open the much-expected Kuril Flyover on Sunday to traffic, which is expected to ease traffic congestions in the city and cut down travel time.

The 3.1-kilometre flyover, once opened, is expected to make the traffic flow smoother as around 87 trains currently cross the Pragati Sarani level crossing every day, halting traffic for about seven hours.

Project Builders Ltd of Bangladesh along with China Major Bridge Engineering Corporation has built the flyover with financial support from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

The Prime Minister is scheduled to inaugurate the Kuril Flyover and Purbachal Balu bridge at 10:30am, said an official at Housing and Public Works Ministry.

The flyover, built on 12.7 acres of land, is 8.9-metre wide and 14.6-metre high having four loops – two ‘Y’ and two ‘U’.

Commuters coming from the west zone of the capital will use loop-1 to go to Pragati Sarani and Purbachal while that from Pragati Sarani and adjoining areas will use loop-2 on their way to Nikunja.

Rajuk had initially targeted December, 2012 for opening the flyover, but later it deferred the timeline twice to March and June this year.

On December 17, 2008, former chief adviser to the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed laid the foundation stone of the flyover.

In March, 2010, the Awami League-led grand alliance government had approved the tender for the scheme at a cost of Tk153 crore though the project costs increased to Tk254 crore due to long delay.

- See more at: http://unbconnect.com/kuril-flyover/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kuril-flyover#&panel1-3

Bringing Eid smile to underprivileged children

Barisal, Aug 2 (UNB)- Out of a philanthropic gesture, Lal-Sabuj, the only monthly children-juvenile magazine in the region, has lunched a programme titled ‘Eider Hasi’ (Eid Smile) to collect money to purchase Eid outfits for the street children in Barisal.

Shahidul Alam, deputy commissioner (DC) of Barisal, and Altaf Mahmud Shikdar, acting mayor of Barisal City Corporation, inaugurated the programme by placing donations in a sealed box on Wednesday.

Tahsin Uddin, editor of Lal-Sabuj, said they will move with the box door to door to collect fund to buy Eid attires for the street children to make their celebration of the festival joyful.

Anyone can donate money in the box and can also contact them over mobile phone number- 01835135138 to give aid to the Lal-Sabuj volunteers, the editor added.

Collected donations would be spent for purchasing new clothes to be distributed among the street children before Eid-ul-Fitr.

Tahsin also said the key of the transparent box would be kept with the DC and it will be opened after the end of the fund collection.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/koap9jt

Uttarakhand floods: Over 1,000 rescued, UN says around 11,000 missing

New Delhi: A total of 1,350 people have been evacuated from Badrinath while over 3,500 remain untraced in flood-hit Uttarakhand even as a UN agency estimated that the number of missing could be over 11,000.

“According to data available till yesterday, 1,350 have been evacuated from Badrinath- 800 by air and 550 by road. But there are some locals too like shopkeepers and ashram dwellers who also are being evacuated,” NDMA Vice Chairman M Shashidhar Reddy told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

The number of dead stands at 580 while the NDRF has rescued 8,634 people from Kedarnath taking the overall evacuation to 1,08,253 people, he said.

“According to the quantum of FIRs filed, the number of missing stands at 3,500-3,700 but a report prepared by a UN agency along with some NGO pegs the figure in excess of 11 thousand,” Reddy said.

He informed that maximum deaths have occurred in the Kedarnath and Rambada areas while the number of injured registered so far has risen to is 3,119 compared to the figures of 436 on Saturday.
“Though the excavators which were supposed to be airlifted yesterday in special Mi-26 helicopters could not be taken due to bad weather, about 385 heavy machines and bulldozers are locally in operation cutting through the debris,” Reddy said.

He added that however one “heavy team” with all equipment to assist the state administration are in Guptkashi from where “they will be airlifted to Kedarnath” to search for the dead bodies near the shrine.

Another team is in Joshimath from where they will proceed to Badrinath.

With various state agencies at work in Uttarakhand, he said “he had heard that different information were being disseminated from time to time leading to contradictory figures” and this should be looked into.

He said the total number of affected villages has risen from 2,000 to above 4,000.
“The number of villages affected is 4200 from 2,375 mark two days ago. While 2,865 have their road connectivities restored, 1,335 still await connectivity. About 737 are still not ready for traffic,” he said.

PTI

Source: http://to.ly/mbRD

The battle against surging rivers and roaring skies and inevitable death

36 ambulances, 200 satellite phones, 90 aircrafts, 200 trucks and the grit to move mountains (sometimes literally) — the armed forces and their logistic coup are the heroes of the Uttarakhand tragedy. Here’s the story of how they did it

In the flood-ravaged Alaknanda valley of Uttarakhand, the sky that hangs behind the mountains is ominously overcast with thick jackets of fog. In the holy town of Badrinath, which stands 10,200 feet above sea level in Chamoli district, a frisson runs through the 2,500-strong queue as the faint sound of Wing Commander Abhay Parandekar’s Mi-17 grows louder. Once aircraft No. 5128 is in sight, men, women and children awaiting evacuation whistle and clap — much like an audience cheering their hero’s entry.

The 40-year-old officer has made more than 150 sorties to Harsil and Badrinath from the military base set up in Joshimath, and rescued close to 2,000 pilgrims in the last 12 days. His role in Operation Rahat — the biggest rescue operation launched by the Indian Air Force till date — is nothing less than heroic. While hostile weather conditions continue to intermittently disrupt rescue work in the northern state, what once seemed like a 10-day job has stretched over weeks.

Torrential downpour channelled by deforested valleys generated floods in the foothills of the Himalayas starting June 14. The worst affected areas were Kedarnath and Harsil, where over 15,000 people have been killed although the government estimates are lower. Close to 1,500 roads and 150 bridges have ‘disappeared’. In Badrinath valley, six stretches of road are washed away and 2.5 km of Lambagarh is the worst patch. In a joint operation launched by the Indian Air Force and Army (who call it Operation Surya Hope), 1.05 lakh people have been rescued till date, but over 3,000 are still reportedly missing across the state. As of Saturday, more than 2,500 pilgrims were still at Badrinath.
 As Delhi University professor and head of the department of environmental studies Maharaj Pandit put it in an article published in New Scientist, rampant unauthorised and mindless building activities on the river resulted in this disaster. The Chief Minister, Vijay Bahuguna would rather have us think of this as a nature’s fury.

Putting systems in place

Lt Colonel Karamveer Singh, posted at the Joshimath rescue base, is co-ordinating rescue operations in Badrinath. He spends a lot of time pacifying frayed tempers. As he walks past queues of hundreds waiting to be evacuated from one of the 13 rescue bases set up by the forces — where pilgrims and locals were brought to safety — people call out to him and complain that the army is not doing enough. Singh understands their desperation. Fights frequently erupt over who will enter the rescue shuttle first. One time, the crowd turned violent and came to blows.

To prevent this from recurring, the army began handing out tokens to persons in the evacuation zones. Major Manish Dhaka, also posted at the Joshimath camp, says, “This is a fair method and makes it easy for the people. If at a given time, token number 501 to 550 are being evacuated, those with numbers above 600 needn’t brave the sun or rain for six-eight hours and stand in queue. They can stay in their rooms.” The state has ensured that stay at all hotels is free and tourist vehicles are used for rescue operations.

The forces have set up 13 rescue bases, where stranded pilgrims are being taken to for food, shelter and medicines. From there, people are being ferried to either Dehradun or Delhi, from where they can proceed homeward. At the Dehradun army camp, evacuees are also being given passes that allow free travel on any train or bus across the nation.

At Lambagarh, a rescue camp, army doctor S Mule has opened a well-stocked clinic on a large rock. Due to irregular medicine intake, pilgrims battling hypertension and diabetes are in bad shape. Captain Dr Simarjit Singh Rehsi says, “Four women and two men, all above 70, were brought to me on Friday with dangerously low SpO2 (oxygen saturation) levels. Nobody knows where they were hiding for the past 12 days, but this was a symptom of severe chest infection. We rushed them in an ambulance, nebulised them and then packed them off in the first chopper that landed.”

The Air Force has used up 1.5 lakh litres of Aviation Turbine Fuel in reaching pilgrims, even in places where landing has been risky business. From Gaucher, personnel have been operating over 20 Army Aviation and IAF choppers in Kedarnath and Badrinath — in all 45 aircraft have been pushed in to service. Over 500 Army jawans, 75 IAF and 150 ITBP personnel are operating here, at the moment.

Army officials say that the logistics involved in this operation is of the magnitude of Operation Vijay (the code for the Kargil War in 1999). More than 200 trucks, 90 aircrafts, three dozen ambulances, a dozen communication vehicles and over 200 satellite phones have been sourced from Bareilly, Dehradun and Roorkee.

By air and on foot

To the right of the helipad in Gaucher, a rescue camp in Chamoli district, sits the IAF unit; to the left, is the Army’s. A Pawan Hans hangar doubles up as their control room. “Kedarnath suffered unimaginable devastation. Not only did pilgrims die in large numbers, the bridges and roads leading to the temple town were washed away. With mobile services down, hotels reduced to rubble and pilgrims stranded, accessing Kedarnath was our biggest challenge,” says Brigadier KB Chand. On the night of June 16, they airdropped 110 paratroopers. Through the rain and rubble, the soldiers walked on foot and gathered the stranded. “They carried explosives to blast boulders and set up temporary helipads so that the IAF could swing in,” says Chand.

Flight lieutenant Manish Dahiya, who has been operating an MI-17 in the Kedarnath valley, was instrumental in raising IAF’s rescue stats (20,000 people so far). “Kedarnath’s valleys are the steepest; narrow, vertical, leaving no space for the aircraft to land. Bad weather compounded the risk. In our initial sorties, we airdropped Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Army jawans with 2,500 kg of food, water and medicines in affected pockets; we had to stop pilgrims from starving. The other priority was to take the ailing and injured to safety. Then came the old, women and the children,” says the 27-year-old.

Brigadier JB Chaudhari, also stationed at Gaucher, says supplies were crucial since the stranded had to be convinced to walk to safe evacuation pockets. “Our para guys and jawans motivated them to keep going, walk as much as 15 km a day along rocky terrain, using log and rope bridges. But motivation is useless if there’s nothing here,” he says, pointing to his belly. With kilometres of roads caved in, walking was yet another trial.

Deputy Commander of the Para Brigade, Sandip Chatterjee, operated a team from Jungle Chatti and rescued 1,000 people in two days, by getting them to trudge on fixed ropes and 300-metre ropeways. “With four roads washed away in the 300-metre stretch between Jungle Chatti and Gaurikund, a ropeway was critical. We were forcibly pulling wives away from their husbands, because women had to be rescued first,” he says stoically.

Parandekar admits to the challenge, when he emerges from the cockpit at Badrinath, his Ray-Bans intact, lining up a batch of 20. “Manoeuvring around Harsil and Badrinath is very tough. But each time we ferry people to safety, we are defeating this difficulty and closing in on victory.”

At Gaucher, two lady IAF officers refuse to talk to us, eager to get into the cockpit of their Cheetahs. They are overheard telling their male colleagues that they will beat them at clocking more sorties that day. Squadron Leader Manoj Gautam, who had completed 14 sorties by Saturday noon, is held back by his juniors so that he drinks the cup of tea that’s been waiting for him. Looking at the sky, Gautam says, “Tea can wait. Before the weather turns worse, I think I can squeeze in a few more rounds.”

The hazard that pilots like him are taking was evident when a Mi 17 V5 helicopter ferrying rescue personnel from Kedarnath to the temporary air base in Gaucher crashed last Tuesday in the difficult terrain north of Gaurikund. All 20 people aboard (nine ITBP, six National Disaster Response Force; personnel and five crew members) the Barrackpore-based 157 Helicopter Unit were killed.

Road to somewhere

As the joint rescue operation involving the Army, IAF and the ITBP took off from multiple bases — Jolly Grant, Sahasthadhara, Harsil, Kedarnath, Guptakashi, Gaucher, Joshimath, Dharasu, Lambagarh, Pandukeshwar, Uttarkashi, Govind Ghat, Gauri Kund — the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) that builds and maintains arterial roads and infrastructure along the country’s borders, was saddled with a gargantuan task. The 32-km stretch from Joshimath to Badrinath, for instance, was wiped out at Govind Ghat, Pandukeshwar, Lambagarh and Hanuman Chatti, cutting off Badrinath from all supplies. On NH-58, 300 km away from Dehradun on the way to Joshimath, landslide debris has shot down vast stretches. At several points, it seems as if there’s no way ahead unless you are willing to dive over a 10-feet-wide crack.

The BRO’s role is evident when you do the math: While a makeshift rope bridge helped rescue one person every five minutes, when 150 BRO personnel aided by 700 labourers completed the 2.5 km Burma bridge at Lambagarh, they assisted the rescue of 500 in just as much time. While images of jawans and ITBP personnel carrying pilgrims and luggage on their backs along road-collapsed stretches is now a symbol of the tragedy, it’s the BRO’s fight against time to rebuild walkways and motorable paths that will help clear the 1,500 vehicles abandoned on various washed-out stretches.

Major Rahul Shrivastava of BRO, says, “Since civilians are being rescued in the mornings, we have the night to carry out our work. From Hanuman Chatti to Govind Ghat, where 30 km of road has vanished, we are blasting mountains around it to source raw material that can be flattened using machines to make a road. Constant landslides, the rain and surging rivers are hell-bent on destroying whatever progress we make. But we aren’t backing out.”

Until agencies like the BRO rebuild transport lines, it’s the armed forces that have had to think up smart strategies to maximise survivor count. Colonel Pankaj Sabherwal and Colonel Pravin Sharma of the Army Aviation Corps have steered hundreds of pilgrims to safety in the Benkauli-Lambagarh stretch, where they were stranded on the Alaknanda’s bank. The duo used their Cheetahs to create a sort of heli-bridge, making repeated to and fro trips between banks to pick up and drop the marooned. “It’s high emotional pressure when you are continuously flying and rescuing. You want to rescue as many as you can, but you also have to be careful. Staying calm isn’t easy,” Sabherwal confesses.

Havildar Gokul Singh would agree. The after-dark destruction at Kedarnath left thousands stuck on one end of Govind Ghat, several of them pilgrims visiting 17th century Sikh shrine Hemkunt Sahib gurdwara. Three hundred jawans, including Singh were rushed to the spot. One jawan was dropped into the river rapids, carrying three ropes, which he’d lock at the other bank to create a ropeway. “He was almost swept away before he managed to do the job. Then, 250 of us laid our bodies in a line on the rope, each holding the first rope with our outstretched arms and the third with our toes. One mistake and we could have landed in the river,” remembers Singh. They held on for six hours and saw 500 people walk over their bodies to safety.

Women who had lost their clothes in the floods were handed out uniforms and boots by the jawans, who themselves walked back in bare essentials. While most embraced the jawans, one woman slapped a jawan for “reaching late” to rescue her.

The ITBP, known for their mastery over the mountains, managed a similar river rescue at Som Prayag. ITBP Deputy Commandent Ranbir Singh Negi and his team of 70 were greeted by 5,000 people perched on a mountain at the other end. “We were surprised by their cheering…it was as if they had spotted Amitabh Bachchan,” says Negi. Using just a log and rope, the team evacuated the entire bunch over the next five days.

Loss in the ranks
The morning after the chopper crash, at the NTRO office in Dehradun, Air Commodore Rajesh Isser, who has been in charge of co-ordination of IAF’s Operation Rahat, was figuring the logistics of recovering bodies from Gaurikund with commandos from Garud, the elite Special Forces Unit of the IAF. “We have lost our best officers and our best helicopter, but it won’t affect our focus,” he says a bit distracted. Apart from operating the giant fleet of choppers, the base is also where strategies are hatched, and communication and navigation vehicles that enable hundreds of satellite phones, radio devices and data processing systems to function stand. At least 35 commissioned officers from the rank of Flying Officer to Air Commodore, and more than 100 staffers are operating advanced helicopters and aircrafts from this headquarters.

On the day of the crash, the Som Prayag ITBP team returned to its Gaucher base a winner to realise they had lost six colleagues. In what’s perhaps symbolic of the heroic might of the forces, DIG Amit Prasad lined them up, and hugging each one of them said, “You must have seen the worst sight of your life. Six of us have died, but we have so many more to rescue.

Source: http://to.ly/mbMy

Timings of new trains announced

Timings of some existing trains changed

The Railways have announced the timings of some new trains, which are yet to be introduced, in the New Time Table effective from July 1.

The new trains, the introduction of which will be announced later, are Bhubaneswar-Tirupati-Bhubaneswar (22879/22880), Visakhapatnam-Gandhidham-Visakhapatnam via Vijayawada (18501/18502), Visakhapatnam-Bhagat Ki Khoti (Jodhpur)-Visakhpatnam, Visakhapatnam-Kollam-Visakhapatnam (18567/18568) weekly express, Visakhapatnam-Tatanagar-Visakhapatnam (185516/18515), Visakhapatnam-Rayagada-Visakhapatnam Passenger, Santragachi-Chennai Central-Santragachi and Hatia-Yesvathpur-Hatia weekly.

Train no. 22879 Bhubaneswar- Tirupati weekly super-fast express will leave Bhubaneswar on Saturdays at 12 p.m. (noon) reaching Visakhapatnam on the same day at 7 p.m. and leaving at 7:20 p.m. to reach Tirupati at 9: 25 a.m. the next day (Sunday).

In return direction, train no. 22880 Tirupati- Bhubaneswar weekly super fast express will leave Tirupati at 12:45 p.m. (noon) arriving at Visakhapatnam on the next day (Monday) at 2 a.m. and leave at 2:20 a.m. and reach Bhubaneswar at 10:10 a.m. on the same day.

Train no. 18501 Visakhapatnam- Gandhidham weekly express will leave Visakhapatnam on Thursdays at 5:35 p.m. and reach Gandhidham on Saturdays at 9:50 a.m. In return direction, train no. 18502 Gandhidham-Visakhapatnam weekly express will leave Gandhidham on Saturdays at 10:45 p.m. and arrive at Visakhapatnam on Mondays at 2:25 p.m. Train no.18567 Visakhapatnam – Kollam Weekly Express will leave Visakhapatnam at 9 a.m. on Thursdays and reach Kollam on the next day at 4 p.m. In the return direction, train no.18568 Kollam - Visakhapatnam weekly express will leave Kollam at 9 p.m. on Fridays and arrive at Visakhapatnam on Sundays at 1:35 a.m.

Train no.18516 Visakhapatnam– Tatanagar express will leave Visakhapatnam on Sundays at 5:45 p.m. and reach Tatanagar on the next day at 10:45 a.m. In the return direction train no.18515 Tatanagar – Visakhapatnam express will leave Tatanagar at 1 p.m. on Mondays and reach here on Tuesdays at 4:40 am

Train no.22807 Santragachi – Chennai AC Super-fast Express will leave Santragachi on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. and reach here the next day morning at 8:20 a.m and depart at 8:45 a.m. to reach Chennai on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:45 p.m.

In the return direction, train No.22808 Chennai –Santragachi AC Super-fast Express will leave Chennai on Thursdays and Sundays at 7:45 a.m., arrive here the same day at 8:35 p.m., and leave at 8:55 p.m. to reach Santragachi on Fridays and Mondays at 10:25 a.m.

Train no.18637 Hatia – Yesvantapur weekly Express will leave Hatia at 6.15 p.m. on Saturdays and arrive at Visakhapatnam on Sundays at 9:45 a.m., depart at 10:05 a.m., and will reach Yesvantapur on Mondays at 5.00 a.m.

In the return direction, train no.18638 Yesvantapur –Hatia weekly express will leave Yesvantapur at Tuesdays at 00.30 a.m. (Midnight), and arrive at Visakhapatnam the same day at 8.35 p.m., depart at 8.55 p.m. and reach Hatia at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesdays. 

Source:  http://to.ly/mbky

Uttarakhand IAF hero laid to rest with full honours

Mumbai, June 30 (IANS) Wing Commander Darryl Castelino, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Uttarakhand Tuesday, was laid to rest here Sunday afternoon with full military honours.

A large number of people led by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, BJP Leader of Opposition in the legislative council Vinod Tawade, Mumbai Congress chief J. Chandurkar and NCP state
spokesperson Nawab Malik and Indian Air Force (IAF) officers attended the funeral.

Castelino’s body was brought to Mumbai Saturday morning and the burial took place at the Our Lad of Egypt Church in Santacruz East suburb.

Hailing from Kinnigoli near Mangalore in Karnataka, Wing Commander Castelino was piloting the ill-fated IAF MI-17 V5 helicopter which crashed during inclement weather while on a rescue mission in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.

Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) Sunday urged Defence Minister A.K. Antony to confer posthumous military or civilian honours on the brave officers who lost their lives during the rescue missions in Uttarakhand floods.

CSF general secretary Joseph Dias made the demand while paying tributes to Wing Commander Castelino.

“Wing Commander Castelino had displayed rare and distinguished service which calls for such a recognition. The Ashok Chakra is awarded for valor and courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battle-field. It is the peace time equivalent of the Paramvir Chakra and Castelino is eminently eligible for it,” Dias said.

Dias urged Antony to award honours for personnel of the Notional Disaster Relief Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police also who lost their lives during the Uttarakhand relief operations.

Source: http://to.ly/ma4C

‘Not just a martyr of Mangalore, he served the whole country’

Wing Commander Darryl Castelino’s face grins at you from a giant poster draped over a building in Diamond Park compound in suburban Vakola. Emblazoned with the national flag, the poster salutes the 38-year-old pilot who was killed in the chopper crash during relief operations in Uttarakhand.

In a temporary blue plastic shed in the compound, relatives and friends of the Castelino family mourn him deeply. They reminisce about his childhood, adolescence and his untimely death. But the family was not allowed to grieve in private with the media swooping into the house since news of his death broke and publishing wrong reports about the funeral.

The Castelinos were shattered when they heard the news. Darryl’s mother Leena was not told about it until the family reached Kolkata.

“The body was unrecognisable. They had to take DNA samples to identify his body. We were told that it was the locket of Mother Mary, which he was wearing, that made it somewhat easy to identify his body. Apparently, he was the only Christian on the chopper,” said Libert Olivera, Darryl’s brother-in-law.

Mr. Olivera waved his mobile phone in anger. “I have received hundreds of calls and messages since morning, man. I am tired of telling them that the funeral is on Sunday. Our relatives in Mangalore are yet to arrive. Have some sense and leave us alone,” he requested. “You write everything, but at least take permission from us,” he said.

The Castelinos live on the second floor of the building. People bowed in tribute to Darryl’s photo on a table, between candles and red flowers.

His motheris surrounded by women consoling her. She pointed to one of her grandsons and told the lady sitting next to him, “He had called him [the boy] and asked [about] his marks before going there. He was excited to go on the mission. He had told me that he will come back,” she said. Darryl is survived by his wife and two children.

Darryl’s wife Jyoti, looking pale but composed, was seen thanking the visitors with a dry smile for their support and kindness.

Downstairs, Mr. Olivera said that he had received calls from the Mangalore media as well, as the Castelinos are originally from there.

“So they wanted to show him as a martyr of Mangalore. How does it matter? He died serving the people of this country,” he said. Though Darryl’s family is from Mangalore, he grew up in Mumbai and was based in Kolkata, where he served the Indian Air Force.

While the media continued to pester the family, a TV channel wanted to know when the funeral was. An old woman took matters into her hand and said, “You please leave now and come tomorrow. Otherwise, you will keep on asking us about Darryl and we will be rude to you. We are closing the compound gate now.”

Source: http://to.ly/ma36

Bollywood comes together for Uttarakhand relief

Disasters can bring out the best and the worst in us. But fortunately, Uttarakhand's Himalayan Tsunami has revealed Bollywood's compassionate side. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and the Film And Television Producers Guild have buried their differences — and joined hands — to raise funds for the victims of the natural calamity.

"Our intention is to jolt the nation out of its apathy. We Indians have stopped helping our own in their hours of need," FWICE general secretary Dinesh Chaturvedi said.A source, who was present at a meeting between the guild and FWICE, said, "The song, Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo, makes us emotional even after 50 years. So, we are planning to create an emotional appeal through a song. We have approached Prasoon Joshi to write it. The song will have a video featuring celebrities and rescue workers. We expect complete support for it to be aired on all platforms — TV, radio, digital media, etc. All proceeds will be for the victims in Uttarakhand."

President, Film and Television Producers Guild, Mukesh Bhatt, said, "We affirm our solidarity and support in this gargantuan task of providing succor and peace to the affected millions of Uttarakhand."

The industry is considering adopting a village or supporting the effort to resettle some of the local residents. To generate funds, a charity concert might be held very soon.

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who hails from Uttarakhand, has lauded the initiative. He said, "I am happy that the industry has come forward to help. Each and every contribution will help the people of my state rebuild their lives."

Actress Himani Shivpuri is worried as she is yet to hear from her uncle, who lives in a village near Rudraprayag. She said, "I am glad that Bollywood has taken up this cause. But I don't like when people say that celebrities should come forward to help. I feel every Indian should take part in such initiatives. Also, one needs to make sure that relief reaches the right people."

Source: http://to.ly/5RJN

Rare photographs marking 160 years of Indian Railways on display

BANGALORE: They are all there, Miss Muffet and Ajanta Express, jostling for space and showcasing the history of the Indian Railways.

Travel back in time with photographs that narrate a thousand tales. Over 500 rare frames of the several milestones track the story and its metamorphosis over 160 years. Miss Muffet is an engine waiting for the driver at a railway station, and Ajanta Express is the first express train to roll out in India on April 1, 1967 -- several milestones in the history of Indian Railways are on show.

Each photograph carries a detailed description, and opens up a panorama of little-known India, sights and scenes that have captured the pulse of a nation on the move over the years. The exhibition, at Venkatappa Art Gallery, is on till July 1.

Some are classic frames: A pedestal fan at a refreshment room in a railway station, cycle rickshaw pullers waiting for the train to arrive, a dining car attached to a train, view of a postal counter at Howrah railway station -- each click is a story in itself.

The photographs take you back to an era when elephants were used to push heavy wagons. It was in 1860 when a bullock train first rolled out. A photograph of a train on the first narrow-gauge line from Dabhoi station to Miyagam appeared on May 23, 1861, in a London journal. The photo shows two bullocks walking on either side of the track and pulling the heavily loaded compartment.

Moments to reckon with

The pictures also take you through platforms and stations which were part of the freedom movement; places where prominent people have left their footprints. While one photo has Bhagat Singh at a railway police station speaking to a gentleman, another reflects the mood of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose with his supporters. Then there is this shot of Gandhiji's supporters spinning the charkha at a station.

Tagore, Nehru on board

A journey by train has often inspired many a creative mind to give words to their thoughts. In fact, Rabindranath Tagore penned six of his poems in 'Gitanjali' while travelling on trains. A photo of a young Tagore gazing out of the train is also a part of the collection.

The first prime minister of Independent India was one of the first to travel on a children's train in Bal Bhavan, New Delhi, in 1958. A photographer aptly captures Chacha Nehru's excitement on the joy ride with children.