VSK TN
Proof of the pudding….
Thanks to the good quality education that the Vidya Bharati schools provide, children of casual labourers employed in the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), a quasi-Government corporate, can now study in spacious new classrooms. As a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, Sarathkumar Acharya Director, (HR) NLC, laid the foundation stone on September 21, for the construction of four class rooms for Saraswathy Vidyalaya (a Vidya Bharati School) at Uttangal Mangalam, a village near Neyveli at an estimated cost of Rs.30 lakhs. Shri Chakravarthy, President of Tamilnadu branch of Vidya Bharati spoke on the occasion.
When “Yama saved a life”!
Elayirampannai is a village in Sattur taluk, Virudhunagar district; the residents of the village had constructed a temple — Sri Yamaraj Temple, for Lord Yama. Some of them worship Him as their ancestral deity. Yama here is seated on a buffalo, His vahana (vehicle). Pitchaipandi, a resident, says the people here have been worshipping Yama for more than 300 years now. Initially, there was only an idol of Yama and the temple came up later. Narrating an anecdote told to him by his father, Pitchaipandi says, “There are five wells around the Yamaraj temple. About 50 years ago, a person went to take bath in the nearly 35-foot well near the temple. When he reached the top of the well while climbing up, he slipped and fell down. Though the water-level in the well was only one foot, he escaped even without a scratch because he screamed, ‘Yama, save me’. The people of the village strongly believe it was Yama who saved him.” Special poojas are performed for the deity during Maha Shivratiri in the Tamil month of Masi (February – March). The natives of the village would descend on the temple from far and near to offer prayers during the festival.
Where a Police Station is “booked”!
The Tirupur city police have set up a library at the north police station (traffic) for school and college students. The library has more than 3,500 books on subjects like science, social studies, literature and mathematics. Police officials said school students had already begun visiting the library, but it was yet to be officially open to the public. A couple of months ago, volunteers of a US-based non-governmental organisation, We Serve Foundation, visited the Tirupur city and handed over nearly 5,000 books to the city police department. The volunteers said they dedicated this to the service of various police officials and wanted their children to benefit from these books. “We are planning to appoint a police official there who could be in charge of the records and also maintenance of the library. Slowly, we will add other books also that could benefit people from all strata of society,” said Tirupur city police commissioner S N Seshasai. Police officials have already approached various schools and colleges in that area and have asked the principal and head masters to provide a letter from the school. “If they give us a letter and the school/college ID proof, we will lend books to the students free of cost,” said a police official. Children of cops could also benefit from the library.