Srinagar: 15-year-old Abdul Rahman has been staying in a Gurudwara here along with his family ever since he was rescued from his house in marooned Wazir Bagh locality after the floods ravaged Srinagar.

With temporary shelters being set up at gurudwaras and mosques for the victims, the calamity has bound people together cutting across religious lines.

“We have been staying at Shaheed Bunga Gurudwara since Tuesday after some volunteers saved us from our house. We eat food at the ‘langar’ (community kitchen) hall and sleep in the main hall of the gurudwara,” Rahman said.

About 2000 rescued families of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus have been staying at the gurudwara since past seven days.

A few meters away from the gurudwara, a relief camp has been set up at a local mosque where around 500 families including, a large number of migrant laborers from various
parts of the country, have been staying.

“We adopted the concept of langar from our Sikh brothers and instead of giving dry ration we are serving pre-cooked food to the flood-affected people staying in the mosque,” said
Ghulam Qadir, a volunteer at the mosque.

Many tourists, who got stuck in the Valley due to the floods and are now staying in the mosque, say they are overwhelmed with the love and care shown by the people of
Kashmir.

“Without enquiring about our identity or religion, people of Kashmir saved us. We are Hindu and are staying in a mosque where the local Muslims are taking our care. We now understand what Kashmir and Kashmiriyat is,” Anil Kumar, a resident of
Uttar Pradesh, said.

Mehboob Ahmed, a volunteer at a local mosque at Barzulla Bagat area where several flood-hit victims have found shelter, said, “When the flood hit the Srinagar city, it did not
distinguish between a Sikh family, a Muslim family, or a Hindu family. We all have been affected. Now we all are fighting this calamity as Kashmiris.”

Gurudwara committees from across the country have been sending relief material for the flood-affected people.

The Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) too has been dispatching relief material, including cooked food, for the flood-affected people.

“The SGPC has started sending pre-cooked food and the packets are being either distributed to the flood affected people in the relief camps or are being dropped from air by the Air Force” said Daljeet Singh Bedi, Secretary, SGPC.

DaanUtsav (earlier called the Joy of Giving Week) is India’s “festival of giving”! Launched in 2009, the festival is celebrated every year, in the week including Gandhi Jayanti, i.e., October 2-8, and brings together Indians from all walks of life, to celebrate “giving”.

From auto drivers to CEOs, school children to celebrities, homemakers to opinion leaders, millions of people give their time, money, resources or skills back to society- by creating or participating in “events” of their choice. A giving event could be as simple as a family taking out the maid’s children for an ice-cream party, or as large as Gift Compassion that had 10,000+ school children across India making and exchanging gifts with their peers from different socio-economic backgrounds.

Events are organised by individuals, social groups, schools, colleges, NGOs, corporates, media houses and others. 2 million+ people participated in 900+ events across 80+ cities in DaanUtsav 2013, raising several tens of crores in money and resources donated, and millions of volunteer hours.

Origin:

Several people have come together on this idea, and it is impossible to attribute ownership to anyone! Internationally, CAF in UK celebrated National Giving Week for 3 years. Australia, Canada and several other countries have piloted Giving Days or Weeks. The US has had a “Giving Tuesday” in the first week of December, since 2009.

Jeroninio Almeida, founder of iCongo and then at ActionAid conceptualised a World Social Giving Day and campaigns titled “Karma Mitra” and “Joy of Giving”. A meeting in 2005 between the CEOs of CRY, GiveIndia, Helpage and others brainstormed on the idea of a National Philanthropy Week.

Finally, between Nov 2008 and Feb 2009, several individuals, NGO leaders and others got together and decided to launch an “India Giving Week”, that would be an open platform encouraging everyone in India to give back. Specific events were identified, such as Riverside School’s Design for Change contest, Goonj’s Vastrasamman Campaign, Toofles’ Style for Smiles CEO Ramp Walk event, JAM Magazine’s college Joyfest, the Battle of the Buffet in Chennai, etc. The advertising agency, EuroRSCG India, on a pro bono basis, created the “Joy of Giving Week” brand identity in March 2009, and in 2014, volunteers renamed it “DaanUtsav”.

Ownership:

No one owns DaanUtsav. It is designed as a festival of giving, and like Diwali or Dussera, the plan is for it to eventually have no owners! However, in the initial formative years, to give it a sense of shape, a group of core volunteers manages the DaanUtsav campaign, defines guidelines for participation and evangelises the effort.

Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray on Monday asserted that Shiv Sena and BJP contesting 135 seats each in Maharashtra assembly polls wouldn’t be feasible.

“135 seats each is not feasible. The BJP had mission 272 for the Lok Sabha elections. What’s wrong if Sena has Mission 150 for state elections?” Uddhav said.

BJP Rajiv Pratap Rudy will be meet Uddhav today to negotiate & make efforts to end the stalemate over seat sharing.

On Saturday night, footage showing the beheading of the British hostage David Haines was released by the Islamic State (Isis) – shortly after his family had appealed for the group to contact them to discuss his release The video shows Mr Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker’s body.
On Sunday, the British Prime Minister described Mr Haines as a “British hero”, and praised the “extraordinary courage” of his family. He said the UK would “hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice, no matter how long it takes”, adding: “They are not Muslims, they are monsters.”
As with previous videos showing the beheading of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Isis, it ends with a threat to kill another hostage – a second British national, who was today named as .
Having returned to Downing Street to chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra, Mr Cameron insisted that the latest killing would not change Britain’s strategy against Isis.
Speaking from Downing Street this morning, the Prime Minister said that “we have to confront this menace”, Mr Cameron added that this will not involve direct British involvement in fighting. The UK is instead playing a supporting role to the US, providing transport and supplies.
David Cameron said he would track down the killer of David Haines “We cannot just walk on by if we are to keep this country safe,” he said. “Step by step, we must drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy Isil and what it stands for.”
The video begins with footage of David Cameron talking about using the UK’s “military prowess” to put pressure on the Islamic State – which he describes as an “appalling organisation”.
It then cuts away to show Mr Haines kneeling next to a man who experts say appears to be the same militant who featured in the videos showing the deaths of Foley and Sotloff.
In his speech, which seems to have been made under duress, the hostage says: “My name is David Cawthorne Haines. I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution.
“You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor Tony Blair did, following a trend amongst our British Prime Minsters who can’t find the courage to say no to the Americans.
“Unfortunately it is we the British public that in the end will pay the price for our Parliament’s selfish decisions.”
David Cameron has vowed to ‘hunt down’ David Haines’ killers The Isis militant then speaks, and at one point mentions the bombing of the Haditha Dam by the US, an incident that only occurred in the past week, showing that the killing was carried out very recently.
He also addresses Mr Cameron directly, saying the Prime Minister will “pay the price for [his] promise to arm the Peshmerga (Kurdish military) against the Islamic State”.
The militant finishes speaking and goes to hold a knife to Mr Haines’ throat, before the video cuts away to show what appears to be his body.

1. In Haryana, the Congress will hope to make a comeback.  The state assembly has 90 seats. Maharashtra has been governed since 1999 by a coalition of the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.
2. The Maharashtra legislature has 288 seats.
3. In the national election, the BJP won 23 of the state’s 48 seats; its long-time partner, the Shiv Sena, got 18; the Congress was reduced to just two.
4. The Congress and Mr Pawar’s party have not yet finalized how they will divide those seats between their candidates. Ditto for the BJP-Sena alliance.
5. With seat-sharing talks still not out of the way, the BJP-Sena alliance may campaign without a chief ministerial candidate. Sources say the parties believe a perceived “Modi wave” may benefit them even in the state polls.
6. In Haryana, the main opposition party currently is Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal or INLD.
7. Another regional player is the Haryana Janhit Congress, which was formed by former chief minister Bhajan Lal and is now led by his son, Kuldeep Bishnoi.
8. Just weeks ago, the BJP ended its three-year alliance with Mr Bishnoi, whose party did not win a single seat in May’s national election.
9. The BJP won seven of the state’s 10 parliamentary seats; Mr Chautala’s INLD got two. The state’s ruling Congress managed just one seat.
10. Polls are also due in flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said, “On J&K we are watching the situation very closely. After things come to some shape we will find out.”

Ceremony Marks 13th Anniversary of Sept. 11 Attacks

This year marked the 13th anniversary of the bright morning when two passenger jets knifed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, another smashed into the Pentagon and a fourth was brought down in a field near Shanksville, Pa.

The 2,983 names that were recited out loud included six people who died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

A bell sounded at six pivotal moments, signifying when the jets struck the towers, when the towers fell, and when the two other aircraft went down. Organizers said that for the first time the memorial plaza would be opened Thursday to the public from 6 p.m. until midnight.

A day of raw emotion for so many, Sept. 11 may be a bit tougher to get through for the 1,100 families that the support group Voices for September 11th says have never received word that the remains of their loved ones have been found.

“There’s nowhere else we can go—this is her cemetery,” said Zoe Kousoulis, the mother of 29-year-old Danielle Kousoulis, as she stood on the memorial plaza.

Danielle Kousoulis was hired by Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 attack, on the day the towers reopened following the 1993 bombing, her mother said.

“I said, ‘Aren’t you worried they’re going to bomb it again?’ And she said, ‘Oh, they did it once they’re not going to bother it anymore,’ ” Mrs. Kousoulis said.Amid gray skies, the service started with the national anthem, which was timed to end at 8:46 a.m., when the first jet crashed into the North Tower.

A uniformed officer then sounded a large bell, marking the first of several moments of silence amid the hum of city traffic.

As the morning wore on, people could be seen embracing one another or putting an arm around the person next to them. Some dabbed their eyes. Others walked around, tears rolling down their faces, as they sought quiet refuge.

The service was closed to the public and emergency service personnel; only family members were allowed to attend.

In the crowd, some carried framed photographs, others held placards adorned with old pictures of their loved ones who died.

A few wore T-shirts bearing names, including that of Paul M. Fiori, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee whose daughter was 3 months old when he died.

“Thirteen years ago today, you put me to bed not knowing you would never see me again,” said Adriana Fiori, 13, of her father. She paused at the microphone before adding tearfully, “I miss you so much.”

Dignitaries in attendance included Mayor Bill de Blasio, former mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Each one made his way through the crowd and shook hands with attendees.

The bell was tolled five more times—at 9:03 a.m. marking the moment the second jet struck the South Tower; 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon was hit; 9:59 a.m., when the South Tower fell; 10:03 a.m., when Flight 93 crashed into the open field; and 10:28 a.m. when the North Tower fell.

Some family members said attendance at this year’s memorial service appeared to be down from previous years.

“Every year it seems less and less people,” said Larry Savinkin, of Brooklyn, who had a photograph of his son, Vladimir, on his blazer. The 21-year-old was an accountant with Cantor Fitzgerald.

A spokesman for the National Memorial said precise attendee numbers hadn’t been calculated on Thursday.

Another visitor, Frank Gotlibowski, of Rocky Hill, Conn., said the atmosphere at the sacred site had changed.

Mr. Gotlibowski makes the journey back to Ground Zero annually to honor his friend, Jeffrey Bittner, who worked in the south tower.

He said he noticed that, outside the plaza but not far away, few people stopped in recognition of the moments of silence.

“I know you’ve got to move on and it’s a new day, but it would be good if people stopped and remembered,” said Mr. Gotlibowski, who was carrying a placard bearing Mr. Bittner’s name, photograph and a picture of the Twin Tower before the attacks.

“People even bump into me with the sign now,” he said. “Take a minute; thousands of people lost their lives.”

(Reuters) – Floods that have killed 450 people in India and Pakistan began to recede on Wednesday giving rescue teams a chance to evacuate thousands of villagers stranded by the heaviest rainfall in 50 years in the heavily militarised and disputed region of Kashmir.

On the Indian side of the divided region, floods and landslides have cut off more than 1 million people from basic services, triggering a massive military rescue operation that has so far evacuated 80,000 from villages and city rooftops.

Tempers rose on Wednesday with some angry that relief efforts were only reaching them six days after the floods began. Others complained about living conditions in temporary camps.

Villagers heckled some soldiers and beat a rescue official who was airlifted for emergency treatment.

The flooding is the first major humanitarian emergency under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and also comes at a difficult time for Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has faced weeks of street protests aimed at forcing him out.

“There are some villages where everything has been swept away. People are extremely angry, frustrated and exhausted,” Indian police official R.K. Khan said.

Many phone lines in the region have been down since the weekend. A police official estimated that thousands were yet to be evacuated.

State Chief Minister Omar Abdullah vowed to restore emergency services.

“I know people have lost everything. We promise to rehabilitate them. No relief and rehab camps can be perfect. We are doing all we can,” Abdullah told reporters.

He said the priority was to distribute clean drinking water, medicines, food for infants and prevent the spread of water-borne diseases.

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan offered each other help at the weekend to deal with the disaster, which temporarily diverted attention from fighting along the border.

The much awaited and hyped movie Mary Kom is to be released on 5^th September all over India. The trailer of the movie exhibits the fine acting of Priyanka Chopra. The kind of physical fitness she has acquired is admirable.

Omong Kumar has made of movie of absolute fine quality, to project a national star of our times Mary Kom the great. It is a big boost for people in the North east to watch their star in the movie halls.

However there were many alternatives to project Mary kom with a NorthEastern star. Many were called for audition and some of them even had all the qualities required. Real News of india has already published news about the selection process for Mary Kom. Manipur has rejected the offer for the pre launch to happen in Manipur mainly due to this reason.

At a time when Hollywood has trust and confidence with Oriental faces why cannot Bollywood try also experiment new tastes and looks? The Indian audience has become much more global in the sense they do posses a certain quality. When Helen an actor from Burma could make the audience dance why not the young talented, gorgeous North eastern girls of today?

In spite of this disappointment for the North Eastern there is a bit of a relief to see the senior veteran Nepali actor Sunil Thapa as the coach to Priyanka. Sunil Thapa has acted in “Ek Duje ke liye” as the villan in Kamal Hasan’s film. Also a lot of supporting actors are from the North east.

Stars- Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumar, Zachary Coffin, Robin Das, Shakti Singh
Director: Omung Kumar;

Music Director- Shashi-Shivamm