What’s On

Spiritual

Chinmaya Mission Programs

Sat 9 - Sun 10 July Guru Poornima family camp ‘Happiness Here and Here After’ at Bundilla Scouts Camp, Reilleys Rd, Winston Hills. Details Uma 0403 045 613.

Mon 11 - Mon 18 July Free Public Talks Dakshinamurthi Stotram by Brni Sujata Chaitanya each night at Chinmaya Sannidhi, 38 Carrington Road, Castle Hill from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

Fri 15 July Launch of Bhagavad Gita Course by Pujya Swami Tejomayananda. For registration visit www.chinfo.org/ courses/bhagavadgita

Fri 15 July Guru Poornima Pooja at Chinmaya Sannidhi, 38 Carrington Road, Castle Hill from 8.30pm to 9.00pm.

Fri 29 July (8pm) to Sat 30 July (6pm)

Local Youth Camp ‘Step Up and Meet the Infinite’ for the age group 18-30 years at Chinmaya Sannidhi, 38 Carrington Road, Castle Hill. For registration call Saumya Kandoi on 0400 999 907 or Chinmaya Sannidhi on 02 8850 7400.

Fri 12 Aug (8pm) to Sat 13 Aug (6pm) Ladies Retreat ‘Madhurashtakam - Discovering Your Inner Beauty’ at Chinmaya Sannidhi, 38 Carrington Road, Castle Hill. For registration call Mahal on 0411 899 554. Last date Monday 1 August.

Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of NSW activities

Sundays, Special lecture series celebrating 175th Birth Anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna, 10.40 am to 12 noon at Vedanta Hall, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon.

Sun 24 July ‘Universalism & Particularism: Aspects of Sri Ramakrishna’s Religious Teachings and Experiences’. Talks by Prof. Raja Jayaraman and Rev. Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji.

Sun 7 Aug ‘Ramakrishna, the Spiritual Oasis’. Talks by Cr.Larry Whipper and Rev. Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji

Sun 28 Aug ‘Sri Ramakrishna’s Advice to Householders’. Talks by Dr. D.P.Chaudhri and Rev. Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji For details on above events call 02 9745 4320 or email vedantasyd@idx.com.au

Bhajan Sandhya and Deep Yagya

Sat 9 July To mark the birth centenary of their Gurudev, the All World Gayatri Pariwar Austraila is holding Bhajan Sandhya between 6 to 8 pm followed by Bhojan Prasad, at Pennant Hills Community Centre, Yarrara Road Pennant Hills.

Sun 17 July The Gayatri Parivar also announces a Deep Yagya on from 3 pm to 6 pm followed by Bhojan Prasad at Australian Hindu Multicultural Association, 1050 Richmond Road, Marsden Park.

Details Parag Wani 0421 403 852.

STAGE

Play writing workshop 8, 9 and 10 July Abhinay School of Performing Arts presents a play writing workshop by Alex Broun, Artistic Director of Short+Sweet, with the support of Shopfront Contemporary Arts & Performance. Interested youngsters (15+ years) are invited to attend. Details Aishverya Nidhi 0488 200 222 or visit the website www.abhinay.com.au

Kavisammelan

Sun 10 July Hasya Kavisammelan at Epping Leisure & Learning Centre, 1Chambers Court (Off Pembroke St.), Epping from 2.15 pm to 6pm India Club will be hosting the event. Well known poets from Sydney & beyond are coming to soak you in “Prem & Hasya Rason Ki Bauchhar”

For booking call Shubha Kumar on 02 9873 1207 / 0402 257 588.

Dance recital

Sat 30 July Contemporary Dance Academy presents their annual winter concert A Love Story, inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, at Pennant Hills Community Centre, 6.00pm Details 0409 049 619 or visit the website www.contemporarydanceacademy.com.au

SENIORS

The seventh Sri Om Care seniors centre has now opened at Pennant Hills Library (70 Yarra Road, Pennant Hills). It is operative on 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month from 11 am to 2.30 pm. The centre is in the Library building directly opposite to Pennant Hills station. Details Jay Raman 0410 759 906

FUNDRAISERS

Bollywood and the Jewels of Bengal Sun 24 July Avijit Sarkar and musicians of Jazba band present a music concert in aid of the Australian Hindi Indian Associations Senior Citizens Group from 4 to 7pm. For details call Avijit Sarkar 0425 275 883.

Yaadon Ki Baarat

Sat 20 Aug Vijay Jogia and Daxa Chauhan present a charity music night in aid of RAIN seniors group from 5:30 pm. Also featuring Bhangra, DJ music by Mayank and Dandiya Raas. For details call Rita Devmurari 02 2897665 or email sdevmurari@hotmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS

Sanskrit School Winter camp

Sat 9 July Sydney Sanskrit School is conducting a one day winter camp ‘Sanskrit for fun’ at Glenwood Public School, Belmont Rd, Glenfield. For details call Meenakshi Srinivasan on 0423 457 343 or visit www.sanskritschool. org

IAAFA Children’s Workshop

12, 13 and 14 July The Indian Australian Arts and Film Association Inc is organising a school holiday program for children aged 5-14 at Jones Park Hall, 151 Burnett St, Mays Hill. Activities include yoga, art, Irish dancing, Bollywood film screenings, mask making, croquet, garba, and short trips out. Details Jay Hosur 0411 115 885

Lecture

Sat 16 July Dr. Muhammad Tahirul-Qadri, one of the leading Muslim scholars well-known for his views on promoting integration, interfaith dialogue, global peace, harmony for humanity and counter-terrorism, will deliver a public lecture on his recently launched English version of the 500-page decree Fatwa on Terrorism & Suicide Bombings, which has been an extraordinary theological blow to terrorist groups of fanatic ideas. His fatwa is a significant step to get Islam free from radicalism. Details at www.minhaj.org.au

Sakhi Sangam

Sun 24 July Sydney Sakhi Sangam will be held at the Croatioan Club. 921 Punchbowl Rd (Cnr Canterbury Rd), Punchbowl. For details call Nandini Thadani 02 9181 2204, Sushma Ahluwalia 02 9894 0070.

Essay competition

Essay competition on ‘Relevance of

Mahatma Gandhi Today’ is open for the year 2011. For details email info@ bhavanaustralia.org

2011 Young Writers Competition

The Transcultural Mental Health Centre is calling for creative writers aged between 12 to 24 years across NSW to enter TranSCRIBE. The theme is ‘Half Way Home’. Last date Mon 1 August. Entries are to be emailed or uploaded to the TranSCRIBE website. For details visit www.dhi.gov.au/tmhc/transcribe

Revision of Passport and Consular Fees

The High Commission of India in Canberra has announced that the Government of India has revised the passport and consular fees with effect from 1st July 2011. An indicative list of revised charges, as compared to present charges is given below:

Present charges Revised charges

Ordinary Indian Passport A$ 78.00 A$ 38.00

OCI Card A$ 396.00 A$ 258.00

Renunciation of Indian citizenship A$ 273.00 A$ 147.00

A complete list of revised passport and consular service fee is available on the website of the High Commission (www. hcindia-au.org) for the information of all concerned. The revised charges would be applicable throughout Australia.

Konkani Association of Australia

A group of Indian Australians of Konkani heritage has recently established the “Konkani Association of Australia” (KAA) in NSW. The KAA is an umbrella organisation at the Australian national level and is looking to establish chapters in other states and territories of Australia. The KAA is a membership association whose main objective is to perpetuate the preservation of Konkani culture and heritage in Australia and provide support to its membership. It welcomes all who have an interest in Konkani history, culture and language as it strives to raise awareness as well as appreciation for Konkani culture. To become a member or for more information visit the website: www.konkaniassociationofaustralia.org.au

Nutrition researcher seeks subjects

Are you an Indian mother with children

1 year to 5 years of age? Rati Jani, a child nutrition researcher from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, would like some information from you. You must be older than 18 years of age, residing in Australia for more than 1 year and less than 8 years. If you’d like to share your experience and help Rati in her research, please complete a survey about your feeding practices. The survey is in English and will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. The survey is online at: http:// survey.qut.edu.au/survey/171152/1429/ If you wish to fill in a hardcopy please contact Rati on (07) 3138 6223/ 0431 146 346 or email rati.jani@student.qut.edu. au. Rati needs 300 Indian mothers to participate in her project which may help in improving the health of our Indian children. Please do help her by completing the survey. This project has been approved by the QUT ethics committee, approval number 1000000943.

To The Editor

Early Indian settlers and unity should be the focus

I am a frequent reader of your journal and am truly impressed with its overall quality and presentation technique. What pleases me most is your tremendous zeal in identifying yourself with the current issues of your adopted country. This is precisely what it should be, no quarrel with that.

However, taking a much broader view of things, it struck me that there are certain issues directly related with the Indian sub-continent’s diaspora where your journal needs to focus a bit more than it currently does. I wish to point out only one such issue, that of the history and achievements of the earliest Indian settlers in Australia. What I have in mind is the trials and tribulations of the now prosperous banana and sugarcane cultivators of New South Wales and Queensland. According to some sketchy information that I have, these groups of people first arrived in Australia as indentured labourers (from Punjab) to work in farms and road building, similar to the Chinese workers who came to work in the gold mines. This happened before World War II (19391945). The story has it that these groups of people along with their fellow countrymen in New Zealand (from Gujarat) could not go return because of the outbreak of hostilities. Apparently the governments of the day did not mind their overstaying after the end of the conflict despite the “white Australia” policy of the day which was then prevailing. This concession was made because of the huge shortage of workers. As of today these very early “settlers” have contributed significantly in creating economic wealth and have spread their unique culture across their adopted country. This to my mind is highly commendable indeed and needs to be brought forth prominently in appropriate forums in Australia, to demonstrate the positive and creative contributions this small, but vibrant community has gifted to the people of this country, which need not be confined to simply the well-established culinary skills and finer arts alone, as it were.

In order to appraise your readers of the true significant and visible achievements of the earlier and later migrant settlers from the Indian subcontinent and their life’s journey, as a responsible member of the fourth estate, you have an obligation to showcase them in some kind of photo journalism. Finally, it would not be out of place to point out that you will be performing a highly desirable task if you succeed in bringing the plethora of subcontinent related organizations/associations under one umbrella. An uphill, perhaps thankless task, but worth making an honest and serious attempt, at any time! For this onerous task, which I daresay you will undertake in due earnest, I do wish you loads of patience and good luck, which, I am assured, you will undoubtedly need!

BN Bose Blacktown NSW