INDIA: Happy Makra Sankranti | Pongal

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Happy Makra Sankranti | Pongal | Lohri

When seasons change, a new milestone is passed, and it become a symbol of life, and an opportunity to celebrate begins, India is a land of festivals and there are at least 10 festivities in the month of January, here are three I am familiar with, almost all mark end of winter as its base and a new dawn.

I wish a very happy Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal to all my friends celebrating these festivities. May you be blessed with happiness, Mubarak, Shubh kamnayein.

Lohri marks the culmination of winter, and is celebrated on the 13th day of January in the month of Paush or Magh, a day before Makar Sankranti. For Punjabis, more than just a festival, Lohri is also an example of a way of life. Lohri celebrates fertility and the spark of life. People gather around the bonfires, throw sweets, puffed rice and popcorn into the flames, sing popular songs and exchange greetings.

Makar Sankranti is one of the most auspicious occasions for the Hindus, and is celebrated in almost all parts of the country in myriad cultural forms, with great devotion, fervour and gaiety. It is a harvest festival. Makar Sankranti is perhaps the only Indian festival whose date always falls on the same day every year on. the 14th of January (with just a few exceptions when it is celebrated either on 13th or 15th of January)

Pongal is the harvest festival celebrated in the Southern parts of India of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. This festival is equivalent to the Makar Sankranti celebrated in North India and is celebrated for three days. In certain parts cattle races still enliven the village festivities. Pongal is a colorful and traditional festival with many ceremonies devoted to various deities.

During the three-day festival, different varieties of Rangoli are drawn in front of the houses early in the morning.

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.

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WHO ARE WE?

Together as Indians, we are Hindus, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Atheists, Nastiks, Buddhists, Bahá'í, Tribals, Jews, Bo’s, Qandharis, Bakarwals inclusive of every group of Indians. Anyone who breathes the air off the land; drinks the water, eats the food and or chooses to be an Indian, has Indian blood running in him or her. We are all Indians and are all created equal, no one is more privileged than the other.

We should not allow any evil force to pit one Indian against the other. Each one of us should make an effort to tell them to work for an India, where Indians together can create an exemplary India. We should ask them to join us and build a cohesive India where authentic sab ke saath, sab ka vikaas ho. Sab ka Samman ho, aur sab ko nyay mile.

Mike Ghouse

INDIAN HEROES

These are the men and women from among Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other traditions that are deeply committed to the idea of One India and one people acknowledging the uniqueness of each one of the Indians.

Their work brings people together, their effort is to restore harmony among Indians, unlike some lost souls who are hell-bent on pitting one Indian against the other.

Lord Krishna had said, whenever the negative forces become stronger in dividing families and disrupt peace and harmony, he will emerge among them to restore sanity, the same idea is reflected in Quran, that God does not deprive his goodness to anyone and sends a peacemaker to every community and nation. After the founding fathers of the nation, these are our real heroes restoring dharma – the righteousness. Dharma is when people get along, mind their own business, live their lives and let others live theirs. God has created all of us and respects each one of us is the highest form of worship.

I salute them for their work and they come from all walks of life. They see you as an Indian and nothing but an Indian. They believe every human should be free to eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of their happiness.

Please share stories of such Indians who have made efforts to build a cohesive India, an India where no Indian lives in apprehension, tension or fear of the other.

We have just started this in July 2018 and will start adding videos and links below, you are welcome to share the links to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com

INDIAN VILLAINS

These men and women are hell-bent on pitting Indians against Indians. Their speeches are full of hate for the others. They are roughly 1/10th of 1% in each group of Indians with no exception. They don't want to see Indians get along with each other. The have no qualms in making discriminatory statements about Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, and others. There is no consequence to it, laws are there, but are not enforced. The leadership in India remains silent, encouraging the extremists to keep doing what they do.

We have just started this in July 2018 and will start adding videos and links below, you are welcome to share the links to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com

PATRIOTISM

Two of India’s dangerous trends: Misplaced Patriotism and intolerance towards different points of view.

The real heroes of India are those who relentlessly “criticize” the government because they do not want their government to falter and make decisions that will mess up the social structure of the nation. They keep the government rascals on their toes. After all, they are elected to serve us not the other way around. The real heroes rise the nation for the common good of all.

What do the Chamchas on the other hand do? They wear a false badge of patriotism and to them patriotism is oppression of those who differ, and war mongering. They cannot handle criticism of government, they are yes sir, yes sir I lick your chappals. They bring down the nation by keeping their man at helm in a bubble giving him or her false assurance that everything is alright.

I hope the Prime Minister wises up and invites and honors those who criticize him, they are the real supporters of him by reminding him from falling into the pit. He should welcome all those who criticize. He needs to defend the rights of such heroes. The Indian Citizens on the other hand need to make a conscious effort to support those who criticize the government, BJP or Congress or any one.

The test of a successful civilized nation is when every man and woman of India can breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell she or he wants to believe.

ABOUT MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is committed to his life mission of building cohesive work places, communities and nations. His work is for the Indians and Americans where each one of the 322 million Americans should feel secure without apprehension or fear of the other.

He is one of the 5 people in the world who is actively pursuing research, activism and teaching the subject of Pluralism. Just Google and find a tremendous amount of work on pluralism in religion, politics, society and culture. Mike defines Pluralism as an attitude of “respecting the otherness of other” and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us.

He is a pluralist, thinker, writer, activist and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, politics, Islam, human rights and foreign policy including India and Israel-Palestine. He is a news maker, interfaith wedding officiant and a community consultant and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Dr. Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker, and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, terrorism, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine and foreign policy.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 300 National TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3500 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1500 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is at www.Centerforpluralism.com and www.WorldMuslimCongress.org

Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 | text or talk
SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com

Welcome

We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American. Please join me in the discovery of India on a daily basis, as time permits and share the wealth of knowledge you have on this forum.

DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com is the information exchange center for the Indian community living in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex. You can join by sending an email to: DallasIndians-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The webgroup is all about our Culture, Events, Politics, Religion, Bollywood, Music, Achievements, Consular Services, Concerts and everything else that binds us.

India is for every Indian as such we have no room for hate mongers and anti-religious people on this group. No postings bashing any faith will be permitted.

Click for our national anthem: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7399792002477900458

Jai Hind
Mike Ghouse

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Happy Makra Sankranti | Pongal | Lohri

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