#BirthAnniversary#SwamiVivekananda
The year was 1893. A young monk from India opened the World’s Parliament of Religions with an electrifying speech that brought the assembled representatives of the world’s major faiths to their feet.
The monk was Vivekananda, who had come to Chicago without a formal connection to the parliament but nonetheless managed to secure an invitation to give not only an opening address but several more speeches.
More than 6,000 people crowded into the assembly hall of the Permanent Memorial Art Palace, now the Art Institute of Chicago, to hear the young man speak.
Passionately and eloquently, Vivekananda called for the end of religious bigotry and intolerance.
Today, his galvanising words adorn the grand staircase of Art Institute of Chicago, just as relevant even after 127 years.
The installation, that treats the museum’s Grand Staircase almost like a notepad, was built by Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat as a powerful visual symbol of hope and shared humanity.
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"He lost the ability to move his legs at the age of 14. #Dreams came crashing down like a pack of cards for Ashish Da. I met him at his 90 sq ft room near the outskirts of Kolkata.
In today's world of jazzy startups, Ashish Da had his own story to share -- one of #struggle and #survival.
When Ashish Da first realised that he wouldn't be able to walk for the rest of his life, he decided to do something that he was passionate about -- #Kites!
Ashish Da spoke about how he would use papers and sticks to build brilliant kite designs He would spend 12 hours a day sitting on the floor to do everything himself. He never asked for any help or any kind of physical or financial support from anyone.
In the 4th century BC, he used a concoction of ingredients with nutritional properties like sesame seeds, #jaggery and peanuts to make ladoos that we today fondly call #tilladoo.
The seeds were coated with pure honey, which is known for its antibacterial properties, while jaggery and sesame seeds are considered to have multiple health advantages in Ayurveda, including maintaining blood pressure, indigestion, curing a cold and so on.
For the first movie of his own production, Mehmood wanted #KishoreKumar to play the role of one of the leads, Vidyapati. However, Kishore was not interested in acting and only wanted to sing.
#Mehmood followed him for one month and was convinced after spending a whole night in front of Kishore's house asking him to do the role.
Later while filming the #MeriBindoo song, the choreographer was not present. So Kishore Kumar stepped in and briefed the cast on the lyrics.
My life is completely dedicated to the cause of promoting helmet use, distributing them for free and changing people’s attitudes to road safety”, says Raghvendra Kumar.
After losing his friend in a tragic accident, Raghvendra quit his job in 2016 and turned towards serving society and started giving spare helmets to build awareness on #roadsafety.
“While working at grassroots levels, I realised the huge gap in implementing government schemes. We have a lot of schemes, but they often don’t reach the bottom of the pyramid," says Aniket Deogar. @haqdarshak
He helps facilitate welfare schemes for people across the country while targeting their problems through his #social enterprise, #Haqdarshak.
The start-up appoints local women in villages who go door-to-door and help people apply for government schemes and file paperwork covering areas like education, housing, health, employment, small businesses and COVID-19-related benefits.