City briefs

To express gratitude to the couple,Vanchit Vikas Sanstha has organised a special programme on Tuesday at 6 pm at S.M.Joshi Foundation Hall,Navi Peth.

Veteran film actor Atul Kulkarni would be the chief guest,while industrialist Dinesh Munot would be the special guest of honour. Chairman Vilas Javdekar,Vanchit Vikas Sanstha,Vilas Chafekar,Founder of Janiv & Vanchit Vikas Sanstha and Meena Kurlekar,Sunita Joglekar,Directors of Janiv and Vanchit Vikas Sanstha will also be present for this programme.

Uma Bodas invited

Uma Bodas,the chief editor of Prasad Publication and the founder of Prasad Jnyanapeeth,has been invited for the Anand Comaraswamy Memorial Conference to be held at University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka from September 8. She will present the paper titled “Ancient Indian social philosophy and contemporary humanity”. Several scholars will present papers on Comarswamy,his life and work at the conference,stated the press release.

Pookalam competition

A Pookalam competition was recently held at St. Jude’s School. A collaborative effort from parish priest Father Anoop and the youth of St. Mary’s Church initiated the Goodwill Jewellery 2012 Pookalamalsaram,a floral carpet-making tradition of Kerala practised during Onam celebrations.

Around 15 Malayalam churches from Yerwada to Lonavala participated in this competition. St. Joseph’s Malabar Akurdi Church bagged the top prize receiving Rs 10,000 as well as the People’s Choice Award,that is given to the team which receives maximum votes from visitors. Holy Redeemer’s Malankara Church,from Kalewadi finshed as the first runner-up with a cash prize of Rs 6,000.

Inter-religious meeting

The Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Trust organised an inter-religious meeting on August 25 at St Anne’s School,Camp.

The meeting was aimed at spreading the message of understanding the diverse cultures and religions that co-exist in the society. Nine speakers representing their religion gave a speech on the aspects of their religion that needs to be understood by the society at large.

Abhay Sagar Minz,Mohan Dhadphale,Ervad Noshirwan Dastoor,Kalpesh Desai,Dhammachari Chandrabodhi,Rev Thomas Dabre,Ashgar Ali Engineer,Surjeet Kaur Chal and Marziya Rohani Dalal represented religions spoke on their respective religions that included Adivasi,Hinduism,Zoroashtrianism,Jainism,Buddhism,Christianity,Islam and Sikhism.

Kumbhar appointed

Social activist Vaikunth Kumbhar has been recently appointed as Director of Central Tourism Advisory Council (NTAC) under Ministry of Tourism. Kumbhar has taken the task of observing cleanliness on tourist’s places such as forts,places of pilgrimage,tourists spots from the state after assuming charge,a press release stated.