Dal Sabzi for Aatman: WMPP ACTIVITIES

Communal Harmony Week, organized by the city Police and Citizen's Council for Better Tomorrow (CCBT) (Mr Khorakiwala is the CCBT President) evoked huge response from intelligentsia, common citizens and college and school students.

The concluding function was held at August Kranti Maidan (Quit India Fame) on November 21st 2007 where an Interfaith Meet had been convened. Ms Uzma Nahid (The charming Master of Ceremonies for the evening, Director of Iqra) said this lovely couplet before introducing me:
'Chaahat ke badley mein, hum to bech de apni marzee tak
Koi mile to dil ka gaahak
Koi hamey apnaaye to'

Uzma and I have been holding an Interfaith Dialogue for quite some time and have come to the conclusion that Women can bring about Peace more easily. Why? A woman has more compassion less ego...yet she is not weak. I concluded my speech by saying:

Main hoon Bharat ki naar, jeeney marney ko taiyaar
Mujhe samjho na kamzor logo, samjho na kamzor
Is desh ki hoon santaan ki jiskaa naam hai Hidustaan
Mujhe samjho na kamzor logo, samjho na kamzor

Har khel ki main hoon main khilaari
kartee hoon kheti baari
Ran mein talwaar chalaaoon
Daftar mein kalam chalaaoon
aur dekhoon sab ghar baar
jeeney marney ko taiyaar
Mujhe samjho na kamzor logo, samjho na kamzor

During the beginning of the speech I said:
Panchhee nadiya pawan ke jhonkey Koyee sarhad na inhe rokey
yeh sarhad insaan ke liye hai
Socho hamney kyaa khoya aur paaya insaan hokar
I suppose geographical sarhad may be important for peace but to love, to understand, to dialogue...why should we have boundaries???

A woman cures herself when sick works 18 hrs a day
She can think, reason and negotiate
She has strengths that amazes man
She can handle trouble and carry burdens
She smiles when she feels like screaming
and sings when she feels like crying
She fights for what she believes in
and finds the strength to get on with life
Only one thing is wrong with her... She forgets what she is worth...

Have not been able to update the video...If you would like to see it, Click:
http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd169/shacune/WMPPTIMES/?action=view¤t=augkrantiqutumem004.flv

The launch of Women and Political Governance in collaboration with Times Foundation and WMPP

A Post Graduate Diploma course on conflict Resolution introduced at Jamia Millia University (with TF and TISS)

The Jaagruti Sammelan hosted by Rajasthaani Mahila Mandal in collaboration with WMPP at the Chavan Hall on 28th February 2004

A Women's Empowerment session was held by Ms Suhaani Shah (Student of Mr. Kato) on Kempo Art of Self Defence in collaboration with the Group 21.

A session where various ladies attended, was conducted by Ms Promila Gurtu, to learn how to help ourselves with the help of homeopathy. Of course tests were imperative for complicated ailments.

Preventive problems in health-care for youth.(Heart,Diabetes, Eye, Gynaec, Dental…)

Fastrack kids in collaboration with WMPP held a session on ‘Appreciation of Music’

A talk was held on the 31st of May 2005 (World Tobacco day) at Bal Bhavan where 300 students participated.

Empowerment of women will be through Distressing the mind and Body by Yoga, Vipassana and Art of Living.

The target audience is girl students for both schools and colleges, teachers and non-teaching staff and parents.

Empowerment of women through career guidance course. Teaching English and Computer classes.

Minutes of the Meeting of Trustees held on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at The Times of India Building, Dr D N Road, CST, Mumbai 400 001 as per Notice dated 7th April, 2008.

Chairperson welcomed the Trustees and explained that the work of bringing about Peace and Prosperity can be accomplished not only as a joint effort but also on an Individual effort. Trustees should join with other organizations to bring about harmony. Chairperson then apprised them of the recent developments and activities of the Trust:

1) Chairman congratulated Trustee WMPP Sonal Sheth for running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon for ‘Ummeed’

So many kids and families go through suffering, a life is wasted, not helped to reach full potential only because of lack of awareness, or lack of facilities…

2) Ms Leena Prabhoo, one of the Founder Trustees, WMPP, gave an Introductory talk of 'Catharsis of the Soul' urging members of the 'Celebrating Life' Group to get rid of the emotional garbage that we have accumulated over the years!

3) Chairman congratulated Ms Basanti Roy, the Vice Chairperson WMPP and Divisional Secretary of SSC Board for showing her compassion in a unique way.

Basanti directed 17 year old Omkar Pimple an HSC examinee to the closest station when young Omkar suffered a panic attack as he was sure that he would not make it for his 11 am Sanskrit paper at an HSC Centre in Churchgate.

4) On the 12th January 2008 Times Foundation and Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity opened a Women Center at Anjuman Islam CST. Shakun Narain spoke on Women and Peace...the guest of honour was Mr Mir Ranjan Negi. Former India Goalkeeper and Coach of India Hockey Team. (Chakde India starring Shah Rukh Khan was based on Mr Ranjan Negi's life story)

4) On Women's Day, March the 8th 2008, Times Foundation and Women's Movement for Peace an Prosperity celebrated the achievements of Times of India Group Women...Last year various leaders of NGOs were felicitated by Times...this year the leaders of those NGOs felicitated Women in Times.

5) Shakun Narain and Aarti Hundalani Trustee, WMPP organized a Spiritual bhajan and lecture session to celebrate Sankraanti and Holi, and continue year after year to celebrate each festival ...

Trustees were satisfied with the performance and decided to enhance the Trust activities further. She also informed that WMPP Trustees in association with eminent personalities will be organizing regular programmes under title ‘Eager To Be’ in near future, wherein the Trustees will make their valuable contributions within the framework of the Objectives of the Trust. The programmes will be conducted on 2nd Wednesdays of every month.

As there were no other matters to be discussed, the Meeting was terminated with a Vote of thanks to the Chair.

1) On Aksaye Tritiya,7th of May 2008, a bhajan Kirtan was organized by Ms Aarti Hundalani at Ishwar Bhavan Temple, where the Hindi Edition of Dadi Nani ki Kahaani was blessed by Ms Shakun Narain’s nanand (Husband’s sister) Ms Indu G.Vee.

Akshaye Tritiya occurs on the third day of the bright half of Vaisaakh.
Hindus, Buddhists, Jains celebrate this day.
'AKSHAYE' means 'that which does not diminish
Every minute of the three and a half days is considered sacred.
It is believed that Satya Yuga and Treta Yuga started on this day.
New beginnings like weddings, business ventures, new deals, new audit books, business trips are considered to bring luck. Ved Vyaasa dictated and Lord Ganesha started to write the Mahabharata.

2) Some time back trustees of Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity (WMPP)met a dainty dynamic lady (Ms Supriya Sule) who believes in making a difference through quality education. She likes to look into 'taking care' of the progress of children with special needs like dyslexia, autism...and also the running of self-help groups with a difference.

3) Shakun Narain attended a 2 day Peace Circle Conference at Panchagani. This conference was hosted
by the Peace Circle, Initative of Change originally
known as MRA (Moral Re-armament)

The main facilitator was Jean Brown a lady from U.K married
to an Australian gentleman.

Jean was fascinated by our (Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity) 'Gems of Faiths' talks and was particularly intrigued with the fact that different Faiths people spoke from the same platform...

It was also a wonderful experience as there were present for the conference, Tibetans, SouthKoreans, Russian, Tibet, Indians, from Nagaland...and their striving for peace was very emotional!
Shakun also learned what Peace really is and what makes peace and breaks peace...

Some qualities of Peace Makers: Strong, Resilient, Forgiving, Loving, honest, faith, clarity of thought, empathetic, optimistic, sense of humour...

What are Peace Destroyers: Greed, selfishness, jealousy, lack of communication, prejudices, Non-forgiveness, hatred,dishonesty, revenge, bullying, disrespect, irresponsibility, hypocrisy, fears, anger, corruption, poverty, injustice, communal discord, war,history...

History cannot be unlived but if faced with courage it need not be lived again...
Angelou

Peace is when every person's need is being met...

Peace lives where compassion reigns...

On the 2nd of April 2008, a group from Times Foundation attended a conference on World Peace Harmony.
We were invited by Mr Somaiya at Faizullabhoy building.
I particularly enjoyed hearing Mr Jeffrey Armstrong's spirited speech on 'Appreciating and Understanding the Wisdom of the Vedas correctly'

Minutes of the Meeting of Trustees held on Saturday, 13th September, 2008 at The Times of India Building, Dr D N Road, CST, Mumbai 400 001 as per Notice dated 28th August, 2008.

Chairperson welcomed the Trustees and apprised them of the recent developments and activities of the Trust.

2) Shakun gifted the Dadi Nani ki Kahaani at the Nana Nani Udyaan and also to the teachers of the Geeta Nagar Slum.

3) Ms Uzma Naheed and Ms Seema Ansari were appointed as Trustees for a period of 3 years from 13th September, 2008. The proposals were brought forward by Managing Trustee and supported by all Trustees present.

Mallika had a bhandaara at Lal Batti slum at Colaba, where MLA attended which Maya Shahani, Sunita and myself also attended…

4) To promote Communal Harmony, the Trustees decided to bring out 1000 copies of the book ‘Dadi Nani Ki Kahani’ authored by Chairperson and distribute it to school children free of cost .

MY DADI NANI KI KAHAANI IN URDU WAS RELEASED BY DR ABIDULLAH GHAZI (DIRECTOR IQRA) WHO STRONGLY SUPPORTS INTER RELIGIOUS LEARNING...

A MOMENTOUS DAY
SNDT 7th to 10th November 2008

IIWA (IQRA INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S ALLIANCE) WAS LAUNCHED
One of the purposes of IIWA is to highlight the right way to interpret the Quran.

Left: The Hindi Dadi Nani ki Kahaani being blessed by an elder Ms Indu Janki G. Vee(My nanand , husband's sister)

On the right my English Dadi Nani ki Kahani being released by Shri L.K.Advani and Ms Indu Jain...

1) Our Chairperson Emeritus and one of the founder members of WMPP, Ms Maya Shahani has been judged the country winner and an Extraordinary Lives Nominee from 5000 global members in the XL Foundation Family...

2) Ms Malika Oberoi, Trustee of WMPP has been given the position of Chairperson to Jan Shikshan Sansthan Sponsored by Ministry of HRD, Government of India...Earlier the Chairperson was Ms Bilkis Latif.

3) Leena Prabhoo: Regular lectures on Catharsis of the Soul.

4)Sonal Sheth: Took part in a Marathon Race to raise funds
for under-priviledged.

5) Sunita Godbole: Ongoing activities on 'Right to
Information'

6) Mallika Oberoi: Empowers slum children on a regular basis.
Provides nourishment on ongoing basis.

Above: Malika organized a bhandara (Free meal) for the slumdwellers

7)Shakun and Aarti activity:
Empowering Women through Eager to B.
Lecture on Ashtavakra Geeta at Ishwar Bhavan Temple (Shakun) every monday morning at 11 am (Little Gibbs Road)

Dadi Nani ki kahaani (Urdu)
English Dadi Nani is going for a 3rd edition
Power of the Feminine (New book in the process)

9)Naina is providing psychosocial support to women and children at high risk in the metros and in the tsunami hit andaman islands.

Naina writes:
Shakunji and Mr Maheshwary we are with you please continue the great work.
Shakunji, I have been giving copies of the Urdu version of your book to schools here in Pune.
With warm regards to all at WMPP
Naina

Dear Shakun Ji,
This is to give you a little feedback on the
interaction that I had at the Navneet Community Center
in Bandra. This Center is part of the Holy Family
Hospital and there is a community of more than 50
women who are regularly empowered with vocational
training and health related issues. Very much like the
WMPP concept.

These women are very enthusiastic learners and were
extremely receptive to the knowledge transfer as we
discussed the various aspects of heart disease and
associated risk factors and ways to prevent.

I am writing to advise you that, I am moving to Harvard Business School next month. HBS has appointed me to be the Executive Director of their Centre in India, which they want to scale up dramatically as part of their new Global Initiative. This will involve various facets of education, right from research to policy to publication ( case study generation from India )recruitment, placement, and executive education programs. It will also entail intensive interaction with Government, Industry, Academia and Alumni. The concept is
an Embassy for Harvard, bringing the best of Harvard to India, and taking the best of India to Harvard...

...I think each one of the WMPP women is forging ahead, in the areas which we are passionate about.
i am personally involved with issues of diversity and inclusion , and work across forums on the same topics...
Remember , we started WMPP as a movement...
Warm Regards,
Anjali

...Lately this is one of the things I have got totally involved with. The Clinton Global Initiative is by Invitation only, so it is a big honour. Hope I can fulfill the trust and faith they have in me...

Gifting children my 'dadi Nani ki Kahaani' and explaining to the young minds that we need to co-exist peacefully if we need to preserve the only home we know and share: The Earth

Attended the Peace get-together 'Lest we forget' (The Terrorist attack on 26th November 2008)

The T-shirts say: 'Enough is Enough' to Terrorist attacks, incompetence, lethargy, corruption...

WMPP Trustee Ms Sunita Godbole interviewed Mumbai Mayor Dr Shubha Raul for 'Worli Waves Magazine'.

They exchanged notes on what could be done for the city, muhallas post the Terrorist attacks.

WMPP Tustee Ms Sonal Sheth is also doing her bit to ensure that Bombay does not forget!

Since you have been asking us to keep you updated on our activities, here goes.

As you know, I was recently invited for the Clinton Global Initiative. SAGE was one of the nominated causes at CGI for doing exceptionally good work. I was asked to come on stage and they announced what we were doing. After that I was amongst the chosen few to have a photograph taken with Bill Clinton. I was the only one he hugged !!! I believe Monica was the only other person he hugged in public when she was waiting to be intoduced to him :-D When we meet in person I'll tell you what I said to him which made him hug me spontaneously.

You must click on the link sent below by Pece Gorgievski to see the enormity of operations to be undertaken by the SAGE team. Being associated with the CGI has given us a very big global platform to attract more and more people to help us in doing good work

Dear Maya,
This is an FYI message - Today, we have added our webpage for "Global Shipment", and from here, we are commencing with our marketing.
http://www.globaldialoguefoundation.com/global_shipment.html
Lots of love,
Pece

On the 11th of December 2008, the above programme was held at the IMC (Indian Merchant Chamber)It was organized by BPWA(Business and Professional Women's Association,Bombay)Bombay,Ladies Wing of IMC and BMA.

When I first heard about: Giving rights to the Other woman' programme...I was shocked and felt: Is'nt giving rights to the 'Other woman' going to encourage men to stray, maybe some more? It is kind of legitimizing it, is'nt it?
But follows what they explained: There are cases where men are already married in the villages or in the United States or wherever...They remarry and the 'wife' is not aware that he is already married...The 'new wife' has a kid or two and the man springs the shocker when he tires of the latest wife. He says: "Bye! I was married before I met you, I am going back to my legally wedded wife"
Is it fair to the 'Other woman' who has been left high and dry, through no fault of hers?
Well, looking at one of the cases that they discussed, I had to concede that maybe the law is worth looking into...But it needs to be discussed and pondered upon a lot lot more...

I spoke to a packed audience of about 200 women from 'Ruchika'at the IMC (Indian Merchant Chamber) I said that from/in the present conditions, one does not know what the truth is. We are confused with what the politicians say...Our neighbour politicians are confusing us...However we know one truth and that is the truth of our heart...a woman's heart, a compassionate heart which wants peace for ourselves family and children...But we must speak what we feel...We must exercise our voice to say what we think.We may be wrong but we may arrive to some conclusion by intelligent constructive discussion..The 'blue blooded German Aryans' kept quiet and so many Jews were killed...Religions are being misinterpreted,and so many innocent lives are lost... let us understand the true message of the great ones that walked the earth...
Let us teach the 'truth' to our children...Let the good people unite...Let our voice be heard!

Sonal Sheth, Trustee WMPP (Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity) and a concerned citizen had a get-together in her home to initiate an action plan for more effective governance under the banner: 'Citizens take Charge'
Meeting was addressed by Gerson da Cunha.

The most important thing that I personally want to urge you to do is 'TO VOTE'
Politicians act, (sadly) only when they realize that there is an existent sizeable vote bank...One of the attendees shared, that once she had chided a politician: "Why should I vote for you? What have you done? The politician, shockingly brushed her aside stating that her area/ward was not important and as the amount of people who voted was not sizeable!

Interesting observation: Seats are won by Cash, Caste and Crime!

I contributed: We are talking about a lot of things that we must do. I would like to remind you of what we must not do:
1) We must not forget what happened on the 26th of Nov
2) Not to indulge in hate/divisive talk
3) There are so many citizen groups that are springing up to fight terror/bring about a better India...We must not in-fight but support one another since the aim is common...
Jai Hind!

About 30 years ago I started a Singing group along with enthusiastic friends. We figured if we can get together to play cards, gossip, cook why not to sing?
We were about 8 of us. Aunty Gopi joined us 6 months later and trained us to sing while she accompanied us on the harmonium. She was more than a teacher. She was a friend to each and every one of us. All confided in her and she held everyones' secrets close to her heart and urged us to sing....
She passed on and some of our friends passed on...but we persevered...God sent us teachers and good singers along the way...Meenu Gidwani joined us and urged us to improve...though all of us were amateurs people continue to flock to our bhajan kirtan and claim that we are very good...I think we are not great singers but we sing from the heart and touch the listeners'
Today we have been joined by 3 beautiful enthusiastic singers. Sapna, Bhavna, Aarti...and God maybe want us to go on and on ...

Taking a cue from Street plays to give a message, Aarti and Sapna exposed idiosyncracies that women indulge in...Which better way to learn than to laugh at yourself? And it is working...Note an audience member wiping sweat from her chin and another ducking behind her...I must say that some women have got the message and have made an effort to stop childish behaviour :)
I must also state that it can be called a women's effort for peace in a funny manner...THE OTHER WOMAN (her rights)

WMPP ACTIVITIES

Pls scroll down for activities and photographs in 2008