U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab accompanied by senior U.S. Government officials, meets with Swami Viswamayananda (Tushar da) of the Ramakrishna Mission during her brief visit to the mission’s production centre at Arapanch near Narendrapur, April 14, 2007. Ambassador Schwab was on a daylong visit to Kolkata...
[Photo source: US embassy site (New Delhi) ]
U.S. Consul General Henry V. Jardine interacts with farmes whose paddy harvests have increased with more efficient use of natural resources. The program is under the U.S. Government-funded grant project to the NGO Ramakrishna Mission. U.S. fund grantee Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Lok Siksha Parishad Director Swami Asaktananda (Bishnu da) is seen escorting him.
[Photo source: US Consulate site (Kolkata) ]
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Monday, October 8, 2007
US Officials visit Narendrapur
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Book Bank at Narendrapur
The objective behind the project is to help the needy students of the area encompassing 100 km radius of this unit covering both urban and rural areas. Besides giving text books of different classes up to Higher Secondary level, other educational aids in the form of note book, school dresses, instrument boxes, bag etc. are also given to cater their educational needs. This aid is given every year to students of different classes, the total number of which exceeds well over 600 every year.
The Book Bank under the Rural Development unit of the Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur is not having any school under it but it is providing educational aid to 83 schools covering 695 students (323 boys, 372 girls) and a total 4047 books have been distributed during 2006-07(upto September 2006).
Original source of this article is Here
Monday, May 21, 2007
The D day: Fund handover
On the eve:
The carnival spread over last few months was poised to enter its moment of truth. As I was updating the list and amounts at Santacruz airport in Mumbai, thanks to the usual delays by the airline, Avijit’s email a few days ago sounded so true. Beyond the noble objective of supporting RKM in its various social efforts, the Fund has found a profound collective joy in all of us. It’s like an annual summer festival that mobilizes the dormant child inside us. Sei bhavan janmodiner preparatory din gulor moton. Raat jege kagojer chain, stars, jhalor banano... The artistes in work; warring blocks trying to dig up each others assets and preparations; plans being made and re-made to accommodate more incoming materials… much like those days. hundreds of calls by co-ordinators like hungry paonadars consolidating money trails; frantic mails and appeals -- poking dormant heads and causing irritations to many J; exhaustive online tracking (thanks to online spreadsheets); countless updations and consolidations; flaring emotions and counter-punches; all of those would finally sum up to feed a larger cause – and the day was inching closer every minute.
The D Day:
So, it was decided that the Admiral (Deboo), and his sepoys and support crews would meet at ndp latest by eleven in the morning, BST. Determined to hold on the bongo punctuality, I set out at
Needless to say, the mouthful came at us like giant tidal waves as soon as we got down. There they were – the ethereal shri poga with his ‘Happydent’ smile and colorful personality; the legendary ABP reporter Shri Chasha who is believed to be a Bartoman spy on a mission to shut-down ABP like he did with Khaas-Khabar; agitated but smiling Dhruba with a receding hairline, anxious to depart even before the story started; the next-to-be-domesticated shri Aniruddha with tension all over his face; a healthy looking shri ‘chakka’ aka Maity with a bright yellow shirt like a shining coal – except for the JK (Jammu-Kanyakumari) express, who was as usual running pretty late. Shri Kali was very eager to join the team, but alas, he was getting prepared to wear that tri-shonku topor with dual jhola bichi. [Kastha had his glowing smiles captured here]
After a round of tea at Gopal da’s dokan outside the main gate, Dhruba handed over his baton to JK, who finally arrived on the scene with muchki muchki haasi that blew away all khistis reserved for him. So, it was time for a heavy lunch at Karmi bhavan with Mridula-da before we would hand over the fund to Bishnu-da at his guest-house. An elusive cellular negligence on the spreadsheet got us entangled in a lengthy battle of calculations and re-calculations, which finally proved to be a sweetener as the amount suddenly swelled up by a fat 4K. With a jaw-dropping amount of 1,90,287 INR, our Admiral saab and his battalion reached the final moment. Bishnu-da lauded the effort put up by the batch, conveyed his blessings with a tinge of emotion for this bunch of guys, who were the only ones to have returned to the mission in its history of 50 years with “water and sunshine for all its leaves”. The joy and happiness were too big to have them scripted here, as we walked past the blind boys working hard at the field, trying to enter into a world that has only darkness for them.
After a couple of sessions with Sunil-da (Blind Boys academy) and Bhanu Maharaj (Loksiksha), we embarked on a journey into the memory lane. It was where we spent those magical years… TWENTY years ago!
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Govt slashing funds for RKM
The state government has slashed the funds allotted for maintaining the buildings at Ramkrishna Mission Vidyalaya in Narendrapur over the last couple of years from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 18,000.
Swami Asaktananda, secretary of the school, brought the cut to light as he officially announced the school’s golden jubilee celebrations set for next year. Stressing the fact that maintenance funds are running low, he said: “Earlier the school received a grant from the state government amounting to Rs 1.80 lakh for the renovation of school buildings and their maintenance. Over the years, the amount has come down to Rs 18,000.” Read More... [Source: Statesman]
Monday, April 16, 2007
Fund 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Ex-students initiative to support poor students
Rubina Khatun is in Class III. She works as a domestic help in the morning, comes to school and gets back to work again in the evening. Though she wants to pursue higher studies, she may not be able to take her Madhyamik examinations. “Amader khamata nei (we cannot afford it),” says the 12-year-old girl. The story is similar for many students in the schools of Vivekananda Education Society, in Jagaddal and Sonarpur, South 24-Parganas. In 1996, the Society had started a non-formal school in a clubhouse in Jagaddal without any infrastructure. The aim was to give underprivileged children in the areas a chance to receive an education. “There was no provision for mid-day meals for them, we only looked after the education part,” explained Saikat Basu, secretary of the Society, who is also a teacher at Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission. That is when a handful of ex-students of Ramakrishna Mission took the initiative to scale up the project.
Read more. [Source: Telegraph]
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Realisation of a Dream
Tapan Samanta comes from a village in East Midnapore, where his father earns Rs 30 a day. After topping school in Madhyamik, he had no means to proceed further and started pulling rickshaw-vans to contribute to the family’s meagre income. “I never thought I could become a doctor, even after passing the joint entrance exams (JEE),”said Tapan, doing internship at NRS Medical College and Hospital. He had to “let go of the opportunity to study at Ramakrishna Mission College, Narendrapur,” and started giving tuition and pulling rickshaw-vans before deciding to sit for the JEE. He is now studying MBBS in Calcutta, thanks to scholarships given by the Mani Bhaumik Foundation.
Read more. [Source: Telegraph]
