Gita Press, Gorakhpur (Crisis and Solution)

Dear Friends,

Last year, I came to know about the ongoing problems in the workshop of the famous publishing company Gita Press, the news also mentioned the possibility of closing down of the publication... I was really sad hearing about it as they have been doing such a wonderful job in spreading the Scriptures to all. I have so many books of Gita Press- Bhagwad Geeta, Shri RamCharitManas, Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapuraan, Shiv Puran and soooo many of such books. Their price is so nominal that it is almost unbelievable in today's world which is dominated by new and new market catchy bestsellers every year!... Gita Press is responsible to bring the valuable ancient texts to the masses, that too in so many different languages!!

 I was thinking that some solution should be found by all of us and by the Government to save this house of treasure, so that Gita Press can emerge comfortably from the crisis. 

I also want to thank the 'SavetheGitaPress' hashtag in Twitter and Zee News. They are the reason that general public came to know about this issue. And also to many more websites who published the news.

One such post is here:-

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/08/28/save-gita-press-92-year-old-hindu-publication-house-evokes-me/

Some of the books of Geeta Press which I have-

The last update is that they have resumed work. I also went to their shop in Delhi and Sealdah Rail Station recently and purchased books. I was really happy to find their stall at the Delhi Book Fair this year. 


Lots of Best Wishes to the revered publication house.


Jai Shri Krishna.

Mahalaya- The Auspicious Day!

Yesterday was Mahalaya. As usual we woke up at 4 am with the great 'Mahisashura Mardini' on All India Radio :). This presentation is a legend in the true sense of the term. All Bengalis feel the emotions, songs, and all the related associations of childhood - while listening to the programme.

A pious day indeed! End of Pitripaksha and the beginning of Devipaksha. The ritual of the 'tarpan' of the ancestors are also done on this day.

After the completion of Mahisashura Mardini on radio, almost all the tv channels presented 'Mahalaya' in some way or the other. On this day, I love to watch all the programmes/ dance/ drama offered by all the channels. I keep on watching all of them by changing the channel frequently :). This day has an unique charm, which conveys itself through all these enactment of the glories of Ma Aadi Shakti.

Here I am giving the list of programmes aired today on various channels-

* Star Jalsha- 'Abhaya Mangal' ( Stories from Chandi Mangal)

* Zee Bangla- 'Maatri Rupena' (covering the stories of- Kali

                                                                            Shatakkhi

                                                                            Chaamunda

                                                                            Durga

                                                                            Parvati

                                                                            Kaushiki

                                                                            Annapurna

                                                                            Chhinnamasta

                                                                            Kaalraatri

                                                                            Mahisashuramardini)

                 - 'Dugga Ma er Chitra Katha' (animated short film for children)

* DD Bangla- 'Mahisashuramardini' (dance)

                - 'Shokal Shokal' (Guest Raja Bhattacharya discussed many stories related to Durga Puja and sang related songs. He also sang famous stotras like - 'Na Taat Na Maat' and 'Nirvaanshatak' by Adi Shankaracharya)

* Aakash Bangla- 'Raat Phalo Shaarod Praate' (very unique attempt by the channel- discussion/ adda throughout the whole previous night to the dawn of Mahalaya, i.e.- 11 pm - 7 am, with many eminent artists :) )

                     - 'Good Morning Aakash' had Sriradha Bandhyopadhyay and Srikumar Chattopadhyay as guests.

* Star Ananda- 'Mahalayae Mahisashuramardini' ( Discussion/ Adda with many famous personalities)

* News Time Bangla- 'Gouri Esho' ( Discussion and Songs by guests)

* Chobbish Ghonta-  Dance on Mahisashuramardini with Chhou and Kathakali artists, Tamnay Bose was also seen in the music team)

* Zee Bangla Cinema- 'Nabarupe Nabadurga' (presentation of the nine forms of Aadi Shakti. Dance - Koel Mullick and anchored by Aditi Munshi. Re telecast of last year's Mahalaya dance programme of Zee Bangla, which was very good in its content.)

* Colors Bangla- 'Gonudada'r Durgapujo' (animated programme for children)

                    

                     - 'Durga Durgotinashini' [this one presented a family reunion story-  where a Saadhika (Rimjhim Mitra) comes to a house and brings joy with her- also, with the main Mahisashuramardini story, through narration and dance]

Also all the news channels were airing Live telecast of the 'tarpan' ceremony or any other religious ceremonies being performed on the banks/ ghats of Ma Ganga. I enjoyed all those images.

Last year Mahalaya was on 12 October. I was remembering that I could not write a post last year on this day, so just mentioning some of those programmes in this year's post :). Last year we watched Mahalaya on Zee Bangla, Colors Bangla, Rupashi Bangla, DD Bangla, CTVN and so on. Also we watched the animated programme – ‘Chhotoder Dugga Thakur’. Programmes were there in almost every channel. All of them were very nice. Only Star Jalsha presented the story of Ramayan - the incident of 'alaakbodhan' by Shri Ram. That was very unique :), as most of the other channels focused their programme on Mahisashura Vadh by Ma Durga.

Truly a blissful day :), which always makes us look forward to Durga Puja :)

Joy Maa Durga!

'Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik'- A Talk Show on Indian Mythology on Epic Channel

This is a talk show on Epic Channel where 'they bring Indian mythology to our home', as the tagline of the show truly says.

The anchor is Himanshi Chaudhury and the expert is Devdutt Pattanaik, who is known to all through his writings in various subjects. In any book shop we find his books now a days. He is writing in this field for many years now.

Each day they take one or more topic from Indian Mythology and discuss about it along with some related topics.

I like the programme because of its content. These days, one or more mythological serials can be found very easily on almost every channel of the television but a discussion on such topics are quite uncommon. This show deals mainly with information, analysis and symbolism of various mythological topics, without going much into the devotional aspect, (which is often the main focus of normal spiritual/ religious channels). In this way, this show is slightly different from them. I feel, The element of spirituality is not the focus of the show. Devdutt Pattanaik talks about real world around us.

Sometime I feel a more detailed explanation was needed and do not agree completely with the views presented in the show but that can happen in the case of any other show also, as many times in our life we all have our own different interpretations of the same event. And sometime I learn something new from the show or get a new angle of a certain incident.

This show deserves praise because of its unique content, that is, discussion on such topics. 


I came to know just recently that this is Season 2 of this programme, they also had it last year. As the vidoes are not available on YouTube, Epic Channel has come up with the published book with the same title of the show, which covers the content of Season 1 of this programme.

Good work by Epic Channel. Looking forward to more such programnes in future.