2005 News letter 
(covering activities up to February 2006)

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At Chennai, where a classical and folk dance presentation was made by dancers of Kalkshetra Academy, Ms. Lakshmi Krishnamurty, Executive Trustee, Satyamurthy Centre for Development Studies, was the Guest of Honour.

At New Delhi, where two concerts were held, the Chief Guest at the October 1st concert, where three talented blind artists from Magiktuch sang and played, was Air Chief Marshal (Retd) A.Y.Tipnis, former Indian Air Force Chief and presently Vice Chairman, Sarvodaya International Trust, at the October 2nd ‘ Vaishnava Janato’ Odissi dance recital at National Bal Bhavan, which over 2000 children witnessed, the Chief Guest was the revered Gandhian Smt. Nirmala Deshpande.

At Mumbai readings of select correspondence from ‘The Mahatma and the Poetess’ were jointly made by Mrs Mrinalini Sarabhai and Mr. Tom Alter. 

Among the many organizations and institutions which supported SIT’s Gandhi Jayanti celebrations were State Bank of India, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Godrej Industries, Ganjam Nagappa and Son, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

On Gandhiji’s martyrdom day two very meaningful observances were held in Bangalore. In the morning, at Gandhi Bhavan, the Karnataka Chapter presented a multi-religious choral group of Dalit children from Bangalore slums singing Gandhiji’s favourite hymns for 20 minutes. This was followed by a 30 minute ‘Gandhi Katha’ presentation by a well known singer. In the evening, at Al Ameen College, 12 leading poets of Karnataka and 8 amateur poets who included four catholic nuns, recited poems in eight different languages as their their tributes to Gandhiji and his ideals. This was the very first time such a poetic homage was paid to Gandhiji in Bangalore on his Martydom Day. On the same day the Tamilnadu chapter organized an essay contest for Chennai school children and a ‘Gandhi and Women’s Empowerment’ Seminar at Kanchipuram at which 120 rural women actively participated.

The Andhra Pradesh organized a peace march while the Kerala and New Delhi chapters had bhajan singing, which at the latter venue was followed with an inspiring talk by Smt. Vibha Parthasarathy, former Chairperson of National Council for Women.

In view of Nobel Laureate Dr. Desmond Tutu’s memorable visit to Cathedral School on December
8th, 2005, this School and SIT jointly organized a special event on South Africa’s freedom struggle and Dr. Tutu’s significant role in it, on February 17th, 2006. “Freedom in our life time’ of the ‘Force More Powerful’ film series was screened. It was followed by a talk by Dr. L.C.Jain, former High Commissioner of India to South Africa. Over 400 students and teachers from 25 elite schools of Bangalore attended this event and interacted with Dr. Jain after his inspiring talk.

Managing Trustee delivered lectures at National Institute of Advanced Studies Bangalore on ‘The Genesis, Evolution and Flowering of the Concept of Ahimsa’ (which NIAS Director commended for its “thoughtful theme and extraordinary articulation”), the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius on ‘The Gandhian Way to Leadership’; the Dharmasthala Sarva Dharma Sammelan on ‘Non Violence in Christianity’ and the Rotary 3190 District Conference at Bangalore on ‘Leadership based on Truth and Non Violence’.

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