'Handicapped Colony' in Mira Road, which houses around 50 people, has turned into a shelter for the homeless from across the country.
One of the most famous addresses in the burgeoning Mira Road is Viklang Colony, or the colony of the handicapped, which is basically a cluster of shanties abutting a busy junction.
Home to around 50 mentally/physically challenged people, the colony could be described as one of the fastest growing in the area, but there are no greedy builders or land sharks 'overseeing the expansion'.
The residents, all of whom have been abandoned by their families, welcome every single such person from all over the country, who then become part of the family, and is looked after irrespective of his financial condition.
There are barely a dozen earning members among the residents, but food, clothes, and other necessity goods are shared across the colony. "No-one goes to bed hungry" is the motto, and the residents ensure it is always adhered to.
Happiness, at last
In one of the shanties reside Suvarna Premlal and her husband. Latur resident Suvarna, who is inflicted with polio, and her son, had nowhere to go after her first husband abandoned her. The residents found her begging in the streets of Mira Road, and brought her 'home'.
"My son, who is 17, goes to a private school and my husband earns enough as a masseur to provide us a good life. Coming to this colony was the greatest thing to have happened to me and my son," Suvarna
The colony's founder, Imran Mulla, and his wife were forced to leave their house in 2005, after
his brothers felt he was a liability. Mulla lost his legs to polio, and walks with the support of his hands.
"My wife was pregnant then, but we just couldn't take the insults any more and walked out with a bag stuffed with clothes. After living in the streets, I found this deserted spot, and set up a shanty. Eventually, others came along and today, we are a big, happy family of more than 50," Mulla said.
The shanties have come up on the plot that belongs to the Collectorate, but its inhabitants have many a problem to tackle. For instance, sewage water routinely floods their huts, especially in during the rains, but there's always a way out.
"People shift to the huts that are least affected by water," laughed Mulla, "It is a simple solution, isn't it?"
Dashrath Chauhan, 28, arrived at the colony a few years ago from Lucknow, where his family said they couldn't afford to keep him any longer. He suffers from a disorder that doesn't allow him to walk or even sit for too long. "I beg through the day and make enough money to support others. I wanted to contribute to the family. How can I not, after what they have done for me?" he said.
Let down by govt
It's been eight years since the colony came into existence, but no effort has been made to monitor the living conditions here. It is just a piece of plastic sheet that separated the shanties from the drains, and every spell of heavy rain leads to the entire slum getting flooded, as the colony doesn't have drainage facilities.
Ironically, the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation has a yearly budget of Rs 1 crore to help such individuals. Records reveal that in the past three years, funds meant for setting up of self-help groups for the challenged have been pilfered to buy vehicles and electronic items.
Suresh Kakani, commissioner, Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation, said he was committed to provide amenities to the Viklang Colony residents.
"Orders have already been issued to set up mobile toilets. I will instruct our counsellors to plan out vocational training to make the residents self-reliant," he said.
Yoga passes secularism test in US
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN | Jul 4, 2013,
WASHINGTON: Yoga enthusiasts in the US got a big boost this week when a California judge ruled that the practice which originated in India is now a ''distinctly American cultural phenomenon,'' while dismissing complaints from some parents that teaching it to school children amounted to ''an unconstitutional promotion of Eastern religions.''
Weeks of testimony from yoga practitioners and opponents, including live demonstration in courtroom of poses taught to children, came to a convoluted finale on Monday when Judge John Mayer agreed that yoga ''at its roots is religious,'' but pronounced that the kind introduced by a school district near San Diego, which was the subject of the litigation, passed the test of secularism. "A reasonable student would not objectively perceive that Encinitas School District yoga does advance or promote religion," he said.
Parents of some children had sued to stop the school district from teaching yoga maintaining it is a religious practice that surreptitiously promoted Hinduism. Funded with $533,000 from the K.Pattabhi Jois Foundation, which is backed by Jois acolytes, hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II and his wife Sonia, the school district introduced a three-year pilot yoga program in 2011, with twice a
Week classes in addition to regular physical education.
While some 30 families pulled their children out of the classes, saying teaching of yoga in schools blurred the line between church and state and "represents a serious breach of the public trust," many parents backed the program, which the school said was also aimed at curbing aggressive behavior and bullying. School authorities said in court that they had removed all religious elements from what was taught to the students, including the use of the word Namaste and substituting Sanskrit name of asanas with English ones. For instance, Padmasana, usually called lotus pose in English, became ''criss cross apple sauce'' in Americanese to appeal to children.
In fact, Judge Meyer, who had told the court early in the case that he himself had taken Bikram yoga classes, went so far as to observe that the yoga taught in Encinitas schools was no different from exercise programs like dodgeball. He was also irritated that some of the plaintiffs were not really informed about yoga as taught in the Encinitas schools and had simply got their information from dubious sources on the internet. ''It's almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn't what this court does,'' he observed.
The petitioners have said they will appeal against the court's ruling, but for now, yoga enthusiasts are celebrating the victory because it sets an important legal precedent for expanding yoga in school programs. In fact, some observers seemed pleased at the judge's seeming cultural appropriation of yoga while observing that it was as American as apple pie, noting that yoga came to the US more than a century ago with the arrival of the first Indian mystics and spiritual figures.
Paramahamsa Yogananda lived in the US in the 1920s, and is in fact, thought to be the first Indian pubic figure to be entertained at the White House in 1927 - by President Calvin Coolidge.
Mulund pool’s new star: Swimmer George
Swimmers at a municipal pool in Mulund have been seeing an unlikely visitor perfect the technique of keeping the head above water: a monkey.
Every day for the past week, the primate has been showing up at the Kalidas
Swimming Pool around 7 am — swimming without a worry for about an hour, much to the astonishment of regulars.
It doesn't bother other swimmers or jostle for space on the diving board. It usually stays away from the crowd, swimming across the breadth of the pool.
The monkey created quite a stir the first time it turned up and took a dive — some children jumped out of the pool — but now members have grown fond of it."I love the way the monkey swims. I make it a point to go every morning to catch a glimpse," said Sanvi Sawant, 8, who lives in Bhandup.
No monkey business For a couple of days, the BMC-run facility's caretakers tried to scare the monkey way, but it would return for its hourly swim the next morning. The management finally decided to leave the eviction task to the pros. "We have informed the forest department, and they will take care of the monkey," said the pool supervisor, Milind Bhingarde, told Mirror.
In the meantime, the monkey has become a star attraction. Despite monsoon and lower temperatures, members have been turning up in numbers every morning for the past few days.
