In USA during the death day of EDISON the power shutdown is maintained all over the country for remember for his invent of electricity that we enjoy today,"but in our country how we respect our independence day and Republic day ,by watching TV many special programs and cinemas some other enjoy the day as a holiday like Sunday only when will all the Indians remember our country freedom fighters and their unity and diversity,and what respect we gave to them until now.we are Indians only during when the cricket match live relay only ,pls something do for the country ,DONT ASK WHAT COUNTRY DID FOR U THINK WHAT U DO , at least on the day of independence day and republic day every Indian go to schools near by u. it is not a advise thought of mine its begiging and kind request of ur brother
JAIHIND

I retired four and a half years ago as the Managing Director of a Public Limited Company based in Mumbai with its production facilities in Daman. Being a Sikh (and one of the original promoters of the company) I followed the advise of my, now deceased, father and had the "Akhand Path" (non-stop reading of the Sikh holy book) when the plant started production in 1995. All employees and Directors of the company (largely Hindu naturally) attended with enthusiasm alongwith their family members.

Next year, to celebrate the first anniversary, I decided to have a Sathyanarayan Katha where myself and my wife sat for the Puja along with all employees and their families once again.

Then came 1997 and I wondered what I should do. My employees included largely Hindus, a couple of Sikhs, one Muslim and one Christian. I thought it would be a good idea to have a ceremony involving one of the last two religions. I called the Accounts Officer, a young boy named Qazi from the Daman area and asked him if he could talk to the Maulvi Saheb at his mosque and arrange a meeting with me.

Next week the Maulvi Saheb came to see me and I told him what I had in mind and requested him to perform whatever suitable Muslim religious 'ritual' (for want of a better word) one performed on such occasion with a request to guide us before hand on what was going to happen so that we may not, in our ignorance, make any mistake that is found offensive to Muslim sentiments. He was very enthusiastic and said he would certainly do so and leaving the matter in his able hands I left for Mumbai.

On the morning of the function, I drove very early to Daman arriving by around 7 AM at the factory. I was amazed to find that a pandal had been erected at the spot where we had had the Sathya Narayan Katha the year before and a Pandit ji was putting the "puja samagri" in place. I called my plant manager and asked what was happening and where was the Maulavi Saheb. He informed me that the Maulvi Saheb had called up to say he won't be able to come and he (the plant manager) had decided to have another Sathya Narayan Katha.

I was furious at being kept in the dark but it was not the time to do anything so we finished the ceremony.Later when I tried to find out, I found that it was very difficult to get an accurate account of what had happened. But here is what I could surmise.

It appears that the Maulvi Saheb went back and talked to others in the community there were some dissenting voices. Many were of the opinion that it would be an unwise move to perform the ceremony because the employees of the company were not of the same liberal bent of mind as Mr Singh (yours truly) and therefore it was not right to go somewhere where people did not want them to go.

The Muslim Accounts Officer confirmed this more or less.

I was terribly disappointed. I can not explain how I felt.

Although born a Sikh, I am not a very religious person in the way formal religion is practised. This has helped to cement the strong secular sentiments that are a part of my being. I am of a firm belief that participating in each other's religious functions is one of the most important things we can do to make our inter-community bonds stronger. My elder son married a Hindu girl and the younger one married a Christian girl. I tell my wife, I wish I had another son and it would have been wonderful if he had married a Muslim girl. I would like to do anything in my personal power to demonstrate to the doubting Thomases that the differences are not even skin deep. We just need to take the words "us" and "them" out of our vocabularies. What I was trying to do at my factory was a genuine heartfelt attempt to do what ? . . nothing spectacular. Just a small token of my acceptance of the equality of each and every employee of the company and the acceptance of his/her colleagues of him in his/her entirety.

If the Hindu employees could sit in the Sikh ceremony (and the akhand path went on for 24 hours) was it only because the MD was a Sikh? Why should it matter to the Maulavi how many people in the company wanted him to come from the bottom of their heart? How many wanted the Akhand Path - I don't know and I did not care to ask. I wanted him to come and he should have. By refusing to come he lost a Golden opportunity to have over a hundred Hindus and Sikhs getting to see and know a bit more about Islam and trust me that could only have done some good.

After that day, every year at the annual puja I would ask a manager at the factory and his wife to sit for it. I had lost all interest in it. It was a pointless ritual to me anyway from day 1 but I was willing to sit through it for my father and the Sikh employees, the Hindu employees and then for the others but this incident broke my heart.

Atik Agewan
village:-Nanandpeda,
post:-Mahalpda,
taluka:-Ahwa
PIN-394710
dist:-Dang
Gujarat

Hello sir,
I am Atik J Agewan, I am first Engineer of my cast and village.
From last 80 -100 years our village people vanzara Mualime live in
Dang District,but Goverment not give us right of Dangi(Adivasi-ST) because
we are muslims. Non muslim people who came to Dang IN our village nanandpeda to live from last 40-30 years Goverment give him right of Dangi(Adivasi-ST). ....
...............WHY ..........??????????

Plese Help...us ...
Thanks & Regards,
Atik Agewan