Tribute to the selfless

Five persons were honoured for their service to humanity.

April 29, 2010 02:56 pm | Updated April 30, 2010 12:12 pm IST

At the ceremony: Left to right: Vasudha Prakash, M.B. Nirmal, Gladwin Gabriel. Photo: Special Arrangement

At the ceremony: Left to right: Vasudha Prakash, M.B. Nirmal, Gladwin Gabriel. Photo: Special Arrangement

On Sunday, April 25th the Baha’i Community of Chennai hosted the fifth annual ‘Rose of Ridvan’ Service Awards Ceremony. Each year, the Baha’i Community of Chennai, honours five individuals who have shown outstanding selfless acts of service to society in the areas of education, health, culture and arts, social services, and humanitarian service. As well as these individual awards, an award is presented to an organisation which has excelled in providing community service.

The 2010 organisational award was presented to Dr. Vasudha Prakash Natrajan, founder and director of V-Excel Educational Trust, in recognition of excellent service performed in the field of special education for children over the past five years. V-Excel works to create a society where every individual counts and special children can become independent and evolve as complete individuals who can live a dignified life in mainstream society.

The 2010 Individual Rose of Ridvan awards were presented to the following persons:

The award for Education was given to Mrs. Sujatha Palanki who has adopted a village in Andhra Pradesh where she is educating 100 children focusing especially on girls. She also has provided a library and book bank and provides psychological and mental support for the children’s families

The award for Health was presented to Head Constable Mr. B. Mohan, who transports hearts from brain dead persons to suffering heart patients for transplantation. He drives the police vehicle carrying hearts to be transplanted in 11 to 12 minutes covering the distance of 15 km from Teynampet to Mugappair.

The award for Culture and the Arts was given to Madhavpeddi Murthy, Kuchipudi dancer, who runs the Shiva Kuchipudi Dance Academy. He has visited and conducted workshops in different parts of India and many countries all over world to spread Kutchipudi dance and he conducts special dance classes for underprivileged students free of cost.

The award for Social Services was presented to N. Ilango, who has conducted motivational programmes for over 15,000 youths and 10,000 college and school teachers. He helps under-achievers overcome depression and the urge to commit suicide.

The award in the area of overall humanitarian service was given to V. Muralidharan and Bhuvaneshwari Muralidharan. They run an orphanage for 160 poor children and a school for 1,300 children near Chennai, have helped abolish child labour from that village. They run a computer and tailoring institute for 30 women as well as an old age home. They also care for 33 old cows which otherwise would have been slaughtered.

The Rose of Ridvan Award Ceremony ended with a Kuchipudi dancing performed by the students of Nartanasala and choreographed by their teacher Sathya Priya Ramana, based on the principles of Baha’i Faith on the importance of education of girl children, equality and fraternity.

The chief guest, Gladwin Gabriel, who associated with the Junior Red Cross Society at the State level shared his belief that social work and religious work are two sides of the same coin.

In her opening remarks, the meeting chairperson, Dr. Radhika Nanwani, said that the awards are given as part of the community celebration of the “Festival of Ridvan,” during which the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah, declared his mission to humanity in 1863. One of the important teachings of Baha’u’llah is that service to humanity is equivalent to the worship of God. “Work is worship, service is a prayer.” For more information contact:Dr. Radhika Nanwani 9884903014

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