Austerity centre opened in Chennai

Austerity leads to abundance.

This was the message Mankulika Jhaver, cultural activist and founder-director of Parampara, an NGO that works to spread traditional practices, wished to propagate on Saturday, with the opening of Paramapara Austerity Center on Kasturi Ranga Road.

“Whatever you use, use it with a lot of thought, so you don’t end up wasting anything,” she said to an audience of young children from various schools, and their parents.

The centre was inaugurated on the occasion of Guru Purnima on Saturday.

According to N. Ravi, editor-in-chief, The Hindu , austerity is an important means to giving.

“The Bhagavad Gita says giving as a duty without expectation of anything in return is the highest form of goodness,” he said, adding the NGO has always helped place austerity and giving as the central focus in people’s lives.

Children from Tapas Trust, Kids Central, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and Ananya School of Madras Dyslexic Association gave performances on the importance of ‘daana’ — giving — in its various forms: by way of education, food or shelter.

Artiste Bombay Jayashri, chairman of Polaris Financial Technology, Arun Jain, and founder of Kids Central, Valli Subbiah, spoke of the importance of austerity.