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Pongal 2024: Mumbai Celebrates Harvest Festival Reflecting Rich Tamil Culture

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Nearly 2000 people participated in Pongal festivities in and around Antop Hill on Monday. Mass Pongal celebration was carried out across various locations of the Sion Koliwada constituency and was facilitated by MLA Captain R Tamil Selvan who continues to organise these events embracing the harvest season and Tamil culture for more than a decade now.

In a beautiful display of cultural richness, locals dressed in traditional attires prepared Pongal reciting folk songs, raising the festival mood. The event saw them setting up their Pongal pots in the midst of sugarcane, flowers, and rangolis. The celebration was notably marked at the Antop Hill Cement Ground with about a thousand people lifting the festival spirit on the auspicious day. Other areas that observed Pongal on a grand scale included New 90 Feet Road, Kamaraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, and the Malai Mariamman temple in Naik Nagar among a few others.

Captain Selvan was seen visiting the spots and joining the public in the celebration. “Pongal is associated with agriculture. Tamilians of various religious beliefs celebrate this festival together without any discrimination. This is the significance of Pongal,” he said while extending Pongal greetings.

The event was not confined to only the Tamil-speaking people celebrating the occasion as it saw women from diverse cultural backgrounds mark the festival. While Tamilians gathered there to celebrate Pongal, others enjoyed the Makar Sankranti festivities in the region with similar rituals involving boiling water and preparing food in their pots.

Pongalo Pongal” chants were heard during the celebration as women prayed to seek prosperity for their families while boiling and expecting their pots to overflow with the Pongal preparation.

Throwing more light on the harvest festival, the MLA acknowledged that the first dam built in the world was built by Karikala, a Tamilian. “Tamilians introduced the concept of building dams to stop running (river) water and distribute it for agricultural usage. Karikala from the Chola Dynasty constructed the Kallanai Dam over the Kaveri River running in Trichy.”

Several people admire the Tamil language and its treasurable culture, including PM Narendra Modi who recently inaugurated the Kashi Tamil Sangamam at Namo Ghat in Varanasi and mentioned about Pongal and remembered prominent Tamil personalities like Subramania Bharathiyar, Bharathidasan, and Thiruvalluvar.

Maharashtra

Mumbai: Accused wanted in Kurla Methi River irregularities arrested, accused of cheating crores of rupees and creating fake AMU

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Mumbai: Economic Wing AOW has claimed to have arrested the wanted accused and contractor in the case of Mithi Nadi cleanliness and irregularities. The AOW has arrested the absconding wanted Sunil Shyam Narayan SM Infrastructure, Mahesh Madhav Rao Purohit. During the investigation of the Mithi Nadi contract and irregularities worth crores of rupees, the police had registered a case. Earlier, three accused were arrested. According to the EOW, from 2013 to 2023, fake MAUs were prepared and bills worth crores of rupees were approved in collusion with BMC officers. A proposal to purchase a machine to remove garbage from 2021 to 2024 was also approved and under the guise of the same, a fraud of crores of rupees was committed for cleaning the garbage. In this case, the police have arrested the accused agents Ketan Kadam, Jay Joshi and Mithi Nadi contractor Sher Singh Rathore. By preparing fake documents, the accused also prepared fake AMUs and also signed fake signatures. The accused were produced in court and remanded in custody until December 16.

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Maharashtra

Preparations for Sunni Dawat-e-Islami’s three-day global Sunni gathering in full swing

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Mumbai: Like every year, this year too, the 33rd annual gathering of the Sunni Dawat-e-Islami Movement is being held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 12, 13 and 14 at Azad Maidan, Wadi Noor, opposite CST, Mumbai. Like last year, this year too, the gathering on the first day, Friday, will be for women only, while the remaining two days will be reserved for men. Insha Allah, many scholars, preachers and mashaikhs from the country and abroad will participate in this global gathering. The preparations for the gathering were started last Saturday in the evening after the weekly central gathering. Urdu Media In-charge Maulana Mazhar Hussain Alimi said that the leaders of the movement are making full efforts to make the three-day gathering a success. Efforts are being made to provide all possible facilities so that the audience and attendees do not face any kind of trouble. As per tradition, this year too, the three-day global gathering will be broadcast live on sdichannel, which will be directly accessible to those who wish to learn religious teachings from all over the world. The women’s gathering on the first day will feature speeches on important topics such as “Women’s Intellectual Taste”, “Women’s Real Ornament: High Character and Modesty”, and “Women’s Share in Inheritance”. In addition, the researcher of modern issues Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Nizamuddin (President Mufti of Jamia Ashrafia Mubarakpur) will answer questions asked by women about Islam. Ameer Sunni Dawat-e-Islami and the spiritual leader of this gathering, the great preacher Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Shakir Noori, has appealed to people to participate in the gathering as much as possible, understand the message of religion and act on it. Ameer Sunni Dawat-e-Islami has said that they should also come and bring their friends and thus become a means of transmitting religion. He has appealed to Muslims to send women from their homes to the gathering on the first day so that they can Attend the gathering to learn religious teachings, improve themselves and advise others. There will be important speeches by great scholars and preachers in the gathering on the second and third days. There will be detailed speeches on important topics such as “The Miracle of the Holy Quran”, “The Spiritual Life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), “The Envoy of Peace (PBUH), “Searching for Humans in Humans”, “Ethics and Spiritual Training of Youth”, “Religious Information and Artificial Intelligence”, “Signs of the Pleasure and Displeasure of Allah Almighty”. Islamic thinker Allama Qamar-uz-Zaman Azmi (Secretary General World Islamic Mission London) will deliver a speech on the third day. Insha Allah, the commentator of the Quran, Khalifah Mufti Azam Hind, Hazrat Allama Zaheeruddin Khan Rizvi, will also deliver an insightful speech. In the gathering on the third day, there will be a gathering after Zuhr prayers, followed by a lecture on the latest issues of Bukhari Sharif, in which the last hadith of Bukhari Sharif will be delivered by Hazrat Allama Mufti Muhammad Nizamuddin Rizvi (Jami’ Ashrafia Mubarakpur). On this occasion, prayers are accepted in the presence of the Lord, so be sure to participate in this prayer as well.

In order to facilitate the participants of the gathering, a large number of ablution rooms and toilets are being built, and more than sixty cameras are being installed throughout the gathering as part of security arrangements. In addition, about two thousand women will volunteer for the women’s gathering, while more than one thousand male volunteers will serve in the gathering on the second and third days. The police have requested the participants of the gathering not to bring handy cameras, laptops, wires, batteries, matchboxes, lighters, nail cutters and other electronic equipment that runs on batteries. For security reasons, parking of motorcycles or any other vehicle around the Azad Maidan is not allowed.

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Maharashtra

Azmi demands in Nagpur Assembly that Navi Mumbai Airport be named after Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj

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Mumbai: In the Mumbai Maharashtra Nagpur winter session, Member of Assembly Abu Asim Azmi has demanded that the Navi Mumbai Airport be named after Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj. He said that he died in Mumbai on May 6, 1922, so the Navi Mumbai Airport should be named after Shahu Maharaj. He said that Shahu Maharaj has always served Dalits, backward classes, educational reservation and equality and it is to his credit that Dalits and backward classes are provided with reservation and other facilities. He said that the Navi Mumbai Airport should be named after a great leader. Since the airport is a transportation hub, naming the airport after Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj is a tribute to him.

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