500th video on Gurjarvani Youtube channel

Bardipada Tribal Dance Festival 2013

The young artists from the boarding.

The Pyramid part of every tribal dance.

 The Tribal Dance festival was organized at Jivan Jyot, Bardipada in South Gujarat, India on the 22nd Feb 2013.
Ten groups from different parts of Gujarat took part in the Festival of highly colourful and fast dances. The Festival encourages the tribals to appreciate and preserve their own cultural forms.

Changda Village shoot

Shoot in progress

Changda shoot [ near Tarapur - Gujarat ] which was reported in the previous post is presented with these stills.
Script by Krishnaben
Directed by Ashok Vaghela

Scott at the house of Babu.

Grena at the Camera.

Scott

Reflectors for the shoot.

Krishnaben and Scott with Babubhai

Let us worship - Kariye Aradhana - Gujarati song

GOOD NEWS TO THE BLIND બ્રેયીલમાં શુભસંદેશ - નવો કરાર

  બ્રેયીલમાં શુભસંદેશ - નવો કરાર   is going to be released at the Inaugural Mass of the Year of Faith on 12.10.2012 in Gandhinagar Archdiocese Cathedral by Rt. Rev. Stanislaus Fernandes, SJ.

Thanks for your collaboration.

 બ્રેયીલમાં શુભસંદેશ - નવો કરાર 

GOOD NEWS TO THE BLIND

Braillema Bible – Catholic Navo Karar

Introduction

The people of the world know that the Bible is the Holy Book of the Christians. At the same time, still people of various religions are not aware that the Bilble is not made up of one single book, instead it is the collection of various books. The Christians are fully aware and it is their firm Faith that the Bible is the Word of God written in words of different human persons. Further it is believed that the Word of God is the food, drink and support for their life-long journey.  The readers and the listeners find greater meaning by drawing water from the same Biblical well and drink such precious water (amrutvani) in order to quench their thirst.

The Bible is divided into two parts. First part is the Old Testament and the second part is the New Testament. The books which were written before the birth of Jesus are known as the Old Testament. Whereas the books which were written after the birth of Jesus are known as the New Testament.  After the Baptism, at the appropriate time, with the unique experience of his ABBA FATHER, Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day at Nazareth and in the midst of all gathered there he proclaimed the purpose of his public Mission – “The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).

According to me, from my experiential knowledge, I must say that every Blind person is ‘the divine eye of the Divine’ – ‘devna divyachakshu’. To such dear ones, the year 2012 is something special to them. Why? Because, the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI has declared a special year (from October 11, 2012 to 23 November, 2013) as the YEAR OF FAITH in order to know, love and follow Christ MORE in daily life. In this context, I, as the follower of Jesus, re-call the Mission Manifesto of the greatest Missionary Jesus – “... sent me to give sight to the blind”. This particular statement has churned my existence as an ordained evangelist and has motivated me to answer creatively in proclaiming His GOOD NEWS to all peoples, especially to the visually challenged persons of my karmabhoomi Gujarat. Thus, while accompanying various categories of the disabled persons in North Gujarat, already a year back I was moved to prepare the Gujarati New Testament in Braille transcription and to present to them as a precious gift at the beginning of the YEAR OF FAITH. Indeed the present prepared ‘Braillema Bible – Catholic Navo Karar’  is a unique GOOD NEWS to all the visually impaired persons of our Growing Global Gujarati Group. Now let me explain in brief the genesis and rationale of this innovative project.

Problem statement

• A backward attitude towards life has led many persons in Gujarat to think of disability as a curse. ‘The blind neither have the physical vision nor they have vision for life’, such a negative attitude creates tension among the visual and the non-visual persons.
• The non-readiness approach to tackle the causes of disability, especially on visual impairment.
• Non-enthusiastic nature for life by many non-disabled persons leading them to be non-participatory in the mobilization and rehabilitation of the Persons with Disabilities.
• The blind may have the hunger and thirst for the Word of God of the Bible. But till this date they have no means to read directly the Catholic Bible. Till this date they are deprived of this unique facility in comparison with their normal counter parts.

Logical Intervention

According to the population census survey 2010, the population of Gujarat is 50,596,992. In which nearly there are an estimates 10,45,000 disabled persons of all categories in Gujarat.  This is based on the 1.98% of disability given by the National Sample Survey Organisation.  Of these, around 1.5 lakh people have visual impairment. Around 40% these are school age going children.  So we have about 60000 blind children using Braille in Gujarat.

In Gujarat, we have about 82 institutions who are directly involved in the education and rehabilitation of the blind persons. Besides these, the Inclusive Education for the Disabled Children at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) and the Education for All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – SSA) at the Primary stage cater directly to the educational needs of these visually impaired children.

Main Objectives

·       To be a leaven to provide the New Testament in Gujarati Braille transcription to the Blind.

·       To enable the visually impaired persons of Gujarati speaking to read independently without the help of the reader and to assimilate personally the New Testament in Gujarati Braille transcription and to motivate them to become the agents in ennobling the human community to love and serve God and His peoples.    

·       To give an opportunity to the visually impaired persons of all religions and cultures to taste and see, i.e. to experience the Word of God for a meaningful integration and inclusion in the human society.

·       To initiate the blind persons of Gujarat to have the ‘darshan’ (vision) of God in Jesus by reading the New Testament of Catholics.

·       To encourage such visually challenged persons to challenge the darkness of the world and to contribute creatively in removing such darkness from the grasped gospel messages of Jesus.

·       To encourage the Institutional heads and the Educational sector personnel to motivate the Blind persons to read and to grasp the messages for a meaningful life from the New Testament.

Sources of inspiration

·       Catholic New Testament in Tamil Braille transcription – 1^st time in an Indian language: When I learnt that the Second Reading of the Mass was read out by a visually challenged person in Chennai at the inaugural Eucharist celebration on 9, January, 2011 by the Conference of the Catholic Bishop’s of India’s Meet (Editorial, The New Leader, vol.124, No.: 3, February 1-15, 2011. It says: “…she read from Braille Tamil New Testament, newly published by the Tamil Nadu Bible Commission. This is the blessing to all the visually challenged people, now the blind can read the Word of God by themselves.)

·        Vanche Gujarat movement of Gujarat Government – Best Reader Competition for the Blind: The aim of the competition was to motivate the blind students to read inspirational short stories, novels, poems, biographies and books.

Conclusion

To me, in this context, offering this ‘Braillema Bible – Catholic Navo Karar’ in the hands of the Blind persons of Gujarat is one of the novel ways of the New Evangelization process at the beginning hour of the YEAR OF FAITH. Indeed a greater opportunity is given to us to CELEBRATE this Faith-filled year as a Grace-filled year in the midst of all types and all categories of persons with Special needs.

We are grateful to Alboan and Misiones La Rioja, the NGOs of Spain for their generous financial support to prepare this ‘Braillema Bible – Catholic Navo Karar’ in 12 volumes. We also appreciate the Staff of the Braille Press, National Association for the Blind (Gujarat Division), Vastrapur, Ahmedabad  for their computerized Braille transcription, proof reading, printing and binding.

Fr Girish Santiago SJ

Blessed are the Blind for theirs is the Kingdom to ‘see’ joyfully the newly transcribed book in Braille and to read it, assimilate it and to act as men and women of good will according to the living WORD of God! Let the WORD continue to BECOME FLESH and dwell amongst us in and through our well focussed compassionate approach of incarnation, insertion and involvement. Let our ‘domestic churches’ (homes), the ‘structural churches’ (places of adoration and worship) and the ‘institutional churches’ (cells & centres) become truly an ‘abode of inclusion’ – sammilitalayam! Timely and truly, our on-going faith-justice based apostolic commitment towards the needy has enabled and enhanced us to name aptly our centre at Unteshwari as sammilitalayam. May our Spirit-filled approach towards inclusion bring solace – shanti – salaam – shalom to all.   

Fr. Girish Santiago, SJ

 Director

Gurjarvani - a New Look

 The roof of the Gurjarvani Studio was removed and concrete slab has been put on the top of the 1st floor. This will protect the building from leakage and from the hot Sun.
Now it looks very bright with the new white paint on the walls and ceiling. There is plan to put a Gujarati traditional decorated door as we see in the Poles of Ahmedabad. Once that is put the photo of the building will look different.

Jesuit Novice Masters from Indian provinces visit Gurjarvani

In the audio studio of Gurjarvani

The Novice Masters at Gurjarvani,Ahmedabad,India

The young people who want to dedicate themselves  for ever to serve the needy and poor people any where in the world in the Society of Jesus are given a two year intense spirituality training. And that is called " the Novitiate"[નવશિશ્યાલય ]
The Novice Master is the one who directs them. 14 such Novice Masters from all over India were at Ahmedabad for a meeting  to share their experience in guiding the young people.
Gurjarvani Parivar [ Gurjarvani Family] thanks them for their visit on 4th September 2012.

A video presentation in the Gurjarvani studio

Fr . Anil Lucas Macwan

Fr Anil Lucas in Khambhat.

 

R.I.P.

Fr . Anil Lucas Macwan (GUJ) 54/34 expired this evening around 9.30p.m ( 22- 07-2012 ) in Nadiad Heart Hospital. He had a severe heart attack  and he died in the Hospital.

The funeral will be held at 4.00p.m in Anand Catholic Church  on Monday (23-07-2012).

Please remember him in your prayers.

Fr.Lawrence Dharmaraj SJ

Socius

Personal Information:

Name :

Date of Birth: 05- 01 1958

Entrance in the Society: 30 -07- 1978

Final Vows:  31- 01-1999

Priesthood: 29-04-1989

Died : 22-07-2012

Responsibilities Held:

Pastoral Year: Dediapada& Bharuch -1986

Teacher: Gandhinagar- 1990-1991

Teacher, &Principal: Zankhvav- 1991-1997

Principal: St.Joseph, Baroda: 1997-2000

Principal : Dhandhuka   2000- 2002

Principal: St.Xavier’s Khambhat- 2002-2009

Principal: Sagbara- 2009- 2012

Man of Hard work, Sincerity, sensitivity and Love:

Fr.Anil Lucas Macwan had been a person committed to God in a very personal way. In fact from very early days, as early as his school days, he had an ardent desire to commit himself to God totally. Motivated by this desire, he joined the apostolic school at Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad. His commitment to God found expression in his love for the person of Jesus. His readiness to work for the downtrodden was something remarkable. When he was at Zankhvav, he devoted himself to the cause of the tribal upliftment in terms of providing them with the best formal education possible.

He had been able to interact with people of all kinds at various places such as Baroda, Khambhat, Dhandhuka and Sagbara. With firmness of mind and love in his heart he had been able to deal with them positively. And he had been able to stand up to the values of hard work, sincerity, sensitivity and love.

મૂળ વલાસણના ફા.અનિલ લુકાસ મેકવાન હમણાં કલાક પહેલા જ પ્રભુને પ્યારા થઇ ગયા છે. ગઈ કાલે સવારે તેમને હ્રદયરોગનો ભારે હુમલો થયો હતો. આજે નડીયાદ કાર્ડિઆક હોસ્પિટલ માં તેઓએ અંતિમ શ્વાસ લીધા. ફાધરે ગુજરાતભરમાં વડોદરા, ખંભાત, ધંધુકા, સાગબારા જેવી અલગ અલગ સ્કૂલોમાં શિક્ષક અને આચાર્ય તરીકે સેવા આપી છે. પ્રભુ તેમના આત્માને પરમ શાંતિ બક્ષે.

ફાધર અનિલની દફનવિધિ આવતીકાલે સોમવાર, જુલાઈ ૨૩ તારીખે બપોરે ૪ વાગે કેથોલિક ચર્ચ આણંદ ખાતે રાખવામાં આવી છે.

[ c/o Jagdish Christian ]

સમાચાર – સુનિતા પરમાર, કરમસદ અને શ્વેતા વાઘેલા, ગાંધીનગર

Akho - A socio-spiritual reformer poet of Gujarat

A Movie: Two young men dedicate their lives to serve: Gujarat Jesuits

Kite Festival - International - at Ahmedabad, India

This years special attraction at the Ahmedabad International Kites Festival on the 11th Jan 2012 was these giant fishes flying in the sky at the Riverfront. Gurjarvani team covered the festival with video and still cameras.

A real bird attacked the artificial bird[ Kite - in bright colors ]

A Giant Puppet animated by the woman inside the puppet.

Magis Exhibition in Spain by Gujarat group

Visitors at the Gujarat Exhibition

The Indian group with the Indian flag

Photo workshop Mount Carmel, Ahmedabad

Learning the camera

Outdoor photography Practice

Input on Camera and photography by Ashok Vaghela sj

Capturing the action

Photography workshop for the 8,9 and 11th std students of Mount Carmel school Ahmedabad was conducted by Gurjarvani on 10th Dec 2010. The students will now take photos of Ahmedabad from their own point of view and present them for competitions organized for Ahmedabad 600 years celebrations.

Devasia

Year of the Child - katha by Fr Ignas Canis

Year of peace - Katha by Ignas Canis part 3

The Creators - Sarjako series

Why This? Hindi Play

"Aisa Kyon"

Why This ?

Samvedan Cultural group's powerful play on the social evils of today in India.

Written by Sarup Dhruv, and Samvedan Cultural Group, Ahmedabad,India

Directed by Hiren Gandhi

To be released soon by Samvedan and Gurjarvani in India.
Hindi, 60 min

Joseph Macwan - Amrut Smruti parv

 

Reginaben - JM's wife and other guests lighted the lamp.

A large audience applauded as the lamp was lit by Reginaben Macwan wife of Joseph Macwan at the Amrut Smrutiparv  Samaroh at the Sahitya parishad Hall, Ahmedabad, India on 23rd Oct 2010 at 4.00pm

Releasing of " Jindagi Jeevyano harak" edited by Manilal H Patel.  Indukumar Jani, Raghuvir Chaudhury, Prakash Shah, Sudarshan Iyenkar, Mohanbhai Patel... on the stage

  ...

"Vanchitona Vanothar" A video by Gurjarvani on Joseph Macwan [14 min.] was also shown at the function.

A full hall at Gujarat Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabad,India

Joseph Macwan - activist and writer

Photos by Setul Gamit

from Gurjarvani Parivar

The Gurjarvani web TV is streaming 24 hrs a day.

Hope you watch some of our short videos.

Soon we may be able to put all our web services on to one 

web site so that you can access all of them in one place.

With some financial help we shall be streaming Audio [ web radio] also 

non stop. 

Thanks for all the  comments.

Devasia sj

from Gurjarvani parivar

Dear friends,

I am adding a daily [ if possible] message to see how helpful is it for all of us..

1. You are THE AUDIOVISUAL MEDIUM AND MESSAGE 
for peace, Joy, Harmony, cooperation and love in the world.

2. MY LIFE IS MY MESSAGE- Gandhi.

 Let us together create a World Family.

Devasia M
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