Written by London Swaminathan
Date: 18 June 2017
Time uploaded in London- 21-49
Post No. 4013
Pictures are taken from various sources such as Face book, Wikipedia and newspapers; thanks.
contact: swami_48@yahoo.com

 

 

MITRA SEVA TALK by London Swaminathan on 17^TH JUNE 2017

 

I was asked to give a talk on the charity work done by me in London at the First Anniversary meeting of Mitra Seva, an organisation started to serve the Elderly people in London, particularly from the South Indian community. It was held in Kenton, London on 17^th June 2017.

 

Good Evening and thanks for inviting me to talk about my charity work. I thought it was irrelevant to talk about it to you bcaeuse of most of you known about it and you were also part of it. But yet it is important to place everything on record. And there is another part of charity work I did in India which many of you may not know.

Since I was given every limited time first let me give my work in Bullet points.

 

 

RAISED MONYE FOR 7 CHARITIES OVER 200, 000 POUNDS

I raised over 200,000 pounds in London for seven charities. The beneficiaries were :-

SINDHI MANIR

LONDON SATH SANGAM

LONDON TAMIL SANGAM

South Indian Society

World Hindu MAHA SANGAM

TAMIL HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan

 

I have executed the following projects through the funding I received. When I say I, it means I was the one who ordinated, but you the people helped me through out these projects

PROJECTS

ELDERLY CARE PROJECT

LUNCHEON CLUB

TEACHING TAMIL

TEACHING SANSKRIT

POETRY PROJECT

PUBLISHING COMMUNITY NEWS LETTER

SINDHI CULTURE and Language Teaching

FIRST AIAD EACHING THROUGH REGIONAL LANGUAGES

Buying a SOUND SYSTEM

TAMIL BOOKS DIGITIZATION: I got a small funding for Tamil Heritage  Foundation to digitize ten old books from the British Library in London. They are available even now in T H F site.

TAMIL HERITAGE PROJECT: We interviewed thirty artistes in London who have settled here 25 years ago to record the history and development of Tamil culture in London. The recordings were put on a CD and the CDs were distributed to the  libraries.

MILLENNIUM GEM PROJECT : This is to give another chance to showcase their talents who have alredy staged their debut show and let it to get rusted.

RECENTLY I WAS ON THE  SOUVENIR COMIITEE OF  Nagapooshani Amman temple in London

RELIGIOUS EVENTS are organised by WHM Sagam

 

(For Bharatiya Viddhya Bhavan we staged a Tamil Drama and raised over 1500 pounds. We staged a Tamil drama for South Indian Society and raised over 1500 pounds. I took the main roles in both the dramas.

WHO FUNDED US?

Awards for all

National Lottery

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Harrow Council (for Black History Month)

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

New Ham council

Camelot foundation

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

I received

 

WHO IS THE ROLE MODEL?

Any number of books you read would not inspire youto do charity work un less you have a role model in front of you; for me my father (V Santanam) was the role model. He was a freedom fighter who fought the British rule in India. He was imprisoned with K Kamaraj in Vellore Jail. Because he was a freedom fighter he allowed us to do all community activities. First myself and my bothers started an organisation called Literary and Cultural Association in Madurai with the help of our friends. All the famous personalities such as Solomon Pappaiah, Kundrkkudi Adigalar, K V Jagannathan. Later I joined RSS and took over the secetaryship of Vidyarthi Parishad and my bother became the secretary of Visva Hindu Parishad. The Madurai RSS Pracharak Shivaram Jogelakarwho has M.Sc and came from Pune inspired us very much. He was a man of few words but man of action, full of inspiration.

 

And  at that time the Vivekananda Rock Memorial was set up by Eknatha Ranade who was also an embodiment of inspiration. He asked us to got to every office school, college etc to sell one rupee donation ticket just to make them the part of this mighty national memeorial. As a result of this I contacted thousands of office workers and sold the donation picture cards. ( We did a month long exhibition in the Pudumandapam (built by King Tirumalai nayak) which attracted a huge crowd every day. In the same way when Swami Shanthanantha did a Sahasra Chandi Yajna in Madurai, since my father was on the committee we all helped as volunteers).

 

For any project, we need a role model who practise it. Years ago Swami Omkarananda visited London and I was organising several meetings for him. As a part of meetings at the Hindu temples here, I took him to Sivan Temple at Lewisham, London. The previous day I contacted the temple trustee who was in charge of programmes  to find out how many people were expected and what age group was targeted etc. To my surprise he told that he would be addressing little children from ween end Tamil school. I challenged him saying that Swami Omkarananda who is a great scholar delivering lectures on Kaivalyopanishad and Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad would be disappointed. Then he explained me the reason for arranging such a meeting for children. “These young students had seen the saffron clad Sanyasins only in films and dramas. They had never seen a real life true Sanyasi (ascetic)So they may think this is also an act and there may not be a Sanyasi at all. If they see a real life ascetic that will impress them at this young age.

This explanation opened my eyes. I realised  that a man of action, a man of truth can inspire several thousand people. So role models are important to inspire future workers.

 

At present I am part of the Hindu Forum of Britain, the umbrella organisation of Hindu organisations. I am the chairman of the Chaplaincy borad. As a life time trustee of W HM sangam, I do organise religious events.

 

Tomorrow the Second Part of my talk will cover the following topics:-

 

ARE INDIVIDUALS POWERFUL?

YOGA IS RUBBISH ADVTS.

CHRISTMAS STAMPS WITH HINDU LAIDES WITH TILAK

NOW 5 POUND NOTE and Government’s Promise.

 

 

IS SELFLESS SERVICE POSSIBLE?

 

ENCOUNTER WITH MY WIFE

SANSKRIT TEACHER’S SUSPICION

WHY DO I DO IT?

 

PITFALLS IN CHARITY WORK

NO THANKS, MOSTLY CRITICSM

DON’T BE TOO OPEN —–DANDAPANI

ONE THANKS IS EQUAL TO 1000 POUNDS

CREMATORIUM THANKS

 

LIST OF PEOPLE INTERVIWED AS PART OF ORAL HISTORY OF TAMIL ARTISTES IN LONDON.

 

–Subham–