Fr. Joseph Awarded Padma Shri

Father Joseph H. Pereira was recently awarded the fourth-highest civilian award by the government. The Bandra resident, who founded the Kripa Foundation in 1981 to help rehabilitate drug addicts and alcoholics, was awarded the Padma Shri for his untiring dedication to the field of social work. Fr. Pereira says, “I am extremely happy about it. This award isn’t only for me, though. It’s for all the drug addicts and alcoholics who have been helped through the Kripa centers.” He now oversees the running of 48 facilities in India and six collaborative centres abroad. Kripa also offers a broad spectrum of services to the community, facilitating law enforcement agencies, educational institutions and other academic institutions that are involved in Human Services. Fr. Pereira also conducts yoga classes at the Mount Carmel Church Hall.

– RM

Pause For Thought

If you happen to walk down the inner lanes of Pali village, you’ll come across Bungalow 53- the house that has a thought of the day written on it. Adlord Concessio who lives there told us the secret behind it, “I had a troubled life and one day I met with an accident on my scooter and almost died. After that my life became worse and I started loosing everything that mattered to me. That’s when I took to prayer and since that day forth my life has changed drastically. Every morning I wake up at 3am and God tells me his message. After I’m done praying I write his message on the wall hoping that someone will read it and it’ll make a difference. I’ve been doing this for 2 years now and everyday he gives me a new message.” So, next time you’re walking through the village, take some time out to read the message. It might brighten up your day.

– Rommel Albuquerque

Valentine’s Protest

Last Saturday being Valentines Day, everyone expected some form of trouble from various groups which were protesting against V-Day. But the last place that I expected it to be at was Bandra station. Even though there were big banners and flyers, the protest was a peaceful one. The protestors claimed they were from ‘Students Islamic Organization of India’(SIO) and wanted to celebrate V-day with a difference. According to them Valentines day promotes unethical male-female relations. While many would disagree, they did have a good ideas on how to spend the day. They wanted every Indian to be a Valentine to the 30% Indians who live below the poverty line, to the 2 million children who die of hunger every year and to the farmers who are in debt. It’s a noble thought and we should have a day when people all over reach out to help.

– Rommel Albuquerque

Citizens Lobby

Two weeks after the attacks in Mumbai, many residents are ensuring that we don’t have a short term memory and are organizing a meet called the Citizen’s Lobby. This has been created to use the collective energy of the citizens into demanding our security and other basic issue from the governments. Noted luminaries such as  Mr. Gerson DaCunha, Mr. B.G.Deshmukh, Mrs. Shyama Kulkarni and Mr. D.N Sukhthankar (former Chief Secretary Maharashtra) amongst others will form an apex body to tackle the root causes of all our problems. On the 21st of December at 10.30am at the St. Joseph’s convent school hall there will be a mobilization meeting, to spread the news of the movement and discuss the plan of action. They are still waiting for more inputs so please write in to them on citizenstakecharge@gmail.com with all your suggestions.

– Glynda Alves

Zenzi Closed

One of Bandra’s favourite hangouts Zenzi has been shut for around a week now and is expected to stay closed for another week. However, party goers can look forward to Zenzi reopening before Christmas. A source tells us, “Last week a few friends and I we’re heading to Zenzi but were surprised to find it shut and there were a few policemen outside.” However, when contacted a representative from Zenzi said that there is just some internal work going on and that it would be opened for the weekend. Sadly, it was shut all weekend and still is. Owner Matan Schabracq says, “We are doing up Zenzi a bit and that’s why it’s been shut for a few days. We’ll be opening up soon.” We know more than a few people who will be happy to hear that.

– Glynda Alves

Meeting of Minds

In school, in college and even at work there might be someone who you might think is slow or has a speech impediment or may have a problem with their motor skills. In most cases these people suffer from Dyslexia – which is a learning disability and manifests in different ways.

“Though most of the schools now days have special educators as a part of their regular staff there is still a void in the remedial work done with these kids in comparison to the schools requirements”, says Aryanish who is a certified trainer for correcting learning disability. Aryanish along with her sister Asma who is also a certified trainer for correcting learning disability have setup ‘Mind Bridge’ which is a corrective program for people with dyslexia which they run out of their Bandra home.  “We pay individual attention to each person that comes to us and we build a relationship with them. Being dyslexic ourselves we understand what the person is going through and with both our minds working together we custom make each program according to the persons needs”, says Aryanish.

“The best part of this program is that it is a final end solution to the learning disability the person may have. In thirty sessions of one hour each the person is cured for life. We keep very flexible timings and have children who are 4yrs old to business men who are 30 yrs old come to us”, adds Asma.

This place is the first of its kind in Bandra and has testimonials from celebrities, parents and children who all say they have been cured thanks to these two sisters. Keep up the good work girls!

Where: Dr. Ambedkar road, Contact: Aryanish on 986734870

– Rommel Albuquerque