As part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birthday celebrations, the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi held a public meeting for the release of an Animation Film on Swami Vivekananda by Shri Ajay Maken, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, in the Vivekananda Auditorium at 6.00 p.m. on 23rd October 2011.
Swami Vivekananda Awards were also presented on the same occasion, after the release of the animation film on Swamiji. Representatives of four selected NGOs, viz, Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, Sevalaya, Sarada Seva Sangha and Tribal Health Initiative, were invited to receive Swami Vivekananda Award of Rs. One lakh each, and Smt. Krishna Tirath, Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development was also invited to give away these awards (Smt. Krishna Tirath was unable to present the Awards to them on account of some urgent engagement). Also Swami Vishwatmanandaji from Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math and Swami Hridanandaji, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, Jaipur, were invited to preside over the Meeting and present the Vote of Thanks respectively.
The programme began with an invocation rendered by the children of Sarada Children’s Forum of the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi. Then Swami Shantatmanandaji, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi, welcomed all the dignitaries on the stage as well as the representatives of four NGOs mentioned above as also the representatives of NTPC and TATA Interactive Systems. He underlined the importance of this meeting specially convened for release of the animation film and presenting the awards to four NGOs of the country who were selected for rendering best service to humanity in different ways.
Swami Shantatmanandaji gave mementos to Hon’ble Minister, Shri Ajay Maken, Shri Arup Roy Chowdhury, CMD, NTPC, Shri A.K. Singhal, Finance Director, NTPC and Shri Rajiv Daniel and Ms Manisha Mohan of TATA Interactive Systems.
Shri Ajay Maken released the Animation film on Swami Vivekananda which was screened for about 10 minutes for the benefit of audience. Then he gave away the newly instituted Swami Vivekananda Award (of Rs. one Lakh) to each of the four NGOs –
- Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind represented by Shri T.V. Srinivasan, Founder of the organization,
- Sevalaya, represented by Shri Muralidharan, Founder and Managing Trustee,
- Sarada Seva Sangha, represented by Smt. Shubra Banerjee, and
- Tribal Health Initiative, represented by Dr. George Regi, its Founder.
This was followed by the screening of some of the animation films on the life and utterances of Swami Vivekananda for a few minutes.
Shri Ajay Maken addressed the gathering stating that he was closely associated with the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi since his childhood when he was actively participating in the Recitation and Speech competitions organized by the Mission. He appreciated the various services rendered by the Mission from time to time.
Shri Kartikeyan of Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, Shri Muralidharan of Sevalaya, Shrimati Shubra Banerjee of Sarada Seva Sangha and Shri Manjunathan, Community Coordinator of Tribal Health Initiative, made their presentations highlighting the activities of their respective organisations and the benefits derived by the poor and needy through their humanitarian and charitable activities.
Swami Vishwatmanandaji delivered the Presidential Address stating that out of 5000 and odd NGOs registered with the Government, only a very few NGOs including the above four stand out for doing very good work for the society. Swami Hridanandaji proposed the Vote of Thanks.