Serious [ Singapore News ] Beware of Indian : Pongal The Festival to Feast Curry Cow Dung + Cow Urine

[grandtour]

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/month-long-pongal-celebrations-kick-off-in-little-india

Month-long Pongal celebrations kick-off in Little India

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan attends the start of a month-long celebration of Pongal at Campbell Lane on Jan 5. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Published
Jan 5, 2018, 9:35 pm SGT
Melody Zaccheus


SINGAPORE - Little India's streets were covered in a blaze of lights on Friday (Jan 5) evening, marking the start of a month-long celebration of Pongal in Singapore.

The light-up ceremony at Campbell Lane was officiated by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

Pongal is a harvest and thanksgiving festival that marks the start of spring and is celebrated worldwide by Tamils, particularly in the state of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in southern India. Cattle, which plough the paddy fields and provide milk, are honoured during the festival for their role in ensuring a bountiful harvest. Traditionally, farmers celebrate in their homes, cooking their newly harvested rice with milk over a charcoal fire. The shoots of turmeric and ginger plants, which symbolise good luck and long life, are tied around the rim of the pot. As the milk boils over, there are cries of joy, music and drumbeats.

Ponggal, which means "to boil over" in Tamil, falls on Jan 14 and is celebrated for four days. However, in Singapore, celebrations extend for over a month.

The theme of this year's light-up in Little India is rangoli fusion designs, banana leaves and various Pongal elements such as sugar cane and rice.

The Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association (Lisha) has planned a series of free events from now till Feb 4.

Highlights include a Pongal Masterclass held in collaboration with the Indian Heritage Centre. In the class, visitors will learn about the various types of pongal, a rice pudding, such as chakkara (sweet) pongal and venn (white) pongal in a cooking demonstration led by a chef from the Indian Chefs Culinary Association.

There will be a Festival Village at Campbell Lane from Jan 10 to 15, where visitors can buy saris, spices, decor items, traditional cookies and tidbits.

Lisha has also organised a variety of cultural and folk performances..

 

[grandtour]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7398029/Cow-dung-and-urine-healthy.html

Cow dung and urine 'healthy'

'God resides in cow dung,' says Kesari Gumat, as he walks through his laboratory where researchers mix bovine excreta with medicinal herbs and monitor beakers of simmering cow urine.

A farm worker waiting with a bucket for cows to urinate in Kanaj village, 20 km from Ahmedabad. Photo: AFP/SAM PANTHAKY

By Rupam Jain Nair, in Ahmedabad for AFP


The lab in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad is one of a growing number of research centres that have embraced the sacred status of cows in India and sought to push it to a new level.

Promoting the practical alongside the spiritual, they have developed a line of dung and urine-based medicines, which they say can cure a whole herd of ailments from bad breath to cancer.

"These formulas are not new," Gumat said. "They are contained in ancient Hindu holy texts. We are just making them with a scientific approach."

The raw materials are generated on site from more than 300 cows that roam the compound.

Visitors must remove shoes and socks before entering and brave a barefoot walk across a carpet of semi-soft dung drying in the sunlight.

"Walking on fresh cowdung is very healthy," Gumat insisted. "It kills all the germs and bacteria and heals wounds. And dry cowdung is a great scrub to get rid of dead skin and improve blood circulation."

The list of derivative applications is, according to Gumat, an extremely lengthy one, stretching beyond medicines to toiletries like soap, shampoo and toothpaste, as well as incense sticks and mosquito coils.

The products have been applauded by Hindu nationalist groups, the largest of which, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), unveiled its own urine-based soft drink last year as a "healthy" alternative to Coke and Pepsi.

"Gau Jal," or "cow water" was developed at the RSS Cow Protection Department, a research facility in the northern city of Haridwar on the banks of the holy river Ganges.

"This will end the market for carbonated fizzy drinks," predicted the facility's bullish director Om Prakash.

Gau Jal is currently awaiting government approval. In the meantime Prakash said his team was focusing on packaging, marketing, and preservation - to prevent the drink spoiling in India's summer heat.

Cows are sacred to India's huge Hindu majority, precluding them from eating beef, but the animals' bodily waste falls into the same acceptable category as dairy products.

 

[grandtour]

http://indianexpress.com/article/in...an-give-eternal-beauty-gauseva-board-3077148/

Cow urine, dung can give eternal beauty: Gauseva Board

The advisory lists several remedies for women to get rid of pimples and hair related problems by using panchagavya.

As part of its endeavour to protect cows, the Gujarat Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board has advised women to give up chemical cosmetics and maximise the use of cow urine, dung and milk products to get eternal beauty like that of Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

As per ‘Aarogya Geeta’, a detailed advisory published on the official website of the Board, ‘panchagavya’ (gaumutra- cow urine) treatment is the best medicine in the whole world for women to get naturally glowing skin.

The advisory lists several remedies for women to get rid of pimples and hair related problems by using panchagavya.

“Beauty products, such as soap, cream and powder, are made of chemicals, which ultimately take away the natural charm from the skin. There is no other remedy in the world as good as panchagavya. Application of cow milk, ghee, urine and dung on the body and face would give a natural glow,” said a chapter dedicated to gaumutra treatment for preserving women’s eternal beauty.

Making a strong pitch about its claims, the advisory gave example of Cleopatra’s much talked about beauty.

“Gaumutra treatment would remove dark circles, black spots and pimples. Panchagavya face treatment will give you long lasting beauty and glowing skin. Egyptian queen Cleopatra was the most beautiful woman in the world. She used to bath in milk,” says the advisory, without clearly mentioning if it was cow milk.

According to the Board’s chairman Vallabh Kathiria, this is just an example to make women understand the benefits of cow urine, dung and milk.

“Some records suggest that Cleopatra used to bathe in cow milk to get eternal beauty. We want women to understand the benefits of cow milk, urine and dung to get such beauty instead of damaging their skin by using artificial beauty products made of harmful chemicals,” Kathiria said.

Apart from providing natural beauty to women, gaumutra can help in the treatment of almost all major diseases, including cancer, asthma, paralysis, AIDS and heart problems, the advisory claims.

“Gaumutra is a holistic and natural medicine which can cure around 108 different diseases. We are sure that cow-therapy would become the most popular way of treatment in the 21st century. Even the scientists from western world admitted that cow is a perfect science and total laboratory,” the Aarogya Geeta stated.

 

[Truth_Hurts]

Must have been influenced by the mozzies

 

[halsey02]

Half Ball Bala...is Chinese or Indian???

 

[songsongjurong]

they served fresh beef rendang thereafter?