GRATEFUL TO THE TEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS OF THE "JOURNEY OF DESTINY"

Angels are visibly invisible !!! 

I am truly grateful and wish to thank from the bottom of my heart the TEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS of the Second Year - JUNE 2011 to MAY 2012, for their invaluable support and kind help for supporting me every month financially for me to continue the work... I am truly grateful to each one of them, without which I wouldn't have built a strong base in Vidarbha for the movement... Sai Baba bless you all always and forever!

1. A Housewife from Bombay: Prefers to be anonymous
2. Prerana Sharma: A Management Professional from Bangalore
3. Shreyas Talpade and Deepti Talpade: Bollywood Actor & his Wife
4. An Old Friend from Bombay: Prefers to be anonymous
5. Palak Jha: A Housewife from Tundla
6. A Writer Friend from Bombay: Prefers to be anonymous
7. Nikunj Jain: A Young Engineer from Baroda
8. Ankit Tulsyan: A Young Engineer from Ahmedabad
9. A Business Professional from Bombay: Prefers to be anonymous
10. Satpal Singh: An old friend from New York

The SEARCH now begins for the next TEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS for the THIRD YEAR starting JUNE 2012 to MAY 2013....

SEVEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS for the THIRD YEAR have confirmed their kind support & help... so THREE more Beautiful Angels are awaited to join the SEVEN...

Sai Baba bless you all always and forever !!!

Om Shri Sai !!!


... The 'Journey of Destiny' continues...

IN KENYA - THE ORGANIC REVOLUTION

An excellent report by Jill Richardson in Alternet, "How the US Sold Africa to Multinationals Like Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, PepsiCo and Others," illustrates this fact with examples from Kenya:

The stunted, diseased corn one sees [in Kenya] was planted from the "best" store-bought seed and ample chemical fertilizer was applied. ... 

But the corn growing on the demonstration farm of Samuel Nderitu's NGO, Grow Bio-intensive Agricultural Center of Kenya (G-BIACK), is healthy and thriving. So are G-BIACK's other vegetable crops and fruit trees. Why will he harvest a successful crop when his next-door neighbor will not? 

G-BIACK is an organic farming training center, and the crops there were grown with manure and compost instead of chemical fertilizer. G-BIACK also saves seeds instead of purchasing seeds from the store. The farmers in this region, near the city of Thika, farm tiny plots -- as small as one-fifth of an acre and averaging one acre. Many use chemical fertilizer, but since it is expensive, they often fail to use enough. "Here, in Kenya, if you plant anything without chemical fertilizer, if you don't know anything about organic farming, it can't grow," says Nderitu. But, as G-BIACK proves, those who do know how to farm organically achieve great success. G-BIACK was named the NGO of the Year in 2010 by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the Government of Kenya. And its next-door neighbor with the failed crop is now attending its trainings to learn organic farming.

About 15 km outside of Thika, a farmer named James is also thrilled he switched to organic farming. Farming only one-fifth of an acre, he used to require two $60 bags of fertilizer to plant his crops. Now, he uses manure from his pigs and he is happy with the results. Like most Kenyan farmers, James grows corn, beans, pumpkins, kale, and other crops for family consumption. For income, he can sell a pregnant sow for $240 or a month-old piglet for $20. Before, he would spend much of that money on fertilizer, but now he can use it for other things. He proudly demonstrates how to use his new well, which his increased income allowed him to afford. Next, he plans to buy a water pump so he doesn't have to pull the water out of the well one bucket at a time.

Organic farming in Kenya is not about hugging a tree. It's a simple financial matter. Those who rely on purchased inputs must use their scarce income to buy them. In Thika, where the population is concentrated and land sizes are tiny, many women supplement their farming income with prostitution. The area's AIDS rate is sky-high, although it has come down from the 37 percent high it reached a decade ago. Poverty breeds AIDS by pushing women into prostitution, but AIDS also breeds poverty, as children are orphaned when their parents die. Some are raised by grandparents, others live in child-headed households. By allowing farmers to keep their money instead of spending it on costly inputs, organic farming gives hope of breaking this cycle. How many fewer women will need to enter prostitution if they can instead make ends meet by farming?

Whereas chemical farming is input-intensive, organic farming requires knowledge. A farmer relying on fertilizer and purchased seeds needs money and the entire supply chain required to manufacture the inputs and distribute them to a nearby agro-dealer. But knowledge is free. Robert Mwangi learned how to farm organically from G-BIACK and soon saw his income increase. With five acres, he was never destitute, but now he has enough money to help family members out when they are in need. Mwangi's neighbors have seen his success and he is helping them adopt organic methods too. At the same time, he conducts experiments on his land to see which methods or crops give him the best results. As each farmer in the community conducts an experiment or two on their land each season, they can share their results with one another and all will benefit.

An internationally celebrated farming technique called the push-pull method has also helped Kenyan farmers increase yields -- by a factor of 3.5. The yield increase is due to elimination of an insect pest, the stem borer, and a parasitic weed, striga, as well as an increase in soil fertility. The farmer pulls the stem borer away from the corn by planting a cattle feed crop called napier grass nearby. Napier grass is more attractive to egg-laying stem borer moths than corn, but few of the larvae that hatch on it survive.

A second cattle forage crop, desmodium, is planted between rows of corn. Desmodium, a legume, fixes nitrogen in the soil. It also releases chemicals into the soil causing striga seeds to "suicidally germinate." It releases yet more chemicals into the air that repel stem borer moths and attract parasitic wasps that prey on stem borers. All of the crops used in the system are native, so no corporation profits, only the farmers themselves.

Elsewhere in Kenya, not far from the home of Barack Obama's paternal grandmother, American Amy Lint and her Kenyan husband Malaki Obado champion native Kenyan crops that are perfectly adapted to the region's long dry periods. To an untrained eye, the area looks desolate and devoid of food, but the locals know better. Walking through their rural village, the point out leafy greens, fruits and crops used for building materials, medicine and rope, all growing wild. These aren't a replacement for cultivated staples like corn, cassava or sorghum, but they provide micronutrients in local diets and improve local food security. With so much natural abundance, one must wonder why the Gates Foundation has sunk so many millions of dollars into creating staple crops with the full range of required nutrients genetically engineered into them.

THE AMAZING ANGEL WITH THE HEART OF GOLD: Architect-Designer Mr. PREM NATH

Angels are visibly invisible !

I truly feel blessed that Sai Baba made me to meet this amazing angel with the heart of the gold when I was the Editor of CW INTERIORS magazine in Bombay in 2008. His great humility and his commitment to his profession speak all for one of India's famous senior architects-designers Mr. Prem Nath. I still remember as if it was yesterday... I mailed him for an interview and the next day, Mr. Prem Nath very promptly and kindly called me over phone and gave me an appointment. Rarely any man who is as busy and as senior as he is, will even bother to call on a journalist first thing in the morning... I am saying this because I have experienced enough during my stint as a journalist. As destined we met and his work is as amazing as his struggle in life. He was kind enough to share with me how life has taken him from the streets of poverty as a child to the world of fame and success. All because he never gave up and worked hard, and is working hard even now. 

I wonder at times, how destiny shapes us all. I wish to share Mr. Prem Nath's early struggle as a child because this is certainly one of the most amazing inspirational ones... let us all go back in time when India and Pakistan was divided in 1947 for the selfish gains of the politicians as millions innocent were massacred for no fault of theirs... he lost his father and his widowed mother with her two tiny sons had to flee Pakistan to land in Delhi. With nothing in possession, life was hard... "my mother used to work in a construction site as a labour and we used to work at a small tea stall," revealed the architect! I still remember, when he said this... I had to hold my tears in my eyes. From the early life of being a child labour, the struggle of the family saw each one working hard to excel in life. All the while, the two little sons used to attend evening school and kept studying hard. "My mother did a lot for us and she taught us to work hard... we owe everything to her," reminisces Mr. Prem Nath.

When the brothers grew up a little, God gifted them with the hands of an artist... so they used to paint street walls, posters to earn a living while never giving up their studies.  Their love for art, calligraphy saw them grow gradually to a better living. Life, still was tough because all of them had to work to pursue education. Young Prem Nath was a bright student and one among the toppers at his college days in Delhi... He recalls, “I was living 30 kms away from College and many a times, didn’t had money to travel in bus. I used to cycle to and fro. It was tiresome because after college I used to work near my house in an engineer’s office as a blue print artist... and it was for the very first time the engineer told me about architecture since I had a good hand. I never knew such a thing existed. Even though I was scoring top marks in college, I thought the B Sc degree won’t take me anywhere professionally. So I opted for Architecture course. Studies and work were going simultaneously.”

One thing led to another. His work was speaking for him as he was a shy person then. He was to join the famous American architect Joseph Allen Stein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Allen_Stein)  as his personal architect assistant in Delhi but destiny had something else in store for this young man. Architecture Course brought young Prem Nath to Bombay from Delhi. He preferred to move to Bombay and even before finishing his architecture course, he became a Senior Architect in one of the leading architectural firms in Bombay, where he started first working as a junior architect. After completing his course, he was to leave for Delhi but destiny once again held him back. Two major projects were offered to him on his own to design and handle everything... he started to work from his home and the strong belief and support of his first two clients never let the young Prem Nath to leave Bombay... needless to say, his amazing work spread its wings to soar higher and higher!

Today, Mr. Prem Nath is a well-known architect-designer in India and his amazing skill has designed many projects all over India and even abroad. The man who rose from the streets of Delhi today designs the best of the best buildings and interiors... his humbleness however remains on the grounds even today after all the fame and success he has achieved with his hard work. “I have seen ‘poverty’ from my early life... how my mother struggled as a construction labour... the least I can do to is to support people or organization who are helping the needy and the  poor. I am happy that you left everything to help the poor and I am proud of you,” he tells me with a smile and gave me his blessings.

Mr. Prem Nath happens to be one of the 10 Beautiful Angels of the First year (June 2010 to May 2011) and he told me then that whenever I need anything, I should approach him without hesitation. With his great contribution once again, the man with the heart of the gold has strengthen the movement. I am truly grateful to you Sir for everything... Sai Baba bless you and your family always and forever!!!

GROWING RESISTANCE TO GMOs...

1. Europe has 169 regions, 123 provinces and 4,713 municipalities that have declared themselves GMO-free.

2. In six EU countries, GMO-free zones cover almost the entire country: Poland, Greece, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

3. Germany has 190 municipalities with a ban

4. Switzerland has a moratorium in effect until 2013

5. Ireland has declared itself a GMO-free zone.

6. Nearly all Australian states have adopted moratoria against GMOs

7. Thailand has banned GMO field trials and does not allow commercial plantings

8. Five states in India have banned GM cultivation

9. Some local Japanese governments have banned or restricted GM crops

10. Five provinces in the Philippines are GMO-Free zones

11. Venezuela has declared itself GMO-free

12. GMO-free initiatives in the U.S. include five counties in California that have moratoriums in place

13. Alaska in 2006 adopted a state law requiring labels on GM fish

14. Many states in the US have introduced bills to label GM seeds, foods, etc. Most are pending in committee.

SUICIDE RATE IS HIGHER AMONG FARMERS THAN OTHER OCCUPATION IN THE UNITED STATES, INDIA, JAPAN, UK AND AUSTRALIA

COURTESY: http://www.minyanville.com

 

Is the Risk of Suicide Higher for Farmers?

By Justin Rohrlich and Alex Brokaw May 10, 2012 12:45 pm

It's family farmers who are left exposed when the economy turns cloudy. The same 'frontier mentality' that has kept them hanging on for so long often holds them back from seeking help.

Stephen Diggle is bullish on farming.

The Singapore-based investor’s Vulpes Agricultural Land Investment Company, which currently owns corn farms in Illinois, and livestock and produce operations in Uruguay and New Zealand, announced plans to raise up to $150 million to expand operations into Africa and Eastern Europe.

“Yield-producing safe assets are intrinsically more interesting,” Diggle said in a recent interview.

Since 1935, the number of those yield-producing safe assets in the United States has gone from almost seven million to about two million.  And, with fewer than 25% of all American farms earning gross revenues above $50,000, it’s family farmers -- not the Tysons (TSN) and Smithfields (SFD) of the world -- who are left exposed when the economy turns cloudy.

"The only thing I will regret is leaving the children and you. This farming has brought me a lot of memories, some happy, but most of all grief. The grief has finally won out -- the low prices, bills piling up, just everything. The kids deserve better and so do you. I just don't know how to do it. This is all I know and it's just not good enough anymore. I'm just so tired of fighting this game, because it is a losing battle. Everything is gone, wore out or shot, just like me.”

That’s what an Iowa farmer wrote to his wife before he killed himself in 1999. Currently the US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack was the Governor of Iowa at the time. He shared the letter -- and a note from the farmer’s widow, whose identity was kept private -- at that year’s National Governors’ Meeting.

"I am convinced from evidence in our house that my husband listened to the grain markets on Monday at noon, as he usually did, heard them go lower again, and then committed suicide,” she explained.

Roger Hannan sits on the board of directors of the National Association for Rural Mental Health and provides mental health crisis outreach and intervention to farm and rural families in Illinois. He tells Minyanville that farmers today are “facing some of the same uncertainties as other business owners” in the US, but are not disproportionately at risk.

“I don’t see any major difference with the incidence of mental health crises on farms versus their town dwelling neighbors, maybe a little less,” Hannan says.

Dr. Eileen L. Fisher, PhD, Associate Director at the University of Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, has a different perspective.

She tells Minyanville, “Suicide rates for farmers in general are higher than the general population.”

Indeed, a 2004 Norwegian Study of 17,295 adults found that male agricultural workers “had the highest level of depression of all occupational groups.” According to data compiled by R.J. Fetsch, professor of human development and family studies at the Colorado State University Extension, suicide has historically been “the most frequent external cause of death on farms and ranches.” And statistics show the suicide rate is higher among farmers than other occupations in the United States, as well as India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

But why?

"The Agrarian Imperative," a 2010 Paper by Michael R. Rosmann, PhD and published in the Journal of Agromedicine, “proposes a construct, the agrarian imperative, as an explanation for why people engage in agriculture.” Rosmann, a clinical psychologist and family farmer who is the Executive Director of AgriWellness, a non-profit organization that provides behavioral health services to “populations affected by rural crisis in agricultural communities,” suggests that “domesticating animals and cultivating land to produce food, fiber, and shelter allowed humans to proliferate.”

“In other words,” continues Rosmann, “agriculture yielded survival advantages for the human species. Genetic and anthropological evidence is accruing which suggests that acquiring territories of land to produce these necessities has an inherited basis which is encoded into our genetic material.”

However, while farming may be in our collective DNA, Dr. Rosmann’s research concludes that the “inability to farm successfully…is also associated with an increased probability of suicide.”

“The same traits that motivate farmers to be successful are associated with depression and suicide if their farming objectives aren't met,” Rosmann says.

Unfortunately, the higher prices many farmers have gotten for their output over the past couple of years have also increased input costs (higher beef prices offset by higher feed prices, for example), making “farming objectives” extremely difficult to meet.

One subset of the farming industry has suffered considerable hardship in the past few years -- dairy farming. Being a dairyman was recently ranked as the second-worst job in America on Career cast's 2012 “Worst Jobs List.”

"Physical labor, declining job opportunities, a poor work environment and high stress are all pervasive attributes," the description read.

Michael Marsh, CEO of Western United Dairymen in Modesto, California, confirms to Minyanville that “our farmers are under a great deal of stress.”

“Everyone’s chasing corn ethanol dollars now,” Marsh says. “Fall, 2008, there was a tremendous uptick in feed costs that raced right past the revenues farmers were generating and took away any profit margin they had. Then, around Christmas, we had the first producer in the state commit suicide down in the Hanford area.”

While Marsh believes the “rough economy will continue for the next couple of months,” he forecasts “some price relief going into the summer.”

“Our competitors in Australia and New Zealand dry their herds in winter,” Marsh explains. “As that milk supply goes off market, and as long as demand is there, I’m guessing our milk price will stay consistent going into the fall.”

That consistent price? Fourteen dollars per hundredweight, or 12 gallons. The problem is, it costs $18 to produce $14 worth of milk. Add to that a tight credit environment, and it becomes clearer why California has lost roughly 20% of its dairy farms since 2008.

“RaboBank is working with folks, American AgCredit, and a few others,” Marsh says. “Bank of America (BAC) is still involved in the processing side, though they’ve pulled out of the farming side. A lot of financial institutions are just really trying to avoid dairy in their portfolios.”

Some farmers have lived through this before. Others have chosen not to.

The higher incidence of suicide on farms is often tied to severe economic distress. After the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and BSE, or mad cow, the suicide rate among British livestock producers went up by as much as 1,000%. As dairy prices cratered in 2008, calls to the Sowing the Seeds of Hope suicide help line, serving farmers in seven Midwestern states,  jumped by 20%. Fourteen Colorado farmers and ranchers killed themselves, twice the number reported five years earlier. One shot himself dead following his banker’s warning to make his payments or risk “being cut off.”

Being “cut off” in a literal sense is troublesome for those living in isolated rural areas. Dr. Steven R. Kirkhorn, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin, tells Minyanville that farm suicide “is an issue of concern, but one we are lacking data to adequately address the problem.”

“Depression in the farm community is under-reported, partially due to cultural issues of self-reliance and just as importantly, lack of access to behavioral health specialists,” Kirkhorn says. “This is an issue that is not addressed satisfactorily by any Agricultural Health or Safety Center that I am aware of and the assessment and care is scattered throughout the rural area. Many of those who need help don’t have insurance that will cover behavioral health services and if they do, the waiting times may be months to be seen.”

Beyond a dearth of accessible care, the cultural issues Kirkhorn mentions are significant.

Western United’s Michael Marsh believes the “frontier mentality” to which many modern farmers still subscribe is a key component.

“It’s that mindset of, ‘Me against the elements and we’re gonna be survivors'," he says. "Let’s say your farm operation started in your family in 1880s and stayed in [the] family all these years. It comes to 2010 and you’re the generation that loses the family legacy. Your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents built it, and here you have the business and all these beautiful animals and barns and milking parlors and employees and then, one day, it’s gone. It’s pretty easy to see how depressing that might be.”

It’s a theory shared by Michael Rosmann, who, in a 2003 conference presentation to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, noted:

“To farmers, ‘the land is everything.’ Ownership of a family farm is the triumphant result of the struggles of multiple generations. Losing the family farm is the ultimate loss -- bringing shame to the generation that has let down their forbearers and dashing the hopes for successors.”

Of course, farmers also have ready access to guns and other lethal means; chillingly, Australia’s National Centre for Farmer Health asserts, “Sometimes what looks like a ‘farm accident’ is actually a suicide.”

Further, some maintain the pesticides farmers use are causing behavioral issues leading to suicides down the line.

From the December, 2008 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences:

“A study of farmers finds that those with the highest number of lifetime exposure days to agricultural pesticides were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with clinical depression than those with the fewest application days and were 80% more likely if they had applied a class of insecticide called organophosphates.”

Organophosphates, which are contained in many common agricultural insecticides like Dursban from Dow AgroScience (DOW) and Aztec from American Vanguard (AVD), are also fingered as substances that can lead to depression -- and ultimately, suicide -- by AgriWellness’ Michael Rosmann and Dr. Lorann Stallones, MPH, PhD, an epidemiologist at Colorado State University.

They write:

“Many healthcare practitioners, even those in agricultural areas, are not aware that organophosphate and carbamate insecticide poisoning can lead to depression. There are established links between acute poisoning from organophosphate compounds and increased risk of suicide.

“Acute exposures to organophosphates and carbamates produce headache, nausea, muscle twitching, diarrhea, excessive salivation and sweating, difficulty breathing and severe exposures can lead to pulmonary edema, seizures and death.”

Amazingly, it is even suggested that treating depression resulting from pesticide poisoning with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (i.e. Prozac (LLY), Zoloft (PFE), Paxil (GSK), Celexa (FPI), and Luvox (JAZZ)) may actually increase the risk of suicide.

Ultimately, though the suicide rate among farmers is demonstrably higher in most parts of the world, some accounts can paint an inaccurate picture of an “epidemic,” rather than a steady, elevated state that must be addressed. Ron Herring, a professor of government at Cornell University, interviewed Indian farmers in 2006 after 200,000 suicides in 10 years.

He called "the media construction baseless," and told the Cornell Chronicle, “Farmers were insulted and incredulous: If farmers committed suicide every time they fell into debt, they said, there would be no farmers.”

What does the future hold for the hard-working men and women who put food on our plates? The USDA Economic Research Service has food prices up across the board, year-over-year. Milk, on the other hand, is expected to stay below the 2011 price. Still, John Frey, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence, has a decidedly optimistic forecast.

“2012 will be a historic year,” he tells Minyanville. “We are going to produce 200 billion pounds of milk for the first time ever.”

Frey points out that it took the dairy industry -- which trades milk by weight, not volume -- 62 years to go from 100 billion pounds to 150 billion, but only 20 years to reach 200 billion from 150 billion.

“The average person might wonder, ‘Where does all of this milk go?’” he says. “Well, can you say Greek yogurt? Can you say new varieties of low fat fluid milk? And don’t forget, Americans have an insatiable appetite for cheese.”

2010 and 2011 were good years for milk and Frey admits to a bit of excess supply currently in the market.

“So, here we are in 2012 and we do have a slight imbalance of supply and demand,” he says. “Margins are certainly forecast to be significantly lower, perhaps by as much as one-third, and it’s going to be a year of pulling back in our industry.”

With that said, Frey is certain all will be okay. He rightfully describes the dairy business as “an incredible business with incredible people” and says he is “nothing short of amazed at how our industry came through in 2009.”

“Though, of course,” he adds, “we certainly hope that it doesn’t result in any similar tragedies like we saw then.”

GOVT SHOULD HIRE KORKU TRIBAL FARMERS TO SAFEGUARD ROTTING FOOD GRAINS

If the Uneducated Korku Tribal Farmers of Melghat can safeguard their food grains effectively in self-built SILOS in a simple manner (who are so poor)...

WHY THE HELL the Government with all the billions of dollars cannot build SILOS to safeguard Nation's Food Grains effectively...

SIMPLE SOLUTION: Instead of all the educated IAS in the Planning Commission and the Agriculture Ministry, and the brainless POLITICIANS, the GOVT should hire the Korku Tribal Farmers to safeguard the Nation's billions of dollars of Rotten Food Grains and wastage

The Korku Tribal Farmers will surely do an effective job and safeguard all the wastage because they know and understand what it takes to waste even little food grains...

WE WILL WAIT FOR THE WORLD TO COME FORWARD...

As you build dreams to build a new world
O' Little Angel, I will put in all my efforts

To see you achieve your dream one day
I will put in my BEST of BEST efforts

Even if I have to BEG from the World
I will not hesitate one bit O' Sweet Angel

We will wait for the World to come forward...
We will wait for the World to come forward...
We will wait for the World to come forward...

 --- Johnny D ---

THE REAL PATHETIC PICTURE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH OF INDIA...

Korku Tribal Villagers / Farmers in Melghat, Amravati dig wells with bare hands and basic tools even in this 21st Century...

IRRIGATION PROJECTS in the State of Maharastra under the Congress Rule since the past 37 Years (Bawanthadi Irrigation Project) and 24 Years (Gosikhurd Irrigation Project) have seen the PROJECTS' COST escalating to a whopping 3000 to 4000 % but they still remain INCOMPLETE after all these decades...

The Farmers have been deprived of Water for Irrigation while all the water is being diverted to the Heavy Industries and Thermal Power Projects... SEZ & Thermal Power Projects start operation in three to four years but IRRIGATION PROJECTS... ??? 

WHY ? WHY ? WHY ?

0.1 % Rise in Irrigated Crop Area in Maharastra in the last 10 Years -- 2001 to 2010

While the PROJECT COST of various IRRIGATION PROJECTS escalated to the tune of 3000 % to 4000 % and are still INCOMPLETE after 24 and 37 Years under CONGRESS RULE in the State

"It is true that the Economic Survey has pointed out that there has been a mere 0.1 per cent rise in irrigated crop area in Maharastra in 10 years." Prithviraj Chavan, CM of Maharastra in Indian Express dtd: 5th May 2012.

According to the latest Economic Survey of Maharastra, the gross irrigated area to gross cropped area was 17.8 % in 2000 - 2001 and rose by a mere 0.1 % to reach 17.9 % in 2009 - 2010.

The National Average is 45.3 %.

FIRST BEAUTIFUL ANGEL ARRIVES FROM A DISTANT LAND

"Angels are visibly invisible."

I am yet to thank the TEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS of the Second Year (June 2011 to May 2012) when Sai Baba sends me from a far distant land (USA) the FIRST BEAUTIFUL ANGEL of the Third Year, starting June 2012 to May 2013!

We have barely known each other for less than a month and her angelic ways has touched the "Journey of Destiny" in a blessed way! Words will surely not be enough to write about this beautiful angel. Her words of encouragement and the will to help and support with whatever possible ways... have amazed me! And when I told her about the blog post to take her permission to write about her, she was quick to request me... 'Johnny, whatever little I can do for the poor children and needy, I am doing because it gives me a sense of giving to see few souls smiling. Please don't mention my name because I would prefer to do it anonymously. It somehow weakens my efforts.'

I respect her wish and request and here I am writing about my First Beautiful Angel... we met through a common friend on Facebook... exchanged greetings and soon started interacting... she is keen to send Baby Clothes for village children and she told me she has three boxes of various things for children and women... yes, while she is making her arrangements, I know it takes a lot of money to ship it from other countries to the small town city of Wardha in Maharastra and I told her... hold on to the boxes for a while... on 30th April, while we were chatting online, she said, 'Johnny I want to send you some money and I will send it on the 3rd of May... I can send little and it will be a gift to a friend... so you are free to make good use of it as you like it.'

And today morning she told me she had wired me the money and asked me to collect it... WOW! I have run out of words to thank this wonderful kind sweet angelic soul... truly SPEECHLESS! In her sweet words - "I feel privileged to help you and those you serve, Johnny. We will get together some clothing, etc., for them. Bless you sweetheart." She responded to the post for Baby Clothes on 30th April and within three days, she became the First Beautiful Angel of the "Journey of Destiny" !

Ever since I started the "Journey of Destiny" so many angels have flown from nowhere to support and help ... I really feel blessed to have known so many angels and am truly grateful from the bottom of my heart to each one of them... they fly from distant land and places, without having met me in person... being connected online through Facebook... totally strangers who feel compassion about my country's villagers. I will not hesitate to even beg my own countrymen for the villagers and their children with whatever it takes... Not many have their conscience at the right place... but my efforts will not stop and I shall try my best to create awareness worldwide and make few people awake from their deep slumber.

She says, 'Watching others' suffering, I have always believed, is as hard as undergoing the suffering. And accepting the fact that people don't want to look at unpleasant things....  I am going to try to stir up Americans to help also, Johnny. And Indians, too. I envy you, strange as that may sound. You are getting a college degree in life. Bless you sweetheart!'

On the 1st of May, after my First Beautiful Angel, I am grateful to two more Beautiful Angels Ankit Tulsyan and Palak Jha from the Second Year said they would like to continue with their support and help this year too... that makes THREE BEAUTIFUL ANGELS... now the search for SEVEN BEAUTIFUL ANGELS continue...

The 'Journey of Destiny' continues...