CBO Bash 2008 - PUNE

Afternoon at Sinhagad

This hilltop fort is a testimonial to the

bravery of Maratha warriors in Maharashtra

Afternoon Lunch at Sinhagad

Ashutosh and Annie's Baby.

Swami Shri Prempuriji Ashram Trust

Preamble :-

CBO has just finished a prestigious website redevelopment project for Prempuri Ashram Trust of Mumbai.

The trust runs Prempuri Ashram, an age-old institution of great repute, dedicated to the promotion of Indian spiritual learning in the revered Vedantic tradition.

Innumerable wise scholars, philosophers and saints of contemporary India have resided, lectured and an taught in the august precincts of the Prempuri Ashram over the last three decades.

The Ashram is a prime centre of Bharatiya Sanatan Dharma (Eternal Religion of India) in the city and the spiritual lectures and discourses on Vedanta philosophy that take place there on a daily basis are held in high regard by the Satsangi fraternity not only in Mumbai but all over India.
Since about a decade, the Ashram had been recording these lectures and discourses on audio cassettes which today run into thousands in number.

About a year and a half ago under the advice and guidance of a senior member of CBO, the Ashram took up the herculean task of conversion of the audio cassette collection into MP3 format that could go first on CDs and finally to the internet.

Project Obective and Focus :
The Prempuri Website project is the logical culmination of this ambition to make the knowledge and wisdom that is preserved in the custody of Prempuri Ashram available anywhere in the whole world at any moment at the click of a button.

As per the revered Indian tradition, the proper and prescribed way to gain spiritual knowledge is not reading, but hearing. "Guru-vaakya Shravan" (Hearing of the words uttered by the Guru) is a sine-qua-non of the process of enlightenment. So the singular focus in this project has been on delivering the Audio archives of Prempuri online, to a world-wide audience via the medium of the Internet.

The Main Challenge:-

The main challenge of the project lay in setting up not just a website but a bi-lingual content management system, that was easy enough to be used on a day-to-day basis by the staff of the Ashram who have just basic computer literacy.

The only way to get daily discourses and lectures online on a timely basis was to train the resident service staff and non-resident administrative staff of the Ashram in the process of digital audio processing and conversion and then to equip them with an absolutely user-friendly yet powerful online web-authoring interface that would allow categorised uploads of the daily audio files to an ever-growing online database. CBO rose to this task and delivered a working solution that has been well received by the Ashram administration which decided to launch the site right away.

Significant features of the site are :-
Streaming online audio and video; Automated and controlled User registrations; e-commerce enabled subscription plans for different types of membership; e-commerce enabled web-shop for selling MP3 CDs, Bilingual site structure and content with possibility for multilingual extension; Front-end content editing with access control; Comprehensive backend administration panel.

Launch :
The site was inaugurated on the occasion of the commencement of the annual Bhagwat Saptah function at the Ashram premises at Babulnath, Mumbai, on the 30th of November by the honourable Shri Morari Bapu.

Please visit : http://www.prempuri.org/

Remember to keep your computer audio switched ON at an audible level before visiting the site else you will miss something wonderful :-)

Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi !

Couple Talent Dance (Sonal & Makarand)

Couple Talent Dance (Nanda & Henry)

Badrinarayan - Famous Indian Artist

Art by Badrinarayan, one of India's foremost illustrators and artists was added to the Samsara Art online art catalog.

Enjoy.

Marine Drive Article on Times of India

Plan was originally ours, say Marine Drive residents

Ashley D’Mello | TNN
Date: 24th Oct 07

Mumbai: Marine Drive residents are upset by comments made by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, who has said that the MMRDA wants to pull out of the Marine Drive makeover due to interference from residents in the area.

Gaikwad told mediapersons that the residents were finicky about the colour of the paint being chosen for the benches and regularly interfere with other aspects of the project. “We are fed up of interference,’’ he emphatically said.

But the residents say they had long planned their own makeover—albeit on a smaller scale—so the MMRDA should have no problem if they offer suggestions to the MMRDA’s grand plan.

President of the Marine Drive Residents Association, Anil Bhatia, said the refurbishment has been discussed by residents for the past 16 years before the government came along and offered to execute a larger plan.

Neera Punj, a member of the Marine Drive Council which represents nine associations in the area, concurred that the refurbishment had been discussed by residents and added that they were also going to finance a smaller, more basic upgrade.

“We are stakeholders in the area and so we also have some suggestions for the way the area is being beautified. There is nothing wrong in discussing issues before you go ahead with execution,’’ she stated.

Bhatia added that the problems being faced by the MMRDA are mainly due to glitches inherent in the plan itself. The committee which changed the design of the road medians was appointed by the government, not us, he said. The problems faced by engineers due to three water pipes running under the drive are also not caused by residents, Bhatia said.

However, there are a few changes along the stretch, like where the gymkhanas are, that residents asked for. Locals also opposed some tree felling.

The heritage committee of BMC had also raised objections over the makeover, saying its approval had not been asked for despite Marine Drive being a heritage area.

Ratan Batliboi, state-appointed architect for the project, said the website, www.marinedrive.org, had been started so that all plans could be accessed by the public. He said the website ensured that there is transparency in the project and that residents are informed every deatil of the plan and the changes made in it.

LHC Meeting Minutes - 25th Oct

Time: 14:00 - 14:30

Attendees

1. Priyank
2. Nanda
3. Richa
4. Henry
5. Jagruti
6. Devatanu

Discussion Points

1. Service Design Document to be completed on Wednesday - 31st Oct (Priyank / Jagruti)
2. Condensing the service design document by Monday - 29th Oct (Priyank / Jagruti)
3. New offficer appointed in place of Richa will be Abhishek
4. Richa will handover the roles and responsibilities to Abhishek
5. New chart needs to be updated. The chart will have two columns, one for Nov and one for Dec (Nanda/Henry)
   
6. One copy of the charter document is to be with each member (Henry/Jagruti)
7. Regular housekeeping of collateral will be done by LHC. (Priyank/Henry)
8. The main activity to be taken up immediately is Induction Kit (Jagruti/Priyank)
9. Induction Kit will have the org chart and a separate list of employees with designations and photographs (Jagruti/Henry)
   
10. 3rd Nov, LHC presentation in Pune (Priyank/Jagruti)
11. Collateral for LHC needs to be prepared and handed over to Priyank (Henry/Nanda)
12. Ideas for improving inhouse training to be collected by 1st Nov (All members)
13. All points to be updated on grouphub (Nanda)
14. All meetings for LHC have to be minuted on the blog (Dev/Henry/Jagruti)
    
15. Next meeting on 1st Nov