“It was a sea of humanity at the centre where about 100,000 people from 60 countries participated in the Maha Shivratri celebrations that began with our founder Ravi Shankar performing rituals like ‘Rudra puja’ earlier in the day,” Art of Living said in a statement here.

Explaining the significance of the festival, the AoL founder said Shivratri meant taking deep rest when the mind is in the lap of the divine.

“Meditation on this day has a manifold effect as the spirit touches the earth. If you meditate on Shivaratri, the power of meditation is 100 times more,” Ravi Shankar told the gathering on the occasion.

Seekers from across the country and overseas, including Argentina, China, Brazil, Oman, Kuwait, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia and Taiwan converged in the sprawling AoL campus to celebrate the fest with hymns dedicated to the deity.

“It is a wonderful experience to have people from diverse cultures come together in a spirit of celebration. Meditating at such a vast gathering is rewarding and blissful,” Andreas Birkeland from Norway said.

Even as the atmosphere was charged with sacred chants, the diverse gathering meditated for the well-being of humanity.

The festival was also celebrated in hundreds of Shiva temples across the city and the state with religious fervour and devotion.

As devotees will be awake throughout the night after breaking their day-long fast with fruits and light refreshments,

Several organisations have set up make-shift dais near Shiva temples in the city and elsewhere to enable hundreds of devotees keep awake throughout the night after breaking their day-long fast with fruits and refreshments.

Held every year on the 13th night of Maagha or Phalguna month of the Hindu calendar, the festival is also celebrated by Hindu women for the well-being of their husbands and sons in the spirit Shiva’s consort Parvathi used to worship aeons ago.

The 5′ 9″ Jyothsna first walked down the international runway in Paris in an India-inspired Paris-Bombay Metiers d’Art collection, unveiled by a top-of-the-line fashion house last year.

Gowda is among seven artists chosen from over 750 nominations from around 90 countries. Gowda startedas a painter, but began making sculpture in response to events like Bombay riots and inequalities in India’s growth story.

Jayasheelan, a resident of Mavalli and a native of Tamil Nadu, came to the city three years ago with his mother and sister after completing his class X.

To support his family, he became a vendor, selling cashew nuts on the roadside. When he could not make ends meet, he devised a plan to make a quick buck and started visiting agents who arranged for PAN and ration cards. Using aliases, false addresses and different get-ups, he managed to get PAN cards, ration cards and even a voter ID cards.

“Each time, he changed his hairstyle and dress to get PANcards, ration cards and voter IDs. He also got these cards for his mother, sister and brother-in-law,” sub-inspector HP Nanjundaiah said.

Carrying his ATM cards and cheque books, he visited electronic showrooms in malls that offered loan facilities. He then purchased LED and LCD TVs worth more than `1 lakh. In each account, he kept a balance of Rs5,000, which he paid to the shopkeepers as advance.

The fraudster’s luck ran out when one of his victims working in a financial company filed a complaint with the Koramangala police that a person using different ID proofs managed to purchase goods, misusing their finance service.

When the police began investigating, they came to know that a man was selling high-end TVs to customers for low price in Koramangala. To check this, they met Jayasheelan in plain clothes as customers and arrested him.

On interrogation, Jayasheelan told the police that he managed to get the ID proofs by paying hefty commission to the agents and brokers. He said for getting each ID, he changed his address. Since the TVs were sold for a mere Rs20,000 to Rs25,000, he had many customers.

The police seized 22 LCD TVs, a home theatre, and more than 200 credit and debit cards and the passbooks from him.

Scientists from the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bangalore are part of this scientific mission to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Apart from the Indian team, American scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Curtin University in Australia are in efforts to build a powerful radio telescope by early next year that will allow them to see how the universe was formed.

About 1,500 people from all walks of life Tuesday joined campaign for a strong Lokpal bill and 25 people are on fast in support of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare at Freedom Park in the heart of the Karnataka capital.

Admitting that the response to join the campaign was not to the expectations of the organisers on the first day, IAC’s Bangalore chapter member Anand Yadawad said that about 15,000 people from the state, including 12,300 from Bangalore, have so far registered with the group for ‘jail bharo’ (courting arrest to go jail) Dec 30.

“Majority of the activists who came to the venue have registered for courting arrest to go to jail Friday. We have also received hundreds of names online and through e-mail and SMS for ‘jail bharo’ in the state. We are expecting another 10,000 people to register for the event during the next two days,” Yadawad asserted.

Justice (retired) N. Santosh Hegde, a member of the Team Anna, could not be present at the venue as he flew to Mumbai to be with Hazare during the three-day fast.
Addressing the gathering, freedom fighter and Gandhian H.S. Doraiswamy urged the people to sustain the campaign by participating in the fast and courting arrests in thousands Dec 30 for ensuring parliament would pass a strong and effective Lokpal bill to fight against the menace of corruption.

“This is a historic occasion for the people to join the movement for freedom from corruption. We fought for the freedom of the country from the colonial rulers. Now it is your turn to fight against corruption by conveying a strong message to the lawmakers for a strong law against giving and taking bribe,” Doraiswamy exhorted.

IAC core committee member Prithvi Reddy said the Lokpal bill introduced by the government was not effective. “We do not want the government’s Lokpal bill to be passed unless some significant changes are made. We want the Lokpal to have its own investigative officers and budget; must cover all government employees and the appointment of Lokpal must be transparent,” Reddy  said.

The purpose of the fast is to bring people together, discuss and deliberate the latest version of the Lokpal bill before parliament. In a related development, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to restrain the three-day fast and ‘jail bharo’ stir over the Lokpal bill.

Rejecting the petition filed by city advocate A.V. Amanath, a division bench of Justice Rammohan Reddy and Justice Venugopal Rao observed that there was no public interest involved in the plea.

The day started with the Ambulla Rajinikanth fan club performing Pal Abhishekam (cleansing with milk) on a Rajinikanth poster. “It was a 25 feet Rajinikanth poster,” said Selvakumar, a member. “We used 20 litres of milk for the occasion and distributed 50 kg of food to the needy. We cut a 63kg cake and watched a Rajinikanth film. I don’t remember what film we saw, but I can tell you it was great.”

The organizers of the march, however, were surprised by the authorities’ volte-face. “We had written permission from the cops,” said Vikram Hemanathan, an engineering graduate who felt the time was right to bring the march to the city, “but we were given a call on Saturday night and were told of the cancellation.”

Despite its top Indian ranking, Bangalore’s worldwide rank is very low at 141st position in a list of 221 cities globally in terms of standard of living, compiled by the ‘Quality of Living Survey – Worldwide Rankings, 2011′ by the global HR (human resources) consultancy major Mercer.