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Themes & Thoughts of the day : April

30 April : Dadasaheb Phalke birth anniversary
Dadasaheb Phalke

"Those who are susceptible to depravity do not need cinema or theatre to mislead them. There are numerous other factors which lead to immorality." - Dadasaheb Phalke.

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, born in a Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin family and popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke (b. 30 April 1870 - d. 16 February 1944) was an Indian producer, director and screenwriter, known as the father of Indian cinema. Starting with his debut film, Raja Harishchandra in 1913, now known as India's first full-length feature, he made 95 movies and 26 short films in his career spanning 19 years, till 1937, including his most noted works: Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1918) and Kaliya Mardan (1919).

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for lifetime contribution to cinema, was instituted in his honor by the Government of India in 1969. The award one of the most prestigious awards in Indian cinema and is the highest official recognition for film personalities in the country. A variant, honorary Award from The Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Mumbai was Introduced in the year 2001, for life time achievement in Indian cinema.

24 April : Sri Sathya Sai Baba death anniversary
Sri Sathya Sai Baba death anniversary

"Service is the highest spiritual discipline. Prayer and meditation, or knowledge of scripture and Vedanta (holy scriptures of India), cannot help you reach the goal as quickly as service can. Service has a double effect, it extinguishes the ego and gives bliss." - Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba (born as Sathyanarayana Raju; 23 November 1926 - 24 April 2011) was an Indian guru and spiritual leader. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, who was also considered by his followers to be an avatar, spiritual saint and miracle worker, and who died in 1918.

The Sathya Sai Organisation, founded by Sathya Sai Baba "to enable its members to undertake service activities as a means to spiritual advancement" has over 1,200 Sathya Sai Centres (branches) in 126 countries. Through this organisation, Sathya Sai Baba established a network of free hospitals, clinics, drinking water projects and schools.

13 April : 95th Anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrdom
95th Anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrdom

"The impossible men of India shall rise and liberate their Motherland." - Mahatma Gandhi, after the Amritsar Massacre.

"The incident in Jallianwala Bagh was 'an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation." - Winston Churchill, after the Amritsar Massacre.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, was a seminal event in the British rule of India. On 13th April 1919, a crowd of non-violent innocent protesters, along with Baishakhi pilgrims, had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh garden in Amritsar to protest the arrest of two leaders despite a curfew which had been recently declared. Around 10,000 people, which consisted of men, women and children, gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh. On the orders of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer the only exit point of the park was blocked with his troop of 150 soldiers. He ordered his army to open fire at will without warning the crowd. 1,650 rounds of ammunition were fired for 15 minutes. The result: 400 people were killed. The 1,500 wounded people were left to die and many jumped into the well of the park in an effort to save themselves. This "brutality stunned the entire nation", resulting in a "wrenching loss of faith" of the general public in the intentions of Britain.

“Salute to the Martyrs, Innocent People”.

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10 April : Morarji Desai’s death anniversary
Morarji Desai

"It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get." - Morarji Desai.

Morarji Desai (b. 29 Feb 1896 – d. 10 April 1995), was a notable independence activist and the fifth Prime Minister of India from 1977 - 1979. He was also the first Prime Minister to head India's first non-Congress Government. He held many important posts in the Government of India such as: Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. At foreign fronts, Morarji Desai holds international fame for his peace activism and made notable efforts to initiate peace between two-rival South Asian states, Pakistan and India. After India's first nuclear explosion in 1974, Desai helped restore friendly relations with China and Pakistan, and vowed to avoid armed conflict such as Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. Domestically, he played crucial role in Indian nuclear program after it was targeted by major nuclear powers after conducting a surprise test in 1974. He was the only Indian national to be conferred with Pakistan's highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, which was conferred on him by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 in a colorful ceremony. Later, his policies promoted social, health and administrative reforms in the country.

10 April : Dr. Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann 259th birth anniversary; World Homeopathy Day
Dr.Samuel Hahnemann

"The sole and raised mission of the doctor is to reestablish the health of the sick, which is called cure." - Dr. Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (b. 10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843) was a German physician, born in Meissen, Saxony, near Dresden. His father was a painter and designer of porcelain, for which the town of Meissen is famous. Hahnemann studied medicine for two years at Leipzig. Citing Leipzig's lack of clinical facilities, he moved to Vienna, where he studied for ten months. After one term of further study, he graduated MD at the University of Erlangen on 10 August 1779, qualifying with honors. Hahnemann's thesis was titled Conspectus adfectuum spasmodicorum aetiologicus et therapeuticus. (A Dissertation on the Causes and Treatment of Cramps). Hahnemann was dissatisfied with the state of medicine in his time, and particularly objected to practices such as bloodletting. He claimed that the medicine he had been taught to practice sometimes did the patient more harm than good. Hahnemann tested substances for the effect they produced on a healthy individual and tried to deduce from this the ills they would heal. From his research, he initially concluded that ingesting substances to produce noticeable changes in the body resulted in toxic effects. He then attempted to mitigate this problem through exploring dilutions of the compounds he was testing. He claimed that these dilutions, when prepared according to his technique of succussion (systematic mixing through vigorous shaking) and potentization, were still effective in alleviating the same symptoms in the sick.

Dr. Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of Homeopathy. He established the fundamental principles of the science and art of Homeopathy. He is called father of Homeopathy and every year 10th April is celebrated all over the world as ‘World Homeopathy Day" as a tribute to Dr. Hahnemann.

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