Hi All,

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

eVaranasi Team wishes all members of this website a very & prosperous New year!

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.

Thank you
eVaranasi.com Team

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi has objected to the “live darshan” of the ‘jyotirlinga’ in Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi recently started on television.

“This technology will promote sedentary religious habits among the devotees. There is no alternative to visiting the temple physically,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Spanning from Richard Gere’s kiss on Shilpa Shetty’s cheek to slaughter of tubercular bull Shambu in Wales, the temple city has always been quick to protest against burning public issues.

On Tuesday, a group of youngsters, however, protested against violence against north Indians in Mumbai, not with force but flowers.

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Abhishek Bachchan (born 5 February 1976 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an award-winning Indian actor. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. His wife is former Miss World turned actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena activists have demanded action against Raj Thackeray, a Shiv Sena rebel and the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), for his comments on ‘Chhat’ festival.
Samajwadi Party activists staged a protest in Varanasi on Sunday condemning Raj Thackeray’s statement. Protestors halted ‘Mahanagri Express’ for two hours in Varanasi.
Raj Thackeray had termed ‘Chhat Puja’, the annual festival of Bihar and some parts of Uttar Pradesh, as “drama”.

Akhtar (40), a resident of the weaver-dominated Lohta locality of Varanasi, was once the proud owner of eight handlooms weaving Banarasi sarees. Now a rickshaw-puller, Akhtar hopes of bringing back smiles to his family.

On Saturday, Akhtar was among the 21 weavers of Lohta-Kotwa area who were given new cycle-rickshaws by a Guwahati-based NGO Centre for Rural Development (CRD), under the Rickshaw Bank Project funded by the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a hotel in Varanasi on Sunday.

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Urmila Matondkar (born on February 4, 1974 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an award-winning popular Indian Bollywood actress.
Matondkar, who was earlier known for her bold image, was initially noted for her diverse roles in films like Rangeela (1995) and Satya (1998). During the 90s, she has frequently been featured in the Indian media as a sex symbol.

Despite having produced at least 20 international judokas, UP has only one judo hall, which was built recently.

* As many as eight coaches, who spotted and guided judokas of the state to win over 150 national and international medals in last ten years, are yet to get government jobs.

* Requisitions for basic judo infrastructure have been gathering dust with the state government for the past seven years.

The Indian Railways on Thursday dispatch 20 diesel locomotives to Burma, an Indian railways official said.

Manufactured by DLW, Varanasi, the locomotives were flagged off by Minister of State for Railways, Mr R Velu at a ceremony in Chennai.

Mr Velu said the Indian Railways has achieved another step forward as it was for the first time that locomotives manufactured by DLW were being exported.

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2008/Feb/01-Feb-2008.html