This is an official website of Indian Philatelists' Forum * Join Indian Philatelists' Forum * This is an official website of Indian Philatelists' Forum

Themes & Thoughts of the day : February

26 February: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar death anniversary
Vinayak Damodar Savarkarr

“We yield to none in our love, admiration and respect for the Buddha - the Dharma - the Sangha. They are all ours. Their glories are ours and ours their failures. - Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (b. 28 May 1883 - d. 26 February 1966) was an Indian pro-independence activist, politician as well as a poet, writer and playwright. He advocated dismantling the system of caste in Hindu culture, and reconversion of the converted Hindus back to Hindu religion. Savarkar created the term Hindutva, and emphasised its distinctiveness from Hinduism which he associated with social and political disunity. The stated aim of Savarkar's Hindutva was to create an inclusive collective identity. The five elements of his philosophy were Utilitarianism, Rationalism and Positivism, Humanism and Universalism, Pragmatism and Realism.

21 February: The Mother, Pondicherry birth anniversary
The Mother

“We aspire to be the valiant warriors of the Lord so that His glory may manifest upon the world. It is always better to keep a quiet mind and to abstain from rushing to conclusions before you have the necessary information". - The Mother

The Mother, (b. 21 February 1878 - d. 17 November 1973) was born in Paris originally known as Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa. Her father Moïse Maurice Alfassa was Turkish Jewish and mother was Egyptian Jewish. Between eleven and thirteen she had a series of psychic and spiritual experiences in which she had encounters with many spiritual entities who introduced to the realms beyond and above ordinary human experience.

She came to Sri Aurobindo's spiritual retreat in 1914 in Pondicherry. Having to leave Pondicherry during World War I, she spent most of her time in Japan where she met Rabindranath Tagore. She returned to Pondicherry and settled there in 1920. When Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion, she founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram, with a handful of disciples living around the Master. She became the spiritual guide of the community.

18 February: Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa birth anniversary
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

“He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life." - Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

Ramakrishna (b. 18 February 1836 – d. 16 August 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay, was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda. He is also referred to as "Paramahamsa" by his devotees, as such he is popularly known as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

13 February: Sarojini Naidu's birth anniversary
Sarojini Naidu

“A country's greatness lies in its undying ideals of love and sacrifice that inspire the mothers of the race." - Sarojini Naidu.

Sarojini Naidu, (b. February 13, 1879, d. March 2, 1949) born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.

8 February : Jagjit Singh birth anniversary
Jagjit Singh

“The thought content of ghazals must be meaningful, related to life, it’s emotions of joy and sorrow. It must have the human touch, it should not be phoney.” - Jagjit Singh

 

Jagjit Singh, born Jagmohan Singh (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011), was a prominent Indian Ghazal singer, song writer and musician. Known as the "Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian ghazal singer Chitra Singh in the 1970s and 1980s. Their combination album comprising music from the films, Arth and Saath Saath is the HMV's largest selling combination album of all time. Sajda (An Offering, 1991), Jagjit Singh's magnum opus double album with Lata Mangeshkar holds the same record in non-film category.

6 February : Motilal Nehru death anniversary
Motilal Nehru

“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work, and those who take the credit. Belong to the first category, since not only do things get balanced, but there is much less competition.” - Motilal Nehru once told to Indira Gandhi

Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, an activist of the Indian National Movement and an important leader of the Indian National Congress, who also served as the Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family. Motilal Nehru married Swaroop Rani, a Kashmiri Brahmin.

4 February : Satyendra Nath Bose death anniversary
Satyendra Nath Bose

“You don’t know who he was? Half the particles in the universe obey him!" - Reply by a physics professor when a student asked who Satyendra Nath Bose was.

Satyendra Nath Bose, (b. January 1, 1894, d. February 4, 1974) discovered what became known as bosons and went on to work with Albert Einstein to define one of two basic classes of subatomic particles. Much of the credit for discovering the boson, or "God particle," was given to British physicist Peter Higgs, much to the chagrin of the Indian government and people. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate. The class of particles that obey Bose–Einstein statistics, bosons, was named after him by Paul Dirac.

Satyendra Nath Bose worked for two years in European X-ray and crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Alber Einstein, Marie Curie, and Louis de Broglie. Government of India awarded him India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954. He made deep studies in chemistry, geology, zoology, anthropology, engineering and other sciences. Being Bengali, he devoted a lot of time to promoting Bengali as a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the development of the region.

1 February : Formation of Indian Coast Guard, 1977
Indian Coast Guard

“An Act to provide for the constitution and regulation of an Armed Force of the Union for ensuring the security of the maritime zones of India with a view to the protection of maritime and other national interests in such zones and for matters connected therewith. Be it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty-ninth Year of the Republic of India”. - Preamble: Coast Guard Act - 1978

The Indian Coast Guard (IGC) is the fourth armed force of the India. Its mission is the protection of India's maritime interests and enforcement of maritime law with jurisdiction over the territorial waters of India,including contiguous zone & exclusive economic zone. ICG was formally established on 18 August 1978 as an armed force of the Union (aka BSF, ITBP, CISF) by the Coast Guard Act, 1978. It operates under the Ministry of Defence. The Coast Guard works in close cooperation with the Indian Navy, Department of Fisheries, Department of Revenue (Customs) and the Central and State police forces.

An interim Indian Coast Guard came into being on 1 February 1977, equipped with two small corvettes and five patrol boats transferred from the Navy. The duties and functions of the service were formally defined in the Coast Guard Act, which was passed by India's parliament on 18 August 1978 and came into immediate effect.

Go to TOP