On a two decade old scooter mother, son goes on pilgrimage
27,400 km voyage across 7 states: temples, mutts are the shelters
Udupi,Nov.9: In order to fulfill the dream of ageing mother who had spent her life for family, a son decided to go on a pilgrimage along with her. The mother-son duo chose a decade year old scooter to traverse through seven states during their pilgrimage. After travelling through outer states the duo has now returned to the coastal part of Karnataka.
The son who made his mother's dream come true is D. Krishna Kumar (39) of Mysuru and the lucky mother is Choodarathna (70).
A bachelor Krishna Kumar is the only son of Choodarathna. She had lost her husband four years ago. The journey that began on January 16 had crossed Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Goa. After visiting many temples in these states the duo is now travelling across the coastal region of Karnataka. They have already travelled 27,400 km on this old scooter.
The duo has recently reached Udupi Shri Krishna temple and from there they are planning to visit Dharmasthala, Subramanya and other holy places.
Resigned job for pilgrimage
Krishna Kumar was working for a private company since 13 years. He resigned his job to fulfill his mother's dream and chose Bajaj Chetak scooter that was gifted by his father in 2001.
Though it was a two decade old scooter ran smoothly throughout the journey. One tyre was punctured after crossing 16,000 km. But then there was no problem. We have travelled a minimum of 30 km and maximum of 170 kms. Wherever we go we take little rest and then continue our journey. We took the journey with the help of interest that we are getting for our deposits, said Krishna Kumar.
We met Chandramathi in Sagar who was a friend of my mother during Hindi teacher training after SSLC. They met after 47 years and an old friendship found new lease of life. We stayed at her home for a week. Next we are planning to meet Jayalaxmi Kaje, a resident of Vittla.
We had never gone to a hotel in our entire journey. We used to stay in temples and mutts where we used to have our food. We would drink borewell water. We never faced health problems like cold, fever, back pain etc. throughout our journey, said Choodarathna.
Our's was an undivided family and my mother spent her whole life serving our family. She had given 67 years of her life to this home and never visited any holy place once. After the death of my father four years ago my mother told me about her dream to go on a pilgrimage. Then decided to fulfill her dream and for that I resigned my job.
Krishna Kumar Mysuru
I happy with the pilgrimage. My son used to take me on the age old scooter for 40-45 km every day. Hence, it had become a routine for me. These days when most of the children neglect their parents I feel proud of my son.
Choodarathna Mysuru.
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After poll debacle, defeated MVA candidates to seek verification of EVM-VVPAT units
Mumbai(PTI): The Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates who faced defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly polls have decided to seek verification of the EVM-Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) units in their segments, a leader of the opposition alliance said.
Many losing candidates of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) pointed fingers at the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during their interaction with party head Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.
Thackeray took stock of the lacklustre performance of his party at a meeting held at his residence in Mumbai.
The poll verdict last week saw the Mahayuti coalition, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP, and NCP, retaining power with a massive mandate, pushing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to margins.
The Mahayuti won 230 seats and MVA only 46 in the 288-member House.
The Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) emerged as the largest party in the opposition camp by winning 20 seats, followed by Congress which bagged 16 constituencies, while the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) sits at the bottom with a tally of 10 seats.
Talking to PTI on Tuesday, Congress leader Arif Naseem Khan, who lost the election from Chandivali assembly constituency in Mumbai, said he held a discussion with Thackeray, who also said he has got complaints from his party workers that EVMs could have been tampered.
"We are getting complaints from different parts of the state expressing doubts over the results. In a democracy, complaints need to be verified and many of us, including myself, (who faced defeat) are in the process of applying for the verification," Khan said.
As per the Supreme Court's judgement on April 26 this year, the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5 per cent of the EVMs - the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT - per assembly constituency shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from manufacturers of the EVMs, after the announcement of results, for any tampering or modification, he said.
A written request for this has to be made by candidates who are in the second or third position behind the highest polled candidate.
Such a request has to be made within seven days of declaration of the result, Khan said.
A candidate making the request will have to pay the expenses of Rs 41,000 which will be refunded in case the machine is found to be tampered with, he said.
The microcontroller is a one-time programmable chip embedded into the three units of EVM-Ballot Unit, Control Unit and the VVPAT - at the time of manufacturing, as per the SC.
A Sena (UBT) MLA from Mumbai has claimed there were discrepancies between the votes polled and the votes counted in the EVMs.
"Almost all candidates raised doubts over the EVMs," the legislator said.
