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December
13
--
Pondicherry
-Tsunami Affected Areas
On December 13, the first tsunami
reconstructed village, built by Project Hope, in
Pondicherry, was officially inaugurated by the Hon. Lt.
Governor of Pondicherry, the Hon. Governor of Tamil Nadu
and the Hon. Governor of Uttranchal together with the
founders and leaders of Project Hope, H.H. Pujya Swami
Chidanand Saraswatiji, President of Parmarth Niketan
Ashram, Rishikesh and Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi. The
Chief minister of Pondicherry was also supposed to be
present, but due to the tragic demise of his father, he
could not make it, but he sent his best wishes and also
a representative on his behalf.
The Village of Pannithittu is being rebuilt by Project
Hope through the generous funding from India Heritage
Research Foundation, Rotary International and other
generous donors from around the world. The village,
which will ultimately include not only the 100 houses
but also a school, community center, vocational training
center, primary medical care center and computer center,
was adopted by Project Hope in July 2005 and
construction began in the middle of August. In just
under 4 months, the first batch of houses were completed
and handed over to the villagers.
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Clockwise from top:
Pujya Swamiji meets the Hon. Goverorns of
Tamil Nadu, Uttranchal and Pondichicherry;
The DM of Pondicherry garlands Pujya Swamiji;
stage at the function |
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Pujya Swamiji
lights the lamp with the Honorable Governors.
The 3 Governors praised the work done by Project Hope,
and the Honorable Governor of Uttranchal pledged Rs. 30
lakhs of assistance in phase II (school, community
center, vocational training center, computer center,
etc.).
Pujya Swamiji on stage with (right to left) Honorable
Governors of Uttranchal, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
World famous drummer Sivamani, devotee of Pujya
Swamiji�s, also came and gave a divine musical concert
for the village. Through the sound of music he filled
the hearts and minds of the villagers with hope, faith
and love.
House ownership papers are given to
the families selected by the Government for the houses
Following the function, hot lunch was served to
thousands of villagers.
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Clockwise from top: Pujya Swamiji speaks
at the function; the audience of villagers;
Sadhvi Bhagwati speaks
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All stand for the Tamil Tai Valtu at
the beginning of the program
The function was one truly blessed by God! The forecast
for the 13th was heavy rain, and in fact it had rained
on the 12th and 12th night. Further the entire way from
Chennai to Pondicherry was raining on the 13th. However,
in the small area of Pannithittu and environs, the
weather was clear and sunny, despite all predictions to
the contrary. After the function concluded and after all
of the villagers had finished their hot lunches, then
the rains began and continued throughout the rest of the
day!
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The first house is
officially opened by the hands of the
Honorable Governors of Pondicherry,
Uttranchal and Tamil Nadu with Pujya Swamiji
and Vivek Oberoi |
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Pujya Swamiji opens
a house with Sivamani and his wife |
The sewing machine
for the vocational
training program are officially inaugurated |
Project Hope was founded at the end
of December, 2004 by Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji
and Vivek Oberoi for the relief and rehabilitation of
tsunami victims. Project Hope was very active in
immediate, emergency tsunami relief in Tamil Nadu,
providing thousands of villagers with temporary homes,
community kitchens, medical care, relief supplies as
well as new fishing nets and boats.
In addition to village reconstruction in Pondicherry,
Project Hope is also constructing an orphanage in
Cuddalore town and renovating a social service center in
which approximately 200 widowed, abandoned and
impoverished ladies live. The orphanage and ladies
center will also include school rooms, computer center,
vocational training center, and a medical care center.
For more information, please see the full pdf brochure
at
www.parmarth.com/updates/projecthope.pdf or
www.projecthope-tsunami.com
December 8 - 16--
Rishikesh
Andrew Cohen, world
renowned spiritual teacher, philosopher and prolific
writer, led a retreat of more than 150 participants from
across the world at Parmarth. The participants spent
their days listening to his discourses, practicing
meditation, examining the true nature of their beings,
and going deeper into the Divine light within. In the
evening, they joined for the divine Ganga Aarti.
December 19
--
Rishikesh
December was a month
of spiritual teachers from the West, inspired and
uplifted by teachings of the East, coming from the West
back to India with their students and followers. Less
than a week after Andrew Cohen left we had Brandon Bays
-- the founder of "The Journey" path -- come to Parmarth
with a group of more than 80 Journey students and
teachers from around the world. After Brandon
cured herself of a huge tumor through spiritual work,
she began teaching others, around the globe, how to
access their own internal healing mechanism and get in
touch with the divinity within.
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Brnadon Bays and her group of nearly 90
participants take part in the
divine Ganga Aarti |
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December 31
--
Rishikesh
NEW YEAR'S EVE
We had a beautiful New Year's Eve puja, yagna and Aarti
at Parmarth, followed by Pujya Swamiji's inspiring New
Year's message.
Havan performed on
the banks of Mother Ganga for world peace and harmony in
2006
On January first we had a huge
bhandara, on the banks of Mother Ganga in which all of
the sadhus, saints, priests, brahmacharis, rishikumars
and guests were fed prasad on Ma Ganga's holy banks.
January 4
- 10--
Rishikesh
A team of dentists
and hygienists from Canada and USA was brought to
Parmarth Niketan by Dr. Rajiv Naik. For one week the
dentists examined, cleaned and treated the teeth of all
those in need. There were hundreds of patients,
including local poor people, poor people from the rural
villages, as well as our rishikumars! It was truly
divine seva for this team of dedicated and committed
doctors to travel all the way across the world to offer
their expertise and seva for the needy people of this
sacred Himalayan region.
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Dentists and hygienists from
Canada light the inaugural lamp |
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The dentists treated hundreds of local
poor people and also our divine rishikumars!
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January
7-9--
Rishikesh
The Himalayan Parivar
had a beautiful program here for 2 days in which people
from the sacred Himalayan region (from all states and
regions) came together to discuss the protection and
preservation of the ancient Himalayas and also the
divine culture of the mountaneous land. Led by Shri
Indresh Kumarji, this is the second year that the
Himalayan Parivar has met at Parmarth, and it is an
honor for us to host this divine and crucial conference.
January
5-25--
Rishikesh
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Pujya
Swamiji performed a 21 day special, silent
anushthan meditation in Rishikesh. Observing
complete silence and meeting no one during
the day, Pujya Swamiji emerged for darshan
and satsang only during the time of Ganga
Aarti and for brief darshan/satsang
afterwards.
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The
entire energy at Parmarth was infused with
even more divinity and even more sublime
vibrations during this time.
January
24-30--
Bombay
In the
Parmarth Gurukul (see www.parmarth.com/gurukul.htm) we
have over 200 young boys who come from disadvantaged and
impoverished backgrounds. Some of them are orphans; some
have one parent but not the other; all of them are needy
and many of them have been victims of abuse and neglect.
In November when the Hinduja family came to celebrate
the 70th birthday of Shri S.P. Hindujaji (see
www.parmarth.com/updates/octnov05 for details),
Vinooji Hinduja saw one of our young rishikumars, Robin
(8 years old from a small village in the Himalayas), who
could not breathe properly and walks with a pronounced
limp. She looks after the Hinduja hospital in Bombay,
one of the best medical institutions in India and also
one committed to charity work. Hence, she said that
their hospital would run all necessary tests on him and
also perform any necessary operations for free.
On January 23rd
Sadhvi Bhagwati took
Robin
to Bombay where tests done at the Hinduja Hospital
revealed a severely deviated septum and swollen adenoids
which were preventing him from breathing.
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Robin receives an echocardiogram, MRI,
x-rays, eye exams and a full blood work up
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Therefore, he was admitted on the 26th, and Dr. Abhinav Shukla performed the operation to repair his nose and
remove his adenoids on the 27th. The operation was a
great success and Robin was discharged on the 30th.
Further,
his limp is due to a fracture from many years ago which
did not heal properly, but Dr. Sanjay Agarwal, the
orthopedic specialist, said that over time the
body will naturally compensate; hence an operation at
this stage is not advisable, but he ordered a special
pair of shoes made in which the heal on one side is
higher than the other in order to balance out Robin's
legs and enable him to walk better.
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Also, during the
tests it was discovered that his eye sight is very weak
and brand new glasses were made for him by Dr. Nikita
Agarwal |
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Thank you so much to
the Hinduja family and all the doctors at the Hinduja
hospital for making such a great difference in the life
of a young rishikumar.
Thank you also to
Yash and Avanti Birla who lovingly took Robin into their
home, as one of their own children, for more than a
week, during his stay in Bombay.
During Robin's trip
to Bombay he also went to visit Bollywood stars Sanjay
Dutt and Vivek Oberoi. Vivek was shooting for a new
movie (Fool and Final) and Robin even got to see the
filming in action!
Robin with
Vivek in Vivek's trailor
January 30--
Ahmedabad
Pujya Swamiji
traveled to Ahmedabad on the 30th January, to the home
of Shri Ramniklal Solanki, the owners, editors and
publishers of Garavi Gujarat and Asian Trader magazines,
the most widely distributed magazines for the Indian
community living abroad in Europe, USA and Africa. One
year ago the Solank opened an office in Ahmedabad and
have been waiting for him to come and bless it. So He went to
the office with Shri Ramniklal Solanki and Shri Kalpesh
Solanki where He gave a beautiful, inspiring talk to
all of the workers and also blessed all of the rooms.
Further, they had organized a video conference with the
London office, so that we could speak with Shri Shailesh
Solanki in London.
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In the evening at
home, a special havan was performed and
Pujya Swamiji also gave satsang.
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Parmarth Niketan
&
present:
INTERNATIONAL
YOGA FESTIVAL
MARCH
1-7, 2006This
year’s highlights will include:
 Inspiring
lectures by revered
saints
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| H.H.
Sri Shankaracharya Swami Divyanand Teerthji |
H.H.
Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji |
H.H.
Swami Veda Bharatiji |
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KUNDALINI
YOGA
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taught
by world famous Gurmukh
Kaur Khalsa,
a world-renowned Kundalini yoga instructor.
She is the co-founder and director of Golden
Bridge, Los Angeles� premier center for the
study and practice of kundalini yoga and
meditation. She is a direct disciple of
kundalini yoga master Yogi Bhajan. Gurmukh
has been teaching for over thirty years and
is also a prolific author on the ways
kundalini yoga can be used to bring peace
and health to the body, mind and soul.
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YOGA,
VEDANTA
& AYURVEDA
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taught by David
Frawley (Pt. Vamadeva Shastri),
one of the few Westerners
ever recognized in India as a Vedacharya or
teacher of the ancient wisdom. In 1991, he
was named Vamadeva Shastri, after the great
Vedic Rishi Vamadeva. In 1995 he was given
the title of Pandit along with the
Brahmachari Vishwanathji award for his
knowledge of the Vedic teaching. Vamadeva is
a prolific and renowned author on a vast
array of topics ranging from Vedanta, to
yoga to Ayurveda. He is also a distinguished
speaker and teacher in USA as well as in
India and has lectured at most of the major
Vedantic and Yogic institutions in both
countries. |
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IYENGAR
yoga
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taught by
Birjoo Mehta,
a long standing
disciple of Yogacharya Sri B.K.S Iyengar, as
well as the managing trustee of the Light on
Yoga Research Trust, Mumbai. Birjoo has been
a student of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar since 1975,
and since 1984 has accompanied Sri Iyengar
on many tours in India and overseas. Birjoo
has been teaching Iyengar yoga in Mumbai for
18 years and has been one of the principle
teachers at the Iyengar Yoga Conventions in
UK, France, Holland, Spain and Israel.
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REIKI
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taught by
Smt. Rohini
Khatri
a renowned Reiki master
a Tarot
reader
from Hyderabad, India.
She practices and teaches
all levels of Reiki , Crystal healing, Tarot
reading ,Aura reading and a string of Indian
,western and Zen practices at her healing
center in Hyderabad , the south of India.She
conducts workshops at different levels all
across the globe. She has been guiding
people on the healing-path , giving love
,light and peace to one and all. |
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TAI CHI & YOGA
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taught by
Sensei Sandeep
Desai.
Sensai holds a Fifth Degree Black Belt in
Okinawa Shorin-Ryu
Karate, attained in Okinawa, Japan.
He studied Chen Style T�ai Chi Chuan in
China under the supervision of Grandmaster
Zhu Tian Cai �descendent of Chen family, the
foremost authority on Chen style T�ai Chi
Chuan. Trained for several years in Hatha
Yoga , the Sensei is perhaps one of the
first few practitioners to integrate these
two
ancient disciples. He has been featured on
major television networks and writes for The
Times of India and The Indian Express. |
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HOW TO FIND YOUR PASSION IN
LIFE
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Led by
Janet Atwood,
a world renowned speaker and author who has
taught "The Passion Test" to thousands in
the U.S., Canada, Europe and India. She is
the author of
"The Passion Test - The effortless path to
living your destiny". Knowing your passions
is the first step and "The Passion Test"
gives you the simple, yet profound tool to
align your life with your own destiny. In
just a few minutes participants will
discover the one thing which will put their
lives on the fast track to abundance, joy
and fulfillment. |
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POWER YOGA
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taught by
Brahmachari Vishwapal Jayant
(Yogiraj)
a famous pranayama and
power yoga expert and also an ayurvedic
expert who has completely mastered the power
of the breath. |
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YOGA NIDRA AND NADA
YOGA
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taught by
Sadhvi
Abha Saraswati,
an avid yoga practitioner since the age of
25, when - through yoga - she cured herself
of a terminal kidney ailment called
nephritis. Since then she has delved more
and more deeply into various forms of yoga
and has become not only a practitioner, but
also a teacher. Sadhvi Abha took Sanyas
diksha in 2003 from H.H. Pujya Swami
Chidanand Saraswatiji. She resides
permanently at Parmarth Niketan, where she
teaches yoga nidra, nada yoga and Vedic
chanting to students from across the world
as well as infuses the Ganga Aarti with the
heavenly sound of her voice. |
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MEDITATION
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taught by
Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati.
A graduate
of Stanford University, she left America in
1996 and has been at Parmarth Niketan since.
She took Sanyas diksha in June 2000 from H.H.
Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, marking
her pledge to a life of service,
renunciation, purity and devotion. She
performs a vast array of selfless service at
Parmarth Niketan as well as teaches
meditation and yoga both at Parmarth and
also in travels around the world. She also
speaks to audiences across the world on the
importance of having God and spirituality in
our lives. |
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YOGASANAS
& PHILOSOPHY
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taught by Ganeshanath,
director of the Latin America School
of Yoga, and president of The Argentine
Republic Federation of Yoga. |
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KAYA KALP YOGA
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taught by
Srivijayanand,
the President of �Rishikesh: International
Cultural and Health Foundation� and the
International Kaya Kalp Academy. He is based
in Moscow, Russia and travels extensively in
Europe teaching the Kaya Kalp Yoga (journey
to eternal youth).
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YOGA THERAPY AND PRANIC HEALING
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taught by
Laxmi Narayan Joshi
has received his diploma in Naturopathy and
yoga, diploma in yoga and Vedanta, BPEd in
physical education with a specialty in yoga
and MPEd, specialization in yoga, and
diploma in physical therapy. |
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VINYASA YOGA
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taught by
Bhavini Kalan.
Bhavini
started practising Bikram Yoga in 1999 while
doing her graduate studies at Cornell
University in Ithaca, NY, USA. She has
completed the Sivananda Yoga Teachers
Training Programme as well as the program in
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (of Pattabi Jois), in
Mysore, India. Bhavini also recently became
interested in the Ayurvedic aspects of yoga
and has integrated that in her teachings as
well. Bhavini now teaches Integral Vinyasa
Yoga. Since receiving her teacher
certification from the Sivananda Ashram in
Kerala , she has been teaching in South
Africa. |
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lectures
on the connection between mind-body
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cultural
song-dance programs musical
performances |
Experience the
Evening divine Ganga
Aarti. Set
to devotional music, this special light ceremony
in the evening, called 'Aarti' is sure to stir
your soul and touch your heart regardless,
of your religious or cultural background
(click
here for more information about this beautiful
ceremony)
For more information about
Parmarth Niketan's Yoga and Meditation,
please contact:
Sadhvi Abha Saraswati (Mataji)
Karin O'Bannon
Yoga and Meditation Section, Parmarth Niketan
P.O. Swargashram, Rishikesh (Himalayas) 249304, India
Phone: (0135) 2440077, 2440440, 2440088
[from abroad dial +91-135 instead of 0135];
Fax: (0135) 2440066
E-mail:
Parmarth@aol.com or parmarth@parmarth.com
PLEASE CALL BETWEEN 10 AM AND 10 PM INDIAN TIME
PLEASE NOTE THE LOCAL TIME OF INDIA WHICH IS
13 1/2
HOURS AHEAD OF USA EAST COAST TIME,
10 1/2 HOURS AHEAD OF USA WEST COAST TIME,
5 1/2 HOURS
AHEAD OF UK AND 4 1/2 HOURS AHEAD OF EUROPE.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
For assistance in booking plane tickets, hotel
arrangements, tours or transport to Rishikesh,
please contact Mr. Neeraj Gupta at
gupta_ng_in@hotmail.com
or by phone on +91-9811111044
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FILM ON PUJYA
SWAMIJI & HIS TEACHINGS:
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On April 17,
2004 at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood, USA a
film on the life and teachings of Pujya Swamiji
premiered to a sold out audience.
The film, titled, "A Day in the Light" is
produced and directed by Christopher Miglino.
The film has already
been shown to delighted and inspired audiences at the
Sedona Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival in
Los Angeles and several other film festivals in USA
and Europe.
See
www.adayinthelight.com
to order your own copy of the beautiful film.
Or, you can go directly to
www.amazon.com and order it from there
For more information,
email Christopher directly at
chris@yogamates.com
Click on the links
below for previews: |
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Bathing
in Ganga at Parmarth
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Itinerary
for Pujya Swamiji
for February - May 2006 |
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February |
March |
April |
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1-12 |
Porbandar, Gujarat |
1-31 |
Rishikesh |
1-30 |
Rishikesh |
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13 |
Bodhgaya |
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15-16 |
Tsunami affected area |
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May |
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17-18 |
Bangalore |
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1-31 |
Rishikesh |
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18-19 |
Delhi |
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**Please note that Pujya Swamiji
will be in a silent meditation
from January 5 -
January 25.
He will be giving darshan only for a brief period once
a day.
Email contact for program information:
parmarth@aol.com
*Note: Pujya Swamiji's schedule is always
subject to change at the last minute. Please be sure to
call or email prior to coming to Rishikesh, just to
confirm that He is there. |
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Contact
Information:
Phone: (0135) 2440088,
2440077, 2434301 Fax: (0135)
2440066
From abroad, dial: + (91-135) instead of (0135)
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