100 crore gift to Shirdi Sai Baba

A Chennai based information technology industrialist has promised to donate Rs 100 crore to the Sai Baba temple trust in Shirdi.

Sources in the cash-rich temple trust said it was the biggest ever donation in its history.

KV Ramani, the CMD of Future Software, will be donating the money to the Shri Saibaba Sansthan for the construction of a Bhakta Niwas, a residential complex for devotees on January 10.

Ramani was not available for comment but the chairperson of the trust, Jayant Sasane, confirmed the donation. Sasane said negotiations between trustees and Ramani had been on for almost a year. The residential complex will come up on 14 acres of land owned by the trust.

Ramani, a great devotee of the Sai Baba, has asked the trust to reserve 10 per cent of the total number of rooms in the complex for poor devotees and give out 30 per cent at concession rates.

Sasane said 15,000 devotees could be accommodated in the facility. The foundation stone will be laid on January 10. Construction is expected to be complete within a year and a half.

Ramani set up the Shirdi Sai Trust with Rs 250 crore that he had in his kitty. His trust has been spending Rs 20 crore every year for social causes and for construction of Sai Baba temples at various places.

Sources in Shri Saibaba Sansthan said Ramani believes he owes his wealth to Sai Baba and he has to donate it to him. The sansthan, controlled by the Maharashtra government, has an annual turnover of around Rs 200 crore.

NRI donates $20mn to native village in Kerala

New York: An Indian American neurosurgeon, who was born into an "untouchable" caste in a Kerala village of Chemmanakary, made millions in the US and has now donated some $20 million to establish a neurosurgery hospital, a health clinic and a spa resort in his village.

Kumar Bahuelyan, 81, did not wear his pair of shoes until he went to medical school but earned so much that his lavish life-style included five Mercedes Benzes and one aeroplane.

"I was born with nothing, I was educated by people of that village and this is what I owe to them," he told the Buffalo News. The life for him has come full circle, the paper said, adding that from dire poverty in India to the life style of rich in America and back to his native village where he has traded his Mercedes with a bicycle.

"I'm in a state of nirvana, eternal nirvana," he said, "I have nothing else to achieve in life. This was my goal, to help my people. I can die any time, as a happy man."

Another Indian native, Pearay Ogra, the former chief of infectious diseases at Women and Children's Hospital and the president of the Bahuleyan Charitable Foundation, said he understands why Bahuleyan donated his fortune. "He grew up in a traditional Hindu culture, with a deep sense of universal giving," Mr Ogra said. "You can afford it, give it back to the people who brought you up."

Others too are moved by Bahuleyan's spirit and energy, the paper said, adding Bill Zimmermann, executive director of a Buffalo sailing school is helping Bahuleyan set up a sailing and boat-building school in Chemmanakary. The venture is designed to teach sailing and boat-building skills and use its profits to help fund medical treat ment.