The National Youth Day which marks the 154th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda who is known as the ‘cyclonic monk of India’ was celebrated on Thursday with much enthusiasm and patriotic fervour by different social organisations of the city. Plays, rallies, quiz contests marked the day with students reciting the famed Chicago speech of the monk which forced the world to take note of the spiritual greatness inherent in the ancient land.
In Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, students took out a march holding placards with messages given by the saint. The day was celebrated in the form of ‘Yuva Chetna Diwas’. Volunteers took out a torch march that would cover 400 districts across the country. Hundreds of youths pledged to walk the path as shown by Swamiji and adopt the strength and the eternal values of life the saint embodies. The head of Gayatri Parivar Dr Pranav Pandya exhorted the youths to make their character strong on lines preached by the saint. He announced that to mark the Yuva Chetna Year, four video chariots would be launched, which would traverse the length and breadth of the country spreading message of the saints.
Volunteers of Divya Prem Sewa Mission also arranged talks on the life and message of Swami Vivekananda. One- act -play staged by artistes of a theatre group headed by Narendra Ahuja on transformation of the seer Vivekananda from “Billu”( his nick name) at Phonics Group of Institutions won wide appreciation. It was conceptualised by Professor Satyendra Mittal from civil engineering department of IIT Roorkee. The president of Bharat Vikas Parishad, Aviral Ganga Sangeeta Singh quoted widely from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
The play started with the paramount question asked by Vivekananda to his mentor Ramakrishna Paramhansa, “Have you seen GodIJ” leaving the 150- odd- people who had gathered at the auditorium of Phonics College in Imlikhera village in Roorkee under spell.
An elderly couple from Roorkee, Prem Mohan and his wife won the ‘Senior Couple Award’ from the patron of the Bharat Vikas Parishad for its outstanding contribution to the society.