Last week devotees in California donated a small piece of land in Chennai to be used for a new project, the Bhaktivedanta Ashram Community Center, which will be located in Taramani near the back gate of the Indian Institute of Technology. The community center will contain a 1300 square foot annadana hall on the ground floor where we plan to feed 300 needy children from the Taramani area every day. Two other floors will offer educational and recreational facilities for children of the neighborhood which will help them improve their studies and keep them from engaging in negative activities. Taramani is a poor area of Chennai with many slums spread out in the neighbhorhood. The new community center will be ideally located within the slums to provide easy access for needy children, and also located near to the IIT campus so that volunteer students from IIT can easily attend for helping in social service activities.

On Tuesday work began on the community center land with the drilling of a bore well to supply water. We began drilling in the North East corner as per the vastu recommendations and were blessed with immediate success. Our workers were expecting to find water at a depth of 100 feet, but within a few minutes water began shooting out, having dug only 18 feet. Chennai is a very dry place with severe water scarcity. Most of the people in our area don't have water in their bore wells (many have drilled 100 feet without getting any water), so everyone was happy and amazed that we hit water so quickly. By the time we had dug 35 feet, the water was shooting up 20 feet into the air as they drilled. Everyone was amazed at how much water we had found at such a short depth. They all believed that because the land was for Bhagavan's use therefore the water was so plentiful. It was very important for us to have found sufficient water, as 300 children would need to wash their hands and mouth everyday after eating, and the annadana hall would need to be washed thoroughly after the daily distribution of food. Everyone was happy and relieved with the results of the bore well.

Work on the building is expected to begin within two days. Workers have already arrived from Orissa to undertake the construction work. If all goes smoothly, the new Bhaktivedanta Ashram Community Center will be completed in the end of January, and daily distribution of sanctified meals to the children will begin immediately.

Once again I thank all of you for your commitment to service and pray that Lord Sudarshana will protect you at all times with the sixteen weapons raised in his divine hands. Jaya Sita Rama.

Yours in service,

Jahnava Nitai Das,
Bhaktivedanta Ashram &
Bhaktivedanta International Charities