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MUMBAI: Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, was present here in Mumbai, at the first ever ‘World Compassion Day’. The event was organized by media and Bollywood personality Pritish Nandy’s ‘Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC)’.

The topic of discussion for keynote speaker, the XIV Dalai Lama, was animal welfare. The man spoke at length about the ideals of ahimsa and vegetarianism, “I was not vegetarian till about five decades ago, but when I saw hens being abused on an animal farm, I decided to become vegetarian.”

The Dalai Lama also mentioned that there is an immediate need to create awareness about respect for life and vegetarianism. “The media must play an important role, and even the younger generation must be informed about moral ethics through education,” he added.

Pritish Nandy, founder, PNC said, “World Compassion Day is an idea we have had for a while. The objective is to rediscover the relevance of ahimsa. We want to revive the idea of compassion not just as do-good gestures but also as an initiative to create an alternate lifestyle.”

The event, which was held at the suburban hotel – Grand Hyatt in Mumbai, was attended by a host of B’town celebrities, including Anil Kapoor with his wife Sunita and stylista daughter Sonam, actors Anupam Kher, Raveena Tandon, writer Chetan Bhagat, and police commissioner Satyapal Singh.

Actor Anil Kapoor even took to the stage, and delivered a powerful address on compassion. With so much talk on compassion and the need of the hour to be compassionate to fellow human beings and animals, we hope people get inspired and take a leaf out of the Dalai Lama’s book!