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Oct 1, 2004

420 people at VIBHA Walk/Run 2004 in SF Bay area

http://planetguru.com/Events/Default.aspx?pid=ArticleDetailPage&cid=Happenings&aid=5988

Mountain View,CA:The VIBHA Walk 2004- was held on Saturday, Sept 18, 2004 at a new venue of Shoreline Park, Mountain View. The walk was attended by 420 people and the total pledge amount raised was $15,056.42. This included 200 people registering on the day of the event, as per Vidyamani Parkhe- VIBHA Walk/Run coordinator 2004.

The walk was the first at this location, for the organization VIBHA which means 'radiant' or 'bright'. VIBHA is a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization, registered in the USA ( www.vibha.org). VIBHA was formed after the split up with CRY.-Child Relief & You, India in 2000.

Earlier VIBHA walk efforts were held at Vasona park in Los Gatos and was more of a Leisure walk featuring a carnival area. This year the USATF certified- VIBHA Walk 2004 had a lot of personality with - dozens of volunteers gathered early in the morning-- a failed electric generator at start of the race - - 'a fake'10K finisher- who succeeded in fooling some key people of timing committee for a short while; and also raising a whopping $15K for disadvantaged children's projects in India.

Over 25 volunteers reported early in morning, feverishly going over setting up the race, the after-race party area, and the kid's carnival area. Vidyamani Parkhe, the lead coordinator for VIBHA Walk said, The logistics were a challenge- especially with the choice of a new venue and a bunch of newer volunteers. Many, many volunteers pitched in and this resulted in a gigantic success With timing attempted by VIBHA volunteers themselves, some key volunteers were taken away. Since the course was certified via the USATF-U.S Athletics- Track & Field; this helped draw several runners of non-Indian origin. Some older volunteers associated with CRY/Vibha right from before the breakup- like Hari Krishnan also visited the event at Shoreline park site.

Male 5K Run winner Lenny Adler (19:58); Female 5K winner Ms. Lori Beveridge (24:48) recorded a bit slow time than similar such races. The Male 10K winner was Luca Pasoli and the Female 10K winner was Ms. Jung Yoo. (Official timing unavailable at time of press).

Along with about a dozen Corporate teams made up of at least 5 team members working at a particular company- another nonprofit India Literacy Project (ILP) entered a team gearing up for the Providian 199-mile relay race for charity in late October 2004. ILP Relay team member Ramesh Kamat- said "every team member finished the 5K within required timing- which was a goal, and Ms. Meena Kaushik finished first in her category for the 10K run (58 mins.) which was a major achievement." Others like Karla G, Natalia I and Amanda M came all the way from Los Angeles and took part in the 5K race; "as it fell into our Long Beach International Half-marathon training schedule."

Several kids participated in the Kids Carnival and Games area- which seemed to be frequented a lot by adults as well. Regular carnival games like Throwing the dart; etc were popular- which were interspersed with Chess games; Mehandi and face painting booth and an area for kids painting. The Pledge Tent raised about $2,766 on the day of event which included $485 in volunteer matching drive- which was ably conducted by MC Ms. Preethi Chandran. Music DJ Jubil Mathew did a commendable job in the carnival area- in spite of earlier problems with electric generator, early in the morning.

"We made our goal of raising $15K- which will go towards disadvantaged children's projects and managed to raise a lot of awareness among attendees" said Raja Gobi, adding "many volunteers stepped up and all worked to the success of the race."

Sam Rao

For more info: VIBHA ; India Literacy Project

OCT 1, 2004 Ganesh Pooja Performed by 200 Kids in SF Bay area

http://planetguru.com/Events/Default.aspx?pid=ArticleDetailPage&cid=Happenings&aid=5990

Fremont, CA: Hundreds of children were encouraged and taught to perform Ganesh Pooja on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Utsav on the weekend of Sept 18, 19, 2004 at the SF Bay area Hindu temples., On Sunday. Sept 19th, at the Fremont temple over 200 children performed Ganesh Pooja ; done in authentic style and guidance by Pandit Sharma and Pandit Srinivasan. Similarly at the Sunnyvale temple on Saturday, Sept 18th, hundreds more children took part in this annual event, and a few more families took part at San Ramon Community center on Sunday Sept 19th

The event organized by HSS-Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, "is a community based effort- started a few years ago in 1999", said HSS volunteer Prasad Kuppa. The crowd at the Fremont Temple spilled over to the adjacent Saraswati Bhavan room- where the Pooja was conducted by HSS volunteers Venkat Subramaium and G. Santoorkar.

Kamala Ravichandran and 7-year old Abhisekh drove all the way from Pleasanton on hearing about the Ganesh Utsav Pooja. While 9 year old Sindhuja Ramani participated - although her father could not be present - with the help of Mr. Ravi Gurumurthy, a family friend and his infant son Each family was asked to bring a plate; some rice; an offering of banana or coconut; Betel leaf and Supari; Small diya or lamp; Panchaamrita (honey, milk, ghee, curds, sugar - all in one cup) ; flowers ; rice Ashtaka and Haldi-Turmeric etc. The HSS Volunteers had most supplies on hand and even provided tiny Ganesha idols for $2 each.

Organizers Gautam Desai- who had his entire extended family taking part, as well as Pandit Srinivasan , Head Temple priest at Fremont Hindu Temple (Vedic Dharma samaj)- was very pleased with the outcome, saying "this is the way to encourage young children and families to stay in touch with the Hindu religion and culture."

Sam Rao
For more info: www.Hssbayarea.org, www.fremonttemple.org


Oct 15,2004 Gandhi Jayanti- World Nonviolence and Peace Day

http://planetguru.com/Events/Default.aspx?pid=ArticleDetailPage&cid=Happenings&aid=5991

Palo Alto, CA: Gandhi Jayanti , the 135th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, was celebrated on Saturday October 2, 2004 by an excellent, well planned event at the Cubberley Community Auditorium in Palo Alto. The elegant and unique style event titled - 'World Non-Violence and Peace Day', by organizers SRI comm.,brought together a diverse community of all races. Further, reflecting Community Service, exhibits from over a dozen community service organizations were presented along with a very diverse multi-cultural program on stage- emphasizing Nonviolence, Peace and Community service.

"Several community activists and parents looked around and saw the lack of celebrations and emphasis on Gandhiji's legacy and values. So we decided to do something about it. While a lot of emphasis is on so-called Cultural Events, teaching values should not end there." said organizers Sam Rao and Mrs. Visala Maddipati. "So the program was planned to make sure that such values were the main focus of the event, and (also) making sure that community-at-large was well represented."

The Dalai Lama Foundation Board member Marsha Clarke and Tenzing Tethong (President) were very pleased with the event saying, "We met excellent people and are very enthused by the quality of the program and meeting so many like minded people." Nicole Shechtman of Living Compassion, Mountain View, echoed these remarks, saying, "We met many people from the Indian community and had excellent outreach."

Organizer Dipti Panda along with High School volunteers Anu Ranganathan, Reetika K and Dipti Munshi helped conduct the Nonviolence- Peace Art and poster display contest; which drew almost 30 entries, saying, "We had excellent presentations and posters from young ones as well as adults for display- this is one way of involving people young and older in a common platform and theme of Peace and nonviolence." Details of presentations will be available on www.nonviolencepeaceday.org. The Living Wisdom School (Palo Alto) got several children to participate due to the efforts of Meghan Lewis and Claire.

Every guest agreed that the entrance lobby- decorated by Padma Chari, Buvana Sarma, Sandhya J, Ragini Srinvasan made up a great ambiance - with an special touch depicting Gandhiji's glasses as a centerpiece of a Rangoli, as a homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Volunteer Layna Taylor came early and worked with Vineet Kulkarni and High Schooler Vaidehi K to make sure that the stage was decorated appropriate for the occasion. Every exhibiting non-profit had at least one item depicting Nonviolence and Peace as their theme. This included groups like World Centric, Citizens Foundation (Pakistan), Sankara Eye Foundation, T.E.A.M and India Literacy Project, CRY, FFE, TriValley Cares, Vibha etc. Presenting sponsor Western Union also gave away small promotional gifts for the occasion. A 28 member team from Sri Lalitha Gana Vidyalaya (Dir. Lata Sriram) sang traditional and Gandhi Bhajans followed by a 10 person San Jose Peace Chorale (dir. Mark Wallace), and the Ananda Joy Singers, both performing Peace Songs. Traditional Indian culture was represented by Kuchipudi performance by Neha Kidambi (Dir. Jyothi Lakkaraju) and Bharatnatyam performance by students of Abhinaya Dance School (Dir. Mythili Kumar). Unique modern interpretative dancer Lois Flood (Style Isadora Duncan) was well received, as were the Rabindra Sangeet performances By Aditya and Ashidhara Das.

UC Berkeley graduate Neil Patel, and Menaka Sinha helped coordinate the Lobby display area along with Stage managers P.K Shankar, K Sivamani and Meredith Jung; while several others like Gopal Sankaran, Ram Gopal and others helped run all operations smoothly. Mohinder Khanna of Livermore said "I am glad that Gandhi's legacy is being continued in this excellent fashion- especially after the long standing Gandhi Mela of San Francisco was disbanded few years ago. Everyone agrees that this excellent event fulfilled the event idea of focusing on the theme and bringing diverse community together."

Sam Rao
For more information: Nonviolence and Peace Day: www.nonviolencepeaceday.org

Oct 15,2004
Narandra Pathak appointed to EEOC Commission

http://planetguru.com/Articles/ArticleDetail.aspx?ChannelId=Happenings&ArticleId=6629

While this is the election year in U.S. — a lot of attention surrounds the presidential race to the White House, and various other elected offices that campaign during the election season.

Sadly there are very, very few elected officials from the Indian American community. And even appointees, by local Mayors and County supervisors, from the Indian-American community are few. As local government in the U.S. operates on civic duties fulfilled by its citizens, unfortunately this aspect of serving in local commissions and boards is sadly lacking in the Indian-American community— hence reflecting the lack of elected representation in any political office.

Narendra Pathak is a shining example of an Indian-American serving his civic duties in the U.S. efficiently and well. On Aug. 31, 2004, he was appointed to the Santa Clara County Board of EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), a 17-member council liaison position, looking into issues and enforcement of employment policies including issues of discrimination, racism, wrongful termination. Pathak serves as a liaison for the Santa Clara County EEOC, working with cooperating state and federal agencies and the central west zone headoffice in San Francisco. This appointment is another feather in the cap of Narenbhai, as he is called, as he is currently already a Sunnyvale City Commissioner for Housing and Human Services for the past year (appointed by Mayor Julia Miller). The EEOC position is particularly important to the Indian-American population in light of the backlash due to post-9/11 hate crimes and discriminations, including the downturn of the economy. The EEOC is the agency commission which investigates complaints of employment discrimination cases like race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, and disability.

Sam Rao

OCT 15,2004
Navratri ‘Jhoom’ Dandia Raas a big hit

http://planetguru.com/Articles/ArticleDetail.aspx?ChannelId=Happenings&ArticleId=6628

Palo Alto, CA: The celebration of Navratri (nine nights) was launched with great pomp and gaiety at the Cubberley Community Auditorium here on October 9. To mark the occasion a cultural program of Jhoom Dandia Raas dance was organized by SRI Communications. Over 350 people from different age groups took part in the four-hour long celebrations, dancing to the popular band led by Sharvari Dixit.

“This was a blast – we had a great time and it was very well organized,” said Harshada Jawale, who danced with a group of high-tech professional friends, while collegians Priya Bhatia, Neki Desai said, “We are so happy that we came to Jhoom Dandia Raas from UC Davis – this was great fun and very well conducted.” Not to be outdone the multi-generational Vyas and Desai family members of San Jose, partied all night to the rhythmic percussion instruments and lively songs by Sharvari Dixit and party.

The evening festivities also had special appearances by the reigning Ms Teen India America (U.S.) Sasha Hooffman and 1st runner up Ms Meenal Kapadia. Also present was Mr. India-America California Hassan Minaj. Apart from signing autographs and posing for pictures, all of these celebrities joined in the dance festivities, adding to the joyous and informal family-like party atmosphere of the occasion. Reetika Katturia, Deepti Munshi, Anu Ranganathan brought in an entire contingent from Cupertino High School and made friends with new faces like Sruti Aiyaswamy of Bernhard Middle school and others — leading many parents to comment, “This’s a great event where young people, as well as young pare-nts can take part and enjoy themselves safely”.
Trophies were also given to the best dancer (male/female); best traditional dress (m/f) as well as most spirited dancers (solo and group). The event was sponsored by Amit N of Western Union (American Junction), who later said, “We believe in events like this engaging the community and supporting good quality events.” Organizer Sam Rao said, “We believe in quality events which combine a message in a fun atmosphere. So we have had a Gandhi Day event on Oct. 2, Asian Indian-American Day in May and an upcoming Children’s Day. At each of the events we put out information about the history of the event and give an opportunity for community service organizations to showcase.