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

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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

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.