INDIANS NETWORK - NEWSLETTER JULY SEPTEMBER,

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1 AIA OF MADISON ************************************************************************************** INDIANS NETWORK - NEWSLETTER JULY SEPTEMBER, 2008 ************************************************************************************** Please visit AIA Website President: Shyam Koppikar President Elect: Aruna Chakravarthi General Secretary: Amit Mangar Treasurer: Badrinath Lankella Cultural Coordinator: Vinay Kumar Dhodda Immediate Past President: Anuradha Palaparti MEMBERS AT LARGE Umesh Agarwal Nihal Ahmad Abhik bhattacharya Gurdip Brar Shantanu Debnath Kumud Gupta Padmaja Katta Lokesh Khanna Aek Kashatry Sanjay Limaye Sandhya Patel Raja Raman Milind Ranade Kamlesh Saini Prabhakarn Sakhtivel Krishna Sijapati Vijay Setaluri Randeep Talwar Hwy.Cleanup Team Swaminathan Balachandran Lalitha Balachandran WEB MASTER Sushil Bansal Dear AIA Members PRESIDENT S NOTE During this quarter (July-September) we had three major activities; summer picnic, Highway cleaning and India Day celebration. All three functions went very well and they were great successes. I can t think of appropriate words to thank so many volunteers and all board members who contributed enormous amount of time and energy to make these events a great success. Now we are looking forward to the Diwali function which is the biggest gathering among AIA annual events. We have decided to celebrate this festival on Saturday, October 18, 2008 in Middleton Performing Arts Center. President elects Aruna Chakravarthi is kindly taking over responsibility to lead Diwali celebration. She needs all our support and help for making this celebration an enjoyable event to all. Shyam Koppikar President - AIA UPCOMING EVENT Diwali Celebration: Saturday: October 18, 2008 at the Middleton Performing Arts Center. Detail program will follow. Schedule of events are on the AIA web site. Please check there to find out more detail. Please visit AIA Website for its past, present and future events NEWSLETTER EDITOR Krishna Sijapati

2 INDIA DAY CELEBRATED WITH GREAT FUN/FARE The world learned the power of non-violent protest as Gandhi led the diverse people of India in a struggle against foreign rule. India formally gained independence on August 15, 1947 after centuries of British rule - and years of turmoil - and today the people of India continue to mark the day with joyful speeches, colorful parades and celebrations... in far-flung communities from New Delhi, India to Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Celebrations and learning more about the events leading up to the historic moment, the heroes of the Independence movement in India and inspirational quotes are the key programs for this event. Explore the traditional and modern customs that surround the holiday in India and in areas throughout the world where India's emigrants have made their homes. The Association of Indians in America (AIA), Madison chapter organized a very entertaining event to celebrate India Day (The independence day of India) with various program in Madison. The program was held at the Library Mall in UW Madison on September 6, Beautiful cultural programs were organized representing Indian cultural heritage. A total of 17 performing groups from Madison and the surrounding communities participated in the cultural program. A number of display booths, decorating hands with mendhi, religious and social organizations were present. AIA also organized a food stall with elegant Indian food. Over 300 people were served lunch during the program which started at 10:30 a.m.

3 The event kicked off by a singing of the national anthems of both India and the United States. A 5 year old, Surya Ganesan, beautifully sang the Indian National Anthem and Aaruna Agni sang a wonderful rendition of the U.S. Anthem. The cultural program began with Ganesha Kauthukam by Snigdha Suvarna from Kalaanjali School of Dance. Parents were very anxious to see their children s performances. Surya Ganesan, a 5 year old sang a beautiful bhajan surprising the audience. Sanjay Suresh played piano music. A bunch of children ages between 3 and 4 performed as a Bollywood group dance. The performers were Bani Oberoi, Nihar Ballamudi, Rene Rech, Rohan Yathiraj, Sanjay Mathur, Sanil Partha, and Sanjay Suresh. Two girls, Jessi Chahal and Jasmiran Sandhu, both from Punjab also performed a Punjabi dance. A group of young girls from Kalaanjali School of Dance performed praising the Lord Muuruga/Kaarthikeya, the younger brother of Lord Ganesha. Performers were Meagan Dietrich, Eliana Durnbaugh, Lauren Sanders Fleming, Shivani Kumar, Sanjana Kumar and Snigdha Suvarna. Performers were well dressed with adequate decorative ornaments. Besides dance performances, three group of students played violin. The performers in the first group were Harini Tarjani Ranade and Vishal Narayanswami, in second group were Rara Vaenu, Raga, Bilahari and Tala Adi and in the third group musicians were Saktisahita Ganapatim, Raga Shankarabharanam and Tala Adi Tisragati.

4 A group of performers, Shruti Goel, Gopika Nair, Sankarahari Gopalakrishnan and Arul Sundaramoorthy danced to the music Chaiya Chaiya from the movie Dil Se. With a short classical dance lesson, Ramya Raman and Ramya Rangarajan made a first stage performance with beautiful choreography. From the South Asian dance group Beverly performed a Rajastani dance. A group Bollywood dance of Madhuri Dixit Special was performed by Anusha Ramaswami, Teja Vemuganti, Keerthana Pittala and Nive Prabhakaran. The last performance was a Bhangra dance with a rhythmic beat of fast music which became one of the attention drawing performance to the audience. The performers were Nitin Saini, Ivraj Seerha and Harpreet Gill. At the end AIA President Shyam Koppikar thanked all of the dance companies and individuals for presenting beautiful performances. He also thanked all AIA committee members, display booth organizers, The University of Wisconsin Madison, church, UW library, and all of the participants and other helpers. He appreciated everyone and said that without everyone s cooperation this program would not have been successful. After a long winter hibernation people are looking forward to being outdoors with nature and enjoy the summer. Green vegetation everywhere, sunny and warm weather, animals running and insects flying makes life very cheerful and happy. It s what we dream of as children and what we yearn for even when we re all grown up. Get out there and recapture the magic of carefree summer days with a basketful of picnic food. AIA SUMMER PICNIC A GREAT SUCCESS

5 You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind. -Mahatma Gandhi The Association of Indians in America, (AIA) in collaboration with Tamil Sangam, AHA and Telugu Association organized this year s picnic on Saturday July 19, The picnic was at the Burrows Park on the east shore of Lake Mendota. The park shelter was very well set-up as a big open area for people of all ages to play various sports. A number of programs were packed within the time frame of 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The most important part of picnic was socialization. Friends not seen for a while got together to refresh the memories of the past and enjoy hope for the future. Before the lunch program children began to play games such as Denney sack racing, spoon ball racing etc. Adult enjoyed playing volley ball, bingo and watching their children play. Ultimately everybody had a good time. Each family brought a dish of food to share and the 4 participating organizations arranged drinks, rookeries, deserts, and other necessary items. The lunch was served around 1:00 p.m. After the lunch program, Bhavana Patti gave a short talk on environmental issues. She explained her experience working with Al Gore on environment improvement as well as the work

6 done by the Blindness Foundation. She mentioned that she would be willing to provide more information for anybody interested. Before the program was over, AIA president Shyam Koppikar thanked all the participants, volunteers and of course the executive board for coordinating all these activities. Special thank is due to Amit Mangar for assembling all of the materials needed for the picnic. Thanks are also due to two Indian grocery stores, India House and Bombay Bazaar for donating some food items. Thanks to all of you who brought delicious dishes to share and organized games to make the picnic memorable. AIA VOLUNTEERS CLEAN HIGHWAY He also offered a special thanks to other three participating organizations for making this picnic a great success. He further mentioned that this kind of community coordinated program is very essential for strengthening the community spirit. Volunteers are the backbone of this nation. No matter where you go you will find someone volunteering for a genuine cause. On the national level 60.8 million people or

7 Volunteers cleaning Highway are: - Sujeet Akula, S. Balachandran, Harini Desikan, Srinath Hassan, Geetha Halalkere, Manu Hassan, Vishal Narayanaswamy, Usha Narayanaswamy, Raja Raman, Tarjani Ranade, Nitin Saini, Krishna Sijapati(not on the photo) 26.2 percent of Americans volunteered through organizations in These people provide 8.1 billion hours of service. If we have to pay those volunteers at the nationally accepted rate of average $19.51 an hour it cost 158 billion dollars. Study shows that women volunteer more than men. Baby boomers have the highest rate of volunteers at 31.2 percent (Data: Corporation for National and Community Service). With their effort and help this country has been a better place to live. Madison ranks third among 75 mid-sized cities nationally for volunteerism, according to a study released recently by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Being No. 3 is a great honor and tribute to the 189,000 people in Dane, Columbia and Iowa counties who volunteer 16.2 million hours every year. Highway cleaning is an enormous task for the community, state and nation. It may cost billions of dollars to keep our highways a clean and a pleasant place to drive. However, many generous and dedicated people clean the highways and them litter free each year. Since 2003 Association of Indians in Madison has taken responsibility of cleaning a portion of highway 14 W with the stretch of one and a half miles from CTH MM (Oregon, WI) to the Byrne Road Bridge. The cleaning is done three times a year between April and October. As usual, the mid-summer cleaning was held on Saturday, August 2, Volunteers gathered at S. Balachandran s house home for breakfast at 9 a.m. The new volunteers were given short orientation along with WI DOT video about the activity for 10 min. All volunteers received instructions from Balachandran, divided into three groups, picked up vests and gloves, proceeded to the work site at about 10 a.m. and completed the work in about one hour. The last highway cleaning was done on Saturday, September 27, This year s cleaning schedules are successfully completed. If you want to volunteer please contact S. Balachandran at or send him an at balachas@uwplatt.edu

8 DIWALI CELEBRATIONS (Organized by AIA) Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008 Venue: Middleton Performing Arts Center 2008 Membership Form Annual ($20.00 /Family) Associate ($10.00/Family- temporarily in Madison Non Voting) Life Membership ($300-; Individual or Family) Please Print Last Name First Name Spouse s Name Street Address City ZIP Code Address Home Telephone Number Children s Names Please make check payable to AIA and it with this form to Badrinath Lankella at 4833 Sheboygan Ave, Appt 222 Madison, WI, (Ph: )

9 PLEASE JOIN AIA AND BRING COMMUNITY TOGETHER For your service please contact AIA of Madison Shyam Koppikar President