Classical Dance,Yoga performances amidsnature Captivates Audience

June 24, 2021June 25, 2021 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture 0

Guru Asha Adiga Acharya led “NupuraGeetha” dance ensemble team performed a memorizing dance performance near the lake area within Blackberry Farm in Aurora, IL USA on June 19th 2021.The event was organized by NupuraGeethaInc, a nonprofit organization for art and culture in Illinois, USA. Due to the pandemic it was conducted outdoors amidst nature.

The event was inaugurated by all attendees by chanting “Om” and Acharya Performing Arts Academy students performed the “NrithyaYogasana” which is “Dance Yoga” invented by artistic director guru Asha Adiga Acharya by combining yoga and Indian classical dance moves together, to benefit the Pada (Feet), Anga (Body) and Mudra(Fingers). “NupuraGeetha” dance ensemble team started the performance with beautiful Ganesha dance, pure Alaripu, Mallari dance, expression filled dance based on Vachana, Anathapurageethe dance and ended the program with Charishnu dance which was choreographed creatively with yoga poses.

This program was partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Kristi Blocton, MadhavilathaGali were the main artists in the dance ensemble team. Program compering was done by Srinivasa Acharya. Other ensemble performers were Jessica Abraham, JyothiPapudesu, AnanyaSaraswati, DinaraGodage, Shreya Mukunthan, AnanayaNagareshwra, HarshithaVetrivel, SrijaniPrekki, Adithi Acharya, AkshataGajula, ShreeyaYampati, ShriyaBukkapattanam and IshaniSahu. Nearly 100 guests witnessed this beautiful outdoor event

Chicago’s Community Stalwart Iftekhar Shareef Hosts EID Reception

May 19, 2021 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago Indian American community stalwart Iftekhar Shareef hosted a festive EID reception on May 13, 2021 in Lincolnwood, Illinois USA in celebration of EId-ul-fitr. The EID lunch reception encompassed exchange of greetings and ways each faith community can complement each other and inspire collaborative interfaith work that seeks to uplift humanity amidst the myriad tribulations the humankind is facing in these challenging times.

In a statement host Iftekhar Shareef extended EID wishes to all of his friends of various faiths and said this year’s EID celebration is being observed somberly as many face growing anguish with the lethal variant of the Covid ravaging India and many parts of the world. Iftekhar Shareef further pledged that India would come out much stronger after the Covid faces eventual eradication.

He also pledged that the Indian Americans in Chicago would have grand India Independence Day celebrations and other major Indian festivals such as Diwali, Christmas, and Baisakhi after the departure of the Covid. Joined at the EID reception includes Babu Marsha Patel, Keerthi Kumar Ravoori, SanhitaAgnihotri, Suresh Bodiwala, Satish Dadepogu, Sainath Reddy Boyapalli, BhanuSwargam.Each of them greeted the family of Iftekhar Shareef and thanked the Shareef family for hosting a pleasant EID reception.

“Wishing a joyous and blessed Eid al-Fitr to all those celebrating in the United States and around the world. May this day mark a new beginning and renewed commitment to community” by US Vice President Kamala Harris

US President Joe Biden wishes Muslims in the US and around the world to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, which will be marked at a White House ceremony on Sunday. “We were heartened to see Eid celebrations around the world, but we know that this year, the situation in the Holy Land is weighing heavily on Muslims everywhere, including our Muslim communities here in the United States,” Biden says in a statement.

Village of Lincolnwood community comes out in support of Jesal Patel in the Mayoral Race

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 Asian Media USACommunity, Profile 0

Lincolnwood IL: A wave of excitement engulfed the Village of Lincolnwood since Jesal Patel declared his candidacy for the office of the Village Mayor. During the recent meet and greet held on March 25th, 2031at Holiday Inn, Skokie, IL 60077, many prominent members of Lincolnwood wholeheartedly expressed their support for Jesal Patel. Some of the distinguished guests invited at the event were Minal Desai (Skokie Park District Commissioner), Susan Patel (President IADO (Indian American Democratic organization), Harendra Mangrola Past President IADO, Babu Patel (Marsha), Bhavesh Patel and Babu Patel (Saahil), Nick Patel (LA Tan), Kiraan Shah, Gautam Patel, Ashok Patel, Kishor Patel, J P Patel, PC Sha, Bharat Liwani and Karim and Hannah Lakhani.

Susan Patel steered the entire event and thanked everyone who came to support Jesal. Nick Patel talked about the great work that Jesal has done since 2007 and extended his support for him in the current election. The guests also talked about how, under the leadership of Jesal and the Lincolnwood Alliance Party, Lincolnwood has been better able to navigate the challenging times during covid-19 pandemic and has seen a robust economic period. A special mention was made about how Lincolnwood Alliance was able to secure the financing necessary to initiate the first phase of the 10-year infrastructure improvement program with zero property tax increases. It also supported public and private partnerships, and new TIF districts to help spur development in Lincolnwood.

Jesal reminisced about spending his childhood in the Village of Lincolnwood and expressed his love for the village. Jesal’s father Babu Patel, who is a very well-known community leader, urged everyone to vote for Jesal to make Lincolnwood prosperous and a safe place to live. One of candidates for the office of trustee, Mohammed Saleem also addressed the guests at the event. Saleem, a civil engineer by profession, aims at building bridges that bring people and community together. Saleem mentioned how he could use his expertise as a civil engineer towards revamping the roads, buildings and the overall infrastructure of the Village of Lincolnwood.

Lincolnwood Alliance candidates in the current elections are Jesal Patel for Mayor, Beryl Herman for Clerk, and three candidates Jean Ikezoe-Halevi, Grace Diaz Herrera, Mohammed Saleem for Trustees.Jesal, for over 14 years, has proven his honesty and integrity through his work and community service. Being a finance graduate, he envisions a thriving Lincolnwood through smart planning by creating new business opportunities as well as employment opportunities. He has many years of experience as a small business owner behind him. His firsthand knowledge and experience as an entrepreneur help him understand how important it is to support small businesses so they can expand, create new jobs, and thrive in our community.

Jesal, during his address at the meet and greet, mentioned how his career has helped him understand the challenges faced by homeowners as well as business owners especially during the pandemic. Jesal’s business, Patel Realty, has been serving the Village of Lincolnwood with its specialization in residential and retail real estate sales and investment for many years. Jesal has been a Trustee in Lincolnwood since 2007 and has served as Board liaison to multiple Village committees and boards.

The Lincolnwood Alliance team, under Jesal Patel’s proven leadership, promises to build an inclusive and welcoming village through transparent governance by involving the Lincolnwood residents in the decision-making process. One of the dreams of The Lincolnwood Alliance team is to create a welcoming and efficient atmosphere for all by providing first class customer service with its Service First Organization concept. Its emphasis on utilizing diversity on various committees and commissions aims to generate ideas and form visions for a prosperous village.

Jesal requested everyone to go for early voting which is at Oakton Community College 7701 N Lincoln Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm and on weekends 10am – 4pm through April 5th,2021. Election Day is April 6 and voters can find their polling place at https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/service/your-voter-information
The numbers on the ballot for the Lincolnwood Alliance Party are Jesal Patel for Mayor – #1, Beryl Herman for Clerk – #3, Jean Ikezoe-Halevi – #4, Grace Diaz Herrera – #5 and Mohammed Saleem – #6

Life in the era of COVID-19

April 23, 2020 Asian Media USAHealth, India, Politics 0

Chicago IL: It has been a topsy-turvy start to the third decade of this century. COVID-19 has brought with it many disruptions. Coronavirus has significantly changed the contours of professional life. These days, home is the new office. The Internet is the new meeting room.

For the time being, office breaks with colleagues are history. I have also been adapting to these changes. Most meetings, be it with minister colleagues, officials and world leaders, are now via video conferencing.

In order to get ground level feedback from various stakeholders, there have been videoconference meetings with several sections of society. There were extensive interactions with NGOs, civil society groups and community organisations. There was an interaction with Radio Jockeys too. Besides that, I have been making numerous phone calls daily, taking feedback from different sections of society.

One is seeing the ways through which people are continuing their work in these times. There are a few creative videos by our film stars conveying a relevant message of staying home. Our singers did an online concert. Chess players played chess digitally and through that contributed to the fight against COVID-19. Quite innovative!

The work place is getting Digital First. And, why not?
After all, the most transformational impact of Technology often happens in the lives of the poor. It is technology that demolishes bureaucratic hierarchies, eliminates middlemen and accelerates welfare measures.

Let me give you an example.

When we got the opportunity to serve in 2014, we started connecting Indians, especially the poor with their Jan Dhan Account, Aadhar & Mobile number. This seemingly simple connection has not only stopped corruption and rent seeking that was going on for decades, but has also enabled the Government to transfer money at the click of a button. This click of a button has replaced multiple levels of hierarchies on the file and also weeks of delay.

India has perhaps the largest such infrastructure in the world. This infrastructure has helped us tremendously in transferring money directly and immediately to the poor and needy, benefiting crores of families, during the COVID-19 situation.

Another case in point is the education sector. There are many outstanding professionals already innovating in this sector. Invigorating technology in this sector has its benefits. The Government of India has also undertaken efforts such as the DIKSHA Portal, to help teachers and boost e-learning. There is SWAYAM, aimed at improving access, equity and quality of education. E-Pathshala, which is available in many languages, enables access to various e-books and such learning material.

Today, the world is in pursuit of new business models. India, a youthful nation known for its innovative zeal can take the lead in providing a new work culture. I envision this new business and work culture being redefined on the following vowels. I call them- vowels of the new normal- because like vowels in the English language, these would become essential ingredients of any business model in the post-COVID world.

Adaptability:

The need of the hour is to think of business and lifestyle models that are easily adaptable.
Doing so would mean that even in a time of crisis, our offices, businesses and commerce could get moving faster, ensuring loss of life does not occur.

Embracing digital payments is a prime example of adaptability. Shop owners big and small should invest in digital tools that keep commerce connected, especially in times of crisis. India is already witnessing an encouraging surge in digital transactions.
Another example is telemedicine. We are already seeing several consultations without actually going to the clinic or hospital. Again, this is a positive sign. Can we think of business models to help further telemedicine across the world?

Efficiency:

Perhaps, this is the time to think of reimagining what we refer to as being efficient.
Efficiency cannot only be about- how much time was spent in the office.
We should perhaps think of models where productivity and efficiency matter more than appearance of effort.
The emphasis should be on completing a task in the specified time frame.

Inclusivity:

Let us develop business models that attach primacy to care for the poor, the most vulnerable as well as our planet.
We have made major progress in combating climate change. Mother Nature has demonstrated to us her magnificence, showing us how quickly it can flourish when human activity is slower. There is a significant future in developing technologies and practices that reduce our impact on the planet. Do more with less.
COVID-19 has made us realise the need to work on health solutions at low cost and large scale. We can become a guiding light for global efforts to ensure the health and well being of humanity.
We should invest in innovations to make sure our farmers have access to information, machinery, and markets no matter what the situation, that our citizens have access to essential goods.

Opportunity:

Every crisis brings with it an opportunity. COVID-19 is no different.
Let us evaluate what might be the new opportunities/growth areas that would emerge now.
Rather than playing catch up, India must be ahead of the curve in the post-COVID world. Let us think about how our people, our skills sets, our core capabilities can be used in doing so.

Universalism:

COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or border before striking.
Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood.
We are in this together.

Unlike previous moments in history, when countries or societies faced off against each other, today we are together facing a common challenge. The future will be about togetherness and resilience.

The next big ideas from India should find global relevance and application. They should have the ability to drive a positive change not merely for India but for the entire humankind.
Logistics was previously only seen through the prism of physical infrastructure – roads, warehouses, ports. But logistical experts these days can control global supply chains through the comfort of their own homes.

India, with the right blend of the physical and the virtual can emerge as the global nerve centre of complex modern multinational supply chains in the post COVID-19 world. Let us rise to that occasion and seize this opportunity.

I urge you all to think about this and contribute to the discourse.
he shift from BYOD to WFH brings new challenges to balance the official and personal. Whatever be the case, devote time to fitness and exercising.

Try Yoga as a means to improve physical and mental wellbeing.
Traditional medicine systems of India are known to help keep the body fit. The Ayush Ministry has come out with a protocol that would help in staying healthy. Have a look at these as well.

Lastly, and importantly, please download Aarogya Setu Mobile App. This is a futuristic App that leverages technology to help contain the possible spread of COVID-19.

Photographs and Press release by: Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi

Sunil Shah tops as businessman & community activist

April 19, 2020 Asian Media USABusiness, Community 0

Chicago IL: A front ranking Indian community activist, Sunil Shah, has a good number of achievements to his credit over the past few years but his friends and community members at large could point out to two singular commendable mile stones in his cheered career – his association and a steady climb up in career with New York Life, easily among the biggest insurance companies in the world, and very healthy successful married life.

Sunil Shah had announced celebrating both these milestones in his event rich life this month, but the spread of Corona -19 virus torpedoes the plan requested by friends and well-wishers. He stands determined with huge support from all quarters and announced hosting the event in coming June. Graduating from Mumbai he came to USA in June 1990 and wading his way through early turbulence in new environment he felt that he is well suited to be on his own and plunged into insurance field. His intuition proved right and his business acumen helped him climb up the success ladder slowly. Sunil Shah, a Registered Representative NY LIFE Securities LLC and Financial Services Professional has completed 24 successful years with New York Life Insurance Company from the Greater Chicago General Office.

He is also life and qualifying member of Million Dollar Round Table. He has received several times National Quality Award, National Sales Achievement Award and Life Star Award. Besides, he has served as a board director with New York Life Insurance Company in Downers Grove, IL.

Sunil Shah’s success in business is equally marched by his contribution to the society around him. His work as a community leader is highly appreciated and acknowledged. He is the Founder President of Federation of Indian Associations, an umbrella organization of Indian associations. Not only that he founded this body but he has been successfully nurturing it by hosting number of community oriented act cities that would include India Day celebrations, Health Care camps, Holi Festivities and show casing Indian culture at the Bull Games

He is a Lifetime member and Ambassador of, Asian American Hotel Owners Association and also of Schaumburg Business Association. He is also Lifetime member of the Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago, Gujarati Samaj of Chicago and Gujarati cultural Association. He tried his hand in politics too and was a Mayoral candidate 2019 for the Village of Schaumburg.

Residing in Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb for the past last 20 years with his wife Rita Shah and two son’s Sahaj and Swapnil, he and his family members have passion helping the people around and needy in the community at large . He can be reached at 847-309-4462 and / or by email at sashah.nyl@hotmail.com

Punch 111 for Mark Kalish as state representative of 16th House District, IL

February 26, 2020 Asian Media USAPolitics, U.S. 0

Chicago IL: Meet & Greet, Mark Kalish as state representative of 16th House District, Illinois was on Friday – February 21, 2020 at 3775 W Arthur Ave, Lincolnwood, IL. Event was organized by Bhavesh Patel from Sahil and Nick Patel from LA TAN. Bhavesh and Nick is pioneer in USA for organizing big shows of Bollywood star in Chicagoland area. Ray Nanato; Political Consultant, many leaders from many different fields such as medical, sports entertainment, political, teaching spiritual leaders and prominent community leader were present at Meet & Greet.

Yehiel “Mark” Kalish is a Democratic member of the Illinois General Assembly, presiding over the 16th House district which includes parts of Skokie, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood, and Chicago’s 50th Ward. He has an extensive background in non-profit work and government advocacy.

His work in the Illinois legislature includes voting for and passing bills that deal with mental health parity, the rising cost of health care premiums and prescription drugs with the inclusion of pre-existing conditions, the Equal Pay Act, as well as common-sense gun laws likes the Fix the FOID Act. Kalish is one of ten Democrats to serve on the House Firearms Public Awareness Task Force.

Now law, Kalish also chief sponsored and fought hard for a bill that ensures the protection of victims of sexual assault.

As a resident of the 50th Ward, Kalish experienced firsthand its lack of representation in the statehouse and has been working hard to make changes in that regard to ensure that all parts of his district are represented equally.

Kalish knows that Democrats are far Better Together than divided. Despite nuanced differences, Kalish understands that progress can only be achieved when we promote inclusivity while welcoming a difference of opinions within the party.

Representative Kalish is willing to put petty politics aside and is emphatic about keeping the Democratic Party united in order to keep legislative majorities throughout the country.

We urge all Voters to Punch 111 for Mark Kalish as state representative of 16th House District, IL on March 17, 2020 Election

Indian Christians face at least 10 attacks in the last 3 days, nine over the weekend

Even as India prepared to welcome the American President Donald J Trump, who on his two day visit to India reportedly plans to discuss, among other things, the issue of religious freedom in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India registered nine incidents of hate crime and violence on Indian Christians over the weekend.

Between 21 to 23 February 2020, the RLC recorded nine incidents targeting Christians and their congregations including disruption of worship services, intimidation from police machinery, mob violence, etc. Such incidents around weekends and especially on Sunday have become a regular phenomenon for Christians in many parts of our country.

One incident was also reported from Chhattisgarh on Thursday evening taking the total number of incidents to ten in the last 3 days. The Commission condemns such dastardly acts that encroach upon the rights of the Christian minority to practice and profess its faith.

Not surprisingly, majority of the incidents took place in Uttar Pradesh which recently has been a hot bed as far as targeting of minorities is concerned. The state ruled by Yogi Adityanath, who is also a serving Abbot of a Math (Temple) in Gorakhpur, recorded 5 incidents out of the 10. Tamil Nadu followed with two incidents while one incident each was reported from Telangana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Federation of Indian Associations Chicago celebrates India’s 71st Republic day & hosts the largest Health Fair event in Midwest

February 5, 2020 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion, Entertainment 0

“Only a life lived for others is a life lived worthwhile….” – Albert Einstein

Chicago IL: Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of Chicago celebrated India’s 71st Republic Day & hosted one of the largest Healthcare Fair Event on Saturday, Jan 25th, 2020, at Rana Reagan Community Center at Carol Stream, IL.

Keeping its past 10 year long tradition of serving the community, following its mantra, of ‘United We Stand’ and ‘We Serve!’, FIA Chicago, successfully hosted its yearly Healthcare Fair Event on the occasion of India’s Republic Day. In spite of all of us being away from our own homeland, we were blessed to be able to celebrate this very special day, when India officially got its Constitution on Jan 26, 1950, and the spirit of India with the same enthusiasm and excitement, in the country that we love and have now embraced as our home.

Over 600 people attended and availed the services provided; including 100 plus blood testing was done. One can imagine how popular this event is amongst our senior citizens, just by looking at the registration lines which started forming at 8:30am, a half hour earlier, then the scheduled start time of 9:00am. But Team FIA was ready to welcome the guests and the service providers and medical Camp personnel since 8:00am. Pratibha Jairath, Sonia Luther, Richa Chand, Vineeta Gulabani, Varsha Visal, Hema Shastri, Dr Kamal Patel, Vaishal Talati, Sunil Shah, Neil Khot, Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan, Ninad Daftari, Shital Daftari, Anu Malhotra & Bharat Malhotra, Ruchi Dabral, Bharatbhai, Haribhai and several volunteers from BSC group were seen receiving and greeting the doctors and service providers and the other guests as well, and helping fill out with Patient registration forms, and finding their designated spots & booths. FIA leadership Team, led by Sunil Shah, Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan, Neil Khot were seen visiting each and every booth, and greeting and thanking them for their support.

Healthcare Fair section of the program, Medical Camp (Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Dentist, Phlebotomy Blood Draws, Alternate Medicine Homeopathy /Ayurveda, Nutritionist & Dietician, Registered Nurse Practitioners consultations, Scans/Imaging, Blood Glucose & Cholesterol tests, Back and Shoulder Massage Treatment), Passport and Visa Counseling and Guidance Services, Tax Consultation, Social Security, Yoga/Meditation, Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Medicare Benefits & Community Services were provided. Food & snacks were also provided to the attending guests. This was a FREE event with no charges or costs to the guests.

A Special Educational Lecture series presented by the specialists was also a part of the Healthcare Fair Event this year. Topics & presenters included: Cardiology – Dr Paul Nguyen, Dietician – Shweta Sheth, Deepti Singh Suri, Homeopathy – Vidya Joshi, Yoga/Meditation – Anu Malhotra.

With high spirits and keeping the ‘Josh High! ‘ as well, Republic Day Cultural Program, began promptly at 12:00pm, enthusiastically hosted by the Masters of Ceremony Richa Chand & Varsha Visal. There were presentations of US. National anthem (by Malavika Gopal) and Indian National anthem (by Pushpaben Parikh), followed by a beautifully choreographed patriotic Welcome Dance, “Ae Watan” (choreography by Sridevi Ram Pandalai, and performers were: Sarirha Srijith, Nisha Roy, Prathiba Varun, Swetha JayaPrakash, Sandra Suresh).

A beautiful Lamp Lighting ceremony was performed by the dignitaries present at the event, Sunil Shah, Founder President of FIA Chicago, Chief Guest, Consul General Sudhakar Dalela, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Onkar Singh Sangha, Founder & Past President, Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan, President 2020, Smt. Prem Kaur, Mother to Incoming President 2020, Pinky & Dinesh Thakkar, Guest of Honor, Ninad Daftari, President 2019, Dhitu Bhagwakar, Rita Singh, Sunny Kular, Neil Khot, Founding Members & Past Presidents, Amarjeet Singh, Founder & President Wheaton Gurudwara belonging to Sikh Religious Society, Chicago, IL , Haribhai Patel, President BSC group, Dr Kamal Patel, Executive VP, Amit Jhingran, CEO State Bank of India, Nimish Jani, Schaumburg Township, Krishna Bansal, Commissioner at Naperville Planning. And Advisory Board Members, Syed Hussaini, Asha Oroskar, Brij Sharma, Aishwarya Sharma, Pradeep Shukla, Keerthi Reevori.

Welcome Speeches by the FIA leadership was followed by the Introduction of FIA Board, and all FIA members were requested to join on the stage and a group picture was taken. As is the tradition for a Republic Day Cultural event, there were many inspiring speeches delivered throughout the program, including a few notable ones by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Consul General Sudhakar Dalela, both a keynote speaker at the Republic Day Event. Hanover Park Mayor, Rodney Craig & Trustee Herb Porter also spoke about the Indo-American community and their contributions.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Consul General Sudhakar Dalela helped in the inauguration of the FIA Souvenir Book and distribution of the Wheelchairs and Walkers to the needy. One Wheel Chair was received by Bharatiya Senior Citizens Group and the second one was received by Wheaton Gurudwara, IL.

There were important announcements made for the upcoming FIA Events, Indian Heritage Night celebrations, along with Windy City Bulls basketball game on February 23, 2020 at Sears Center Arena and Holi event on March 21, 2020 at DuPage Fairgrounds. For the Awards & Recognitions during the cultural program, Consul General Shri Sudhakar Dalela was felicitated and presented with a recognition plaque for Consul General Chicago’s continued support and whole-hearted participation in FIA’s numerous community service endeavors.

Guest of Honor, Pinky Thakkar & Dinesh Thakkar was also invited and recognized for their wonderful support and were presented with a recognition plaque as well. All the Sponsors and Service Providers and Supporters who helped out for this special event, were also called upon one by one, and were presented with the recognition plaques, as a token of FIA’s appreciation towards their generous support and help with the cause. Certificates were also given to all the cultural program performers, and the volunteers who helped out with this event.

To mark the conclusion of this beautiful and grand event to celebrate India’s 71st Republic Day, Anu Malhotra, Director FIA, gave Vote of Thanks, to all the guests, FIA’s senior leadership for facilitating and creating such wonderful opportunities for our community. She thanked Dr Pardeep Sood, Dr Tariq Ahmed, Dr Naveed Saeed, Dr. Huma Vaid, Dr. Mona Ghosh, Dr. Rakesh Nambiyar, Dr. Usha Kartan, Dr. Madhu Sharma, Dr. Sanjeev, Dr Niranjana Shah, Dr Utpal Parekh, Dr Imaad Shaikh, Dr. Aslam Qazi, Dr. Harpreet Singh, Dr Paul Nguyen, Dr Sara Alfano, Dr. Rubina Nguyen with S.C.A.R.F. group and others for their valuable time and service. She also thanked Promila Kumar, Shree Gurusamy, Raman Patel, Anu Bangaley, Amandeep Gill, Kinnari, Patrick, Chinttal Mehta, Chirag Patel, Prakruti Patel, Vidya Joshi, Deepti Singh Suri, Sweta Sheth, Pradeep Shukla and Consulate general of India, and all the sponsors and supporters. Only some mentioned here from the long list of all our wonderful sponsors/supporters: Syed Hussaini, VP Wintrust, Amit Jhingran, CEO State Bank of India, Pinky Thakkar & Dinesh Thakkar, Jigar’s Kitchen, Anil R Shah from World Money Exchange, MEDSTAR, Neal Patel for providing medical supplies, Dr. Neelam Bala Bhardwaj for donating Wheel Chairs and Walkers, and BSC group and committee members for all of their wonderful support to make this event a huge success.

Legend Thomas Puthoor A Gospel singer, Rocks Chicago Evening of music, testimonies, and dedication to God

January 20, 2020 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Hope United Methodist Church, Naperville IL, Organized a Gospel Concert with Thomas Puthoor on December 28th, 2019, at 6::30 pm. An Orchestra also graced this program by Richard Christian, Base Guitarist: John Mall, Keyboard Players: Joel Christian, Shahjad Markas, and Sound: Tariq Khan, a Music Ministry International. It was an evening of music, testimonies, and dedication to God.

Rev Avani Christian, Pastor of Hope United Methodist Church, welcomed and invited all for the upcoming events and worship of the Church. The program started by an invocation by Pastor Paul Morris, who asked for God’s blessings and reminded us that as angels sang to Shepherd and brought a great message of Peace on earth, we may also be lifted by the music together. Blesson Macloen, who was the MC of the Program, introduced Thomas Puthoor. Thomas Puthoor is renowned international gospel singer and has sung in many languagesHindi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Swahili. Thomas Puthoor is ministering through singing for last 26 years and has done musical programs in the US, Singapore, London, Canada, Fiji Island, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, Tanzania and India.

Thomas Puthoor introduced himself and told us about his ministry to God as a singer. He has dedicated his life to bring God’s love and worship through music for twenty-six years. He is from Kenya and is the Managing Director of one of the largest apparel manufacturing Companies in Kenya since last 17 years. He has dedicated his voice in ministry to God.

He sang his first song with a soul touching song called “Tere paas Aaata Ho” and unfolded his deep and powerful vocal in the hearts of people. Hope UMC choir for chorus accompanied him. Then he sang a Gujarati song, Magu Ishwar aatlu” which was soul searching song of strength and courage in times of difficulty and uncertainty. He continued many songs and showed God’s gift. As he ministered through his music, it seemed like each song was being used to draw people into the very presence of the Lord. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about? We should get to a point in all of our ministries that we are more than happy to reflect all the praise and honor to God!

The evening ended with dinner and Garba with Thomas Puthoor’s Garba songs. It proclaimed and gave an assurance that our life is much like the song, as we may not all have the same “part,” yet when we all do what God has called us to do, we enjoy a great sense of harmony and joy as we serve. Some parts are more visible than others minister in the background, but again, when we function where God has placed us, beautiful “music” is the result!

Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) temple celebrates Annual Dance Festival

November 28, 2019 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Sri Venkateswara Swami temple in Aurora, IL conducted their Annual Dance Festival this past Sunday, November 17^th2019. The festival has been a yearly tradition for the past several years at the Balaji temple and has been known to be the only dance festival in Chicagoland that showcases pure classical Indian dance forms for the entire event. India, a culturally rich and diverse nation has several traditional dance styles across various regions like Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Mohiniattam, Kathak etc., Over 125 performers trained in some of those dance forms from various dance schools in and around Chicagoland including Peoria participated in the event.

The program started with a Solo Bharatanatyam performance by a senior dancer, Hemalatha Vijayakumar who trained in Bangalore, India and is currently residing in Chicago. The solo performance was followed by a couple Bharatanatyam presentations from senior dancers at Noopura Dance Academy and Nrityanant Performing arts who presented a Raagamalika called Nadi – on the 5 major rivers in Maharastra. Dancers from Kuchipudi Natya Vihar and Ananda Dance Theater presented items choreographed by Guru Padmabhushan Dr.Vempati Chinnasatyam in the Kuchipudi dance style. Students of Utkalaa Center of Odissi dance presented a Pallavi-Nritta set in multiple ragas in the Odissi dance style.

Lakshmy Balachandran from Parvathy Dance school presented a Thillana in the Mohiniattam dance form. Dancers from Mythili Dance Academy, Peoria presented a vibrant Thillana with complex Nritta that mesmerized the audience. Shruthi Mothkur of Kuchipudi Natya Vihar presented Shiva Tandava Stotram, a hymn that describes Lord Shiva’s power and beauty. There were several enthralling Bharatanatyam presentations by students of Nrithyanjali School of Dance, Mudra Dance Academy, Nrithya Sangeeth, Nrithya Sanjivini, Kalakriti school of dance and Kalapriya foundation. Dancers from Samskriti foundation presented items from both Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dance styles.

The highlight of the program was the featured Bharatanatyam duet by Nandini Bhamidipati and Krithika Varsha students of renowned classical dancer and choreographer Dr.Ananda Shankar Jayant of Shankarananda Kalakshetra, Hyderabad India. Their presentation started with a Pushpanjali, an offering of flowers to the lord and paying the dancer’s respects to the guru, orchestra and the audience. Followed by Shivoham which depicts Lord Shiva and his Consort Shakti as Ardhanarishvara, the form that represents the synthesis of the masculine and feminine energies of the universe and concluded with a brilliant Thillana in the praise of Lord Muruga.

The entire event was a musical and visual treat that captivated and enthralled the audience of all ages. Sri Balaji Temple administration and the Cultural committee finds it to be privilege and an honor to organize such events that help promote and encourage traditional art forms and provide a platform to all the educators and students in the region.

Gujarat Cultural Association, Chicago, Celebrated Diwali, a Festival of Lights, with colorful traditions

November 28, 2019 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Gujarat Cultural Association, Chicago (GCA) hosted a Diwali Gala on Friday, November 15, 2019 at The Meadows Club, 2950 W. Golf Road, Rolling Meadows, IL. The Diwali dinner was accompanied by the amazing talented Mayuri Musical Group which attracted a large number of families, friends, and community figures of the city. The program was highly successful with the active support of the Sponsors, Executive Board, GCA Members and Volunteers. Gujarat Cultural Association is the first and largest Gujarati Association in Chicago Metropolitan Area.

The program was emceed by Mrs. Amisha Patel by welcoming everyone, including Banquet Chair Mr. Jyotendra Patel and GCA, Chairman Mr. Kanti S. Patel. The event was commenced with the traditional lighting of the lamp/Diya ceremony by Chief Guest, Dr. Subhash Patel, Consulate General of India, Mr. Sudhakar Delela, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Mr. & Mrs, Kanti & Jyoti Patel, Mr.& Mrs. Jyotendra & Geeta Patel and other dignitaries, which include: Mr. Anil Shah, Dr. Anuja Gupta, Mr. Ashok Punjabi, Mr. Salil Mishra, Mr. Aamir Chalisha, Mr. Shrujal Patel, Mrs. Malini from Air India, Dr. Nita Patel, Mr. Bhailal Patel, Mr. Nilesh Topiwala, Mr. Mohmmad Tariq from Hanmi Bank, Mr. Richard Boykin, Mr. Hari Patel, Mr. Manu Patel from AAHOA.

Mrs. Amisha Patel invited Dr. Manish Brahmbhatt to introduce the Chief Guest, Dr. Subhash Patel for this event onto the stage.

Dr. Patel thanked Gujarat Cultural Association for tireless work by its member, especially Kanti Patel. Mrs. Amisha Patel invited Mr. Kanti Patel to the stage to welcome our Consulate General of India, Mr. Sudhakar Dalela and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi to speak to the guest.

Mrs. Amisha Patel announced the Awards of 2 successful individuals in the Indian Community. Mr. Shrujal Patel and Mr. Prajesh Patel were given awards by the Consulate General of India, Mr. Sudhakar Delela and Congressman, Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Other prominent leaders, community members, and distinguished businessman were recognized on the stage by Kanti Patel, Chairman of GCA and received a Bouquet of flowers. The following include: Leslie Danford (OYO), Mr. Mitesh Patel (Level Construction), Mr. Anil Shah, Dr. Anuja Gupta, Mr. Ashok Punjabi, Mr. Salil Mishar (Millennium Bank), Mr. Mohmmad Tariq (Hanmi Bank), and Mrs. Malini(Air India).

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous upcoming New Year, Mr. Kanti S. Patel concluded his speech by thanking everyone for their continued support co-operation and participation in these events. The evening ended with an amazing dinner accompanied with a Musical performance by Mayuri Musical Group.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Bartlett, IL enlightens community through the celebration of Diwali

November 12, 2019 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: A new year, a fresh new start. The ancient tradition of lighting lamps, during Diwali, symbolizes the transition from darkness to light and a celebration of good triumphing over evil. The physical act of lighting lamps on Diwali represents an individual’s efforts to remove the darkness from one’s self in forms of anger, envy, greed, arrogance, and resentment. Through its thought-provoking customs and traditions, Diwali presents a time to reflect and introspect for individuals, families, and communities.

Hindus and community members gathered at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Bartlett, IL to celebrate Diwali, a five-day celebration that culminates with the Annakut celebration (a decorative offering of vegetarian sweets and food) on the Hindu New Year’s Day.

The five days of Diwali include a set of joyous cultural traditions that symbolize new beginnings. Individuals take this time to start anew and commit to spiritual growth and familial harmony. Diwali presents Hindus an opportunity to connect with and celebrate the traditions of their roots with fanfare and a sense of community. Hindu families celebrated the five days with lighted divos (candles), and rangoli (colorful drawings and sketches), fireworks, and a variety of food.

Local community member, Dr. Karishma Patel, stated, “I came back home from Boston just to celebrate Diwali with my family and friends. It’s so great to see fireworks and rangoli and celebrate this festival and our traditions together.” All attendees participated by offering prayers for new beginnings and partaking in the delicious offerings of the Annakut.

Each year, the Mandir celebrates with a themed exhibition, put together by volunteer adults and children, to highlight important cultural and traditional values. This year, themed “Timeless Truths”, the Mandir inspired visitors to bring in 2020 with a positive outlook, to overcome obstacles through faith, love and tolerance, and to seek guidance from our gurus to experience daily peace.

Upon seeing the number of volunteers who helped put together the celebration and all the participants, Consulate General of India, Mr. Sudhakar Dalela, stated, “The volunteers at BAPS are tremendous. Even children are volunteering their time to celebrate this momentous occasion!”

The celebrations were open to all communities, regardless of religion or background. Bartlett Police Officer, Kyle Rybaski has made it a point to visit the Mandir during Diwali in recent years noting, “I really enjoyed the message of having a positive outlook towards life and BAPS really gives back to the community so it’s so nice to give back to them and meet the community members here.”

Offering his prayers to Bhagwan Swaminarayan, spiritual leader of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj prayed for devotees’ spiritual, personal, and professional growth in this new year. This Diwali, Mahant Swami Maharaj emphasized the importance of leading spiritually centered lives, grounded in strong values and increased attachment to God for individuals and families.

The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is a worldwide spiritual and humanitarian organization that is dedicated to community service, peace, and harmony. Motivated by Hindu principles, BAPS strives to care for the world by caring for societies, families, and individuals. Through various spiritual and humanitarian activities, BAPS endeavor to develop better citizens of tomorrow with high esteem for their roots and culture. Its 3,300 international centers support these character-building activities. Under the guidance and leadership of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, BAPS aspire to build a community that is free of addictions as well as morally, ethically and spiritually pure. For more details, please visit www.baps.org.

Gandhi Memorial Trust in collaboration with Village of Skokie and Consulate General of Chicago Celebrates 150th Birthday Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

October 16, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: The Gandhi Memorial Trust in collaboration with Village of Skokie and consulate general of India, organized the remembrance at larger than life, bronze statue of Mahatma, located at the Heritage Public Park in Skokie, Illinois. Between 10 to 12 PM. Confronting fall type Chicago’s cold windy and rainy day, almost 155 Gandhi admirers and followers attended the occasion, Event began by offerings of flower and reciting his favorite song “Vaishnav vajan…., by Bollywood singer Poonam Bhatia.

October 2, 2019 was the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born in Porbandar, India; He led perhaps the biggest mass movement in the world. The hallmark of this movement was non-violence. It is in recognition of his contributions that the United Nations has declared October 2 as the International Day of Non-violence.

Village of Skokie Mayor, Village Trustees; Indian Consulate General honorable Mr. Sudhakar Dalela with consulate team; Mrs. Santosh Kumar and staff of Universal Metro Asian Services (UMAS), and almost 155 supporters graced the occasion

Opening speech by founder and Chairman Dr. Chandrakant M. Modi, highlighted narration of establishment of Mahatma’s statue 15 years ago. He acknowledged pivotal supportive role played by the Mayor and village Trustees and entire team. Dr. Modi concluded “If Gandhi’s teaching is followed today, no one have to die to go to haven”, that place will be existent right now on our planet.

The Mayor of Skokie Honorable Mr. George Van Dusen started his speech by that Gandhi’s strength came from his spirituality, his honesty and simplicity and, of course, his absolute conviction. “a Quote on Gandhi, by Albert Einstein had who said, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.” He further remarked Gandhi’s strength came from his spirituality, his honesty and simplicity and, of course, his absolute conviction. The village of Skokie of appreciates the steadfast services of the Gandhi Memorial representatives to bring here through the sculpture and taking active role in spreading his universal eternal message of truth, tolerance and non-violence. He further added that since inception of the statue, every year, in honor of this universal man Gandhi, the village has proclaims October 2nd as peace day.

Honorable Mr. Sudhakar Dalela, Counsel General of India, shared Gandhi’s role in achieving monumental task of attaining the goal of independence of India by non-violence movement. Gandhi’s words, actions and methods won over the masses and as a result, several joined him as he led momentous the “Dandi Salt March” in 1930. In 1942, he launched the Quit India Movement.

Honerable Daleja also shared the messages from President and prime minister of India on this occasion and congratulated the Gandhi Memorial community to continue spreading the message of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mrs. Santosh Kumar, Chairperson of Universal Metro Asian Services (UMAS), Chicago, thanked everyone for coming out in large numbers to celebrate Gandhiji’s birthday and vowed to keep up serving the community in the best manner.

Special award was Given to the Mr. Adil Syed, one of grandson of freedom fighter Mr. Khan Abdul Gafar Khan also called Sarhad ke Gandhi as he was native of border of pre-independence India and Afghanistan.

Mr. Satish Chander closed the event with a vote of thanks. He specially thanked extra ordinary perennial support from entire Village of Skokie officials including mayor, board of trustee village manager Mr. Lockerby, Ms. Cathy Stevens and staff of forestry dept, Security department including chef of Police Mr. AnthonyScarpelli, Indian consulate Mr. Sudhakar Daleja and whole consulate staff, Mr. Santoshkumar, Mrs. Jasbir Kour and UMAS staff for catering snacks and hot brew. The event like this would not have been possible without volunteer supports; Harish Kolasani, Dayal Patel, Muktesh Shah for help with transport and distribution of Snacks and juices, Mrs. Bharati Shah, Dina and Amee Modi, Mina Patel, Sudha Guruji, Mira Chander, DJ Mr. Safi, Shobhana Patel from Asian Media USA capture this historical event in video.

Snacks and beverages at the conclusion of the event were provided courtesy of Raja food owned by Swetal Patel and Family. Hot tea was served by courtesy of Mrs. Jasbir Kaur and her team of volunteers from MFAS.

National Indian Grocery Chain Patel Brothers Attracts Thousands to Grand Opening in Niles

October 16, 2019 Asian Media USABusiness 0

Chicago IL: What started as a small family business and an unrelenting desire to bring ethnic Indian food to the masses has transformed into the largest Indian grocery store chain in the United States. The line of customers who wrapped around the Patel Brothers storefront at the Indian grocer’s newest location at 9555 North Milwaukee Ave. Niles, IL 60714 on grand opening day proved it.

Nearly ten months after announcing plans to open a new store at Golf Road and Milwaukee Avenue in Niles, Patel Brothers cut the ribbon on the company’s new ethnic grocery store location on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 11:00 am opening the store to the public for the first time.

According to Asian Media USA, over 1,200 people flooded to the 28,000 square foot the Skokie-based Indian grocery store. Founded in 1974, Patel Brothers operates more than 50 stores nationwide and sells lines of frozen and prepackaged Indian foods.

The store’s inauguration commenced with a spiritual ceremony held by priests from BAPS Shri Swaminarayan temple located in Bartlett, Illinois. Two temple priests conducted the prayers at the store’s back door in accordance with the sect’s religious tenants that prevent priests from direct contact with the general public, specifically women.

Mafat Patel, co-founder of the grocery store chain told Suresh Bodiwala Chairman of Asian Media that he credits the hard work and talent of the third generation of Patel family leaders in advancing the business and building the Indian grocery empire. “All the hard work from first generation paid off, when we start business, we were very small,” “Now, I am just helping them. Second and Third generation are doing a great job,” Patel said, overwhelmed by the response to the store opening and surrounded by three generations of family members that have helped to grow business and hundreds of customers.

The third-generation grocery store food chain was initially started by the Tulsibhai Patel, a hardworking yet uneducated Indian businessman with a passion for his family and Indian values.

“We have nothing but gratitude,” said Swetal Patel, vice president and company spokesperson who is Mafat Patel’s younger son. “With many choices out there for the consumer, they still have such loyalty. We are all so thankful.”

The Mayor of Niles, Andrew Przybylo accompanied Mafat Patel in cutting the ribbon as shoppers eagerly waited to enter the new store. “We are truly a diverse community. We celebrate all cultures,” said Przybylo.

Patel Brothers stores offer everything from an on-site bakery and hot food items, a collection of exotic Indian vegetables found exclusively at their stores, massive variety Indian grains and frozen food items, to carefully curated selection of adjacent shops catering to the Indian community.

The Indian grocer has been fast to adjust to the needs of modern-day Indian families. “The bakery has really helped families now,” said Swetal Patel. “One of the staples in every Indian and Pakistani home is fresh bread at dinner time. But it’s also the most tedious thing to do, to constantly make bread every day. Now you can come here and get bread anywhere from $1 to $1.49 for three to five pieces, and it’s made fresh. Not daily, but every three to five minutes. You can see here they’re just churning out fresh bread.”

Rakesh Patel, Mafat’s elder son, who has mastered the art of putting the grocer’s retail locations together, said, “This is how Indian grocery shopping should be. With plenty of room to move around comfortably,” adding that the new store is outfitted with an additional 12,000 square feet of space for storage on the second floor and a rear parking lot made with permeable pavement to reduce stormwater runoff.

The new store location is a prime retail site formerly occupied by big-box retailer Toys R Us. The site will now house six storefronts adjacent to the grocery store, including restaurants, shops, and a halal butcher shop all curated by Patel’s elder son.

“We know it’s a strong retail corner. Niles has a very ethnic and diverse offering, and this will only continue to add to those offerings, which will only help our very diverse population,” said Niles Economic Development Coordinator Ross Klicker.

The new store is expected to bring significant tax revenues from food sales to the Village of Niles. The village imposes a 2.5 percent sales tax on all businesses selling food, and the boost from tax revenue to the village from the new store is yet to be fully realized.

“This is a great use for the village. We’re very confident it’s going to be an outstanding location. It’ll be very successful for all parties involved,” Klicker said.

Regular store hours start Monday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m every day. Patel Brothers also operate four other stores in Illinois with locations in Schaumburg, Hanover Park, West Rogers Park, and Naperville, their largest location.

Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary celebrated by Delhi Committee of the Chicago Sister Cities in partnership with World Business Chicago

October 8, 2019 Asian Media USABusiness, Community 0

Chicago, IL: Today, Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a Proclamation declaring October 2, 2019 Mahatma Gandhi Day in the City of Chicago, at an event hosted by the Delhi Committee of the Chicago Sister Cities in partnership with World Business Chicago. The luncheon was held in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150^th Birth Anniversary. Smita N. Shah, Chairman of the Delhi Committee, introduced honored guests, United States Senator Richard J. Durbin and Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. Also present were four Consul Generals from India, Sudhakar Dalela, Consul General of South Africa Phumzile Mazibuko, Consul General of the United Kingdom John Saville, and Honorary Consul General of Nepal, Marvin Brustin. Other notable guests were Niranjan S. Shah, Vijay Dave, Maarten de Jeu, Babu Patel, Keerthi Kumar Ravoori, and Nick Patel.

“Chicago has a unique history with India, from the Parliament of World Religions in 1893, when Swami Vivekananda came and spoke of the universal unity of religion,” said Smita Shah, chairman of the Delhi Committee. “It is fitting that Chicago is among the first to recognize Mahatma Gandhi’s 150^th birth Anniversary.”

“Chicago and the Delhi Committee is one of the first to have an annual Mahatma Gandhi celebration,” commented Andrea Zopp, former Deputy Mayor and CEO of World Business Chicago. “This is unique, and we are honored to do it.”

“The Delhi Committee of Chicago Sister Cities promotes cultural, social and economic exchange between the citizens of Chicago and the citizens of India,” said Smita N. Shah. “We honor Gandhi today, because it is such a significant example of the value of global exchanges.”

Senator Durbin explained how Mahatma Gandhi “was inspired by American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in the concept of civil disobedience. In return, he inspired many world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King,” said Senator Durbin. “We can all have an impact on improving lives by working together.”

Senator Durbin also spoke of the importance of immigrants in this country. “Immigrants in this country have made a tremendous contribution,” Senator Durbin noted. “This Senator believes in immigration. This Senator stands by the communities of the City of Chicago.”

Delhi Chairman Smita Shah, in introducing Mayor Lightfoot, noted that “Gandhi’s fight for independence included a desire to fight poverty, create social economic opportunity for citizens and to ensure the preservation of human dignity,”

Mayor Lightfoot gave a moving and impassioned speech about Mahatma Gandhi and his contributions, and how we all can learn from him. “Poverty is the worst form of violence,” she quoted Gandhiji. “We must do better for all of our communities. We must do better for our immigrant communities.”

Smita N. Shah noted, “I see Mayor Lightfoot in that same fight for human dignity for all. Mayor Lightfoot reminds our community and the citizens of this City that strength and conviction belongs to everyone, and that we need to do well for each member of our city. That we cannot be successful unless each neighborhood and community has an opportunity for education and economic opportunity.”

“This is about human dignity,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “We are going to give all people, in every community, especially the neediest and including the immigrant community, their dignity.”

Excerpts from Proclamation:

“Whereas October 2, 2019 marks the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi; and “Whereas, Gandhi is revered the world over for his nonviolent philosophy of passive resistance and as an advocate for all people, including the poor and disenfranchised, championing the causes of education, economic opportunity, and equality amongst all; and “Whereas Gandhi is often named among the 20^th century’s most important figures…

“Whereas, founded in 2014 by the Delhi Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, under the leadership of Smita Shah, the Annual Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi Luncheon honors Gandhi’s lasting contributions and inspires us all to follow the example left by him:

“Now, Therefore, I, Lori e. Lightfoot, mayor of the city of Chicago, do hereby proclaim October 2, 2019 to be Mahatma Gandhi Day in Chicago, in recognition of the important legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.”

ITServe Gears Up for its Annual Synergy Conference to be held in Chicago, IL

October 8, 2019 Asian Media USABusiness, Science & Technology 0

Over 1500 CXOs from 1200+ companies will come together at America’s biggest IT conference

Chicago IL: ITServe Alliance is gearing up for the 5th edition of its annual flagship conference – Synergy 2019. In a precursor to the conference, the alliance hosted a pre-conference event on September 18th, 2019 at the Clubhouse – Schaumburg, IL. The two-day, high-octane Synergy conference will be held on October 17th and 18th at Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, IL.

The pre-conference event saw over 150 members along with the National Leadership Team participate in the planning and discussions as a run up to the much-awaited annual conference that is touted to be North America’s biggest IT conference.

ITServe’s Synergy Conference is an information-rich event which provides business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives with strategies, solutions and insights that address the unique needs of the IT Solutions & Services industry.

This year, Synergy 2019 will unlock a bundle of knowledge with valuable sessions from successful business leaders and eminent speakers; promote entrepreneurship with its Start-up Cube, an innovation capsule where multiple entrepreneurs with ideas and products will pitch their offerings to a panel of business leaders and investors; and provide a unique platform to businesses to showcase their offerings at the Synergy Solutions Partner Hub at the conference.

The conference will also host many lawmakers and government officials as part of its high-value panels. This will include a CTO/CIO panel where leading technologists will discuss and debate the latest technological revolutions and how they impact our lives and businesses. An Immigration Panel will throw light on the ongoing changes in the immigration landscape and how business can work around these changes.

As with every year, Synergy 2019 will see some exciting knowledge sessions and keynote addresses by renowned speakers on topics ranging across the spectrum of business and life skills. 15-year-old Canadian author, AI Expert, TED & Keynote speaker and Honorary IBM Cloud Advisor, Tanmay Bakshi and Business Development expert Karl Graf are few names to look forward to among many other eminent speakers. Those who want to participate in this conference can register at: www.ITServeSynergy.org

ITServe Alliance is the largest association of Information Technology Solutions & Services organizations in the US, representing over 1,200 member companies. The Alliance is the voice of all prestigious IT companies functioning with similar interests across the United States. Through the years, ITServe has evolved as a capable and respected platform to collaborate and initiate measures in the direction of protecting common interests and ensuring collective success of its member companies. Since its inception in 2010, ITServe Alliance has served to strengthen the knowledge, skills, and value of its members across the nation through its 16 country-wide Regional Chapters.

ITServe’s mission is to serve as the voice of the industry, educate its members on best practices, and protect the US economy by providing US businesses with cost-effective alternatives to outsourcing and off-shoring. In the recent past, ITServe Alliance has been vocal on and filed various lawsuits against the arbitrary and unfair immigration policies of USCIS for H-1B Visa, students on OPT as well as protecting the rights of H4-EAD.

Mr. Vinod Babu Uppu is the current National President of ITServe Alliance. Other notable office bearers include: Vinoz Chanamolu (Secretary), Shashidhar Devireddy (Synergy Chair) and Ajay Sunkara (Synergy Director).

For further information, contact Deepali Khadakban at PRMedia@itserve.org

For latest updates on the happenings at Synergy 2019, follow our social media channels.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITServeAlliance/

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Hundreds of devotees gather to celebrates Festival of Devon Ka Raja; Ganesh Chaturthi

October 8, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Ganpati Bappa Morya! Regal Foundation, a non-for-profit organization of Regal Jewels and Regal Sari and Regal Law group hosted its 6th annual Ganesh Chaturthi celebration, Starting Monday September 02, 2019 and concluding on Wednesday September 12, 2019 in Chicago. Hundreds of devotees flocked to Shree Ganesh Temple to have Darshan and get blessing from the God whose big attribute is to remove evil and bring happiness in the lives of people.

The idea of Devon Ka Raja was the brain child of Nirmal Shewakramani and his wife Gurbachanji. They had hefty backing of Ramesh Mehtani of Resham and Hemant Brahmbhat of Hi India. This was the Sixth year in succession that Devon Ka Raja came and conquered the Devon Avenue with flourish and the credit goes largely to the trio and the huge army of devotees and a good number of volunteers who gave their selfless service and got recognition from Nirmal Shewakramani at the end.

India is a land of Rajas and Maharajas, but mini-India Town on Devon Avenue that has thick Indian population, had none so far. A well minded community activist, inspired by the famous “Lal Bagh Ka Raja, event in Mumbai India, Regal Foundation started their community event as Devon Ka Raja (“King of Devon”) in response to the imminent need of a house of worship right on Heart Of India or Devon Avenue. The Raja was none other than popular Indian God, his highness, Shri Ganapati, designated as Sukh Karta (giver of happiness) and Dukh Harta (destroyer of unhappiness- impediments.)

Entire Puja was performed by Balaji Temple priest Sri Begur Nagendra Rao. His education from Rigveda Mula – Poorva and Apara Prayoga (8 yrs course on Hindu Philosophy, Hindu Tradition and Hindu Religious Rights) Sanskrit – Sahitya (8 yrs course in Sanskrit Scriptures and Literature)

Community activists were led by president of Hindi Lovers Club, Mrs. Gurbachan Singh, and many Devon area businessmen, friends and well-wishers joined in these celebrations. They transported in a huge life size idol of Lord Ganapati, crowned it as Devon Ka Raja and placed in Shree Ganesh Temple of Chicago, 2545 W Devon Ave, Chicago, IL for the occasion. Nonstop 11 days, it was literally festive ‘Mela’ every day for a huge number of Indians flocking in not only from suburbs but also from neighboring States of Indiana and Wisconsin.

Daily there were two prayers (Aartis) in the morning and evening with Bhajans, Garbas, special discourses and Prasads to everyone were other features of the celebrations. The last day saw a special finally or ‘Visarjan’ procession symbolized by immersing the idol in water after the Aarti.

Hundreds of devotees and visitors joined the pomp grand procession fir for the divine king of king, with live band. Throughout the procession of hundreds of worshipers were chanting and dancing as the festival sponsors hoisted the Lord Ganesh in decorated ‘Palakhi’ upon special open truck. 4 block of Devon street was closed

Along the route, King Shri Ganesh showered the surrounding businesses and homes with His blessings, pausing for a special prayer offering good wishes to Sahil Exclusive, Sukhadia’s Sweets, Hindi Lover’s Club, Udapi Palace, Uma Sarees, Punjabi Dhaba, India Sari Palace, Resham’s Handicrafts, NPHi-India Newspaper, Lakshmi Jewelers, Patel Handicrafts, Patel Brothers, Regal Traders, Fresh Farms International Market, Andaaz Jewelers, Joy Allukas, Kamdar Plaza, Raj Jewels, Vitha Jewels, Shewakramani Partnership, Uru-Swati Resturant, Regal Jewels, and Sari Sapne.

After the procession the priest and worshipers bid Ganesh a final farewell as they submerged him into water. Local businesses along with countless volunteers dedicated hours of assistance, offerings of sweets, food and flowers, and praise to the Lord Ganesha, without whom this event would have been impossible.

After the overwhelming success and positive community response, Regal Foundation vowed to celebrate this event every year. The Ganesh Chauthurti has always been welcoming of participants of all faiths to come together and celebration of one of most well-known and revered Hindu gods.

In addition to hosting the annual Ganesh Chauturthi, Regal Foundation is striving to meet the needs of the community by establishing a permanent Ganesh Temple on Devon Ave. Last but not least, the event couldn’t go smoothly and successfully without the hard work of Kaajal Shewakramani Gill and Rahul Gill they are family members.

Regal Jewels is a family owned and operated corporation, established in 1987. Spanning the retail and wholesale markets throughout now India and Pakistan, we have migrated through several countries before establishing ourselves in Chicago. We have proudly served the Chicagoland community for over three decades and through two generations. Visit our website: www.shreeganeshtemple.com Facebook: Devon Ka Raja

Celebration of Festivals at Swaminarayan Temple (Vadtal) Palatine

September 17, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Jal Jhilani Ekadashi was celebrated with great devotion on Monday November 09, 2019 at the Swaminarayan Temple, 1521 N Rand Rd, Palatine, IL. Hundreds of devotees gathered at the Mandir with family and friends to celebrate Jal Jhilani Ekadashi in the presence of Mahant Shree Muktaprasadji. Swaminarayan mandirs around the world celebrate this festival as well.

On Bhadarvo (Bhadra) Sud 11, also known as Parivartini or Jal Jhilani Ekadashi, devotees observe nirjala, a waterless fast. On this day, devotees take a small Murti of Bhagwan, Lalji, and the clay Murti of Ganeshji to a river or lake. Here, devotees perform puja, aarti, and thal of both murtis five times. After each puja, both murtis are taken on a short boat ride. During this time, devotees sing bhajans which describe the importance of sharnagaati, or surrendering oneself to Bhagwan and the Guru. After the puja, the Murti of Ganeshji is submerged into the ocean.

There are a great number of Hindu religious festivals held throughout the world. The festivals typically celebrate events from Hindu mythology, often coinciding with seasonal changes. There are many festivals which are primarily celebrated by specific sects or in certain regions of the Indian subcontinent.

The festive season is widely celebrated. These events have a historic significance and are rooted in various cultural and linguistic norms.

The onset of the famous Diwali is marked by the lighting ‘diyas’, beautifying homes, offering gifts, distributing sweets and visiting friends and family. Similarly, the Holi festival is described as the ‘Festival of Colors”, with its magnificent rain dance and gently throwing the ‘gulaal’ colors on others.

Saints and devotees at Swaminarayan Temple, Palatine, are dedicated to preserve the culture and traditions of our Hindu religion. In temple we celebrate various festivals of our Hindu religion pertaining to Gods Shri Rama, Shri Shyam, Ghanshyam (Shri Swamynarayan Bhagwan).

These festivals are namely Ram Navmi–Shree Ram Janmotsav; Janmashtami-Shree Krishna Mahotsav. To commemorate Janmashtami, the reading of holy Shree Bhagvat Gita, recited by Bhagwan Shree Krishna, was planned by arranging Katha Parayan. Besides these many other festivals are also being celebrated by temple in grand manner.

Enthusiastic and energetic, young Mahant of Swaminarayan Temple Palatine, Shree Muktaprasadji enlightened the devotees by explaining the importance of festivals and temple. With the enthusiasm of all devotee sisters and brothers and cooperation of Saints, all the festivals are celebrated with grandeur.

To celebrate Festival of Ganesh- Ganpati Utsav- this year, the idol of Lord Shree Ganesh is established on 1^st. day of celebration that is Bhadarva Sud 4^th. –Ganesh Chaturthi, and Aarti is recited by devotees in morning as well as evening.

On the eve of Jal Zilani Ekadashi, the holy Lalji Swaroop of Bhagwan is established in a boat that sails in water. According to rituals, five aartis are offered. Devotees reciting Dhoon and Bhajans, singing and dancing, enjoy the festival.

The upcoming event of Maa Jagat Janani Laxmiji – Navratri will be celebrated gracefully where entire atmosphere will be full of devotion adding glamour by playing world famous Garbas and Raas by Devotees during Navratri.

A great attempt will be made to ignite energy hidden amongst kids leading them to foster the world of religion. Lokladila Mahant Shree Muktaprasadji has delightfully declared this program and has cordially invited everyone to attend and enjoy the program.

IndiaFest Milwaukee; State of Wisconsin Experienced Essence of India On 7th annual celebration of “India”

September 3, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Governor Tony Evers has declared Aug 15th, 2019 as the ‘India Day’ in State of Wisconsin, honoring India; recognizing, certifying and endorsing the efforts brought by IndiaFest Milwaukee, a massive community building initiative launched by Spindle India, Inc., in 2013. Former Governor Scott Walker had also recognized and declared August 15th as the ‘India Day’ in Wisconsin in 2018. We celebrated the official India Day of Wisconsin on Aug 17th at IndiaFest Milwaukee, making it a significant milestone, one of its kinds.

“IndiaFest Milwaukee is the largest celebration of India Day in the State of Wisconsin…in addition to celebrating Indian culture, IndiaFest Milwaukee provides a platform for collaboration, connection, education and growth by providing a space for cultural exchange and appreciation; and promotes diversity, inclusion, community, culture and education in Milwaukee by establishing a broad and collective appreciation of India Day, Indian culture and the Indian community”, exclaimed Governor Tony Evers.

“Wisconsin is proud to have IndiaFest Milwaukee, a collaborative and educational service that has been bringing communities together for five years beyond cultures, boundaries, languages, religions and regions; Indian-American’s contribution to the culture, educational and economic fabric of the state of Wisconsin is tremendous”, said former Governor Scott Walker.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism, Travel Wisconsin’s continued support and alliance marks a critical partnership symbolizing the focus around positive economic impact. Travel Wisconsin promotes Wisconsin as a premier travel destination for fun.

Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett commended Spindle India, Inc. & IndiaFest Milwaukee for dedicated service and leadership, recognized its outstanding contributions to the community and proclaimed Aug 15th, 2019 as the INDIA DAY throughout City of Milwaukee.

US Senator Ron Johnson issued a certificate of special senatorial recognition, presented to Spindle India, Inc., in recognition of 7th Annual IndiaFest Milwaukee with a remark, “Thank you for your continued dedication and efforts to bring visibility to the Indian Community of Milwaukee”. “All the acknowledgements and recognitions are tremendous milestones and proud moment for every member of South Asian Indian population in Wisconsin and beyond”, expressed Founder,

Chairwoman, and President of Spindle India, Inc., Purnima Nath. “We are weaving happiness, as we bring people and organizations together. Our goal is to weave India’s colorful cultural threads into the rich multicultural tapestry of American culture”, she remarked. Each state and union territories of India has a unique combination of languages, traditions, religions, clothing, and history, comparable to countries in Europe. “This myriad of diversity comes together in our celebration,” Nath said. “Diversity is the blood of globalism. Inclusiveness is the mantra of acceptance”, she adds.

“In Brookfield, we have a growing population of people with Indian heritage and I personally greatly appreciate the emphasis, which that heritage places on education. Many students of Indian background do exceptionally well in both our public and private schools. I believe this is because of the strong emphasis, which the Indian culture places, on education and parental involvement in the learning process.”, narrated Mayor of Brookfield, Steve Ponto.

This 7th annual grand scale celebration of “India” (#IFM2019), the official India Day of State of Wisconsin (#IndiaDayWI), inaugurated with observing India’s independence day with hoisting and honoring India’s tricolor flag flying high with the people of Wisconsin and many dignitaries of the community. National anthem of India sung by Children of Hindi School of Wisconsin touched hearts of all. Joseph Scala, an Appleton resident sung American National Anthem beautifully. Patriotic songs and dance by our young children honoring India made it extra special that connected people to our mother land.

IndiaFest Milwaukee 2019 is the most vibrant and exciting experience of “India”, aesthetically, visually, from sound byte to taste buds that tingles all senses with 210+ cultural program participants, 10+ hours of non-stop cultural programs, henna, jewelry, clothing, authentic cuisine & special children entertainment. 3 back-to-back concerts by internationally renowned artists kept everyone occupied. Classical tranquil concert was beautifully executed by Santoor Maestro Nanda Kishore Muley, Indrajot Banerjee in Sitar accompanied by Gouri Sankar Karmakar in Tabla. An amazing fusion of eastern and western instruments by Wahh Fusion Band with Shankh Lahiri (Tabla), Peter Mongaya (Guitar), Jason McKenzie (Drums), Seth Lynn (bass), Indrajit Banerjee (Sitar) and finally Bollywood Hungama beats by Celebrity DJ Dharak was amazingly executed. In the 2nd “IFM Got Talent” Nikita Singhal team of children aged from 5 to 13 years old that presented ‘Cultural Diversity of India’ theme grabbed the 1st prize, following Susan Abraham’s performance at 2nd place; and Ananya Rasal scoring 3rd prize.

Vinu Saravana, Neha Patil, Manu Saravana won 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize in children category in 5th Wisconsin Indian Singing Idol. Faiz Ahmad won 1st prize, followed by Manoj Tripathi and Ravi Nandan in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, in the adult category.

In children category of 4th Wisconsin Indian Dancing Idol, Aishwarya School of dance group grabbed both 1st & 2nd prizes, following the team of Sirisha Kota at 3rd prize. Manpreet Kaur & team and Ria Lahoti & team won 1st and 2nd in youth category team respectively. Ramesh Kindre & team, Bubusuhas Mullaveedu & team, Bhaktilata Sahoo & team scored 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize, respectively, in the adult category.

Supriya Vidwan, Kavita Tawadare and Bhanu Lavanya Arasada were the judges for Singing competitions and Meera Viruru, Drisya Raghuram and Anu Kelkar played the judges roles for dancing competitions.

Second year in a row, “Nepal” was featured at IFM2019 prominently, through cultural representations and exhibition. We thank Milwaukee Nepali Community for their kind engagement and superb collaboration.

Many talented dancers surprised the audience with impromptu flash mobs of Garba too. Vibrant, beautiful, bright and gorgeous traditional to contemporary attire and costumes, which is beyond the fashion or style statement, dressed the occasion in classic, timeless yet fashionable statements. IFM2015 launched DJ K, and he was back to support IFM2019 once again, all the way from San Francisco. Bollywood dance gets the biggest and popular presence, as it appears to have stolen many hearts of our community for its energy and fun, by now.

Authentic Indian cuisine, classical to contemporary music and dance illustrate culture of different Indian states & regions. A cause that is bringing business and people together, by relentlessly promoting Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, Collaboration and Education (#DICCE). Professional development, youth engagement, and service commitment are the primary concentration of work; and it was evident on the day. Play area, children’s activities, bouncy house, arts and craft area surrounded the children entertainment area, all planned and executed by Youth Volunteers (with the supervision of adults), Anoushka & Alabhya Prasad, Neha & Megha Patil.

Henna art, Chalk arts, Dhol were staple at this festival. IFM don’t just bring visibility to the people, organization or businesses that participates in the event; we go above and beyond! At the CBS TV live preview show of IndiaFest Milwaukee, prominent visibility was given to a local dance schools and students.

IFM2019 was supported by State Bank of Chilton, Trayix, Travel Wisconsin, Visit Milwaukee, Wisconsin Public Radio, India Garden, Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin, Inc., Wisdom Infotech, ABC, CBS, 103.7 KISS FM, 99.1 MIX, La Mega Spanish Radio channel has supported IFM2019. Key volunteers contributed towards success of the event are Shubhra & Bharat Prasad, Ravi Shankar Kummary, Manju Patil, Balaji Rangachari, Ashita Verma and Phoua Vang.

We had extreme pleasure of presence of some of the dignitaries and community leaders amongst us. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Senator Chris Larson – District 7, Alderman Tony Zielinski, Vanessa Lianas office of US Senator Tammy Baldwin, Danyell Tremmel – office of US Senator Ron Johnson, Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, Milwaukee county Judge Paul Dedinsky & judge Dan Gabler were some of them.

Consul General of India, Sudhakar Dalela thanked and congratulated and complimented us for working with the vibrant Indian American community of Milwaukee to organize IndiaFest every year to showcase India and its rich cultural heritage, traditions and values.

India’s 73rd Independence Day and FIA 10th Anniversary Awards Gala Night

September 3, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: Federation of Indian Associations, Chicago, under the leadership of Founder President Sunil Shah, Founder and past President Onkar Singh Sanga, Current President Ninad Daftari and past President Neil Khot successfully hosted the 73rd Independence Day and FIA 10th Anniversary Awards Gala Banquet. on August 16th at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows.

The Meadows Club donned the Black and Gold theme of the event. The FIA celebrated its 10th Anniversary by recognizing prominent community members and leaders in a glittering awards presentation ceremony. Amongst the 600 plus attendees the event was attended by many VIPs, Dignitaries and Who’s who of the community. Personalities like Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy, Consul General of India Chicago Sudhakar Dalela, Illinois Senator Christina Castro, Illinois Senator Laura Murphy, Illinois State Representatives Michelle Mussman, Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly, Hanover Park Mayor Rodney Craig, Village of Oakbrook Mayor Mr. Gopal Lalmalani and Hoffman Estates Mayor William Mcleod made their presence felt at the event.

The Gala evening and the Award ceremony was emceed by Jassi Parmar and Mohan Rawat of Desi Junction. The evening began with a tradition of the American and Indian national anthems. Then the audience was introduced to the entire FIA board of 2019 while an AV on FIA its work and achievements over the last 10 years was played on the screens in the background. This was followed by Ganesh Vandana.

Founder President Sunil Shah along with Mrs. Rita Shah took center stage. They wished the community on the 73rd Independence Day and welcomed those present to FIA’s 10th Anniversary Awards Gala Banquet. Mr. Sunil Shah then invited Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy, Consulate General of India Chicago Sudhakar Dalela and Past President Neil Khot on Stage. Mr. Sudhakar Dalela and Mr. Raja Krishnamurthy wished all present on the 73rd India Independence Day and also congratulated the FIA on its 10th Anniversary. Neil Khot thanked everyone for gracing the event while extending his wishes on the India Independence Day.

He also thanked the sponsors for their support. Mr. Onkar Singh Sanga wished all present a Happy Independence day welcomed all the dignitaries and congratulated all the winners. Ninad Daftari Current President thanked the people who turned out in large numbers and wished everyone for the Independence Day he thanked the FIA Board, all the sponsors, advertisers, volunteers, DJ, Media Partners particularly TV Asia, Asian Media – Suresh Bodiwala and Adbhut Media – Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan and cultural program performers. FIA showed its commitment to stand by community causes by making a donation to Akshaypatra and Ekal Vidyalaya of US $ 2500.00 each.

The stage was then for the awards ceremony. The awards were classified into two main categories – FIA Choice Awards (Awardees nominated and recognized by the FIA) and popular awards (Awardees nominated by the community voted by the community on a open voting platform).

The Awardees for the Popular Vote Awards were:

Best Community Service Organization Award – Bhartiya Senior Citizens of Chicago, Best Community Service Award (Female) – Vidya Joshi President BMM International, Best Community Service Award (Male) – John Trivedi, President Trivedi Hospitality, Best Couple of th Decade – Paul and Gabriela Chawla, Attorney at Law, Best Entertainer Award – Ms. Pratibha Jairath, Entertainer, Best Medical Professional Award – Dr. Dhaval Patel, O Chicago Institute of Plastic Surgery, Best Services Organization Award – Ms. Archana Paranjape, Realtor with D’Aprile Properties, Entrepreneur of the Decade Award- Mr. Anil Loomba CEO Home Mortgage Solutions Inc., Friends of Indian Community Mr. Tom Dailly Mayor of Schaumburg, Most Popular Restaurant Award – Jigar’s Kitchen Catering Service, and Young All Round Star Award – Ani Singh Basketball Player.

The FIA Choice Lifetime Achievement Awardees were:

Ms. Santosh Kumar, Founder & Executive Director, Metropolitan Asian Family Services, Mr. Deepakkant Vyas, Founder of Redberri Global Corp., Dr. Suresh Reddy a Neuro-Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Srinivas Reddy an Interventional Radiologist, Mr. Chhotalal Patel, an established entrepreneur, a pillar of the community known for philanthropic work, Dr. Anil Oroskar & Dr. Asha Oroskar Co-Founders Orochem Technologies Inc., Ms. Smita Shah, entrepreneur manager at Direct Floors, Mr. Syed Hussaini, Senior Vice President & Area Business Manager Small Business Banking with Wintrust Bank, Mr. Manny Gandhi, CEO Power Plant Services, Mr. Brij Sharma, Owner President Power Volt, Mr. Ketu Amin, President Vinakom Communications, Ms. Pinky Thakkar a Community Supporter, Mr. Michael A Gavin Managing Partner, New York Life, Ms. Malini Vaidyaan, Air India, Mr. Madan Kulkarni CEO Owner of Meadows Club.

The FIA also recognized Media Outlets a first for media in Chicago and the Awardees were:

Mr. Hemant Brahmabhatt, Hi India, Ms. Vandana Jhinghan, TV Asia, Mr. Suresh Bodiwala, Asian Media USA, Mr. Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan, Adbhut Media, M Bhailal Patel , Desi Talk, Mr. Jim Baumann, VP and Chief Editor, Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Mr. Prashant Shah, India Tribune.

The Awards were interpleading with a glittering display of dances and cultural events by Dance Groups – Mankruti and Arya Dance Academy, and Fusion Dance by De Sueno Dance, DJ Sanjay provided the musical interludes.

April is Sikh Awareness & Appreciation month in Illinois; Governor J.B. Pritzker Signs the Bill at the Sikh Gurdwara Premises in Palatine

August 13, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Palatine, IL: State of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a new law on August 3, 2019 designating “April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month” in the state of Illinois. The event took place at Sikh Religious Society (SRS) Palatine Gurdwara. A mini outdoor office of the Governor was set up in the picturesque front lawn of the gurdwara building, near “Nishan Sahib” to conduct the gubernatorial signing ceremony per their official protocol and tradition.

Governor Pritzker was surrounded by overjoyed members of the Sikh community in the premises of the gurdwara near “Nishan Sahib” when he signed the bill. More than 200 Sikhs and guests attended the ceremony and celebration.

“As we shape our state to be a place that embraces our future with open arms, we would do well to take a page from the Sikh community. That’s why I’m proud to sign this legislation designating the month of April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month,” said Governor J.B. Pritzker amid applause and expressions of cheers from the Sikh community members assembled at the premises of Palatine Gurdwara.

“As Sikhs throughout the world celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of their first guru, we celebrate you as an integral part of the Illinois community. We are tremendously proud that so many Sikhs call this state their home,” tweeted Governor Pritzker. “I hope the new law will provide greater understanding of the Sikh community,” he added.

The HB2832 Bill had first passed the house vote bearing signatures of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Michael J. Madigan, and the Senate President John J. Cullerton. The State Commemorative Dates Act is amended by adding Section 8 which states – “Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. The month of April of each year is designated as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation month to be observed throughout the State as a month to recognize the many ways that Sikh Americans have influenced American history, achievement, culture, and innovation.”

State Representative Michelle Mussman sponsored the bill which was co-sponsored in the House by State Representatives, Fred Crespo, Stephanie Kifowit, Tom Morrison, and Jonathan Carroll and supported by many others including Mark Walker, Mark Kalish, Karina Villa, Theresa Mah, and Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz.

The bill was filed in the Senate by the Senate president John Cullerton and supported by Illinois Senators Ann Gillespie, Laura Murphy, Laura Ellman, Ram Villivalam among many others. The bill passed in both houses. The governor’s signatures on August 3, 2019 made it a law. The law takes effect on January 1, 2020.

State Representative Michelle Mussman expressed her pleasure to sponsor the house bill HB2832 and praised the Sikh community for their core values, contributions to the society, and service to humanity.

Sikh Religious Society Palatine President Dr. Pardeep singh Gill welcomed and thanked the governor and the guests. President Gill explained the significance of the month of April for the Sikh community. It includes “Khalsa Saajna Divas” (birth of the Khalsa order) and also birth of the founder of Sikh faith Guru Nanak Dev. A Punjabi cultural festival of “Vaisakhi” also falls in April.

Rajinder Singh Mago spoke about the significance of the bill to the Sikh community and introduced the governor. “Signing into law the very important designation of Sikh Awareness month shows Governor J.B. Pritzker’s commitment to ensuring that Sikhs in Illinois are an important and valuable part of our growing society.” said Rajinder Singh Mago. “It also helps us combat the challenges we face everyday when it comes to hate crimes, bias and a lack of understanding about our faith and religious articles,” Mago added.

A poster depicting the bravery of Sikh Soldiers in World Wars I & II was presented to the governor as a token of appreciation by Sarwan Singh and S.R.S. President Dr Pardeep Singh Gill.

The dignitaries in addition to the governor Pritzker who attended the event were, Illinois State Representatives Michelle Mussman and Mark Walker, State Senators Ann Gillespie and Laura Ellman, Palatine Township committee-man Matt Flamm, committeeman Patrick Watson, Hanover Park Township trustee Khaja Moinuddin, and several local communities.

Punjab Sports Club Chicago Festival Well Attended to maximum Capacity

August 7, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Sports 0

Chicago IL: The great festival organized by the Punjab Sports and Cultural Club, Chicago, on July 7, 2019, at the Bussee Woods, Elk Grove, Illinois, was significant not only due to the huge community turnout, but also the thrilling Kabaddi competitions and heart winning music, as well as the delicious and sumptuous food. Thousands of festival attendees whole-heartedly enjoyed the Punjabi delicacies all through the day

Many of the festival goers had come from far off places like Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, California, and various cities of Illinois. Beginning of the celebrations was marked by reciting ‘Holy Ardaas’ by Bhai Parminderjit Singh, Head Granthi of Sikh Religious Society (Gurudwara Palatine). The Club Members and the numerous guests released the colorful balloons in air.to mark the excitingl inauguration of the Mela.

The Punjab Sports Club, Seattle were declared the First-place winner in the famous Kabaddi competitions, followed by Punjab Sports Club, Chicago as Runners-up. A total of four teams namely, the Punjab Sports Club, Seattle: Sher-e- Punjab Sports Club, Chicago India Asia Kabaddi Team and North Sports Kabaddi Club participated in the Kabaddi tournament. The Sher-e-e Punjab Sports Club, Seattle, was sponsored by Baretty Gill Mohna Seattle Sandip and Varinder.

The first match was played between She-e-Punjab Sports Club, Seattle and India Asia teams, in which the later outplayed the former by 28 to 20 points.

Love Nagra dominated his bout with Jalalpuria. A tough bout was fought between Jalalpuria and Neki. Many tricky moves were applied. Finally, Neki outplayed the opponent in points scored. In another match, Daljit won the contest against Ranjit

In the second match, the Punjab Sports Club Chicago team was winner with 37 points against North America Sports Club score of 31 points. Yaad won the match with Bachitar. Raider Ravi won the public applaud by grabbing the ankle of Daljinder and stopping him. Likewise, in his contest with Jatinder, Bal rightly won the audience cheers by escaping from the former’s tight cross leg. Bachitar vs Khushi; Kale vs Yaad; and Harkhowal vs Bhinder also strongly locked horns.

The first semi-final was played between North America Sports Kabaddi Club and Sher-e-Punjab Sports Club. Jalalpuria successfully trapped Bachitar into a strong cross-leg hold. The tussle between Sandeep and Jatinder was fierce; but Sandeep prevailed. Sethi clearly dominated over Lovely. Dalli won over Jatinder; Sandeep won over Harkhowal; Pale prevailed over Kale; Karambir won over Bunty; Sethi prevailed over Bhupinder; Dule won over Jatinder; Sandeep prevailed over Daljinder: Karambir won over Harkhowal; Dule prevailed over Harkhowal; and Sandeep won over Jatinder and scored the points for their respective teams. Sher-e-Punjab Sports Club Seattle won a place to contest in Finals after defeating North America Sports Kabaddi Club.

In the second semi-final, Punjab Sports Club Chicago remained winner with 32 points whereas. India Asia Club became the runners-up with 32 points. Gauri and Gurwinder fought a tough bout leading to a point victory by Gurwinder. Aman Dasuya dominated the fight with Manna. Love Nagra won over Chattha after a tough fight. A fierce bout between Nagra and Bhupinder saw the victory going to Nagra.

The Final was held between Punjab Sports Club Chicago and Sher-e-Punjab Sports Club Seattle. Dulla was the winner in strong fight with Yaad. Yaad applied a powerful cross-leg hold on Sandeep which the later counter very skillfully and won the wide applaud from the fans.at large.

Khushi and Dulla were a great match for each other, but victory went to Dulla. When Khushi made Daljeet look helpless with a reverse cross leg hold, the audience burst into a loud, hearty cheers. Ravi scored fast points over Jalalpuria. Bhupinder won over Dulla in the power struggle. Between Ravi and Lovely, Lovely won the bout.

Pala Sahota, Ravi, Yodha, Aman Dasuha, Ranjit, Manna and Bhupinder won the admiration for their impressive Kabaddi skills. When the players grabbed the opponents’ wrist, applied the leg locks, clasped around their mid body area, or pushed them outside the circle to score the points, the fans would burst into cheers and rewarded the winner with cash rewards to boost their confidence. Makhan Ali kept the atmosphere alive manifolds by his witty commentary of Kabaddi matches. He sprinkled his comments with poetic couplets full of cultural wisdom. He extolled the youth, “My dear ones! Refrain from the substance addiction and nurture youir lives with high values”. He further high-lighted, “Punjabis have carried Kabaddi with them to where ever they have settled in the world, they have been in love with kabaddi since ages. When they carry raid (in Kabaddi) the earth moves and their great bodies shine, the whole world watches in awe”. They believe in working hard and that the victory would come to them.

Dhavi Khushi, Yaad Kotli, Pehlwan Kahalwan, Bhinder Chadha, Raider Ravi, Pali and Manna representing the Punjab Sports Club Chicago, put in their best to bring honor of victory to their team. They tried many powerful moves of grappling on the opponents, but barely missed grabbing the top position. However, Raider Dule, Sandeep, Daljit Dullee, Karambir Johal, forward Pala Jalalpuria, Sinder Kalasanghia, Lovely and Lucky of Sher-e-Punjab Sports Club Seattle, jointly succeeded in earning the top honors of winning Kabaddi Cup for their team.

Manna Balnu was adjudged the Best Raider; and Pala Jalalpur as the Best Stopper. Amolak Singh Jakhal and Iqbal Singh Gakhal also offered the cash rewards of $500.00 each for the Best Raider and Best Stopper. Regal Jewellars offered gold coins to reward the Best Raider and Best Stopper.

Milwaukee businessman Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, honoring the memories of his father Subedar Kartar Singh, sponsored the first prize. The second prize was sponsored by Ghuman Brothers of Indiana, in memory of their late brother Harbhajan Singh Ghuman. Raja Talan, Raja Bhandal, Dilbag Hothi and Neelon acted as the Refrees. Raghwinder Singh Maahal performed the duties of Scorer.

Volleyball competitions were held among four teams, namely, Bhagat Singh Sports Club Chicago, Volleyball Chicago – B Team, Madison Volleyball and Milwaukee Volleyball. The Bhagat Singh Sports Club, Chicago secured the first position, whereas, Milwaukee team won the second place. Randeep Singh Sanghera, Shaan Sanghera, Mathew, Tony Sanghera and Philips were notable for their excellent performance. Among Milwaukee team, Raj, Gopi, Bhupinder, Vicki, Dharam and Ravi were the outstanding performers. Many competitions were decided on a very narrow margin. Volleyball Tournament was dedicated to the memories of late Harbhajan Singh Gakhal, Harjaap Singh Sangha and Major Singh Mauji. The reward money for Volleyball winners was sponsored by Lakha Dhindsa and Amarjit Dhindsa. The management honored the sponsors by offering them souvenirs.

There were great arrangements for sumptuous food and beverages stalls at the Mela. People fully enjoyed sizzling hot tea and vegetable fritters, ‘jalebis’, ‘Gulab jamun’, ‘samosa’, ‘gol gappa’ efficiently catered by India Café, Milwaukee. The Mela comers whole heartedly enjoyed all these mouth-watering delicacies from the very start till conclusion of event. Event Management Committee had made effective arrangements to maintain the cleanliness throughout the event area. For the music segment, Gary Sandhu arrived attired in Kurta-pajama and specially designed black eye wears, and remarked, “I have come to England after eight years, but arrived in Chicago for the first time.

He started the renditions with famous number “Ek Tera Shara Mil Jaye, Dunia Di Parwah Nahin Karada”, followed by “Banda Baan Jaa, Dilan De Jania”. To strike friendly cord with the listeners, he said ‘I am son of a Jat, but am in love with music. I came to England when I was 19. There immigrants without documentation are referred as ‘Fauji’. And he broke into another number ‘Koi Mourd Liyao Ni, Fauji Mera Bhaj Giya’;(It is noteworthy that Gary Sandhu was deported from England). Gary recited many Punjabi and mixed language songs. He prompted the people with humor, “Give me the Cheer ups to keep me going even when my time portion is over”.

Referring to his co-singer Jasmine Sandels, Gary said that she did not want to sing the duet as ‘Bhabhi’, but we sang the number, it scored a hit. ”Bhabhi Suun Meri Gal, Mainu Ek Kurri Naal Pyar Ho Giya”.We composed a song “Aa Jaa Gallan Kariya Pyar Dian” And then we had a fight “Huun Bolian Vi Nahin Boldi”. He said in a lighter but sarcastic tone that “some ‘Khasamkhana’(scoundresl) filled her mind with arrogance. But I cconfronted her after ingesting two drinks, and scared her with my first ‘Lalkaar’ (challenge), followed by a song dedicated to mothers -”Duniya Wich Ek Cheeze Avali Maa” For the truck drivers’ brotherhood he sang, :Sarak Te Chit Nahin Lagda”; a rap number “Jihri Aa pasand”. He made the people dance on their feet with his number “Hauli Hauli Naach Mitra”.

Gary Sandhu also seemed smitten with the cricket bug of World Cup He showed it as soon as he stepped on the stage imitating a bowling move, instead of offering a bow to the platform. At the conclusion also, he left the stage imitating a swing as if hitting a ’four’ or ‘six’ in cricket. Most of his songs were revolved around his love story. It so seemed that he just presented his love story to the audience as was evident from his selection of songs. He himself narrated that, he fell in love with a girl; they had a fight’ she dumped him; she asks from more time to think about a patch-up; he went to her after drinking two shots; she got scared upon the first confrontation; His shared his realization that “romance is not everything”; now she does not respond to calls; some scoundrel instigated her; let us forget the grouses; let us meet again; I love you; you don’t lose anything if you respond; my beloved. Though Gary did not mention any name, but many in the audience could be heard mentioning a name.

Starting with saying ‘Sat Sri Akal’, the 6^th Chicago District Congressman Shan Costine expressed his great happiness for participating in the kabaddi and cultural program. He praised that Punjabi community has made noteworthy progress not only in Illinois but all over the U.S.A. Congressman met with the players. He visited the various tents to greet the visitors and posed for photographs. He was accompanied by Balwinder Shaukar, Laddi Singh, Thakkar Singh Basati and Master Khan. Congressman Raja Krishnamurti also paid a visit at the event. He said that he is very much impressed with the Sikh community and his association with the community goes back a long way. Punjabis have earned a special recognition as result of their resilience and social acumen.

The newly elected Mayor of Schaumburg, Tom Daley, also participated in the festivities at the event. The hopeful for position of Supreme Court Judgeship, Gerry G. Rice, was also seen socializing with the people and distributing his business cards among them. The past contestant for Mayor of Schaumburg, Rehman Nawees was also present. The Counsel General of India could not make it, but was represented by his representative. Jessi White also could not attend the event.

The Secretary of State Jessi White’s famous tumbler team of 19 young gymnast boys and girls performed amazing acrobats including high jumps and long jumps and earned high praise and cheers from the overwhelmed onlookers. Weather was very pleasant. The playground was swaying among soft breeze with scores of artistic buntings of Indian and American national colors. Parking lots were filled to the capacity. The police were seen guiding the tardy arrivals to park their cars outside the forest preserve.

There was an impressive crowd of shoppers around the booths at the Mela selling ladies suits, Punjabi-style shoes. Ladies were also getting the complimentary artistic henna tattoos. Some men folks also had fun of getting the henna applied on their hands. The Desi Kulfi seller also had a hay day with big sales.

Ample quantity of drinking water bottles was available. However, many people had littered the ground floor with used bottles. The cleaning crew were busy filling their boxes by collecting these bottles. A white American Sikh was also seen participating in the cleaning services by collecting the soiled plates and bottles from the floor.

The event was so filled with the people that someone was heard complementing, “Besides the attraction of Kabaddi and melodious music, there is definitely some magical personality in this organization who is successful in attracting such a large crowd from far flung areas with his goodwill”.

Due to the huge crowd, many visitors had to find the parking at far off parking spots. Lucky Sahota, the owner of Safe Way, provided free shuttle service for the comfort of people to ferry them from their parking spots to the area of festival activities. Kabaddi Tournament was very impressive. National players exhibited very competitive kabaddi.

Jaskaran Singh Dhaliwal had enthusiastically made efficient arrangements for all the Kabaddi teams. Star foods had provided Paranthas, Mixed Aalloo, and Dahi for players’ breakfast, which they thoroughly relished.

Once a while, we saw the heated exchanges of words over the award of points, with the referee. Upon which, the commentator had to intervene to calm down the situation. Technical Committee had to intervene in the field and finally, the organizers had to declare that the Referee’s decision would be deemed as the final word.

This time, besides Punjabis, a large score of people from Gujarat, south Indian states, and the Muslim community also attended the event. There was a special arrangement for ‘Moon Walk” for the children, which they thoroughly enjoyed. However, this smooth fun had a bump when the generator ran out of gas causing walk ramp to go limp. This was a unique entertainment experience for the children. Soon enough, the management and Lakhbir Singh Sandhu arrange the gas and succeeded in re-starting the generator.

The stage was handled by Happy heer, Dr. Harjinder Singh Khaira and Gurmukh Bhullar. Lakhbir Singh Sandhu and Pal Dhaliwal had been busy assisting the organizers since morning. In addition to the contributions of scores of people, Chairman Love Minhas, Chief Rajinder Singh Dyal, Meet Chief Amritpal Singh Sangha, and club members happy Heer, Narinder Saraan, Harwinder Singh Billa, Jaskarn Singh Dhaliwal, Lovedeep Singh Dullat, Dr Harjinder Singh Khaira, Gurmeet Singh Bhola, Lakhvir Singh Sahota, Hardip Gill, Midha Mahilpuria and Yadwinder Singh Grewal also gave their best to ensure a successful meet.

Sudden Cardiac-death Awareness Research Foundation 2nd Annual Gala Attracts Record-breaking Attendance

August 7, 2019 Asian Media USAHealth 0

S.C.A.R.F Rhythm of Life Gala Increases Awareness of Sudden Cardiac Death awareness

Schaumburg IL: More than 530 guests attended the 2nd Rhythm of Life Gala hosted by The Sudden Cardiac-death Awareness Research Foundation (S.C.A.R.F.), an annual fundraising event which aims to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest on July 27 at the Chicago Marriott in Schaumburg Illinois.

“While S.C.A.R.F. has accomplished so much over the years, we still have a long way to go. Sudden cardiac arrest remains the number one cause of death in the United States and is responsible for more than 550,000 lives lost each year. Awareness surrounding the issue is vital because this number continues to rise,” said Rubina Nguyen, co-founder of S.C.A.R.F.

“We have nearly doubled in size in the past year and are grateful for the tremendous support we received from individuals, community groups, local and national organizations,” Nguyen added.

The event highlights the achievements of S.C.A.R.F.’s automated external defibrillators (AEDs) donation program which provides free AEDs for nonprofit organizations, including schools, park districts, places of worship, and charitable organizations. Through its AED donation program, S.C.A.R.F has approved 16 Chicago area facilities to receive an AED free of cost, thus far this year.

“AEDs, when applied before the arrival of emergency medical services, can nearly triple a person’s chance of survival from sudden cardiac arrest. By increasing the number of AEDs in the community and increasing the number of citizens trained in their use, we can significantly impact cardiac arrest survival rates,” said Dr. Sarah Alfano Director of Clinical Information at S.C.A.R.F.

The evening represented the culmination of the 2019 S.C.A.R.F. Mentorship and Career Guidance Program which hosted 50 high school and college-age interns, their largest mentorship class to date.

The 8-week mentorship program provides an opportunity for Chicago area students to research health care topics, round with cardiology and electrophysiology physicians, and participate in community awareness events during their summer vacation months.

The core goal of the program is to provide exposure to medicine while promoting the importance of philanthropy and giving back to the community all while gaining professional skills that can carry them through any educational or career path.

Each year student ambassadors present their research via poster presentation to a team of judges. This year’s winning project, R.E.S.T. was on the topic of sleep apnea was created by Shalin Kadakia, Shravi Kothari, and Ananya Sehgal.

“The most common hours of sudden cardiac arrest are between midnight and 6:00 AM” says Dr. Paul Nguyen, founder of S.C.A.R.F. “This is why having a foundational knowledge of sleep apnea is critical towards our mission.”

Co-founders Rubina and Paul Nguyen awarded the Dr. Harvinder Sareen Scholarship to student ambassador Morish Shah for her outstanding achievements and contribution to the mentorship class.

Dr. Sowmya Anjur of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy was the recipient of the S.C.A.R.F. educational grant.

S.C.A.R.F. has launched a new program for students who are not yet of age to participate in the Mentorship and Career Guidance Program, S.C.A.R.F. junior. SCARF junior is an introductory camp designed for youth participants between the ages of 10 – 13 to learn about the anatomy and physiology of the heart, professionalism, healthy lifestyles, and how to plan their career paths from an early age. Students also participate in a heart dissection and become officially CPR/AED certified by the end of camp.

For more information about S.C.A.R.F.s’ AED donation and mentorship programs or if you know of an organization that would benefit from an AED, please visit www.scarfnow.org to apply.

Institute of Medicine of Chicago Honors Dr. Vemuri S. Murthy with The 2019 Humanitarian Global Health Award

July 16, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Dr. Vemuri S. Murthy, a well-known champion of global resuscitation training programs in India and the US, was honored at the Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago with the “2019 Humanitarian Global Health Award” on June 27, 2019 at the Spertus Institute, 610 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago. The program was attended by more than 200 invitees from various healthcare organizations of the Cook County and Greater Chicago. The Institute of Medicine of Chicago has been contributing to the practice of medicine and the business of healthcare in Chicago since 1915.

Dr. Murthy, an adjunct faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois @ Chicago, is the immediate past President of the Chicago Medical Society and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He is the founder of the Society’s project SMILE (Saving More Illinois Lives through Education) with ongoing community CPR programs encouraging bystander CPR in sudden cardiac arrests. He has been involved with international resuscitation programs for several years and is currently leading a global CPR initiative of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. His contribution in initiating resuscitation training courses in Indian Medical Colleges is well known. He has been a veteran international volunteer of the American Heart Association and is a visiting Professor of the Indian Medical Universities and Institutions.

Dr. Vemuri Murthy’s decades of global service and contributions in the field of resuscitation to enhance outcomes after cardiac arrests have been recognized by various organizations in the US and India. He was recently also honored by the Rotary International with the “Paul Harris International Service Award” in Naperville in May 2019.

GPR Engineering College Alumni Association North America Chapter

July 16, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Education 0

Chicago IL: About one hundred members from G Pulla Reddy Engineering College (www.gprec.ac.in) alumni and friends from all cities of the United States, travelled to Chicago on weekend of July 7, 2019 to join the GPREC Alumni Association North America conference held at Fairfield Marriott, 700 National Pkwy, Schaumburg, IL.

This growing community of engineers and professionals from North America region, enjoyed two such events in the past including the first grand inauguration of GPREC Alumni North America Chapter in 2014 at Silicon Valley, CA & Washington DC followed by one in Dallas in 2017. Apart from this special event the Alumni events were previously held in NATA convention as well.

Local Chicago chapter members Mr. Naveen Aduma and Mr. Achyut Kodali welcomed the guests and Mr. Siva Shankar Reddy form Washington DC metro area, conducted the all-day program. The program started with a speech by Mr. KV Reddy, President of the Association explaining the vision, mission of the Association and the distinguished members of the first batch from the institution Mrs. Surekha Nadella, Mr. Srinivas Chada, Mr. Venkatarami Reddy Yerrabolu(2nd batch) & 3rd batch Mr. Raju Datla, Mr. Nagendra Singamsetty, Mr. Veer Karri, Mr. Venu Pajjuri, lighted the lamp and remembered the GPREC founder Late Sri G Pulla Reddy, his vison to provide affordable and quality professional education to all.

The association recognized several successful professionals and business leaders of the community, including Mr. Raju Datla & Mr. Veer Karri of Vistex, Mr. Venkat Pasula of R3 Technology, Mrs. Malathi Karri from the State of Wisconsin, Mr. Kiran Vankamamidi of Driscoll.

The afternoon program was packed with fun and professional activities like speed connect, Technlogy and Leadership Panel Discussion, and recognition of Women in Engineering. The festive all-day program was concluded by Mr. Guru Charan Chitna with recognition and acknowledgements to GPREC Chicago team members Mr. Ajit Gurajala, Mr. Rajeev Gunukula, Mr. Anil Chitreddy, Sreedhar Babu. The Schamburg/WoodField event center was filled with GPREC College atmosphere for the weekend and concluded with a Tech Toast celebration honoring the members worked in the formation of GPREC Alumni North America Chapter.

Vipul Ishwarlal Patel will always be remembered for hard work and honesty

July 3, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago, IL: We appreciate all of you joining us to honor the memory of Vipul Ishwarlal Patel. He passed away due to savior heart attack, on Monday – May 20, 2019, at 1:00 pm in Chicago. Vipul will live forever in our hearts. May his soul rest in peace.

His funeral was well attended by community leaders, family members and friends. Hitesh Gandhi; Vice president of FIA, Lalbhai Patel; Chairman of Umiya Mataji Temple, Chandrakant Modi MD; Chairman Asian Cremation USA, Dinaben Modi, Sailash Masa, Rekha Patel, Usha Masi and Bipin Mama came from L.A. Jayshreeben and Devendra Patel joined from Chicago. Vipul had lots of friends among the photographer and videographer groups, along with Chirag Patel, Hanif, Kalpesh Gandhi, Asish Desai and Urvesh Thakkar. Nilu, Lubna [Threading Salon], Niki, Komal Jani, Manubhai Jani, Amit (Anant) Shah and Sardar Patel Group. Since, his both sons were in India, so, entire “Agni Sanskar Vidhi” was performed by Shital Patel son Devers Desai. Funeral was attended by Shobhana Patel’s coworkers and friends. Even though month of Ramadan, a lot of Muslim friends [Amrin, Noor and Ayesha], also attended the funeral. Kiran Rami and Sonal Rami contribute flowers and David Pimm donate funeral for Vipul Patel. Atul and Alka from Hare Rama and Hare Krushna participate in chanting Chapter 12 and 15 Bhagavad-Gita Adhyāya.

Vipul Patel was a simple man who loved his family and worked every day with reliability and dependably. Vipul was the prime example of accepting perplexing work that others in his profession stayed away. Vipul was successful warrior who met challenges early in life due to death of his father when he was just 11 yrs. old. He became bread winner and concurrently completed Commerce degree. Motivation and hard work with range and depth of his visionary artistic talent and amazing energy lead him to successful, a self-taught, and talented well-liked popular Photo and videographer. He was known to many members of the Health and Engineering professional groups in the Chicago community.

One example comes to my mind. One day on hot sunny humid August 15 India Independence Day on Devon Avenue in Chicago, he was assigned to the parade route to take full length video, lasting several hours. When no one else wanted such weighty task, Vipul accepted the challenge. He carried heavy video camera in poignant spectacle and produced an outstanding product. The highlight from his work was selected for broadcast watched by millions of viewers in the evening news on local TV channel.

Vipul and his wife Shobhana, has been the pillar of strength for Asian Media USA. They both burnt lots of midnight oil means long hours to keep up the professional excellence. Their dedication to raise the quality and delivery standards always moved to the higher levels for Asian Media USA. Vipul relentlessly covered numerous high-power events such as, the Governor of Illinois; and the Mayor of Chicago. He always showed great class in meeting with the elected dignitaries like City Aldermen, Senators and Congressmen. His versatility is evident from the fact that he also covered the press briefing with Honorable Shri Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India. Being an avid sportsman himself, Vipul always took special interest in covering the community sports event like the annual meets of Punjabi Cultural Society, Palatine, Illinois. The wide variety of his professional achievements also included meticulously covering the details of visits of many cultural and movie artists from India.

Vipul, despite his chronic illness exposing him to high risk of becoming dehydrated completed his duty.

His enduring work of creating a photographic memorial will be fondly remembered by many individuals, and families. Despite his health challenges, nothing stopped him from being outwardly, polished professional, running to the event after event, from one location to another, like temples, Consulate Office, Community festivals and community mega events like “Vibrant Gujrat and BJPWorld Hindu Congress”.

He is survived by his wife Shobhana and sons Suril and Ravish. As per the Hindu religious ritual, his body was cremated on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 [12 noon] Vipul has left lasting memory in our heart.

Special messages from Shobhana Patel;

Our hear felt and thanks to all the people who attended funeral services as well as others for their prayers and who sent us massages on social media, e-mail, Text and WhatsApp

Code Ninjas Grand Opening in Naperville Downtown

June 18, 2019 Asian Media USAEducation, Science & Technology, Youth 0

“Teach kids coding and logic and problem-solving in a fun environment”

Naperville IL: You already know that your kids understand computers better than you, but did you know they can write computer code too?

Say the words “video game” and kids are bound to stop and listen. At Code Ninjas, they are coding and building their own games.

Code Ninjas in Naperville celebrated its Grand Opening at 1305 S Naper Blvd. in Naperville, IL. on Saturday, June 1, 2019. It was packed with kids from ages 7 to 14. New faces and current enrolled families joined to celebrate this location’s official opening. It is one of over 300 locations across the country.

The mission of Code Ninjas is to teach kids coding and logic and problem-solving in a fun environment. Kids who sign up for membership are ninjas. The coaches are sensei’s. And the classroom is their dojo.

As ninjas progress, they earn belts, just like they do in martial arts. The program is fun and motivating for kids with little wins along the way. When they advance to the next belt there is a “Belt-Up” celebration! By the time kids are a black belt (the last belt), perhaps four years down the road, they have all the knowledge needed to publish their own app.

Two sisters I met that are enrolled were excited to share that by the end of the first day in the dojo they were able to complete a multitude of games.

“Honestly, I wish I had this,” says a parent. “It’s intimidating looking at all the lines of code.”

Code Ninjas has other fun and engaging methods to teach kids about all different kinds of coding. The day I was there, a sensei was demonstrating how some coding was used to fly a drone around the room, to the delight of kids. Code Ninjas offers camps during school breaks where kids engage in topics different from curriculum.

The Naperville location is owned and operated by Kalyan Anandula and Preethi Kundoor. With a background in technology and application development, they were looking for STEM related activities for their own children and found that Code Ninjas offered the perfect environment for learning in a fun environment with other students who have the same interest.

“I always felt that if I had a better understanding of coding or STEM, it would have helped me in my corporate career, even as a business professional,” Kalyan says.

Code Ninjas is essentially an after-school STEM program. Ninjas can drop in from 4 to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. on weekends. They also can join summer camps.

“We don’t want kids to come here feeling like this is a class,” Kalyan says. “They’re here to build video games and have fun. We disguise the curriculum.” Code Ninjas accomplishes this with a consistent game-based curriculum developed within nine belts. Membership includes a portal for parents where you can see what games your child is building and track their progress — or you can play the game they built yourselves.

A future career in coding could happen for any child who walks through the doors of a Code Ninjas location. Code Ninjas, though, is not just for kids who want to pursue STEM careers, Preethi emphasizes.

“Our mission is to expose kids to STEM and coding, so those two words aren’t intimidating anymore,” she says. “We hope that kids can make informed decisions when they choose their majors in college. The logic and problem-solving skills gained from our curriculum are helpful for various career paths.”

I spoke with the Center Director and local educator Lori Gehrke. She is excited to see so many children come into the center who are interested in gaining exposure to coding at such as young age. “We are providing children with skills that will help them gain access to jobs that currently do not exist, but with a foundation in coding and the critical thinking skills, they will be prepared for anything that comes their way in the future.”

Coding is important to help kids learn the critical skills that they need for their success. Code Ninjas Naperville provides the atmosphere of fun and learning with parents seeing results. For more information about the Code Ninjas Naperville location, please visit codeninjas.com/locations/il-naperville or call 630-300-3636 to schedule a center tour

National Council of Asian Indian Associations (NCAIA) Chicago Inaugural Programe

June 18, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Naperville, IL: On June 8, 2019 the National Council of Asian Indian Associations, Inc. (NCAIA) Chicago Chapter held its inaugural program to bring together over 45 active Indian American Community Service Organizations under one roof at the Northern Illinois University Campus in Naperville, Illinois. In the program 23 Organizations shared their mission and key accomplishments from various sectors such as Healthcare, Senior Welfare, Water & Environment, Education, Multiple Services, Peace Initiatives & International Relations, and Special Services benefiting millions of people in both US and India.

Indian Consul General, Hon. Shri Sudhakar Dalela, was the Chief Guest and Congressman from the 8th District of Illinois, Hon. Raja Krishnamoorthi, was the Guest of Honor at the program. The Program was sponsored by the Dean, College of Business of Northern Illinois University, Dr. Balaji Rajagopalan. There were around 180 people in attendance including youth. The Organizing Committee members included Harish Kolasani, Dr. Paul Prabhaker, and Dr. Manu Vora.

The National President of NCAIA Mr. Harish Kolasani spoke about NCAIA’s history and played a video of National board members from Washington D.C. they explained the mission and vision of their prestigious organization who hosted the community programs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, many Central Ministers and the Indian Ambassadors while working closely with the Indian Embassy as an Umbrella Organization based in Washington D.C. Now, Harish Kolasani’s focused mission is to empower Indian community by promoting the effective community organizations, community leaders and any Indian-American who made or are making positive impact in the community.

Consul General Dalela mentioned about his experience with NCAIA in Washington D.C. and his connection with the Chairman Dr. Har Swarup Singh who was a former Indian Ambassador and congratulated the newly elected President Mr. Harish Kolasani. He also appreciated Harish Kolasani for the step he took to promote the organizations who are directly serving Indian community which will create motivation to all organizations to give effective services and also educate the community with the available free services from Indian organizations.

Raja Krishnamurthy in his statement praised NCAIA for bringing 47 organizations and the vibrant audience under one roof.

After the presentations session, Consul General Dalela praised NCAIA team for conducting this effective program by creating the awareness of the important services rendered by Indian organizations which is very well received by all the community leaders.

Harish Kolasani thanked Dr Manu Vora for working behind the scene and conducting the program very professionally. Also, the NCAIA team and the community leaders who presented their work have sincerely thanked all the media supported this program with great photography and videography without any charge by showing their support to the community.

Volunteers from 92 cultures convene to plan the 29th Annual Skokie Festival of Cultures

April 25, 2019 Asian Media USABusiness, Community, Culture/Religion 0

Representatives from 92 different cultures convened on Monday – April 15, 2019, to organize the 29th Skokie Festival of Cultures scheduled to take place on May 18 & 19, 2019 at Oakton Park. The three-day event is expected to draw an estimated 25,000 people from the Village of Skokie and surrounding areas.

The festival will kick- off on Friday evening with an International Short Film Festival and feature more than 60 ethnic performances throughout the weekend as visitors experience the cultural diversity existing within Skokie through the event theme “Passport to the World.”

John Marquardt, chairman of the Planning Committee and Pamela Zeid from the Village of Skokie led the volunteer meeting to finalize the cultural booth selection criteria.

This year’s event is expected to feature cultural booths highlighting cultural diversity existing within the Skokie community. The purpose of the festival is to bring together people from the Village for an entire weekend allowing them to celebrate one another’s customs and cultural backgrounds in a fun and colorful setting.

The food vendors for this year’s event include Skokie Rotary, Windsor Ice Cream, Blackhawk BBQ & Seafood, Lee Concessions, Tamale Express, LC Restaurant, Uncle Zorba’s Greek Foods, Urhai Community Service Center and the Perk & Pickle Food truck.

This year’s event is sponsored by Geico, NorthShore University HealthSystem, State Farm, Nicor Gas, Renewal by Andersen, Bright Horizons Early Education & Preschool, Byline Bank, Chiro One Wellness Centers, Eye Level, Power Home Remodeling, First Bank Chicago-Highland Park, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs of Skokie Valley.

John Marquardt, and Pamela Zeid who led meeting did an excellent job at addressing questions from participating organizations; and generating enthusiasm and excitement of the upcoming event.

Krishna Goyal, Member, Skokie Human Relations Commission, who has been serving the Village of Skokie for more than 20 years and Chandrakant Modi, M.D. Chairperson, Gandhi Memorial Chicago, also attended the meeting. Due to Easter Sunday Babu Verma could not attend this meeting however he is part of cultural committee executive member in Village od Skokie.

“This is the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and we are elated to be participating in this event to celebrate Gandhi’s life through literature and photos,” said Chandrakant Modi, M.D.

Gandhi Memorial Chicago will also participate in Skokie’s annual Fourth of July Parade. Arnold Oskin who organizes the parade shared that slots are starting to fill up and those who care interested can register on the website. Gandhi Memorial Chicago float will be part of Fourth of July Parade in Skokie.

For businesses or community organizations interested in supporting the festival through donations may contact Jon Marquardt at 847- 674-1500, ext 3520. In return for their support Friends of the Festival will receive advertisement during the event Skokie Park District facilities and lobbies. The planning committee is also looking for volunteers for the event. Volunteers may go to the Festival website and submit an online application.

IABC Business Summit & Business Salute to the Consul General Ms. Neeta Bhushan

April 9, 2019 Asian Media USABusiness 0

Chicago IL: Office of the Consul General of India under the leadership of Smt. Neeta Bhushan & Consul Laxman Prasad Gupta in partnership with Indian American Business Council [IABC] under the leadership of Harish Kolasani convened Spring Summit 2019 on Friday, 29, 2019 at the Consulate premises with the theme: Indo U.S. Business in Digital Age to highlight India’s new initiatives, business opportunities in Indian states with emphasis on the upcoming business initiatives.

The Spring Summit 2019 attracted robust participation of several corporate, business, entrepreneurs, Social entrepreneurs, community leaders and academic leaders who examined and deliberated on ways to augment bilateral opportunities with the emphasis on Indian American businesses. The Spring Summit 2019 also highlighted the illustrious stewardship of Consul General Smt. Neeta Bhushan for her espousal in convening various forums, seminars, roundtables, conferences and road shows that sought to promote business, investment, technology and other trade opportunities. Consul General of India Smt. Neeta Bhushan was accorded a heartfelt ‘Business Community Salute’ for advancing and providing platforms to facilitate robust business and trade exchanges between India and the United States was especially honored for being an ardent champion of Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India”.

The Voice of Indian-American Voters Hosts Naperville Mayoral Candidates Forum

March 24, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: March 17th, 2019 marked the event of the Naperville Mayoral Candidates forum for the Indian-American community by The Voice of Indian-American Voters (VIA). VIA is a non-partisan platform for civic engagement of Indian-Americans. VIA The founding members of the group are prominent business persons and community leaders Dr Bharat Barai, Mr Sanjjeev Singh & Dr. Anuja Gupta. “We felt there was a need for a Non-Partisan group that promoted the civic engagement of the Indian-Americans in the area” said the founders. The top goals of the group include seeking a better level of engagement with elected officials, creating a more informed voter base and increasing the participation of Indian-Americans in the election process.

The Naperville Mayoral Candidates Forum was the third event organized by the group, the first being a Chicago Mayoral candidates forum and the second the Schaumburg Mayoral & Trustee Candidates Forum. The event was attended by Steve Chirico current mayor of Naperville running for re-election. His opponent Rocky Caylor cancelled his attendance at the last minute thru email communication. “We wanted to present both candidates so the Indian-American community could make a truly informed decision. Rocky Caylor dropping out at the last minute speaks volumes of his regard for the community and his commitment to keep his word” said VIA Founder Sanjjeev Singh.

The Leadership Team of the group includes about 20 prominent citizens & community leaders of local organizations who feel passionate about the cause including Gulzar Singh president Pan Oceanic Inc, Nimish Jani trustee Schaumburg Township, Kanti S Patel president Gujarat Cultural Society, Vidya Joshi secretary Bruhan Mumbai Maharashtra, Syed Hussaini vice-president of commercial loans at Wintrust Bank, Khaja Moinuddin trustee Hanover Township, Ulka Nagarkar member Maharashtra Mandal, Girish Kapur member United Punjabi Association, Shree Guruswamy member Chicago Andhra Association, Vandana Jhingan TV Asia, Keerthi Ravoorie member Indian-American Democrat Org, Savi Singh, Deepti Suri, Dr Rahul Deepankar, Ashfaq Hussain & Gladson Verghese past-president Indian-American Democrat Organization.

Current mayor Steve Chirico spoke at length about the initiatives that he implemented in his first 4 years term as mayor. Reduction of crime and creating a wider tax base from small businesses were major factors in the new rankings of Naperville as the Best Place of Live and the Best Place to Raise a Family in 2018. “One of the important changes made by our police department was based on the connection between crime & mental illness. By recognizing that 70% of criminal actions are related to mental illness we were able to introduce measures that targeted the root cause of the problem. Incarcerating mentally ill individuals was not the solution to the problem. In Naperville we have several steps in place to recognize and address the role of mental illness in crime” said mayor Steve Chirico.

Women’s Empowerment Campaign Chicago Hosts Women’s Excellence Awards Gala

March 17, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Women 0

Chicago IL: The Women’s Empowerment Campaign (WE) hosted a power-packed awards gala on Saturday March 2nd 2019 at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows, IL. The Women’s Empowerment Campaign was designed to create the largest networking & empowerment platform for Indian women in Chicagoland. The top goals of the group include supporting entrepreneurship in the Indian women community, showcasing & highlighting women business-owners and professionals, raising awareness of existing resources & services in the community, celebrating successful Indian women & supporting women leaders in the community. The initiative was founded in November 2017 and currently has 1500+ members. They have executed many successful events since inception including the first ever women’s business awards, women’s business expo, women’s job fair and two networking events.

The principals of the campaign include founders Shital Daftari, Dr Anuja Gupta & Rita Singh who are prominent businesswomen & community members in Chicagoland. “We wanted to start a platform that increased the recognition of Indian women commensurate with our contribution to the economy” says Dr. Anuja Gupta who is a physician and real estate developer of Verandah Retirement Community. Shital Daftari who is an e-commerce business owner of Saris and Things had a different perspective, “We wanted to do showcase how powerful Indian women were. I also wanted to inspire women to take the first step to living a life of their dreams and reaching their highest potential”. Rita Singh who is an IT business owner and also has experience in show business says, “Judge a country by the place it gives its women” quoting Mahatma Gandhi.

The Chairperson of the gala was Jayshree Patel 2018 chairwoman of the advisory board of New York Life Insurance. Jayshree competed with 1200 agents nationwide to win the honor. It was the first time in the 183 year old history of the company that the award went to a female and an Indian. Jayshree was accompanied by her husband Nilam Patel also with New York Life, Ranga Srinivasan head of south Asian markets New York Life and Mike Gavin the managing partner of the Chicago office of New York Life Insurance. “I wanted to pursue a career in insurance because it helped to create real value in the lives of people served. I felt I was doing a very purposeful thing and it never felt like a job” says Jayshree Patel. “The south Asian market is a very important one for New York Life. Top achievers like Jayshree do deserve due recognition by the community” said Ranga Srinivasan head of south Asian markets.

The Awards Gala felicitated top women in the Indian community of Chicago. “Our goal with the awards was to showcase excellence in professionals and business owners of the Indian women community”, says Dr Anuja Gupta. The women felicitated included Dr Asha Oroskar CEO Orochem Technologies, Divya Sarang an attorney & judge in Kane County, Ketki Shroff Steffen an attorney & judge in Cook County, Dr Sonia Mehta CEO Prime Health, Dr Rubina Dang founder SCARF, Ketki Parikh Founder Vachikam Films & South Asian Film Festival, Sabrina Hans founder SHE Events, Neha Gill CEO Apna Ghar, Rohini Dey owner of Vermilion Restaurant & Mini Dalawari who is the mother of a special needs child.

The Leadership Team of the initiative is a formidable list of the top community leaders in Chicagoland, selected by the founders for their varied experiences & networks. Shital Daftari says, “it was very important for us to select the right people for our leadership team. We handpicked each member from a very long list of qualified individuals who were leaders in their own ways in the community”. Dr. Anuja Gupta adds, “We wanted a representative from every major demographic group in Chicagoland”. Many women from the leadership team are from big organizations in Chicago including Uma Katiki who is 2017 Vice-President & 2018 President of the Chicago Andhra Association, Vidya Joshi Vice-President of Maharashtra Mandal Chicago & secretary of BMM, Aparna Ayyalaraju & Rajani Akurati who are Board Directors of the Telegu Tristate Association.

The list also includes women who have started their own commendable organizations including Chandini Duvuuri founder of an NGO for battered women, Promila Kumar founder of Sanjeevani, Rosey Bhasin founder of Connections By Rosey, Namitha Pai founder of Happy Feet, Sushma Bhanot founder of Share A Smile Chicago & Arshia Wajid founder of American Muslim Health Professionals. Many other women of the leadership team are accomplished professionals who are independent thinkers with great passion for womens causes, including Dr. Manjari Gambhir who is a practicing physician, Dr. Pooja Batra Sharma a Dentist, Dr. Tanvi Bhatt a Professor in Physical Therapy & Loni Sharma a Financial Advisor. Two very important team members are women who are actively working in the community in various organizations including Shree Guruswamy a social worker & volunteer at Sanjeevani, and Ratna Kapur from the United Punjabi Association.

In addition to the leadership team the group also has community partners which include women who are active in community service including Bhavana Modi, Farhana Bukhari, Vibha Dave, Nipa Shah. The Advisory Board members are Dr. Asha Oroskar founder & CEO of Orochem Labs, Smita Shah owner of Direct Floors, Anisha Shah owner of Shree Builders & Arlington Rentals & Madhoolica Dear past president of the Indian American Heritage Museum.

The gala was presented as a black-tie event with 600 guests including prominent business persons, community members, high-level public officials and the media. “Platforms like WE are a must towards our journey of gender parity” said Hon Consul General India Neeta Bhushan. The public officials included secretary of state Jesse White, mayors of many surrounding towns, state representatives, trustees and judges. “Women are half the electorate, half the votes and half the economy. They are the backbone of society” said Secretary Jesse White. The evening saw a performance by the famous Jesse White Tumblers a program he initiated to save 16500 inner city kids from drugs. The other entertainment for the evening included a fashion show by esteemed Indian designer Anita Dongre. Anita Dongre is the biggest fashion retailer of India with over 400 retail stores. The founders specifically wanted to align themselves with the Anita Dongre brand because of its women-empowerment angle. The brand has a big initiative called Grass Roots that empowers traditional artisans in rural India.

Jain Association in North America (JAINA) meets JSMC, Chicago JAINA Convention on July 4-7, 2019 at Ontario, CA

February 27, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Addressing more than 300 Jain community members of Chicago area during the Federation of Jain Association in North America (JAINA) meets the Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago (JSMC) event. JAINA convention leaders and board members visited JSMC to promote upcoming JAINA Convention 2019 (July 4-7) at Ontario, California.

Convener of JAINA Convention 2019 and First Vice President of JAINA, Mr. Mahesh Wadher of Southern California, proudly explained the theme “Celebrating Jain Religion in 21st Century” and conveyed that attendees will have everlasting impression of JAINA and a unique immersion into Self-Realization with Education, Entertainment and Inspiration. Mr. Wadher laid out his vision of sole focus on volunteerism with an eye on comfort and convenience of the attendees that would set a new benchmark for future conventions.

Convention Co-convener, Dr. Nitin Shah of Los Angeles, mentioned that the planning for the JAINA 2019 Ontario convention started over a year ago with the creation of various committees and their leads. In October 2018, when 200+ volunteers met face-to-face for the first time at Ontario Convention Center, all were pleasantly inspired with the energy and enthusiasm in the room and everybody’s willingness to help make this the best JAINA convention for the attendees.

JSMC Chairman Board of Trustees and JAINA convention Board member, Mr. Atul Shah told JSMC members that Chicago community has one of the highest registrations in this convention next to CA registrations.

Mr. Dipak Doshi & Mr. Hemant Shah of Chicago, both past Chairman of JSMC and also Committee Chairs of JAINA and Public Relations and Media; announced Convention’s distinguished Keynote Speakers and shared how keeping the Jain Philosophy of Ahimsa, Anekantvad & Aparigrah in the forefront, Programming Committee has assembled world renowned speakers who would inspire through their insightful speeches on the topics of Seva, Satsang, Samarpan, Sadhana, Self-Realization, Current World Challenges, and many other topics.

Among Keynote Speakers; Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev – Yogi, mystic and author involved in social outreach and environmental initiatives; Tulsi Gabbard – First Hindu US Representative from the State of Hawaii; Ingrid Newkirk – President of “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA); Philip Wollen – Animal right activist; ISKCON Monk Gaur Gopal Das – a Motivational Speaker, Life Coach and Engineer and Nipun Mehta – Founder of Servicespace.org, a volunteer based non-profit.

There are 80+ distinguished speakers including Jain Sadhu-Sadhvis, Professors, Doctors, Scientists, Authors, Swadhyaykars, Jain Scholars and Spiritual Guides; such as: Acharya Shri Chandanaji – Founder of Veerayatan and First Jain Sadhvi to receive the title of Acharya; Acharya Dr. Lokesh Muni – Social reformer, thinker, writer, poet; Acharya Namra Muniji (via live video conference) – A revolutionary saint with extraordinary dynamism; Gurudev Shri Rakeshbhai Jhaveri – Spiritual Leader and Founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission, Dharampur, India; Saman Shrutpragyaji – One of the most articulate and charismatic young spiritual leaders of the new generation!

First time attendees can expect to see the largest gathering of Jains in North America and partake in networking opportunities, over 5,000 Square feet of Jain Temple to be created at Ontario convention center for daily prayers of 24 Tirthankars, concurrent talks on various topics including – Religion, Jain way of life, Ecology, Cruelty Free Products, and Exhibit Space with over 50+ vendors.

One of the significant youth education and development initiative is a team-based competition, Jain Academic Bowl (JAB), launched first about a decade ago. JAB is a jeopardy style vocabulary game in which young Jains compete with other teams. Topics range from Jain religion, scriptures, prayers, and philosophy to Jain geography, history, and a Jain Way of Life in the modern world.

JSMC President and Convention Committee “Jains Got Talent” (JGT) Chair, Mr. Vipul Shah, mentioned that, as the sun comes down, the entertainment will amaze you! Each night will be a night of excitement with music and dance till wee hours of the night. On Thursday night, Parth Doshi, Kalpesh Kharwa and Shilpi Paul will lead into the traditional Raas-Garba with their melodious singing.

The Cultural Program “One World, One Rhythm”, will rock with in a non-stop music, dance, and drama performances by artists of all ages on Friday night.

The JGT competition participants will showcase some of their enactments on Saturday night followed by an enthralling “Bollywood Night” show conducted by Rex D’souza, Mauli Dave and Sunny Jadhav.

JSMC General Secretary and Convention “Jain Connect” Chair, Mr. Piyush Gandhi, introduced Jain Connect as a new perspective on how to make, build, and retain genuine connections in the real world for Jain youths age 21 to 42. Whether you’re looking to make new friends, new business connections, or find a special someone, Jain Connect will be using variety of tools to get to know you better and help you meet other convention attendees. Special sessions will be held specifically for Jain Connect registrants focused on communication, relationships and marriage in the 21st century. If you plan on attending these events, then please register for both JAINA and Jain Connect.

JSMC Board of Trustees and Convention food committee Chair, Mr. Hitesh Shah, mentioned that, this time all the meals are going to be served by BAPS of California. He also added that, the JAINA Convention volunteers are working very hard to make sure all the attendees from various parts of the world will get something out of the 4 days of spiritual and cultural programs.

Being featured for the first time in JAINA convention history and hence unique to this convention are; Shatavdhan – Jaynesh Jain will demonstrate his ability and talent to memorize 100 questions, objects, or statements asked by a live audience. He will recall these questions, and even answer them as per his ability, in any order or sequence. Art Workshop – Kartik Trivedi, the famous artist whose impressionist paintings are hanging in world famous galleries and accepted by Late President Ronald Regan, President Bill Clinton and French President Francoise Mitterand, offer a hands-on 3-hour art workshop. Jain Yoga – Shanti Parakh, an internationally known Yoga teacher, Reflexologist, Metaphysician and Healer, will conduct morning Yoga sessions on July 5th and 6th. He has created a series of Aasanas based on the Lanchhans of the 24 Tirthankars such as Halasana for bull – the lanchhan of Rishabhdev; Gajasana for Elephant – the lanchhan of Ajitnath, etc.

While in Southern California, attendees can get the most out of their trip by extending their stay and taking one of the many tours available. i.e. Disneyland Tour, Universal Studios and Los Angeles City Tour, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon 3 days or Day Tour of San Diego City and Sea World.

To get the benefit of early bird pricing, Register now at www.jainaconvention.org. For Further Information, please contact: Mr. Dipak Doshi, Chair of Public Relations and Media Committee of 2019 JAINA Convention at dipakginni@gmail.com or Co-Chairs, Mr. Hemant Shah at hemantil@yahoo.com or Dr. Manoj Jain at mjainmd1@gmail.com.

Founded in 1981, JAINA is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization. JAINA (www.jaina.org) is the umbrella organization of 70+ North American centers / temples in the USA and Canada. Operated by a staff of hundreds of volunteers, it functions as a philanthropic, educational, and service-focused organization. JAINA is certified by USAID as a non-governmental humanitarian organization and was awarded Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 2006. Its member Jain Centers routinely organize free wellness clinics, hold classes on healthy lifestyles, conflict-resolution, inter-cultural dialogues, volunteering at animal shelters, food banks and homeless shelters, and partnering with civic groups such as Habitat for Humanity, the Humane Society, Rotary, Lions and Boy/Girl Scouts. JAINA partners globally with humanitarian organizations to render disaster relief, medical aid, polio eradication, restorative limb camps, as well as organizing annual Legislative Conferences on Peace, Harmony and Non-Violence on Capitol Hill.

For thousands of years, Jains have believed in meditation, yoga, compassion for animals, vegetarianism, environmentalism, equal rights for women, respect for other cultures and forgiveness, among other virtues. Lord Mahavir, born in 599 BC in Bihar, India, is stated to be the last known perfect Jain soul to have attained “Nirvana”. Jainism emphasizes non-violence by encouraging amity, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity. The three jewels of Jainism are – Right Faith, Right Knowledge, and Right Conduct. It emphasizes the equality of both sexes and respect for all life forms. It encourages kindness and tolerance for multiple points of view, some of which may even appear to be contrary to other. The convention will highlight these topics along with devotion, compassion, and transformation and create opportunities for dialogues on global issues and the role that Jainism can play in mitigating them.

Chicago’s Indian Americans stages a huge protest rally in front of Pakistan and Chinese Consulate Office

February 27, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Travel 0

Chicago IL: With the chants of “Bharat Matha Ki Jai’ reverberating on the famed Michigan Avenue corridor, a massive congregation of deeply grieved Indian Americans bearing tricolor Indian and star-spangled American flags with placards of denouncing Pakistan for promoting terrorism – thundered through the famed Michigan Ave corridor with a huge protest rally in front of Pakistan Consulate Office that which shifted to the Chinese Consulate Office in what can be described as the largest rally of the Indian Americans in downtown Chicago on Thursday, February 21, 2019.

For the first time ever, the protest rally marched to the Chinese Consulate office to show displeasure and chastise Chinese government for their explicit support to Pakistan. More than 400 motivated Indian Americans assembled to show strength of unity and solidarity with the fallen soldiers. Large convoys of remarkable size of Indian Americans arrived in buses, cars and trains to show solidarity with India especially the victims of Pulwama terrorist attack perpetrated with active connivance of Pakistan.

Raising slogans within an earshot of Pakistani Consul General, the crowds continued to raise the protest decibels. In some remarks, emotions were visible but the resolve was unmistakably firm with each pledging to do their part to awaken the world community of these seemingly frequent murderous assaults on Indians.

The protest rally and the aftermath has spilled over massively on an unprecedented scale in the social media with texts pouring in at astonishing speed filling up the platform with grief, sorrow and anger for the cowardly terrorist attack and vowed that Indian Americans will launch a sustained campaign against Pakistan until it stops the cross-border terrorism.

With the patriotic fervor spilling over on the sidewalks of Michigan Ave. all the way to the Chinese Consulate Office down a mile away on Erie Street. The slogans and remarks were interspersed with grief and outrage at the dastardly attack on 40 helpless CRPF soldiers who were ambushed with a suicide attack.

Dr. Bharat Barai, a prominent Indian American community leader in his remarks welcomed the outpouring support of the Indian Americans gathered on a cold afternoon and thanked them for their unfailing patriotic spirit. Dr. Bharat Barai chastised Pakistan for their continued mayhem with their repeated murderous rampage in Him outlined 5000 years history of India with Kashmir as an epicenter of Religious, Educational, Cultural heritage. After 1947 partition of India, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir signed an instrument of accession with India, ratified by the elected constituent Assembly. He thanked the World powers including USA, UK, France, Russia, many Islamic countries for condemning the Pulwama attack and supporting India.

The protest rally was largely led by among others: Hemant Patel, Nirav Patel, J.D. Digvanker, Shamkanth Sheth, Prasad Yelalmanchi, Amar Upadhyay, Nitin Garg, Pandya, Chirayu Parikh and Amitabh Mittal. Each of them articulated messages that summarized that Pakistan is a hub of terrorism and is constantly manufacturing company of terrorist; while harboring and nurturing them to be a dark men of death. In a statement, Hemant Patel said Terrorism in not only a political issue; it is also an ideological war, which is affecting the entire humanity. The suicide bombers are brainwashed from their infancy, they are fed with hatred against humanity, and these merchants of death are assured of reward in paradise for killing people. Pakistani connection was found in most major terror attacks in the world. A request was made to the Muslim Community to educate and restrain the Jihadi ideology and terrorism.

FIA’s prominent Trustee Iftekhar Shareef in his remarks expressed outrage and demanded Pakistan cease & desist from perpetrating terrorism mayhem in India. Iftekhar Shareef urged the International communities to join India in collectively condemning this heinous act. Harish Kolasani, Rally Coordinator said if Pakistan were able to kill one Indian, there would be one million who will rise up against them. Harish Kolasani who managed logistics said the rally will bear a huge impact. Dr. Sanhita Agnihotri deeply lamented the loss of lives of the soldiers and pledged that the Indian American community will formulate a plan to support the families of the victims. Keerthi Kumar Ravoori said we mourn the loss of life of the soldiers in this deadliest terrorist attack in India and challenged Pakistan government to take proactive measurable actions to snub the scourge of terrorism.

From there, the Protesters went to the Chinese Consulate. They showed placards denouncing China’s double talk on terrorism. On one side, China denounces all terrorism. On the other side, China has consistently blocked UN Security Council from proscribing the Pakistani terrorist organizations. Lashkar e Taiba and its leader Hafiz Saeed; Jaish e Muhammed and its leader Masood Azhar have been responsible for many terror attacks including Mumbai terrorist attack killing 176 people and recent Pulwama attack killing 44 people. A memorandum was delivered to the Chinese Consulate.

Baba Balak Nath Murti Pran Pratishtha Ceremony & Basant Panchami Celebrations in Hari Om Mandir

February 20, 2019 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Sunday, Feb 10th marked another milestone in the glorious history of Hari Om Mandir, Medinah, IL. Baba Balak Nath Ji’s Murti was installed with full devotion amidst Holy Mantras, Poojas and Pran Pratishtha Ceremony was performed by Pandit Dinesh Kumar Ji on the auspicious day of Basant Panchami. Five Main Sponsor Families: Brij & Vijay Sharma, Dr. Anand & Aruna Lal, Dr. Chand, Naveen & Anshu Paul, Dr. Arun& Sushma Verma performed all the rituals and the Murti was formally unveiled to occupy its Holy Space in the Shiv Durbar area.

Siddh Baba Balak Nath is the Reincarnation of Lord Kartikeya (Lord Shiva & Parvati’s Son). As the story goes, Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvati gave him a Blessing that he will always be a 12 year old boy for the rest of his life and never grow old…So, he is popularly known as the “Balak” form of Lord Shiva. However, as the Myth goes, Baba once realized that women are very gentle, and he is harsh like a stone…so, women are restricted from coming to his temple and are not allowed to touch his feet…they can pay their respects from a distance only.

The Guardian of the Temple, Mr. Ayodhia Salwan thanked ALL the Donors and Devotees for their generous contributions in making this beautiful addition to the Mandir. The President of the Executive Board, Mr. Vipan Wadhera, also thanked everybody for their continued support, and specially recognized the contributions of Mr. Ashok & Shama Sharma and Family, who have been organizing Baba Ji’s Bhandara and Bhajan Kirtan for the past two years. It is with their efforts that the Program gained much popularity and eventually, we have Baba Ji’s Murti, along with the other Deities, permanently installed in the Mandir.

Bunty Bawa from California, an ardent follower & Bhakt of Baba Balak Nath Ji, flew in specially to join the Grand Celebrations of Murti Pran Pratishtha and sang Bhajans in Glory of Baba Balak Nath. His Dabang Voice, Loud Clapping and Non-Stop Singing, regaled the audiences and everyone in the packed house Congregation was seen singing along! Amidst huge applause, he also released his new collection of Bhajans CD- KASAM RABB DI, and brought several gifts (tokens of Baba Balak Nath Ji Necklaces / Badges / Sashes etc) for the devotees. HOM management team had made special arrangements to distribute the items along with a box of sweets donated by Ravi Kapoor of Parag International- Distributor of HALDIRAM PRODUCTS in USA , as Prasad, to the public.

Basant Panchami was also celebrated in the true spirit of the festival. The Mandir was beautifully decorated with Yellow flowers, and all the Devotees were also dressed in Yellow attires. Pandit Ji recited special Mantras for Saraswati Pooja and blessed all the children present there. The Kids of HOM Hindi Class sang Saraswati Vandana and offered flowers to the Goddess of Learning, Knowledge & Wisdom.

Special Preeti Bhoj consisting of all Yellow Food Items was sponsored by Garg & Singla Family. Baba Balak Nath’s special Prasad “Rot” was also distributed, and people relished all the mouthwatering delicacies of the day. To mark this special Occasion with full Sanctity, the Bhandara started with serving Food, first to the young Girls (Kanjak) and young Boys (Lainkre), along with some “Dakshina”, and then to the public in general.

The Voice of Indian-American Voters Organizes Chicago Mayoral Candidates for Indian-American Community

February 13, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

February 10th 2019 marked the Chicago Mayoral Candidates Forum for the Indian-American community presented by the Voice of Indian-American (VIA) Voters in Chicago, IL. VIA Voters is a non-partisan platform for civic engagement of Indian-Americans in Chicagoland & nationally. The founding members of the group are prominent business persons and community leaders Dr Bharat Barai, Mr Sanjjeev Singh & Dr. Anuja Gupta. “We felt there was a need for a Non-Partisan group that promoted the civic engagement of the Indian-Americans in the area” said the founders. The top goals of the group include seeking a better level of engagement with elected officials, creating a more informed voter base and increasing the participation of Indian-Americans in the election process.

The Chicago Mayoral Candidates Forum was the first event organized by the group. The event was attended by 7 mayoral candidates and 350 community members at the Taft Highschool in Chicago, IL. Drawing attention from the Chicago mayoral candidates and the community for this cause was a great accomplishment by the founders and their team. “As a new organization it was a bit challenging to get commitment from the mayoral candidates, but our persistence and hard-work paid off with 7 of the 9 candidates we invited to attend the forum” said VIA Founder Sanjjeev Singh. In attendance were Paul Valas past CEO Chicago Public Schools, Garry McCarthy past chief of Chicago Police Dept, Gery Chico past president Chicago Public Schools—, Bob Foretti Attorney, Amara Enyia Director Austin Chamber of Commerce, La Shawn Ford Chicago State Representative and Jon Kozlar Attorney

The Leadership Team of the group includes 18-20 prominent citizens & community leaders of local organizations who feel passionate about the cause including Gulzar Singh president Pan Oceanic Inc, Nimish Jani trustee Schaumburg Township, Kanti S Patel president Gujarat Cultural Society, Vidya Joshi secretary Bruhan Mumbai Maharashtra, Syed Hussaini vice-president of commercial loans at Wintrust Bank, Khaja Moinuddin trustee Hanover Township, Ulka Nagarkar member Maharashtra Mandal, Girish Kapur member United Punjabi Association, Shree Guruswamy member Chicago Andhra Association, Vandana Jhingan TV Asia, Keerthi Ravoorie member Indian-American Democrat Org, Savi Singh, Deepti Suri, Dr Rahul Deepankar, Ashfaq Hussain & Gladson Verghese past-president Indian-American Democrat Organization.

The Forum was moderated by Rishi Agrawal, an attorney & candidate for Cook County judge. Questions presented to the candidates included a wide range of topics important to the Chicago election such as high violent crimes, economic opportunities, Chicago’s infamous pay to play culture and education disparity in Chicago. The candidates were first given a chance to present their agenda followed by questions directed to specific candidates regarding topics they represented. “Chicago crime can only change when the city hall culture changes. Corruption starts at the top here and has got to change before anything else” said candidate Garry McCarthy past police chief of Chicago Police Department. Candidate Jon Kozlar, an attorney and the youngest running candidate at 30 years of age said, “In order for Chicago to change we need a new administration which is not burdened by baggage from the past. I bring that fresh perspective to the race”. Candidate Paul Valas past-superintendent of Chicago Public Schools said “The disparity of teachers and funding for schools in Chicago is incomprehensible. Every child deserves a fair chance for a decent education in the country”

Mayor Steve Chirico committed to making Naperville a Model City

February 13, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Education, Environment 0

Naperville IL: Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico, running for re-election, kick-started his campaign on Thursday, January 24th at Features Bar and Grill. In addition to free admission, attendees enjoyed cocktails, appetizers and speeches from elected officials and community leaders. The strong support of his campaign co-chairs, Pam Davis, Kristin Fitzgerald, Scott Wehrli and John Zediker combined with the enthusiasm of the diverse Host Committee drew a crowd of more than 400 residents and supporters.

In his inspiring address, Chirico stated that during his 3.5 years as Mayor of Naperville he conceptualized and executed strategic initiatives to ensure that Naperville thrives as a vibrant business hub, a role model for neighbourhood safety and a destination for quality education.

Chirico spoke at length about the quality school districts, spacious parks, great restaurants, citizen-friendly property taxes, responsible fiscal policy, strong local economy, progressive police department, competent fire department and significant efforts toward pro-environmental sustainability.

The Mayor also highlighted the Connect for Life Program – a great community resource. Chirico shared that with the Connect for Life program, Naperville Police are able to help those with prescription drug addiction. “There will be no arrests and no charges. The police department is not about arresting people or giving tickets in this situation…they are there to help, educate and share resources,” he added.

Chirico assured that in his second term as Mayor, he will continue his work to diversify the tax base through economic development initiatives and will focus on next steps to ensure Naperville can retain our senior population and attract young professionals.

“Mayor Steve Chirico is easily accessible, business-friendly, and, above all, he a friend of our community. He will, therefore, be an asset as the Naperville Mayor”, said one of the community leaders.

“Naperville’s heritage has helped shape the values of our community and Steve firmly believes in the same values. He, therefore, will lead us into the next generation of prosperity”, stated by one of the Naperville resident.

“The worth-emulating and multifaceted development of Naperville, under the enlightened leadership of Steve Chirico as the mayor, is a sure guarantee of his success in his second term too”—opined a large number of his die-hard supporters belonging to different walks of life from the Naperville community.

Telugu Association of Greater Chicago celebrates Sankranthi & Republic Day

February 6, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Telugu Association of Greater Chicago (TAGC- First Telugu association in North America) celebrated Makara Sankranti and India Republic Day with Chicago land area Telugu families at the HTGC Rama Temple Auditorium, Lemont IL 60439.The event was a grand success with an overwhelming response from the Telugu community with over 1100 guests in attendance. The event was conducted on 26th January, 2019 from 2:30PM to 10PM. TAGC Board decided to do this event with all local talent promoting the Telugu culture, traditions and encouraged youth to preserve traditions.

TAGC President Ramu Billakanti garu welcomed and wished good health, prosperity and wealth to TAGC Members and all Telugu People across the globe. President garu recognized and thanked all Sponsors, Volunteers and encouraged to take membership by all attendees. According to Membership committee chair Mr. Venkat Gunuganti, the Event received tremendous positive response with over 1100 people attending from distant places even when the day saw negative temperatures with 4-5inch snow. Cultural Head Uma Avadhuta mentioned that the event showcased 36 programs with over 340 participants.

Event Started with Lighting Lamp by Ramu Billakanti (President), Venkat Gunuganti (Secretary), Praveen Vemulapalli (President-Elect), Uma Avadhuta (Cultural Chair & Jt Secretary) and other board members. It then followed by Lord Ganesha prayer and several programs & shows designed around Sankranthi and Republic Day Theme. Each and Every program thoroughly entertained audience and several of them shared great feedback with the board members. Chicago Local singers entertained with variety of songs which were liked by all sections of the audience. Sever Kids went on to the stage and started dancing to their songs.

Audience were enthusiastic to see all decorations throughout the Auditorium. Bommalla Koluvu, Kite decoration, Harvest Crop theme were special attractions according to Decorations Committee Chair Mrs. Vani Yetrintala. She thanked Saumya Bojja who did all the decoration work for TAGC. There was also a competition (Muggula potti) on Sankranthi theme and winners were given Prizes. There was also a Mehendi or Gorintaku FREE for all TAGC Members. TAGC Sankranti cultural Celebration also included delicious dinner that included 10 items which includes Medhu Vada, Pongal, Pulav Rice, Phool Makhani curry, Pizza for kids. Several Volunteers led by Food Chair Mr. Parameshwara Yarasani has streamlined the process and provided food for more than 1100 guests within an hour. TAGC Board thanked Bawarchi restaurant for providing a tasty and delicious food at a nominal price

Few Highlights at the Event
· Sankranti village backdrop Decoration by Saumya Bojja
· Free Gorintaaku (Mehindi) for TAGC Members
· Muggulapoteelu – Sarees for Winners
· 30 Kids Fashion Show around Sankranthi Theme
· Musical Performances by Chicago Singers Kaasyap Boddapati, Archana Vuppulancha and Madhuri Durga
· Festive delicacies (Pongal Rice) by Bawarchi Biryanis Naperville

All the board members, various committee chairs/co-chairs, volunteers under the direction of the current President Mr. Ramu Billakanti worked hard with dedication, passion and great enthusiasm to make TAGC 2019 first event grand successful and memorable with festive experience to guests and participants who attended the event. Youth Volunteers helped in the event in membership validation, ticket distribution and Food serving. The event was helped by several volunteers which help in smooth execution

Finally, TAGC President Ramu Billakanti thanked and congratulated Cultural Committee Chair Uma Avadhuta, Co- chairs Neelima Cheikyacharla, Archana Reddy Podduturi, Madhavi Kondam, Secretary Venkat Gunuganti, Presient Elect Praveen Vemulapalli, Treasurer Vijay Beeram, Jt Treasurer Ranga Reddy Lenkala, EC Member Anji Reddy Kandimalla, Food Committee Chair parameshware Yarasani, Decoration Chair Vani Yetrintala, Hospitality Chair Swetha Janamanchi, Board Members Srinivas Kandru, Sampath Sangem, Santosh Konduri, Rohit Akula, Naveen Aduma, Eeshwar Gumidyala, Manasa Lattupally, Bindu Gongati, all the MC’s (Shantan Toodi, Laxminarayana Ponnaganti, Radha Krishna Kotrakonda and Pranathi Kaligotla), Singers and Several TAGC Volunteers.

352nd Birth Anniversary of Guru Gobind Singhji, 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji

January 29, 2019 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Consulate General of India, Chicago in association with Gurdwara Sahib of Chicago celebrated the 352nd Birth Anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh ji and 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji on Sunday 20th January 2019 at the Gurdwara Sahib of Chicago. This Gurdwara was also celebrating its 25th Anniversary as well during this occasion. This Gurdwara is known to feeding the needy for free every day from 7.00am to 9.00pm.

The program started with Shabad Kirtan followed by Keynote speech by Ms. Neeta Bhushan, Consul General of India. She spoke on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji and his message of one God, communal harmony and its relevance in today’s world. She mentioned that Guru Nanak Dev ji visited many places to spread his message of tolerance and harmony. He denounced ritualism, superstition, ceremonialism and believed in simplicity and that God was present in each one of us. The lessons he taught are relevant to this day. About Guru Gobind Singh ji she mentioned that apart from being an extraordinary human being , he was an outstanding example of his love for his people and for helping the oppressed and protecting a person’s right to practice the religion of his choice. Every incident of his life revealed his love for humanity and courage to stand for what he believed was right. Guru Gobind Singh ji was born at Patna Sahib in Bihar which is now among the sacred shrines of not just members of Sikh religion but for people from all religion and walks of life.

The occasion was also graced by Hon. Congressman of 8th Congressional District Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who also spoke about the relevance of teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji. The Consul General thanked all the people who attended the program and Mr. Balvinder Singh in organizing this event at the Gurdwara.

The program was well attended and concluded with a Langar.

American Telugu Association elects Parmesh Bheemreddy as new President

January 29, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Profiles 0

ATA, American Telugu Association, a 28 year old Telugu Organization serving the interests of ever burgeoning Telugu Community in USA elected Parmesh Bheemreddy as its new President. Mr. Bheemreddy was sworn in as the President on January 19th at the board meeting held in Lasvegas. Born in Pothireddypadu village of Nagarkurnool district of Telangana Mr. Bheemreddy came to US on a student visa to pursue higher education in Computer Science. Being a software professional himself, established a firm and helped many students and professional from India to settle down in US. Married to a cardiologist Sarita, Bheemreddy is a well-known Community Volunteer, co-founder of Palamuru NRI forum and conducted various charity activities across the district. An avid community activist, Mr. Bheemreddy has been an integral part of ATA since Inception and served in various positions like Secretary for the 12th Convention and as a Convener for the Philadelphia Conference in 2014.

ATA board was sworn in on the occasion as well, raising the Board of Trustees count from 27 to 31. Mr. Bhuvanesh Boojala from DC Metropolitan area was elected unanimously as the President Elect. ATA elected Venu Sankineni as Secretary, Sharath Vemula as Joint Secretary, Ravi Patlola as Treasurer and Arvind Muppidi as Joint Treasurer. ATA Advisory Chair Hanmanth Reddy garu congratulated the new board and wished them luck in its future endeavors.

Presiding over the board meeting, the new president not only vowed to preserve and strengthen the Telugu community across North America but also promised to further promote the literary, cultural, social, educational and rich cultural values of the community strictly abiding by the constitution of ATA. Unveiling his vision, Mr. Bheemreddy quoted that ATA under his leadership will include focus areas like immigration, SAT Training, exchange student onboarding procedures, Medical and Dental camps for Senior Citizens and Visitors, Matrimonial and Emergency Services. Mr. Bheemreddy was ecstatic to announce that the new ATA Foundation Scholarship program will award 10 scholarships to meritorious students of economically backward classes of $1000 each. Mr. Bheemreddy thanked the outgoing President Karunakar Asireddy, EC and board for its outstanding contribution to ATA and expanding the organization to new areas like Nashville and Boston areas.

New Community Civic-Engagement group, the Voice of Indian-American Voters Launches

January 23, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity, Finance/Economy, Politics 0

Chicago IL: VIA Voters is a new community group launched with the goal of increasing the civic engagement of Indian-Americans in Chicagoland & nationally. The founding members of the group are prominent business persons and community members Mr Sanjjeev Singh, Dr. Anuja Gupta & Dr Bharat Barai. “We felt there was a need for a Non-Partisan Platform that promoted the civic engagement of the Indian-Americans at the local and national levels” said the founders. The top goals of the group include seeking a better level of engagement with elected officials, creating a more informed voter base and increasing the participation of Indian-Americans in the election process.

The VIA Voters was officially Launched at the Waterford Banquets, Elmhurst IL on Sunday, January 13th 2019. Several community business persons, leaders and the media attended this event. “In our businesses we often need to interact with elected public officials and a big goal for me to initiate such a cause was to seek a better level of engagement with them” said Dr. Anuja Gupta. Dr. Gupta is a physician and real-estate developer of Verandah Retirement Community. She is also an active community leader, having founded the Womens Empowerment Campaign (WE) Chicago a networking & empowerment platform for Indian women in Chicagoland. “Indian-Americans are the most successful minority in the country, yet currently we do not get the attention we deserve from elected officials because there is no significant powerful group” said Mr Sanjjeev Singh, president of ASAR America, Inc. a technology company based in Naperville, IL.

The participation of Indian-Americans in the election process is sadly much below the national average. “As a community we need to be more involved in the voting process. The time has come to engage more seriously in our civic responsibility in keeping with our economic & social success” added Dr. Bharat Barai. Dr. Barai is a practicing Oncologist & president of Prime Partners Inc based in Indiana. Dr. Barai is widely regarded as the pillar of the Indian community and played a prominent role in many high-level community events including the World Hindu Congress, the Federation of Indian Associations among others.

The Leadership Council of the group includes prominent citizens & community leaders of local organizations including Gulzar Singh president Pan Oceanic Inc, Nimish Jani trustee Schaumburg Township, Kanti S Patel president Gujarat Cultural Society, Vidya Joshi secretary Bruhan Mumbai Maharashtra, Syed Hussaini vice-president of commercial loans at Wintrust Bank, Khaja Moinuddin trustee Hanover Township, Ulka Nagarkar member Maharashtra Mandal, Girish Kapur member United Punjabi Association, Shree Guruswamy member Chicago Andhra Association, Vandana Jhingan TV Asia, Keerthi Ravoorie member Indian-American Democrat Org, Savi Singh, Deepti Suri, Dr Rahul Deepankar & Dr Kamal Patel, Sapan Shah, Mr. Gladson Varghese, and Ashfaq Syed. “Being more engaged in the election of public officials is essential to the continued success of our community” said Mr Syed Hussaini. Mr Hussaini also belongs to other boards of Muslim members who are active in the local community.

“As Indians we value certain life-styles of higher education, marriage, family and entrepreneurship. We want to promote those values by electing candidates who represent them” said Mr Sapan Shah, a physician & attorney who recently ran for State Representative from Des Plaines IL. “As a community we can promote the values which led to our success as immigrants to this country” he added. The Leadership Council of the group has 26 active community leaders who feel passionate about the cause.

The group intends to organize seminars & debates of public office candidates to create a more informed voter base, create a national list of Indian-Americans & start local chapters in other cities that have a sizable Indian population like New Jersey, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles. The inaugural event of the group is a reception of the Chicago Mayoral Candidates for the Indian-American community. The event is planned for Sunday February 10th at Taft Highschool in Chicago. The event will be moderated by Mr. Ravi Baichwal, ABC TV Network’s Prime News anchor. Front-running candidates in the Chicago Mayors race have been invited including Toni Preckwinkle, Gery Chico, Garry McCarthy, Susana Mendoza & Paul Vallas. VIA Voters expects 500 guests to attend the event including business persons, community leaders & the media.

Hari Om Mandir celebrates New Year with Sunderkand Path

January 23, 2019 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: January 1st 2019, Tuesday, started off with a Bang in the premises of Hari Om Mandir, Medinah, IL. Huge crowds gathered in the Temple to seek Blessings from God Almighty on this auspicious day, and prayed for a healthy, wealthy and prosperous Year ahead. Smt. Rama Kapoor & Mr. Subhash Sharma, along with their Bhajan Mandli, and Mr. Jignesh Pathak on the Dholak, recited the “Sunderkand Path” to seek Blessings from Lord Hanuman Ji for a blessed year ahead.

Nature too co-operated and the Sun shone brightly with moderate temperatures, as Devotees in large numbers thronged the Mandir to offer their prayers and seek blessings on this very first day of the New Year. The Mandir was beautifully decorated with Buntings, dazzling Streamers, Banners, Flowers, Bells etc to enhance the ambience for the celebrations. As the Devotees walked in, they were welcomed with Hanuman Ji Sash around the neck, and handed over the holy Sunderkand Path Book to sing along.

In Hari Om Mandir, the 1st of January, is also a day of administrative activity. The 2 Boards – Executive Board (EB) and Board of Trustees (BOT) that run the show all year round, are introduced to the general Congregation. It is time to honor and acknowledge the services of the outgoing Members who have completed their term, and welcome aboard New Members, who will be taking charge and serving the community in 2019.

Once again, Mr. Vipan Wadhera was re-elected as the President of the Executive Board for the next term of 3 years. This is for the first time, that any President has been elected consecutively for 2 Terms in a row. Amidst huge applause and appreciation, the Guardian of the Temple, Mr. Ayodhia Salwan made the announcement, saying that this was the peoples’ choice and demand, as Mr. Wadhera had won the hearts of ONE & ALL with his dedication and outstanding leadership qualities. Mr. Vipan Wadhera then thanked ALL his team Members for their continued support throughout the year. Plaques were also was awarded to the outgoing Members: Mrs. Shubh Sharma & Mr. Ashok Sharma who had completed their terms.

The new Members on the Team were then introduced: Mrs. Pooja Sharma, the youngest addition to the EB, appointed as the Food & Prasad In charge in 2019, was welcomed amongst clapping and cheers from the crowd. Mrs. Anita Rawal, appointed as the Secretary, was also given a warm welcome back!

Mr. Satpal Salwan, Chairman Board of Trustees, wished everybody a “Happy New Year” and congratulated the EB Team for a successful 2018, when several programs had been organized and the Temple was on the right path of Growth and Service to the Community.

On this day, members from the Community/ Devotees/Volunteers who have served the Mandir in various ways, are also honored for their Contributions. This year, Kalsi Builders, Krishan Tejpal, Satpal Salwan & Madhu Gupta was chosen for their outstanding services to the HOM and the Society at large. Mr. Brij Sharma and Mr. Ayodhia Salwan read out the Citations and presented the Recognition Awards.

As Guardian of the Temple, Mr. Ayodhia Salwan also wished everyone a Happy New Year and prayed to God Almighty for the wellbeing of ALL the members of our Hari Om Parivar and the Society in general. He also thanked the Media People – Suresh Bodiwala from Asian Media and Vandana Jhingan from TV Asia for covering all the important Festivals/Events held in the Hari Om Mandir.

Mr. Vipan Wadhera also gave a brief update on the upcoming Construction Projects and the Religious Programs in 2019. He invited everyone to join the “Pran Pratishtha Ceremony” of Baba Balak Nath Jis Murti on Basant Panchami, Feb.10, 2019. A renowned Singer and Baba Ji’s Bhakt, Bunty Bawa from California would be singing the glory of Baba Balak Nath on that day. The Murti which has already been installed, will be unveiled after performing all the holy rituals. All the prestigious Donors would be joining the Pooja Ceremony and be a part of this memorable Event.

A Grand Lunch, sponsored by the Salwan Family/STAR FOODS was served after the Program. “Bhature Channa” – a very sumptuous and appropriate Hot North Indian Meal on a COLD DAY, along with hot Masala Tea, was very welcome and relished by everybody. People exchanged greetings, good wishes, embraced each other, wishing for peace and wellbeing of all mankind.

A Grand Christmas celebrations in Chicago unveils the essence & spirit of Christmas

December 26, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity, Culture/Religion 0

With the symphonic choir presenting melodious Christmas carols eclipsed only by the grand entry of huge convoy of Kerala Drum beats headed by fully attired dancing Santa Claus kicked-off a spectacular Christmas Nite Banquet at the colorfully decked Meadows Club on December 14, 2018 in Rolling Meadows, IL.

The mesmerizing high-decibel sounds of Kerala drum beats reverberating the hall joyfully unveiled the grand evening of great festive fervor which was followed by dazzling dance performances and musical carols each heartwarmingly unveiled the profoundly beautiful story of Christmas spectacularly depicted through songs, dance and music.

The Christmas Nite Banquet hosted under the aegis of South Asian Christian Cultural Association [SACCA] attracted a great host of elected officials headed by U.S. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, State Senator-elect Ram Villivalam, Oakbrook Mayor Dr. Gopal Lalmalani, Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath, Air-India’s Chief Malini Vaidyanathan, Redberri Corp CEO Deepakant Vyas joined by large number of business and community leaders including SBI Manager Amit Jihngran, PM Mortgage CEO Ashok Lakshmanan, Joyallukas Jewelers Manager Justin Joseph, SBI-VP Deepa Nath, Ajeet Singh, Harish Kolasani, Prachi Jaitley and Dhitu Bhagvakar.

The glittering banquet set off in motion with lamp lighting ceremony lead by U.S.Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi who in his remarks applauded the organizers and extolled the spirit of Christmas, which he emphasized, fosters peace, goodwill and love. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi who inspired a new generation of new leaders added that he would like to see a public figure emerging from the south Indian Christian community. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi publicly acknowledged and thanked Gladson Varghese and Keerthi Kumar Ravoori and his team for hosting this grand event celebrating the essence of Christmas.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi presented special plaques of appreciation to Mr. Ashok Lakshmanan, Mr. Amit Jhingran, State Bank of India and Joseph of Joyallukas Jewelry. Malini Vaidyanathan of Air-India was honored with floral bouquets for her outstanding support to the community events and projects.

State Senator Ram Villivalam [elect] presented seasons’ greetings and thanked the community for all the support he has received in his electoral victory as the new State Senator in the 8th Senatorial district.

Bishop Jacob Angadiath gave an uplifting Christmas sermonette that presented the central theme of the birth of Jesus Christ, which he said, is very foundation of Christmas. Bishop Angadiath said Christmas exemplifies love, peace, joy and hope. Anto Kavalackal presented an introduction to Bishop.

The highlight of the evening was ethereally melodious carols and anthems presented by the acclaimed St. Thomas Marthoma Church choir with over 30 singers directed by Choir Director Jacob George in a repertoire performance enhanced by candlelit ambience with a sparkling collection of timeless carols evoked sustained applause and some standing ovation. Young dancers who put grace, beauty and emotions in their dances illustrating the story of Christmas beautifully presented the evening’s dance presentations from Kala Dance Academy choreographed by Ruth Varghese and Surya Dance Academy.

Earlier, Gladson Varghese, Chairman welcomed the elected officials and thanked the gathering of families of all faiths for unitedly celebrating Christmas with a greater sense of appreciation, love and understanding. Keerthi Kumar Ravoori, Banquet Convener presiding over the evening’s banquet served as the emcee, introduced the chief guests, and elected officials. Keerthi Ravoori called the Christmas banquet a celebration of inter-faith unity during this festive season. Emmanuel Neela, President SACCA presented seasonal remarks and outlined future programs; while Vasanth Charles presented an overview of the history of South Asian Christian Cultural Assn [SACCA] and Satish Dadepogu proposed a vote of thanks. Margaret Sanyogita Charles, Shirley Kalvakota & Persis Dadepogu led the lamp-lighting ceremony and intermittently took to the stage in the honoring ceremonies presenting shawl and flower bouquets to Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi in appreciation of his gracious presence and support; to State Senator [elect] Ram Villivalam on his recent electoral victory and to Shree Guruswamy for presenting beautiful cultural dance presentations and Oakbrook Mayor Dr. Gopal Lalmalani.

Johnson Kodipally, Merari Bushpaka, Vijay, Michael Konda, Tony Chettupally, Mohit, and Sheetal & Komal Panchal presented the Telugu carols; while Rev. Rajamani Gonu, Rev. Dr. David Vidyasagar, Rev. Omega Verma, Dan Williams, and Prem presented the closing Christmas Skit with musical score by Michael Konda.

Chicago Medical Society hosts Annual Holiday Reception

December 26, 2018 Asian Media USABusiness, Community, Health 0

Chicago IL: The Chicago Medical Society held the Annual Holiday Reception on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at The Standard Club in Chicago. This festive Medical Society tradition allows members and guests to relax and, for newcomers, it provides a friendly welcome to the Organization.

Dr. Vemuri S. Murthy, President of the Chicago Medical Society and the Executive Committee welcomed the members and honored guests. Several CEOs, Deans and Other Executives of the Chicago area Medical Schools and Hospitals attended the colorful event besides a number of distinguished community leaders.

Founded in 1850, the Chicago Medical Society is one of the oldest and largest medical societies in the United States. The Society advocates for 17000 Chicagoland physicians and their 5 million patients. The Society has a track record of improving public health locally and has ongoing community programs including CPR training (Project SMILE ,”Saving More Illinois Lives through Education”). The members have the opportunity to learn about trends in the practice of medicine through committee participation, policy development, educational seminars and publications. In addition, the members enjoy networking opportunities, membership services, and grassroots political advocacy.

The Fabulous Full House at Pratibha’s Diwali Party

December 8, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: The Diwali Party presented by Pratibha Jairath (of Bollywood Sargam) in association with Altaf Bukhari of A B Entertainment was held at Ashyana Banquets on Nov 16th 2018. It was once again, a roaring success with over 500 people attending the event with Bollywood music and dance theme. It may have been a gray and dreary evening outside but inside, the hall was charged up with the amazing intensity of ladies dressed in jazzy, vibrant colors and men had equally matched them with their formal attire.

The evening started with warm welcome and Diwali greetings by the host Pratibha Jairath. She reminded the significance of Diwali, how it was celebrated in our diverse India and actually all over the world. She pointed out that same diversity was evident in the audience tonight.

Ms Jairath invited the Chief Guest Mr. Anil Loomba of Home Mortgage Solution for Lamp lighting. It was exciting to see that he brought his new grandson to stage. She proceeded further to invited other Guests of honors, Sponsors and supporters including Mr. Sunil Shah, Mr. Mayur Ganger, Dr Anuja Gupta, Mr. Brij Sharma, Mr. Ramanna Adhiraju, Mr. Altaf Bhukhari, Mr. Om Dhingra and Mr. Surinder Jain of Ashyana.

The musical concert started with sit down session by Pratibha Jairath in pink Sari that matched the neon pink LED light used in the décor of the hall. She presented a variety of songs, including “Suno Sajna Papihe ne”a song with a slight classical touch. Her rendition of the haunting melody ‘Yaara sili sili’ brought a big round of applause. She enthralled folks with interesting numbers like Diwani mastani, Piya Tose and Morni Baga ma and people started to dance by their tables. By the time Ms Jairath started ‘Do Lafzon ki hai’ and ‘Chura Liya’ everyone was on dance floor.

Another surge of excitement was seen when popular singer Bhupendra Singh came to stage with his popular numbers like ‘Do Dil’ and ‘Inteha ho gayee’……. His fans were just in a trance.

Raju Bankapur entered the stage with a big BANG number, Jumma Chumma and continued with his fast dancing medley ending with ‘Ye dosti’.

Fusion Qwali was a total hit with audience. It was a mix of Qwalies from different decades…Starting with Salam e Ishq meri jaan (Pratibha Jairath) including Na toh Karvan ki talash (Om Dhingra), Rashqe Kamar (Pradeep Sood and Vibha Rajput), Haal kya hai (Hari Mehta), Teri mehfil mein kismat, Allah ye ada and final piece Jhoom baraber Jhoom (Raju bankapur).

Multi-talented Raju Bankapur presented a beautiful flute item, one of his favorites “main tenu samjhava’ song.

Ms Jairath has strong ties with community because she has always maintained “Main Aasmaan nahin chhoona chahti, bus aapke dilon ko chho loon, meri yahi hai tammanna”. In her conversation with Mr. Mayur Ganger, she attributed the success of party to her wonderful friends.

Mr. Brij Sharma, a business entrepreneur, well known community leader and her strong supporter exclaimed “Wow, Pratibha, What a connection you have established with community that just with a few emails, you bring over 500 people to your party. You should continue this tradition of getting friends and community under one roof for festivals”.

The program had lot of variety which was appreciated by audience. Ms Jairath thanked a number of people who had brought their friend groups and especially Vandana Bankapur & Raju Bankapur for both decoration and execution help. She also commended her reception team Asha Mehta, Ranjana Gulati, Neelam Walia and Vandana Bankapur. She also thanked ‘Hitesh Master Orchestra team’ including Kafi Khan and Richard Christian for awesome music and Abhi Trivedi for doing DJ in last hour that kept people on the dance floor.

The ambience and arrangement of food was exceptional. There was a huge array of appetizers and dinner items that were certainly enjoyed by audience… people danced away thru the night and a number of them commented that that they were looking forward to the next party.

The Consulate General of India, Chicago launched the Passport Seva Program

December 8, 2018 Asian Media USATravel 0

Chicago IL: The Passport Seva Program has brought in a huge transformation towards delivery of Passport Services in India. This has seen a sea change in last 4 ½ years.

In the year 2017, there was a 19% growth in passport related services. The monthly submission of applications has crossed one million marks for the first time. More than six crores passports have been issued through the Pasport Seva system. The Ministry took many significant steps to improve the service delivery experience for the citizens. Not only did the work of simplifying Passport rules has been achieved with the same vigour but passport services have also been taken closer to the doorsteps of the citizens. The Ministry with Department of Posts took the decision to start Passport Seva Kendars in Head Post Offices. As a result, 236 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) have been operationalised as on date and many more are in pipeline. This when added to 36 Passport Offices and 93 erstwhile Passport Seva Kendras makes a total of 365 Passport Offices for public.

The Ministry has initiated the integration of Passport Seva Program at all Indian Embassies and Consulates across the globe. As part of this initiative, the Ministry successfully initiated the Pilot at High Commission of India, London followed by Consulate General of India, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

In the United States of America, the Ministry has completed the implementation of this program at its Embassy in Washington, D.C., CGI New York, CGI San Francisco, CGI Atlanta and CGI Houston. It is a matter of great pleasure for the Ministry to launch the Global Passport Seva Program at Consulate General of India, Chicago for the Indian diaspora residing here, thus making all Indian Consulates and Embassy located in the US, live with the new system. The new system will help in easy and convenient application submission process, will usher-In standardization, digital overhauling, end-to-end status tracking and enhance security.

The Government of India planned to roll out the Global Passport Seva Program at all Indian Embassies/ Consulates within next 3-4 months.

“Share our pride: celebrate our work place”

Indian American Medical Association IL celebrates 38th annual dinner gala banquet

December 8, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: Indian American Medical Association IL celebrated 38th annual dinner gala banquet on Saturday, November 17 at Aston place in Willowbrook.. The gala was a huge success with over 400 members, guests and the invitees attending the event. Many Chicagoland dignitaries were in attendance among whom were Congressman Danny Davis, Congressman Peter Roskam, cook county president Toni Preckwinkle and Indian consul general Neeta Bhushan.

The theme of the event was “share our pride: celebrate our work place”. Masters of Ceremonies were ABC Channel7 TV Anchor Ravi Baichwal and University of Chicago student Shreya Singh. It was a nonstop seamless evening of elegance, high class fashion show by Raaz, inspiring conversation, high profile honorees, sparkling presentations, fine cuisine, a comedy show par excellence, and a grand finale of Bollywood music by Shahzad Dar & troupe.

IAMA team headed by Dr. Srinivas Reddy along with Dr Vijay Prabhakar, a community leader made this event a successful one. The Honorary Life Membership of IAMA Honors to Congressmen Davis and Roskam, Cook county president Toni Preckwinkle, Indian Consul General Neeta Bhushan, ABC 7 news anchor Ravi Baichwal and community leader Dr. Vijay Prabhakar was the highlight of the event.

ABC anchor Ravi Baichwal gracefully welcomed all the guests while Dr Sidney Jain, IAMA Treasurer proposed a vote of thanks. The two important noteworthy features of the event were the presentation of IAMA Awards to community activists and leaders who had contributed a lot in the medical fields. Global Champion of Resuscitation award was given to Chicago Medical Society President Dr. Vemuri Murthy. The IAMA headed by Dr Srinivas Reddy also recognized with awards the CEOs and hospital heads in Chicago land who made the event yet more graceful by their presence.

In his address, IAMA President Dr Srinivas G Reddy touched upon the activities of his organization and indicated that he was determined to take it to a new height in the coming year. Collaboration was a key part of the success of the IAMA’s activities in 2018, under the vibrant leadership of Dr. Reddy assisted by his team. Dr. Srinivas Reddy firmly believes that the success of any individual and organization centers around honoring core family and championing our traditional family values.

The culmination of its various activities during the year was when IAMA hosted a South Asian Media Luncheon and sponsored several activities to combat Opioid epidemic and violence prevention programs in the inner city of Chicago. Under dynamic leadership by Dr. Reddy, IAMA introduced several activities to strengthen the organization and programs to involve second-generation physicians into the Indian American Medical Association of Illinois.

International Indian ICON (3iii) Season II Grand Finale Creates Waves Across The Globe

December 8, 2018 Asian Media USAEntertainment 0

Chicago, IL: Gee Vision in association with Zee TV declared Season II International Indian ICONs during the grand finale held on November 24th at Redberri Convention Center, Sandwich IL. The winners were from a variety of category from almost all corners of the world. 3iii Season-II reached its culmination with two grand events on November 23rd, 2018 and November 24th,2018. The grand Redberri Convention Center welcomed thousands of guests from all over the world. The celebrity judges from Bollywood, Choreographer Longinus Fernandes and Music Composer Arko Pravo Mukherjee along with Dance Judge Prachi Jaitly and Singing Judge Vaishali Dhande mentored over hundred participants.

The participants who contested for the title of International Indian Icon Season-I 2017 and Season II 2018 raised the bar with their immaculate technique and talent. While the first season was focused on America and Canada, Season-II had participants from UK, Europe, Canada and America for all categories.

International Indian Icon (3iii) has been taking over the world with its unique concept of first of its kind in any talent platform giving Indian overseas a much-needed platform to showcase their talent.

It is envisioned as the world’s 1st on-line/onsite grand Indian reality show narrative over ﬁve seasons culminating at the end of the 5th season. While the 1st season of 3iii was open to Talent across all residents of The United States of America and Canada in either of the three performance categories –Singing, Dance and Instruments, season II added five more categories and reached more countries. It is a platform of immense possibilities for artists around the world to showcase their skills to be evaluated by a team of Gee Panel of judges consisting of highly qualified and celebrated individuals from the field of performing arts as well as celebrity judges in the advanced stages of the competition.

Gee Vision organized the official launch of International Indian Icon Season II in Feb this year at Ashyana Banquets in the presence of various distinguished comprising guests elected officials as well as community leaders. Season II Grand-finale had the honor of having various dignitaries to enjoy the cultural program.

Speaking about the event, Richard Olson, Mayor, City of Sandwich, IL welcomed International Indian Icon to Redberri Convention Center. He congratulated all the participants who are working hard to compete in this competition.

Olson mentions, “Gee Vision has introduced a unique platform for global talent who can showcase their art in front of the whole world. I assure my full support to this unique effort by Gee Vision and wholeheartedly send my warm wishes for a successful Season II. I also, look forward to Season III next year and send my best compliments to the entire International Indian Icon Team.”

3iii is envisioned as the world’s 1st on-line/on-site grand Indian realities show narrative over five seasons culminating at the end of the 5th season.

“The unique positioning of 3iii has proved to be the main focus of its success: no other platform in India or in the expat community has been designed to showcase talents amongst all forms of talent on a single stage. Indian Americans, Canadians, Caribbean, European live in that part of the world where the industry of entertainment thrives unlike any around the globe”, said Sharan Walia, CEO of Gee Vision Inc.

The entire core team congratulated all the winners and invited everyone to join them in Season III.

The beauty of the concept lies in NO restrictions at all. Anyone can participate from the declared countries. No age restriction. No language or any format restriction, anyone can play any type of instrument to take part in the competition. If any one likes Indian singing, dance or any instrument and have valid ID of the country they are living in, can participate in 3iii competition.

Gee Vision & Zee witnessed huge crowd for Grand-finale which will be aired on Zee TV. Sharan Walia along with his Core team Phani Krishna, Naveen Karna, Naresh Shastri and Prachi Jaitly and 3iii advisory board thanked everyone who attended the grand events and encouraged Indian talent all over the world so that no talent is left behind to make use of this amazing opportunity of showcasing his/her talent to the world through 3iii to achieve dreams of their choice. The online and on-site talent show has won millions of hearts across the globe and we look forward to seeing its journey in the coming seasons.

Malla Reddy Bokka, President-Elect & Founder, Indian Association of Greater Chicago

December 1, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: The Annual Board Meeting was held at 1228 Tiffany Ct, Indian Creek on November 9, 2018. This term IAGC unanimously elected its new leader Malla Reddy Bokka and the new board under the guidance of KK Reddy from Advisory Board.

“I am honored to be elected as President-Elect of Indian Association of Greater Chicago unanimously by the Board of Directors and It’s great privilege to serve Indian community and my mission to preserve and maintain the heritage of all American Indians in Chicago and it’s suburbs; to promote literary, cultural, educational, religious, social and economic activities of the Indian community” said by Malla Reddy Bokka, President-Elect & Founder, IAGC

The event was presided by Founding Members Malla Reddy, Manoj Singam – Setti and Harindar Reddy Puliyala. IAGC President Malla Reddy will spearhead the team for the two year term (2018 thru 2020) with the help of Vice President Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan , Executive Chairman Harindar Reddy Puliyala, Business Development Director Nilesh Topiwala, Advisory Board Chairman Hina Trivedi and the entire board which include Secretary Nawaz, Treasurer Sandeep, Joint Secretary Prasanth, Joint Treasurer Rajesh , Cultural Secretary Mahesh Voora.

The President Malla Reddy plans to take the organization to new heights with events planned for celebrating New Year Celebration, India Independence Day, Ganesh Utsav, Holi, Diwali, Pongal and Batukamma. This term IAGC will also host Winter Coat Drive, Food Drive, Toys of Kids, Will & Trust, and Conducting yoga camp etc..

IAGC Youth wing is a subsidiary allied front of IAGC this is formed in order to rally support for IAGC from members and potential members of a younger age, as well as to focus on subjects and issues more widely relevant among IAGC youth. IAGC Youth Wing plans to take on projects like Job Fair, Cricket Tournament, Indoor Game competition and Youth Leadership Development Skill Camps etc.

Gujarat Cultural Association, Chicago, Celebrated Festival of Lights, with colorful Traditional fashion

December 1, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: Gujarat Cultural Association, Chicago (GCA) hosted Diwali Celebrations, accompanied by an Musical Melodies Group by Raju Bankapur and his Group that attracted a large number of family’s friends, and community figures of the city, on Saturday, November 17, 2018 at The Meadows Club, 2950 W. Golf Road, Rolling Meadows, IL. The program was highly successful with the active support of the Sponsors, Executive Board, GCA Members and Volunteers.

Gujarat Cultural Association was established by brain child and founding member Mr. Shankarbhai Patel, Lalubhai Patel, Babubhai Patel and others in 1973. Gujarat Cultural Association is a First and Largest Gujarati Association in Chicago Metropolitan Area.

The Program start with Mrs. Amisha Patel welcoming everyone, including Banquet Chair Mr. Jyotendra Patel and GCA, Chairman Kanti S. Patel. Event commenced with the traditional lighting lamp ceremony was performed by Chief Guest, Dr. Rasmi Patel and Guest of Honor Mr. J.B. Bhatti, Consul, from Indian Consulate Office, Kanti S. Patel and his wife Jyoti Patel, Jyotendra Patel and his wife Geeta Patel and other dignitaries.

MC was “Evergreen” Mrs. Amisha Patel & Hetal Patel. Amisha Patel invited Kanti Patel, Chairman of GCA and Chief Guest on Stage Dr. Rasmi Patel. Mr. Kanti Patel introduces Chief Guest, Dr. Rasmi Patel.

Dr. Patel thanked Gujarat Cultural Association for tireless work by its member, especially Kanti Patel. Amisha invited Guest of Honor Mr. D.B. Bhatti. Mr. Bhatti congratulated leadership and entrepreneurship of the community of diaspora from Gujarat and especially paid special tribute to Mahatma Gandhi who also hailed from Gujarat in India. Amisha Patel also invited on Stage Hon. Dorothy Brown, Clerk of Circuit Court, IL. Mr. Kanti Patel introduce Ms. Dorothy Brown. Brown said, I salute the Gujarat Cultural Association, Chicago during the Diwali observance. May this New Year be filled with joy and further progress for the betterment of all, as you celebrate the “Festival of Lights.”

Award Ceremony followed and were given to outstanding community leaders as follows,

Distinguished Banker of the year Award: Mr. Moti Agarwal
Outstanding Accountant Award: Mr. Anil Shah
Distinguished Community Leadership Award: Dr. Anuja Gupta
Women of the Year Award: Mrs. Rita Shah

Other prominent leaders, Community Members and Distinguished Businessman fellows were recognized on the stage by Kanti Patel, Chairman of GCA and received a Bouquet of Flower. Included was Mr. Kalpesh Joshi of AAHOA Director of Upper Midwest, Mita Patel from Air India, Iftekhar Hasnat from MB Financial Bank, Ashok Punjabi of Chicago Imports, Pratap Gohil, CEO of Summit Construction, Sunil Shah from New York Life Ins., Ashok Shah of Senior Medicare Specialist, Mr. Gulzar Singh from Pan Oceanic Company.

Wishing everyone very happy, healthy and prosperous upcoming New Year, Kanti S. Patel concluded his speech by requesting everyone for their continued support co-operation and participation in future events. Among the invited dignitaries Hon. Bruce Rauner, Governor of Illinois, Hon. Jesse White, Secretary of Illinois State, Hon. Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President were not present in event however they send message to Gujarat Cultural Association.

Bruce Rauner, Governor of Illinois, in his massage said Thank you for your daily efforts in promoting the well-being of the community and the richness of Indian Culture here in the Land of Lincoln. As the Gujarat Cultural Association celebrates Diwali, it is also an exciting year across the State of Illinois as we commemorate our state’s 200^th birthday.

Toni Preckwinkle, President of Cook County, in her massage said Gujarat Cultural Association has evolved to strengthen and unite the Gujarati Community through organized picnics, sports competition, musical events and collaboration with other national organizations.

Jesse White, Secretary of Illinois State, in his massage said each year GCA’s annual banquet, also known as the Hindu Festival of lights, brings community members together to celebrate Diwali tradition with a festive dinner and outstanding entertainment.

Gujarat Cultural Association also Celebrate 200^th Birthday of State of Illinois

Spiritual Science: Get Permanent Bliss

November 25, 2018 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Chicago, IL: Dada Bhagwan, known as AM Patel in his former life before renunciation, found and then shared a part for eternal bliss and peace through Akram Viganan, A spiritual science.

Each and every living being is in constant pursuit of happiness; no one likes suffering. This search only ends when the source of eternal happiness is found. Eternal happiness can only be attained through realizing your true Self. A path to eternal happiness was discovered by Dada Bhagwan who propounded Akram Vignan that is based on the foundation of Self Realization. This unique science provides practical day-to-day solutions that lead to harmony and happiness in life.

What is Akram Vignan?

It is PROFOUND, POWERFUL and PRACTICAL
Knowledge-based approach without rituals or strict routines
Holistic science that integrates spirituality into daily life
An accelerated path to Self-Realization & permanent happiness

Akram Vignan moment is ran under Dada Bhagwan Vignan Institute (DBVI), spiritual non-profit organization in North America. The organization’s primary objective is to spread peace, harmony and everlasting bliss to the people of this world through the teachings of a spiritual science.

This institute is committed to achieving its objectives through various volunteering programs, community outreach programs & focused workshops. Every year, an international spiritual convention is organized in North America, presided by our Spiritual Teacher, and consists of topic specific discourses and Q&A (open format).

It is entirely managed and run by volunteers spread across several chapters (“centers”) in North America, Latin America and Europe. Our charity work spans international boundaries. One of the chapters are based in Chicago-land. Local chapter meets on weekly basis where we have spiritual discourses on various topics such as Adjust Everywhere, Life without conflict, Harmony in life, Positive parenting, etc.

The Institute programs are for all age groups. It conducts various FREE workshops for all age groups. A life-transforming workshop that has touched thousands of lives across the globe. Discover the path of infinite happiness through right understanding.

Every year it has Self Realization Seminar in Chicago, presided by the Spiritual Teacher from the Institute. Self Realization is attained effortlessly in a two-hour ceremony (Gnan Vidhi) by the grace of the Gnani (spiritual master). Many have experienced this eternal happiness!

For more information on our local events visit: http://us.dadabhagwan.org/chicago/

Visit https://www.dadabhagwan.org/ to learn about Akaram Vignan

Diwali and Annakut Celebrated at BAPS Shri Swaminaryan Mandirs across North America

November 17, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: A glittering array of twinkles filled the night as traditional candles were lit by devotees. The ancient tradition of lighting candles, or divos, during Diwali symbolizes the transition from darkness to light. While the divos lit on Diwali erase physical darkness, the festival’s rich traditions and rituals go deeper – inviting individuals to make efforts in removing darkness in the forms of anger, envy, greed, arrogance, and resentment. Diwali presents a time to reflect and introspect.

The five days of Diwali (including the Hindu New Year) are rich in cultural traditions and rituals that symbolize new beginnings and a renewed commitment to family. The bright colors of Rangoli (intricate designs made of colored powder), the lighting of divos, and the elaborate variety of vegetarian foods offered to God (in a display called an Annakut), all mark a renewal of the good within and the goodwill towards everything around us. Diwali presents Hindus with an opportunity to connect with and celebrate the traditions of their roots with great fanfare.

Offering his prayers to Bhagwan Swaminarayan, His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, guru and current spiritual leader of BAPS, prayed for devotees around the world for continued personal, and professional growth in this new year. Mahant Swami Maharaj took the occasion of Diwali to remind individuals and families about the importance of leading spiritually-centric lives, grounded in strong values and increased attachment to God.

This year, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandirs across North America marked the auspicious festival of Diwali and its associated five days of celebrations with an elaborate Annakut, lighted divos, fireworks, and even a special children’s Diwali celebration.

For many visitors, the most popular attraction and a highlight of the festivities is the Annakut festival on the fifth day. As practiced by BAPS Swaminarayan Mandirs, the Annakut is a unique and awe-inspiring sight of devotion where hundreds of different traditional Indian foods and even some fusions with western cuisine are prepared by devotees in the community and arranged in front of the Mandir’s sacred images. In the evening, the offered dishes are served at dinner to everyone.

Vandan Shah said, “Diwali is all about good food, family gatherings, crackers, and I love it because of the excitement that fills the air when the festival nears. After coming to the Diwali Celebrations at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Robbinsville, I felt like I was in India. I experienced Indian culture while getting a taste of fine Indian cuisine. I truly felt at home.”

“Being away from India, I brought my children to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Edison, NJ so they can learn about Diwali and our rich tradition”, said, Dinesh Prajapati.

In addition to the Annakut, the BAPS’ Diwali celebrations featured spiritual and cultural themed events, which engaged both children and adults, in order to bring positive energy into the New Year. Furthermore, visitors and members learned about scriptural events related to Diwali, and observed traditions such as rangolis and other traditional forms of decorations. Finally, all children were invited to participate in a children’s fair and Kids Diwali Celebration which included food, games and fun activities. Attractions included a fireworks display.

The celebrations were open to all. Visitors participated in celebration activities, offered prayers for new beginnings and had the opportunity to taste in the delicious offerings of the Annakut.

The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is a worldwide spiritual and humanitarian organization that is dedicated to community service, peace, and harmony. Motivated by Hindu principles, BAPS strives to care for the world by caring for societies, families, and individuals. Through various spiritual and humanitarian activities, BAPS endeavors to develop better citizens of tomorrow with high esteem for their roots and culture. Its 3,300 international centers support these character-building activities. Under the guidance and leadership of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, BAPS aspires to build a community that is free of addictions as well as morally, ethically and spiritually pure. For more details, please visit www.baps.org.

His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj is the sixth and current spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. He was ordained a swami by Yogiji Maharaj in 1961 and named Sadhu Keshavjivandas. As he was appointed the head (Mahant) of the Mandir in Mumbai, he became known as Mahant Swami. His devout, humble and service-focused life earned him the innermost blessings of Yogiji Maharaj and Pramukh Swami Maharaj. Mahant Swami Maharaj travels throughout the world inspiring people through his insightful spiritual discourses and disciplined conduct. His virtuous lifestyle and profound devotion to Bhagwan Swaminarayan and gurus are ideals toward which devotees strive. Mahant Swami Maharaj became the guru and President of BAPS upon Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s passing in 2016.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj was the fifth spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. Under his leadership, BAPS grew into an international spiritual and humanitarian organization with over 3,300 centers worldwide. He dedicated his life to the well-being of others, traveling throughout the world to foster love, peace, harmony, righteousness, faith in God, and service to humanity. With genuine care and compassion, he reached out to all members of society irrespective of class, color, or age. Recognized and respected as one of India’s greatest spiritual teachers, he lived by and promoted the principle: “In the joy of others, lies our own.”

Federation of Indian Associations Chicago elects Ninad Daftari as President

November 17, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: The Federation of Indian Associations Chicago, (FIA Chicago) will be celebrating its 10th year anniversary in 2019. The Annual Board Meeting was held at Granite City, Schaumburg on November 4, 2018. This year FIA Chicago unanimously elected its new leader Ninad Daftari and the new board.

The event was presided by Founding Members Sunil Shah, Onkar Sangha, Sunny Kullar, Rita Singh, Mukesh Shah, Dhitu Bhagwakar and Current President Neil Khot. President Elect Ninad Daftari will spearhead the team for the year 2019 with the help of Executive Vice Presidents Hitesh Gandhi and Payal Shah and the entire board which include Vice Presidents Dr. Kamal Patel, Jatinder Bedi, Aishwarya Sharma, Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan and Altaf Bukhari, Secretary Harsh Shah, Treasurer Saurin Thakkar, Joint Secretary Abir Maru, Joint Treasurer Dharmesh Gandhi, Cultural Secretary Hema Shastri, Directors : Shital Daftari, Chetan Patel, Nirav Shah, Ila Patel Chaudhri, Hansal Patel, Geetaanjali Advani Maru, Vibha Rajput, Urmil Patel, Ganesh Kar, Swaranjit Singh and Prabh Khaira.

The incoming President Ninad Daftari plans to take the organization to new heights with events planned for Celebrating India’s Republic Day, Independence Day and Cultural events like Holi and Diwali. This year FIA Chicago will also host Medical Wellness Checkup Camp, Blood Donation Drive, Food Drive and Toys of Kids during the holiday season.

With the help of the Advisory Board Members Syed Hussaini (WinTrust Bank), Manish Gandhi (Power Plant Services), Brij Sharma (Power Volt), Asha Oroskar (Orochem), Smita Shah (Direct Floors), Pradeep Shukla (CPA) and Neal Patel (MedStar), FIA Chicago plans to take on projects like Job Fair, Entrepreneurship camps and Youth Leadership Development Skill Camps.

FIA Chicago was founded to bring Cultural awareness to the Chicagoland area and has now grown to serve the community by hosting many events for the community and helping the community grow and become one.

Multi Ethnic Advisory Task Force Hosts 8th Annual Congressional award function with Glittering of Chicago stars

November 10, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: On behalf of Multi Ethnic Advisory Task Force (MEATF), I like to express my appreciation and thank so many people who worked so hard to make our 8th Annual Congressional Awards Gala a grand success. U.S. Congressman Danny K. Davis’s 7th Congressional District-Illinois’s Multi Ethnic Advisory Task Force hosted the Eighth Annual Awards Gala on Sunday October 28, 2018 at 5 pm at Meadows’s Club, Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The Annual Awards Gala attracts Elected Officials, Community Leaders, Educators, Hospital CEOs, Professionals, Businessmen and Businesswoman from all walks of life from 24 different ethnic communities. 425 prominent citizens were in attendance at the Congressional Gala.

Since last Eight Years with blessings form the Honorable Congressman Danny K Davis and under the leadership of Dr. Vijay Prabhakar who founded this Organization.

One of the highlights of this year’s Gala included the recognition of the Consul Generals of 6 countries at Chicago, “A Congressional Salute to Consulate Generals” “including the Consulate Generals of India, Japan, Turkey, China, Indonesia and Ukraine. Colorful dances from various countries and Singing made the event electrifying, exuberant and lively. Audience was really appreciating every items presented.

Attendance of our vibrant Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from 8th Congressional District of IL made event more pleasant and successful.

One of the prominent political from India, a first female BJP Tamilnadu President, Dr. Tamilisai Soundarrajan specially took her time out of her busy schedule to receive the “International Rising Star” Award.

My special thanks to Congressman, Danny, Davis, His lovely wife Ms. Vera Davis, Congressman Raja Krishnamoothi, Our visionary leader Dr. Vijay Prabhakar, Gala Czar Dr. Zenobia Sowell, Program Chair, Clearance Beals, Banquet Chair, Vijender Doma, Communication Chair Nagendran Sripada, Mrs. Chand Nasim, Banquet co-chair, Our TV anchors Saurin Thakkar and Shirley Kalvakota, and all other MEATF team members who work so hard.

I like to extend my Congratulation to all Awardees and Award Presenters to name few, Well -known Kennedy Family, Dr, Wasiullah Khan, Chancellor of East-West University, Martino Wim Tangkar, Mr. Moti Agarwal, Sunil Shah, Hema Shastri, Dr. Xingwu Wang, Vishal Chhabria, Jayanta Mukharjee, Metin Serbest, Dr. Srinivas Reddy. Presenters;, Gerard and Hadiya Moorer, State Rep. Melissa Conyears Ervin, Alderman Jason Ervin, Dr. Barakat, Santosh Kumar, Dr. Clyde Rivers, Kevin Bailey, Shree Guruswamy and many more …

Music Moghul award was given to Mr. Dexter Dale by the first lady, a famous Singer of Chicago Padma Mehta. Her two line rendition of Bollywood romantic Song was well appreciated by the audience.

“Sri Guru Sai Leela” Outstanding performance by Students of Acharya Performing Arts Academy

November 3, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Students of Acharya Performing Arts Academy under the guidance and direction of teacher/Guru Vidushi Asha Adiga Acharya recreated the divine moments that occurred before 100 years through “Sri Guru Sai Leela” dance drama on Vijayadashami celebration and Shiradi Sai baba 100th Samadi celebration, which was Oct 20th Saturday around 6pm at Aurora IL Sai baba temple.

In the dance drama, the performers enacted 5 heavenly stories extracted from the ‘Holy Sai Satcharithra’. The stories in which Shiradi Sai Baba taught his miraculous lessons through practical life experience. The morals and values that we have learned from Baba stores will be ever pervading in our minds building us as wise strong and compassionate humans.

The dance drama was directed and choreographed by Vidushi Guru Asha Adiga Acharya. Dance drama was performed by Acharya performing arts academy senior dance and music disciple with a live orchestra.

Acharya performing arts academy senior disciple Khristi Blocton very well performed the role of Shiradi sai baba, Madhavilatha Gali and Sharmila Chelladurai were also one of the main dance performers in the dance drama.

In the live orchestra singing and Nattuvangam was done by Vidushi Guru Asha Adiga Acharya, Violin – Rishabh Ranganathan, Mridangam – Soham Kaje, Harmonium – Muralidhara Kaje, Tabala – Srikumar Raja.

Verandah, the Midwest’s First Multicultural Retirement Community, Opens Oct 28th in Schaumburg Township, IL

November 3, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Hanover Park, IL: Verandah Retirement Community celebrated its Grand Opening on Oct 28^th 2018. Verandah is the first multicultural community in the Midwest designed to celebrate both Indian & American lifestyles. The project is a planned unit development (PUD) with residential senior housing and a commercial lot fronting Irving Park road on a 12-acre property located in Schaumburg township. Excitement for this project has been building since 2016 when the project first started. Verandah received final approvals from the Village of Hanover Park, IL in Oct 2017. Construction started in March 2018 and is planned to progress in phases over the next 2 years.

Verandah is a unique retirement destination community designed to celebrate both Indian & American lifestyles thru a fusion of cuisine, activities, entertainment, traditions and cultures. Verandah offers an equal housing opportunity for seniors from all backgrounds who wish to take advantage of this ‘east meets west’ philosophy. Verandah has many features, amenities and facilities which were thoughtfully designed to offer a convenient, worry-free lifestyle to the 55 years plus senior community. The emphasis was on providing a continuum of care which allowed for residents to be as active as possible but still have access to specialized services and facilities as health needs changed without having to leave the community.

Verandah is located in Schaumburg Township’s Hanover Park village. The location is central and close to new Elgin-Ohare expressway. Chicago’s O’Hare airport is about 30 mins away and downtown Chicago is about 45 mins away. The area also has two excellent medical centers. The Schaumburg area was selected as it is widely recognized for its diversity and access to extensive retail, shopping & dining avenues. In addition, Schaumburg is close to other attractions important to the Indian community including various religious organizations, ethnic grocery stores and restaurants.

Verandah will offer townhomes & condominiums for sale with a huge Clubhouse and medical facilities for use of the residents. The homes range in size from 1450-2000 square feet for the townhomes and 620-1200 square feet for the condominiums. The townhomes and condominiums are especially built for senior living and offer a convenient, low maintenance lifestyle. The housing will be offered at $200,000-$475,000 to accommodate various budgets & lifestyles. The base-price includes upscale finishes & all appliances. A variety of upgrades will be offered. The housing is especially built for senior living with all-ranch and first-floor master bedroom options. All exterior maintenance will be taken care off by the homeowners association fees in the range of $350-475 per month.

The Clubhouse will be the main attraction feature of the community. It is planned as a 20,000 square feet facility with a vegetarian dining room, community room, gym, computer room, library, beauty shop, theater. The dining facility will serve chef-made multicultural & Indian cuisine using fresh local ingredients for lunch & dinner daily. The Clubhouse will offer a full calendar of activities and entertainment options to provide many avenues for social interactions. The property will also offer extensive landscaped areas including a big pond, park, walking paths.

The medical services will include a doctor’s office, physical therapy office, home-health service and an Assisted Living & Memory Care facility. “Our emphasis is on socialization of the seniors. Loneliness is a big problem in the senior community. At Verandah we designed many amenities & facilities to bring the seniors out of their homes and be involved in group activities, make new friends and enjoy their life some more” said Dr Anuja Gupta, founder & CEO.

Construction started in March 2018 and will progress phases with townhomes planned to be built in 2018, condominiums in 2019 and medical facilities in 2020. The Grand Opening on Oct 28^th will involve ‘unveiling’ of the Model Townhome. “By showing a Model Townhome on the property we hope that prospective buyers will find it useful to envision themselves living in the homes” says Dr Anuja Gupta.

Hundreds of participant in first Shree Umiya Mataji Sarad Purnima Garba with Kinjal Dave by Shree Umiya Dham Chicago Midwest

November 3, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago, IL: Around more than 4000 peoples attended Shree Umiya Mataji First Sarad Purnima Garba with Kinjal Dave organized by Shree Umiya Dham Chicago Midwest (SUDCM) on Friday 26^th2018 at Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park Illinois. Mtaji Palki was beautifully decorated and was placed on stage.

Program started at 7 pm with Deep pragatya ceremony by Grand sponsors, Mafatbhai Patel, Himanshu Modi, Chhotalal Patel, Platinum Sponsor, Gold sponsors, Silver sponsors, all senior samaj leaders and accompanied by SUDCM team and community leaders. Even program being on Friday regular work day, it got sold out day before. Entire community and community leaders enjoyed the event from beginning to end.

Following Deep pragtya ceremony everyone joined Mithabhai & Jayantibhai Family for Maha Arti on stage.

Venue reminded us our 3 years ago August 29/30^th 2015 Mataji reception event. Kinjal Dave’s event drew largest Indian community crowd in history of Chicago. In audience we saw all generation having time of their life. Gujarati Daughter’s wonderful voice in two tali, three tali, ras garba, sanedo and Bhai-Bhai got everyone on their hills all night alone. Off course ladies did little bit of shopping to support their test as well at the booths.

SUDCM team and volunteers did great job on reaching out community to bring in high profile sponsors, selling booths, banners, tickets, and organizing & managing the event. Lucky Draw was planned and managed by Hemant and Sunil Patel. Thanks to them. They have collected over $1000.00. Good job guys. Lucky draw price Apple watch was sponsored by Unjha group. Another brilliant idea from Kirti Patel, he imported ras Dandiya from India on his own expense and sold during event and generated over $1,000 revenue for SUDCM. He is one of our energetic member of SUDCM team. Hats off to you Kirti.

SUDCM Chairman Chhotalal Patel complimented to Rajesh Desai, Narendra Patel, Pankaj Patel & Kirti Patel for taking full responsibility to manage and resulting in great successful event.

We can’t say enough about our sponsors who open their hearts and pocket which made this program possible, thanks to all of them.

Grand Sponsor: Mafatbhai Patel of “Patel Brothers”, Himanshubhai Modi of Nova Builders, and Chhotalal Patel of S&S & Specialty rolled metals.

Platinum Sponsor: Suketu Amin of VINAKOM

Gold Sponsors: Praful Rami of Trinity Insurance and Nalin & Taruben Patel (Indiana) of Dunkin Donuts,

Silver Sponsors: Disco insurance, Rohit Trivedi (CPA) and Wing-Stop Manoj & Mitesh Patel

Maha Arti Sponsors: Mithabhai & Jayantibhai Patel family.

Slide Advertise: – Shukan Wedding Décor & Suburban Medical Wellness Center

At the end SUDCM team Salutes the community, volunteer and everyone who participated in the Garba and special thanks to Kinjal Dave & Her team who poured their heart in entertaining the attendees.

Rousing Success of Brahma Samaj Navratri Garba

November 3, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago, IL: Brahma Samaj of Greater Chicago celebrated the Navratri function on Saturday October 27. The event was a grand success. More than 650 Samaj members, friends and families joined this fun filled evening. This became simply another feather in the cap of the progressive march of BSGC towards becoming one of the most popular Social and religious organization in the Chicagoland.

Our president John Trivedi and Vice president Raj Trivedi left no stone unturned in making this event a roaring success. Ketan Raval and Pankaj Raval worked tirelessly. Dr. Ravi Trivedi provided a much appreciated supervision.

Chicagoland’s famous Sa Re Ga Ma Orchestra, Rajesh Chilam and Nipa Shah entertained the crowd for almost five hours with Garbas, Dandias and Movie song based musical remixes. Nipa Shah along with Rajesh Chalam, Richard Christian and Chintu of Orchestra Saregama rocked the evening. They kept everyone dancing on their melodious garba. Nipa’s garba selection from traditional popular ‘Ranglo’ to latest Loveyatri hit ‘Chhogala tara’ captured hearts of audience of all ages where people continued craving for more.

Suga Builders, the popular and trusted name in our community was the sponsor for the delicious food which was included in the admission. Mr. Jasprit Suga himself attended the event till the Aarti and personally made sure that the food and catering was exemplary. He showed a true spirit of giving back to the community. Suga builders established in 1991 are a very well-known and respected name for commercial and residential construction projects. The company is built on core values of accountability, quality, professionalism, and excellent customer service.

Food for the evening was catered by Sai Saffron – one of the most popular caterers in Indian community. Sai saffron specializes in all type if food items from regional Indian menus like Gujarati, Punjabi, Rajasthani etc to indo-chinese, Mexican and fusion. People enjoyed delicious Pav Bhaji and Gujarati favorite Khichu with tea during the break.

The youth participated much enthusiastically and the whole event was taken to a new level of energetic Garba songs and dances which they enjoyed very much. You could see the smiles and sweat on their faces from the fast paced swings and tempo.

The Diwali Dinner, which is the annual well attended event for the Samaj, will be held at the Grand Conference Hall of the Fairfield Marriott in Schaumburg on December 1, 2018. The event is nearly sold out and the reservations are open at www.brahmasamaj.org. We also hold our Membership drive at these Diwali and Hindu New Year function.

By popular demand, the BSGC is bringing the “Singles to Mingle “Event in the summer of 2019. The Samaj has been holding these for last few years and the community has benefited a lot from this.

Pyrus & Ritvi teenager bringing joy to people in need

October 18, 2018 Asian Media USAYouth 0

Chicago IL: Charitable donations and volunteering are the first things many people think of with regard to giving back to their communities. Giving back to your community is on most people’s to-do list, but it takes time and commitment. Ritvi Khurana from Burr Ridge ‘Pleasantdale Middle School’ in 7th grade and Pyrus kalra a junior from Conant high School in Schaumburg has donated over 150 toys and new clothes for the organization ‘Toy Box Connection’ running by Ms Michelle, a woman who has been voluntarily dedicated her precious time from last decade to bring smile for the people in need.

Pyrus & Ritvi also, volunteered helping hand there to sort the stuff according to age. Ritvi, was collecting her birthday gifts from past 4 years and never opened or used them. Her Mother is from India and provides helps to those living in underprivileged areas in India but when she asked Ritvi, to send toys to India. She said ‘Charity begins from home and Chicago is our home’ she said i gain two things, a joy from giving so many kids happiness with the toys and a greater respect for the things that I have. Her love for USA and her city is much appreciated.

Pyrus Kalra devotes community hours in other charities as well! Pyrus Kalra parents Karl Karla and Sonia Karla educate youngster that “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving and we make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give”.

There is a world of children that do not have toys or books; with your help we can change that. Toy Box Connection (TBC) will be the connection between families and businesses that have new or used toys / books to donate then we will directly connect those toys / books to the children that need them. Our organization is the missing link in communities. We are simply the jumper cables connecting those that have with those that need. Our primary goal is to touch the life of a child through the gift of a toy/book as well as a day of fun every chance we get. Need has no season so we will connect toys, books, many other needed items as well as provide days of fun throughout the entire year.

Thousands Participate In AAA Entertainment Bollywood Dandiya & Fashion Bazar

October 10, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: AAA Entertainment organizes another memorable Cultural Extravaganza – More than 1100 people attended the spectacular Garba organized by AAA Entertainment on September 28 at Monty’s Elegant Banquets in Bensenville, Illinois. Beautifully decorated with colorful lights, beautiful Bollywood music and the fashion bazaar were the special attractions of the event.

AAA Founder and President Amit Vatal accompanied, Anoop Mamtani of Atlantic travels and Hemi Patel and other community leaders started the program with traditional lamp lighting followed by musical performances. AAA Entertainment and Atlantic Travels team, began the evening by offering a prayer. The starting was with famous garba songs along with remixes by Hitesh Master Nayak and his team.

The program commenced with rhythmic live music including Drum and Dhol beats of orchestra and vocal choral by Nayak. Garba dance started by the participants moving in clockwise fashion around the goddess Durga’s representation. The whirling dancers, clapped hands, and later added distinct sound of wooden sticks struck together in perfect harmony by toe tapping music and people, especially ladies including small girls wearing colorful dress. Tempo of dance picked up gradually as time progressed.

The evening was full of rhythmic traditional Garba music with equally passionate and high energetic performance by the swirling dance around Maa Shakti. There were participants of all ages of men and women, enjoying and celebrating the memorable evening. Many in the audience, especially ladies of all ages wore very colorful and traditional dresses for this special occasion.

After the brief break and Aarti, the festive music of Dandiya-Raas commenced with the participants that lasted beyond midnight. AAA Entertainment has been organizing memorable events in Chicago land to promote Indian culture to new generations and encourage involvement from many other ethnicities.

“The Board of Trustees, Executive Committee Members and Volunteers made amazing efforts and efficient planning including proper attention towards the security, safety of each participants and parking arrangement” said Vatal. Vote of thanks was expressed by board members to all participants, sponsors and staff of Monty’s Elegant Banquets.

Another attraction of the event was the hours long fashion bazaar. There were various booths at the bazaar ranging from designer apparel and jewelry to satellite services, banking products and books.

Speaking at the event, Amit Vatal of AAA Entertainment said that such festivities carry a message of unity and brotherhood to a new generation born in this country. He also thanked the audience and volunteers for their hard work and dedication.

The packed auditorium rocked with non-stop dancing by the young and the old, which lasted for hours. The event concluded in the wee hours of morning highlighted by devotional Arti of Mataji.

Live Bollywood Dandiya night by Poonam Bhatia Rocks Chicago

October 10, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: The whirling dancers, clapping hands, distinct sound of wooden sticks struck together, toe tapping music and people wearing colorful clothes marked the Navratrey celebration at the Garba & Dandiya Raas dances held all over Chicago land. Over 1200 people of different age groups joined and celebrated the Grand Live Bollywood Dandiya Night by Poonam Bhatia & Hitesh Master at Bolingbrook High School on October 6, 2018

A night of fun and revelry to bring in the Hindu festive season Navratri and eventually Diwali, was put together by Ganesh Subramanian of Chicago Wedding and Fashion Photography. People of all communities, dressed in their festive attires, started reaching Bolingbrook venue by 7 pm. This reporter reached the Venue much before the actual show started.

Orchestra SaReGaMa with Hitesh Master and his maverick musicians had set up their band before the gate of the hall was opened. The sound was being set up by Kafi khan who himself is an accomplished Rhythmist. The live band had Richard Cristian in octopad and sampler, Chetan Soni on Roto drums and Gopal shah on Acoustic drum set.

Poonam Bhatia, Bollywood Playback singer who has given playback in more than ten regional languages in India and does a lot of charity work all over the USA, arrived there by 6.30pm to do her sound check with the band. Once the sound check was done, the gates of the hall were opened to the public. Suddenly about a thousand revelers thronged the place and signed up for the raffle by eVasthra & Uptick Financials! Some of them went straight to the stalls which were set up to sell small knickknacks. And some went directly to have a bite from the food counters that were set up specially that day for them by Tandoor Hut.

Once the music started playing, everybody came to the center of the hall and started dancing to the beats of orchestra SaReGaMa. Hitesh master apart from conducting his musicians, also did magic with his fingers on the keyboards!! Poonam Bhatia, along with co singers Taarika Bhatia and Darshana Patel, as usual did the magic with her voice!! Hitesh Master also crooned in the mic! Taarika Bhatia is the lead singer with Bollywood singer Mika Singh’s band. Since it was a Bollywood Dandiya evening, a lot of Bollywood songs were also included along with the traditional Gujarati numbers. The hall kept reverberating with the beats of dandiya till about 10.15pm, which was the time deadline for the venue. Thereafter people had to stop dancing, though they did not want to!! The fun had just begun.

The event promoter Ganesh Subramanian thanked everyone for making it a grand success and announced the winners of the raffle and promised to give them many more such fun filled evenings!!

The event was produced by Ganesh Subramanian & Menaga Rajukannan of Chicago Wedding & Fashion Photography (www.chicagowfp.com) & eVasthra (Indian Designer Online store based out of Chicago – www.evasthra.com) in collaboration with Tandoor Hut of Naperville & Uptick financial solutions – Remy Mel and sponsored by Professional Mortgage Solution – Ashok Lakshman, Mygo consulting, Bartosz Balaz of Allstate agency & ComForcare, Lotus Montessori of Naperville and many others.

Thanks to all volunteers including Sandhya Subbu, Karthik Giri, Param Yarasani, Chakri Gandham, Anuthama Raghu and many others who helped in bringing the live event to Chicago audience.

ATA Celebrates Batukamma, Telangana’s Floral Festival with traditional flavor

October 10, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: American Telugu Association (ATA) a 27+ years old organization has conducted its flagship event Dussehra and Bathukamma Celebrations at Sri Balaji Temple, Aurora (Chicago) on Sunday Oct 7th. ATA Advisory chair Hanumanth Reddy garu along with event organizers Dr. Meher Medavaram, Laxmi Boyapalli, Bhanu Swargam, Regional team comprising of Venkat Thudi, Mahipal Vancha, Hari Raini and Core team members wished the community – prosperity, happiness and wealth during this festive season. Around 300 + saree clad Indian women attended the occasion to celebrate the festival of Dussehra/Bathukamma festival offering flowers to the goddess Gauri/Bathukamma with much fervor and gusto.

Event started with Vigneshwara Pooja, offering prayers to lord Ganesh to remove any obstacles. ATA team was party to the lamp lighting ceremony. Smt. Sunitha Reddy explained the importance of the Bathukamma festival and thanked the ladies for their beautiful Bathukamma’s. Unique decoration by Anitha Pochampally portraying Bathukamma was the highlight of the event, Kids and Ladies were witnessed having a great time snapping pictures in front of the backdrop.

Sumptuous food was served to the audiences and the post lunch festivities kick started with Bathukamma arriving traditionally amidst prayers. Ladies carrying their home made Bathukammas placed them in the rangoli formation made out of rice flour. Maleeda was offered to the goddess as a ritual offering which included various saddi’s. Celebrity folk Singer Raagam Shalini, a special attraction for the event, enthralled the audiences with her mesmerizing voice and everybody was witnessed dancing to the tunes of Bathukamma. Bathukamma, an arrangement of flowers in the shape of a pyramid is a hugely popular festival in Telugu states and celebrates the goddess Gauri.

ATA team thanked the community for their unconditional love and support and appreciated the sponsors for lending a helping hand to celebrate the customs and traditions of of our telugu culture. Best Bathukamma & Raffle ticket winners were awarded prizes by Dr.Mehar Medavaram and Sainath Boyapalli. Volunteer efforts were overseen by Narasimha Chittaluri, Mahipal Vancha, Venkat Thudi, Hari Raini & Venkat reddy. Media & food logistics were handled by Jagan Bukkaraju, Ramana Abbaraju , Karunakar Doddam and Vijay Yanala.

Acclaimed Kathak dancer Anindita dazzled the audience with her spectacular performance

September 27, 2018 Asian Media USACulture/Religion, Entertainment 0

Chicago IL: The two days colorful Indian classical dance festival, Nritya Samarpana 2018 concluded on Sept 15-16, 2018 at Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple, 1145 Sullivan Rd, Aurora, IL. It was a breathing two days festival which featured top artists from different states of USA and India. There were total 9 featured performers along with performances by the veteran teachers of the Chicagoland area like Gauri Jog, Sobha Tamanna, Ipsita Satpathy and Asha Adiga with their respective students. It was a glorious two days of vivid showcase of extremely talented artists. The fest showcased artists from classical Indian dances including Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Odissi and so on.

Each year, this dance festival is organized by Balaji cultural committee at the Veluchamy Auditorium of Sri Venkateswara Balaji temple in Aurora Illinois and admired by art lovers. This illustrious dance festival attracts innumerable viewers and art connoisseurs across states. Balaji temple has been in the forefront of preserving Indian cultural arts and celebrates the various art forms. Robust Indian classical dance programs like Nritya Samarpana festival is a great platform for nurturing such traditional arts which are face of our Indian heritage.

Anindita Neogy is an International Kathak danseuse who featured as a solo performer in the prestigious Indian Classical Dance Festival, Nritya Samarpana 2018 in Chicago. She mesmerized the viewers with her powerful performance. Recipient of Shri Jayadev National Youth Award 2018 given for excellence in Kathak Dance by National Cultural Mission and Indian government of Odisha, Anindita is a dancer par excellence.

She started with a Durga Bhajan (evoking the Goddess Durga) set in 16 beat teentaal, and presented the piece with so much grace and intricate details of the Abhinaya or facial expressions. Her details to the movements were so delicate that one couldn’t take eyes off her.

Second part of her performance consisted of pure Nritta Paksha or the technical side of Kathak where she presented todas, tukdas which are geometrical patterns of moves, sublime body gestures folded with charm and grace. The richness and sharpness of the footwork enchanted the audience. The whole auditorium was echoing with the metal bells and thudding sound of her rhythmically singing footsteps. With every ‘Sam’, which gives a silence of a second built the momentum of pure thrill and excitement and people couldn’t stop applauding her brilliant recital. Her red fabric dress and gleaming ornaments were phosphorescent. It was nothing less than a pure magic on stage. Her swift pirouettes brought power and speed to the stage.

The third and final portion of her contemporary Kathak displayed Poet Jayadev’s Geet Govinda where she portrayed the myriad emotions of gopikas and radha waiting eagerly for beloved Krishna, the Lord of love and charm as the spring seasons comes to a full bloom. Anindita impeccably captivated the emotions of a forlorn woman sitting for her lover to return to her and also the Krishna who is chasing them and playing pranks on them. As a seasoned dancer, she enacted variable characters with touch of ease. Her virtuosically turns and her entire expression of limbs, torso and especially hands perfectly married to the theme. She was a wizard on the stage. The sculptural firmness of her body language and such delicate and vivid gestures were nothing short of eloquent beauty. It was an enriching evening of mellifluous dance concert.

Anindita has performed in major festivals in India and abroad including Theater am Faden (Germany), Birju Maharaj Parampara Utsav (India), Kundan Lal Gangani Festival (India), Sharad Utsav (India), Logging and Heritage Festival (Wi), Rhythms of the world (Appleton fox cities), Out to lunch Event (Marinette Wi), BAGC Chicago Banga Sammelan (where she shared stage with Grammy award winner Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt), Celebrate Diversity Event Menasha and so on.

Anindita is a student of Pt Rajendra Gangani (Jaipur school of Kathak) and Pt Jai Kishan Maharaj (Lucknow school of Kathak) and adept in both the styles. She is known for her graceful movements with a swift pace and shows immense proficiency in both traditional and fusion choreographies of Kathak.

Xoomatic Staffing Tool- Product Launched By ITConnectUS

September 9, 2018 Asian Media USABusiness 0

ITConnectUS & Law Offices of Mary Kennedy held the ITServe Chicago monthly event at Hoffman Estates, IL. With over 200 prestigious businesses as attendees, the formal event was marked with cocktail and networking before presentations from the sponsors followed by dinner. The American IT consulting company, ITConnectUS releases their first of its kind web application, Xoomatic, an empowered staffing tool designed for customizable recruitment needs.

Xoomatic is an automated workflow management system for vendors, clients, recruiters and managers to handle the entire hiring process all in one easy to use platform. Xoomatic runs on your secured domain to build applicant databases for your organization, so you don’t have to.

Unlike traditional recruitment solutions portals, Xoomatic offers real time status updates for clients and applicants to find out the status of their application. It is designed to be concise and provide a simplistic interface behind a robust automated tool. With 24/7 technical support, Here at Xoomatic we will help automate your entire workflow.

Within Xoomatic’ s user experience we offer a Staffing Solution and Pre-screening Service All in one. Our Xoomatic’ s Prescreening services offer any organization the unique opportunity to received only verified, genuine candidate profiles, eliminating falsified and spam profiles. These candidates can then be tracked and managed through the Pre-screening Module within the Xoomatic portal. The overall result is speed and accountability, increasing the probability by simplifying your pre-screening step of any organizations hiring process.

12 individual modules makeup the Xoomatic sphere, with their own specializations for account management, recruiting, pre-screening, vendor management, team leader, client, legal & finance, consultant and vendor submission module. A super admin module includes the ability to manage all other modules with admin level control, which is ideal for any size organization.

Xoomatic offers packages for every company size and offers the ability to customize your package to fit your exact company need.

ITConnectUS was established in 2016 with offices in Chicago (United States), Mohali and Bangalore (India) and Singapore. ITConnectUS’s latest tool Xoomatic is offered for a 14 days trial purposes absolutely free. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more explanation or a detailed demonstration. Visit us at www.xoomatic.com

The Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook Celebrate 27th Anniversary of their flag hoisting Ceremony at the Taste of Pakistan Independence Day Celebration

September 9, 2018 Asian Media USACommunity 0

Chicago IL: Another historic Taste of Pakistan in Bolingbrook took place on Saturday, August 25, 2018. Thousands flock to this city each year to witness one of the most well organized and well attended Pakistan Day celebrations in the USA. This year was not different as the host organization the Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook (APA) yet gained another feather in their cap.

The event was hosted at the Bolingbrook performing arts center at 375 W. Briarcliff Rd. behind Village Hall. This year the celebrities invited to perform was no other that the renowned entertainer from Pakistan Ali Haider and upcoming famous young singer Malaika Faisal from Coke Studio. Thousands of attendees packed the complex filled with food, entertainment and music. The event was sponsored by Dr. Nadim Longi and Dr. Moazzam Saeed of Advanced Pediatric Care.

Bolingbrook has a diverse population and has consistently ranked among the best places to live in America by Money Magazine. Among the honored guests Mayor of Bolingbrook Roger. C. Claar and Vice Consul General of Pakistan Rabia Shafiq attended on behalf of Hon. Faisal N. Tirmizi who could not attend due to prior commitments, Ms. Shafiq had nothing but praise for the event and the city which has recently became a sister city to Sialkot Pakistan. Also, in attendance were representatives from Will County, Village Trustees, Library Trustees, School Board members, Judge Ben Braun, Alysia Benford candidate for State Rep, State Senator Pat McGuire, Dr. Nick Stella candidate for congress, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner had sent a video and proclamation, Will County Board members, Bolingbrook Park District, State Rep Dave Olsen and others.

The official flag hoisting was conducted as the APA celebrated 27 years of raising the Pakistani flag at Village hall. The ceremony was conducted by Mayor Claar and Vice Consul Shafiq and the founder of the APA Mr. Talat Rashid was honored with the proclamation, a video message from the Governor and received much praise from the guests for the vision and accomplishments of the APA. The APA also recognized Mr. Abdul Razzaq from the Pakistan Consulate Chicago for his dedicated service to the community along with recently retired Bolingbrook Public Works member Bob Kalis for his 29 years of service. The Master of Ceremonies was no other than Mir Ali, who continues to grow in his role of leading the future of the community and has done explicit work for the community. Both Mr. Rashid and Mr. Ali were appointed to the Police and Fire and Plan Commission boards, respectively. This year Mr. Rizwan Asghar was also appointed to the Civic Affairs Cultural Affairs Commission.

The Taste of Pakistan’s success has always been due to the hard work of its members and the unparalleled level of its sponsors. Grand Sponsors were no other than Advanced Pediatric Care. Other sponsors included JF Labs President Mr. Ali Akhtar, RNA Corp. CEO Mr. Munir Chaudhry, AMITA Bolingbrook Hospital, Absolute Healthcare CEO Mr. Asad Malik, Wintrust Bank Mr. Shakeel Khan, BMO Harris Bank Mr. Obaid Haleem, IFANCA and many others

The event was entertaining at many fronts. Entertainment for kids included face painting, jumpy houses, air plane rides and arts and crafts activities. All types of food were being served at the food booths consisting of Bismillah Restaurant, Makki Grill, Lazaal Foods, Desi Diner and Porto’s Peri chicken.

The clothing and jewelry bazaar were filled with deals and business owners had their booths set up to get the maximum exposure. The APA has done a fine job in maintaining the quality and providing businesses a great platform to get exposure through their digital screen advertising and this year the entire event was broadcasted live achieving over 200k viewership.

The entertainment began about 8pm as DJ Kazi entertained the crowd all day with his music. The APA rewarded Bolingbrook Police officer Robert Liazuk for his 25 years of above and beyond service to the community. The APA offered many great raffle prizes including the grand prize of a round trip ticket by MI travel.

The highlights of the evening consisted of a video message from the newly elected Governor of Sindh, Mr. Imran Ismail praising Mayor Roger Claar for his support and dedication to the Pakistani American community of Bolingbrook for over 30 years. The APA thanked the Governor for his kind words and recognized Mr. Ali Akhtar for his unparalleled support. The most memorable part of the evening was when the APA announced to donate proceeds and profits from its raffle and parking towards the Basha Dam construction project, which is badly needed to support Pakistan’s rural population that in today’s world still lack water and electricity.

The APA also donated to many local nonprofits including the Lions Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, H2O and Clow airport. Later, the APA was also was successful in rallying individuals to donate towards the Basha Dam project, those individuals included Dr. Moazzam Saeed, Dr. Nadim Longi, Dr, Faiz, Dr. Waseem, Dr. Yaseen, Dr. Tahmina Bajwa and Dr. Ghani. The thousands of attendees were on their feet in excitement and praised the APA and the donors for their continued commitment to make Pakistan a better place to live.

The entertainment began with a bang as Malaika Faisal opened the show and won the hearts of thousands of attendees. The crowd was anxious to see Ali Haider next, as when he took the stage he had the entire crowd on their feet. He was simply magical with his voice and entertained the crowd as expected.

Before the event ended all the APA volunteers were brought on stage and recognized. The volunteers included Hamid Bhatti, Rizwan Asghar, Zulfi Ahmed, Aziz Vayani, Kamran Rashid.

The event was a huge success at every level. The APA has done it again and has proven to America that they truly bring out the best in the Pakistani American community and are leaders in educating America on all the positive contributions Pakistani Americans continue to make towards its success. The 2019 Taste of Pakistan will take place in August 2018 and further information will be available on www.apabolingbrook.com

Madhav Parthasarathy Debut performance enthralls audience at Mridangam Arengetram

August 29, 2018 Asian Media USAEntertainment 0

Chicago IL: It was a hazy evening of August 11th, where the sun shone upon the bustling Yellow Box Theatre and the clouds blanketed the tops of the bright blue sky. As the anxious guests bustled with the crowd, Madhav Parthasarathy shone upon like a luminous star, holding his treasure in his hands. The crowd seemed to have settled in the Yellow Box Theatre, when yet another surprise had arrived. With short notice, rain showered over Naperville, like the God’s had well-wished him from the heavens above. The debut concert slowly rolled into motion, Mrs. Uma Iyer, the Master of Ceremonies for the day, introduced the Chief Guests and Honored Guests that had, with such humbleness, accepted to come view the great day for Madhav.

Mrs. Uma Iyer introduced first Congressman Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthy, the 8th District Representative for Illinois. At that moment, Congressman Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthy was received upon stage and stated a few words upon Madhav and his family. Along with a great spark to the evening, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy granted the Certificate of Commitment to Guru Sri. Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan – Madhav’s guru, a Plaque of Commitment to Designated Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Smt. Aruna Sairam – Madhav’s main artist, and a Certificate of Commitment to Madhav himself. Progressing forward, the MC introduced the Chief Guest, Professor and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. Trichy Sankaran sir, and guest of honors Mrs. Malini Vaidyanathan of Air India, and Mr. Raghu Raghuraman of RR International. The introductions continued into the beginning of the concert, where Madhav boldy walked upon stage with the rest of the ensemble, along with Smt. Aruna Sairam on vocal, Sri. Vittal Ramamurthy on violin, Sri. Guru Prasad on Ghatam, Sri. N. Sundar on morsing and Kumari Akshaya on Tambura. The introductions of the artists were followed by the beginning piece, known as the Varnam.

Smt Aruna Sairam, the doyen of modern Carnatic singers, whose vibrant voice, with its unique timbre, is a rare combination of resonance and range – yet deeply passionate and movingly soulful.

Despite it being the Arangetram (debut performance) of young Mridangist Madhav, in his early teens, Smt. Aruna established the seriousness of the concert when she commenced with the cadenced Gambhira Nattai varnam Amma Ananda Dayini , composed by another Modern Great – Dr. M Balamuralikrishna. Madhav matched the crescendo of Sive, Sive with a frenzied yet controlled rhythm only demonstrated by seasoned percussionists. Sri Thiruvaroor Vaidyanathan’s tutelage of Madhav showed prominently.

Hardly had the reverberation subsided, she broke into the evocative exhortation of Thyagaraja’s Ganamoorthe set in Raga Ganamoorthi. In the charanam after Navaneetha Chora Nanda Dadi Chora, she had a pregnant, enquiring pause, throwing down the gauntlet to young Madhav – whose repartee was a delectable left-handed flourish that had Smt. Aruna smiling and the audience gasping; Madhav the mridangam player had arrived and held his own against a celebrity singer.

Abhogi was next in the inimitable style of Smt. Aruna – who begins with the Thiruvachakam eulogy of Lord Shiva (Namasivaya vaazhga , Nadan thal vazzhga), before she transitions in her incomparable gusto into Sabapathikku Veru Deivyam, a composition of Gopalakrishna Bharati….Madhav’s pulsating mridangam had the powerful yet crisp Nadham which was in joyous harmony with the intense devotional sentiment paying encomiums to Lord Shiva.

The niraval by Smt. Aruna on Sabapathikku was eclectic – but well balanced by the creative tempo of brilliant permutations on the mridangam.

Then we heard Kadanakuthuhala Raga Priye in Ragam Kadanakuthuhalam composed by one of Smt. Aruna’s gurus – Pallavi Venkata Rama Iyer, with its unmistakable resemblance to the captivating Raghuvamsa Sudha. Succinct beats of Madhav’s mridangam embellished this delightful rendering.

It was the segue to the center piece of the Concert – a Thyagaraja Krithi in Bhairavi – Upacharamulanu with dazzling manodharma in Raga Alapana ; elaborate yet exquisitely crafted swara prastharas. Sri Vittal Ramamurthy’s violin adorned Smt. Aruna’s intricate niraval on “Kapata Nataka” with a stunning array of resplendent swaras, leading to the main attraction – the Thani avarthanam of Madhav with well ensconced senior artists – Sri Guruprasad on Ghatam and Sri N Sundar on morsing. The thani was executed with impish rapture – playful yet challenging exchange of rhythmic notes between the mesmerizing percussionists.

Very few singers can bring to life the bhavam (emotion) and bhakti (devotion) of an Abhang like Smt. Aruna. To the uninitiated, Abhangs are the passionate religious hymns of nomadic Marathi saints in praise of Lord Vittal (an incarnation of Vishnu). The anguished tone of one such abhang where Saint Namdev, upon being asked who he is and where is he from and being turned down from singing bhajans (devotional hymns) in front of Nagnath temple in Aundh in present day Maharashtra state of India, goes to the backyard of the temple with his group and sings. His decry – everything is for Vittala – the pilgrimage, his parents, his teachers, everyone is for Vittala.The legend goes that God in order to provide darshan and face his pining devotees is said to have turned the Sanctum Sanctorum (Garbha Griha). Teertha Vittala in Hindustani Raag Ahir Bhairav (close to Carnatic Chakravakam) captures the pain of Saint Namdev and Smt. Aruna moves the audience to delirium with her deeply emotional singing with the help of Madhav’s fervor on the mridangam.

This was followed by the popular Anayampatti Aadisesha Iyer’s Enna Kavi Padinalum in Ragam Neelamani, a desperate call to Lord Muruga to pay heed to his invocations and bless him. Of course, it was time for Smt. Aruna’s signature piece , folk style Maadu Meikkum Kanne in Ragam Senchuruti, composed by Oothukadu Venkata Subba Iyer, in which mother Yashoda and her darling little Krishna’s childish harangue over going to the forest to play.

Then, on audience demand, came another Abhang, Baje Mridunga Taal, depicting the frenzied dance during the visarjan (immersion) of the Deity Ganesha into the water at the end of Ganesh Chaturthi festivities. Madhav’s mridangam accompanying the chorus Ganapathy Bappa Morya (proclaiming Ganapathy’s glory) was lilting and brought the audience to their feet. Well played, Madhav.

Finally, the Kalinga Narthana Thillana, also in Gambheera Nattai, composed by Oothukadu Venkata Subba Iyer, depicting Krishna’s cosmic dance on the head of the Kalinga serpent and preventing it from poisoning the Yamuna river – the cadence of the dance is beautifully captured in this rhythmic composition. Krishna’s furious dance steps can be visualized in the energetic performance of Smt. Aruna – matched fiercely by Madhav on his mridangam.

An excellent, heartwarming and particularly pleasing concert had come to an end; yet it was only the beginning of a wondrous musical journey for magnificent Madhav and his majestic Mridangam.

Foundation Stone-laying ceremony of the New Haridham Mandir in Chicago

August 29, 2018 Asian Media USACulture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: Temple is a divine and majestic place of pilgrimage, where life unites with ‘Jagadish’ – the divine ruler of this world. It is a place, where devotees unify with their daitee, where soul fades into the ultimate divinity, where our next generation gets a dose of our true Samskara (sacrament) and culture.

It’s a place where a mere stone transfigures itself to become a divine idol. This is a place, where our material being and physical existence convert into an a divine temple. It is a place, from where the message of brotherhood, profoundness, unity and intimacy spreads door-to-door.

With such benedictory purpose and a soulful resolve for welfare and well-being of the people, the erection of the temple in Chicago city of Illinois State of the United States began on May 12 with Mahapuja under total Vedic practice.

Along with the celebrations marking the beginning of construction work for the new Temple, the auspicious occasion of Rakshabandhan was also jointly celebrated in the august presence of HH Swamishri.

On this occasion, young members of Chicago Mandal performed mellifluous music including some of the marvelous kirtana and bhajans, which enthralled the listeners.

Shree Himanshubhai narrated the significance the occasion of Rakshabandhan in a poetic way, and stated that Guru Hari Swamishri has committed to protect us from all evils from with-in and outside. He recounted a variety of incidents to explain his philosophy.

Respected HH Swamiji deliberated upon the importance of Rakshabandhan and said, “We celebrate the festival of Rakshabandhan to pray to God so that he continues to protect us in all situations. Five Pandavas conquered the 100 Kauravas, because they had Lord Shri Krishna on their side to protect them. Likewise, if we surrender ourselves to the God of Godly Sait, we will remain protected in all situations. As much faith we put in God, that much we shall be protected.”

On the occasion, the Chicago Youth Mandal performed a divine dance on the theme of ‘Yuva Mahotsav ka Bugle Baje’.

The representatives of different organisations and guests participated the event so as to celebrate the occasion as well as seek the blessings from HH Swamishri.

Democrat Party’s Congressman, Raja Krishnamoorthi graced the occasion, in his address to the audience, he recognized and praised the social work being done by Yogi Divine Society. Also, thanked the community to erect first Hindu Temple in the Shamburg area.

On behalf of the American Government, he handed over a letter of appreciation to HH Swamishri.

The elderly devotees from Chicago Mandal garlanded HH Swamishri as a mark of respect and sought his blessings. On behald of YDS, Dr CM Patel honoured the invited guest, MP Raja Krushnamurti with a bouquet of flowers. The women members of the Chicago Youth Mandal had prepared a special garland for the occasion.

Other guests and members of Chicago Youth Mandal paid their floral respects to HH Swamishri and garlanded him to seek his blessings.

Addressing the gathering, Hon Dinkarbhai beautifully articulated the significance of Sainthood to suit the occasion. “Today, with just a holy sight of HH Swamishri, we can say our Rakshabandhan is celebrated. When we instill our complete faith in Swamishri with our efforts, our words and with our mind, then we can stay undeterred in Akshardham.”

In the end, Guru Hari HH Swamishri showered his blessings on the devotees with his holy words by saying,

– “Our Guru Yogiji Maharaj is an epitome of courteousness, affection, surrender and devotion. He is such an innocent and detached personality that HME is nowhere to be found. Not an iota of HME, nor slightest of KKL’s steam. Even our HME is removed by merely sitting in the lap of such a motherly saint.

– HME keeps us attached with the life-death cycle. Sitting in the lap of such motherly saint will eradicate HME, which ultimately cures the disease of life-death.

– We have to surrender and sit in the lap of such motherly saint to purify our eyes, ears and tongue so as to make it acceptable to the divine.

– I have come here to invite all of you to the Yuva Mahotsav that we are going to celebrate in the first week of January.

– This disease of life-death can’t be cured without a saint.

– Jesus Christ created 110 saints and pronounced the first commandment that no liquor and no meat.

– Lord Shri Swaminarayan advised us in the Shikshapatri not to consume onion-garlic.

– I know, they are good medically. But it increases the desires within us.

– Lord Krishna termed the Kama (desires), Krodh (anger) and Lobh (greed) as the gateway to hell.

– And Gunatitanand Swami termed obduracy (hatha), pride and envy as the gateway to hell.

– Atman (soul) is diseased with life-birth phenomenon. To cure it, we need satsang and sant.

– Without coming in contact with Saint, it is impossible to bring holy thoughts to our minds. We become obedient and courteous once come in contact with such a saint. It brings humility in our behaviour. We get to hear and read Bhagwat, Gita or Ramayana.

– The filth within can’t be cured and cleared without coming in contact with Saints. The Saint is the doctor and bailor for this.

– If you ask an auto-rickshaw guy or a taxi driver to take you to the temple – Haridham, he will drop you at the doorstep of it.

– The biggest advantage that will be there is that you would get to know about the great saints of India.

– The pictures that teach you roaming around, linger, and get naughty, there is no need to watch such movies.

– Remember one thing always. To become one a human being, there is a need of a Saint. A human means- the eyes watch what is right, ears listen that is right and tongue speaks that is right.

– The way Arjuna got Krishna as his Sarthi, Shivaji had Ramdas, Ashoka had Batuk, likewise, we too need a Sarthi like Krishna in our life to live a meaningful life.

– Abandon things that lead us towards desires. Dinkarbhai is a saint.

– Our Prem Swamiji is an engineer but he is a Saint. He has nothing else in his life other than devotion and affection.

– If you come to Haridham, our kids will get engaged in your service. More than that, you will get the benefit of knowing Great Saints of India.

– We pray for such a Buddhiyoga, which will help us get in the lap of a motherly saint and eradicate the ills such as obduracy (hatha), pride and envy from within us and make us a holy saint like Janak. That’s what we pray for.

About 750 devotees, who participated in the event enjoyed the deliberations and were privileged to have Prasad at the end of the event,.

Adaptability:

Efficiency:

Inclusivity:

Opportunity:

Universalism:

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