Author: Staff Reporter

The Santhigram Kerala Ayurvedic Company USA will be celebrating their 10h anniversary on Saturday, January 20, 2018 at the Edison Hotel Banquet and Conference Center in New Jersey.

Santhigram is a leading provider of authentic Kerala specific ayurveda therapies in 12 locations in the United States, including New Jersey, New York, Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin.

The company is expecting more than 500 people to attend this occasion which will feature a series of programs, including the launch of the Ayurveda training School, Santhigram Herbal products and “Santhigram Foundation.”

The Santhigram Foundation is a charity wing of Santhigram, which advocates and promotes the health, wellness and awareness of the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) based on “Ayurveda” principles that nurture the human mind, body and spirit and extend the benefit of cost-efficient Ayurveda treatments and medicinal herbs for chronic ailments to low-income patients.

The theme of the celebration is “Celebrating the Spirit of Life and Good Health” and will walk the attendees through various chores involved in daily life and focus on realizing the supreme importance of staying healthy. Distinguished community members and employees will also be honored at the event which will also include dinner and entertainment.

By Asian Media USA ©

Chicago IL: From the moment visitors walked through the Field Museum’s east entrance doors Saturday, October 28 Beyond Bollywood Family Fun Day promised delight. Pre-schoolers and their parents joined Bollywood Groove story teller Ajanta Chakraborty in vigorous movement to enliven the story of “Five Days of Diwali.”  In the Crown Family PlayLab children created sparkly Diyas, clay lamps which brighten the darkest night of the year  when millions of people world-wide celebrate Diwali, the festival of light.  Others tackled Indian board games including Carom and Snakes and Ladders.

Before noon the entire museum resounded with the rhythm of Kalakshetra Drummers as they brought a tradition from Kerala, India to Stanley Field Hall, then led visitors up the South Staircase to the Marae Gallery to tour BEYOND BOLLYWOOD:  INDIAN AMERICANS SHAPE THE NATION. There visitors viewed videos about members of the local Indian American community, and  examined local treasures  displayed with banners from the Smithsonian Traveling exhibition of Beyond Bollywood.

After lunch entranced children flanked by mesmerized adults formed a huge semi-circle in Stanley Field Hall as an Indian classical dance performance upstaged the Field’s famous African elephants and Tyrannosaurus Rex Sue.  Kathak exponent Gauri Jog displayed intricacies of the dance form and the Indian Dance School troupe displayed perfect coordination in group performance.

The Family Day event was organized by Indo-American Heritage Museum Beyond Bollywood Committee Members Amita Banerji and Dorothie Shah with vital cooperation from Field Museum Childhood Learning Center staff, Alyssa Harsha and Eduarda Briseno IAHM Beyond Bollywood Docents Happie Datt, Nita Gangwal, Soumya Patala, Padma Rangaswamy,  Vinkel Thakkar, Padma Rangaswamy, and volunteers Zach Tyler and  Dhruv Mehta assisted in supervising activities and promoting visitor participation.

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will host an exhibition on Indian culture The Namaste Express, in the summer of 2018, media reports here stated. The Namaste Express will be the latest exhibition in an ongoing series of the museum’s exhibitions devoted to world cultures which have already included Ancient Greece, China, Japan and Jazz in NYC, with America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far as their current cultural exploration.

An artifact in the America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Through these exhibitions, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan is able to teach children the importance of different cultures around the world and they do this by providing interactive, hands-on activities that the children can participate in, at their will, so they are able to gain a deeper understanding of the culture and its people.

In their upcoming exhibition, The Namaste Express, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan wants to celebrate the beauty and diversity of India’s different cultures and languages along with its history and technological advancements.

The exhibition will be “conceptualized as an interactive train journey through the country. The exhibition layout will allow children and families to make multiple stops at states and cities in India and sample the variety of architectural styles, cultures and environments through colors, shapes, structures and landscapes,” said Lizzy Martin, the Director of Exhibition Development and Museum Planning, at a meet to launch the exhibition, on November 6.

A depiction of an Egyptian spice market in the America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Some of the activities that are already underway include a Rajasthani puppet show, a Bollywood stage, a Chaat Cart (wheeled street cart), rolling rickshaws, a yoga center and a majestic Indian architectural fort, but the Children’s Museum of Manhattan wants more.

“We want families to feel like they are in India, so that is why we are asking members of the Indian American community to help us bring this cultural experience to life,” said Andrew Ackerman, the Executive Director of the museum, speaking at the meet.

“As an Indian American and a mother of two boys, I would love for my kids to learn about India while living in New York,” said Anu Shegal of Culture Tree, who also brought Diwali to the museum this year in their one day special.

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan plans to run the scheduled three-month exhibition in the summer of 2018 and depending upon the response, may plan to extend The Namaste Express exhibit for four years, in a much bigger location.

By Asha Tewari

GOPIO-Amsterdam in Netherlands has organised the first Gandhi Peace Walk Europe on October 7th starting from the Peace Palace in The Hague where the International Court of Justice is also located. On October 8th the participants arrived at the gates of the European Parliament in Brussels (Belgium) where they handed over their Gandhi Peace manifesto to the representative of a EU-based think tank that advises the parliament and local MLA’s.

The Peace Walk has been previously organised in The Hague by a local resident Frank Kanhai who is active in sports walks for a couple of years. GOPIO has acknowledged his enthusiasm and decided to uplift the ambition of peace and non-violence promotion by organising a larger audience of 60 dedicated participants who were willing to walk the 162 kilometers in teams during 2 days to Brussels. The Peace manifest was meant to promote Gandhian philosophy of Swaraj, Ahimsa and Satyagraha in the contemporary debates in Europe on Brexit, migration of labor and refugees, and Eastern European political tension combined with international politics.

The EU commissioner for foreign affairs Mrs. Frederica Mogherini recognised this effort by mentioning this in the EU-India Summit in New Delhi and has applauded GOPIO for using this Peace Walk to promote Gandhian values.

On October 28th, GOPIO Netherlands organized an interactive session with a special speaker from India Dr. Suman Khanna Aggarwal in the Humanity House, The Hague. The theme of the session is: Resolving Conflict in Community Relationships through Nonviolence: Creating harmonious relationships in and between communities through   Nonviolence

Dr. Suman Khanna Aggarwal is a Gandhian scholar, peace researcher and Founder President of Shanti Sahyog – a Gandhian NGO & of Shanti Sahyog Center for Peace & Conflict Resolution – a unit of Shanti Sahyog. She has been Associate Professor of Philosophy in Delhi University and has lectured extensively – both in India and abroad and taught courses on Gandhian views in Universities in North America, Japan, Denmark, Middle East and Asia, for instance, in the Universities of John Hopkins, McMaster & Bradford: she also taught in the UK, Scandinavian Universities, and Al Quds University – Palestine/Israel.  She has delivered multiple lectures during the International Days for Nonviolence before.

The Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BJANA) held its first Chhatth festival in New Jersey last week. More than 300 members of the organization and their family members from the Tri-State area came together at the lakeside of Thompson Park in Monroe Township to offer their prayers to the rising and setting sun.

Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival historically native to the Mithila region of Nepal and the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth and to grant certain wishes. Volunteers got together in advance to make prasad for the members attending the Puja. The women kept a fast and despite the cold, devotees stepped into the water to offer the ‘Arag’ to the Sun God.

Keeping the Chhatth festival in New Jersey was a dream come true for everyone as they were already attending it elsewhere for decades, the organizers said in a press release. The organizers said they planned to continue the tradition annually from here on.

An estimated three million adult American handgun owners carry a loaded firearm on a daily basis, and nine million do so on a monthly basis, a study has found. Vast majority cited protection as the primary reason for carrying a firearm.

The study is the first in over 20 years to scrutinise why, how often, and in what manner US adults carry loaded handguns. It also examines how concealed handgun-carrying behaviour differs across states, depending on their laws.

“Carrying firearms in public places can have significant implications for public health and public safety,” said Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, an associate professor at the University of Washington in the US. “An important first step to examining the consequences of firearm carrying at the national level is an accurate measurement of the occurrence of this behaviour and characterisation of those who engage in it,” said Rowhani- Rahbar, lead author at the American Journal of Public Health.

Compared with handgun owners who did not carry, those who did report carrying handguns tended to be younger, and more often male, live in the southern US, have grown up in firearm-owning households, self-identify as politically conservative, and own more than one type of firearm.

Researchers reviewed handgun-carrying behaviour of 1,444 gun owners, using data from a 2015 nationally representative survey designed by Miller and Azrael. “It was important to study handgun carrying because about 90 per cent of all firearm homicides and nonfatal firearm crimes for which the type of firearm is known are committed with a handgun,” said Rowhani-Rahbar.

The study found that 80 per cent of surveyed handgun owners who carried their handgun had a concealed-carry permit, and 66 per cent said they always carried their handguns concealed, compared with 10 per cent who said they always carry their weapons openly.

When comparing handgun-carrying behaviour with corresponding states’ laws, researchers found that proportionally fewer handgun owners carried a concealed handgun if they lived in a state whose laws afforded greater discretion to issuing agencies in the review of concealed- carry applications.

Some owners nevertheless reported carrying a concealed handgun without a permit in states in which doing so was illegal. Rowhani-Rahbar said that more research is needed to comprehensively evaluate the impact of increasingly permissive firearm-carry laws. Future studies should focus on analysing how different concealed-carry laws influence carrying, and characterising illegal carrying behaviour among those who have been denied permits.

In the past 10 years, the share of U.S. adults living without a spouse or partner has climbed to 42%, up from 39% in 2007, when the Census Bureau began collecting detailed data on cohabitation.

Two important demographic trends have influenced this phenomenon. The share of adults who are married has fallen, while the share living with a romantic partner has grown. However, the increase in cohabitation has not been large enough to offset the decline in marriage, giving way to the rise in the number of “unpartnered” Americans.

The share of adults who are unpartnered has increased across the young and middle-aged, but the rise has been most pronounced among young adults. Roughly six-in-ten adults younger than 35 (61%) are now living without a spouse or partner, up from 56% just 10 years ago.

The rise in adults living without a spouse or partner has also occurred against the backdrop of a third important demographic shift: the aging of American adults. Older adults (55 and older) are more likely to have a spouse or partner than younger adults. So it is surprising that the share of adults who are unpartnered has risen even though relatively more Americans are older.

Divorce has likely not contributed to the growing share of unpartnered adults over this short period. Though divorce statistics are complicated, many argue that the divorce rate has generally been stable or falling since the 1980s.

This trend has important implications for the economic well-being of U.S. adults, as research has shown the financial benefits of marriage and cohabitation. The median household income (adjusted for household size) for partnered adults, either married or cohabiting, is $86,000. By contrast, the median household income for unpartnered adults is roughly $61,000. In addition, unpartnered adults are about twice as likely as partnered adults to be living in poverty (17% versus 7%).

The rates of unpartnered Americans vary significantly by key demographics. Men (40%) are less likely than women (43%) to live without a spouse or partner. And adults with at least a bachelor’s degree are significantly less likely to be unpartnered (31%) than less-educated adults (46%). White and Asian adults (37% of each group) are much less likely to be unpartnered than Hispanic (46%) and black (62%) adults.

Over the past decade, the share of adults who are unpartnered has risen more sharply among those who are not employed. In 2007, 46% of working-age adults without a job were not living with a spouse or partner. By 2017 that share had risen to 51%. Among employed working-age adults, the share who were unpartnered increased more modestly since 2007, from 36% to 38%.

This does not imply that lack of employment is a cause of people not having a partner. On one hand, surveys indicate that people say it’s important for men to be economically successful to be good husbands or partners. On the other hand, a large body of economic literature shows that marriage causes husbands to be more successful on the job. It is possible that the lack of a partner provides less of a spur to obtain employment.

A narrow majority (56%) of unpartnered adults are the head of their household. Some 35% are living alone and 22% are living with others in the home (single parents would fall into this category). Nearly three-in-ten (28%) are living with a parent or grandparent, reflecting the fact that unpartnered adults are disproportionately young. An additional 16% have some other relationship to the head of the household (for example, a sibling or roommate).

A cornea-donation campaign started by an Indian Catholic priest four years ago has evolved into the world’s largest eye-donation program.

Hundreds of thousands of donors have joined the program across five nations.

On World Sight Day on Oct. 12, tens of thousands of people — including youth, archbishops, bishops, priests and nuns — in 250 cities in the U.S., China, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal took part in a “blind walk” program.

They were blindfolded in order to increase awareness about the importance of eye donation.

Visually impaired people with white canes led the symbolic walks.

Claretian Father George Kannanthanam began the movement in 2013 to promote donations of corneas for transplantation to restore sight.

In the past four years, the movement has spread to hundreds of voluntary organizations, dioceses and religious movements in the five countries.

Some 600 people took part in the blind walk in New Delhi led by 100 visually challenged people.

The program was jointly organized by Delhi Archdiocese, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the Holy Family Hospital and the Catholic Health Association of India.

Alphons Kannanthanam, India’s federal tourism minister, asked people to follow the example of neighboring Sri Lanka where after a person’s death the government becomes the custodian of their eyes.

“Why not think of this practice here,” he said.

“In that way we can give many people a chance to see this beautiful world.”

Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, who took part in the blind walk, told ucanews.com that eyes are the greatest gift that can be given to any human being and it costs nothing.

“We have been trying to spread his message to as many people as possible through parishes and other institutions,” he said.

Delhi Archdiocese, based in in the national capital, has adopted 2017 as the Year of Sight to promote eye donations and awareness across all of its parishes and schools.

Father Kannanthanam said India has some 15 million blind people, about 40 percent of the world’s total.

The objective of the blind walk was not only to motivate people to donate their eyes, but also to create “vision ambassadors” to serve as links between families of deceased people and India’s eye bank.

By Asian Media USA ©

Chicago IL: Suzy’s Place hosted its formal inauguration of its service facility at 6425 N Rockwell Street, Chicago, IL, located in the diverse Rogers Park neighborhood last month. The event was attended by esteemed government officials – Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Secretary of State Jesse White, and Alderman Carrie Austin. Also in attendance were its partners- Kate Lawler from Swedish Covenant Hospital, Lillian Cartwright from The Chicago Battered Network, Syed Nizami from US Bank and Eugene Williams from (NOBEL) – National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

Co-Founders Arshia Hasnain and Shahida Khan welcomed a room full of over 150 attendees and explained to them the importance of working together to help make a positive impact in the lives of women and children who are subjected to domestic violence. Together we can make our Chicago community safer and productive.

Suzy’s Place is a 501c3 nonprofit organization registered in the state of Illinois. Suzy’s Place provide emergency and transitional housing, emotional support, and a diversified continuum of services focused on safety, empowerment, and self-sufficiency. Through community partnerships, Suzy’s Place raises awareness, provides services, and educates community about domestic violence issues. Now with our service facility almost complete we will be providing weekly classes to not only empower the women in our shelter but to all the women in the neighborhood. The classes we offer will help to strengthen the body, mind and soul. Our yoga, art, dance, music and self-esteem therapy classes will benefit every woman.

Suzy’s Place is a startup and needs all your support. We know how hard it is to run a shelter and we have accepted the challenge. But we really need your help. Please donate generously by going to our website at www.suzysplace.org and press the donate button. You can also visit us on Facebook and follow our activities on social media at https://www.facebook.com/Suzys-Place-232412787223842/

More than 500 supporters in the fields of business, arts, philanthropy and medicine attended the annual SKN Hope Gala on Friday, at the Marigold Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey, which focused its efforts to raise funds for South Asian children with special needs this year.

“We could not be more humbled by the love and generosity of the community,” said founder Dr. Naveen Mehrotra. “SKN’s goal is to educate the South Asian community about the various diseases that plague our loved ones, and this year, we wanted to shed light on how parents cope with their children with special needs.”

The major beneficiary of this year’s fundraiser will be the Special Needs Community Outreach Program for Empowerment (SCOPE).

Guest of Honor Juhi Chawla, a renowned Indian actress, humanitarian and former Miss India, spoke at the event and served as the show stopper for international fashion designer to the stars, Joy Mitra, who debuted a special collection he created just for the cause.

The fashion show spotlighted special needs children, who walked the ramp with their mothers, followed by an intimate Q&A between host Mini Mathur and the fathers.

“What an amazing opportunity for my son! I am so proud of him every day, and walking the ramp, dressed up so fabulously, allowed him to know that we love him just as he is,” said Radha Lath, mother of Aditya Lath, a child with special needs.

“Parents of special needs children have an unbelievable level of grit and determination, as they face daily life issues, and we are honored to be shedding light on some of their challenges at the SKN Foundation Gala,” said Sonalika Ahuja of Beyond Media, the woman who executed the event for the second year in a row.

The Yashpal and Urmilesh Arya India Studies Library was dedicated at Stony Brook University.  The library is located in theBishembarnath and Sheela Mattoo Center for India Studies. Its naming recognizes the gift of $250,000 by Drs. Yashpal andUrmilesh Arya to the Center’s endowment campaign, which has been matched by the Simons Match Fund. The Aryas’ donation will allow for the expansion of the library’s services and initiatives, including special collections and online courses, to make the library’s resources more widely available.

The dedication ceremony drew a large gathering of Stony Brook faculty, staff, students and administrators, and members of the Indian American community. Dr. Yashpal Arya, flanked by Dr. Urmilesh Arya, described the library’s dedication as “one of the happiest days of our lives.” He told the audience of his family’s history of philanthropy, both in India and in the United States.  “I am proud to stand here today to continue this family tradition of perpetuating further education with the help of Stony Brook University through its forward thinking, visionary policy making, and the Mattoo Center for India Studies for its strong resolve and relentless pursuit that led to the creation of this library.” Dr. Arya thanked the Stony Brook administration for their “enlightened support” for the Center. He also thanked Professors S.N. and Kamal K. Sridhar, whom he described as the Center’s “Pitamaha” and “Matamaha” (grandparents).

“You make your living by earning. You make your life by giving,” Dr. Arya told the audience.

Dr. Nirmal K. Mattoo, Chair of the Center’s executive committee, praised the Aryas for their involvement “in philanthropy on a large scale.”  He noted their long-time “commitment to the Center’s vision.”

Dean Sacha Kopp dedicated the library, and thanked attendees for their “participation in the decades-long effort to create the Center for India Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.” “A public university” Dean Kopp explained, “has the responsibility not only to serve the public through education but to give back to the public in the form of knowledge and sharing and fostering community and culture.” A library is a “gathering of community” and the “lifeblood” of a campus. “As I reflect on ‘community,’ I see it here today.”

Professor S.N. Sridhar, founding Director of the Mattoo Center, described the vital functions of the India Studies library.  It features a collection of more than 13,000 works, including major reference works, such as the Critical Edition of theMahabharata and the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, and special collections on Indian languages donated by noted research scholars. The library’s resources are used by Stony Brook students, faculty, and visiting scholars and researchers from around the world. The Mattoo Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a Gala on October 29th at Leonard’s in Great Neck.

Pratham, one of the largest educational nonprofits in India that provides quality education to underprivileged children, hosted its annual New York Tri-State Gala on September 15, at the Cipriani Wall Street.

The event, which was attended by approximately 600 influential leaders from the business and Indian-American communities, raised over $3.8 million for Pratham’s innovative, award-winning educational programs targeted at the underprivileged in India.

Established in the slums of Mumbai in 1995, Pratham is now one of India’s largest non-governmental education organizations, having affected the lives of more than 50 million underprivileged children in the past two decades.

Guests were entertained by writer, comedian and Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj, who delivered a rousing 20-minute set. Born to an immigrant family, Minaj talked about his upbringing and stressed the importance of “giving kids an opportunity.”

Mangala Mehar, a Pratham vocational program graduate, shared the impact the organization has made on her life. Today, the 22-year-old is a senior housekeeper at a Maldives resort, earning enough to pay her father’s medical bills and send her younger brother to college.

“I had always dreamed of becoming a successful and independent woman. The Pratham course gave me something far greater than the skills to get a job at a fancy hotel. Pratham gave me the motivation and self-confidence to keep moving ahead,” said Mehar before receiving a standing ovation.

The evening honored Ajay Piramal, Chairman of The Piramal Group and the Pratham Education Foundation, who is stepping down from the latter position after a decade of service. In that time, the organization experienced tremendous growth, tripling in size to its current $36 million.

“This has been a very satisfying journey for me where I have learned a lot. I am most grateful to Pratham for this,” said Piramal. “We can look ahead with a lot of optimism,” he added as he reflected on how, in 22 years, Pratham has gone from a single program in a Mumbai slum to one of the most influential forces in India’s education sector.

In her speech, Pratham CEO Dr. Rukmini Banerji described the next frontier for Pratham: exploring an edtech approach to accelerating children’s learning of foundational literacy and numeracy. She praised the significant support Pratham has received from Google and a family-based trust to experiment with digital learning and determine the optimum solution for educating India’s 100 million children who are functionally illiterate.

Chapter President and PNC executive Gagan Singh attributed the evening’s success to the gala committee, staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly over many months, and to donors who have remained loyal to the organization year after year. “In the end,” he concluded, “what is also really important to recognize is that we have an amazing organization in Pratham led by truly passionate and inspiring leaders, which makes it easy for all of us to tell the story.”

Established in the slums of Mumbai in 1995, Pratham is now one of India’s largest non-governmental education organizations, having affected the lives of more than 50 million underprivileged children in the past two decades. To achieve its mission of “every child in school and learning well,” Pratham develops practical solutions to address gaps in the education system and works in collaboration with India’s governments, communities, educators and industry to increase learning outcomes and influence education policy.