2020 Celebrations of the Center:

                                                 SHUBH NAVRATRI – JAI BHAVANI


Dear Friends:

The following are two brief reports of the Center’s Thursday, October 22 and Saturday, October 24, 2020 Zoom meetings organized this week. The reports are abbreviated as the meetings were recorded and promptly placed on YouTube by our member Jyotindrabhai Patel. Thanks Jyotindrabhai. 

1. The October 22nd Meeting:

The meeting started with a prayer by Mrs. Rekhaben Gajiwala.

In his welcome address, President wished Shubh Navratri to members and thanked today’s sponsor Mrs. Rekhaben & Dr. Sharadbhai Desai, Tampa, Fl., who was introduced by Pankajbhai Parikh, VP. A power point presentation for the Desai couple was displayed which was prepared by Jyotindrabhai Patel. 

(A) Musical Program:

Last Saturday’s kick-off of the Navratri celebration continued today with “Rinku Patel Ni Ramzat” from Karamsad, Gujarat. Countless number of members were spotlighted Garba dancing and Dandiya Raas from their homes to the rhythm of Rinku, Nitinbhai and Prakash’s Garba, Lok Sangeet, and Sugam Sangeet, with a sprinkle of a few Bollywood songs. 

The Ramzat ended after an hour and a half with Mataji’s Aarti.

(B) Mrs. Preety Sengupta’s Presentation:

A lone veteran globetrotter Mrs. Preety Sengupta has traveled seven Continents visiting 112 countries.  As a virtuoso author and poet, she has under her belt 47 books spanning from essays to stories to travelogues to novels to poems, including translated versions from Bengali. In addition, she has to her credit five books in English too.  She received Kumar Suvarna Chandrak in 2006. She was honored with Vishwagurjari Award.

While describing today her travels to several countries, big and small, she was faced with three issues: being an Indian, a lady, and a lone traveller. Nevertheless, she enjoyed being alone, never felt boredom and enjoyed happiness from varied experiences she came across while visiting small and unknown places. 

Describing her wonderful visit of four days in Zambia’s small town with a very light population, staying in a lodge with no electricity, no other travelers, lots of animals roaming around, she greatly enjoyed three elements, viz., solitude, silence, and sense of space. Even though she did not have any electronics, iPad or watch, she adored the beauty सौंदर्य  of the land and the assimilation with the surrounding atmosphere. 

She narrated her visits to several small sparsely populated islands of the South Pacific region which gave her immense happiness from the freedom to walk leisurely on empty roads enjoying abundance of greeneries and fertile land. 

She also loved her travels to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, a small country on the island of Borneo, surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea. She described the uniqueness of a single island shared by three countries. She recounted her visit to a land-locked country Lesotho, situated at a high altitude and encircled by South Africa. 

Having overwhelming love for the earth and preference for a walk rather than take bus or taxi, she enjoyed her 53 days travel to seven small countries in Central America from where she flew to Canada. Again, She  preferred bus travel of 48 hours while going from Vancouver to Fairbanks enjoying en route the beauty of the land. Also, she preferred India-Pacific and Ghan Express train travel for 48 hours visiting far-fetched cities of Australia. She narrated interesting facts about naming the Express train as Ghan. It was to commemorate camels brought from Afghanistan 125 years ago. 

In conclusion, 20 beautiful slides were shown which included Gandhiji’s cotton spinning Charkha in Hruday Kunj, his statues in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sun Temple and Kund in Modhera, Japanese trees, Lord Buddha Temple in Taiwan, Laos photos including Shri Ram Temple,  skyscraper, old town and a horse cart in Cartagena, photos of Guyana, Statue of Liberty, among others.

Interesting Q&As followed. Viewers applauded her and were amazed by her global lone travel appreciating her determination, courage, her admiration for solitude, silence and sense of space. 

(C) Future Programs:

Mr. Niranjanbhai Patel, Secretary, provided details of the future programs. He also updated information for the Fafda/Jalebi pickup. 

A Vote of Thanks by Mr. Hemant Shah, Past President, Jain Senior Group. 


2. The October 24th Meeting:

The meeting started with a prayer by Dr. Kunjbala Shah. 

In his welcome address, President congratulated our member Mrs. Rupaben Dharia for successfully completing 50 Yoga classes, and counting, for the benefit of our members during this pandemic period. Her classes conducted every Tuesday and Friday are attended by about 60 families. 

(A) Raas Garba Ni Ramzat:

Raas Garba Ni Ramzat by the Kanpur Center of Performing Arts capped the Navratri festival today with a gusto. Direction and choreography by Dr. Sucharita (Charu Ji) Khanna and Mr. Saurabh Singh were revved by viewers. A record 360 Zoom entries were noted. The super energetic Kanpur folk ensemble in colorful costumes mesmerized viewers by performing varieties of Garba Raas, typical of Kathiawad and Rajasthan. Viewers gazed in awe the dancers’ speed, synchronization, agility and stunning performance. 

After the Vishambhari Stuti in the beginning,  Charu Ji traced the word Garba from the Sanskrit word Garbha, compered the show and introduced her family along with 94-year Dadaji. The Ramzat culminated with a Dandiya Raas inspiring countless number of enthusiastic viewers to perform Raas in their homes. 

The Kanpur Group had given a stunning performance three years back to our Center held at GSNY hall. We’re thankful to Mr. & Mrs. Anil & Rekha Nemani’s daughter Jyoti who had recommended the group to us. 

(B) Dandiya Raas:

Chandrakantbhai & Renukaben Shah led a Dandiya Raas party from their home playing a beautiful CD making viewers to perform the Raas in their homes. The selection of songs enthused viewers to enjoy nonstop Raas for 45 minutes, capping the session with Aarti. 

 

(C) Sponsors of Today’s Program:

 

We are thankful to Mukund & Padma Mehta, Indraprasad & Mrudula Dave, Rajendrabhai & Kokilaben Shah, and Firoz & Nita Mukhi for sponsoring today’s program. 

The sponsors were introduced by Pankajbhai Parikh, VP, and their impressive photos were displayed through power point presentation prepared by our member Jyotindrabhai Patel who also recorded this meeting and placed promptly on YouTube. Thanks Jyotindrabhai.

 

(D) Update on Fafda/Jalebi Pickup:

Pankajbhai Parikh, VP, and Niranjanbhai Patel, Secretary, updated members for the Fafda/Jalebi pickup and for donations of masks/sanitizer by Milan Cultural Association (Founded by Suresh Sharma) and a tote bag and pair of gloves by Dr. Sheetal Desai. We’re thankful to the donors. 

We thank the following additional members for their generous contributions for the project:

 

(10) Harendra/Pragna Sevak————$100

(11) Pradipbhai/ Meenaben Zaveri——–$101

(12) Rajnikant/ Vanita Patel—————–$100

(13)Ramaben Dudhakia———————$100

(14) Narendrabhai/ Renukaben Choksi—$101

(15)Harshadray/ Indiraben Joshi————$51

(16) Bipinbhai/ Kashmiraben Shah———-$51

(17) Well Wisher———————————$125  

 

We thank Mr. & Mrs. Jayshreeben & Pulinnhai Bhatt for a contribution of $101 for the birthday celebration of their grand daughter Shivani Pathak. 

 

(E) Birthday Celebration:

 

Members wished a happy 80th birthday today to Mr. Harendrabhai Sevak. 

 

A Vote of Thanks by Mr. Rajni Gandhi, Past President of ARCH and Jain Center of America. 

 

3. The Computer Class: