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Chicago IL: Smt. Jayasudha a reigning south-Indian movie actress and a prominent A.P. state legislator [MLA] captivated the Chicago audience with her profoundly soul-stirring testimony of her personal faith at packed pews of the Grace Lutheran Church in Westchester, Illinois on May 22, 2013. This community event of significance hosted under the aegis of United Telugu Christians of Chicago [UTCC] drew a great host of fans, guests, lay leaders and pastors to hear her awe-inspiring story that changed her life. “I want to be like Mother Teresa and I want to serve the Lord” solemnly declared Smt. Jayasudha in her testimony narrative amidst resonating applause and pledged that she would like to embark on a journey of altruism to help the poor and the neediest with her Shine Development Trust charitable organization (India). Articulating her personal story of faith, identity and spiritual triumph, Smt. Jayasudha gave an overview and described how her life slowly evolved into a new-found Christian faith that stirred the depths of her mind and spirit. Recalling the frightful incident of March 1985 that changed her life forever, Jayasudha narrated that while she was honeymooning in Thailand she and her newly married husband went on a water […]

Chicago IL: Chicago celebrated its 14th Annual Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month (AAHM) on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 with an awards ceremony and token cultural program at noon at Richard J. Daley Center downtown. The reception was hosted jointly by Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (CCCC), and the 14-year old Asian American Employees Social Club (AAESC). After Beena Patel, Asian Committee Chair and Associate Clerk of First Municipal Bureau, had welcomed the guests, Portia Young sang the national anthem. MC Susanna Song from CBS-2 Chicago introduced the Circuit Court led by Brown. The latter individually thanked all the AAESC members and event sponsors, especially awards sponsor Naren Patel and his sons Neil and Raj Patel. She recognized by name foreign diplomatic personnel, media representatives, community leaders present, and her own support staff. She recounted how AAHM was instituted on Oct. 23, 1992 to celebrate contributions of Asian-Pacific communities. Her office participates in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese programs, and the Indian and Pakistani Independence Day ceremonies. MC Song introduced each of the eight awardees: Muhammad Aslam, Suresh Bodiwala, Lynne Kawamoto, Santosh Kumar, Jin Lee, Hetal Patel, Estefan G. Roy, and Rishikant Singh. The owner of Serena Restaurant on […]

Chicago IL: Chicago Indian Icon (CII) has emerged a landmark platform for the Chicago’s youth to come up, perform, compete, and shine. It is a Karaoke Competition for Bollywood songs. Launched by the Chicago-based company Indian Event Management Inc. (IEM), the CII held its first of the three auditions at the prestigious Ashyana Banquets in Downers Grove on May 19th 2013. Participants aged 7 to 71 regaled the jam-packed audience all through the 8-hour long organized audition with their no-knot performances. Young Sutikshna Veeravalli attracted repeated standing ovations not only from the audience, but also from the judges. Equally favorites were 7-year old Senria Nath from Wisconsin and Abhijeet Joshi. An overwhelming response was witnessed with singers registering non-stop, online as well as in-person at the front-desk. Participants competed in Solo, Duet or Group Song categories. The audition was being streamed live as hundreds queued up to participate in the audition. More than 2000 people watched CII-2013 1st Audition live over internet, which was way above expectation. Brij Sharma, the president of The Indian Event Management introduced a four member executive committee, the founders – Sharan Walia as the director of management and Planning, Pratibha Jairath as the Vice President, […]

Chicago IL: Padmabhushan KJ Yesudas was here again at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC) on June 1, 2013, after exactly a year, to deliver a riveting three-hour Carnatic vocal concert that energized an audience of about 650 connoisseurs (rasika). He was accompanied by Jayashankar Balan on the violin, TS Nandakumar mridangam and Santosh Chandru ghatam. The evening, which stretched on due to insistent audience requests, left a delightfully indelible impression in the minds of critics, connoisseurs, and ordinary listeners alike. After Vedic chants by HTGC temple priests Krishnaraj Bhat and Venkateshan Kurukkal, followed by Temple Board President Tilak Marwaha’s welcome address, the proceedings were well-handled by Fine Arts Committee Chair Usha Pariti and her team. The concert was conducted under the auspices of HTGC and Geetha Krishnan in honor of her mother Kalyani Krishnan. After the deep customary “Om” chant, Yesudas sang the set composition (varnam) “Vanajaakshi” in ragam Kalyani. After a brisk yet lilting purely melodic exploration (alapanam) of ragam Hamsadhwani that effortlessly traversed all three octaves, he sang Muthuswami Dikishitar’s all-time favorite Vatapi Ganapathim. Yesudas fans are sure to own his Vatapi Ganapathim album that unfailingly transports the listener to a different world. This evening was […]

Chicago IL: Thursday, May 23, Indian doctors from all over the country converged on downtown Chicago’s Sheraton Hotel & Towers for the 31st annual convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), arguably the largest diaspora organization in the world. The first four days of the gala that continued into Monday, May 27 celebrated the leadership and displayed the achievements of outgoing AAPI President Narendra Kumar, culminating on Sunday night in handing over of the gavel and torch to young Jayesh Shah. Mornings were filled with well-attended continuous medical education (CME) while evening banquets provided relaxation with varied entertainment. The lunches and dinners took on the air of mini-summits, for the panels featured distinguished politicians and executives representing Indo-US convergence. Senator (D) Dick Durbin, American Medical Association (AMA) President Jeremy Lazarus MD, and GM’s VP for Corporate Diversity Eric Peterson spoke at Friday lunch, while Senator (D) Harry Reid, Rep. (D) Tulsi Gabbard, and Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) VP Jack Boulet spoke the next day. Saturday dinner banquet featured Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao and Rep. (R) Peter Roskam; Sunday’s dinner was graced with speeches by Illinois Governor (D) Patrick Quinn, […]

Chicago IL: The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago and Utkalaa Dance Academy jointly presented Orissa Dance Academy’s “Gatha Odissi – a journey from the temple to the stage” featuring brilliant performances by artists from the state of Orissa on Saturday, May 18 at the Sama Rathi Auditorium of the temple. A capacity filled crowd of more than 300 people enjoyed watching the vibrant dances, specially designed lighting effects and the audio with melodic songs. The evening began with a prayer by priest Murali Kidambi and was followed by Usha Pariti, the Fine Arts chair and the temple’s vice president Mr. Bhima Reddy, who both welcomed the audiences to the evening’s program. Later, Madhavi Adivi and Ipsita Mahapatra introduced all the artists to the audience. It was Ipsita Mahapatra of Utkalaa Dance Academy, Chicago who was instrumental in bringing this amazing program to the temple. The ballet program started with Kanch Pallavi, a dance composition by Aruna Mohanty, that depicted the chariot festival of Lord Jagannath (Rath Yathtra) in the traditional Odissi style. Aruna Mohanty explained that most of the traditions in Odisha (Orissa) are connected with the temple and the Lord Jagannath and that the basic dances that were offered […]