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Chicago IL: The Cultural committee of Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Aurora, IL, presented an enthralling two day dance festival “Nrithya Samarpanam – Indian Dance festival” on Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th 2013. Performances by Midwest dance schools and visiting troupes from across the country and India mesmerized the audience. The prestigious dance festival attracted more than 150 participants from across the country and India. Participating schools included: Students of Nrithyanjali School of Dance, Artistic Director, Sushmita Arunkumar Students of NrithyaSangeeth School of Dance, Artistic Director, Sowmya Kumaran Students of Utkala Centre for Odissi, Artistic Director, Ipsitha Satpathy Students of Kuchipudi Natya Vihar, Artistic Director, Sobha Tammana Students of Laasyam School of Dance, Artistic Director, Hema Yaddanapudi Students of Noopura Dance Academy, Artistic Director, Mahalakshmi Varadhan Students of Kalarpana School of Dance, Artistic Director, Radhika Raghuvir Students of NrithyaGeetanjali Dance Academy, Artistic Director, Anupama Rajesh Students of Bharatanjali School of Dance. Artistic Director, Sandhya Radhakrishnan Students of Asha Acharya Performing Arts, Artistic Director, Asha Acharya Adiga Students of SriRanga School of Dance, Artistic Director, Srivani Vokkarane Students of Devaki Janakiraman and Students of NatyaBala Kuchipudi Dance Academy, Artistic Director, LavanyaLatha Jonnalagadda The vibrant performances by all these participants […]

Chicago IL: Eye on India Festival (EIF) 2013 kicked off on Friday, June 7 with a warm reception from the Desi community for actress Shabana Azmi and her husband-partner, scriptwriter, lyricist, and poet Javed Akhtar at the Primitive Gallery in downtown Chicago. EIF President Anuradha Behari announced the lineup of events scheduled over the next five weeks and encouraged everyone to attend, promote, and support the festival. Introducing the artiste-couple, Teamworks Productions President Sanjoy Roy underlined the importance of appreciating the tolerant side of Islam, which is otherwise receiving so much bad press in this deteriorating global climate. Azmi performs in film, television, and theatre. An alumna of Film and Television Institute of India (Pune), she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became a leading actress of the Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism. Versatile Azmi has earned her a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress, four Filmfare Awards, and international honors. She has appeared in over 120 Hindi films, in both mainstream and independent cinema, and since 1988 she has acted in several foreign projects. Azmi is a social and women’s rights activist, Goodwill Ambassador of […]

Chicago IL: Internationally recognized humanitarian Her Holiness Amma Sri Karunamayi, was honored by both Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon at their downtown offices in the James R. Thompson Center, this Wednesday evening, June 5th 2013. Upon arrival, former Deputy Treasurer of Illinois, Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthi, and renowned pulmonologist Dr. Krishna Sunkara from Chicago, greeted Amma and her party, including Her Holiness’s personal assistants Ms. Vijaya Sindhuri Pulipati and Mr. Michael Stasko. Amma and the Lieutenant Governor shared heartfelt exchanges in a loving first meeting sealed with an embrace from Amma. Lt. Gov. Simon was joined by her husband, Mr. Perry Knop, and Chief of Staff, Ms. Kati Phillips. Her Holiness spoke on the importance of charity in our world and shared some of the details surrounding her many humanitarian projects, which include free housing programs, free schools, a 100-bed free hospital, water treatment projects, disaster relief programs, free food and clothing distributions, leprosy care, remote medical care, women’s welfare programs and numerous peace initiatives. Lt. Gov. Simon then honored Amma by presenting Her Holiness with the “Woman of the Year 2013” Award, in recognition of her selfless service to humanity and her inspirational life dedicated to […]

Chicago IL: Actress Shabana Azmi and her husband, scriptwriter, lyricist, and poet Javed Akhtar, both of whom need little introduction to Hindi film fans, responded freely to a wide range of questions at the Drury Lane Theater at Oak Brook Terrace, Ill., on Saturday, June 08. This was the first public event of the Eye on India Festival (EIF) 2013. They were introduced and interviewed by EIF host Sanjoy Roy, Director of Teamwork Productions. Questions, also from the floor, revolved around Hindi cinema, its social role and alleged degeneration, Muslim identity and the place of Urdu, and their experience as nominated members of the Rajya Sabha. What do 100 years of Indian cinema represent for you? Javed: With all its variety, technical sophistication, “Indian cinema has never been so young.” However, the depth of the 50s and 60s is somewhat missing and real social issues are being avoided. The emergence of multiplexes makes it possible to make big budget movies. The middle class has become insular and inward looking. The average protagonist used to be from the working class. The hero of the new make-believe world is a rich man living in a palatial mansion and steps outside onto a […]

Chicago IL: On June 8th, 2013, MAFS celebrated Asian Heritage Month by organizing a grand fundraiser event at their Naperville office located at 1032 E. Ogden Avenue, Naperville, IL- 60532. Elected officials, community members, agency staff and seniors participated in this colorful event and showed their support for MAFS. The program began with the welcome address delivered by Mr. Naren Patel, CEO of Medstar Lab Inc. and current MAFS Board member. He extended his warm welcome to all the dignitaries and the audience present. Next, lamp lighting was performed by State Rep. Darlene Senger and the invocation prayer was recited by Ketan Maharaj of Jalaram Mandir. A devotion Bhajan was performed by special guest singer, Ms. Shaila Khedkar. Shree Gurusamy and Neelam Desai served as MC’s for the program and they invited each dignitary to speak on this joyous occasion. State Senator Tom Cullerton, State Rep Michelle Mussman, Mayor of Naperville, George Pradel, and Commissioner of Chicago Water Reclamation, Mr. Frank Avila addressed the gathering and offered their deep appreciation for MAFS and the community service it has been providing to the Asian community. Next, the Executive Director of MAFS, Mrs. Santosh Kumar spoke about the hardship faced by social […]

The Grayslake temple Sunday school concluded yet another successful school year on June 2nd under the leadership of Professor Sanjay Mehrotra. The highly qualified and committed volunteer teachers of this school were honored by Secretary Theresa Mah Illinois Sate Honorable Governor Pat Quinn for their dedication and selfless effort in transferring Indian culture and human values to our children. State of Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford gave the Community and Educational Impact award to this highly structured and one of a kind Sunday school in the greater Chicago area. The Sunday School has now graduated more than 300 children to the next level of Dharma and Hindi education. The school education places major emphasis on a non-denominational open learning environment, where children laugh and giggle while they absorb the Hindu culture and heritage. With more than 40 volunteers and teachers the Sunday school is a unique experiment where Hindu Dharma is taught based on human values, and Hindi is taught while promoting the Indian culture. During the annual function the four to 15 years old children sang and gave stage performances. They were lead by: Manisha Patel, Rishika Mana: Mantras and Hum honge kamyaab Ruchika Sharma, Thilaka Suresh: Humko man ki […]

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 […]