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Skokie, IL: The Indian community of Niles Township celebrated India Republic Day through the afternoon of February 9, 2013 at Fairview School District 72, 7040 Laramie Ave Skokie, IL with music and dance performances, interspersed with remarks by the organizers and various guests. The initiative and inspiration behind this annual celebration since its inception has been Usha Kamaria. Chief Guest was Skokie Mayor George van Dusen. People came even from far suburbs outside Niles Township. Among the other dignitaries present, including elected and non-elected officials, were the director of Skokie public library Carolyn Anthony, Illinois State Rep. Daniel Biss, director of drug compliance Dr. Yash Amin, and prominent community leaders such as Iftekar Shareef, Naren Patel, Sunil Shah, Tushar Chotalia, and Skokie Park District superintendent Mike Reid. The program began with the auspicious lamp lighting ceremony performed by Rohit Joshi, accompanied by several dignitaries. DJ Chawla led the singing of the American and Indian national anthems, which preceded the opening remarks by Santosh Varghese. Usha Kamaria then took the podium to speak about Republic Day followed by Mayor Van Dusen. His wife Susan Van Dusen spoke subsequently about the annual “Coming Together in Skokie” festival that celebrates in turn one […]

Chicago IL: In a presentation on Feb. 13 at Logan Center for the Arts of University of Chicago (UC) titled “Moving across Global Soundscapes: the Permutations of a Public Ethnomusicologist,” Amelia (Amie) Maciszewski explored documentary film-making and musical performance. A constant refrain was the constraints and advantages of pursuing such a vocation outside of academia. Prof. Kaley Mason at UC Dept. of Music introduced Maciszewski as sitarist, teaching artist, ethnomusicologist, and documentary filmmaker. Having begun her training in Hindustani music under late sitarist Suresh Mishra, she continues under sarod maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Girija Devi. She has 4 CDs to her credit: Guru Pranam (2010) and Light and Legacy (2007) both feature her classical sitar. Sangeet Safar (2010) and Shimmering (2007) showcase her Indo-jazz fusion project ensemble Sangeet Millennium. A PhD in ethnomusicology from University of Texas (Austin), she has been visiting professor and teaching artist at the Universities of Colorado, Alberta, Pittsburgh, and Texas. Passionate about women’s rights and creativity, she has published several articles and produced 4 films documenting her research with courtesan musicians (tawaif) in India. Maciszewski resides primarily in Austin and Dallas. Maciszewski showed scenes of her ongoing collaboration in “Indo-Jazz” fusion with […]

Chicago IL: “Performing the Bengal Borderlands: Music, Movement and Encounter” (Feb. 11–16) series at the University of Chicago (UC) was launched with a concert titled “Hindustani Strings at the Borderlands” at 7:30 pm on Feb 11, 2013 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. It featured separate performances by Amie Maciszewski (Austin, Texas) on the sitar and Somjit Dasgupta (Kolkata, India) on the sarod. They were accompanied by Manpreet Bedi on the tabla. The weeklong series of events is hosted by UC’s South Asian Sound Interventions Series (SASI). Assistant Professor of Music and the Humanities, Kaley Mason introduced Maciszewski and Bedi. The former, a student of sarod maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Girija Devi, is a sitarist, teaching artist, ethnomusicologist, and documentary filmmaker. She played short pieces in different genres popular across the Bengal region, starting with raga Jhinjhoti popular as a folk variant (jhinjhit) among the Baul musicians. This was followed by raga Saraswati, in acknowledgement of the seasonal worship of the goddess of learning, the arts, and music, just commencing in India. She concluded with a Bengali boatman song. Bedi, a local Chicago artist, is a disciple of Suresh Talwalkar and Ramdas Palsule. […]

Chicago IL: Masti-Karaoke & DCA Presented Valentine’s Party on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at Sher-E-Punjab, 2113 63rd St. Downers Grove, IL. The event was sold out with over a 100 people in the audience!!! Valentines’ Day is celebrated with much pomp and fun in every nook and corner of Chicago land and across the America. Over one dozen events primarily catered to South Asian-Americans were held in Chicago land area. Among all these events, the choice of audience was ‘Masti-Karaoke’s Valentine’s Party’ voted as one of the best Valentine’s Party in town. All the singers from Masti-Karaoke mesmerized the enthusiastic crowd for over 4 hours. The audience was not only pleased with the performance, but applauded both old and new Bollywood romantic songs. With passion and love filling the air, couples danced to their hearts content. With red heart shaped balloons symbolizing deep and undying promises of love, the evening presented a romantic feel. Dress code for ladies and gentlemen was Red and Black. Tickets for Valentine’s was $25 per person (dinner included) and $15 for children. Celebrated February 14 every year, the Valentine’s Day is synonymous with expressions of love, friendship and bonding. It is named for Saint Valentine, […]

Chicago IL: Ahimsa is widely understood as ‘not harming or hurting others.’ But is this its complete meaning? Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai offers an invaluable insight into the true essence of ahimsa. Bhagwan Mahavira expounded ahimsa as the ultimate dharma. One may question why a negative word ahimsa meaning non-violence was used. Should religion not denote something positive? Ahimsa – the State of Love In truth, though non-violence sounds negative, it is an extremely positive state. It is the state of absolute and complete love – and what can be more positive than love itself? It is only because we are familiar with the state of violence, that this term has been used. It is to ease our transition from the known state of violence to the unknown state of love that the term non-violence has been used. In order to obliterate darkness; the presence of light is necessary. So also, the darkness of violence is dispelled only in the positive light of love. Having understood that ahimsa means love, one may further ask why love has not been called the ultimate dharma; why the word ahimsa has been used. Again, the Enlightened Ones explain that there is an important reason […]

Chicago IL: As the clock struck 12 on the midnight of Dec. 31st, the devotees of Hari Om Mandir welcomed the New Year with dhol, shankhs and Ram Dhun in melodious voice of Asha Khanna ji. Asha ji joined the congregation around 11pm in reading Ramayan. As the clock inched towards midnight the crowds grew in numbers and so did the excitement of the crowd. The dropping temperatures didn’t deter the people to come in and join in singing the Ram Dhun and at midnight the hall was filled with shankh and by Priest Dinesh ji and one of the founder members of the society Ram Verma ji. Subhash Sharma ji along with the bhajan Mandli chanted Ram Dhun to usher in the New Year As everyone bid adieu to 2012 they welcomed the New Year by embracing and wishing each other, offering sweets and praying for the well being of one and all. Hari Om Mandir every year welcomes the new year with Akhand Ramayan Path which starts on Dec 31st and takes 24 hours and ends on Jan 1st. This year was also not different. Prabhu ka Bhandara is open for 4 hours and people come and have […]

Schaumburg, IL: Live2You organized a splendid New Year’s Eve celebration at India House Restaurant in Schaumburg, Ill., where over 1,100 people gathered to ring in 2013 with Shefali Jariwala. The party was a blast with Jigar Shah serving as anchor and cultural director for the whole show. Shefali Jariwala, the star attraction, performed fusion dances at the show. One of Bollywood’s hottest girls, Jariwala (born 1982) is an actress who has appeared in a number of Hindi music videos. She first captured media and public attention through her controversial appearance in a thong in the music video Kaanta Laga, after which she became known as the “thong girl”. Since then she has appeared in a Bollywood film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2009) with Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. She also participated in Nach Baliye season 5 with her partner Parag Tyagi. The doors swung open at 8 pm, the banquet hall was full within half-an-hour, and the show went on until 1:00 am. Hosted by Kark Karla, the party had the best of music, entertainment, food and beverages. India House served a 150-course cruise line buffet dinner and a midnight champagne toast, which attracted guests from all over the country to […]

Edison, NJ: The annual general body meeting of the Federation of Indian Associations (Tri-State) was held on Saturday, December 22nd 2012 at TV Asia Auditorium, Edison, NJ. The Agenda includes the overall performance and activities of FIA during the year 2012 including its financial report as well as the announcement of the newly Elected Executive Committee for the upcoming year of 2013. Kanubhai Chauhan, the reigning President of FIA presided over the meeting accompanied by his executive Committee of 2011 namely, Sanjay Amin (Vice President), Srujal Parikh (General Secretary) & Haresh Shah (Jt. Secretary). Mr. Chauhan welcomed all attendees in the meeting, which included Board of Trustees (BOT), Board of Directors and the 2012 Committee members and complimented the work of the executive committee and the committee along with thanking his supporters and sponsors for their generosity shown during his term. He provided highlights of major events in a chronological order starting from the Republic Day Celebration in the form of the Children Dance Competition ‘Dance Pe Chance’ which was followed by the Curtain Raiser traditionally held at the Indian Consulate (courtesy of the Indian Consulate General Shri Prabhu Dayal & his Staff) jump starting the 32d India Day Parade […]