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A Monthly Publication of the Federation of India Community Associations (FICA) Since 1967INSIDE
Free Monthly Subscription - A Non-Profit & Tax Exempt Organization - Tax ID# 34-1215066
March 2013 - Volume 0313Non-Profit
OrganizationU.S. POSTAGE
PAIDCLEVELAND,
OHIOPERMIT NO.
1051
FEDERATION OF INDIA COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONINDIA COMMUNITY CENTER12412 CEDAR ROADCLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH 44106
Or Current Resident
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FICA Current Events 2Community NewsPerson of the Month 3 Prof. Srikantia 4Cleveland Festival 5Thyagaraja Festival 6
Health and WellnessAloevera and Carrila 7
LOTUS TEAM
Editor-in-ChiefSangita Bafna [email protected]
EditorsCheryl DmelloKookie LambaKanta Singh
Public Relations/CreativeParamjit [email protected]
Project Sevawww.projectseva.com
FICA Mission
To preserve the rich cultural heritage and values of India by effective participation in civic forums, economic growth and devel-opment of the region, provide opportunity for growth by partnering with the larger community to promote goodwill and under-standing for people of India who have emi-grated to the USA.
FICA Vision
To be recognized as an organization that fos-ters strong citizenship family values of India founded in a civilization 6000 years old. FICA will be a valued resource and leader of the community contributing to the economic de-velopment, cultural enrichment and commu-nity responsiveness.
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Message from the President - Asim Datta FICA Current Events
FICA will hold its annual election on the 23rd of March, signifying the end of the term of the current leadership. That makes now an appropriate moment to reflect on the preceding ten months in the life of FICA. I have always held the belief that FICA must be the face and the platform that define the rapidly growing Indian community in Northeast Ohio, and therefore, should continue to evolve as does the community itself. In all the years that I have remained active and involved in FICA, I always advocated for embracing an outward looking agenda that facili-tates a wider reach for us into the greater community. The past twenty-five years or so have witnessed impressive growth in the number of Asian-Indians settling in this region, impact-ing all aspects of life here. Since our contribution and role are so significant, it is only appro-priate that, as a group, we should also have a greater say in governance. This will continue to be a work in progress. At the time of assuming the responsibilities of leadership of FICA in April of 2012, we set an agenda that included a few basic goals. They were celebration and education – celebration of our heritage, and education of the local population about us. We also set out to strengthen
FICA as an organization. So, as we celebrated our culture and heritage through events like India Republic Day, India Independence Day, Holi-the Indian Festival of Colors, Deepavali (or Diwali)-the Indian Festival of Lights, we invited members of the greater community to celebrate with us, and gain an understanding and appreciation of aspects of our culture. It was gratifying to see heightened interest on the part of the Clevelanders who joined us in large numbers. And while we did that, we also went out in to the greater community, and partnered with others in celebrations that enjoyed regional appeal, to demonstrate that we are as much a part of the larger community. As a consequence, we certainly have contin-ued to add more friends to our community, and today enjoy greater name recognition as an organization of the Indian community and continue to be made part of many area-wide high profile activities. We also focused on strengthening FICA as an organization. We created an exhaustive website to enhance FICA’s presence and visibility locally, and worldwide. The improvement of FICA’s financial bottom line was also in our focus as we promoted the Community Center usage, reworked the rental terms, and have secured rental commitments worth close to additional nine thousand dollars per year.The future for FICA looks promising, but work needs to be carried on. Thank you for all the support.
FICA StaffAdministration
Chittaranjan Jain, Chair
Board of Trustees
[email protected], 440/942-4369
Executive BoardAsim Datta, President
[email protected], 216/394-8720
Kathy Ghose, Vice President
[email protected], 440/785-5940
Sapna Reddy Kumar, Secretary
[email protected], 216 /236 -3727
Rupal Dhruv, Treasurer
[email protected], 440/317-1487
Mona Alag , Past President
[email protected], 440/256-3247
Sangita Bafna
Publisher, The Lotus
[email protected], 216/906-9064
Sujata Burgess
Anjan Ghose
India Community Center
[email protected], 216/214-4317
Meera Kansal
Kenneth Kovach
Vinod Nagpal
Michael Sreshta
Sister OrganizationsMarathi Mandalwebsite : www. neomm.orgPresident: Hira Rane, email : [email protected],Phone: 440-567-8793Vice president: Tanymee Dixit, tel 216-926-4264
Bengali Cultural Society of ClevelandPresident: Sadhan C. Jana phone: 330-665-9921,e-mail: [email protected] President: Bijon Roy phone: 330-666-0281, email: [email protected]) and Mithu Majumdar phone: 216-231-9547, email: [email protected]
AIPNO :President - Dr. Appachi Phone : 216.312.3869e-mail : [email protected]. Beejadi MukundaPhone : 440.488.2300e-mail : [email protected]
Newsmakers!
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Community News
Person of the Month - By Cheryl D’Mello
Satish Parikh : An engineer and active community volun-teer over the years
Q: How long have you been in Cleveland and in the U.S.?A: 35 Years in Cleveland and in USA.
Q: What is your educational background? Where and what did you study?A: I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engi-neering, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Guja-rat, India, Professional Engineer (PE), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and I am NICET II- Fire Alarm Certified.
Q: Where do you currently work? A: I currently work at URS Corporation as a Supervising Electrical Engineer.
Q: What is your wife’s name; does she work? A: My wife Pragna Parikh works as a Customer Service Associate.
Q: What are your significant contributions in your field of work? A: I am an active member of IEEE-PCIC, and have presented papers on various technical subjects at the IEEE annual conference. In addition, I am a committee member focused on developing technical standards for UL (Underwriters Labora-tory) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
Q: Have you been involved with any groups in volunteer activities? What role did you play?A: I have been involved with FICA/Project Seva activities including distribution of blankets to homeless shelters. In December 2012 we took photos of children and
seniors with Santa; we distributed items to homeless people in downtown Cleve-land.I was President of FICA- Year 2004-2005 and organized the Independence Day parade in downtown Cleveland. I was Convention Chair for the 2003 National convention of ASEI (American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin) and served as Event Chair for the Midwest FOGANA- Raas/Garba competition in 2006 and the Convention Chair for the 13th Biennial NFIA (National Federation of India Associations) in 2004 hosted by FICA. I organized a Fundraising event with the American Red Cross (Cleveland Branch) to help the Tsunami victims in South Asia in 2004 and was an ICG (India Cultural Gardens) Committee member. I was involved with the dedication of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and the Celebration of One World Day on Oct 1, 2006.
Q: What or who has influenced your life?A: FICA has given me a platform to execute charity programs over the past few years. In addition, so many community friends and family members have had an influence on my life.
Q: Do you have any message for the Indian community? A: Get involved with the mainstream community and share your wealth and knowledge with those less fortunate in the world.
Q: Names of your children.A: Sejal and Saagar.
Q: Where do you presently live?A: I have lived in Strongsville, Ohio for the past 31 years.
Project Seva serves food for the needy at St Coleman’s church at least once every month. Mr. Paramjit Singh has taken leadership on this front and is helping to feed thousands of people. On February 16th , a group of friends from the Indian Christian Association helped to serve the guests, played music and interacted with them. The group raised $500 to help sponsor the meal for that day and helped out.The dedicated members of the Coleman’s Church are committed to feeding home-less people at least once a month at their soup kitchen. To drum up excitement they had a free raffle, with prizes donated by several generous individuals. The homeless are their guests and food is served to them by the volunteers with care and dignity. It’s a way to enhance the self-esteem and joy for people who normally struggle on a day-to-day basis. The meal consisted of pasta and beef casserole, garden salad, nachos, two des-serts, coffee, bread, and host of other treats.For donations to the project Seva please contact 216-791-FICA.
Project Seva Lunch – St. Coleman’s Church - By Michael Sreshta
Newsmakers!4 Community News
As I walked up the stairs of Kamm Hall at Baldwin Wallace College to at-tend the seminar “Why Life Sucks: The Magic of Inner Peace,” a couple of people passed by, remarking that they heard that it was “life altering”. So far, over 1500 people have attended this free seminar by Professor Param Sri-kantia.
Prof. Srikantia takes you on a global voyage for five hours, sharing the in-sights of various leaders and thinkers. His goal: to help you realize the reali-
ties of the life you are leading and lead you to achieve your potential and inner happiness. He does this through humor that resembles stand up comedy, pan-tomime, group exercises, sharing and guided meditation. A professor in the Division of Business Administration at Baldwin Wal-lace College, Srikantia is a former television host in India. He has published a book “The Architecture of Human Greatness” based on a five year research
study, talking to thousands of people from around the world about extraor-dinary moments in their life. Prof. Srikantia has authored over 35 scholarly papers in Management, Organizational Behavior, and Globalization that he has published or presented at conferences in the United States, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. He graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University and Master’s Degrees in Business Administration, Human Resources and Organi-zational Psychology. He has worked for the World Bank Group, Arthur An-dersen, the Unilever Group, the American Cyanamid Company, Lederle Labo-ratories and the Tata Group of Companies. He has taught as Lead Faculty at the Weatherhead School of Management, at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and as Visiting Faculty at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Washington D.C. He has also taught at the business program at the University of Iowa in the U.S., at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute in India and FAE Business School in Brazil. The monthly seminar is sponsored by the MBA Association. For more information, email: [email protected] or check the college website at: http://www.b-wcommunity.net/page.aspx?pid=459)
At a reception on February 27, 2013 The Cleveland Museum of Art introduced Sonya Rhie Quintanilla as Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art. She is the result of an international search and is well-qualified in the po-sition. She came to CMA from The San Diego Museum with a degree in South Asian Art and Religion and a doctorate in Indian Art History from Harvard.
The collection includes Indian pieces never before seen by the public and al-lows the Museum boasting rights as one of the leading collections not just in the United States but in the world. The collection contains pieces from India proper as well as the Himala-yas and Southeast Asia.
As an example, one such piece is that of Shiva as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance. It is a stunning bronze from approximately the year 900. The collection is not to be missed – it not only represents the beauty of Indian art and sculpture but tells a historic tale of India’s long journey. Added notes: The Indian section in the Asian Wing is part of the huge multi-million dollars expansion in progress at the Art Museum for several years now. The opening is scheduled for Fall 2013. At a meeting of the CMA International Cleveland Community Advisory Task Force preceding the Recep-tion for Sonya Quintanilla, Alex Machaskee, the former publisher of the Plain Dealer and a CMA Trustee, also announced that an Annual Lecture on Indian Art has been instituted at the Art Museum through a generous donation from Dr Ranajit Datta, a long-time member of the Art Museum and resident of the Cleveland area. Many thanks to Dr Datta, for this generous act that strengthens the bond between the Northeast Ohio Indian community and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Cleveland Museum of Art introduces new Curator for the Indian Art Section - By Debbie Hanson, ClevelandPeople.Com
Prof. Srikantia: Keeping the flame of Indian wisdom alive in Cleveland - By Cheryl D’Mello
20600 Chagrin Blvd, Suite #150Shaker Heights, OH 44122-5327
(216) 295-0400www.thesaffronpatch.com
Upcoming Monthly VratsMuruga Sashti Fasting - March 17
Ekadasi Fasting - March 23Pradosh Vrat - March 24
Purnima or Full Moon Day - March 27Sankashti Ganesh Chaturthi Vrat - March 30, 2013
Upcoming Festivals and Yearly VratsNyepi - Bali Hindu New Year - March 12
Karadaiyin Nombu - March 14Holika Dahan - March 26
Holi Festival Dhuliva
5 Community News
R IDE R TA T O T OW ER C I T Y
6 Community News
36th Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival cel-ebrates 36 years starting on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 and continues until Sun-day April 7th, 2013. It is always scheduled around Easter and as usual, will be held at Drinko Recital Hall and Waetjen Auditori-um on the campus of Cleveland State Uni-versity.This year being the bicentennial for the com-
poser Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, the Festival is dedicated to his memory. The schedule will include several programs that highlight his contribution to Carnatic music in addition to the usual roster of musical performances.Hon. Smt. Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to the US is the Chief GuestSangeetha Rathnakara Dr M. Balamuralikrishna is the Guest of Honor. Smt. Rao will be felicitated on Sunday, March 30th. Each day is packed with performances. According to tradi-tion, every year, musicians and devotees pay homage to Sri Thya-garaja by rendering his pancharathna krithis, the five jewels. The group singing is held on Saturday morning of the opening week-end of the Festival. Attendees (both vocalists and instrumentalists, including percussion) are welcome to join in this group rendition. The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is the largest Indian clas-sical music festival outside of India. It was first celebrated in 1978 and has now grown in to a 12-day music and dance festival with more than 5,000 attendees from around the globe. The festival features over 150 professional musicians and dancers from India, interlaced with up and coming musicians from North America. The Aradhana Committee is a group of volunteers who
spearhead the planning and organization of the Cleveland Thya-garaja Festival. A non-profit organization, they work closely with various other Carnatic music organizations in the United States and Canada to bring artists to Cleveland for the festival.The president of the Aradhana Committee is R. Balasubramaniam. Affectionately known to many Carnatic music rasikas as Cleveland Balu, he has been serving the Aradhana Committee since the in-ception of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival more than 30 years ago. He has worked closely with organizers throughout the coun-try and has arranged tours for almost every well-known Carnatic musician in India. The yearly Indian festival, featuring colorful dance dramas, music ensembles, classical music and dance competitions, book and CD releases attract an international audience to Cleveland, and has made The City of Cleveland the North American capitol for classical South Indian arts. Several awards are also presented at the festival. The festival will be webcast on iCarnatic. Check their web page for details.Season and event tickets are available at the venue or can be pur-chased in advance. They cost $200, and grant admission to one per-son to all programs. For more details, please visit www.aradhana.org to buy your tickets and view the entire festival schedule.
WASHINGTON—The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, contin-ues its leadership role in promoting diversity in all facets of media with the appointment of Jason T. Lagria to the Federal Communica-tion Commission’s Diversity Advisory Committee. The FCC formally named Lagria, AAJC’s telecommunications and broadband policy senior staff attorney, to the Advisory Com-mittee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age on Monday. The committee advises the FCC on diversity issues, such as how to lower the barrier into the telecommunications and related industries for women and minorities and how to diversify the workforce of such industries. “I am honored by this appointment and hope my work can help elevate minority-owned broadcast station rates,” Lagria said. “For example, as of 2011—the most recent year available—only 11.9 percent of full-power TV stations were owned by women or minori-ties. Asian Americans owned only six, or 0.5 percent. We definitely can do better.” At AAJC, Lagria advocates for policies that promote universal access to broadband and reduce barriers to critical technology and services for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities. He also works to increase diversity in the mass media. The Asian American Justice Center (www.advancingequality.org), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (www.advancingjustice.org), works closely with the other Advancing Justice members - the Asian American Institute in Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco (www.asianlawcaucus.org) and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles (www.apalc.org) - to promote a fair and equitable society for all by working for civil and human rights and empowering Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities.For more information about the committee, visit: http://www.fcc.gov/document/appointments-members-re-chartered-fcc-diversity-committee or CONTACT : Nicole Duran, Asian American Justice Center, (202) 499-7027 x112, [email protected]
Asian American Justice Center - By AAJC communication Center
Happy Holi!
7 Health & WellnessALOE VERA: “the most impressive medicinal herb that nature has ever created.” - By: Mike Adams “The Health Ranger”
Qualities of Aloe Vera• Halts growth of can-cer tumors.• Lowers high choles-terol.• Repairs “sludge blood” and reverses “sticky blood”.• Boosts blood oxygen-ation.• Eases inflammation
and soothes arthritis pain.• Protects the body from oxidative stress.• Helps prevent kidney stones and protects the body from ox-alates in coffee and tea.• Alkalizes the body, helping to balance overly acidic dietary habits.• Cures ulcers, IBS, Crohn’s disease and other digestive disor-ders.
• Reduces high blood pressure by treating the cause, not just the symptoms.• Nourishes the body with minerals, vitamins, enzymes and glyconutrients.• Accelerates healing from physical burns and radiation burns (this is one of its most famous “miraculous” uses).• Replaces dozens of first aid products, makes bandages and antibacterial sprays obsolete.• Halts colon cancer, heals the intestines and lubricates the digestive tract.• Ends constipation.• Stabilizes blood sugar and reduces triglycerides in diabetics.• Prevents and treats candida infections.• Protects the kidneys from disease.• Functions as nature’s own “sports drink” for electrolyte bal-ance, making common sports drinks obsolete. [Yes!]• Boosts cardiovascular performance and physical endurance.• Speeds recovery from injury or physical exertion.• Hydrates the skin, accelerates skin repair.
The idea of people be-ing able to grow their own medicine in their own backyards is being touted as a local reality. With al-most 68 different helpful compounds, bitter melon locally known as (carrilla, corilla or carrila), which is a locally grown vegetable with a bitter taste, has been recognized over the years as a master drug, according to Professor of Physiology,
Jaipaul Singh. Professor Jaipaul Singh, A Guyanese by birth now residing in England, Professor Singh, is attached to the Department of Biological and Forensic Sci-ences at the University of Central Lancashire, England, and has for the past 10 years been working on several papers on bitter melon as a treatment for diabe-tes and even cancer. It has been found that the compounds within the bitter melon has an-ti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects, according to Professor Singh who has been working closely with Dr Emanuel Cummings, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Guyana as it relates to the role of the vegetable to treat diabetes. “Why not grow your own medicine in your own garden rather than have to go to the doctor and get treatment. People need to know about this,” said Professor Singh during a recent interview with this newspaper.And the effects of bitter melon, he said, can be realized simply by eating it raw, as cooking it could denature its value, or by liquidizing it with some water and drinking it as a juice before meals. “In the morning you can have about 20 mil-liliters and in the afternoon another 20 millimeters just like a medication before your meals.” However, Professor Singh has cautioned that persons who are diabetic and are already on medications should speak with their General Prac-titioner before attempting to use bitter melon as a remedy. We intend to continue with this work to find out more about bitter melon because we believe that it has an insulin-like compound.And though research on the medical values of bitter melon has been the norm for many centuries in countries such as Sri Lanka, India and even more recent in the Caribbean, Pro-fessor Singh said that he has been looking closely at the time course of diabetes
in those infected. This move has seen him categorizing his subjects according to age groups in order to find out what are some of the changes that occur in their blood. “We call it inflammatory mediators, substances that are produced inside the body and how they can lead to a heart attack. As you become more of a diabetic you produce compounds which can tell you that you may get a heart attack.”
Carrila or Bitter melon Through his research, Professor Singh has discovered that a simple di-agnosis could be most informative and even serve to help save the life of a diabetic patient. And while he is not sure that practitioners would opt to adapt the use of bitter melon in the treatment of diabetes, Professor Singh said that it has been recommended for thousands of years.“But it is not the practitioner to really recommend it. It is for the people within the government - the Nutrition Department in the Ministry of Health - to get someone to publicly do some talks about bitter melons.”However, the intro-duction of bitter melon as a possible remedy should be directed mainly to the poorer faction of the society who can ill-afford to purchase medication. On the other hand practitioners may not be willing to tell their patients to use bitter melon for fear of losing their patronage. It is assumed that more than 150,000 people in Guyana are diabetics and there are possibly many more, according to Professor Singh, who are not aware of their status. “We need to talk to people and explain to them what diabetes really is; how they can get it and how it can be diagnosed.” The earlier diabetes is diagnosed the better it can be controlled, he added. A combination of exercise, a good diet and bitter melon could work wonders in terms of treating diabetes, Professor Singh speculated. As such, he is of the belief that the Ministry of Health should train persons who can teach patients how to deal with their diabetes. In addition to his diabetes research projects, Professor Singh has two students under his charge that are currently engaged in examining the anti-cancer effect of bitter melon. And the master drug, he added is also believed to have anti-hypertensive compounds. “There are many, many roles of bitter melon. I have published many papers about the benefits of bitter melon and I have worked with many people in different parts of the world,” said Professor Singh who has for the past few weeks been rendering his service as an external examiner at the local university.
Value of Carrila - By Professor Jaipaul Singh
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