Dallas – Inner Transformation Workshop
‘The Joy of Sharing’, Inner Transformation & Leadership Workshop, was held at the William Cozby Library at Coppell, TX, the first of its kind conducted by Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) for the residents of the Dallas Forthworth Metroplex area. The Workshop began around 10:30 am and was attended by nearly 30 people, from different walks of life but with one main theme for the day, inner transformation.
The Workshop was very informative, practical and unbiased and could be related by one and all that were present there. Mr. Ram provided several invaluable lessons and pointers for self-improvement. It was an interactive and fun-filled session that was well received by the attendees. They also participated enthusiastically in role playing and skit performances to demonstrate the ideals and re-emphasize the message conveyed to them.
Mr Ram, being the spiritual and insightful instructor he is, communicated effortlessly the significance of inner excellence, gratitude and compassion using mind power. Those who were fortunate to attend this one of a kind workshop did leave as a transformed person for the betterment of themselves, their families and those around them.
Bay Area, CA Inner Transformation Workshop
Love to Share Foundation conducted an Inner Transformation Workshop for adults on Saturday, December 8th 2012 at the Evergreen Community Room in San Jose, California from 10am – 2pm. Mr.Ramanujam conducted this workshop. 32 people from different walks of life attended this valuable workshop. The workshop was divided into three sessions- Change vs. Transformation, Acceptance, and Understanding our true inner nature of Happiness. Each session concluded with a group activity to demonstrate what they learnt in each session. The session was totally interactive and the workshop gave all the attendees a new perspective to life. The workshop was truly enjoyed by all and the valuable lessons from the workshop did transform everyone and prepared them to face any challenges in life.
Inner Transformation Workshop at Pearland Senior Center
Mr. M. K. Ramanujam conducted an Inner Transformation and Happiness workshop at the Melvin Knapp Senior Center in Pearland, TX (Houston area) on Dec 4th, 2012. The 1.5 hour session was attended by about 25 members of the center who were all from different cultures and backgrounds.
During the talk, Mr. Ramanujam primarily dealt with “acceptance” as a means of transforming and bringing happiness into our lives. Many attendees also shared their personal experiences during the session.
All who attended were very appreciative of the insights revealed during the session and admitted that this was going to make a huge difference in their lives.
Dallas Youth Leadership Workshop – Dec 1st 2012
Youth workshop conducted by Mr. Ramanujam at Harrington Library Hall, Plano,TX on Dec 1st 2012 commenced at 10.30 am. The workshop was received with great enthusiasm as word of Mr.Ramanujan spread through many spiritual discourses and Adult workshops alike. Parents who witnessed Mr.Ramanujam’s life transforming speeches, made last minute registration so that their children could bequeath the knowledge. The library Hall was filled with 45 young adults who were ranging from 12- 15 years, the prime age which determines our future character and was going to be shaped by one of the great Leader. Children assembled promptly before 10.30AM, thanks to the most involved parents and the workshop started, children were little hesitant in the beginning as they didn’t know what to expect. As our beloved Mr. Ramanujam started laying out the topics they were going to discuss and the activities that they had planned children slowly started settling down. Within short span of time our future leaders proved themselves, actively participating in debates, role-playing, enacting little skits and performances. Their knowledge on current affairs, history and out of the box ideas made the workshop very interactive. When we are having this much fun, time just flies, it was time for lunch, some children didn’t want a break they wanted more. Children were served with warm Pizza, chips and juice and they were kind enough to assemble for a photo-shoot, even volunteers didn’t miss this great opportunity to get in the same shot as these young promising leaders and beloved Mr.Ramanujam. During the course of the discussions, Mr.Ramanujam tested their level of understanding and participation, and the children surpassed even his expectations. The workshop came to an end and the children received a wealth of knowledge that’s going to transform their lives along with a certificate that will remind them of this event.
Houston Inner Transformation workshop for adults
Manvel, TX Nov 18th 2012
Love to Share Foundation invited Mr. Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct a workshop for adults on the topic of Happiness and Inner Transformation. 17 participants were the recipients of Mr. Ram’s experience and wisdom on the deep topic of Inner Transformation.
The 6 hr workshop was dealt in 3 modules – Change vs. Transformation, Acceptance, and Understanding our true inner nature of Happiness. The modules were set up in the format of lecture followed by Q & A.
Participants pledged to take valuable lessons from this workshop and begin implementing the precepts in handling their daily lives, challenges in home and work, parenting etc.
Houston Chapter of Love to Share Foundation expresses its immense gratitude to Mr. Ramanujam for this workshop.
Houston Youth Leadership Workshop
Manvel, TX Nov 17th 2012
Love to Share Foundation invited Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct the Youth Leadership Workshop for teenagers in the Houston area. 33 young aspirants attended the workshop from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, Nov 17th and gained immensely useful life skills to empower them to stand out amongst the rest of the crowd.
Mr. Ram’s unique way of connecting with the young minds resonated beautifully with the teens in attendance. The morning started off with some introductions, followed by the first module that dealt with principles and precepts of Leadership, the first of which was all about ’emptying the cup’, a.k.a keeping an open mind and listening. The mirror principle and many other tips and anecdotes from Mr. Ram’s wide experience made it for a very enjoyable session. 7 teams then performed a wonderful debate on “Influence vs. Respect” as the key quality of a good leader.
The second session was on “Acceptance”, and “Responsibility”, that opened the bright young minds to a totally new way of dealing with problem solving. That was followed by a group activity/impromptu skit and poems that the children came up with to share their learning.
The team then broke for lunch with Burritos, Pizza and Smoothies sponsored by local establishments.
The post lunch session was on Time Management that particularly focused on how leaders think and manage their valuable time to best optimize their workload.
Finally, the young leaders each took turns to share their pledge for changes they’d put forth and practice in the coming weeks to better their lives and become wonderful leaders of the next generation.
The Houston Chapter of Love to Share Foundation expresses its immense gratitude to Mr. M.K. Ramanujam for this workshop.
Happiness at Work at Intel, Hudson, MA
‘Beyond the Cube’ is a session for employees Intel Corporation that happens twice a year. This is a program series that happens across the company featuring world-class outside speakers inside Intel invited for the sake of employees to explore on various topics and dimensions.
Ram from Joy of Sharing was the special invited speaker at the Intel campus at Hudson, MA on Nov 13, 2012 and he spoke on Happiness at Work.
At the outset, he clarified to the participants that this was not about being happy at the workplace, but it was about how happiness was working all through within us! This brought smiles on the faces of the 70+ employees gathered for the talk. During the talk, Ram through various illustrations from his own personal experiences showed how there are things in the world that encourage us to be happy and how happiness is a choice for one and all.
The 60-minute talk got many to introspect and led to interesting discussions. Many employees could relate to the examples cited by Ram and felt thankful for having signed up for the session.
Chicago Youth Leadership Workshop
On Nov 10th 2012, Love to Share Foundation organized a Youth leadership Workshop for kids aged 12-19 in the Chicago land area. The Workshop was conducted by Mr. Ramanujam at the Naperville Public Library. 15 young leadership aspirants attended the program.
The six hour workshop focused on Responsibility, Acceptance, Priority Management, Openness and Time Management concepts for young leaders. Mr Ramanujam covered the concepts across 4 interactive sessions. The kids were divided into 4 groups. At the end of every session each group had to perform an activity related to the concept covered in the session. A panel of 3 members graded the performance of each group. At the conclusion of the Workshop the best group was identified and rewarded.
Each participant beautifully summarized on their learnings from the workshop. They left home with a promise to work on two aspects which would take them towards the goal of becoming a successful leader.
Life & Soul Health Fair 2012 – Grand Success!
Manvel, TX, November 5 2012 – The second annual “Life and Soul” Health Fair, conducted by Love to Share Foundation provided free health screenings to well over a hundred participants on Saturday, Nov 3rd at New Life Plaza located in Manvel, TX.
Organized in a spirit of service to the community, the health fair brought together several like-minded health service organizations and attracted attendees from several cities in the Greater Houston area including Houston, Manvel, Pearland, Alvin, the Brazosport area, Sugar Land, and even as far as The Woodlands.
Honorable Mayor Delores Martin of Manvel city kicked off the event with a few touching words that expressed her gratitude to the organizers. Several health professionals were on hand to perform numerous tests including Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure and Hemoglobin A1C (sponsored by HEB Plus), Complete Lipid Panel (Kroger Super Store), Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure (My Nurse Home Care), Bone Density (Walgreens), Pulmonary Function, Stroke and Peripheral Arterial Disease Screening (Alvin Community College), Vision screening (Dr. Seema Nanda and Texas Eye Institute), Diabetes Education (Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri and a Certified Diabetes Educator Ms. Heather Kleindez of Sanofi Aventis).
Physicians who were available onsite for consultation included Gastroenterologists Dr. Jyoti Rao and Dr. Satish Iduru, Hematologist and Oncologist Dr. Dhatri Kodali, Rheumatologist Dr. Hema Salvady, Infectious Disease specialist Dr. Sweeya Ramireddy, an Anesthesiologist Dr. Shakuntala Shetty, and Family Practitioner Dr. Lekshmi Nair.
Apart from the health screenings, St. Luke’s Hospital conducted a blood donation drive, free State-sponsored flu shots were given away to kids without insurance, free helmets sponsored by Texas Medical Association were also given away to kids, free Zumba fitness tryouts were provided by Ms. Aracelli Martinez and her team.
Michelle Pesina of Sai Primary Care was named the “Life and Soul Champion” volunteer of the event. Several student volunteers were also available to help with running the event from Health Occupation Students of America group of Milby High School, DeBakey High School, Manvel High School and University of Houston. Several local businesses and restaurants including Shipley’s Donuts, Johnny Carino’s and Pearland MRI sponsored breakfast and lunch for all the volunteers, vendors and physicians, while Sam’s Club, HEB and Kroger sponsored water, juice and snacks for the participants.
Other event sponsors included Joseph and Janis Schneider, Amed Home Health, Geografx, Sleep Center of Kirby, Best Coupons and Spine and OsteoArthritis Center of Texas. Participants also won door prizes for free X-rays, free 30-day passes to the 24 hour Fitness Center, dinner and appetizer coupons, etc. during lucky draws that took place every hour.
Next year’s “Life and Soul” Health Fair will be held around the same time of the year, during October-November, 2013.
Happiness @ Work at Best Buy, Minneapolis, MN
Mr. Ram did a corporate workshop on “Happiness at Work” at Best Buy in Minneapolis, MN on Monday, Oct 29, 2012. The concept of happiness was dealt in detail and it was conveyed with day-to-day real-life examples how happiness is a choice. Around 40 professionals attended the 90 minute session.
Youth Leadership Workshop at Nashua, New Hampshire
22 bright faces between the ages 12-19 participated in the Youth Leadership Workshop organized by Love to Share Foundation at Aradhana-NH Center for Heritage and Arts at Nashua New Hampshire.
The three hour interactive workshop was designed to promote the values of leadership, acceptance and time management in young adults. Special focus was given to managing stress and maximizing the potential to succeed in examination.
The uniqueness of the workshop was that it was aimed at rediscovering the individual by self-introspection and bringing out the inner latent potential through stories, analogies paradigms and situations.
The young adults felt energized and empowered after the 3-hour workshop and vowed to put to practice values and methodologies for acceptance, time and stress management discussed in the workshop.
Mrs. Sandhya Sridhar was the key sponsor. Mr. Ravi Sivakumaran and Mrs. Kalpana Ravi organized the program and Mr. Raghav Pattabhiraman, Mrs. Amolya Prabhala, Mrs. Deepa Mangalat, Mrs. Veena Venkatesh, Mr. Srinivasan and others facilitated the workshop.
Transformation Leadership Workshop by Mr. M.K. Ramanujam
On October 11th 2012, Mr. M.K. Ramanujam conducted a Transformational Leadership workshop for corporate level participants from various organizations. The event was conducted at the Gayton Library, Tuckahoe, Virginia. Mr. Ram beautifully explained the difference between a leader and a manager, what it takes to be a leader, what a leader does differently than a manager, how a leader sets up paths, lives by that concept and guides others to follow. Finally Mr. Ram explained how someone can transform his/her thoughts to become a successful leader by focusing on ‘What can we do now’ policy. The lecture was very well received by the attendees. The session was followed by a question & answer session and the 30 people who attended went out with a sense of satisfaction and drive towards transforming themselves, to make their workplaces better places to work.
Inner Transformation workshop for 50 school principals
A unique workshop was organized by Trivandrum Sahodaya complex where the India chapter of the Organization administered a workshop on Happiness and Inner transformation in Education for Principals of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) schools in the Trivandrum area. 50 Principals and administrators participated in this workshop initiated by Ms Jeyalakshmi of Trivandrum. Mr Fredrick Leon , Secretary of the Trivandrum Sahodaya complex welcomed the audience, Ms Jeyalakshmi introduced the speaker – M.K.Ramanujam and the session was for 4 hours.
The participants coming from various traditions appreciated the Universal message of Inner transformation and wanted a longer session in January 2013.
2011 Life and Soul Health Fair in Houston
Life and Soul Health Fair was conducted in the Houston Namadwaar on 13th of August 2011 and it received an overwhelming response from the community. Honorable Mayors, Ms. Delores Martin from Manvel and Mr. Tom Reid from Pearland were both present to kick off the event. Another notable personality present for the kick off was a Senior and renowned physician of Houston, Dr Venugopal Menon. Dr. Menon has played a key role in the Health Fairs conducted by Meenakshi Temple Society for the past several years. By the time the Mayors had arrived quite a few people had already signed up for testing. Both the Mayors were very appreciative of the efforts to serve the community. A brief “opening” ceremony was held outside in the Namadwaar grounds where a large tent had been set up. Dr Hema Salvady and Dr Seema Nanda welcomed the Mayors and Ms. Nisha Giri explained the essence of ‘Life and Soul’ to all those present. Ramaswamiji expressed his gratitude on to the community members, the Fair sponsors and vendors. Their active participation made this a reality. Honorable Mayor Delores Martin handed over “Thank You” mementos to each sponsor present. The two mayors were then taken on a tour of Namadwaar house, where all the screenings were being conducted. The sponsors conducting the screenings were all present inside the house. The Mayors walked up to each station, met the teams who were conducting the screenings and also presented them with Thank You mementos. Thank you certificates were given to the participating physicians – Dr. Bommanna – Allergy specialist, Dr. Hema Salvady – Rheumatologist, Dr. Jyothi Rao – Gastroenterologist, Dr. Ghanshyam Patel – Eye specialist and Dr. Seema Nanda – Eye Specialist.
The registration booth was manned by our volunteers and volunteers from a local school. These volunteers gave each family, bags and also entered them for Raffle prizes which were given away every hour. These bags were filled with educational materials and ‘goodies’ like pens, notepads, coupons etc.
The health screenings had already begun earlier around 8:15 AM and continued without a break until 12:30-1 PM. All the screenings were offered completely free of charge to everyone. The screenings offered were Blood Sugar – sponsored By Liberty Medical, a diabetes supply company; Cholesterol – Kroger Pharmacy; Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure – My Nurse Home Care; Vision screening – Dr Ghanshyam Patel, Dr. Seema Nanda and students from University of Houston EKG (electrocardiogram) – Sai Primary Care, Lung Function test & Pulse Oximetry – Alvin Community College, Bone Density – Walgreens Pharmacy, Carotid Doppler & ABI – Alvin Community College. The participants could also sign up for a Mammogram, which would be done at a later date in a mobile clinic in the neighboring area — by the ‘The Rose’ of Houston. There were free (bicycle) helmet giveaways (primarily for children) sponsored by Texas Medical Association. Approximately 80 free helmets were given away by volunteers.
Over 175 people from varied cultural backgrounds turned up for the fair. The participants were from Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend counties covering at least six towns of Manvel, Pearland, Stafford, Alvin, Pasadena and Friendswood. About 120 people had called and registered and there were also several walk-in registrants.
Free vegetarian mediterranean food sampling by a local restaurant – ‘The Barbed Rose’, attracted a large crowd. Snacks, fruits and water were available for free for all the participants. These were sponsored by Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company and by the Sleep Center of Kirby. Other sponsors were Randalls Food store and Kroger pharmacy.
Survey forms were handed over to participants after they completed their testing. The overall response was positive. A few issues which we faced were the hot weather, long waiting times and long lines in front of some stations with tests that took approx 10-15 min each and because of which, some people decided to leave. About 140 people received the tests they needed. Some of the people who could not be tested were given information about how they could contact the vendor and still qualify for free testing!
The entire event was patrolled constantly by Brazoria County police officers and monitored by the local Emergency Medical Corp to avert any emergency situation if there was a need.
Several local organizations and volunteers had the opportunity of participating and serving the community.
Majority of the patients were very grateful for this health fair and all the health screenings. They expressed that they would refer Life and Soul Fair to their friends and family and they were also likely to participate in the Fair the next time. The positive things were that it was entirely free of cost for everyone, special screenings offered – like the Carotid Doppler, Lung Function and Ankle Brachial Index are not commonly offered in other such events and the participants had their results in their hands when they walked out the door!
Bone Marrow Drive in Dallas, Texas
Dallas Chapter of Love to Share Foundation organized a bone marrow drive on Saturday 7th of July, at Frisco Hanuman Temple to benefit Kethan, a 10 year old boy from Austin. Volunteers requested people of the community to register for the bone marrow screening test. 79 people registered and underwent the initial screening.
Blood donation drive in Dallas
Father’s Day- Sunday, June 17, 2012 started with another session for Suchinder Kalyan at the DFW Hindu Temple, Ekta Mandir in Irving, TX. Dallas Love to Share Foundation organized yet another ‘Blood Drive’ with 2 mobile units from Carter Blood Care in the temple premises. Many Love to Share Foundation members and Temple members volunteered for this event, and were able to acquire 50 blood donations from devotees and volunteers, in a short span of time.
Seattle Sampradaya Camp – Spring 2012
Seattle Love to Share Foundation Chapter organized a Sampradaya Camp during Spring Break in April 2012. 45 children of varying ages benefited by immersing themselves in Indian Heritage and Culture. The camp started off every morning with Nama Sankeerthan reverberating with the sound of cymbals, kartals and sweet voices singing in melody. This was followed by Shloka: Madhurashtakam describing the sweetness of the sweet Lord, Krishna, led by Mrs. Aparna Srivatsan and Mrs. Sandhya Anand. Dr. Virender Sodhi and his team of Ayurvedic Physicians enlightened the children with Traditional Treasure: Ayurveda that we could imbibe in our day to day lives. The children had a hands-on workshop making Churnams for digestion and they had a blast pounding away with a mortar and pestle. Mrs. Vaishnavi Muthukaruppan worked with the Ayurveda Team to ensure that the kids got the best out of this session. It has been Sampradaya’s tradition to do a musical theater presentation on the final day for parents and special invitees. The thematic presentation chosen for this camp was: Villu Pattu on Krishna’s Kalinga Nardhana. Starting off with the traditional invocation ‘Thandhanathom endru solliye’, the children saw how Krishna’s mischief and leelas metamorphosed into various forms through songs such as Vishamakara Kannan, Maadu Meikkum Kanne, Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai and culminating in a Kalinga Nardhana Thillana. Our team of talented musicians, Mrs. Bhavani Ram, Mrs. Aparna Srivatsan, Mrs. Sandhya Anand and our teen volunteer, Ms. Meera Kumanan led the Villu Paatu session on the singing front.
Chaya-Chitra, a unique Photography session was conducted by Mr. Vijay Sureshkumar, who has directed several movies and children’s short films. Mr. Muthu Annamalai, Mr. Krishnan Duraiswamy, Mr. Anand Kumar ably assisted Vijay ji in this session. Madhubani Art was a children’s favorite and was guided by a reputed Seattle artist, Mrs. Stuti Garg. What’s a Sampradaya Camp without Culinary Art. The children learnt to make spicy, crisp Anjaneya Vadas, guided by Mrs. Lalitha Narayanaswamy and Mrs. Ramya Shankar. A small ceremony ensued where the chief priest of the Vedic Cultural Center temple adorned Hanumanji with the ‘Vada Mala’ made by the Sampradayans. Young Khiladi featuring traditional Indian games such as Pallanguzhi, Kho-Kho, Paramapadam and other games were a hit amidst children and our volunteers alike!
After a successful performance of Villu Paatu by the children, a Heritage Quiz was conducted where history repeated itself again – Sampradayans beat their parents and audience this time too!
One testimonial from a child who said “I don’t want to go back to school next week; can I just go back to Sampradaya Camp for one more week instead” speaks volumes about the camp. The kids participated happily in all the activities and expressed their eagerness to participate in the upcoming Sampradaya camps.
Sampradaya Camp in Chicago
A 3 day Sampradaya Summer camp for kids was conducted from June 17th to June 19th 2011 by Love to Share Foundation . There were 15 kids who took part in the camp and happily participated all 3 days and didn’t want the camp to end so soon. The kids learnt Yoga and few bhajans on all three days. They learnt at least one art per day. On the first day they learnt the ‘Madhubani painting’ were they drew the SUN and beautifully colored it. For game-time they played ‘Pallanguzhi’ and ‘Paramapadam’ – two ancient games of India. The kids were taught the origin and significance of the ancient wisdom hidden in each art or game they learnt every day.
On the second day, apart from yoga and music, they learnt pottery – they made old age kitchen utensils. In the afternoon they learnt the art of Mehendhi and later enjoyed a 20 mins session of video time were they watched a video on ‘Temples and Landmarks of India’ with pop-corn.
On the third day, the kids learnt to draw the colorful Rangoli and learnt to make ‘Panchamritham’ – a simple but ethnic Indian sweet. The kids enjoyed making their own ‘Panchamritham’ and ate them all. In the afternoon, the parents were invited to see and appreciate their kids work from all three days. A quiz titles Parents Vs Kids was conducted by Sri Suresh with questions from the ‘Indian Heritage’. Guess what, the Kids WON!
Mrs. Tripthi Desai, Principal of All About Kids Montessori was the Chief Guest. She appreciated the work done by the kids during the camp and gave a short talk on parenting. With all the cheer and nicely dressed in the Indian costume, all the kids participated in the Grand Musical Finale and surprised the parents. The songs, the kids sang were learnt by them in just the 3 days of the camp. All the kids did a Great job in the camp.
Medical Camp and Free Food at Anaicut, Vellore in India
As part of service to society at large, a Medical Camp was organized at Anaicut village in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, India by Sri Velayudham, our coordinator there on 16th April 2011.
The camp was conducted at the marriage hall owned by Sri Velayudham. Between 9.30 am and 10.00 am, all the people who came to the camp chanted Hare Rama Mahamantra. Then Dr Kailasam along with 4 our doctors, 10 nurses and 7 supporting staff conducted the Medical Camp. They performed a thorough check up of the registrants, including screeninds for Sugar, Asthma, BP and other diseases. More than 120 men and 250 women made use of this camp. Free medicine was given to the patients.
After the camp, a grand lunch was organized by Sri Velayudham for all the people who took part in the camp. The people were happy about the Medical Camp and had made use of it fully.
Sampradaya Teen Camp – Spring 2011
One of the biggest enemies of an average teenager is boredom. When Spring Break came along, I thought I would be happy to receive a one-week break from school. Instead, I found that I was restless of not having any activity. So when my mother signed me up for Sampradaya Camp, a three-day session to enrich local teenagers with cultures and traditions, I was eager to see what I would learn. I left the three days with an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Of course, the biggest challenge of Spring Break was to wake up by 7 AM to get ready for the camp. I dressed up, ate my routine cereal breakfast, and set off to the ISKCON Temple where the activities were being held. From the moment I arrived there I knew I was going to enjoy my next three days. Twelve other teenagers in my age group gradually began arriving one-by-one. I was glad to meet an adult I had known for a long time, Mrs. Priya Murali, who had created the camp and overlooked the activities. Once everyone had arrived, things got settled down and the day started. We kicked the camp off with a refreshing session of yoga, taught by Piyusha Pandya. The great asanas and techniques taught did wonders to help us get hyped up. Immediately following the session was an introduction to movie-making! I was so impressed that the camp had the exact activities that appealed to kids of our age. After a review of the art of making movies from Kevin Strehle, a professional cameraman, we got to the hands-on activity mentored by none other than Vijay Sureshkumar, assistant director of the movie Raavan! At this point, the thirteen of us were so engrossed on the activity that we didn’t notice the hours fly by.
We couldn’t wait to start scripting our movies that we were going to film the next day. We divided up into two groups and came up with great ideas that we worked to turn into a short film. With the exciting thought that we were shooting the next day, we set off to the nearby school for an exciting session of cricket! In light of the recent India victory of the Cricket World Cup, we played with intense enthusiasm and had great fun.
The next day was just as fun as the first. We began with our anticipated shooting session where we acted out our two scripts. It took all morning but we had fun every minute of it. When we next looked at our watches, it was lunchtime already! Following lunch, the girls had an exclusive mehandi session and decorated their hands with beautiful designs while the boys were given an overview of the musical elements of India from the professional tabla player Chaz Hastings. We even learned how to make aloo paratha—the best part was eating them afterwards! Then we got to one of our favorite parts of the day, another cricket session. This time we were more competitive as a result of the previous day’s game, and had great fun hitting sixers and getting people out. We went home that day with a bittersweet feeling that the next day would be the last at our beloved camp.
We ended the camp with a blast. Our friends and family came along to watch as we modeled in our traditional Indian garb, proudly screened our fantastic movies, and showcased our debating abilities by discussing the importance of sampradaya activities.
As we all bid each other goodbye, I realized that I would miss all the great friends that I had made in a mere three days. However, I knew that I was leaving with a plethora of knowledge I would have never learned otherwise. In the past three days, I had cooked parathas, hit sixers, participated in a fashion show, and filmed movies, all while learning about the great and unique culture that makes India so unique. When I sit here a week later and think of what to write, I consider this not a “report” but rather a way to share my great experiences with others about my days in Sampradaya Camp.
For Photos of the Sampradaya Teen Camp held between April 6-8, 2011 : http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=174611962590402
– Adhithya Rajkumar
(a teen participant of the camp)