HAPPENINGS AT ISW
The following joint statement was released by Indian community organizations of New England in response to the recent acts of hate and violence in Plano Texas
Condemnation of Hate and Violence – From New England Asian American Organizations
We the representatives of Indian American organizations in New England and our allies, strongly condemn the recent act of anti-Asian violence in Plano, Texas. We are very disturbed by this and recently increased acts of violence and hate crimes against Indians, South Asians, and Asian Americans in general. We do commend the Plano Police department for responding to the incident with urgency and understanding.
Asian Americans, like all other immigrants, have made significant contributions to this great land despite facing ongoing prejudice based on accents, color, religion, or perceptions of leadership or other abilities.
We believe in the fair treatment of all human beings regardless of age, education level, race, ethnicity, gender expression and identity, nationality, national origin, creed, accent, physical and mental ability, political and religious stance, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, veteran status, profession, or any other human differences.
We unequivocally and unapologetically condemn the divisive forces of hate, inequity, and injustice. We stand united in love and peace and stand against racist, discriminatory, violent acts against any community.
Together, we say to those who are victims of such acts, “We see you; we hear you; we stand with you.”
Respectfully and in solidarity
India Association of Greater Boston (IAGB) India Society of Worcester (ISW)
Saheli Boston Blackstone Valley India Society, Boston Chapter
ADL New England North America Telugu Society, Boston Chapter
Asian Community Fund India Association of New Hampshire
Colette Phillips, Founder Get Konnected
Natick’s annual Multicultural Day celebrates the many cultures within the community through food, music, dance, and performances. Organized by the Natick Center Cultural District, this year’s event was the sixth annual Multicultural Day and ISW Symphony’s Dhol-Tasha group performed at the event as one of the invited participants.
Held in person after a couple of years online, the Common Street Spiritual Center in Natick Center hosted performances from diverse cultures including performances by the Natick India Group, traditional Irish dance, classical Chinese Dance and Story, Qi Gong exercise, Klemzer and Drum Nomad bands, and Natick Praying Indians. Symphony’s Dhol-Tasha performance was held outdoors on the adjacent Natick Commons.
The Dhol Tasha group performed a routine that featured five different styles of beats. In addition to traditional beats from Maharashtra, it also included a garba style beat from Gujarat and a bhangra style beat from Punjab. The audience on the Natick Commons was enthralled by the energetic beats. Kids, adults, and grandparents alike erupted in a spontaneous dance participation. Some enthusiastic audience members even played the “lejhim”, danced the “jhenda”, and played the “jhanj” alongside the drumbeat, creating a fabulous “Symphony”.
India's 75th Independence Day celebration - ISW (India Society of Worcester)
Remembering our past is extremely important. But we also have to think about building our future. Let's do everything to keep our freedom and carry it through the years. Happy Independence Day!"
As the above quote says ISW is here to remember our past couple years of pandemic but to think positive and spread the happiness and build our future by gathering our community together to celebrate our Independence Day after 2 years of gap due to COVID-19.
India's 75th Independence Day was celebrated by our ISW community at the grand venue of DCU Center-Worcester past Saturday, (August 6th).
The program was filled up with captivating cultural programs, Ethnic shopping vendors and local business booths, Play area for kids, Art fair, Food vendors, Health stop and many more attractions.
The entire day's event kicked off by an incredible Parade consisting of 'Dhol Tasha Lezim' performance by our community volunteer enthusiasts. Great formations of Lezim players and Dhol Tasha players caught the eye of each of the spectators there.
This year's cultural program theme was 'Panchatatva - 5 elements of nature - Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. The stage performances included presentations by different groups like Natyamani School of Dance, Ekta's Dance Academy, Aangikam Dance Academy, Performing arts of New England, ISW Cultural committee, Bolly Beatzz, etc. Some admirable performances also involved our Humrahee group where seniors who are young at heart stepped up the stage to celebrate an independence by singing medley of Patriotic songs in full energy and enthusiasm.
The Bazaar section of this event was extremely appreciated by attendees where one could enjoy the shopping of ethnic clothings and accessories from local business, one could enjoy visiting many non profit organization booth with many free giveaways or get more information of their work. Many folks enjoyed and loved eating delicious Indian food from multiple food vendors like Bawarchi and Chennai Express.
The kids zone near the entrance of the DCU center had lots of fun elements such as cotton candy, popcorn, play area, face painting and more.
This year ISW put forth beautiful artwork done by our community artists and some professional artists. The art fair had a lot of artistic bags, purses, architectural designed paintings, some great acrylic paintings, and madhubani paintings, etc.
One of our ISW's unique features of such events is a booth for ISW Health Stop. ISW Health Stop offered free COVID vaccines during this event and many attendees took advantage of the same.
The guest of honor for the event was Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty who graciously handed out ISW scholarships to the youth who had achieved academic as well community work excellence in their high school career.
The full day event ran from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM with more than 3000 attendees at the DCU center.
Around 35 committee members and more than 100 volunteers were working towards this event for 3 months.
The organization has earned one more successful feather in their hat. Thanks to all the volunteers, participants and vendors.
Big shout out to the sponsors of this event - DCU Bank, UNI Bank, eClinicalWorks, and Webster five.
Jai Hind!
PC credit - Anil Nair
Click here to view the pictures of the event
Hi all, thanks to our wonderful volunteers, we still offering a variety of classes even now, do check it out
UPCOMING EVENTS INDIA CENTER 152 Main Street, Shrewsbury, MA ISWU & ISW Sports: Chess Beginners & Intermediate Classes (in person) 8 Aug 2022 3:00 PM
ISWU Spanish classes camp (in person) 8th graders 8 Aug 2022 4:00 PM
ISWU and IIT AGNE: Summer 3D Printing Workshop Grade 1+ 10 Aug 2022 6:00 PM
ISWU Online Intro Vedic Math for Grade 3 and up, gym for the brain
19 Aug 2022 10:00 AM
ISWU SAT classes Geometry and Probability
3 Sept 2022 8:00 AM
ISW U Team
Usha Tanvi & Shiamin
508-353-4316
Our Vendors -
Aditi Dinakar
Manisha Sinha
Subash Chander Gupta passed away peacefully Thursday, April 7, 2022.
He passed away at the age of 79 surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife Sneh Gupta, his daughter and two sons, Shweta, Taneja and her husband Sanjay, Ish Gupta, and Gaurav Gupta and his wife Vidushi. He is blessed with his grandchildren, Paarth, Vaasu, Viraaj, Gauri, Geetika, and Vaani.
Subash was the son of the late Gokal Chand and late Leela Vati born May 8, 1942 in Lahore, India. He lived his early adult life in Madras where he completed his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Madras. In 1966 he married Sneh and they had an adventurous life moving to Ranchi, Delhi, Faridabad, and ultimately the United States in 1980. Initially settling in Andover, Massachusetts, he lived there for 26 years after which moved to Shrewsbury.
Having traveled widely throughout the world for work, Subash believed that the United States was the land of opportunity and the country where you could have an ‘idea’ and mold it into whatever you wanted. He firmly believed that one should make an impact in your field and give back to your community.
In engineering, he continued his training to become an expert in quality assurance attaining several higher level certifications. In his role as lead quality assurance engineer, he helped introduce high quality Bose speakers and make them a household name. Later, he joined Raytheon and continued his quality assurance work in defense projects until his retirement.
Being a firm believer in giving back to one’s community, he actively engaged in a variety of community societies including India Society of Worcester, United India, and VHP. In these endeavors, he engaged in growing the societies with multiple active leadership roles. People would look to him to be an arbitrator between contesting thoughts. Having strong spiritual beliefs, he advanced his knowledge of Hinduism and our connection with the universe. He was one of the founding member of Sarva Dev Mandir in Oxford, Massachusetts and actively engaged in its operations.
Calling hours will be held between 3 - 5pm on Sunday, April 10th at Hays Funeral Home, 56 Main Street, Northborough, MA 01532. A private cremation to follow the next day.
Shanti Puja followed by Memorial service and lunch at ISW India Center from 12.00 noon Sunday, April 17th. RSVP to Gaurav Gupta.
ISW mourns the passing of Shobha Shastry, a staunch ISW supporter and life member, who touched people far and wide with her selfless service to the community. We will miss her vivacious personality and generous spirit. Om Shanti. A compilation of memories of Shobha from the ISW community in celebration of her life is on the ISW Website.
ISW will be holding a celebration of Shobha's life on April 8th from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the ISW India Center. More info and registration on the ISW Website.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Shobha for the education of Shobha's granddaughter Suhana Sundari Sullivan may be made to a college fund set up in her name. Please mail checks to:
Kasi Viswanathan Account owner FBO Sahana Shastry The Vanguard 529 College Savings Plan C/O 44 Carriage Hill Rd, Northborough, MA 01532
Thank You. Any questions please contact president@iswonline.org
Shobha Shastry
Shobha Shastry was born in Mosur, Chennai to CM Krishna Shastri and Shivagami Sundari Iyer. She is survived by her father CM Krishan Shastri, Daughter Shyla Shastry, Grand-daughter Sahana Sullivan, Brother Ravi Shastri, Sister-in-law Malathi Shastri, Nephew and Niece Mahadev and Revathi Shastri respectively. She is predeceased by her husband Sharad Y. Shastri and her mother Sundari Shastri. She passed away peacefully on March 23, 2022 in Marlborough, MA.
Shobha’s childhood and youth were highlighted by enjoying life and laughing with friends - charming others with her strong, loving personality. She was an artistic savant, specifically in painting and
drawing. Her creative genius also manifested itself in the theater, as she cultivated and honed her acting skills, displaying her adept ability to capture an audience and win others over.
At the age of 19, she was engaged to Sharad Y. Shastry of Vellore. Shobha moved to the United States and married Sharad in Westborough, Massachusetts when she was 24. Shobha and Sharad were married for 25 amazing years until his untimely passing.
Shobha had numerous achievements but, most notably, was the founder and CEO of Alankar Event Planners and Decorators, providing wedding services, decorations and mandaps in New England for 25 years and helping thousands of couples get married. She was one of the first female Indian American entrepreneurs in New England and was known for her gold-star service, always fulfilling her commitments to her clients. In addition, she was a part of many other non-profit organizations such as the Indian Society of Worcester and Tamil Sangam.
The spirit of Shobha could be described in many ways. She was an inspiration to all with her generosity and her ability to accept everyone as if they were her own. Shobha was a carefree, fun-loving, selfless, larger-than-life character whose devotion towards others was boundless. The happiness she brought to everyone was unparalleled and her presence alone could light up an entire room.
Her wake will be held at Rice Funeral home located on 300 Park Avenue, Worcester, MA on Sunday, March 27th, 2022 from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. The family will be holding the funeral as a private ceremony. They respectfully ask those who would like to pay their respects to attend the wake. In lieu of flowers, if you would like to make any contributions in Shobha’s memory to her granddaughter’s college fund, please contact her brother, Ravi Shastri, or Kasi Viswanathan.
ISW WEW: The Next Generation Speaks: What drives them, motivates them, and keeps them going! By Kalyani Kanuri
As part of ISW’s ongoing series of Women Empowering Women (WEW) panel discussions, this month’s event featured an impressive panel of young women. Held on March 5th via a Zoom session, these young women of South Asian heritage offered unique perspectives and valuable insights on how they decided on a career path, what motivates them, and what keeps them motivated. The program was kicked off by Snehalata Kadam, chair of WEW who gave an overview of WEW’s core mission and the importance of learning from these young talented women. This discussion is aimed at helping students in making educational and occupational choices based on the experiences of the panelists. The impressive panel consisted of Amee Desai, Gayathri Nandyalam, Kavya Ragunathan, Rhea Vyas, Sneha Hingorani, and Shubh Agrawal.
Kavya completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University and worked for a few years at the Broad Institute where she realized her love for research. She is a first-year doctoral student at Duke University studying developmental and stem-cell Biology. She moderated the event and asked the panel thought provoking questions while also providing her insights. Throughout her childhood, Kavya wanted to pursue a career either in PR or communications. But when she listened to a lecture on neuroscience in college, she fell in love with it and that got her thinking about a career in science. Kavya provided wonderful recommendations on career choices and talked about the importance of personal wellbeing. She is a huge believer in the importance of carving out personal time which is as essential as eating and sleeping
Amee, recently finished her master’s in health care administration at the University of Connecticut and has been working as a Team Lead at Definitive Healthcare for the past two years. She always knew that she wanted to pursue a career in healthcare although she was not sure if she wanted to focus on the administrative or clinical side. Amee credits the wide range of classes offered at UConn for helping her decide to focus on the administration side of healthcare. Amee encourages students to be open minded and take a variety of classes before deciding on a major.
Gayathri is a senior at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), studying Computer science and is interning at Microsoft this summer before returning to Georgia Tech for her master’s in computer science. Growing up she wanted to study medicine and become a either a neurologist or a cardiologist. She participated in a lot of premedical programs but in her freshman year at college she had a change of heart after taking classes in computer science, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She has found a common connection between her two passions of medicine and computers and would love to utilize her computer skills to make an impact in the medical field. She encourages students to be open minded and explore various courses before deciding on a career path.
Rhea teaches first grade while also pursuing her Master’s in Moderate Disabilities at Worcester State University. From a young age, Rhea knew that she wanted to make an impact on our youth and pursue a career in teaching. Growing up she felt the pressure from the South Asian community to become either a doctor or engineer. With the encouragement and support of her parents, she overcame these pressures and followed her passion and became an elementary school teacher. Rhea has a special interest in urban education which stemmed from growing up in New York City. She encourages students to follow their interests and not to compare with their peers.
Sneha is a third-year medical student at Drexel university’s College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Throughout her undergraduate years, she explored options such as physical therapy, Physician assistant but eventually decided to pursue a career in practicing medicine. She worked in a clinical setting during her gap year between her undergraduate studies and medical school. She felt that that time away from school helped her develop immensely both on a professional and personal level. She feels that it was one of the best decisions of her life.
Shubh worked as a high school counsellor for a few years before deciding to pursue a degree in clinical psychology. She received her bachelors from Brown University in Health and Human Biology and is currently pursuing her doctoral Studies at William James College. Her long-term goal is to help the South Asian community as she feels that there is a dearth of Clinical psychologists focusing on the unique challenges of our community. She also emphasized the importance of selfcare and the need to prioritize health and wellness especially in our younger generations.
New Summer hours available, check the website
Free ISW organizational membership passes permits general admission to the Garden. We can email an e-ticket to you, 24 hour notice would be appreciated.
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill has gifted two ISW organizational membership passes to ISW, which can be used by our members. Please show the printed tickets upon arrival at the Garden for free general admission to Tower Hill. Complete this form AND send email to schoollead@iswonline.org. If you are not an ISW member, do consider becoming one.
One membership card admits three individuals for FREE, we have two, so 6 can visit per day. 10% discount at The Garden Shop at Tower Hill with presentation of membership card (three individuals per card). Savings on classes, tours and workshops, and Discounts at local participating nurseries upon presentation of membership card, plus FREE gardening advice through the HORTLINE, open every Wednesday from 12noon–4pm. Call 508.869.6111 x104 or email hortline@towerhillbg.org.
Hi everyone, my name is Tanu Nekenti, and I’m here to give you a little recap of last Saturday! If you didn’t already know, the India Society of Worcester (ISW) kicked off the new year with an extraordinary event called The Harvest Festival! It took place last Saturday, February 12th, 2022, from 2-6 pm. The event was a virtual program streamed LIVE on ISW’s Facebook page.
India is popularly known as the land of festivals, considered a colorful nation where people celebrate with full vigor and joy. Harvest festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm to mark the beginning of the new spring and are celebrated in most of India as the new year by Hindus. Being the cheerful nation that India is, the most vibrant harvest festivals of India involve interesting mythological legends and joyous celebrations. They are as incredible and diverse as their people and landscapes and let you experience the beauty of Indian culture. India has 29 states, and every state celebrates harvest festivals at different times in the year. The first yield of the crop is a delight for the people, as it marks a time of prosperity for the farmers. This leads to them celebrating it cheerfully as a festival.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, we could not gather in person as in previous years. However, we invited the extended ISW community to participate virtually in the cultural event and dance competition. This was met with astounding participation.
The show lasted nearly three hours and was emceed by Tanushree Nekenti and Kunal Chauhan. It featured a variety of acts, including Indian traditional dances, semi-classical dances, and Bollywood medleys. Participants included many energetic individuals from all age ranges. All the dances were brilliantly choreographed and incredibly entertaining for both young and old.
As mentioned earlier, each and every single contestant brought a fantastic talent to this one-of-a-kind platform. There were four very accomplished judges to judge the competition: Hema Iyengar, Shaila Verma, Sunita Ramnani, Srinivaas A.B. They did a spectacular job with the judging, though I know it must have been tough for them, as all the performances were absolutely magnificent! However, since it was a contest, the judges identified these gems from the participants.
Age Category - Below 9 years
1st place - Jhankar by Shaswati Basu - Performers - Gavishi Joshi, Rohini Patel.
2nd place - Bollywood Beats by Shaswati Basu - Performers - Shivani Suresh, Ayushi Dasgupta, Saanvi Karuturi, Thenammai Valliappan
3rd place - Disco by Ekta Jain -
Performers -
1.Riya Thiagarajan2. Isabel Thomas 3. Pihu Mangarhe4. Jasmin Grover5. Niyati Dosala6. Kaira Agarwal7. Shanvika Potli8. Jia Gadhia
Age Category - 9 to 12 years
1st place - Tapori by Ekta Jain. Performers - Naksh Parwani, Neil Dixit, Neil Dave, Anish , Saahith Karthik, Ruhan Lawana
2nd place - Dancing Divas by Adilakshmi. Performers -
Sai Jayita Vootla, Pallavi Padala, Pragathi Senthilkumar, Sravya Gollapudi, Tanvi Padmaraju, Tanvika Chintalapudi
Age Category -13 to 17 years
1st place - Kathak Kunj by Shaswati Basu. Performers - Aishani Mukherjee, Safalta Sanjay Shukla, Samvriddhi Sanjay Shukla, Mihika Sengupta, Saanvi Basu
2nd place - Tarana by Mona Mitra. Performers - Prisha Kumar, Miley Arora, Sanvi Kumar, Dia Arora
Age Category - 18 and over
1st place - North and South by Ekta Jain. Performers - Geena Virmani, Jyoti Grover, Namita Khungar, Neetu Gupta, Nipun Asija, Manasa Singamsetty, Vaishali Sharma , Ranjan Sharma
2nd place - Agary Nandini by Priya Asthana and Sadhvi Majumdar. Performers - Priya Madhan/Priya Asthana
Congratulations to everyone, the contestants and the winners. All of you are winners in our hearts and performed magnificently!
All of the contestants and participants brought sensational talent to this one-of-a-kind platform. We thank our participants for sharing their talent and love with us. We also thank our choreographers, emcees, organizers, sponsors, and especially the audience at home; we couldn’t do it without you! I had a great time watching and participating in this amazing event, and I hope you had fun too! If you missed the event, you can still view it on Facebook on the ISW page. We hope to see you at future ISW events as well.
~ Tanushree Nekenti
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