by Neha Kaushal

“Let’s Celebrate HER”, a one of a kind event, hosted for the first time at India Center by the Women Empowering Women and Symphony team, on May 12th, 2023 to celebrate Mother’s Day! An evening where we saw 150+ ladies dazzling in their sarees, in Yash Raj theme, ready to celebrate themselves with their support groups, circle of friends, mothers, mother in-laws, daughters, and much more!! India Center was buzzing with laughter, fun, songs, dance, glamor, and glitter!! All the beautiful ladies were extremely happy and delighted when they were welcomed with return favors right when they walked in!

The event was kicked off by WEW chair Prof. Snehalata Kadam, talking about the mission and vision of the platform, where she was heard saying ‘the mission of this platform is to support, motivate, and most importantly empower each other’. Mrs. Sarita Deshpande, ISW Symphony Chair, was then called upon to give an overview of the initiative, ISW's new hub and platform of many popular performing art forms - such as music, dance, theater and visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and films and stand-alone art form such as literature. We also had ISW’s Vice President, Prof. Jagan Srinivasan address the audience, giving them an overall update on the new India Center and array of events ISW has been conducting.

Mrs. Neha Kaushal, WEW team member then introduced two very strong community leaders, Mrs. Jaya Pandey, Chief Guest and Mrs. Jharna Madan, Guest of honor, who graciously accepted to be a part of this spectacular event. Mrs. Shiamin Melville felicitated both our guests with plaques and bouquets of flowers. Mrs. Jaya Pandey, talked about her journey as a mother and ideas about what a village should be and why everyone should have a village. Mrs. Jharna Madan also spoke about the power of motherhood, women empowerment and what we can do for each other, including our future generations.

The event then progressed into the fun segment that was planned by integral WEW team members Mrs. Kajal Kaushik Dixit and Mrs. Puja Harkut Rathi. They both took the stage as emcees of the event, giving our audience an overview of the second half of the segment, which included games, singing, dancing, and the most liked section i.e. our “ramp walk”, which was enjoyed by one and all! Everyone in our audience was a model for the evening and walked the ramp in their own unique style!!

We also had singers from the Indian Beatles, Mrs. Neha Maheshwari Rathi and Mrs. Padma Shenoy, who took us back to the nostalgic era of the 90's with their melodious singing. Mrs. Ekta Jain, from Ekta Dance Academy along with her team set the stage on fire dancing to Yash Raj songs, while we could see the crowd cheering and dancing along!!

Thank you to our sponsors Dr. Vinay Nikam from Ekdant Developers (NRI Bungalow Resort Project, Near Goa), and Mrs. Geena Virmani from Homes by Geena, for giving our winners absolutely gorgeous gifts. The group game winners received a gift hamper from Mrs. Geena Virmani, while the second & third raffle prize winners received some beautiful hand-woven sarees. The first winner from the raffle won a handloom stitched Paithani saree! Thank you to Dr. Nikam for bringing them all the way from India!

Lastly, thank you to all our audience who attended the event and made it a grand success!!

Congratulations to our President’s Volunteer Service Award recipients
Aadi Dixit Gold Teen 11-15
Aditi Jayendran Gold Teen 11-15
Arush Jagan Gold Teen 11-15
Dhruv Jagan Gold Teen 11-15
Mahati Jayendran Gold Teen 11-15
Pradnya Cowlagi Gold Teen 11-15
Tanushree Nekenti Gold Teen 11-15
Ayan Mishra Bronze Teen 11-15

Maurya Virmani Gold Young Adults 16-25
Anand Chintapalli Silver Young Adults 16-25
Prachet Mahawar Bronze Young Adults 16-25

Priya Vaidya Bronze Adults 25+
Geetanjali Virmani Silver Adults 25+

In 2003, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the President’s Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too.

The PVSA has continued under each administration, honoring the volunteers who are using their time and talents to solve some of the toughest challenges facing our nation.

Led by the AmeriCorps and managed in partnership with Points of Light, this program allows Certifying Organizations to recognize their most exceptional volunteers.

Do sign up for next year

Art, a universal language that transcends borders, cultures, and time. 

ISW’s Art festival 2023, a Spring theme Art event that brought together artists from across Massachusetts to showcase their artworks and share their unique perspectives on art. 

The festival returned with varied art forms with exceptional craftsmanship, Live art demos by artists, Panel Discussion, Artisanal, Art Competitions and Folk dance performances. 

The festival provided an opportunity for artists to share their stories and inspiration with the audience. Many of them spoke about the personal experiences, their journeys and emotions that motivated their work, as well as the techniques and methods they used to create their art. Some even offered live demonstrations, giving visitors a firsthand look at how they created their pieces.

The wide range of art forms at the festival includes traditional Indian painting (Mithila Madhubani), three-dimensional sculpting in materials such as ceramic and metal, clay modeling, abstract painting, crochet, jewelry design, botanical art, wood carving, decoupage, and origami. Each form is unique, with its own techniques and materials, and offers a diverse range of creative expression.

One of the most captivating demonstrations was ‘Raamlila’ street style theater performed by child artists. They brought to life stories of Raam and Sita from Hindu epic Ramayana in a very fun and entertaining way. Child artists played multiple characters during the 15 mins skit and enacted all the roles so effortlessly that it kept (especially the youngest members) the audience engaged. 

Another artist showcased her work in painting live on a canvas within a few minutes and turning it into a beautiful picture. 

The festival also provided a platform to artisan vendors selling their unique handicraft items to the visitors. 

The festival offered something for everyone to enjoy from delicious food catered by Honest (Lowell) to an interesting spring theme for art contests and attracted an audience of 600+ people. 

Overall, the art festival was a celebration of the beauty and diversity of art. It provided an opportunity for artists and art enthusiasts to come together and share their passion for this unique form of expression. By showcasing different styles, techniques, and perspectives, the festival reminded us of the power of art to connect us and inspire us.

written by ~ Sonam Ahuja

By Kirti Nagpal . It was yet another fun filled and informative session of Humrahi today at India Center. The day started with a small presentation by Kirti Nagpal about Blood pressure and its pathophysiology. It was an interactive session with the audience engaging in discussion and asking relevant questions. It was followed by an incredible Tabla performance by prodigy Yash who is a disciple of Maestro Zakir Hussein. He gave us a whole new insight on music and how music can convey different emotions and tell us amazing stories. Then we had an energetic and lively session of dance with Deepti who is a brilliant choreographer. Everyone was grooving to some old Bollywood songs. The Final event was everyone’s favorite Karaoke session. A super talented group of singers came on stage and mesmerized the audience with rendition of some popular Mukesh and Mohammad Rafi songs. The finale was Mr and Mrs Kohli’s Duet song. It was a fantastic closing to a stupendous day !!! Thanks to the whole Humrahi group who participated.

More here : 

Album 1

by Ragoo Raghunathan

This month's PEN event - 'Open Networking - Inspire and be Inspired' was a great success if you ask me. We had over 40 registrations and most of them attended the event, given that it was the Easter weekend and many had plans that were not on their minds when they registered for the event. In any case we had a great turn out. This time the event was based around getting to know the fellow attendees, their profession, interests and hobbies - all in the efforts to make a stronger membership and more wholesome ISW-PEN initiative.

We started off with introductions of the newly recruited committee members - Resmi Nair, Milind Kanitkar and Tejas Shah. While Kelly and I co-hosted the event as co-chairs we welcomed at least 8 new faces in the audience. These were people who had heard about our initiative through their friends and other networks, and were attending for the first time. The goal of this event was also to collect ideas on what sorts of events we could hold in the upcoming months, and which area each one of the attendees would be comfortable contributing in. We had 2 white board full of ideas and we are organizing them in sub groups. You will all hear more about this in the upcoming newsletter write-ups. The event ended with some creative, out-of-the box card stacking and tower building skills from the audience - which turned out to be a fantastic team building activity and brought out some laughs and arguments justifying their creations.

Overall, it was an enjoyable morning over the yummy samosas and chai while the audience got to socialize before and after the event.

Congratulations to the winners of the Chess  tournament : 

You can view all the pictures of the tournament here 

*Beginner:*

1st Place : Ana Thoras

*Intermediate*

1st Place :

Vivaan Shah

2nd Place :

Prahaas Rajasekharuni

3rd Place :

Nihanth Chilukuri

4th Place Tie:

Kabir Tiwari

Puneeth Nunna

5th Place Token Of Appreciation:

Ashwin Jais

6th Place Token Of Appreciation:

Adithya Jais

7th Place Tie Token Of Appreciation:

Anubhab Mukherjee

Diya Narendra

An article by Neha Kaushal

ISW-WEW organized this event on Saturday, April 8 th from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.

The chair of the program, Prof. Snehalata Kadam, along with our executive committee member Mrs. Anupama Deb Roy, welcomed the guests and the team members, Mrs. Neha Kaushal, Mrs. Kajal Kaushik and Mrs. Pooja Rathi, with a brief introduction about Women Empowering Women program’s mission and vision, and the importance of the much-needed event topic ‘Mental Well-Being’, in today’s world.

The event was then kicked off by our panelists, Dr. Kalyani Krishnan, Dr. Pooja Saraff and Dr. Ami Popat-Jain, introducing themselves to the audience. The panel discussion started with avery simple yet curious question – ‘what made you chose this as your career’? One of our panelists, Kalyani Krishnan talked about the unique path and her own inquisitiveness that led her to complete six degrees along with a PhD, and how she wanted to understand the holistic view of one’s emotions, before she could help them, she very specifically mentioned ‘I view you all as experts of your own life’….!

Neha Kaushal & Snehalata Kadam, the event moderator, then engaged the panelists with a question that comes to every individual’s mind – ‘What is mental health? When do we know we need to work on our mental health’? Pooja Saraff, our panelists mentioned ‘when you’re not feeling yourself, and its starting to affect your life’, that’s your first flag. The highlight of this discussion was ‘Don’t set the threshold too high to go see a therapist, and it’s ok to seek help’, as Ami Popat-Jain quoted. The discussion ranged from what the panelists had seen over the past two years, specially post pandemic, how it affected the social anxiety issues in different parts of the society, how kids missed out on their social development with their peers during the pandemic, and how as individuals we are all still trying to settle back and bring back normalcy in our own lives.

A key aspect of this event was when the floor was opened to the hall full of audiences, that ranged from some teenagers, young professionals, curious parents and even grandparents. We had questions ranging from how do we get our grandkids to get away from screen time, to the three top reasons for mental health issues in the past five years, to raising awareness in the community, and how the younger generation is more aware and open to talking about mental health well-being, etc. The event concluded by providing the audience with some useful information on how to find a psychologist, family therapists, and sharing the contact information of our panelists.

If you missed out on the event, here is a link to watch the recording: https://www.facebook.com/iswonline/videos/610174184001898.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you would like to get in touch with the panelists for further communication.

by Abhijeet Nikte

ISW Sports Committee has been organizing a lot of sports events.

There are regular table tennis tournaments and socials on Monday evenings and Saturdays afternoons. They are a big hit with the community with several people signing for these events. The players having an amazing skill with table tennis and there are different formats of play - singles and doubles with doubles being the most popular.

Carrom is another sport that is gaining some traction on the indoor front. We will have more of these tournaments/socials so that people with all different skill levels can participate.

Please join the ISW Sports WhatsApp group to stay tuned for more sports events.

Weather is getting better and soon Pickleball will be all the rage…

by Abhijeet Nikte

ISW Sports’ monthly Game Night on March 17th was very well attended, albeit slightly with fewer people than the registrations led us to believe. People came in to play some games and had a stress-free time (other than the stress brought on by wanting to win the games they were playing ).

The players achieved their goals enjoying the Indian tea and biscuits to refuel themselves (Thanks to Shilpa Kulkarni). As has been the case in the past, there was an array of games set up for players to take part including table tennis (a very big hit of late), carrom, chess, board games and playing cards.

As spring dawns, please lookout for Pickleball to be in full swing on the court created for it near the back parking lot starting next week, weather permitting.

 

 

Selfless Community Service: Women Leaders Bringing a Positive Change Across the Globe
by Snehalata Kadam

ISW-WEW organized this event on Sunday March 19th 2023 at from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.

The chair of the program, Prof. Snehalata Kadam, welcomed the guests with a brief introduction about Women Empowering Women program’s mission and vision. The event then started off with a solo Sitar performance from one of the panelists, Mrs. Usha Verma, who played the popular bhajan, Vaishanava janato. Many felt nostalgic, remembering their childhood memories growing up with that composition.

Neha Kaushal, the event moderator, then engaged the panelists enquiring about their motivation for their community service. The panelists all commented that any community help starts at home with what we learn from our parents and the environment where one grows up. All agreed that we watch and learn, and many times emulate our parents’ humanitarian work.

A key aspect of community service is, if you are supporting the community, help comes pouring in. The strength behind community work was the enormous support of volunteers who work and give their time and efforts as best as they can. Supporters who cannot help with time and energy usually come forward with donations. There has been huge support by community volunteers especially during the pandemic.

One of the audience questions was how one can manage time, especially with familial and professional responsibilities. The answer was we make time because that kind of volunteer work brings happiness and peace to ourselves along with the satisfaction of helping others and it doesn’t feel like work. Many a times, it feels like being selfish, we are doing community service for our own happiness. In response to an audience question, it was said that family definitely comes first and so one needs to prioritize what’s important and how to manage it all. The event concluded with a beautiful performance titled “Jhansi ki Rani” by Shivangi DebRoy, a student of Mrs. Kalaimangal Anbalangan’s AmudhaSri Dance School.