January 23, 2021

The webinar was held on January 23, 2021, with 57+ attendees. It was a 90-minute webinar, the first part was an information presentation led by Dr. Mayank Jaiswal as the facilitator and Ms. Shubh Agrawal. It was followed by a question and answer session with a parents’ panel comprising Poonam & Sanjay Hingorany, Snehlata & Jagan Srinivasan, Ramendra & Ruchi Chauhan, and Aaryan Bhatt.

Mayank took the discussion through the step by step process of applying for college.  He compared the process akin to presenting a bouquet of flowers where different flowers take different amounts of time to bloom, where the charm of each flower is best brought out by the careful nurturing during different phases of its horticultural cycle. It is important to track what interests the child, how s/he spends his/her free time, and Mayank gave suggestions on exposing the child through micro internships to different experiences or doing an assessment through the ‘Innate’ website.

To help in choosing the right fit with a college, he suggested research using the MYFIT option in  US News and choosing different kinds of volunteer opportunities to build up credibility in defining the student goals.

The slide presentation outlined the many moving parts of the college admission process, and the session addressed topics such as school grades, standardized tests, essays, extracurriculars, and financials. Shubh stressed the importance of ensuring the children's wellbeing throughout the process. The panelists had children ranging from the middle school to high school to college graduates and they offered brief insights into the admissions process, how to plan on saving for college and help families navigate the college selection process with minimal stress.

The survey results confirmed the need for more information on Financial Aid, test preparation and volunteer opportunities. There was an interest in hearing from high school graduates on how they navigated their volunteer work and chose their college and their major.

As a follow-up, we are proposing mini seminars on various topics of interest. We have also created a network of parents and students via iswcollegeconnect@googlegroups.com, in the hope that we can create a community support framework for the families navigating this process.

 Upcoming Seminars: Saturdays 3.30 pm February - July 2021

Overview Session (repeat of January 23 Session): July 2021: – free for all attendees

Tentative Monthly: Mini Sessions - Free

1.       Financial planning and college coaches.

2.       Mental Wellness and time management.

3.       Essay & Resume writing.

4.       How to tackle Standardized Tests and College Interviews.

5.       High school graduates discuss their college/major selections.

6.       Negotiation and comparison of college financial packages and fees between big-name colleges and in-state colleges and universities.

 

College Connect Team

Mayank Jaiswal, Facilitator & Professor at Rider College

Shubh Agrawal, Counselor, Worcester Academy

Poonam & Sanjay Hingorany, parents of undergrad and grad college students

Ramendra & Ruchi Chauhan, parents of middle school and college freshman

Snehlata & Jagan Srinivasan, parents of middle school & themselves college professors

Aaryan Bhatt, HS Senior from Harvard, MA.

Shiamin Melville

Attachments

PDF of Slides

Link to ISW YouTube Zoom recording.

Please send any questions to collegeconnect@iswonline.org

----------Dr. Mayank Jaiswal and Poonam Hingorany.  

ISW Puzzle Session 2 challenge for vacation week. begins February 12 at 5 pm. and ends February 21, 2021 at 5 pm. Last time 21 families joined, and we hope to start a puzzle exchange library in ISW Puzzles (Whatsapp group), so do contact us soon. Send a picture of the new puzzle to snehalata.kadam@gmail.com & lucky.hoque@gmail.com on Feb 12 and your phone number.

There will be public recognition for (a) the first completed puzzle/Lego, and (b) the most complicated puzzle/Lego. So 4 non-monetary prizes.

Last challenge was a lot of fun.

A 1000 piece puzzle or Lego can be used.

---Snehalata Kadam & Lucky Hoque

Puzzling with Puzzles ----Snehal Kadam

As a parent, how many of you have bought the world map and map of India to hang it in your family room? Well I have! The hope was that my kids will look at it often. Clearly, I wasn’t right about it. And one fine day, I saw my friend finishing a very complex 1000 piece world map puzzle. Looking at the intricacy of the puzzle, gave me an idea. How better to educate my kids about geography of the world and reduce their screen time! :) It seemed like the perfect fun family activity. One problem though, how do I get my kids interested in this and yet make it engaging? I decided that having a reward-based puzzle competition sounded a great idea. Incentives are a good way of getting kids engaged in activities that are usually dealt with groans and whys!!

We all know puzzles have many benefits like:

1) it improves your short-term memory.

2) it exercises the left and right sides of your brain at once, (thanks to my neuroscientist hubby!)

3) improves your visual-spatial reasoning,

4) a great meditation tool and stress reliever

5) a great way to connect with family

6) great for some needed alone time

7) And You'll live longer

My biggest bane as a teacher/mother/parent is getting into the winter vacation and having my whole family stuck to electronics. So the idea of getting away from the electronics accompanied with the puzzle competition made perfect sense. I borrowed the puzzle from my friend, Lucky and decided to get started with the kids. We even cleared out our kitchen island and all of us got together to separate the puzzle pieces. The task though overwhelming was a challenge as the first day was spent more about strategizing how to solve it. I was surprised to see each member of the family come up with different ideas. As we got on solving the puzzle, little did I realize that it was so much fun and rewarding to even figure out where a single piece went. Days went by and the puzzle started to come together. The smiles and discussions that went on the kitchen island was music to my ears. Remember all this went on with a 3 year old tugging our PJs to find out what the fun was ! So by the 6 th day, we had solved almost all of the puzzle, I mean we had 999 pieces on the board. But we were unable to find the last piece. The whole house got searching for the missing piece. Frustrations rose among the kids and us, as to where could the last piece have gone. Little did we all know that our 3-year old wanted to be involved in the puzzle. She had carefully hid the last piece in the partition of our sofa! Once found, the smiles returned and she placed the final piece in the right spot. The joy of a completed puzzle bought out our inner child and we all gave ourselves a group hug !

When I decided to start the competition, I did not imagine so many families joining in. The excitement in the community was amazing as 21 families participated in the competition. Some of the families even rushed to buy the puzzles to participate in this fun family event. One common message I got from all families was how this brought all of us from their screens to the dining and kitchen tables as a family! So thank you to all who participated. Happy New Year to all of you and may we solve many more puzzles in the coming year!

1.Kinkin Kumari and Divya Singh

2. Lazers: Yajas and Sai

3. The Piparia sisters

4. Shaurya and Suhani Aditi Jain

5. Deshpande family

6. Navin Jain Family: Dhruv and Rishi !1st Dec24th)

7. Gupta Girls (4th)

8. Shiamin and Raj Melville

9. Dhruv Arush Urvi & Jagan

10. Lucky Hoque 

11. Tanushree Nekenti

12. Dixit Brothers

13. Rajit and Kashvi Naik (3rd Dec 25th 7 PM)

14. Anika and Rohan Savla (Yashodhara)

15. Shilpa Nikte (2nd Dec25th 330PM)

16. Anu Melville and Jack Saxe Staral

17. Ayan Mishra (Neha)

18. Khanna (Stuti)

19.  Peerzade's (Sahar)

20. Karishma Babani (Manju)

21. Mukta Munjal

WINNERS

Puzzles are fun and a great way to pass time when you are bored. They are also challenging as they make you think how to put pieces in the right place and forces you to look carefully for differences in the pieces. The puzzle we solved was named “The Mystic Maze”. We really enjoyed solving the puzzle as it was mysterious with a lot of very small details and a lot of different colors. We had a lot of fun doing the puzzle as a family!
– Dhruv (9) and Rishi (12) Jain.  They have donated the gift card to the ISW’s Crisis Committee’s fundraising efforts.  So inspiring

We enjoyed doing our first 1,000 piece puzzle (star wars). It was challenging but our family had a good time. In the beginning me and my sister organized the puzzle pieces based on color, borders, faces etc. This method helped us to focus and sort out where everything goes. Thank you for hosting this event! It was a great experience! -- Rajit & Kashi Naik. They have donated the gift card to the ISW’s Building Committee’s fundraising efforts.  So inspiring

ISW Nominating Committee would like to announce the elections for the 2021-22 Executive Board and Governance Committee. The nominating committee would like to present the following slate:

Slate of Candidates

President		Mr. Puneet Kohli I am a life member of ISW, serving the community for past 12+ years. I live in Grafton with my wife, son, daughter and parents. My son is doing is undergrad at UCSD. As part of ISW community I have had the honor to volunteer and lead many community serving activities at ISW  from cultural to strategic to logistical. As  member of the Executive board for over 12 years I hope to continue to serve ISW and community. Being a software engineer by profession I hope to continue to help connect ISW to larger community in Greater Boston area.
Vice President		Dr. Jagan Srinivasan My name is Jagan Srinivasan and I am a resident of Shrewsbury for the past 8 years. Since our arrival here, most members of my family have been involved in volunteering at various cultural activities organized by ISW. I have 2 boys and a lovely 3 year old girl. My wife Snehal and I have been part of ISW community for past 8 years and have active volunteers for ISW and many other community activities.
General Secretary		Mr. Balki Chandrakasan   Balki Chandrakasan  currently lives in North Grafton,  MA  with his wife  and two kids . I have been very active in community volunteering in various  organizations and associated with  ISW for the last 12+ years  . He started with ISW language school teaching Tamil for several years and later  became part of ISW executive board  for the last 4 years .He is always interested in connecting with people and working to  bring the Indian community together   Balki is a Senior Technology Professional and working for Charles River Labs .
Asst. General Secretary		Mr. Manoharan Ganapathy  I am living in Massachusetts for more than 12 years, from a small town near Chennai, Tamil Nadu and  residing in Shrewsbury with my family. I am very passionate about service and giving back to my community. I have been active in many nonprofit organizations for the past 6 years. Glad to be part of the ISW family.
Treasurer		Mr. Rajesh Khare Rajesh is currently serving as the Treasurer of ISW (2019-2020). Rajesh has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2018 and has been an active member for many years. Rajesh has volunteered at many events/activities like Westborough/Shrewsbury parades, Language School, India Day, Diwali at WAM  etc. He lives in Westborough with his wife Arti and 2 kids. Both kids attend the Marathi school at ISW
Asst. Treasurer		Mrs. Poonam Hingorany Poonam has been volunteering at the India Society of Worcester since the mid 2000’s and held a position on the Executive Board as the IYG Advisor from 2014 to 2018. She is serving as Assistant Treasurer on the current Executive Board. Poonam has a master’s degree in Accounting and an MBA from Framingham State University. She lives in Grafton, MA with her husband Sanjay and daughters Sneha and Pooja who both have been students and then student teachers of the ISW Cultural school and IYG Board members. Poonam enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, reading, trying out new dishes and staying active
Chair, Cultural Committee		Mrs. Amita Rao Amita has been part of ISW serving in many roles as a volunteer. Her passion to volunteer and help drive many of the events has made her contribution to ISW valuable. She lives in Westborough with her husband, son  & daughter who all are active volunteers in many ISW
Chair, Religious Committee		Mrs. Nisha Bawa Namaste !! My name is Nisha Bawa & I am a life member of India society of Worcester. I have severed on ISW committee in various capacities. I am honored to be nominated to  server as religious committee chair person for the second year.
Chair, Language & Cultural Committee		Mrs. Ruchi Chauhan Ruchi and her husband Ramendra live in Shrewsbury, MA with their older son, Yash, who is a freshman in Northeastern University and their younger son, Kunal, who is currently in 8th grade. Both have been students at the ISW school as well as IYG members. She currently has been working at Floral Street School and is very passionate about working with kids. She started at ISW Language school as a volunteer Hindi teacher. Currently, as a Co-Director, she is responsible for over 140 students that attend five language classes on Saturday and Sunday, organizing classes for 11 different grades in 5 diverse languages, and recruiting over 40 volunteers that teach the sessions. For 2020, during the COVID lockdown, she helped create Masti Mazaa classes - free online classes for kids where they participated in different activities like origami, math, english, cooking, etc. During 2020, the online language classes and the one-on-one tutoring classes by IYG members, have helped the ISW community operate in response to the COVID-19 lockdown, thereby continuing ISW’s work in the community.
Chair, India Center Rental Committee		Mr. Shri Garg I have been a volunteer of ISW since 1981 or so.  During this time I have served ISW in several positions such as Assistant Secretary, Scholarship Committee chair, IYG Adviser, President, Chair, Board of Trustees.  For the last 3 years or so I am serving ISW as Chair, India Center Committee. I would like to continue my job for the next term also.  I hope ISW has liked my service in previous years.  I would like to do a much better job in the coming years.  It is always my privilege to serve ISW and I am thankful to the ISW community for its trust in me.
Member-At-Large		Mr. Arvind Basil I was born in India in 1960, married to Anita in 1987. Blessed with daughters Shruti and Kirti  (who are now Physicians ) in 1988 and son Amogh ( presently a Junior in Assumption College)in 1999. I moved to USA in 2003. I have been an entrepreneur through out my life. I presently live in Auburn and own the UPS store at Westborough. I have been part of several social organizations: I volunteered with Mother Teresa at her orphanage home in Calcutta and had the privilege of being blessed by her personally. I was part of the executive committee for the Indian Chapter of United Nations Youth Organization and also attended conferences at UNO headquarters I was the District Chairman of Lions Blood Bank and Eye Operation Committee I was the President of Lions Club in Kolkata I was also the President of Lions Club of Oxford I am presently Chairman of Awareness Committee of Lions District 33A I was also associated with several other social organizations. I have received several achievement awards, one being given to me by the Prime Minister of India for starting and successfully running the best water purification plant in India. My thought of life is “ Together we can make our surroundings a better place to live by serving our Society and the needy”
Member-At-Large		Mrs. Suchitra Agarwal Suchitra Agrawal has been a resident of Shrewsbury for over 32 years. She graduated with a Masters's degree in English Literature from the University of Rajasthan and has done her schooling at Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls Public School in Jaipur. She has been a lifetime member of ISW for 20 years and has actively participated in various roles throughout the organization. These roles include participation in the Religious Committee, the Rental Committee, the School Committee, and she has most recently served as a Member-At-Large. She has been a Hindi K-1 language teacher since 2007 and has been passionate about introducing the youngest language students to the Hindi School. She has also served as a member of Bancroft School's PTA and has supported the Shrewsbury Public Libary in their volunteer and community outreach endeavors. She has always found joy in volunteering for community and educational organizations, particularly working with senior citizens and young children, and often combines her interests from running a local knitting group to collecting food and clothes for charities. Among her proudest achievements is watching her two children progress through the Hindi School and become language teachers themselves before graduating. She finds true pleasure in being part of ISW and is always willing to do whatever it takes to serve the community. She currently resides in Shrewsbury with her husband.
Member-At-Large		Mr. Kamlesh Khilnani Born and raised in Mumbai, living in Marlborough, MA now with my wife, Preeti (also from Mumbai) and two boys, Arnav and Jeet. ISW has been a great find for our family, making great connections, having the resources to expose our kids to some cultural activities, language school and the new state of the art India center.
Member-At-Large		Mrs. Sakshi Garao My name is Sakshi Gurao and living in Shrewsbury from last seven years. I am an accountant by profession. With great interest in social activities, I joined Spirit of Shrewsbury Fall Festival in town and  currently working as a volunteer Treasurer position in the organization.  I have various interest mainly in art, dance, music, and cooking. I am  trained traditional Indian dancer.
Member-At-Large		Mrs. Bhawna Sadhu My name is Bhawna Sadhu.  I am originally from Kashmir and came to the United States in the year 1999. My husband Sandeep and I moved to Shrewsbury in 2002 and since then we have enjoyed our stay in Massachusetts along with our two daughters Yashna (Junior )and Diya (Freshman) in high school. I have over 15 years of experience working in the IT industry. I look forward to be part of ISW team and serve my community in whatever way I can.

The committee nominates the following members for Committee on Governance : 

Mr.  Rajiv Dayal (Chair)		Rajiv Dayal is a partner in a CPA firm in Boston. He lives in Shrewsbury with his wife Priti. They both love to spend time with their children, their granddaughter and the expanded ISW family. Rajiv has been a very active volunteer in ISW for the past 20+ years. He was the Treasurer for 10 years and the then President for four years ending in 2016. He is currently the Chair of the Building Expansion Committee and overseeing the construction of the expanded India Center. Over the years he has also been actively involved with other non-profit organizations and has held leadership positions with the local council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Mr. Ashish Cowlagi		Ashish Cowlagi is a life member of ISW and has been part of ISW for over 20 years. Recently in his role of President of ISW, Ashish has been integral part of the team on creating a strategy for expansion and future of ISW. Ashish lives in Shrewsbury with his wife Aarthi, son and daughter, who all are avid volunteers with ISW.
Mrs. Meera Gupta		Meera Gupta has served the ISW Community in various roles for over 30 years. She worked as an Architect and Builder for many years. Meera currently ownsAunty G's, an Indian Street Food and Ice Cream Restaurant with her husband in Marlboro, MA. She was the First Woman President of ISW from 2005-2008. Also, she was adevoted Religious Committee Chair and Chair of India Center Committee for several years. Meera is committed to being a loyal member of India Society of Worcester for years to come.

 If you have any questions, please send an email to nominationcommittee@iswonline.org  

Sincerely,

ISW Committee on Nominations

Renuka Garg(Chair), Barin Bando, Carolyn Passey, Sonal Koppikar, Shaikh Hoque

The Committee on Nomination of India Society of Worcester is pleased to announce the upcoming General Body meeting and Elections to be held on Sunday, January 31, 2021* at 2 PM at India Center (152 Main Street, Shrewsbury, MA) The committee solicits nomination for all the following 15 positions of the Executive Board for a term of 2 years starting January 2021.  President Vice President General Secretary Assistant General Secretary Treasurer Assistant Treasurer Chair of Cultural Committee Chair of Religious Committee Chair of Cultural School Committee Chair of India Center Committee Five Members-at-large  In addition, the committee solicits names for the nomination for all the 3 Positions of Governance Committee for a term of 2 years starting January 2021. Please use the online form to submit your nominations - Nominate Here Included below are eligibility requirements that must be met for all nominations A person nominated for a post in the Executive Board shall be a dues paying member of the Society for at least one full year prior to the election date. In addition, a person nominated for the position of the President and Vice-President shall meet the following requirements: For President: Two years experience as a member of the Executive Board or past Committee or as member of the past Board of Trustees or as a chairperson of a standing committee.  For Vice President: Two years experience as an active participant of any of the committees or Subcommittees of the Society. For Committee of Governance: Thorough knowledge of the Constitution and Bylaws of the ISW and should be familiar with the parliamentary rules of conducting meetings understanding of Bylaws of nonprofit organizations You can nominate yourself or any eligible members for the open positions. To nominate a person to one of the positions, please use the online form by clicking here on or before November 22nd, 2020.   Once the nominations are received, the nomination committee will create a slate of prospective candidates to be appointed for all the posts. This slate will be available to the general public on or before January 13th 2021. Please look for the slate in your email and on our website www.ISWOnline.org. Please email the nomination committee nominationcommittee@iswonline.org), if you any queries about the slate or the nomination process. (you can also reach Renuka Garg @ 508 523 6664). Nominating Committee members include - (Renuka Garg, Barin Bando, Shaikh Hoque, Carolyn Passey, Sonal Koppikar) * Date is subject to change based on the COVID-related restrictions and construction schedule at India Center.

SW Participated with town officials at city of Worcester, Town of Shrewsbury & Town of Grafton along with other partner organizations(IAGB, BVIS) to hoist Indian National flag to celebrate India's 74 years of independence. The volunteers of ISW were on site along with city officials to hoist the flags and stream the event live of facebook. Check out the videos link here. Worcester, Shrewsbury

Thirty One years that’s how long we’ve been hosting India day at India Society of Worcester or ISW. What started back in 1989 in the halls of Worcester auditorium, no one could have imagined that one day it would be streaming live from someone’s home office, being watched by hundreds of people on their devices, enjoying amazing dancers perform in their living rooms, backyards, parks or sometime on the roads.

The year 2020 has shown us a new normal, in which ISW has broken all barriers to bring to the community not 1 or 2 but multiple live online events from Antakshri to art night to yoga and now a 3 day, 5 session virtual India Day event .

So once again from bottom of my heart thank you to all my fellow ISWers who made this event possible & to all the dancers, singers and teachers, to our community and above all to all of you the audience who boost our spirits by liking, sharing and commenting on our posts and videos and encouraging us to make ISW a home away from home for many of us. So with that I invite you to Please watch all the videos we are sharing in this special edition and share, comment and like us on FB. Check out our special India Day page.

Happy Independence Day Jai Hind.

Puneet Kohli, VP ISW, Chair India Day

Panel on '"Racial Solidarity as South Asians"

As part of India Day, a committee of young adults hosted a panel discussion on '"Racial Solidarity as South Asians". The group, called SAYAAA, are part of the second generation of ISW community members who on their own have raised their voices by organizing vigils, posting on FB and hosting podcasts and writing articles. They discussed how they educated themselves, strategies to combat racism and how to get more involved in the future. Click here to read more about the session, watch the panel video and take the survey if your would like to learn more and join.

SAAYA Committee: Shubh Agrawal, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Danush Chelladurai, Tanvi Jain, Aditya Khanna, Kavya Raghunathan, Aarshiya Sachdeva
Advisors: Raj & Shiamin Melville

SAYAA, South Asian Youth Activists and Allies
An Initiative by the new ISW Young Professionals group

We are excited to announce a new ISW group to reach out to young professionals of South Asian descent.

The first activity is committed to social justice and racial equity initiatives in the South Asian community. SAYAA, or "South Asian Youth Activists and Allies", is sending out a survey to gauge the interest in pursuing this endeavour.  Click here to take it. SAAYA also plans to host an online discussion about these issues.

The group - through dialogues, education, disseminating of resources, and engaging with peers and the wider South Asian community - hopes to advance the mission of organizing social justice activism, standing in solidarity with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) peers and self-reflecting on the community’s role in perpetuating injustice within the South Asian community.

The group is very interested in working with individuals ages 14-35. If one is outside this age range but would like to provide opinions/suggestions, one can still access the shared knowledge and resources. Please forward the survey to young professionals you might know. For any additional questions or information, please email: SAAYA@ISWOnline.org

SURVEY  https://bit.ly/SAYAASurvey 

SAAYA Committee: Shubh Agrawal, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Danush Chelladurai, Tanvi Jain, Aditya Khanna, Kavya Raghunathan, Aarshiya Sachdeva
Advisors: Raj & Shiamin Melville

Dear friends,

Hope you and your family are doing well during these difficult times. Please let us know if ISW can do anything to help you in any way.

  

For the India Society, one of our biggest efforts this year is the expansion of the India Center. We were writing to give you an update on the progress. 

India Center Construction: 

After “Bhoomi Poojan” ceremony in October, we started full steam ahead on construction. The foundation was poured in December, steel for the building was ordered, and plans and paperwork for building permit were submitted to Town of Shrewsbury. The plan was to start the site work in March. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit us hard, all non-essential commercial construction was halted by orders of the Governor, permits were delayed, and work at ISW came to a screeching halt. 

The Expansion Committee along with general contractor and architect continued to meet on a weekly basis, and the slowdown gave us an opportunity to make improvements, especially in design of the lobby that we have named India Pavilion, but overall construction plans suffered a significant setback. As phase two of reopening has started in Massachusetts, we are happy to inform you that we are back on track for construction. Town of Shrewsbury has issued the building permit. Remodeling of the old lobby is already underway. The steel structure will go up soon and current plans are to have the construction completed by November.

You can see more pictures and drone video of the construction made by our outgoing India Youth Group (IYG) president Raunit Kohli, here 

Fundraising: 

Unfortunately, we have not been able to do much fundraising over last several months. Our plan was to focus our efforts on gala at Mechanics hall in June with a prominent Indian artist, but that has now postponed to at least 2021. Some of you have been extremely generous in their offer of providing us a loan, and we certainly intend to take advantage of that offer. At the same time, to ensure cash flow, we have signed up with DCU for a construction loan. We are hoping to minimize the amount that we have to borrow, and a lot will depend on funds received against our current pledges as well as new pledges we are able to generate. 

We want to thank those of you who have shown great support of the project by making significant pledges. Many of you have made a full payment against your pledge and others are making payments over a three-year period. 

• Many of you have may also know others who are on the fence in terms of making a pledge or increasing your own pledge waiting to see the actual construction started. Please reach out to any one of us and we will be happy to meet with you personally.
• If you have made a pledge, but have not fully paid your pledge, may we request you to make a payment sooner if you can?

Thank you again for your contributions! 

Sincerely,

Ashish Cowlagi, President ISW
Rajiv Dayal, Chair, Expansion Committee
Sanjay Shah, Chair, Fundraising Committee