We start each SILC saturday with Vande Maataram and end with Jana Gana Mana. And some of SILC parents and students have asked for a CD of these anthems.
Distributing 125 CDs is not possible, but here is the next best thing. I have posted some references here for you. Enjoy!
Jana Gana Mana : Vocal (Audio)
You can download the National Anthem from here. This is official version from Government of India and runs for 52 seconds
Jana Gana Mana: Piano Music
If you are interested in playing Jana Gana Mana on piano, you can download the music here.
Jana Gana Mana : Vocal (Video)
Jana Gana Mana : If you are feeling shy to sing at SILC, you should watch this.
Kenya sings Indian National Anthem, ever imagined it?
Vande Maataram (Original)
Vande Maataram (Another version)
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Meet your SILC Teachers and Board
Anil Kumar – Tabla Teacher anil05@aol.com
Ashok Muralidharan: Board of Directors (Member)
Deepa was born in Kerala and brought up mostly in Delhi. She completed high school and college in India. She completed training in Secretarial Practice from YWCA. She worked in a private company for 5 years before getting married and moving to USA in 2006.
Divya has a B.A. in English Literature and a J.D., and has had experience tutoring college-level students in English and working with elementary children on reading skills. A lawyer by profession, Divya has been a teacher at SILC since 2006. In the 2008-2009 school year, Divya developed a curriculum for an Indian Literature class, which was offered to students who had completed all levels of Social Studies. Divya will return to teaching Literature at SILC in January 2010.
Lakshmi Buddhavarapu - Pre-school Teacher jaglak99@yahoo.com
Mrs. Seltzer studied Visual Arts in high school and college, receiving training in drawing, painting, sculpture,ceramics and many other mediums. Today as a homemaker and mom of 4, ages 12, 10, 7 and 2, she enjoys exploring creative expression with her kids through photography, blogging, cooking, sketching, cake decorating, and crafts like Mehendi, beading and home made greeting cards.
This is Lisa’s second year with SILC and first year teaching art at SILC. She also serves as the secretary on SILC Board.
Mangala is from a small village, Kadatoka in North Kanara district in coastal Karnataka. She completed her Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Karntaka REC, Surathkal. She worked in Electrical industry for 3 years in India before coming to USA. In USA she worked in software field for 10+ years. At present she is a home maker with lot of volunteer activities.
She is married to Krishnananda Achar and has two sons, Manu(13 years) & Vishnu(9 years). She enjoys reading, cooking, beading, sewing, walking, biking & learning new things.
She has been involved with SILC from 2002 and has been teaching Kannada from 2004. She has also been principal and currently the treasurer at SILC. She is also an active Board member of IAM (Indian Association of Minnesota).
Neelam Malhotra : Board of Directors (Member) and Dance Teacher neelamm@comcast.net
After completing her M.Phil in Economics from Gokhle Institute in Pune, India, Neelam worked as a Lecturer of Economics in Pune (of-course that was in the ancient times). During her School and college years, she also pursued training in Bharatnatyum from age 11 to 24. Neelam is now a stay-at-home Mom and Home-maker (not that her home reflects that fact!). And in her free time (all of 2 minutes a day), she teaches Bharatnatyum. Neelam and her family, husband Raj, daughter Meera (11 years) and son Sesh (8Years), have been involved with SILC since 2001 and thoroughly enjoy it.
She currently teaches Dance classes at SILC and is also SILC Board member.
Padam Sharma, Ph.D - Nepali Teacher padamsharma@comcast.net
With B. Sc (Agric) from Udaipur University, and B.S., M.S., & Ph. D. from the University of Minnesota, Padam has about 25 years of experience in teaching, research and consulting services in the United States and Nepal. A long time resident of St. Paul, Padam is an active member of expatriate Nepali community in Minnesota. Padam is the founder President of Empower Nepal Foundation (ENF). Padam and his family currently own and operate Everest on Grand – the first Nepali restaurant in Minnesota.
This is Padam's first year teaching nepali at SILC
Punjabhai Patel: Yoga Teacher punjabhaibpatel@netzero.com
Punjabhai Patel is teaching Yoga at SILC for the past 25 years (since 1984-85 school year). He came to United States of America as an undergraduate student in 1965 and did his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering. He is grandfather of four beautiful children and is enjoying his retirement.
Raj is an Information Technology professional, currently working at Boston Scientific. He is a graduate of Delhi University. He lives in Burnsville with his wife Lata and two children Aishwarya and Aradhana. Raj loves to play Table Tennis, though he cannot find partners, when he finds the time!
His association with SILC spans over many years and he served SILC donning different roles as Principal, President, Social Studies teacher
Ramesh Babu T : Tamil Teacher ptrbabu@yahoo.com
Ramesh Babu T is born and brought up in South Tamilnadu, India in a small town called Sankarankovil. He graduated from PSG college of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and later MBA from the same college. He is currently working at Target Corporation as an IT Manager. He is married to Roopa and has two children – Neel (6) and Navya (4) attending SILC for the first time.
This is Ramesh's first year at SILC and first year teaching Tamil
Raja Gollamudi : Telugu Teacher rajreddy@yahoo.com
Raja Gollamudi is an Information Technology professional currently working at Certusoft. He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He lives in Burnsville with his wife Suneetha and two children Neeraja (11) and Nikhitha (6). Raja taught Telugu at SILC during 2001-2003. Started co-teaching Telugu while his kids attend SILC this year. He has been a board member for TCQAA.org for past 10 years. He enjoys spending time with his kids, telugu music, movies and travel.
Ralph Davini: Board of Directors (Fund Raising) rjmpdavini@msn.com
Reshmy Narayanan – Hindi Teacher - reshnarayan@yahoo.com
Riya Arora : Hindi Level 2 Teacher riyainfort@yahoo.com
Riya moved to Canada from India in Sept 1995 where she worked as Quality controller. She worked in Canada Immigration Department for 3 years. She has done her masters degree and computer software associated degree from India and did study in Canada in Computers. She moved to USA in 2004 with her family. She is married to Sanjeev Arora who works as assistant professor at U of M, and has two daughters; Nitali & Dipali. Both of them are SILC students.
Sarah Hansen: Literature Teacher hanse230@umn.edu
Seema Nambudiripad was born in Delhi and grew up there. Her parents are originally from Kerala but moved to northern India in the 60s. She has a BA and an MA in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Seema also studied Portuguese as an optional language along with French and was in Coimbra, Portugal, as a scholarship student for a year in 1995-96. She has been in the US since 1998 and lives with her husband and two sons in St Paul.
Shalley Gupta, Ph.D: Social Studies 2 Teacher skg626@yahoo.com
Shalley came from Chandigarh, India to the USA in March of 1983 as a student. Shalley has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo. He did 3 years of post-doctoral research at the Harvard Medical School, and since 1991 worked in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development at Eli Lilly, SmithKline Beecham and 3M Pharmaceuticals. At present, He is working as Medical Science Manager with Bristol Myers Squibb. He has authored more than 2 dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals and 5 issued patents, in addition to several filed patent applications.
He is married to Gita J Gupta and has 2 daughters: Mahima (11 y) and Malvika 6 (y). They moved to the twin cities in 2001 and live in Woodbury, MN.
Shiv Bhatia: Hindi Kindergarten Teacher: shivarsha@yahoo.com
Siva Jasthi: Board of Directors (Principal), Telugu Teacher siva.jasthi@gmail.com
With Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, Dr. Jasthi has about 15 years of experience in research, software development and teaching in India and United States. He has published around 4 papers in peer-reviewed journals, around 25 papers in conferences, contributed a chapter to a book – based on his research. He currently works at Siemens PLM Software as Development Manager. He also teaches at Information and Computer Sciences department, Metropolitan State University as community faculty. He volunteers for "Chetana Foundation" – a charity organization supporting an orphan school in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. He lives with his wife, Bhas and kids (Tapan – 13, Deepta – 7 who are SILC students), enjoys spending time with his family, blogging, teaching, telugu music, movies, travel, ethnic foods, and volunteering.
Sofia Ali: Dance Teacher alicaccamo@comcast.net
Sofi was born in England and grew up in Canada. Her father is from Hyderabad and mother is from Rome, Italy. Sofi attended The American University in Washington, DC and then the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She completed a medical residency at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center (now Regions Hospital) in St. Paul (where she met her husband, David Caccamo). Sofi works part time at Eagan Child and Family Care Clinic as a Family Physician. Sofi also has a Masters degree in Public Health and consults on a project regarding childhood asthma. She also volunteers at her children's school.
Sofi and David have three children, Adrian (8) , Juliet (6) and Subin (5). Subin lived in Kerala until he joined their family last year. This is the family's 3rd year in SILC. Sofi helps teach the youngest dancers the choreography that Neelam creates.
Sofi likes cooking, eating, walking, traveling, movies, music, theater, gardening (but not weeding!) and spending time with her family and friends.
Sonja Agarwal : Social Studies 1 Teacher sonjaar@hotmail.com
Sonja grew up in Northfield, MN. She attended Luther College in Decorah, IA and received a major in Social Work. Sonja worked at Microsoft for 3 years in Seattle. Sonja decided to be a stay at home mom after the birth of their first child.
This is Sonja's second year volunteering with the Social Studies class. She has 2 sons in the program: Rohan (4th grade) and Nikhil (2nd grade). Her husband is Mukesh Agarwal and they live in Lakeville.
Sujata Massey: Board of Directors (Member), Literature Teacher sujatamassey@mac.com
Sunita has been associated with SILC for many years and has been helping and participating in various SILC activities. Her daughters, 12 and 7 attend SILC regularly. With a full time job and family to keep her busy during the week, Saturdays are a day of volunteering to give back to the community. She enjoys gardening, reading, traveling.
This is Sunita's first year teaching Hindi.
Umesh Berry: Hindi 1 and Cricket Teacher mailto:umeshberry@hotmail.com
Ashok Muralidharan: Board of Directors (Member)
Deepa Namboodiripad: Malayalam Teacher deepa_namboodiri@yahoo.com
Deepa was born in Kerala and brought up mostly in Delhi. She completed high school and college in India. She completed training in Secretarial Practice from YWCA. She worked in a private company for 5 years before getting married and moving to USA in 2006.She is married to Krishnan Nambudiripad and has a son, Godhun (14 months). She enjoys cooking, dancing, singing among other things. She is currently a homemaker. She is considering taking up a course to better her job prospects.
She has been associated with SILC for almost 3 years now. She started attending SILC regularly from 2007 and volunteered to teach Hindi and now, Malayalam. She has been participating in the adult dances as well.
Divya Raman - Literature Teacher divyasr@gmail.com
Divya has a B.A. in English Literature and a J.D., and has had experience tutoring college-level students in English and working with elementary children on reading skills. A lawyer by profession, Divya has been a teacher at SILC since 2006. In the 2008-2009 school year, Divya developed a curriculum for an Indian Literature class, which was offered to students who had completed all levels of Social Studies. Divya will return to teaching Literature at SILC in January 2010.This is Divya’s fourth year teaching at SILC.
Erin OberdorFer: Board of Directors (Assistant Principal) oberdorFer.erin@dorsey.com
Erin has MLS in Library Science from the University of Maryland College Park and MM in Music History and Criticism from Peabody Conservatory of Music. She currently works at Dorsey & Whitney, LLP (law firm) as a librarian in the Trial department. She has 3 daughters, the middle one whom is adopted from Hyderabad. She has been involved with SILC for about 5 years and helps out with the younger children's dance. She is serving her first official position this year as Assistant-Principal.
A senior at St. Paul Academy and an alumnus of SILC, Keshav has studied the subjects of world history and cultural studies through the completion of a rigorous high school curriculum. During his first year of instructing social studies, he developed SILC's first ever social sciences curriculum—an instructive text comprised of lectures, illustrations, and assignments which operate cohesively to examine both the pre and post colonial contexts of Indian history. In his free time, he tutors students in elementary and middle school in Mathematics and English through his own tutoring organization, Local Tutoring. He enjoys spending time with his family and playing keyboard, violin, and golf.
This is Keshav's second year teaching social studies at SILC.
Krishnan Nambudiripad has been involved with SILC as a student, teacher and board member for about 15 years. He grew up in Burnsville, MN and completed the Masters in Elementary Education program at the University of Minnesota. Currently he works as a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo. As a student at SILC in the 80's he participated in dance, tabla, yoga, and language and social studies classes. Currently at SILC he enjoys playing Tabla and teaching social studies. At home he loves biking, playing guitar, and spending time with his family.
Lakshmi Buddhavarapu - Pre-school Teacher jaglak99@yahoo.com
Lakshmi Buddhavarapu is an Information Technology professional currently working for Medtronic. She has a Master’s in Biochemistry and Engineering, both from the University of Minnesota. This is her second year with SILC as a Preschool/Kindergarten teacher. She lives in Vadnais Heights with her husband Jagadish and their son Teja (6). She enjoys biking, traveling and spending time with family and friends.
Lisa Seltzer: Board of Directors (Secretary) and Arts Teacher kreativmom@gmail.com
Mrs. Seltzer studied Visual Arts in high school and college, receiving training in drawing, painting, sculpture,ceramics and many other mediums. Today as a homemaker and mom of 4, ages 12, 10, 7 and 2, she enjoys exploring creative expression with her kids through photography, blogging, cooking, sketching, cake decorating, and crafts like Mehendi, beading and home made greeting cards.
This is Lisa’s second year with SILC and first year teaching art at SILC. She also serves as the secretary on SILC Board.
Mangala Achar : Board of Directors (Treasurer) and Kannada Teacher A_mangala@yahoo.com
Mangala is from a small village, Kadatoka in North Kanara district in coastal Karnataka. She completed her Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Karntaka REC, Surathkal. She worked in Electrical industry for 3 years in India before coming to USA. In USA she worked in software field for 10+ years. At present she is a home maker with lot of volunteer activities.
She is married to Krishnananda Achar and has two sons, Manu(13 years) & Vishnu(9 years). She enjoys reading, cooking, beading, sewing, walking, biking & learning new things.
She has been involved with SILC from 2002 and has been teaching Kannada from 2004. She has also been principal and currently the treasurer at SILC. She is also an active Board member of IAM (Indian Association of Minnesota).
Neelam Malhotra : Board of Directors (Member) and Dance Teacher neelamm@comcast.net
After completing her M.Phil in Economics from Gokhle Institute in Pune, India, Neelam worked as a Lecturer of Economics in Pune (of-course that was in the ancient times). During her School and college years, she also pursued training in Bharatnatyum from age 11 to 24. Neelam is now a stay-at-home Mom and Home-maker (not that her home reflects that fact!). And in her free time (all of 2 minutes a day), she teaches Bharatnatyum. Neelam and her family, husband Raj, daughter Meera (11 years) and son Sesh (8Years), have been involved with SILC since 2001 and thoroughly enjoy it.
She currently teaches Dance classes at SILC and is also SILC Board member.
Padam Sharma, Ph.D - Nepali Teacher padamsharma@comcast.net
This is Padam's first year teaching nepali at SILC
Pradip (Prad) Das : Hindi 1 Teacher prad006@yahoo.com
Prad Das born in Jamshedpur, India. He graduated from BIT Mesra, Ranchi in computer science. Currently lives in Blaine, MN with his family. He had Hindi as a 2nd language till his high school. He is a current Blaine City Park Board commissioner. He plays soccer in his off time and also provides coaching for Blaine Soccer Club.
Punjabhai Patel: Yoga Teacher punjabhaibpatel@netzero.com
Punjabhai Patel is teaching Yoga at SILC for the past 25 years (since 1984-85 school year). He came to United States of America as an undergraduate student in 1965 and did his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering. He is grandfather of four beautiful children and is enjoying his retirement.
Raj Menon : Board of Directors (Member) rklr_menon@yahoo.com
Raj is an Information Technology professional, currently working at Boston Scientific. He is a graduate of Delhi University. He lives in Burnsville with his wife Lata and two children Aishwarya and Aradhana. Raj loves to play Table Tennis, though he cannot find partners, when he finds the time!
His association with SILC spans over many years and he served SILC donning different roles as Principal, President, Social Studies teacher
Ramesh Babu T : Tamil Teacher ptrbabu@yahoo.com
Ramesh Babu T is born and brought up in South Tamilnadu, India in a small town called Sankarankovil. He graduated from PSG college of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and later MBA from the same college. He is currently working at Target Corporation as an IT Manager. He is married to Roopa and has two children – Neel (6) and Navya (4) attending SILC for the first time.
This is Ramesh's first year at SILC and first year teaching Tamil
Raja Gollamudi : Telugu Teacher rajreddy@yahoo.com
Raja Gollamudi is an Information Technology professional currently working at Certusoft. He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He lives in Burnsville with his wife Suneetha and two children Neeraja (11) and Nikhitha (6). Raja taught Telugu at SILC during 2001-2003. Started co-teaching Telugu while his kids attend SILC this year. He has been a board member for TCQAA.org for past 10 years. He enjoys spending time with his kids, telugu music, movies and travel.
Ralph Davini: Board of Directors (Fund Raising) rjmpdavini@msn.com
Ralph Davini is serving his second year on the SILC Board of Directors with a concentration on Fundraising. With undergraduate (Aeronautical) and graduate (Electrical) Engineering degrees from the University of Minnesota, Ralph enjoyed an eclectic engineering career of 25 years, including wind tunnel, high temperaure and combustion facilities, and automated process control. This was followed during the past 15 years with a second career of operations management at the downtown Minneapolis district utility plant.
Ralph and his wife Mary Pat have had their daughter Mary Kate in SILC for eight years. As lifelong residents of Saint Paul, they enjoy walking all the streets they can find in town. As parents of eight other grown children, they are also now collecting grandchildren - four on hand and another one coming. Ralph also enjoys cooking the odd Italian dish, although he has recently discovered the wonders of Indian cuisine as well.
Reshmy Narayanan – Hindi Teacher - reshnarayan@yahoo.com
Reshmy Narayanan- Has post graduation and BEd in English. Had been working as an English teacher in India for 7-8yrs. Presently working in Boston Scientific. I have been involved with SILC for 3yrs.Teaching Hindi level- 2 last year & this year Hindi level- 3
Riya moved to Canada from India in Sept 1995 where she worked as Quality controller. She worked in Canada Immigration Department for 3 years. She has done her masters degree and computer software associated degree from India and did study in Canada in Computers. She moved to USA in 2004 with her family. She is married to Sanjeev Arora who works as assistant professor at U of M, and has two daughters; Nitali & Dipali. Both of them are SILC students.Sarah Hansen: Literature Teacher hanse230@umn.edu
Sarah is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. Her studies focus on the educational experiences of first and second-generation immigrant students, families, and teachers. Her academic interests stem from her experiences as a teacher both locally and abroad. When she is not studying, Sarah enjoys strolling around the city lakes, taking photographs, and cooking vegetarian dishes.
This is Sarah's first year teaching literature at SILC.
Seema Nambudiripad: Hindi 1 Adults Teacher seema.nambudiripad@gmail.comThis is Sarah's first year teaching literature at SILC.
Seema Nambudiripad was born in Delhi and grew up there. Her parents are originally from Kerala but moved to northern India in the 60s. She has a BA and an MA in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Seema also studied Portuguese as an optional language along with French and was in Coimbra, Portugal, as a scholarship student for a year in 1995-96. She has been in the US since 1998 and lives with her husband and two sons in St Paul.Shalley Gupta, Ph.D: Social Studies 2 Teacher skg626@yahoo.com
Shalley came from Chandigarh, India to the USA in March of 1983 as a student. Shalley has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo. He did 3 years of post-doctoral research at the Harvard Medical School, and since 1991 worked in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development at Eli Lilly, SmithKline Beecham and 3M Pharmaceuticals. At present, He is working as Medical Science Manager with Bristol Myers Squibb. He has authored more than 2 dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals and 5 issued patents, in addition to several filed patent applications.He is married to Gita J Gupta and has 2 daughters: Mahima (11 y) and Malvika 6 (y). They moved to the twin cities in 2001 and live in Woodbury, MN.
Shiv Bhatia: Hindi Kindergarten Teacher: shivarsha@yahoo.com
A former military officer, Shiv served in the Indian Army for many years on a variety of assignments, most of them in counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism roles. After hanging his uniform, he has been learning the art of Corporate “Warfare”. Currently, he works for DST Systems, Inc, as Director of Operations and Client Services, in the healthcare vertical.
A die-hard outdoors person, he will do anything not to stay indoors. An avid griller who also enjoys cooking on the stove top, Shiv lives in Woodbury with his wife, Varsha and two lovely daughters, Suparna and Sahana.
2009 is the Bhatias' first year with SILC.
Siva Jasthi: Board of Directors (Principal), Telugu Teacher siva.jasthi@gmail.com
With Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, Dr. Jasthi has about 15 years of experience in research, software development and teaching in India and United States. He has published around 4 papers in peer-reviewed journals, around 25 papers in conferences, contributed a chapter to a book – based on his research. He currently works at Siemens PLM Software as Development Manager. He also teaches at Information and Computer Sciences department, Metropolitan State University as community faculty. He volunteers for "Chetana Foundation" – a charity organization supporting an orphan school in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. He lives with his wife, Bhas and kids (Tapan – 13, Deepta – 7 who are SILC students), enjoys spending time with his family, blogging, teaching, telugu music, movies, travel, ethnic foods, and volunteering.This is Jasthi's third year teaching Telugu at SILC.
Sofia Ali: Dance Teacher alicaccamo@comcast.net
Sofi was born in England and grew up in Canada. Her father is from Hyderabad and mother is from Rome, Italy. Sofi attended The American University in Washington, DC and then the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She completed a medical residency at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center (now Regions Hospital) in St. Paul (where she met her husband, David Caccamo). Sofi works part time at Eagan Child and Family Care Clinic as a Family Physician. Sofi also has a Masters degree in Public Health and consults on a project regarding childhood asthma. She also volunteers at her children's school.Sofi and David have three children, Adrian (8) , Juliet (6) and Subin (5). Subin lived in Kerala until he joined their family last year. This is the family's 3rd year in SILC. Sofi helps teach the youngest dancers the choreography that Neelam creates.
Sofi likes cooking, eating, walking, traveling, movies, music, theater, gardening (but not weeding!) and spending time with her family and friends.
Sonja Agarwal : Social Studies 1 Teacher sonjaar@hotmail.com
Sonja grew up in Northfield, MN. She attended Luther College in Decorah, IA and received a major in Social Work. Sonja worked at Microsoft for 3 years in Seattle. Sonja decided to be a stay at home mom after the birth of their first child.
This is Sonja's second year volunteering with the Social Studies class. She has 2 sons in the program: Rohan (4th grade) and Nikhil (2nd grade). Her husband is Mukesh Agarwal and they live in Lakeville.
Sujata Massey: Board of Directors (Member), Literature Teacher sujatamassey@mac.com
Sujata Massey is a board member of SILC overseeing volunteer participation, and has had children at SILC in the past. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and a former reporter at the Baltimore Evening Sun. Sujata is also the author of ten mystery novels about Japan, and is currently writing a historical novel set in India. She is co-teaching literature with Sarah Hansen until January, 2010. In her spare time she enjoys reading, cooking, and the outdoors.
Sunita Mannamkunnath: Hindi Teacher sunkun1@yahoo.com
Sunita Mannamkunnath: Hindi Teacher sunkun1@yahoo.com
Sunita has been associated with SILC for many years and has been helping and participating in various SILC activities. Her daughters, 12 and 7 attend SILC regularly. With a full time job and family to keep her busy during the week, Saturdays are a day of volunteering to give back to the community. She enjoys gardening, reading, traveling.
This is Sunita's first year teaching Hindi.
Umesh Berry: Hindi 1 and Cricket Teacher mailto:umeshberry@hotmail.com
Umesh is an Information Technology professional currently working at Target. He has a Masters in Computer Science from Washington University, St. Louis. He lives in south Minneapolis with his wife Pam and two children Jason (8) and Katelyn (6). Umesh enjoys hanging out with family, playing tennis, traveling, biking, grilling, and cooking. Grilled jerk chicken and cheese omelettes are two of his specialties.
This is Umesh's second year with SILC and first year teaching.
Vishnu Namboodiripad – Malayalam 1 Teacher vishnunamboodiripad@gmail.com
This is Umesh's second year with SILC and first year teaching.
Vishnu Namboodiripad – Malayalam 1 Teacher vishnunamboodiripad@gmail.com
Vishnu is 14 years youngest teacher at SILC. He is in 8th grade. He knows how to speak Malayalam and was brought to SILC to learn how to read and write it. He is with SILC for 10 years, and started teaching 2 years ago as a Teachers Assistant for the previous Malayalam teacher. Starting 2008-09 year, he started teaching Malayalam on his own. He is also a Student at SILC. He is currently in Literature Class and in electives. His hobbies include video games (no wonder – kids connect with him), computer, reading, writing, tennis, and biking.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
India Fest - India in Minnesota
The India Fest
India in Minnesota
by
Mahima K. Gupta (11 years)
It was September 13th, a hot and humid Sunday where many Indian families and American friends had gathered to perform and attend the “India Fest”. It seemed that the weather gods had “cooperated” to recreate the feel of heat and humid stickiness of an Indian summer day!! The fest was located at Phalen Park and near the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities. The India Fest was a tradition formally called “Festival of India” which was usually indoors. The India Fest is organized by the “Indian Association of Minnesota” (I.A.M).
There were many booths and performances which kept everyone entertained. As I watched the dances, I noticed how different the dances were though they were all Indian dances. A couple of people also sang Hindi songs, and bhajans-also done very nicely. There was also a lot of FOOD! In the Shelter Area there were a ton of food stalls which offered snacks like samosa, tikki, hot chai, mango lassi and other snacks for a modest charge. There also were a few options for lunch like naan and different sabjis. I didn’t take all that stuff, but I did take a glass of mango shake which I chugged right down! My friends and I got up and decided to go look around the booths. They were from different companies and groups. I picked up all the samples they were offering like balloons, key chains, and stress balls.
Soon all youth dancers were called for the dance. Even before the dance, I was hot and sweaty and I did not know how I would feel after the dance. Soon we all formed a line waiting to dance. We were next in line to dance, and I was as hot as ever!! I wondered how hot my head would be……I gently put my two fingers on my head…..OUCH! My fingers felt as if they had touched on a hot and hairy pan. It was finally our turn to dance. Soon we were dancing to the beat and music of “mauja-hi-mauja”. In the humid heat my synthetic loongi (long skirt) was basically sticking to my thighs and I forgot that “mauja-hi-mauja”- literally meant “fun-and more fun“. When we were finished we all got off the stage. But now I could take off my loongi and wore my shorts. I was so happy! Then I noticed that it was time for the adult dance. All the colorful lehangas (long skirt) were spinning and blending together- it was like a spinning rainbow! My mom also danced in the group that did the Rajasthani dance celebrating the festival of Holi. Finally all the dancers got off the stage. Since the dance was done I decided to go get some mehandi (henna) done. So I went to my dad and begged for some money. My dad quickly gave me some money and I skipped to the Vibha Booth. I got in line and waited for my turn. “You want a magnet asked”, a young man working at the booth. I shook my head and told him I already had picked one up. Soon a couple of my other friends had come in line for mehandi too. After fifteen minutes of waiting it was finally my turn! So I dropped the money in the bucket and the lady started to put an elaborate design in the middle of my palm. Soon she was done! It was beautiful! I thanked her and went to my mom and dad. When I got to my parents they said it was time to go home. So I said bye to everyone and we all left. The India Fest was a good family event, and I hope it gets established as an annual event.
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