DesiShades Local Coverage
12th June 2010
Hanuman Jayanthi celebrations at Hindu Temple of Colorado
Rocky Mountain Hanuman organization celebrated Hanuman Jayanthi in a grand devotional fashion on Saturday 12 June 2010, at the Hindu temple of Colorado. Per Hindu mythology, lord Hanuman symbolizes strength, energy, and devotion, and Hanuman Jayanthi is celebrated to commemorate his Birthday. This auspicious occasion was marked by devotees chanting Hanuman Chalisa 108 times with utmost devotion and passion, starting at 6AM. More than 300 devotees participated in Hanuman Chalisa chanting throughout the day, representing people of all ages and diverse geographical backgrounds.
This year, Hanuman Jayanthi marked the conclusion of Hanuman Chalisa Yagna, a very unique spiritual program organized by Rocky Mountain Hanuman organization. Launched on April 10th, this first of its kind program received tremendous response from hundreds of Hanuman devotees all over USA, in the form of thousands of Hanuman Chalisa recitals. The Hanuman Chalisa Yagna program started with a goal of collectively reciting 40,000 chalisas in a 2-month period, which was easily surpassed by June 12th with the final count of over 60,000 chalisas.
The Chalisa recitals in Hanuman Jayanthi celebrations were led by Ms. Dhara Carter, who is a staunch Hanuman devotee from Fort Collins. Chalisa was chanted 108 times with utmost devotional fervor, generating divine vibrations. Tabla players Raja Venkataraman, Aby Singhai, Master Susheel Nalla, Arvind Gurumurthy, and harmonists played throughout the event, which added quite a bit of liveliness and excitement to the event. In addition to the 108 chalisa recitals, Abhishekam to Lord Hanuman was performed with Panchamrithas - Milk, Yoghurt, Honey, Ghee, Coconut water and turmeric water, one at a time, while chanting Vedic sukthas. After the Abhishekam, Hanuman Sahasra Namam was performed, which was followed by Aarthi, and prasad lunch. Food was prepared by devotees, as well as sponsored by Indian restaurants Jai Ho and Bombay Bowl. Kids participated in a quiz related to lord Hanuman, as well as in chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. Sponsors of the program received an impressive Hanuman idol or Hanuman fridge magnet, along with blessed Tayettu and Gangachnduram that were acquired from India.
The proceedings of Hanuman Jayanthi program were conducted in a thorough, authentic and traditional manner by Pandit ji Raghavendra Iyyer, Acharya ji Kailash Chandra Upadhyay and assistant pandits Rajesh Kaul, Krishna Kommanduru and Sankar Gunturu. On behalf of Rocky Mountain Hanuman organization, Mr. Sridhar Ponnapalli gave vote of thanks to the priests, volunteers, and sponsors that helped make the Hanuman Jayanthi celebrations a grand success. Core volunteers Sridhar Ponnapalli, Radha Ponnapalli, Satya Kothiyal, Nidhi Kothiyal, Satish Gangur, Ravi Ponnapalli, Himabindu Ponnapalli, Hari Morisetti were commended by all for having organized such a memorable event.
Hanuman Chalisa recital takes place starting at 9:30AM on the second Saturday of every month at the Hindu temple of Colorado, during which, devotees complete 21 recitals followed by Hanuman Aarthi and Prasad lunch.
5th June 2010
Delightful Annamacharya Sankeertanas in Colorado
Colorado Telugu Association celebrated Annamacharya Jayanthi on 5th June 2010 at South Middle School, Aurora CO in a traditional way with musical concert. There were over 75 artists and kids enthusiastically participated in this all-day event, who rendered the Annamacharya Kritis for more than 5hours. The local community singer "Nightingale of Twin Cities" Mrs.R Chayadevi spent two weeks teaching the groups to prepare Annamacharya Sankeertanas. Traditionally dressed artists have started the day with Saint Annamacharya Prayer, and then proceeded with group rendition of the Saptagiri Sankeertanas - the seven most precious jewels of the poet i.e., 'Bhavamu lona', 'Brahma Kadigina', 'Enta matramuna', 'Podagantimayya', 'Kondalalo', 'Narayanate' and 'Muddu gare yasoda' in the very traditional style. Mrs.Chayadevi and Mr.VK Arun Kumar have led the group with a one voice. There was instrumental support from Tabla by Raja Venkatraman, Veena by Jyothi Venugopal and Flute by Prashant Ramaswamy (Bangalore). There were many other krithis that delighted the audiences for the whole day. Sai Meghna Dance School's dance performances have been the highlight of the day. Several students including the director of the school Mrs.Lavanya Yammanur have performed mesmerizing dance performances for various Annamayya krithis such as 'Telugu padaniki', 'Vinaro bhagyamu', 'Kolani gopariki', 'Srimannarayana' etc. The CTA committee members Mr.Venkat Dontineni, Murthy Garimella and Mrs. Kattula Syamala have taken active part in organizing the event, with the support from several other volunteers. At the end of the event, CTA felicitated Mrs.Chayadevi with a shawl and a memento. Mrs. Radha and Mr. Ravi Ponnapalli have conducted the program very ably, with a descriptive commentary involving the audiences. The audiences appreciated the association for the great initiation and to keep the culture live that bridges the cultural gaps between the older and younger generations. DesiShades has proudly sponsored this event.
15th May 2010
Indian Dance Festival 2010 by Kearala Association of Colorado
Indian Dance Festival, the tradition that has been followed for the past 11 years by Kerala Association of Colorado, was held in a big fanfare on Saturday 15th May at Abraham Lincoln High School, Denver. It was a 5+ hours of celebrations that has a great mixture of many dance forms from India, ranges from Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam to Bollywood dhamaka. Apart from the performances by local talents, the biggest attraction was the Bollywood fusion by Colorado’s Bollywood West, which was very mesmerizing that almost took the breath from everyone.
The programs started with a prayer song and a welcome speech by the president Ms.Ivy George. The culturals were started with a delightful Bharatanatyam item ‘Ananda Natamaduvar’ by Apoorva, Vani and Punya, the students of Shivanjali Center of Fine Arts. The dance for Tamil medley by Denver Diamondz Girls Navya, Vismaya, Sangeetha and Divya was an energetic performance. Laya Dance Academy’s Medha’s Kuchipudi performance Rukmini Pravesam was scintillating that received great applause. Anandha Nadamidum is another classical item praising Lord Nataraja has showcased the best of the abhinaya by Ms.Latha Sudendra of Natyapriya School of Classical Dance. There was this one amazing performance that tributes to Indian cinema by Anushka, Tina, Manju, Nisha, Munish, Muthu, Sameer and Bala, featured with the songs from 1950’s through the most recent times. Bollywood West then took over the stage for about 10minutes, with over 15 professional dancers, followed by a short break.
The program then resumed with Kailasa Giripai, a fast paced Kuchipudi item by Kavitha Muruganantham. AR Rahman’s medley by Bridgit, Narmada, Priyanka and Salomi featuring the songs from the recent hits was delightful. Semi-classical dance item NrityaMalika presented Laya Dance Academy’s Prathyusha, Padma, Sumana, Avani and Sonu was amazing, with rhythmic movement from all dancers. Other Bollywood Medleys by the group Joice, Aastha and Deeplata, and by the group Berin, Nia, Jeena, Nitha, Alicia, Susan and Ancil have depicted the best hip-hop of the day. The two sisters Kavitha and Nivetha along with their friends, added their best to the show. Food stalls, saree and the Indian dress stalls were a great attraction to the show. Three cheers to the team work and the new team that is going to be for the next one year. Hope to see more and more dancers and more performances in the next event.
2nd May 2010
Padmashree Dr.SP Balasubramanyam's Live Concert
Maestro Balasubramaniam's live concert in Denver enthralled the music lovers on May 2nd. The concert was arranged by Sri Venkateswara Temple of Colorado with all the other famous singers, Mrs. SP Sailaja, Mrs. Kalpana and Sri Krishna. The much awaited program of SPB was a great success in the Rocky Mountain area. More than 500 people attended the concert. The show began at 5.30 with Mr. VJ Chukkapalli, Chairman Board of Trustees SV Temple of Colorado introducing the artists, and with a brief introduction about the upcoming and the past events by the Temple.
As the sonorous voice rang in the auditorium, the collective cheer erupted with eager and thronged the auditorium. The king of Playback singing began the program with the patriotic ‘Vandemataram’ and the evening really turned out memorable for the Coloradans. With his excellent troupe of orchestra SPB went into the variations of the music in multiple languages. It was truly a joy to see him singing some of the all-time-best Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi songs. In the aboard he was really excited to say that he is so blessed to sing for a good in the 45th year of his career. He then moved to perform various songs from his repertoire which accumulated the famous, Sankarabharanam, Sagarasangamam, Ekaveera and many more. Sailaja sang a few Telugu hit numbers along with his brother. Sri Krishna and Kalpana did excellent performance. Sri Krishna was trying to involve the audiences, with his excellent support, and very excited to accompany with the legend Dr. SPB for one of his famous numbers.
Listening and looking at SPB on stage for a live show for three hour show brought back a flood of memories, as he always had a special and respectful place in all our hearts. With his all-round performance, situational commentary, flexible switching between different languages, it was an unprecedented experiences for many of the audience to see the maestro on the stage.
Coloradans are really blessed with the live concert by the much acclaimed celebrity singer and his troupe. Everyone appreciated the strong volunteer force from SV Temple who relentlessly worked so hard for the past two months in organizing such a great successful event.
Watch the photos of this event in our gallery section at http://www.desishades.com/gallery.php?tab=985.
20th April 2010
World Peace through Inner Peace Program with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation
The founder of Art of Living Foundation HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's presentation of 'World Peace through Inner Peace' was held in Denver on April 20 at the Seawell Ballroom in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The audience of almost 800 people were introduced to Sri Sri's humanitarian work and the Art of Living program.
The World Peace through Inner Peace program started sharply at 7 p.m. with Denver's Senior Art of Living Teacher Lata Shirname-More welcoming the crowd. This was followed by a 10 minute brief video that showed Guruji's mission of achieving a violence-free and stress-free society. Guruji was then introduced and it was spectacular to see him walking between the crowd with an ever-smiling face and saying hello to the people prior to getting to the stage. Music is an essential part of Art of Living Foundation which was reflected when the program started with a couple of songs by the Rocky Mountain Children's Choir, directed by Lisa Cameron.
Sri Sri started his discourse with his words... "From sound to silence...from harmony of sound to the harmony of silence...that is what meditation is". It was a great idea when Guruji asked the audience to greet people around them to make them feel like home and to be comfortable before a meditation session. Guruji explained importance about greeting from the inner heart, which creates a vibration and expresses the love to others. "Presence is the life... somewhere our presence was muddled up because we were stressed. We get rid of stress with meditation... we need to be like a child again... how to cleanse our presence and how to get back to our soul... is answered by meditation. Let us do a short meditation". Guruji then instructed a short meditation for about 27 minutes which ended with chanting 'OM'. This left the audience in an amazing feeling. "The body is like the wick of a candle, and mind is the flame... that the glow is all around!" In his speech, Guruji reiterated the importance of violence free environment for kids in the wake of the 11th Anniversary of the Columbine High School killings. "The second biggest killer of this generation is depression... what will help to battle depression is pranayama breathing, meditation, and the sudarshan kriya which all contribute enormously to physical and mental wellness. A violence-free society, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, and inhibition-free intellect is all we need for today’s world." His speech was spell-bounding with a lot of wit. He added thoughts to parents in the audience on how to get non-violence exposure to their kids so that one day we will achieve a one world family (vasudhiaka kutumbakam). There were many questions from the audience which were answered by Guruji at the end. The program was ended by Guruji cutting cake as the day is his birthday.
3rd April 2010
Sri Rama Navami celebrations in Sai organization
It was a rejoicing experience of Sai devotees on the occasion of Ramanavami. Sri Ramanavami by Rocky Mountain Sai Organization was celebrated with traditional gaiety and fervor on Saturday April 3rd in the South ridge Recreation Centre. Shridi Sai devotees from all over Colorado attended the auspicious occasion. The rituals started with the Ganesh puja followed by Ganesh bhajans. This year Sri Ramanavami had a great significance. The Sai organization bought the replica of Nine Silver coins which were given to Lakshmi Bai Shinde by Sri Shridi Saibaba during his last days.
Melodic instrumental bhajans were sung by Shri Manoj Govindraj made the audience enraptured, followed by bhajans led by Neelima and Sumana. Colorado dance gurus Smt. Lavanya Yammanur and Smt. Prathyusha Apparasu have performed Kuchipudi dance items, praising the Lord. Scintillating skit by the kids about the importance of the nine coins which depict the Navavidha Bhakti was the highlight of the evening. The credit was given to Mrs. Radha Ponnapalli for this wonderful skit.
All the volunteers took great care in making this event a grand success. Stage was so well decorated with the pictures of Saibaba and Sri Ram parivar. Vedic chanting by authentic priests was one of the attraction.
Speaking on this occasion Don Mares, Executive Director of Colorado Department of Labor and Employment appreciated the efforts of Sai Organization. He read out the message from Governor, Bill Ritter, who conveyed his wishes for the stupendous work that Sai Organization has done on this special occasion. He conveyed his gratitude to all the volunteers, saying that "You are keeping and spreading Hindu values and I thank you for that". Mr. Ved Nanada speaking on this occasion said that he had a feeling that he was in India celebrating Ramanavami, with all his kith and kin.
29th March 2010
Consul General of India visit to Colorado
Consul General of India Mrs.Susmita Thomas from San Francisco has visited Denver this week, to talk about India Opportunities for Colorado Businesses. National US India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC) has organized this conference at the Ritz Carlton in Downtown Denver on 29th March between 11am and 1pm. Several delegates have attended this event to know about the business opportunities in India from the Consul General. She later met with several officials of the State of Colorado.
27th March 2010
Sri Ram Navami celebrations in Colorado
Sri Ram Navami is a very auspicious festival for Hindus. This festival has been celebrated in various parts of Colorado including Sri Venkateswara Temple and Hindu Temple of the Rockies. At Hindu Temple, several devotees have chanted the Akhand Paath of Ram Charit Manas started at 11am on 27th March, which ended at 11am on 28th March. Sri Ram birthday was celebrated at the noon time on Sunday, followed by harathi and prasad distribution to all devotees.
Sri Venkateswara Temple has celebrated the festival in a South Indian tradition of performing Sri Seetha Rama Kalyanam (wedding). The day started with Suprabhatam on Saturday 27th March at 9:30am, followed by Thiruvaradhana. Later the Seetha Rama Abhishekam was performed by the chief priest Sri Jagannathacharyulu. The traditional Seetha Rama Kalyanam was performed in the afternoon with the assistance of several voluntary priests. Several devotees were present in this event.
27th March 2010
North South Foundation Denver Chapter Bee Contests 2010
North South Foundation has completed its third year of Regional Contests on March 27th at the Denver University. Children starting from Kindergarten to 8th grade participated in different/multiple contests. Denver Chapter this year introduced the Science Bee North South Foundation (NSF) is a non-profit voluntary organization that awards scholarships to qualified and needy students in India entering colleges regardless of religion, gender, caste or creed. NSF conducts educational contests every year at two levels-Regional and National levels.
NSF Denver Chapter conducted the regional contests on March 27th, nearly 40 kids of all ages participated in multiple contests. This year NSF Denver Chapter conducted contest sin Spelling, Math, Vocabulary and Science Bee. Spelling Bee is conducted in two levels - junior and senior levels. Tejas Patil, Tanvi Telukunta and Varun Roy were declared as winners at Jr level. Shritha Gunturu, Manasa Ponnapalli, Neya Manavalan, Dhivya Senthil Murugan were declared as winners at Senior Spelling Bee. Rithwik Mylavarapu, Nithya Sree Eswaran, Vaishanvi Elango, Shritha Gnturu, Sameer Saptharishi, Varun Roy were declared as winners in Math level and level2.
Several volunteers including Radha Mohan, Esha Walia, Radhika, Ravi and Indira Duggirala, Anitha, Kotesh Yarlagadda, Kim and Colleen supported the technical team and in grading the contestants. NSF thanked Mr. Ramki Thurimella who has been arranging the facility for contests for the past two years. Mr. Sridhar Ponnapalli gave the vote of thanks.
28th February 2010
Marvelous old Telugu classic Mayabazaar in Color
It's marvelous. It's superb. It's stupendous. It's suave. It's spellbinding. It's vivacious. It's fantastic - and what else? The adjectives in English dictionary may not be sufficient to express how ‘Mayabazaar' is! These were the comments from many audiences on Sunday evening when it was screened at the Regency Tamarac Cinemas. The discounted price of $5 for Colorado Telugu Associaiton's members pulled a good crowd of about 100 people, despite of the bad weather and another new Telugu movie 'Em maya chesavo' in Thornton.
As the name of the film suggests - it's really a magic all the way (in color). The colorization was an eye-feast and the sound effects were so good and neat. Though there was a dramatic improvisation in the instruments used and the orchestra, the songs came out so well. You've to be in the theater to believe the positive energy the film creates with its new look.
12th February 2010
Siva Rathri celebrations in SV Temple of Colorado
The Siva Rathri festival celebration in Sri Venkateswara Temple of Colorado has reminded many of the devotees of India, not just by the puja procedure, but also the decoration and the setting of the eve. No wonder it took about a week to come up with a great idea of Kailasam set, the holy abode where Lord Siva lives, and relentless efforts from a great team of volunteers. It was Bala Subramaniyan who did the whole design in two tiers where Lord Siva and Parvathi sits in the top tier, and Lord Ganesh, Lord Muruga and Shiva Lingam sits in the lower tier in three different caves.
The chief priest from Sri Venkateswara Temple of North Carolina, Raleigh was invited to lead the puja today, who performed very ably with the help from Sri Jagannathacharyulu and other voluntary priests. The puja started at about 4:30pm with Punyahavachanam, Ganapathi puja, followed by Ekadasa Rudrabhishekam (11 times rudrabhishekam) to the Lord with various panchamritams (milk, yogurt, honey, fruit juice, fruits, chandan, vibhuti etc). From about 8pm, it took almost two hours to decorate the whole enclosure so impressively, during this time there were dance programs, drama on Bhakta Markandeya, other bhajans etc by the devotees. At 10pm, there was special puja followed by prasad distribution. Jagaran (staying overnight) is a specialty of Sivarathri, which the temple observed very holistically. At 3am, there was a special Lingodbhava Darsanan, followed by archana and harati. It was estimated that there were a total of over 1000 visitors to the temple on this occasion. The temple chairman Mr.VJ Chukkapalli and Treasurer Mr.Kuna Gupta have thanked the devotees for supporting the temple, explaining the temple construction plans.
6th February 2010
Bharat Utsav 2010 - Republic Day festival by India Association of Colorado
People experienced different cultures of India in Denver during Bharat Utsav 2010, a celebration of India's republic day by India Association of Colorado. On Saturday February 6th, the Hinkley High School in Aurora, CO was the venue with full parking lot, and everyone rushing inside since 4pm. The weather cooperated a lot for the festival in the pleasant 50-60 degree temperatures, that successfully pulled over 900 people. It was a gorgeous school with a wide corridor, filled with different stalls ranging from novelties, jewelry, food, games, along with a couple of front desks, one for the members and another for the guests tickets. Volunteers from Tata Consultancy Services did a great job in receiving the people at peak times, without much confusion, and give them the tickets and/or passes for admission.
The evening was kicked off with American national anthem by Sahana Narayan, followed by Indian national anthem by Ms.Savitha Sharma. The new executive committee Sujatha Narayan (President), George Dinakar (General Secretary), Sunil Roy (Secretary - Events), Lahari Mohapatra (Secretary - Cultural), Asha Vasant (Treasurer), Naveen Morisetti (Secretary - Communications) and Savitha Sharma (Event coordinator), but not all could make it onto the stage. Sujatha has welcomed the audience with her warm words and with an anticipation of getting the cooperation from the community. Guest of honor for the evening is our most familiar celebrity Shri Manoo Raval. In his address, he reminded the people of the importance of Republic day in the Indian history.
The cultural programs started with the Indian national song Vande Mataram by Anushka, Lasya, Meghna and Neha very melodiously. Another patriotic medley Jayathi Jayathi was sung by Anusha, Kavya, Keerthi, Prathyusha and Sahithi. The Bollywood dance for 'Mere Hathon me' from film Chandini by Nirajana Rajesh was a good start for the pulsating evening. Annamacharya Keertana by Saimeghna Dance School students Abhignya, Nikitha, Niharika and Akshita got the best applause from the audience. The next item was the semi-classical dance Man Mohini by Bela and Lahari Mohapatra, the cultural secretary of IAOC. This has the fast movement synchronized to the beat. Cute kids Trisha, Trini, Meera, and Gayathri, Rakhi's dance for the AR Rahman's composition Vande Mataram was a good attempt by the kids.Denver's star performer, Diya Deepak's dance for several hits of Madhuri Dixit was mesmerizing. The next two items were two examples of India's diversified cultures. The first one being the popular Kollywood Medley by Arjun, Adhya, Akash, Krishna, Narendar, Varun, Sahana, Saransh, Viyan, Nithya, Vaishnavi, Sania, Mandira, Nandini, Aditi, Manasi, Sameeha, Maya, Deeksha and Praveena, organized by Padma Avinash and choreographed by Prathyusha Apparasu. The kids did an amazing job with colorful dresses in modern styles. The next item is from Maharashtra - Lanvi & Folk dances by Pranaya, Isha, Ritvik, Rohit, Jay and Chirag choreographed by Pranaya Sath. This is a new item in the recent times, and undoubtedly stole the show receiving much applause. The next item was a Kuchipudi performance for Krishna Shabdam by Medha of Laya Dance Academy, and she did the best performance as she always does. Navya and Vismaya's bollywood dance performance for Ishq Samunder, choreographed by Ramyashree was a great hip-hop style dance. The Bollywood bhangra Dil Bole Hadippa was another fast beat amazing performance by Lahari Mohapatra's team Ajay, Ankit, Bela, Dhwani, Hannah, Lahari, Rohit and Sheldon. Sathya's choreographed dance medley 'Chennai to Colorado' with Anushka, Aura, Ganesha, Kartik, Madelina, Rajesh, Shweta, Tina and Vignesh showed their flexible body movements while describing how the journey from Chennai to Colorado ends up with a pinch of exoticism.
There was about twenty minutes of intermission, during which every one took some time to visit every stalls in the lobby area, and filled their tummies with varieties of chats, north and south Indian cuisine such as biryani, samosas, idly, vada, pakoda, chapati, pav bhaji, mango shakes etc. There were a couple of beaded and artificial jewelry stalls and Indian dress wear stalls which attracted most women. A stall with custom handmade photo frames had remarkable stuff. Rockies Cinema, the movie buffs had special ticket sales with $2 off at the stall. It was great that almost all the food stalls had reached their expectations with sales, getting enough exposure for their businesses.
The second half had even more exciting performances, starting with a Bharatanatyam item Thillana by Latha Sudhendra blending amazing steps to the exceptional composition by Madurai Krishnan praising Lord Narasimha. The next one was a musical interlude by Jeetinder & Group with Jeetinder, Heather, Sandhya, Praveen, Abhiteja, Chanku, Regina, Prabin, Das, Dinakar, Samson, Pradheep and James on variety of instruments such as guitar, bass guitar, keyboard etc. Next one to follow is an astonishing dance medley by Colorado Kannada Koota kids Aparna, Gowri, Megana, Reshma, Abhijit, Arjun, Jayanth, Sanjay choreographed by Nischinth. Colorado has some of the best teachers for several dance forms; one such great school is Abhinaya Dance school by Usha Muralidharan. The kids from this school Angela, Azelea, Sri Devi, Arthi, Jotsna and Dhipthika have performed for a Bharatanatyam Varnam Ashtalakshmi in a joyous way. Chalka chalka was a joyful dance during traditional wedding celebration, performed by Nivetha, Kavitha and Priya.
Then followed the Bollywood item Chupke se lag ja gale, by the choreographer Ramyashree. The dancer showed the high ravishing movements for the rhythmic beats. Bachna Haseeno medley choreographed by Lahari with Ajaya, Ankit, Bela, Bora, Dhwani, Hannah, Rohit and Sheldon was filled with high energy that successfully transmitted its current to the audience. Bollywood live music troupe of Colorado Rockies Masti team comprising of Sandeep, Sujatha, Savitha and Sarah have presented karaoke based concert with many popular and patriotic songs. This has many melodious bits with a great mixture of oldies and newbies.
The last item of the night is a high energy Bhangra performance by Mile-Hi Bhangra team Arvind, Bhutta, Gurdeep, Ajeet, Jassi, Amritpal, Amisha, Shreya, Divya, Ria and Sarah. This is a very professional performance by the team dressed in the traditional gear. Best steps and best beats compete with each other throughout the dance performance.
The program was very well managed by two MCs Sandeep Kulkarni and Sathya Narayan, with a great blend of singing, dance, situational commentary. Everyone enjoyed the programs distributed very thoughtfully among different regions of India.
5th February 2010
Cherry Creek school district spelling bee team has 4 Desi kids
Cherry Creek School District Spelling bee was held on Friday February 8, 2010 at the SARC, Centennial Colorado. Kids from all the Elementary and Middle schools participated in the Bee. 4-5 students from each school comprising a total of about 200 students participated in the written round. After eliminating with a cutoff mark, 25 students went into 2nd round. The district announced one winner along with 15 other state qualifiers. Out of 16 there were 4 Desi kids who are heading to the State Spelling Bee on March 6th 2010 at the Denver Convention Centre. These include Shritha Gunturu (Willow Creek Elementary), Divya Senthil (Village East Elementary), Varsha Kumar (Challenge School), Manasa Ponnapalli (West Middle School). Good luck to all the participants and the winners. DesiShades is committed to update the community for any Desi success stories! Send us if you have one!!
31th January 2010
Colorado's Surya Namaskar Yajna concluded with 75000 salutations
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) - Colorado Branch concluded its fourth year of offering ("yajna") of one million Sun Salutations, known as Surya Namaskar, with the Samarop Yogathon today at Monarch K-8 High School in Louisville, CO. In this concluding yogathon, there were about 170 people have attended, who performed about 14500 salutations. With today's counts, the total met with the target of 75000 for Colorado. This constituted the Fort collins branch with 12,000, Longmont with 28000, Westminster with 25000, Highlands Ranch with 5000 and Colorado Springs with 8000. HSS has organized a Hindu Cultural Exhibition on this occasion which attracted a lot of people to know the best of the India.
28th January 2010
Colorado Roundup - Week4
The week started with a great fun event Pongalo Pongal by the Tamil Association of Colorado on Sunday 24th January at Jefferson County Fairgrounds Hall. It was a very traditional event to with kids and adults dressing as per their culture, and present cultural items. The drama Markandeya was very well organized with very situational settings and attires. The lunch was a potluck by all the members of the association, which was very sumptuous with many southern varieties such as Hot and Sweet Pongal, Idly, Sambar, Tair Sadam, Pickles in a very friendly environment.
SV Temple in Castle Rock has started Sudarshana Homam on every 3rd Sunday with this day, and the first event went well with a great participation of devotees.
There is some mixed news for the jobs in Colorado. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has been in the news for over 9 months, which finally finished with the official news on Wednesday. This means a lot for Coloradans, as Colorado is a very strategic location for Sun and Oracle with more than 2500 employees. Oracle is not planning any layoffs of the common workforce, and they reiterated that they will invest more into Sun operations, where as analysts have been predicting of chopping it into half to about 13000 layoffs. Time Warner Cable has announced a plan to lay off about 350 employees in Colorado. Keep tight!
The 2010 US Census is about to start. By March we will get the forms by mail, and we need to fill and resend back. In fact, the information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like Hospitals, Job training centers, Schools, Senior centers, Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects and Emergency services etc. Participation is mandatory to all of us.
21st January 2010
Colorado Roundup - Week3
Indian cuisine is unique with high calories, spicy and mouth watering. This is treated as one of the exquisite cuisines in the world, with a high degree of specialization. Within the cuisine, there are much localization such as North Indian and South Indian at a higher level, which has its target audiences. Colorado has more than 75 Indian restaurants with authentic cuisines, and some of them run by the Nepali chefs with a little variance. It is still a booming market with more restaurants opening in the metro Denver catering the local areas. Now the latest news is Taste of India, the restaurant located in Denver at Leetsdale Dr & Quebec St, is starting the South Indian cuisine soon. Wait to get more details.
Lately there has been a lot of awareness about Yoga in people. They are getting attracted towards the breathing techniques, meditation, yogasana, dance, spiritualily etc, which is a very welcoming change. All these are scientifically proven techniques to keep the mind and body in control. With the recent Surya Namaskar Yajna marathon started by HSS, several people have started doing some yoga postures. This is during 16th and 31st of January with a target of 75000 from Colorado region. If you have not started sign up, do it now.
It clearly shows there are more movies releasing in Colorado than before, and shown for longer days. With the mega success of the recent Hindi movie 3 Idiots, the exhibitors are more encouraged to get good movies. Apart from the frequent Hindi movies, now there is more choice of other languages too.
Let us end this week's round up with a couple of encouraging words from British Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown that Britain will not be the same "without our strong bond with India and the enormous part played by the Indian community". Calling India "a modern global success story," Mr. Brown said that "astonishing" pace of change, dynamism and excitement it was generating and the potential "to do great things" was a tribute to all Indians.
13th January 2010
Good times and bad times
The week started with good sunny days with 60 degree temperatures. It's always delightful to see winter in Colorado sunny, with white snow covered mountains far from the city, glazing in the sun, yet letting the people to move around as usual. That's the life in Colorado. People living in other places always have a myth that it always snow in Colorado during winter, and the whole state is covered in snow, with lifelessness around. When we say that it's not the case, and the snow on the street will disappear within a day, they don't believe. Especially people in Chicago or Boston are so jealous to hear about this. There is no wonder that we may be jealous about the sunny winters in San Diego or Florida.
This week is also significant for us as the first festival of the year falls in this week - Sankranthi or Pongal. Sankranthi falls on 13th, 14th and 15th of January and usually on these days, as opposed to the other Indian festivals, because it follows the solar movements, rather than the lunar calculations. This festival is celebrated in South India most, with the first day for a morning fire ceremony, second day to meet the friends and family and the third day significant for the farming community. It is joyous to see this festival in India on the country side.
The worst earthquake hit the Haiti on Tuesday night, with an increasing death toll of over 100,000 people, worst disaster of the century. People have been helpless to see several countries and people have been getting ready to help the victims, meet their needs in the coming days. It is the time we should be supportive to the people, by all means - cash, food, clothes, anything and everything you can. It has always been significant about Colorado community to stand by the needful in the past, and this is the worst of the worst needful situation, we should extend our valets to help our best. Several organizations have setup the relief lines taking all sorts of donations, but see which way takes the most of your dollar to the end cause. Choose a non-profit organization that has least management expenses in helping the victims.
1st January 2010
Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots making waves in Denver
Its been a record for any Indian movie in Colorado so far, which shatters all records worldwide. More than 2200 people watched this movie in Denver Rockies Cinema by 1st January. Originally planned to play till 31st December, and due to the public demand, this movie was extended for another week. Its none other than Aamir Khan's 3 'Idiots'. DesiShades met with the exhibitor Mr.Sudhir Pawar today, and he told 'this has been an all time record so far. I have been in the movie business in Denver since 1995, and so far no other movie has got so many audiences'. The word of mouth at this theater in Denver was extraordinary as well.
3 Idiots has shattered many records, and has grossed $ 21 million in four days across the globe. The film made about $2.1 million in North America and about $800,000 in the UK in five days. It could have reached the $1 million mark in UK if the theatres weren't closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas. The film stood at the number 12th spot on the American box office charts and number four in UK. The charts were led by Avatar's $ 75 million.
12th December 2009
Desi Christmas celebrations
Christmas has been celebrated by the Desi crowd in Denver at the Colorado Community Church on Saturday 12th December evening in a mega blast. The event was successful to pull a greater crowd of more than 500 people to the event, which reminded of a mini India away from India. This is the sixth consecutive year of celebrating the Desi Christmas.
The celebrations started at 4:30pm with registration, fellowship and tea time. The evening started with prayer involving the people, followed by a Nepalese song. The program has been organized with well distributed between different languages such as Qawali, Malayalee, Kannada songs, mixed with instrumentals. The highlight of the evening is the nadaswaram recital by the guest artist Mr.Paul Sheik, the grandson of Padmashri Dr.Sheik Chinna Moulana. The religious messages were delivered by Cecil Barkat and Dr.William J. Senn III, which best described the Christmas stories. The children who attended the event were taught Christmas carols instantly, to make a group song on the stage. There were some raffle draws during the event with the prizes such as LCD TV, IPOD etc. It is remarkable to mention Mr.Vallem Srinivas of Aurora has won the Samsung 32" LCD TV in the raffle draw, amidst big cheers. The program ended with a silent night and a concluding prayer to the Lord, followed by delicious dinner. Mr. Dinakaran George thanked all the audience, volunteers, performers, church officials to help putting together such a great event. He also thanked all the local community organizations for helping for the event.
Joseph Dhanpal has done extensive MC for the program with great spontaneity. His instant translation between Tamil and English and vice versa is worth mentioning here. Dessert contest was held on this event, and the prizes were announced for the contest winners during the dinner time. The whole program was organized so well, involving the people whenever possible. The raffle draws, return gifts, goody bags, special prizes, complimentary photos with Santa are all great ideas to involve the community. Every moment of the festival reflected the great team work, well planning and great control. With the great festivity, everyone surely remembers this event to be one of the best Desi events in 2009.
12th December 2009
Aruna Ramappa of Colorado Springs took a last breath this morning
Aruan Ramappa, the girl from Colorado Springs, who has been struggling with H1N1 for the last 22 days took her last breath this morning at University of Colorado Hospital. She was diagonized with H1N1 on 21st November, and moved from Colorado Springs to Denver University of Colorado hospital near Colfax & I-225. Since then she had undergone several surgeries. With the more spreading infection from her lungs to the other parts of the body, her condition is feeble for the last few days. She survived with her husband Charan, who works for Verizon as a consultant in Colorado Springs. The family needs some financial support, and more updates will be posted soon. Let us pray to rest Aruna's soul in peace.
30th November 2009
Rockies Cinemas bring new entertainment options to Colorado
GK Media is bringing new entertainment options to Colorado Desi crowd with its venture 'Rockies Cinema'. In a press release today, they said this will be the first state of the art "Indian Theatre" with a vision to promoting entertainment with a complete Indian Ambiance for our people here in Colorado. The audience will get to see the latest Indian Movies right here and experience yourself the best of them at Rockies Cinemas at Cinema Latino de Aurora, 777 Peoria St, Aurora, CO. They are planning to bring the Hindi movies Paa, Rocket Singh, 3 Idiots, Malayalam epic Pazhasiraja and the Tamil blockbuster Vettaikaran in December. For more details, visit www.rockiescinema.com, or contact Mohan Ruthirakoti at 303-332-6852 or Thyagu Manickam at 719-360-5728.
28th November 2009
Rocky Mountain Sai Organization Youth Activities Forum
Rocky Mountain Sai Organization of the Rockies, a part of Hindu Temple, has started a new initiative for younger generation on 28th November soon after monthly Arti. This is a forum for children to express their views. The discussion panel consists of the kids who are in the middle and high school along with their parents, with an agenda that includes the issues and pressures they face during the school years, and preparation for the higher studies. Dr. Paritosh Kaul, Ms. Esha Walia, Mr. Sridhar Babu, Mr. Srinivas Nallapati have inaugurated the first session, with welcoming words and introduction of why we need this forum. Master Sushil Nalla and Master Parth Kaul have taken an active role in the first session to express their views, and some typical issues they face at the regular school, which made the parents to re-think. With a catchy phrase 'Connect - Contribute - Collaborate', the forums program includes youth support system, youth peer network, leadership development, college & career preparation, service & advocacy, summer camping & hiking, winter activities and much more. The forum urged the kids in the community to take part, and get benefited with the network. It will convene every month on the last Saturday of the month.
25nd November 2009
Ace South Indian Playback Singer Unni Menon's concert
Kerala Association of Colorado, in association with MalayalaSangeetham.info (MSI) has organized a concert by the Ace South Indian Playback Singer Mr. Unni Menon on Wednesday 25th November 2009 at Broomfield Auditorium. Colorado's resident singers Ms. Anitha Ajay and Ms. Gayathri Krishnamurthy have joined him for duets and some solo songs from Malayalam and Tamil movies respectively. The melodious concert ran for about two and half hours with many melodies and fast beats from the movies such as Roja, Puthiya Mugam, Uyire, Kathalar Dinam, Sthithi, Rhythm, Gokulam, Varushamellam Vasantham, Minsaara Kanavu and Alai Payuthey etc. It was a real celebration to hear Unni's remarkable voice live on the stage. He greatly managed the show with his timely commentary blended with a great selection of melodies balancing both languages. Anitha and Gayathri have done extremely well with their performance. Two local businesses have setup their stalls at the show, and the 10-minute break let the audience to shop around. There was also a dinner planned with Unni after the concert at Bombay Palace restaurant, which was attended by many enthusiasts. It has been a magnanimous effort by MSI and KAC to bring such a gifted singer, after arranging the legendary classical concert by Mr. Sankaran Nambudiri in Colorado.
22nd November 2009
Aruna Ramappa of Colorado Springs suffering from H1N1
An Indian girl Aruna Ramappa of Colorado Springs got affected with H1N1 virus, and got admitted in UC Intensive Care. Here lungs were affected and she already undergone several heart surgeries. Aruna was taken to a Colorado Springs hospital late Friday night or early Saturday morning because she was in too much pain to move. She was also diagnosed with diabetes, a condition she and her husband Charan were unaware of. She developed an infection in her heart, and she was transferred to the University of Colorado Hospital on Sunday (11/23/09). She had several surgeries related to her heart on Sunday and Monday. Aruna has not responded to the oral H1N1 medication, so the hospital obtained approval from the CDC for an less-commonly-used intraveneous medication, which is being flown in from the CDC.
Please pray for her recovery. Her husband Charan can be reached at his cell no 312-404-1051. For more information, visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/arunaramappa.
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