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Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), Santa Clara Nagar, USA recently celebrated Sakhi Sammelan, a day-long event for women at Sunnyvale Hindu Temple. A large number of women attended the event. This is the third year that Sakhi Sammelan was celebrated.
Every year HSS arranges this event especially for women to enjoy, learn, and get together with the common interest of keeping the great Indian culture and heritage alive. This year'stheme was ?Arogyam Mahabhagyam? or ?Health is Wealth?.
The programme started with shloka chanting (by Minal Joshi) followed by a yoga session. The yoga session was followed by four parallel sessions?on arts and crafts (led by Smita Gadre), Warli painting (led by Rekha Joshi), recipe writing competition, and salad decoration competition. Everyone attended two sessions. They enjoyed all the sessions. The beautiful salads and very creative recipes made the judges? job quite difficult. After the parallel sessions, everyone chanted the bhojan mantra?prayer before food, which preceded lunch. After lunch-break, there were additional parallel sessions by Dr Ganpule, a psychiatrist, and Mrs Cordero, a teacher at De Anza College. Both of them discussed issues and the stresses involved in parenting for Indian parents in the US. The lectures were followed by a question-answer session. Then, the most awaited session, games, began. All the women were divided into four groups. Everyone played the games and recalled their childhood memories of playing.
Every year HSS arranges this event especially for women to enjoy, learn, and get together with the common interest of keeping the great Indian culture and heritage alive. This year'stheme was ?Arogyam Mahabhagyam? or ?Health is Wealth?.
The concluding part started with the introduction of the chief guests, Sunnyvale City Council member Julia Miller and lawyer, Indu Liladhar Hathi. Then, Reenita Malhotra, from Ayoma, talked about the ancient medical science of India, ayurveda. She explained about the three doshas any person can have and how it relates to the whole internal system of a person. She very nicely explained how the holistic approach of ayurveda is useful even today. Her speech was very informative and very much enjoyed.
Then, Ashwini Surpur'spresentation on the sister organisations of HSS enticed the audience as did Uma Penumaka'sspeech. Uma Penumaka talked about the theme of the day??Arogyam Mahabhagyam?. In her speech she said, ?It is very important to lead a healthy life but we really think about the real holistic meaning of health. We just think about physical health.? She also said it is important to have a healthy society and ?we should be responsible to make our society healthy.? The Prerana Newsletter by Julia Miller was also inaugurated. (Prerana is a newsletter started in Santa Clara Nagar and now it has a nationwide circulation.) Prize distribution, vote of thanks and prarthana concluded the programme.
After spending the day in a healthy atmosphere, the women went home with a lot of positive energy and information. Every year, the Sakhi Sammelan is organised by HSS to bring women together for a good cause. As this year happens to be the birth centenary year of Vandaniya Mausiji, the founder of Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the focus of the organisation was on women playing a leading role in the society. Another event similar to this is planned for August 27.
The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) is a non-profit cultural organisation with 60 chapters throughout the USA and 10 chapters in greater San Francisco/San Jose Bay area. It strives to bring about unity in the diverse Hindu community, to aid in the development of Hindu values among its adherents, and to promote inter-faith dialogue.
(For more information about HSS, contact the HSS National Public Relations Coordinator, Shri Khanderao Kand. E-mail: at infohss@yahoo.com or phone: 408-737-7930.)
