VHPA’s Sanjay Mehta visit empowers Chicago and Atlanta Hindu community
VHPA General secetary visited Chicago on Mar 12-13 and to Atlanta on March 19-20. “It is always invigorating to see dedication, commitment and creativity of VHPA members” said Sanjay Mehta.
Sanjay Mehta met members of various Hindu groups to plan joint community programs in Chicago area. He observed that Sham Shethji and the team has built up a good rapport with various Hindu institutions of Chicago land.
He had a chance to interact with Bal Vihar kids. Kids paid uninterrupted attention to his talk for 30 min, this does not happen in one day. The following interaction with kids will give an idea of what children are learning (Sanskar) as result of hard work of BV teachers led by Ajay Jainji and the team.
He was talking to kids about Bhagwan Ram and told them to meditate on him, his qualities and imbibe them. Bhagwan Ram is super role model for us and we all are his devotees. One kid raised his hand and asked, ” Uncle, who is Bhagwan Ram’s role model, whom he meditates on?” He said, “When this question was asked of him, Bhagwan replied that my devotees are my role model and I meditate on them. So, kids you/we as Bhakta are his role model.” With satisfaction the kid said, “Oh, uncle so the loop is closed – Bhakta > Bhagwan > Bhakta !”
Atlanta VHPA Bal Vihar celebrated 25th anniversary with full enthusiasm and in-depth preparation. Atlanta chapter team’s energy and team work was spectacular. Manjuji, Jayantji, Raghuji, Shyamji, Surinderji and team’s hard work was a tribute to senior members who stated BV 25 years ago.
He had chance to interact with many kids and parents. It was a learning experience. Below is an example.
There was a live competition of Hindu impromptu reading. Four kids were shot listed and won the place. They read some very difficult Hindi words with confidence and diction. Interesting fact was that all four kids belong to Gujrati speaking families. After the award ceremony he made an effort to meet a mother (Depti Desai) whose two kids won the competition. He asked her what motivated and inspired her to prepare her kids to learn Hindi so well. He has interacted with parents across the country, but her answer was one of the best he have heard in all these years. She said, “हिंदी के माध्यम से हमें अपने बच्चों को संस्कृति के मूल और ‘मूल की समझ’ से जोड़ना है.”
Please visit below link to watch glimpses of the BV anniversary prog:
Pictures of 25 Anniversary
Pictures of Annual program
Video of Parent, Volunteers and TA interview
VHPA goals”
VHPA: SAMSKAR (Values) – PRACHAR (Awareness) – SEVA (Service) – SAMPARK (Network)
Source: World Hindu News (WHN)