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Read about the latest news and happenings among THE MSADA'S COMMUNITY
In the MSADA's Community (Summer - Fall 2009)
President's Corner:
Hi Everyone,
Let me begin by saying THANK YOU for your continued support of this great organization. This past year has been a roller coaster ride from the beginning. We did not know what to expect with the economy but our members and volunteers all came through once again.
I am very pleased to note that the events listed below were organized for the first time in its history, and all of them have turned out to be successes. Without great people like you, this would not have happened. I am extremely proud of our accomplishments and you should be too.
- The 4th General Meeting, which took place in the SLCC Atrium at Gallaudet University on April 11th, was fascinating. Our guests, Dr. Vicki Shank, a Gallaudet professor, and her husband Barry Harlan, a retired teacher, shared their awesome experiences working at a school for the deaf in South India. MSADA's own Madan Vasishta shared his pride in accomplishing his goal of setting up a university for the deaf in India which will collaborate with Gallaudet. Iris Gomes, with her culinary skills, made the participants come back for refreshments and tea many times.
- The Sri Lankan New Year Party on April 17th was a blast. I was very impressed with the Sri Lankan friends for their hard work in making the party beautiful and unique. Tissa Pieris and Shamila McCluskey gave a presentation about the Central Province Deaf Welfare (www.cpdwa-srilanka.com) and we were inspired to see how the school has expanded with the addition of new rooms. Part of the proceeds from this event will be donated to the school to help support its expansion.
- I missed the opportunity to participate in NVRC's Celebrate Communication event at the George Mason University for the Arts on May 1st. I am happy to learn that Thushara Wijetilaka, Dr. Madan Vasishta, Zeke Sebastain, and Minar Kamdar enjoyed the interaction with the NVRC board, organizations, and vendors like Sorenson, Sprint, SnapVRS, and FCC, among others.
- I missed the most fun-filled Holi, the Festival of Colors/Picnic, that took place on May 2nd at the Olmsted Green Field, Gallaudet University. I heard wonderful stories from many enthusiastic participants about how it turned out to be a colorful and fun-filled event. Sagar Kothari was a remarkably talented and creative man who made this happen and brought the community together, allowing everyone to bond with each other.
- Our traditional Diwali & Eid party that took place on November 13th, 2010, at the SLCC-Gallaudet University, turned out wonderful. The co-chairpersons Dr. Madan Vasishta and Sagar Kothari bravely faced the tough decision to keep this party on and were surprised to see that many people showed up in the end. The food was SO GOOD, NOT TOO SPICY – and the people praised me for choosing the excellent catering from India Palace, Gaithersburg, MD. The program that Thushara and Tissa coordinated as the Mistress/Master of Ceremony was very enlightening and informative.
- The Xmas Festival of India that took place on December 4th, at the SLCC-Gallaudet University, was fantastic and fabulous. Iris Gomes and Shaji Chacko together worked so hard and brought this event to a wonderful experience on how other people in South Asian countries celebrate their Christmas and tasting the Christmas Assortments and beverages that Iris, Sony Chacko, and Chef Gana prepared, was delicious!!
As we promise every year, we want MSADA to succeed. I thank all those who contributed their time and effort to make the above events successful. We appreciate your dedication, passion and continued commitment to MSADA.
We wish you and your families a great Holiday season and best wishes for the coming year.
Sincerely,
Ramesh Mirchandani,
President
NVRC's COMMUNICATION DAY
The MSADA joined the other local and national organizations to exhibit at Northern Virginia Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC) on May 1st, 2010 at George Mason University for the Arts, Fairfax, VA. Thushara Wijetilaka, Dr. Madan Vasishta, Zeke Sebastain, and Minar Kamdar enjoyed the interaction with the NVRC board, organizations, and vendors like Sorenson, Sprint, SnapVRS, and FCC, among others.
17th April 2010 came and went in a flash. It was one of the biggest cultural events that Metro South Asian Deaf Association (MSADA) has hosted since its birth in May 2003.
Wow! The party was such a success. So many wonderful people from Gallaudet University, Washington D.C., and from outside of the campus turned out and made it such an amazing day. Thank you to everyone who came, and we hope you all had as much fun as we did. And yes, we plan to make this a yearly event.
Our centerpieces really gave the party the WOW factor that Thushara was hoping for. There were some plantains in the alumni tray placed in the center of table. People were blown away by the beautiful decorations on the stage – our Sri Lankan friends Kumara Fernando, Tissa Peiris, Shamila McCluskey, Tissa Abeykoon Chaminda and Niluka Hewapathirana poured their heart and soul in making the event successful and memorable one!! The program was initiated by an opening ceremony conducted by Tissa Peiris and Thushara Wijetilaka, who performed the traditional oil lamp and the kiribath (milk rice) that Shamla McCluskey kindly made for this event. The kiribath was also served to the enthralled audience as an appetizer along with the vegetarian patties. As mistress of ceremony, Shamila led the program beautifully, enlightening the audience with bits and pieces about the Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil New Year Celebration. A beautiful Sri Lankan couple, Chaminda and Niluka Hewapathirana, played wonderful family roles, showing an interested audience the meaning of Aluth Avurdha and adding a sense of awareness bout Sri Lankan culture and traditions. Their children Hirun and Johan were little stars in this Sri Lanka New Year performance. Kumara Fernando certainly made his name famous for his amusing antics during his performances. Tissa Abeykoon surprised us by signing a Sri Lanka poem that touched people's hearts. A young lady Anjali Dalal wowed the audience with her spectacular Tamil Dance. If not for our dear friend Tissa Peiris for his wonderful instruction and guidance, the performers would have not been the stars that they were in the Sri Lanka New Year program. The MSADA committee did superb work in setting up the Sri Lankan Buffet that was catered by Lanka Spice Inc, Rockville, MD. As they served the food, people were fascinated to discover how Sri Lankan cuisine is unique: Sri Lankans tend to cook with roasted curry powder and coconut milk.
At the end of the program, Tissa and Shamila surprised the MSADA committee by gifting them each with a beautiful Sri Lankan tea flask and thanked Thushara for her initiative in launching the Sri Lanka New Year party with the help of MSADA committee to raise funds for various Sri Lankan causes: to help Deaf organization - Central Province Deaf Welfare to train sign interpreters to work with Deaf children; to continue higher education for Deaf children, and to establish services for parents and anyone who wants to communicate with deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Sri Lanka.
We were very impressed with Shamila for creating the Sri Lankan Sign Language alphabet on the cotton T-shirts which some of interested participants bought as they wanted to support this cause. Thushara expresses gratitude from the bottom of her heart, as she feels more humbled by the success of the event. She says, “we build our communities wherever we are; it doesn't matter if we are far away from home; if you have the comforts of good friends and celebrations like these, it makes them special.” She meant that because since coming to the United States over 23 years ago, she did not get a chance to celebrate our Sri Lankan New Year with our friends here in the US. It was especially meaningful for her to share it with Gallaudet and MSADA folk.
And of course, thanks to her Sri Lankan and MSADA team for the great effort and hard work put into planning, organizing, managing and pulling off a great party for everyone that night! Can’t help but fall more in love with her lovely teammates!
MSADA is very grateful to be blessed with such amazing friends, supporters and teammates! 2010 will be an even better year for all of us! Thanks to every one of you who came to the party that night! Here’s to all those who were still around at end of the party…
And thank you to you all for making it SO FABULOUS, FANTASTIC, FUNNY, and FULFILLED!!!!!!
Holi, the Festival of Colors (Thushara Wijetilaka, Sagar Kothari & Gaurav Mathur)
For the first time in its history, MSADA hosted the Holi Festival on Sunday, May 2nd 2010. Since this date coincides with the 7th anniversary of MSADA, this event could also be seen as marking the 7th anniversary of MSADA. Happy Birthday to MSADA! The Holi Festival and Picnic took place on the Olmsted Green Field, Gallaudet University, near the Peikoff Alumni House (“Ole Jim”). The event was chaired by Sagar Kothari, along with the support of Iris Gomes and Gaurav Mathur.
Holi is often known as the "Festival of Colors", during which Lord Krishna, a re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu, liked to play pranks on village girls by drenching them in water and colors. Unwavering devotion to Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation, enabled the destruction of the demoness Holika. The Holi Festival can be regarded as a celebration of the colors of unity and brotherhood - an opportunity to forget about the differences and indulge in fun. It has traditionally been celebrated in high spirit without any distinction with regard to caste, creed, color, race, status or gender. It is the one occasion when we sprinkle colored powder ('gulal') or colored water on each other, so that we all look the same, breaking through the barrier of discrimination and reaffirming universal brotherhood. That is one simple reason to participate in this colorful festival. Holi is a carefree festival that’s great fun to participate in if you don’t mind getting wet and dirty. You end up saturated in water, with color all over your skin and clothes. Some of it doesn't come out easily, so people wear old clothes and then discard them after the festival. Some people also rub hair oil or coconut oil into their skin beforehand, to prevent the color from being absorbed.
True to its spirit, MSADA’s Holi Festival was quite carefree and colorful. People spent the afternoon day smearing colored powder all over each other's faces, throwing colored water at each other, playing cricket, and dancing under water sprinklers. The volunteers,Tissa Peiris, Prabhakar “Blue” Shenoy, and Karunya Samuel prepared the corn cobs, vegetarian kebabs and buns on the grill while Nita Wagh, Zara Husain, Kalpana Varia, and Jacob Thadathil helped arranged the food and fruit drinks. Even though it was hot and humid, it was so windy that the tablecloths were constantly blown away. Hatim Vali made sure that the picnic tables were tied down and that the wood tables were covered to prevent the liquid dye from seeping through. The children enjoyed dye-art activities that Iris Gomes led – she showed amazing techniques in making colorful scarves and T-shirts. Zara and Gausia Huq-Vali played with the kids in colorful sand and paste (rangoli) activities. Karthik Sethuraman was the photographer at the event. Gaurav Mathur elected to work at the admission booth, and after the participants paid their admission fee, Gaurav tied a red thread around the participants’ wrists. The red thread is often used in Hindu ceremonies to mark the participants’ commitment, and we decided to adapt this tradition for the Holi Festival as well. Sumit Malik, a student from the English Language Institute (ELI), did an awesome job as the MC and helped to make the Holi Festival a very lively event.
Below are a few words from some of the people who were involved in the Holi Festival:
Jeshal Patel: Sagar, You did great job for your wonderful beginning to take up Holi celebration this year. :)
Karthik Sethuraman: It was ALL fun and the variety of activities just kept everyone there till well past 6 pm. Imagine that!
Kalpana Varia: It was a BLAST!!! Everyone seemed to enjoy it so much that they would like to have same event next year. Great job, Sagar and volunteers.
Gausia Vali: We all were having fun and kids enjoyed it and it was our first time to see it. I asked people about it and they wanted to do it again next year. They prefer outside, not inside! Congrats to Sagar. It was very successful. We did our team work and enjoyed it!
Iris Gomes: Congratulation to Sagar, Waving our hands to Sagar and our team. Our goal was to develop a bond with each other like a family. All of us enjoyed the colorful event ourselves and had a good time going down the memory lane.
A big THANK YOU to the 7 restaurants who donated delicious vegetarian entrees for the Holi Festival.
Woodlands - Langley Park, MD (www.woodlandsrestaurants.com)
Minerva - Herndon, VA (www.minervacuisine.com)
Saravana Palace - Fairfax, VA (www.saravanapalaceva.com)
Bombay Cafe - Fairfax, VA (www.aaoji.com)
I-The Indian Experience - Washington, DC (www.itheindianexperience.com)
Nirvana - Washington, DC (www.dcnirvana.com)
Olive Garden - Frederick, MD (www.olivegarden.com)
X’mas Festival of India (Thushara Wijetilaka & Iris Gomes)
WOW, the words cannot express about the Christmas party that took place on December 4th, 2010 at SLCC – Gallaudet University. This year we thought we would go just to experience the different seasonal cultural event – the X’mas Festival of India.
What unique type of fun and special in its way! - The Christmas party was enjoyed by all of us including the MSADA members. We started our wonderful experience in learning about the Indian Christianity community in Kerala and Mumbai celebrating their Christmas that was presented by Shaji Chacko, Ramesh Mirchandani, Iris Gomes, and enjoying the most delicious Afternoon Tea that was prepared by Iris, and her team Molly Mirchandani, Thushara Wijetilaka, Sony Chacko, and Chef Gana. The participants involved themselves to the stage in sharing the spirits of X’mas.
Wowing the unique Christmas decorations but homemade! - The Indian Christmas star lantern was cleverly created by Ramesh. The 3-D star was made out of the sticks and shiny paper. The nativity ornament was placed in the middle of star. The Christmas tree was adorned with the handmade wooden stars, colorful jewels, Buttons, and other decorative items.
We all were impressed how simple that the Xmas decorations can be made by hands – and they were so beautiful to admire.
The Afternoon Tea was a huge success! Afternoon tea is a bit of a forgotten English institution that needs reviving but in Indian style. We were impressed with the selection of tasty Christmas savouries/assortments and Kerala chocolate and plum cakes that Iris and her team prepared for us to enjoy.
Oh, what a wonderful time we had, eating the delicious tea foods, sipping the cold/hot wassail (wine) and team and making pleasant conversation and telling bits of our experiences on Christmas in the South Asian countries.
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to the following people, as they helped to make our Christmas Party unforgettable.
Shaji & Sony Chacko – Wonderful Presentations on Kerala Xmas Celebration
Sagar Kothari – Public Relations.
Ramesh Mirchandani – Making a Beautiful 3-D star.
Molly Mirchandani – Great Food Manager
Shaji & Thushara – Master and Mistress of Ceremony, guiding a beautifully program of X’mas Festival of India.
Minar Kamdar - FOR EVERYTHING!
Tissa Peris, Hatim & Gausia Vali – Great job on volunteering.
Alok Doshi – Resolving the projector technical issue.
Zeke Sebastain – Sharing his laptop.
Gaurav Mathur – Making the room reservation at SLCC.
Madan Vasishta – Interpreter matters – but there was no need to have one!
Chef Gana – Assisting Iris with Afternoon Tea.
Last, thank you to Macy Bag “believe” that Iris made the beautiful red decorative stars.
Diwali & Eid 2010 - “Light & Awakening” (Sagar Kothari & Madan Vasishta)
MSADA's Diwali & Eid 2010 on Saturday, November 13th was a huge success! The theme was “Light & Awakening” conveying the meaningful program about Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights and Eid, the Muslim Festival of Learning and Awareness
.
With a very few tickets sold out, it was very unusual.... but as the time got closer, more and more people bought their tickets. At the Diwali & Eid event that took place in SLCC at Gallaudet University, we were amazed about the good size of attendees who showed up... about 80 people. The food were GREAT! The program enlightening and informative. Everything went very well and we received a lot of positive comments. We were pleased with the new MSADA banner and exhibited it for the first time.
The cochairs (Sagar and Madan) were impressed with those South Asian students who participated in dance and attendees who flew from far away such as Toronto, Washington State, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc.. to attend this event.
A BIG THANKS goes to those who worked hard to make this event happen:
TTW/Tissa - Mistress/Master of Ceremony
Iris Gomes - Decorations
Gausia Huq-Vali - Kids Activities
Hatim Vali - Volunteer
Ramesh Mirchandani - Food manager/ordered food from restaurant
Minar Kamdar - bought the cold drinks
Apurva Varia - Ticket Master
Gaurav Mathur - reserved the SLCC venue
The cochairmen along with the rest of MSADA boards would like to offer our thanks to Jeshal Patel, Zeshan Shafiq, and a Gallaudet South Asian student Krishneer Sen for volunteering. Without their help the event would not have been so smoothly organized.
UPCOMING EVENTS in 2011 - Stay tuned for more details at www.msada-dc.org