October 1995 Volume 1 Issue 4

Brahma-Bharati Publication of the BSNA The Convention special

Ati-Uttam Magnifique Magnificent Shaandaarn any language, it was a mag-

nificent event. The first annualconvention of the BSNA washeld at Allentown, PA on July 1,

and 2, 1995. It was attended by about 350people from the USA and Canada. Theages of the delegates ranged from a fewmonths to several decades. That was pre-cisely the objective of the convention--tobring the different generations together.According to Mr. Kailash Sharma, theConvention Chairman, the conventionprovided a “-- wonderful opportunity tothe younger generation to enjoy and com-prehend a glimpse of our great heritageand traditions presented by those belong-ing to the older generation--.”

The convention started with Ganesha-prayers by Dr. Laxmi Chaturvedi, Ms.Preti Chaturvedi, Mr. Anand Chaturvedi.The first session consisted of thought pro-voking and informative lectures by Dr.Shyam Shukla (session chairman), Dr.Ram Chaudhari, Dr. Onkar Dwivedi, Ms.Rachana Choubey, Dr. Satya Pachori, Dr.Hans Upadhyaya, and Dr. L. Chaturvedion diverse issues like value of service,growing up in America, and Karmyoga.

The session after lunch started with avandana in Hindi, set to music by Dr-Pradeep Shukla, and sung by Dr. AnitaDubey, Dr. Pradeep Shukla, and Ms.Sharad Tewary. The session was then ad-dressed by Mr. Nirmalendu Choubey, Dr.Satchidanand Mishra, and Mr. Bhaw DuttShukla. Mr. Choubey described the for-mation of the BSNA, and the role it wouldplay in bringing the community together.The keynote speech was delivered by Prof.Ramanath Sharma, a reputed scholar andProfessor of Linguistics at the Universityof Hawaii. In his speech, Prof. Sharmadiscussed the importance of samskara,

The President honoredMr Nirmalendu Choubey, the Founder

President of the BSNA, was honored at theconvention for his untiring efforts inbringing the community together. Thiscame as a complete surprise to him as wellas the audience, since it was kept a secretuntil it was announced at the session.Pict-ure below: Mr. Choubey (R) receivingthe plaque from Mr. Kailash Sharama(back towards the camera). Also in thepicture: Mr. Bhaw Shukla (2nd from R),and Prof Ramanath Sharma (L) whorecited his specially written poem for Mr.

A small question challenged big mindsJuhi Dubey, gr. 7, from Boxborough,

MA, asked a question that challenged theexperts and induced the keynote speaker tochange the theme of his prepared speech.She asked, in somewhat different words,“What is the relevance of the brahmanismto my generation, and what do you have tooffer us in the name of brahmanism?Below: Juhi with Dr. Arvind Pathak andMs. Rajni Bhargava in the background.

Prof. Ramanath Sharma (above, L) gavea mesmerizing keynote address. Even afterhis scheduled time was over, the audiencewanted him to continue his speech.

Nidhi Tripathi, gr. 3, of Acton, MA,(above, R) charmed the audience asGoddess Saraswati in the cultural program.

and the need to uphold thecultural values of the commu-nity. The post-lunch sessionended with the presentation ofa plaque Mr. NirmalenduChoubey, in recognition of hiscontributions to the commu-nity.

The keynote session was fol-lowed by four parallel break-out sessions. One, chaired byDr. Ghanshyam Pandey, wasdevoted to questions by the audience andanswers by a panel of experts. The issuespertaining to youth were discussed in thesessions chaired by Ms. Natasha

Brahma-Bharati October 1995 Page 2

From your Presidentn July 1, history was made in

North America. Brahmans fromall walks of life assembled inAllentown, Pennsylvania to sim-

ply meet one another. They came fromas far away as Hawaii, and about half ofthem were children. I recall, many of ushad thought this to be impossibile only ayear ago. The talks were thought pro-voking. The key note address was mes-merizing. The children asked the mostpenetrating questions. We are stillsearching for answers to some of theirquestions. I was amazed by the talentdisplayed by them during the culturalprogram and the enthusiasm they showedfor the convention. Announcing the endof convention was very difficult indeedbut felt redeemed when children toldeach other, see you next year. Well, thedate and location for the 1996 conventionis now finalized and hope many of youwill take advantage of the early bird spe-cial.

Our membership has nearly doubledfrom what it was in January. But we stillhave a long way to go. Our goal for thenext year is to cross the ONE THOU-SAND mark. It is well within our reachif you lend us a hand. There are manywho are already working very hard tomake us realize this goal. How aboutyou? The minimum that we ask is thatyou provide us a list of your friends andrelatives who are not yet a member. Weare confident about your support.

On September 3, BSNA became oneyear old. We opened a Chapter in Michi-gan this year on that very day. Theanniversary celebrations are planned inBoston on November 4. Please join us inthe celebration. I take this opportunity tothank every one for a very successful yearand look forward to seeing you next yearat the convention. Happy Holidays.

businessman and farmer. He was a veryrespected member of the community of theBay area, Chicago vicinity and Punjab.The Hindu temple, Southbay, is naming alibrary after this very respectable man forhis efforts to provide the financing for thetemple, when a major bank failed to do so.

May the departed soul rest in peace andthe bereaved families cope with thistragedy with courage and strength.

Chaturvedi, Ms. Neelu (cont p2) (fromp.1) Shukla, Mr. Ashok Tripathi, Ms.Deepti Choubey, Ms. Ruchi Misra, Ms.Richa Chaturvedi, and Ms. SoniaSharma.

Not that the convention was all workand no play. A beautiful cultural programwas organized by Mr. Raga Misra andDr. Anita Dubey, and conducted with witand humor by Ms. Anuranjita Tewaryand Mr. Rajesh Pandey. The programincluded a famous dance by Ms. MadhuriDixit, but the brochure hastily clarified“No, not what you are thinking.” Thehighlight of the program was some veryfunny caricatures and parodies by Mr.Ramesh Pandey, the famous HollywoodYogi from-- where else-- Hollywood. Fi-nally, the eventful day ended with a west-ern style dance with the excellent rockingmusic presented by a local DJ, and awell-attended Kavi-Sammelan.

The Kavi-sammelan included, in addi-tion to excellent poetry, beautiful songsand ghazals. Ms. Neeti Dubey set themood with her inspiring Saraswati-vandana. Ms. Vasavdatta Vyas recited abeautiful Sanskrit poem. Other artistswho instantaneously won the audience’sapplause were Mr. Anoop Bhargava, Ms.Kamlesh Misra, Mr. Jagar Sharma, Mr.Ramesh Pandey, and the keynote speaker.We discovered that Prof. RamanathSharma, in addition to being a great sch-olar and an orator, is an excellent poet.

A picnic was organized on ‘the dayafter’ in a scenic park. The picnic had fungames, quizzes, informal music program,a Yoga demonstration by Mr. RameshPandey, and above all delicious food.

The whole event was a grand successand very well organized. The programswere well planned and, by and large, thetimings were maintained. OK, not quite,but why bother about timings. We hadplenty of gyan-ganga, and the food wasdelicious, with generous helpings of swe-ets. What more could the brahmanswant?

The excellent organizational job wasdone by a coherent team that includedMr. Kailash Sharma, Mr. Anoop Bhar-gava, Mr. Bhaw Shukla, Mr. DhirendraShukla, Mr. Ramakant Chaturvedi, Mr.Pooran Tripathi, Dr. SatchidanandMishra, Dr. Surendra Dwivedi, Dr. Sud-hendu Choubey, and Dr. Ramendra

A word about your Directoryby Satchidanand MishraEditor, BSNA Directory

The directo-ry of BSNA isa very import-ant instrumentthrough whichthe membersof this largefamily can ke-ep in touchwith each oth-er and fosterrelationships.

The effort of Dr. Shyam Narayan Shuklatowards this goal in bringing out the firstdirectory of BSNA is very praiseworthy.

It was decided at the Allentownconvention to bring out an updateddirectory and reformat it in a fashion thatfuture updates could be made easily. Arelational data base has now beenestablished and all the informationavailable to date has been entered. The database contains all the information sought inthe registration forms but the directory willinclude only a limited information to helpfoster the relationship among the members.

A preliminary version of this was handedout to the participants at the convention. Itis being proofread by a committee headedby Mr. Nirmal Choubey. The task isproving to be more difficult thananticipated since the updated informationhas been received only from the West andthe South, and partially from the Eastthrough the efforts of regional coordinators,Dr. Shyam Narayan Shukla, Mr. PooranTripathi, and Mr. Kailash ChandraSharma. We may be forced to draw adeadline and bring out the directory withthe existing information. Please notifyASAP any changes of addresses andeducation levels of your family members.Thank you.

Sorry to hearMr. Vir Bhan Salwan, the respected

father of Mrs. Sita Sharma of Fremont,CA, passed away in Illinois on July 16,1995. He is survived by his wife SmtVidya Wati Salwan, three sons, twodaughters, and thirteen grand children.Late Mr. Salwan was born in Punjab onFeb. 27, 1919. He was a successful

Dr. S. Anand Mishra

Page 3Brahma-Bharati October 1995

The Presidential speechby Nirmalendu Choubey

We havemade historytoday. Forthe first timein NorthA m e r i c a ,B r a h m a n shave met asBrahmans .Two weeksago myc h i l d r e n

asked me what I wanted as a Father's Daygift. I said, this year was going to bedifferent. I want your enthusiastic supportin making this convention go smoothly.When they called me to wish me a happyfather's day, I thanked them for their nicegesture and reminded them, politely ofcourse, that my gifts were not due foranother two weeks. I am happy to report toyou that I got my gift today. I believe ourchildren have given us all a great giftwhether they are here or not. They havegiven it by being the best they can be, inthe field of their choice. Their presence inmany excellent schools and colleges, muchmore than the percentage of the populationof our community, is a testimony to that.For us, today is Father's day, Mother's dayand Thanks giving day, all rolled into one.Let us salute them.

As first generation North Americans wehave a lot to be proud of. We are one ofthe most successful immigrantcommunities. We have made substantialcontributions in every field we chose toparticipate in. The most notableachievements are in the field of science, art, education, health, business and finance.Many of us who are present today havebeen already recognized by our peers bothhere and abroad. From time to time youwill read about them in our newsletterBrahma Bharati. The January issuehonored two such individuals and the Julyissue is proud to honor three more. Four ofthese individuals, I am honored to say, arehere today. Let us salute them.

We are proud of the achievements of allparents. We are proud of them as anAmerican, Canadian, Indian, Hindu, andas a Brahman. Let us salute the parents.Let us particularly salute the working

mothers who have the dual responsibilityof juggling the demands of work andhome. The fathers salute you. Thechildren salute you. To those of you whoare future fathers or mothers (or fathersand mothers in waiting), we salute you foryour contribution. The friends salute you.And finally, we salute the residents ofAllentown, Bethleham and Easton,Pennsylvania for making it possible thatwe could meet here today.

There are about 100 families who areattending this convention. The totalnumber is around 350. About half ofthem are children. About 15% havetraveled 1000 miles or more to be heretoday. I ask, how is this possible for anorganization which is less than a year oldto hold such a convention which costsmore than $200 per family, and has equalrepresentation from the presentgeneration and the next generation? I askagain, how is it possible for anorganization which is still in its infancy tohave already produced a directory and isabout to issue another one; and haspublished three issues of Brahma Bharati-a quarterly news letter specially cateringto your needs? And for the last time I ask,how is it possible for us to have increasedour membership three fold and openedseven chapters across this continent insuch a short time? My fellow Brahmans,we must be doing something right. Isalute you for this unparalleledachievement.

I am often asked what are the aims andobjectives of BSNA. My simple and onlyanswer is, to serve humanity and God. Itis service that Brahmans have performedfor generations, and that is what BSNAstands for today. They have done it bymastering the language of gods, Sanskrit;protecting and preserving the Vedas andUpanishads. My fellow brahmans, wehave protected and preserved theHinduism. And here in America we havegiven our best and the brightest thatAmerican schools and colleges have everwitnessed. We do it because it is our dutyand we ask nothing in return. Theconcept of service, respect for customsand traditions, preference for a healthylife style and no discrimination of anykind based on caste, religion, race,nationality or country of origin is what westand for. We have a culture and

From your editor

The convention snippetsIf you were at the convention, did you

notice a charming lady, bubbling withenergy, moving about with a camera,photographing events, and generallychecking the arrangements. She was ourfirst lady, Muktimala Choubey, thedriving force behind the President. Inspiteof her heavy involvement in all thearrangements, she chose to remain awayfrom the lime light. So much so that I donot have even her photo to print. However,we can keep in mind that she has beenvery much a part of the BSNA. Whenever,we think of the great contributions of Mr.Choubey to the BSNA, we should recallthe famous saying that behind every greatman is a woman. *******

The picnic was fun. We met old friendsand made new ones. There were pockets ofcrowds doing their own things. There wasa Yoga demonstartion by Mr. RameshPandey. You could also see Prof. Rama-nath Sharma surrounded by his admirerseager to grasp his words of wisdom. Therewere quizz competitions in which adultsas well as children participated with greatzeal. There was a music program wherewe heard mature as well as buddingartists. One such budding artist, whobecame a darling of the crowd was,Vedanta Misra, age 7, of Harriman NY.Vedanta was uninhibited, cute, skilled,and enthusiastic- all the ingredients of asuccessful artist. Keep it up Vedanta.*******

Want to hear more? Turn to p6 col. 1.

traditions that is an envy of manycommunities and we cannot afford to loseit. (contd. next column)

I want to thank you for your time. Iparticularly want to thank those who have

Brahma-Bharati October 1995 Page 4

From your treasurerby Bhaw Shukla

Those of you who have paid yearlymembership for this year, need to sendtheir yearly membership dues ($25.00) forthis coming year. Better yet, you shouldbecome a life member ($250.00). As youall have witnessed what a succesful andexciting convention we had in July, 95. Itwas a concerted effort of everyoneinvolved and I thank you all for being aparticipent. Your financial and moralsupport is essential for BSNA to surviveand grow.

We will be sending a revised directory,and the newsletter to each member withinthe next few weeks. I am sure that you donot want to miss these interesting issues.Therefore, please mail us your checktoday. To refresh your memory, I amlisting Membership dues (severalcategories) and the ways you can makedonations:MEMBERSHIP: YEARLY: $25.00;LIFE: $250.00; CLUB: $1000.00;PATRON: $5000.00DONATION: 1. SIMPLY DONATE,WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED; 2.PLACE AN AD IN OUR DIRECTORY.THE COST IS AS FOLLOWS:OUTSIDE COVER(FULL PAGE):$200.00; INSIDE COVER(FULLPAGE): $150.00; ALL OTHERPAGES(FULL PAGE): $ 1 0 0 . 0 0 ;HALF PAGE $60.00

I stated during convention that our goalis to keep the membership money in afixed deposit and let it grow. Well, it didnot happen exactly because we lost moneyin staging the convention. But, I am happyto report that we did put $10,000.00 in afixed deposit account. That’s why I amencouraging everyone to contributetowards the fund. The financial statementof the BSNA is given in the next column.Thank you for believing in and supportingBSNA. Namaskar!

FINANCIAL STATEMENT (9/30/95) ASSETS : Membership $17,771.00Convention(check) $17,167.00Convention(cash) $330.00 TOTAL: $35,268.00 LIABILITIES: Convention:Hotel(Days Inn): $13,971.34Food: $ 4,627.00Misc: $625.00Subtotal: $19223.34 Lawyer: $1,160.00Membership Drive: $1,657.12Printing Press: $1,075.36 Subtotal: $3,892.48

TOTAL: $23,115.82 BALANCE: $12,152.18 ESTIMATED EXPENSES :(Between 10/1/95-12/31/95)Directory: $2,000.00Mailing Directory: $1,000.00Mailing Newsletter: $200.00TOTAL: $3,200.00

Reflections by Deepti Choubey

s a co-moderator with RuchiMishra, for the 18-20 year old

age group Break-out session, I have beenable to reflect on the conversations that Iheard and participated in during theBrahman Samaj Conference this summer.There seem to be several themes prevalentthroughtout our weekend in Allentown andfor the people I spoke with, one of the mostimportant concerns that needs addressingis education. Perhaps an example will helpyou to understand what I mean.

We started the breakout session sitting ina circle and attempted to rearrangeourselves so that we would sit next topeople we did not already know. A seriesof ice-breakers served to acquaint us witheach other. For instance, I now know whatsome people think is the cheesiest Hindifilm, although some stated that there weretoo many films that fit the category so adecision would be hard to reach.

As we moved into more seriousdiscussions, we constantly hit an obstacleas we tried to articulate our views on whatit meant to be a Brahman. The obstaclewas simply that we didn't all possess thesame operational definitions whendiscussing this issue. Some members ofthe group conveyed the frustration they feltwhen they had asked scholars within theIndian community for guidance whensearching for the Brahman identity. Tome, this discourse over the meaning ofbeing a Brahman evidences a need forgreater education in the area of basicBrahman traditions and how that role haschanged with the advent of more moderntimes.

I believe that some of the speakersinvolved in the panel discussionsattempted to address the pertinence ofbeing a Brahman today. Obviously, theanswer is multi-faceted, but still the needremains for people such as myself to hearall the different answers to the question.One of the best ways of educating is tooffer a variety of answers and then to letone choose the answer one finds mostplausible.

For the next conference, I hope that thesethoughts and reflections on the last conf-erence will be taken into considerati-on.Overall, I cherish the thought that I willhave an opportunity to meet (cont col. 2)

(from col 3) people who have had asimilar upbringing and hearing theirviews on a variety of topics. In fact, I havemade a few friends and I stronglyencourage people to continue theeducational discourse we began thissummer.*************

Ms. Deepti Choubey is trying toestablish an electronic circuit of theCollege going and younger members ofthe BSNA. If you are interested, pleasesend an e-mail to Deepti at the following

Mr. BhawShuklagiving theTreasurer’sreport at theconvention

To our younger membersFuming? Angry? Something not right

with the Brahma-Bharati or the BSNA?Well, don’t just sit there. Tear off thisissue, but before that, please let us knowwhat is wrong with it. If you have the pen,and thoughts, Brahma-Bharati is themedium for you. Come-on, react. Onthe other hand if something is cool aboutus, please let us know that too. I f youhave a good news about yourself or afriend, please share it with us. -Editor

A 4-page convention supplementcontaining the keynote address and apicture gallery is enclosed with thisissue of the Brahma-Bharati.

Page 5Brahma-Bharati October 1995

The morning sessionThe session was chaired by Dr. Shyam

Narayan Shukla. A summary of hispresidential address is given below.

"Brahman literally means the seeker ofBrahman, the ultimate Truth. However thebrahmans did not devote all their time inself realization, otherwise they would beselfish people. Our forefathers, the Rishis,were benevolent people and gained respectof the society because they worked hardfor the betterment of the society, all thetime. Their philosophy was, ‘Sarvebhavantu sukhinah, sarve santuniraamayaah; Sarve bhadraani pashyantu,maa kashchit dukhamaapnuyaat’ (May allbe happy, may all be free from fear, mayall see pleasant things, and may none besubjected to sorrow).

"We should also abide by thisphilosophy in our lives, in this new homeland of ours. We can uplift ourselves onlywhen we have, in our mind, the upliftingof the rest of the society, we live in.Otherwise we will see the same fate as ourcompatriots in Africa a couple of decadesago."

In his talk on “Value of Service” Dr.Ram D. Chaudhari stressed that brahm-anism stands for the universal brother-hood, the search for truth and knowledge,and sacrifice in the service to the com-munity. Giving example of electric cond-uction in solids through free electrons, Dr.Chaudhari explained how a small contri-bution from a large number in a givendirection can work miracles. Prof. OnkarP. Dwivedi talked about preserving andconserving the intellectual heritage ofIndia. He described the brahmans asintellectuals, ‘conscious collective’ ofHindus, and the patriots and sacrificers oftheir lives. He quoted historical examplesof genocide of brahmans.

Ms. Rachana Choubey gave a refres-hingly authentic talk about growing up inAmerica. Quoting her own example, shediscussed the importance of inheritedbrahmanic values in growing up in the‘social and moral climate’ of the West. Dr.Satya Sheel Pachori enumerated and anal-yzed the BSNA’s goals, objectives, andchallenges. He proposed that the BSNA,in addition to the objectives given in thedraft constitution, should (i) define anddisseminate the brahmanic heritage, (ii)tackle the problem of cultural alienation,

(iii) accentuate the value of (cont col 2)collectivism, (iv) establish a link betweenbrahmanism and science and technology,and (v) transfer the brahmanic heritage andculture to the next generation. In his talkthat was humorous as well as serious, Dr.Hans Upadhyay discussed the issuespertaining to growing up in two cultures:whether it is a boon or a curse. Heemphasized that we identify ourselves asAmericans while maintaining our owncultural and linguistic heritage. Dr. LaxmiNarayan Chaturvedi talked about Karma-Yoga in our life. He stressed thatbrahmans, indeed all human beings, mustbe devotees of Lord Krishna. Quotingextensively from Sanskrit literature, heexplained that Karmyoga requires us to do

Veena-vadini var de by Anita Dubey

eena-vadini var de..”marked the start of a memorable culturalprogram on the first evening of the BSNAconvention. The Saraswati vandana wasinterpreted through a ‘deepak nritya’ byRachana Choubey, Juhi Dubey, RashmiPandey, Neha Shukla, AnuranjitaTewary, Anjali Tripathi, and Nidhi Trip-athi, with musical accompaniment bySharad Tewary, Pradeep Shukla, and,yours faithfully, Anita Dubey. The vanda-na, an excellent piece of poetry, is writtenby Mahakavi Surya Kant Tripathi Nirala.He is rightly regarded as one of thegreatest Hindi poets of this century. Theemcees Anuranjita Tewary and RajeshPandey devoted the cultural program tohis memory. This made me and SharadTewary feel specially privileged as well asnostalgic since our parental home is closeto Mahakavi’s home in Allahabad.

Due to shortage of time, some items ofthe cultural program were transferred tothe Kavi-sammelan. We saw a delightfulgroup dance by Neetu Sharma, SeemaSharma, Sonia Sharma, and VeenuSharma, a sweet dandia by Usha Shastry,Neelima Shukla, Uma Shukla, and BhawShukla, and a pretty Rajasthani dance byJuhi Dubey and Neha Shukla. There weremarvelous solo dances- a charming classi-cal dance by Punita Misra, a cute solo byJuhi Shukla, a rhythmic Rajasthani bySarika Sharma, an enchanting film-basedsolo by no less a person than MadhuriDixit herself, some more excellent solosby Ruchi Bhargava, Ruchika Misra, LeelaPathak, and Vidhi Misra. Beautiful inst-rumental music was presented in a duetby Ashish Tripathi and Manish Tripathi,and a flute recital by Anjali Tripathiaccom-panied on tabla by LaksmiChaturvedi. What about the vocals? Yes,of course. We were treated with excellentvocal solos by Kamlesh Misra, NeetuSharma and Pradeep Shukla. Pradeepalso joined Anuranjita Tewary, SharadTewary, and, yours faithfully, AnitaDubey in a melodious folk-song.

The star of the evening was RameshPandey. The audience loved his carica-tures and impersonations. Rajesh Pandeyand Anuranjita Tewary were great MC’s-informative as well as entertaining withtheir witty remarks. In short, the wholeevening was a great audio-visual treat.**

The BSNA bulletinIn a meeting of the Board of Trustees

and Coordinators, held on July 2 atAllentown during the convention, it wasdecided to hold the next convention in theNorth East.*******

The BSNA is a not-for-profit corporationregistered in the state of New York. How-ever, we have not yet received a clearencefrom the IRS. Please call us at 315-682-5013 for details.*******

We expect to issue the BSNA directoryvery soon. If your membership account isnot current we urge you to do soimmediately to ensure that you receiveyour copy of the directory.*******

A constitution committee has beenformed to review our original adhoc const-itution. The committee consists of Dr.Shyam Narayan Shukla (Chairman), Mr.Nirmal Choubey, Prof. Onkar Dwivedi,Dr. Satya Sheel Pachori, Dr. GhanshyamPandey, and Dr. Vinod Tewary. Thecommittee has suggested some changes.More details will be announced later.*******

Thanks to Neetu and Sonia Sharma, a4.5 hrs video covering parts of the conve-ntion is available. For your copy, pleasese-nd a check for $15 (payable BSNA) toMr. Jagar Sharma, 77 Caroline Ave,Franklin Square, NY 11010 (Ph-516-292-7633).

If you want the original of your photopublished in this issue, please send astamped and self addressed envelope to the

Brahma-Bharati October 1995 Page 6

The convention snippets (from p3)Generally everybody, certainly the

speakers, were expected to be formallydressed- whatever that meant. Dr. HansUpadhayay narrated the story of a BSNAspeaker who was a could-be offender butgot the message in time. Just before thestart of his session, the brahmandiscovered that he was not wearing a shirt.So he ran and knocked at the neighboringdoor. A Hispanic person came out andasked, “What do you want?” “I want ashirt,” said the brahman. “Who are you?”asked the Hispanic. “I am a brahman”came the reply. “In that case,” said theHispanic, “Take my brief too.”*******

Anuranjita Tewary and Rajesh Pandeyemceed the cultural program with greatwit and humor. They enacted a skit inwhich the patient discovered that hersurgeon forgot to put her brain back intoher head after a brain operation. However,when the surgeon offered to put the brainback, she declared that she did not needthat. “Why,” asked the surprised surgeon,“What kind of work can you do without abrain?.” “I can edit Brahma-Bharati” wasthe reply.

The audience roared with laughter.Frankly, I did’t get the joke. I thought itwas a factual statement.*******

A lady was seen relishing sweets after aheavy dinner. “Are’nt you counting yourcalories today?” reminded her teenagedaughter,. “Calories?” said the lady withgreat conviction, “It is an Indian sweet.Only the American sweets have calories.”*******

Do you know what is a meetu, or rathera pair of meetus? When two girls of aboutthe same age have the same first name,they constitute a pair of meetus. JuhiShukla and Juhi Dubey, gr. 7, discoveredeach other at the convention. A cutepicture of these two meetus is in thepicture gallery in this issue. Incidently, thedefinition does not apply to boys-or so Iwas told by the girls. Boys, stand up and

Brahma-Bharati published by Brahman Samaj ofNorth America (BSNA), POB- 371, Manlius, NY13104-0371. The BSNA is registered as a not-for-profit organization in the state of New York.Editor- Dr. Vinod Tewary.All correspondence to Brahma-Bharti should beaddressed to the Editor, c/o BSNA at the addressgiven above, or e-mail given below.E-mail: bg158@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu.

Aapkee chitthi milee(Letters to the BSNA President or theEditor, Brahma-Bharati)Dear Choubey ji,

..... You must know how greatly Iappreciate what you have created inBSNA for the Brahman Samaj. Inaddition, just as magnificent was the teamyou put in place to organize theconvention and look after all the minutedetails; from reserving the hotel,preparing individualized packages forattendees, arranging all the learnedspeakers, the food, entertainment, etc.,while maintaining the right protocol wasno less than seen at conventions managedby huge firms from New York, LosAngeles, Chicago, or Toronto.....Yours affectionatelyHari Krishna Panday,Scarborough, Ontario.*******My dear Nirmalendu

This letter is in appreciation of thegigantic work you have done in bringingtogether the Brahmans in this country. Ican only compare your work to that ofShri V.N. Bhatkhande who is recognizedas the great pioneer in saving the Indianclassical music. He went door to door tothe great musicians and collected theirmusic and provided the 6 volumes ofIndian music. I am sure the cominggeneration will remember you in thatlight. You are a great pious man and Ithink My Lord Krishna has empoweredyou to this job otherwise on your own itwas difficult for you to do this. It was atremendous success on this scale.Yours sincerely,Dr. L.N. Chaturvedi, M.D.Akron, OH*******From the editor

Thanks to Mr. Panday and Dr.Chaturvedi for writing to us. We lookforward to hearing from all our readers.Complaints as well as compliments arewelcome. Write on any aspect of theBrahma-Bharati or the BSNA.

Please send us any news that you maywant to share with other members of thecommunity- such as a wedding in thefamily, a child birth, children graduatingetc. If there is a sad news, then please askthe people concerned before sending it tous. Please write to us if you (contd col 3)

(from col 2) know of a child prodigy orany member who has excelled somewhere, please send us a description,alongwith a photograph. Brahma-Bharatiis your journal—for you. Thanks.

The Michigan chapterby N. D. Purohit

The Michigan area chapter of theBSNA opened on September 3, 1995 witha meeting at the residence of Mr. GopalSharma. The chapter was inauguaratedby the BSNA president Mr. NirmalChoubey who had come from New Yorkfor this occassion. The program wascoordinated by Michigan area membersand was attended by Bharat and ManjuBhatt, Dinesh Billore, Kamalendu andNeelu Choubey, Dr. Ram Goswami, Ajayand Madhu Pndey, Nitin and SudhaPurohit, Vijay and Kamlesh Sahore,Chakradhar and Madhu Sharma, Gopaland Snehlata Sharma, Shyam and GerijaTiwari, Dilip and Punita Trivedi, Gurdevand Vimal Sharma, Kamal and KrishnaSharma, Purshottam and Kusum Sharma,Ramesh and Nitu Sharma, RamendraDadheech and Rahul and Sonal Vyas.

The program began with anintroduction of all participants. NitinPurohit gave the welcome address andPurshottam Sharma introduced NirmalChoubey. Nirmal Choubey gave the statusreport and an overview of the BSNA.Nitin Purohit was elected as thecoordinator. The successful andmemorable event ended with a deliciousdinner. For more information about thechapter, contact Nitin Purohit at (810)643-7643.

The poetry cornerFrom Ramcharitmaanasby Goswamy TulsidasIn Hindi:Kamihi nari piyar jimi, lobhih priya jimidam; timi, Raghunath, nirantarpriya lago mohi, RamApproximate English translation:Like a passionate man loves a woman,like a greedy person loves money, in thesame manner, Raghunath, O Lord Ram, Ishould be able to cotinuously feel lovefor you.

Happy HolidaysBest wishes from the BSNA

Page 7Brahma-Bharati October 1995

Your BSNA Organization

Board of TrusteesMembers: Ram D. Chaudhary, Oswego, NY (315) 343-3583

Onkar P. Dwivedi, Guelph, ONT (519) 822-2534Satya S. Pachori, Jacksonville, FL (904) 737-7829Ghanshyam N. Pandey, Burr Ridge, IL (708) 789-0569Ramanath Sharma, Honolulu, HI (808) 395-2400Suresh C. Tiwari, Fayette, MS (601) 786-3408

Executive CommitteePresident: Nirmal Choubey, Manlius, NY (315) 682- 5013General Secretary: Shyam N. Shukla, Fremont,CA(R5) (510) 770- 1218Treasurer: Bhaw Dutt Shukla, Vestal, NY (607) 723- 1595Asst. Secretary: Surendra N. Pandey, Albany, GA(R2) (912) 883- 1687

Kailash C. Sharma, Bronx, NY(R1) (718) 379- 5449Purushottam Sharma, BfldHills,MI(R3) (810) 853- 4076Pooran C. Tripathi, Houstan,TX (R4) (713) 984- 9946

Program Coordinator: Anita Dubey, Boxborough, MA (508) 635- 5430Satchidanand Mishra, Webster, NY (716) 872- 5985

Editor, Brahma Bharati Vinod K. Tewary, Boulder, CO (303) 499- 5952Chapter Coordinators:

California (Northern) Jeevan Zutshi, Fremont, CA (510) 623- 9829California (Southern) Vishwanath Tiwari, Anaheim, CA (714) 974- 2357Illinois Kanwal D. Prashar, Rockford, IL (815) 282- 5272Michigan Nitin Purohit, Troy, MI (810) 643- 7643New Jersey Ramendra N. Pandey, Raritan,NJ (908) 429- 0579New York (Upstate) Satchidanand Mishra, Webster, NY (716) 872- 5985Ontario (Southern) Brij Pandey, Pickering, ON (905) 839- 7597Washington, D.C. Awdhesh K. Sharma, Laurel, MD (301) 210- 4674

Area CoordinatorsArizona Prem Bhardwaj, Mesa (602) 897- 1340Florida Satya S. Pachori,Jacksonville (904) 737- 7829Indiana Anil Bajpai, Indianapolis (317) 299- 4323Maine Mahesh Chaturvedi, Bangor (207) 848- 3512Maritime Provinces Vinod Sharma, Moncton, NB (506) 387- 7082Maryland & Vicinity Jitender P. Dubey, Greenbelt, (301) 474- 7161Mass.& Vicinity Anita Dubey, Boxborough (508) 635- 5430Minnesota Satyendra Chaturvedi, Minneapolis (612) 566- 3103Mississippi Srikant Vajpayee, Hattiesburg (601) 268- 6615

North Carolina Ramlal Pandey,Dunn (910) 892- 6181Oklahoma Arvind K. Chaturvedi, Norman (405) 329- 2590Texas Sen Pathak, Houstan, (713) 855- 3705

Shambhu N. Tripathi, Spring (713) 350- 9294Quebec Lakshmi S. Dube, DDO (514) 685- 4278Virginia Ram K. Tripathi, Richmond (804) 740- 0112

Regions (R INDICATES RESPONSIBILITY FOR A REGION)1 NORTHEAST: CT/DC/DE/ME/MD/MA/NH/NJ/NY/PA/RI/VT/VA/ WV2 SOUTHEAST: AL/FL/GA/MS/NC/SC/TN3 MIDWEST: IL/IN/IA/KY/MI/MN/MO/NE/ND/OH/SD/WI4 SOUTHWEST: AR/CO/KS/LA/NM/OK/TX5 WEST: AK/AZ/CA/HI/ID/MT/NV/OR/UT/WY/WA6* CANADA EAST: NB/NF/NS/ONT/QUE/PEI7* CANADA WEST: ALTA/BC/MAN/NWT/SASK/YU

*R3 is responsible for R 6 & 7 until a replacement is found

FromBSNAPOB 371Manlius, NY 13104-0371

inside...

The convention special:the keynote speech andthe picture galleryThe next convention—this page

After the grand first annual conventionTHE SECOND BSNA ANNUAL CONVENTION

July 4-5-6, 1996Sheraton Berkshire Hotel, Reading, Pennsylvania

a three-day fun-filled extravaganzafor the whole familyPlease register today

July 5&6 (Convention):*Register By 12/31/95 .......$100/Person; $149/Family*Register By 3/31/96........$125/Person; $199/Family *Register By 6/30/96 .......$150/Person; $249/Family

Registration at the Hotel: $25 SurchargeJuly 4: Supplements Aand B at additional cost: Single Young Adults Program Ages 20to 34 and cordinators/Trustees/Convention Committee meetings.For information, please write to BSNA ,P.O. Box 371, Manlius, NY 13104 or phone NirmalChoubey @315-682-5013. A registration form and some details of the convention are being sentto the members. Come over. This will be even more magnificent than the first convention.