May 8, 2012 by Soma.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Kick-off Event

FL Department of Health

Office of Minority Health Affairs | State-wide telecast

Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 12:00 Noon to 1:30 PM

Today I gave a 30 minute presentation about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration at the Florida Department of Health’s Office Minority Health Affairs’ celebration of Asian Pacific American Health Initiative.

I was invited to give this talk as one of the four events the Florida Dept of Health’s Office of Minority Health Affairs will telecast state-wide to the benefit of various members. This was the first year this department included Asian Pacific Americans as one of their constituents who need to be included.

The staff did a wonderful job of preparing the webinar and telecast. My talk was about 35 minutes which was followed by a Q+A session and video broadcast of recent Asian American Heritage Month Celeberation at Montford Middle School in Tallahasssee.

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March 10, 2012 by Soma.

Tiger-Rock Martial Arts Regional Tournament

At Lincoln High School Gymnasium

Tallahassee, FL 32311

Saturday, March 10, 2012, 10 AM to 6:30 PM

Today evening we participated in the Regional Tiger-Rock Martial Arts International’s Regional Tournament  held at the Lincoln High School Gymnasium in Tallahassee, FL. There were 360 participants coming from as far as away Naples, FL and Alabama. The competition included Junior and Adult categories with belt levels ranging from white to many levels of black.

The competition began in the morning and VTS’ level of third degree brown belt in adult category was scheduled for later in the evening of Saturday, March 10, 2012. We arrived there around 3:30 PM and met with other friends and fellow students from TallyTKD Academy. Even though, VTS level wast supposed to start at 4:30 PM it actually began at 5:45 PM.

VTS won a bronze medal in free sparring and silver medal in form.

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November 13, 2011 by Soma.

Tamil Sangam Diwali Party

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Tallahassee, FL

The Tallahassee Tamil Sangam celebrated the Diwali with a evening party on Saturday, November 12, 2011. About 50 families brought in pot-luck dinner items, snacks, party supplies, and fireworks to the party.

The program started at 6:00 PM at the Rec Hall in FSU Alumni Village. The snacks were served first and around 7 PM all the kids were invited to a short fireworks fun. Many parents brought their own fireworks (only those approved in the State of Florida). The adults watched over the fun in a basketball court (concrete floor).

Then at 7:45 the dinner was served and then the kids put on two dance items. Then the dessert was served. By 9:30 we completed the party and everyone pitched in to clean

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April 28, 2011 by Soma.

ICMA International Exchange Professional Fellows Program

Reception for Dr Lu and Chen

Tallahassee Senior Center

1400 N. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32303

Thursday, April 28, 2011; 6:30-8:30 PM

I attended the ICMA reception for Dr Lu and Chen who are visiting from China to City of Tallahassee. The City’s Green Program invited these exchange fellows. They spent about 10 days in Tallahassee.

The program started with Clyde inviting everyone and mentioning how City of Tallahassee, Asian Coalition, and Chinese Association of Tallahassee worked together to improve the understanding between people of Tallahassee. There several entertainment items consisting of dances, recitals, and songs arranged by Aurora Hansen.

There was catered dinner from many local Chinese restaurants.

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October 27, 2010 by Soma.

எந்திரன் தமிழ் படம்; Enthiran, The Robot Movie

Wednesday, Oct 27, 2010; 7:30 to 10:30 PM

Tallahassee Movies 8, 2812 Sharer Road, Tallahassee, FL 32312

The Tamil movie Enthiran, The Robot  (எந்திரன் தமிழ் படம்) was screened today at the Tallahassee Movies 8 cine complex. Couple of people from local Tallahassee Desi Movies brought this movie to town.

There were about 70-80 people (including kids) at the auditorium during the screening. The movie features Tamil movie star Super Star Rajini Kanth ரஜினிகாந்த் (name at birth, Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, to a Marathi family) and Aishwarya Rai ஐஸ்வர்யா ராய் in a futuristic movie about the interactions of humans and humanoids.

The movie included lots of animaiton and computer generated graphics. The movie scenes were shot at Peru and Brazil in addition to India. It was the first Tamil movie we saw this year.

We all enjoyed the movie.

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October 15, 2010 by Soma.

Durga Pooja Celebration

Friday, October 15, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Tallahassee, Florida

We were invited to join in the Durga Pooja (Puja) celebration at a close friend’s residence. They have been doing the poojas for a long-time. So I went to their house after I came back from work. They have been performing the pooja for most of the day and I joined them during the time for the “Aarathi”. Several others joined us around 7 PM. There were songs about goddess Durga and everyone performed individual aartis.

There was special prasad for those who had gathered. I had to leave around 8 PM as I had to go to Navarathri celebration at the Gujarati Samaj later in the night.

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October 4, 2010 by Soma.

Quiz from Pew Forum on Religion

Monday, October 04, 2010

Tallahassee, FL, USA

Following the much publicised recent results about Americans and their knowledge about religion that showed that even though most Americans consider themselves very religious their knowledge of religion was NOT that high, I thought I would test my own knowledge about religion. Since birth I have been a follower of one faith, the one I was born into, and about half of my life I spent in a country where that faith has been the predominant one. Then during second half my life, I am living in a country where my faith is not the predominant one.

So, I went to Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and took the 15 question quiz about religion. Several questions related Judo Christian faiths and there were about 4 questions about Eastern religions. After finishing the test, I was surprised to learn that I answered correctly 14 out of the 15 questions.

 Glad to know that at least I know something about religion. Thank God!!!

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August 21, 2010 by Soma.

Utsav/IndiaDay 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Moore Auditorium, Tallahassee, FL 32306

Indian Students Association of Tallahassee (INSAT) and India Association of Tallahassee (IATLH) celebrated the 64^th Indian Independence Day, India Day, and Utsav (in Sanskrit meaning Festival) - a cultural program this afternoon. The day started out bit cloudy and muggy and so we feared for typical summer rain, but we were spared. A food, jewelry, and handicrafts fair was also held between 12:00 Noon and 6 PM in conjunction with the Celebrations.

About 450-500 people (students, children, youngsters, and Tallahassee public) came to enjoy the free program. The proceedings began with Independence celebration with flag unfurling and singing of National anthems of India and the USA. There were 20 individual items split into two segments. The earlier segment consisted of performances by young artists. This included two performances by VS and one by me.

The first one of VS’ performances was “The Great Children of India”, where VS represented Bhaghat Singh. In the second item VS and I did a stand-up comedy called, Tanjore to Tallahassee, where we parodied the clash between Indian-born adults visiting and American-born youngsters.

The event was a big success.

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August 14, 2010 by Soma.

Belt Testing Today

Saturday, Aug 14, 2010

TallyTKD.com

Today there was a belt testing schedule. All levels of Tae Kwon Do belts were scheduled for testing today and yesterday. Our belt testing was today. At the appointed time we arrived 10 minutes early. There were two sets of belt testers: one for the younger ones and one for the adults.

After explaining what will happen the testing began for both the groups. One student at a time or at times a pair of students were tested. The testing involved showing to the instructor the basic form and some escape maneuvers.

After about 45 minutes all testing were done and belt awarding ceremony will be conducted separately on a pot-luck dinner at another location. The testing went well.

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May 24, 2010 by Soma.

Governor’s Mansion Reception

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration

Monday, May 24, 2010; 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Tallahassee, FL 32301

We were at the reception at Governor’s Mansion celebrating the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

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