October 1, 2008 by Soma.

Speak at Tallahassee Saint John’s Episcopal Church Group
Religions of the World Class
Rev. Canon Lee Graham’s Group
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; 6:30 -7:45 PM

I was invited as a guest speaker at the World Religions Class organized by Rev Lee Graham, Rector Emeritus of Saint John’s Episcopal Church of Tallahassee. Father Graham’s class of about 30 people asked me to present for a Question and Answer session about Hinduism and Hindu Beliefs.

The Questions were either from the Group or from Rev Graham himself. I was given the Questions few days earlier and I prepared the Answers and delivered them as a informal speech. Following the speech I entertained impromptu Q&A as well.

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March 23, 2008 by Soma.

2008 IATLH Holi Festival

Saturday, March 22, 2008
10:30 to 1:30, Tom Brown Park
Tallahassee, Florida

India Association of Tallahassee (www.iatlh.org) sponsored 2008 Holi Festival was held in Station 13 in Tom Brown Park, Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday, March 22, 2008 between 10:20 AM and 1:30 PM.  Over two hundred people attended the colorful celebrations. Several volunteers prepared pot-luck lunch consisting of delicious food items like idli, sambar, vadai, chole, chappathi, chicken curry, vegetable rice pilaf, and desserts like cup cakes, cookies, and ice cream.

The Association provided Holi colors, drinks and cutlery. The participants young and old college and high school students throw colors on each other and later played with water. In general every body had fun time.

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March 15, 2008 by Soma.

Holi Festival Article

Tallahassee Democrat

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Today my article ( holi-tdcom.pdf) about Holi appeared in our home town newspaper Tallahassee Democrat.

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January 14, 2008 by Soma.

Bogi or Boghi Festival

Monday, January 14, 2008

Tallahassee, FL 32317

We started to clean our house on Sunday in order to prepare for the Bogi and Pongal festivals that are on Monday, January 14, and 15, 2008 respectively. Since this was the second week after we reached US from our vacation to India, it gave another reason to throw away old items and clean the house.

Historically the day before and the day of Bogi we cleaned our house at Vedaraniam and occasionally even white-washed it during that week. Usual cleaning meant removing cob-web (ottadai adipathu), deep sweeping the brick floors, then washing it with plenty of well water. Going up the attic and throwing away old magazines, newspapers, and other stuff.

So we more or less did the same thing except there were not that many cob-webs to clean out. We collected old clothes for donation, we did lots of laundry, we swept and moped the wooden floor and tiles at our home. We also did pooja with VTS doing the aarathi with incense stick. Then we ate sweet pongal and vadai.

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September 14, 2007 by Soma.

Hindu View on Dying, Death and Grief

Friday, September 07, 2007

TCC, Tallahassee, FL 32304

I was asked to speak about a Hindu’s view of dying, rituals surrounding death and the process of bereavement. I was given 10 minutes. There were representatives from Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. I learned a lot about other religious practices surrounding death and bereavement.

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