2014 TTS Deepavali Dinner
Miccosukee Community Center
Saturday, November 01, 2014, 6-9 PM
The Tallahassee Tamil Sangam held its 2014 Deepavali pot-luck dinner tonight at the Miccosukee Community Center. About 40 families came for the event. More information and photos are available at
https://sites.google.com/site/tallahasseetamilsangam/home/2014en
Today we celebrated 2014 Deepavali (தீபாவளி) in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. In the morning we all got up had showers and did a small prayer (pooja; பூசை). Since today was a working day in the US, VtS and I went to Florida State University and Bhanu went to work.
However, we all wore Indian clothing to mark the happy occasion. This was also first Deepavali after my mom and dad’s first year death anniversary.
WFSU TV Dimensions Program
Tallahassee PBS
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
Aurora and I have been interviewed by the WFSU-TV’s Dimension program’s host Julz Graham about our upcoming Tenth Annual Experience Asia Festival 2014 and the Pre Event. Here is the link to the interview (~ 5 min long).
Book Club Meeting
ESL Meeting Room
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Today Bhanu coordinated the Book Club Meeting at ESL Meeting Room. The book the club considered was written by Rohinton Mistry titled “A Fine Balance”. This novel is in Bombay (currently called Mumbai) India during the period of 1975 and 1984, part of the time when India was under Emergency Rule declared by then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi.
I was invited to be present at the book club meeting since I was a college student from South India during that period. There were some questions about the Emergency Rule in India but most of the questions were about the characters in the novel and its impact on the people living through out the world.
Akka’s Sixty
Monday, September 15, 2014
East Tambaram, Chennai
Members of my family and my cousin’s family all landed in my akka’s house around 11 AM today in E Tambaram to wish her on she crossing a milestone. Neither my akka nor athan had any clues that people are coming to their home to wish her well. Akka was completely unprepared since her own child didn’t tell her they were all coming to visit her even the child was part of the event planning.
One cousin had just returned from the US that morning, three other cousins had completed a function in their hometown of Vedaraniam and traveled overnight. All my siblings traveled the previous day and wished well from Chengal Pattu. But my sister didn’t realize they are NOT in their homes but were wishing her only miles from her house.
Then on the morning they landed and cut the cake took the blessing from the elders. Then they all went to lunch. My sisters stayed back and traveled the next day to their homes.
International Bazaar
Saturday, Apr 5, 2014
FSU Ballrooms
Today on behalf of Asian Coalition of Tallahassee (ACT) and India Association of Tallahassee (IATLH) we put two information tables at the 19th International Bazaar organized by the FSU’s Center for Global Engagement.
Myself and volunteer arrived at 1:15 PM and set up ACT table and reserved IATLH table. Soon IATLH volunteer arrived. We met with lots of people and handed out the Experience Asia Festival information prepared by the CGE.
Then by 3 PM VtS joined us and helped us until we closed the booth at about 5:15 PM. We also saw lots of cultural programs and ate some international food.
IAC Meeting
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Today some members of the Interim Advisory Committee met at one of the volunteer’s office and spoke about the upcoming HTT Pooja and other progress in the process. There were about six of us in the meeting. We discussed several items.
Then we traveled around town to see places for future site.
Gayathri’s Wedding
Sunday, Feb 9, 2014 7 -11 AM IST (Sat, Feb 8, 2014 9 PM EDT)
Live Stream
We watched in the US the Live Steam of Gayathri and Sri Pathy’s wedding that was happening in Vedaraniam, Tamil Nadu India on Sunday, Feb 9, 2014 between 7:30 and 9:00 AM ( 9:00 PM – 10:30 PM, Saturday, Feb 8, 2014 EDT).
Temple and Community Center Meeting
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Leon County Community Center
This morning I along with 50 people attended a meeting organized by the Tallahassee volunteers to consider a proposal to build a Hindu Temple and Community Center in Tallahassee. This meeting had been planned for about a month and the invitation was sent to close to 150 individual e-mail addresses. The meeting room was opened around 10 AM and the volunteers set-up the room for the meeting.
After an initial meet and greet with coffee between 10 AM and 10:30 AM, the meeting proper began at 10:30 AM. It began with a prayer. The tentative agenda was displayed using a computer projector. There were introductory speeches by prominent members of the community.
Then I presented a slide show prepared by the volunteers. I took about 18 minutes to complete it. It was presented in such a way that the questions will be handled at the end of the presentation since several frequently asked questions and answers were prepared. So FAQ followed by presentation.
Once the FAQs were completed the floor was opened for discussion. Since I had a prior commitment to host the ACT Thank You Party, I had to leave the discussion around 12 Noon.
FSU ISA Diwali Banquet
CGE Globe Auditorium
Friday, October 25, 2013, 7-9 PM
We attended the Florida State University Indian Students Association Diwali Banquet in the evening. Originally we were not aware of the event and were planning to go home. But Neil stopped by the afternoon and invited us to the banquet. VtS had his Halloween face painted but we went anyway.
There was dance and song entertainment by the students. We had later dinner. VtS became a member of ISA too.
