Hindu Swayamsevak Sangha, Santa Clara Nagar celebrated “Sakhi Sammelan” (Friends get-together) a daylong event for Women on Saturday, 19th March 2005, at Sunnyvale Hindu Temple.
90 women came for the event. This is the third year Sakhi Sammelan is celebrated. Every year HSS arranges this event especially for women to enjoy, learn, and get together with common interest of keeping great Indian culture and heritage live. This year’s theme was “Arogyam Mahabhagyam” meaning ‘Health is Wealth”.
The program started at 10:00 AM with shloka chanting, (Minal Joshi) followed by yoga session. Yoga session was followed by four parallel sessions. Art and Craft (Smita Gadre), Warli painting (Rekha Joshi), Recipe writing competition, and Salad decoration competition. Everyone went for two sessions. Everyone enjoyed all the sessions. The beautiful salads and very creative recipes made judges job difficult. After parallel session, everyone had chanted Bhojan Mantra followed by lunch (From Swagat). After lunch break, there were parallel session By Dr. Ganpule who is a psychiatrist, and Mrs. Cordero who is teacher in De Anza College Both of them talked about issues and stresses involved with parenting for Indian parents in US. The lectures were followed by question answer session. Then the most awaited session started that is Games. All women were divided into four groups to play. Everyone played the games and recalled their childhood memories of playing. Reenita Malhotra from Ayoma talked about Ayurveda.
The concluding part started with introduction of the guests Sunnyvale City council member Julia Miller, and Lawyer Indu LiladharHathi; Ashwini Surpur’s presentation about sister organizations of HSS; Uma Penumaka’s speech; Inauguration of Prerana News letter by Julia Miller (Prerana is a news letter started in Santa Clara Nagar and now it has reached nationwide); Prize distribution; Vote of thanks and Prarthana. The program ended at 4:30pm.
Reenita Malhotra was one of the main speakers. She talked about the ancient medical science of India, Ayurveda. She explained about the three dosha any person can have, and how it is related to the whole system of the person. She very nicely explained how the holistic approach of Ayurveda is useful even today.
Her speech was very informative and every one enjoyed her speech. Uma penumaka talked about the theme of the day Arogyam Mahabhagyam. In her speech, she said it is very important to have healthy life but we really think about real holistic meaning of health. We just think about physical health. She also said it is important to have healthy society and we should be responsible to make our society healthy.
At 4:30pm after spending, the day in healthy atmosphere women went home with a lot of positive energy, and information. Every year Sakhi Sammelan is organized by HSS to bring women together for good cause. This year is the birth centenary year of Vandaniya Mausiji (Lakshmibai Kelkar), founder of Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the focus of the organization is women taking leading role in the society. This year another event is planned on 27th of August.