http://www.khaasbaat.com/news
Story provided by
HSC-USF
More than 400 people attended a fundraising event
Sept. 30 at the India Cultural Center to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Organized by the Hindu Students Council at the
University of South Florida (HSC-USF), the Garba/Raas/Bhangra event raised more
than $3,000.
The event was made possible by the
Federation of Indian Associations, Hindu Temple of Florida and Hindu University
of America. Chandresh Saraiya of Ekal Vidyalaya, Abhinav Dwivedi of Hindu
University of America, and Vishaal Gupta, Southeast regional coordinator of HSC
National, each spoke a few words of inspiration. HSC-USF president Shraddha
Belsare also briefed the audience on the goals of her student organization.
The HSC-USF Katrina Relief
Garba/Raas/Bhangra -- officially the first night of Navratri celebration in
Tampa -- provided a fun shopping opportunity for food, dandiya, clothing, DVDs
and CDs. This was accompanied by live music provided by Chicago’s Melody of
Dreams.
The HSC-USF team consisted of Shraddha
Belsare, Rahul Agarwal, Anandi Bhusry, Joel Brown, Kalpesh Chotai, Shuchi
Dwivedi, Paulomi Parmar, Pooja Pandya, Sadiya Sassine, Anushi Obeysekera, Neha
Pandit, Prachi Kulahalli and Ojas Rawal.
New student organization spreads relief awareness
http://www.usforacle.com/vnews
by Joe
DiPietro
October 14, 2005
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a
newly formed USF student organization went out of its way to help.
The organization, the Hindu Students Council, is
the first Hindu organization at USF.
“After the hurricanes, the Hindu Students Council
decided that we needed a certain show of support for the community,” said Rahul
Agarwal, vice president of the HSC. “We looked into what everybody else was
doing, and we realized that they had enough manpower, but they needed better
resources. They needed financial support and personal items.”
The HSC hosted a charity dance on Sept. 30 with
the assistance of the Federation of Indian Associations, the Hindu Temple of
Florida and the Hindu University of America.
“Our objective was to get all the costs sponsored
before the event and to send the collections that we raised from entry tickets
and donations boxes towards the relief work. So we approached these
organizations to give us monetary support to absolve the costs,” Agarwal said.
Around 500 people, both students and community
members, attended the event according to HSC President Shraddha Belsare.
“Our main goal out of this was to raise money for Katrina
relief and acknowledge those who have passed away or been hurt by the (recent)
hurricanes. Secondly, we wanted to represent Hindus getting involved in
American society. Lastly, it was to raise awareness of the Hindu Students
Council for USF students,” Belsare said.
The group organized the event to fall in
concurrence with first day of the Hindu holiday of Navatri.
“Navatri is a Hindu celebration of the power of
God, and the way we celebrate this is with a long evening of late-night
traditional Indian dancing,” Agarwal said.
There were three main types of dance at this
event, said HSC Public Relations Coordinator Shuchi Dwivedi: Garba, Raas and
Bhangra.
“In India there are two types of traditional
dancing. There’s Garba, which is with your hands, and there’s Raas, which is
with sticks. And those are the traditional dances they do when Navatri comes
around,” Dwivedi said. “There’s one other dance, and it’s called Bhangra. It’s
very upbeat and fast. It’s kind of like modern dancing; it’s like Indian break
dancing.”
According to Joel Brown, treasurer for the HSC,
the group raised approximately $3,000 from the event, and they are in
negotiations to try to have the donation matched.
The HSC is a national council, and there are three
chapters in the state of Florida, according to Webmaster and HSC Historian
Kalpesh Chotai.
“We became a chapter with HSC national in February
2005, and we’re actually one of the youngest chapters in HSC national,” Chotai
said.
The Council is looking forward to more community
outreach programs in the future. According to Agarwal there are plans to assist
in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, but they’ve not been finalized as of
yet.
“Eckerd College has approached us, and they are interested in finding out about the Diwali celebration. That’s another big festival for (Hindus), and that’s coming up the first week in November,” said Agarwal. “This is a very big celebration, to the level of Christmas, for (Hindus), and (Eckerd College) wants us to come there and do decorations and put up a whole show to educate their students about Hindu traditions and what this celebration means.”