IACRF Seniors Celebrate Picnic and International Women’s Day
Contributed By - Dr. Prakash V Kotecha & Bhagubhai Patel
Picnic Celebrations
While celebrating International Women’s Day, members decided to go to Rio Vista Park for the picnic and fun on March 9th. The weather was excellent. Beautiful sunshine was glittering on the calm water of the pond, where the ducks were swimming peacefully. The cool breeze was blowing and the trees were swaying gracefully. Members were meeting, greeting and socializing. Some started playing cards while others decided to serve members with Bhajiya and tea making picnic really fun. Members enjoyed it. Some members went for a long walk in the surrounding area/trail while others were jogging.
Around 12.15 pm three games of Bingo were conducted by Bhagubhai Patel, Meena Bhavsar and Subash Sood. Members enjoyed playing the games with lots of excitement. The winners of those games were Paru and Belur Chandramouly, Krishna Kathuria, Nina Zaveri and Mahendrabhai Devgania.
Presentations
Ramu Ramkeshvan made a presentation about the Air India Kanishka tragedy of 1985 on last Thursday of February. Ramu and his team role played the conversation among the pilot, co-pilot, flight/cabin crew and the ground control as heard on the last 30 minutes of the voice recordings from the black box. The women portraying chatty air-hostesses lent color to the patronizing comments made about them by the flight crew. The pictures, sound effects and the details about the tragedy, rescue mission, recovery operation and Ramu and Doris’ involvement in the subsequent political lobbying and police case were breathtaking.
Bhajan and Antakshari
First Thursday is Bhajan time and on March 02 many members went to Ekta Mandir and continued with Bhajan for the entire morning session while others continued with their social activities for fun. Second Thursday is for Antakshari and Srikant Vaidya conducted antakshari so well and members had active participation and lots of fun singing various old songs and in different languages. Members participated enthusiastically. The individual songs were sung by Shrikantbhai Vaidya, Meena Bhavsar, Harshad Desai, Mani Paramanadam, Manju Patel, Deepa Bagai, Neeru Sood, Kaniza Bangalawala, Kala Patel and Usha Gautam and members also participated following the Antakshri rules.
Special Announcements
Prakash Deshmukh announced that on the 25th of March, ‘India Festival’ event will take place at our center between 11.00 am and 7.00 pm. He urged the members to volunteer on two hour shift basis to help the function run smoothly. This is to show our obligation and volunteering spirit to the Foundation. There will be a cultural program consisting of dances and musical programs by the local Artists.
Bhagubhai also announced Dr. Prakash Kotecha will be at India Festival on 25th March with APCA team to help the seniors getting benefits from the federal and state government. The glucose test (A1C) will be done free of cost to test the diabetic or pre-diabetic status or to find out whether you are completely free from diabetes. Members are encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities.
Planning Meeting
On returning from India, Bhagubhai convened the planning meeting on March 02. The planning meeting after lunch was held with 26 members attending it. Bhagubhai opened the meeting by saying that it is an open, cooperative and participating meeting. He encouraged the members to take up the responsibility of various activities relieving the existing members who have been shouldering the responsibilities for a long time. Prakash Deshmukh, Jai Seecharran and Manharlal Khatri the board members of IACRF, are coordinating very well between the board and our senior center’s program.
Birthday Celebrations:
Members wished greetings to Bhagubhai Patel on his birthday. On March 16, members celebrated Rajni Bajpai’s birthday
Lunch was sponsored during the month by Kiran & Sewa Singh Dulai, Uma & Surinder Aggarwal, Manjuben Patel, Shardaben & Mannubhai Patel, and Indubhai Patel.
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Senior Group meets every Thursday, 10:00AM to 3:00PM at the Indo-American Community Center located at 2809 W. Maryland Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85017, for information please contact Mahendra Devgania Tel: 602-708-0733.