Vaartalaap
“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.”
— Rabindranath Tagore
FOI News In 2020
The year 2020 started with the inauguration ceremony under the capable leadership of Prof. Avinash Thombre. Under his flagship, FOI started the Go Green campaign. Members were encouraged, during FOI events, to bring their own water bottles from home to reduce plastic waste. To raise environmental awareness, our young members performed a show encouraging reuse and recycling. The evening sparkled with superb entertainment and was topped with delicious food.
§Valentine’s Day: in February, FOI organized the much anticipated Valentine’s day event, which was a grand success. Kids enjoyed the various games that were put together for them. Adults had their share of games including “pani puri hogging” competition which was thoroughly enjoyed by the ones devouring the savory puris and by the onlookers boisterously cheering the participants.
The spread of COVID-19 put a halt on in person activities, yet the spirit of FOI continued to soar through a myriad of virtual activities. FOI came up with creative ideas to engage with families. As the saying goes “out of adversity comes opportunity” and indeed this was the time when FOI hosted various activities, many of them for the first time.
§In March, Drs. Sowmya Patil and Naveen Patil, in a Facebook live session, answered queries and shared useful insights related to COVID-19.
§Indian independence day was celebrated on August 15th, by hoisting the Indian flag at Welspun LLC., Little Rock. To commemorate this event, FOI hosted a Facebook live patriotic songs session, “Desh ki Dhadkan”, where many of our talented and enthusiastic members participated.
§Fun with Science was conducted by Dr. Shayu Deshpande. Kids were guided to perform experiments in their homes that were both entertaining and educational.
§Standup Comedy: FOI hosted a virtual comedy show where members tickled the funny bone by sharing jokes and comical mishaps inspired by life events.
§Kids talent show: in this ever popular show our talented young members showcased a wide spectrum of arts including dancing, music, visual arts and drama.
§A “Tips on Communication” session, was hosted by FOI, to bring harmony among its members sharing different political ideologies in this charged election year. Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter, from University of Arkansas, Little Rock spoke on “Practical Communication Tips to Handle the Present Political Divide”. Useful pointers were provided by Dr. Chatham for communication in-person and in social media platforms.
§To spread election awareness, kids and adults together made several inspiring videos appealing people to cast their precious votes.
§A chess tournament was held in June, for kids and adults, and this event received a very robust response from members.
§Donation drive: FOI continued its tradition of giving back to the society by donating 230 lb. of food items, kindly contributed by members, to the Arkansas food bank.
Upcoming Events
Thank you!
§To kindle the Diwali festival spirit during these dark times, FOI distributed gift hampers to all members. Gift bags contained beautiful Diwali cards made by kids, a box of sweets and a comfortable hand-made face mask, the latter as a symbol of the ongoing fight against the pandemic.
A Slice of Life
By Disha, age 13, daughter of Srinivasan Ramaswamy and Roopa Ram
A - At home. Nine months and counting.
B - Baking. Everyone (almost) has by now.
C - Commute. No one misses that.
D - Delivery. Amazon boxes keep piling up.
E - E-Learning. Parents are now teachers.
F - Face Masks. New way to make a fashion statement.
G - Gatherings of 10 or less, more cake left for you at your birthday party! H - Hand sanitizer. The new elixir of life.
I - Imaginary Friend. You could name him Joe or Jai.
J - Jobs closed. Some working too hard, some struggling to find work.
K - Kittens. The perfect time to adopt one.
L - Laidback. What we’ve all become.
M - Memes. Silly things we send to our friends to pretend life is totally normal.
N - Netflix. A wonderful gift that keeps us all sane.
O - Overreaction. Hurting yet flaunting biceps on social media after the shot.
P - Positive. The most dreaded word.
Q - Quarantine. A difficult word even my grandma has learned to say correctly.
R - Relax. Great time to pursue a forgotten hobby.
S - Social distancing. An excuse to be in pajamas and not go anywhere.
T - Toilet paper. We even got an organic roll which came from China. Height of hoarding!
U - Umbrella. An item you have absolutely no use for.
V - Vaccine. The hope the future hinges on.
W - Workouts. Wonder why we didn’t do them before?
X - X-Box. Now, you can play to your heart’s content and will not be told to go play with your friends outside.
Y - YouTube. Download and upload is the new routine.
Z - Zoom. The glue that holds us all together.
Artists’ Gallery
A Painting by Archana Khole
“A grey wolf
guided by the wise owl
through all the
seasons.”
In the Limelight!
The Asudani Family
From left to right in the picture:
Yogesh (Yogi) Asudani – Engineer and currently a business Owner
Gitanjali Bajaj – Doctor
Bhanu Asudani – Banker and currently a housewife.
Bhawan Asudani – Engineer and currently a business Owner.
Aarna Asudani – 5 yr.
Aanya Asudani – 8 yr.
Yogi Asudani tells FOI about his family.
Where are you from in India? Can you name your favorite places to visit near your hometown?
My family has spent a lot of time in Baroda, Gujarat and Gitanjali’s family has spent most of their time in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. If in Baroda, plan to visit the “Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda” and in Bhopal, do visit the Sanchi Stupa.
How do you all spend time as a family? What are your favorite family pastimes and hobbies?
Our family loves eating, so we spend a quite a lot of time cooking, eating and planning what to eat next! We have recently started playing a lot of board games; our most favorite game is Sequence – it is a fun game to play as a family. We also love hiking, biking, going for walks and being with nature.
When did you move to Little Rock? What do you like about Little Rock?
We moved to Little Rock on May 30th, 2012. We moved here because Gitanjali had joined the UAMS Radiology Residency program. Initially, we were planning to stay in Little Rock until Gitanjali completed her Residency and then move back to California. We have a lot of family, including close family members, who live in the West Coast. But as you can see, those plans never materialized and for a very good reason. Now, we get to call Little Rock our home and all local friends our family! We are blessed and fortunate to have friends closer than family. The best thing about Little Rock is being surrounded by “family” that we never had before we moved here. We are physically so far away from our Motherland yet emotionally so close because of all our local family! We truly love and cherish the bonds we have created with our local Little Rock Family!”
Name some of your favorite FOI activities.
FOI has been truly great in connecting all local people of Indian origin. We have been members of FOI since the very first year of us moving to Little Rock. We love all the activities that FOI does annually. Especially The Annual Function, Kids Talent show, Fundraising, Valentine’s Day, Cricket and many more.
Highlight some achievements of your family members.
Gitanjali and I have gotten our names published in the newspapers a few times (obviously for good reasons, lol!). Gitanjali stood first in all of Madhya Pradesh in the medical school entrance exam. A nice article was published about her in the local newspaper. I was featured on the cover page of a leading Indian newspaper– “The Indian Express” a few years back, during my “so called” modeling career ( that did not last long!).