Jan 11, 2025

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb Celebrates with FICA

Cleveland Asian Indians Celebrate Diwali

Mayor Justin Bibb participated in lighting the Diwali diya and photo opportunity with FICA (Federation of Indian Community Associations) members etc, in conjunction with Chia-Min Chen, Asian Liaison Community Relations Board, City of Cleveland and Angela Shute Woodson, Director of Community Relations; Senior Advisor, Community and Government Affairs Community Development.

City of Cleveland's Mayor Justin Bibb
celebrates Diwali with FICA 


City of Cleveland Mayor welcomes First Sikh to Police Department

City of Cleveland Mayor welcomes First Sikh Police Officer 

Mayor Justin Bibb: When I took office, Cleveland officers were still prohibited from having beards and visible tattoos—policies that didn’t reflect the inclusivity our city stands for. By working with our union and police leadership, we modernized those rules to create a more welcoming department. Today, I’m proud to welcome Officer Grewal, Cleveland’s first Sikh police officer, to our ranks. Your service is a powerful step forward for our city, and we’re proud to have you representing Cleveland. 

City of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb
with Cleveland Division of Police Officer Grewal

Dorothy Todd, Cleveland Division of Police Chief: “We are committed to having a diverse group of men and women who who patrol our communities. And I think this great,” said 

Sukhvir Grewal previously worked for the Alliance Police Department and served in the Ohio State National Guard. He speaks four languages. 

Dec 7, 2024

Pranat Agarwalla

Jai Shri Krishna

Nov 6, 2024

Kamala Harris (Democrat) India's Chitthi (Aunt) from Tamilnadu

So, Indian women are liberal and conservative, Congress/Rahul Gandhi supporters and BJP/Narendra Modi supporters. I haven't yet figured out a good reason for Indian women being liberandus; liberal yes, liberandu no. Maybe its their emotional nature. To each his own, I reckon. 

A few Indian American liberandus are dealing with depression, premature womenopause and performing quit America yagnas. We had a situation where millions of Indians hoped that Kamala Harris, the Indian origin contestant from Tamilnadu would loose and she did. Is adharma winning right now? Adharma is appearing as an avatar of dharma is devastating nations and peoples, even its own people.


The American Liberandu

A desi liberandu

Sep 20, 2024

Federation of Indian Community Association's Event At Solon Middle School, City of Solon, Ohio

FICA supported by its leaders Shekar Ganore, Ameet Bathiya, Keyuri Hazarnis, Hemant Kanodia, Abhijeet Runwal, Ritu Mahna, Deepa Rao, Amit Jain, Mitesh Bhandari, Naveen Ulli, Manish Ishwar, Yatish Desai, Nipa Turakhia, Somnath Roy, Sumit Shah, Dhrumil Patel is organizing Anand Mela for Asian Indian Community in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown, Ohio. It will be held on September 28th at Solon Middle School located at 6835 SOM Center Road, in City of Solon Ohio. Indian cuisine by local Asian Indian chefs from various states and regions of India should attract a lot of participants. 

Asian Indian Cultural Festival, Solon Ohio
Anand Mela
Solon Middle School
City of Solon, Ohio
Solon Board of Education, Solon Schools, City of Solon, Ohio
Solon Board of Education Members
Solon Schools, City of Solon, Ohio
Stephanie Abramowitz, Michele Barksdale,
Julie Glavin, John Heckman, Kevin Patton 

Jul 18, 2024

Solon Asian Indian Festival

City of Solon holds Asian Indian Festival


Solon Spring Festival

 
Mayor of Solon
City of Solon, Ohio
Solon Asian Indian Festival
Edward Kraus, Mayor, City of Solon
Solon Community Center, Portz Parkway, Ohio

The very supportive, City of Solon Mayor, Edward Kraus, participated in the first Asian Indian desi festival held at Solon Community Center. 

Participants included DJ TazBeats, Madhuralaya School of Music, Students of of the extraordinary teacher guru Lalit Subramanian, New Bachas on the Block, Antara Datta's Anga Kathak Dance Academy, Solon High School Hindu Students Association, Cleveland Bollywood. 

To participate in the next year's festival, contact Tracy Sullivan, Director of Community and Cultural Enrichment  or Rich Parker, Director of Recreation at City of Solon.

May 25, 2024

Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple, Novi Michigan Complaint

Recall visiting Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple in Novi, Michigan many years back. It was no different than any other Sri Venkateswara Temple. I was a bit surprised to see a complaint dated April 1, 2024! calling for Removing Board Members, End Discrimination and Restore Sanctity of this Hindu temple. 

1. Complainant notes that folks are deeply troubled. Why? How deep are you troubled? What are the symptoms of this trouble? Does the trouble call for a psychiatrist or psychologist? Pankaj, if you don't like this Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple in Novi, Michigan; go to some other Hindu temple in Detroit area...or pray at home? 

There are too many temples in Detroit Michigan that under-serve Hindus anyway. Teaching of Hinduism is very poor. Teachers of Hinduism are foolishly stubborn and impractical. 

Hindu Temples


One can argue that Hindu temples do a disservice to Hindus, they make Hindus weaker, always have. Hindu temples are passive entities when they should be proactively run on the principles of Shri Krishna. Did Shri Krishna do poojas to address the problems between Kaurav and Pandav; hell no, he went to a war with strategy and tactics. Dharma can only be maintained through sustained competition. Shri Ram won by chopping off heads of Ravan, again and again until no heads grew. Chanting shanti, om shanti, is wishful thinking, it won't do anything.

Management of Hindu Temples


Timid and introverted temple boards don't want to take risks, don't want to do more good even if they can, just do the bare minimum poojas and play it safe. Maintain the status quo. If temple management became active and extroverted, it would help Sanatana Dharma, Hindus and  Bharat aka India exponentially. I am not optimistic about it; centuries of planned conditioning and selfishness is hard to overcome.  

Life has changed, Hindu temples must change too or risk going extinct or becoming obsolete in the future. Perhaps Indian governments and politicians want to keep things under their control through legislation. In any case, the liberandus and liberanduism gotta go. 

Novi Michigan Hindu Temple
Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple
Novi, Michigan

2. Complainant notes that board members of Sri Venkateswara Temple displayed arrogance and demanded preferential treatment for themselves. So what? It happens all the time, people are pricks. This is how temple power works. Power corrupts humans and they do adharmic shit or worse often. They are what they are, animals.

3. Complainant notes that board members exhibited discriminatory behavior towards specific volunteers without justification. Again, this happens all the time in every organization. Discrimination is intrinsic to Asian Indians specially with other Asian Indians; they might be nicer to other non-Indians. In the US, they would brown nose whites just like we did in pre-independence India. Just move on...go to a different temple or pray at home or just just don't pray...it won't matter. These things are not worth it in a short life. Its better to self examine our own faults/weaknesses instead of starting petitions. 

4. Complainant notes that they have falsely accused volunteers without evidence and introduced caste politics and favored individuals.  Again this shit happens all the time. Caste-ism, state-ism, town-ism, village-ism, language-ism, skin color-ism, food-ism and finally pubic-hair-ism; you name it and you will find it among Hindus and this shit is never going to leave us. It is ingrained in us because of our poor but qualified teachers, passive ideology and centuries of conditioning. This is how we are...this is how Indian organizations including temples are....just move on, these organizations are not worth it. There are too many wonderful things to do in our great country; parts of it are like a swarg/paradise, go see them. 

5. Board members used misused temple funds and purchased alcohol.....so what, why don't you try Stella Artois or Bud Light, it is a pretty good beer, its a short cut to nirvana and Lord Venkateswara. Knock, knock....doobies are legal in Novi, Michigan, right Pankaj?

6. Complainant notes mistreatment of temple priests. I doubt that there is any Hindu temple where this does not happen. Hindu priests are employees of the temple and they will get mistreated just like any other employee gets treated in society that worships Lord Shri Dollar. This is what corporations are, temples of Lord Shri Dollar. Now, Hindu priests have to work for Hindu management, that's gotta suck, I am not sure though.  

7. Now, Pew Research Center, I wouldn't believe anything that comes from this septic tank.

In conclusion, Pankaj Mian, this complaint at https://www.change.org/p/remove-board-members-end-discrimination-and-restore-sanctity is a dud. Bhai, understand religions first; then understand Hinduism, then understand Hindu temples as non-profit/profit organizations and their board, committees and their management....no? Its about status and power. But Pankaj notes that all temple board members are not stale, so work with these people...that's as good as its going to get. Some people can't see forest for the trees, they are intrinsically small. 

Hindu temple positions are volunteer positions but they get compensated in just an indirect way, it depends on the temple and the location. In worse situations, there are cases where personal properties/donations of naive devout devotees in Detroit have been grabbed and used for personal purposes, this shit happens and won't stop through a change dot org petition. Not paying proper wages to temple workers was in the news in New Jersey, BAPS Swaminarayan Temple.  

Apr 23, 2024

Oberlin College Paagal Ho Gaya

Oberlin College, Rishad Choudhury

 
Oberlin College

Oberlin College has a good reputation among Asian Indians in Cleveland and Akron areas of Ohio. Oberlin College is familiar as an authentic liberal institution known for its music major but not for engineering and computer science that desis often gravitate to. Expensive. Its conveniently located in Northeast Ohio to the west of City of Cleveland.

Now it is the turn of Popat's disciple Rishad Choudhury of Oberlin College to do some chutiyagiri. While desis go to Cornell University, this Popat ka ghulam went to study history. He is creative though as the name Holi Against Hindutva suggests. 
  • Would you willingly pay for your children to take a course from this feller? 
  • Do parents pay good money to undeserving pseudo educational institutions to brainwash their sons and daughters with political nonsense? 
  • What will these activities accomplish? Nothing but its something to do other than give you a fight against injustice boner.
And yes, of course there will be some gu for brains liberandus involved with this chutiya project. Kaam dhanda nahi hai saalon ko.