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Indo American News • Friday, Aug 26, 2011
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14th BANA Academic Fest Held on August 13
HOUSTON: Bihar Association of NorthAmerica (BANA), a non-profit organization based in Houston, TX, USA hosted 14th edition of Academic Fest on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 at the Houston Community College campus in Stafford, TX. More than 100 students from 1st through 12th grade participated in the primary, elementary, middle, and high school sections in variety of activities like Spelling Bee, Math Sense, Fine Arts, Vocabulary, Speech, SAT Practice Test and Debate. The event was kicked off by the lead organizer Ravi Ranjan followed by welcome by the BANA president Bijay K Singh. BANA’s youth ambassador Ashay Bhavishi gave a brief orientation of the Academic Fest including schedule of the day. Subsequently he highlighted mission of the organization and accomplishments. At the end of the orientation all participants were led to their assigned classrooms by their coordinators. Around noon, all participants too
Umesh Prasad. BANA secretary and lead organizer Ravi Ranjan thanked and congratulated all organizers, volunteers, judges and sponsors for their help and support for a very successful Academic Fest 2011. Listed below are winners by categories. (High School-Debate) 1-Saket Jha, 2-Vinamra Prakash, 3-Lakshmi Poornima Tamma Bidhu Prakash, Rakesh Sinha, Ayash Bhavishi, Chandeshwar Sharma, (High School-SAT Practice Mithilesh Kumar, Vijay singh, Santosh Jha, Yusuf Sultan, Ravi Ranjan, Test) 1-Shomik Verma, 2-Ayush Bijay K Singh, Hemant Jha with his son Harsh and Madhusudan Sharma, 3-Lakshmi Poornima Choudhary Tamma break for lunch. The contest con- concrete facts in a close contest. (Middle School-Speech) 1-Shreetinued after the break with brisk Winners were awarded trophies and tika Singh, 2-Shreya Gupta, speed. The event closed with the final certificates by distinguished guests 3-Yashi Prasad, 4-Vidisha Ganesh, round of the High School debate. The and BANA ex-presidents Mr. Ram 5-Saijayanth Mosalakanti topic “Be resolved nuclear energy Mohan Mallik, Vijay Singh, and Dr. (Middle School-Math) 1-Pranay is harmful to humanity?” was very Madhusudan Choudhary and current Krishna Tamminayana, 2-Nikhil informative and the finalists debated president Mr. Bijay K Singh. Gattu,3-Anusha De, 4-Yashi Prasad, each other’s views in a respectable Award ceremony was conducted 5-Smriti Ahuja and professional manner, professing by Ashay Bhavishi, supported by (Middle School-Vocabulary) their opinions and arguments with Mithilesh Kumar, Rakesh Sinha and 1-Juhi Choudhury, 2-Saku, 3-Pranay
Krishna Tamminayana, 4-Anusha De, 5-Naveen Chokkar (Elementary School-Spelling Bee) 1-Anuraag Madabushi, 2-Shobha Dasari, 3-Pratik R Pohuja, 4-Sanath Govindarajan, 5-Tony Jha (Elementary School-Math Sense) 1-Anuraag Madabushi, 2-Shomik Ghose, 3-Sanath Govindarajan, 4-Sathvik Reddy Gujja, 5-Hrishikesh Kommu (Elementary School-Fine Arts) 1-Aakash Sinha, 2-Tony Jha, 3-Amish, 4-Hrishikesh Kommu, 5-Arya Ranjan (Primary School-Spelling Bee) 1-Raksheet Reddy Kota, 2-Noopur Dayal, 3-Shourav Dasari, 4-Sunaina Ayyagari, 5-Sneha S. Shenoy (Primary School-Math Sense) 1-Raksheet Reddy Kota, 2-Sneha S. Shenoy, 3-Abhinav Vadassery, 4-Abhinav Sinha, 5-Pramit De (PrimarySchool-FineArts)1-Sneha S. Shenoy, 2-Sweta Gupta, 3-Noopur Dayal, 4-Surya Chokkar, 5-Nilesh Madi Sagar
Houstonians Join Anna Hazare in Second Freedom Movement HOUSTON: Hundreds of Houstonians and people from surrounding cities like Dallas, San Antonio, Austin etc. joined Anna Hazare’s movement demanding the Jan Lokpal Bill. Meanwhile New Delhi, bolstered by consensus at the all-party meeting that parliamentary processes cannot be subverted, the government drew the hard line in its talks with Team Anna this evening, rejecting their demand to adopt the Jan Lokpal Bill in toto, and telling them bluntly that
the collective will of parties in Parliament could not be defied. Emerging from the meeting at Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s North Block office, ashen-faced aides of Anna Hazare told reporters that the government had done a volte face over yesterday, and that negotiations were back to “square one”. Soon afterward, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan joined Anna on the stage at Ramlila Maidan, and told the crowd that should the fasting activist be picked
Protest at India House
Protest at Indian Consulate
up tonight, they must not turn violent. “They (the government) have gone back on their assurances. Today there was a sea change in their attitude,” Arvind Kejriwal said after emerging from the meeting tonight. Kiran Bedi added, “It didn’t seem like we were talking to the same people whom we spoke with yesterday. There was a difference of day and night in their attitude. Kal suna, aaj sunaaya (Yesterday we were heard, today we were rebuked).” “Yesterday it appeared that government or ministers representing government were sympathetic and that only three issues of lower bureaucracy, lokayukta and citizens’ charter remained unresolved. But today we have been told that parliamentary procedures cannot be short-circuited. That some timeline will have to be adhered to, though it’s not clear what the timeline will be. We are quite disappointed with today’s meeting.” Anna Hazare’s health was “reaching a difficult stage”, his associate Kiran Bedi tweeted Tuesday evening. “Pray for Anna’s health. He is reaching a difficult stage. Dr Trehan is on his way,” Bedi tweeted. Tuesday was day eight of 74-year-old Anna Hazare’s fast against the government’s Lokpal bill. “While talks will be on we are very concerned of Anna’s health. Pray pl(ease),” Bedi said. Hazare’s health condition was said to be fine by doctors Tuesday morning. He has lost 5.5 kg. Ketone particles have been found in his blood but were said to be in the safe limit. Delhi-based actor and model Salina Wali Khan too has joined the fray. Salina has said that she will dance naked if the government doesn’t pass the Jan Lokpal Bill proposed by Anna Hazare and his team.
HOUSTON: MakeMyTrip.com exhibit at the recent India Independence Day Celebrations at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston attracted a large number of visitors. A special incentive for filling out a simple questionnaire at their booth was an entry to win one round-trip air ticket from anywhere in the USA to any destination in India. In the photo above, former Indian military official, Vipin Kumar, draws the winning entry. The winner was Sandhya Shah of Houston. The others in the picture are, from left, Vaishnavi Dusi, Jacob David and Revanth Dusi. Photo: Krishna Giri
HOUSTON: Over eighty guests attended an exclusive dinner reception in honor of Dr. Abdul Kalam at the India House on August 21. The former President of India had engaging discussions with attendees on various topics including the widespread corruption in India; how the movement under the leadership of Anna Hazare is making a huge impact worldwide; and what we as Indian Americans can do to support this mass movement in India. In photo above, Ash Shah (left), Savita Rao and Kiran Gupta become apt listeners to Dr. Kalam’s words of wisdom.
Indo American News • Friday, AUGUST 26 , 2011 • Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com