EDUCATION Sri MTS to Host NextGen Hindu Youth Leadership Convention

BY haripriYa sunDaraMurthY

pearlanD: The first, inaugural NextGen Hindu Youth Leadership Convention, hosted and sponsored by the Sri Meenakshi Temple Society, Hindus of Greater Houston, and the Hindu Temple of The Woodlands, will ignite the potential of Hindu youth through a full-day event featuring esteemed speakers, engaging panels, and valuable networking opportunities. This free convention, tailored for Hindu youth aged 17 to 45, will include an impressive lineup of accomplished guest speakers and aims to inspire personal and professional growth, foster community connections, and strengthen cultural pride.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the Sri Meenakshi Temple, this transformative event will take place on July 29th, commencing at 9 AM and concluding with an evening reception and networking dinner from 5 PM to 7:30 PM. Attendees can look forward to an immersive experience that encourages learning, community building, and personal development.

Renowned speakers, both local and international, will share their expertise, insights, and personal journeys to inspire attendees. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from distinguished guest speakers who have made significant contributions to their fields. The convention will feature enlightening panel discussions on Spirituality, Hindu Advocacy, Holistic Health, and Entrepreneurship, guiding participants to explore the significance of these topics in contemporary life. These sessions will equip Hindu youth with the tools and knowledge to make a positive impact within their communities and find a sense of belonging with one another.

Hon’ble D.C. Manjunath, Consul General of India in Houston, will share his wisdom and insights on fostering cultural connections and empowering the youth. Suhag Shukla, Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation, will enlighten participants with her expertise on Hindu advocacy, advocating for Hindu rights, and creating a more inclusive society. Pooja Jesrani, Flight Director at NASA, will be discussing her experience when preparation meets opportunity.

Joseph Emmett, Director of the Vedanta Institute, will delve into the profound teachings of Vedanta and how they can enrich lives.

Professor Shobita Parthasarathy from the University of Michigan will provide valuable insights into the intersection of Hinduism and contemporary society. The convention will also feature pan- el discussions on Spirituality and Hindu advocacy, with Madhu Vasudevan and Rajiv Pandit serving as moderators, respectively.

Sanjay Ramabadran, Chairman of Houston Metro Transit, will lead the panel discussion on Entrepreneurship. The panel will also include esteemed entrepreneurs Partha Chatterjee from Shell Energy and Eddie Stern, Director at the Yoga Institute in New York, who will provide valuable insights and strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the convention is honored to have Hon’ble Judge Arun Subramanian, a Federal Judge in New York as well as Arun Venkataraman, Assistant Secretary at the US Department of State, joining as guest speakers.

The distinguished Professor Vasudha Narayanan from the University of Florida and Jodi Bernstein from Interfaith Ministry will share their wisdom and perspectives on the significance of Hindu temples and interfaith dialogue and collaboration. Last but not least, Kalyan Viswanathan, President of the Hindu Uni- versity of America, will inspire participants with his insights into the importance of education and lifelong learning.

An integral part of the convention is the dedicated networking reception, allowing attendees to connect with like-minded individuals, potential mentors, and professionals from various fields. This vibrant atmosphere will encourage the formation of meaningful relationships and create a supportive network for ambitious Hindu youth.

Complimentary meals and snacks will be provided throughout the day, ensuring participants can fully engage in the enriching content and networking opportunities. The dinner reception is sponsored by the Hindu University of America and will feature some light cultural programs.

The NextGen Hindu Youth Leadership Convention aims to empower Hindu youth by nurturing a sense of pride in their heritage and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to become leaders within their communities. This event serves as a platform to foster a stronger bond within the Hindu community, inspire future generations, and encourage activeparticipation in shaping a positive future.

Mark your calendars for July 29th and seize this extraordinary opportunity to learn, connect, and grow. The first, inaugural NextGen Hindu Youth Leadership Convention promises to be a transformative event that will leave a lasting impact on the lives of Hindu youth.

Although the event is free, Registration is required. RSVP by July 5, 2023. For more information and registration, please visit the event’s Eventbrite site (https://rb.gy/itxk9) or contact the organizers directly at NextGen. HYC@gmail.com. Let us unite, celebrate our heritage, and build a brighter future for the Hindu youth community.

BY alison Cook

the WooDlanDs: Somewhere between Amrina’s habit-forming whiskey naan and juicy, longboned lamb chops, my dining companion announced, “I’d save my money to eat here. And I’d drive to do it.”

Since she lives in Clear Lake and Amrina is in The Woodlands, that meant something. I had to agree: Although this fascinating modern Indian restaurant is a 70-mile-plus round trip from my door, I consider it destination dining.

Chef Jassi Bindra, a stylish fellow with a spark in his eye, has a bold, assured touch with a menu the staff repeatedly refers to as “eclectic.” (I suspect it’s to head off complaints that “this isn’t Indian food.”) Italian, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian touches weave in and out of Amrina’s core Indian menu — in a way that tastes smart and earned, not forced and try-hard.

Just try Bindra’s rectangle of compressed matter paneer, the Indian farmer cheese, layered with a mash of minted green peas and pooled in a lively spiced tomato sauce. “It’s the Indian lasagna,” joked our waiter. The result is both vibrant and delicate, right down to the lacy emerald pea-shoot tendril curling along the top.

Or how about the chef’s “channa masala hummus,” one of several ingenious dips for Bindra’s ingenious Indian flatbread variations. Here was an idea I resisted in principle (yet another improbable “hummus”?) but loved in practice, the whipped chickpeas bursting with warm shadings of spice and beautifully managed heat.

Those are effects at which Bindra excels. During one of his periodic rounds among the tables, I asked him about his Middle Eastern touches and learned that he had eaten widely in the region when he was consulting for a restaurant group that has a location in Dubai.

Later, in Washington, D.C., he earned a Michelin plate designation for his work at Punjab Grill and partnered with an Iranian couple in a more casual restaurant, Layla, where Persian influences came into play. Try it with one of the thoughtful, well-executed cocktails while you figure out the rest of your meal.

Perhaps a classic Last Word in intricate cut glass, uplit by a portable, electric-blue light so that it looks as if it beamed down from Mars. Or a Japanese Gin and Tonic tinged with rosewater and yuzu, the refreshing Cashmere and Lace. Or the Smokey B, its mezcal base touched with Cointreau and Crème de Violette, served up with smoking wood chips in its own little wooden coffin.

My own face lights up whenever I try another stretchy triangle of Bindra’s whiskey naan, the flatbread shimmering with a tangy tamarind-whiskey glaze and finished with a spritz of Laphroaig Scotch from an atomizer, right at the table. It’s insanely good, and I can’t visit Amrina without ordering it right off the bat.

Try it with one of the thoughtful, well-executed cocktails while you figure out the rest of your meal.

Perhaps a classic Last Word in intricate cut glass, uplit by a portable, electric-blue light so that it looks as if it beamed down from

Mars. Or a Japanese Gin and Tonic tinged with rosewater and yuzu, the refreshing Cashmere and Lace. Or the Smokey B, its mezcal base touched with Cointreau and Crème de Violette, served up with smoking wood chips in its own little wooden coffin.

If you’re going for a luxe club atmosphere — which the Singh brothers, Surpreet and Preet Paul Singh, co-owners with Bindra of Amrina’s Kahani Social Group, certainly are — you must have the cocktails and the wine list and even the high-roller caviar service to match. You must have backdrops like the curvaceous tapas bar at which Pretty Young Things will want to TikTok each other. But the heartening thing about Amrina is that the drinks, the tapas-bar tasting menus and the thoughtfully selected wines are all quality initiatives, not hollow gestures. I can’t stop thinking about little details like the $6 pickle service, a very Indian notion that stars everything from baby carrot to mango to skinny little green chiles. Or big things like those swooping lamb chops with their rosy centers, poised on a surprising rubble of chopped lamb keema that comes off like some turbocharged sloppy joe.

I love the mixand-match potential on this menu: the way the varied chutneys and the cool, tart raitas and yogurt dips mesh with this or that; the way the sweet tang of the pineapple chunda relish can light up a savory dish. It’s a voyage of discovery, right down to flatbread accompaniments like a thin, flexible sheet of rumali roti you can use to wrap up anything you please. This is what I call fun.

I admire the way Bindra’s vegetable dishes swagger with importance. As befits cookery from the most vegetarian country in the world, ideas like pan-seared exotic mushrooms (everything from king trumpets to hon shimeji to hen of the woods) on a buttery puree of garlicky spinach exert all the earthy gravitas of nihari beef short rib, with its dark, burnished sauce and topknot of fried “potato spaghetti,” as Bindra calls his Bengali shoestrings.

Jackfruit biryani arrives dumstyle, under a tender pastry dome studded with the wild-onion twinge of kalonji seeds. Eaten with a bit of yogurt sauce and Bindra’s lush, brick-hued dal makhani — the lentils cooked for 24 hours — it’s thrilling stuff, the meaty jackfruit fleshed out with sweetly caramelized onion.

I could go on about the cubes of Spicy Tangy Potatoes or the luxurious spinach with spiced butter and garlic, but you get the idea. I’ve seldom taken a wrong turn on this wide-ranging menu. The sole clunkers were a baked oyster overwhelmed by tandoori-spiced crumbs dotted tamarind gel; and a fruit-strewn coconut panna cotta with bitter, acrid crumbles of glassy brûléed sugar.

That messy dessert seemed wildly out of character for a kitchen that produces a sumptuous cardamom chocolate mousse held in gleamy, dark-chocolate bubbles, as if it were some extraterrestrial quailegg carton. It’s glorious, although the white-chocolate “kiss” lips on top is mere Instagram folderol.

It is easy to run up a dauntingly high tab here. But you can keep to a budget by booking a $65 tasting at the festive “tapas bar,” where dishes are served in entertainingly surrealist modern Spanish style Another cost cutter is ordering off the small plates side of the menu, augmented by flatbreads, chutneys and sides. Crazy-good minced ostrich seekh kebab skewers, perhaps, set off by translucent wafers of gently pickled kohlrabi and blobs of spiced parsnip mousse; or a tender globe of burrata with a semiliquid interior sploosh.

Burrata is such a menu staple these days that it skirts cliché, but not here. Boquerone-style anchovies and a Kashmiri red-chili “sofrito” light up the cheese without obliterating it. Why is Bindra serving it? Because Punjabis have helped rescue the Pugliese cheese industry in recent years.

That’s the kind of multicultural culinary connection this chef loves to make. Houston — and The Woodlands — is lucky to have him.

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