Counselors Meet for 39th Hindu Heritage Youth Camp (HHYC)

BY maYa HarPavat and aesHa sHaH

Houston: In the few weeks before school starts, campers and counselors look forward to a special week in the summer. It’s a week packed with games, camp friendship reunions, and learning more about Hindu culture. For some, it is their first time coming to camp, and for others, they have been coming for as long as they can remember.

Now in its 39th year, HHYC (Hindu Heritage Youth Camp) has embraced and shared knowledge of Hinduism with campers during a week-long summer camp. Led by counselors, many of which were former campers themselves, this is a week where campers can learn more about their culture while meeting friends and enjoying summer camp activities, such as dodgeball, basketball, canoeing, and swimming.

However, HHYC isn’t just a normal summer camp. Each summer, counselors spend their Sundays at Keshav Smruti, learning about Hindu educational topics, brainstorming games, and planning festivals and celebrations for campers.

Camp counselors are college students and graduates excited to learn more about their culture, and create an environment for campers to feel welcomed, wanting to come back for years to follow. Each meeting starts with a progress check in where counselors share new details about various events they are in charge of. For example, counselors who lead the Talent Show Night, will share how they planned to structure the event, how they will encourage campers to participate and try out for the Talent Show, and discuss ways to to support the campers in this event. Once each counselor has shared their updates, our young leaders split up into the camp’s three main groups- Elementary, Middle, and High. At this time, they share their ideas for new or improved activities that would educate and inspire the campers.

Counselors come up with ideas for arts and craft, free rec, education on Hinduism, and other structured activities such as a debate event for the High School campers. Once the camp logistics have been discussed, we move onto practicing Shakha and Yoga. Each week different counselors will volunteer to demonstrate a few Yoga poses or techniques for us all to learn. To close out our meetings, all of our counselors will play two camp games together and find ways we can make them better for our campers!

“I really enjoy the diverse group of ages coming together and I feel like everyone is so passionate to help the camp come together. It’s interesting to see the planning turn into the best week it can be,” says Nitika Veludandi, a second-time counselor at camp.

Each year, the directors, coordinators, and counselors work hard to inspire youth to expand their knowledge of Hindu concepts, culture, and rich values in unique ways.

Counselors are led by camp directors, who are typically former campers and counselors themself. This year’s directors for HHYC 2023 are Shivangi Dixit and Parth Dargan.

Shivangi Dixit is the daughter of Amulya and Smriti Dixit, and recently graduated from Texas A&M University. Her favorite part of camp is the talent show. She loves seeing campers hype up their friends and have fun together with their new and old friends. She decided to become a director because she appreciates the impact counselors make on campers, and wishes to relive the week of camp over and over again. She’s looking forward to “the campsite and the different format in counselor skits. Having a different panchatantra story and moral every night will be exciting and different. I’m also looking forward to the quality of education- some topics have never been taught before, and the fact that camp keeps on growing each year is awesome.”

Parth Dargan is the son of Simi and R. Dargan, and is a recent graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. His favorite part of camp is Garba, because he loves seeing camper’s moves on the dance floor. He was motivated to become a camp director because “Serving as President of UT’s Seva Charities pushed me to get more involved with my culture and religion.” He hopes to continue this involvement through camp. Parth is most excited for the new campsite, and revamped educations this year.

HHYC is only possible due to the support received from local business and organizations, such as Hindus of Greater Houston, a banner organization that HHYC runs under. We are thankful to volunteers, who are Auntys and Uncles who work as camp doctors, as well as prepare the amazing food that we get to eat each day. As we get ready to begin the construction on our very own campsite, we would like to invite everyone to follow along on the progress at texashinducampsite.org and join us at our fundraiser on October 1, 2023 at the Gujarati Samaj of Houston.

Campers and Counselors are counting down the days until camp, excited for a week of celebration, learning, and lifelong friendships! Make sure to follow along at hinducamp.net!

Maya is a first-time counselor after being a camper for many years, and will be a sophomore at Rice University in the fall. Aesha is a returning counselor who is a graduate of The UT at Dallas and Texas A&M.

‘Bawaal’: Romance in the Shadow of WW II

BY dHawal roY

Story: A young couple going through a rough patch in their marriage embarks on a journey to Europe to explore World War II sites. Will they mend their relationship amidst the historically-charged backdrop?

Review: You know what to expect from a romantic travel movie—postcard-perfect sites, adventure, and the lead pair falling in love on the escapade. Then there’s director Nitesh Tiwari’s Bawaal, which offers all this and much more. To begin with, props to Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (renowned for writing and helming quirky films such as Nil Battey Sannata, Panga, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and more) and for weaving a story on love and war that’s poignant and heartrending yet has light moments and romance without one element overpowering the other. And the movie also teaches some life lessons.

Piyush Gupta, Nikhil Mehrotra, and Shreyas Jain do not have much to offer in terms of the duo’s romantic encounters or Ajay turning into a new leaf. Nisha’s life lessons are done well, such as the real war we fight is looking outward for happiness and our undying greed.

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Send us the correct answer before July 25, 2023. Email us at indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Please send us your solved Sudoku for your name to be published.

Ajay Dixit, aka Ajju (Varun Dhawan), is a hotshot middle school teacher from Lucknow who has faked his way through life and is about keeping up appearances. He marries a full-of-life and bright girl, Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor), because a trophy wife would be good for his image. But Ajay witnesses something on their wedding day that convinces him Nisha might tarnish his perfect image. So, he bars her from stepping out of the house and mistreats her at home.

An incident at his school leads to his suspension with pending disciplinary action. To evade this, he decides to deflect everyone’s attention and complete his History syllabus on World War II by conducting classes from the holocuast sites in Europe. Since his parents fund the trip, Nisha joins him, too. The rest of the movie is about how they relive the soldiers’ and war victims’ agony. The trip proves to be one of self-discovery for Ajay.

The movie’s buildup is a tad sluggish, and it spends too much time overexplaining Ajay’s fabricated image and how he mistreats Nisha. Some tracks are long-drawn and lose the punch after a point—like a Gujarati family constantly passes packets of dry snacks to each other on the plane or when Ajay erroneously ends up at an opera instead of a museum.

The captivating run begins post-interval with the WW II recreation. All the sequences—at Omaha Beach, Anne Frank’s house, and the concentration camp—are intense and splendid. Director Nitesh Tiwary, cinematographer Mitesh Mirchandani and editor

Charu Shree Roy show their prowess, especially in the transitions between the 1940s and the present. The gas chamber sequence during the fag end of the duo’s trip will especially give the viewers gooseflesh. Daniel B George’s background score also complements the scenes well. Mithoon, Tanishk Bagchi and Akashdeep Sengupta’s tracks are hummable, too.

Varun Dhawan gives a powerful performance as a mediocre and selfish guy who cares about nothing else but his image. He effortlessly pulls off scenes where he admits his flaws. He is excellent in the scene when he imagines being a war victim with only 30 minutes and a small bag to pack his entire life and what he prioritises. Janhvi Kapoor shines in the role of a bright but humble girl who holds on to the hope of finding love in her husband. She especially proves her mettle in the scenes she takes Ajay through the painful history of World War II, and her dialogue delivery is on-point. Other cast members, including Manoj Pahwa and Anjuman Saxena as his parents, and Mukesh Tiwari as the MLA, lend able support.

Solution Next Week

While rediscovering love against the backdrop of the World War II is a fresh concept, writers Nitesh,

Kaushika Shah

Licensed Sales Agent 832-282-3515, TT Y 711

Bawaal is worth watching for World War II history, especially the recreation of the holocaust, and Varun as well as Janhvi’s stellar performances..-- Times of India

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