Samarpanam 2007

Samarpanam A humble offering…

tmsae ma JyaeitgRmy

...

Tamaso maa jyothir gamaya…

Lead me from darkness unto light...

2006 Annual Report

Hindu Temple and Community Center of Mid-Missouri (HTCC) January 2007

HTCC

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Contents Daily Prayer Page …………………………………………………………………….

Message from the Board of Trustees ……………..…………………………..

Shanthi Mandir Benefactors ………………………...………………..………..

Report from the Executive Board ……………………………...……………….

2006 - The Highlights ………………………...…………………………………

Map and Directions to Shanthi Mandir …………..………………………..

Shram Daan Volunteers ………………...……………………………………….

Devotional Programs ………………………..………………………………………

Educational Programs ………………………..……………………………………..

Facilities and Renovation …………………….…………………………………….

Financial Planning ……………………...…………………………………………….

2006 Financial Report ……….…….….………………………………………….

Fund-Raising and Membership …………………...……………………………..

Photo Gallery …………………………...……………………………………………..

Library ……………………………………….…………………………………………….

Operations and Maintenance …………………………...……………………..

Public Relations and Publicity ………………….……………………………….

Safety and Security …………………………..…………………………………..

Scheduling ………………………………….…………………………………………..

Service Programs ………………………..……………………………………………

Youth Activities ……………………………...…………………………………………

2006 HTCC Directory ………………….…………………………………………..

Tentative Calendar of Events ………………………...………………………..

Current Programs at the Mandir ………………….………………………………

2 3 4 5 6 6 7 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 21 22 23 25 27 29 30 31 35 36

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SAMARPANAM

Daily Prayer Page Morning Prayer This prayer is to be recited soon after waking up.

KARAAGRE VASATE LAKSHMI KARA MADHYE SARASWATHI KARA MOOLE STHITA GAURI PRABAHATE KARA DARSHANAM On the tip of my fingers resides Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity and wealth. In the middle of my hands is Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and learning. In the palm of my hands sits Mother Gauri, the Goddess of protection. Visualizing in this manner, I take darshan of my hands every morning.

Meal Prayer This 24th verse from the 4th chapter of Bhagavad Gita is to be recited before every meal.

BRAHMAARPANAM BRAHMA HAVIR BRAHMAAGNAU BRAHMANAA HUTAM BRAHMAIVA TENA GANTAVYAM BRAHMA KARMA SAMAADHINAHA The act of offering is Brahman (The Supreme). The offering itself is Brahman. The offering is done by Brahman in the sacred fire which is Brahman. He alone attains Brahman who, in all actions, is fully absorbed in Brahman. (As we chant this prayer we are offering the different types of food to Brahman).

Gayatri Mantra The Gayatri Mantra can be recited anytime, but is ideally suited during morning prayer-time.

OM BHUR BUVAHA SUVAHA THATH SAVITHUR VARENYAM BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI DHIYO YONAHA PRACHODAYATH We contemplate the glory of Light illuminating the three worlds: gross, subtle, and causal.

I am that vivifying power, love, radiant illumination, and divine grace of universal intelligence.

We pray for the divine light to illumine our minds.

Asotoma Sadgamaya Prayer This Prayer is typically recited as a conclusion to a meditation/prayer session ASATOMA SADGAMAYA THAMASO MAA JYOTHIR GAMAYA MRITHYOR MAA AMRUTHAM GAMAYA AUM SHANTHI SHANTHI SHANTIHI Lead me from the unreal unto the real. Lead me from darkness unto light. Lead me from death unto immortality. May there be universal peace.

Night Prayer This prayer is to be recited at bedtime.

KARA CHARANA KRITHAM VAAK KAAYAJAM KARMAJAM VAA SRAVANA NAYANAJAM VAA MAANASAM VAA APARADHAM VIHITHAM AVIHITHAM VAA SARVAMETAT KSHAMASVA JAYA JAYA KARUNAABDHE SRI MAHA DEVA SHAMBHO Oh Lord, please forgive me for all the wrong actions that I have committed with my hands, feet, speech, body, ears, eyes and mind. Please pardon me for all the wrong actions that I have done knowingly or unknowingly.

Victory to You, oh Lord of compassion and mercy.

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Message from Board of Trustees

A

s we complete one exciting year of HTCC, there is much to celebrate and hope for the future. Shanthi Mandir has been a source of our joys and a home for our prayers. We are grateful to the spirit of service, devotion and love that has enriched the Hindu community under the umbrella of the temple. It can only grow and it surely will, by the grace of God and your enthusiastic participation.

Being a University town, Columbia is a city full of newly arriving students, residents and faculty, who are young and energetic, often with small children.

This is particularly true of the Indian community. The overwhelming response and participation by this group underscores the need we have had for a place of worship and service.

We hope this humble abode of worship will grow in time to fulfill the needs of the entire community.

http://shanthimandir.missouri.org

The temple has become a hub of activity drawing upon the richness and diversity of our religious and cultural heritage. A casual glance at the web site of Shanthi Mandir can testify to the truth of this assertion. We hope and pray that we continue in the path that we have set for ourselves.

The financial report on Page 15 clearly shows that we are on a sound fiscal path. The voluntary services along with the generous financial contributions by the community have been very heartening. Our membership is growing. Like any one-year old, we have much learning ahead of us. We sincerely believe that the potential of our community to serve Columbia far exceeds what we have achieved to date. Given our experience during this wonderful first year, we are certain that with your support and effort, we can collectively make a positive contribution to the Columbia community.

Shanthi Mandir Home on the web. COIN, our web host, has been an invaluable asset!

Board of Trustees Vairam Arunachalam Holalkere R. Chandrasekhar2 Meera Chandrasekhar Anantha Gopalaratnam Vellore S. Gopalaratnam Nila Gupta3 Kattesh Katti Inder Khurana Jasmit Khurana Sunder Lal Moonmoom Mitra Ranadhir Mitra1 Kannappan Palaniappan Harsha Patel Nitin Patel Anuradha Rajagopalan V. Ramachandran Chandra Rawlani Ramesh Rawlani Hema Srinivasan 1. Interim Trustee President 2. Interim Trustee Vice-President 3. Interim Trustee Secretary

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Shanthi Mandir Benefactors

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hanks go to members of Shubh Kaam, the limited liability company which acquired the Shanthi Mandir property at 2006 Holly Avenue in September 2005 for the exclusive use of HTCC for its taxexempt worship and service activities. The formation of this private company facilitated timely acquisition of the Shanthi Mandir property. The property is made available to HTCC free of rent. Many Shubh Kaam members volunteer and serve HTCC in different capacities. Shubh Kaam, LLC. and its members do not receive any monetary or other form of compensation for their contributions. Once the taxexempt application for HTCC is approved, Shubh Kaam, LLC. plans to deed the property and its monetary assets over to

W

e wish to sincerely thank donors making monetary contributions of $100 or more during 2006:

$100-$499 Kujala Gandhi and Sriyala Luthra, Sanjay and Sarika Mudrick,Nathan William Sehgal, Om and Toshi Viswanath, Dabir and Pramila

Thank you!

Dhanyavaad!

O

HTCC. The benefits that Shubh Kaam, LLC. members will receive in terms of governance opportunities is no different from that of a non-Shubh Kaam member who makes an identical amount of monetary donation to HTCC anytime before December 31, 2007.

Thanks are also due to Shubh Kaam members for paying for all facilities upgrades to-date, including repair, paving and striping of the Shanthi Mandir parking lot, upgrade of the main prayer hall flooring including the laminate flooring of the altar, landscaping to improve drainage, upgrade of electrical wiring to meet code standards, renovation of kitchen facility, and installation of fire alarms.

$500-$2,000 Alreja, Laxman and family Elangovan, Balakrishnan and Abi Kutikkad, Kiratadas and Geetha Loyalka, Sudarshan and Nirja Nagar, Murari Lal and Sarla

ur Wish List was developed to functionally enhance the operations at Shanthi Mandir. The generosity of our Wish List donors is greatly appreciated.

Coffee makers - Manjula and Vivek Nathan Wireless microphone system - Moe and Anand Chandrasekhar Digital projector and mount - Leena and Vikram Pattarkine Refrigerator with ice maker - Manjula Narasimhan and Bharath Srinivasan Electric stove and oven - Surya and Murali Mantrala, and Shuba and Ratti Ratneshwar Audio system with 4 microphones - Punam

and Sanjiv Sethi Resin top banquet tables - Balaji and Akila, Kalai and Senthil Kumar, Raji and Krishna Subramanian Book cases with glass doors - Sumathy and N. Mathialagan Self-propelled lawn mower - Varsha and Lokesh Tejwani Pedestal fans - Kusum and Anil Malhotra

T

hanks to the Rangnekar family for donating the services of a plumber to commission the kitchen facility at Shanthi Mandir. The kitchen, next only to the prayer hall, has been immensely useful for organizing all of our festivals and Pujas.

S

udarshan and Nirja Loyalka have proactively initiated a program whereby automated monthly donations from their bank are made to support Mandir activities. This is a very creative approach to defray part of the operational costs of HTCC. We are grateful not only for their donations but also for their thoughtfulness in reminding us and other HTCC members of this possibility. If you would like to participate in a similar program, please contact the Executive Board. We can help you set up an auto pay donation plan.

Please pardon us if we have inadvertently missed acknowledging cash or in-kind contributions from you. We would be glad to correct the error as soon as possible.

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Report from Executive Board A

s we pen this annual report and reflect on the year just past, we have many milestones to celebrate.

Our application for federal tax-exempt status under Section 501 (c) 3 was submitted to the IRS on Thursday, January 11, 2007. The effort to summarize for this application, the breadth and depth of our devotional, educational, youth and service activities during our first year was a significant undertaking. The effort also drove home the fact that we have had a very busy first year! The bullet item summary of our various activities during 2006 included on Page 6, should make well-established temples proud.

On the membership front we have made steady progress towards our goal of 50 lifetime members during this first year. As Samarpanam hits the press, we have 45 lifetime members.

Given the steady growth in our membership base it might not be too long before we achieve our target. We have a healthy growth in our annual membership as well. As of this writing we have 32 annual members for 2006 after over half-a-dozen recent upgrades to lifetime membership. Our 2007 membership drive which has only just begun already has 5 new members and 8 renewals.

On the fiscal front, we have a healthy bank balance. The steady state operating costs (excluding one time start-up costs, Page 15), of approximately $10,000 is adequately covered by donations received during the year, thanks to the fact that we do not have a mortgage burden or rent to worry about. Even with anticipated increases in operating expenses with steady growth of our programs, it is likely that revenues from membership dues can be set aside for medium and long-term building projects. With the approval of our 501 (c) 3 status we will no doubt embark on a capital drive to allow us to better serve the community with significant infrastructure upgrades.

A good measure of the success of a nonprofit religious organization is the volunteer hours it can muster for various projects. By this measure too we have done very well during our first year. We have 12 committees with open membership that allows everyone interested, a role in governance. Besides service on committees we have Shram Daan and other service projects to benefit Shanthi Mandir and the Columbia community. By very conservative estimates, we would have racked up in excess of 15,000 volunteer hours not counting time spent for committee meetings. The list of

volunteers comprises kids as young as 4 and the “young at heart” at 70s!

While all of the above accomplishments auger well in an administrative sense, “the soul of our being” is to provide our community a religious home and the opportunity to serve others. On these fronts too we have truly made our impact. If you have been taking-in articles in the quarterly newsletter, Shanthi Sandesh, we have broadly classified our program offerings into four categories – devotional, educational, youth and service. Since more detailed reports from each of these committees are included elsewhere in this report we will not duplicate them here. Needless to say we strive to offer a range of programs in each category to cater to different age groups and to members with varied interests.

Besides our program offerings, we have several groups providing much needed support to our primary mission. This includes the effort to support our educational, youth and devotional programs through the establishment of the HTCC Library. Having put in a years’ worth of work, behind the scenes, in acquiring, assembling, classifying, cataloging books and other digital media we are now ready to showcase our library during an inauguration ceremony as a part of the HTCC’s first anniversary celebrations. Our Public Relation and Publicity, Operations and Maintenance, Safety and Security, and Scheduling committees have done a yeoman task in support for our primary mission. Our FundRaising and Membership committee, the Financial Planning committee and the Executive Board Facilities and Renovation committee have done their part as well in making it all Vellore S. Gopalaratnam1 happen. Thanks to all these committees Anuradha Rajagopalan2 and its volunteer membership.

Inder Khurana3 There are obviously challenges ahead.

Visala Palaniappan4 We still have much learning ahead of us.

With the kind of support we have received, 1. Interim President we are limited only by our imagination in 2. Interim Vice-President creatively serving the Columbia community.

3. Interim Secretary Help us help you!

4. Interim Treasurer We invite you to participate in the Mandir activities of interest to you and your family. As always, if you have ideas for new programs to serve our community, please do not hesitate to let us know. We have a “Comments/Feedback” form online as well as a “Feedback” box at the Mandir.

See you at the Mandir!

Watch your Words, Action, Thoughts, Character and Heart.

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2006 - The Highlights Membership and Fiscal Highlights  Lifetime Family Members: 41  2006 Annual Family Members: 31  2006 Annual Individual Members: 5  2007 Annual Family Members: 6  2007 Annual Individual Members: 1  Timely quarterly fiscal reports published  Healthy bank balance for steady-state operations

Administrative Accomplishments  Active committee structure in place to

involve all interested members in governance of HTCC  Incorporation of HTCC as a non-profit corporation in the State of Missouri  Sales/Use tax exemption from State of Missouri  Application for IRS 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt status (Submitted for IRS approval)

 Food N’ Thought 1: Meditation and Stress Management

Kate Walker

 Food N’ Thought 2: Yoga and a Healthy Lifestyle

Kate Walker

 Is The Buddha Relevant?

Philip Jones

Youth Activities

 Membership data base and directory maintenance

Library  Acquisition and assembly of book cases  Acquisition of holy scriptures  Acquisition and cataloging of books  Library check-out procedures and open hours

Regular Programs:

Safety and Security  Fire safety inspection of Shanthi Mandir

Special Programs:

 Safety and security guidelines formulated  First aid kit installed at the Mandir  Overflow parking – Standing

 Bal Puja  Bal Sabha

 Origami class  Desi tennis tournament  Basic computer skills summer workshop  Math 2006 New Horizons summer workshop

 Moviemaker summer workshop  HTCC Youth day

completed

arrangement in place

Networking and Outreach  Hickman Desi Club – Shram Daan visit  Center for Religion, the Professions, and

 Main water line upgraded

the Public - A town hall meeting participation Regular Programs:  Woodcrest Chapel – Dine and Discuss  Narayan Seva, Lunch service - Sai Bhajan presentation Group  Columbia Values Diversity – Planning  Anna Daan – Food donation to Central committee Missouri Food Bank (CFMB)  Meetings with Jefferson City residents  Monthly volunteering at CFMB  Moberly Area Community College –  Adopt a Spot, Ridgeway Elementary Religious studies class Mandir visit School - Bal Sabha  Boone Hospital Center liaison/  Shram Daan – Volunteer service projects presentations at Shanthi Mandir  Interfaith Council of Columbia - Ongoing Special Programs: Participation  Clean-up Columbia – HTCC Helping  Columbia Human Rights Commission Hands Ongoing interactions and support  Eldercare Visits – Bal Sabha

Devotional Programs

Cultural Programs

 Sai Bhajan  Venkateshwara Suprabhatam/Vishnu

 Bharata Natyam class – Soorya Dance

Infrastructure Renovations and Upgrades  Main altar and deity pictures installed  Prayer hall flooring upgraded  Audio and video equipment installed  LAN with wireless internet installed  Operational kitchen commissioned  Electrical and fire code upgrades completed

 Parking lot repaved and striped  Termite inspection and treatment completed

 Landscaping to improve drainage completed

Regular Programs:

Sahasranaamam  Kirtan  Open prayer hours

Pujas and Festivals:

 New Year Puja  Samuhika Satyanarayana Puja  Maha Shivaratri  Shri Rama Navami  Janmashtami  Ganesh Chaturthi  Navaratri Puja/Devi Jaagran  Karva Chauth  Deepavali Lakshmi Puja  Skanda Sashti  Guru Nanak Jayanthi Educational Programs Regular Programs:

 Tamil language class  Hindi language class Special Programs:

 Hindu Temple, Community Activism and You

Sam Kannappan

Service Programs

Regular Activities:

Map and directions to Shanthi Mandir

Company

Special Programs:

 SaReGaMa – Light classical fund-raising concert

 Swarnanjali – Informal showcase of local talent

Operations and Maintenance Activities Regular Activities:

 Weekly Mandir cleaning by volunteers  Weekly lawn mowing by volunteers Special Programs:

 Gardening/Landscaping of Mandir frontage

 Garage sale and Mela Publications and Publicity Activities  Dynamic and informative web site  Shanthi Sandesh – An informationpacked quarterly

 Timely e-mail notices to Friends of The

Mandir  Timely media and hard-copy notices for events  Maintain up-to-date online photo gallery

Directions:

Take Exit 127 on Interstate 70, Head north on Rangeline Street, Right at first traffic light on Vandiver Drive, Left on Parker Street, Right on Holly Avenue, Shanthi Mandir sign will be visible on the right after 5-6 homes.

Sign-up to receive timely notices:

Please send us your e-mail address if you would like to be included on the Friends of the Mandir distribution list to receive timely program notices. Visit us at: http://shanthimandir.missouri.org

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Shram Daan Volunteers

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hile financial resources are needed to operate any organization effectively, little can be accomplished without the selfless donation of time and effort on the part of volunteers. Numerous members and other individuals volunteered their time in planning , organizing, executing and cleaning-up after many of the events at the Mandir. We are truly indebted to all of you who gave us an invaluable resource - your time!

While every effort has been made to recognize all the volunteers, please pardon us if we have inadvertently left out your name. We estimate conservatively that collectively all of us put in well over 15,000 hours of

volunteer time during 2006. The ownership equity of such devotion is immeasurable in monetary terms!

Shrama Daan (donation of labor – volunteerism) is a concept that has long been ingrained in our way of life.

Mahatma Gandhi and Vinobha Bhave made volunteerism popular in preindependent India and used it effectively to undertake social development programs in rural India.

Self-help and helping others through community service are attributes that enrich all our lives. When you are a part of the team, you have an opportunity to: support a cause you truly believe in, apply your skills and acquire new ones, make new friends

and develop contacts, feel the personal satisfaction of helping others, and make a difference in your own community. The rewards of service are as unique and personal as your reasons for wanting to volunteer.

While our focus during this formative first year has largely been on for the upkeep of Shanthi Mandir, we have begun a systematic program of service to the larger Columbia community, as described on Page 29. We seek your support in this endeavor. We are a caring community that has much to offer Columbia. Let us team up and realize this untapped potential!

Aarti Nagarkar Abi Elangovan Aditi Rangenekar Aditya Srinath Alagu Arunachalam Amit Patel Amolak Singh Anand Chandrasekhar Anantha Gopalaratnam Anchal Sethi Anil Malhotra Aniruddha Raychaudhuri Anjna Sethi Anmol Sethi Anuradha Rajagopalan Arjun Khurana Arkashubra Ghosh Ashok Cutkosky Aswath Kumar Avanti Rangnekar B. S. Balaji Bala Elangovan Balkrishna Ratnaparkhe Bharath Srinivasan Bhisham Tolani Chandra Rawlani Dale Cutkosky Gagneesh Rawat Geetha Kutikkad Gyan Srivastava Harsha Patel Hema Srinivasan Holalkere Chandrasekhar Inder Khurana Indira Ramaswamy Jasmit Khurana Kalayarsi Kumar Kannan Sankaranarayanan Kannappan Palaniappan Kate Walker Kattesh Katti

Kavita Katti Kiratadas Kutikkad Kirthi Rangnekar Krishna Sharma Krishna Subramanian Kuljit Sandhu Kunal Chaudhary Kusum Malhotra Leela Jashnani Lokesh Tejwani Manjula Narasimhan Manjula Nathan Maya Cutkosky Maya Ramachandran Meena Thawani Meera Chandrasekhar Meghna Srinath Milind Ratnaparkhe Mythili Ramachandran Nahush Katti Naimish Balaji Nandhu Radhakrishnan Naresh Kujala Nidhi Khurana Nila Gupta Nila Palaniappan Nirja Loyalka Nitin Patel Nitin Rangnekar Nithya Balaji Niyati Rangnekar Pramod Srivastsava Prerna Srinivasan Punam Sethi Pushpa Ratnaparkhe R. Bhaskaran Raj Lal Rajesh Kulkarni Raji Subramanian Rajini Tolani Rajiv Dhand

Ram Ramaswamy Rama Srivastava Ramesh Rawlani Ranadhir Mitra Ratti Ratneshwar Ravi Thawani Ravindra Battula Richard Sternadori Ritcha Mehra-Chaudhary S. Akila Sandhya Sharma Sangita Sharma Sanjiv Sethi Saroj Mohan Satish Anand Senthil Kumar Sheela Lal Shefali Srivastava Shreyas Srinivasan Shuba Ratneshwar Sikka Srivastava Srinath Gopalakrishna Sriyala Kujala Sumidha Katti Sunder Lal Surya Mantrala Sushma Anand Sushama Nagarkar Uma Srinath V. Ramachandran Vairam Arunachalam Varsha Pherwani Vasanthi Bhaskaran Vellore Adithi Vellore Gopalaratnam Vidhya Mantrala Vijaya Kattumuri Vikram Arunachalam Visala Palaniappan

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SAMARPANAM

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SAMARPANAM

Devotional Programs A

Chandra Rawlani1 Kusum Malhotra2 Vellore S. Gopalaratnam3 Siriyala Gandhi Srinath Gopalakrishna Vinita Khanna Nirja Loyalka Manjula Nathan Varsha Pherwani Kuljit Sandhu Punam Sethi Hema Srinivasan Meena Thawani 1. Chair 2. Secretary 3. Executive Board Liaison

s HTCC devotional committee members, we took on the responsibility of planning the devotional calendar and organizing the various celebrations to mark special festivals for the year. We are pleased with the excellent support we received from HTCC members. We are glad that the attendance at temple events and festivals has steadily increased.

Our 2006 devotional calendar got off to a roaring start with the New Year Puja - a devotional celebration with shlokas and songs. The February Maha Shivaratri celebration at the Mandir was packed with devotees. The program started off with Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam and devotees later chanted the Durga Suktam, Shiva Panchaksharam, and other prayers. The religious ceremony concluded with the recitation of Shiva Gayathri nine times.

Shri Ram Navami celebrations at the Mandir were spread over three days. The Ashtotra Puja and youth shloka recitation was held on April 2 and Archana was performed by Shri M.R. Srinivasan. Later on the April 6, numerous bhajans dedicated to Lord Rama were sung. The April 8 event included Pushpa Archana and a reading of Sundar Kaand (Tulsi Ramayan).

The 2006 Samuhika Satyanarayana Puja was conducted on May 14th, 2006 which also coincided with graduation celebrations at MU. Janmashtami (Krishna Jayanthi) celebrations were held on Sunday August 20. There was lot of excitement as the kids reenacted the “Matki” breaking ceremony outside.

This required them to form a human pyramid to reach a piñata containing candies and chocolates (traditionally a clay pot containing butter and milk). The festivities continued with children and adults singing in praise of Lord Krishna. Some devotees displayed their artwork as well.

Ganesh Chaturthi is very significant to Columbia’s Hindus because not only does it include making the clay idol of our beloved Lord Ganesha, but it marks the day in 2005 when Shanthi Mandir opened its doors for

worship. That the Mandir has grown to serve the community well in the year was evident in no small measure during the 2006 Ganesh Chaturthi puja when in excess of 150 devotees gathered to pray to the “remover of all obstacles”.

Deepavali was celebrated at the Mandir on October 21. The Mandir was decorated with lights and diyas to welcome wisdom and remove darkness. Adults and children alike worshiped the Goddess Lakshmi by reciting shlokas in Her praise. Well over 100 people attended this celebration.

One of the biggest festivities of the year was the Navaratri Durga Puja Jaagran in which guests invited from Chicago officiated the puja. Shri. Satish Bhagwat chanted shlokas and sang Devi songs transporting us to the holy shrine of Vaishno Devi.

Karva Chauth was celebrated this year on October 10. Karva Chauth holds tremendous social and cultural significance for the married Hindu women. The women dressed in their fineries gathered at Shanthi Mandir and performed Gauri puja, katha and then exchanged thalis and Karvas. This was followed by a social hour from 7-8 PM where they sang traditional folk songs accompanied by the festive sound of the Dholak. In the evening after the moon-rise all women performed a moon puja before breaking their fast.

The Gurpurab Celebration, which took place on November 5, was also very well received. We were blessed to celebrate Guru Nanak’s Birthday with our guests from St. Louis, Mrs. Kulwant Kaur and her daughter Kiran.

The Committee also ensured that the temple is kept open for the devotees for open prayer times on Tuesday and Saturday evenings. Committee members also help out with other related events held at the Mandir including “Sai Bhajan”, “Kirtan” and “Suprabhatam”.

The Columbia Hindu community and Shanthi Mandir have come a long way during this last year. The devotional committee has already started planning for special festivals and pujas for 2007. continued on the following page...

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Educational Programs

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he Education Programs committee provides the intellectual, organizational and logistical support to the on going educational efforts by HTCC .

The committee meets every other month on the 4th Sunday between 12:00 - 1:30 PM. at the temple.

New Programs The education committee has been involved in organizing education classes for adults such as the "Bhagvad Gita Study Circle". The committee floated a questionnaire regarding the “Bhagvad Gita Study Circle” at the Deepavali celebrations at the temple. Based on the input received the “Bhagvad Gita Study Circle” now meets every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month between 6:00-7:30 PM at the Shanthi Mandir (the temple). The first meeting of the “Bhagvad Gita Study Circle" was held on December 9th.

We are currently working on organizing “Yoga Camp" for adults as well as kids.

The educational committee also actively provides support for organizing Tamil and Hindi language classes being held regularly at Shanthi Mandir.

Educational Seminars Several interesting educational talks have also been organized at the temple in the past year. One such interesting talk “Is the Buddha Relevant?” was hosted on June 18, 2006. Buddha was born approximately 2,550 years ago. Is the story of his life and his primary teachings still relevant to our lives in this century?

This was the primary question explored in this talk by Philip Jones. Phil is a teacher associated with the “Show Me Dharma insight meditation group” in Columbia, MO.

He also gave us some useful insight in Buddha’s “Noble Eightfold Path” involving three interrelated practices: (i) Developing a generous and ethical life; (ii) Training the mind, through meditation, (iii) And, recognizing thoughts and behaviors that lead to suffering and which ones lead to contentment.

Food N’ Thought Brunch Workshops Our brunch seminar series "Food n' Thought" has been very popular. These interactive hands-on workshop involve demonstrations and discussions with the speaker. It is followed-up by informal discussions during a delicious Indian brunch. The first two workshops held were on "Meditation and Stress Management" and "Yoga and healthy lifestyle", respectively. In both instances the talk was given by Ms. Kate Walker. Kate has 35 years of experience in teaching yoga, meditation and stress management. She has been a disciple of "Shri Aurobindo” for many years. Some of the topics for the future brunch series seminars under consideration include: Ayurvedic Medicine the Wisdom of the Ages; Vedanta and 21st century living, Nutrition and Health, and Anger Management.

Ritcha Mehra-Chaudhary1 Liaison and Contact Information Besides activities directly organized by the education committee, it also interacts and supports the activity of other committees such as youth and devotional committees. We are always looking for committed people in the community to join us. If you have suggestions for new programs or would like to join us please email the Chair at RitchaMehra@yahoo.com.

Aniruddha RayChaudhuri2 Sriyala Devi Kujala3 Inder Khurana4 Kalai S. Kumar Arpita Kumar Sushama Nagarkar 1. Chair 2. Vice-Chair 3. Secretary 4. Executive Board Liaison

The end of education is character...

A Tentative Calendar of Events for 2007 is included on Page 35. We look forward to serving you and seeing you at the Mandir as often as you can make it. Please help support the temple during festivals and

pujas that require dinner sponsorship by teaming up with your friends. These events have been appropriately denoted in the Calendar of Events.

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SAMARPANAM

Facilities and Renovations

T

he last year has been marked with a number of infrastructure improvement projects at Shanthi Mandir where this committee had an advisory role. Since the property was acquired the major infrastructure upgrade projects have included: repair, repaving and striping of the parking lot; installation of the new carpet for the main prayer hall and laminate flooring for the altar, electrical wiring upgrades including some rewiring, installation of parking-lot flood lights and prayer hall fire alarm system, frontage landscaping to improve drainage and aesthetics, remodeling and upgrade of the kitchen facility and replacing the aging main water line to the building. All of these upgrades which have greatly contributed to the improved infrastructure at Shanthi Mandir and enhanced our devotional, educational, youth and service programs, were made possible by private funds.

As reported during our October 2006 General Assembly Meeting, a subcommittee within this committee has been planning for the future. This subcommittee has recommended a three-step approach to improve our infrastructure and grow the Mandir to meet our needs for the present as well as the future: These include: Short-Term Improvements

Time Frame: Less than 1 yr, Estimate: $5,000

Vellore S. Gopalaratnam1 Ravi Thawani2 Nila Gupta Kattesh Katti Nitin Patel Bharath Srinivasan Richard Sternadori

Repair roof, seal and stripe parking lot, install gutters for front portion, paint interior and exterior, install new vinyl floors for bathrooms and kitchen, repair siding and fence as needed, survey for property boundaries, develop architectural plans for medium term improvements and obtain necessary approvals/ quotations. All of these improvements have been completed or are currently underway. These short term improvements have been funded privately.

1. Chair 2. Medium-Term Plans Subcomm. Chair

Medium-Term Improvements

Time Frame: 1-5 yrs, Estimate: $100,000

Relocate and upgrade utility lines,

complete renovation of the front portion and building additions per architectural plans, dispose the single-wide trailer and provide for additional parking. The objectives of this renovation will be to double the size of the prayer hall, upgrade/add bathrooms, shower stall, kitchen, pantry, storage, improve fire safety and enhance parking lot size. The quality of services we can offer will greatly be enhanced after these renovations and are likely to serve us well for the next several years. During this time it would be thoughtful to also investigate relocation as an option for the longer term. Accordingly, it would be appropriate to invest in a suitable plot for the larger facility. The Medium-Term renovations will be undertaken after the property is deeded over to HTCC and after our application for tax-exempt status under IRS Section 501 (c) 3, which is currently being reviewed by the IRS, is approved. The Facilities and Renovations committee will initiate discussions with HTCC membership early in 2007 so that plans are in-place for likely implementation when we take possession of the property. The approval of the taxexempt status will facilitate solicitation of capital donations for the proposed Medium -Term Improvements. The Fund-Raising and Membership Committee, the Executive Board and the Board of Trustees together with the membership will set in place the appropriate plans to make these improvements a reality.

Long-Term Plans

Time Frame: 5+ yrs, Estimate: Based on growth

Based on projected growth of our activities into the next decade, it may be necessary for us to consider relocation first by investing in a suitable sized plot while concurrently raising funds for the new temple construction. We plan to engage the entire membership in these discussions so that there is good community buy-in to the long-term plans.

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SAMARPANAM

Financial Planning

T

he Financial Policy Committee (FPC) has met periodically over the past calendar year with Interim Officers of the HTCC Executive Board (Treasurer Visala and President Gopalaratnam). In addition to being apprised of revenues, expenses, memberships, bank balances, and shortterm CD investments, the FPC has also assisted Visala with some aspects of bookkeeping and financial reporting, and with suggested approaches to classifying and handling different types of transactions.

Year-End Internal Audit The FPC conducted its year-end meeting on December 17, 2006. The purpose of the meeting was to assist with year-end “closing the books” and, more importantly, to conduct an internal audit of the books.

The committee was briefed by Visala and Gopal on the financial status of HTCC as of that date*. With about $37,500 invested in CDs, 33 lifetime family members, 36 annual family members, 5 annual individual members, net income of $37,824.01 for the year*, and some positive projections of membership, we believe that HTCC is financially stable and sound at this time.

The FPC examined all major revenue items and also conducted a sampling approach to auditing expense items (with materiality threshold being defined as >$50). All items were fully reconciled and there were no significant or unusual items of note. The committee noted that Visala’s record-keeping was impressive and did not have any major recommendations for change at this time.

Vairam Arunachalam1 Visala Palaniappan2 Mayuk Ghosh Surya Mantrala Krishna Sharma Ravi Thawani 1.Chair 2.Executive Board Liaison

Recommendations The committee does have several recommendations for HTCC’s financial records and processes for future incorporation. 

IRS Form 990 is not required to be filed for exempt church organizations.

Thus, if we were to be approved (as is the expectation) by the IRS as a









  

church organization, filing Form 990 will be optional. However, if we were not to be approved as a church organization and our gross receipts exceeded $25,000, then we would be required to file Form 990 by May 15, 2007. The FPC recommends that we wait until May 1, 2007, for the outcome of our 501(c)(3) application before deciding what to do. If we were to hire an accounting firm to file this form for us, it would cost somewhere between $225 and $400.

Generally speaking, church groups file Form 990 for purposes of openness/ transparency, which we believe we already have, as is evident from the financial reports in each quarterly issue of Shanthi Sandesh.

State income tax returns are required to be filed only if there is non business -related income (deadline is March 15, 2007). The committee notes that it is important, as is currently the case, that HTCC retain its donations approach to facilities use and other religious/community events.

The FPC recommends that a cash basis of accounting (rather than an accrual basis) continue to be used for the future.

The FPC recommends that a membership directory listing names and addresses be kept on file. It is our understanding that such a directory is already under development.

The FPC also recommends that logs be maintained for all Hundi (prayer service) collections and check donations.

The FPC also suggests that all receipts be issued using a receipt book with HTCC’s logo and name/address on it.

The FPC recommends a continuation of the current claims process for all expense reimbursements.

The committee also urges all authorized purchasers to continue to obtain sales tax exemption whenever possible, as is currently the case.

continued on the following page...

* This information has since been updated to Dec. 31, 2006 in the 2006 Financial Report alongside.

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2006 Financial Report Period: January 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006

Prepared by: Visala Palaniappan, Interim Treasurer, HTCC Executive Board Dated: January 2, 2007

Annual Revenues Balance forward from 2005

$244.56

CD Interest in 2006

$619.04

2006 Membership :

$41,700.00

Lifetime Family Members (LFM) 39 @ $1000

$39,000.00

LFM via installments (2 @ $ 500)

$1,000.00

Annual Family Members 2006 (AFM) 31 @ $50

$1,550.00

Annual Individual Members 2006 ( AIM) 5 @ $30

$150.00

2007 Annual Membership :

$330.00

Annual Family Members 2007 (AFM) 6 @ $50

$300.00

Annual Individual Member 2007 (AIM) 1 @ $30

$30.00

Donations:

$12,660.26

Prayer Services/Hundi Donations

$2,660.21

Checks Donations

$4,413.00

Special Events

$4,297.05

Facilities Use

$1,290.00

Total Annual Revenues

$55,309.30

Annual Expenses Start -up

$2,009.14

Maintenance and Supplies

$1,598.16

Upgrade and Repairs

$718.54

Utilities

$3,448.52

Printing

$582.97

Garden and Landscape

$580.64

Special Events

$1,995.55

Services and Application Fees

$762.46

Total Annual Expenses

$11,695.98

Net Income*

$43,613.32

*

$37,500 invested in 3 seven-month CDs ($10,000, $10,000 and $17,500) at 5.4% APY maturing on June 8, 2007. Rest in HTCC Checking Account



All utilities were noted as being electronically paid. These are periodically reconciled to the bank statement. The FPC understands that a database of utility transactions is under development.

The committee recommends that the bank balance (at Boone County National Bank) be increased from upcoming receipts to reach at least





$5,000 to provide for at least 3 months of expenses ($3,000) plus a small cushion ($2,000) for any unanticipated needs that may arise.

Consideration of a phased approach to account maintenance on a platform other than Excel (e.g., Quickbooks) is ongoing and a decision can be made in 2007.

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SAMARPANAM

Fund-Raising and Membership

O

Rajiv Dhand1 Kattesh Katti1 V. Ramachandran2 Anuradha Rajagopalan3 H. R. Chandrasekhar Bala Elangovan Leela Jashnani Rajesh Kulkarni Ranadhir Mitra Nitin Patel 1. Co-chairs 2. Formerly Co-chair 3. Executive Board Liaison

ur committee’s focus during the first year has been to build the membership base comprising both lifetime and annual members. Lifetime dues provide the HTCC with a strong base and steady stream of revenue to sustain the delivery of high quality devotional, education, service, and youth programs.

Annual dues help support the day-to-day operations of the Mandir.

We started a membership drive mid-year by launching a 50/75 Campaign aimed at having 50 lifetime members and 75 annual members by our First Anniversary Celebrations. We are close to accomplishing our target on lifetime members. We made presentations at several venues and sought assistance from members and others in welcoming their friends to the HTCC fold.

Based on an assessment of our effort and outcomes from the first year of operations, we have come up with a two-pronged approach to grow our annual membership in 2007and beyond. The first is to open our annual membership to prorating whereby we will apply the regular annual membership dues if families/individuals join before July 1 of the year. The dues for families/ individuals joining after July 1 will be half the annual membership dues.

This will allow families/individuals to join HTCC more readily, even if they have moved to Columbia after mid-year. We are also working tirelessly to attract students to become HTCC members. While we recognize time and finances may preclude some students to join HTCC, it is precisely this type of community support the students require to ease academic pressures and the pressures of making a new home in Columbia. To this end, we

have lined up a program for 2007 where student/resident dues will be subsidized by a third without reducing the normal HTCC membership dues. This will be accomplished by using non-HTCC funds from anonymous donors earmarked exclusively for this purpose. Please contact the co-chairs of our membership committee (listed in the inset below) to avail of this reduced rate. This approach will benefit both, the new members, and HTCC. We have started receiving numerous upgrades to lifetime memberships, renewals of membership for 2007, and new annual membership applications since midDecember when our drive began. We greatly appreciate your show of support for our shared endeavor.

Once our application for federal taxexempt status under IRS Section 501 (c) 3 is approved (the application was just submitted to the IRS last week), and the Shanthi Mandir property is deeded to the HTCC, our focus will shift from membership base to one that also includes capital donations. This will enable us to plan our growth for the years ahead. The Facilities and Renovation committee is developing discussion plans for the medium-term (1-5 years) and long-term (beyond 5 year).

These plans were originally unveiled during our first General Assembly meeting in October 2006. Broad details of these plans were included in our 2006 Highlights Brochure (web site) and are also presented on Page 12. More details are expected to be brought up for discussion during our First Anniversary Celebrations.

We are excited about the challenging tasks and opportunities that lie ahead. We stand energized to accomplish our medium and long-term funding goals with active support from the community.

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Photo Gallery 1

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Photo Gallery 2

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Photo Gallery 3

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Photo Gallery 4

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Library

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s a prelude to the formal inauguration of the Shanthi Mandir Library on January 20, 2007, this report summarizes our goals and progress to date.

Our goal is to have a unique and extensive collection of books on religion, art, philosophy, architecture, languages, science and history- for young and mature readers alike- as a community resource on India. In keeping with the mission of the Shanthi Mandir, this collection is meant to serve the community at large. The collection will include books as well as material in audio, video and multi-media formats. Considering the richness and diversity of our cultural heritage, the scope of such a library could be immense. We invite the entire community to participate in reaching this goal.

Our Library Committee has 30+ members and I apologize for not listing all their names. I have listed the adult and youth members below. Meghna Srinath maintained the minutes of our meetings.

Various sub-committees on acquisition, inventory, database preparation, policies and procedure are chaired by the youngsters with adults looking over their shoulders. In addition to those listed in the inset, Nidhi Khurana, Rijutha Garimella, Prerna Srinivasan, Ashwath Kumar, Vidya Mantrala, Sumidha Katti and many others have been very active in our group.

The project began with a running start due to the timely financial support that came earmarked for the library. Part of the donation of $1000 by Dr. N. Mathialagan and family of St. Louis (Wife Sumathy and daughter Nevatha), who were former residents of Columbia, helped us to put together four handsome book cases, thanks to the Shram Daan volunteers.

Contributions of $500 by Dr. Murari Lal Nagar and $1,000 by the Chandra Publications, LLC., gave us the initial pool of money to get the first consignment of books.

Currently we have more than 100 books in the library. Most of the books were

selected by the members of the Library Committee. Some were donated by the members of HTCC. Currently we have Shri Rama Charita Manas (Tulsi Das), Valmiki Ramayana, Mahabharata by Vyasa and the Bhagawata Maha Purana, Sukhmani Sahib and Thirukkural - all of them with complete text in the original and English translationin attractive hard cover volumes. We also have a complete and erudite version of Rigveda Samhita (original text, translation and commentary) and several publications of the Bhagavad Gita.

Our Children’s section has the complete set of Amar Chitra Katha series, series on Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna Leela, Panchatantra, Hitopadesh, Tales of Vikramaditya and so on. We Youth designed logos... also have books on Hindu Gods and festivals. Reference materials include dictionaries and source books on Sanskrit, Hindi and several Indian languages. We also have books by or on celebrities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, R.K. Narayan and V.S. Naipaul. The audio selection includes tapes of Bhagavad Gita and Ramacharit Manas. The list is growing, thanks to the good work by the Library Committee.

The books have been sorted by categories and labeled for easy H. R. Chandrasekhar1 identification. A list with keywords and Anuradha Rajagopalan2 short summaries will be available for Kavita Katti easy search capability. This Sunder Lal information will be on the Library Kirthi Rangnekar computer and the Shanthi Mandir Shuba Ratneshwar website. We thank Indira Ramaswamy Uma Srinath and Geetha Kutikkad for technical assistance. The Library will be housed Youth Members in the building behind the main prayer Adithi Vellore hall of Shanthi Mandir. Initially we Nahush Katti expect our readers to use the Sheela Lal attractive facilities of this house. We Niyati Rangnekar also plan to have audio and video Anchal Sethi facilities.

Meghna Srinath3 We invite you to contribute to the library by making it a valuable India1. Chair centered resource.

2. Executive Board Liaison 3. Secretary

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SAMARPANAM

Operations and Maintenance

T

he Operations and Maintenance committee took on three major projects in 2006 – establishing a garden, setting up cleaning and mowing volunteer lists and the garage sale.

Meera Chandrasekhar1 Jasmit Khurana1 Visala Palaniappan2 Kavita Katti Sunder Lal3 Ram Ramaswamy Shuba Ratneshwar 1. Co-chairs 2. Executive Board Liaison 3. Yard and Garden Subcomm. Chair

Garden The Committee organized planting a garden on the berm in front of the Mandir and in the triangular spot by the mailbox, and planting of Rose-of-Sharon bushes on the east side during the period of AprilJune 2006. Several volunteers (including children) came on a number of days to help. Gopal made wood boxes for the bushes and the triangular spot and they were installed. In October another group of volunteers cleared the dead plants and planted bulbs - tulips, daffodils, and several other varieties.

Volunteers watered the garden regularly in the summer, and the profuse blooms were used in the temple for all events.

reminder. Multiple exchanges of cleaning dates have created some degree of confusion, and we hope to iron out those glitches by having families inform the coordinator (Meera), who will attempt to keep a current list posted. Mowing was more bumpy. Sunder Lal arranged to borrow a riding mower from the Rawlanis to lighten the task. We have it at the Mandir since late August. We will consider assigning two families/week to mow next year, or setting up a mowing sponsors list.

Garage Sale The Mandir held a garage sale cum mela on the morning of Saturday Sep 9, 2006.

The garage sale committee consists of Meera, Jasmit, Kavita, Ram, Shuba, Visala, Chandra Rawlani and Kusum. Flyers were distributed during Bal Sabha, Bal Puja and Kirtan, and email reminders were sent.

HTCC members were invited to donate items for sale. Members donated generously, and we received appliances, Cleaning/Mowing electronics, baby items, clothes, jewelry, 20 families signed up for cleaning the shoes, household goods, etc. The Mandir on a rotating basis. As of April, the manufactured house served as a storage Mandir is cleaned weekly. A roster has and staging area in the two weekends been posted on the bulletin board. before the garage sale, and it was full by Mowing was begun in June, and a similar the time Sep 9 came along. In addition to weekly roster was set up. About 15 garage sale items, baked goods, Indian individuals signed up to mow the yard. finger-food and Mehendi was set up in a The committee met in early August tent in the front of the yard. Since several (Gopal, Visala, Meera, and Sunder Lal items were still left over, we did a repeat attending) to sale at a southwest discuss concerns location on the and solutions. By following Friday and large, the and Saturday. A cleaning has total of over $900 proceeded without was generated. too much of a We appreciate the hitch. Occasional great spirit of reminders had to community that the be sent. We now garage sale post a large-font generated! sign as a monthly

Thanks to the volunteer families who have helped keep Shanthi Mandir clean and tidy!

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Public Relations and Publicity T

he committee has been very successful in accomplishing the tasks of keeping the community well informed and updated on the various temple events and special programs via email, flyers, website, and community newsletter. The Mandir has rightfully become the focal point for worship, community service, education and youth activities. The Mandir events have greatly added to the cultural richness and diversity that the city of Columbia offers.

The committee members have been very actively involved with the following ongoing tasks:  Maintaining a dynamic and very informative “Shanthi Mandir” website  Publishing “Shanthi Sandesh” – an information-packed quarterly newsletter  Maintaining an up-to-date online photo gallery  Media release and publicity for temple events  Timely e-mail notices to Friends of the Mandir  Maintaining membership data base and directory maintenance

Dynamic Shanthi Mandir Website We also maintain a dynamic and informative web site for the temple. It is one of the most frequently visited website on Columbia Online Information Network (COIN). The website has had a total of 44,480 hits in the past 12 month period (an average of 122 hits per day). The website is like a one-stop site where one can get all the information from past events to the future plans of HTCC. Quarterly Shanthi Sandesh Newsletter The community newsletter has been a great success and is highly appreciated.

The newsletter that started off as a single page update on the ongoing events at the Mandir has now turned into a quality 16 page newsletter covering temple celebrations, special events, upcoming events information/schedule, and other informative write-ups including a different theme lead article. The youth newsletter “Bal Sandesh” has also been seamlessly integrated with Shanthi Sandesh.

Online Photo Gallery Photographs of various HTCC events and videos for some of them have been archived on the Mandir computer. Event specific albums have been created on the temple yahoo account. These can be viewed at the link: http:// pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shanthimandir/ my_photos Many of these photos are being used in the quarterly newsletter, first year highlights flyer and on the website.

Publicity for Mandir events The committee has been providing media release and publicity for all the special events and fund-raisers. The committee has done very well with providing just the right amount of visibility for HTCC activities in the local media. The publicity efforts include flyer distribution and placement at several locations apart from media release, website updates and other efforts. The temple fundraisers have all been very successful. Of all the fundraisers, the “SaReGaMa” classical concert fundraiser turned out to be a resounding success.

Friends of the Mandir E-mail Notices The committee has been helping other committees publicize their activities and events to the community in timely manner via e-mail notices, flyer distribution and announcements. Apart from keeping the community well informed, the timely information release and sharing has generated more interest and brought about more participation and Gagneesh Rawat1 involvement in the various temple B. S. Balaji2 celebrations and special events.

Vellore S. Gopalaratnam3 Membership Directory The committee has been very meticulously maintaining the membership database. Our “Friends of the Mandir” list has grown to be 400 strong and the regular and timely updates to the membership and friends have been taken very well.

Arkasubhra Ghosh Leela Jashnani Geetha Kutikkad4 Sefhali Srivastava

1. Chair 2. Vice-Chair 3. Executive Board Liaison 4. Webmaster

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Greetings from the Mitra Family, ~ A Community Dream Fulfilled

SAMARPANAM

HTCC

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Safety and Security

D

uring the first year of the HTCC the Safety Committee successfully accomplished two main tasks. The first was to schedule, complete, correct and pass the City of Columbia Fire Department safety inspection. The second was to have safety and security procedures in place for the operation of the HTCC including overflow parking for large events at the Shanthi Mandir.

Emergency Procedures A one page "Guidelines for Use, Security Procedures and Emergency Contacts" brochure was prepared and posted at strategic locations at the Mandir. A first-aid kit has been purchased and installed in the Mandir for simple emergency use.

Parking Overflow There is no safe and convenient street parking available nearby the Mandir for Fire Safety Inspection popular HTCC events that attracts a After the initial safety inspection by the large number of people when there is a City of Columbia Fire Department the need to accommodate parking for more following corrective measures were taken to than about 32 cars. In order to provide pass fire safety code and meet regulations - a convenient alternative the HTCC testing, recharging and refreshing all fire Safety committee has a worked out a extinguishers at nominal cost (instead of friendly cooperative agreement with the purchasing new fire extinguishers), ensuring Sunrise Optimist Club just two blocks that exit signs are properly lit at all times, from Shanthi Mandir to use their placing electronic wiring inside guides, parking lot for overflow parking provided repairing damaged fire retardant ceiling that there are no conflicting events tiles, etc. The Shanthi Mandir is currently scheduled at the two locations. A volunteercompliant with the City of Columbia Fire based shuttle service to take people Department safety requirements. back and forth between the Mandir and Optimist parking lot, was even available Kannapan Palaniappan1 Safety Upgrades at some events especially during Visala Palaniappan2 The lighting of the exterior of the Mandir inclement weather. All major events at S. Akila was upgraded with front-porch lights and the Shanthi Mandir during the past year Das Kutikkad dusk-to-dawn flood lights for the parking lot. have been able to take advantage of Manjula Narasimhan The interior electrical wiring was also this standing agreement with the 1. Chair upgraded to code compliance along with Sunrise Optimist Club for shared 2.Executive Board Liaison installation of fire alarm system. parking.

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Scheduling

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s Chair of the Scheduling Committee, I have attempted to minimize the workload of the members of my Committee. My motto is “to schedule a meeting if and only if the matter cannot be handled by e-mail.”

This has worked great (I think!).

Neither any of my committee members nor any of the users of the temple have complained so far.

Scheduling Policies and Procedures Our Committee’s major accomplishments have been to draft and update the Shanthi Mandir facilities use agreement and check out procedures for Temple Building, both of which are now available on the web at http:// shanthimandir.missouri.org/ useagreement.htm.

Many of you may know that reservations for the main hall at the Shanthi Mandir can be requested by filling up the information on the web

at http://shanthimandir.missouri.org/ useagreement.htm. The temple building has three small rooms, a kitchen, and a large hall that can accommodate groups of 100 people or less. Tables and chairs are also available for activities in the building.

Once the request is approved, the typical protocol is that an approved user collects the keys from me and returns them to me within the agreed upon deadline. So far, the system has worked fairly well.

Continuing Programs We now have fixed time assignments for regularly scheduled events (e.g., Bal Puja, Bal Sabha, Kirtan, Open Prayer times, Sai Bhajans, Suprabhatam Prayers, Shram Daan, dance classes, Tamil, and Hindi classes). We also coordinate actively with the Devotional Program Committee to ensure that Shanthi Mandir is available during times when

the events are planned by the Devotional Program Committee. All other requests for use of the temple buildings are accommodated around the planned events. We are also seeing greater usage of temple building for holding Committee meetings.

Our major challenge as a Committee is to ensure that we foresee any scheduling conflicts well in advance.

Our goal is to serve the needs of the HTCC members and we try our best to offer a wonderful experience to the users of the Shanthi Mandir.

Inder Khurana1 Dale Cutkosky Anantha Gopalaratnam Sunder Lal 1. Chair

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Service Programs W

hen HTCC was formed there were a few service programs already in existence, which were undertaken by various groups in the community such as Narayan Seva, Clean-up Columbia and Adopt-a-Spot . These activities have been integrated into the service programs of the HTCC under the banner HTCC-Helping Hands, and several service projects have been added since.

Narayan Seva For over five years, the Sai Bhajan group has been cooking a lunch and serving it at the St. Francis House, a shelter for homeless men, on the second Sunday of every month from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Clean-up Columbia In April every year, the City of Columbia organizes this event in which residents of the city can singly or in groups, undertake to pick up trash around the city. A group has been volunteering for over five years to clean up the area around Ridgeway Elementary School. Since the formation of the HTCC, this activity was expanded to two groups and in April 2006, one group cleaned up around Ridgeway and the second around the Shanthi Mandir and surrounding streets.

The city recognized the five-year participation by presenting a plaque, which is on display at the Mandir.

Adopt-A-Spot The children of Bal Sabha have participated in the Adopt-a-Spot program for several years. Twice a year, the children meet at Ridgeway Elementary School and pick up trash in the playground and in the streets surrounding the school.

Shram Daan (Volunteer Labor) This is a regular feature being held every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. This time is used to carry out maintenance and improvements to the Shanthi Mandir property. Over the past year volunteers have worked to stripe the Mandir parking lot, assemble bookshelves for the library, build shelves for the storeroom, dig a trench for the sewer line for the new kitchen, put up Diwali lights, weatherproof the windows, stain kitchen cabinets, install a vapor barrier in the crawl space under the floor, fabricate and decorate the altar, paint the kitchen walls and put up the wallpaper border. In conjunction with the Mandir Maintenance Committee, flower beds were dug near the mailbox and by the side of the building and flowers and shrubs were planted in front of the building. In preparation for winter the

summer flowers were pruned and spring bulbs were also planted. Brush behind the trailer was cleaned. In addition, before every devotional program or other Mandir event, volunteers gather to set up chairs and ready other arrangements, and work to take down after the event is done.

Visits to Eldercare Centers Groups of children along with adults have made visits to Columbia Manor, and Candlelight Lodge to help entertain seniors with songs, dances, telling jokes and play musical instruments. Most such visits have been made during holidays since the children’s busy school schedule does not leave much time during the time school is in session.

Collection of Towels and Blankets This has been started as an ongoing program to collect donations of lightly used towels and blankets for donation to St. Francis House, a shelter for the homeless. Members are requested to bring their donations to the Mandir and these will be taken to St. Francis House at each Narayan Seva, which is carried out on the second Sunday of every month.

Repackaging of Food at the CMFB This activity has been in place since October 2006. Volunteers meet at the Central Missouri Food Bank (CMFB) warehouse on Vandiver Drive on the first Tuesday of every month to assist in repackaging of bulk food received at the Food Bank.

Donation of Cell Phones Old cell phones are being collected at the Mandir for donation to “The Shelter”, a home for victims of domestic abuse. The intent is to make these phones available to those in need of quick access to the emergency “911” service.

Anna Daan This is our ongoing program of collection of non-perishable food items for the Central Missouri Food Bank. Visitors to the Mandir are requested to donate food during attendance at various cultural and devotional programs. Two drums have been set up at the Mandir and visitors are requested to drop their donations into the drums. When these are full, the food is transported to the Food Bank warehouse.

SERVICE TO MAN IS SERVICE TO GOD . . .

Anantha Gopalaratnam1 Anuradha Rajagopalan2 B. S. Balaji Mayukh Ghosh Sushama Nagarkar Manjula Narasimhan Manjula Nathan Sanjiv Sethi 1. Chair 2. Executive Board Liaison

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Youth Activities T

he HTCC Youth Committee serves to encourage young members of HTCC to participate in various physical and educational activities with an objective to involve, mentor and reward the youth.

Activities were provided through out the year with a focus on several summer workshops.

Origami Session The 2006 Youth Calendar started with a short course on Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding was held on March 17, 2006. Several children and their parents from the Indian community in Columbia participated in this program.

Kalayarasi Kumar1 Nandhu Radhakrishnan2 S. Akila3 Inder Khurana4 Gagneesh Rawat 1. Chair 2. Vice-Chair 3. Secretary 4. Executive Borad Liaison

Summer Activities A Desi Tennis Tournament was organized on June 17, 2006 at the Cosmo Park tennis grounds. Several children and adults participated in the tournament. At the end, the kids and adults had a delicious treat of Pav-Bhajji, Indian Lassi and fresh Lemonade.

The week-long Summer Math Workshop 2006 conducted by Ashok Cutkosky was a great success. It was attended by 19 enthusiastic students ranging in grade level from 4th to 8th grade. There were many areas of interest and new topics for all the participant. On the final day, a Summer Math contest on the topics covered during the week was held with a countdown round and award ceremony attended by some of the parents.

The Basic Computer Skills Workshop was held June 26 - 28, 2006. The workshop had 8 participants. The highlights of the workshop included creating documents in Microsoft Word, preparing appealing presentations in PowerPoint, creating and using spreadsheets to perform calculations and design charts in Excel. At the completion of the workshop, each participant gave a PowerPoint presentation. An awards ceremony was held to wrap up the workshop.

The Moviemaker Workshop was planned to be an all-summer flexible instruction workshop for 10-12th graders and adults with deliverables

that include documentary/fictional stories in digital video format. The workshop got underway in mid-June with 9 motivated moviemakers including 5 youth and 4 adults. The workshop class met for four instruction sessions besides numerous team meetings to plan and execute their projects. The teams were quick to take on challenging projects including “Enchantment in Words“, “Shanthi Mandir“, “An Insight into a Missouri Farming Community.

HTCC Youth Day HTCC Youth Day was celebrated on August 18, 2006 at the Shepard Boulevard Park, Columbia. Several games, some native to India were on the program.

Participants from the different HTCC summer workshops and other youth events were awarded with certificates.

Other Activities Besides organizing the Summer Workshops and special events, the Youth Committee interacts, supports and encourages the participation of youth in the other events hosted at the Mandir such as Bal Puja and Bal Sabha. HTCC youth participated in several service projects including “Clean-up Columbia” and City sponsored summer and fall events. Youth also visited the Columbia Manor and Candlelight Lodge Retirement Homes and spent time with the residents. They performed songs and dances and entertained the seniors.

The Youth Committee is very happy and proud with the level of participation and interest in its various workshops and events. Given the enthusiasm from participants and the high level of interest in the community, the Committee plans to have the Summer Workshops and Youth Day recognition as regular HTCC events hereon. The Bal Sabha and Bal Puja groups are planning to have their annual picnics hereon on along with the HTCC Youth Day so that the common membership amongst the three groups will facilitate a well-attended grand celebration.

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2006 HTCC Directory The HTCC Directory for 2006 has been updated to include information as of January 11, 2007. The number of members, upgrades to lifetime membership and renewals for 2007 include more recent information than presented on Pages 6, 14 and 15.

Founding Lifetime Members

Yogesh and Reshmi Naik

Kul and Archana Agrawal

Satish and Jyotsna Nair

Vairam and Alagu Arunachalam

Kannappan and Visala Palaniappan

Sharanjit and Ranjit Bal

Aiyakannu and Gandhi Panneerselvam

Asit and Sandra Basu

Nitin and Harsha Patel

Ravindra Battula and Vijaya Kattumuri Holalkere and Meera Chandrasekhar Kunal Chaudhary and Ritcha Mehra Dale Cutkosky and Hema Srinivasan Rajiv and Upinder Dhand Keshab and Shubhra Gangopadhyay Srinath and Uma Gopalakrishna Vellore and Anantha Gopalaratnam Bhaskar and Shoba Gowda Ghanshyam and Leela Jashnani Kattesh and Kavita Katti Sanjeev and Vinita Khanna Inder and Jasmit Khurana

Kannan Raghuraman and Anandhi Upendran V. Ramachandran and Anuradha Rajagopalan Nitin and Kirthi Rangnekar Gagneesh and Aditi Rawat Ramesh and Chandra Rawlani Vijay and Smita Sadhu Sashi and Namita Satpathy Sanjiv and Punam Sethi Yash and Anjna Sethi Krishna and Sandhya Sharma Amolak Singh and Kuljit Sandhu

Rajesh and Indira Kulkarni

Bharath Srinivasan and Manjula Narasimhan

Kiratadas and Geetha Kutikkad

Lokesh and Varsha Tejwani

Sundar Lal and Nila Gupta

Ravi and Meena Thawani

Sudarshan and Nirja Loyalka

Dabir and Pramila Viswanath

Satnam Singh and Jasvir Mahal Anil and Kusum Malhotra Murali and Suryamani Mantrala Ranadhir and Roma Mitra

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2006 HTCC Directory (continued 2/3)

Founding Annual Members 2006 Satish and Sushma Anand

Krishna and Raji Subramanian

Bala and Abi Elangovan

Laxmish and Shantha Thirumaleshwar 103 Ventura Ave, Apt H

Sudhir Priya Batchu

Bhisham and Rajini Tolani

Venkat and Jyothi Bathini Anand and Moe Chandrasekhar Prabhir Kumar Choudhury Suraj and Sneha Commuri Shyam and Nitu Goel Arkashubra and Anuprita Ghosh Arun Jain Naresh Gandhi and Sriyala Kujala Shefali Srivastava Pramod and Rama Srivastava Richard Sternadori

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2006 HTCC Directory (continued 3/3)

Annual Members (2007)*

Renewals (See 2006 list) B. S. Balaji and S. Akila R. and Vasanthi Bhaskaran

Siva and Sheela Chokkalingam

Venkat and Jyothi Bathini Bala and Abi Elangovan Arun Jain Ram and Indira Ramaswamy Ratti and Shuba Ratneshwar Om and Santosh Sehgal Pramod and Rama Srivastava Bhisham and Rajini Tolani

Ramesh and Pushpa Khanna Sushama and Aarti Nagarkar

* Membership drive for 2007 commenced Dec. 15, 2006. The drive will continue in the months to come.

Please consider an upgrade to lifetime membership or renewal if you were already a member in 2006. If you were not a member in 2006, we would greatly appreciate your membership support .

HTCC is truly indebted to all its members for their financial, moral and volunteer support.

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SAMARPANAM

Current Programs at the Mandir

hese regular programs held at Shanthi Mandir are open to all interested. While all these events are compatible and support HTCC goals and objectives, events not organized by HTCC are appropriately classified. The contact information for each activity is provided. Please visit our web site at <http://shanthimandir.missouri.org> to be informed of special festival celebrations, pujas and other educational programs such as short courses and workshops scheduled at various other times during the year at the Mandir. Our web site is constantly kept up to date.

HTCC Organized Regular Events Open Prayer Time (Every Tuesday and Saturday

Shram Daan (Every Saturday from 10 am – 12

Shanthi Mandir is open for devotees to meditate, offer their prayers, and participate in the Aarti.

We have CDs of Bhajans and other devotional songs handy that can be played during prayer times. Please help us volunteering to keep the Mandir open at these times. If there is interest in this type of open prayer time, and we receive adequate volunteer support to keep the Mandir open, we will consider longer and more frequent access to the Mandir. For more information contact: Chandra Rawlani at 446-5960

Volunteer and service projects at the Mandir and at other locations as required. More details can be found on Pages 7 and 29. For more information contact: Vellore or Anantha Gopalaratnam at 446-0663.

from 6 p.m - 8 p.m, Aarti at 7:45 p.m.)

pm at the Mandir)

Suprabhatam and Sahasranaamam Prayers

as Balaji or Srinivasa. These recitations are in Sanskrit, the language used for most Hindu scriptures. For more information contact: Vellore S. Gopalaratnam at 446-0663.

Look out for our new progams : Bimonthly Bhagavad Gita Study Circle Group Six-week Yoga sessions

(Every Saturday from 9 - 10 am)

The Saturday morning prayers are dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara, another form of Lord Vishnu. He is also known affectionately known Events Organized by Other Groups

Bal Puja* (Every 2nd Sunday from 10 am – 1

Bharata Natyam Class* (Every Wednesday from

Bal puja meetings are intended to create an awareness of Hinduism among community youth. Specifically, Bal puja meetings focus on Hindu Gods and Goddesses, mythology, tales, beliefs, rituals and practices. The meetings offer an opportunity to provide the core essence of Hindu faith and philosophy and to explain how mythology and varied practices emanate from the core essence. Activities at these meetings range from narrating and enacting tales from the Hindu epics such as Ramayana to recitation of bhajans and shlokas. Check out the interactive quizzes on Ramayana designed by Hema Srinivasan at: http:// shanthimandir.missouri.org/balpuja.htm For more information contact : Punam Sethi at 514-0486 or Inder Khurana at 874-9647

This dance class is privately conducted by the Soorya Dance Company of St. Louis. It is hosted at the Mandir for the convenience of many HTCC families and because it is in support of some of HTCC’s mission. Instructor fee is required. The class makes regular donations for facilities use to cover operating costs. For more information contact: Manjula Narasimhan at: 445-0033 or Surya Mantrala at: 446-0865

pm at the Mandir)

Bal Sabha* (Every 4th Sunday from 3 – 5 pm at

the Mandir)

The objectives of the Bal Sabha of Mid-Missouri are: (1) To create among youngsters an awareness of India's history and culture, (2) To provide youngsters an avenue to research topics related to India and present it to Bal Sabha membership, (3) To provide youngsters a means of acquiring knowledge about India from their peers, (4) To provide youngsters a means of being involved and to serve the Columbia community, and (5) To provide the Columbia community a perspective of India's culture by means of a regular Bal Sabha newsletter, called Bal Sandesh. Bal Sandesh is published along with the HTCC quarterly Shanthi Sandesh. Past issues of Bal Sandesh can be found at: http:// www.math.missouri.edu/~hema/balsabha/ index.html and at: http:// shanthimandir.missouri.org.

For more information contact: Ravi Thawani at: (660) 882-5317 or Surya Mantrala at: 446-0865

4 – 8:30 pm at the Mandir)

Hindi Language Class* (Second and 4th Sunday from 1:30 – 2:30 pm at the Mandir)

Hindi classes were started in February 2006 at Shanthi Mandir for the kids who are interested in learning Hindi. Children learn conversational Hindi so that they are comfortable talking to relatives back in India, learn rudimentary written Hindi, learn the culture through language and songs, develop a strong peer support structure, and generally have fun during the social time following each class. Classes are taught by volunteers. For more information contact : Ritcha Mehra-Chaudhary at 445-0842 Kirtan* (Every 1st Sunday from 10 am – 1:30

p.m.)

The Kirtan program brings together local Sikhs and other followers of Guru Nanak Dev. Hymns and prayers are recited. A sacred pot-luck lunch called Langhar concludes this program.

Sukhmani Sahib is read. It is the name given to the set of hymns divided into 24 sections which appear in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy Scripture. The word Sukhmani literally means Peaceful mind. This set of hymns or Bani is very popular and is frequently recited in Gurdwaras and at home. These prayers bless everybody with peace of mind and happiness.

For more information contact: Kuljit Sandhu at 442-4471 or Chandra Rawlani at 446-5960

Sai Bhajans* (Bhajans every Thursday from 7 -

8 pm. Narayan Seva every 2nd Sunday from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm at the St. Francis Shelter on Rangeline)

Sai Bhajan Group meets for sing-along devotional program every week and on preannounced special festivals. It is a nondenominational group. All interested persons are welcome to attend. Followers of Bhagawan Shri Satya Sai Baba strive to live the five important human values. These include: Truth (Sathya), Righteousness (Dharma), Peace (Shanthi), Love (Prema) and Non-violence (Ahimsa). The group also cooks a complete vegetarian lunch every 2nd Sunday and serves it at the St. Francis Home, a local homeless shelter. For more information contact: Anantha Gopalaratnam at 446-0063 or Manjula Nathan at 443-6372

Tamil Language Class* (First and 3rd Sunday from 3– 5 pm at the Mandir)

Tamil Classes have been held in Columbia since 1996, hosted at participating families homes predating Shanthi Mandir. The hosting of these classes in Shanthi Mandir since October 2005 has allowed a better learning experience, given the state-of-the-art audio-visual infrastructure at the Mandir. Children learn conversational Tamil so that they are comfortable talking to relatives back in India, learn rudimentary written Tamil, learn the culture through language and songs, develop a strong peer support structure, and generally have fun during the social time following each class. Classes are taught by volunteers. For more information contact: Kalai Kumar at 445-9579

* Facilities use and infrastructural support provided by HTCC but not organized by HTCC

Shanthi Mandir Hindu Temple and Community Center of Mid-Missouri (HTCC)

2006 Holly Avenue, Columbia, MO 65202-2043, http://shanthimandir.missouri.org, (573) 814-1286

Taj Emporium Serving the community for 10 years...

1400 Fellows Place Columbia, MO 65201 Phone/Fax: (573) 442-5201

Store Hours Monday Closed Tuesday – Friday: 4:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Sunday: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

• We have the largest selection of movies in Hindi,

Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Punjabi and old Pakistan Dramas.

• We also have a large collection of Indian CDs and Audio

Tapes.

• We undertake video conversion from PAL to NTSC.

•

Fresh Vegetables on Friday: Ginger, Garlic, Egg Plants, Bitter Melon, Karela, Arvi, Bhindi, Tomatoes, Onion, and Tindora.

•

Best Frozen Food: Naan, Bhatura, Paratha, Idly, Chapatti, Dosa, Uttapam, Paneer, Samosa, VegCurry’s, Non-Veg Curry’s, and Frozen Vegetables.

•

Variety of Yummy Snacks and Sweets: Rajbhog Foods, Deep Foods, Mirch Masala, Haldiram’s, Udupi, Ghasitaran’s, and Pani Puri.

•

Wide variety of brand name instant foods Mix.

•

Choice of Rice Varities: Basmati, Sona, Masoori, Jasmine, Ponni and Idly Rice.

•

Dals, Flour, Oil, Seeds, and Soups.

•

Noodles, Nuts, Ghee, Ketchup, Soji, Poha, Papads, Tea, and Coffee.

•

Ready to Eat food and Pickles.

Thank you for shopping at Taj Emporium!! – Chalapathi R Pendurthi.