CHICAGO: Hindi Lovers Club, a budding no-profit body in Chicagoland, has added one more feather in its cap – adding 14 pages of English to its monthly magazine Hindi Patrika.
Gurbachan Kaur Neelam, the Club President, said it was done with a view to reaching out to second generation Indians here who have had not much opportunity to learn the premiere Indian language Hindi. “They are a burgeoning component of our community and we can ignore them at our own peril. Our attempt will be to induce them to read the Patrika and thru it our national language Hindi,” she said in a talk.
A formal launch of newly designed Patrika June issue was held at Uru Swati Restaurant on Mahatma Gandhi Marg on Devon area Chicago last week and it was attended by a good number of Chicago elite and media representatives. Club Secretary Vinita Gulbani welcomed the invitees in her chaste Hindi and read out a Hindi couplet at the end of her speech that underlined the basic objective of the Club – promoting Hindi and Indian culture in this part of the world.
The formal launch was done at the hands of a noted octogenarian Hindi author Raghunandan Prakash Sharma. Sharma is credited with authoring number of Hindi books and is an acclaimed writer in India. He has 169 published books under his belt and numerous awards for his writings. He has agreed to be a regular columnist for Hindi Patrika.
He congratulated the Club members in taking this unique step of adding English pages to make the Hindi Patrika more popular. He welcomed overall efforts of the Club executive team in seeking to promote the cause of Hindi in a foreign land. He is a scheduled speaker at the Club’s coming monthly meet at Skokie Public Library on Monday June 24.
Among the prominent community leaders attending the meet was Sohan Joshi, president of National Federation of Indian Associations and an ardent fan of Hindi, Jodh Singh Rawat, a freelance writer, Praful Rami, a community activist, Man Mohan Sharma, a nutritionist, Nand Kapur, former president of AIA and Vandana Jhingan, often dubbed Jhansi Ki Ranee of Chicago.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service