Games people play…

[English]

[Hindi, Unicode UTF-8 Encoded message]

                                       सियैटल हिन्दी समिति की ओर से आप

                                             हिन्दी कवि सम्मेलन - दो

                                                       में आमंत्रित हैं।

कब : शनिवार, 25 जून, दोपहर 1:30 बजे

कहाँ : रेडमण्ड रीजनल लाइब्रेरी
कमरा नम्बर 1
15990 N.E. 85th ,
रेडमण्ड, वाशिंगटन 98052

क्यों : यह हमारी दूसरी वार्षिक गोष्ठी होगी। यदि आप गद्य या पद्य लिखते हैं , तो हमारा निवेदन है कि आप हमारी गोष्ठी में अपनी रचनाएँ सुनाएँ । यदि आप स्वयं न लिखते हों, लेकिन आपकी हिन्दी काव्य या साहित्य में रुचि हो तो भी आप ज़रूर आएँ । हिन्दी के छात्रों का भी स्वागत है । हमें उम्मीद है कि आप हमारे साथ काव्य , मनोरंजन और अंततः चाय का मज़ा लेने ज़रूर आएँगे ।

उत्तरापेक्षी : अगस्त्य कोहली ( 206-465-4590, agastyak@gmail.com)

अधिक जानकारी के लिए देखें: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seattle-hindi

Gurukul is an organization involved in teaching Hindi and Indian culture to children of Indian families living in the seattle area. There are almost 200 students - between the ages of 5 and 15 - registered at Gurukul. These students are divided into about 15 different classes that are taught by 2 teachers.

Classes are held every Sunday from 11am to 1pm, starting the weekend after labor day, and going till the weekend before memorial day. The first hour is Hindi language instruction, and the second hour is reserved for Indian culture - which can be anything from dances, religions and festivals of India, to rivers and national symbols.

All material (both for language and cultural education) is provided by Gurukul to the teachers, who have to find effective ways of delivering it to the students.

As one might expect, the demand for Gurukul is much larger than the resources available to it, and at this time, Gurukul is looking for additional volunteers to teach these classes.

If you are a native Hindi speaker, and love to play and work with kids, this may be just the right opportunity for you. Please contact Raj Jhanwar (rajj@microsoft.com) for more infromation about how to voluteer. If you think teaching is not your cup of tea, but you would still like to help, please drop an email to Raj. We could use your help in cultural committee, event planning committee, and other Gurukul initiatives as well.

More information about Gurukul at http://www.gurukul-wa.org

I would like to invite you all to come and watch Theatre Schmeater’s new mainstage ‘Back of the Throat’ by Yussef El Guindi - also a Seattle resident. The show opens this Friday, May 20th at Schmee (1500 Summit Ave, in Capitol Hill).

BUT…

If you want to see ME on the stage, then book June 2 on your calendar. I am an understudy in this production, and will actually get to perform on Thursday June 2nd. Yes, I’m looking forward to it!

Schmee holds only about 70 seats, and there is only one night you get to see me in action! So get your tickets for 6/2/05 ASAP!

Back of the Throat

Winner of Theater Schmeater’s 2004 Northwest Playwright’s Competition

By Yussef El Guindi. Directed by Mark Jared Zufelt

An apparently friendly visit by two goverment officials soon devolves into a full-blown, no-holds-barred probe. Khaled, the Arab-American center of their inquiry, finds himself suddenly accused of possible ties to terrorists. At times surreal and comic, the play examines the way in which facts, evidence and (mis)perceptions can distort the truth about an individual. A very dark comedy about our (rapidly eroding?) civil liberties.

Featuring: Kate Czajkowski, Erik Hill, Chris Mayse, Johnny Patchamatla, Agastya Kohli (oh yeah!!) and Alex Samuels.

For tickets/more info, visit: http://www.schmeater.org or call (206) 325.6500 Tuesday - Sunday 12pm-6pm for operator assisted show information and credit card sales.

A couple of weeks ago, I went and saw ReAct Theatre’s product of ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ with some friends. Very interesting play, pretty funny… in a scary way, and was really well executed. Some really good performances too. Every review that the production has received in the major Seattle area newspapers has been a positive one. So how about that - professional and unprofessional (that doesn’t sound right!) reviewers agree - this show is worth seeing.

Details are available on ReAct’s website at http://www.reacttheatre.org .

The show runs on weekends through Memorial Day at Langston Hughes Performance Center.

I am personally not involved in this production… but I have worked with ReAct in the past, and hope to work with them again in the future. Great organization - a mission I can relate with, and some wonderful people.

I decided to start a blog on Friendster, and use it as a bulletin board for events, causes, people, things, topics, news, issues, groups, organizations and ideas that are currently taking up my time. These may be things that I am personally involved with, or things that I saw/heard about, and decided that I should help them in one way or another. Things listed here are dear to me, and if you feel so inclined, you’re welcome to participate, help, publicize, fund, volunteer for, or support in whatever way you wish.

Welcome to the games I am playing these days… join in!