Monthly Archives: March 2013

Mistry honored with one of literature’s top prizes

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The annual Neustadt Festival of International Literature and Culture closed with an evening banquet featuring literature, Indian culture and impromptu song Friday evening on the University of Oklahoma campus.

Honoring Indian-Canadian novelist Rohinton Mistry, the banquet finale was the presentation of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a $50,000 prize awarded by an international jury and funded by the University of Oklahoma, the Neustadt family and World Literature Today magazine.

“I have looked at the names of Neustadt Laureates, judges and nominees from years past and I’m not convinced … I’m not convinced that I belong among them, but the esteemed 2012 jurors have made their choice, and who am I to argue with them,” Misty said, joking during his acceptance remarks.

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The NowRuz Project – for children starting from elementary school

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NOWRUZ PROJECT OVERVIEW

In 2009 PAAIA helped draft and build bipartisan support for the Nowruz Resolution, which passed both chambers of Congress in March 2010. Building on that theme, PAAIA has developed a set of resources aimed at elementary school children.
Nowruz is a happy and joyous celebration in our heritage. PAAIA urges Iranian American parents to reach out to elementary schools and ascertain their interest in learning more about Iran and Nowruz. In a simple way, you will be helping build our presence and image in the communities in which you live and in the next generation of Iranian Americans and Americans, alike.
“The story of the Nowruz Project is rather simple. When my older son was in kindergarten, we were discussing holidays as part of his classroom work one day. I realized that, though the teacher covered Christmas and the Jewish Holidays, there really was no mention or knowledge of Nowruz.  For the next five years, I would compile a variety of materials, including Haftseen items, pictures of Iran, Persian music and sweets, and a variety of crafts and take them to my son’s school to educate the teachers, students, and parents. These ‘show and tell’ events were a huge success, both for the attendees and my son, who beamed from ear to ear. By fifth grade every single student in his class knew exactly what Nowruz was and how we celebrated it.  I repeated the same process with my younger son’s class, again to much enthusiasm. It was during that time that I realized that there were many other Iranian American families similarly anxious to share our culture and heritage with their children, their teachers, and classmates. As no such resources were readily available, PAAIA agreed to assist in developing and making such materials available to the Iranian American community. And this is how the Nowruz Project was born.”  – Saghi Modjtabai, Executive Director

Presentation & Activities

Our PDF Nowruz Presentation provides an overview of Iran, including its location, geography, and people. It also provides information on Iranian language and religion. Additionally, it includes numerous pages on Nowruz, including materials on Charshanbeh Soori, the Haft Seen, and Sizdeh Bedar. This presentation can be provided to students as a handout or displayed on an overhead projector.
Additional activity pages that are aimed to further enhance a child’s understanding and retention of the information about Nowruz below:
Reviews

Support Legislation – Nowruz and the Cyrus Cylinder

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Support the Introduction of Legislation Acknowledging Nowruz and the Cyrus Cylinder

US Congressmen have urged the Representatives to support their resolution of recognizing and acknowledging Navruz as the Iranian New Year and recognizing the Cyrus Cylinder as the First symbol of Human Rights in the World.

Click here for more..

 

Courtesy : Rustom M Daboo

Jimmy Mistry at TED

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Jimmy Mistry is the driving force behind Della Tecnica Group, India’s only integrated turnkey solutions provider in architecture, interior design and real estate development. A mechanical engineer and an autodidact, Jimmy’s belief is simple: every project in each of these three verticals must be treated uniquely. The absence of any formal indoctrination allows him to do justice to this belief. Result? From master planning & mass housing projects to large scale architectural projects; shopping malls to TV studios; yacht design to retail design & hospitality design, all with a unique signature.

A string of awards and recognitions validate this versatility and ability to create unique concepts. Jimmy Mistry. Self-taught, one of a kind artist committed to one-of-a-kind creations.

When Kennedy drove Manekshaw!

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On 3rd April 2013, Field Marshal SHFJ ‘Sam’ Manekshaw would have turned 100. He however passed away 5 years before his centenary.

But in Wellington, the quaintly beautiful cantonment town in the Niligiris, where the Field Marshal retired to, his memories live on.

“Very often Madam (the Field Marshal’s wife, Silloo) would drive Sam to the market in her Maruti 800. Sam would purchase the essentials from the market himself–vegetables, meat– he loved doing that,” Kennedy recalled.

“You know something Sir, he bought the plot of land in 1960 when he was commandant of the Staff College but even as a Major General, he did not have enough money. He himself told me once ‘Kennedy I had to take out money from my provident fund to buy this land.”

“Oh for him Madam’s word was final ( for which husband wife’s word isn’t, I wanted to ask him but didn’t, since he was in a trance). The Field Marshal was a loving father and grandfather. One of his grandsons looked exactly like him. Long nose, tall and fair. I never saw him scold any one. And he was always kind to people like us. When Madam passed away, Sam was a broken man. We knew he wouldn’t last long without his biggest strength,” Kennedy said in a voice that was clearly choking.

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Courtesy : Jehangir Bisney

Free Online Courses

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The project — http://www.onlinecourses.com/ — is a free and comprehensive resource that is a collection of open college courses that spans videos, audio lectures, and notes given by professors at Harvard, Princeton and MIT. We offer highly relevant courses such as iPhone Application Development from Stanford and Cyber Humor from Oxford.  This is something which is a wonderful resource for those looking to explore additional educational topics and to see what college level course has to offer.

Learn and Enjoy !

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud

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The humongous changes expected in education and jobs, as we move ahead

Onstage at TED2013, Sugata Mitra makes his bold TED Prize wish: Help me design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other — using resources and mentoring from the cloud. Hear his inspiring vision for Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE), and learn more at tedprize.org.

FEZANA Bulletin for February 2013

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Attached please find the FEZANA Bulletin for February 2013 http://www.fezana.org/files/drupalfiles/FEZANA_Bulletin_2013_02.pdf

Please share it with your association members, family and friends.

All the FEZANA Bulletins are available on-line at Bulletin Archives – http://www.fezana.org/BulletinArchives

You can subscribe for a free copy of the FEZANA Bulletin by adding your e-mail address at http://www.fezana.org/list/

 

 

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