Konkani Association of California panchadik 2010 (May – August) Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) All rights reserved. Table of Contents 1. President’s Corner.……………………………………………………. 3 2. Kidz Korner.………………………………………………………………. 5 3. History of Saraswat Migrations.….……………………………. 12 4. Hoon Khabbar……………………………………………………………. 21 5. Do you know our Amchis?...…………………………………….. 24 6. Konkani Bytes……………………………………………………………. 27 Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 2 All rights reserved. 1. President's Corner Namaskaru, Wishing you and your family a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi! May Lord Ganapathi bless you all with good luck and prosperity! Continuing on our success of Ugadi, we hosted the following events- Talent Day: Thanks to everyone who participated in the Talent day event organized at Milpitas Teen Center on May 23rd, 2010. We had several events such as Card Game (Turup), chess, Carom, Table Tennis, Wii, Basketball hoops and cooking contest. In addition we had an art and poetry showcase clubbed with the event. Several of the community members participated and enjoyed this event. We also had a food drive for Second Harvest food bank during this event and we would like to thank everyone who donated. Annual Picnic: KAOCA’s annual picnic was held on 28th August at Central Park, Santa Clara. The day-long event with fun activities and food was attended by over 150 Konkanis. Kids and adults alike enjoyed the fun and cozy setting in Central Park. The day started with a friendly cricket match. The kids enjoyed the inflatable jumps and the popcorn. The food served was an Indianized version of the Chipotle bowl. The afternoon activities included games for both adults and kids. The evening ended on a high note with raffle, bingo and Bhel Puri. Our upcoming events are - Concert: You spoke and we heard! Our next event is a Classical music concert on 18th September by Grammy and Padma Shri Award Winning artist Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. KAOCA and Kannada Koota of Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 3 All rights reserved. Northern California (KKNC) will jointly host this concert. Ticket sales have commenced. Please feel free to also let your friends know about this concert. Disco Dandiya: This event will be held on October 23rd, 2010 at Centerville location in Fremont. Diwali: Our Final event for this year will be held on Nov 13th, 2010 at CET in San Jose. We sure hope to see you all at these events. There will be one more edition of our KAOCA newsletter “Panchadik” (electronic version) before the end of this year. We would like to see more contributions from the members of our KAOCA community. Please submit your contributions by emailing them to [email protected] If you would like to send your feedback about our events, website, or anything else, please email it to [email protected] On behalf of the 2010 KAOCA committee, our best wishes to all the KAOCA members. Together we can – Together we will – Make a difference – and make a better community. Warm Regards, Sulatha and Ananth Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 4 All rights reserved. 2. KIDZ KORNER Hello Amchi Kidz! Welcome to our second edition of Kidz Korner! Kidz Korner is a fun filled section in KAOCA’s newsletter for us Amchi Kidz! We have news and reports on hobbies, travel, sports, quizzes, jokes, videos and other cool stuff. To publish your articles, please send them to [email protected] For the Month of Sep, we have an interview with another one of our amchi kidz who won the first prize at a story writing competition, a story on a “Milk Powered Car” and an interview with one of our amchi kidz who recently got a new baby brother. We also have some cool videos and answers to the May 2010 puzzles at the end! Enjoy! Aditya Rao wins First Place in the KQED Story Writing Contest An interview by Kidz Korner co-editor, Ronak Mundkur September 1, 2010 Each year, KQED holds a story-writing contest for children in the San Francisco bay area. Aditya Rao decided to enter the KQED 2010 Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 5 All rights reserved. children’s story writing competition for the Bay Area. While watching TV on the KQED channel, I came to know of Aditya’s victory. So, I invited him over for an interview with desert. Here is what transpired over the course of our discussion with chocolate cake desert… Ronak: “Aditya, I heard you won the First Prize in the KQED Bay Area story writing contest for first graders in 2010?” Aditya: “Yes, I was happy to know that I had won First Place in the first grade story writing contest!” Ronak: “How did you come to know about the KQED story writing contest?” Aditya: “My sister, Divya, entered and won the contest last year. And so I decided to follow in her footsteps.” Ronak: “What got you excited about entering the contest?” Aditya: “I thought it would be fun to write an interesting story and who knows, I thought I may win too…” Ronak: “Did you write the story before you entered the contest or after?” Aditya: “After. In looking at a potato in my mom’s kitchen, it got me thinking. I decided to call it the Potato Ant Hill story” Ronak: “Who is the main character in your Potato Ant Hill story?” Aditya: “Dalton the ant is the main character!” Ronak: “What is the story about?” Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 6 All rights reserved. Aditya: “Dalton the ant wanted to build an ant hill, where he could run around and play in. So he carved an ant nest in a potato and made his playhouse. He called it the Potato Ant Hill” Ronak: “Where is the setting of the story?” Aditya: “The setting of the story is near a beautiful lake, where Dalton’s ant colony has its nest.” Ronak: “How did you feel when you found out you won the KQED story writing contest?” Aditya: “I felt excited!” Ronak: “What did you do after you found out you won the contest?” Aditya: “I received an invitation for the awards ceremony in San Francisco. My parents and sister took me there. KQED had a very nice lunch for us winners with parents. Then we received presents and I was given the ribbon for First Place by the KQED President for the San Francisco bay area.” Ronak: “Thank you for coming over to my place for the interview. My congratulations to you and hope you enjoyed your dessert?” Aditya: “Thank you! I enjoyed answering your questions and the chocolate cake. Can I have some more cake?” Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 7 All rights reserved. Milk Powered Car An original story by Ronak Mundkur There once was a boy named Ansh. He loved building toy vehicles. One day Ansh wanted to build a milk-powered car. Ansh made a 3D sketch of the concept on his computer. He experimented with different liquids in the kitchen, decomposing them, trying to find an organic source of energy. Late one night he discovered that by rapidly decomposing milk, the protein ingredients released enormous energy. He captured that energy in a condenser to produce electricity. Voila! He realized he had invented an organic energy converter. Next day Ansh went to the hardware store with his dad and purchased a whole lot of hardware to build his car. When he went home he used a block of Titanium to mill out the organic energy conversion engine block. Then he made the chassis out of carbon fiber, the body out of high impact fiberglass and painted it. He assembled the engine, the chassis and the body to make his milk powered car ready. It looked a lot like a futuristic go-cart. Later he filled the milk tank with milk and took the car to a test center to have it tested for the energy conversion factor, top speed, and acceleration. It went 160mph on a racetrack and gave 100mpg of milk. It had a 3-gallon tank too. When he got home he drove his special car Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 8 All rights reserved. around the neighborhood and had a great time. When it ran out of milk, he simply went to the nearest grocery store and filled it up. News of Ansh’s amazing invention spread and a toy company approached him and asked for the rights to make that car. Guess what? Ansh said yes and became the world’s youngest millionaire!! Alpana Kallianpur becomes a proud sister of a baby boy! An interview by Kidz Korner co-editor, Divya Rao August 12, 2010 Alpana Kallianpur recently became a proud sister of a new baby Taneesh! I went to visit Alpana and Taneesh at their home in Fremont. Alpana opened the door for us, and then she ran inside to bring her mom and baby brother. Alpana and I sat down to talk about the new arrival in her family…. Divya: What does Taneesh mean? Alpana: Ambition. Divya: When was Taneesh born? Alpana: July 30th. Divya: What were your thoughts when you first saw him. Alpana: He looked very cute. Divya: What did you feel when he was born? Alpana: Excited.... Copyright © 2010 Konkani Association of California (KAOCA) 9 All rights reserved. Divya: What do you like doing with your brother? Alpana: Holding him and sleeping with him Divya: Do you love him very much? Alpana’s smile said it all! Divya: What does your brother like doing? Alpana: He sleeps a lot. Divya: Does your brother get most of the attention? Alpana: Yes Divya: Do you like being the only child or do you like being with your brother? Alpana: I like being with my brother.