Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was born in Karnal, India. She was the first Indian-American astronaut and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Chawla completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Baal Niketan Sr. Sec. School,

Suchitra Sen was the first Indian actress to receive an award at an international film festival

Suchitra Sen was born in Pabna, in the present-day Pabna District of Bangladesh, on 6 April 1931. Her father Late Karunamoy Dasgupta was the headmaster of the local school, and her mother Indira Devi was a homemaker. She was their fifth child and third daughter. She received her formal education in Pabna.

Suchitra Sen married Dibanath Sen, son of wealthy Bengali industrialist Adinath Sen, in 1947 and had one daughter, Moon Moon Sen, who is a former actress. Her father-in-law Adinath Sen was supportive of her acting 

Bengali poet Kalidas Roy

Kalidas Roy (1889–1975) was a Bengali poet. Roy was a teacher and had a significant way of writing. He was born in Bardhaman and was a descendant of the great Vaishnava poet, Lochandas. His father was Jogendranath Roy. He wrote in both Arabic and Persian.

Career:

He earned his first degree from the Berhampore College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Later he studied for his MA examinations in philosophy from the Scottish Church College. During his teaching career, Roy taught in various institutions like Barisha High School (24 Parganas, near Kolkata) and Mitra Institution, Bhowanipore Branch, Kolkata, where he served as the Headmaster.

Loknath`s 122nd death anniversary being marked

The 122nd tirodhan festival of Saint Sri Sri Loknath Brahmachari will be observed at his Ashrams at city`s Swamibag and Barodi in Narayanganj district on Saturday.

Loknath, who achieved super spiritual attainment, passed away at Barodi in Narayanganj at the age of 160 on this day in 1890.

He was born at Barasat in Pashchimbanga of India in 1730 (1137 Bangla).

Vivekananda Center of New York-Ramakrishna

May I be born again and again,

and suffer thousands of miseries,

so that I may worship the only God that exists,

the only God I believe in,

the sum total of all souls.

And above all my God the wicked,

my God the miserable,

my God the poor of all races,

of all species,

is the especial object of my worship.

Sri Ramkrishna Paramhamsa

Ramakrishna (pronounced: IPA: [Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo]  listen (help·info)) (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (IPA: [Gôdadhor Chôṭṭopaddhae]), was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu renaissance during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of his disciples and devotees believe he was an Avatar or incarnation of God. He is also referred to as "Paramahamsa" by his devotees, as such he is popularly known as Ramkrishna Paramhamsa.

Ramakrishna was born in a poor Brahmin Vaishnava family in rural

Ebook of Bhagavad-gita As It Is (1972 & 1983) and more

All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification. 

Bhaoyaiya artist Mahesh Chandra Roy

Kanichata garunu sky akali
Akali jingle-jangle of the rays bandhuya
Akali the jingle-jangle.
The jeweler phelachu bathuya
Bathuya halaphala the rays bandhuya
Dhuliya the air ...

or 
Slow bowler Ray Price gariyala
Bowling slowly by,
And one eye dekhiya nemo mumi
Dayal Cart barire gariyala
Dayal Cart House ...

But the beauty of Shaker Music badhura bathuya akali and ardor of this book did not engage the audience to find bhaoyaiya duskara. It is up to the north bhaoyaiya - crazy people familiar with the one tune. Region in the north krsipradhana manusagulora daily happiness - and the stories have not duhekhera sadhaka artist, composer and lyricist mahesacandra verdict. The death of this talented artist 19.

Afghan Hindu Association in New York

Afghan Hindu Association, Inc. (the "Association") is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, New York Corporation. It was incorporated in the State of New York in August 1991. Its membership consists of all Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan who presently live in the United States, which to date number approximately fifteen hundred families or seventy five hundred members.

The Association was formed in contemplation of providing a means for our members to congregate and to preserve a rich tradition and culture of Hindus from Afghanistan. We want our coming generations to continue the bond with our forefathers who lived and prospered in Afghanistan as a sophisticated and a well respected Hindu and Sikh community, whose history goes back to the time of Lord Krishna.
Our purpose is to (a) uplift our community; (b) provide guidance and assistance to our members and their dependents, not only in terms of providing religious and Hindi language classes for our children, but also in providing English classes to our elderly and other social and medical services for the needy in our community; (c) establish and promote charitable activities, including cultural, literary or educational activities, within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "code"), including but not limited to exhibitions, performances, discussions, and other fora; and (d) carry on any and all other activities as shall from time to time be found necessary, appropriate and proper in connection with the foregoing insofar as they are lawful for a Not-for-Profit Corporation.
We want our children to remember and learn our religion, culture and language and provide an anchor and a place for them with which they can identify. It is in contemplation of this mandate that we purchased our temple, the Asamai Hindu Temple that is located at 45-32 Bowne Street, Flushing, N.Y 11355.. The temple provides us a venue to hold regular services, classes as well as a place to congregate to celebrate our festivals and holidays.
We welcome any inquiries, comments and suggestions you may have. These may be e-mailed to us or sent to our address at the Asamai Hindu Temple.

Afghan Hindu Association
45-32 Bowne Street, New York, NY 11355. Tel: 718-961-8838 
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Satya Narayan Mandir in New York

Satya Narayan Mandir - A brief Overview: The organisation operates and maintains a temple, called a GurMandir, in the SINDHI tradition, A GurMandir is a combination Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) and Mandir (Hindu place of worship); this observance of both religions in the same premises is uniquely a Sindhi tradition.
Satya Narayan Mandir is the oldest and we believe, the only GurMandir in the Americas.
History on development of the organisation and reasons for its formation : With the growth of the ethnic Indian community in the New York tri-state area, prayer meetings outgrew individual homes and garages. Satya Narayan Mandir was established to provide a place of worship for members of the public and especially the Sindhi community.
The organisation was also to help promote our religious beliefs and Indian culture to preach non-violence through prayer meetings and discourses, to inculcate our traditional norms and values amongst the younger generation (mostly US-born) as well as encouraging them to gain proficiency in devotional hymns and to partiipate in volunteer activities.
The organisation also provides the mechanism (forum) to invite well respected individuals, priests and other learned and holy persons to conduct lectures/discourses and conduct prayer meetings.
The organisation was created (as a NY corproration) in 1987, it acquired its property in November 1988. The Mandir is also an IRS 501c3 corporation.
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The Hindu Temple Society of North America

Ganesh Temple History

The Hindu Temple Society of North America ("Society"), a non-profit religious institution was incorporated on January 26, 1970, under the laws of the State of New York. Soon thereafter, the Society acquired from the Russian Orthodox Church a site on which the present Temple is situated. It was in this small frame house that daily rituals were performed and weekend services conducted by volunteer priests, until the present structure, designed in accordance with the Agama Sastras (scriptures relating to temple building), was completed early in 1977, and the Temple consecrated on July 4 of the same year. His Holiness Sri La Sri Padrimalai Swamigal, a great siddha from Madras, had prepared twenty-six yantras for the temple and done pujas for them for five years before installing them on July 4, 1977.

The logo of the Society is a light surrounded by insignias of several religions with OM on top. It signifies universality, catholicity and spirit of tolerance of Hinduism. While stressing the supremacy of the Absolute and deifying some of the major aspects as represented by the main deities, the Center stresses the totality and fundamental unity at the core of all religion. Hinduism has no place for crusades.

As the first Hindu Temple in North America composed of largely imported materials, and constructed by artisans from India, Šri Mahã Vallabha Ganapati Devasthãnam (or the Ganeša Temple) is one of the most impressive and historically important Hindu temples in the West. Flushing, Queens was chosen as the location for the Ganeša temple based on three criteria: it was the gateway of the U.S. - all Indian immigrants came here and there was a large concentration of Hindus in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut; it was within walking distance for many, or one bus or subway fare; and the possibility existed to purchase a suitable site. Its strength and influence outside of New York is proven by the fact that the temple has served as a model for many other Hindu communities.

The Hindu Temple Society of North America today has over twenty thousand devotees on its mailing list. In addition to these, there are thousands of other devotees not necessarily on the mailing list who benefit from religious and cultural activities of the Temple, and to which generous contributions are made. It is the intent of the Society to offer formal instructions in religion, philosophy, culture and the arts to its devotees and their families. Fund Raising activities of the temple include organizing pooja sponsorship (services), cultural events, temple gift certificate, fund raising dinner, gold coin mala, sponsorship of chairs and constituent parts for the community center and other projects.

Neighborhood and Community

The Hindu Temple is situated right in the heart of Flushing, which is a part of Queens County. Although Queens is, politically speaking, one of the five boroughs of New York City, it is, in geographical terms, a part of Long Island and is, therefore, largely a residential area. The Temple is easily accessible to its devotees both by private and public transportation. Within walking distance of the Temple are two branches of the New York Public Library, the Queens Botanical Garden, Kissena Park, and Flushing Meadow Park, and the Main Post Office. The Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts is a stone’s throw from the Temple, while the Queens Museum is a short ride away by automobile or subway.

Community Center

Construction of Community Center was completed in June 1998. This community center is one of the largest and the finest of its type in the borough of Queens and has its main entrance at the corner of Holly Avenue and Smart Street. The center has three floors. The main floor is the wedding hall and can be divided into two, with a sound proof partition in between, so that two functions may take place simultaneously. The second floor is the auditorium with seating capacity of over 700 and it is equipped with state of the art audio and lighting facility. In the lower level is a large industrial kitchen with a large dining hall. Cultural programs, discourses, weddings and many other events take place in the Community Center. 

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Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University(BKWSU)

We are individuals of all ages and backgrounds who regularly attend classes at more than 8,500 centres of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University located in 110 countries.

We study spiritual knowledge that nurtures respect for all faith traditions, coherently explains the nature of soul, God, time, and karma, and delineates an enlightened lifestyle.
We practise and teach a form of meditation that relaxes the mind and nurtures a healthy balance between our inner and outer worlds. Through numerous social service activities and partnerships, we promote spiritual understanding, leadership with integrity and elevated actions towards a better world.

All of the Brahma Kumaris centres offer courses in meditation and spiritual knowledge, as well as seminars and special events facilitating self development and personal change. All courses, seminar and workshops are offered to the public free of charge, as a community service.

The Foundation Course in Meditation, described below, is available at every Brahma Kumaris centre on a regular basis. The other courses are offered from time to time. For information as to what is available in your area, contact a Centre near you.

Russian Tantra Sangha

Tantra Sangha has fifteen spiritual communities and satsang groups with estimated 250 members in Moscow and other towns. As of December 2005, the Federal Registration Service of Russia has registered only two Tantra Sangha branches. The first registered branch is in Moscow, the Second Tantra Sangha branch at Nizhniy Novgorod was officially recognized on December 7, 1993. Tantra Sangha perform Vedic fire ceremonies under the open sky near rivers and forests according to orthodox Vedic Hindu rites adjusted for the Russian situation.

 Nizhny Novgorod: colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg. It is the economic and cultural center of the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region, and also the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District.
From 1932 to 1990, the city was known as Gorky after the writer Maxim Gorky who was born there.

Shumeet Banerji and Rajiv L. Gupta at HP

Shumeet BanerjiDirector since 2011

Mr. Banerji has served as Chief Executive Officer of Booz & Company, a consulting company, since July 2008. Previously, Mr. Banerji served in multiple roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting company and predecessor to Booz & Company, while based in offices in North America, Asia and Europe, including President of the Worldwide Commercial Business from February 2008 to July 2008, Managing Director, Europe from February 2007 to February 2008 and Managing Director, United Kingdom from 2003 to March 2007. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Rajiv L. GuptaDirector since January 2009

Mr. Gupta has served as Chairman of Avantor Performance Materials, a manufacturer of chemistries and materials, since August 2010 and as Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital, LLC, a private equity firm, since July 2009. Previously, Mr. Gupta served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rohm and Haas Company, a worldwide producer of specialty materials, from 1999 to April 2009. Mr. Gupta occupied various other positions at Rohm and Haas since joining the company in 1971, including Vice-Chairman from 1998 to 1999; Director of the Electronic Materials business from 1996 to 1999; and Vice-President and Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Region from 1993 to 1998. Mr. Gupta also is a director of Tyco International Ltd., The Vanguard Group and several private companies.

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Dr. Dileep Bhandarkar joined Microsoft as a Distinguished Engineer

Dr. Dileep Bhandarkar joined Microsoft as a Distinguished Engineer responsible for server hardware architecture and standards for Global Foundation Services (GFS) in May 2007. Global Foundation Services delivers the foundational platform for Microsoft’s online services, including MSN and Windows Live-branded services, Windows Azure, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services, Xbox LIVE, Bing as well as over 200 additional services and Web portals. He is currently chief architect for GFS, focused on driving new technology initiatives that advance the energy efficiency of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. He is a sought after and frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences. Some of his current work and blogs can be found at www.globalfoundationservices.com.

Bhandarkar was elected an IEEE fellow in 1997 for contributions and technical leadership in the design of complex and reduced instruction set architecture and in computer system performance analysis. In 1998, he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, where he received his B. Tech in electrical engineering in 1970. He also has a M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and has done graduate work in business administration at the University of Dallas.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Bhandarkar was director of advanced architecture in the CTO Office of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group and a lead spokesperson for evangelizing Intel server platform technologies to the industry and financial analysts. He was an Intel Distinguished Lecturer for several years. He has held several director-level positions related to CPU and platform architecture, and strategic planning over a 12 year career at Intel. He was instrumental in driving the strategic decision to implement AMD-compatible 64-bit x86 architecture at Intel, and pioneered the adoption of energy-efficient microprocessor cores across Intel’s product line.

Prior to joining Intel in 1995, Bhandarkar spent almost 18 years at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he managed processor and system architecture, and performance analysis work related to the VAX, Prism, MIPS, and Alpha architectures. He also worked at Texas Instruments for four years in their research labs in a variety of areas including magnetic bubble memories, charge coupled devices, fault tolerant memories, and computer architecture.

Bhandarkar holds 16 U.S. patents and has published more than 30 technical papers in various journals and conference proceedings. He is also the author of a book titled “Alpha Implementations and Architecture.” He has delivered several keynote speeches at computer and financial industry conferences.

Bhandarkar and his wife love to travel and have a passion for photography. Source

Rajesh Jha is the corporate vice president for the Office 365, Exchange and Forefront products for Office at Microsoft.

Rajesh Jha is the corporate vice president for the Office 365, Exchange and Forefront products for Office at Microsoft. In this capacity, Jha leads the teams responsible for worldwide development of Microsoft Exchange, one of the world's most popular communications systems; Office 365, an online suite of productivity, communications and collaboration services for organizations of all sizes; and Forefront security products for Exchange, SharePoint and Lync. The technologies Jha and his team deliver are used daily by millions of people via PCs, the Web and mobile phones — delivered to the customer as cloud services or on-premises products.

Jha has a long track record of positive contribution to Microsoft. Joining the company right out of university in 1990, he began his career as a software design engineer, working on clients, servers and services. Jha has a master's degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chennai). Source

Gurdeep Singh Pall is the corporate vice president for the Information Platform & Experience team at Microsoft Corp.

Gurdeep Singh Pall is the corporate vice president for the Information Platform & Experience team at Microsoft Corp., and is part of the Online Services Division's senior leadership team. He is responsible for vision, product strategy and R&D for the Bing services and platform that includes mobile, mapping, and speech.

Pall joined Microsoft in January 1990 as a software design engineer. He has worked on many breakthrough products in his tenure, starting with LAN Manager Remote Access Service. Pall was part of the Windows NT development team, working on the first version of Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 as a software design engineer, all the way through Windows XP in 2001 as general manager of Windows Networking. During his work on Windows, he led design and implementation of core networking technologies such as PPP, TCP/IP, UPnP, VPNs, routing and Wi-Fi, and parts of the operating system. Pall co-authored the first VPN protocol in the industry - Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) - which received the prestigious Innovation of the Year award from PC Magazine in 1996. He also authored several documents and standards in the networking area in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards body in the mid-1990s.

Pall was previously the corporate vice president for the Office Lync & Speech Group, overseeing the vision, product strategy and R&D for the Microsoft Lync family of products and Microsoft Tellme services. He was appointed general manager of Windows Real-Time Communications efforts in January 2002 and helped develop a broad strategy that led to the formation of the Real Time Collaboration division and acquisition of PlaceWare Inc. (now called Microsoft Office Live Meeting). Since then, Pall has led acquisitions of media-streams.com AG and Parlano, and key industry partnerships with HP, Polycom and Aspect. Microsoft's Unified Communications efforts have received many technical and design industry awards. Pall was named one of the "15 Innovators & Influencers Who Will Make A Difference" in 2008 by Information Week. He co-authored "Institutional Memory Goes Digital," which was published by Harvard Business Review as part of "Breakthrough Ideas for 2009" and subsequently presented at the World Economic Forum 2009 in Davos.

Pall has more than 20 patents (in process or approved) in networking, VoIP and collaboration areas. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Oregon and an undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Birla Institute of Technology in India.

Pall is on the board of trustees of Ashesi University. Source

S. Somasegar is the corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft.

S. Somasegar is the corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. Somasegar is responsible for engineering and marketing for developer tools and services, programming languages and runtimes designed for a broad base of software developers and development teams, including the Visual Studio and Expression families of products, .NET Framework, and Team Foundation Server. Somasegar also owns developer evangelism efforts spanning the full array of Microsoft platforms. His team also owns MSDN and TechNet online properties to enable a deep connection with the developer and IT professional audiences. In addition, Somasegar is responsible for the Server and Tools Business Global Development Centers in China, India and Israel and is the executive sponsor for the India Development Center and the Israel Research and Development Center for all of Microsoft.

Somasegar joined Microsoft in 1989 and contributed to eight releases of Windows before leading Developer Division. Somasegar holds a master's degree in computer engineering from Louisiana State University and a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Anna University in Chennai, India.

In 2006, Somasegar was awarded an honorary doctorate from Anna University. In 2008, he was presented the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award.

Somasegar lives in the Seattle area. He and his wife have two daughters. He frequently shares his thoughts via his blog.

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Rajat Taneja is corporate vice president responsible for Microsoft's commerce platform

Rajat Taneja is corporate vice president responsible for Microsoft's commerce platform. The commerce technologies power Microsoft's online consumer and enterprise services enabling multiple business models in cloud computing and delivery of services like Xbox LIVE, Office 365, Windows Phone, and Azure. The commerce platform spans Microsoft's online capabilities in over 200 countries globally serving millions of consumer and enterprise customers.

Taneja joined Microsoft in 1996 and has held a variety of leadership roles across research & development of desktop and online software solutions as well as business and technical operations. His most recent position was corporate vice president in Microsoft's online services division (OSD), responsible for the engineering program management of Microsoft's digital advertising products. The advertising products and their associated platform marketplaces power the company's multi-billion dollar advertising business and include search, display, video, gaming and mobile advertising as well as tools for advertisers and publishers. Previously within OSD, Taneja led a global engineering team responsible for Bing and MSN product search.

In earlier roles, Taneja led Microsoft's small-business efforts within the Microsoft Business Division. During his six years there, Taneja was general manager responsible for the engineering of the small-business product line including desktop and hosted suite of Microsoft Office small business services.

Before joining Microsoft, Taneja was with Digital Equipment Corp., where he was responsible for desktop and open systems products and technology solutions. Taneja also worked for several years at Wipro Technologies.

Taneja holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Jadavpur University, India, and an MBA from Washington State University. Source

Vyomesh Joshi Board of Director at Yahoo ! Inc

Vyomesh Joshi
Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company

Mr. Joshi has served as a member of our Board since July 2005. Mr. Joshi has served as an officer of HP since 2001 including as Executive Vice President of HP's Imaging and Printing Group since 2002. Mr. Joshi served as Chairman of Phogenix Imaging LLC, a joint venture between HP and Eastman Kodak Company, from 2000 until May 2003. Mr. Joshi holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Ohio State University.

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