“It does not matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.” 

June 2018: Indian girls rock! They are defying patriarchal prejudices, braving financial hurdles, fighting for their rights and voyaging beyond geographical limits. Daughter of a tea seller from a small village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, Sudeeksha Bhati is all set to leave for the United States for higher studies. Sudeeksha received a 100% scholarship worth Rs. 3.38 crore to study at a prestigious college in Massachusetts, USA. While education is one’s basic constitutional right, she is blessed to have continued her education in the countryside where most girls drop out of school for various reasons, including lack of sanitation and male chauvinism.

Sudeeksha Bhati’s journey from rural India to the US is an inspiring story of determination, perseverance and ambition. It is part of our continued series of stories about achievements of young Indians, at Travel Beats, an Indian community portal by Indian Eagle.

The topper of Bulandshahr district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Sudeeksha Bhati is the first member of her family to have continued her education despite his father’s meager income and the socio-cultural taboo against girls’ education in her village. A student of VidyaGyan School which the Shiv Nadar Foundation runs for meritorious students from underprivileged families, Sudeeksha scored a whopping 98% in her Class XII final exams.

Her father, a poor tea seller makes his ends meet somehow. The inadequate family income has been the biggest obstacle till date. When she was 9 years old, she was ousted from a private school as her father failed to pay the school fee. But, it did no quash her zeal for education to rise above the economically disadvantaged background. She got admission to VidyaGyan and won the support of her teachers there on the strength of her merit.

Also Check: This Indian Boy Sings National Anthems of 215 Countries for World Peace

Sudeeksha Bhati secured a 100% scholarship worth INR 3.8 crore to pursue a 4-year course on entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts, as a result of her hard work and sincere efforts for five years. Besides regular studies, she actively participated in several activities throughout her high school years. She was appointed Senior Cultural Secretary in the 10^th grade, House Prefect in the 9^th grade and Vice-head Girl in the 11^th grade.

Apart from paving her way from India to USA, she plays an agent of change for the girls in her community. She runs a campaign named ‘Voice of Women’ to persuade parents to send their daughters to school and let them continue studies. Sudeeksha Bhati also actively fights against eve-teasing. She firmly believes, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Travel Beats is an Indian community portal by Indian Eagle, a leading international travel organization. We celebrate the achievements of young Indians across the world and publish the Indian Diaspora news besides sharing regular updates on air travel, India tourism, US visa and immigration.

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The fourth richest US state in 2018 and the eight wealthiest US state in 2019, Massachusetts is home to more than 60,000 Indian Immigrants and over 30 Hindu temples. The Indian community in Massachusetts is all set to build a Shiva temple on a land of 17 acres in Bellingham. The construction of the Bellingham Shiva temple, MA will commence in 2020. The land cleaning on the proposed temple site would take place later this year.

Located on the southwestern fringe of Metropolitan Boston, Bellingham is a rapidly growing town with a population of over 20,000. What Bellingham is known to Boston Indians for is the Boston Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple, which has been conducting prayer services and community welfare programs under a rented roof for a couple of years.

Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple in Boston is the second jyotirlingam temple in the USA. Santa Clara’s Maha Kaleshwar Temple in San Francisco Bay Area is the first jyotirlingam temple consecrated to the fierce incarnation of Lord Shiva. Both the temples are sacred manifestations of Swami Sathasivom’s unique vision of twelve jyotirlingam shrines in the United States, on the lines of 12 Jyotirlingams in India. Swami Sathasivom is a leading practitioner from the Saiva and Sakta order. He is the elder son of Sambamurthy Sivachariar, an eminent Hindu priest of Sri Kalikambal Temple in Chennai, India.

The upcoming Bellingham Shiva temple would be the new and permanent abode for the presiding deities of the Boston Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple, in 2020. The construction will be completed in a phased manner. The first phase will have the main temple building and a parking lot for nearly 300 cars. The second phase of the Bellingham Shiva temple construction will have a sanctuary, a community hall, a staff residence unit, a dormitory for visitors, classrooms, etc.

A stream run through the 17-acre land acquired for the new Shiva temple in Bellingham, and six acres of the site comprise wetland. The Boston Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple board has decided to keep the wetlands undisturbed in order to protect the ecosystem and preserve the natural ambiance around the future temple. “If any tree in close proximity to the wetlands is uprooted to make way for construction, we pledge to compensate the loss of one tree with two trees,” said Mrs. Mangalam Sambamoorthy, the president of the temple board.

Having obtained all legal permits for the Bellingham Shiva temple project, the Boston Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple is looking to broaden the horizon of community activities and cultural enlightenment, which has not been possible till date because of the limited space at the current place. The present temple offers Sanskrit lessons, but the temple authorities have plans to offer classes on several Indian languages at the new location, since Boston houses different Indian communities.

Since the foundation of the Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple in Boston, the temple board has been serving the local community in various ways, including two annual scholarships of $1000 each in recognition of high school seniors’ outstanding volunteer service. The new Shiva temple in Bellingham, MA will facilitate execution of the cultural agenda including a number of educational activities other than Indian classical music and dance, according to Mrs. Mangalam Sambamoorthy.

The Bellingham Shiva temple complex may have a community kitchen or canteen to serve devotees, much like Queens Ganesh Temple in New York and Groton Sai Temple in New England.

The Boston Sri Kalikambal Shiva Temple in Bellingham is dedicated to three Shivalingas, including the presiding deity, Lord Omkareshwara. Sri Kalikambal, an incarnation of Goddess Shakti is another chief deity of the temple. Lord Omkareshwara is a powerful god of mercy and healing. Lord Ganesha, Lord Ayyappa, and Lord Anjaneya are the other gods at the Shiva Temple in Bellingham, Massachusetts.

Brought to you by Indian Eagle Travel, a leading travel booking organization in the US, this article is part of our continued series of Indian community news and stories at Travel Beats. You can contact at 508 966 8332 or write to smspeetam@gmail.com if you wish to contribute to the making of the new temple.

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Not only worshipping deities, but also serving devotees or temple visitors is an act of virtue in Indian culture. This cultural value is the foundation of India’s grand temple kitchens from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. The tradition of serving devotees has gone overseas, with the spiraling migration of Indians. Some of the Hindu Temples in the United States are coming up with a canteen or restaurant to feed devotees at very reasonable prices. The very first of them is the Ganesh Temple Canteen at Flushing in New York.

The United States’ largest Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, an hour drive from Boston inaugurated its canteen on December 22, 2018. The new Sai Temple Canteen is spread across an area of 6000 square feet on the 20,000-sq-ft first floor of the temple building. The canteen at the Sai Temple in Groton is spacious enough to accommodate around 500 people at a time. Initially, the canteen will be operating only on weekends, from 10 AM to 6 PM.

New England’s Sai Temple Canteen serves traditional South Indian dishes including idli, dosa, vada, and poori bhaji at much lower prices, as Surya Kodukulla, who helms the temple’s bhandara team of over 50 volunteers, told Travel Beats. In a month or so, the menu will be extended to include other popular Indian food such as chole batura, vegetable biryani and Mysore bonda, which devotees of various Indian communities are in love with.

Masala Chai and Madras Filter Coffee are the highlights of the Sai Temple canteen menu. While Madras Filter Coffee is a favorite of South Indians worldwide, Masala Chai is what Gujarati, Marwari, Bihari, Bengali and Punjabi Indians are fond of. You can have a plate of 3 idlis for $3 and a piece of dosa for $5. Both the dishes will be served with sambar and chutney at the temple canteen.

In fewer than 12 months of its inauguration in 2017, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple has become a popular hub of cultural and spiritual practices. In addition to classes on Vedam, yoga and chess, monthly free medical and dental checkups are held at the temple complex. Thousands of devotees from far and near visit the temple on weekends. The canteen was a much needed facility for their refreshment after a darshan of the deities, according to Srinivas Jidge, a leading member of the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

The New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar has been organizing bhandara (Annadaan) at the Groton Sai Temple every Thursday, out of the belief, “Physical body is the only important medium to perform Spiritual practice.” Over 300 devotees are unconditionally served in the bhandara volunteered by a team of more than 50 members including ‘ServSafe’ certified chefs. The team cooks and serves food for free on all festive occasions other than the bhandara on Thursday evenings. They also clean the cooking utensils with unflinching devotion.

“A filling meal cooked and served on the Sai Temple premises is a divine blessing for both devotees and volunteers,” said Mahender Singh, President of the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

The Shirdi Sai Temple canteen in Groton, MA welcomes Indians and non-Indians, devotees and non-devotees with equal warmth. We at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel, wish all the best to the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

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While five Indian American students are riding the waves of news for becoming finalists of America’s Top Young Scientist Challenge 2018, eight Indian Americans including these female researchers have made their way to MIT Technology Review’s 2018 list of ‘35 Innovators under 35.’ Inclined towards improving the immune system of the world, they aim their inventions at making a difference in billions of lives across the globe.

These Indian-origin female researchers and scientists are building technologies of the year for cancer drug development, effective diagnosis for early treatment, energy-saving industrial processes and lighter tools with better features. We at Travel Beats, an Indian community portal take pride in featuring these selfless achievers as part of our continued effort to promote good work by Indians worldwide.

Humsa Venkatesh, California

One the 35 ‘Innovators under 35’ on MIT Technology Review’s 2018 list, Indian America Humsa Venkatesh is named in the category of pioneers for her breakthrough research on cancer. Cancer biologist Humsa Venkatesh is a researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine. As per LinkedIn profile, Humsa is on a mission to discover micro-environmental determinants of cancer growth for more effective treatment.

When her uncle died of kidney diagnosis in less than 24 months of the diagnosis, California-based Humsa Venkatesh was surprised to see the doctors’ little understanding of the fundamental mechanisms behind the growth of cancerous tumors in the human body. Instead of becoming a doctor, she immersed herself in the research that discovered how tumors grow and thrive like a parasite by eating into the health of neural networks in different types of cancer.

Her discovery of cancer cells’ parasitic behavior has not only opened up to a broader avenue of research on cancer treatment but motivated her to develop drugs to neutralize cancer tumors within their own environment.

Dr. Shinjini Kundu, Pennsylvania   

One of the 35 Innovators under 35 on MIT Technology Review’s 2018 list, Dr. Shinjini Kundu is an Indian American doctor and scientist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has created an artificial-intelligence system that helps understand subtle patterns and delicate details of medical reports and images, which are otherwise indiscernible to the naked eye. Her invention could have a major impact on the way diseases are detected and treated.

Knowing hidden defects which often remain undetectable in medical diagnosis helps recognize diseases at the very onset much earlier their symptoms develop. A Stanford University graduate, Dr. Shinjini Kundu says that her AI-based medical imaging system makes hidden or imperceptible details surface with markers on images. In 2017, she was felicitated at the NRI of the Year, Times Now’s annual award show for achievers of Indian descent.

Shreya Dave, Greater Boston

The CEO of Via Separations, Shreya Dave is one of the eight inventors on MIT Technology Review’s list of 35 ‘Innovators under 35’ in 2018. She, along with her team has developed an energy-saving technology for industrial processes of separating chemical compounds from food, fuel, drugs and beverages. Industrial processes consume colossal amounts of energy to separate chemicals from commodities. Shreya Dave of Greater Boston Area is confident that her molecular filtration membranes will cut energy consumption by 50 to 90 percent in industrial processes which account for 12% of energy consumption in the United States.

Prineha Narang, Massachusetts

Among the visionaries on MIT Technology Review’s 2018 List of 35 ‘Innovators under 35,’ Prineha Narang is an assistant professor of computational materials science at Harvard University. The behavior of materials, at a nano scale, in different states such as optical, electronic and thermal is the focus of her studies. ‘How materials interact with light and other forms of electro-magnetic radiation’ is the subject matter of her research which is aimed at developing innovations in nanoscience for better technologies. Innovations could include lighter cell phones cell phones and telescopes with better cameras and lenses respectively. She resides in Massachusetts.

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A handful of young Indian Americans are all set for an eight-week summer internship in Congressional offices of the US government in Washington DC. Nine talented undergraduate students from South Asian communities in the United States have recently been inducted into the Washington Leadership Program 2018 for a first-hand exposure to the range of public service careers. Eight out of them are of Indian origin. They are Aastha Jha, Akshayaa Chittibabu, Anmol Nagar, Arjun Ramani, Moushmi Patil, Navya Kumar, Shivank Singh and Vineet Raman.

The Washington Leadership Program is a national non-profit initiative that is exclusively aimed at developing and nurturing the next generation of American leadership from South Asian communities. Instituted in 1995, the Washington Leadership Program (WLP) handpicks interns from among the most promising South Asian undergraduate students, who are legal permanent residents or US citizens.

The interns of the Washington Leadership Program 2018 will receive a stipend of $2000. They will attend meetings and discussions with US public servants, diplomats, policymakers and policy experts during the internship which will continue until August 3, 2018. On completion of the internship, they will walk into the WLP alumni community of nearly 200 South Asian individuals who are active leaders in different walks of life, including academia, government, business, law, science, entertainment and philanthropy.

2018 WLP Scholars: Eight Young Indian Americans

Among the Indian American interns of the Washington Leadership Program 2018, Aastha Jha from California is placed in the US Department of State. She is majoring in economics and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. One of the campus leaders of ‘Asha for Education’, Aastha Jha is intent on making effective policies related to education and human rights.

Placed as a WLP intern in the US Department of Health and Human Services, Akshayaa Chittibabu is a Truman Scholar at the University of Connecticut. A senior STEM scholar, she is studying physiology, sociology and neurobiology. She aspires to be a physician, address socio-economic determinants of heath and make innovative public health policies for Americans.

A sophomore at Wellesley College near Boston in Massachusetts, Anmol Nagar is a most brilliant student among the ‘Washington Leadership Program 2018’ interns. She is currently pursuing international relations with specialization in economics. She was born in New Delhi, India and brought up in San Francisco Bay Area. She is looking to bring more people of color into the political ambit of America and frame effective policies to deal with social injustices. Anmol Nagal has started her WLP internship in the office of Republican Ami Bera.

Also Check: 3 Indian American Girls are Advisors for United Nations’ Girl Up Campaign 

Placed in the US Department of Homeland Security for the WLP 2018 internship, Moushmi Patil is passionate about public defense. She is double majoring in history and government, education, justice, and law and society at Cornell University in New York. She is eager to understand the factors responsible for mass incarceration in America. Moushmi is excited about the internship in Washington DC this summer.

All set to intern at the US Agency for International Development, Indian American Navya Kumar wants to facilitate accessibility to the state-level healthcare services for marginalized communities including the LGBTQ+. Being an aspiring physician, she is intent on removing disparity in access to basic healthcare facilities by the dint of an equitable policy. Navya Kumar is a rising senior in medicine at Rice University in Houson. She is also studying sociology and a civic leadership certificate course.

Vineet Raman of Georgia, Shivank Singh of Cincinnati, Arjun Ramani from California

The rest three Indian American students among the ‘Washington Leadership Project 2018’ interns are Vineet Raman from the University of Georgia, Shivank Singh from the University of Cincinnati, and Arjun Ramani from Stanford University. Vineet Raman, a resident of Marietta in Georgia is doing the internship in the Department of Health and Human Services. Shivank Singh, a major in Neuroscience is placed in the office of Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. Arjun Ramani is assigned the WLP internship in the US Council of Economic Advisors.

Selection of interns is a highly competitive and rigorous process, which is not limited to those majoring in social science or politics or economics. Applications for the Washington Leadership Program are received until mid-January every year. The final selection is done through a telephone interview. The WLP interns are required to complete a leadership project applying the lessons that they get from a structured leadership curriculum during the internship.

This story is part of our continued effort at Indian Eagle to promote achievements of Indians in USA and the rest of the world. We not only strive to quote cheap air tickets for last-minute flights to India but also cater inspiring stories, latest community events, visa news, and regular travel updates to Indian Americans through our free newsletters.

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A Harvard University student from the Indian American community, Neil Davey who developed a breakthrough technique to diagnose cancer from a single drop of blood in 2016 is up with another surprise for millions of people worldwide. He has developed an innovative hand-held device for effective diagnosis of malaria, which caused an estimated 429,000 deaths globally in 2015, according to World Health Organization.

Neil Davey along with Miraj Shah, another Indian American student of Harvard University, worked on the hand-held malaria diagnosis device for months. They collaborated with two other undergraduate students – Marco Malaga and Fabricio Espinoza – in Peru. Four of them worked hard to design and develop the microfluidic device named UniDx (Universal Diagnostics).

Neil Davey’s handheld malaria diagnosis device is a potential cost-effective solution to diagnose millions of malaria cases in developing countries including India. Notably, 212 malaria cases were registered across the globe in 2015. The UniDx device extracts DNA from a small amount of blood and compresses the extracted DNA into microfluidic drops. If malaria-affected DNA is found in a microfluidic drop, the device amplifies it, thereby making it fluoresce so that it can be singled out.

One of the promising Harvard University students, Neil Davey has been invited for a talk at the TEDx 2017 in Paris. He will represent the team that helmed the development of the UniDx device for effective malaria diagnosis in a short, simple way. After the talk, Neil Davey will travel to India from Paris to share the technology of UniDx with the government of India. About two million malaria cases are annually reported in India.

Indian American Neil Davey is looking to make diagnosis of malaria and other pathogenic blood samples a simple, short process so that people can be benefited economically in developing countries like India. He hopes that his handheld malaria diagnosis device will become the universal diagnostic of infectious diseases.

“An infectious disease-free world can only exist if our medical approach moves from curative to preventative, and the first step to making that happen is early diagnosis. UniDx can accomplish that with just a few drops of blood,” Neil said to PTI.

Also Check Inspiring Stories of Young Indians

Recently, WHEELS Global Foundation announced to provide Neil Davey and his team with a fund of USD 15,000 for further development of the device UniDx in India. Professor Debjani Paul of the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai has collaborated with Neil Davey to promote the device in India.

Travel Beats is an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle, a leading travel partner of Indians in USA. Travel Beats publishes the latest travel, tourism, visa, immigration and Indian community news.

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Let July 2017 come and Indians in USA will get to inaugurate the largest Sai Temple in Groton, Massachusetts. Currently under construction on a 28-acre site, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton will be the largest Sai Temple in the United States. Once completed, it will be an interface between a temple for spiritual teachings and a community hub for harmony. The foundation brick of the temple was laid in 2015.

The New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, is designed to be a two-storey building spread over 40,000 square feet. Intended to be an epicenter of the philosophical and spiritual teachings of Sai Baba in USA, the temple will help connect young Indians across America with their cultural roots, according to Mahender Singh, the President of New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar (NESSP).

Currently housed in a 7,200-square-foot rented property in Chelmsford, the temple will have its new complex built for a whopping USD10 million apart from the cost of the 28-acre land, that is $1.4 million. The New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, will have a temple building with a big prayer hall, a sprawling dining hall with a kitchen, and a few community rooms at the first phase of construction.

There will be a multipurpose hall for community events, residence for priests, and new-age classrooms for children’s education as well as cultural activity in the new complex of the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, once the second phase of construction is over. The third phase, a long-term plan, includes a library and a 500-seat auditorium.

Alongside having spiritual discourses, religious practices, cultural events and enlightening programs, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, will allow devotees to hold weddings and other social occasions within the complex. To say precisely, the Sai Baba temple will be open to everyone. In the upcoming new complex, it will house Hindu deities including Lord Ganesh, Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Goddess Durga, Shiv Ling, Lord Ram and Nava Graha.

The mission and vision of New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar (NESSP) is to make the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton a complete ecosystem for spiritual nourishment and a multicultural space for enlightenment. Reportedly, the temple will have its grand opening in July 2017.

NESSP recently launched a nationwide campaign to raise a fund of $500,000 for the ongoing construction of the temple.

Also Check World’s Tallest Temple under Construction in India

Travel Beats is a community magazine for Indian Americans by Indian Eagle, a leading travel organization for Indians in USA. Travel Beats publishes the latest news and stories of the Indian community alongside listing Indian events in US cities.

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A nine-year-old Bengali NRI boy named Oyon Ganguli from Waltham in Massachusetts won the Mighty Minds Contest, a competition for American youth inventors. Oyon Ganguli is a grandson of none but great Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay from Kolkata. This Indian American boy of Bengal origin beat other participants on strength of his winning invention “The Cleaner”, an innovative device to filter and recycle water. (Watch a video of The Cleaner by Oyon Ganguli below) 

Oyon Ganguli collaborated with his friend Mateo Rosado in this project. He told a Waltham-based local newspaper that he hit upon the idea of creating such a water-recycling device while watching a video of the ALS ice bucket challenge, in which participants are required to dump buckets of cold water on each other’s head. He was surprised at sheer waste of water because a “10-minute shower wastes 50 gallons of water.”

He came across a product similar to his idea of a water-recycling device while during research, but he did not step back. Oyon proceeded with the idea to work on the prototype. He conceptualized a better device to recycle and reuse water which drains away during a shower.

Oyon’s device consists of three separate layers of gravel, sand and charcoal which water is filtered through before an attached storage tank collects it. Then the collected water is pumped back for reuse. The device has a little door so that the filter can easily be cleaned whenever it gets clogged over time.

Oyon Ganguli is looking forward with his plans for a future project which he has named “The Space Cleaner.” The Space Cleaner is a solar-powered robot with two arms. It will melt space junk with one arm and vacuum up the melted materials with the other arm. One of his ambitions is to be an inventor.

The Mighty Minds Contest, one of the competitions for young American inventors, is jointly organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Camp Invention, a youth educational summer camp.

Travel Beats is a digital news portal for Indians and NRIs by IndianEagle, a leading international organization booking travel from the US to India. It publishes the latest news and stories from India and USA.

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