Philadelphia, Aug 31: Kerala Hindus of North America kicked off the registration drive
for the upcoming KHNA convention in Los Angeles (Jul 10-13, 2009) with a grand function at
the Chinmaya Mission Kedar in Philadelphia on Aug 31st. The inaugural registration kickoff
meetings for the previous two conventions at Chicago (2005) and New York (2007) happened to
both be at Philadelphia, and the current director and trustee boards of the KHNA also decided
to continue the tradition, certainly because of the remarkable enthusiasm that is always
displayed by several local leaders and KHNA supporters in the city.
Please see the Philadelphia Kickoff Pictures page
for many more pictures!
The function started in the Kerala tradition, with a Chenda Melam, a Muthukkuda procession
and a reception of the guests with Thalappoli by the fabulous ladies and girls of the "City of
Brotherly Love". Swami Siddhananda, Chief of the Chinmaya Mission Center, led the activities
and inaugurated the fuction with a pooja followed by the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. The
welcome speech was by Muralee Krishnan, regional coordinator of KHNA. In his inaugural address,
Swami Siddhananda spoke of the need for the organization like KHNA to grow and help continue
the cultural and religious traditions of Kerala in the North American community. The Keynote
and Felicition addresses were given by the KHNA President Dr. Ramadas Pillai (Murrieta, CA) and
the Chairman of the KHNA Trustees, Sri. T. N. Nair (Dallas, TX). Both the leaders of the
organization stressed the need for all malayali hindus to come together with total unity
and harmony to take KHNA's objectives forward. Dr. Ramadas Pillai thanked the Philadelphia
community for their participation in the recently completed Bhagavatha Sapthaham in Los Angeles
and spoke about the various activities leading up to next year's convention.
KHNA leaders had arrived from other cities such as New York and Washington, DC. Those who
spoke at the occasion include KHNA's immediate past president, Sri Venkat Sharma, past
secretary and the co-convenor of the upcoming convention, Sri Raju Nanoo, both from New York,
and the regional coordinator for the Washington DC and Maryland area, Sri M. Gangadhara
Menon.
It is gratifying to note that all the local organizations of the Philadelphia area, including
the NSS of Pennsylvania, the SNDP, the Sree Narayana Association, and the Nair Society of
Delaware Valley had worked together for this function. Several community leaders from these
organizations spoke at the occasion. The
enthusiastic joint effort by the whole community is a reflection of the kind of unified
spirit to work towards common objectives that KHNA stands for. The registration materials
were distributed to those who attended the fuction and as many as 27 family registrations
were filled up at the function. If Philadelphia's lead is followed by all other cities where
upcoming registration meetings will be held, there is no doubt that KHNA's upcoming convention
will break all attendance records and be a grand success.
The function was not without cultural programs. Dances by Soorya Lakshmi and Sruthi Kamprath,
Song by Aditi Suresh, etc added much color to the function which ended with a sumptuous sadya,
which was a nice precursor of the upcoming Onam celebrations for all malayalees of the continent!
The vote of thanks was by Sri Viswanathan Pillai, KHNA trustee from Philadelphia.
