INDIAN AMERICAN SENIORS IN SILICON VALLEY                                                 
                          BY BHARAT DESAI
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 (In above pictures from top to down 1) Seniors' Ras' Program during 'FOSWL ' celebration regarding completion of 150th session and 2)'Bollywood Dance' Program at 'ICC' Milpitas 3) Seniors at Jain Center, Milpitas 4)Seniors at ICC, Fremont 5) Esteves Jose Mayor of Milpitas addressing the seniors at INSAF, Program at Fremont,6)Seniors performing Dance item at Senior Center, Bay Area Vaishnav Parivar, Milpitas,7) Seniors meeting at' Gujarati senior Mitra Mandal, Fremont temple) 100 members seniors group meeting at Fremont temple 9) Seniors meeting at 'Jain Center', Milpitas, 10) Seniors meeting at 'Saratoga Senior Center, Saratoga)
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                                                I  joined  in the Senior activities at ‘ Indo American Community Service Center at Santa Clara, CA in the year 1999. It was one of the prominent centers then which was serving Indian American Seniors. It was also time when flow of Indian American Seniors was not much as today.  They were running one of the main programs for seniors under’ The  Creative Writing called  as ‘Chhajju Ka Chaubara’. It was forum wherein  seniors  were supposed to  present their articles/poems /songs etc. We use to get nutritious western type  lunch after program. However with the time we  started getting Indian style food in lunch.Some of the seniors along with me took initiative and started few more intellectual programs like ‘Current Events’, ‘Friends on Same Wavelength’. and ‘The Life strategy’.  All those programs increased the interest among seniors
and our attendance also increased. All those programs became very popular and recognized by Medias, Government and Semi government Agencies. The most important thing is that all the programs served the seniors vivid interest very well. However the Indo American Community Service Center, Santa Clara  was merged with India community center where we got better facilities to continued our programs. We were given bigger place with more facilities at Cupertino, CA. It also serves seniors from Palo Alto, Cupertino,Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Santa Clara, and San Jose
                                               India community center  runs  Senior Centers at Milpitas, Fremont  and Cupertino along with other community services. The seniors are entertained at India community center with Intellectual and  Entertainment programs ,along with Yoga Sessions. The  Seniors remains involve from 11.00AM to 1.00 PM. They are served lunch after those programs. The Seniors ‘Rass’ and  Bollywood  Dance Programs at ICC, Milpitas have  also become very popular all over the Valley. 
                                             The  Indian community Center’s  Fremont unit is also managed  by one of the volunteers Gurumukhsing. I observed during my  visit  that several good activities  were going on i.e. like Spiritual talk, Devotional songs etc. I was very much impressed regarding  the presentation of old Hindi movies songs by Ram Ashanani and Spiritual talk by Balram Sharma.
                                               I was also invited by  some of the Indian American  Senior Centers run by  Individual Volunteers or some of the Indian American community organizations. I had generally talk to them regarding ‘Seniors  Health and Happiness’.
                                              ‘The INSAF ‘  which  runs senior programs  twice a month at Senior Center, Lake Elizabeth, Fremont. is doing very well. I was  a guest speaker in  one of their programs. The Indian American Seniors were taking part in the discussions regarding their common problems.  The Mayor of Milpitas Esteve Jose also gave talk on the facilities offered  by City Milpitas to the seniors.  The several seniors presented  talk on spirituality, and on the latest problems faced by them in the said meeting.  Surendra Dalal, President, and Krishnaswmi Narasimhan,Secretary   managed  the said  program very well.
                                                ‘The Gujarati Senior Mitramandal’ also runs Senior program  at Fremont Temple at Fremont. Urmilaben Patel, Ramanbhai Desai, are running the program twice a month. Urmilaben keeps  informed seniors regarding forthcoming programs related to seniors. It was pleasure to watch  the prayer chanted  by Seniors. Sarayubahen Song of Ravindranath Tagore was very melodious. 
                                                 Ramesh Patel also run ‘Hundred Members Group ‘at Fremont Temple twice a month. I visited the center on invitation. It is being run very well. He also gives opportunities to seniors for presenting their talent. Dr Mahesh Raval upcoming writer and poet presented very good Gazals and Shayari. Pragnaben( i.e.Dagalo fame) and Rajubhai Solanki also presented very good musical items which were received very well by seniors. Antani, Pinakinbhai,Mankad,Babubhai, presented songs while one Senior  Sharmaji talked on ‘Rakha Bandhan and its Significance.’ It was very interesting program.
                                                  One of the Senior Centers run by ‘Jain Center’, at Milpitas was very much Spiritual Oriented. Almost all members talked on Jain’s ‘Pajushan Festival’ and its importance for the  inner Developments. Kishorebhai, Niruben,Mahendrabhai,Kokilaben, Dhaneshbhai, and Pravinbhai talks were very thought provoking. Dr Lodha took a Yoga session for few minutes. Sailja Jain also presented poems and shayari which were received very well. Ramnikbhai Gohil and energetic youth Prarnaben managed the program very well.
                                                Vanitaben Mahajani, Arun Phadwekar are also running Senior Center at Saratoga on every Thursday. They also invites Guest Speaker from outside to talk on the Senior’s related Subjects. I was invited through Mercy one of the seniors for taking on ‘ How to remain Happy and Healthy by utilizing maximum time with Healthy Activities’. 
                                               The Senior Center affiliated to ‘Bay Area Vaishnav  Parivar, Milpitas  also invited me for talk and got opportunity to observe their activities. It is very well managed by Manish Patel and Dipikaben. Kalpanaben, a Senior lady had organized  dance session for seniors based on Song of Gujarati poet late Suresh Dalal. It was participated by almost all Seniors. There was a Yoga session taken by Mahendrabhai.
                                               It is common practice that  all senior centers  serves Lunch after program.  The some of the Senior Centers periodically arrange outing for seniors. Thus my visits covered more than 800 seniors in the Bay Area.i.e Silicon Valley.. However it is observed that all those senior centers are helping Indian American seniors to past their time very well i.e. In fellowship and entertainment. 
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