NRI Preetam Soundararajan  Wins Top Heritage Award

Long Beach, April 28, 2013
NRIpress.com/IS

 Long Beach: In a glittering ceremony at Hilton Hotel, Long Beach, Preetam Soundararajan  of San Diego with perfect score in SAT won the top award and revolving trophy in the high school category at the 28th annual Indian American Heritage Foundation awards function. The top award has been instituted by Sanjiv & Rajesh Chopra in memory of their parents Sarla & Kishan Gopal Chopra. Ashok Madan and his wife Manju presented the revolving trophy “Profiles in Excellence” instituted in memory of Ashok’s parents, Thakar Singh and Shanti Rani Madan. Titash Biswas, won the top award in the Middle school category. The award and revolving trophy,  has been instituted in memory of Dr. Awtar Singh by his niece, Sonia Batra  of San Jose. Dr Singh when alive, gave the award and trophy for several years in memory of his wife, Teji Singh. The award and trophy was presented to the winner by Dr Singh’s sister, Deepi Singh of Los Angeles.

ALL ABOVE FOUR PHOTOs were provided by I.Singh .....Ramesh

 The second place winner in high school category was Vamsi Mokkapati  of Rancho Santa Margarita while the third place winner was Archana Sivanandam  of Redlands. The next six winners were Bharath Mohan of Simi Valley, Apoorva Mylavarapu of San Diego, Priya Kumar of Lakewood, Sneha Chidambaram of Irvine , Sonul Gupta of Irvine, and  Prabhjot Kaur Grewal of Riverside. The second place winner in the middle school category this year, was Suraj Srivats while the third place winner was Karishma Muthukumar. The fourth and fifth awards went to Amogha Koka and Georgi Thomas respectively. Titash Biswas and Anjli Gandhi won the Visual and Performing Arts awards instituted by Mollie Singh in honor of  “Teachers, parents and family.”    Like last year, Mollie Singh specially flew from Atlanta with her husband Glenn to present the awards.

 Top awardee Preetam Soundararajan  and Simran Grover of Torrance shared the Outstanding Achievement Award and revolving trophy in community service instituted by Dr. Rajesh Kadakia in memory of Maniben Manilal Kadakia. Sneha Chidambaram won the Outstanding Achievement Award in Sports instituted by Jack Khangura in memory of his wife Rajinder Khangura. Sneha also received revolving trophy for excellence in sports instituted by Dr. M.C. Gupta of Corona in memory of his father Shri RBL Gupta. Both award and trophy were presented by PJ Khangura on behalf of his father Jagdish Khangura. Apoorva Mylavarapu won the Outstanding Achievement Award and revolving trophy in Math, Science and Technology instituted by Dr. Mani Bhaumik in recognition of the “most important numeral ZERO invented in India.” Vamsi Mokkapati  won the award and revolving trophy in Visual & Performing Arts, instituted by Raj Kumar Jawa of India Sweets and Spices, in memory of his grand father, Jiwan Dass Jawa. Other sponsors who attended the annual event and presented awards to the young winners included Simi Singh,  Ramjibhai Patel and VJ Singh. Donors Harbhajan Samra, Munish Makkar and Satishan of State Bank of India also presented the awards.

 The Indian American Heritage Foundation has been recognizing the achievements of Indian Youth, graduating from High and Middle Schools in Southern California for the past 28 years. The Foundation is the leading Indian American organization in the USA to publicly recognize, reward and celebrate excellence of the community’s best and brightest graduating students in Southern California. Prof. Bala Sardesai of UCLA delivered the keynote address while speaker. His speech was very motivational and touched several hearts.

Dr. K.J. Srinivasa of Indian Consulate in San Francisco, presided over the luncheon event.

 The Foundation started with eight scholarship awards and now twenty scholarships are given -- nine academic excellence awards ranging from $2000 to $750 in the high school category, five ranging from $600 to $200 in the middle school category, four of $600 each for Outstanding Achievement Awards in math and science, sports, community service, visual and performing arts in high school category and two of $250 and $150 in visual and performing arts for the middle school category.  Two winners – Preetam Soundararajan and Apoorva Mylavarapu – also got $200 each for having perfect score in SAT.

 The annual event has been made possible with the support of some well meaning people from the community including Sanjiv & Renu Chopra, Dr. M.L. Bhaumik, Uma-Avadesh Agarwal, BU Patel, Tilak & Pushpa Dhir, Sonia Batra, Ashok & Manju Madan, VJ & Simi Singh, Dr. C. R. Viswanathan,  Jagdish Khangura,  Raj Kumar Jawa of India Sweets & Spices, Mollie Rachna Singh, Dr. Rajesh Kadakia, Dr. Satinder–Ranjit Bhatia, and Paramshaktipeeth of America. Seven donors, Dr. M.C & Usha Gupta, Harbhajan Singh Samra, Munish Makkar, Nishat Ahmed, Suresh Iyer, Hab Bank, and State Bank of Inia (Woodland Hiils) supported the event. All the sponsors and donors were introduced through a Power Point presentation by Simi Singh.

 In the entertainment program, Vamsi Mokkapati presented a short Carnatic classical piece while Archana Sivanandam presented Bharat Natyam dance. Titash Biswas presented Odissi Classical dance, Mangalam,  while Amogha Koka performed Bharat Natyam  dance.  Suraj Srivats  played Saxophone  and Anjli Gandhi presented an upbeat Bollywood dance and won the heart of all. At the end of each item, the performers received sustained applause for their very lively performance. Kewal Kanda  & Ajmer Singh managed the stage and emceed the cultural extravaganza.

 Inder Singh, Foundation president thanked all the sponsors who provided necessary funding for the continuity of the awards program. He particularly thanked the judges – Kavita Puri, Harbir Hayreh, Ajmer Singh, Aparna Hande, Ajay Gupta, Rami Madan,  Vineet Puri,  Simi Singh, and Vasant Iyer  – who undertook the grueling task of evaluating the applicants. He praised his “working Crew” -- team of volunteers -- who have been working hard to make the event a success. He said, “An individual, howsoever brilliant, intelligent and smart, would find it difficult, if not impossible to match the collaborative efforts of an effective team and he is blessed with a team which has been providing selfless service for the cause of our youth.” His team included Abdulgani Shaikh, Ashok Madan,  Deepi Singh, Kewal Kanda,  V.J. Singh,  and Ramjibhai Patel.