The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of America (EVFA)-Houston chapter and the Hindu-American community celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights, with the Honorable Mayor of Houston, Bill White at a gala dinner on November 12, 2005.  The event was held at the Hilton Americas and the ballroom was beautifully decorated with multiple Diwali “Diya” decorations.

In accordance with the festive occasion, the theme that resounded throughout the evening was: “Light a lamp in every child’s life. Support education of tribal children in India”. To mark the auspicious celebrations, Honorable Mayor Bill White & Mrs. Andrea White lit ceremonial lamps and were joined on stage by Consul General of India, S.M. Gavai; Houston philanthropist, Jugal Malani; and the CEO of Ekal Global, Dr. Basant Tariyal. The Mayor praised the Foundation for its sterling work in promoting grassroots literacy while underlining the contributions made by the Indian-American community in enriching the diversity of Houston. When he concluded his speech by folding his hands in ‘Namaskar’ position, the four hundred (400) members of the audience responded warmly with a standing ovation.

The Consul General, Hon. Gavai recounted how India’s literacy rate has gone up from 12% of the population in 1947 to 65% today. He urged the audience to remember the remaining 35% of Indians who could not read or write. While appreciating the laudable efforts of Ekal, Shri. Gavai also informed the audience of the steps taken by the Indian Government to promote literacy.

Speaking from his heart, Dr. Basant Tariyal, the CEO of EV-Global and a former senior executive at Lucent Technologies, enthralled the audience by reminding them of their duties towards their motherland, India. In a heartwarming speech, he stressed that Lakshmi (prosperity) is always Chanchal (fluctuating) while it was Saraswati (knowledge) alone that was Sthir (steady). Dr. Tariyal described that the reason why the Indian-American community is the richest in the USA was because they had acquired the wealth of education in India. He remarked that the vastly subsidized Indian education that enriched the urban-educated Indians ironically also meant that over 100 million tribals living in rural India were deprived of their share of education. Today the tribal literacy rate is quite abysmal, barely 12% among men and 5% among women, he emphasized.  In a way, we owe it to these tribals for letting us having their share of privileges and we should pay back our dues to Indian society that molded us, Dr. Tariyal said, striking a receptive chord with the audience.

The audience watched a documentary on Ekal’s activities as a growing “people’s movement” of 15,330 ‘Ekal Vidyalayas’ (meaning ‘one-teacher schools’) that is currently educating and empowering over 480,000 Indian children of varied faiths, including Christians and Muslims. The Houston community was reminded of a powerful quote by Swami Vivekananda who had said: "If a poor child cannot come to school, the school must go to him". The participants learnt how the Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to systematically eradicate illiteracy from rural India by 2012 by striving to bring value-based primary education, healthcare, women’s empowerment and grassroots development to the nearly 100,000 remote tribal villages of India.

Compered efficiently by Sara Kumar and Bobbie Shah, the grand finale to the Diwali celebrations included a splendid performance of popular dances by “Hybrid Rhythms”, a classical Bharatanatyam recital rendered by the disciples of Rathna Kumar of the “Anjali Center for Indian Performing Arts” and a rendering of “golden oldie” Hindi film-songs by Uma Mantravadi, Suresh Shenoy, Hemant Shah, Veena Kaul, Kiran Sharma, Tej Ganju and Happy Singh. All the guests were treated to a sumptuous vegetarian dinner provided by “Madras Pavilion” restaurant.

The organizers Meera Kapur, the Regional VP of Southwest USA and Ramesh Shah, the National Secretary of EVF USA, took pride in mentioning that most of the hard work in organizing the event was done by second-generation Ekal youth volunteers. Many attendees including Uma and Sanjay Jajoo were visibly moved by Ekal’s efforts and said that they would like to be part of the Ekal movement that is transforming India. Hemendra Pal, a young professional, profoundly stated that Ekal was becoming the “people’s movement” with its dynamic vision for India.

For more info on the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, visit www.ekal.org or call 281-933-1707.