ASHA SANDESH * The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION

1. ASHA SANDESH* The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION http://www.ashanet.org/atlantaVol. 2, No. 2, April-June 2004 Asha-Atlanta welcomes our new members – Reshma Desai, Sreechand Boppudi, Ramesh Singh, & others, and welcome back Pat! We must be the change we wish to see --- Mahatma Gandhi New Project Funded – Sahyog, Mumbai Sahyog is a school for girls in the Jari Mari Basti in Mumbai. It caters to the needs of adolescent girls who have had to drop out of school due to various societal pressures. Asha funds have gone towards supporting a formal school, an informal school, teacher training, workshops and fellowship programs at the school. Projects Update Rehab Center Project Ashok conducted a site visit to the Rehabilitation center in December 2003. The site visit report and associated videos will be available soon on our website. We were amazed to watch the girls, in the video, perform all lots of activities, such as weaving, candle making, dance performances, without the aid of their vision. All the girls who took exams this year have passed with over 65% marks. Below are the students name and marks secured. Names Marks (/500) 1. D.Sharmila 350 2.S.Deepa 404 3.S.Saradha 367 4.S.Shanthi 322 5.V.N.Sumathy 327 6.A.Kanaka 322 7.V.Ajantha 222 8.M.Saraswathi 326 9. C.Chitra 317 This project is currently being supported by the Asha chapter in Berkeley, CA. Asha-Atlanta has given a one-time donation of $1634 to complement their support. * `Asha Sandesh’ is a phrase in the Hindi language that translates to `Message from Asha’. The word `Asha’ means hope, while `Sandesh’ means message. This newsletter brings you the message about the on-going activities of Asha-Atlanta.

2. Events Update Heritage India – June 12-13 Heritage India is an event similar to Festival of India and will be held June 12-13 at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. The festival would allow for entire families to attend and immerse themselves in the colorful, vibrant and diverse mosaic that is the Indian subcontinent. It would be a grand event that would include food, frivolity, arts, handicrafts, colorful apparel and stunning jewelry. The festival will offer sponsors and vendors an opportunity to interact with thousands of current and potential customers in real time, while also performing important market research and gathering valuable demographic and economic data. The event is conducted by a company called Rushi Entertainment Inc. They have previously held this event in Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and in the New York/New Jersey area. Rushi will be giving 3 booth spaces to Asha-Atlanta. We will use these to hold events and to raise funds. Asha-Atlanta is planning to conduct events during the two-day event such as Candle making, Math-bee, Quiz, Painting competition, Origami workshop, Magic Show, Face painting, Animal-balloon-making, Mehendi, Pin-the-tail, Memory Game, Ring-the-coke bottle and more! There are lots of prizes for these competitions. There is also a raffle with exciting prizes. Please come, visit our booths and have fun. Our members have been visiting various Indian businesses in the greater Atlanta area to look for sponsorship opportunities. We are happy to report that a lot of businesses have given a positive response. If you run a business or know someone who does, and would like sponsor our events, please contact Gaurav Bakshi (gbakshi @ ce-a.com) ASHA-ATLANTA Vol. 2, No. 2, April-June 2004 Coordinator Udai Tennati Publicity/Fundraising Gaurav Bakshi Ashok Narayan Sreechand Ramesh Singh Reshma Desai Pat Srinivas Treasurer Anup Lakare Projects Lavanya S. Sailaja Tennati Vani Sarin Puneet Sarin Web/Newsletter Sathyan Subbiah Asha for Education is a non-profit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable purposes. Our Federal Employee Identification number is 77-0459884. It has been granted a federal tax-exempt status under IRS Code Section 501(c). Asha Conference - Chennai Asha India’s annual conference was held in Chennai from December 25-28, 2003. The conference was attended by Asha volunteers and others associated with Asha’s activities. The sessions started off in IIT Madras campus and then continued at the Uroor Alcott Kuppam School, and ended back on the IIT campus.

4. If ice were to sink, then entire ponds, lakes and the seas would freeze solid killing all aquatic life. Since ice floats, it forms a layer of insulation, much like the jacket you wear in winter, and protects the liquid water below it from freezing. Thus fishes are able to survive even in winter. Hydrogen bonds are also what causes water to have high surface tension. Ever wondered how the leaves high up on a tree branch get water from the soil? The high surface tension of water creates a capillary effect in the plant vessels causing water to rise up against gravity because of the hydrogen bonding among the water molecules. Children’s Corner Why are the NASA rovers looking for signs of water in Mars? Because if water existed in Mars then life may have existed! Did you know that life on Earth began in water and evolved there for three billion years before spreading into land? Yes, all forms of life is inextricably tied to water. So why is water good for creating and sustaining life? For one, water is a polar molecule. Its structure is simple – two Hydrogen atoms joined to a oxygen atom in a lopsided arrangement. The bond between oxygen and hydrogen is called covalent bond where they share electrons. Oxygen is a greedy atom and pulls the electrons more towards itself. This creates a tiny negative charge on oxygen (because electrons are negatively charged) and a positive charge on hydrogen. So the oxygen from one water molecule is attracted to the hydrogen of its neighbor oxygen atom and vice versa. This attraction is called hydrogen bonding. This hydrogen bonding is responsible for some unique properties of water. For e.g. this hydrogen bonding causes ice to be lighter than liquid water. That’s why ice floats on water. We made our own banner! To minimize on the cost of making banners, we made our own! The banner was made out of a 2ftx4ft painter’s canvas. The Asha logo was enlarged, broken up and printed in parts on a 8.5x11 paper, and then the letters were cut out and traced with a pencil on the canvas. We initially bought paint to color it, but then we found heavy-duty chisel-edge markers and so ended up using this to color the logo. The banner looks great. Visit our booths on June 12-13 and take a look! WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOLUNTEER? AWESOME! – CONTACT UDAI utennati @ hotmail.com FOR MORE DETAILS! Our Corporate Sponsors DCT SYSTEMS (NILOY INC.)