During the summer month of

July, the youth committee held

a Summer Camp at the Tem-

ple. Kids in the camp were

exposed to such facets of our

culture such as Religion, Vedic

math, Beading, Rangoli,

Cricket, and learned Bhajans.

During the course of the camp,

kids were always laughing and playing. All in all, the camp was

a great experience for all of

the kids enrolled. This year,

there were about 30 children

enrolled. Youth committee

chairperson, Jayashree Sarathy,

said that it was great that so

many children came every

morning at 8:00 eager to learn!

In religion class, kids learned

about the many incarnations of

lord Balaji and chanted slokas.

The next class was Math in

which kids learned easier ways

to do addition

and multiplication using the

Vedic math methods. After

that, they were given a snack

and went back to the class-

room to sing bhajans. Most of

the students enjoyed the meals

given almost every two hours.

Many especially liked the lunch

choices. Parents said that they

were so full that many students

did not want dinner when they came back home! After lunch,

students went to Arts and

crafts in which they created

necklaces, earrings, rangoli

drawing, and god pictures.

Then, the children sang more

bhajans and had a horticulture

lesson. Due to un-

foreseen circum-

stances, they were

not able to plant the

Sanjeevani plants.

These will be

planted under the

youth camp stu-

dents' name at a

later date. The fun-filled day

ended with sports and games

where students played soccer,

football, and cricket. Students

were taught how to play

cricket and a final match took

place as well. Many kids com-

plained to their parents when

they came to pick them up

because they wanted to stay longer! All in all, kids and par-

ents were extremely satisfied

with the camp!

Story by Shreya Shankar and

Vignesh Sarathy

Balaji Youth Camp

Words of the Youth Camp

This is a contribution from Collin Regelbrugge

Age 14

My experience at Youth Camp

The Balaji temple was a great experience for

me. I learned a lot and made some new friends.

One of them is named Adarsh. He is very

friendly and is good at soccer. I like the whole

experience because it was a new thing for me. I

also like learning about gods. My favorite class

was sports and games because it was very fun!

This is a contribution from Vikram Dara

Age 8

My favorite activities in the temple

My favorite activity in the Balaji temple is see-ing all the gods and pray to the gods and get water and almonds where people stand in line. I even like singing slokas! My favorite god is every god because they all destroy evil. There are of the sun and other planets too!

The Totally

Awesome

Temple Times 1/4/2011

Issue 2

Balaji Youth Camp 1

Words of the Youth

Camp

1-3

Basics of cricket 3

Thank You! 4

Religion and Slokas 4

Word of the month 4

Mahabharata and

Ramayana

5

Youth Classes 6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

BYC STAFF

Vignesh Sarathy - Journalist

Shreya Shanker - Editor

Renu Varadheeswaran - Graphic Design

BYC

Presents...

Class registration 6

Calendar of events 7

About the BYC 8

Teachers and Staff

interviews

8

This is a contribution by Rhea

Age: 10

Camp

When I come to camp in the morning, we

go to the classroom. Were in the class-

room 95% of the day. My favorite part of

the camp is lunch. The food is really good.

I also like to play outside when we have

time. Math is sometimes hard and some-

times easy. Math is for two hours which

gets me a little tired. Sometimes it gets

really noisy so I can’t focus. Then the vol-

unteers come and calm it down. All in all,

camp isn’t that bad.

This is a contribution by Anika

Age 7

Balaji Camp

I go to Balaji temple camp. My favorite ac-tivity is Bhajans class, art class, and math class. IN art class we made a necklace and earrings. We make Rangoli too. In Bhajans class we sing religious songs meaning songs related to god. In math we learn Vedic math like digit sum. This is why I like Balaji camp.

Words of the Youth camp Continued

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES

Page 2

This is a contribution by Vaishnavi Tetali

Age 10

Youth Camp

In the Balaji temple they put a program

called summer camp. In summer camp

you can do many activities. Some of the

classes we have are yoga, religion, math,

arts and crafts, chess, rangoli, bhajans,

and many more. The Balaji temple has

been doing it for 2 years and this their

third year. Some of the things we do in

the classes are: arts and crafts where we

create things and in rangoli class we

make designs and in math we learn Vedic

math. They also give us break time and

let us play. Summer camp is Fun!

This is a contribution by Jagrit Sard-

eshpande

Age 10

The Time I Went to India

I went to India on June 21st on a Friday. It took a long time to get there, almost 48 hours. It felt like it took a month. When we reached India, we had to prepare for my thread ceremony. I was really bored when everybody was try-ing to set up for my ceremony. I didn’t even get to play with anybody in India.. ON the day of the ceremony I was get-ting ready for it. In the end, I had a good time.

This is a contribution by Rishabh

Age 10

Why we should be in this Camp

You must be wondering what summer camp is the best, it is the one in the Balaji Temple. I said this because I have been in this camp and it is teaching eve-rything from India. My favorite activities are Math and Arts and Crafts. They also have religion where we learn about the ten forms of Vishnu. Forgot to mention that we also do yoga to make your entire body stronger! This is why it is my favor-ite camp!

This is a contribution by Karthik Devara-

konda

Age 10 Balaji Temple

My Favorite part about the camp at the temple is when me and my friends play sports outside. I also enjoy playing chess and checkers. We learned how to play cricket too. The food is really good. There are a lot of activities that we do like play soccer and football. We watched a couple movies. We learn how to do vedic math. We learned easy addi-tion and multiplication methods. This is

why I like this camp.

This is a contribution by Saahil Sadhwani

Age 9

The Fire Toucher

Once, at home, there was an arthi and my brother kept on touching the fire. He touched it like a 1,000,000 times. We almost ran out of

matches. We had to almost go to the store to get more. Then we figured out what to do. We used a candle. We just put that on the plate, but, that didn't work!!!!!! We thought and

thought… Finally we came up with another plan. It almost worked. Then, we tried again. Then we thought more. Then, we used a tall

candle and my brother stopped touching the

fire!

Contribution By Ramya

Most memorable thing in my India Vacation

The most memorable experience in India was

last year when I went to three places. I went to

Delhi, Chennai, and Amboor. In Delhi, I saw my

cousins. We had fun together. We played

cricket, baseball and even played in the park.

We also went to the gateway of India together.

In the night, we took a picture and my family

still has in now. Me and my cousins also went

to many other places. It was fun and I had a

great time in Delhi. At Chennai, me and my

family stayed in my parents friends house. We

went to the Thirapathi temple . My father

climbed the steps and I drove around with my

mother. She made great food on the trip. She

made vada, yogurt rice, and tamarind rice. It

was fun. I saw the gods and felt what they

wore. I thought I had the best time ever. At

Amboor, I met my father’s mom and she made

me my favorite sweets. I also met my cousins

from Nagpur. Their names are Shravia and

Venkatesh. I played more with Sharvia and we

wrote a poem and recited it to the parents.

Venkatesh and my brother Varun sang a song

individually and we sang together. We made

our own song and so did Varun and Venkatesh.

We had fun. Now you know about my trip to

India. But I have saved the best for last in my

trip. I got to see my oldest cousin. I hope what I

wrote inspired you to go to India and go to all

the places I went to. My India trip was great

ISSUE 2 Page 3

is better than your usual diet. Break-fast, lunch and snacks are all served so

all your parents do is have to make you dinner at home! We get fed almost every two hours. Though, its not like a regular camp where you sleep

and go hiking, it is very educational. You can learn about gods from the Hindu religion, bhajans, chess, cricket, dance, yoga, ect. Plus, it has volun-teers that help with anything you need help with.

Camp at the Balaji temple can be more friendly than any other camp known. No bullies, teasing, injuries. Only happy teach-ers, volunteers, and of course, students who want to learn even more about Hin-duism than other classes offered at the Balaji temple. Summer is here, camp is waiting, and you know about a program that has been grab-bing your interest and will keep it until the very last moment where you say bye to your friends and wait yet another year until the fun starts again. Don't close the window of excellent opportunity because

behind it, you see an amazing view of life.

Story by Chandana Tetali

"Education should be respected, especially if it is religious." This quote leads us to a wonderful education camp that you can join too. At camp, you can experience fun activities of all kinds. From art to sports, food to games, this camp exceeds all standards of "fun." It's only a week long, but once you get in, you would wish that is contin-ued for a month straight. If you love to eat, at camp, there wont be a single rumbling tummy. Food here is great and I can say, it

Cricket is a team sport with two teams

consisting of eleven players each. The

maximum number of days a match has

lasted is five days. The least is an after-

noon. The teams alternate batting and

fielding. The captain of the team that wins

the coin toss gets to choose whether the

team bats of fields first. The team batting

will try to score as many runs as possible

without losing too many wickets, or outs.

Each team will get ten wickets. Each

match can have a different amount of

overs which are explained later. Cricket is

a bat-and-ball team sport. Many variations

exist, with its most popular form played

on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known

as a cricket field at the centre of which is

a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch

that is the focus of the game. When the

batting team has used all its remaining

batsmen within the available overs, The

roles reverse and it is now the fielding

team's turn to bat and try to outscore the

opposition.

There are also variations in the length of a

game of cricket. In professional cricket

this ranges from a limit of 20 overs per

side (Twenty20) to a game played over 5

days (Test cricket, which is considered

the highest level of the game). Depending

on the form of the match being played,

there are different rules that govern how

a game is won, lost, drawn or tied. The

rules of two-innings games are known as

the Laws of Cricket and maintained by

the ICC and the Marylebone Cricket Club

(MCC); additional Standard Playing Con-

ditions for Test matches and One Day

Internationals augment these laws. In one

version of Indoor Cricket, matches in-

clude just 6 players and last for 12 overs.

Cricket was first documented as being

played in southern England in the 16th

century. By the end of the 18th century, it

had developed to the point where it had

become the national sport of England.

The expansion of the British Empire led

to cricket being played

overseas and by the mid-

19th century the first inter-

national matches were being

held. Today, the game's

governing body, the Interna-

tional Cricket Council

(ICC), has 104 member

countries. With its greatest

popularity in the Test play-

ing countries, cricket is the

world's second most popu-

lar sport after Association

football.

Story by Ashrith Sivas-

wamy and Vignesh Sarathy

Balaji Youth Camp has been a blast!

The Basics of Cricket

Vacation to Tennessee,

Barbie dolls, movies,

Princesses, and even

Beaches! Thank you for

reading and we hope

you register you chil-

dren for the Balaji

Youth Camp next year!

If you would like to

read all of the essays that were not fea-tured, please email us at

byctatt@gmail.com and we will send

them to you as soon as possible. All stu-

dents that were not featured are listed be-

low:

Samvrit Punyapu Keerthy S.

Anand Purushotaman Varun Sarathy

Lakshmi

Hunter Regelbrugge

Aumkar Girap

Nolan Regelbrugge

Sahvan Patel Story by Vignesh

Rahul Sadhwani Sarathy Sia Patel

Pratham Baid

Kushi Sudarsan

As you can see, many

students really enjoyed

the Balaji Youth Camp.

Students were introduced

to many aspects of Hindu-

ism and did enjoyable

things as well. All the

students wrote essays

and many were featured

in the newsletter as headlines. Essays that were not featured had the following topics:

Sports, Basketball, Scooters, Vacation to

Starved Rock, Vacation to Wisconsin Dells,

Balaji Youth Camp Final Contributions

“Education should be respected, especially if

it is religious.”

Please email us if you would like to read any essays that were not

featured!

ISSUE 2

On page 4, there is a registration form to enroll your kids into the class for fall

Here are a couple of slokas that chil-dren do in class-

Aga Janana Padmarkam Gajananam Aharnisham

Aneka Dantham Bakthanam Ekkadantham Uppasmahe

Shankaram Shankara Achra-yam Keshavam Badara-yanam

Sutra Bhashya Krithow

Vande Bhagavanthow Punah Punaha

Poojya Raghavendraya Satya Darma Rata Yacha

Bhajatam Kalpavirkshaya Namatham Kamade-nave

Vakratunda MahaKaya Kotisurya Samaprabha

Nirvighnam Kurume Deve Sarva Karyeshu Sar-vadaa

… and there are many more! Enroll today! Story by Shreya Shankar

Religion class is offered by the youth committee at Balaji Temple. In this class, children learn about Hindu rel-gion, wonderful slokas and bhajans. The class is lots of fun and you learn a lot about your re-ligion. The class is taught by Priest Nagendra and Priest Hanumantha Prasad. This is a great class to put your children into.

Hindi– Dhanyavaad

Tamil– Nandri

Telugu- Dhanyavaadaalu Sanskrit- Anugurihiitosumi

If you would like to learn your na-tive language, register your child into the fall language classes today!

In this section, we will carefully choose a word or phrase and translate it into different languages. In the language classes at the temple, teachers will instruct in a way that is easy to under-stand. If you would like to learn your native language, enroll your children in the fall language classes

This month’s word is…..

Thank you!

Religion Class and Slokas

Word of The Month

Religion class is offered by the

youth committee at Balaji

Temple.

Page 4

Vani Krishna Monica Sridhar Ms. Yalavarthi Sharada Shanthi Purushotaman

Sahiti Karumuri

Teachers were also a crucial part of the

Youth Camp. Some took time off of

their work schedules to come and help

the kids. Many also brought supplies

and typed handouts for the children.

We would like to thank all of the

teachers for all of their time and help!

A complete list of teachers and subjects

are provided below: Religion and Bhajans: Mr. SG Rajan Vedic Math: Dr. Revluri Beading: Usha and Moksha Muthukrish-nan Chess: Mr. Velugapudi and Mr. Ya-lavarthi Cricket: Rameseshan Mani and Viswanathan Raman Religion and Slokas: Priest Hanuman-

thaprasad

Rangoli: Ms. Janaki Gopalan Writing: Vignesh Sarathy Bollywood Dance: Mr. Anand Bhatt Bhajans: Mr. Ram Bala and Bhuvana Iyer Arts and Crafts: Siri Manam and Swetha Ve-lugapudi Horticulture: Dr. Potluri Yoga Ms. Gargi Patel Religion and Slokas: Priest Hanumanthaprasad

Rangoli: Ms. Janaki Gopalan

Finally, we would like to thank Anita Ve-

lugapudi and Jayashree Sarathy for organizing

the Camp! On behalf of the entire Youth

Committee, thank you and we hope you reg-

ister your children in Youth Camp next year!

For any other information

about Youth Camp, feel

free to contact us at

byctatt@gmail.com.

Story by Vignesh Sarathy

Throughout the Youth Camp, children did many different activities, games, and other of course, religion lessons. Dur-ing these activities, students and teach-ers alike needed assistance and volun-teers were always happy to help. Teachers may have needed help passing out papers, make copies, and even calm down the children. Students needed help learning the material better. Adult and student volunteers helped do all of this and more! Thank you to all of our high school and adult volunteers! A complete list of volunteers are listed

below:

Swetha Velugapudi Adarsh Velugapudi Siri Manam Anjeli Manam Jayashree Sarathy Vignesh Sarathy Parvati Sree Rachna Karumuri

Sowjanya Dharmashankar Supriya Bhuvanigiri Moksha Muthukrishnan Manisha

Youth Camp Volunteers and Teacher Thank You’s

tried to get Rama to leave Sita and

come live with her. When Rama said

no, Ravana's sister attacked him, but

Rama and his brother Lakshmana

fought her off.

The demon

went back to her

brother Ravana on the island of Lanka (modern

Sri Lanka) and com-

plained to him that

Rama had been mean to

her and attacked her.

Ravana was very angry because Rama

had beaten up his sister. Also, Ra-

vana’s sister told him how beautiful Rama’s wife Sita was. So he went to

the forest to see for himself.

When Ravana got to the

forest, he found that Sita was indeed

very beautiful, and he stole her away

from Rama and took her back to

Lanka with him. Sita was very sad

there and missed Rama very much. Rama and his brother

Lakshmana needed help to rescue Sita.

They sought the help of Sugreava and of

his companion, Hanuman. who had the

magic power to make himself bigger or

smaller. Hanuman found Sita on the

island of Lanka and told her that Rama

was coming to save her. Sita was very

happy, but then the demon Ravana

caught Hanuman and set his tail on fire! In the end, though, Hanuman escaped

and set fire to the whole island of Lanka.

Hanuman went back to the

forest and got Rama and Lakshmana, and

they all went back with the whole mon-

key army to attack the island of Lanka.

The monkeys made a bridge over to the

island. There was a terrible battle, and finally Rama killed the demon Ravana.

Rama finally could go rescue

his wife Sita! But when he found her, he

was worried if she still loved him. Maybe

she had fallen in love with Ravana while

she was his prisoner? Rama made Sita

walk through fire to show that she still

really loved him. And even after she did that, and she was having his twin babies,

Rama ended up sending her to live

somewhere else. But in the end, Rama

Summary- The Ramayana tells the story of a

battle between the Hindu god Vishnu and a

demon called Ravana. None of the gods

could fight Ravana because of a promise

they had foolishly

made earlier, and

Ravana was messing

with everyone and nobody could stop

him. So Vishnu de-

cided to be reborn as

a human being and he

would be able to fight

Ravana.

So Vishnu was born as the prince Rama.

Rama was supposed to be king when his father died, but at the last minute his father

decided to make his brother king instead

because of a promise he had made to his

wife.

Rama and his other brother

Lakshmana and Rama's wife Sita went away

to live a simple life in the forest again, due

to the promise he had made. But when they were living in the forest, the demon

Ravana's sister fell in love with Rama and

Summary- The epic revolves around

the struggle for the throne of the

kingdom of Hastinapura. The struggle

is between two branches of the same

family, the Kauravas and Pandavas.

The Kauravas were collectively the

hundred sons of the blind king Dhrita-

rashtra and the Pandavas were the

five sons of Pandu, who died of a

curse. The five brothers named

Yudhisthira (eldest son), Arjuna,

Bheema, Nakula and Sahdeva were

always obedient and dutiful, which

made them the most loved in the

kingdom. Each of the Pandavas had a

special virtue in them that made them

stand apart from the rest of the

world. This made the Kauravas hate

them and they planned many devious

ways to get rid of them.

As time went by, the Pandavas got

married and shared a common wife

named Draupadi. The Kauravas got

even more enraged and challenged

the Pandavas to a game of gamble.

The Pandavas lost and were banished

from the kingdom for an exile of 12

years. There was a condition that if

they were recognized by the end of

12 years, they would have to begin

from scratch.

One of the most important and dra-

matic character in this epic is Lord

Krishna. He was the sole advisor,

guide and true friend of the Pandavas

and helped them in each and every

difficulty in their exile. He is said to

be the incarnation of God, who came

to earth in human form to relieve the

world of evil people and restore faith

in his devotees. During the great bat-

tle of Kurukshetra fought between

the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Lord

Krishna took upon himself the duty of

driving Arjuna's chariot. He imparted

the valuable and practical lessons of

the Bhaga-

wad Gita, a text of the conversation

between Lord Krishna and Arjuna,

where Lord Krishna shows Arjuna a

glimpse of his majestic divine form.

The Pandavas won the battle and

ruled over Hastinapura for a number

of years. It is said that Dhritarashtra

and his wife retired into the forest to

lead a stress-free life of an ascetic and

Krishna left after around thirty six

years after the battle took place.

When the Pandavas realized that it

was time to leave this earth, they all

set out on a journey towards the

North on foot. It is said that the gates

of heaven opened on the northern

horizon. One by one they dropped

dead, until Yudhisthira finally reached

the gates of heaven to be united once

again with his brothers and wife.

Ramayana

Mahabaratha

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES Page 5

If you would like to learn the entire

Ramayana or Mahabharata, enroll

into the fall Ramayana

or Mahabharata class!

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES

help them “gain knowledge” about our

wonderful history. With a variety

of topics to choose from, such as Maha-

baratha, Ramayana, many foreign

languages, and just basic religion, there

is sure to be one class that

will strike your fancy.

But taking these

classes isn’t only

about

learning new infor-

mation. People are

able to make new

friends that

share their interests.

What could be better than that? So

when you

next enter the Balaji Temple, take a

look around. If you like what you

When you enter the Balaji Temple, take

a look around. If you have come

on a Sunday, there is a good chance

you will see lots of kids running

around, sitting and eating lunch, or

writing in binders. These

children make up the

population of the

Youth Committee

classes. A

diverse group of stu-

dents from many

nearby areas, these

people come to

the temple every two

weeks to learn about their religion and

have fun

with classmates and friends. Students

who attend classes say that they

see, ask for a registration form and sign

up for a class. Who knows?

This might - and probably will - be a

great opportunity for you to

learn about India’s rich culture!

Story by Anjeli Manam, Adarsh Vela-

gapudi, and Shreya Shankar

Remember, the first day of Fall classes

is September 12th!

Youth Committee Classes

Youth Committee Thank you for registering your children! Please

turn this part of the newsletter into the office. If

you have any questions, feel free to call or email us

at…

CONTACT INFORMATION

Phone:(630)-844-2252

Email: svsyouth@gmail.com or

byctatt@gmail.com

A nominal donation of $10 for Religion

class alone, and $50 for an unlimited

number of other classes is appreciated

( for example, a child registering in Tamil,

Hindi, Ramayana and Religion will have to

pay $50+$10 = $60). Classes are taught

by volunteers and the donation goes

solely to the temple and is fully tax-

deductible. Please make checks payable

to Balaji Temple. For credit card payments

please call temple office at 630-844-2252

or pay in person at the office.

The first class date is September 12th

Info

Page 6

Balaji Vidyapitham 2010-2011 Class Registration Form

Sign up for:

Sanskrit or Tamil language class (circle one)

Hindi or Telugu language class (circle one)

Total: Classes

10:00-10:45

Time

11:00-11:45

Name of registrant (s)

Address/ Email ID

Phone

Credit Card

Method of Payment

Check

Signature

Parent names Cash

Mahabharata or Ramayana class for Elm. Or Mid. School students (circle one)

Religion/ bhajans class

Ramayana or Mahabharata class for High school students (circle one)

12:00-12:45

1:00– 2:00

4:00-5:00

Thevaram Class

10:45-11:45

ISSUE 2

Schedule of Events

Page 7

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2* 3 4*

5* 6* 7 8* 9* 10* 11*

12* + 13* 14 15 16 17* 18*

19* 20* 21* 22 23* 24 25*

26* + 27 28 29 30

September 2010

*- Represents an important event, they are described below

+- Represent s Youth Class Date, For a complete class schedule, email us at byctatt@gmail.com

Youth Classes are held every 2nd and 4th Sunday! A

registration form is on pg. 6

The first class date is September

12th

What is taught in your

class?

The Mahabharata, I tell it

as a story so that children

can fun from learning it.

Staff interview-

The Staff member we inter-

viewed was Mrs. Jayashree

Sarathy, chair of the Youth

Committee. Here are the

questions we asked and

how she answered:

Why do you choose to work at the temple?

So I can help the younger generation learn about our culture.

Teacher interview-

The teacher we interviewed was Mr. Parthasarathy, the teacher of the Mahab-harata Class (ES and MS).

Here is how he answered

the questions we asked

him:

What do you teach at the

temple?

Mahabharata Class (elem and MS)

What do you wish to con-tribute to the youth society through teaching?

I would like to teach kids about Mahabharata and help youth understand our culture and heritage.

What are some unique experiences you have had working at the temple?

I have been able to teach the youth and it is fun to learn about each of the kids personalities.

How long have you been

working at the temple?

I have been working here

for about a year and a half

now.

Interview by Renu Varad-

heeswaran and Vignesh

Sarathy

ADULT AREA

Meet our teachers/ Staff

www. balaji.org

Vol

um

e 1, Editio

n 2

ABOUT US JayanthiRenuka Varadheeswaran (Renu)

--- Graphic Designer

Age- 13 years old Grade- 8th grade Hobbies- Tennis, Singing, Violin, Trumpet, Bolly-

wood Dance, and Taekwondo.

Shreya Shanker

--- Editor

Age- 14 years old Grade- 9th grade

Hobbies- Viola, Piano, Singing, and Writing Poems

Vignesh Sarathy

--- Journalist

Age- 14 years old Grade- 9th grade Hobbies- Rock Collecting, Clarinet, Swimming, and

Volunteering at the Temple

The BYC thanks you for reading our news-letter. We hope you enjoyed yourself. If you have any com-ments, suggestions, or questions, feel free to email us at byctatt@gmail.com.

Thank you!

BYC