Club 65 Celebrates Diwali
By Dr. Jaseem Pasha
HOUSTON: The day was Sunday, October 11, the Senior Houstonians of Club 65 had their monthly ‘Lunch and Learn’ function at the Bay land Community Center in Houston.
The Conference room was thronged with seniors of diverse professional background, including engineers, physicians, attorney, real estate brokers, poets, architects and you name it.
Although Club 65 is only about two years old, founded under the aegis of Indian Muslim Association of Greater Houston (IMAGH), this non-profit organization has already won the hearts of Senior Houstonians and the membership is increasing by the month.
After announcing the whole years’ program of Club 65, Latafath Hussain, the President of Indian Muslims Association of Greater Houston (IMAGH), then introduced the new President of Club 65, Paru McGuire to the members.
Paru McGuire, who is one of the few founding members of Club 65, then introduced the two speakers of the day to the audience.
The theme for the October meeting was ‘Diwali’, the ancient triumph of good over evil, India’s most important festival, making it an opportunity to know and learn a little about the celebration of the festival of twinkling lights, which was excellently explained and presented by Hema Chandrashekar. Not only did she talk about the Festival of Lights, which is Diwali, but linked it to Sanatan Dharma, which is commonly known as Hinduism.
The next presentation was “How to heal yourself” by M. Sadiq Ali, M.S., Certified Nutrition & Wellness Consultant, et al., of “The Transformation Studio”. His lecture was very informative about the benefits of eating whole raw foods and minimally processed meals that could prevent chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiac disease, stroke arthritis, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, depression, autism, ADHD, depression and many more.
Sadiq Ali and his staff also provided a guide for cooking and eating foods, which destoxify the body, mind and spirit. He and his team brought along a variety of delicious herbal and organic food items to sample. As expected, the presentation triggered a lot of queries from the members.
Lunch was sponsored and made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. It was served in accordance to the Diwali theme of the month consisting of a traditional vegetarian menu including Shrikhand and Puri, which is regarded as a specialty of Diwali. Everyone enjoyed the experience of tasting the different variety of food and the healthy lifestyle sampling.
As usual, it was a great success, receiving lots of positive feedback from the large gathering of seniors.
The meeting ended with happy faces thanking the new elected officers of the Club 65, including Paru McGuire (President), Rahat Kalle (First Vice President), Hatim Kanorwala (Second Vice President ) and Noorjahan Upadhya ( Jt.Secretary), Sudhir Mathuria ( Secretary) and Farida Jinnah (Treasurer)