Eight Local Children to Compete in National Dharma Bee Chicago

HOUSTON: The regional Dharma Bee contest was held at the Arya Samaj of Greator Houston on Saturday April 27.

Almost seventy contestants  from Kindergarten to grade eight participated in the second level regional quiz competition on Swami Vivekananda and Lord Krishna. All of these contestant were qualified winner from the level one exam, which was held in March across nine centers in the Houston area.

The next round of the competition will be a grand finale to be held in Chicago. Eight participants, first prize winners of the second level competition from different age group will advance to the next level of National contest in Chicago on June 15 and 16.

In addition to the exam format, Dharma Bee also encouraged students to conduct one optional sewa project prior to the regional exam. Prior to the grand finale, finalists will complete an “Exploring Project,” which involves visiting a place where Swami ji visited or a nearby Vedanta Center/Ramakrishna Center.

There was a very positive feedback from all the parents who witnessed the contest and encouraged the kids as they were answering the questions of the life of Swami Vivekananda and Lord Krishna.

Dr Sen Pathak, Pankaj Maheshwari, Sharad Amin and Madhusudan Chaudhari were guests of honor who awarded trophies to the the winners.

Dr. Sen Pathak said,  “ During my 42-years of stay in Houston, the Dharma Bee Competition was one of the best organized and attended events on – The Leelas of Shree Krishna and the life-time messages of a Great Son of India, Swami Vivekananda Ji, in my opinion. I wish to congratulate all participants for their preparations and judges who had tough act to examine and decide the winners.  These youngsters are the future care-takers of “second to none” Hindu culture and heritage of Bharat.”

“ Dhrama Bee is a very good learning experience not only for my son Siddharth but for me as well and my entire family. I personally got to know more about Swami Vivekanand while reading the stories to Siddharth. HSS should conduct such contest every year”, said Shipra Jhunjhunwala, mother of Siddharth, participant from group 1.

The winners:

Houston North: Group 1

1st – Raja Pandya

2nd – Siddharth Agarwal

3rd – Chinmayee Madhava

Group 2:

1st – Raghav Rao

2nd – Rohan Patel

3rd – Sindhu Sannabhadti

Group 3:

1st – Govind Chada

2nd – Saritha Cheemerla

3rd – Maheshwar Ajaykumar

Group 4:

1st – Girisa Sai Yaddanapudi

2nd – Aryan Shenoy

3rd – Anuj Kankani

Houston South:Group 1:

1st – Madhura Sriram

2nd – Sravani Polluri

3rd – Rajni Nitturi

Group 2:

1st – Nikitha Kota

2nd – Vidya Iyengar

3rd – Karyaveer Misra

Group 3:

1st – Anish Immadi

2nd – Aditya Bhosley

3rd – Anish Kumaran

Group 4:

1st – Maharajni Perla

2nd – Harinandan Sainath

3rd – Devangsu Gowswami