HGH Chairman Dev Mahajan Retires, New Chairman is Rasesh Dalal

HOUSTON: Hindus of Greater Houston wishes to announce its Chairman Shri. Dev Mahajan retiring from the HGH Advisory Council after having served his 10-year tenure. Upon his retirement, Shri Rasesh Dalal, VPSS will assume the role of Chairman of the Advisory Council.

HGH held a meeting at Arya Samaj on January 22nd, 2022. Sanjay Jain, President, Arya Samaj of Greater Houston welcomed all and thanked the services of Shri. Dev Mahajan for over a decade. Thara Narasimhan, President of HGH, thanked Shri Dev Mahajan who has been Chairman and member of the Advisory Council for many years and a pillar of support for HGH. She particularly highlighted some of the key programs introduced by Dev Ji to HGH and presented a slide show of pictures, noting that Dev Mahajan was part of the very first BOD of HGH in 2001. The Advisory Council was later formed in 2012 with the intent of providing direction and guidance to HGH and its BOD. The audience experienced a feeling of nostalgia living through several memories that were eloquently replayed. Partha Krishnaswamy, Past President of HGH thanked Dev Mahajan for his leadership and vision. He particularly thanked Dev Mahajan for being the visionary to bring Hindu leaders and subject matters experts together virtually during the first months of the COVID pandemic. Sharad Amin, Past President of HGH noted that under the visionary leadership of Dev Mahajan, HGH was transformed from a concept of “Unity in Variety” to “Unity in Diversity”. HGH which was originally just conducting annual Janmashtami events, blossomed into a much larger umbrella, engaging with the interfaith community, youth awards, and several matters of the Hindus at large in the Houston area.

In his speech, Dev Mahajan highlighted the fact that Rasesh Dalal was the key contributor to the virtual meetings during the early stages of COVID. He brought up the need for engaging youth through HGH Youth Awards and Hindu Youth Camp. He thanked Vijay Pallod and his family for being key supporters of youth causes. He highlighted the Arya Samaj Youth volunteering services during the Thanksgiving meal. He also stressed the importance of HGH being part of the mainstream organizations to educate people about Hinduism and what Hindus stand for. Sewa International is one of the good examples that HGH can emulate, he noted. He thanked his wife Sushma Mahajan for being supportive of all his efforts while the audience responded in a standing ovation thanking her services. He stressed the importance of financial commitment and contributions to HGH from all the participating organizations and temples and added that it is crucial to the long-term sustenance and success of HGH.

Dr. Venugopal Menon noted that the success of HGH is primarily the result of the visionary work of Dev Mahajan. He added, “to describe Dev, beyond being my friend – here are some adjectives: he is a visionary, an achiever, a doer, highly principled and decisively dependable.  He is the finest as a leader can be, and HGH has been fortunate to benefit from him at the helm, and to have a perfect role model to emulate”.   As a required parliamentary procedure, he proposed the names of the new leaders of HGH Advisory Council – Rasesh Dalal as the Chairman and G.N. Prasad as vice-chair.  Thara Narasimhan seconded the proposal and the attendees overwhelmingly approved the names.

Rasesh Dalal accepting his nomination as the Chairman of Advisory Council said that HGH primarily brings all the Hindus together under one umbrella in the Greater Houston area. Irrespective of being members of 37 different temples across Houston, the core tenet of Hinduism remains the same. He said he will continue the meeting of Hindu leaders once every 3 months. He shared some famous quotes of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan “Hinduism cannot be defined but only be experience. Hinduism believes that all roads lead to one God”.  He requested all leaders to continue to spread the knowledge of Sanatana dharma.

Giyarpuram N Prasad thanked HGH for the opportunity and noted it’s a great honor to serve the community in the role of Vice-Chair of Advisory Council. He cited the concept of altruism that could be used in engaging youth. He also noted that success can be achieved when we have a set of leaders that are enthusiastic to reach the goals.

Anjali Aggrawal thanked Dev Mahajan for being a key contributor to HGH youth programs and how she personally benefited from the programs. Vijay Pallod stressed the importance of leaders to have a long-term view to sustain HGH success benefitting future generations. Dr. Randeep Suneja will join as a new member of HGH advisory council. He thanked Dev Mahajan and Sushma Mahajan for being the pillars of the Hindu Community in Houston. Shekhar Agarwal recollected the memories of working along with Dev Mahajan and cited his contributions beyond HGH, Mahatma Gandhi library and Patanjali Yogapeeth.

Texas Hindu Campsite Board members Subhash Gupta and Ashok Danda thank HGH for its contribution and Vijay Pallod followed up to explain the project of Youth Camp to the audience.  The meeting was held both Virtual on Zoom and in person concluded with prayer.