MMNA Organizes the 7th International Maheshwari Rajasthani Convention

From left: Parag Bajaj - President MMNA, Poonam Bhutada- Convener 2014IMRC, Ram Gopal Mundra-Vice-President-Akhil Bharatvarshiya Mahasabha,Vinod Ajmera - Commissioner Industries-Rajasthan, Jugal Malani - Guest of Honor, Mahesh Rathi - Co-Convener, Sushma Pallod - Chairperson-BoD-MMNA, Ramesh Chandak - Guest of Honor, Krishna Taori - Guest of Honor, Keshavlal Rathi - Midwest Chapter President, Govind Chandak - Guest of Honor, Anurag Bajaj - Guest of Honor.

From left: Parag Bajaj – President MMNA, Poonam Bhutada- Convener 2014IMRC, Ram Gopal Mundra-Vice-President-Akhil Bharatvarshiya Mahasabha,Vinod Ajmera – Commissioner Industries-Rajasthan, Jugal Malani – Guest of Honor, Mahesh Rathi – Co-Convener, Sushma Pallod – Chairperson-BoD-MMNA, Ramesh Chandak – Guest of Honor, Krishna Taori – Guest of Honor, Keshavlal Rathi – Midwest Chapter President, Govind Chandak – Guest of Honor, Anurag Bajaj – Guest of Honor.

By Krishna Maheshwari

MICHIGAN: The Maheshwari Mahasabha of North America(MMNA) finished the 7th International Maheshwari Rajasthani Conference in Grand Rapid Michigan beginning on Ganesh Chaturthy and ending on Labor day (Aug 29-Sept 1). The conference was attended by 700 people and included 50 sessions organized in 6-parallel tracks to cover a range of topics across Culture, Education, Youth, Women, Business, a nightly Bollywood style song & dance extravaganza which involved people of all ages (3-70) and a themed party (different each night) that ran into the early hours of the next morning. Attendees brought a lot of excitement and energy and made the conference feel like a mega-family gathering rather a gathering of strangers who share a common jati. This was also the first conference that leveraged eMarketing (with video contests leading up to the conference) and mobile phone app for both iPhone and Android. Abhishek Soni, one of the app’s authors said, “I created the app to make it easier to navigate the conference—especially for the mobile first generation.”

The culture track included Rajasthani culture related skits, themed food, singing of Marwari songs, a talent show for both kids and adults, Hindi comedians, chanting of Ramayana, lessons on Transcendental Meditation and reenactments of famous events from Rajasthani history.
The education track included presentations on Shastra from members of the community representing Hindupedia and the Vedanta Society, health issues and solutions through Ayurveda and allopathy, discussions on college, retirement and investment planning. Roli Mandhana, a recent graduate of Northwestern University, found the Hinduism tracks helpful as she had “never had any formal education on Hinduism. My knowledge was limited to the festivals we celebrated at home and some random stories I heard from my family.”

Maheshwaries who got benefited from education scholarship shared their experiences.Third from left: Vikas Bhutada, Chair - MMNA Education Committee.

Maheshwaries who got benefited from education scholarship shared their experiences.
Third from left: Vikas Bhutada, Chair – MMNA Education Committee.

The community recommitted its pledge to support education and raised $125,000 in an hour after seven current and recently graduated students came up on stage to discuss what the MMNA Education fund had enabled them to achieve. “The education fund became ‘real’ after we saw our friends come on stage” stated Annu Maheshwari.

The youth track focused on the needs of those under 34—specific to young kids, teenagers and young professionals. One session was a social simulation how inequitable distribution resources in Rajasthan have impacted social harmony. Sarish Kasat, a co-founder of the Maheshwari youth group said “…the group with the least resources and support ended up rioting! This helped us better understand the causes of social inequality.”

No gathering of the Maheshwari community can be complete without spending time on developing & supporting the business aspirations of the community. This gathering was no different—there were sessions which included tips and considerations when starting a new business, how to decide whether it makes sense to start a business, a CEO round-table and plenty of business networking. Aditya Chandak, a second year MBA student stated these sessions allowed him to “connect with industry veterans and build a network that he could leverage and learn from.”
The food at the conference was unrivaled by any other event and involved over 200 unique vegetarian dishes (no meat, fish, eggs, or alcohol) over 3 days many of which are not available in the US outside of this event. The late night parties were also alcohol free.

Krishna Maheshwari is the founder of Hindupedia.com, an online encyclopedia of Hinduism and works full-time as a product strategist at a large software company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters and a BS in Computer Engineering and Science from Cornell University.