Editor’s letter
Dear friends,
Welcome to the first edition of the 2016 newsletter. That warm fuzzy holiday feeling still permeates the air. Can you believe it’s 2016 already? New Year, new resolutions, and a time for new beginnings! My New Year resolution, besides getting fit (ha-ha!), is to push the envelope and step out of my comfort zone. I am therefore excited to take on the mantle of Newsletter Editor from Smitha Nishant. Smitha has done a splendid job and laid a wonderful platform to build on in 2016! This is also a time to bid adieu to last year’s awesome COMA Team and welcome this year’s new Executive Committee.
In the words of Ajoy Kumar, EC 2016 President, “Our vision for this year is ‘myCOMA’. We aspire to make COMA relevant and interesting for multi-generations; and enable the patrons to have ownership and patronage of your COMA activities in the community.”
The newsletter this year will feature sections such as;
YATRA: we would love to hear about your travels and adventures to new & exotic destinations, but equally nostalgic trips back to Gods own country
PACHAKAM: we invite your favorite recipes with a picture of your drool worthy creations
YOUTH ZONE: an opportunity for your children to express themselves and see their work published. Kids of all ages are actively welcomed to contribute; whether it be a picture, a poem, a narrative, we want to hear from COMA kids!
FASHION: Ladies (and gentlemen)!!! We’d love to see pictures of you flaunt your personal style and keep us ‘pardesis‘ current with ‘desi‘ fashion trends.
SPOTLIGHT: if you are a new family in town, you’ve hit an important milestone (significant birthday/ wedding anniversary/academic accomplishment), welcomed a new addition to your family, won awards/felicitation or simply want to showcase a hobby or talent (like photography, art) then here’s your opportunity to tell us about it!
This year we have an end of year Award Ceremony planned in December with a Readers Choice Award and Kids Award for the most popular contributions. In addition to this, we are excited to announce a 2016 COMA Yearbook in which we want to feature significant contributions of COMA patrons of all age groups. So get your creative juices going and start sending your submissions in early!
Hope you are as excited as we are to start this year with a BANG! I hope to see more new faces, fresh ideas and connect with you through your participation. No contribution is too big or small. I look forward to your input on coma_ohio@yahoo.com.
Warm regards,
Anu Kurian
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It’s April, the month of Vishu! Vishu is a quintessentially Malayali festival, which will be celebrated in Kerala on 14th April this year. The most important event in Vishu is the Vishukanni, which literally means ‘the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up’. Homes are painstakingly decorated with auspicious articles that signify prosperity with the intent to please Lord Krishna. Hindu’s all over Kerala flock to ‘ambalams’ to celebrate this most auspicious festival.