Jain Digest 1990 07 Vol 17 No 03

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 12

9
Youth Column
JAIN DIGEST
JAIN YOUTH FORUM ANNOUNCED
Bhupen Shah, president of the Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago announces the forming of a Jain youth forum under the auspices of the Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago consisting of young adults between the ages of 10 and 19. The youth forum will be led by young Jains ages 13 to 19, and is designed to give them the opportunity to learn leadership and responsibility and to plan activities as well as get to know each other. "Jains", says Shah, "ages 10 to 19, are invited to join the forum and we are looking forward to its being a worthwhile experience."
Matrimonials Continued
Kutchi Jain girl, B.E. (Electrical Engineering), MS in Computer Engineering, 5'5", 142 lbs, from NY state, born September 1962, welcomes responses from professional vegetarian Jains. MIS#: 30.
B. Com and Law from Bombay, working for a well known international company in NY, 5' 3", 115 lbs, born February 1960, household trained invites responses from settled vegetarian Gujarati Jains. MIS#: 31.
MIT, BS in Math and Physics girl, 5', 100 lbs, born May 1964, working in software field, looking for a professional vegetarian preferably a Gujarati Jain, brought up in the USA. MIS#: 32.
Gujarati Jain vegetarian boy, 5'8", 140 lbs, born February 1966, BS in Computer Science, originally from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, is looking for a suitable girl. MIS#: 34.
Jain family, residing in Rajasthan, invites correspondence with photo and bio-data for their daughter. She has a BSc, MA (Eng Lit), Diploma in Computer Science, 5'2", 21 years old, charming, sharp features, strong Indian values, and vegetarian. Parents visiting USA. Call (614) 592-1660.
Coorespondance invited from Gujarati Jain parents for girl from Gujarati Jain family, Ahmedabad. 22 years old, 5' 3", cultured, charming, fair complexion. Please contact Dhiru Shah, 42-45 Judge St. #2B, Elmhurst, NY 11373 or telephone (718) 478-2621.
Gujarati Jain boy, 26 years old, 5' 7". Has finished his Ph.D. in Chemistry. For more information, call Mr. Dhirajlal at (619) 352-7451.
Youth Corner
Correspondance invited from educated Gujarati girl for my 25 year old, 5'8", Jain vegetarian nephew. Has M.S. in engineering. Send photograph to S. Ghelani, P.O. Box 834, Missouri City, TX 77459 or telephone (713) 438-6197.
by Urmila Talsania
Jain Society of Chicago celebrated Mahavir Jayanti on April 8, 1990 and presented a musical play, Nem-Rajul with great success in which about 50 people participated with an attendance of 900. Most of the participants were young Jains.
The Jain society created a youth forum for young Jains. Youth leaders are Neha Shah, Chirag Sandesara, Shishir Udani, Bobby Kapadia and Hemali Shah.
For the first time, the Jain society arranged a fun fair which included food and games. This was independently managed by the youths.
A yoga camp was held at Williams Bay. Munishri Kirtichanda Vijayji explained the theory and practical aspect of yoga and meditation. Separate yoga classes for youths were conducted in English by Balbhadra.
Parent's Role For Jainism
Amar Salgia, Quincity IL (Son of Dr. & Mrs. T. J. Salgia)
in the West, whether or not you were born here, have you ever felt in any way inferior to the lighter-skinned Christian majority we find here? Even if you have never felt this way, it is very probable that you have tried to hide all traces of your Eastern culture when face to face with your lightskinned peers. Why do we have to feel that we must show to those who are born and raised here that we are "just like them"? It is because we Jains, who were born and raised in the West, have never had anything to be proud of and have no real sense of uniqueness.
We have organizations all over this continent which supposedly exist to teach the youth about Jainism. But all I see is a crowd of Indians muttering some vague hymns together, and dropping rice and bananas into a metal plate. And our leadership is horrible. Most leaders of such cultural organizations do not care about their own community. Most are just lazy people who only care for themselves and their politics. Parents go to community get-togethers just to socialize. With such factors, the Jain youth remain ignorant.
The adults in the Jain community should be role models, but we get nothing from them except bad influence. If parents show us that they don't care, then how can we possibly have positive influences? The point of this discussion is that our adults are not giving us what human beings need to be able to accept themselves - a feeling of uniqueness and of equality with those around them.
The feelings come from a silent pride one has in what he is. We are Jains by birth, but we don't know the first thing about what being a Jain is, and we don't understand the system of Jainism. It really is a shame because hardly anyone knows that we have so much to be proud of. True Jains are the gentlest, most compassionate people on earth. We belong to a system that teaches its followers to think and reason objectively, not just blindly follow the words of a prophet. We have never fought a war, or cruelly forced others to accept our religion.
Reference about suitable match for Vinay Kothari, Accountant, son of Vijender Kothari. Contact Prem Jain at (417) 770- Parents have the duty to create, if not reinforce, that feeling 0503. of pride in their children. Children need to feel that they are a
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