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06 NEWS FEATURE
community have adopted an animal sanctuary called 'Purple Cow and Friends', in the tradition of Jain 'panjrapores' all over India. In Los Angeles and San Diego, the Pathshalas are very innovative and have developed unique and creative ways to teach Jainism. Amita and Pallavi are very popular teachers in Los Angeles and in San Diego, Parulben Kothari is a rare Headmistress. They also have two very young teachers in Apurva and Sagar, and the President of the Association is Mrs. Trusha Shah. Dr. Nikhil Varaiya is an eminent Professor of Finance at the San Diego State University Business School and an active member of the Jain community. In Chicago, Dr. Pradip and his wife Darshana Shah work day and night to produce Jain material for Pathshalas. They have come up with a new series of Jain picture puzzles for children! Meeting the Jains in Los Angeles gave me an idea - to ask them to consider a sister city (twin city) link with the Jain community in London, and everyone was very excited by this. Jain Spirit is increasing its network of contacts globally and sharing these to enrich everyone.
The other fascinating thing to discover was the active participation and involvement of very busy people in the communities I visited. Dr. Parveen Jain in San Francisco, Dr. Nitin Shah and Dr. Jasvant Modi in Los Angeles, Prof. Tara Sethia, and so many others actively and selflessly support their local communities. This is the true way of building a lasting sense of unity and a genuine voluntary spirit. I gave presentations in every city about the vision of Jain Spirit and explained how we are trying to educate, inform, connect and inspire Jains all over the world through positive examples and artistic and creative methods of expression. Everyone was very complimentary of our work and many also volunteered to write. At the YJA convention, I conducted two workshops on Creative Writing, and met Rohit Sodhia who at 18, has already written a novel! We will certainly be publishing his writings!
I am very pleased to announce that San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego communities have signed City Deals - each member receives a one year gift subscription of the magazine to their home addresses, courtesy of a well-wisher or well-wishers. In this way, everyone gets to experience regular and timely receipt of four magazines and then subscribe it for themselves thereafter. They can see the value and uniqueness of Jain Spirit and the benefits of regular subscription. We would like other cities and communities all over the world to repeat this example - it only costs $15 per address, and enriches the local community by putting it onto the world scene. Please contact us if you can do the same for your city. We would love to hear from you - email me on editor@jainspirit.org at any time.
In this day and age where we are so strongly influenced by media, it is critical for Jains as a global community to have their own media. Media promotes unity by connecting and informing, making people feel that they are part of a larger whole, and through helping one another, everyone can come forward. As the objectives of Jain Spirit are noncommercial, we are able to facilitate all kinds of networks, big or small, and encourage mutuality and the sharing of scarce resources. Also, we are able to promote good ideas and techniques of conveying ancient wisdom in a fastchanging modern world. Eveyone is a winner.
Founder of the U.S. Pathshala movement, Mr. Pravin Shah
RANAKPUR TIRTE
Gautamswami inside San Jose temple
Jain puzzle invented in Chicago
Bharati Bhayani and Mira Kamdar
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