LCUK E-Newsletter 2006


	Subscriptions have gone up by 35% following the release of Issue 2 of our eNewsletter. All have registered with us at www.Lohana.info - backdated copies of eNews are available there in both display and print formats. Thanks for passing the word around to your Lohana friends and family - keep it up. We also now have some international subscribers from Canada, Australia, Kenya, India and USA.

	New sections have been added to eNews - we have a Culture Corner and Readers Contributions - have a look below to read where Lohanas come from and why we celebrate Holi and the history of Maha Shivratri. We have introduced some Lohana business banner adverts - with special discounts for our eNews readers. This will also help Lohana businesses and support our eNews project to recover some of the costs.



	Forthcoming LCUK Events & Projects

	LCUK Variety Show 2006 - Results & Photos
	The LCUK Variety Show 2006 was held on Sunday 26th February 2006 at the Brent Town Hall, Wembley, Middlesex. Mahajans across the UK presented superb filmy, cultural and variety items with prizes being awarded to the 3 top entries. The winning Mahajans were 1st prize - South London, 2nd prize - East London, 3rd prize - Birmingham and President's prize Ashton-U-Lyne. Over 110 Lohana youths in UK took part in a very well organised show. A DVD of the show is also available for £10 - please email VarietyDVD@LCUK.org.uk to order a copy.

	LCUK Easter Sports Festival
	The LCUK Sports Association (LSA) will be hosting its annual Easter Sports Festival at Gosling Sports Park, Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire from Friday 14th April 2006 to Monday 17th April 2006. A number of individual and team sports competitions will be played including Badminton, Tennis, Pool, Table Tennis, Outdoor Cricket, 5-a-side Football, Netball, Basketball, etc. Age ranges for the competitions will be Under 12, 12 to 16 years, 16 to 40 years and 40 plus.

	A full set of social programmes is also planned. Details are given below.

	Friday Night - Speed Date, Networking and Fun Casino / Jazz night - Tickets £7.50 for Speed Date and £10 for Casino & Jazz night. Venue - C02 Club, Welwyn Garden City. Buffet snacks included. Click here for event / registration details.

	Saturday Night - Kaun Banega Crorepati and Primary School Challenge at the Collingwood Suite, Gosling Sports Park. Starts 7:30pm. Tickets £7 adults, £5 for children under 10 - includes buffet dinner. Click here for the Crorepati event / registration details. Click here for Schools Challenge event / registration details

	Sunday Night - Rang-E-Mehfil - VIP Lounge, 47 High Street, Edgeware, Middlesex. Tickets £20 includes buffet dinner. Over 18's Club Disco - at C02 Club, Welwyn Garden City. Tickets £10 - Strictly adults only - ID will be required for proof of age. Click here for Mehfil details. Click here for disco details.

	Saturday & Sunday Daytime - Indian Bazaar, Beauty treatments, Cookery & Mehndi demos, Yoga sessions, Trampolining, Bouncy Castle for kids and more. Click here for bazaar registration details. Note that Mehendi and Yoga sessions are subject to minimum numbers registering. Limited number of places so 1st come 1st serve! Email LSAsocials@lcuk.org.uk for details.

	Monday is our Aantakshri Competition at 12:30pm at Gosling Sport Park - live music and FREE entry for spectators. This will be followed by the Trophy Presentation ceremony.



	LCUK Fashion Show & Dinner & Dance
	The Mahila subcommittee of LCUK have had to postpone their Fashion Show from 18th March to Saturday 13th May 2006 due to unavoidable circumstances. The special evening will be hosted at The Empire Banqueting Hall, 1 Foundary Lane, Belgrave Gate in Leicester. Doors open at 6:30pm and event starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are only £15 per head including a full 3 course dinner with top catering by Jalsa Restaurant. The fashion show is organised with a fashion house using professional models. For more details click here.

	Community News & Events

	South London Holi Celebration
	Young Lohana Community of South London had a Holi celebration and Indian Games day on Sunday 26th March - everyone had fun playing Holi and also Kho and Kabadi.

	Luton Youth Easter Eggstravaganza
	The Lohana Youth of Luton hosted a special Easter Party on Saturday 8th April at Wardown Park in Luton. An Easter Egg hunt was followed by a picnic / party - we wait to see the photos for both events!

	Lohana Samaj Of Australia Holi Celebrations
	The Lohanas in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) celebrated Holi on Sunday 19th March 2006. Jalaram Satsang Mandal, NSW also hosts monthly Jalarambapa bhajans and prashadi at Shri Shiva Temple in Minto, NSW. See the Lohana Australia webiste at www.lohanasamaj.org which is being relaunched soon.

	Cambridge Lohana Mahajan Helps Establish Mandir
	Cambridge Lohana Mahajan is helping to establish a Hindu mandir in Cambridge. Rasikbhai Kotecha and Mukundbhai Thobani are key committee members of the Indian Community and Culture Association (ICCA) Cambridge who are managing the project. See their website at www.colc.co.uk/cambridge/indian for more details or email Rasikbhai (ICCA Treasurer) on kotecha@securesafe.co.uk if you wish to make a donation.

	Leicester Mahajan AGM & Tilda Hall Viewing
	Leicester Mahajan AGM and Tilda Hall viewing - The AGM of Leicester Mahajan is to be held on 7th May 2006 at 2.30pm at the Mahajanvadi. An open day will be held for the public to view the newly refurbished Tilda Hall on the same day. Viewing will be from 11.30am to 2.15pm. Everyone is welcome.

	Forthcoming Religious & Cultural Events

	Leicester Mahajan Murti Pratishta for Gopal Krishna, Shitla Mataji and Vishve Karam is to be celebrated from 19th to 21st May 2006 at Ram Mandir. Everyone is welcome. For further information contact Prafulbhai Thakrar on 07777 737 117 or Narandasbhai Adatia on 0116 266 3820.

	Shree Sitaram Parivar of USA invites everyone to take part in Ram Katha Prem Yagna (in hindi) by Param Pujya Shree Morari Bapu which is taking place in Los Angeles after 15 years. Dates: June 10th to June 18th, 2006. Venue: Southern California Basketball Academy, 6125 Chip Avenue, Cypress, California. For more details please email RamKathaLA@aol.com (website: www.iiRAMii.net).

	Bhagwat Katha by Pujya Indira Betiji - Vancouver Canada. Lohana Cultural Association of BC is pleased to announce that Puya JiJi has accepted their invitation for a nine day Bhagvat Katha to be hosted at VHP Temple, 3885 Albert Street, Burnaby from July 8th to July 16th 2006. For further details email Vasantbhai Lakhani on vasantlakhani@shaw.ca.

	Shree Jalaram Mandir Leicester (www.jalarambapa.com) invites everyone to come and celebrate their 10th anniversary with Shree Ram Katha to be recited by Param Pujya Shree Morari Bapu. The katha is being hosted at Soar Valley Community College, Rushymead in Leicester from 15th July to 23rd July 2006. See their website at www.ramkatha-leicester.com or email info@ramkatha-leicester.com for more details.

	Lohana Achievers

	Bhavini Sheth wins UK Junior Boogie Woogie - Bhavini, only 8 years old, has won the UK Grand Finals of the Bollywood Boogie Woogie dance competition and was selected from amongst 1000 entries. Bhavini will now be representing the UK in the International finals this month out in New York where she will be up against countries such as India, America and South Africa amongst others. Bhavini a student at the Shri Academy of Dance will be performing her dance routine that won her the title of British Junior Bollywood dance champion. The winning items was a mixed medley from the film 'Kisna' & 'Dus' and was performed by Bhavini at the LCUK Variety Show.

	Shivkinner group of Leicester releases bhajan album and raises more money for charity. Sailesh Raja is the group manager and lead singer of Shivkinner, a bhajan group which has seven young Lohanas from the ages of 6 to 19 years old . In year 2004 their first CD (Bhakti Sagar) was released to raise funds for LOURS Hospice in Leicester and about £7000 was raised. Their second CD (Tirath Dham) was released in 2005 and this was for Heart Research Foundation. This has now have raised £5000 and Sailesh will be presenting them with a cheque in the Ram Mandir Jalaram prashadi function in July this year. The third CD (Choti Choti Ghayia) is being released in July / August this year and this will be released to raise funds for people suffering with MND. The launch will again be held at the Lohana Mahajan hall in Leicester.

	LCUK Culture Corner

	There is always a need to look up the "Choghadhiu" when hosting a programme or when having a special function in the family like an engagement or wedding. The Indian Calendar has details but one always has to find it and have someone interpret the results as the choghadhiu changes every 1.5 hours during the day and night! To make life easier, we have found a simple Choghadhiu User Guide - Click here to check it out.

	Who is Lord Shiva? What is Maha Shivratri and what is the history behind it? What does Holi symbolize? What happens during Holi? Why do people throw colours at each other? Click here to find out more about Maha Shivratri. Click here to find out more about Holi.

	The Culture Corner has articles as provided by Ami Gadhia, a young West London Lohana member who is now one of our eNews Reporters. More articles on Ram Navmi (celebrated on 6th April) and Hanuman Jayanti (to be celebrated on 13th April) to follow. All these artcles are hosted on the www.Lohana.info website. If you have any cultural articles then please email them to eNews@LCUK.org.uk - please let us know if you have got the articles from another website so we can acknowledge them.

	Readers' Contributions

	Where do Lohanas come from? An interesting extract from a book by Haribhai Thakker - Click here to read the article. Why are Indians so negative about India? A recent speech in Hyderabad by the President of India Dr Abdul Kalam - Click here to read the article. Medicinal Benefits of Whole Foods - While pharmaceuticals have their value, we should not forget the well-documented, non-toxic and inexpensive healing properties of whole foods. Click here to read the article.

	All these artcles are hosted on the www.Lohana.info website. If you have any interesting articles then email them to eNews@LCUK.org.uk - please let us know if you have got the articles from another website so we can acknowledge them.

	Any comments and feedback welcome for all these articles - write to Feedback@LCUK.org.uk.

	Community Announcements

	Weddings & Engagements
	Sachin son of Smt Shobhnaben and Shri Jagdishbhai Vithaldas Ganatra of Wellingborough got married to Parul daughter of Smt Anilaben and Shri Kantilal Laljibhai Vadgama of Croydon on 18th March 2006. Our congratulations to the couple and their families.

	Bereavements
	Shree Dhirajlal Manjibhai Pujara of Kenton, Harrow (formally of Kampala, Uganda) sadly passed away on 13th February 2006 at the age of 78 years

	Shree Morarjibhai Ramjibhai Popat of Sutton (formerly Tabora) sadly passed away on Tuesday 14th Feb at the age of 83years

	Shree Narandasbhai Jivrajbhai Sedani of Ilford (formerly Luanda, Kisumu sadly passed away Tuesday 28TH February at the age of 76years.

	Smt. Amitaben Sanjay Radia (daughter of Pursottambhai and Jayaben Kotecha) formerly of Kakamega sadly passed away in March in Leicester

	Smt. Sarojben Shantibhai Popat of Harrow (formerly Soroti) sadly passed away on 6th March at the age of 64 years.

	Shree Natubhai Hansrajbhai Raja of Finchley (formerly Kampala) sadly passed away on 6th March at the age of 78years

	Shree Amratben Hansraj Ruparell of Leicester (formerly Mwanza) sadly passed away on Saturday 11th March at the age of 95 years.

	Smt. Sarlaben Chandubhai Raja (daughter of Rugnathbhai Gondhia of Mbale) of Harlow (formerly Kitale) sadly passed away Thursday 16th March at the age of 67 years.

	Smt. Damyantiben Chotalal Bhojani of Toronto (formerly Nairobi) daughter of Govinjibhai Karsanbhai Sachdev of Mombasa sadly passed away on 23rd March at the age of 79 years

	Shree Jayantibhai Mathuradas Ruparellia of Harrow (formally Mombasa) sadly passed away at the age of 76 years.

	Smt. Jayaben Kantilal Gandecha of Kenton (formerly Thompson Falls) sadly passed away on 1st April at the age of 72 years

	Smt. Bhanumati Chandarana of Wembley (formerly Mozambique) sadly passed away on 5th April at the age of 60 years

	Contributions & Feedback

	If you have any contributions to make to our next e-newsletter, please email all relevant details to enews@lcuk.org.uk no later than 10th March 2006. News items provided will be included if relevant and with space permitting. The eNews Editorial team reserves the right to make amendments if and as necessary.

	Similarly, if you have any feedback to give us on this e-newsletter please email the Convenor Ajay Jobanputra on feedback@lcuk.org.uk - thank you for your time and support.