Regional News Midwest/Chicago Area - Mother's day celebrations

On May 9^th 2010 we had our first Mothers' Day picnic. Despite a cold weather, our area nagarathars actively participated in this event and made it a great success - Kudos to all chettiars who have exhibitted their impeccable culinary talents. Among tons of other spices, one ingredient was common in all food items - love and care. Many chettiars showed their passion in not only preparing the food but also in presenting it aesthetically. Also, chettiars prepared on-the-spot healthy sandwiches. It was indeed touching to see the kids when they said all good words about their moms. Our area achis were amazingly generous in receiprocating chettiars' appreciations. Their enthusiastic feedback with tons of thumbs-ups will keep all chettiars on their toes to do more of these types of events. As part of the training our youth to get involved in nagarathar activities, I have asked youth volunteers to write a report on this event and take photographs – here is the report and photographs from our youth volunteers:

The Chicago Nagarathars had there Mothers' Day picnic on Sunday May 9, 2010 at Argonne park near Lemont, IL. Almost all the Nagarathars showed up to this event. This year’s picnic was very special to achis because the chettiars cooked the food for the picnic. All of the food turned out to be very tasteful. The chettiars' food tasted better then the achis' samayal! All the kids read there poems and cards about their wonderful mothers. There topics were given before the event. Some of the topics were "I love my Mom because....." and “I have a super Mom". These topics were secretly kept away form the mothers until it was time to share their cards. There were some youth volunteers to write about this event and to take photographs. The event was packed with a number of fun activities; some of which involved all the family members. Each winning family got a prize. Also the adults and the teens had their volleyball game as usual. This event was possible because of the organizers,a special thanks to Mr.Muruganathan and Mrs.Akila Muruganathan. They both really did a fantastic job to put together the event. The mother’s day picnic was organized very well. All of the Midwest Nagarathars had a great time.

Youth Reporter:

Ramu Sundararajan

Photos by Peri Narayanan and Mani Sundararajan