Dada Vaswani visits New Jersey, talks on Sprituality, Sindhiyati

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

Dada Vaswani, the inheritor of the mantle of the late Sadhu Vaswani,
is currently visiting the U.S. and will be in New Jersey this week.

Details at:
http://www.sadhuvaswanicenter.org/homepage.asp for details and
http://come.to/svcenter for directions.

Briefly, his program is as follows:

Thursday, September 9, 2004 - 6:30 PM
Seven Ways to Overcome Stress
Talk in English at Town Hall - 123 W. 43rd St. NY, NY

Friday, September 10, 2004 - 7:30 PM
Ruh Rihan in Sindhi
At Shree Swaminarayan Auditorium, 200 Penhorn Ave., Secaucus, NJ 07094
Sponsored by Sindhi Association of New Jersey (SANJ)

Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 7:00 PM
Ruh Rihan in Sindhi
Rajesh Mirpuri's Memorial Meeting
At Sadhu Vaswani Center, Closter, New Jersey 07624

Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 12:00 Noon - 6:30 PM
Dada Darshan Mela
Inauguration Ceremony by Dada J.P. Vaswani
At Sadhu Vaswani Center, Closter, NJ 07624

My wife and I will visiting Dada in New Jersey to seek his blessings
for projects to promote Sindhi language and maintain identity in the
West.  The Sadhu Vaswani Center has invited us to be special guests on
Saturday and during the Dada Darshan Melo, around 12 noon Sunday, we
will each be giving a presentation:

1. What makes the Sindhi language special and why you should care:
   A linguist's view
        Jennifer Cole

2. The Evolution Of Religious Thought in Sindh
         Gul Agha

Those in the area who missed these talks at Young Sindhi Adults
meetings, may want to attend.

Details of talks:

What makes the Sindhi language special and why you should care:
A linguist's view
 Jennifer S. Cole

Have you ever wondered what makes the Sindhi language different from
other Indian languages and from English?  This talk will describe some
of the interesting linguistic features of Sindhi phonetics, morphology
and syntax, and lay out the history of the language from ancient times
to today.  Learn how the language reflects important concepts and
relations in Sindhi culture, and how Sindhi expressions uniquely
convey the Sindhi way of viewing the world.  We will consider the role
of the language in preserving culture and ethnic identity, and discuss
resources for learning and improving Sindhi proficiency.  Will the
Sindhi language survive into the next century?  Find out what factors
are likely to determine the fate of Sindhi and what you can do about
it.  The presentation will be illustrated by example materials from an
internet based Sindhi language course currently being developed at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Short Bio

Jennifer Cole is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She received her PhD in Linguistics
from MIT in 1987 and subsequently taught at Yale University before
moving to Illinois.  Her primary area of research is phonetics &
phonology, with an emphasis on laboratory methods for investigating
speech processing by humans, and applications to computer speech
recognition.  Another area of Dr. Cole's research interest is Sindhi
linguistics: she has done field research analyzing Sindhi dialects in
Kutch, India. Among her publications are articles on Sindhi, including
an authoritative description of Sindhi grammar for the encyclopedic
book on World Languages (2002), and an article on the phonology of
alliteration in Shah Latif's poetry which was presented at the annual
conference of the South Asian Linguistics Association.  She has also
travelled extensively in Sindh.  In 2001, she supervised a course in
introductory Sindhi at the University of Illinois in which she also
gave 16 hours of lectures on Sindhi grammar, and is currently working
on developing an internet-based multimedia course for learning Sindhi.


The Evolution of Religious Thought in Sindh
   Gul Agha

The abiding Vedantic beliefs and spiritual symbols that are manifest
in Sindhi Sufi poetry and popular culture have ancient roots. Some
yogic postures and religious practices such as wearing amulets can be
traced back at least to Moenjodaro, almost 5000 years ago....  I will
describe the history and evolution of beliefs and practices in Sindh
-- from the earliest celebrations of Sindhi religious festivals such
as Ddiyaarii (the festival of lights), Chaaliiho and Chettii chanDru
(New Year), the rituals of Daryaa panthii, to the more recent
movements such as Nanika panthii and Aryaa Samajii.  The talk will be
illustrated with images and music from Sindh.

Short Bio

Dr. Gul Agha is Professor of Computer Science at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an affiliate in the University's
Program in South Asian and Middle-Eastern Studies.  Dr. Agha is a well
known Computer Scientist.  He serves as Editor-in-Chief of ACM
Computing Surveys -- the most prestigious journal surveying research
in Computer Science and has published over 100 research articles.
Dr. Agha grew up in Sindh, living both in Shikarpur, Hyderabad and
Karachi.  He has travelled extensively in Sindh, written numerous
short essays about Sindh and lectured at many Sindhi gatherings about
Sindhi history and culture, including several International Sindhi
Sammelans, and at events sponsored by the Sindhi Association of North
America,  Ottawa Sindhi Association, Boston Sindhi Association,
the World Sindhi Institute, Young Sindhi Adults, the World Sindhi
Congress and the Indian Institute of Sindhology.  He was Guest of
Honor ('Mukhi Mehman') at the Sindhi New Year (Cheti Chand)
celebration organized by the Bharti Sindhu Sabha in Thane in 2000
(Mumbai, India).  He has a particular passion for classical Sindhi
music and poetry, and for promotion of animal rights and
environmentalism.