Peace Scholar from Mithri, Khairpur (Sindh) at UC Berkeley

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

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:02:36 -0700 (PDT), Saeed Rid <saeedrid@yahoo.com
<mailto:saeedrid@yahoo.com>> wrote:
 >
 >  Hi everyone,
 >  I am a Sindhi Rotary World Peace Scholar studying in
 >  University of California, Berkeley, USA. My full name
 >  is Saeed  Ahmed Rid and I come from village Mithri,
 >  Khairpur district. I am here for two years under
 >  Rotary program.
 >  I am doing my masters in Political Science.
 >  I want to come into contact with Sindhi diaspora
 >  specially in the US. If any brother is here it will be
 >  my pleasure to meet with him. Thank you. Allah Wahi.

Adaa Rid,

Bhalii kare aayaa!

There are two associations of Sindhis, one SANA chapter and the other
Sindhi Community of Northern California.  SCNA has many cultural
events and is particularly concerned about preserving Hindu and Sikh
Sindhi heritage (as though there is more than one Sindhi heritage).
However, its membership of both is open to all interested in
furthering the charter.

Although SANA has a purely secular purpose by its charter,  in
practical terms, SANA chapters' activities seem to focus on muslim
religious holidays which either reflects or colors its membership much
as the other Sindhi associations are focused on traditional Sindhi
holidays (albeit, over time their Sindhi colors have been reduced).

The by-laws of SCNA suggest it is open to everyone interested in
furthering their charter:

IV  A) Regular membership shall be open to all individuals at least 18
years of age and families  who subscribe to purposes of listed in
Article II of the Bylaws and who reside in Northern California,
provided he or she or they pay the prescribed dues on time.

The associate membership provision of both SANA and SCNA is similar,
although why someone not subscribing to the charter of SCNA would want
to join is unclear, and if they do, nothing seems to exclude them from
full membership.

IV (B) No person shall be denied associate membership benefits based
on gender, age, nationality or religion.

In any case, as a sufi, I personally feel warmly welcome everywhere.
Anyone particularly from rural Sindh I suspect would similarly feel
welcome, but some people who have grown up in today cities in Sindh
and never seen a Ddiyaarii celebration may be would be uncomfortable.

I have met many of the people in SCNA since they hosted a Sammelan
five or six years ago and the Sammelan invited me to give an hour long
presentation on Sindh (it was one of the most successful Sammelans..
not only did it attract almost 2000 people, they had traditional
Sindhi dishes like Shikarpuri karela, and a group of Bhagats in the
tradition of Bhagat Kanwar Ram).   I used to get regular email from
the SCNA but now may be my spam filter eats those up.  Anyway, SCNA is
a much larger group and you may find many elders will be particularly
happy to hear about Sindh from you, although the younger generations
are naturally more Americanized, they are also interested in learning
more about Sindh and Sindhis.  However, being new to the U.S., you may
find a cultural gap in communicating with some of the younger group.
But given your interests,  you should find it useful to meet the more
intellectually oriented young people as well.

SCNA will be having a Ddiyaarii celebration on Nov. 6.

http://www.sindhicommunity.org/ <http://www.sindhicommunity.org/>

A couple of years ago, I went to the Ddiyaarii celebration in Chicago,
which is about 3 hour drive from where I live, and gave a short talk
about the significance of Ddiyaarii as understood from Shah Latif's
Suru SaamunDii.   (The celebration is almost entirely a social event).

I presume the SANA chapter may have some eid gathering but I haven't
seen something about the N. Calif SANA chapter recently.   Someone
else may be able to enlighten.

Also you can join sindh-L mailing list on Sindhi language, culture and
society (the latter can be accessed from http://freesindh.org and has
a worldwide membership of about 1000 subscribers).

For sanalist email group and to join SANA, you can checkout:
http://sanalist.org/

--
haku mojuudu,

Gul Agha
Champaign, Illinois, USA
-----

Ada Gul Agha,

Thank you for your detailed e-mail and all the
information about Sindhi diaspora. You are right
mostly from rural Sindh background are Sufi mentality
and I am not different. I feel no bars on religious
lines. It's good to hear from you that so many Sindhi
organizations are working here.
I shall try to contact them keeping my studies timings
into considerstion. Anyway thanks alot.

Sada Maujoud

Rid Saeed
UC Berkeley