The Resilient Lionhearts

Generous and enterprising,

Sindhis of the twin cities are an epitome of multiculturalism 

By Shyam Yadagiri

HYDERABAD: Theirs is a tale of bouncing back from adversity. Originally from Sindh province of Pakistan, the Sindhi community migrated to India after Partition. Being industrious, the Sindhis, with few resources, has over the years established successful businesses across many sectors.

In the process, Sindhis emerged as one of the affluent communities in India, with rags-to-riches tales aplenty. Prominent institutions in the city include Karachi Bakery, Royal Hotel Group, Meena Bazar Group, LCH Sadhuram Eye Hospital among others. Sindhis also have established ‘Sind Bank’, with branches at PG Road, Secunderabad and Bank Street, Koti.

The Sindhi community in Hyderabad is spread across different areas, while in Secunderabad, many of them have made their home at Sindhi Colony. Humility personified, Pandit Deepak Sharma (Raja Maharaj) warmly receives us at his house and speaks about the community, festivals, cuisine and upcoming events. A Purohit of the community, Pt. Deepak Sharma also holds regular ‘Katha Pravachan’ sessions in Hindi. And being environmentally conscious, he creates eco-friendly Ganesha idols made of clay and immerses them at home itself! Embodying the principle of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, it is no exaggeration to say that Sindhis are beacons of Hinduism at its most humane level. The ‘Kul Devta’ or ‘Ishta Dev’ of Sindhis is Jhulelal (Varun Dev, the Lord of Oceans and Lord of Water).

Founded in 1950, there are two Sindhi associations – Sree Sindhi Guru Sangat Sabha Association at King Koti in Abids, and Sree Sindhi Satsang Darbar Association at Sindhi Colony in Secunderabad. These two associations conduct activities such as rituals, pujas, etc. “The Abids association has nearly 1,500 members, while the Secunderabad association has over 900 members. Membership is open only to Sindhi community members, with a lifetime enrollment fee of `500. However, the temples on the premises of both associations are open for all Hindu communities. Overall, there are nearly 60,000 Sindhis in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad,” says Pt. Deepak Sharma.

The new year of Sindhi community is known as ‘Cheti Chand’ (similar to Ugadi for Telugus), celebrated during April. After elaborate prayer and ritual sessions, Sindhi women perform ‘Chhej’, a folk dance. Sindhis also celebrate other festivals such as Makar Sankranti, Shivaratri, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Dasara, Deepavali,

Gurunanak Jayanti and many others. “We follow all Hindu rituals,” adds Pt. Deepak Sharma.

He also assists Sindhi families in matchmaking, helps them conduct marriages, does social service activities and collects funds to help community members in need. Once every two years, he narrates the ‘katha’ in Hindi for ‘Shrimad Bhagwat Puran’, at an event held at Hira Hall, Abids. The upcoming ‘katha’ is slated to be held on January 5, 2020, and would continue till January 12, 2020.

When it comes to cuisine, some of their favourite dishes are kadhi-chawal, dal-pakwan, koki-papad, lola, sai bhaji, seyun-patata, lotus stem curry, tairi (sweetened rice), seero malpuro, among others. Tairi is prepared for all auspicious occasions and offered to their family deity Jhulelal.

For performing last rites, the Sindhi association of the twin cities has an area earmarked at Bansilalpet in the city, where cremation takes place. On upcoming activities, Pt. Deepak Sharma informs, “We have plans for creating a Sindhi community member directory of all those living in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The aim of the Sindhi community is to uplift Sindhi community members who are not economically well-off.”

(With inputs from Seema Rajpal)

Originally printed in The New INDIA EXPRESS

WINNERS OF APRIL'S TRIVIA

ASHA IDNANI - India

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ASHOK THADANI

Send your answers to Info@SindhiSamachaar.com for a shout out in our next issue.

By Suresh Sippy

The AEC- A supernatural Love story

This is a story about a retired New York banker who spent most his working life in pursuit of making money and sadly missed out on everyday living and enjoying time with his family.

Edward John Garcia, Ed to his friends, is now living a lonely life in his New York apartment, divorced from his wife and estranged from his only child, a daughter, who now lives in London and who has never forgiven her Dad for the family split which happened when she was a little girl.

Ed is not an insensitive guy, he worked long hours for his family but somewhere lost the real reason of what was truly important to his wife and daughter,  his time and attention which was more than money could ever buy.

Ed desperately wants to reconcile with his daughter and see his only grandson before it’s too late but Ed mostly spends his time watching TV and drinking and wishes he could somehow turn back time and start his life all over again and do all the things he should have done.

Through a chance meeting with a mysterious young lady in his usual café, Ed is drawn into a supernatural world where all things are possible, even being young again.

The AEC can arrange these things

But like all things, nothing is free, there is give & take and Ed must read the contract carefully before he signs his life away.

Will Ed. Find happiness, will he be reconciled with his daughter and meet his grandson?

Who is the mysterious, all powerful AEC?

A Bit About Life

 is a collection of 41 short inspirational poems

My inspiration for the book:

My life experience, things my Mother used to tell me, my interest in Indian spirituality & philosophy, listening to Sadhguru and a little bit of knowledge about the Bhagwat Gita”

Read the “The AEC- a novella by S N Sippy.

And "A Bit About Life"

Available worldwide from Amazon and from

Kobo in Canada.

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By Anjali Vaswani

SV Center NJ USA

*New York Tri State Area Celebrates our Motherland Sindh on American Mother’s Day with 13 Sindhi Singers  - Largest gathering ever on one stage!*

Kaajal Chandiramani, Haresh Wadhwani, Nirmal Mirchandani, Drshika Advani, Master Gope Chandar, Haresh Chandar, Anil Chandar, Aarti Chandar, Ramesh Hemrajani, Soni Kirpalani, Dinesh Mirchandani, Girish Jhangiani, and more to perform!

We will all gather under one tent in Closter, NJ, and enjoy the lovely afternoon get together: Sindhi songs and sumptuous Sindhi food to be savored over lunch, with VIP valet parking at no charge.

Celebrate with friends and family in the morning, and then being richly blessed, spend quality time in the evening with your children and parents.

Every Sindhi organization and indeed every Sindhi is warmly invited to this unique event by the Sadhu Vaswani Center. Let us be proud about our heritage and re-energize our culture and language with our children for generations to come.

Please come and grace us with your presence - Renew our friendships and meet new Sindhis from all over! Kindly forward this message to spread the good word to one and all.

Didi Krishna's full Yatra in NJ/NY area May 2023

By Anjali Vaswani

SV Center NJ USA

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By Mohan Dadlani

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By Rajesh Nagpal

By Rajesh Nagpal

This is our 31st year doing the food drive all over America with the help of other organizations.

Volunteers do the food collection all over America. Once the food comes to individual post office then from there, we despatch to Salvation Army food pantries soup kitchens and so on.

Please participate if you live in the US.

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By Kamal Nathani

Kamal Nathani is a well known name in the Indian Film & Television Industry for more than 30 years. His name is synonymous with HIGH QUALITY CONTENT CREATION and SUPERB DIRECTION. Having started his career with the most popular film in 1981 CHASHME BUDDOOR with producer Gul Anand and Director Sai Paranjpe, he made India’s first video film in the year 1983 called DOCTOR DOCTOR and since then there has been no looking back for him.

Hailing from a middleclass Sindhi family, his father was an engineer and mother a housewife, he joined the industry in 1981 after his graduation. He came in contact with some spiritual guru’s in his early stage and made films on Maharaj Charan singh of Radha Swami Beas, Osho, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Sita Samahit Sthal, Shri Hari Om sharan and recently shot a few films with revered Dada JP Vaswani.

He is proud to be a sindhi and has contributed in many ways to promote sindhi language and culture through the audio video medium. He directed his first sindhi telefilm AUKHA PANDH PYAR JA in 1987 for Sindhu Kala Sangam, Delhi which was telecast on many Doordarshan Kendras. After his marriage to Ms. Madhu Meraney, daughter of Mr. Hari Meraney, a great protagonist of Sindhi language and culture, he together with his wife has been carrying forward the sindhi movement forward through various Films, serials and Documentaries in Sindhi Language. In 1993 he directed sindhi film KER KEHINJO starring Ajit Vachhani, S.P. Lalawani and S.C. Makhija apart from many others. It was a musical social drama with a strong message for the young generation and in this film Anuradha Poudwal and Suresh Wadkar sang for the first time in Sindhi language.

After shifting his base to Bombay in 1997 and settling in the Hindi Serial and Film Production, he made a Sindhi Telefilm VILAYATI GHOT JI GOLAH written by famous writer Sundri Uttamchandani in 2005. The highlight of the film was that three generations of the writer’s family acted in the film i.e. the writer herself, her daughter Ms. Asha Chand and the grand daughter Ms. Moomal apart from many other actors including some big businessmen from Dubai. The telefilm was a great success and Kamal Nathani directed many Sindhi Serial for Ms. Asha Chand .

He kind of kindled the spark in many actor’s lives who came forward to act in Sindhi Serials & Cinema. Jeetu Vazirani, S. P. Lalwani, Aarti Jadhwani, Kajal Moolchandani, Menka Lalwani, Naresh Chawla, Anil Sadani, Niroo Asrani, Vishal Watwani, S. C. Makhija , Mayuri Raghani and many other actors faced Camera for the first time under his direction. Many serials in Sindhi were made by him from 2005 – 2007 some of which include SAMAJ SHEWAK, UNCLE SAM, HOLI AYEE RE, PYAR JO AHSAAS, BOSS GHAR AYO, YAAD JI SAABTI etc. Apart from Sindhi Serials and telefilms, he even made a music video for popular Sindhi Song TITIR TEZ UDAR…sung by legendry sindhi singer Kajal Chandiramani who even featured in the music video

The year 2007 was the turning point for Sindhi Cinema, when Kamal Nathani directed yet another feature film PYAR KARE DIS in sindhi which was released digitally by U.F.O.. The film was a trend setter which revived the love for sindhi cinema. The film had popular television actors like Jiten Lalwani, Menka Lalwani , Vishal Watwani and cine star Preeti Jhangiani. The music for the film was by Ghanshyam Vaswani and popular playback singers like Shaan, Richa Sharma, Roopkumar Rathore and Ghazal Mastreo Jagjit Singh lent their voices for the songs penned by legendry Sindhi poets like Vasdev Nirmal and Prabhu Wafa.

In past 30 years he has created and crafted more than 300 Ad films, corporate films, documentaries and has made serials for almost all the satellite channels in India. The programmes include Musical shows, reality shows, travel shows, fiction, Daily Soaps, thrillers, children programmes etc.

In his long journey of 30 years he has received many awards, laurels, achievements, recognition from all quarters of the society be it Government, Private, Public or social bodies.

His recent feature film BEYOND BOUNDARIES is a sensitive film on the issue of Kashmir. BEYOND BOUNDARIES is a human story amidst the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. It is a story of faith, peace, survival and value of human life.

The film is travelling all across the Film Festival Circuit and has been officially selected at 10 International Film festivals and has won many awards including : Semi Finalist at Los Angles, Best Film in War and Peace category at Jiff 2017 Winner at Calcutta International Cult Film Festival Nominated for the best feature film at Golden Fox Awards, Winner of best film at Shane-Awadh International film festival, lucknow apart from being nominated for screening at Miami Independent Film Festival and Madrid International Film Festival and Moscow International film festival.

Kamal Nathani has conceived a brilliant concept and made a series called ASANJI VIRASAT for NCPSL. The series is a nostalgic peep into the life and lifestyle of Sindhis when they were staying in Sindh before partition. This gives a first hand account of people who migrated from sindh during the partition. This is a heart touching archival material for the new sindhi generation who is born after partition and who do not know anything about their motherland SINDH.

Kamal Nathani along with Madhu Nathani has done many projects for private clients and even Government bodies like NCPSL and Sahitya academy. In 2013 they were invited by legendry Sindhi philanthropist and businessman Mr. Murij Manghnani to Dubai to make a film on his life which was aptly titled WE SALUTE.

Kamal Nathani and Madhu Nathani work hand in hand complimenting each other and have together visited Indian Institute of Sindhology (IIS) many a times where Madhu’s father Mr. Hari Meraney has been serving as an honorary Secretary for IIS for more than two decades. Two Documentary Films have been made on legendary Sahitya Akademy award winning poets late Shri Moti Prakash and Shri Arjan Hasid by them for Sahitya Academy. These are perhaps two of their best creations which throw light on not only their poetic journey but also their personal lives. Apart from these, Kamal Nathani has made a Documentary Film on NCPSL too. He has participated in many seminars and has also presented papers highlighting the contribution of Cinema in promoting Sindhi language.

On the 95th Birthday of Revered Dada J.P. Vaswani, he got an opportunity to make a film on Sindh and Sufism wherein he presented Dada’s views and philosophy about the culture prevalent in Sind citing another example of rich culture of Sindhi Community. Apart from this tryst with Dada the duo have been recording episodes for Dada J.P. Vaswani which are telecast on Sanskar Channel everyday. On the 97th Birthday of Dada in 2015, a video on bhajan was also made for them for Sadhu Vaswani Mission, Pune.

Many Seminars, new thoughts and write ups have been initiated by the couple. A two day Acting Workshop was conducted by Kamal Nathani along with a few popular Sindhi television actors for Sindhis of all age groups for Bangalore Sewa Samiti. So much is the influence of their love for Sindhi language that even their daughter, Deeksha Nathani who is an Architect and is presently pursuing her masters from UNSW University, Australia also chose to do her thesis on SINDH & SINDHIS in her final year of graduation.

In 2016 the duo Kamal & Madhu Nathani organized the FIRST EVER SINDHI FILM FESTIVAL at New Delhi for Sindhi Academy Delhi which was dedicated to late Sindhi Actress Sadhna. The 2 day film festival was a grand success wherein 5-6 Sindhi films made in the recent past were shown to people. Sindhis mingled with cinestars Deepti Naval and Preeti Jhangiani apart from many Sindhi Television stars and FIRST SINDHI FILM AWARDS were presented by CM , SH. ARVIND KEJRIWAL. In various categories. A documentary film made by Kamal Nathani on the JOURNEY OF SINDHI CINEMA was screened at the festival.

Presently Kamal Nathani is busy making short films on social awareness for Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (D.A.V.P.) for many ministries such Ministry of Science. & Technology, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Water Resourses, Ministry of social welfare, Ministry of Sports etc. He is empanelled with N.F.D.C. as a producer as well as a Director.

THE LOST HERITAGE is the tentative title of the short film on Sindh which Kamal Nathani is presently involved with. This film will be very unusual in its content and will be exploring many truths and theories about the 1947 partition as why Sindhis had to leave their motherland. No important film is made in India which gives us the first hand information on Sindhis who left their motherland leaving behind their Heritage. This could be the most informative film for this generation who do not know the facts about their Sindh and their own motherland which unfortunately they will never be able to see again.

Kamal Nathani has some innovative ideas and is looking forward to join hands with people who are keen to serve and contribute through Media industry for the Sindhi Community . It is a matter of great pride that Kamal Nathani being a sindhi has achieved so many milestones and we look forward for more. We hope Kamal Nathani would keep doing good quality work for both Hindi and Sindhi cinema and will achieve more and more success.

For any Information Please contact

KAMAL NATHANI – tele: +91 9820052912,

email: dkamalnathani@gmail.com

MADHU NATHANI – tele: +91 9967552912,

email: kncmedia123@gmail.com

Website: www.kncmedia.com

By Ashwin M. Vasnani

A Once an Indian opened a tea shop in China but had no customers. 

A Sindhi opened a tea shop in the same lane and could attract customers. 

Can you guess the name he wrote for the tea shop? 

" Kosee Kosee Chai Phuke Phuke Pi "

Jiye Sindhiyat, Jai Jhulelal

Launched with love for everything Sindhi, our newsletter, Sindhi Samachar, aims to be circulated amongst our Sindhi family and friends intended to forge unity and interaction within our community. We hope our brothers and sisters globally participate and contribute towards it with your views, Sindhi news, Sindhi jokes, or Sindhi recipes, which we will be happy to publish under your name.

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