At a time when many groups are
cutting back and trying to wait out the sagging U.S.
economy, the Fairfield County-based Hindu Cultural
Center of CT is planning an expansion of its
programming and its facilities.
The grandest of its plans – to build or purchase its own
building in Southern Connecticut – won’t be happening in
the immediate future, said Veena Sahay, publicity
coordinator for the all-volunteer organization. “It’s not
only a question of buying the center, but of having enough
following and donations and people coming to the center to
sustain it,” she said.
HCC President Meena Gupta estimated that raising at least
$1 million could put the organization in a very basic
building, but that it would in reality need between $2 and
$3 million to acquire “a nice building” and run the type
of programming the organization leadership envisions.
Formerly established as a nonprofit tax-exempt
organization in January 2002, the HCC is an outgrowth of
the Havan fire ceremonies held at people’s homes by
members of the Arya Samaj of CT. As the group grew larger,
it moved first to Woodbridge for six months, then to its
current space rented from the Unitarian Universalist
Church at 96 Chapel St., Stratford. This has proved a more
central location for its members who reside throughout the
region.
Explosive Growth
During its two and a half years in Stratford, the
organization has experienced “an explosive growth in
membership,” said Sahay. She attributes this to several
factors. There’s been a large increase of Indians in
southern Connecticut, especially those working in
technology, “which has helped us grow a lot.” She also
credits good programming and word-of-mouth recommendation
for attracting attendees within the Hindu and non-Hindu
local community, noting that yoga and other cultural
activities have become fairly mainstream for Connecticut.
Growth is fairly simple, she explained. “Do you have
something the community wants? If you do, they will come,”
she said.
Gupta said the HCC has a membership of about 350 families,
including 75 paid life members. She wants to bring the
life-membership count to 200 families in order for the
organization to become self-sustaining, she said. The
fundraising and membership committees are focused on new
strategies and have reduced the life membership fees to
help bring in additional new members.
Beyond membership fees, the group raises some money from
its September Heritage Festival and from various cultural
activities throughout the year, but it is making a special
effort this year to find prosperous people in the
community willing to make sizeable donations to help the
organization grow.
While many nonprofit organizations successfully seek
corporate sponsorships, “religion does create problems in
fundraising. We’ll take from anyone who wants to give, but
we primarily expect to find money within the Indian
community because of the bias against religious
institutions,” Gupta said.
At this stage, the center is facing growing pains: Its
present shared quarters are inadequate for the needs of
its membership, but it cannot yet afford the facilities it
needs to properly serve the religious, social and cultural
needs of the community.
HCC runs a variety of activities, generally two to three
times a month, in its present shared building, said Sahay.
The center’s October Satsang is scheduled for Oct. 5. A
week later, it will hold a Mata Ki Chauki to honor the
goddess with devotional song. Then on Oct. 18, it will
hold a Karva Chauth, a North Indian tradition where women
gather together in the evening as new brides after a day
of fasting and prayer for long life for their husbands.
While Diwali falls on Oct. 28 this year, the HCC will hold
its festive Diwali celebration on Nov. 8. The colorful
event draws from inside and outside the community, and
attendance is expected to exceed 500 people. A Satsang and
Laxmi Puja is scheduled for Nov. 2, when participants pray
to Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, asking for family
prosperity and well being. A study group for Gita meets
several times a year and invites spiritual discourse aimed
at helping attendees to think, introspect and improve
their lives, she said.
Part of the mission of the HCC is to reach beyond its
immediate community and “provide to anyone who is
interested in the wisdom of Hindu philosophy and to
promote intercultural appreciation and understanding,”
said Sahay. The group’s Heritage India Festival in
Fairfield last month drew a large crowd, including a
significant number of non-Indians interested in learning
about the country.
The Youth Group
While owning and running its own building is for the
future, the HCC continues to concentrate on what it can do
now, including building a strong youth community.
Ritu Gupta, secretary of the HCC executive team, started
the youth group more than a year ago to bring together
Indian teenagers and college students to talk and learn
from each other. While most of the HCC parents were born
in India, their children were born or raised in this
country and face a particularly strong generation gap, she
observed.
“My children asked a lot of questions about practices.
‘Why do we do this?’ But not all do,” said Ritu Gupta. The
youth group provides a place where they can learn about
the culture and an open forum to discuss issues, problems
and build teams, she said. The members also volunteer at a
soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day.
Siddhartha Gupta, 20, a business major at Carnegie Melon
University in Pittsburgh, leads the HCC Youth Group this
year. “The group is great for networking with Indian
youths in the area. We become close to each other for the
future, while exploring the religion in a formal way,” he
said.
At its last meeting, the group watched the movie “The
Legend of Bagger Vance,” which is loosely based on the
Bhagavad Gita, and explored the religious themes it
contained, “an example of doing something fun while
learning.” White-water rafting is an activity under
consideration for the spring.
Asked about the wide age range in the group –14 to about
25 years old – he said that the large number of people in
the group helps tie everyone together. “Everyone is at the
same level. Everyone fits in. It’s like life where the
older members have a lot to share with the younger
members.”
Hindu Activities Around Temples
Both Sahay and Meena Gupta envision a time when the center
will have its own building and can increase activities.
“We can hold yoga classes, dance classes, teach different
Indian languages to our children, hold dances, celebrate
weddings, rent it out for parties. It will be a true
center of learning and religion and festivities,” Sahay
said. She mentions Maha Vallabha Ganapathi Devasthanam,
the Ganesh Temple in Flushing Queens, which is surrounded
by Hindu cultural institutions including a dance school
and a Hindu bookstore.
Closer to home, the Sri Satyanarayana Temple, run by the
Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society at 11 Training
Hill Road, Middletown, grew from a small beginning to a
substantial institution.
“The Temple,” as its members call it, began in the early
1980s with a group of about 50 families meeting in church
basements, college rooms or anywhere they could find
space. Today the Temple is served by four priests, has
1,000 families as life members and maintains a mailing
list of almost 7,000.
Despite its size, the Temple’s present facilities are no
longer enough for the growing membership, so the
organization is concurrently raising money and completing
a $2 million capital expansion project, said Dina Bhatt,
vice president of operations at the Temple.
Bhatt said she supports the HCC’s expansion plans. “I see
numerous churches here. If they (Christians) can have
that, why not us?” she said. “We can’t meet the needs of
40,000 people in Connecticut (with just our temple). There
is room for more.”
Based on her group’s experiences, she urged the Southern
Connecticut group to “give expansion your priority and
commitment, and see it through to the end.”
