Pranaam to All the Attendees of RANA NJ Picnic 2015,

It was nice to have you all at the RANA Picnic 2015 which took place at Cheesequake State Park Matawan NJ on 08/22/2015. The gathering was so good that it’s unexplainable. Once again we would like to thank you all for joining the Picnic and making it a Grand Success. We had almost 120 people who attended the picnic which is a record in 30 years history.

One more thing special about this Picnic that it was 100% vegetarian picnic with no alcohol served, and everybody enjoyed the food.

We were blessed with the presence of our founder members of RANA.

Special thanks to JB Singh Uncle, Pushpa Aunti, Dhirajsinh Solanki and auntiji whose presence was graceful for the Picnic.

We would like to say thanks to our guests from the neighboring chapters New York and DC. Special thanks to Prakashsinh,&  Manabaji from NY Chapter and Ajay Singh from DC Chapter.

In this picnic we had some new members who attended the picnic:

• Naivedya Sengar
• Nirmalsinh Vaghela
• Dalveer Rajput
• Ananya Asula
• Harsha Rathod

We would like to thank Jayshree Mahida and Hardevsinh Mahida for organizing the picnic so beautifully.

We would like to invite you all for the upcoming events:

• Food Donation to Homeless Shelter
• Retreat at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam (we would like our youth brigade and the kids specially to attend this.)
• Tirth Yatra USA
• Diwali
• New Year Bash

We update our website www.rana-nj.org on a regular basis, so all are requested to check the website for our regular updates. If you are being missed from our e-mails please forgive us and you are requested to update your information through our website so that you can be on our e-mail list.

Thank you All,

Regards,

Raj Shekhar Singh

Cultural Secretary RANA NJ Chapter

Namaste!

If you have not done so yet, please register for our Chapter Picnic that will be taking place this Saturday on our website, www.RANA-NJ.org  Lots of fun activities are scheduled and delicious Dosa will be served.

Rajshekhar Singh (our Chapter Cultural Secretary) and I had a great time attending the NY Chapter Picnic.  The weather was beautiful and it was fun hanging out with RANA biradari for the afternoon.  As always, they welcomed us with smiles and LOTS of scrumptious food.

During the car ride, Rajshekhar and I were able to brainstorm lots of cool ideas for upcoming RANA-NJ events.  Some of these included a Teerth Yatra to several Mandirs for our seniors as well as our members of all ages, a retreat for our youth to Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and a youth community service day.  We will be sending you more information regarding these ideas after discussion with our Chapter EC.

Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday is on October 2.  Our youth are invited to participate in a community service event in honor of Mahatma Gandhi.  They will be preparing meals to feed 400 homeless people on October 4^th from 1 PM to 5 PM.  This will be for our youth ages 8 to 18.  Details can be found on our website www.RANA-NJ.ORG  If your child is interested, please send me a return email or email to [email protected]

Our fabulous Camping Convener Hardev Bhai has made it official…..the location will be Watkins Glen in the spectacular Finger Lakes region of New York.  Preliminary information is available on our chapter website.  So please block the dates on your calendar.  More information will follow from Hardev Bhai.

Soon we will be having a new NEC in place.  Best wishes to them as they embark on their 2 year term.   We will certainly do all we can to help them transition into their new roles and our support will be unconditional.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful Summer season.  On June 14th, the New Ambassador of India to the US, His Excellency Arun Kumar Singh was welcomed at a gathering in Potomac, MD.  Ambassador Singh is a highly accomplished Rajput.  The key coordinator of the event was past NEC President, Th. Sunil Singh of the DC Chapter.  Representing RANA, sponsors of the event included Ajay Singh (present President of the DC Chapter), Sunil Singh,  Pradeep Sengar of the DC Chapter and Dhiraj Solanki Uncleji.  Several RANA-NJ chapter members were present including Dhiraj Uncle, Kishor Kumar Singhji, Mahvir Singhji, Hardev Bhai, Our Cultural Secretary RajShekhar Singh, My Daughter Ambika and myself.  Other dignitaries in attendance included 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and celebrated IP Officer Kiran Bedi.  I was very proud to see a strong representation from RANA and our chapter.

Yesterday Yash, Ambika and I attended the DC Chapter Picnic.  They had wonderful food and cheer.  We enjoyed meeting our neighbors.  I received the names of a few Rajputs in New Jersey that are not members and I have reached out to them.  Incoming NEC President Prakashsinh Chauhan Uncleji was present.  He briefly shared his vision regarding RANA’s future.  We look forward to Uncleji’s leadership of RANA.

Please keep in mind that the RANA Youth Convention will be this weekend, Several of our Chapter’s youth with be there including Kuldeep Yadav (Riddhiji’s son), Shree and Om Mahida, my children Ambika and Yash.  Registration is still open at www.ranayouthconvention.com  Please encourage your families’ youth to participate.

Please be sure to check out the new website www.rana-nj.org.  Several of our members have already registered on the site.  Once you register, you will be able to see the information of the other members.  We hope to have the entire RANA directory online soon.

RANA (n addition to our NJ facebook page) does have a facebook site with several hundred members.  Please request to join the group.  Go to facebook and search for Rajput Association of America.  Be sure to request to join the group, dont just like it.

All the information for our Picnic on August 22nd is online.  Feel free to register online.  Payment is also accepted online.

The upcoming events are on the website so please be sure to mark your Calendars for Diwali and the New Year’s eve bash.

Pictures from the camping trip, Ambassador welcome event and DC Picnic will be up on our website soon.  Please feel free to send me pictures so I can put them on the website.

I will be attending the NY Chapter Picnic on the 8th of August.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining me.
Lots of very exciting announcements will be coming your way soon. Looking forward to seeing you at the Picnic!

Regards,
Rajiv Singh (Manu)
RANA-NJ Chapter President.

It was an action packed camping adventure in Barryville, New York. Activities included:
· Campfire-Always one of the highlights of camping. We all enjoyed cooking, eating and chatting around the campfire. On the last night, we had the traditional antakchariy sing a-long. It was amazing to see how many talented singers there were.
· Fishing-We caught a huge Bass. We cooked the catch on the camp fire and it was delicious. Thanks to Anandji for filleting it and seasoning it with the assistance of Jayshreeji.
· A hiking trail to the top of the mountain that was a challenge for both hikers and runners.
· Zip-lining-This was especially enjoyed by younger RANA members.
· Rafting-Even though the weather was questionable, 48 Rana members participated and we had 8 rafts. Several individuals jumped into the water and swam alongside the raft. There were a couple of people that fell in including my son Yash.

It was wonderful to see old friends and make new friends. Including day trippers, we had over 110 participants including Ajay Singh (and his family), the President of DC Chapter as well as Prakashsinh Chauhan Uncleji with Auntiji from the New York chapter. We also had many past RANA presidents including My Father J. B, Singh, Jawahar Singh Uncleji, SK Singh Uncleji and Chandrikaben.

The food was scrumptious! Rosi Bhabiji made her signature jerk mutton grilled directly on the fire. Thank you to all that collaborated to serve the food including Madhuriji, Chandrikaben, Manjari Bhabhiji, Jayshreeji and Poonamji.

I am pleased to say that nearly all of the officers of the Executive committee participated in the camping trip including RajBimal, RajShekhar, Jayshreeji, Mukesh Parmar and Jay Gohil.

I was particularly pleased to see the large number of Rajput youths. They all enjoyed the trip very much.

Within the next day or so, I will be sending details regarding the upcoming Picnic on August 22nd and the Youth Convention on July 30th to August 2.

On behalf of RANA, I would like to thank Hardevsinh Bhai and Jayshreeji for doing a wonderful job organizing the camping trip. It was their effort and passion that made this trip successful and enjoyable for all.

Regards,
Rajiv Singh (Manu)
NJ Chapter President

Dear Members of RANA-NJ,

On behalf of the incoming members of the executive committee, I would like to thank the RANA-NJ membership for appointing us for the next 2 years. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to serve the RANA-NJ community and we are honored to do so.

On a personal note, I am very proud to follow the footsteps of my Father, Jitendra Bahadur Singh. Perhaps my tenure will be a personal tribute to him and his passion for RANA.

RANA-NJ has a very strong foundation and we look forward to further building our organization by growing our membership and having gatherings that will foster camaraderie.

Some of our plans are as follows:

• Update and organize the RANA-NJ database. We now have a Word document and we will validate the data.
• Deploy our website www.RANA-NJ.com It will have features such as a calendar of events, storage/retrieval of membership data, communication among members and much more.
• Engaging the youth by having more youth events and launching of the RANA-NJ Youth Ambassador program.
• Maximizing participation of our membership. We have already announced dates of our key gatherings. This will allow our members to block dates accordingly.
• Networking/mentoring for our youth with RANA-NJ members that will enable internships, job and business opportunities. We have many members of RANA-NJ that have influence within their profession and can provide such opportunities.
• When the time comes we will provide a seamless transition to the next executive committee.

Moving forward, a key area of focus must be our youth. After all, the spirit of the founders of our wonderful association was to pass on to our youth the rich tradition and culture Rajputs share.

You have appointed a very strong team and we are enjoying working together. In order for us to be successful, it is imperative that we have strong participation by our members and we know that we can count on you for that.
Sincerely,
Rajiv (Manu) Singh
President; RANA-NJ