WOY 2024 Episode-10: Community Volunteer Deepa Agrawal's Advice to Her Son: Never Break a Heart

[Music] welcome to India Newar news Our Guest today is Deepa Agarwal she has been very active with her Hindi Munch youth program she's a director and a teacher at sisu harti she's also president of Indian Americans of Burlington we are going to honor her as outstanding women of the Year 2024 at our 21st annual Woman of the Year Awards Gila we are going to talk to her today about her journey to the volunteer work and the community service DEA Welcome to our studio thank you p g and it's a real pleasure to to have you here in the studio it's my pleasure as well and we are looking forward to honoring you on April 26 thank you for that again now we had so many nominations for you for this uh award and I'm so glad that you are here today um and most of the nominations talked about uh your volunteer work and so let's start with a Hindi Munch first okay uh how Hindi Munch has impacted your life um so I've been working with with Hindi man from last 78 years now and uh it's my pleasure to work and learn so much from PES shast is there um PR is the president and the founder of Hindi ma that's correct jna Madan raaka Soni SN J Singh A J Singh Anish khor so these people and many other volunteers are there in Hindi and I I know all of them yes of course you know everyone yeah sure sure so these people are so loving and there is so much to learn and they have so much of passion and uh they give give you an encouragement to learn more to do more so that's where this and um Hindi man is bringing not only the Indian Community uh Indian Community who speak Hindi but even now we see the non- Indian people also joining Hindi MCH so Hindi Munch is a very very welcoming and very connecting uh to all the people and that's what I like about Hindi Munch Hindi Munch has been uh doing very fantastic job in promoting our Indian language Hindi language and bringing our community together do you have a special passion for the kids and youth so where does that come from and how does it play into Hindi man uh so like you know I'm also a teacher at shishu bti so I have been and not only here but in back in India also I used to always always take tutions at India and I used to teach uh artw Works in India so I always was passionate about teaching kids and interacting with kids I like to always interact the kids are very um I would say like the they they learn very fast they they have they can it's like a clay which can be molded in any shape so that's what I like about kids and same thing in Hindi man and Indian language like Hindi so my kids are younger kids and I always wanted the kids to learn our Indian language Indian culture and I always had a thought since we are here in us that there is sort of Disconnect between our Indian culture and our American culture and I always thought that the kids should know about Indian culture and that passion always drove me very far to join with the Hindi Munch and then for the shishui and when I'm teaching at sharti also I always see that the kids are so interested and they all they bring more ideas when we teach them they bring more ideas same how long you have been teaching at shuar sharti it's been almost 10 plus years now 10 plus and what do you teach there I teach Hindi for third grade and I have been volunteering from kindergarten to 8th grade okay so now are you're talking about you know you're fascinating with a kids and all those things I had three kids of my own and it is not easy to deal with them so how you manage to deal with all these so many kids from different families coming together how challenging it is uh I never felt it as challenging truly speaking it's fun with working with kids play I think that's a very good way to look at them that's right so that's what I always feel that the kids are very friendly and when you talk to them they brings us idea and they teach to you and then when you put your ideas to them they are so easy to take your ideas and uh work with us that's that's what I always feel I feel it's very easy to work with kids and and uh about sarti you teach in Lexington or yeah I teach in lexon and the classes are every Sunday right every Sunday okay now let's come back to uh Indian Americans for Burlington uh you are now president of that organization so how old is this organization and what is the mission of this organization um okay so this year we are celebrating 10 anniversary of Indian American 10 years yes 10 years so we are celebrating 10 years and uh uh iib is a now and old organization we the mission of IAB is to bring indianamerican uh Community together in Burlington and neighboring town so we also do some educational our mission is to bring do the community work educational things and even the Civic awareness so now I think Burlington is also Burlington s these are some of the towns which have the largest population of indian-americans that's right that's true right that's right and do you have any number that how many Indian Americans live in Burlington nothing on top of my head but uh but it's a very sizable number exactly okay and uh so on this one I have to ask you uh question is because nevering town of burington Lexington they also have a similar organization which is much older than the Burlington and politically they are very active actually you know the the is any the burington has similar that type of plan or design or Mission or no uh we do the Civic awareness but not exactly very close to any political thing we don't support any political organization or anything like that but Civic awareness is a normal like everyone must know about what's going on in town what are the things that town can bring to us so we are having our um event and we do it from we are we have been doing it from many years so what we do is like we invite all the candidates who are standing in the election for the local election local Town elections and we do a meet and greet event uh and it's a open event and we keep an open question and answer Forum on that so people can ask questions and there is an interaction Forum on that um that's what we have been doing for many years okay so now in addition in addition to volunteering for the Hindi man suarti and uh uh Indian Americans for Burlington you also have a passion for art so tell us that your your story about the art so from childhood I love doing art my father is very good artist and um I have been always learning from him he has always encouraged me doing art work and taught me many art things also so it's like a stress bastter for me so when I feel like very stressed I like to do art work my recent Art Exhibit was done in sah event and uh we also did an exhibit in ballington public library so what is the biggest cause of your stress uh like I'm a tax consultant and March and April is a very stressful period for work so these are we have to work on the weekends and when I feel very stressed I like to spend few hours with my colors with my art so that's what I like about it now you mentioned about your father so where where where is he and how where you grew up um in India my father is in a town called shirur um it's near dulia it's a district dulia so it's a in which state when it's in Maharashtra in Maharashtra yeah yeah okay so um he's also very passionate he spends he actually last two years back he came here and it's been so many years he's a business person he has no time to spend with his Hobbies but when he came here he pursue his Hobby and uh it was so nice to see him back doing his uh so what type of business he has there in IND uh we are having our automobile spots uh business business okay and and what are his Hobbies art Etc or that's all and I have not seen him doing art for many years uh because of his busy schedule but uh yeah was the covid was one time when he started doing again so what is one thing you have learned from your father just one thing yeah that's what it's difficult to think just one thing about that uh right now since we are talking about art and never give up and uh art is something where you have always scoped to do more M that's what I think I have learned from my father and what about from your mom my mom what should I talk about my mom like as every child father and mom is an idol the same thing with my mom uh she has given me all the Indian values and uh um yeah that's that's what uh my I'm very touchy about my parot as no we want to hear we want to share with our viewers yes yeah yeah feel free to tell a story if you have so what is the one of the some touching story you remember from childhood either with your dad or with your mom which really made you happy cry sad any story since you were talking so passionately about your parents hell there's so many we grew up in a very joint family and uh my mom like she was the eldest in the house and we have my parents are four brothers and three sisters so we grew up in a very big family so my mom always had that we have to be in the family with such a big people so always taking care of each one's emotions and without hurting anyone so that's what I have seen my mom throughout her life doing and that's what I learned from her which is always I led the the most important thing about my mom and what brought you to us and when did you come to us well coming to us was never my thought it just happened that um my husband got a job opportunity in us and uh when we came initially in us we never thought we were going to stay that long so which year did you come to us we came in 2009 2009 okay and it was ARR marriage or love marriage ARR marriage ARR marriage so I have to ask you this question now so what do you think about ARR now you have seen also a lot of love marriages as well that's right so um what have you noticed any difference between these two are it say the same thing or one is better than other I don't know about love marriage because mine was arranged but uh I but have you you must have met some people who have a love marriage or no yes I have friends who have AR love marriage but I think arranged marriage is a commitment from day one when you are committed to a person you know that that's the one that you are going to spend your life throughout and uh you know you started loving liking the person when you know that you are committed to that and everything around that person becomes yours just in a I mean just as soon as like in the arranged marriage in India it happens the girl and the boy come together they see each other and then they start liking and they say yes it's okay so this is the my dream boy or dream girl that's what he's saying so so in India of course we grow up with that con we know that you know our parents will arrange and they do a good job actually so if you look at the success rate of marriage in India is very very high highest in the whole word actually if you really go by that so now um feel free to answer this but I'm going to ask you this is um see your son comes to you and says that Mom I need your advice about my marriage what advice you'll give it to your son okay so now since my son is here I'm not sure what kind of a girl he will bring to me but one thing is his commitment M so I would say once you commit with someone don't break heart so that's that's what I would suggest my son Deepa thank you so much for your time and it was pleasure chatting with you thank you so much and we are looking forward to seeing you at on April 26 thank you so much I appreciate that