My name is Deepa and I am the senior member in our pairing. Aadi is the high-school graduate paired up with me. Aadi happens to be my student in the 12th grade Bala-Vihar program. We had a fun & memorable meeting at my home where we got to know more about our families & backgrounds. In particular, we both share a Sindhi heritage. We went for a long walk in the neighborhood and stopped for tea at Starbucks. When we returned home, Aadi played the guitar, I did a bit of singing & we had additional discussions about Vedanta, movies, our families & heritage. Hopefully, we will meet again before Aadi departs for college. Since we are both vegan & gluten-free, we thought cooking a meal together would be fun. (Aadi enjoys cooking.)
On a side note, I had the privilege & honor to watch Aadi give a speech at his Bala-Vihar convocation at the Chinmaya Mission San Jose ashram. At the same event, I met his lovely parents. my interactions with Aadi remind me of my younger self where i had similar questions about spirituality & curiosity about my heritage.
Aadi is intelligent, thoughtful, humble, polite, cultured & talented, with a bright future ahead. He is an awesome guitar-player as well. So cool! i am grateful that we had the opportunity to spend time together outside the Bala-Vihar setting. Am looking forward to our upcoming cooking session. Looking forward to our next meeting.
-- Deepa Rai (with Aadi)
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