Presenting our Grand Sponsor for Diwali 2015 - BB Travel Experts

It gives me immense pleasure in presenting to you, the Grand Sponsor for the CIC Diwali 2015, BB Travel Experts. We are incredibly thankful for BBTES for being our Grand Sponsor for this year. As the Grand Sponsor, they get the naming rights for the event. So you will henceforth see me addressing the event as "CIC Diwali 2015 presented by BB Travel Experts" Before I talk about BBTES, let me write briefly about how this sponsorship came about.

Earlier this year, on behalf of CIC, I conducted an event, Discover India. This quiz and trivia event on all things India was the first of its kind for the community. I was looking for a partner who aligned closely with the theme of the event, namely, India and exploring the wonderful things about our home. Thanks to Nekzad, I was introduced to the wonderful Bomi Patel of BB Travel Experts. Over the next few days, Bomi and I realized that we have much to offer each other. The Cambrian Indian Community needs a travel partner who understands its needs and Bomi wanted to offer his services to the local community. 

When we decided to open up sponsorships for Diwali 2015,I reached out to some of our past sponsors, BBTES included. I sent an introductory email and about 15 minutes later, Bomi responded saying he wanted to be the Grand Sponsor. This gesture speaks volumes of how much he values our community and our partnership.

Before I tell you all about what BBTES offers, here is my request. Consider them for your next trip to India or anywhere else for that matter or when your family is making a trip here. Bomi and BBTES need  the support of a vibrant community like ours and we need partners like him to invest in our activities and community. A partnership happens when there is mutual benefit. Just as we are thrilled to have BBTES sponsor our event, we sincerely hope he that the community will thrill with our response by allowing them to take care of our travel needs.

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About BB Travel Experts:

BB Travel Experts (BBTES) is full service travel agency with airlines ticketing with live agents, Cruise, Hotels, Car Rental, Tour and Travels.

With over 14 years of total experience in the industry, BBTES is fully accredited travel agency by IATAN and CLIA, Industry regulators of Airlines and Cruise industries respectively. BBTES is also registered as Seller of Travel with California Department of Justice.

BBTES is your Ultimate point of contact for all your travel needs. Including last minute or emergency travel. BBTES also offers ticketing from India to USA and Canada, payable in INR or US$ and also offers Travel Insurance which include Medical and Dental services while in USA and Canada at a low price of travel insurance. ​

This is what I wrote about them 6 months ago. 

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Road to Cambrian Diwali 2015: Call for Participants

We are excited to open up the CIC Diwali 2015 event for participant sign ups. This is an incredibly popular affair and we expect sign ups to get all taken up in a day or two. So please consider signing up asap.

Here is the link to the form for signing up for events:

http://goo.gl/forms/6K3sdbZHNd

Look forward to seeing your entries soon.

Road to Cambrian Diwali 2015: Call for Coordinators and Choreographers

CIC Diwali 2015 needs you. That about sums this post. Here is why.

CIC Diwali 2015 is off the races and we need your help to make it a grand event. If you think you have the chops to help coordinate specific activities during the event- please sign up today.

For those new to CIC Diwali, this is our biggest event of the year. We had close to 400 people last year and the event always sells out well in advance. It is a really big deal.

Who are we looking for now?

1. Coordinators for various activities. Most tasks will have 1-2 coordinators and a team of volunteers that the coordinators will have to assemble. We will help to identify volunteers, of course. ee FAQs below for coordinator roles available.

2. Choreographers for various performances. There are kid and adult performances that will happen for Diwali. We are looking for choreographers (1-2) per performance. At this time, just let us know if you want to choreograph something and the target group- adult or kid. The kids in performances will have a separate sign-up process. So for now, we are just signing up choreographers.

3. Photographers and Videographers to cover the event. Ideally we are looking for 3 photographers and 1 videographer.

FAQs

What does a coordinator role mean?

Coordinators work independently with their teams to run specific activities and components of the event. For the most part, coordinators will have to identify their teams and what needs to be done, well in advance. Here at CIC, we take big pride in planning and our attention to detail. If that is your strength, we would love to have you be a coordinator. A coordinator leads by example. Everyone is a leader and everyone is a worker bee here. 

What are the coordinator roles available?

1. Adult Performances (2)
2. Child Performances (2)
3. Parking (1)
4. Hall Prep and Post Event Cleanup (3)
5. Reception (2)
6. Decoration (1)
7. Food Planning (2)
8. Childcare (2)
9. Program Flow (1)
10. Crowd Management (2)
11. Audio and Video (2)
12. Newsletter (2 - 1 adult/ 1 teen)

Does coordinator role mean I spend a lot of time on the event?

No. We break the tasks down to a fairly granular level. Once you get the details figured out with your team, everything else will really happen in October. This is not a huge time commitment. But it is a commitment to the community to make sure the task at hand is executed well. 

Can I pick a specific coordinator role?

Once we have a list of folks interested in coordinating specific activities, we will work with you in identifying what will work best for you and CIC. For many, this will be their ideal role. For a few, there might not be because some roles are always more desired than others but every job eventually needs to get done. If you have a specific skillset or experience doing one of these roles, please let us know.

I have been a coordinator before. Can I sign up again?

Sure. Why not? You know what it takes and that helps a lot. You might get the same role or a different role which will be decided based on the sign-ups.

I am new to the community. I dont know many people. How can I coordinate?

You are exactly the person we want. Someone new to the community brings a lot of fresh ideas to the mix and that makes a huge difference. No one wants to see the same things year over year. We will help you build your committee and make new friends.

Will we have a lot of meetings?

We will probably meet once every few weeks until the early October after which we will meet once a week- usually no more than 45 min-1 hr. Some committees might meet more often while others might not meet until late October.

What it is in it for me?

Working behind and in front of the scenes for CIC Diwali is the best way to make friends in the community. If you are new to the area, this is a great way to make a ton of friends. Every one of us has fabulous memories of participating, volunteering and coordinating small and large tasks for Diwali. We have made a ton of friends along the way. This is the BEST way to become an integral part of this growing CIC family.

I want to know more before I sign up.

Definitely. Reach out to any of your friends in the community who has participated/volunteered in the past years. The CIC Board has members who have done this for a decade now. Reach out by email or on Facebook. We will be glad to answer your questions.

Where do I sign up?

Email cambrianindiancommunity@gmail.com with the Subject: Coordinator/Choreographer/Photographer for Diwali 2015 and let us know what you can and would like to help out on. If you have experience in that role, that would help a lot.

What are you waiting for?

Road to Cambrian Diwali 2015: Shubharambh

Last Friday, a few of us got together to formally kick off the preparation for CIC Diwali 2015. In the coming months, the activity will pick up pace culminating in the largest event of the year on Nov 7th at the Seven Trees Community Center from 2 pm to 6 pm. This blog and our website launched last Diwali and we have been using it to communicate as often as possible. This year, we will have frequent behind the scenes looks at how such a large event comes together, purely by volunteer efforts. Stay tuned to this blog for frequent updates on the road to Cambrian Diwali 2015.

Cambrian Diwali 2014

2014 was a big year for our community since the number of families exploded and the size of our Diwali event literally doubled. We had to scale rapidly and learned a bunch of things in the process. Participants from last year were also kind enough to share their feedback and we want to make sure we are addressing as many concerns from last year as possible, while retaining the best parts. For those not familiar with how Cambrian Diwali works and to everyone else who is curious, here is a brief timeline of how things will unfold.

Feb-Mar 2015: Visit multiple possible venues and finalize venue. This year, we have been fortunate to book the main hall at the Seven Trees Community Center for our Diwali celebration. This was possible due to the tireless efforts of Latha, Sonal and Krithika. 

May 2015: Planning kicks off. We will look at how we want to do things different from last year. Some broad ideas and themes will emerge in terms of what needs to change. For example, this years event is scheduled in the afternoon. We will not have dinner as part of our event. This will help us address a lot of feedback from last year. We also started looking at other broad issues as total event time, parking, childcare, and more. 

We will identify the core teams needed to drive the various components of the event and then solicit volunteers and coordinators for as many activities as possible. One of the key goals for this year is to have as many new people participate in event organization as possible.

June 2015: Once the coordinators are identified, we will put some structure around the performances and then solicit sign ups for choreographers, volunteers and participants. Parents please note- event participation is very popular in the community and slots will fill up rapidly. We will communicate in advance to get folks prepared.

July/Aug 2015: Summer time. Nothing major will happen unless choreographers can pull their crew together. Sponsorships will have to be locked in.

Sept 2015: We will start planning the flow of the event with slots, timing and such. Event magazine (Cambrian Khabar effort will start) We will have meetings periodically with coordinators. Coordinators will choose the cadence of their meetings with their teams.
We will also open the event ticketing. The CIC Diwali event tends to get sold out within a day or two. We will give ample advance notice before we open up ticketing. But be aware that tickets will sell out fast.

Oct 2015: Rubber meets the road. Everything comes together. Much more on this later.

We will add details as we move along. 

If you are interested in helping out in any way possible - let one of us know. We will formally open things up soon but you can always let us know you are interested.

Exciting times ahead!

Thank you for making a difference to victims of the Nepal Earthquake

Update on 05/05/2015:

Receipt from RedCross attached here.

We will keep this short.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You, the members of the Cambrian Indian Community, helped raise over $850 for the victims of the Nepal Earthquake which has claimed over 5000 lives and counting. 

To put this in perspective, when Sonal originally proposed the idea to CIC, she had modest expectations. She suggested that we request a dollar per person for whoever chose to donate. Since this was our first time, we were not sure what to expect. But blow away our expectations, you did (it is May 4th, Star Wars Day after all :)).

And here is the best part- many of you have contributed not just through Cambrian Cares but also through your employer for a donation match and/or tax reasons. Your generosity makes us proud.

We will donate the amount to RedCross in the coming days and share the receipt in the comments section of this post.

Thank you once again. You have demonstrated what it takes to make and build a community.  

Announcing "Cambrian Cares" for the victims of the Nepal Earthquake

As all of you are aware of, the country of Nepal and parts of India were rocked by a significant earthquake on the 25th of April, 2015. The earthquake and its aftershocks have devastated the country of Nepal and taken the lives of 2500 people and counting. As Nepal's neighbor, India has responded swiftly with support. As Indians living in the Cambrian community, we believe we can do more. And that is what led us to launching "Cambrian Cares". For more on Cambrian Cares, please read the FAQs at the bottom of this article. 

Cambrian Cares for Nepal Earthquake Relief Efforts

We would like to request you to contribute as little as $1 or to your hearts fill. Send the money to our Paypal account set up for this purpose -  cambriancares@gmail.com. If you want your name acknowledged in this website, let us know in the message portion of the Paypal "Send Money" portion or you can choose to stay anonymous.

Every dollar contributed will be passed on to the following charity which has been identified by Charity Navigator as one of the better ones in terms of their donation to administration ratio. 

RedCross

Details on RedCross efforts to help the Nepal Earthquake

RedCross rating on CharityNavigator 

Please try to send in your contributions by Sunday, May 2nd and we will immediately make the collected contribution to the Nepal Earthquake Relief Fund from RedCross.

If you have any additional questions please reach out to us via email or talk to one of your CIC Board members and we will be happy to answer any and all questions. 

Thanks in advance for your generosity.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Cambrian Cares

1. What is Cambrian Cares?

Cambrian Cares is a means for members of the community to offer support for humanitarian disasters across the world. 

2. How does Cambrian Cares work?

When there is a large scale humanitarian disaster, members of the community can request the CIC to run a campaign (like this one) to collect funds for the charity. We only request some advance notice to vet the organization where the funds are being funneled to.

3. Can I contribute on my own for tax purposes?

Very much so. The CIC does not get any tangible benefit in running Cambrian Cares. We do it simply because the collective power of all of us is better than one. That said, if you have a large donation amount in mind and would like to make use of tax deductions for the amount, by all means, please do. If more people benefit from your generosity, why not?

4. What it is in it for CIC?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is our community working for the global community. No more. No less.

5. How do I know if my contribution reaches the right place?

We do our best to pick charities with low overhead and a good reputation. We try our best to keep out of religious charities (in some scenarios, it might be unavoidable). We will be transparent with amount collected and share the confirmation email with the group so everyone is comfortable with the process.

6. Is Cambrian Cares, its own entity?

Nope. Cambrian Cares is the name for the effort from our community to support disaster relief efforts across the world. This is similar to Cambrian Seva, our outreach and volunteer effort to help local communities. For logistics reasons, we are keeping Cambrian Cares and Cambrian Seva as separate efforts for different purposes.

If you have any additional questions please reach out to us via email or talk to one of your CIC Board members and we will be happy to answer any and all questions. 

When the CIC came together to rediscover India.

Wow.

What a fun day! I am just blown away by the fabulous response from this community, nay family for the Discover India 2015 event. It was a sheer joy to see everyone huddle together and come up with answers for everything I could throw at them. The camaraderie was remarkable. And that alone was worth the effort. Before I go on and on, a whole lot of thanks are in order. 

- To BB Travel Experts and Bomi Patel for being a wonderful sponsor of the event. We hope to work with BBTES for future events and also work with them on our travel needs.

- To the brain trust at CIC for guiding me through this event. For all the time I am spotted at CIC events, this was my first real shot at organizing one for the community. And I learnt a lot along the way. To that I am thankful to Latha, Sonal, Krithika, Anjana, Sachin, and Manish. So much more to learn from you before Diwali.

- To Rosy Singh for helping out with the snacks and for helping teams with answers when they needed them. Thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you participate next year.

- To Praneetha for taking fantastic pictures that tell the whole story. The images captured not just the event but the emotion- the rapt attentiveness to the question, the bonhomie, the joys, the disappointments, the works. Loved the pictures.

- To Chandana for rushing home and bringing the all important speaker. I promise the sound will be better managed next time. maybe with a better laptop and much better recording.

- To Venki, Shriram and many more who helped me get the place set up in the first place before the event.

- To Amit N, Amit D, Latha, Santhosh, Venkata, and Eshwari for helping clean up the hall afterwards. 

- To Team Panditji who bore not just the best name but took the effort to dress up for the occasion. My Nehru cap off to you.

- To Sanketh for keeping score during the game. You kept everyone honest. Good job.

- To my wonderful wife and son who gave me the time to work on this by taking on everything I was supposed to be doing instead of this. And for helping me manage the event. 

- And to all of you participants and audience. Young and old, you rock. It was not a short event. It was 4 hours long. And you stayed enthusiastic all that time. It was so much fun putting questions together and then seeing them get knocked out of the park. 

- My congrats to not just the winners but every one of you who participated and made this an event to remember. For some of you it took a lot to overcome your hesitation and jump in. And that was so awesome.

The CIC has a lot more planned for the rest of the year. Dive in, organize and participate. It is a whole lot of fun.

Until the next trivia event, keep guessing.

BB Travel Experts (BBTES) - A Local Partner you can trust with your travel needs

This post is about the exclusive sponsor of our Discover India 2015 event, BB Travel Experts, a full service travel agency based in San Jose and serving the needs of the Cambrian Indian Community. 

When we decided to do this event, we were very keen on a sponsor/partner who served our community and also resonated with the theme of the event which is all about discovering India. Thanks to a dedicated community member, Nekzad, we got to engage with Bomi Patel of BB Travel Experts. The experience of working with Bomi has been fantastic and if his agency offers a service that is reflective of that, I think we have an excellent partner in our neighborhood. We all have friends and families visiting us from India. We also take trips- by road, air or sometimes by sea. Having a trusted local travel agent helps in that regard. 

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BB Travel Experts (BBTES) is full service travel agency with airlines ticketing with live agents, Cruise, Hotels, Car Rental, Tour and Travels.

With over 14 years of total experience in the industry, BBTES is fully accredited travel agency by IATAN and CLIA, Industry regulators of Airlines and Cruise industries respectively. BBTES is also registered as Seller of Travel with California Department of Justice.

BBTES is your Ultimate point of contact for all your travel needs. Including last minute or emergency travel.

Currently BBTES is offering very low fares for November - December 2015.  If you are planning to travel during the holiday season, it is time to plan your trip at current lower fares ranging from $825 onwards, depending on dates and airlines.

BBTES also offers ticketing from India to USA and Canada, payable in INR or US$ and also offers Travel Insurance which include Medical and Dental services while in USA and Canada at a low price of travel insurance. 

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If you are planning a trip in the near future and are looking for a good travel agent, give BBTES a call at 408-264-4395 or email them here. Tell them you that you are a part of the Cambrian Indian Community. 

Announcing our first event for 2015: Discover India 2015 sponsored by BB Travel Experts

We are excited to announce the very first event of this year, Discover India 2015, sponsored by the wonderful folks at BB Travel Experts. There is a lot to talk about this event. In this post, we will go over the broad outline of the event and describe what it is all about. We will communicate the specifics, rules and such, a week before the event.  For now, we request that you please add the event to your calendar. There is a calendar invite setup in the Upcoming Events page. Here is the participant signup sheet. 

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Name of the Event: Discover India 2015

When: 1 pm - 5 pm, Sunday, March 8th, 2015.

Where: Vineland Public Library, 1450 Blossom Hill Road, San Jose, CA 95118

Sign up: Click here to sign up

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What is Discover India?

Discover India is our very own quiz and trivia event. This is the first of what we hope will become an annual affair. This is an opportunity for all the smart folks of Cambrian to match their wits against one another. Worry not, this is not a hardcore quiz. It is a trivia event and has something for everyone. There will be prizes for the winning team and runner up. Sign up here. 

There will be rounds of jeopardy style questions, a few rounds of audio and video questions from movies and stuff, dedicated cricket question rounds in keeping with the World Cup, pictionary, 20 questions, dumb charades and more. Most importantly, all questions will be about India or Indians. So it will be an awesome opportunity to learn more about your country. I can assure you that you will walk away learning something new about India. 

This is a team event. Each team will be composed of 3-5 members. Anyone who is interested can be part of a team. If you cant form a team in advance, worry not. We will get you into a team at the venue. Families can participate together as teams or join hands with friends. We'll provide a detailed FAQ about the mechanics of the event a week before the event. 

If you want to warm up here are some audio quizzes I(Prabhu) did recently. 

Links:

Hindi Movie Dialogues Quiz

Republic Day Patriotic Quiz

Indian TV ads Quiz - Part 1, Part 2

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Who is our generous sponsor for the event?

We are excited to announce that BB Travel Experts (BBTES) will be the exclusive sponsor for the event. BB Travel Experts is a full service travel agency offering airline, cruise, train, rental car and hotel reservations. Often times we have friends and family traveling on vacations within and outside the US. BB Travel Experts offer a full suite of services to support all your needs. You can reach them in the following ways:

Website: http://www.bbtes.com

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bbtes

Phone: 408-264-4395 / 408-390-0750