‘Spirit of India’
A small group of Indian Moms from Mid-West America, once came together to celebrate India’s Independence Day. In a short time, it gathered momentum and now runs as
Spirit Of India programs.
This annual event celebrates India’s cultural wisdom.
Each year, a theme is selected that inspires performances, enrichment, exhibits and workshops.
India cradles one of the most ancient cultures rich in knowledge for life. We intend to explore the relevance of this knowledge for today’s times
Find other SOI programs on the links below
Spirit Of India celebrates
‘Waters of India’
Exploring our cultural links to our Waters as part of the ongoing ‘Water project’
Updates:
Beginning of 2025, the ‘Waters of India’ topic was expanded to include stories and links from wider Asian cultures that resulted in collaborative ‘Waters of Asia’ events and Spring 2025 Exhibit at the Asian American Cultural Center.
We are Thankful to AACC, especially Amy Breslin, David Chih, Flordemia Conrad, and the student interns for their cooperation and support in co-hosting series of events around Waters of Asia’.
We are grateful to Śuci for her valued help in connecting us with the senior Professors of our campus and for her Photo entries honoring their reserch works. These entries were part of the Interdisciplinary aspect of the project.
We are grateful to Nada for being part of the Water-drop display and also for introducing us to another senior Professor who was our valued Guest Artist of the Exhibit. These entries pointed to the inter-generational aspect of the project.
More info on the events, on this Colab page. Some snapshots below
Waters of Asia workshop with middle-schoolers in January 2025
Getting ready for collaborative Waters of Asia watercolor workshop at AACC
Watercolor worshop at AACC exploring Wellness
One of the participants of Watercolor workshop
Some entries from Workshop displayed at the 'Waters of Asia' Exhibit Spring 2025 at AACC
SOI 2023 Waters of India opened on a low key with a casual Ladies virtual meet. on 15 August and is ongoing as part of Water project.
We are Thankful to Dr. Sowmya Anand and Mrs Neeta Bobaday for being the co-host and for their support for the meets. Our focus was to involve grandmom’s so main attendees were Dadis and Nanis (grandmothers)
Stay tuned on this page for more updates as they come.
'Waters of India' participation form
‘Waters of India’
Exploring our cultural links to the Waters of India
as part of the ongoing ‘Water project’
Interested participants are requested to submit the form below to get started.
SOI 2024- part of Inquiry project
This year’s SOI program will be part of the Conscious Designing Inquiry project with talks, revolving around Indian Culture.
Talks will open 26 January 2024 and will continue celebrating various cultural languages, art forms, cultural stories around themes of the main project.
Special focus will be on intergenerational talks with Senior members (grandparents).
Updates:
A few grandparents and their grandkids met casually on the occasion of 15 August 2024 and celebrated the special day singing songs and poems and discussing historical events.
Below are selected audio excerpts of songs.
We are Thankful to Jayadevi, Sowmya, Mili, Aditi for bringing their kids/ parents for this casual meet and adding fun to the informal celebration.
The talks below are excerpts of Moms day virtual meet with SOI Grandmoms who were part of past SOI events.
Events below are archived for reference, some links might be outdated.
Spirit of India 2022
Fabrics of India on The Silk Road
Fabrics of India on The Silk Road
Spirit of India 2022- on its 75th Independence Day, is celebrating the traditional Fabrics, not just of India but from all its friendly regions along the ancient Silk Route.
We are thankful to Dr. Sowmya Anand and Dr. Sang Lee for their help and support with SOI 2022 events. We are grateful to Asian American Cultural Center for their collaboration and for hosting ‘Fabrics of India on the Silk Road’ exhibit.
These events are part of E2E2Re project.
A Fabric and Textiles Exhibit is on from 15 August to 30 September at Asian American Cultural Center. The center has planned an open house on 1 September, all students, staff and community are welcomed! Virtual meets are in planning following the the main online event on 15 August on zoom.
UPDATES- Thankyou to all the virtual event Guests- Ms. Kalika Kekkar, Mrs Linda Thiele, Mrs Mohan Tracy, Ms Chong-Hwey Fee, Ms Alice Sinzato, and Special Thanks to our Co-Host- Dr. Sowmya Anand.
We are thankful to our guest exhibitors: Ms Shilpa Deshpande, Mrs. Padma Dudihalli, Ms Zoila Lagos, Mrs Nandini Topudurti, Twice Is a Nice Thrift Shop. Special thanks to Ms Sang Lee for all the support and cooperation with the Exhibit.
The Exhibition comprised of not just Traditional/ Cultural Textiles but also included Art with Fabrics, functional items, Contemporary designs all around the use of Fabrics.
Find the virtual meet talks here, about the Guests in their Bios below, some exhibit samples on this page
The aim of undertaking this project is to highlight our Rich Artistic Textile Culture and look at the sustainable aspects of traditional Fabrics. These Fabrics used natural resources and were woven on handlooms, maintaining the health of small local Economies and Ecologies.
Dr. Sowmya Anand - Handmade Fabric Rakhi made from discarded Fabric pieces by daughters- Ishani and Shivani.
Sowmya grew up in India, mainly in Mumbai, and came to the United States in 1991 to start a Masters/PhD program in Social Psychology at The Ohio State University (OSU). She returned to India after that and came back to the US in 2001, when her spouse started his PhD program.
Since she graduated Sowmya has worked in both academia and industry- she has worked for The Gallup Organization, at the Survey Research Laboratory at UIC, and is now in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at UIUC; she has taught statistics, research methods and social psychology courses at Sydenham College of Management, SP Jain College of Global Management, OSU and UIUC. She and her family have resided in Champaign-Urbana for 16 years now. They love the diverse and friendly community in which they are embedded and are very grateful to be part of it. She engages with the community in various ways, including through the weekly and informal Hindi language classes that she co-leads with other parents.
Ms. Shilpa Deshpande.
Graphic rendering of Saree.
Shilpa is an established user experience designer, and multimedia artist working in San Francisco.
Shilpa was born and raised in Mumbai, and her journey in design explores a wide range of design disciplines like graphic design, print work and digital experiences. Along with being a Sketchnote artist, she also loves to work on various mediums such as watercolors and ink and enjoys studying more about the different folk arts of India.
Besides her work with the pen and the brush, Shilpa is an accomplished Indian classical Bharat Natyam dancer. Under the guidance of her guru, Shilpa and her daughter have been an integral part of several dance productions for many years.
She loves addressing the fundamental everyday needs that people have with creative (and sometimes even magical) solutions. Her mantra is to “always find something interesting and motivating to express yourself”. She truly believes that one's ownership of a project can itself be a great motivation to accomplish outstanding work.
Ms. Alice Yumi Sinzato -
Kimono and Clothing designs influenced by Japanese traditions.
Alice is a Brazilian artist based in Urbana. She works in a variety of media, from sculptures and clothing to colleges, drawings and paintings. Alice explores themes of aesthetics, culture and identity, body and space. In her work, Alice combines her Brazilian identity with her Japanese heritage, developing her own artistic sensibility through the combination of these two cultures
Mrs. Mohan Kaur Tracy- Refurbish Fabric Family Fan.
Mohan was born and grew up in Malaysia. She has a B.A. in History from the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and an M.A., also in History, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1967, she married David Tracy, a Peace Corps volunteer, and moved to the United States. She has worked as a middle school and high school teacher in Malaysia and England. In the United States, she worked at the University Library in Madison, Wisconsin, and was manager of a travel agency in Connecticut, which later prompted her to open her own travel business.
She and David decided to move to Champaign in 2012 to be closer to their son and his family. In Champaign, she discovered the joy of fabric art quilting. The versatility of fabric amazed her for its ability to portray aspects of life, color and design in myriad ways. She has participated in various exhibitions showing her fabric art enhanced with quilting, embroidery and paint. She was one of the 12 artists chosen to display her Kite mobile sculpture, “Waiting to Fly”, in the 2021 ARTdoors program.
Ms. Kalika Kekkar “Sarees – Stories in Six Yards
is a seasoned technology executive with over two decades of experience in leading teams, building innovative data solutions for enterprises as well as startups.
She grew up in Mumbai, India and currently lives in Silicon Valley Bay Area, California, USA. She is a director of data organization at a digital healthcare startup, OmadaHealth and previously has led similar roles at Disney, Walmart eCommerce. .Kalika loves to interact with people and draws inspiration from listening to their life stories. She is passionate about giving back, and contributes by mentoring others, sharing her own journey into technology companies and actively championing programs to increase the diversity in the Tech community. Past several years, Kalika Kekkar has been writing about sarees, a six yard fabric. Through storytelling and extensive research, she now has over eighty five distinct sarees shared in her published blogs Her work has also been published in a few Indian-Americans magazines. This coffee table book, “Sarees – Stories in Six Yards” is her maiden attempt to share a loving portrait of twenty-one exquisite sarees from across India in stories illustrated through the author's personal life. These stories are accompanied by beautifully colored visuals showcasing the distinctive features in each exquisite Saree. “Sarees – Stories in Six Yards”
Mrs. Linda Thiele - Embroidery designs by Mrs Thiele’s Family,
Mrs Thiele is a 4-H leader for 32 years now. She grew up on a farm in Northwest Kansas. She was a member of the Wise Old Owl 4-H Club for 10 years. After graduating from Colby Community College, she lived in the Clovia-4-H Scholarship House and worked in The Vet Med Library while getting her degree from Kansas State University. She used skills learned in 4-H living in North Carolina, California, Iowa, and Illinois. She ran a Daycare, worked & taught sewing in a fabric store, volunteered and substituted in schools (libraries), input the Central High School Library books into the Lincoln Trails Library System, taught Writing to Read and the computer lab at Garden Hills, and retired from Champaign Unit 4 Schools Student Records. Created & taught VBS crafts for 20 years. In the 31 years as a 4-H Leader, she has seen many 4-H members use their creativity and life skills from 4-H in their careers
Twice Is a Nice Thrift Shop- 607 West Elm Street, Urbana. https://firstpresurbana.org/twice-is-nice-thrift-shop/
This Qi Pao traditional kids dress is lent for the exhibition.
Our mission to the community is three-fold::
- Caring for the Earth by reusing and recycling.
- Community Support through financial gifts to local non-profits.
- Neighborhood Revitalization by maintenance and upkeep of a local historical home.
The shop is owned by First Presbyterian Church of Urbana, and staffed by volunteers.
We have an ever-changing selection of clean, usable clothing,housewares, decorative, toys, games, linens, electronics, books and more.
SOI 2022 is part of ongoing
Mrs. Padma Dudihalli -
Dharrvad Embroidery on Silk Saree. Hand embroidered Silk saree is made by my grandmother, Beautiful delicate motifs including elephants and flowers adorn the entire 5 yards including border and the 'pallu'. A number of her friends and family have had the opportunity to adorn her sarees and can feel her love through her work. She was certainly the matriarch who passed down her love for sewing and embroidery to her daughter and her granddaughters.
- Submitted by Mrs. Neha P. Gothe (daughter of Mrs. Sandhya Gothe and granddaughter of Mrs. Padma Dudihalli). Neha is an Associate Professor at University of Illinois and enjoys sewing, knitting and embroidery in her free time.
Traditional woven Saree- Pochampalli. Lent by Srimati Nandini Topudurti.
Ms Chong-Hwey Fee -
Chong-Hwey is a U of I alumna and started her family in Champaign-Urbana twin cities before moving to the southwest. She was born and raised in Taiwan, Republic of China. During her college years. she was awarded Outstanding Young Woman of Chinese Culture, Arts, and Talents by International Rotary. She is passionate about Chinese arts.
She began her career with Champaign School District, then moved on to Parkland College. She has worked at the U of I Undergraduate Admissions, University of California, Merced, graduate Division, and now helping the faculty develop proposals to pursue grants at New Mexico State University. She has been appointed an Assistant Professor by Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. In that capacity, she trained military students to perform Dragon Dance for the institution and for the city of Pacific Grove. She became well known for her volunteer works, During her tenure at Champaign Schools, she was offered an opportunity for professional training titled "Respecting Ethnic And Cultural Heritage -REACH) and became a diversity trainer. The training prepared her to be more understanding, accepting, and appreciating other cultures.
SOI 2022- ‘Fabrics of India on The Silk Road’
The aim of undertaking this project is to highlight our rich artistic culture and look at the sustainable aspects of traditional Fabrics. These Fabrics were totally made from natural resources and woven on handlooms, maintaining the health of small local Economies and Ecologies.
Today’s Globalised world might not be able to contain the past systems of Textile making, we might not have time for the intrinsic details and flavors that handmade handwoven fabrics carried, but should we Rethink Clothing? Fast Fashion? Is there a need for Circular Fashion? What is the real cost of a T-Shirt worth a dollar. Lets discuss the impact of our clothing, traditional and modern, during our fun events to follow through the month. While doing so, let’s celebrate our traditional Fabrics in all its glorious forms!
