Lokvani is delighted to present the last set of community unsung heroes to be honored at the 3rd Annual Lokvani Community and Youth Night to be held on Dec. 7, 2019 at Ambrosia Banquet Hall in Foxborough, MA. Ravi Arora,  Raksha Soni,  Budhinath Padhy and Kunjavihari Kashalikar are being recognized for their tireless support of community work. We humbly salute their work. In addition to honoring the heroes, the evening features great entertainment, a lovely feast and DJ dancing. Buy your tickets for the heroes night. Come celebrate the holidays with us!

Budhinath Padhy

Dr. Budhinath Padhy is one of the core founders of the Odisha Society of New England (OSNE). He has been a dedicated OSNE volunteer for all these years. In 1999, Dr. Budhinath Padhy took the responsibility and became the president of OSNE. Under his leadership, the society grew tremendously and had record breaking attendance in every program that was conducted. In addition to regular Ganjesh Puja, Saraswati Puja, Kumar Purnima and a picnic, he introduced Holi Utsav in 2001 which was celebrated for several years. His leadership and organizational skills, along with great relationships with the members of the OSNE made him the three times president of the society.  During his presidency, OSNE celebrated the very successful Silver Jubilee Anniversary event with the presence of other OSNE founders and many dignitaries. Three years ago, in 2016, when our society OSNE hosted the Odisha Society of Americas (OSA)’s 47th annual convention for the first time, he was very instrumental in advising for the smooth and successful execution of the event. Apart from implementing the Odisha Society of New England’s mission of preserving, promoting and propagating Odisha culture, tradition and Odiya language, when natural disasters struck, he has mobilized the Odisha society for fund raising to provide reliefs to the victims of Odisha super cyclone 1999 and Gujarat earthquake of 2001. 

In addition to the contributing to the OSNE, during the years of 1996-2018, Dr. Budhinath Padhy had served as a General Secretary, Vice President, member of Board of Trustees, and the chair of the Nominating Committee of the India Society of Worcester (ISW). He also serves as a Commissioner in the Industrial Development Commission (IDC) board of the town of Northborough, MA.

In his professional life, Dr. Padhy started his academic career in India. After coming to USA and working in the industry for about two decades, he returned to his academic career. Because of his passion in Math, he founded Math Master, a Test Preparation Service center with a mission to train students to excel in Math/Science. Under his mentorship, he had changed the lives of hundreds of college bound students who had been admitted to top colleges and universities around New England and in USA. After teaching at many universities in USA, Dr. Padhy is currently a Visiting assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. He lives in Northborough, MA with his wife Dr. Kalyani Padhy who has also equally contributed to the success of OSNE. Mrs. Padhy is also a Mathematician, tutors Math/Science and volunteers at Northborough Junior Women’s club and. Their daughter Bijayalaxmi and son Vivek, (both Mathematicians) live in Austin, Texas and Windsor, CT respectively. Dr. Budhinath Padhy, is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY.

Kunjavihari Kashalikar is associated with VHPA. He has been helping with the Hindu Heritage Day for many many years in different capacities. For the past few years, he has been coordinating the cultural program. 

Kunjavihari has coached soccer and basketball, and taught chess for the town recreation program. He has volunteered and taught at Southboro Balvihar for more than 10 years, and is also a volunteer for Support A Child. 

Kunjavihari  works for IBM and is currently Data Governance Evangelist, Program Director - Data Governance - WW Development.

He lives in Hudson, MA with his wife Srimani and two kids, Aneesh andAvani.