Preetesh Shrivastava is originally from the city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. After his education which includes Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Technology degrees, he joined the Indian software company Infosys Technologies Limited in Pune, India. Since then, he has lived in various Indian cities including Bangalore and Hyderabad. He moved to the US and lived in Phoenix and Seattle before moving to the east coast. He is currently part of relationship management team of Infosys-Fidelity Investments Limited. Preetesh has versatile talents and interests, which include Theater, Music, doing Community work, DJ, Cooking etc.

An artist who Lokvani will recognize at the the Lokvani@10 celebrations on Sept 9 with a for receiving the Spotlight on Excellence in the Amazing Artist category, Srivastav talked to Lokvani about his interests and his vision for the Hindi Manch.

 

What brought you to the Boston area?

I work for the Indian software giant Infosys Technologies Limited and moved to Boston from West Coast as internal transfer to join our another client Fidelity Investment. I am originally from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and have lived in many cities in India and the US before I moved here for work.

 
What motivated you to start the Hindi Manch?

Due to my interest in music, theater and community services, I have worked with many organizations in the New England area since the last 5-6 years. It made me very happy to see that we have various organizations in the area to support various cultures, arts and languages. While I enjoyed working with all of them, 2 years back, I realized that we do not have any active local organization focusing to promote and support the Hindi language in this area. I discussed the idea with the other Founding members of Hindi Manch and with their support started Hindi Manch in January 2010.

 

 Could you give us some highlights of the activities of the Hindi Manch ?

Hindi Manch is a non-profit (501-c-3) organization to bring people who know Hindi or who want to know Hindi together through cultural, social and educational programs and activities and to propagate Hindi language and culture in the future generations. This organization is not related to any caste, religion, region or area and welcomes everyone in the organization. Here the word Hindi is equivalent to ‘Hindi and similar languages and dialects' like Urdu, Bhojpuri, Brij, and the Hindi that we speak in various states etc.

With this objective we do our regular meetings and get-togethers and host a variety of events to bring people together. We keep Hindi as the mode of communication for all these activities and events so that people can enjoy the richness of the language and culture and can use these opportunities to introduce the next generation to them. We have hosted many successful events in the area in last 1.5 year like Hindi Manch SaReGaMaPa 2010 and 2011, Ek Haseen Shaam Hasne-Hasaane Ke Naam, Baal Manch and the Hindi play – Ballabhpur Ki Roopkatha.  The idea is get people involved with the language, which is why we encourage local artistes to perform during these events. Our last program in July, the Hindi Manch SaReGaMaPa was a houseful show with more than 500 people in the audience and people are now excited about our next event , a Hindi Play which we will show in various cities in the New England area in December 2011.

 
How were you able to have so many successful activities in such a short period of time ?

The credit goes to supporters, well-wishers, sponsors and outstanding and creative team of Hindi Manch. Apart from me there are 4 more founding members of Hindi Manch – Mohan Dali, Pradeep Shukla, Shubha Chungi and Chaitanya Godsay (vice-president). We also have 4 directors Jawed Wahid, Anish Khanzode, Saujanya Pangrekar and Meena Sundaram. All these people are famous in the New England area for their skills and dedication for art, culture and community. We have close to 75 committee members and volunteers who are working hard for the great cause. More than 1000 people have joined the organization in one or other way and all these facts together contribute to the success. I think that while people like the objective of the organization, they also like the way we are approaching the objective. Most of the people who join our events or activities stay with us and join the Hindi Manch family.

 You have been selected to receive the Lokvani Spotlight on Excellence in  Amazing Artist category for stand-up comedy and poetry. How did you develop this interest?

Theater has been a hobby since childhood. I performed in a play 3 years back but since then due to my involvement in organizational activities I was not able to find time for acting. When we announced the 'Ek Haseen Shaam, Hasne-Hasaane Ke Naam’ event which was an event of humor and comedy, I thought of a solo acting performance which would be a combination of stand-up comedy and poetry. It was my first attempt in this field and I am very happy that people liked my performance. I am also very thankful to Lokvani who announced the award for me.

You have created this most beautiful tribute to the diversity of Indian Americans in NE. What motivated you to do this?

While I work with many organizations and enjoy the rich Indian culture in the New England area, I realized that many people from Indian origin do not know about many such great organizations and groups. I created this video to increase awareness about these organization and groups in the community and to highlight the richness and diversity of the Indian diaspora in the area. I would like to thank all the organizations and groups who helped me and supported me for the video. My hope is that with more such efforts the Indian-American community of New England will come together and jointly will contribute to the system more significantly. To watch the video please http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfaInG03jcc).

 Any message for our readers?

I have less experience than many of your readers, but wanted to share one learning with them. Many times people ask me how I find the time and energy for such community activities. I think in addition to support from my family, what one needs is to break the mind-block and to get involved in at least one activity that they like most. When we do things of our interest, energy and time come out of nowhere. I am fortunate that I got a chance to work with many community leaders and creative people from the area and with Leadership Team from Infosys, and what I learned from them is that keeping yourself involved in something that you like and which helps the society is a great source of energy.

Thank you for time
 
I thank the Lokvani team for giving me this honor and wish you  the best for your upcoming tenth anniversary celebrations.

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