Newsletter – November 2023
| It is with pleasure I relinquish the responsibility of the bulk of this communication activity to our Vice-President. Please enjoy the outreach from their family that dominates the content of this newsletter. |
| Vice Presidential Message – Saguna Verma Happy Diwali to my Ohana! This year, November has been a special month, as Indians celebrated the Diwali festival in many ways. For me, Diwali also officially begins the Holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then the New Year. November month is also a reminder that it’s almost the end of the year and it’s time we start planning goals for the next year. Such is life! I hope you all had joyous Diwali celebrations with your friends and families. Beyond preparations, decorations, festivities, sharing loving moments with family and friends, Diwali is an astonishing experience to see life in a fresh light. Continuing the tradition of last >30 years, LOTUS celebrated Diwali ‘Festival of Lights’ on 4th November. It was attended by almost 300 people and included a small cultural program followed by an Indian dinner. A team of dedicated volunteers assisted the Board to make this a successful event. God bless them! This gathering allowed our local community to interact, develop camaraderie, and enjoy the hidden talents of many. We had a wide range of mesmerizing performances from Sanskrit shloka chanting to peppy songs and piano recital to dances of different genre including tap dance, classical Bharatnatyam, folk, and Bollywood. The highlight was a cute fashion show by our kids. The age range of performers was from under 5 yrs to 90 yrs. Isn’t that amazing? The pictures of this event are posted on the LOTUS website. Please take your time to enjoy them. On a solemn note, it was tragic to see wildfires that are otherwise more prevalent in California and other parts of the mainland have reached our backyard. Both Maui and Mililani fire incidents are concerning, and Dr. Sumeet Saksena writes more about them in the Community Corner below. Please do visit the temple on November 19th. Now that the temple premises have been renovated, it is nice to see more and more families join every month. Have a nice Thanksgiving. Enjoy your favorite kind of Thanksgiving meal with your friends and family but also try to include a short nap after eating the Turkey Please take care during the holiday season and be safe. Warm aloha Saguna Vice President |
| COMMUNITY CORNER – Dr. Sumeet Saksena Diwali, firecrackers and wildfires in Hawai’i Those of us who grew up in India, surely associate the thrills and chills of bursting firecrackers as an integral part of Diwali celebrations. Decades ago, there were concerns about the number of burn injuries, so the Indian government stepped in to enforce safety standards. After that complacency set in and people no longer worried about the negative effects of firecrackers till the specter of totally unbreathable toxic air raised its head in the big populous cities of India. Firecrackers are obviously not responsible for the year-round high levels of air pollution and perhaps even on the day of Diwali are not the major source of pollution. But there is no doubt that the firecrackers create the tipping point by changing the status of air quality from very bad to extremely hazardous on the day of Diwali and depending on weather conditions over the next day or two. The acute health effects caused by the additional smoke from firecrackers are especially dangerous for young children, senior citizens, and asthmatics. This has rightly prompted local governments to further regulate firecrackers. Manufacturers have been asked to make only ‘green’ firecrackers that are supposedly less smoky and toxic. Some types of firecrackers have been banned. Citizens have been asked to limit the number and type of firecrackers they use voluntarily, and in some cases, new laws have restricted the periods during which firecrackers can be burst. Data are sparse about whether these measures have had the desired effect, but I was encouraged to hear that many citizen groups are in favor of such measures and that schools are spearheading the movement toward a smoke-free Diwali. A couple of days ago I read in the newspapers that mayors of various counties in Hawai’i, fearing vegetation fires, are requesting citizens to avoid using firecrackers for celebrations. And that is my segue into the tragedy that occurred in Lahaina and even the lesser fires that keep occurring all over the state. It is unlikely that in the near future, a fire as large, fatal, and devastating as that will happen. I am sure that the authorities would be setting up early warning and rapid response systems. People fear for their life and loss of property from large fires, but tend to view smaller fires, such as that which occurred in Mililani Mauka recently, as a mere nuisance. However, I would like to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that even smaller fires create enough toxic smoke to cause the air quality to deteriorate to unacceptable levels as defined by the World Health Organization. Just as with the smoke from Diwali firecrackers, burning wood and grass causes adverse respiratory effects in young children, our kupuna, and asthmatics. Indeed, there were reports (Headline Star Advertiser) that asthmatics living in Mililani found their symptoms to be aggravated. On the fifth day of the Mililani Mauka fire, I conducted a simple experiment. With an air pollution measuring device, I drove from Manoa to Mililani Mauka, then on to Wahiawa, Waialua, and back to Manoa. On the map below you can see the route I took and that around Mililani and even as far as Waialua, the air quality was poor (red). Orange and yellow sections of the route indicate fair to moderately polluted, respectively. Residents of Hawai’i should start taking the air pollution impacts of vegetation fires more seriously. This concern should be added to the list of justifications for the government to invest significantly in controlling fires and nipping the problem in the bud. More importantly, there is a need to set up systems to carefully monitor air quality should there be a fire in the islands and effectively share it with the local ohana. Based on the air quality index, people, especially asthmatics and the elderly should be advised to use an N95 mask (yes, the same one used for COVID), stay indoors, shut their windows, use air conditioners in the air recycling mode, and use portable air purifiers that have a HEPA filter. |
| Temple Activities – November 19th, 2023 Our monthly pooja will start promptly at noon on the 19th. Please join us in person or on Zoom. The link is on our calendar which is available on the website. This month after the pooja, we will have a community pot luck.  |
| November 2023: November 4- LOTUS Diwali Gathering November 10-12- Deepawali Festival November 10- Veterans Day November 19- Waihawa Temple Puja Day November 14- Bhai Duj, Govardhan Puja November 23- Thanksgiving Day |
