KOA Achievement Awards 2009
Aditi Jalla | Isha Kaul | Rudra Koul
Aditi Jalla is a senior at Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City, OK, and is the daughter of Karuna and Nirmal Jalla. Aditi has been the 2nd Vice President of her school’s Key Club for two years; is the president of Mu Alpha Theta; and was a committee chair for the 2007 Oklahoma Association of Student Councils (OASC) State Convention. Her volunteer activities include the Oklahoma Brain Tumor Foundation, Food Bank, and Habitat for Humanity. Her favorite place to volunteer, however, is at the OU Children’s Hospital, where she has spent three summers and a total of 300 hours helping the patients and their families. Aditi’s honors and awards include Siloam Masonic Lodge “Student of Today”, Official Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Junior Scientist, AP Scholar with Honor, National Merit Scholar, Oklahoma Academic All-State Scholar, and Valedictorian. Aditi will major in psychology at the University of Oklahoma in the fall and is planning to become a pediatrician. She has a weighted GPA of 4.5 (4.0 unweighted), an ACT score of 33, and an SAT score of 2210.
Following is the essay that Aditi wrote to become an awardee:
Although I am a seventeen and have lived in America for most of my life, I have not shunned my Kashmiri heritage. Indeed, each year my family and I celebrate many Hindu holidays and observe the proper Kashmiri rituals to go along with them. We are isolated from our neighbors and even other Indians in this respect, but by preserving these traditions, I feel that I am linked with not only my immediate family, but also my other relatives and with the Kashmiri people scattered across the world.
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated Herat, or Shivratri, the marriage of Lord Shiva and Parvati. This is the third year I have kept the fast, and I enjoy it very much. We went to the temple the previous day for the pooja they had there. On the evening of Herat, we did the Vatak- pooza, with containers of different sizes decorated with flowers and tika and filled with water and walnuts. We prayed for peace and prosperity for all. After the pooja we broke the fast with walnuts and rice rotis. A few days later, we performed the finishing pooja, removing the walnuts from the containers.Coming soon is Navreh, the lunar New Year. The day before, we fill a thali with uncooked rice and place items on it such as pens, pencils, books, money, prayer books, flowers, curds, cooked rice, almonds, and pictures of gods. We cover the thali with a cloth, opening it the next day to touch each item with respect, praying for blessings in knowledge, wealth, and food. We make the rice into tuhur and bring in the new year with a fresh start.
In the summer, we celebrate Janamashtami, Lord Krishna’s birthday. At midnight we cut fruit for prashaad, do aarti, and go outside to look at the moon. In the late summer, we celebrate Punn, worshipping Lord Ganesha. In the morning, my parents make many roths and keep a pot with water and milk symbolizing Ganesh. We keep some grass and grains of rice in our hands while my mom or dad tells the story of a king and queen and how Ganesh takes away the miseries of life if one makes roths with true devotion and prayer. After the story, we do some aartis and place the grass and rice in the pot. We distribute many of the roths to family and friends. In the fall, we celebrate Diwali, the return of Ram and Sita from exile by making puris and ladoos and doing poojas in the evening. In the winter, we celebrate Khichdi Mavas. In the evening, we keep a pestle in a thali and pour water over it. My mom makes khichdi and keeps it in another thali. We do some aartis and keep them both outside.
In addition to these annual holidays, we also celebrate monthly ones such as Ashtami, Poornima, and Sankat Chaturti. Starting this year, I have begun to fast during days of Sankat Chaturti. In addition to “English” birthdays, we also celebrate our “Kashmiri” birthdays based on horoscopes. On these days, my mom cooks dum aloo, chaman, and many other delicious foods, including tuhur. On all of these days, we do not eat any non-vegetarian food, eggs, onions, garlic or even tomatoes.
I have never been to Kashmir, although it’s one of my goals for the future. In the meantime, my parents keep the traditions of