Jain Center of Greater Boston
Mahavir Jayanti was celebrated in the Boston area on Saturday, April 26th. The celebration was held at the Jain Center of Greater Boston and dinner was served in a hall nearby. As allows, the celebration was a big success. There were over 300 people who attended and they came from all over Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. The attendees ranged in age and overall they had a good time. The program consisted of the traditional boli of the thirthankars' symbols followed by performances by the different pathshala classes. The classes presented items in the form of skits, plays, gameshows, and some even sang. The students did an excellent job that night. Soon after, the program ended having gone from 4 pm to around 8:30 pm and the people headed to eat dinner.

New Jersey: Essex Falls Jain Center
Over the course of the past few months, the New Jersey Jain Center has participated in many events, some more successful than others. After the completion of high school midterms in January, 2003, the youth came together in order to help plan the YJA Mid-Atlantic Conference: Ahimsa Unedited - A look into the most fundamental principle of Jainism. However, as we were trying to grasp our religion by its root, we were surprised to see that many were unable to aid us in helping it flourish. To our dismay, due to the constraints of exams and differently schedule spring breaks, the conference was cancelled. The irregularly cold and winterish month of March drew to a close and Mahavir Jayanti was fast approaching. On April 20, 2003, the Essex Fells Jain Center celebrated the birth of our 24th Tirthankar complete with performances by various Pathshala groups and the annual varghodo (procession). The youth also set up a booth to generate interest in Jaina and the Dharma conferences. Now we are in the process of helping plan a Bhumi Pujan for the temple that is to be built in Franklin Township. On May 18th, 2003, our Jain Center will hold this Bhumi Pujan at the area where the derasar is to be built. Aside from that, we will hold our annual graduation puja in the month of June at Siddhachalam.

Boston University
The Jain Youth Group for BU college students are planning on starting the group in the fall semester of 2003. We need at least 5 people, and we know that we can get a group of 5 people, not including us, to help us found this group. The objective of the group is "To promote the principles of Jainism and raise awareness of non-violence among college students at Boston University." With our group of seven (as of now), we will promote the group's name and hold meetings tentatively twice a month to discuss Jain ideas and fundamentals. We will lead discussions and lectures, but we may ask those who know a lot about a certain aspect of Jainism to lead a meeting once in a while. Because the amount of people expected to show up at a Jain meeting, being as there are respectively very few Jains at Boston University, we probably will not have more than three postitions held: Co-Directors (2) and Secretary (1). For more information about the group or to join, please contact Purvi Shah.

New York University Jain Students Association (JSA)
The Jain Students Association at NYU has had a very busy second semester. The JSA E-Board hosted the hottest South Asian Event on Campus, HOLI 2003: Get Your Rang On!!! The event was at Battery Park, at the end of Manhattan Island on Saturday April 19. The event had several different colleges in attendance that added to the strong NYU turnout with a total of 150 people!!! Throwing gulaal and eating chaat were the many reasons this event was an amazing success. JSA also had a great Mahavir Jayanti program where students heard stories of Lord Mahavir’s life and lessons. There was also a completely Jain friendly snack of Dahi Vadas (no onions, potatoes, …) so that students could enjoy good food and stay Jain at the event. To end such a successful year, the girls of JSA had an End of the Year banquet that was catered by, the now famous, Washington Square Park “Dosa Man”. This is a cart vendor located next to NYU’s campus that makes piping hot dosas and has become quite a craze within the Greenwich Village area. Elections were held at this meeting for the upcoming year, yielding a fresh and very promising E-Board for the 2003-2004 school-year. JSA is hoping to pick up where it has left off come the fall, in the meanwhile, all the members are enjoying the fact the JSA has made a lasting impression on NYU’s campus this year.

Jain Center of America in New York
Mahavir Jayanti, was like every other year, extremely exciting. The stage looked beautiful, and the dances performed were extremely creative. The difference, however, was in the content of the various performances and the theme of the overall program. Many of the performances that I watched this year had one, key motif: that of the various births of Bhagvan Mahavir; I was very surprised and appreciative of the fact that, unlike any other year where the songs were beautiful yet quite random, this year emphasized multiple Jain beliefs through these performances: the beliefs of reincarnation, those of karma; in addition, a bit of history was also narrated, as the dances dictated the scene of Bhagvan Mahavir's diksha, as well as his Nirvana parth.Aside from the performances, Chitrabhanu Maharaj gave a detailed and extremely informative speech of Jainism, here and now, a speech that drew in much of the younger crowd. Overall, Mahavir Jayanti was a tremendous success this year; I was really grateful of how the directors and the dancers put their utmost efforts into interweaving the themes of their dances with an obvious yet creative theme of Bhagvan Mahavir's birth.