Community, culture, and giving back
Poorba: Bengali Cultural & Community Services Organization
I serve with Poorba, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Mountain House, California. Founded in 2021 by community members here in San Joaquin County, Poorba was created to build a cultural and social home for Bengalis in the United States, and to work alongside the wider local community regardless of background.
The organization runs two tracks side by side. One is cultural: Durga Puja, Holi, Poila Baishakh, and a calendar of literary, music, and sporting programs that keep the traditions of Bengal and North East India alive for a generation growing up far from them. The other is service: food drives, blood donation drives, school supply collections, toy drives, and household battery disposal drives across the region.
What drew me in is that second track. A cultural organization that only celebrates itself is a social club. One that shows up for the community around it becomes something more useful, and that is the part I try to contribute to.
Aadya: Culture, Devotion, and Community Service
I am also part of Aadya, a community-driven collective of people brought together by a shared love for culture, tradition, and service. Aadya works as a platform where culture, devotion, and community service come together seamlessly, rather than sitting in separate boxes.
The two organizations I give time to share that instinct. Tradition is worth preserving, but it stays alive only when it is put to work for the people around you.
Clothes, shoes, toys, and books for Ray of Hope and HOPE Family Shelters
I helped organize a large donation drive for Team Aadya, collecting new and gently used clothes, shoes, toys, and books for two organizations serving families in crisis in San Joaquin County: Ray of Hope Children's Crisis and Resource Services, and HOPE Family Shelters. The drive ran in collaboration with the American Desi Society.
What made it work was reach. Volunteers came from Manteca, River Islands, Lathrop, Tracy, Modesto, and Stockton to donate, collect, sort, and pack, which is a wider footprint than any of us expected when we started. The unglamorous middle of a drive like this, the sorting and the packing and the box logistics, is where it either succeeds or quietly falls apart.
Second Harvest of the Greater Valley
Poorba partnered with Second Harvest of the Greater Valley, the regional food bank serving San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, for a community food distribution. I worked the distribution line and planned the logistics for the Poorba volunteer team: shift coverage, roles on the day, and the flow of goods from the pallets to the cars coming through.
It is unglamorous work, done early on a cold morning, and it is a useful reminder that most of what matters gets done by people who show up and organize themselves properly.
Running: Sunnyvale Baylands Park
I ran the Spirit of Wipro Run at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in 2023, my first organized race. The Spirit of Wipro Run is held every year across the company's locations worldwide, with proceeds going to community causes, so a few thousand people end up running on the same weekend on different continents for the same reason.
I went in expecting to endure it and came out enjoying it. There is something clarifying about a discipline where the work is entirely your own and the result is entirely honest. It is the same reason I like building things outside of work: nothing to hide behind, and the finish line does not care about your title.
More to come here as the year goes on.