Alisha and Isha Shah have been preparing for this moment for over half of their lives. After years of rigorous training, beginning at age 7, the 15-year-old twins’ hard work will reach a crescendo Saturday, July 30, when they perform India’s 2,000-year-old classical dance Bharatanatyam in a ceremony called Arangetram. The Eden Prairie High School sophomores are ready for their public performance debut. To make the occasion even more memorable, they will perform in the presence of their guru, Smt. Padmaja Dharnipragada, who owns Nrityalaya Dance Academy in the Twin Cities. She has been teaching the art for 25 years.…
Author: Vijay B. Dixit
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Vijay B. Dixit
Vijay Dixit Vijay Dixit left his professional career to champion distraction-free driving after a distracted driver killed his 19-year-old daughter, Shreya, on Nov. 1, 2007. Vijay and his wife Rekha, with their surviving daughter Nayha, established the Shreya R. Dixit Memorial Foundation www.shreyadixit.org with the mission to transform the driving culture. The charity works with individuals, businesses, and communities in making distraction-free driving part of a healthy lifestyle. Vijay has been recognized by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for his work in education and has also authored “One Split Second,” a book about the epidemic of distracted driving – how it kills and how we can fix it. He has written many commentaries on the subject of distracted driving.
A celebration is underway at the newly expanded AAA Minneapolis branch in Eden Prairie, located across from the Hennepin County Library. What used to be just a small travel office is now three times bigger. It offers a majority of AAA services Eden Prairie residents found before only at its St. Louis Park headquarters. The re-opened facility at 561 Prairie Center Drive now has a larger retail area with more travel and insurance people. In addition, there is an area designated for hosting events associated with travel and other activities. The site offers senior driving and novice driver-ed classes. It can…
It was June 29, 2007. Spring had paved the way for summer, prompting nature enthusiasts to rush to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska. After hibernating for months during the Minnesota winter, buds sprouted across the arboretum’s expansive 1,200 acres. Vibrant tulip blooms under the bright sun greeted the excited visitors. Two time zones to the west, on June 29, 2007, the first-generation iPhone sprouted on the arboretum of technology. It seeded hundreds of new businesses and products that owe their existence to Apple. The revolution Steve Jobs envisioned continues to evolve. He saw in the iPhone not a device to…
National Distracted Driving Awareness month observances took place in April. In its crash facts, the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) noted the fatality count in 2021 to be the highest since 2007, when we lost 510 in Minnesota. As of May 10, the state has already counted 94 traffic deaths. In 2009, Ray LaHood, then U.S. secretary of transportation, likened distracted driving behavior to “an epidemic.” This epidemic is not confined to the U.S. This problem is not confined to Minnesota. Distracted and unsafe driving behaviors are prevalent the world over. Advocacy groups are struggling to combat this epidemic in many…
Megan Maynor’s passion for writing books for children has been with her since childhood. Maynor graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 1992, earned a degree in communications and journalism from the University of St. Thomas, and started to work full-time in advertising. Book writing continued, but only as a side project. Her priorities shifted right after her first two children entered her life. That worked very well for her — to be at home with little children and write picture books. What followed was a long journey. It took 10 years to get Maynor’s first book, “Ella and Penguin…
Rima Parikh is passionate about science. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Eden Prairie resident opened The Thinking Spot, a community bookstore in Wayzata with the mission to promote STEM learning in the broader society. The acronym STEM represents Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math as a single building block for delivering quality education in schools.Her bookstore maintains an extensive collection of 5,000 STEM-focused books for all ages. Born amid COVID headwindsOpening a bookstore was always at the very top in Parikh’s post-retirement bucket list. When COVID hit, she asked herself, “Why wait? If I want to do something, do it now.”…
With two months still left in 2021, Minnesota has reported 415 traffic fatalities as of Nov. 4. In contrast, the exact count for all of 2020 was 394. According to preliminary data from the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety, speeding, distracted driving, drunken driving, and unbelted driving account for more than 65% of road fatalities in the state. During a recent conversation with Eden Prairie Local News, Mike Hanson, director of the Office of Public Safety, wonders what the end of the year will bring. He is worried. “When you start to project that kind of numbers, I just don’t…
Hinduism is one of the oldest religions practiced by more than 1.15 billion people across the globe, reports the World Population Review database. Unlike other religions, Hinduism has no single founder. The guiding principles of the Hindu way of life are enshrined in the Vedas. They include sacred hymns in Sanskrit presented in four collections: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda. Ancient saints and sages received these revelations over millennia. They preserved and passed on the knowledge of Vedas through chants in the Gurukul tradition, an education system built on a unique form of teacher/student bonding. Yoga, Vedic astrology, astronomy, Ayurveda…
Innovation and entrepreneurship are not new to Eden Prairie High School (EPHS). The school’s business and marketing curriculum aims to prepare students for a smooth transition into business schools. They expect students to leave EPHS equipped with a solid foundation of business and marketing skills with the ability to sharpen them as they climb up the learning ladder. Successful programs such as DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) have been running for several years at EPHS, engaging sophomore to senior-level students in activity-based skill development. Now a new curriculum is cooking on the front burner at EPHS. The head chef…
Neha Kapil doesn’t remember a single moment or event that triggered her interest in becoming an artist. “It was always in the cards for me – my calling,” she said. Kapil graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 2011. Today, she is a professional artist and fashion designer who founded AgniStyle, based in Los Angeles, Calif.On Sept. 17, she comes home to display her work in the Twin Cities with a solo exhibit, “Renaissance: South Asian Storytelling through Contemporary Art.” Kapil visited Minnesota recently to plan her event. She talked to EPLN, discussing what inspired her to choose art for…