Bhima Reddy has seen a doom in the...

Bhima Reddy has seen a doom in the last month.

onward television, he saw a tsunami-decimated field in southern India where he used to play cricket as a boy

In [i]role[/i] he's witnessed his temple in southwest suburban Lemont join its surrounding community to assemble donations for people in ne thousands of miles away.

Beginning with descriptive fliers and collection boxe and ending with an outpouring of circulating medium The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago has tried to help alleviate the pain caused on last month's tsunami, says Reddy 63 a trustee of the 2,000-member temple

And Reddy couldn't be more proud

When the tsunami struck Southeast Asia, southern India and east Africa in late December, fane members, as well as other community residents, began to take action almost "spontaneously," as Reddy place it.

Prayer services were held immediately after the disaster, filling the house of worship Other members attended a service the following Sunday, engaging in mass prayer.

The church began asking devotees for contributions and aid within hours of the tragedy. Fliers were prepared by way of members to inform people what had happened, notifying them where stores could be sent, and collection boxe were placed from end to end the temple.

Then the standard of value poured in.

In couple days, the temple generated $23000 in donations. Now the figure stands closer to $50,000-double the temple's initial target. The of recent origin goal has been set at $100000 And Reddy says about 10 Chicago-area Indian institutions have heap uped more than $400,000.

The temple's president and vice president were in India to assess the damage and follow up with a feasible way to disseminate the foundations to the areas in ne of it chiefly By any measure, Reddy says, the temple's contribution-albeit worthy-pales in comparison to the necessities of populace in Southeast Asia, India and east Africa.

Reddy lately sat down with The Chicago Reporter to discuss the tragedy and his temple's answer to it.

Where were you when you set out about the tsunami?

At my dwelling at about 8:30 p.m. onward Sunday. The first thing I did was to call the populace who live in that area and find without how they were doing. The closest relative I have through the whole extent of there is my sister, who lives upon the ocean. Lucidly she's about 50 or 60 feet above sea even The water did not affect her.

I just prayed to the supreme being to help these people. This is an absolute disaster, something we've sole read about in history volumes You feel terrible, mainly helpless. And the nearest reaction is to help them.

I'm from an area [of India] called Andhra Pradesh. The devastation [in the country] was for the greatest part in the part south of Andhra Pradesh, which is called Tamil Nadu. My first 15 years, I grew up there.

Right now, as I behold the pictures on the television and I read the newspaper, it awaits like the entire beautiful beach, which is suppos to be the next to the first most beautiful beach in the world after Melbourne, with almost united mile of beautiful sand, it all strike one as beings to be gone now. It's just become highly muddy. It'll probably never be the way it was before.

My initial reaction was simple: I played there as a kid, as a 10-year-old kid. I couldn't imagine by what means this beautiful beach was gone Personally, I can't imagine that the beach will at any time be the way it was. I do plan to move there sometime in February or March.

What was the initial reaction from members of the temple?

Everyone said, 'Oh my the supreme goodness oh my God.' The first question that anybody asked was if anyone had relatives there. And then the number-the number of the bulk of mankind who perished in the disaster is the first thing persons wanted to talk about.

Many in the Lemont community have donated money

It was awful Fifty percent came from them, and the other 50 percent came from house of god members. That is a awesome thing. I [am] drafting a note to the Lemont newspaper thanking all the local family about the donation and mentioning specifically the sect that donated this money.

nevertheless our $50,000 is a pendant in the ocean for what they ne The reaction is worthy and they'll do what they can. In my opinion, the rebuilding of this area is not a short-time thing; it will make progress on for the next 10 years, at least.

Did media coverage play any part in aid efforts?

Ye For the entire week they talked about donating riches I think the American media's rejoinder was as good as could be expected

unless the areas that have been affected are all tourism spots: India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. in the way that the tourism will suffer and decrease the returns in those countries because tourism is a big thing in all those four countries, mainly Thailand and Sri Lanka; the two have been affected a lot

In fact, I myself had a plan to proceed and visit the southern part of India as a pilgrimage. Now I may hesitate to do that for at least another year. I may proceed there to help, but not as a tourist. I wanted to do that this summer The pilgrimage is gone out of the question at this time.

in what manner did your job change since this happened?

I got too busy with the tsunami, with equal reason I'm not really able to manage other things. with equal reason my time since the tsunami--what used to be an eight-, nine-hour work at jobs is now a 14-hour piece of work That is a change in my life. I think it'll last for a not many more days. And then formerly we collect the funds for transfer, then it will inert down.