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Employee Sidelines...The Fun Stuff |
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Time at the Temple...Uthra Rao, Information Systems Specialist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Library, fills her hours outside of work providing volunteer service at her Hindu temple, the Shiva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland. Twice a month, Uthra staffs the information station in the temple, guiding people to activities and information and selling goodies to support temple activities and programs. Once a month, she and her husband (Ram Mysore) spend the day staffing the temple's kitchen, packaging foods to sell to raise funds for temple. Uthra and Ram participate in the temple's group devotional singings, and Ram does individual devotional singing.
Uthra comes to NASA GSFC by way of India. She grew up in Bangalore in the southern part of the country, obtained her degree in Life Sciences from the local Karnataka State University, and also met and married Ram in Bangalore. After a short stay in Madras, they made their journey to the United States in 1988 when Ram's father, through his employment at the American Consulate, received a letter from President Reagan offering the family special immigration status to honor him for his work at the embassy. Upon arrival in Virginia, Uthra worked briefly at a county library and subsequently moved to Maryland and to NASA GSFC Library, where she has been working in various capacities for the last 14 years. In 2000 she and Ram officially became U.S. citizens. Uthra's husband works as a marketing executive for PDI, a pharmaceutical conglomerate. |
Crafting With Clay... June Crowe, corporate Senior Researcher, has been throwing pots
since the mid 1970s. No, she's not a really angry person, she's
an artist. Currently, June has pottery in two regional shows, the
Asheville (NC) Folk Art Center Festival and the Oak Ridge (TN) "Open
Show" at the Oak Ridge Art Center. Oak Ridge's show is a juried
mixed media exhibition from regional artists. According to Auburn
University's Art Department chair, who was the Juror, pieces that
Today, she specializes in primitive, pit-fired or sagger-fired pottery "because they result in unique patterns of color and smoke and are also very organic, utilizing wood shavings, flowers, twigs, seaweed and manure for both the designs and firing of the pots. ..Much of my work is hand burnished with a stone to produce a natural smooth sheen. The burnishing process is a meditative one and gives me a oneness with the clay." June's passion for the clay has had its influence. Two Oak Ridge
staffers, Emily Medley and Shelaine Curd, have begun taken pottery
courses. Often we can hear the three of them in the hallways talking
excitedly about kilns and clay and glaze! |
A Little Holiday Quiz… |
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Here's a little true/false quiz about holiday celebrations.
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Answers: |
She
also assists with their annual phone-a-thon, providing members with
updated information on temple programs and projects. Each Tuesday
night, Uthra meets with a group to offer special prayers. In the
summer time, she gets involved in helping plan, organize, and staff
their carnival.
were selected for the show were ones "where secrets are revealed
slowly, or contain little surprises that keep the viewer engaged".