The drop-in centre jointly run by Bharatiya Mandir and Shanti Niwas Charitable Trust at Balmoral Community Centre in Sandringham is always buzzing with activities on every Wednesday and Friday of the week.

Seniors gather at the centre to spend a quality time taking part in many activities which include exercise, yoga, meditation, painting, singing and playing games. Many volunteers contribute together to run these programmes successfully and enjoy their time spent at the centre.

The well-known entrepreneur and restaurants owner Shivani Arora is also one the notable volunteers coming to the centre quite regularly for her workshop ‘Chai with Shivani” where she comes to share her own experience of life, in restaurant industry and her secret recipes.

Shivani is a very passionate cook herself and on many occasions has cooked for up to two thousand people single handedly at one of the temple events in Auckland. She also quite generous in bringing snacks and sweets for the seniors whenever she comes to conduct her workshop. The ‘Chai with Shivani’ workshop is a big hit with seniors now and they look forward every week to meet Shivani. During one of such workshops on Wednesday 20th November, around 60 members took part in the event and enjoyed Shivani’s stories and the delicious snacks brought by her. Apna TV was also present at the centre to do the live coverage of the programme.

-TIN Bureau