A Show Of Unity And Generosity

By Kaaren Valenta

Pushpa Kapur and her husband, Naveen, were in Spain when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11. But once the couple returned to Newtown 10 days later, they wasted no time organizing the area’s Indian community to donate to the disaster fund.

The Kapurs have collected more than $70,000, which they will present to Governor John Rowland this month.

“What happened on September 11 was just devastating – the most horrific thing to have happened,” Mrs Kapur said. “We knew we had to do something.”

First they invited some friends, business owners and doctors, to a small party at their home. The six couples contributed nearly $50,000.

“That was how it started,” Naveen Kapur said.

Then an artists’ group took up a collection, and the Hindu Temple in Middletown raised more than $20,000.

“We were very pleased with the generosity,” Mr Kapur said. “Many of the people we asked had already given to the various disaster funds, but they gave again.”

“We were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was – we didn’t have to push for donations,” Mrs Kapur said. “This shows that there is a tremendous amount of unity in the United States right now.”

The unity is remarkable, the couple said, because India is composed of many different cultures.

“India is like the United States or Europe,” Mr Kapur said. “There are so many states, so many different languages. Each state was like a separate country before they were united.”

“This is one time everyone put aside their differences and came together,” Pushpa Kapur said.

Among the thousands of victims were many from more than 60 countries around the world.

“There were 200 Indians that died in the World Trade Center,” Mr Kapur said. “They worked for different companies. Some were here on a contract basis as software engineers and weren’t covered by insurance.”

Some of the money donated will go to the American Red Cross but most will go to the World Trade Center relief fund because it has fewer administrative costs, the couple said.

The Kapurs also have joined with their neighbors on Kent Road to plan other relief efforts.

“There was overwhelming support in the neighborhood to do something,” Pushpa said. “We decided to assemble food baskets for the families of those who lost firefighters. Three or four of us will drive the baskets to New York.”

Naveen Kapur is the owner of N.K. Engineers, a Monroe-based company that designs small independently-owned power plants. His wife opened the Lamp Crafters on South Main Street in Newtown 16 years ago; she sold the business last year. The Kapurs have two children, Kavita, 24, who heads the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University, and Nick, 22, a recent graduate of Emory University who is working for the financial company owned by Ted Kennedy, Jr.