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Celebrating
India’s 61st Independence Day in San Fernando Valley, California,
on Aug.16, 2008
Los Angeles, Aug. 16, 2008
Gary Singh/ Raman Chadha/Inder Singh
The Indian Association of Los Angeles
held India Independence Day on Saturday August 16th, 2008 in Pierce
College in Woodland Hills. This was a ninth annual event in the
San Fernando Valley. It was a very successful event, attended
by over 10,000 people. Activities included free health fair, cultural
dance show, and food and vending booths. There were more than
80 booths of Indian food, Indian clothing, jewelry and many more.
Kids were having fun on the 50-foot slides while parents were
enjoying delicious Indian food. Cultural show lasted for 4 hours
with amazing performances of different community artists.
U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman, LA
County Sheriff Leroy D Baca, LA City Council Member Wendy Greuel,
Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu and Mr Dubey representative of
Consulate General of India attended the event. Congressman Brad
Sherman presented IALA president with a US flag that flown over
White House in Washington D.C. Inder Singh, co-founder of India
Association of Los Angeles was honored by a Lifetime Achievement
Award for is outstanding services to the Indian community.
IALA president Raman Chadha said
that success of this event goes to all our hard working committee
members and volunteers who made this evening possible. He also
said that he would also like to thank our sponsors for their support,
financial and otherwise, it would not have possible to weave together
such a grand event. Some of the sponsors include Kumar Jawa of
India Sweets & Spices, Jack Khangura, Gurdarshan Nat, Satish
Tomar of Kumar Tax, TV Asia, Harbhajan Samra of Samra Produce,
Paul Pallan of Talent International, Mr Bawa Multani, Dr Sanjeev
Jain, Bob Virk of One Stop, Mukhtiar Kamboj, Mr Mohinder Johal,
Mrs Satinder Johal & Mr Gurdarshan Singh & Mrs Amarjit
Kaur, TV Asia, Malkit Singh & Iqbal Samra of India Sweets
& Spices, Northridge & Raaga Restaurant, Dinesh Lakhanpal
and Yogi Rajp.
Special Thanks to Ajay Gupta, Navdeep Singh, Nina Dhillon, Payal
Pancholi, Payal Saxena, Rajesh Saini, Sati Singh, Simar Gulati,
Sudeep Singla, Surinder Bhatia, Vandana Kumar, Yogi Rajp, FIA
of Southern California Chairman Prakash Pancholi & President
Dilip Butani and FIA of Los Angeles Chairman Amrit Bhandari &
President Mohan Sharma
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Happy
Independence Day
Continuing a Tradition: Celebrating India’s
Independence in San Fernando Valley
Click-->By
Inder Singh
India Independence Day celebration in the San Fernando Valley was
started on a grand scale in 2000. Since then, volunteers of the
India Association have been organizing India Independence Day celebration
every year. The dedication, hard work and commitment of these volunteers
and support of some equally committed sponsors, have made the annual
event a welcome tradition.
The population of Indian American community in the San Fernando
Valley and the neighboring areas during the last thirty years has
more than quadrupled. The Valley and the neighboring areas provide
home to over 50,000 people of Indian Origin. The Valley has six
temples, many Indian grocery stores, numerous restaurants, and other
Indian American businesses serving the community. However, there
was no non-religious event which could appeal to the entire community
and bring them on one platform and under one flag.
In May 2000, Inder Singh and Kumar Jawa of India Sweets & Spices
convened a meeting of some fellow Valley residents and formed Festival
of India Committee for the celebration of India's Independence Day.
The committee which spearheaded the first celebration, comprised
of Inder Singh(Chair), Kumar Jawa, Krishna Iyer, Dinesh Lakhanpal,
Maitrayee Ghosh, Harshi Gill and Poonam Sharma. Besides the executive
committee, a band of dedicated and committed volunteers including
committee chairs, Dr. Bama Sridhar, Gurdip S. Saran, Mohini Lata
Kumar, the late Karamjit S. Grover, Rajesh P. Singh, Avtar Chadda,
Mitra Sen Singhal, Rajesh Saini and over 25 co-chairs formed the
working committee.
I have been working with the community for many years and have come
to believe that an individual howsoever brilliant, intelligent,
experienced and hardworking, would find it difficult, if not impossible,
to match the collaborative efforts of a cohesive team. I was very
fortunate to have found such a group of committed individuals in
the Festival of India Committee. I was also lucky to get the cooperation,
help and support of Dr. Parvin Syal, Dr. S. K. Mishra, and Kanaiya
Mahendra, Valley residents and past presidents of the Federation
of Indian American Associations, the apex body that has been organizing
similar events in Southern California. All of them willingly became
part of the committee and used their experience and expertise for
the success of the event.
After visiting numerous possible sites for the celebration of India
Independence Day, Pierce College, Woodland Hills was considered
to offer the best facility. It could accommodate about seventy booths,
over 10,000 people, had shade trees to sit under during daytime
and a parking lot for over 2000 cars. The site, although part of
the West Valley, was considered to be the best central place to
attract the Indian American residents of San Fernando Valley, Ventura
county(Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, etc), and West and North Los
Angeles county. The committee decided to hold the celebration on
August 19, 2000, in Pierce College.
The organization of an event of this magnitude requires leadership,
dedication and commitment. I, fortunately, found many devoted volunteers
who spent countless hours with me in planning and organizing the
Festival. In fact, the enthusiasm of the committee members was beyond
belief. Some of them gave preference to the festival related work
over their business and family calling. After becoming confident
of the human resource, we needed another major element for the success
of the event, money. Here again, we found owners of two businesses,
eIndia.com (thanks to Kumar Jawa and Amy Ghosh) and Prime Time Shuttle
(thanks to Rajesh Pal Singh) who were very generous in their sponsorship.
These two sponsorships were however not enough to cover the expenses
of the event. So, many members of the committee, as a group visited
prospective donors to raise funds for the celebration. Some committee
members, Kumar Jawa, Dinesh Lakhanpal, Gurdip Saran, the late Karamjit
S. Grover, Harbhajan Samara and Pradip Choksi were also generous
with their own contributions. The enthusiasm, the hard work and
the missionary zeal of the organizing team paid off when over 10,000
people came to attend the Valley’s very own celebration of
India Independence Day.
The festival organizing committee wanted large attendance at their
maiden attempt. Gurdip Saran volunteered to organize a publicity
group and distributed thousands of flyers. All the three Indian
Weekly newspapers, India West, India Journal and India Post carried
full page advertisements for many weeks. India Journal even published
a Valley Independence Day Supplement highlighting the Valley Indian
American community and also highlighted the achievements of the
first and then the only Indian American U.S. Congressman, late Dalip
S. Saund of California. The Journal also pointed out that although
Indian Americans have infiltrated virtually every field of business,
profession and expertise, the time has come to share the bastion
of political power. Indian Americans have to manifest their talent
in the corridors of Capitol Hill by electing one or more of their
own who can identify their Indian heritage.
The main theme for the organization of the festival was the celebration
of India Independence Day. At the same time, we wanted to promote
India’s culture and Valley’s Indian American businesses
and also ensure that all the participants have the feeling of “Bharat
Darshan”. Mohini Lata Kumar put together non stop cultural
program showcasing India’s rich heritage of classical dances,
the new wave of film song-and-dance and ever popular folk dances,
such as Bhangra and Gidha. Some restaurant owners and a few individuals
rented booths and delighted visitors with mouth watering dishes
from all parts of India. Boutique shops demonstrated the latest
design in women apparel and probably made a large volume of sales
besides advertising their existence in the valley to thousands who
stopped at their booth. Some other businesses, insurance and travel
agencies, rented booths to put themselves in front of the prospective
valley customers, a great way to advertise.
The Indian American community has a large number of highly qualified
physicians. Dr. Shri Kant Mishra and Dr. Bama Siridhar representing
the Tri-Valley medical Association brought volunteer physicians
and nurses and organized a Health Fair and also conducted health
seminars. Mrs. Deepi Singh offered her nutrition expertise for weight
loss, cholesterol reduction and diabetes management using Indian
foods.
The American elected officials and the media added to the respectability
of the celebrations. The function was inaugurated by Mike Antonovich,
LA County Supervisor, representing the North Valley. Coincidentally,
Mike inaugurated the first India Independence Day celebration in
1981 at the County Civic Center Mall. American media, Los Angeles
Times, Daily News and two major T.V. Networks covered the event.
In the evening, Congressman Howard Berman addressed the large gathering.
Standing next to the congressman on the stage and seeing thousands
of people, the organizing committee members could hardly contain
their happiness at the success of their effort.
The large number of Indian Americans who came to attend the Mela
and the enthusiasm they displayed at the first such event in the
Valley encouraged the organizers to plan additional similar functions.
In January, 2001 India’s Republic Day was celebrated with
a gala banquet.
In 2001, Mahesh Parekh headed the celebration committee while Anna
Ghosh took over the responsibility in 2002. She had to move the
event site from Pierce College to Cal State University campus in
Northridge where Raman Chadha, a student leader played a pivotal
role. Gurdip Saran successfully organized the event in 2003 while
Surjit Bassi took the leadership role in 2004. The co-founder of
the association, Kumar Jawa became president and made the event
remarkably successful during the two years of his stewardship. In
2007, Nirmal Jain took the event back to Pierce College. This year,
the event will again be organized in Pierce College under the dynamic
leadership of Raman Chadha. He has been making every effort to motivate
volunteers and sponsors for another memorable celebration of India’s
Independence Day on August 16, 2008. While a few members from the
original team, continue to provide experienced help, many new volunteers
have taken over the key roles and have been working enthusiastically.
Federation of Indian Associations has also joined hands to fully
support the event.
The participation of the community in many activities that have
been organized since the first celebration of India Independence
Day in August, 2000 clearly demonstrates that the community continues
to appreciate the efforts of volunteers of India Association of
San Fernando Valley who willingly devote countless hours to organize
the events and thus maintain the annual tradition. Looking back,
I can say that the once sleeping San Fernando Valley has become
a regional center for the Indian American community activities.
Inder Singh cofounded the India Association of Los Angeles (San
Fernando Valley). He is currently President of Global Organization
of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), an international body of NRIs/PIOs
and chairman of Indian American Heritage Foundation which has been
giving awards to high school graduates for the last 22 years. He
was NFIA president from 1988-92 and chairman from 1992-96. He was
founding president (1981-84) of the Federation of Indian Associations
(FIA) of Southern California. He can be reached by email at indersingh-usa@hotmail.com.
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