Southern California offered tribute to Shri Shivaji Maharaj

On April 3rd, 2018

Los Angeles, April 10, 2018....

Vijay Patil
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh Grewal

Artesia, CA. Shivaji Maharaj America Parivaar (SMAP) offered tribute to the life and legacy of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Members of the organization and local leaders met on Tuesday April 3rd, 2018 at 7:30 pm at Cake Korner Indian Café & Bakery in Artesia, CA to offer tribute to the legendary King on his 338th punyatithi (death anniversary).

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj founded Hindavi Swarajya (a State created by the People for the People) back in seventeenth century. SMAP Foundation nurtures the philosophy of Shri Shivaji Maharaj and promotes the values that he represented. The organization is primarily engaged in spreading the Leadership and Management lessons learned from the Legendary Life of Shri Shivaji Manaraj that can be applied in today’s world.

The program started with a welcome address by Shri Vijay Patil who clarified the goals and objectives of SMAP Foundation. “We’d like to create the kind of leaders in US who will challenge the status quo, who have the courage to fight injustice if/when they see around them, who will support the cause of unity and prosperity and who will believe in helping people who are less fortunate to bring equality” said Mr. Patil. He concluded his remarks by emphasizing the moto of the organization “Let’s Awaken the Spirit of Unity and Commendable Leadership!”. It was followed by a distribution of the ‘Summary of the Objectives’ to the audience.

The organizers and the community leaders then offered flowers and paid tribute to Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj one by one. “SMAP focuses on creating role models, nurturing fearless leadership and promoting the spirit of unity” said Ms. Vasundhara Pawar. She then requested the community leaders to come to the front and say a few words about the occasion. The leaders from many esteemed Indian American organizations including VHP, NFIA, ICS, HSS, UFICA, AHF offered homage and expressed their views. Aparna Hande highlighted her connections with the descendants of Maratha empire and expressed pride in being part of the Shivaji Maharaj America Parivaar.

Shri Vijay Telkikar provided summary of the comments on Shri Shivaji Maharaj by many world leaders including U.S. President Mr. Barak Obama, Swami Vivekanand, Lord Mount Baton and others. Mr. Telkikar mentioned that Netaji Subhash Chanda Bose had once insisted that Indians will need to fight like Shivaji Maharaj to secure iindependence (Swarajya).

Gopal Chaturvedi described Shri Shivaji Maharaj as Great, Heroic, Inspiring Legend and a continued source of Inspiration and Pride for many generations! In his short speech, Shri Anil Mahajan explained how Shivaji Maharaj became an icon of Freedom Fighters in the Indian Independence struggle.

Nitin Deshpande emphasized the need of unity and leadership in Indian American community and energized the audience by concluding his speech by the famous slogan, “Hara Hara Mahadeva!”.

Ajit Dudheker, Sudip Gorakshkar, Ashok Patnaik, Prof. Keshavlal Patel also highlighted the inspiration they have received from the life of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Other community members who were in attendance included Vinod Dudheker, Vijay Kanase, Pritee Patil, Ketan Prajapati, Shubh Prasad, Girish Kandarkar and others.

The event was concluded with vote of thanks and an appeal to get involved in expanding the community of like-minded people who believe in achieving Unity and revering the Commendable Leadership.

This event was organized by P K Nayak, Ajit Dudheker, Vikas Srivastav, Ramesh Ramnani, Dr. Vijay Deokar, Vijay Kanse, Mangesh Raut, Ashutosh Khisti, Milind Nandedkar, Prashant Dwivedi, Dr. Gadasalli,  Aparna Hande, Ms. Vasundhara Pawar, and Vijay Patil.