64th Indian Independence Day Celebrations a Huge Success
The Indo-American Community celebrated India’s 64th Independence Day with pomp and ceremony reminiscent of Independence Day celebrations in India. The event, a day long celebration dedicated to community service and education, was held at the Indo-American Community Center on Saturday, Aug 14, 2010 and was organized by the Indo-American Foundation in conjunction with various sister associations. Arizona Attorney General, the Honorable Terry Goddard was the Chief Guest.
Over 400 attendees witnessed the historic first ever-official Independence Day Flag Ceremony held in Phoenix. It was truly symbolic that the Flag ceremony was held almost at the same hour as the Indian Flag was raised for the very first time in a free India at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 – 63 years ago!
To add to the symbolism of the occasion, the Flag ceremony was fittingly led by the Indo-American Seniors’ Group with Mr. Sewa Singh Dulai doing the honors. It was an honor to have several members from the seniors group who had participated in India’s freedom struggle in attendance at the event. It was heartwarming to see the entire audience salute them and the flag in acknowledgement.
The ceremony started with the singing of the American National Anthem by the Indo-American Foundation Youth Group and was followed by the Flag Salute and singing of the Indian National Anthem by Ms. Meghna Rajaram. One of the highlights of the ceremony was the recognition of two youth representatives, Ms. Meghna Rajaram and Mr. Rishi Raval who were recognized for their community service, in particular, to the Seniors group. Each of them spoke briefly on what freedom meant to them.
Mr. Jagdish Sagar, President of the Indo-American Foundation welcomed the gathering and introduced the Chief Guest, the Hon. Terry Goddard, Attorney General of Arizona. In his address, Mr. Goddard wished the community a Happy Independence day and talked about the blessings of a Democracy, which gives people the freedom to voice their opinion and elect their leaders. He urged people not to take their freedom lightly and asked them to be involved in the process and exercise their voting rights.
The ceremony concluded with the singing of the ever-popular Patriotic Song, ‘Yeh Mere Watan Ke Logon’ by Harshaben Joshi. Sweets were distributed to all present after the ceremony.
The theme for this year’s celebration was Education and Community Service. In keeping with this theme, several free clinics were organized namely: a Free Health Clinic, Legal Clinic and Toxic Real Estate Clinic. In addition, several educational youth activities and contests were also held with the focus being on India. All of the activities were very well received.
Around 150 people lined up by 8:00am at the Health Clinic to get their cholesterol/glucose tests done. The blood tests were done by trained volunteer nurses under the supervision of the Asian Pacific Community in Action staff members. Several community physicians volunteered their time at the clinic offering free consultation and advise.
Members of the South Asian Bar Association organized the Legal Clinic. Several attorneys were on hand to offer free advice and resource information. Feedback was that the clinic raised awareness of the organization, and several members of the community got valuable resource information. Likewise, the Toxic Real Estate Clinic organized by Mr. Kiran Vedantam also was very informative and provided valuable information to those that needed it.
As was to be expected, the youth activities organized by the North Phoenix Bala Vihar group proved to be very popular with over 75 children between the ages of 5 and 15 participating in the various competitions and games. It was a treat to watch the children having so much fun while learning a lot about India.
The celebrations continued in the evening at the Ekta Mandir with the Award Ceremony for the youth contest winners followed by a short cultural program featuring patriotic songs sung by children and dances choreographed to patriotic songs from Bollywood movies. A special Independence Day Puja to Bharat Mata was performed followed by Maha Aarthi and Maha Prasad.
The Indo-American Foundation would like to thank the community for its support and the Seniors Group, North Phoenix Bala Vihar, SABA, APAC, Kiran Vedantam, Valley Physicians, Valley India Times, and all the volunteers for their help and participation in the event. Special thanks to Event Chair Mrs. Kalpana Batni for working all the details diligently and making it a very successful and memorable event for the community.