New York, NY: The largest India Day Parade in the world, held in the city of New York will have Bollywood star, Abishek Bachchan as the chief guest/grand marshal. The milestone event celebrated to mark the India Independence Day, organized by the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA), an umbrella organization of the NY, NJ, CT (Tri-State), will be on Sunday Augus 21st, starting at 12:00 pm.
It was announced here during a traditional Curtain Raiser event at the Indian Consulate in Manhattan on Friday July 8th. This officially jump starts the campaign for the 2016 India Day Parade that FIA has been organizing since past 35 years. “The honor will be given to Abhishek Bachaan” announced President of FIA, Anand Patel. Patel. Abhishekh Bachhan has created a prestine place in Bollywood for himself with superhits such as Guru, Sarkaar and Dhoom. Patel said, HH Yog Rishi Ramdev Baba will be at the parade as well.
The parade will start from 39th street & Madison Ave intersection and the fun fair and cultural programs will be on 26th St. and Madison Ave from 12:00pm to 6:00pm.
Opening the curtain raiser, Anand Patel, a veteran businessman with holdings in franchise retail and real estate in the tristate area, expressed his gratitude to CGI-NY for being the co-host and for continuous support of over a decade long tradition of holding the curtain raiser the India Day Parade curtain raiser at the ‘New India House’. He also paid tribute to men and women who gave all to see the motherland become a free nation on Aug. 15th 1947. Concluding he commended his team for jump starting the preparation for a unifying theme of ‘Bringing the World Together’ and working tirelessly for grand success of the parade.
The event was started by lighting the traditional lamp by Hon. Ambassador Riva Das CGI-NY, Grand sponsors as well as the FIA’s Board of Trustees & Past Presidents which included Chairman Ramesh Patel, Yash Paul Soi, H R Shah of TV Asia, Chandrakant Trivedi, Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Dipak Patel, Bipin Patel, Albert Jasani, Executive Vice President Andy Bhatia among other dignitaries.
Patel then invited the Chairman of FIA, Ramesh Patel, a well known community leader and activist since past 50 years. Patel emphasized the fact that FIA along with the celebrations of Indian Independence & Republic day is also at the forefront in addressing and fighting for burning community issues like immigration, domestic injustice, discrimination, bias and hate crimes etc. Ambassador Das opened her statement by giving high marks to the FIA’s efforts for their social activities as well putting together remarkable events. Ambassador expressed her excitement to be part of the festivities she will experience for the first time. She commended the efforts put together by the FIA day in and day out to put together an event like such epic magnitude.
Pujya Ramdev baba has promoted healthy living and social reforms thru his yoga platform and with his healthy natural herbal supplements. AV presentations from the attending dignitaries and celeb was introduced for attendees to view which was followed by a dance presentation performed on a compilation of Rabindranath Tagore poems by Beena Menan’s group of Kalashri Dance Academy.
The curtain raiser also honored CKGS, Indian Govt. Visa OCI and Passport Processing company’s Vice President and Country Manager Mr. Kiran Nambiar with a memento Plaque for his sincere efforts and alignment with successfully implementing a host of visa camps primarily with FIA, Indian Embassy and other community organizations as well as respective CGIs across the USA that saw over 6000 of diaspora members assisted at their doorsteps with the visa camp program called ‘Consulate at your door steps’. Kiran Nambiar is moving on July end and is going to be based in Canada concluding his CKGS US tenure. (Photo of Kiran Nambiar attached for use).
The ceremony was concluded with Immediate Past President Ankur Vaidya addressing a vote of thanks and providing a raffle giveaway of 4 gold coins which was done to raise funds for the Darjeeling Sanitation Project which FIA has been working for the past 2 years.