During a touching farewell reception organized by the leading Indian American community, Ambassador Dyaneshwar Mulay, Consul General of India in New York, was given a hearty send-off at the Royal Albert’s Palace, Fords, in New Jersey on February 16, 2016. Mulay, in his brief address, called upon the audience to work together for India while being away from India. “Let’s work together to bring India on the global platform and be instrumental in bringing about a change,” he said. “A lot has been done under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a lot still needs to be accomplished,” Mulay said.
Attended by more than 350 people, the farewell event was organized by the Federation of Indian Associations of Tri-state in collaboration with a number of prominent community organizations. Earlier, Mulay was welcomed with a thunderous applause by the audience and was escorted by the band of New Jersey State Police in the presence of prominent leaders. Mulay was presented a plaque by the community leaders, and also his portrait done by Manoj Vyas, an alumnus of J.J. School of Art, Mumbai.
FIA Tri-state president Anand Patel in his welcome address praised Mulay and “his assiduous efforts” in opening the doors of the consulate and talked about many of his initiatives, including “Bringing Consulate to your door step”, alluding to the outreach program that he launched.
“He has streamlined and optimized all other services at the consulate. But even more impressive is the fact that he transformed the consulate into an epicenter of intellectual, cultural and professional hub to enhance the profile of India in the United States,” Dr. Sudhir Parikh said. “All big credit must go to Ambassador Mulay for transforming the Consulate,” he said.
H.R. Shah spoke about the many accomplishments of Mulay and said he admired Ambassador Mulay “not only for his exceptional body of work but also his “literary work.” FIA chairman Ramesh Patel; Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, publisher of News India Times and Padma Shri award winner; H.R. Shah, chairman of TV Asia; Anil Bansal, chairman of Indus American Bank and Dr. Seema Jain, President of American Association of Physicians of Indian origin; Manoj Mohapatra, Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate in New York were others who were present at the event and had addressed the event.
The Consulate in New York organized an official farewell for Mulay on February 14th at the Consulate in New York. Attended by nearly 100 prominent people, mostly close friends of Mulay and community leaders. Ambassador Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, who served as the Consul General of Indian in New York for two years and ten months, received accolades from business owners and professionals alike at the farewell event which was attended by a large number of people from all walks of life.
Mulay has been appointed to head the newly formed ‘India Diaspora Division’ in the Ministry of External Affairs incorporating the Ministry hitherto known as Ministry of Overseas India Affairs. His many great contributions covering all aspect of services -personal and official were recalled and appreciated by the speakers who included India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, H.R. Shah, Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Dr. Navin Mehta, Prof. Indrajit S Saluja, Attorney Ravi Batra, and Ashok Vyas. Deepak Dave conducted the program.
Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India at UN and a contemporary of Mulay in the Indian Foreign Services, recalled his early days when Mulay was known as a poet among his batch mates. “A literary person at heart Mulay emerged as a fine diplomat fulfilling his duties, which are like writing hard prose not poetries.”
“We are proud to say that we process all applications within a day or two”, said Mulay in his speech at the farewell function. His vision was to project the New India House, the consulate premises, into a center for cultural and intellectual activities. “We held more than 200 events in a year”, he said adding that his office aimed at encouraging all sections of the community within its resources.
