“The Kerala Center Board of Directors and the General Body in their meetings have agreed to establish a library under the name Dr. Thomas Abraham Library, which will carry an India Collection of Books and Indian Diaspora Books,” said a statement issued by the Kerala Center. “The library will serve as a reference library for India related books and Indian Diaspora books.”
Dr. Thomas Abraham is the Chairman, Board of Trustees, The Kerala Center and
Serves as the Chairman, GOPIO International. Dr. Thomas Abraham has been honored with the Bharatvanshi Gaurav Award of Anthar Rashtriya Sahayog Parishad and Pravasi Bharatiya Samman for his services to the NRI/PIO communities for the past 50 years since he moved to New York as a graduate student at Columbia University. He has been an architect behind the establishment of several organizations including the Federation of Indian Assocaitons (FIA); National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA); GOPIO International; and The Kerala Center.
“I have been collecting books on India related to religion, culture, economy, politics, relations with other countries and tourism, which will be housed at the Kerala Center,” Dr. Abraham sated. “In addition, I have personal collection of books on India and Indian Diaspora related books, some of them are not even available at any other place, which will be donated to this library. The Government of India through the Indian Consulate New York has provided several hundreds of India related books.”
The library will be inaugurated on Saturday, April 6th starting at 5 p.m. at the Kerala Center with cocktails, a ribbon cutting ceremony and felicitations followed entertainment and dinner. I request you to keep that date available. An invitation will be sent to you later.
Describing the origins to establishing this library, Dr. Abraham said, “One of my friends floated this idea to me to set up a library since I have served our community for the last 50 years starting many community institutions.:
Dr. Abrham has successfully campaigned on many community issues. He has helped several community members to advance and helped many organizations to flourish. Because of the connections he has with the community for the past fifty years, Dr. Abraham has also accumulated hundreds of Indian Diaspora books.
Dr. Abraham says, “I also felt that my time is also coming up to downsize my activities. And the library is the best place to keep all those books and other community literature and documents so that future generations would know about our community mobilization and what we have done in the last fifty years to benefit our community and India.”
The Library will also be a place for the community to keep historic documents of the major Indian community
groups and history of Indian Diaspora in different countries. Ultimately, the Kerala Center plans to make it a top Indian Diaspora Resource Center, may be even as a research center with grants from Foundations and government agencies in the future.
The Kerala Center plans to raise $25,000 to modernize the upper conference room as a library room with shelves and a long wooden reading table and chairs in the middle, which can also be used as a conference room. The hall will be used as a hybrid conference room too to host hybrid in person and virtual meetings and seminars.
Dr. Abraham said, “I am approaching my community colleagues and friends to support this project. We have already received a total contribution of $20,000 from friends. We need to raise only $5,000 now and we need your support. Please contribute whatever amount you can and it is tax deductible. You could send a check to The Kerala Center, 1824 Fairfax St., Elmont, NY 11003 or contribute online using your credit card at the PayPal Link for the Kerala Cetner at http://tinyurl.com/2j3jbsm6. Please do mention that your contribution is for the library project.
The Kerala Center urges people of Indian origin to donate their books to this new library. “If you are downsizing and have India related books to donate, please let me know. We will pick it up.”
