India Post News Service

CHICAGO: Federation of Indian Association (FIA) Chicago has planned a gala celebration of 60th anniversary of Indian Independence Day consisting of traditional flag hoisting on August 15 in front of City Hall Daley Plaza at noon followed by a grand banquet dinner and entertainment program on August 17 at the newly opened state of the art Meadow Club Convention Center in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

This will be followed by a spectacular parade on Saturday August 18 on the popular Devon Ave- Gandhi Marg at noon. The parade will end at Warren Park for Indian Mela, where food and other stalls will be set up along with live entertainment of cultural program. Artists from Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh will perform. Vijaya Laksmi, known as the nightingale of Southern India will give the old memories and hits of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshker.

President of FIA Chicago Iftekhar said that Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut of Indian origin, who spent six months on the International Space Station, has confirmed to act as the Grand Marshal at the India Independence Day parade. Sunita Williams holds three records for female space travelers - longest space-flight and space stay (195 days), number of space walks (four) and total time spent on space walks (29 hours and 17 minutes).

Among the personal items she took with her to the International Space Station were a copy of the Bhagvad Gita, a small figurine of Lord Ganesha and some samosas. Iftekhar Shareef said that Bollywood film star of yesteryears Moushumi Chatterjee, former India's Cricket Captain Mohammed Azharuddin along with his wife Sangeeta Bijlani have also accepted FIA's invitation to be special VIP guests at the parade. He said FIA-New York had no objection to Bollywood's movie star Priyanka Chopra, who would be attending their parade on August 19, to participate in the Chicago parade, a day earlier on August 18, but precise modalities had to be worked out.

The FIA president said he would definitely expect Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and US law makers at the parade. Iftekhar Shareef said that Subhas Bhatt, FIA secretary, had just returned from India with 150 big Indian national flags, about 4,000 small flags and other materials to be distributed at the parade. Regarding preparations for the four-day celebration of Independence Day, Shareef said all arrangements were in progress and the FIA executive and others were meeting regularly on Sundays to monitor the work done by them. "The Devon Avenue trading community had been very enthusiastic about the parade and Mela and they are extending their full support.

I thank them for their enthusiasm to participate in all the events," he added. He said that the two-day "Taste of India Grand Mela" would provide ample food and fun for the participants. He said while Kanti Patel was sparing no effort to encourage participation of as many floats as possible in the parade, the others - Raghu Nayak, parade chair; Balvinder Singh, Mela chair; Naren Patel, banquet chair, and Daley Plaza celebration chair Dr. Ram Gajjela, were working hard to make India's Independence Day celebrations a grand success. Bina Patel, Mina Purohit and Sunil Shah were working hard with artists to present several enjoyable cultural items.

Appealing to community, Iftekhar Shareef, the first Indian Muslim in the history of FIA to be its President, urged the Indian community to participate in the celebrations in thousands to showcase India to the mainstream America and thanked American Airlines and its staff for being the Grand-Sponsor of these events and for flying non stop daily to Delhi, India.