India Post News Service

CHICAGO: A special function, jointly sponsored by Raghu Nayak, Amrish Mahajan, Darshan Singh Dhaliwal and other prominent Indian community activists to honor newly appointed Indian Consul General in Chicago was held last week at Indian House restaurant in Schaumburg, a north side Chicago suburb.More than 150 leading businessmen, heads of local and State of Illinois departments, and several distinguished members of the Indian Diaspora were present.

The Indian Consulate in Chicago serves Indian Americans living in nine Mid-western States of USA.Raghu Nayak, one of the co-sponsors, welcomed the guests, especiallyAshok Kumar Attri and his wife Usha Kiran, followed by RajendraBedi who introduced some of the leading luminaries among the Indiancommunity. First and foremost in the list was Sardar Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, highly successful businessman and philanthropist.

Close on the heels came the story of yet another Indian, Amrish Mahajan, whose record of services to the community spans a period of nearly three decades. Paying complements to the business acumen of Amrish, Bedi said that putting his heart into raising the ranks of his Bank, Mutual Bank, he was extremely successful in making it a billion dollar bank and one of the fastest growing financial institutions in the Midwest.

Talking about Raghu Nayak, yet another successful businessman and foremost community activist, Bedi pointed out how Raghu climbed the ladder of success by establishing a series of surgical centers in and around the city of Chicago. The culmination is the first of its type General Hind Hospital in Indiana.Names of the other successful icons in the community were recognized.

Those mentioned were Mafat Patel, CEO of Patel Bros., the premier grocery andfood products distribution business in USA, Amrit Patel of Dunkin Donuts, who owns a large number of Dunkin franchises, Bharat Barai, well known socio-political activist and philanthropist, Balwinder Singh, a silent yet most effective political activist, Moti Aggarwal, budding banker who owns Millennium Bank, Rohit Maniar yet another banking executive, Sohan Joshi and Babu Patel, former FIA Presidents, Sher Mohammed Rajput, Ram Gajjela, President of Indian American Democratic Organization and Ranjit Ganguly, among others.In his address, Ashok Kumar Attri whole-heartedly appreciated the spirit of cooperation and the generosity showered by the Indian community.

He assured that though a newcomer on US diplomatic front, he would add his strength, and experience in enriching the already heightened relations existed between the US and India and take it to a yet higher level. He observed that the combination of the oldest and wealthiest democracy and the largest and young democracy, would prove helpful to global peace and prosperity. As a tribute to the large number of people of Punjab and himself being a son of Punjab, Attri spoke in Punjabi to the delight of the Punjab community.

There was ample opportunity for the community members and the media to interact with the Consul General.After a couple of songs in Punjabi by Balbir Kaur, Dr Khaira and another woman singer, the function concluded after a sumptuous dinner.