CHICAGO: The celebration of 4th International Yoga Day at Millennium Park in Chicago Downtown – the site near the first meet of World Parliament of Religions spellbound by Swami Vivekananda – would itself be a big achievement and the Indian Consulate headed by CG Neeta Bhushan can legitimately take pride by notching this achievement.
Announcing this at a meet of Chicago elites and community activists at the Consulate office here on Monday, April 16, CG Bhushan also said that Yoga Day celebraiton will be on Saturday, June 16 and it will commence at 11 am ending by 3 pm the same day. She also announced that there would be another cultural event ‘Kala Utsav’ which will be held at Harris Theater on Sunday July 29 showcasing Indian culture through varied performances.
It is worth noting that the Indian Consulate took the opportunity to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, one of the highly respected Indian leaders and a big help in framing the Indian constitution, on Monday April 16. Dr Ambedkar’s birthday falls on April 14 and it was a well thought out decision on the part of Consulate to celebrate the same along with announcing the details of Yoga day celebrations and Kala Utsav performance to reach out to the maximum number of Indian and non-Indian audience in Chicagoland.
The Yoga celebration, acknowledged CG Bhushan, was made possible by active help from Smita Shah of Chicago Sister City and acknowledging this help Ms Shah was presented with a flower bouquet for this. An Indian community woman activist Vandana Jhingan also had a pleasant surprise when she was given a bouquet wishing her happy birthday.
The meeting was attended by different community organizations, established yoga and spiritual centers, business community and members of the Media. D.B.Bhati, Consul and Head of Chancery welcomed the guests and gave introductory remarks on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. CG Bhushan also touched upon the life, vision and mission of Dr. Ambedkar. As part of the celebration, a photo exhibition depicting different phases of Dr. Ambedkar’s life was also organized.
Sharing information on Yoga day, CG mentioned that the Yoga Day will be celebrated in collaboration with the City of Chicago and Chicago-Delhi Sister-City Relations Committee and that efforts were afoot to have Chicago Mayor Rham Emanuel to grace the event as Chief Guest. The event will be inaugurated at 11 am in the presence of dignitaries, government officials, community leaders and yoga followers. This would be followed by practice of common yoga protocol and other yoga activities. The Consulate would also be organizing stand-alone activities for promoting International Yoga Day event at Sant Nirankari Mission, BAPS temple and HTGC.
The Consul General also briefed the attendees at the meet about Kala Utsav 2018 and pointed out that it would be a theme-based event. A separate meeting for the dance groups participating in the upcoming Kala Utsav was arranged with the CG and her team where the dance groups were briefed as to what type of performances are expected from them. They were also informed about the dates for registration of their groups with the Consulate and dress rehearsal etc.
She strongly pitched for making both the events a mega success by getting the word around for huge attendance and specifically urged all the community organizations and media partners to extend whole-hearted support in celebrating the fourth International Day of Yoga and Kala Utsav, 2018 in a befitting manner.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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