R Chand
CHICAGO: A vibrant Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of Chicago, hosted a grand celebration of India’s 72nd Republic Day Event, virtually via zoom and Facebook live, on January 24, 2021 with program streaming live from Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb.
The Program was started promptly by the wonderful host of the evening, emcee Anu Malhotra with Lamp Lighting followed by US and Indian National Anthems, beautifully sung by Ananya Ghosh & Nitya Rao.
For opening remarks, the Founder President, FIA-Chicago, Sunil Shah was requested to share a few words. Sunil Shah in his speech, gave a warm welcome to all the guests and dignitaries present at the event and recalled a brief history of FIA Chicago’s journey in the past 12 years. Sunil Shah while introducing and welcoming Honorable Governor of Illinois J B Pritzker mentioned that it was a distinct honor & moment of great pride for our association having him addresses our auspicious event. Governor Pritzker spoke very highly about FIA, Chicago accomplishments & said that you have partner at Governor’s office.
Besides, Illinois Governor J B Pritzker, other Honorable guests who spoke at the event were: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Consul General Chicago Amit Kumar, Senator Christina Castro, Schaumburg Mayor Tom Daily, Hoffman Estates Mayor William Mcleod, and there were several key note speakers: Dr Suresh Reddy, Sri Deepak Kant Vyas and Dr Dayal Meshri, who shared their wonderful thoughts with the audience.
FIA President 2020 Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan and FIA current President Dr Kamal Patel also spoke eloquently about the organization and its accomplishments and future directions. Other FIA leaders who shared their inspiring speeches were: Neil Khot, Rita Singh & Shital Daftari. The new FIA Board transition was also announced and formalized for year 2021:
- FIA Executive Board Members:
- Founder President Sunil Shah
- Founder & Past President Onkar Sangha
- President 2021: Dr Kamal Patel
- Immediate Past President: Gurmeet Singh Dhalwan
- Founding Members: Neil Khot, Mukesh Shah, Rita Singh, Sunny Kular, Dhitu Bhagwakar,
- Past President 2019: Ninad Daftari
- Executive Vice Presidents: Shital Daftari & Vinita Gulabani
- Vice Presidents: Altaf Bukhari, Pratibha Jairath, Hema Shastri, Ashwani Mahajan &Harsh Shah
- Secretary: Richa Chand &Joint Secretary: Abir Maru,
- Treasurer: Vaishal Talati, & Joint Treasurer: Mukesh Shah
- Cultural Secretary: Jatinder Bedi & Joint Cultural Secretary: Ila Chaudhari
FIA Advisory Board Members :Deepak Kant Vyas, Syed Hussaini, Dr Asha Oroskar, Brij Sharma, Pinky Thakkar, Manny Gandhi, Neal Patel, Smita Shah, Pradeep Shukla, Aishwarya Sharma,Jasbir Suga, Keerthi Reevori, Amarbir Ghoman, Vinoz Chanamolu.
FIA Directors: Chetan Patel, Varsha Visal, Vibha Rajput, Sonia Luther, Anu & Bharat Malhotra,Jitendra Bulsara, Hitesh Patel, Ashima Washington, Vidya Joshi, Subbu Iyer, Jessi Singh, Dr Afroz Hafeez, MamtaTaparia, Nirav Patel, Pika Munshi, Vikas Kalwani, Mir Ali, Rajesh Narayan.
No celebration is complete without some music and dance… and there was a beautiful Dance performance by the students of SR International and a melodious patriotic song presented by Jitendra Bulsara.
But the most spectacular highlight of the event was the live singing session by none other than the legendary Bollywoodsinger, Padma Shri Kailash Kher himself! He is very well known for his Rock, as well as Sufi songs, besides his popular playback songs in various movies.
For the cheering audience, Kailash Kher sang some of the most popular songs like ‘Bharat ke Veer TumkoNaman’, ‘Aaj Mere Piya Ghar Aavengey’ & ‘Bam Lahiri’ and many more beautiful renditions from his song collection! This last and the most beautiful offering, brought the program to its end, and the event was duly concluded and closed by Richa Chand, FIA Secretary, with her Vote of Thanks speech. This amazing live experience on zoom and FB Live, was made possible by the logistic and technology support, provided by Phani Krishna. The entire zoom session, even though virtual was still very enjoyable and received rave reviews from the audience.
FIA-Chicago since its inception in 2009, it has been keeping up with the yearly tradition of celebrating motherland, India’s Republic Day every year!
FIA thanks and greatly appreciates all its sponsors, supporters& media partners for their unwavering support & trust in FIA.
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