Festival of India a sensorial delight

The 15th Annual Festival of India and Parade was held in Fremont, California on August 11 and 12. The Indian community of Northern California came together in the largest festival of its kind as more than 60,000 people over two days made a colorful addition to Fremont’s streets.

They also celebrated the 60th anniversary of India’s independence on August 15. Not just Indians but South Asians and other ethnicities came to stroll around and sate their senses. The tricolors of the Indian flag (Tiranga) were everywhere- orange, white and green balloons, clothes and decorations. The scent of tandoori chicken, kebabs and dum biryani floated on the air.

Taste buds exploded with the robust flavors of chicken tikka masala and lingered over the delicate essences of rose and malai kulfi. The nubby and smooth textures of bright clothes and cool metal jewelry begged to be held in the hand.

The throbbing beats of toe tapping bhangra and Bollywood music left no doubt that people were here to have fun. People drove to the Festival site at the intersection of Paseo Padre and Walnut Avenue from all over the Bay area and as far away as the Central Valley for different reasons. Some came for the food, actually many said that they could not resist the chance to sample seekh kebabs at one stall and dosa at the next, with Hyderabad biryani and chaat and ganne ka ras (sugarcane juice) nestled cheek by jowl.

Many came to shop at the bazaar stalls- clothes, jewelry, books, religion, yoga, meditation, community services all were available and you were as close to India as made no difference. The majority came to indulge and immerse their senses in Indian culture, the music and dance, the clothes, the smells, the colors, the languages, the people- if you closed your eyes, you were transported to India for a few nostalgic minutes.

The younger generation came to affirm their identity and to have fun; they were closer to their roots for a day or two. And of course, everyone came to see Amrita Rao, the Grand Marshall of the Festival Parade, Bollywood star of movies like Main Hoon Na and Vivah. Vivacious, chirpy and doll like, she was down to earth and gracious and charmed all in her vicinity. Saturday was the first day, the day of cultural competitions and elimination rounds. As music resounded from the speakers, tiny tots to adults strutted their stuff and were put through their paces. Even as acts and troupes were eliminated, the participants still came across as winners as the sweet sound of applause rang across the stage. Meanwhile, hordes of visitors thronged the stalls, browsing through sundry pieces of ethnic origin. Colorful clothes, sparkling jewelry, intricate mehendi, all attracted the magpie attention of shoppers.

Various non-profit organizations like Ekal Vidyalaya and HelpVinay.org merited more serious and thoughtful attention. People interested in Indian real estate visited the Horizon Real Estate expo. Families with children gravitated to the Desi Knowledge and Meera Masi stalls, providers of educational and Indian language aids. These and others of their ilk are fairly recent beneficiaries of the struggle to maintain culture and language proficiencies in second generation kids. Of course, balloons, cotton candy and shaved ice treats did brisk business, too.

Hot and tasty food, cool drinks and colder kulfi were voraciously plowed through as tired feet and rumbling tummies led everyone to the food pavilion seating. Saturday night was the scene for the Festival Awards Dinner at Dr Japra’s residence. Major supporters of the Festival including Lufthansa and Kingfisher Airlines representatives mingled with local dignitaries, politicians and the FIA volunteers who labor every year to make the event a success. Colorfully dressed ladies and more somberly dressed men mingled and dined al fresco under an esthetically draped Indian shamiana (tent). The dinner party’s pièce de résistance was the arrival of the Grand Marshall, Amrita Rao, dressed elegantly in a cream ensemble. Prabhat K. Singh, Consul, Community Affairs, and Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman spoke about the Festival’s significance. Mayor Wasserman said the Indian festival has become more like a ‘Fremont Festival’.

After that, Amrita Rao was welcomed by Dr Japra and Yogi Chugh. She then presented an Award of Distinction to Lufthansa Airlines. She spoke about how welcome she had been made to feel and how well the Festival was celebrated so far from India. She went on to graciously pose with each and every one of her fans who stood in line to get a picture clicked with her. The dinner ended up looking like a photo shoot right out of Bollywood! The mood on Sunday was even more upbeat as the crowd swelled like a river along Liberty and State Streets. People, young and old, lined the road and craned their necks. They were waiting for the Parade and its floats to start. Fremont police lined the roads- there was the sudden sound of a fire truck siren.

The Parade started with the arrival of the Grand Marshall, Bollywood star Amrita Rao in an ornate horse drawn carriage straight out of, what else, Bollywood! Dressed in red, she was accompanied by Dr and Mrs Japra. This signaled the start of a whole motorcade of snazzy convertibles carrying various dignitaries including the Mayors of Fremont (Bob Wasserman), Milpitas (Jose Estevez) and Union City (Mark Green), Assemblymember Alberto Torrico, Pete McHugh (Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors), Fremont City Councilmembers Anu Natarajan and Bill Harrison, Roger and Viva Bakshi (Calcoast), Brian Pyke, GM, Fletcher Jones Motorcars (provider of abovementioned snazzy cars), Sudhan Thomas (Kingfisher Airlines), Deepak Mehta (Mehta Entertainment), Jayaram Komati (currently TANA and ex-Chairman FIA) and others.

The floats, decorated flatbed trucks, included BATA, HSS, AC Transit (small scale bus and clean air vehicle), RANA, Indo-Fiji, Kannada Koota, Orissa, FIA Youth Wing, Bay Area Tamil Manram, Uttar Pradesh Mandal, SaharaCare, Kingfisher Airlines, New York Life, MakeMyTrip.com, Maharashtra Mandal, Punjab. Other contingents included The Art of Living, Jammu & Kashmir and IACF, and Life Bliss Foundation. Other participants included two marching bands who merrily piped and drummed along. After the floats had passed along, the scene of action moved to the stage area. With various cultural offerings including dance, the stage area was a popular area to be near. Amrita Rao addressed the audience.

She asked them how they were in various languages including Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. and said that this was the best part of being Indian- the ‘Unity in Diversity’. She narrated a personal anecdote about her grandfather, Amrit Rao, a freedom fighter with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s INA, and how she was named after him. Along with the other cultural items, for the first time a Desi Idol competition (on the lines of Indian Idol) was held. After an audition, 14 singers were selected for Desi Idol USA’s first round held on the first day of the Mela.

The judges then picked eight singers for the second round, five singers for the third round and three for the final round. The winner of the competition was Parminder Guri and the runner up was Deepak Ganesan. The visitors at the Festival were enthusiastic; many were repeat visitors and said they would come again. Shereen Virk from Hayward, a young second generation Indo-American said that she has been coming to the Festival for more than a decade. She said that she visits family in India regularly and feels that India is advancing so rapidly that ‘it almost feels ahead of America’. Neha Kaur, her friend, said that she likes the Festival as it is very well organized and safe.

She loves to ‘walk and shop, walk and eat’ at the Festival. Anil who was visiting from India said that he really enjoyed the Festival and was very happy to meet the Indian community in America. He was also glad to see the cooperation between people in India and abroad. Rohitash Singh of Sunnyvale said that "you do not miss India here in the Bay Area". On the eve of India’s 60th Independence Day, he felt that India is becoming known as a self-sufficient power which is good.

However, it is also increasingly more polarized with the gap between urban and rural (areas) getting wider. The Festival organizers said they wanted to thank all the volunteers who had worked long, hard hours. They also mentioned the sponsors Lufthansa, Kingfisher Airlines, Fletcher Jones Motorcars, Comcast, Direct TV, Dish Network,MakeMytrip.com, HSBC NRI services, HDFC bank, Sahara Care, Air France, Eva Airlines, Fremont Motorcars, Moneygram, shaadi.com, AAA, Western Union etc. for making the Festival a reality.

Source://indiapost.com