INDIANAPOLIS: India Association of Indianapolis on Sunday hosted the India Day to celebrate the 75th Independence Day of India, at the Dillon Park in Noblesville, Indianapolis. This year the India Day was shifted to the new venue. Earlier the India Day celebrations were held at Monument Circle, Downtown, Indianapolis.
Despite a hot day, a large number of Indian American families thronged the venue dyed in tricolor. Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen, Marion County Sheriff Joseph Forestal, Bharat Patel co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Development and Management Corporation, Indianapolis and Javed Khan were among those who graced the occasion.
A parade was taken out to mark the occasion. Indian cuisine, live music and cultural performances were the other highlights of the day. After the parade and national anthems of USA and India, IAI president Ravi Sajja welcomed all. It was followed by introduction of chairman Dr Ajay Ponugoti and IHSCC chairman Raju Chinthala.
Aashrita Choudhari, Anika Gairola,, Avnoor Singh, Kavya Malik, Rhythm,Aaggarwal, Sanshita Bajaj, Shiven Khanna, Varchasva Gupta, Vedant Aggarwal, and Vyom Maheshwari participated in vibrant Punjabi dhamaka.
Individual performances by Sujitha Jithesh (Vande Bharatambe), Shruti Abhilash (violin solo), Atul Bhat (song "Aye Mere Pyare Watan), Marissa Mcloud (Bollywood Dance, Uma Kalluparambil (Bollywood Dance Medley) and Anoushka Poduval (Bharatnatyam Dance) entertained the audience.
Former IAI president Ramu Chinthala was honored for his valuable contribution. Bharat Patel presented a memento to Ramu Chinthala.
Rimple Patwardhan and Shanti Karthik were the emcees. IAI vice president Rajan Arora, Kushal Kant Singh, Chandrashekhar Krishnameni, Ajay Ponugoti, Manzil Kohli, Rupal Thanawala and Abhinav Bindra were also present on the occasion.
IAI secretary Smitha Thomas gave a vote of thanks.