Tens of thousands attend India Day Parade in Manhattan

New York, Aug 21
A sea of humanity descended on Manhattan, August 20, for the 37th India Day Parade in New York which was led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, ‘Baahubali’ pair Rana Daggubati (Grand Marshal), actress Tamannaah Bhatia, and General Dalbir Singh Suhag, retired chief of Indian Armed Forces.

Floats, bands, and dances made the Madison Avenue between the 38th Street to the 23rd Street a festival ground with a riot of colors.

With clear skies and moderate temperature, thousands marched in the parade while thousands watched it on both sides of the road. Mainstream Americans and tourists were among them in large numbers applauding the colorful themes of floats. The streets reverberated with the slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram.
Young generation took an active interest in the parade joining in sizeable numbers.

"Honoured to be part of annual India Day parade in New York," Tamannaah tweeted. She also shared few pictures. Rana can be seen with her in one of the photos.

On the career front, Rana is basking in the success of his Telugu film "Nene Raju Nene Mantri". Tamannaah, on the other hand, has just wrapped up shooting of her Tamil film "Sketch", which also stars Vikram.

Daggubati, who was dressed in a traditional attire, drew the crowd with his signature dance moves on the viewing stage.

People cheered the stars enthusiastically. Thousands of cameras focused on them. One can imagine what would have happened if Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan came for the parade.

Andy Bhatia, president of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, along with Ramesh Patel, FIA chairman and other officials led the parade.

After the parade frontline started moving around noon, 25 colorful floats, several of them representing Indian states and culture, and about 26 groups marched between floats.

The Indian consulate brought out a float showcasing the diversity of India. People from the North East joined in beautiful traditional dresses. Consul General Sandeep Chakaravrthy, Consul Devidasan Nair and others joined the parade.

Other Guests of Honor at the parade included, Prof. Anand Kumar, noted Indian mathematician; Ajit Mody, chairman of NY-based Rajbhog Foods and Capts. Kshamta Bajpai, Sunita Narula, Indira Singh and Gunjan Agarwal, along with the entire cabin crew of the Air India flight, which went down in aviation history books as the first and longest non-stop flight between Delhi and San Francisco (9,500 miles) piloted, serviced, managed and guided by an all-women crew.

The Air India all-women crew included 16 members, who were part of the non-stop flight from Delhi to San Francisco, traveling over the Pacific Ocean and returning via the Atlantic Ocean, completing the trip with 250 passengers on-board the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

The food court and sponsor booths were on 26th street, between Park and Madison Avenues while the cultural programs were held on the dais set up near Madison Park.

American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) TV Asia, Parikh Worldwide Media, and Royal Albert's Broadcasting Network along with Air India and others came out with colorful floats.

As earlier, the Brahma Kumaries, dressed in white, marched in large numbers, carrying billboards and calling for goodness. The march by supporters of Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev calling for protecting the rivers was impressive.
True to the secular spirit of the country, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Arya Samaj, and Christians marched in the parade. The National Association of Asian Indian Christians brought out a float led by president Koshy George. Gujarat Christians marched behind a banner while Christians from Tamil Nadu marched with the statue of Arogya Mata of Velankanni.

The Overseas Friends of BJP marched in the parade but the opposition Indian National Overseas Congress was not seen.

Dr Gautam Samaddar, new president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, led the AAPI float.

The Jai Bharat Dhol Tasha, a team of drum beaters and dancers, stole the hearts of all with their inspiring beats and high energy dance by several women all through the parade route.

This is the first parade after the death of Sureshwar Prasad Singh, 72, who was instrumental in starting the India Day Parade in New York in 1981 as the president of FIA.

He passed away on November 22 in Kolkata.

When Singh brought the idea of a parade through Manhattan, there were no takers for his proposal. Some laughed at the suggestion as naive, Singh said in an interview earlier narrating the history of the parade.

He doggedly pushed for the idea. He had seen parades organized by other communities and saw the media coverage they drew, and felt the Indian community was ready to have one of its own.

His persistence paid off and finally the FIA executive committee gave him the green signal.
Singh had no idea where to start. And nobody in the organization had any experience organizing such an event. So he went to the organizers of the Puerto Rican and Italian parades to find out how their events were organized.
Subin Mehta led the parade as Grand Marshal. About 90,000 or more people turned up from as far as Pennsylvania, Singh claimed, adding that there were 19 floats.

The number of participants in parades over the years increased each year and it has become a major event for the diaspora.

But in later life he was not happy with the way the parade was going on. He said the parade has become an affair of some people. “It lost the inclusive character. The parade was started for all in the Indian community, which is not happening these days,” Singh said.

He was also not happy that film stars were brought as Grand Marshals paying lot of money.

The FIA of NY-NJ-CT was formed in 1970 and is among the largest umbrella organizations representing over 500,000 Indian Americans in the tristate region. The centerpiece of its efforts culminates in the India Day Parade in New York each year.