CONGRATS!!!
INDIA DAY Celebrated at SF Giants Baseball Game
@ AT&T Park, Tuesday Aug 26, 2008
 Kanchan Dharmani- Chair BoD Anil Yadav- Chair BoT,  TAAl Dance group Walnut Creek),  Kathak Group- (Shalini Saxena)  Manipuri Aavartan Group(Vinita Kumar)  Committee Members |
FIA NC and NFIA NC and AT&T PARK At the SF GIANTS GAMW WITH INDIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY FOLK DANCE NNJ dancers  FLAG HOISTING on FIELD  BHANGRA NNJ dancers  Singer Alka Bhatnagar.  Flaming Fusion (Ajanta Chakraborty) |
San Francisco, California: The Celebration of India’s Independence Day took place at an unique venue as the SF Giants baseball management chose August 26th tio honor the day at the AT&T Park in San Francisco. The event co sponsored by the Federation of Indo-American Associations of Northern California (FIA-NC) and the National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA) with a lot of community support, drew a large number of community supporters as the showcase was held both art the entrance of the stadium and also on the field before the start of the game. At the entrance before the game, a large crowd gathered to the beats of rhythmic dhol playing by Master Raju, followed by some songs by Bay area singer Alka Bhatnagar. The FIANC committee members including President Rajeev Awasthy, Chairwoman Kanchan Dharmani and others introduced the evening gala presentation at the entrance, where a stage and music setup blared the Indian folk and film music. The outdoor session also featured several local dance troupes like Taal group from Walnut Creek performing Indian movie songs, Aavartan of San Jose performing a fast paced Manupuri folk dance with splendid costumes and Shalini Saxena’s award winning Kathak troupe. Also performing were Flaming Fusion, a five person fusion dance troupe lead by Ajanta Chakraborty, who danced to a remix of Indian movie, Flamenco and hip hop music. Well known bay area singer Alka Bhatnagar sang Aye Mere Watan Ke logon, Vande Mataram and couple other numbers to open the ceremonies. On the field, as the large wide scoreboard screen flashed the dance performances by NNJ dance group, who performed two Indian folk dances with colorful costumes, several kids held aloft the Indian Tri Color flag, which swirled in the stiff breeze at the waterfront stadium. “The India Independence Day Celebrations at the A T &T Park and SF Giants Baseball game is a great opportunity to proudly reflect the culture and heritage of India to the mainstream, especially as we are very much in USA and our children are definitely part of the mainstream,” said Anil Yadav, Chair Board of Trustees, FIA NC. In keeping with the cause of promoting cross cultural community, the AT&T Ballpark, the SF Giants have been holding several Community days to reflect their commitment to involve the community-at-large. Along with the India Day celebration, a Irish Day, Jewish Day, Chinese day etc are also planned. “ We came across this opportunity and thought it was a wonderful idea to showcase our community as part of the mainstream,” said Board member of NFIA Niraj Baxi and added that FIA NC was chosen in Northern California as a recognized partner of the national body. Baxi along with San Diego based Pramod Kamdar, a board member of NFIA who initiated the initiative with Major League baseball. also said that along with a Southern California venue, others around the nation will also be showcased. Baxi added that ,”The idea is to keep this as an annual event and involve the Indian community more and also showcase the community to mainstream America.” “This is a great occasion for the community to be united and come together for our future generations We plan to be part of something which are children should be proud of,” said Anil Yadav, Chairman Board of Trustees and Rajeev Awasty, President of FIA NC. The event which went off well with the SF Giants management keeping track of time, started when the crowds were sparse, though the showcase was recorded and replayed periodically on the giant scoreboard screen periodically in between innings. The cultural show was limited in time and could only showcase a few dances but surprisingly not a single salute to any Southern or Western Indian culture was noticeable even at the presentation at the entrance. The game between the San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball teams also had a documentary style slide show highlighting India’s heritage and definitely interested many in the crowd, along with the thousand or so special commemorative caps handed out with Giants written in Sanskrit Devanagari script. Along with several volunteers and community support, FIA NC made special mention of Dipak Roy of Fremont Bank, Steve Tyler of Best Buy Corporation and Ashok Sinha, Consul (Community Affairs) of Indian Consulate in San Francisco. |
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