Consul S.M.Gavai, Shiv Aggarwal, Amb.Sen and Subash Razdan

A diverse cross-section of Indian-American communities of Georgia extended a warm welcome to Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen during his recent visit to Atlanta.

The Gandhi Foundation of USA (GFUSA), in collaboration with various apex organizations such as Georgia Association of Physicians from India (GAPI); American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI); Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA); India American Cultural Association (IACA); National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) with support from numerous other Georgia organizations and with sponsorship by Global Mall, hosted a banquet in honor of H.E.Ronen Sen, his wife Mrs. Kalpana Sen, and Consul General of India, Hon. S.M.Gavai. The Banquet was attended by distinguished politicians, leading community activists and representatives of diverse ethnic, religious and cultural Associations of Georgia.


After the Ambassador patiently mingled with the leaders, one on one, Subash Razdan, a well known national leader, who emceed the event, welcomed all and enthused, “There is hardly any Organization in Georgia that is not represented here tonight. You cannot find a better united community in Georgia than you are seeing tonight. The last time, we had such a unified gathering was during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.” (Wild applause!). He then recognized the Guests of Honor, Ambassador Sen, and Mrs. Kalpana Sen, who were presented with flower bouquets by Parul Parekh and Aarti Aggarwal and a shawl by Mr. Jamal Yusuf BhaiSaheb Zainuddin ,President,Dawoodi Bohra Islamic Community of Metro Atlanta.
 

Norcross Mayor Lillian Webb	Ms.Claire McLeveighn

Bouquets were also presented to numerous other distinguished guests and speakers. In his first round of recognition of the guests, Mr. Razdan went on to recognize Global Mall’s owner Shiv Aggarwal and Mrs. Anushi Aggarwal; Mayor of Norcross, Ms. Lillian Webb; Commissioner of Norcross, Keith Schubert: Director of External Affairs and International Relations, Ms. Claire McLeveighn of City of Atlanta; Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and a senior Coca Cola executive Thomas Lee; Giriraj Rao, co-founder and executive Director of GFUSA and first Indian-American recipient of Georgia Governor’s Humanitarian Award; President of GAPI, Dr.Sudhakar Jonnalagadda; Director of AAPI-South, Dr.Naresh Parikh and Dr.Asha Parikh; President of IACA,Gouranga Banik; Regional Vice- President, NFIA, Dhirendra Shah; Vice-President, Government Affairs, AAHOA, Ms. Laura Lee Blake; President, State University of West Georgia and Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr. Behruz Sethna and Mrs.Madhavi Sethna, Narender Reddy, a prominent political activist of Republican party of Georgia; Acharya Vijayji of Yoga and Meditation fame; and many other prominent leaders in Georgia.


Ujjagar Singh Wassan, representing the Sikh community, and a noted artist, regaled the audience with a recital of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s (last Muslim ruler of India) ghazals. Mr. Razdan invited Shiv Aggarwal on stage, congratulating Global Mall for becoming the biggest Indian-American Mall in the USA and for serving as a nucleus for many Indian-American events. Global Mall’s convenient location has made it almost like an India Center, which has even hosted the Indian Consulate’s mobile Visa/Passport services at its large facility. Razdan thanked Shiv for co-hosting the Banquet and for his magnanimous philanthropy. Mr. Shiv Aggarwal in his humble manner thanked the congregation for their presence at this unique community event.

In his brief introduction of Mayor Lilian Webb, Dhirendra Shah of NFIA said that Ms. Webb is a great friend and supporter of the Indian-American community. She has many accomplishments to her credit and has the distinction of being the first woman Mayor of Norcross, Georgia.


Mayor Webb, in her special remarks, recounted the initial struggles in the eighties, faced by Indian-American community in settling down in Georgia. Over the years, however, the commendable resilience, insight and intelligence of the Indian Americans has show cased their progress and the outstanding role played by the community in the State of Georgia presently.


Ms. Laura Lee Blake of AAHOA appreciated that in addition to a distinguished 40 years career of the Ambassador in Civil and international service, Ambassador Sen had taken an unprecedented step in Washington DC in inviting 300 members of the National Press to his home last year.(Applause!). She enthused about the Mango diplomacy by Ambassador Sen, when recently he had joyfully handed gift baskets of Indian mangoes to the Agricultural Secretary and US Trade Representative respectively! Commenting on the superlative contributions of the Sen Family to the society, Laura highlighted Mrs. Kalpana Sen’s efforts to improve adult literacy, and their daughter’s involvement in the Environmental issues. Laura reiterated AAHOA’s continued support for the Indian Embassy. She then introduced Claire McLeveighn from the Mayor of Atlanta’s office.


Ms. Claire McLeveighn conveyed Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s greetings message, welcoming the Visitors to the global city of Atlanta. “As commerce becomes increasingly global, we are tied ever more closely to India. However, for the City of Atlanta, our interest in India extends even further, because Atlanta and India have special bond because of two greatest men of peace of modern times, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a well known fact that Gandhi was Dr. King’s role model for non-violent social change. Their affiliation has linked Atlanta to Germany, to Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, to Pietermaritzburg and South Africa. In South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi was ejected from the train, in an early act of non-violent defiance of injustice to establish equality. Pietermaritzburg now seeks sister-city relationship with Atlanta. This history and commonalty compels Atlanta to forge a formal partnership with a City in India as well. In many ways India has helped Atlanta and Georgia to connect to the world. Tonight, we assure our support for the closest possible ties in business, development and friendship” she reaffirmed on behalf of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.


Razdan, who is part of the task force for Atlanta’s Sister-City, informed the audience about the possible sister-city connection between Atlanta and Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He said Ahmedabad had received an overwhelming support because of the unique bond between Gandhi and Dr.King. He appealed to Ms. Claire to help expedite the process. In the same vein, he urged Ambassador Sen to push for an air-link between Atlanta and Ahmedabad and also to explore opening an Indian Consulate in Atlanta. (Wild applause!).


Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, president of GAPI, who had driven for four hours to attend this event, provided a befitting introduction of the Keynote speaker Ambassador Sen.
 

Ambassador conversing with Ruth Woodling and Antony Thaliath

Soft-spoken Ambassador Sen, in his keynote address said, “This is a good time to be India’s Ambassador to the U.S. At the same time, it should be remembered that the world is changing and India is changing also. Old conflicts have been resolved but there are new challenges-we have biggest concentration of terrorists in our neighborhood and we are next to biggest sources and destinations of nuclear proliferation. Despite all this, the ponderous elephant (implying India) is moving at a fast clip. We had a 9.4% growth rate last year. It has taken us so long because we have not completely shed our colonial mentality, which sadly is still evident in our bureaucracy. We can do better. India has maximum number of billionaires in Asia and yet India has significant poverty. India is among the three largest economic powers in the world, together with China and the U.S.”

Sen added, “For centuries, even millennia, India accounted for one-quarter of world economy. What we are doing now is reclaiming our heritage. People talk of democracy but that is innate in us. It is not a British heritage. Those who equate it with Western values are either arrogant or hopelessly ignorant. So India is not only economy, or flag or national anthem, it is more than platitudes. What we are today is what Martin Luther King stood for, what Mahatma Gandhi stood for. Freedom and Peace! Recently we commemorated 5th anniversary of the very tragic event that shook the world. Who was not touched by that? But do not forget that last year was another 9/11, when exactly on that day, hundred years ago, a young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, started a peaceful, non-violent struggle against apartheid regime in South Africa, outside Emperor Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, in front of a spontaneous gathering of more than 3,000 people. And my hope as an Indian is that the 9/11 of Gandhi, and 9/11 of the of Martin Luther King’s preaching. 9/11 representing that vision will ultimately triumph over the 9/11 tragedy”. (Applause!). Ambassador reiterated that, “When he came to USA as an Ambassador of India, his very first visit was to Atlanta, and the very first speaking engagement was to speak at the birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at the Ebenezer Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached. It was a wonderful gathering organized by the members of the Gandhi Foundation”. (Applause!).


Sen reassured the audience that there would be more flights as he had recently discussed with Atlanta-based Delta Airlines which has commenced non-stop flights to India. Air-India will not compete with Delta but it too will increase its flights between U.S. and India. Hopefully Atlanta-based Corporations like Coca-Cola and UPS will also increase their operations in India. Sen also mentioned that his wife and he were privileged to be International Chairs of Atlanta headquartered CARE organization’s 60th anniversary celebrations last year.(Applause!). Sen stressed that whether it is trade or nuclear treaty, the relationship has to be mutually beneficial. Ambassador Sen concluded his insightful talk by exhorting the audience to help bridge the gap between perception and today’s reality with respect to Indo-US relations.


Mr.Razdan, a recipient of the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor, availed the opportunity to recognize some of many Georgia Organizations as awardees for their service to the community. Chief Guest, Ambassador Sen proudly handed out plaques to representatives of Sumanth Center-Shri Shakti Mandir ( Ashwin Patel); Gujarati Samaj of Atlanta (Amit Shah, Vinod & Mrs.Arunaben Patel); and IACA (Vasav Mehta, Gouranga Banik, and Surinder Bahl; Tushar Sanghvi who could not attend) respectively, for helping the India Consulate with its mobile Visa/Passport Services. Razdan went on to recognize Shelly Stuart and Mark Pierson of the GCIV; Ruth Woodling, an attorney, coordinating the King Papers banquet with the Indian American community; Shyam Tiwari, Prakash Gupta and Sneha Mehta of Bal Vihar- VHP-for organizing Hindi language classes for youths and adults as well. He further thanked the media representatives, well-known professional photographer Vinod Devlia, and the audio-sound advisor SandipSound System engineer, Sandeep Savla. Mr. Razdan informed the Ambassador about new temples under construction in Georgia, like Sanatan Mandir, Shiv Mandir and BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. Gouranga Banik, President of IACA, moved a formal Vote of Thanks following which a sumptuous dinner was served by the Ashiana restaurant.

Ambassador, we are told, also visited the Gandhi Statue and also the Governor of Georgia during his stay in Atlanta.

Such was the camaraderie that, one of the community leaders, remarked that it was very refreshing to see so many diverse leaders of our community in one Banquet hall. This was a great effort to unite the community!
 

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