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All roads led to Edison last weekend as thousands of Guajaratis from all over the United States, and also some from outside the U.S., travelled to the New Jersey township to take a dip into Gujarati culture and tradition as Chalo Gujarat, a world conference of people of Gujarati descent every two years, got underway.
Inside the New Jersey Expo Center in Edison conch shells were blown in the most revered tradition to inaugurate the two-and–half day conference. And throughout the next two days day people feasted on Gujarati music, dance and poetry recitals. For the spiritually oriented, there were talks on religion and spirituality. For gourmet of Gujarati food, there were plenty to choose from despite scramble to be the first in the queue. The event was organized by the Association of Indian Americans of North America (AIANA).
“I really appreciate their (Organizers’) hard work and hope that second generation (Guajaratis) also gets involved in it eventually, or else in few years there might be no such cultural events,’ Krishna Sandip Gandhi, a sophomore at Rutgers University, said.
Gandhi, who moved to the U.S. when she was 12, said there is an “urgent need” to have the next-gen familiar with their culture, and that is what such conferences should aim at. “I would never leave my roots and I would never like to because our culture and traditions are what defines me. I am nothing without it,” Gandhi told Desi Talk.
She said she has a lot of polish friends and although their parents are born and raised in the US, but the way they take part in their cultural programs is very impressive and something we should learn from them. They are not afraid or ashamed to speak in their language and even their second generation speaks it fluently,” she said. “Can we say that about all the American Gujarati’s here,” she asked.
One of the reasons for the conference was to familiarize the next-gen with their tradition and culture. But how much of that aim was realized after the conference was available from the organizers.
Chalo Gujarat paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, and the best known and oldest Gujarati NRI, as well as to his wife Kasturba. The tribute was paid through a play-cum multimedia presentation by Raj Mohan Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma.
Gandhi of Rutgers University was pretty impressed at the end of the convention. “If I get the support and correct guidance, I will organize a club on my university campus and try my best to keep our Gujarati culture alive forever and people like Jhaverchand Meghani and Narsi Mehta alive in our hearts,” she said.
Others like Shailu Desai, an advertising executive in New York who attended the event, felt the conference this year was better in terms of participation of young generation. “Obviously, going by the number of young people inside the auditorium, it seemed to me that a lot of the second generation people are taking interest in their culture and tradition,” she said
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