Karan Menon, who won the National Geographic Bee earlier this year, stood prominently on the Indus American Bank’s float at the Indian Day Parade on Madison Avenue in Manhattan Aug. 16.
It was the first time that the 14-year-old, born and raised in the United States, had come from Edison, New Jersey, to attend the India Day parade in New York with his parents. As he gazed around the crowd, he looked somewhat amazed.
“I know about geography, but here in Manhattan the boundaries and locations looked blurred to me — are these people standing all over the place Indian-Americans, or they are just Americans – I asked myself at that moment as I could not instantly figure out if it was India or America,” the 8th grader told this correspondent. “It was unbelievable.”
A day after the parade when his excitement had somewhat subsided, Karan told this correspondent a few words that kind of summarized the spirit of the parade celebrating India’s 69th Independence Day. “I feel it is a fusion of cultures of India and the United States of America. It was as American as Indian I feel, and trust me, I will remember this for a long, long time,” he said.
At the parade, attended by about 150,000 people, there were attendees of all hue and they were dressed differently, sang differently and gave different types of dance recitals, reflecting the diversity of India, and yet its essential unity.
One of the reasons why Karan felt so ecstatic about the juxtaposition of both cultures was perhaps because a Scottish-style Bagpiper Band, composed mainly of Indian-American pipers from Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Temple in Secaucus, New Jersey, that took part in the parade. The band was led by Pipe Major Tushar Patel. The New York Police Department Band and the Indian Temple organization’s band played the national anthems of India and the U.S.
“We have been doing it a for long time both at out temple on weekends, and in programs like the India Day Parade as per the wish of Gurudev Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa who was inspired by the Bagpiper Band while on a visit to London in 1969,” Kanu Patel, the leader of the group, said. The participation caught the attention of many mainstream media outlets.
If Menon was amazed, Janvi Lalani, Miss India International, 2015, who was on the colorful News India Times Float along with nine-year-old Varenyam Pandya, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l champ from Mumbai, was overwhelmed looking at the sea of humanity on the streets of Manhattan. The teen, who lives in Florida, and came to New York for the first time, said she felt touched by the presence of so many people and the Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram slogans. “I have seen some celebrations in Florida but they were on a small-scale, but here I felt so overwhelmed by the sheer size of the crowd and their spontaneous show of patriotism,” she said.
Lalani said she was particularly impressed by the presence of so many young Indian-Americans at the parade. “It shows that even those born and raised here in the U.S. like to be in touch with their motherland’s culture and tradition. I am so proud!” she said.
Much before the parade started people from the tri-state area began to gather on the barricaded sidewalks from 37th Street and Madison Avenue, the starting point of the parade, down up to the Madison Square Park where a cultural program was held at the end of the festivities in the evening.
There were men and women of all ages, from young couples, to friends in groups standing hand in hand. There were babies, perched atop the shoulders of the parents, clutching small copies of tricolors with their tiny hands while some were seated in strollers sometimes trying to lend their feeble voices to the roars of Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai blasted by DJs through microphone, evidently to keep the waiting crowd cheered up. The patriotic spirit had started spreading slowly among the crowd a little past noon when floats started rolling by.
This became a little more frenetic when Bollywood celebrities, including actor Arjun Rampal, grand marshal of the parade, actress Parineeti Chopra, cricketer Virender Sehwag, Congress Party MP Shashi Tharoor and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, followed by the Consul General of India Dnyaneshwar Mulay and other officials, came on to the viewing stand.
Most eyes evidently were riveted on the film stars, and cricketers. People, who did not take the vantage point in front of the stand beforehand, scrambled at the last moment to get closer to the stand, sometimes trying to crane their necks from behind to get a better view even nudging the person in front.
But nobody seemed to mind.
The 35th India Day Parade organized by the Federation of Indian Associations ran through about 20 streets in Madison Avenue in the heart of Manhattan, boasting colorful tableaux by various Indian-American organizations, marching bands, police contingents and cultural performances by young Indian-Americans. Although vehicular traffic was closed on the parade route, non-Indian pedestrians from neighborhoods came out and were seen standing on sidewalks to get a taste of India.
“”This (parade) shows Indians have really arrived and a made a mark in this society,” Tharoor said. Former cricketer Sehwag also expressed pride to attend the parade, saying it was a matter of privilege and honor for him to commemorate the Independence Day with his fellow countrymen in the U.S.
He expressed the hope that that the large number of Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis living in the U.S. will come together to create a U.S. cricket team and would play international cricket soon.
Mulay congratulated the huge gathering of Indians on the country’s Independence Day and lauded the achievements of the Diaspora in his brief remarks.
The parade concluded with a cultural show at the Madison Park where music composer Shankar Mahadevan performed. The FIA president Ankur Vaidya said that this was the largest parade by Indians outside the country and has entered the Guinness Book of Records.
“Actually, we have not as yet got the police estimate of the number of people present. But our own estimate is that over 150,000 people attended the event.
Many people left after watching it for a couple of hours; many came only for the cultural event in the evening. So, taking all these together, the figure will be around 150,000,” he said.
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