SURENDRA ULLAL / RAMESH SOPARAWAL
CHICAGO: The Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) organized its 10th Anniversary Awards Nite to recognize the achievements of scores of community leaders and organizations in conjunction with the 73rd India Day celebrations.
The near three-hour event at Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows, a Chicago suburb, started with Ganesh Vandana. FIA founder president Sunil Shah and his wife Rita Shah welcomed the guests after they were introduced to the audience by emcees Jessi Parmar and Mohan Rawat These two emcees got a brief break with Pratima Jairath and Saurteen Thakkar coming in.
A large number of elected officials and community leaders were present on the occasion. These included US Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy, Indian Consul General Sudhakar Dalela, Mayor of Schaumburg Tom Daily, Mayor of Hanover Park Rodney Craig, Mayor of Hoffman Estate William McLeod, Illinois Senators Laura Elman and Christine Castro, Oakbrook Mayor Gopal Lalmalani, MAFS chief Santosh Kumar, and WME president Anil Shah among others.
Deepak Kant Vyas, the grand sponsor, flew in from St Louis. He talked about things one needs to do to achieve success in life, including doing good Karma without yearning for rewards.
The FIA team chose this time to recognize media partners too and these included print and TV. However at the end of the function, many had a feeling that it should have rather been dubbed as Sunil Shah Nite and not FIA Choice Award Nite Shah apparently overshadowed or sidetracked everybody after he being singled out for praise starting from the emcees and followed by many awardees.
This new FIA – a breakaway group from decades-old FIA – owes a lot to Shah for his organizational and leadership skills but the overall success is also due to the teamwork of members like Hitesh Gandhi, Onkar Singh Sangha, current president Ninad Daftari, former president Neil Khot, and media relations in-charge Gurmeet Singh to name a few.
The FIA team also saw to it that the sparkling dance performances were interspersed with speeches and award presentation. However, some people felt that the organizers should have been more discerning in presenting some of the dances which were out of tune with the solemnity of the India Day function.
