Geetha Patil
BOSTON: Indian American Community of Greater Boston, MA organized a virtual meeting program, ‘Tribute and Contribute to Our Galwan Valley Martyrs and Heroes’ to honor their courage and action on Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 9 pm
More than 150 participants attended the meeting from India and the USA. With an amazing response from the participants, in that hour only, this program raised more than $20,000.
The program started with a welcome and thank you note by the organizer Abhishek Singh followed by two minutes of silence to respect the Galwan Valley Martyrs. Shanti Paath was chanted by Sangeeta and Sanjay Saxena Ji and Anuradha Palakurthi Ji sang an emotionally filled patriotic song with her stunning voice.
A message and a blessing sent by Governor of Rajasthan, Kalraaj Mishra was read by Abhishek Singh, in which he expressed good wishes for the success of the program and said that the Indian solders fearlessly made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the national and territorial integrity of India. Special guests of the program, Retd. Brigadier, Kamal Singh Chauhan, Retd. Havaldar Alok Singh Ji, and Retd. Havaldar Kamal Kumar addressed the audiences and described the situation and the tension in the Indo-China border.
All of them said that for all soldiers, combat is a complex mix of emotions that define the experience of war and shape the experience of coming home. But, they gave their life for the safety and security of citizens.
Abhishek Singh, Ankur Goel, and Arun Kumar talked about the application called, “Bharatkeveer”located at https://www.bharatkeveer.gov.in/and organized a demo to show how it works and how public can pay homage to the brave hearts who laid down their lives in the line of duty.
Later, well-known dignitaries namely Prashant Palakurthi, Dr. Bharat Barai, Subu Kota, Dr. Abhaya Asthana, Robert Lancia, Anil Chawla and Kaushik Patel appealed all the audiences and pledged to motivate their friends and close contacts to contribute to the welfare of the martyrs’ families. Before ending this emotionally charged program, there was a question-answer session where all the special invitees answered the questions of the audiences very diligently.
Some of the motivated participants instantly used the Veer Jawan application and made their contributions successfully but faced some technical hiccups. The program organizers promised to the audiences to get the issues fixed with the Indian Army IT team. Emcees of the program, Jyoti Singh from USA and Mukta Munjal from India did a nice job in coordinating participants on both sides.
