It was great to go the 3rd Annual Gandhi walk and was an honor meet Mrs. Usha Gokani, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.Mrs. Gokani shared her delight seeing so many Indians celebrating Gandhi Jayanthi and she spoke well and I really liked what she said – people showing up with no incentives and no luring, but purely to honor the Mahatma. Amir Omar, City of Richardson Councilman also spoke about the significance of Gandhi’s ideals and its applicability in the world today.
Thanks to Prasad Thotakura for facilitating some outstanding guests to the event. I was pleased to hear Jack Godhwani speak so well and of course Shabnam Modgil is our Ms. India. I was happy to see Swati Shah in the role of emcee, she does a great job.
It was good to wear Gandhi T Shirts, whoever was the sponsor, and I thank them. It was good to see the volunteers out there.
The weather was just superb to walk around the Bachman Lake, it was simply beautiful. Thanks to Niranjan Patel (former President of IANT) for picking this venue last year. The first venue was also great where Akram Syed (former President of IANT) initiated the Gandhi walk three years ago.
It was good to wear Gandhi T Shirts, whoever was the sponsor, and I thank them. It was good to see the volunteers out there.
The weather was just superb to walk around the Bachman Lake, it was simply beautiful. Thanks to Niranjan Patel (former President of IANT) for picking this venue last year. The first venue was also great where Akram Syed (former President of IANT) initiated the Gandhi walk three years ago.
I was pleased to hear that Mr. Niranjan Patel was dreaming about the event for the last ten years, there are so many Gandhians here. Indeed, I have been dreaming and talking about the event for the last 18 years that began with Asian News Radio and Asian News Magazine.
The only disappointment for me personally was the turn out - where are the Indians? I did not see any of the leadership - AK Mago, Sudhir Parikh, Bhupen Ganatra, Taiyab Kundawala, Dilip Patel, Akram Syed, Sunil Maini, Gopala Pillai, Padmakar Kulkarni, Narendra Shah, Pramod Shah, Nishi Bhatia, Bhatia Saheb, Victor Abraham, Usha Ram, Prabhakar Rao, Jai Muterja, ……. and several others… I am embarrassed that I cannot think of all the names at this moment.
Here is the great news – The Mahatma Gandhi statue is delivered here in Dallas and within the next 3 months, it will be placed in a Garden– that makes us the 11th City in the US to have a Gandhi Statue. Dallas is now the 4th or 5th largest Indian populated city now followed by New York, Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas. Some on can correct me as I am not certain about these numbers.
You are welcome to read my annual Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at: http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/mahatma-gandhi-and-you-on-his-birthday.html
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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and the public. He is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics of pluralism, cohesive societies, Politics, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace. Over a thousand articles have been published on the topics and two of his books are poised to be released on Pluralism and Islam. Mike's work is reflected in 4 website's and 27 Blogs indexed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find all of his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com
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