United India Association of New England (UIANE) celebrated the Spirit of India and India's 75th Independence Day at the Columbus Park (opposite Shivalaya temple) in Medford on 8/14/22 from 3-8pm. With over 500 in attendance this was a first-time event of this kind for UIANE, said Dr. Neela Gandhi, President of UIANE. She further said the purpose of the event was to bring the community together, creating camaraderie and was enjoyed by all those who attended and was very successful.

The program started with performances from our local Choreographers Nikita Rao and Ekta Jain who spent months practicing and perfecting to make cultural program a huge success and after this surprised the crowd with a special patriotic Flash mob dance which got all the attendees involved in the event. A student from Harvard Aparna performed a beautiful bharatnatyam dance.

Our main sponsors were Leaderbank, TD Bank, Tufts Health Plan, Ramesh Selhi from Apna Bazar and Pranav Gill from Herb Chambers BMW of Sudbury without whose support the event would not have been possible.

Thanks to our Vendors and organizations who made the event more colorful with all their products and educational booths, which included Divya Chaturvedi from Saheli, Shalini Sharma from Hidden Beauty, Dr. Karen Wallach and students from Tufts Smile Squad, dental kits donated by MDS foundation and Oral B and GSK, Artwork from students of Sunanda Sahay, Jewellery and clothing by Narmada Manikabarathan, Jayshree Venkataram, Shylaja Narayanaswami from Omis, Rekha Jain from Mayinarts, Realtor Devender Guhania, Nehal Bhagat from Desi Diva Fashion and Indian Sweets by Purvi from Joy of Treats.

This fun filled family event had a bouncy house and lots of carnival games for all children and adults.

Special thanks to Mr. Vijay Selhi and management of Shivalaya Temple for supporting us with the event.

Special thanks to our caterers for live dosa station by Harpreet Singh from Singh Dhaba in Cambridge, Live Uttapa station by Nidhi Gani from Tasty Tops, Colleens ice-cream and Ice-cream truck.

The raffle prizes were donated by Apna Bazar, Wegmans, Costco, Tooth Whitening kits by Dr. Gandhi, painting from Sunanda Sahay art student, Cards from Saheli.

Thanks to our emcees Neeharika Munjal, Dr. Seema Arora, Lovely Singh, and Dolly Raja. Special thanks to our DJ for the evening Manisha Chowdhary who played all patriotic songs and kept all the audience entertained.

Our special guest Mr. Rick Carviello, Councilor for City of Medford was very happy to see the celebration and the program concluded with Indian and American National Anthem sang by Madhu Mathur Anand.

Thanks to all the event photography by Rasik Mehta, Flyers and Marketing by Mr. Parvin Khetarpal and supported by our media partners Mr. Anil Saigal from Lokvani and Bipin Parekh from Gunjan Radio.

Thanks to our Youth group volunteers Manya Sharma, Arushi Gangwani, Nivan and Naman Gujral, Raghav and Madhav Verma, Ishan Sharma, Sachin Sharma, Divya Sharma, Maurya Geena Virmani and Other Volunteers Yash Sood, Shalini Sood, Pratima Gurung, Ankush Kumar, Jeenal Shah, Haresh Punjabi, Basundhara Bhuju.

Finally thanks to UIANE Board fro their support: Jatinder Sharma, Dolly Raja, Shobha Khetarpal, Aruna Varshney, Aanch Jain, Rashi Jaggi Gujral, Parvin Khetarpal, Anil Sood, Amit Dutt,Vikas Selhi, Jaya Goyal, Sangeeta Ghai Jaggi Varma, Dolly Sood, Rubi Selhi, Lovely Singh, Kanta Vaid, and Veena Kapoor.

The United India Association of New England Inc., known as UIANE was founded in 1984 with the core mission to preserve, promote and nurture the values of our Indian heritage by planning, developing and executing programs to bring our community together. United India Association believes in strengthening our roots and enriching our lives with Indian culture. UIANE is a cultural, social and charitable organization with team members volunteering to create a platform to showcase cultural talents. 

|