The Indian American community celebrated India’s 61st Independence Day with official flag hoistings at the Indian Consulate, cultural meets and a grand parade in Manhattan, New York.At the India Day parade in Manhattan, which is the largest parade held outside India, thousands of people lined up across the street and waved Indian flags.Deepika Padukone was the Grand Marshal of the parade, which began at 1:30 p.m. from the 41st street on Madison Avenue.There were more than 10,000 Indians gathered for the parade. It was like a herd of people bumping into each other. There was lot of Indian food and promotional stalls from various businesses targeting the Indian community.
It was a day to show your support for the motherland but to a lot of people it was just another fair where they could eat some Indian food ( which was of the lowest grade).
I was in charge of one of the stalls to distribute some promotional materials for a cable channel. I was thrilled to be a part of such a celebration and to meet fellow Indians. Well, it turned out to be a nightmare for me and some of my friends. I believe that we all are ambassadors of our country and we represent India.We at our stall were giving out free stuff as a goodwill gesture and the trouble started their, the crowd simply flocked and jumped on us just to get some free stuff. The crowd was like a bunch of hooligans. It was sheer madness all around. There was no respect or discipline i could hear people cursing and howling like wolves. Even the educated people were misbehaving. The way they were acting could leave a very bad image of India and loosing the respect Indian community is credited for as Indians are considered to be the most educated and well mannered community and also one of the highest earning minority group in America. I was upset to see such a picture being displayed by those people and wondered "mera baharat kahan"
No comments:
Post a Comment