INDIANAPOLIS: Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb's announcement of making efforts to take Indiana to the world and bringing back the world to Indiana and establishing Indiana a welcome state; Mayor Joe Hogsett declaring August 7, 2021 as the Asian Day in Indianapolis and presenting the Young-Hee Yedinak Leadership Award to six youths and performances by individual as well as groups from different countries were some of the highlights of the 2021 Asian Festival hosted by Asian American Alliance Inc headed by Rupal Thanawala at The Global Village Welcome Center, located at 4233 Lafayette Road in Indianapolis.
More than 1200 attended the Asian Festival.
The theme of this year's Festival was "Caring the Community." The Asians are caring and loving. The Covid-19 related precautions were taken. As directed by the Indiana Health Department, maintaining social distancing and wearing masks inside the Global Village Welcome Center were observed.
Marion County Public Health Department Executive Director Dr Virginia Caine gave the Covid-19 safety tips and explained the Indianapolis' efforts in the fight against Covid-19.
Mayor Hogsett said by taking Pandemic related precautions "you will be saving your life, lives of neighbours, lives of your school going children, saving the country and the world."
A temporary Covid-19 vaccination center was set up. Free vaccination was provided. Besides free health screening was also done.
2021 AUGUST 7 AS ASIAN ALLIANCE DAY
Mayor Joe Hogsett presented the Young-Hee Yedinak Leadership Award to six outstanding youth at the Asian Festival.
Those who got recognition were Aditya Ariyur, Melissa Su, Rahee Dharmadhikari, Adwita Yemme, Prenesh Monda and Vinay Krishnan.
The award is given to Asian American youth who exemplifies servant leadership, compassion, intellect and wisdom of Asian American Alliance Inc's late president Young-Hee Yedinak. Award-winning media professional Young-Hee was the most dedicated member of AAAI for over 13 years and led the organization as president from 2018-19.
Well known artist KP Singh on Facebook described Young-Hee Yedinak 'a beautiful soul, a guiding light and a dear friendYoung-Hee Yedinak will be missing at today's Asian Fest. Her noble spirit lives and will continue to inspire us and will call upon us to serve with love and a joyous heart."
AAAI president Rupal Thanawala, KP Singh, Mary Clark, Maria R Manalang and Anita Lerche were among those who welcomed Governor Eric Holcomb. Accompanied by the AAAI officials, the Governor visited various booths.
Punjabi singer /dancerAnita Hjorth Lerche enthralled the visitors. Kathak Dance by Dr Anindita Sen and her Nrityangan Kathak Academy also got a lot of applause. Vibrant performances of Bollywood Beats choreographed by its founder, Jenny Bhupatkar Chakrabarti entertained the visitors. The Chinese, Philippines, BACI Burmese-American US young dancers, attired in sparkling costumes; the Chinese Symphony Orchestra, and the ICCCI Dragon Dance were the other performances which drew the attention.
ANITA'S VIEWS: "Asian Festival was a success - and I got to premiere my song ‘Love Is My Religion’ which fitted perfectly with the celebration of the Culture of our Caring Community ❤️ Together with Bollywood Beats I also got to rock the house with Punjabi Bhangra and what a party we had! Big shout out and thanks to Rupal Thanawala."