<strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> <strong>2010</strong> Best Compliments to 23rd <strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> and Gujarati Samaj of Tampa from The Shah Family www.gujaratisamaj.org 14 GUJARATI SAMAJ OF TAMPA BAY
<strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> <strong>2010</strong> Editor’s Message Mark Twain, American author: “<strong>India</strong> is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in <strong>India</strong> only.” I am humbled by the opportunity given to me by “Gujarati Samaj Of Tampa Bay” to be a part of 23rd <strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> and take upon an important task of publishing our <strong>2010</strong> souvenir book. I welcome all of you to this wonderful annual event for the 23rd consecutive year. I have fond memories of being part of 1st <strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> and there on almost everyone of them, one way or the other. It seems like just yesterday. This is a great event to share our heritage, culture, traditions, music, folk dances with <strong>India</strong>n and American Communities in USA. Our community has progressed a lot through this in Tampa Bay. My message on this important day is to be more united and strong as a community. I would like to see some candidates from our community to be a part of U.S political system. To preserve and grow our heritage and culture, we need to be united and strong community. We have come long ways and lot of our fellow community members have taken high governmental positions in other states and now is the time that as Floridians we step up to the plate. In our community I have seen lots of donations given into the political system in USA. It is time to bring and support some strong candidates into the political arena from Florida. I would like to say special thanks to my wife Shreya and children Puja and Ravi. While working to bring this edition in light and also be a part of Gujarati Samaj executive committee as Social Secretary, I have spent a lot of time working for Samaj and leave my family behind. All this hard work is a result of their support and sacrifice and I thank them for that. I would also like to thank (not in any particular order) Shri. Kanti Bakarania, Himatlal Parekh, Dinesh Gandhi, Dr. Ashok Modh, Dr. Kiran Patel, Ghanshyambhai Patel, Nainan Desai, Kirit Shah, Dr. Samir Shah, Dr. Jayendra Choksi, Attorney Dilip Patel, Nikunj Patel, Jignesh Bakarania, Swapna Shah, Kaushik Joshi, Vikas Ghiya, Vijay Gandhi, Yogesh Shah, Jyotsana Patel, Manish Gandhi, Rajan Bhatt, Sudhir Shah, Mahesh Modha, Harish Patel (Nursing), Dr. Mukesh Kapadia, Malti Pandya, P. D. Patel, Dr. Dipak Shah, Nick Patel, Dr. C. J. Patel, Parimal Butala, Narendra Patel, Pankaj Patel, Ramila Patel, Jigisha Desai, Gordhanbhai patel, Mukesh Patel (Sound), Hitesh Adhia CPA, Dr. Mahesh Amin, Jasubhai Bakriwala, Indravadan Modi, Jayesh Patel, Arvind Patel, Bharat Doshi, Sushmaben Patel, Shantibhai Patel, Kamlesh Patel CPA, Dr. Ravi Patel, Dr. Vijay Patel, Dr. Nandkishore Shah, Sanjay Sharma (Web Site), Mina Bakarania, Hansaben Parekh, Dr. Harish Patel, Manish Kharod, Gaurangiben Patel, Geeta Kapadia, Kuleen Shah, Namrata Amin, Dr. Vijay Patel ( Tampa), Kaushik Joshi, Jyoti Gandhi, Bhogilal Patel, Upendra Upadhyay, Gautam Thakkar , Jigar Jadav and entire community of Jain Society Of Tampa Bay, to be a part of making my work successful, one way or the other and giving me an opportunity to be part of their team and a coworker. I believe that they are the pillars of my success. I would also like to thank all the readers and participants of the <strong>India</strong> <strong>Festival</strong>s. There are lot of volunteers who are also helping on the background and whose names I may have forgotten to mention and without their help and support this massive task is impossible to achieve. I really thank them from bottom of my heart. Finally my thanks goes to all the advertiser, donors, vendors who have financially supported this entire event. This book is the direct result of their support and I am looking forward to working with them again in future. My special thanks to all the members of our Gujarati Samaj who are the backbone of all our activities. www.gujaratisamaj.org 15 GUJARATI SAMAJ OF TAMPA BAY