Published in Indian Express, USA, June, 2009.
Interview with Mukund Kute, President of Philadelphia Marathi Mandal and Convener of 2009 Brihan Maharashtra Mandal Convention.
I met Mukund at his home in North Wales, PA where he enlightened me about his efforts to promote Marathi art, culture, and language in USA. I could feel his love for Hindi and the Indian culture as a whole and concerns about dangers of regionalism. He spoke about his association with a temple, that is called Bharatiya Temple, not Hindu Temple. He told me about various ways he is helping the community to celebrate festivals, such as, Ganeshotsav-as celebrated in all parts of India, not just in Maharashtra.
Q. Can you provide some of the achievements of your organization?
Kute: We have achieved a lot at a local level. Marathi Mandals are flourishing all over USA and Canada. We organize festivals like Ganeshotsav with gusto. For the first time Philadelphia Marathi Mandal is hosting an event of international level that will project the image of India in a very positive way.
Q. What are you doing to attract Indian Americans with roots in states other than Maharashtra to your events?
Kute: Philadelphia chapter, of which I am the president, has been organizing events that are very popular among non-Marathi community. I am very conscious about it. Our kids don't think themselves as Marathi people. They consider themselves Indians first because their American friends don't care about them being Marathi. Truly speaking we are Indians first and it must reflect in our culture and our functions that we so proudly organize.
Every year during 'Ganesotsav' (festival to worship Lord Ganesha) we invite artistes from various regions of India. We make sure to hold cultural programs that represent all parts of India. If you visit our ten-day long Ganesh festival you will be happy to find music and dance from Gujarat, Punjab, Karanataka, Kerala, Bengal and other states of India. We are offering the younger generation everything that is necessary to make them involved and enjoy.
Q. Can you elaborate upon some of the salient features of this year's convention?
Kute: We are working to present a show case of economic growth and cultural richness of India. The convention has been divided into three parts: social, cultural, and economic. A number of celebrities including Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle and actor Nana Patekar will attend the convention. We are expecting some of the leading industrialists and businessmen as well as representatives of the Maharashtra Government to participate in the convention.
Q. What are your strategies to make this convention successful?
Kute: Our volunteers represent a cross section of experts in management and technological fields. They are well connected with major businesses and corporations in various fields, such as, health care, IT, pharmaceuticals, engineering. We are pooling our expertise together to organize exhibitions, seminar and workshops. We have partnered with important tourist organizations in India and the USA. We are planning to market our expo to general public visiting Philadelphia during the Independence Day weekend. For this purpose we will partner with city's visitors bureau. The city government as well as Pennsylvania's Governor's office is taking keen interest in this convention.
Q. What is your vision to unite the Indian American community?
Kute: It is important to make our organizations at local level strong. I think that we should sincerely work for the development of our culture and promotion of our ways of life. If we succeed involving the younger generation in our culture it will be easier to create a strong national organization. A strong body is needed for representing our voice at the federal level.
We should learn from our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean countries and the West Indies who successfully preserved their heritage for hundreds of years. Their dedication to their ancestors' culture and religion is applaudable.
We, at Philadelphia Marathi Mandal, are very conscious of working for the Indian American community. We celebrate our festivals in association with the Bharatiya Temple that represents whole of India. The time has come to build supportive organizations, such as, Senior Centers for the welfare of our elders. Such a center can't be build without active cooperation of all Indian Americans. For this purpose we have invited a few of NGOs who would share their experiences in institution building for the needy people including seniors.
Q. What future do you foresee for your organization?
Kute: The Indian community is growing at fast pace. We continue to have new immigrants from India who arrive in USA for work and then settle down to raise their family here. It is a good sign. I trust that the younger generation is capable of helping communities. The young volunteers in my organization possess talent and vision and I am sure they will take organizations like BMM to great heights.
I hope that our people will develop collective consciousness and come together to build strong organizations. I also hope that Indian American community will retain a strong voice in Washington. The trend is taking roots and representatives of our communities are entering public life as councilmen, senators, board members, etc.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Young Leaders of Indian American Physicians.
A commentary on the annual convention of AAPI held in Disney Dolphin Resort at Disney World in Orlando, Fl., USA during 11-14 June, 2009, published in the special supplement of South Asian Times.
The most impressive thing was the venue of the 27th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin-the tall building of Disney Dolphin resort overlooked a manicured lawn that spread around a huge man made lake. A boat frequented the pier picking up hotel guests to Epcot center and the nearby board walk.
For a visitor the twin hotel complex is gateway to Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. ‘Entertainment architecture’ has been the central theme of the Walt Disney’s Swan and Dolphin hotels. It seems that the designers of this place kept in mind that the theme of the structures outside the boundaries of the Disney property should embody the same fantasy and sense of story as the structure in the park.
An ever smiling outgoing president of AAPI, Sanku Rao, greeted us. While we were still holding our luggage in the lobby, he invited us to a reception in one of the hotel suits. The incoming president Dr. Vinod Shah made a presentation about a letter he was planning to submit to President Obama. His colleagues in AAPI’s executive board looked very impressed. The aesthetically produced document graphically illustrated the theme of ‘yes, we can’, the mantra of President Obama’s election campaign as well as excerpts from his books, ‘Audacity of Hope’, and ‘The Dreams of my father’.
The letter was a well produced book of printed pages with plenty of photographs graphically integrated on the pages of the book. Dr. Shah wrote about poor compensation doctor received for their services. The letter highlighted the great shortage of doctors in this country. Dr. Shah advised the government to allow residency to the applicant doctors of Indian origin. Addressing the delegates at the convention, he said that thousands of such applicants were eagerly awaiting permission to start residency program in USA. “Out of 37,000 Indian students who applied for residency only 21,000 were given permission.
It is commendable how forcefully Dr. Shah demanded to allow more applicants in the residency program. I am sure the President’s representatives took note of the concerns of AAPI.
After the reception we were invited to a dinner at the board walk. The boulevard was full of tourists. We boarded a boat that dropped us at the board walk. Walking aimlessly from one end to the other, we finally spotted a sign that said ‘Welcome to AAPI’. As soon as we entered the hall we were treated with sumptuous Indian dinner. The caterer Jyoti Soni had put a lot of creativity to work while designing and presenting Indian dishes during the four days of the convention.
We met the legendary figure in Classical Indian music, Pundit Jasraj in the lobby. It was a rare occasion to meet the great vocalist in person. Raising his hands he returned our greeting. Though Bollywood music dominated the entertainment scene at the convention AAPI leadership reflected thoughtfulness by inviting Pundit ji.
A grand exhibition was inaugurated the next day. Considering the medical professionals of the Indian American community as rich and resourceful, a number of jewelry designers and business owners expected brisk sale. So did garment traders from India. Many of them were disappointed at the low turnover. I was also attracted to a number of booths that belonged to non profit organizations. Professionals like investors, pharmaceutical companies representatives were also present hoping to promote their products.
Air India offered an attractive discount of $250 for registered members of AAPI for travel to India. Announcing this gesture at the concluding function, Air India’s Executive Director for Americas, Chitra Sarkar, said Air India enjoyed an emotional bond with the Indian American medical fraternity who migrated many decades ago from India to settle in USA. “They remained loyal to us as they moved up in their career and prospered in a distant land. It is now our turn to translate this feeling of emotional attachment with our long time customers into loyalty.”
The young physicians made their presence in more ways than one. They organized their own seminars and addressed a number of questions faced by upcoming doctors in the process of establishing their practice. I found that the participants were very keen to sort out problems arising out of electronic record keeping requirement of the US government. The physicians were informed about benefit and incentives that the government was offering to doctors who were switching to electronic record keeping.
It did not take long to realize that the younger generation of physicians, unlike their parents, had different aspirations as they grew up and educated in mainstream America.
The young physicians are an asset for the organization and can help boost its membership. It was evident that AAPI was at a cross road to strengthen its strategies with more emphasis on how to turn itself in to a meaningful organization relevant to the needs of the younger physicians.
Like most Indians, physicians love Bollywood music too. It was amazing to see middle aged doctors and their wives swinging to the tune of Bollywood’s popular singer Sunidhi Chauhan. As my friend, Sudhir Vyas told me: ‘The times have changed, Ashok! So has the popular Indian music. There may not be new lyrics but the new generation is hooked to remixed songs of olden days that Sunidhi was performing for the elder generation of doctors’.
The most impressive thing was the venue of the 27th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin-the tall building of Disney Dolphin resort overlooked a manicured lawn that spread around a huge man made lake. A boat frequented the pier picking up hotel guests to Epcot center and the nearby board walk.
For a visitor the twin hotel complex is gateway to Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. ‘Entertainment architecture’ has been the central theme of the Walt Disney’s Swan and Dolphin hotels. It seems that the designers of this place kept in mind that the theme of the structures outside the boundaries of the Disney property should embody the same fantasy and sense of story as the structure in the park.
An ever smiling outgoing president of AAPI, Sanku Rao, greeted us. While we were still holding our luggage in the lobby, he invited us to a reception in one of the hotel suits. The incoming president Dr. Vinod Shah made a presentation about a letter he was planning to submit to President Obama. His colleagues in AAPI’s executive board looked very impressed. The aesthetically produced document graphically illustrated the theme of ‘yes, we can’, the mantra of President Obama’s election campaign as well as excerpts from his books, ‘Audacity of Hope’, and ‘The Dreams of my father’.
The letter was a well produced book of printed pages with plenty of photographs graphically integrated on the pages of the book. Dr. Shah wrote about poor compensation doctor received for their services. The letter highlighted the great shortage of doctors in this country. Dr. Shah advised the government to allow residency to the applicant doctors of Indian origin. Addressing the delegates at the convention, he said that thousands of such applicants were eagerly awaiting permission to start residency program in USA. “Out of 37,000 Indian students who applied for residency only 21,000 were given permission.
It is commendable how forcefully Dr. Shah demanded to allow more applicants in the residency program. I am sure the President’s representatives took note of the concerns of AAPI.
After the reception we were invited to a dinner at the board walk. The boulevard was full of tourists. We boarded a boat that dropped us at the board walk. Walking aimlessly from one end to the other, we finally spotted a sign that said ‘Welcome to AAPI’. As soon as we entered the hall we were treated with sumptuous Indian dinner. The caterer Jyoti Soni had put a lot of creativity to work while designing and presenting Indian dishes during the four days of the convention.
We met the legendary figure in Classical Indian music, Pundit Jasraj in the lobby. It was a rare occasion to meet the great vocalist in person. Raising his hands he returned our greeting. Though Bollywood music dominated the entertainment scene at the convention AAPI leadership reflected thoughtfulness by inviting Pundit ji.
A grand exhibition was inaugurated the next day. Considering the medical professionals of the Indian American community as rich and resourceful, a number of jewelry designers and business owners expected brisk sale. So did garment traders from India. Many of them were disappointed at the low turnover. I was also attracted to a number of booths that belonged to non profit organizations. Professionals like investors, pharmaceutical companies representatives were also present hoping to promote their products.
Air India offered an attractive discount of $250 for registered members of AAPI for travel to India. Announcing this gesture at the concluding function, Air India’s Executive Director for Americas, Chitra Sarkar, said Air India enjoyed an emotional bond with the Indian American medical fraternity who migrated many decades ago from India to settle in USA. “They remained loyal to us as they moved up in their career and prospered in a distant land. It is now our turn to translate this feeling of emotional attachment with our long time customers into loyalty.”
The young physicians made their presence in more ways than one. They organized their own seminars and addressed a number of questions faced by upcoming doctors in the process of establishing their practice. I found that the participants were very keen to sort out problems arising out of electronic record keeping requirement of the US government. The physicians were informed about benefit and incentives that the government was offering to doctors who were switching to electronic record keeping.
It did not take long to realize that the younger generation of physicians, unlike their parents, had different aspirations as they grew up and educated in mainstream America.
The young physicians are an asset for the organization and can help boost its membership. It was evident that AAPI was at a cross road to strengthen its strategies with more emphasis on how to turn itself in to a meaningful organization relevant to the needs of the younger physicians.
Like most Indians, physicians love Bollywood music too. It was amazing to see middle aged doctors and their wives swinging to the tune of Bollywood’s popular singer Sunidhi Chauhan. As my friend, Sudhir Vyas told me: ‘The times have changed, Ashok! So has the popular Indian music. There may not be new lyrics but the new generation is hooked to remixed songs of olden days that Sunidhi was performing for the elder generation of doctors’.
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