On Sunday July 15, over 50 community leaders and members from the state got together to celebrate the launch of the book, Indian Americans of Massachusetts by Meenal Pandya. This is the first book of its kind in which the history of the Indian community in MA is documented; it describes how over a brief period of five decades, Indian immigrants in Massachusetts built a thriving community brick by brick, day by day and dollar by dollar. The book records the history of Indians in Massachusetts starting from when Swami Vivekananda came to the US in the late 1800s to the recent wave of Indian immigration that began in the 1960s. It is an interesting story of the many firsts of the Indian American community: the first Indian grocery store, the first radio program, the first temple, the first dance school and many more. The chief guest of the event was Swami Tyagananda of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Boston, who inaugurated the book and spoke about the strong ties that Swami Vivekananda had with Boston.

Indian Americans of MA illustrates the struggles that the first generation of immigrants faced, and the strong ties they built across regional, religious and economic lines. Those strong ties were also evident at the book launch when, for example, Mr. Sushil Tuli, President of Leader Bank, referenced the contributions to his endeavor by eminent community members such as Mr. Harish Dang of Sounds of India, who was also present in the room. Mr. Tuli shared his experiences of starting the bank and how it became successful with its focus on immigrants. Other speakers illustrated how the Indian community has spread its wings in many fields. Capt. Alpa Ladani talked about her experiences of being in the US Army and being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone in the room chuckled when she shared her experience of expressing her desire to join the army with her parents at age 16. As expected, her parents were not ready for this decision so the army recruiter mentioned that once she turned 18 she could decide on her own. To that, she replied that her parents, being from India, would be involved in her decision even if she were age 50. Almost everyone was able to relate to that. The example illustrated the strong family ties that the Indian community has maintained.

Another speaker, Mr. Harish Dang, talked about his journey starting one of the community’s first radio stations, Sounds of India. Spreading the word about community events and happenings was very difficult until that time. Therefore he and his wife decided to launch the radio program. He mentioned that for his very first half-hour segment, he had gone to New York and bought seven records, just enough to fill the half-hour. Everything went fine until the last song. At that point, due to a technological glitch, he could not play the last record. Instead, he turned to his wife, Binita, who quickly came with a solution – she sang the song, Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai, herself! As Mr. Dang told this story at the book launch event, his wife Binita joined in at the appropriate moment and sang a few lines of that song, bringing back sweet memories for many in the audience.

Shefali Kalyani Derasari of We Care Charity shared her experiences of coming to America at the tender age of 11. From her childhood, her parents had inculcated the value of giving back to the community. Today, We Care Charity serves 3000 meals every week to people at homeless centers and children’s homes. This illustrated how individuals in the Indian American community are now giving back to the community of those in their adopted land. Nishith Acharya, the author of the book The India-US Partnership: $1 Trillion by 2030 and the emcee for the afternoon, spoke about his experiences of growing up in the US and being one of a handful of Indian Americans to be active in politics at a national, as well as local, level. He has served Presidents Clinton and Obama and has worked with the Deshpande Foundation.

The program was concluded by author Meenal Pandya, who thanked all the community builders and invited guests, shared her experiences about writing the book and read the final passage of the book Indian Americans of MA.

The book is available at Amazon.com and other books stores in the area.

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