At the UIA’s welcome dinner for Consul General Sanjay Sudhir, John Kennedy, president of UIA, said, “let us all work to build a house for our Indian community and call this House of India”. The new UIA committee welcomed Mr Sudhir and his wife Vandhna Sudhir on 5 July 2004 at the Sapphire function centre, Auburn.
The other guests at the function were Ross Watts – Regional General Manager, Westpac; Ravi Bodade – Manager Air India; Pradeep Desai – Vice President Bank of Baroda; Sanjay Dixit – Chief Representative Union Bank of India; Mohan Sundar – UIA Honorary Solicitor; & Jack Chembirika – Manager, Mortgage Innovations of Commonwealth Bank. Former presidents of the UIA, Dr Sinha Dr Rao, and Dr Bhatia also attended the dinner.
Suraj Kapila was the master of ceremonies. Dave Passi, secretary of UIA, welcomed the audience in his own and said, “Our team has been working very hard to get the community together under one umbrella. It is a great challenge but I am sure with the support of you all we can certainly achieve our goals and unite the people under United Indian Associations.”
John Kennedy, President of UIA, in his speech emphasised that there is a need to get together to establish our unique place in the community as a united front to lobby our case for the benefit of the Indian community. He said “my vision is to be transparent and my team (the Executive committee) will ensure that our dealings remain transparent. Kennedy said: “there are lots of pressures from many people but this Executive committee has taken great courage to withstand all the pressure and we are working as one unit to take UIA forward.”
The consul General said “unity brings greater glory to our community and I urge all community leaders to unite for the sake of our community”.
The national anthems of Australia and India were sung by Shobha Ingleshwar. The entertainment included the kids shows by Nikhila Kiran and Natyanivedan group and Reema Randhawa’s Punjabi Paniri Group. This was coordinated immaculately by the UIA’s public officer Sue Advani.
The India Australia Friendship Fair on 17 August 2014 at Blacktown International Sports Park, Rooty Hill, is the next big event of UIA.
Published in The Indian Sun (Indian Magazine in Sydney)
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