Tri-City Voice

On March 29th 2024, the Indo-American Community Federation (IACF), founded by Jeevan Zutshi, a long-time stalwart of the San Francisco Bay Area community, marked its 30th anniversary by holding its annual Unity Dinner and Conference. This year’s theme was “Unity through Diversity: Breathing Life into Education,” which focused on the importance of social and emotional learning to improve our education system, and better equip our youth for the challenges of today’s world.

The evening began on a festive note with vibrant Bollywood dances from Aerodance and mesmerizing renditions of both the American and Indian national anthems, sung by Tania Gupta, whose voice left the audience spellbound.

A brief presentation honoring 30 years of IACF was followed by another highlight of the evening, an engaging and artfully crafted presentation by 9-year-old Shyla Zutshi, entitled “Understanding Yoga.” This served as a wonderful segue to the panel discussion.

The panel, moderated by Attorney Anjali Zutshi, highlighted the SKY Schools program, which has been training teachers and youth in the USA and internationally for over 20 years to manage mind, emotions, and stress using wellness techniques such as yoga and meditation. Since 2008, the methods have been taught in the Western Hemisphere to over 200,000 young people and their teachers including South America, Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and it is expected to spread to many other countries in Europe and the Middle East. The panel featured the Director of SKY Schools, Bill Herman and a principal of a school who has implemented the program, Kasturi Basu. Other panelists included founder of Home of Hope, Dr. Nilima Sabharwal, Fremont Unified Board of Education Member, Vivek Prasad, and Alameda County Board of Education member, Elaine McDonald.

After a sumptuous feast featuring Indian cuisine, the evening continued with several honorable speakers. Alam Khydeeja, Executive Director, California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs (APIA), served as a proud representative of APIA community, the fastest growing ethnic population in California. Additionally, the Honored Chief Guest Speaker was H.H. Acharya Dr. Lokesh Muni Ji, the Founder President of “Ahimsa Vishwa Bharti.” Acharya Muni ji is a versatile thinker, writer, poet, and social reformer who has relentlessly promoted the development of human values, and establishment of non-violence, peace, and cooperation in society for the last 39 years. H.H. Acharya Dr. Lokesh Muni is the recipient of many awards, including ‘The National Communal Harmony Award 2010’ by the Government of India, and the ‘Ambassador of Peace Award’ at the United Nations Centre for his remarkable contributions towards world peace.

Finally, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, whose effortless stage presence and message of unity in diversity was the perfect keynote message for the evening.

The event was sold out and widely attended by over 350 members of the diverse community. The crowd also featured several prominent guests including Mayors of Fremont, Milpitas, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara; Councilmembers from Fremont, San Jose, Santa Clara; Alameda County Supervisor (CA-1), David Haubert, Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee, representatives from Attorney General of California, Congressman Ro Khanna and many others representing Chamber of Commerce, Boards and Commissions.

The Sponsors of the event were Alameda County Supervisor (CA-1), David Haubert, Merrill Lynch Global wealth manager Deepak Ganju, Washington Hospital and Kaiser Hospital, Pannu Dental, Dr. Harmesh Kumar, Kishore Pal, Dr. Raj Salwan, Ashok Bhat, Vin Kruttiventi (candidate for Congress), Droisys and others. All the bay area community organizations came together to support the Unity Dinner including Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora FIIDS, FIA/FOG, Foundation for Excellence, Kashmiri overseas Association, BAPS, Jain center, Association of Indo-Americans AIA, IbadatKhana led by Tasawar Jalali, Hindu American Foundation HAF. Continuing its legacy of bringing together communities, this year’s Unity Dinner,  proved to be another grand success.