Union (NJ): Friends of Gujarat held its preliminary meeting at the Clinton Manor restaurant recently to give momentum for the ensuing Swarnim Gujarat 2010. Gujaratis from all over the Tri-State area and also from far of places like Boston attended the meeting.

Gujarat is all set to celebrate its 50^th birthday in May next year and preparations are in full swing to celebrate it in New Jersey also. Several organizations in the Tri- 
State region are also celebrating the event in a big way.

Friends of Gujarat, a non-profit organization has also decided to celebrate the event. While the president of Friends of Gujarat Mr. Kirit Patel is leading from  the front and helped by Dr Jayesh Patel of New Jersey and Mr. Jai Patel from Boston as the vice president of the organization.

In the recent meeting Mr. Himanshu Vyas, Congress leader from Ahmedabad remained present. Along with Mr. Vyas there were two other individuals who would act as coordinators in India and they  were Mr. Girish Dani and Mr. Mahesh Vyas.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Kirit Patel made it clear that while Swarnim Gujarat was not an event for  any party or individual it was being organized for the people of Gujarat and by Gujaratis residing all over the world. Mr. Patel, also stressed the need for accountability and transparency in accounting while organizing the event on this scale.

He also said that while fund that would be collected for the event would be used  for uplifting the lives of the down trodden in Gujarat, it would also be used to help those in need in USA. Swarnim Gujarat would highlight the achievements of Gujarat in various fields and also to showcase what the state had stood for to the second generation Indian-American young boys and girls whose parents hailed from Gujarat.

Mr. Himanshu Vyas who also spoke on the occasion called upon the various organization to unite and jointly  organize the Swarnim Gujarat celebration as a mark of solidarity within the community. “It is time for you all who have settled in the USA to show to the people in Gujarat as to how united the Gujarati community was in the USA. I would also urge all other organizations to use the Friends of Gujarat as a platform to jointly celebrate”.

“People  in Gujarat have high expectations from the Gujarati community settled all over the world in USA in Particular”, Mr. Vyas said adding “the 50 year celebration should be a unique event which people will remember for a long time. It must be a historic event”, he said

According to Mr. Vyas, “the event must highlight  what Gujarat had given to the country, its people, like lifestyle, and what Gujarat could do in future. The entire history of Gujarat must also be put together in the form of a documentary so that the future generation could look back on its glorious past.”

He also advocated formation of a committee which would do follow up once the Swarnim Gujarat celebration was over so that the action plan drawn up during the event was not left to gather dust and be buried in filed and on computer hard drives. It was  important that Gujarat gets the necessary boost to live up to its glorious past and let the people of India that Gujarat was not only capable of producing sons like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar  Patel, Dhirubhai Ambani but was also capable of giving a new direction to India and the world./