Video: India Independence Day Parade at NY
New York celebrates India Day each year in the weekend following the 15th August, India’s Independence day. The celebrations involve a grand parade and cultural programme, the parade takes place on Madison Avenue between 23rd and 41st street. Today I attended the Independence day parade and you could see glimpses through the video I uploaded. Bollywood heart-throb Priyanka Chopra was this years Grand Marshall, unfortunately I could just capture a glimpse of her on my camera.
The parade itself was more of advertising podium with companies ranging from Kingfisher, Sahara, Zee to Shaadi.com pushing their products, and yes the Religion & Spiritualism shops were also there. I heard only a few songs with Nationalistic flavor, even those limited them to RDB. By the time the parade concluded the road and sidewalks were full of pamphlets, newspapers and Indian flags. And as soon as the parade ended I was impressed to see the sanitation squad come in. They removed the barricades and cleaned up the road within minutes. Probably this is what makes America what it is.
And here are some more pictures: