President's Message

December, 2009

Dear fellow community members,

For 16 years India-link has provided a platform for social, cultural, educational, and entertainment needs of local Indian Community of greater Grand Rapids. I came to this town in 1996 and since then, I have seen India-Link facilitating families to pass the torch of Indian values over to our coming generations. We have always felt pride watching kids performing Bharat Natayam, Bhangra and other cultural programs at India-Link's Annual functions. However, as the community grew, many felt the need of establishing worship places. The Sikh Gurdwara and Hindu temple in Grand Rapids reflect the strength and harmony of our community as we all participated, shared and, contributed our efforts to establish them.

Recently, I had the privilege to meet some of our community leaders who questioned the viability of India-Link. They argued that since the core values of India-Link (social, cultural and, educational) are being fulfilled by these religious establishments, it renders India-Link obsolete. Let me be very clear, an organization like India-Link is needed today more than ever before. As the community is growing and the younger generation is getting ready to take over the role of their elders, India-Link is going to play a critical role. This is going to come in the form of establishing coherence among different groups of community members and provide a bigger platform for all kinds of activities. Most importantly they will truly represent and be a voice of our combined Indian community. Past India-Link members who volunteered thousands of hours to prepare and organize annual functions from 1994-2009 deserve a pat on the back for their efforts to keep this organization viable. We are truly indebted to all those members who were involved with India-Link during all these years. This year, India-Link is committed to revamp its efforts to involve more volunteers and has taken the following tasks:

-- To adopt the paperless communication mode to cut the expenses and save time and energy. To make it a success, it is imperative that we have the email addresses of all our community members. Therefore, I would like to urge all of you to spread the word and ask your friends who are not getting the communication from India-Link to register by providing their email addresses.

-- This year, India-Link is publishing a monthly newsletter covering local community news and selected national Indian news of importance. You have already received the first India-Link newsletter by email.

-- In the year of 2010, India-Link will be organizing two functions. On March 27, 2010 the Holi-Baisakhi function and in Oct.-Nov. the Diwali function.

-- India-Link has just completed a project collecting donations for the God?s Kitchen program. This has been the second year in which India-Link has successfully contributed and given back to our local society. I thank those who generously contributed towards this project.

I urge all of you, and especially invite our younger generation, to actively participate in the India-Link activities to keep our ancient yet essential Indian values alive and strengthen ties with our adopted country and community inter se.

Thanks,
S.P. Singh Makkar
President of India Link, Grand Rapids