In a solemn ceremony attended by family and friends, Padma Shri recipient Dr. Sudhir Parikh, chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media/ITV Gold, and 7 other Indian Americans were formally inducted into the Rutgers Living History Society and Oral History Archives.
They were recognized for their lifetime accomplishments and achievements, and for a life well-lived in the service of others as well as their contributions to the American social and political fabric. The Indian American Club led by President of IAC-NJ Shatrughan Dawani, collaborated to make the project a reality.
The inductees included Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Deepak Khare, Hemant Patel, Prakash Parab, Rajesh Mehta, Satish Punj, Shobha Mirchandani, and Suresh Kumar. One of them, Satish Punj was represented by family members including his wife.
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The story of each of the 8 inductees has been memorialized in a special publication, a coffee-table book, which was presented to each of them at the ceremony.
Director of the Oral History Archives, Shaun Illingworth, spent time with each of the inductees in the months preceding this event, to personally interview each and record in their own words, their life histories. These life histories are available free to students, researchers and others for educational purposes. More than 30,000 visitors check the site on an annual basis.
At the event, each inductee was introduced by Shaun Illingworth, along with an audio recounting their lives in their own words. They all thanked Illingworth and the Indian American Club, in their speeches, as they were presented with a bouquet and the coffee table book describing their life journey in their own words.
Dr. Parikh, in his speech, recounted how as a qualified pulmonologist, allergist and immunologist, he began acquiring medical practices around the region, cold-calling those run by physicians above the age of 65. Today, he has 27 practices employing 350 doctors, nurses, practitioners and supporting staff working for him. And he has all along helped India in whatever way possible. “We all come from humble backgrounds, and I always felt a debt to the Government of India. For becoming a doctor I paid 200 Rupees a semester. It was my turn to give,” he said. That spurred to work on strengthening US-India relations through organizations like the Indian American Forum for Political Education to empower the next generation to enter politics. “Today, over 300 Indian American children are at different levels (on Capitol Hill), and this makes a big difference to US-India policy.” He noted how Indian Americans had influenced the founding of the India Caucus and the US-India Civil Nuclear Deal, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advice that he go into the media world, to help dispel misrepresentation of India in Western media. He also dwelt on his philanthropic work with Life Global and Project ‘Life’ for building 108 schools in India, and his support for leading NGOs like Ekal Vidyalaya and Akshaya Patra. “Education is the best philanthropy,” he said.
Other awardees also spoke about their achievements and thanked Illingworth and IAC-NJ’s Dawani, for selecting them and doing the hard work for the Rutgers archives.
Suresh Kumar thanked Illingworth, saying, “You asked some very big, probing questions that brought out a lot of my history.”
Rajesh Mehta echoed the sentiment, “I want to thank Shaun for coming to my home and interviewing me and get out of me whatever I never told anyone.”
Shobha Mirchandani said, “Shaun’s probing questions have put my life in a little, concise, few pages. And my parents from up, they must feel very proud. … In the world of 9-11, all the brownie points I scored with mental health were the only reason I have a green card and the citizenship today.”
Hemant Patel thanked everyone including those who designed the publication recording the inductees’ achievements.
Satish Punj’s daughter spoke of how the current generation was thriving because of all the hard work done by people like the inductees, including her own father.