#Mississauga, #IndiaDay2021; #PanoramaIndia; #IndiaDayVirtualExpo; #VirtualArtContest

Toronto/IBNS:  Panorama India has been celebrating India Day for the last 21 years. This year it would celebrate India Day 2021 with a historical first time ever India Day Drive Thru Parade. During a Zoom meeting Jul 7 Asha Bajaj, Editor, Director & Marketing of Canadian-Media,  had a chance to discuss with Sumeeta Kohli, Chairperson, Panorama India, Sandeep Goel, President & Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank, and Victoria Clarke, Director, and CEO of Tourism Mississauga to learn about the highlights of  India Day 2021.

Interview

Following is the excerpt of the interview:

Asha to Sumeeta: Give us a brief background about Panorama India, when started, and what is its mandate?

Sumeeta:  A non-profit organization for the last 21 years, Panorama India’s primary goal is to celebrate the culture and heritage of India and to make a beautiful mosaic that is called Canada. 

​India is an unbelievable country with many cultures, backgrounds, and languages, and we all come together as proud Indians and as Indo-Canadians we and get to celebrate India here. The need to connect virtually with more and more last year and this year has allowed us to connect with seniors and kids, who all perform, love our culture, and love to celebrate. ​

After about two and a half months of planning carefully behind the scenes, looking at all the scenarios with the safety of all as our number one priority, we are showcasing the first-ever drive-thru parade celebration on Aug 15.

Panorama India Drive Thru event. Image credit: Panorama India poster

Asha to Sumeeta: Panorama India has been celebrating India Day for the last 21 years. What’s new about India Day this year?

The new this year is the drive-thru parade which aims to have everybody out in their cars with kids and attend the event from the safety of your cars and see all of India in one day.

​A link would be sent out to everybody at the end of July at Paramount Fine Food Centre in Mississauga. We ask you and your families to get their license plate and your information and you will then get a confirmation. The link has several windows throughout the day from 11 am to 7 pm that you can pick allowing the passengers in the cars that pass through every hour to enjoy without being rushed. 

​​​This would also facilitate us to manage the number of cars that go through every hour.

So what is India Day without dance, singing, and culture? That is so important to know who we are. Panorama is a non-stop stage and once again open.

There is a radio station from where you can hear all the music in your car. As you enter the drive-thru parade, you would see our partners and sponsors and then see stage performances being created by different organizations that represent the states of India. 

So all the parents are requested to complete the registration for different age groups for different demographics before the cut-off date. It has limited spots again. When you register, you will get a secure link, which would enable them to come to the Saturday event and you will all be live with kids of the same age group. All the kids would then be given a theme each and they can color whatever they like and they would be given one hour. We will announce the winners closer to India Day. So that is the art competition.

Another big thing that we are doing on Sunday, August 8, is the India Day Expo Exhibition which would be virtual and provides an online marketplace for vendors from India and Canada and some from the US as well. They are all coming together to showcase their products and backgrounds.

Partners will also be there. ICICI Bank would be the hotspot. Both ICICI Bank and Tourism Mississauga would be running live webinars. These online vendor fairs enable you to chat live with the sponsors too. ​​

This year we are also showcasing a lot of small businesses as these have been affected most in the last year and a half due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 Brahmakumari would also be showcasing as she does such great things for the community. Prizes would be given away to different vendors and sponsors. We kick off the India Day celebration then.  Keeping in mind that not everybody would be able to attend because of the limited number of cars, going to be complete so celebrations on 15th Aug will be live-streamed on different channels for the audiences to watch.

 Keeping in mind that not everybody would be able to attend because of the limited number of cars, going to be complete so celebrations on 15th Aug will be live-streamed on different channels for the audiences to watch.

Asha to Sumeeta: Tell us how can we find more information about all the details about India Day 2021 event?

Obviously, you can go to our website www.panoramaindia.org. You can also access our social media channels.  ICICI bank’s social media channels as well as Tourism Mississauga is also posting everything about what we are doing. We are updating as real-time as possible. We will be sharing it with you. 

The link I think is so important to everybody and the minute the link is alive, make sure that we share it with everybody. The actual event would be taking place at Paramount Fine Foods Centre, 5500 Rose Cherry Pl, Mississauga. Both Sandeep and Victoria would reveal their booths during the dive-thru.

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