My Back to Back Indian Events: World Hindi Day and Republic Day

- January 11 and 27, Saturday and Monday.

- 2025 entered fast and one wink it's already March. However, despite the stress, I could say that 2025 so far has been nice to me (and I wish it remains nice to me). January alone was already filled with surprises, including my back-to-back Indian events, courtesy of the Indian Embassy.

- One the 11th of January, I was invited by the Indian Embassy to deliver a speech in Hindi as part of the World Hindi Day celebration at the Embassy's BGC office. I feel honored to be remembered by the Indian Embassy because it's been a while since they invited me to participate in an event. They needed a Filipino (not of Indian descent) who can speak Hindi and should be able to impart the importance of learning Hindi. As usual, I shared my journey that started when I was a young boy who liked watching Indian shows on cable TV without understanding anything, to my high school days when I learned Hindi by myself, until the time I had to formally learn Hindi with a tutor as part of my requirements for my master's degree. I think I surprised the audience, mostly Indian students studying in the Philippines (majority for a medical degree), and especially friends and acquaintances from the Indian community who for some reason did not know I spoke the language. 

Happy World Hindi Day!

H.E. Harsh Kumar Jain, Ambassador of India to the Philippines.

Special thanks to Ms. Jamil, Embassy staff, who took these nice photos of me.

It was an honor to be given the chance to speak in front of the Ambassador and his wife, as well as the Indian community.

- Apart from my speech, as well as representatives from the local and expat Indian community who also shared how Hindi meant to them and their careers, the Indian Embassy also held a Hindi poetry contest for children and adults. The whole program was simple yet meaningful; it became even better after we all feasted on some amazing Indian food afterwards!

With the participants of the poetry contest, as well as the Indians who were present during the event.

- Fast forward to two weeks later, I was invited to join the Indian Embassy in celebrating the 76th Indian Republic Day, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the bilateral relations of India and the Philippines. It was held at Shangri-La The Fort, and graced by various representatives of foreign missions, the Philippine government, as well as the Indian community. It was not only a good excuse to be dressed to the nines, but it was also an opportunity to meet other Indian friends I have not seen in a while. It was also a good time to remind everyone that I am an Indian Studies specialist, as there are not a lot of us in the Philippines. Most importantly, I was able to meet the ambassador once more, as well as the Indian diplomatic corps.

Thank you so much for inviting me!

I realized how long it had been since the last time I attended a fancy event.

- The event also featured performances from both the Indian and Filipino performers in celebration of India's rich culture. And as it was Shangri-La, the Indian food served was some of the best!

A classical dance performance; I think this was Kathak.

With some performers from Enchanted Kingdom.

Representatives from the Indian community showcasing wedding clothes from different regions of India.

With Ambassador Jain, and his wife, Mrs. Vandana Jain.

 

- The night ended sooner than I thought. Time permitting, I would have wanted to talk to more people, although I also found it difficult to just talk to random people (especially high-profile people). It is through these events that I get to meet and learn more from other people. However, it was still January and surely there are more Indian events lined up for the rest of the year! 2025 seemed to be a year of surprises, and I hope more good surprises are coming my way! 

"Hindi Diwas": India's Hindi Day in Manila

- September 14, 2016, Wednesday.

- If the Philippines celebrates "Buwan/Linggo ng Wika" (Filipino Language Month/Week) during August, India celebrates Hindi Diwas on September 14. Just like in the Philippines, Hindi Diwas is celebrated in India through holding Hindi-related contests (ex. essay-writing contests) or arranging performances that glorify or honor the Hindi language. This event is held on this day, because in 1949, the Indian government made Hindi, with the Sanskrit-derived Devanagari alphasyllabary as its written form, as the official language of India.

- First Secretary Dr. Suresh Kumar of the Indian Embassy contacted me last week and requested me to come to the embassy today to give a short speech about my experiences with Hindi. Now I had Hindi lessons in 2013 as a requirement for my master's, and I can do a simple conversation in Hindi, but I have never made a speech in Hindi though I have spoken the language in public. Since it was an Embassy-led event, I wanted my speech to be half-formal-half-casual. Finally, I made a one-page speech about my journey in learning the language, embracing the language, and eventually, loving its motherland even more (i.e. India.) I was allowed to bring guests, so I brought my mom and my sister.

I am the lost child of India.

Mom always asks me when she could wear her kurtas and kameezes (all of which I bought for her in some of my travels.) Today, I gave her a reason to wear one of her kurtas. She even had a matching dupatta/scarf and churidar/tight-fitting pants (yes, I also bought her those.)

- The event started around 4:30 at the ground floor of the Indian Embassy. Apart from celebrating Hindi Day, the event was also my reunion with my MA adviser, Dr. Joefe Santarita (who is also the current dean of the UP Asian Center and one of the Indian specialists in the Philippines,) my friend and co-South-Asian-major Denzel, and other colleagues from the UP Asian Center.

An excerpt of my speech. (Thank you Indian friends Jashwin and Jasmine for helping me proofread my speech. You guys are the bestestestestest!!) 

- Dr. Kumar asked me and Dr. Santarita to sit on either side of the Indian Ambassador, His Excellency L.D. Ralte. My speech went first, with my hands shaking in nervousness (especially after being seated next to the ambassador.) After my speech (which I hope was well received,) Dr. Santarita gave an informative speech about the importance of Indian-Philippine relations. Afterwards, there was a short awarding ceremony for the Hindi essay-writing contest. Entries were submitted online days before, and the winners were the only ones invited to attend Hindi Diwas in the Indian Embassy so they can get their prizes.

"Vishva Hindi Diwas" (World Hindi Day.)

Dr. Santarita, H.E. Lalduhthlana Ralte, and me (and my cheeky smile.)

It's showtime. If had a title for my speech, it would be "The Story of My Life." Hahahaha. I literally had anecdotes of my when I was little.

Ambassador's speech.

A blurred photo (thanks sis....) of my getting my gift from the Ambassador.

- After the short event, which surprisingly did not even last 30 minutes, we had light Indian snacks to celebrate. We had samosas, ladoos, and jamuns. I caught up with Dr. Santarita and Denzel, and had some chat with Dr. Kumar and H.E. L.D. Ralte. We finished around 6pm and rode back home. I was happy that I finally had an opportunity to visit the embassy for some semi-official reason, and for me to be able to finally give a speech in Hindi. I've honestly wondered since my mid-teens, when I started learning Hindi on my own, if I would be able to somehow give a speech in the presence of some distinguished Indian and in front of an Indian audience; never in my life did I think I'd have the opportunity to do so.  

YAY FOR INDIAN FOOD!!

South Asian boyzz unite.

My forever ritual when meeting the ambassador - a photo with him.

Matchy-matchy with the Dr. Santarita, and Denzel looked like a mormon. HAHA.

Bringing India to the University: Philippine-Indian Bilateral Relations

- April 1, 2016, Friday.

- The Embassy of India in Manila, in cooperation with the Ateneo de Manila University (Department of History,) hosted a special talk on Philippine-Indian bilateral relations on April 1, 2016, 5-6:30pm, at the university's Escaler Hall. It was the first ever major Indian event that the university had in the recent years (at least, as far back as I can remember.) The best part about this event was that it was completely sponsored by the Indian Embassy. This was also my first major event in school; I served as the main point person for this event. Dr. Suresh Kumar, the first secretary of the Political; Press, Information, and Culture Section of the Indian Embassy contacted me and proposed this event to me, and I was given a go signal by the university. Of course, I could not have done it without the help, support, and guidance of the professors and staff of Ateneo's Department of History.

- On the day of the event, Dr. Coo and I welcomed Dr. Suresh and led him to the hall. Dr. Suresh came with Ms. Angelique from the embassy, and other embassy staff. They also brought Indian snacks and tourism pamphlets, so the students can have first hand experience of some aspects of Indian culture, as well as more information on the tourist spots (both historical and natural) of India. Apart from Dr. Suresh, I also met Mrs. Shanti Sreedhar of Natya Mandala; Mrs. Sreedhar is a multi-awarded dancer who now resides in the Philippines, and opened the first ever Bharatanatyam dance school in the country. Mrs. Sreedhar is also affiliated with the University of the Philippines - Diliman's School of Music, as she teaches Bharatanatyam to ethnomusicology majors. Bharatanatyam is a South-Indian dance (from Tamil Nadu to be specific) and is one of the popular classical dances of India. For the event, Mrs. Sreedhar assigned her daughter-and-student Sparsha to dance for the crowd.

- Students later filled the lecture hall, some of them my students, and the others by other history professors. History professors and some interested professors from the other departments also attended the talk.

Registration.

Indian snacks and traditional sweets waiting to be eaten.

- Dr. Suresh commenced his talk by telling the students on the different ways that India and the Philippines are fostering good relations, such as encouraging people-to-people connectivity, importing Indian companies, sending Filipinos to study in India and vice versa, and other schemes. Connecting with the Philippines is part of India's "Look-East Policy," which made India engage with the east (i.e. the rest of Asia) apart from the west (i.e. UK, the rest of Europe, and America.) After all, India has established relations with the different Asian countries even during ancient world history.

Full house!! Yes, that's me emcee-ing.

Dr. Coo introducing Dr. Kumar.

Dr. Kumar doing the first part of his talk on Philippine-Indian Bilateral Relations.

- Sparsha performed her short Bharatanatyam piece for the intermission. Her specific piece is called "Vandana," which is an invocation piece, which makes it some sort of prayer in the form of dance. Bharatanatyam, generally, is also a classical dance based on the element of fire, since the dance requires some jumps and sharp movements, making the dance look like a dancing flame. The whole audience loved Sparsha, not only because of her rainbow-colored costume, but also her impeccable dance technique. I was very happy in choosing Natya Mandala to perform for the event; I know I did not make a mistake in asking them to perform after seeing the quality of their performances twice in the past (click here for Swami Vivekananda's Birthday in 2013, and here for Utsav: UP's Festival of India 2015.)

It was hard to take a photo of her; well actually Ms. Shayne Garcia, lecturer of the History  Dept., took the photos using my camera as I was busy emcee-ing for the evening.

That's the Indian flag at the side.

I've actually seen Sparsha dance before, during the 150th Birthday Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

- After the dance, Dr. Kumar proceeded to the second part of his talk, which is about Indian influences in Philippine culture and society. For instance, many people do not know that many names of Philippine places came from Sanskrit roots (ex. Visayas - from [Sri]vijaya), or that 25% of the Filipino langauge came from Sanskrit (ex. diwa - from jivan [meaning "life"], bahagi - from bhagi [meaning "part/segment"] etc.) He also talked about different aspects of Indian culture and society such as the different languages of India, the festivals of India (particularly Diwali or the Festival of Lights, and Holi or the Spring Festival.)

A better shot of me.

Second part of the talk.

- Before ending the talk, Dr. Kumar had a Q&A game, with twenty questions. Each student who could give the right answer would get a t-shirt from the Indian Embassy. Dr. Suresh was impressed with the students since all the questions were answered correctly; some students were also quite competitive. Of course, all the teachers (including me) were proud since we knew that out students really listened to the talk. Some of my students got prizes as well.

Presenting, my 3 students who were able to get prizes (and 17 others from the other professors.) Please ignore my face in the middle photo, I don't know what I was doing/saying.

- To end the event, tokens of appreciation to Dr. Suresh and Natya Mandala were presented by the chair of the Department of History, Dr. Lianne Habana. Dr. Suresh had surprises up his sleeve as he presented some tokens of appreciation to us as well. He gave us a coffee table book on Indian wildlife, with the nature photos taken by some of India's good-eyed nature photographers.

Dr. Habana giving the token of appreciation to Dr. Suresh.

Dr. Suresh giving me his token of appreciation to me. (Thank you Dr. Suresh!!)

Dr. Habana giving Sparsha her token.

Dr. Habana giving Mrs. Sreedhar her token of appreciation.

Dr. Suresh, Sparsha, Mrs. Sreedhar, with Dr. Coo, Dr. Habama, and Ms. Garcia

- Finally, just before everyone left, it was time for them to have a taste of Indian snacks. I was only able to eat a bit since I was busy accommodating Dr. Suresh, Mrs. Sreedhar and Sparsha, the other professors, and the students. Also, since I was able to eat those delicious snacks before, I wanted to give more chances to the attendees who just had their first try of Indian snacks that day. I was elated to hear that they liked and appreciated the Indian snacks that they had. By the way, they had samosas, jalebi, among others. I also knew that the Indian Embassy's caterer made good food since I was able to enjoy them during the flag-hoisting ceremony last year in the Indian Ambassdor's House (click here to see my visit to/awarding in the Indian Ambassador's house;) I also met Dr. Suresh for the first time during that event.

Students lining up to get food. I was lucky to have some for myself too, but it's OK, I wanted them to have more since some of them haven't even tasted Indian food before.

Photo by Dr. Coo.

- After everyone left, I left school with a heavy bag and a happy heart. I knew it was a big shot to serve as a point person for a diplomatic event like this, and I definitely learned a lot not only from Dr. Suresh, but also through the guidance of the Department of History (especially Dr. Stephanie Coo, Dr. Lianna Habana, and Ms. Shayne Garcia) in organizing this event. I hope that more Indian events will take place in our university, especially since India is an emerging nation as it is excelling and greatly contributing to different important fields. Dr. Suresh and Mrs. Sreedhar were, likewise, happy that they were finally able to show their country's culture to the Ateneo community.

With Dr. Suresh, just before we left school.

Welcome to the Ambassador's Home: The 66th Republic Day of India - A Day for the Indians, and Me

- January 26, 2015, Monday.

- The chance to visit a foreign ambassador in his own home is rare. It is even rarer to be invited by a foreign embassy to visit the ambassador in his home. (Maybe the chances are higher if you were a migrant or a long term temporary resident, and your country's embassy in that foreign country would invite you for something; that would seem more relevant and understandable.) For me, I received such an invitation last Saturday from Dr. Suresh Kumar, from the political, press, information and culture section of the Indian Embassy in the Philippines. He invited me to join the flag hoisting event, held today at the ambassador's house to celebrate the 66th Republic Day of India. More about this later.

- The "Republic Day" of India should not be confused with the August 19 Indian Independence Day, when India became free from British rule, and the day Pakistan separated from India. The Republic Day is celebrated to remind the Indians everywhere that the constitution that made India a "republic" took effect on this day in 1950. In the Philippines, this Indian holiday is celebrated annually, with the ambassador inviting all Indian nationals to his home for a flag hoisting event, some words from the president of India, and of course, some refreshments.

- Today, I went to the ambassador's house, and changed into my kurta and Nehru vest. Thank goodness Metro Manila's public transportation did not fail me this morning, so I was able to arrive earlier than expected; the flag hoisting was held at 9am, but I arrived around half an hour earlier. I was able to have some small talk with the ambassador, and some Filipino and Indian employees/staff from the embassy. The ambassador's wife reminded me of my Hindi teacher; she was very meticulous with details, and wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before more visitors arrived.

The ambassador's wife, her daughter, and her friends.

- The event started right after the official photographer for the event arrived. The ambassador, H.E. Lalduhthlana Ralte, first released the balled-up flag, with confetti bursting as the flag was opened. I sung the Indian national anthem together with all the Indians; come to think of it, other than the Filipino embassy staff, and the security guards, and the photographer, I was the only non-Indian "guest" to be there.

- The ambassador then delivered the speech by the current president of India, President Pranab Mukherjee. The speech stated that despite all the negative things that is happening to India, and what the world knows about India, India should continue to strive to be better, step out, and stand out.

The flag was opened; too bad there was no wind to show the flag.

H.E. Lalduhthlana Ralte delivering the speech of President Pranab Mukherjee.

- Before the refreshments, Dr. Suresh Kumar went to the podium for a few announcements, one of which, involved me. The embassy held an online photo contest recently, with the theme of "India in the Philippines." The instruction stated that all entries should be something that reminds people of India (places, people, food, etc.,) and should be shot in the Philippines. I submitted three entries, and fortunately, one of them won. The prize was an Canon SLR camera, with a complimentary bag and tripod; the ambassador also gave out a book on India (with a lot of nice pictures of different places in India) in addition to the main prize.

Receiving my prize. 

My friend Roshan took these photos.

- After the awarding, we were invited to the poolside for some light snacks. The pool was inside the side, so we all had to enter the main door. The main door had a table placed in front, and had a big pile of books on primary Hindi, small Hindi/Punjabi novels, children's story books in Hindi, some coffee table books on India, and other books of the same theme/nature; they were all for free and we could get any book we wanted. Of course, I got as many books as I need since I couldn't find those kinds of books here in the Philippines.

Small Indian flags ("tiranga") at the gates.

- Many people congratulated me throughout the morning, as I congratulated them with a "Happy Republic Day" in return. I found it funny and interesting when I was mistaken for a professional photographer (which I am not, and far from one,) part Indian or an Indian from the northeast (which I am not, but in heart, perhaps; northeastern Indians look more Chinese because of the geographical location of Northeast India.) As expected, and as usual when meeting Indians from the Hindi-speaking belt, one question that had been coming up the whole morning was "why do you speak Hindi?" Of course, I had to tell them my really summarized life story.

A more decent photo with the current ambassador; this is inside his house.

- I eventually made my way to the poolside, and we were served some jalebis (orange-colored syrup-sweet funnel cakes,) vegetable fritters, samosas, and some vegetarian roll that looked like an Indian burrito. I loved the food and I would have eaten more if I wasn't busy talking to the other Indians, including one of my respondents for my thesis. Well, talking to the Indians was a pleasure by itself; they always have some witty remarks and funny comments. I also realized that I've been rubbing elbows with more Indians throughout the years, because I was able to talk to meet some Indians in the event who were connected with some of the Indians I knew beforehand. I was not able to take photos of the poolside because my hands were too full with food and drinks.

- I got to roam around the ground floor of the ambassador's house, and I must say that it reminded me of the big hotels I've stayed at in India before, particularly the ones in Jaipur.  I wasn't able to roam around the whole house, but I think I would like to have a house like his. The house seemed cozy. As much as I wanted to take many photos inside the house, I did not want to look suspicious so I just took a nice photo by the flag and the photo of the current Indian president.

My photo, together with all the other entries, being flashed.

A giant tiranga, and a photo of President Pranab Mukherjee.

- Before I left the ambassador's residence, I was able to have a longer conversation with Dr. Kumar, and he told me that the embassy has plans of organizing more cultural events to strengthen (soft) diplomatic ties between India and the Philippines. He even told me to watch out for the Holi celebration this March, to be held at the SM Mall of Asia open area, by the bay (I attended this festival two years ago, and you can read it here for more information about the event, and the festival itself.)

With Dr. Suresh Kumar.

- I left the ambassador's house with a heavy heart (and my hands with heavy baggage,) but I felt that the greater honor for the day was not the award/prize, but the opportunity to have celebrated the 66th Republic Day in the ambassador's house, with the ambassador and his family, and the other Indians living here in Metro Manila. Finally, I would like to thank the Indian Embassy for the invitation to the event, the judges of the contest who chose my photo, and of course, Wipro Philippines for sponsoring my prize.




** Here's the winning photo I submitted:

"Prabhu"

- The photo si entitled "Prabhu," and shows a Filipino devotee of the Hare Krishna movement honoring a statue of the founder of  the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON,) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. This was taken during the rathayatra festival, held during the "Festival of India" at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. (Read about the event here.)