Starting with, of course, our Honorable Mayor, Brandon Johnson, our Consul General of India,
Mr. Somnath Ghosh, Illinois Supreme Court Justice, Sanjay Taylor, we also have Illinois
Appellate Justice, Reena Vantine, our very respected city clerk, Anna Valencia, and all
the other elected officials.
My name is Ajanta Chakraborty. I am the co-founder of Bollywood and Culture Group.
For the past 15 years, our work has been centered around one simple idea.
How do we spread the joy of culture in a fun and exciting way, especially for the next generation?
We have done this through our children's book series that have reached over 95,000 readers worldwide.
Oh, thank you.
Through more than 600 workshops across libraries, schools, and corporate spaces,
and through teaching thousands of students along the way,
we have seen how powerful culture can be in building connection, curiosity, and belonging.
And that is what makes today so special.
This year, it is my absolute pleasure to help organize this event,
along with my dear friend Sonam from Emerald Events.
Yeah. Kudos to our mayor for this wonderful initiative to have the first ever holy celebration at the city hall.
Can we have a massive round of applause? Yes. Amazing. All right.
Now, may I request Bhavesh Patel, the owner of iconic Sahil store on Devon, to gift the mayor with a beautiful Indian kurta.
Alright, and now we at Bollywood Groove would also like to gift our mayor some of our Maya Neal holy books.
Amazing. Alright, so let me tell you a little bit about Holi. I know a lot of you already know.
Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors, is globally known for being one of the most joyful occasions,
but there is also another profound purpose behind the colors.
It acts as a social equalizer.
In the streets of India, and now also in the halls of City Hall,
the color covers everyone equally,
especially when you play for a sufficiently long time.
And suddenly, you can no longer tell who is a CEO and who is a student,
who is an elected official, who is an artist.
It is a day when social barriers that we navigate all year round simply dissolve away.
Today, as we mark this historic first in the City Hall,
let's hope we can take that spirit of equity back to our boardrooms and classrooms and courtrooms and neighborhoods.
And what a great time to remember that along with these festival colors,
there's also another type of color that Chicago is so good at celebrating,
and that is the color of people, or in other words, diversity.
oh thank you in celebrating these colors today we are also choosing to build a city where everyone
belongs equally and proudly happy holy all right mayor johnson as you can see we've all done a
quick color exchange to get into the spirit of holy already so we would like to invite you to
join us for a small symbolic
exchange of color.
May I also request
Consul General, Mr. Somnath
Ghosh, Justice
Sanjay Taylor, Justice Rina
Vantine. Could we have
Alderman Sitchko Lopez?
Is he here?
Is he not? Okay, that's alright.
Yes, City Clerk
Anna Valencia, please join us. Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
All right. I will play some music, so we have some holy music in the background.
You all know what to do.
Now that everyone has colors on them, may I now please request our Consul General of India, Mr. Somnath Ghosh, to say a few words.
Honourable Mayor, Honourable Supreme Court Justice, Supreme Court of Illinois, Sanjay Taylor, Justice Serena Vantai, City Clerk Anna Valentina, Valencia, beg your pardon,
My dear friend Smita, Smita Shah, the chair of the Delhi Committee of the Chicago Sister City International.
All the elected officials, ladies and gentlemen, Indians, Indian-Americans, our American friends, all the organizers, thank you very much.
Namaste. Happy Holi.
It's a privilege to join you today in celebrating Holi.
The most joyous and vibrant festival of India
I am delighted to celebrate it here in Chicago
With American friends who always have shown openness
Curiosity and warmth
That make this country so very special
Holy is often called the festival of colors
But it is far more than a spectacle of bright colors and festivities
At its heart, holy is a people's celebration
Mr. Mayor, people's mayor
It does not belong to one region, one language
or one social group, today not even to one religion
It belongs to everyone
It marks the arrival of the spring, a season of renewal
of hope and fresh beginnings
As winter fades, holy reminds us that life renews itself and the warmth returns after the cold.
Today, across towns and villages in India, people step out of their homes, greet neighbors, embrace friends and joyfully apply colors to one another.
In that simple act, placing color on someone's face or hands, social barriers break down.
Everyone becomes equal in a shared celebration of happiness
In a country as vast and diverse as India
Home to hundreds of languages, multiple faiths and countless traditions
Holy carries a deeper social significance
It reinforces the idea that diversity is something to be admired and celebrated
Hindus, Muslims, don't forget we are the third largest Muslim nation in the world
Sikhs, Christians, Giants, Buddhists
People from all walks of life participate together
Holy becomes a living expression of pluralism
which India stands for.
Just as a single color cannot create a rainbow,
a single culture cannot define a civilization.
India's strength lies in its many hues,
its varied traditions,
cuisines, music and ideas
and wholly joyfully proclaims
that when these colors come together,
they create something beautiful
and certainly something more powerful.
For American friends gathered here today, holy also resonates with the ideals that define this nation, community, inclusion, and freedom of expression.
The United States is itself a tapestry of cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs.
Celebrating holy in the USA, here it not just honoring an Indian tradition, it is an affirmation of shared human values.
It is a reminder that joy is universal and that cultural exchange enriches us all.
At a time when the world is often feeling divided, festivals like Holi carries a quiet but powerful message.
Let us choose connection over conflict.
Let us come together rather than separate from each other and let us celebrate our diversities and differences.
Thank you.
As we celebrate today Holi with music, with food, with color, let us also celebrate the deeper spirit of Holi, renewal of trust, strengthening of the community, and the happiness of standing together as one human family.
Happy Holi to all of you. May your lives be filled with color, with friendship, and the promise of a bright new spring. Namaste. Thank you.
Thank you for those wonderful words. Next up, could I please request Illinois Appellate Justice Rena Van Tyn to come up here and say a few words.
Hi, everybody. Happy Holy. Before I start, I would like to call up Illinois Supreme Court Justice, Sunjay Taylor, our first Asian-American Illinois Supreme Court Justice in the state of Illinois.
We also have, from the circuit court, will the Indian circuit court judges please come up.
I did see Judge Ahuja here.
There's Johnny Jisai here.
So, you know, on behalf of the circuit court, the appellate court, the Supreme Court,
we all want to wish you a really happy holy.
This is a joyous festival.
Growing up in India, this was probably my favorite holiday.
We would get the day off of school.
We would wear bright white clothes and take a bunch of colored powders,
and it didn't matter if you didn't know the person or not.
If you saw them walking on the street, you threw colored water or this powder on them.
So by the end of the day, everybody was covered from head to toe, all their hair, clothing, with all these bright, bright colors.
It's a celebration of spring coming, of good triumphing over evil.
When you get a chance, I'm not going to go into the whole story, but look it up, H-O-L-I, holy, and find out the story behind it.
hey thank you everybody happy holy good afternoon and happy holy following up on
what my colleague just spent time talked about her own experiences in India
growing up in the holy festival season what I find very heartening is how this
festival cuts across all communities if you go on any college campus now you
will see massive holy holy uh celebrations uh on the green uh you know in the field house uh
wherever you get large people large groups of people and they're not just indian they're from
everywhere and that's just uh the power of commonality as council general talked about
power of coming together so um in this season of uh color and spring i uh bring you greetings from
in the Hillbillay Judiciary Committee.
and wish you all the best going forward.
Thank you. We are so honored by your presence.
Now it is time for some energetic dance performances.
May I request all my dancers to come closer over here while I tell them about it.
All right. All right.
Our students from Monastery Academy of Chicago,
along with some of our dancers from Lincoln Park location,
will present a short performance.
Let me just tell you their name.
The names are Kian, Olivia, Veom, Anya, Sejal, Ritu, and Artika.
Now, we are right in the middle of the session, so they're still learning.
But I think what they bring to the stage is something even more special,
which is the cultural joy.
So I hope you enjoy the performance.
Give me one moment while I set them up.
Okay.
All right.
Come through.
Just like last time, it's your turn.
We will not do anything of the sort what we just did.
It'll be a lot easier.
If you have one of these,
put your index finger through the loop
so you don't have to hold that to it.
This makes it easier.
Yep, you got it.
Amazing, all right.
I'll come forward, I'm pretty loud,
so you should be able to hear me, here we go.
Okay, very short, so just have fun.
Okay, ready?
Amazing.
You all wanna do with me?
Yeah, yeah, come.
Kids, come.
Let's do it together.
Yeah, in front of the podium
All right, you all were absolutely amazing.
All right, Mayor, I think you're too good at this.
You need to do this more often.
That was amazing.
All right, now to conclude this wonderful celebration,
May I please request Mary Johnson to say a few words?
Wow. Well, good afternoon, everyone.
And happy holy, everyone.
It is truly a great honor to celebrate this incredible holiday today here at City Hall.
And I can't express how grateful I am to have our Council General that is here.
You've been a true ally and a friend to our justices, both of you.
I will say that from now on, have me speak before I dance.
You know, I have to get a little better shape here.
You know, but to our host, Ujantu.
And to all of the performers that are here today, I just can't express how overwhelmed and excited I am to see the next generation of the culture and the diversity of our city come alive.
Can we just give it up for our performers again?
They were great.
Thank you to Clerk Valencia for being here today.
And, you know, Mr. Council General, you do know that Smita is everyone's friend, by the way.
I do want to thank Emerald Events by Sonam for the decorations, as well as Shree Caters, Alexandria Design House,
Joseph King, Erickson Design, the Patel Brothers for providing the wonderful food today
and allowing us to experience the rich culinary of Holy.
Chicago is proud to have such an incredible, vibrant Indian community
who have greatly contributed to the fabric or the soul of our city.
Our Indian community truly enriches our schools, our businesses, government,
and ensures that Chicago remains a vibrant, prosperous, and diverse city.
And today we gather to celebrate the rich traditions, culture, and heritage
that makes us the dynamic city that we are.
Holy marks the beginning of spring, which breathes new life and vitality into the earth
and, of course, across all of our communities.
It upholds the ideas of hope renewal and brother and sisterhood,
reminds us that by standing together, good will always triumph over evil.
And that's why I'm grateful that we have such an incredible, strong, diverse community,
particularly Indian community, that has stood firm,
that this city will always be a welcoming city.
And whether you come from India or anywhere else in the world,
if you decide to call Chicago your home, you will always be welcome here.
And now more than ever, with the state of things that are here in this country and around the world,
we need to come together to celebrate these traditions and remind everyone that it's diversity
and the sharing of cultures that created the city and this country.
And please know that my administration will continue to honor and celebrate the rich traditions of diversity, inclusion, and equity that make Chicago the global capital of the world.
So I extend my best wishes to you all, not just for this year, but for years to come, to make sure that the bright colors of joy and peace and community prevail in this season of division.
So again, I'm truly honored to join you all to make this celebration a real thing in City Hall.
And if we can figure out something, perhaps we can work with the staff around here to make the colors come to life even more.
I just know from now on, Smita did not warn me when I went to the first holy event at Navy Pier.
Mr. Supreme Court Justice
they did not tell me
that I should not wear a suit
and
that suit has a very special
place in Chicago's
history
but it was worth it and that's why I'm very proud
today
as we celebrate holy
that I'm proud today to present this proclamation
naming March 3rd
as holy day
in the greatest city in the world, the city of Chicago
We'll give you a picture of a good answer.
Yes.
What?