FICA Deepavali 2025
La Centre Westlake
November 2, 2025

By Deepa Rao

FICA is an organization dedicated to serving the needs of the Asian Indian Community in Northeast Ohio. FICA Deepavali 2025 was held at La Centre Westlake on November 2nd 2025. This year's event was extravagant since, for the first time in the history of FICA, we had a Bollywood celebrity guest and Consul General of New York, Honorable Ambassador Binaya Srikanata Pradhan.

Afternoon, 3 pm was a meet and greet with the Honorable Ambassador. Distinguished VIP's of Cleveland City were invited to attend the meet and greet. Cleveland Community leaders, presidents of various regional organizations, senators, and state representatives were present at the meet and greet. Important business aspects and perspective of the future of Cleveland were discussed. The Morning Honorable ambassador, with a few distinguished FICA and community leaders, visited the ICG and paid respect to Mahatma Gandhi.

On the morning of November 2nd, a consular camp was arranged by FICA to help the community with visa and passport services. Many community members participated in large numbers in the visa camp.

The evening after the meet and greet with the Honorable Ambassador CG of New York, a formal gathering to celebrate Deepavali was arranged by FICA. Around 450 people attended the event. Networking with tea and appetizers was followed by speeches from the president of FICA, Mr.Shekar Ganore, and the CG of New York.

This was followed by cultural performances from different dance schools in Cleveland.

Then there was a grand Rose petal shower entry for Bollywood celebrity Miss Mallika Sherawat. She danced to the tunes of the famous Bollywood song Mayya Mayya, and the crowd was cheering and dancing with her. Dinner was served, followed by the DJ. The night ended with music and dance of Mayya Mayya lingering in the minds of people gathered.

FICA Deepavali Events 2025

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