AristaCare Indian Nursing Home celebrates joyful Diwali for parents

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Accompanied by tunes of a Diwali arati, one hundred and seventy elder residents at AristaCare Indian Nursing Home celebrated Diwali with family and friends at its Cedar Oaks facility in New Jersey, October 27.

The altar in the reception hall was specially decorated for Diwali with flower garlands, embroidered wall hangings, rangoli, Diwali crafts, and photos of Laxmi and other Gods. In the traditional fashion, participants, including founder of Indian Nursing Home Program, Dr. Mukund Thakar and his wife Rama, took turns to sway the ‘arati thali’ at the altar one after the other.

After the aarati, special guests were welcomed, including Edison Mayor Sam Joshi, Chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media/ITV Gold Padma Shri recipient Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Pradip Peter Kothari, Piyush Patel and other community leaders, to the Diwali celebrations. Thakar gave a welcome speech. AristaCare is not a nursing home, Thakar said, “It is the temple of my parents.” It houses a total of 750 parents in its various facilities, he said. “They celebrate all the Hindu festivals, including Diwali, Janmashtami, Holi, and ‘Baa and Daada’ enjoy these celebrations,” Thakar added.

Dr. Parikh greeted everyone saying, “I am happy to celebrate Diwali with 170 mothers and fathers at this nursing home.” Parikh said it was good to see them celebrate Diwali in a special atmosphere with Diwali ambience, and thanked Thakar for having created the concept of the Indian nursing home.

Greeting the gathering in Gujarati, Edison Mayor Sam Joshi thanked all for electing him to the position, and promised to have a senior home in Edison soon.

Joshi spoke about the recent Diwali celebration in Edison with over 20,000 participants for the third consecutive year. “Our intention was to let people of all cultures know what Diwali is and why we celebrate it. And it was so nice to see people of all cultures, including the African Americans and the Caucasians come to our Diwali celebration which is a wonderful festival of lights,” Joshi said.

Residents were joyfully participating in all the activities. Some of the elderly lady residents played ‘raas’ (garba with sticks) with visiting grandchildren and families, from a sitting position in their wheel chairs.

Expressing his happiness at attending the Diwali celebrations at AristaCare, Piyush Patel remembered how Thakar first began with the idea in Perth Amboy.

“As a first generation Indian immigrant, “I was concerned about what would happen to the seniors and how they could be cared for. Because of the language issue and the food issue,” he said. “Mukundbhai fulfilled that wish of mine with his Perth Amboy project,” Patel said.

Eleven Indian nursing home facilities are running successfully today, Patel noted, adding, “Most of them are Gujaratis. And they like to speak in Gujarati and celebrate Indian festivals.” Activities like the Diwali celebration, speaking in Gujarati and Indian food “are conducive to Indian seniors”, he said, and wished Thakar for continuing his efforts in this direction. He also wished everyone a Happy Diwali and a ‘Nutan Varsh Abhinandan’.

Pradip Peter Kothari said AristaCare has become a well-known name for the Indian American community in the tri-state area as well as across the country. Recalling how Thakar and Rama began their first Indian seniors nursing home, Kothari said, “Aristacare is like a mango tree.” Thakar planted it many years ago and now Indian families are reaping its fruits, he said. He said it was important to have such institutions in the US where children, even though they have feelings for their parents, are not able to care for them due to work. “We cannot imagine how working children would take care of their parents if such options were not available.”

The celebration concluded with more activities and festive Indian food for all.