AristaCare Nursing Home in New Jersey celebrates Mother’s Day

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Longterm care home AristaCare, which has a highly acclaimed, culturally appropriate Indian program at its facilities in New Jersey, held a Mother’s Day celebration May 12, 2024, jointly with the support of the Indian Business Association.

It was attended by some 200 guests, family members and high profile well-wishers, including the top executives of AristaCare CEO Sidney Greenberger, and Heshy Klein, president of AristaCare, who were especially honored at the event. Greenberger says on his Linkedin site, about how he is, “passionate about revolutionizing the healthcare industry.”

At AristaCare, the Indian Nursing Home Program is the brainchild of Mukund and Rama Thakar who have grown it over the last almost 20 years.“We celebrate Mother’s Day every year and we celebrate all Indian festivals,” Mukund Thakar told Desi Talk. Jay Thakar, their son, who is the director of community relations, told Desi Talk about the IBA’s special recognition of Greenberger and Klein for their “exceptional contributions to the Indian community.” They saw the potential in the Thakars’ Indian program and came forward to support it in 2005.

Students from the local Bharatnatyam school performed dances during the event, watched by the old-age home’s

resident mothers who were wheeled into the hall to enjoy the celebration and be feted by the admiring guests.

Dhiren Amin, president of IBA and his team was present and spoke about the work of Greenberger and Klein and AristaCare’s unique offerings.

The hall was decorated with elaborately dressed religious idols and music played over the speakers.

Greenberger, while accepting his memento, thanked the IBA as well as Mukund and Rama Thakar for their service. “It will be 20 years next year,” since the collaboration started, Greenberger noted. He also recognized the other dignitaries at the event including Padma Shri recipient Dr. Sudhir Parikh, chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media and ITV Gold, H.R. Shah of TV Asia, etc.

Dr. Parikh thanked IBA and the Thakar family “for their great service to the community.” He noted how as one gets older, having one’s culture and observing tradition becomes important, which made the Indian program so attractive. “It’s very popular. From all over the country, they want to come here,” he said, and wished everyone a Happy Mother’s Day, as he praised his own mother who lives at the care facility. “She is 101 years old and I hope she will live past 110!” he said. He assured IBA and AristaCare of Parikh Worldwide Media’s support.

Chandrakant Patel and Sharad Aggarwal of IBA, also praised AristaCare, as did several other speakers, including Edison Township Councilman Ajay Patil, and Bharat Rana, president of the Federation of Indian Seniors Association of North America. Rana gave special praise to the work of Rama Thakar. “She is the mother of the 450 people here. She is a mother to them all. She put all her time and her family to look after them,” Rana said.