This was a scene at hotel Mountview’s front lawns where a get-together was organized by Punjab Government for the NRIs who have come here to attend Punjabi NRI Sammelan.

There were performances marked by Punjabi folk dance and music portraying the sequences of a typical Punjabi wedding and Baisakhi festival. At the end legendary singers of Punjab Waddali brothers mesmerized the audience with their spell bound performance.

Amit Malhotra, a cardiologist based in New York, who has come for the first time to India since he migrated to the US 14 years ago chips, “This summit has given me an unusual opportunity to once again get nearer to my roots. After attending the seminar and talking to the Chief Minister we are assured that our money will be in safe hands if we invest here.”

About Indians based in the US, he adds, “Post 9/11 things have drastically changed for the Asians in America, every Sikh with turban and beard was seen with suspicion, but now things have started mollifying.”

“Punjabis are very hard working and they are doing wonders in medicine, software and hotel industry in USA,” signs off Amit who owns a hospital in a suburb near New York.

Gitank Vashisht, a software professional from USA who has come here with his wife Priyanka states, “It feels immensely good that you have someone back your home who is constantly thinking about you. We are ready to invest here in Punjab in an assortment of welfare schemes.”

About the problems faced by Indians at off shores he says, “Illegal immigration is the principal quandary, as then none can help them and they can’t even enjoy the civil liberties.”

Among this happy lot there are still many NRIs who are not satisfied with the Punjab Government’s efforts. As Darshan Basran, a civil engineer based in Toronto, Canada with his family for the last 34 years, says, “Here we have discussed everything from legal niceties to international airports to highways but none of the Government official talked about the investment in education sector.”

“Primary education in Punjab is really in bad shape and requires immediate support. So our foremost attention seekers should be children as they are the future of tomorrow, but we somehow ignore them in the sammelan.”

Darshan’s wife Mohini Basran, an educationist who recently won ‘Teacher of Ontario’ award asserts, “With the prize money that I got, I wanted to open two schools for under privileged children in Punjab. I contacted Punjab Government but got no response from the Education Minister, so I end up opening a school in Canada.”