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When I first landed in Houston’s International
Airport, I was nervous, lost, and, for the first time,
without a home. I called Sunil Fotedar from a payphone
at the airport, and he came to receive me in the
middle of the night, with his characteristic warmth,
grace, and selflessness. For the first two years of my
stay in Houston he helped my KP family lay our roots
in the United States without forgetting our roots in
Kashmir.
My story is a microcosm of Sunil’s invaluable
passion for the Kashmiri community worldwide. When
Kashmiris were forced out of our homeland, he
demonstrated his passion for our cause, documenting
and highlighting the plight of displaced Kashmiris. At
the same time, he became one of the first of our
community to take concrete steps to document and save
our culture and history, cataloging books, music, and
language for online depositories that preserve our
heritage.
Sunil has already demonstrated his commitment to
“promote, preserve, and protect Kashmiri Pandit
ethnic and socio-cultural heritage” – the mission
of KOA. While others were busy building future lives
and careers in the US, he sacrificed hundreds of hours
of his personal time to preserve our past. He
constructed the first websites to publish our
information, our music, our language, our books, and
our periodicals. Till this day, many of our current
celebrated online resources are his creation. Even my
wife was once surprised and touched to discover that
the writings of her close childhood mentor late Dr.
Brij Premi, which she would otherwise never have been
able to access, were translated and published online.
He has demonstrated his commitment to this
organization. He has served as a chapter president,
was the first to build the KOA website, and has
personally promoted many of the endeavors supported by
KOA. He has also gone beyond KOA, selflessly devoting
his valuable time to further goals of the KP community
by helping various organizations engaged in preserving
our culture within India after our exodus from
Kashmir.
But most importantly, he has demonstrated his
commitment to this community. He has developed many of
the tools that maintain the precious links between
Kashmiris worldwide – KPnet, KPlink.com, and the Kashmir
News Network, for example. And he has worked
tirelessly to personally help KP families in the
United States.
Sunil’s personal qualities – his modesty, his
intelligence, his creativity, and his leadership –
would make him a good president. But it is his proven
record of demonstrated selflessness and passion for
our Kashmiri culture, history, and community that
makes Sunil Fotedar the best candidate to lead our
venerable organization, as we build upon our past
successes to create an inspired, vigorous, and vibrant
future, preserving our culture and community for our
young generation.
Dr. Ramesh Ganju
Associate
Professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical
School
Associate
Professor, Division of Experimental Medicine, Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, MA
rganju@bidmc.harvard.edu
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