Celebrate this historic occasion for our city where San Jose is honoring the national flag of its sister city, Pune, India. The mayor will raise the Indian National Flag at the plaza in front of City Hall in a ceremony that starts at 6:30 pm sharp on Friday, August 13, 2010. The flag of India will fly at the plaza for five days. Radhika Nayak will sing the U.S. National Anthem. Following the ceremony, Nirmal Gosavi and Shradha Joglekar and their troupes will perform folk dances from Maharashtra, the Laavni and Gondhal. Light refreshments will also be served.

This is a great opportunity for well-wishers of India and for people of Indian origin to express their appreciation for the Indo- US relationship and to celebrate the birthday of the largest democracy. Members of the San Jose Pune Sister Cities will be on hand to describe activities of the Sister City Organization that are helping bring the people of our two cities together.

This group mission is to create and strengthening partnership between two cities at municipal level to promote cultural understanding and to stimulate economic development. This will lead the movement for local community development and volunteer action by motivating and empowering private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders to conduct long-term programs of mutual benefit.