In Milipitas, CA, over 200 participants attended the Indian American Forum for Political Education's National Convention on Saturday. I just checked out the schedule and it looks like there was a stellar guest list including Ro Khanna and Vivek Kundra, two members of President Obama's Administration. In addition, Congressional candidates Elk Grove physician Ami Berra and Kansas State Representative Raj Goyle were also in attendance.

If anyone was able to make it, it would be great to get a report.

Indo-American political event in Milpitas with a 'rock-star' aura

To an outsider, it might have seemed like a ho-hum political meet-and-greet for members of the Indo-American community on a long Saturday afternoon in Milpitas.

But inside, giddy participants acted as if they'd won backstage passes to a rock concert. Dozens of guests at the India Community Center begged to press the flesh and be seen with two community leaders tapped to work in the Obama administration. Many guests whipped out their cameras — "Can you take a picture with me, please?" "How 'bout one over here?" "Just one more shot, can everyone smile and look this way?" — in hopes of being captured alongside their heroes.

At the annual Indian American Forum for Political Education, one shooting star was Ro Khanna of Fremont, an attorney who now works in the U.S. Commerce Department leading trade missions overseas. He was treated as the "hometown boy goes to Washington" by an adoring crowd. The other headliner was Vivek Kundra of Maryland, now Obama's chief information officer.

Next week, the community's third Obama-level role model, Aneesh Chopra of Virginia, the administration's new chief technology officer, will speak at the Hyatt in Santa Clara.

Public service

Yogi Chugh, of Fremont, president of the political organization, certainly liked seeing more than 200 attendees buzzing about Khanna and Kundra. But he said the purpose of the annual event — held in Silicon Valley for the first time in 15 years — wasn't simply to hobnob with the elite. It was to deliver an important message, especially to the younger generation of Indo-Americans: Public service is vital and should be encouraged in the South Asian community. If you work hard, Chugh said, you may just either end up working for the president of the United States — or be civically involved in myriad other ways.

"This forum is about helping the community get a feel for how to get involved," Chugh said. "We wanted to provide a variety of flavors of political engagement. There's more than just running for office. It's important to be counted, serve on a commission and shape policy decisions."

To that end, the conference offered a wide palette of panelists talking about health care reform, knocking on doors during an election and the importance of being counted during the census.

Aside from describing their political rises and falls, many speakers shared personal stories, too, including struggles with their parents, who originally wished they had grown up to be "good Indians" and become doctors and engineers.

Follow dreams

San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra told of his parents' initial "heartache" when he said he didn't want to go into medicine or engineering. The irony, though, of his "Hindu upbringing" was that he was always drawn to service, even though it was sometimes "at odds" with "my community's, and my parents', view of success."

Still, Kalra pursued his dream, becoming a public defender, serving on nonprofit boards, being a planning commissioner and getting active in his neighborhood — all crucial, he said, to gaining credibility as a political candidate. After winning a City Council seat in 2008 as the first Indo-American — it was obvious that his family is very proud of him and even helped him succeed. He told of how many people in the Indo-American community donated to his campaign, not because they knew him, but because they wanted to honor his parents.

Avani Saxena, a senior at Irvington High School in Fremont, was there to soak up the wisdom of those such as Kalra and others. An American-born citizen, the 17-year-old also identified with the struggle between a political career and parental hopes. Because her parents were born in India, Avani said she often watches the news for them, advising them how to vote. She's not sure what she will be when she's older, but she's pretty sure it won't be a doctor or engineer. Though political service may not have been her parents' first career choice for her, she knows they support her.

"My parents are just wondering where this side of me comes from," she said. "I like to have my voice be heard."