The Inauguration Ceremony of Maharashtra Mandal France (MMF) was extremely successful thanks to the efforts from all members. It showed that despite limited strength, the teamwork can achieve a great success.

We were proud to have Shri D. S. Kulkarni (popularly know to everybody as “DSK”) as the chief guest at this inaugration. His presence together with his wife enlightened the function. Mrs Vinitaa Apte, a famous compere, specially came from Pune to interview DSK. Thanks to this interview, we discovered many talents of this distinguished Maharashtrain, which will surely inspire all the young generation.

For this occasion, we had many distinguished guests like French Ambassador Perreau and Mrs Perreau, and Dr. Wahid Khan, assistant Director General of UNESCO. Dr. Dilip Gore crossed the channel to represent Maharashtra Mandal of Manchester and North-West of England; we sincerely thank him for his guidelines and encouragement. We also thank Mr Abhijit Kapade who came from Holland.

Many of you couldn’t join this event due to heavy schedules and other engagements, but your goodwill messages received on this occasion are very much appreciated. We need your support and encouragement to achieve the same success in the forthcoming European Marathi Sammelan in Paris and for future such engagements of MMF.

We are progressing fast for preparation of EMS 2008. The tentative dates have been fixed as Friday 25th to Sunday 27th July 2008. We have recently created the website www.ems2008.org which you can consult, and your suggestions for further improvement are most welcome.

Some of you have already shown interest in participating in the cultural programme and we would be pleased to receive more provisional information. We would like to encourage artists from Europe, particularly young ones. Your suggestions on any subject relating to this Major Marathi Event of 2008 will be most appreciated.

We thank you again and we wish you a very happy and enjoyable spring.