History of TRICIA
By Manoj Ajmera – Historian/Advisor 2009

Tri-City India Association (TRICIA) has been in existence for more than 40 years. It was started informally in the mid-60s. There were about 25-30 Indian families in this area at that time, and it was somewhat a thrill to see an Indian face in a public place. There were no organized functions then where we could meet and know each other. Colonie Center had just opened (1966). Postage for letters within the U.S.A. was 5 cents, however, the cost of a phone call to India was $5/minute.

Well, we have come a long way from those days. TRICIA published its first phone directory of Indians in 1971. In the early 1970s, we started showing Hindi movies every month, which became a real, regular social gathering. Most families lived in apartments, many with young children, and no Indian motel owners. Dodge Dart was the most popular car among Indians(the cost of first brand new car I bought, Dodge Coronet, in 1967 was $2200) and for Indian groceries, we still had to depend on New York City – New Jersey trips. My first trip to India (in 1970) was a three-month charter Air India flight with a cost of $980 for JFK – Bombay, round-trip(which dropped to $450 in 1973) and one U.S. dollar was worth about six rupees.

During my presidency (1974), just for curiosity, we took a survey of our community and found that out of every four Indians, two were engineers and one was a doctor. Of course, that is totally changed now. General Electric was the biggest employer (New York State was second) for Indians, and for the first time, the TRICIA membership reached 200. I am not shy in saying that I came up with the name “TRICIA” and had no idea that the name would stick for decades to come.

Manna Day was the first professional singer of Hindi movies who came to TRICIA in 1973, and we had organized the first bus trip to New York City with discounted shopping, lunch and a show of Talat Mehmood for $9 (for show and bus). What a deal!

In the second half of the 70s, TRICIA’s constitution was written and formally adopted, which included election of six board members. Hindu Temple was built in 1976 by several very hard-working members at a convenient central location (with a large parcel of land where a community center was built in 2007).

We didn’t have caterers at our annual dinners, but the ladies of TRICIA always volunteered to cook delicious food (with help from the men, of course). We charged $2 for movies with free snacks – but then, five pounds of sugar was 39 cents and a large pizza was less than $3 at that time.

In the early 80s, intrusion of VCRs and Indian movies on cassettes resulted in less audience at monthly showings of movies. Many of us bought our first VCR for about $1,000 (which now costs about $50). More Indians were moving in the area. Many GE employees were transferred to other states; more and more motels were being bought by Indians and mini-vans were becoming more popular with our families. We had a few India Festivals (somewhat like Spring Festival) at the newly built Empire State Plaza, where our Ambassador, K.R. Narayanan (who later became President of India) was the chief guest one year and film star Padmini and her troupe had performed another year. Gurdwara became a reality in 1984 in East Greenbush.

During the last decade of the century and now, new Hindu Temple was built. We had many super stars visiting us, such as Jaya Bachchan, Paresh Rawal, Anupam Kher, Shatrugna Sinha, Waheeda Rehman to name a few. We have about 15 restaurants serving Indian foods (the first one opened in 1976). The number of households in the area increased to around 2,000. Spring Festival has become the main event of the year (the first one was held in 2000) and other TRICIA events include Republic Day (held at the brand new community center in 2008 and 2009), member appreciation event, Independence Day Picnic, Annual Dinner and other entertainment events as available. The Support Group, Sixty-Plus Group and TYO are associated with TRICIA. Swaminarayan Temple (BAPS) was built in 2007. Many of us have grey hairs and some have lost most of that, too. Communication with families/friends in India is free or at very low cost. We have had many births, graduations, weddings, 50th birthdays and 25th wedding anniversary parties.

We invite all Indians and other people interested in Indian culture to become members of TRICIA. Together we will keep the organization alive for future generations.