Usually a soft-spoken, self-effacing and mild-mannered gentleman, Harshad Patel is visibly overwhelmed as he talks to Indian Weekender about the QSM (Queen’s Service Medal) conferred on him as part of the government’s New year’s awards.

“It is a huge honour to be a recipient of this beautiful QSM award. It is a great honour especially for my family and for the members of the Auckland Indian Association and the Indian community at large living in New Zealand,” he said.

He said his first thoughts were gratitude to his family and the community. “I would like to thank my family for encouraging me to work for the community and also our Indian Community for giving me an opportunity to serve them,” he added.

“I am proud to be an Indian and am a very proud President of The Auckland Indian Association, one of the oldest and most respected Indian organisations in New Zealand.”

Reminiscing his long association with the AIA, Mr Patel said, “I introduced myself to the AIA approximately 30 years ago as the musician. We had a small community hall called Gandhi Hall in Victoria Street in city. From there I started my journey with the AIA.

“I mainly played harmonium and later keyboards when we moved to the Mahatma Gandhi Centre. In 1984, I became the chairman of the entertainment committee.”

With his group of volunteer musicians, Mr Patel raised a substantial amount, especially providing music at the Navratri festivals for several years. He remained Chairman of the entertainment committee for 21 years. “I still play harmonium in our Radha Krishna mandir in the holy month of Shravan,” he said with satisfaction.

“There are so many profound memories I have cherished throughout the years working for the AIA.” Mr Patel helped organise several cultural shows for the association.

He counts the performing a Gujarati folk dance in which he played live music at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Game in Auckland in 1990 as one of the highlights of his long association with AIA.

Mr Patel has been one of the active team leaders of the fundraising committee. “We went door to door to raise fund for the Mahatma Gandhi Centre. It was a huge and hard task but with the good support from the members, we managed to complete the task very successfully. The existence of Mahatma Gandhi Centre would not have been possible without the excellent support from the community members.”

He has served the association at various levels: as vice president, member of the board of trustees, vice chairman of the board and he was the president from 1999 for three years and again became president in 2007. He was awarded life membership of the AIA for his exceptionally dedicated services to the AIA.

Recently new boards of trustees including Mr Patel were elected in the Special General meeting. “Our future aim is to look in to the future development of the Mahatma Gandhi centre. I am so fortunate to have a dedicated team of the officers, executive committee members, Chairpersons of the various sub committees. Over the years, the Auckland Indian Association has achieved many significant goals,” he said.

Mr Patel is also vice president of the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA).