Today we participated in the forty-third Springtime Tallahassee Grand Parade. This was our fourth year in a row participation as part of Asian Coalition of Tallahassee member. Few members from India Association of Tallahassee and some other members of ACT joined the group. In all we had about 30 people ready when the parade started at 10:30 AM. The Japanese community had about 20 more people carrying the portable Shinto shrine "mikoshi" and they also appealed for support for the recent Japanese triple tragedy March 11, 2011 Tsunami+Earthquake+Nuclear Disaster. We were assigned slot number 113 and 114 (almost the last entry; only StarMetro was behind us) and we gathered at the intersection of North Monroe and Seventh Avenue. We followed Alachua County ISKCON group. We walked the parade route for about 1.25 mile from the intersection of Third Avenue and North Monroe Street via Mahan Drive to all the way to Gaines Street and South Monroe Street intersection. By the time the parade ended it was about 12:15 PM.
The weather was cloudy and slightly windy. This year the turn-out from our group was lower because during the parade time India and Sri Lanka was playing the final match of 2011 Cricket World Cup match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India. At about the start of the parade Sri Lanka had finished their match with 274 for 6 wickets. India started but lost two wickets with 31 for 2 (Sehwag and Tendulkar outs). But it will turn out that India will win the 2011 Cricket World Cup with 277 for 4 wickets and 10 balls to spare (on a 50 over game).