Magic Bus Board: (Seated, from left): Swatantra Jain, Matthew Spacie (Founder and chairman of Magic Bus), Dr. Sunita Moonat, Mona Parikh, Amit and Arpita Bhandari.(Standing, from left): Kevin Negandhi (emcee), Ram Shriram (Magic Bus board member and venture capitalist), Gopal Savjani, Dr. H. D. Patel, and Brij Kathuria.
Lessons of
P 3 P5, 34 & 35
Puzzles/Recipe P 38
P 42
Magic Busthe
Ram Leela
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3 October 17, 2014 3October 17, 2014 COMMUNITYBY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA
We will be open on Dhanteras day, Tuesday, October 21. From 10 am to 8pm
A Shorter Ram Leela True to its Roots of Story Telling and Lessons Learned
HOUSTON: It is a tale often told and has played out on stage for centuries, and it has become a tra-dition in the Bayou City over the past decade as the region’s Hindus go through all the celebrations that culminate in the sparkling, fireworks spectacle of Diwali. For centuries, Valmiki’s Rama Leela has reminded the faithful of the trials and tribulations of Rama and the lessons inherent in it to be-come a perfect man, to have self-control and become, like Rama, the Lord of Virtue, the Maryada Purushottama.
These virtues are what are held dear to the heart of Dr. Arun Ver-ma and the Shri Sita Ram Foun-dation, as they have brought the Rama Leela to the masses over the last few years. The devotion to the core values found in the Val-miki’s Ramayana have led Verma to build on the lure of the Diwali season by adding a Dussehra fes-tival that is now in its third year at Skeeters Park in Sugar Land and brought in over 10,000 people (see IAN dated October 10, 2014).
At that mega event held a fort-night ago on Saturday, October 4, there was a precursor to the Rama Leela play on a stage in the middle of the ballpark. Last Sun-day, October 12, the same actors played out the entire Rama Leela, in their golden costumed splendor to a crowd of devoted attendees. It was a departure from the play that was staged two years ago at the Wortham Center downtown, but a return to the roots of the play at Cullen Auditorium at the Univer-sity of Houston’s Main Campus.
And it was a return to the roots of storytelling too, as the tale unfold-ed under the direction of the artist Rathna Kumar, with Assistant Di-rector Kiron Kumar and Technical Director Nik Nikam. This version of the Rama Leela that was staged
in 23 acts was different from the ones performed in previous years in its simplicity of language and the brevity of its length, lasting just under two hours, although the entire event was slightly longer to provide an introduction to the pro-duction and some honored guests.
The heavy rain that engulfed the city on Sunday afternoon certainly dampened out the enthusiastic crowd that usually linger outside in the small plaza in front of the auditorium, and may have led to a smaller attendance, but the fervor was still there in the organizers, with a idol of Ganesh planted in the lobby for homage and volun-teers passing out LED diyas and prasad to people entering the hall. The Indian Consul General Par-vatheneni Harish spoke for a few minutes, as did the University of Houston Chancellor and President Renu Khator about the relevance of Rama Leela and giving Diwali greetings to all.
A special element was the of-ficial launch of the just-printed Spanish version of the Ramayana translated by a Bolivian ardent of the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha, Reynaldo Cuadros Anaya who has been initiated as Ranga Puri das 35 years ago. It has taken him 21 years to translate Valmiki’s Ramayana from the original Sanskrit and he spoke of his pursuit and concluded with by reciting a verse in Sanskrit and imploring “Sri Sita Ram Lak-shman Hanuman ki jai”.
The play got off to a start with an introduction by Verma’s daugh-ter, Nina Magon, an interior de-signer who had also participated in the NBC reality show “American Dream Builders” last season. She set the stage for the first act as the Sage Vishwaamitr asks King Dashrath to protect his ashram from demons. From there on till the end scene when the actors lined up for a final bow and pictures, the play worked through the major
scenes that reflect turning points for the story and narrowed down the often lengthy performance to a much shorter length.
In doing so, the directors decid-ed to do away with many of the props and theatrics that have been used in previous years, like Ha-numan flying through the air on a harness carrying the mountain, or the fire dancers and symbolic burning of the demon effigies. Instead, the audience was left to visualize the pantomime, as when berries are picked and placed in imaginary baskets and the place of exile and its daily rituals are depicted by a change in costumes and a simple stone and tall plant.
In fact, the whole play leaned heavily on the use of projected backdrop slides and video clips to bring the imagination to life and this allowed the viewers to under-stand the lessons that were being depicted - like the Dutiful Son, Keeping Your Word, the Love and Devotion of a Husband and Wife and Brotherly Love - rather than get lost in the visuals. The produc-tion also cut down on the number of dances performed during the play to one, and allowed three short ones by students of Rathna Kumar’s Anjali Performing Arts, to run together at the end.
The performers showed that they had rehearsed their lines and moves for many weeks and the six little boys who came to por-tray the monkey army were greet-ed with cheers and applause. The actors portraying Dashrath, Ram, Sita, Hanuman, the dual role of Kaikeyi-Shuprnakha and Ravana (who does not come onstage with his ten heads) were well played but the roles of Ravana’s son and Indrajit and Lakshman were played with the vigor and strength that belongs to those characters. At the end, the Ram Rajya court took its place as rose petals fell from the sky.
Angad in Ravan’s court, scene from the Ram Leela.
Dr. Arun Verma (right) with the Emcee, Nina Magon (Star of NBC’s TV serial ‘American Dream Builders’).
Drs. Renu and Suresh Khator with the former Ambassador of Bolivia to Washington (left). Photos: Bijay Dixit
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BY VANSHIKA VIPIN The Magic Bus is on a JourneyHOUSTON: The Magic Bus is on its journey with its second event of the year, a Charity Gala, first being the Farhan Akhtar show back in April. Houstonians gathered at the JW Marriott, Westheimer, on Saturday, October 11 for a full house event for Magic Bus. The Charity Gala opened when Meena Datt, the host of Music of India and Ghun-groo radio welcomed the gathering. She then introduced the master of ceremonies, Kevin Negandhi, the first Indian-American anchor for ESPN. Kevin talked about his journey into the sports journalism drawing parallel with the Magic Bus movement and the importance of sports in lives of young people. He stressed on how proud he is to be an Indian-American breaking the stereo-types.
The stage was then set for the president of the Magic Bus Houston Chapter, Amit Bhandari to take over and express a de-lighted disbelief on the tremendous support from the community as well as the Houston board (Gala Chair Swatantra Jain, Co-chair Jugal Malani, Dr. H D Patel, Dr. Sunita Moonat, Brij Kathuria, Gopal Savjani and Mona Parikh) that has helped propel Magic Bus onto the national stage. He talked about support for Magic Bus back in India via television show Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Amir Khan which featured an entire episode on Magic bus.
Magic Bus (magicbus.org) is a non-profit organization based in Mumbai with over 8000 volunteers and operations in fourteen states in India that impact over 250,000 chil-dren. The organization’s goals are simple, to change the course of children’s lives, one game at a time. Specifically, Magic Bus uses a unique, activity-based methodology to teach children about education, gender equality, health, and social issues by engag-ing them in games that reinforce positivity. Girls who participate in the Magic Bus pro-gram are much more likely to finish school and go on to higher education or get a job. Magic Bus USA’s Leadership Team is only a part of the global Magic Bus team, a dis-tinguished collection of philanthropists, en-trepreneurs, executives, athletes, and celeb-rities who share one common characteristic – a strong belief in the power of the Magic Bus approach.
Amit invited the Counsel General of India, Pavathaneni Harish on stage. Harish com-mented on how the political landscape has shifted in India and that it was in a unique crossroads for remarkable growth.
Recent Noble prize awards were then mentioned as serial venture capitalist Ram Shriram took stage. He is a Google board member and has supported Magic Bus since its inception. He emotionally recalled his childhood in Chennai and how his grand-
father taught him a lifelong lesson on how one should always give back to others—he urged the captivated audience to donate and help change the lives of the children in the slums. He said, “You don’t have to be old to give but can always start young. Giving helps you with being self-aware. Gift of gratitude that comes with it and the fascinat-ing feeling of self-awareness that it leaves you with is good.” He highlighted the pres-ence of youth by acknowledging the pres-ence of young volunteers at the event. Gala Chair, Swatantra jain then presented a token of appreciation to Ram Shriram.
Matthew Spacie, the founder and CEO of Magic Bus, thanked everyone and made a special mention of Brij Kathuria ( board member, who put in a lot of effort for this gala). Mathew then spoke of his time grow-ing up in Mumbai and how a simple game of rugby with neighborhood kids sparked the idea for Magic Bus. He explained the Magic Bus program and how its unique
peer-driven methodology provided sig-nificant results on retention and enrollment rate. He narrated the story of Deepika with pictures of her development accompanied by disturbing statistics on child marriages and the silver lining of kids graduating be-cause of Magic Bus.
Another real life example of the magic bus program is Parvati, who joined magic bus at the age of 8 and is now in her early twen-ties. She spoke in fluent English on how the program helped her escape living home-lessly on construction sites as well as child-hood marriage, and drove her to be the first college graduate in her family. She called it the magical moment of her life when she joined Magic Bus. Highlighting the grass-roots community nature of the program. She mentioned her idol is Matthew Spacie and would like to be him one day. Another ex-ample, Suryakant, joined Magic Bus at the age of 7, he is now 20, mentored by ‘Parvati didi”, as he fondly calls her, expresses a new found respect for women and has bright career aspirations. He said magic bus has changed his perspective of seeing women, elders and peers.
The evening’s finale was a lively pledge drive and auction that raised an impressive sum of $353,690 which was then generous-ly matched by Ram Shriram. A delectable
dinner catered by Daawat catering followed and gala attendees got on their feet to dance out to some hit Bollywood music. The event was well decorated by Decor One. It was an evening well attended and well directed. The Magic Bus is rolling onto its journey and the passengers have started enjoying the ride.
For further information visit www.magicbususa.org
Gala chair Swatantra Jain presenting gift to Ram Shriram (left).
Parvati and Suryakant
Board members with volunteers, Matthew Spacie, and Ram Shriram. Photos: Bijay Dixit
For photo collage, see pages 34-35
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COMMUNITYWilly Honors Sri Lankan Minister at Garden Party
SUGAR LAND: On Thursday, October 9, well-known immigration attorney, George Willy, and his wife, Shanti, threw an infor-mal outdoor dinner party at their beauti-ful home in Sugar Land for the visiting Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister, Vasudeva Nan-yakkara. The senior Minister has been work-ing relentlessly to bring about reconciliation between the divisive factors of the country, especially those between the Tamils and the Sinhalese and was visiting his son who lives in the city.
Willy has had a life-long interest in poli-tics, though he has not ventured into the arena himself. He has gained a reputation among the South Asian community as an attorney interested in contributing to the growth and empowerment of the community and hosted the visiting Minister to introduce
BY MITAN SIDHU
him to various officials in town. He brought together an array of prominent local South Asians to meet and mingle with the Min-ister in an informal gathering to share and exchange views with the visiting dignitary and hear of his efforts in facilitating the reconciliation effort.
Among the nearly 80 guests were city officials, business-men, journalists, friends and family – all gathered in support of the grass-root effort at bring-ing about reconciliation to a country reeling from the effects of being torn apart by various differences, such as origins, cultural, language and religious. The somewhat shy, soft-spoken, smiling and unassuming Nan-yakkara was most humble and
gracious in meeting and greeting the guests. He laughed and joked with them, and lis-tened to their views and suggestions, while sharing his own.
Nanayakkara felt that his trip has been successful in planting a seed of interest and curiosity among many of the South Asian community to see how the future of Sri Lan-ka unfurls. He hoped and felt sure that after he returned to Sri Lanka, the discussions he has begun shall continue, and that the seeds he has sown will germinate and take root. His convictions prove that one man can make a huge difference in bringing about positive change
Shanti Willy played the role of a most gra-cious hostess, ensuring that the guests were well taken care of. The menu was extensive and she made sure that the food would sat-isfy every palate present. Though centered on a political issue the evening provided for animated discussions, pleasantries, and old bonds were strengthened and new ones forged and some guests were reluctant to leave early.
Sri Lankan Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara (second from left) with George and Shanti Willy at the garden party held at their home. Photos: Mitan Sidhu
From right: Sri Lankan Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara with the Honorary Counsel General of Sri Lanka, Bandula Wijay and two other guests.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
9 October 17, 2014 9October 17, 2014COMMUNITYLessons on Sri Lankan Reconciliation by the Cabinet Minister in the Midst
HOUSTON: On Wednesday, October 9, the Asia Society held a gathering, at which Vasudeva Nanayakkara, a Senior Cabinet Minister from Sri Lanka, ad-dressed the efforts at reconcilia-tion in Sri Lanka. The Minister was introduced by Charles Foster, Chairman of the Asia Society and by the Honorary Counsel General of Sri Lanka, Bandula Wijay with special thanks extended to attor-neys George Willy and Rajneesh Chaudhary for making the event possible.
In his address, Nanayakkara pointed out the various points and factors leading to the conflicts that have ravaged the beautiful island country and prevented it from be-ing what it has the potential of be-coming. Some of the main points of conflict are the cultural, racial, social, religious and economical differences between the Tamils of the north and the Sinhalese of the south; Muslim Tamils of the East and Tamils in the Hill Country. “Historically, there was no Tamil and Sinhalese conflict. They even intermarried”, explained the Min-ister.
Perhaps, as Nanayakkara pointed out, at the core of the conflict lies
the question of, “who owns Sri Lanka – and in what proportions and what parts?” The Sinhalese claim to be the original inhabitants of the island nation, whereas the Tamils, who migrated to Sri Lan-ka centuries ago, consider it to be equally entitled to claiming rights to it as the Sinhalese. Once the Dutch and British colonizers left in 1948, Sri Lanka was left to face the divisive conflict on its own. Conflict gives rise to humiliation, according to Nanayakkara, and wars are not fought by rules meted
out by the UN. Sri Lanka has paid a hefty price for the conflict and civil war it has undergone.
The “conflict” of Sri Lanka was brought to an end by the LTTE rebels (considered as terrorists) being vanquished, which lead to
BY MITAN SIDHU
Sri Lankan Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara being interviewed onstage by attorney George Willy at the reception at the Asia Society on Wednesday, October 8. Photos: Mitan Sidhu
Honorary Counsel General of Sri Lanka, Bandula Wijay spoke at the event
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
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October 17, 201410 October 17, 201410COMMUNITY
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11 October 17, 2014 11October 17, 2014COMMUNITY
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
BY PAYAL VINEET & VANSHIKA VIPIN
First, Karva Chauth Celebrations at India House
HOUSTON: Continuing the tra-dition of bringing Indian culture to the people living miles away from India, India House Houston, orga-nized and celebrated a community event on the occasion of Karva Chauth on Saturday, Oct 11 at 7:30 pm. Vipin Kumar, General Man-ager of India House, was the key person in getting this event orga-
Attendees dressed in fine cloth-ing, jewelry, and henna arrived around 7:30 pm at India House. The evening kick started with a quick round of introductions and snacks (for the fortunate husbands who were not fasting). Activities like games and movie screen-ing followed it. The adults got to watch their choice of movies and the kids had their cartoons being played in the kid’s activ-ity area. Bingo with the Karva Chauth theme impressed every-one. Gift for all the games were distributed and the best mehendi (henna) was won by Deepali Cha-nana. This was a good way to keep everyone busy and in-volved while the moon took its own sweet time to show up.
Finally, the moon was sight-ed around 9:45 pm and everyone rushed outdoors for the fast break-ing ceremony. India House has a huge open ground, which made the moon easily visible. All the ladies con-cluded their fast
nized. This was the first time that a large-scale community event was held to celebrate this festival.
Karva Chauth is a one-day fes-tival celebrated by Hindu women in North India in which married women fast from sunrise to moon-rise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. The festival falls on the fourth day after the full moon, in the Hindu calendar month of Kartik. Sometimes, unmarried women observe the fast for their fiancés or desired husbands.
Attendees mingled with each other and took pictures, while everyone waited for moonrise.
The delicious food catered by Kurry Walah, was served after the moon sighting.
Vineet Kumar and Payal Vineet celebrated their fi rst Karva Chauth as Vipin Kumar (General Manager India House ) looks on.
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October 17, 201412 October 17, 201412
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13 October 17, 2014 13October 17, 2014COMMUNITYWhat Makes Diwali Diwali ?
HOUSTON: Is it the thousand twinkling lights, the aroma of sweet delicacies arising from the kitchen, making numerous phone calls back home to talk with parents, cous-ins, uncles and aunts, or is it a flurry of house parties? Diwali is nostalgia of Diwalis past, a celebration of all you have, and anticipa-tion of all that awaits. Simply, if life is a journey, Diwali is your favorite stopover.
With all the distractions and responsibili-ties that we are clouded with, it is important to celebrate Diwali, the ancient triumph of good over evil, and create Diwali memories
BY MALAY VYAS
and traditions that will be remembered by the future generations. One of these tradi-tions is the Houston Diwali Mela this year on Saturday, October 25, 5-11 PM (raindate Sunday October 26).
Masala Radio’s Sunil and Sandhya Thak-kar and the Masala Crew, along with Grand Sponsors ZeeTV, India.com, and Tara En-ergy, are set to create a magicial “Festival of Lights.” A living Statue of Goddess Laxmi and a dozen Kerala drummers will greet guests as they begin to explore the stadium sized festival. Every hour begins a new di-
mension of the Mela: 5PM House of Spic-es Grand Bazaar of Fashions, Jewelry, and Corporate Giveaways; 6PM Indian Street Booths by Baloch Ice Cream, Chowpatty Chaat, Hydrabad Houston, Maharaja Bhog, Mirch Masala, Rani Foods, Udipi Café, and Vishala Restaurant; 7PM Tara Energized Dances and Stage Entertainment hosted by Sunil T; 8PM Alings Hakka Fire Danc-ers, HGH Maha Arti, and Skai Foundation Deities Procession; 9PM Maharaja Jewel-ers High Energy Concert featuring Manj, formely known as RDB; 10PM Spectacualr Mercedes Benz Fireworks! Ramji & As-sociates presents a $1001 Rangoli Compe-tition and Keemat Grocers presents hourly magic shows by Curt Miller, as well as a Kid’s Moonwalks and Carousel Rides.
For the last 2 years, Houston Diwali Mela has sold out 5-7 days prior to the event so buy your tickets in advance at houstondi-wali.com and come early to the event to define for yourself what makes Diwali…DIWALI!
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11First, Karva Chauth Celebrations at India House
with their husbands by their side. The moon is viewed through a sieve, and the women who are fasting offer something sweet be-fore taking the first sip of water from a bowl. This was followed by a delicious spread of dinner catered by Kurry Walah restaurant.
Seshagiri Pabbisetty, married for 30-years, celebrated her first Karva Chauth. “I am in-spired by my north Indian friends and mov-ies, but never got the chance to celebrate this festival. However, when I saw the ad in In-do-American News, I was sure about attend-ing and experiencing it.” Her equally excited husband who doesn’t find it strange that his perfectly South Indian wife is preparing for rituals rather alien, accompanied her.
Neena Marwah, has been celebrating Kar-va Chauth at home. She said, “Firstly, thank
you so much for organizing the Karva Chauth festival. All our friends had a very nice time. We were all so relaxed and did not have to worry about any-thing, especially the food. The food was quite delicious. Bingo game and the other games were fun and we got to meet so many people who celebrate Karva Chauth.” She added, “I look forward to more events at India House and definitely next years Karva Chauth.”
In an exclusive interview with Indo-American News,
Vipin Kumar said, “ I would like to thank everyone who attended and supported this first time effort of doing such an event at India House. I am very happy with the turn-out. Even after the event I received calls from people who attended, to thank me for making it a fun Karva Chauth for them. I am glad that people enjoyed themselves and the ladies did not have to worry about cooking the food. I would request more people to join us next year.”
Karva Chauth is perhaps the closest to Valentine’s Day in spirit, as it kindles ro-mance and love, with couples devoting spe-cial time for each other on this day.
For further information about India House and their upcoming activities visit www.indiahouseinc.org
Deepali and Mohit Chanana along with other attendees during the fast breaking ceremony.
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
15 October 17, 2014 15October 17, 2014
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Limit 1 Bag almond with every $50 purchase
SpanishSaffron
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201416 October 17, 201416
For photo collage, see page 17
COMMUNITYHungama Mela 2014 Held at the Durgabari Temple
HOUSTON: The evening of October 11, 2014 would be memorable for Indian Com-munity. The much awaited Radio Hungama Mela 2014 was hosted at the auditorium of the Durgabari Temple of Houston. The event, originally planned outdoors was moved indoors due to rain in the forecast, but that did not dampen the spirit of the Hungama team or the audience.
Sridhar Dadi, Raaga Vahini, Sudha Tenneti and Kiran were the emcees and continuing with tradition, the show started with a de-votional song, performed beautifully, by RJ Raaga. The show continued with a variety of exciting and enticing performances, from classical dances to Bollywood medleys, by professional dance groups and University of Houston students. Every performance was
helpful.Beautiful Me Fashion Show was a great
success. 26 models were chosen from all of Texas. The gorgeous outfits were sponsored by Sari Sapne Boutique, Hillcroft and make up for the models was by Dhanvi Sandesara of Ilume Artistry. Choreographed by Shar-mita Bhattacharya, and make up done by Dhanvi Sandesara, the audience was awe-struck.
Performances by Bollywood singer, Bhar-gavi Pillai and Tollywood playback singer, Rahul Sipligunj, had the audience dancing to their tunes with Bollywood and Tollywood numbers. The audiences were so involved in the performances that they did not leave un-
carefully choreographed and implemented. Some of the exceptional dances included the classical dance by Sunanda’s Perform-ing Arts Centre; Bollywood medley by Shingari’s School of Rhythm; Infused Per-forming Arts, Studio Mudra, Bollywood Dancing Stars and Barcode had inspired the audience. Performances by University of Houston Jannat and Graduate students had an enthusiasm that was never seen before.
By 8 PM, the parking (including surround-ing areas) was full and hundreds of people had to be told to return. Radio Hungama team had made arrangements for a shuttle service for audience’s convenience. Secu-rity officers, hired for this event were also
til the end of the show, at 10:30 PM.Cinco Lions, Houston Knights, Stonegate
Warriors and Yorktown Wave, the winners for the Radio Hungama indoor volleyball tournament, were awarded a trophy. The winner of the Selfie Facebook contest was announced at the event. Suman Mangu, the winner will receive a $500 gift from Kohi-noor diamonds.
The stalls by Toyota of Katy, MetLife, Ace Pain Management and Physical Thera-py, Discount Power, Hyderabad House and Vonage provided a range of interests for the audience who wished to get more informa-tion. Hyderabad House, as usual, had some great Hyderabadi biryani and pastries.
A special thanks to Krishna Sounds, DJ Darshak Thakkar, photographer Anish Na-gar of Sajan Photography and Videogra-pher Murali Santana for covering the entire event.
Sridhar Dadi extended his special thanks to the grand sponsors Emirates Airlines. The event was also supported by Rani’s World Foods, TV9, 6TV, Mass Mutual Fi-nancial Group, Kohinoor Diamonds, Biry-ani Pot, Mayuri, YAH, Camelot Integrated Solutions and Vishala Grocers. Sridhar Dadi also thanked the event vendors, supporters, well-wishers and especially Hungama Team (Sasi Lingineni, Jagapathi Reddy, Ranga Tirumalasetti, Ravi Surisetty, Upendra Mal-la, Prasanna Chodimella, Pardha Chennu-pati, Kishore Ramaraju, Narayana Swamy and Chandramouli), friends and family for their support.
Sridhar DadiBeautiful Me Fashion Show
Lessons on Sri Lankan Reconciliation by the Cabinet Minister in the Midst
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
celebrations by the Sinhalese. Now the is-land nation is dealing with smoldering em-bers of that conflict, so those trying to bring about reconciliation are walking on a very precarious path.
Nanayakkara explained that during the civil war of Sri Lanka, a large number of Tamils of the north, fled to the relative safe-ty of the south or the hills. The deflection of Tamils to India and southern Sri Lanka has weakened the Tamil stronghold of the north, thereby giving them weaker bargain-ing power. In an election, the Tamil voting power has been reduced considerably. Those who fled to the south are reluctant to return to their homes in the north.
Some of the current issues the nation is fac-ing are the struggle for equality and balance of power at the level of local communities. Many feel an excessive military and police presence, which needs to be reduced. Local senior police officers and bureaucrats deal directly with the Governor (appointed by the President) instead of local government authorities. Governors usually have strong ties to the armed forces and the central gov-ernment is not desirous of dealing with local authorities. Furthermore, during the war, the infrastructure of the north was destroyed. Railway lines are now being reconstructed with assistance from India, roads have to be rebuilt and electrical power to be available to the communities of the north.
Nanayakkara emphasized the importance
of promoting new social consciousness; one of understanding and mutual interest; of in-tegration, not assimilation. At the end of the Minister’s speech, George Willy led a Q & A session with questions ranging from hav-ing a national language to learning from the efforts of South Africa in reconciliation.
Many of the Sri Lankan attendees said that there were more issues to the conflict that those addressed, and that it would take time and effort to resolve them. However, they all agreed that the Minister was on the right path, and were glad that steps were being taken to bring about much needed change.
Nanayakkara with attorney Rajneesh Chaudry who helped organize the event
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
17 October 17, 2014 17October 17, 2014
Article on page 16
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201418
®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. The deadline for advertising and articles is 4 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 7457 Harwin Drive, Suite 262, Houston, Texas 77036. Tel: 713-789-NEWS or 6397 Fax: 713-789-6399, email: [email protected], website: indoamerican-news.com
®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. The deadline for advertising and articles is 4 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 7457 Harwin Drive, Suite 262, Houston, Texas 77036. Tel: 713-789-NEWS or 6397 Fax: 713-789-6399, email: [email protected], website: indoamerican-news.com
BY ASEEM KULKARNI
NEW DELHI: About a year ago, Washington Post journalist Max Fisher published an article fea-turing a map of the most racially tolerant and intolerant countries in the world. India topped the chart as most racially intolerant in the world.
At the time, I did not pay very much attention to the article. While I was still living in New York, ev-eryone was discussing Trayvon Martin and racism in the US. Now the Ferguson, Missouri riots have made international headlines.
And growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, I met my fair share of ignorant racists. How-ever, after living a few months in Delhi, I am shocked by how ter-ribly casual people are about their intolerance and racist displays.
Since its inception as an inde-pendent nation, India has remained a secular nation. Of course, any-one who knows anything about India knows this to be false. In-dia’s history is dotted with Hindu/Sikh/Muslim riots and bloodshed. In the capital, these communi-ties are prominent and visible.
Yet with this diversity and inter-mingling, people still stick with their racist inclinations. Even while I was searching for a new flat, I met with several landlords and brokers, who were concerned with my name. This same concern popped up while I interviewed for a job. A flat rental and a job interview!
Now, I was very used to many people expressing their curiosity and thinking Aseem was a Muslim name, similar to Azeem. But, I was shocked at how it could be used as some sort of pre-requisite for rent-ing a flat or as some kind of disclo-sure or handicap for a potential job.
Perhaps the cause can be simply put to British imperialism: i.e., di-vide and conquer. But it’s a pretty simplistic view to take. Consider how foreigners are treated in India. On a night out in the trendy Hauz Khas Village in south Delhi, I went out with a few friends to a bar/club.
However, when we tried to en-ter, the bouncer refused us entry and said the club was full and it was one in one out. Now, we were all dressed well enough, but the problem was soon con-firmed: we looked Indian.
We came to this conclusion when four people behind us were allowed inside. The four of them were white Europeans, whom to be quite honestly, looked and
smelled like they had just fallen off a truck on their way back from an ashram. The bouncer eagerly removed the velvet rope and let them inside. I was shocked. I eventually showed the bouncer my American passport, and only then, was he so “gracious” to let my friends and me into the club.
And, let’s not forget the increase in Africans flocking to the capi-tal. With the massive amount of investment India is pouring into resource rich Africa, many Afri-cans have started moving to Delhi. And Delhiites are not afraid to call them “habshees”, or claim that they have brought drugs to India, and refuse service to them.
Lastly, there is so much hate In-dians have against other Indians. From the North/South divide using words like “mallu” and “kallu” to signify people from the south, treat-ing every Bihari as an evil peasant, and referring to anyone from the Northeast as a “chinky”, racism is alive and only increasing in India.
I could go on and on about what I have seen, experienced, and heard about racism in India. But the message I would like to convey is that as NRIs who left the motherland (whether it be a year ago or decades ago), we should let go of this ignorance.
Living in the United States, in one of its most multicultural cit-ies, gives us the chance to high-light how tolerant Indians can be.
Racial Intolerance: US or India?
In Houston, I met my fair share of ignorant racists. However, after living a few months in Delhi, I am shocked by how terribly casual people are about their intolerance and racist displays.
Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel feat made us proud. A Dilliwal-lah operating from a small office in Kalkaji is now one of the world’s most feted figures. But how much do we really know about this quiet, amiable gentleman or the cause he has been fighting for close to three decades? Yes, we know he works for abolition of child labour, which is banned in India. But we still hear horror stories of enslavement and tor-ture of children working in homes, eateries, grocery stores and sweatshops that shame Delhi time and again.
Last year, a survey of 1,575 employers conducted by Child Rights and You (CRY) on the attitudes and beliefs about child labour in Delhi showed that 20% of the respondents in south Delhi thought that anyone over the age of 10 was not a child. “These people would possibly have no hesitation in hiring a child as young as 10 years. Not only this, many people consider that a child should not only study, but work as well,” the study read.
What was more shocking was that 42% employers felt that children were as efficient as adults in carrying out any activ-ity, 30% said that children below 18 should be paid less than adults, and 56% had seen children who didn’t go to school but did nothing about it.
As child labor is banned in India, the government has legal obligations and, prodded by voluntary groups, conducts oc-casional raids. Rescued children are put in temporary shel-ters. After age verification -- the process may take anything between a few days to months – they are sent home, with a release certificate and R20,000, if the child has been rescued under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.
At least 1,000 child workers are rescued every year in Del-hi. Legal provisions for rehabilitation demand these kids are sent to schools and their families provided with earning as-sets. But nobody bothers to find out if they are not back in sweatshops or dhabas in another city or if they have starved to death.
The demand for underage domestic helps is largely fu-elled by middle-class homes in cities. Mumbai has revised its housing byelaws, making it mandatory for the managing committees of housing societies to report to police or the la-bour commissioner any instance of a resident or a contractor employing child labour.
Enforced strictly, heavy penalties and intimidating jail term should be able to discourage demand across all sec-tors. Along with punitive action, the solution also requires changed mindsets. Employing an underage to do household chores is not an act of philanthropy, as many of us tend to be-lieve. It denies, if nothing else, her right to education. Child-hood is a gift that no child should have to earn. If we can’t respect it, we don’t belong to this celebration of Satyarthi’s Nobel. Shivani Singh in Hindustan Times
Noble Prize, Ignoble Middle Class
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201420 October 17, 201420 COMMUNITYWeek Long Celebrations for Gandhi Jayanti
HOUSTON: Mahatma Gandhi Library along with more than 100 organizations concluded Mahatma Gandhi Week 2014 with big fan-fare on Saturday, October 4 at The Jones Plaza, Houston. The evening celebrated 145th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Jayanti, celebrated as 1000 Lights For Peace.
The 9th Annual 1000 Lights for Peace, was another huge success. Each year Mahatma Gandhi Library organizes month long activities culminating in celebration of Gandhi Jayanti on weekend following October 2, Gandhiji’s actual birthday.
The spirits of the Houstonians attending the program at The Jones Plaza were inspired dur-ing this auspicious celebration. The weather was picture perfect. The brilliant day started with the Walk for Peace, beginning at the Jones Plaza in downtown Houston with garlanding of a picture of Mahatma Gandhi and the lighting of the authentic 1966 Olympic Torch by the Grand Marshall, Mrs. Sonal Buchar. The participants walked almost 5 kilometers along the Buffalo Bayou on the Sabine Promenade, voting for peace with their feet and demonstrating that a life of peace is a daily steadfast commitment that requires the patience of a man trying to empty the sea with a cup. During the walk, many proudly displayed signs of Peace, Truth, Non-violence and Love spreading the message that resonated throughout the city of Houston
Upon their arrival back at The Jones Plaza, they were welcomed onto the main stage by the musical tribute from the talented Katy Mc-Means Junior High band, conducted by George Liverman.
The 1000 lights For Peace program, start-ed promptly at 7 pm with an invocation by Acharya Suryanarayan Nanda of Arya Samaj Greater Houston, Rev Daniel Domiguez from Centro Familiar Cristiano in Sugarland, and Dr. Basheer Khumwala from University of Houston.
Dr. Manish Wani was a very informative Master of Ceremonies and kept the evening fl owing with historical perspectives on not only Mahatma Gandhi, but also prominent international social reformers including Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Malala Yousafzai.
The Ballet Folkorico “Raices del Peru” of Houston performed the fi rst International act of the evening. This was followed by a beautiful poem recited by Saqib Mushtaq and interpreted by Imam Mubasheer Ahmad, both from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The Chief Guest for the evening, Dr. Josef
Finale of the evening celebrating Gandhi Jayanti as 1000 Lights for Peace was the lighting of a candle by all present to pledge to practice peace in their own lives. A fi tting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
Walk For Peace led by Suresh Shah dressed as Mahatma Gandhi. Extreme left: Sonal Bhuchar, Grand Marshall for the Walk For Peace.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
21 October 17, 2014 21October 17, 2014
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October 17, 201422 October 17, 201422
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Gujarati Samaj Celebrates Navratri with a Twist
HOUSTON: The Gujarati Samaj of Houston (GSH) orchestrated a memorable Navratri Mahotsav this year, hosting nine colorful nights of garba, dandiya and full-on fun. On weeknights, celebrations were held at the VPPS Haveli’s Hall – with the event being successful each night. For the fi rst time in the organization’s history, President Amee Patel along with Vice President Yogina Patel and their team executed an outdoor Navratri Mela on both weekends, Friday and Saturday September 26 and 27, and the following weekend October 3 and 4.
The weekend event surpassed all expectations, as this year boasted a record crowd each night. Held at Houston Farm and Ranch near Bear Creek, the venue made for a perfect place for families and friends to gather and enjoy dance as well as an array of cultural food, kids ac-tivities, shopping and music. A seven-member band known as ‘Seven Star Group,’ was fl own in from Baroda just for the event, and community members danced the nights away to traditional tunes as well as hit Bol-lywood numbers.
When asked about the success of the entire nine-night celebration, GSH President Amee Patel said, “it was defi nitely a challenge, but a challenge that my team and I humbly accepted. It was an honor to be a part of the team that brought about this
change. The reason for the venue change was two part: 1. to bring about a healthy change, something new; but moreover, 2. to save money and raise more funds for our community center. The goal was to ensure a suc-cessful and enjoyable event, while raising greater funds for the GSH. I can confi dently say we did just that. Without bringing specifi c numbers into play, the Samaj saved an average of $35,000 this year thru our Navratri event. Collectively, we will continue to make decisions that better the Sa-maj as well as enrich the lives of our supportive members.”
“It was one of the best Navratri experiences I’ve had in Houston,” said Masala Radio’s Sunil Thakkar. An active member of GSH, Thakkar went on to say, “it reminded me of my school days back home in Ma-tunga (Mumbai.) The open air breeze and the band from India – made me nostalgic and left me wanting more. Looking forward to next year’s fes-tivities.”
The GSH recognizes and thanks the many sponsors and food vendors who showed support by contributing time and effort towards the event. House of Spices was a platinum sponsor, Tara Energy a gold sponsor, BBVA Compass Bank, Oink.com, Ramesh Cherivirala, Maharaja Bhog, Aling’s Hakka, Deep Foods, Travelguzs and Emirates airlines were a few of the sponsors without which the event
would not have been a major success. The weekend venue also hosted a number of food vendors, so that attendees could savor delicacies from a variety of Indian cuisines. Ashiana, Kurry Walah, Ma-haraja Bhog, Kwality Ice Cream, Yogi’s Kids corner and Hari Tea and Snacks were among a few of the delicious food options.
To make for friendly com-petition, the GSH asked members and sponsors to participate in fun contests. Both weekends, the Samaj held competitions for the ‘best dressed’ male and fe-male, and ‘best dancers’ male
and female. Two round-trip tickets to India were raffl ed cour-tesy of Emirates Airlines and Travelguzs. Winners of the above included: Foram Patel and Amit Pathak who won two tickets to India. Kaushal Shah and Meera Shah, win-ners of the best dancers, each won a three-night, four-day the 3 night 4 day stay in Dubai courtesy of Travel-guzs and Cox & Kings. Tara Energy gave away a 42” fl at screen TV, and BBVA Com-pass gave away four Rockets Tickets. The winner of the ‘best aarti thaali’ received a fi fty dollar gift certifi cate from Mona Lisa Salon, and the best dressed couple re-
ceived a fi fty dollar gift certifi cate from Aling’s Hakka.
As with each Navratri season, members casted votes to elect a new President and Vice President on the fi nal night of Navratri – October 4. In a close election, it was announced that Yogina Patel (current Vice President) has been elected as President, and a member of this year’s executive committee, Girish Naik was elected as Vice President, respectively. Patel and Naik will offi cially serve the 2014-2015 term of GSH starting December 2, 2014.
All said and danced, residents of Houston and the greater Houston area are in eager anticipation of what new innovations will transpire at next year’s GSH Navratri event. A huge round of applause (be-taali style) to the Gujarati Samaj of Houston for a job well-done!
Founded in 1979, GSH organizes educational and cultural activities to promote Indian heritage, and is registered as a Nonprofi t organiza-tion under 501(C)(3). Our mission is to create an innovative, inclusive and imaginative “Gujarati Samaj Community Center” to implement our vision. For details and more information regarding the GSH, visit www.gshouston.org.
The GSH would like to offer our prayers and condolences to the fam-ily of Dipali Shah, who passed away on the eighth night of Navratri. May her divine soul rest in peace.
7 Star Band from Baroda
GSH President Amee Patel (center), vice-president Yogina Patel (second from right) and executive Commitee Members.
COMMUNITY
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HOUSTON: Hindus of Greater Houston wishes all a very happy Deepavali, the festival of lights. The ‘Festival of Lights’ signifi es the victo-ry of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair. As an appropriate gesture, and corresponding to their 25 year observance of Janmashtami together, the several Hindu temples and organizations of Houston are celebrating Diwali by helping the Food Bank of Houston and serving the needy.
Close on the heels of the role of air and water, to sustain life and to carry on the body functions, the most es-sential requirement is the availability of food. And there is no better expres-sion of human compassion than offer-ing food to the hungry. According to WHO, hunger is the gravest threat to the world’s public health and the big-gest contributor to child mortality, an estimated three million dying every year without enough food. Even in a land of plenty like the USA, the distressing reality is that a sizeable number of people are fraught to get adequate food for sustaining their lives. It is estimated that almost one in seven of our people, a staggering 18 million household of the US popula-tion are not getting enough food to eat and about 40 million live under poverty level.
Towards meeting the needs of such hungry, the world’s fi rst food bank was established in the US in 1967,
and since then several thousands of such have come up all over the world. There are several food banks in Hous-ton offering food to the hungry on a regular basis, and there are periodic ‘food drives’ initiated by various or-ganizations.
‘Feeding the hungry’ has remained an essential tradition of Hindu faith as it is in most other religions. Hindu temples have always provided free food to the devotees and the hungry; Hindu homes have made it a tradition to ensure that passers-by would be invited to eat. Before we closed the doors at night it was a daily practice in our homes to call out for anyone around who has not eaten, and serv-ing them food.
‘Athidhi Devo bhava’, the axiom meant that we considered our guests, godly.
Hindus of Greater Houston have been involved in food bank drive, during Diwali, initiated by HMEC a few years ago and this year we are doing it collectively. As per the celebrated practice of our faith,
all our temples and other organizations will collect food and feed the hungry. In-dividual temples are setting up the drive, collecting the food and passing it on to the common food bank. HGH coor-dinator Anshuman Desai has been co-
ordinating the project this year with Arya Samaj, Chinmaya Mission, Sri Meenakshi Temple, VPSS, JVB Preksha Meditation, Sewa Interna-tional and Ashtalakshmi Temple initi-ating the drive, as more organizations would soon join the effort.
As a community we are joining hands and pitching in our efforts as a united group. As much as we have several temples and different ways in the practice of our devotional adher-ence, our philosophy is essentially based on our Eternal Vedic principles, Sanatan Dharma. And the food bank drive is an opportunity for us to present ourselves as a unifi ed force. Being the third most practiced faith of humanity, it is important that Hindus stay organized and be recognized as one group, for our presence and the profound principles that we believe in. It is our hope that each one of us stands up to that ideal and does our part, and does it with conviction and compassion.
Let the Food Bank Drive pro-mote our unity to provide for the deprived.
Jai Agarwal from Arya samaj
Rachel Rose Rohatgi Weds Ford Rainey
SUGAR LAND: The skinny groomsman, Kevyn, caught the guests by surprise, as the opening notes of a pop tune engulfed the room, by jumping onstage to do some carefree dance moves. The rest of the groomsmen followed, bursting into an energetic dance line and the bridesmaids jumped followed in for a
lively dance set. As the music blended into the current pop fav, “Happy” by Pheral Williams, several young fl ower girls walked down the aisle, strewing it with petals as the wedding couple’s parents and family walked to their seats. And the set was capped off with the bride and groom waving and walking in through the aisle, hand-in-hand, to the foot of the stage to “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey.
And this was just the beginning of what turned out to be the carefree, happy marriage ceremony of Rachel Rose Rohatgi and Ford Townsend Rainey, on a stage at the Marriott Hotel in Sugar Land’s Town Square on Saturday, October 11. It was bereft of the sort of stiff formality that is cus-tomary of many Indian weddings and done without too much fanfare.
The wedding was unique for its lack of religious symbolisms but even more so because the couple were mar-ried by the bride’s brother, Roger, an ordained minister who has performed a few other weddings before. Roger carried the couple through their wed-ding vows with a strong delivery as the bridesmaids and groomsmen stood on each side. Before the couple exchanged vows, they spoke of their love for each other from prepared notes and then gave each other a single rose bud as a symnol of that love. Kevyn Richmond, an aspiring actor from Los Angeles, wrapped up by singing “Everlasting Light” by the Black Keys, sans music.
Rachel (Rose is her maternal grand-mother’s name), 31, is an attorney working in the area of workers com-pensation with Stockwell, Harris, Woolverton & Muehl in Los Angeles, California since 2002. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyo-la University in New Orleans and her law degree from California Western University in San Diego. She is the daughter of Rakesh Rohatgi, a me-chanical engineer in the oil and gas industry who works with Technip. Her mother retired as a teacher at HISD and now is an Adjunct Profes-sor with the University of Houston Downtown. Her brother Roger is a VP of Creative at YouToo Technolo-gies in Dallas.
Ford, 34, was born in the Azores Islands where his family was sta-tioned in the US Navy and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He went to the University of Texas, San Antonio for a degree in Computer Sciences and works as a software engineer for Raytheon in Los Angeles. His father Hugh retired as a Lt. Commander of a destroyer in the US Navy and his mother Jean is an early childhood teacher in San Antonio.
The couple has known each other since they met through the dating service okcupid.com and went on their fi rst date on April 13, 2011, re-membered Rachel. They newlyweds will honeymoon in Hawaii before making their home in the Westchester district of Los Angeles.
The newlyweds with their parents after the wedding. From left, Rakesh and Irma Rohatgi with their daughet Rachel Rose, Ford with his parents Jean and Hugh Rainey. Photo: Jawahar Malhotra
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STOCKS • FINANCE • SOUTH ASIAN MARKETS • TECHNOLOGY
Friday October 17, 2014
127
BY MIKE STONE
The sale could raise up to $4.5 billion, ac-cording to people familiar with the matter
Reliance Seeks Sale of Eagle Ford Stake for up to $4.5 Billion
Pioneer, which has about 230,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Basin according to its website, sold a 45% interest in the property to Reliance for $1.2 billion in 2010
New York: Reliance Industries Ltd is seeking a buyer for its stake in the Eagle Ford Basin oil and natural gas joint venture with Pioneer Natural
Resources Co, a sale that could raise up to $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Pioneer, which has about 230,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Basin according to its website, sold a 45% interest in the property to Reliance for $1.2 bil-lion in 2010. The Eagle Ford Basin asset is a three-way joint venture between Mumbai, India-based Reli-ance; Irving, Texas-based Pioneer, and a division of Mexico’s Alpha SAB de CV. Reliance has appointed Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to help sell its 45% stake, the sources said, asking not to be named because the matter is not
public. Representatives for Citi and Bank of America declined to com-ment, while Reliance could not be im-mediately reached for comment. The property for sale produces 115,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with 60% of the production in liquid form rather than gas, one of the people said. There are 472 wells on the Eagle Ford property, according to a Reli-ance presentation from July. Pioneer owns 46% of the joint venture, with Alpha SAB’s Newpeck LLC own-ing 9%. As part of its planned exit from the Eagle Ford joint venture, Reliance is also selling its invest-ment in EFS Midstream LLC, an
oil and gas gathering treatment and transportation network, the people said. The mid-stream joint venture was initially funded by Pioneer and Reliance in June 2010. EFS Mid-stream operates 11 central gathering plants in south Texas, according to the company’s website. The sale process for the oil production assets and the oil and gas gathering assets is at an
early stage, the people said. Pioneer is the operator of the wells in the joint venture, which could complicate the sale process, one of the people said. The company is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and pro-duction company with operations in several US regions. Reuters
-Livemint.com
4 Indians in Fortune’s ’40 Under 40 Powerful People List
NEW YORK( I E): Four Indians, including a Harvard University pro-fessor and the co-founder of India’s largest online marketplace Snapdeal, have been named by Fortune in its list of the 40 most powerful, infl uential and important people in business under the age of 40.
The Fortune’s 2014 ’40 under 40′ list has been topped by ridesharing service company Uber’s 38-year-old co-founder Travis Kalanick and community-driven hospitality company Airbnb’s 33-year-old CEO Brian Chesky.
The list of super-achievers, who “don’t like limits, and they don’t like being told no” includes Founder and
CEO of Facebook 30-year-old Mark Zuckerberg at the number two spot and Italy’s youngest Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (39) at the third posi-tion.
The Indians on the list are Eco-nomics professor at Harvard Raj Chetty, who is ranked 16, Micromax co-founder and CEO Rahul Sharma (ranked 21), Snapdeal Co-Founder and CEO Kunal Bahl (ranked 25) and Twitter’s General counsel and the only woman on the company’s executive team Vijaya Gadde (28).
Fortune said this year’s list of “young hotshots who are rocking businesses” includes many from sec-tor as diverse as technology, fi nance, fashion and fi lm and all have “power, infl uence, leverage, scale, and ideas that disrupt.”
The list also includes 38-year-old co-founder and CEO of texting com-pany WhatsApp, Jan Koum on rank 5, Yahoo’s 38-year old CEO Marissa Mayer (ranked 6), New York Stock Exchange President 38-year-old Tom Farley (ranked 7) and Twitter co-founder and CEO 37-year-old Jack Dorsey (ranked 11).
New Delhi-born Chetty, 35, fo-cuses on economic mobility and is an “economist on a breakout streak”.
His work on the “value-added” of teachers helped win him the presti-gious MacArthur Foundation “ge-nius grant” in 2012, after President Barack Obama cited his research in the State of the Union address.
Last year, Chetty won the John Bates Clark Medal, also known as the “baby Nobel”, given to the best economist under the age of 40. Chet-ty, who earned his Ph.D at Harvard by age 23, now oversees a staff of 10 researchers, a job “he does not take lightly.”
“My biggest nightmare is always that someone is going to have made an error in the thousands of lines of code that are involved in these proj-ects and that feeds into some public policy thing,” Fortune quoted him as saying.
Sharma, 37, started Micromax as an IT software company but he hit upon a “winning formula” by making cheap cell phones with a month-long battery life.
In fi ve years since founding the
company, handset sales have grown from 10,000 to 36 million and rev-enue hit USD 500 million last year.
“That could scale much bigger now that it has a deal with Google to make its sub-USD 100 phones for the Indian market, seen as the next big area of growth for the global tech giants,” Fortune said, adding the company even hired renowned Australian actor Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador.
Bahl, 31, co-founded Snapdeal with high school friend Rohit Bansal and in less than three years, the online marketplace has exploded to become India’s largest.
The eBay-backed company now has 2,500 employees, over 50,000 merchants and crossed USD 1 billion in sales this year.
Chairman emeritus of the Tata Group Ratan Tata invested person-ally in Snapdeal.
“Unfazed by competition from Amazon’s foray into India, Bahl is doubling down on a diverse product lineup including DNA testing, au-tomobiles, and real estate, targeting USD 2 billion in sales by year-end,”
Fortune said.A closet food critic, Bahl does
not take any notes in meetings and reads all his emails before going to sleep, according to little-known information about him that Fortune published.
Indian-born Gadde (39) has proved vital to Twitter’s efforts at interna-tional expansion at a time when even though over 70 per cent of the social media company’s 271 million users are overseas, it has been banned in multiple countries.
When the Turkish government blocked Twitter last March, Gadde and her 90-person legal team fi led lawsuits in local courts, eventually prevailing.
Her list of recent milestones include helping steer the company through one of the most anticipated initial public offerings in recent years.
She says the most important aspect of her job is allowing as much content to fl ow freely while respecting local laws.
A graduate of Cornell and New York University’s law school, Gadde previously spent close to a decade at a prestigious Silicon Valley law fi rm.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201428
CONTINUED ON PAGE 30
October 17, 201428 COMMUNITYClub 65 Members Go on a Picnic to Port Lavaca
HOUSTON: On Sept. 28, Port Lavaca, Texas was the destination for the picnic of Club 65, a non-profi t organization under the umbrella of IMAGH (Indian Muslims of Greater Houston) and able guidance of the President Latafath Hussain. Club 65 is proud to have over 110 members and growing stronger by the month.
The picnic morning start-ed at 8:30 a.m. with 61 enthusias-tic members of Club 65 meeting at the Bayland Community Center in Houston. It was commendable to see all the excited seniors arriving early --- ready to have a good time. There were new faces—Rashida Ab-dullabhoy, Akbar Ali Ladhani-- who were eager to join after hearing from friends about Club 65. Due to the tremendous response for this
event, Club 65 rented an extra bus to accommodate the members. The volunteers assisted the seniors with their assigned seating and distributed snack bags as the members boarded their respective buses.
After a slight delay in getting on the road from Houston, it was all fun and games with laughter and music. The volunteers interacted with the mem-bers for a short while then played the game of “Antakshari” till the bus made a stop in El Campo for a quick break. The next hour of the bus ride was a ‘social hour’ at the request of the members who wanted to chat and take time to know each other. The drive was pleasant and relaxing. The greenery of the sprawling Texas landscape was cooling to the eye and the cattle grazing under the big blue
canopy/sky brought back old memo-ries of the farms and countryside back home in India.
Port Lavaca is a two hour bus drive from Houston located near the center point of the 275 mile Texas Gulf Coast. It is referred to as “the little jewel” nestled in the middle of the Gulf Coast offering visitors a variety of public parks and a tropical seaside environment with its own charm. The area also is a wintering ground for many species of birds including the Whooping Crane.
Arriving at the picnic spot -700 Lighthouse Beach Road- there was a huge pavilion with picnic tables (enough to seat 200 people) where the members enjoyed a cool drink of “Chaas” (buttermilk) with” Ka-choris” and relaxed to savor the view
of the calm water of the gulf. The weather was pleasant all day with an exception of a mid-day heavy downpour for a short while. The rain came down hard on the metal roof of the pavilion making music of its own and again reminding the folks of the monsoons in India.
The pouring rain kept the members huddled under the pavilion. It also provided the perfect time to play games! Game one was –Bean Bag Toss where the person has 4 chances to throw the bean bag into a hole on a board- 3 points scored for each bag in the hole and 1 point scored for each bag on the board. Everyone got a chance to play and had a good time. Game two was—Tossing the Ball into the Cup. This game is played with many cups lined on a table and the person has to toss the ball directly into the cup without bouncing it on the table. Amazingly, it requires some skill and the members had a lot of fun trying their best.
The location was beautiful and very peaceful! There was a board-walk along the water in front of the pavilion making it convenient for the seniors to stroll in small groups on the boardwalk along the water. There was an Observatory (Gazebo) located at one section of the boardwalk where people could observe the different species of birds. Many of the mem-bers congregated in the Observatory and felt relaxed looking out into the horizon where the blue sky meets the majestic body of water! At the re-quest of some members Kaka (Tyeb Shipchandler) our evergreen senior member sang a couple of beautiful songs that were like music to the ears with the awesome acoustics of the gazebo.
Soon after, it was time to head back to the pavilion for a sumptuous lunch after a fun fi lled active morn-ing. The food arrived a little later
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
29 October 17, 2014
P a r t h Dwivedi has a B.A. in Neuroscience and an M.S. in Biomedi-cal Sciences. He l ikes reading non-fiction and still watches I Love Lucy.
BY PARTH DWIVEDI
The Healthy Dose – Ebola, Part 3
Recapping everything we have cov-ered thus far, there are fi ve different species of Ebolavirus, each with dif-ferent characteristics. Once it infects a human host, the virus attacks the immune system and causes water loss, bleeding and organ failure.
Ebola has surfaced in the news before, although more recently an ongoing outbreak in Western Africa has been taking headlines and airtime across various media outlets. Dissect-ing this issue is diffi cult, as it unfolds into many complicated layers.
Many obstacles confront health specialists involved in the immediate treatment of Ebola overseas. To begin with, it is diffi cult to diagnose Ebola, as many of the symptoms in the initial phases resemble other, more manage-able illnesses.
As a result of this, patients often do not come to aid centers for help until their symptoms have progressed to a very dangerous point. From there, an
29October 17, 2014COMMUNITY/HEALTHHarinath Medi Earns National Luxury Home Designation
HOUSTON: Harinath Medi, Real Estate agent with Luxury Home council, Inc. in Houston was recent-ly awarded the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) Designa-tion from the Luxury Home Council,
Inc.The Accredited Luxury Home spe-
cialist (ALHS) Logo is testimony to the agent’s training and expertise in the luxury home marketplace. To dis-play the ALHS logo and be accepted into the Luxury Home Council, each member must successfully complete the Accredited Luxury home Spe-cialist Course, meet minimum sale requirements and the agent must be in good standing with the National Association of Home Builders.
Medi joins an Elite Membership of top real estate agents throughout the United States and Canada. Members strive to provide exceptional service to affl uent clients through rigorous education focusing on the luxury Home Market and their understand-ing of the special demands of affl uent
buyers and sellers.Medi has been very active in the
community rendering community service activities.
He is the past President of ICC (India Culture Center), And also the President and the Chairman of South Asian Chamber of Commerce. He is one of the Founding Trustees of Indo American Chamber Of Commerce.
Presently, he is the President of Osmania University Alumni associa-tion of America. At this capacity, Mr. Medi is engaged in the fund raising activities for some projects for his Alama Mater Osmania University In Hyderabad, India.
For further information, contact Harinath Medi at 281-498-4300 or The Luxury Home Council at www.LuxuryHomeCouncil.com.
Harinath Medi
already uphill battle sinks farther into the trenches. More patients succumb to this illness, and aid centers slowly become known more as places where patients die than places where pa-tients survive.
This reputation spreads and creates a cycle that causes more people to delay treatment, even once they begin thinking they might have Ebola. After all, knowing you had a disease, would you go to a hospital with a reputation for dead patients?
Other factors come into play, though. Foreign health specialists only get involved once a situation becomes dire. From a local person’s perspective dire situations seem to be linked with foreigners. Indeed, Dr. Fischer writes about “rumors claiming the white people brought Ebola…”
Superimpose on these factors the weak, local healthcare system that serves as the alternative to foreign aid centers and a bad situation becomes worse. But, is there a cure that these
aid centers can even provide?No. Although, certain experimental
medications have been used spar-ingly. One such medication, ZMapp, was successfully used to treat two American missionaries, but no re-liable, well-understood medication currently exists. This does not mean that Ebola is untreatable, however.
Dr. Paul Farmer, something of a celebrity physician in the world of international medicine, said in an interview with Democracy Now! that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Western Africa refl ects shortcomings in local healthcare systems more than it refl ects the lethality of the infection itself.
He went on to say that if this in-fection came stateside, it would not spread very far, as the strength of our healthcare infrastructure would placate any outbreak very quickly. Of course the outbreak is serious, but it is not likely to become a direct threat to American citizens.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201430 October 17, 201430 COMMUNITY
Prakara Puja in the new Ganesh temple
Wells Fargo Lights Up Diwali by Helping Give Children a Lifetime of Smiles
Wells Fargo & Company is lighting up Diwali with community celebra-tions and partnerships throughout the country. In addition to supporting Di-wali Festivals and other events across the country, Wells Fargo is working to help bring smiles during the New Year by collaborating with Operation Smile to provide free surgeries for children in India born with cleft lip and cleft palate.
Until Oct. 26, Wells Fargo will donate $3 to Operation Smile, an international children’s medical char-ity, for every Wells Fargo Express-Send® money transfer to India from an eligible account.* Wells Fargo will make a $25,000 minimum donation to Operation Smile with a maxi-mum donation of $50,000. More information about the collaboration is available at www.wellsfargo.com/diwalismiles.
Wells Fargo knows that many fami-lies send money to loved ones in India
to celebrate Diwali, and the company offers a $0 transfer fee for Express-Send® customers sending more than $500 to India from an eligible Wells Fargo account. Also, new Express-Send® customers with an eligible Wells Fargo account receive a $0 transfer fee on their fi rst transfer when they sign up and send money from their account by December 31, 2014.
Wells Fargo has continuously con-tributed to local communities since the company’s inception in 1852. In 2013, Wells Fargo invested a record $275.5 million in 18,500 nonprofi ts, educational programs, and schools, including to organizations specifi -cally serving the Asian community. In 2012, The Chronicle of Philanthropy named Wells Fargo the #1 corporate donor in the United States.
*Open to residents of the 50 U.S. states and D.C. only. Void where prohibited. Wells Fargo will donate
$3 to Operation Smile for each transfer made to India from an eli-gible ExpressSend account between 9/15/14-10/26/14. Wells Fargo will make a $25,000 minimum donation to Operation Smile with a maximum of $50,000. This does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Operation Smile. To learn more about Operation Smile visit: operationsmile.org
“IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA”
Stay tuned every Sunday, to HIREN JOSHI from 2.30pm to 3.30pm
Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways at the 4th IIT BHU Alumni Meet
NAPERVILLE, IL: The IIT BHU Global Alumni Association recently held its fourth Global Alumni Meet at the Sheraton Lisle Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. Theme for the Meet was “The IIT BHU Journey of Excel-lence Continues...”. Over 200 people attended the Meet. At the opening, a lamp lighting ceremony was held with the portrait of Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder of BHU. An inspiring video sharing his amazing life story memorized the audience.
Prof. Rajeev Sangal, Director of IIT BHU and Acting Vice-Chancellor of BHU was the Chief Guest. Hon. Shri Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways and IIT BHU Alumnus gave a Keynote Address. Dr. Sarva-jna Dwivedi, Co-founder and Chief Scientifi c Offi cer at Pearl Thera-
peutics, Inc., an IIT BHU Alumnus was also a Keynote Speaker. Video messages from former BHU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Panjab Singh, and Campus Diaries were shared.
Two panels on “Excellence in Edu-cation” and “Excellence in Entrepre-neurship” discussed lot of interesting ideas to propel the IIT BHU to new heights. There were lighter moments with “Fond Memories of BHU” and “Tribute to Teachers”. The Meet con-cluded with an entertainment pro-gram after the dinner.
At the Meet, alumni deliberated on ways to give back to alma mater and raised over $21,000 to support various projects at IIT BHU includ-ing student scholarships. Hon. Manoj Sinha and Prof. S. N. Upadhyay were conferred 2014 IIT BHU Lifetime Achievement Award. Additionally,
Nine alumni were conferred the 2014 IIT BHU Distinguished Alumnus Award.
The 5th IIT BHU Global Meet will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016.
About IBGAA:The IIT BHU Global Alumni As-
sociation (IBGAA) was established in 2008. It is a 501 (c) (3) charitable and educational organization regis-tered in New Jersey. Its mission is to act as a link between the Institute, alumni, students, faculty, and staff. The IBGAA raises funds to execute alumni projects to benefi t the Insti-tute, students, faculty, and staff. It also endeavors to enhance the IIT BHU brand globally. Please contact Dr. Manu Vora IITBHU Meet Chair 630-548-5531 [email protected]
Lamp Lighting Ceremony by Vish Narayanan, Dr. Rajeev Sangal, Raj Narang, Atul Kumar, and Dr. Manu Vora
Club 65 Members Go on a Picnic to Port LavacaCONTINUED FROM PAGE 28than expected –due to circumstances beyond our control—but it was hot and served right away. The picnic menu was a big spread consisting of---BBQ chicken, Kofta curry, Veg. Biryani, Bhindi masala, Naan, Raita, Salad with Gulab Jamun for des-sert. Soft drinks were also served. Mr. Mujahid Kitabi of BBQ Village catered the food/drinks with Hot Tea and snacks in the afternoon. He is a big supporter of Club 65 and always takes personal interest in making sure that the seniors are taken care of. He, very kindly, took the time to drive the distance to Port Lavaca, as he had done for a prior picnic to San Antonio a year ago. Club 65 appreciates all his effort and support.
After lunch, the seniors were ready for some more activity. Games and mu-sic were played in the pavilion while the tea was being prepared. Game number Three of the day was -Pass-ing the Parcel. The game was simple but the rule was- a “Penalty” if one was left holding the parcel when the music stopped. The “penalty” was to tell a joke, special anecdote, sing a song etc. This game turned out to be
a lot of fun and informative since the members were relating stories and episodes from their past experiences. The game ended with a winner get-ting a prize.
By now the fl avorful aroma of tea was fl oating around the pavilion indicating that it was ready--- to be served along with some delicious Bhel. While members slowly sipped their tea the rhythm of the music playing had a few sporting members wanting to dance—which was a big enough hint for the volunteers and they jumped into action. They had the enthusiastic ones, the bashful ones and those who needed help--all on their feet dancing merrily. It was wonderful to see everyone having a good time.
The sun was slowly setting. The evening sun was shining its cool rays on the water making it glisten like glass. The day was ending and just as the saying goes—All Good Things Must Come to an End—it was time to leave. The volunteers cleaned the pavilion then helped the members settle into the buses for a quiet ride home.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
31 October 17, 2014 31October 17, 2014
See article on page 5
COMMUNITY
See article on page 5
5201 Highway 6 South, Suite 550(Star Center Plaza, Across from KOHL’S)
Missouri City, Texas 77459 Ph: 281-969-7862
Open 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, 7 days/week
Come today to our store to celebrate our
First Year Anniversary & Diwali Sale.
From October 03, 2014 to November 10, 2014
At Gandhi Bazar, you will always fi nd:
“Krishna, Love Re-invented” Where Dance Crosses all Barriers of Race, Religion and Geography
HOUSTON: After Sangamam, Dashavatar, Go to your room, Moth-er, Bollywood Blast, and The Life of Gautama Buddha Samskriti brings to Houston an unusual production from Malaysia - Krishna, Love Re-invent-ed - by Ramli Ibrahim and the Sutra Dance Theatre. This presentation is a perfect example of ‘dance without borders’, where art transcends reli-gion and dance becomes the language of the soul rather than the body.
Ramli Ibrahim is an international icon in the fi eld of Odissi today, but his path was not so smooth in the beginning. A trained Ballet, Jazz and Modern Dance exponent who had performed professionally with the Sydney Ballet, Ramli fell in love with the symmetry and beauty of Indian classical dance, travelled to India, studied fi rst Bharatanatyam and then Odissi, and soon became an expert at
these dance forms too. Back in Ma-laysia he met with opposition because of his pursuit of “Hindu” dancing, but with unwavering dedication he continued his training, and upon his return, established his dance com-pany, Sutra Dance Theatre in 1983, to promote the cultural diversity and vibrancy of Malaysian dance to na-tional and international audiences. His message to his detractors was clear – that the timeless stories of Indian mythology, as told through India’s ancient classical dance forms, are the highest form of art, and there-fore meant to be shared and enjoyed by the world. This broad-minded and visionary Muslim choreographer has Hindu, Christian and Buddhist dancers in his ensemble, and they are Malay, Chinese and Indian. At a time when the world is being torn apart by religious strife, Ramli has proved that art can bring people together. Ramli Ibrahim exemplifi es the perfect art-ist – one who pursues art for art’s sake, and is fearless and relentless in his pursuit of it. Ramli and his Sutra Dance Theatre have transcended all barriers of religion, geography and language.
Kabir sang the praises of Ram, Ramli (indeed his name has ‘Ram’
in it) sings a paean to the Pastoral God Krishna in his Krishna, Love Re-Invented, which embodies the hu-man spirit that has always celebrated love in its many forms. In Hinduism, Bhakti or devotion remains a central tenet of its teachings. Hindu saints and poets have explored love’s profound effects on the soul through the stories of the gods. The Krishna-Gopis idyll has become the all time symbol of romantic love at its sublimated best. The moods, feelings and emotions of this love affair, an embodiment of Rasa (highest emotional state) become a sublime allegory express-ing and affi rming the highest love the individual soul has for God, in this case, Krishna. Love is able to tran-scend man-made restrictive morality and fi nds itself ‘re-conceived’ and ‘re-invented’ to accommodate our real, imagined and fantasized desires with complete abandon.
As Sutra’s Artistic Director, Ramli has choreographed stunning works and nurtured some of the brightest dance talents from Malaysia. Ramli has been instrumental in transform-ing the dance scenario in Malaysia by boldly charting new paths and has gained fame for single-handedly establishing Odissi as a widely ap-
preciated dance form in Malaysia. He is acknowledged as a ‘Living Heri-tage’ by the Government of Malaysia and is the recipient of the highest and most prestigious title of Datuk from the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He is presently Chairman of Sutra Foundation. Ramli Ibrahim besides an acknowledged dancer in Bhara-tanatyam and Odissi in India itself, Ramli was formerly with the Sydney Dance Company and plays important role in the interface of Asian & West-ern dance in redefi ning modernity from an Asian perspective.
Samskriti is very proud and happy to present artist extraordinaire Ramli Ibrahim and his Sutra Dance Theatre in their fi rst major performance in Houston. Krishna, Love Re-invented will be presented at the Cullen The-ater, Wortham Center (in the Down-
town Theater District) at 5 PM on Sunday, October 26, 2014. Tickets are available at www.explorehouston.org/ticketing, www.sulekha.com and 832 275 9658.
This program is funded in part by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Hous-ton through the Houston Arts Alli-ance, and generous donations from Schlumberger and Hindus of Greater Houston. Samskriti is very grate-ful to the Classical Arts Society of Houston, Asia Society Texas Center, Dance Source Houston, and Kalaan-gan School of Odissi Dance for their unstinted support for this event.
INVENTED” - where dance cross-es all barriers of race, religion and geography
For advertising Call: Vanshika Vipin at 713.789.6397
See ad on page 33
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
Helfenstein, director of the Menil Collection, addressed the audience informing them about the new exhibition “Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Non-violence.”
The crowd then welcomed the more than 100 adorable and talented children from Houston’s St. Catherine Montessori Catholic Choir di-rected by Tim and Mindy Snow. They brilliantly sang “Agnus Dei”, “Light a Candle for Peace,” and “Dona Nobis.”
Six-year-old Rigved Sawale (from Corner-stone Elementary in FBISD) dazzled the crowd by reciting his winning speech from the 10 and under category titled “Values in life are more important than successes.”
Reverend Gregory Han, Director of Interfaith Relations at Interfaith Ministries for greater Houston, was the Chief Guest for the evening and inspired the crowd with his speech about peace and its relevance in today’s society.
Atul Kothari, founder of Mahatma Gandhi Library, presented a plaque of appreciation to volunteer Mahesh Gandhi for his unconditional and everlasting dedication to the organization.
The next cultural item came from the Con-sulate General of the Republic of Indonesia performing Cendrawasih, a beautiful dance per-formed in duo about a famous bird in paradise, directed by Mr. Bambang Setyobudhi.
Shreetika Singh (from Seven Lakes High School in Katy), winner of the 11 and over speech contest, inspired the crowd by reciting her winning speech titled “Trusteeship vs. Own-ership: which is better for the world?”
Special guest Honorable Consul General of India, Parvatheneni Harish, spoke about the ever-lasting legacy left by our beloved Bapu, Father of Modern Bharat, India. A legacy, of which not only Bharat, India, is proud of, but the whole world is proud.
Consul General P. Harish, accompanied by his wife Nandita and Atul Kothari, presented the well-earned awards to more than the 30 win-ners of the city-wide contests held by Mahatma Gandhi Library.
The Gandhi Darshan Exhibit portraying the chronologic lifetime of Gandhiji with actual photographs from that era was also displayed at the Jones Plaza and was enjoyed by many visitors. The exhibition is now on display at the Lone Star College , Cy-Fair branch for the month of October.
The last international performance of the evening was a dynamic performance by the KoumonKe’le’ African Dance & Drum En-semble, directed by Christina Gerard.
The spectacular evening concluded with the lighting of a candle by all in attendance and a pledge to observe peace in their own lives. The candle lighting quickly spread throughout The Jones Plaza blazing downtown Houston. The crowd refl ected on the magical evening and how to emulate Mahatma Gandhi’s life listen-ing to the soothing background music “We are the World” and “Jyot se Jyot Jagate Chalo.”To view and learn more about 1000 Lights for Peace, visit www.gandhilibrary.org
How to Apply for College Without Going Gray in the ProcessEager high school students (and their par-
ents) are in the midst of spending many late nights and weekends writing essays, organizing forms, and waiting on pins and needles to fi nd out if they’ve been accepted into their dream college.
Between the tuition fees, complex questions about future goals, and challenging essay top-ics, the process of applying to college can be quite daunting for all parties involved.
Best in Class Education Center has some key tips on how to make the process as stress-free as possible:
•Before you begin applying, sit down with your family to have an open discussion about fi nances. Is your family able to help you with expenses? See how much your family will be
able to help you, assess what your scholarship opportunities might be as well as what type of fi nancial aid you’ll be able to secure, and use this information to guide you toward how many schools to apply to and which colleges you would realistically be able to attend, should you be accepted.
•Research scholarships early. Many college application essays andscholarship essays will overlap and you’ll be able to use them for multiple purposes or applications. Also, if you have an idea of scholarship money that might be coming your way, this could open the door for additional school options for you to consider.
•Take your SATs/ACTs early enough so that you can retake them if necessary. Spend lots of time preparing for these tests and seek help if needed.
•The personal statement is a point of stress for many students. Remember, the goal of the state-ment is to show colleges who you are beyond your grades and test scores. It should sound like you. Share something unique about yourself and read the statement aloud to make sure it sounds
Best in Class Education Cen-ter offers tips for parents and students to make the college ap-plication process as stress-free as possible
like something you would say and also to help catch mistakes.
•For your personal statement, rather than writing for a review board – write for a specifi c person. For example, imagine you’re writing your essay for your high school English teacher and keep him/her in mind throughout your writ-ing process. This will help make you feel com-fortable with your writing, and also help you maintain a professional and academic tone.
Best in Class offers a variety of programs tailored toward college preparation and applica-tions; one thing that can make the process less stressful is knowing that you’re not alone. Seek assistance if you’re feeling stuck.
For more information about Best in Class ser-vices for your student, or about current franchis-ing opportunities, visit www.bestinclasseduca-tion.com or call toll free at 1.888.683.8108.
Best in Class is targeting the addition of 20 more units in 2014. The state of Texas has been identifi ed as a key state for growth. The current team behind Best in Class is looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join this premier franchise family and ensure our youth will excel academically.
Week Long Celebrations for Gandhi Jayanti
EDUCATION/ COMMUNITY
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
33 October 17, 2014 33October 17, 2014
Proudly presents, for the first time in Houston! !!!!!!!!!!!!!Rathna Kumar – Artistic Director
SUTRA DANCE THEATRE, MALAYSIA
Ramli Ibrahim – Artistic Director
KRISHNA, LOVE RE-INVENTED !
!!!!! !! !!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2014, 5 PM – CULLEN THEATER, WORTHAM CENTER, TICKETS: $100, $50, $25 (Early Bird Special - $5 off until Oct. 20) – All seats reserved
For tickets, parking & directions: www.explorehouston.org/ticketing Box Office: 832 487 7041& at www.sulekha.com / 832 275 9658
This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and a generous donation from SCHLUMBERGER
Proudly presents, for the first time in Houston! !!!!!!!!!!!!!Rathna Kumar – Artistic Director
SUTRA DANCE THEATRE, MALAYSIA
Ramli Ibrahim – Artistic Director
KRISHNA, LOVE RE-INVENTED !
!!!!! !! !!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2014, 5 PM – CULLEN THEATER, WORTHAM CENTER, TICKETS: $100, $50, $25 (Early Bird Special - $5 off until Oct. 20) – All seats reserved
For tickets, parking & directions: www.explorehouston.org/ticketing Box Office: 832 487 7041& at www.sulekha.com / 832 275 9658
This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and a generous donation from SCHLUMBERGER
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF SERVICE TO HOUSTON ARTS!
(ODISSI)
This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and generous donations from SCHLUMBERGER & Hindus of Greater Houston
Proudly presents, for the first time in Houston! !!!!!!!!!!!!!Rathna Kumar – Artistic Director
SUTRA DANCE THEATRE, MALAYSIA
Ramli Ibrahim – Artistic Director
KRISHNA, LOVE RE-INVENTED !
!!!!! !! !!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2014, 5 PM – CULLEN THEATER, WORTHAM CENTER, TICKETS: $100, $50, $25 (Early Bird Special - $5 off until Oct. 20) – All seats reserved
For tickets, parking & directions: www.explorehouston.org/ticketing Box Office: 832 487 7041& at www.sulekha.com / 832 275 9658
This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and a generous donation from SCHLUMBERGER
Proudly presents, for the first time in Houston! !!!!!!!!!!!!!Rathna Kumar – Artistic Director
SUTRA DANCE THEATRE, MALAYSIA
Ramli Ibrahim – Artistic Director
KRISHNA, LOVE RE-INVENTED !
!!!!! !! !!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2014, 5 PM – CULLEN THEATER, WORTHAM CENTER, TICKETS: $100, $50, $25 (Early Bird Special - $5 off until Oct. 20) – All seats reserved
For tickets, parking & directions: www.explorehouston.org/ticketing Box Office: 832 487 7041& at www.sulekha.com / 832 275 9658
This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and a generous donation from SCHLUMBERGER
IN
INDIAWhy do India’s Babus Crave for Post-retirement Havens,
Asks Veteran Journalist Raj KanwarIndia’s bureaucrats, especially of
the IAS specie, are so very enamored of their ‘sarkari kursi’ and of the perks/status associated with it that they do not ever wish to forsake it even after reaching the retirement age of 60. Consider this: of the 486 applicants for the three posts of Infor-mation Commissioners advertised by Department of Personnel and Train-ing (DoPT) in August, more than half are bureaucrats, mostly from the Indian Administrative Service. Among them are several serving and retired secretaries to the government of India and occupying similar senior positions in state and Central govern-ments. The applicants include a few former ambassadors and some ladies too. Among the non-bureaucrats are applicants from management, sci-ence and technology, social sector and even media. All the three posts will naturally be fi lled up from among the bureaucrat-applicants since the Cabinet Secretary and DoPT secre-tary have been tasked to shortlist the applicants, and it is as certain as night follows the day that they will not look beyond their own fraternity.
WHAT exactly is the real lucre that tempts these bureaucrats to seek post-retirement sinecures? It can’t be money alone since most of them have made enough of it during their
35-38-year long tenure in numerous positions. What do then they wish to achieve even after reaching the retire-ment age? Most of them possibly do not want to give up the quintessential aura that went with the position(s) they occupied. More probably, their wives are scared of losing their ex-alted honorifi c of ‘Mem Saab’ and the gratis services of numerous retainers such like peons, drivers, assistants that come with the job. They can’t dare imagine the day they would have to live like ordinary citizens since they have become so accustomed to the comfort of the perks that their husbands enjoy. A major attraction for jobs in Delhi is, of course, the retention of the spacious bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi for another fi ve years.
It is, in fact, the deadly virus of “Fiftynineitis” that has virtually in-fected almost everyone in the up-per echelons of our “hard-working” bureaucracy. It had, of course, been there from 1950s onward but it was then sporadic. However, slowly ger-minating over the past half a century, it has lately assumed a virulent form. Peculiar to India, the virus has baffl ed both the medical and human resource professionals since it is neither men-tioned in medical treatises nor taught at the business management schools.
Curiously, the virus enters the blood-stream of a bureaucrat as he crosses 55; then it slowly grows and becomes critical when he reaches the age 59 – the penultimate year before he is supposed to lay down for good (?) his bureaucratic pen. It affl icts him in assorted ways. The most noticeable impact is on the bureaucrat’s vertebra as if it just does not exist, and if it does it is so well hidden that even an ortho-pedic surgeon will have a problem in locating it. Often the good doctor, when he comes out of the examina-tion room, has a puzzled expression on his face as if he has discovered a new species – an invertebrate Homo sapiens.
Another symptom is that fi le-push-ing is done with a new panache wor-thy of a veteran craftsman. Elaborate notes are penned with fi nesse, full of sound and fury and often contradicto-ry. The more serious of the ‘infected’ bureaucrat pretends to wipe sweat off his brow to show as if he is working as hard in his twilight years as he always worked (oh! really). The more astute among this tribe merrily continues into perpetuity; they have perfected over the years the art of ass-kissing and saying ‘Yes Minister!’. Now that they have successfully climbed with élan the greasy hierarchically bureau-cratic ladder and sit atop the perch,
they look down upon with feigned indifference at the ‘fellow-crabs’ that are still trying to mount the same slip-pery ladder. They have the cunning of a fox and self-preserving animal instincts in abundance, and they jolly well know which side of their bread is buttered.
Hundreds of post-retirement ha-vens
It is no accident then that these clever bureaucrats have managed to grab each and every niche position in the Central government and have thus come to hold an enormous clout. Over the years, they have cleverly conspired and maneuvered to create 100s of sinecures, lucrative sanctuar-ies, etc in order to provide post-retire-ment cushions for themselves. The number of the victims of fi ftynineitis is expanding in geometrical propor-tion with each passing year and hence the dire necessity of creating more and more safe havens.
Apart from the innumerable exist-ing positions such like membership of the Planning Commission (now sadly defunct), Union Public Service Commission, Election Commission, Chief Information Offi cer, many ad-ditional ‘sinecures’ have been cre-ated. These include a plethora of new Tribunals, Authorities and Regula-tors ranging from Ports, Airports,
Power and Sales Tax, Petroleum and such related dispensations like tariff commissions et al within and outside the numerous ministries and departments. Some of these are, in fact, ‘arms’ of the various govern-ment departments, masquerading as ‘independent regulators’, but in real-ity these imaginatively-created sine-cures are merely intended to be ‘doled out’ to the ‘favoured’ bureaucrats who then act more as ‘lap dogs’ than ‘watch dogs’. Such ‘arrangements’ equally serve both the benefactor and the benefi ciary.
Fiftynineitis is, in a way, a terminal disease and causes ‘demise’ of the Babu a month or two before he is to superannuate. Thereafter, the de-ceased bureaucrat is reborn in a new avatar that lasts for a fi xed 5-year span. Ironically, it is the lethal virus of Fiftynineitis that most Babus will-ingly and happily embrace.
Raj Kan-war is the India Corre-spondent of Indo Ameri-can News.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201434 October 17, 201434
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35 October 17, 2014 35October 17, 2014
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October 17, 201436 October 17, 201436
Job Posting: Non-Linear News Editor (Part Time)
KTRK-TV, and ABC owned station in Houston, TX has an opening for part time Non-Linear News Editors. Candidates should have experience in editing on non-linear systems as well as knowledge of the Digital Newsroom and understanding of the digital workflow for broadcast news, in a deadline intensive environment. Serious candidates should also have a working knowledge of a server based digital media workflow. Candidates should be able to edit in deadline situations, be creative, precise and be able to work fast. You must be able to take direction, and be a “Team Player” who is not afraid of an intense news environment. Hours will vary depending on the needs of the department, so flexibility to work a varied schedule is required.
Candidates must apply on-line at www.disneycareers.com by uploading a resume file, cover letter and list of references. Interested applicants should also send video tape sample of your work to: Human Resources, KTRK-TV, 3310 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005. Please Reference Job ID: 218783BR on all materials submitted. No Telephone Calls
KTRK-TV is an Equal Opportunity Employer Female/Minority/Veteran/Disability
MassMutual Honors Diwali and Business Tradition of Chopda Pujan
No-Cost Seminars Help Business Own-
ers Secure Their Futures and Protect the Next Generation
SPRINGFIELD: Almost three million Asian Indians in the United States are preparing to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, on Oct. 23. For the more than 300,000 Asian-Indian owned fi rms* in the U.S., the holiday takes on an added dimension, as the celebration marks the beginning of a new business year. To help business owners prepare for the New Year ahead, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) is offering a series of free, no-obligation business seminars in fi ve cities across the country this Diwali.
In a special Diwali ritual for businesses known as Chopda Pujan, new account books are opened and blessed. Business owners use this time to refl ect on the past year while looking ahead to new opportunities for prosperity and wealth. It is said the goddess of wealth, known as Lakshmi, visits the homes of devotees on this day, and lamps light the way to welcome her.
A MassMutual study** found that although 77 percent of Asian Indian business owners be-lieve fi nancial planning for their business is very
important, only 43 percent are concerned about who will run their businesses if they or another owner leaves, becomes disabled or dies; only 46 percent have a formal retirement plan.
“Entrepreneurial businesses are vital to our growing economic recovery, so it is concern-ing that so many business owners seem to be sacrifi cing their own and their family’s fi nancial future,” says Nimesh Trivedi, Asian-Indian Market lead at MassMutual. “With help, business owners can look past the seemingly overwhelming day-to-day demands of running their businesses and establish and meet their long-term fi nancial goals.”
To help Asian Indian business owners open their new books this Diwali and plan for a prosperous new year, MassMutual is offering a series of free video-based seminars featuring stories shared by real business owners. The vignettes explore critical business planning top-ics, such as passing ownership on from one gen-eration to the next, preparing for the unexpected, the death of an owner, retaining key employees, and proper estate and retirement planning.
Seminars addressing these topics critical to Asian Indian business owners will be presented in the following cities across the country this Diwali:
•Houston, Oct. 14,•Atlanta: Oct. 18,•San Jose, Calif.: Oct. 24 •Edison, N.J: Oct. 29•Chicago: Nov. 6For more information on the multi-city
business owner seminar tour, contact Nimesh Trivedi, 413.744.1244. For more information on planning for your businesses’ and families’
fi nancial futures, visit massmutual.com/asian-indian or view a video at [hyperlink].
*2007 Survey of Business Owners Sum-maries of Findings, U.S. Census Bureau. This information is the most current data available.
**MassMutual’s Business Owner Perspec-tives: 2011 Insights in an Uncertain Economy, conducted by GfK Custom Research North America for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insur-ance Company (MassMutual), 2011.
About MassMutualFounded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading
mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefi t of its members and participating policyowners. The company has a long history of fi nancial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyowners consistently since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the fi nancial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance,
long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company’s strong and growing network of fi nancial professionals helps clients make good fi nancial decisions for the long-term.
MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affi liated com-panies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfi eld, Massachusetts and its major affi liates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Inves-tors Services, LLC, Member FINRA and SIPC; OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.
For more information, visit www.massmu-tual.com or fi nd MassMutual on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest.
BUSINESS
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201438 October 17, 201438 PUZZLES/ RECIPE SUDOKU
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Mama’s Punjabi Recipes
Shakuntla Mal-hotra is a skilled cook of Punjabi dishes made in the old-fashioned style that she learnt as a young woman in her an-cestral home in
Lyallpur, India before it became part of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. People have often admired her cooking for its simplicity and taste that comes with each mouthful. Even in her mid-eighties, she continues to cook daily and agreed to share some of her delectable Punjabi recipes.
Atte Da Halva (Whole Wheat Flour Halva)
For Punjabis, atta (whole wheat fl our) is the carbohydrate of pref-erence, and rice is less of a staple dish. Hence, lots of dishes, including many sweets like pinnis, poodras and halwa, are made of atta. It helps that whole wheat is preferred by dieticians for health reasons, even though excessive carbohydrates consumed are equally not healthy.
Wheat fl our halva is often served at religious functions and is always served at the temples after services. Although this sweet dish is consid-ered mostly a Northern Indian con-fection is associated with Punjabi cuisine. The same halva made with a slight difference can be used to make atta di pinniya.
This is a fairly easy recipe and you can fi nd the ingredients easily in your home. You can add the amount of sugar to your choice, but I try to keep the halva not too sweet.
If you prefer, you can use brown sugar or gur (jaggery). Olive oil gives a better taste and is healthier than ghee. You can add more ghee if you like, but using less ghee makes browning the atta more diffi cult.
Ingredients:Half cup of • ghee or cook-ing oilHalf cup of • atta (medium coarse wheat fl our)Half cup of sugar • Two cups of water•
Many people often complain about occasionally not being able to get a good nights sleep and resort to medications to help them get some rest. As long as this is not associated with some other illness of temporary problems, there is an age-old remedy for a good, comfortable night’s sleep and that is drinking a warm glass of milk up to an hour before retiring for the night.
Since long ago, this remedy has been used in rural and agrarian areas in India and it still continues to work. The thought was that the milk allowed for the stomach to relax and then help in digestion, which then induces relaxation and good sleep. Although a lot of new scientific research finds no real basis for this effect, it seems to help many people so it may be all psychological.
MAMA’S TIP OF THE WEEKFOR A COMFORTABLE LONG NIGHT
FULL OF SLEEP, TRY SOME WARM MILK
Directions: 1. Heat the ghee or olive oil in a kadai or wok over low heat.
2. Throw in the fl our and brown it, stirring often, as you don’t want to have the fl our get too brown as it may give a burnt smell. Don’t brown over high heat as the fl our does not come out as tasty.
3. In a saucepan, boil the water and throw in the sugar, stirring till it is completely dissolved. Keep the mixture to the side for later use.
4. After the fl our is slightly brown, pour the syrup and stir continually and turn the heat to medium.
5. When the ghee starts to perco-late up along the edges then turn
1) Arun Talwar2) K. G. Subbaraman
3) Prabhu Narumanchi
the heat off. This should be eaten warm for best taste.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
39 October 17, 2014
Last week’s edition can be found online. Issue dated June 27,2014.
Continuing, free radicals are made in your body as byproducts of natural processes, called oxidative processes. In the same way that car exhaust is created when you run an engine to power the car, free radicals are formed by the oxidative processes to power your body. Although these processes are very effi cient, free radical formation is inevitable in small amounts—even the most effi cient engine will produce exhaust.
There are many healthy roles for free radicals, though. For instance, nitric oxide is a free radical that is used by cells to communicate with other cells. In fact it is necessary for proper nervous system function and blood pressure control. Of course, this type of process is very tightly controlled.
But nitric oxide is not what has made free radi-
Last week’s edition can be found online. Issue dated June 27,2014.
Continuing, free radicals are made in your body as byproducts of natural processes, called oxidative processes. In the same way that car exhaust is created when you run an engine to power the car, free radicals are formed by the oxidative processes to power your body. Although these processes are very effi cient, free radical formation is inevitable in small amounts—even the most effi cient engine will produce exhaust.
There are many healthy roles for free radicals, though. For instance, nitric oxide is a free radical that is used by cells to communicate with other cells. In fact it is necessary for proper nervous system function and blood pressure control. Of course, this type of process is very tightly controlled.
But nitric oxide is not what has made free radi-
Last week’s edition can be found online. Issue Specializing in Small
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Commercial Real Estate Loans, Construction Loans, Equipment Loans, Working Capital Loans,
International Trade Finance and more...Jack Kuo Winston NguyenLending O�cer, V.P. Lending O�cer, V.P.713-995-3201 713-995-3226
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39October 17, 2014
Movie ReviewEkkees Toppon Ki Salaami
ENTERTAINMENTWelcome Back
The Famous Emirates Palace of Abu Dhabi will be Naseer’s Home in the Film
BY SUBHASH K JHA
NEW DELHI: Ask anyone. It’s the hardest thing to play dead. Satish Shah did it in the cult comedy Kun-dan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Anupam Kher, who plays dead in this week’s release, also played dead in that appalling comedy Rahul Raw-ail’s Buddha Mar Gaya.
Providentially, Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami (ETKS) is closer to Shah rather than Rawail’s fi lm. Its heart beats and bleeds for the innocence that independent India lost when politicians decided to get happily cor-rupt at the cost of the common man. Kher plays an Everyman, the role he specialised in when he came into the movies with Saaransh. It’s heartening to see him return to his roots.
This is a well-balanced, nimbly ex-ecuted wake-up call for a nation, that
has for long gone into a state of stu-pefi ed slumber. Writer Rahil Qazi’s writing is authentic and amusing. Debutant director Ravindra Gautam handles the infl ammatory material with care. He seems to know what we all pretend to not know. That corrup-tion is not a beast from outerspace. It exists within all of us.
Kher’s character’s humiliation and death is a moving metaphor for the annihilation of Gandhian values. The fi lm’s plot hinges on a son’s endeavour to fulfi l his father’s dying wish. The narrative cuts to the chase without wasting much time. Except for those annoying songs that show up as speed-breakers, the fi lm keeps moving briskly putting across its message to a nation that has lost its values with a farcical ferocity that sometimes leaves us shaken stirred
and sober.The fi lm has some sterling perfor-
mances, reined-in and yet wacked-out. Anupam Kher, of course. Dead or alive, he acts both the parts with credibly commitment to keeping the fl ag unfurled. Manu Rishi (last seen being impressively jingoistic in Kya Dilli Kya Lahore) and specially the under-used under-rated Divyendu Sharma, bolster the theme’s vision of a decadent debauched politics.
Neha Dhupia as the scheming femme fatale is once again so right in her gait and attitude, you wonder why she doesn’t get more challenging roles. And to see the very talented Ut-tara Baokar after so long, was reason enough for me to salute the casting director.
Rajesh Sharma as a slimy wheeler dealer gets to mouth some lurid lines which could have been avoided. A high-calibre political satire of this nature doesn’t need to over-state its point.
Here is a fi lm that shovels the dirt that we’ve accumulated in our poli-tics and makes a mirthful statement on corruption.
It comes buried under a barrage of nondescript releases this week. But to miss this clarion call to respect decency would be doing disservice to the culture of cinema with a social conscience.
Ekkess Toppon Ki Salaami de-serves a 21-gun salute. It has a heart and it doesn’t hesitate in letting it show. -Hindustan Times
BY PRIYA GUPTA
The famous Emirates Palace that is owned by the royal family of Abu Dhabi has had requests from fi lms from the world wanting to shoot it from inside for the longest time, but so far no one got the permission.
There are just two fi lms that have been able to do that for the fi rst time,
the fi rst is the Hollywood fi lm Fast & Furious 7 and our very own Firoz A Nadiadwala’s Welcome Back. The palace will be the house of Naseerud-din Shah in the fi lm with its famous dome area converted into his living room. Naseer bhai, we can’t wait to see you in your royal house in the fi lm.
-Times of India
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201440 October 17, 201440 SPORTSIndia Levels ODI Series 1-1 After WI Implodes
NEW DELHI (ESPN Cricin-fo): India 263 for 7 (Kohli 62, Raina 62, Dhoni 51, Taylor 3-54) beat West Indies 215 (Smith 97, Pollard 40, Shami 4-36, Jadeja 3-44) by 48 runs
Chasing 264, West Indies were coasting. Dwayne Smith had gone past his highest ODI score, and his second-wicket partnership with Kieron Pol-lard was assuming threatening proportions. With nine wickets in hand, a long list of batsmen waiting in the dressing room, and 128 required at exactly a run a ball, this was West In-dies’ match to lose. They went and lost it.
It started with the wicket of Pollard, who chased a wide ball and dragged Amit Mishra onto his stumps. From that point, West Indies imploded. On a two-paced Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, India’s bowlers put the brakes on the scoring, and panic took hold of the batsmen. West Indies lost their last nine wickets for 79 runs, and their last eight for 45.
West Indies have been pena-lised for a slow over rate in their defeat against India in the sec-ond ODI in Delhi. They were found to be two overs short of the target.
The West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo was fined 40% of his match fee while his team-mates were fined 20%. Accord-ing to the regulations for minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10% of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.
If Bravo is found guilty of one more minor over-rate of-fence in ODIs over the next 12 months, he will receive a one-match suspension.
In ODI cricket, six an over is usually a doddle when you have wickets in hand and not too many runs left to get. On this pitch, however, scoring quickly wasn’t easy unless you
had your eye in. India had dis-covered this to their detriment earlier in the day, both at the start and the end of their in-nings.
Having opted to bat first, they had struggled to break the shackles against accurate new-ball bowling from Ravi Ram-paul and, in particular, Jerome Taylor, who attacked a good-length area close to off stump and allowed the pitch to do the rest. The second-wicket pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu had looked quite ill at ease while adding 46 in 67 balls, and even Virat Kohli had taken his time to find his feet.
Suresh Raina looked fluent right from the time he walked in, however, and his front-foot stride - the surest sign that his mind isn’t entirely consumed by thoughts of the short ball -
ISL Takes Root in India
was light and sure whenever the bowlers gave him half an opportunity to drive through the off side.
Raina and Kohli slowly got on top of the bowling, and be-gan the batting Powerplay on the cusp of India’s first cen-tury stand for the fourth wicket since August 2012, and the score read 163 for 3.
It looked like a launchpad to a 280-plus score, but the dis-missals of Raina and Kohli, in the 37th and 41st overs, sucked the momentum out of India’s innings. Without MS Dhoni’s unbeaten 40-ball 51, it’s unlikely India would have gotten near their total of 263, with pretty much everyone else at the other end struggling to come to terms with the surface and West Indies’ adroit use of the slower ball at the death.
The wicket of Pollard caused a similar, and even more dramat-ic, turnaround in the tempo of West Indies’ innings. Till then, Mishra had endured a frustrat-ing evening. He had bowled a number of good balls, had had a close lbw shout against Pollard turned down, and had been picked off for three mas-sive sixes, two of them by Pol-lard, and not necessarily off the middle of his bat. Having just struck his third six, he went af-ter one tossed up wide outside off and inside-edged it onto leg stump.
Following that breakthrough, Mishra bowled 16 successive dot balls, landing everything on a good length on off stump, getting some balls to grip on the pitch and others to skid off the surface, and completely confounded Marlon Samu-els, who had scored a century against this same attack three days ago.
Smith carried on fluently at the other end, picking off Koh-li’s wrong-footed legcutters for four fours in two overs, and launched Mohammed Shami over the long-on boundary in the first over of the batting Pow-erplay. In sight of his first cen-tury in ODIs and List A cricket, however, Smith received the perfect riposte from Shami, a full, fast ball that swung in a touch and cannoned off the pads and into the stumps.
The required rate crept up to over seven, and Samuels slapped a perfectly slappable long-hop from Umesh Yadav straight to cover. The spinners then discovered the turn avail-able on the pitch, Mishra spin-ning one sharply to find Denesh Ramdin’s outside edge, Ravin-dra Jadeja doing the same to beat Andre Russell’s edge and have him brilliantly stumped by Dhoni. By this point, West Indies had been knocked out - the four wickets that remained fell in the space of 26 balls, and India won with 21 balls left.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPN-cricinfo
NEW DELHI: The inaugural Indian Super League will help the cricket-mad nation develop a foot-ball culture with the ultimate aim of qualifying for the World Cup, a top FIFA official said on Wednes-day.
“India has huge potential. The ISL is helping,” the world govern-ing body’s secretary general, Je-rome Valcke, said.
“We must make sure that we are all together with one goal -- to de-velop football in India and help In-dia play in the World Cup sooner,” he told the league’s official web-site www.indiansuperleague.com.
The glitzy 10-week long ISL, which opened on Sunday, is mod-elled on cricket’s popular Indian Premier League, televised by Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV and backed by sports management gi-ants IMG and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
Cricketing greats Sachin Ten-dulkar and Sourav Ganguly, Bolly-wood A-listers Ranbir Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan, and Spanish La Liga side Atletico Madrid are among co-owners of the eight franchised teams in the fray.
The league has lured past greats like 39-year-old Alessandro Del Piero of Italy, ex-Arsenal mid-fielder Freddie Ljungberg, and for-mer French internationals Nicolas Anelka, Robert Pires and David Trezeguet as marquee players.
“I think it’s important (to have former greats) because these stars are who kids everywhere are dreaming about,” Valcke said. “It’s a way to attract more youngsters to watch and even play the game.”
Valcke, who attended Tuesday’s match in New Delhi -- a dull goall-ess draw between Del Piero’s Del-hi Dynamos and Trezeguet’s FC Pune City -- said he was impressed by the enthusiasm of fans.
Valcke said India, once described by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter as the “sleeping giant” of world football, will receive a boost when it hosts the under-17 World Cup in 2017.
“We wanted to do whatever we could to promote or help the de-velopment of football in India,” he said. “We have given India the re-sponsibility of organizing the un-der-17 World Cup which is a huge milestone.
MS Dhoni goes on the attack, India v West Indies, 2nd ODI, Delhi, October 11.
BY KARTHIK KRISHNASWAMY
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
41 October 17, 2014
Award Winning Customer Service & Best Rates in TownFor Best Rates to: India, Europe, Cruises & Vacation Packages
Pakistan taught ‘befi tting lesson’, says Modi after decline in fi ring
The IB is the formal border between India and Pakistan and the 700-km LoC is a line demarcated in 1972 across which troops of either side are ranged.
A terse eight-minute phone conver-sation between the Indian and Paki-stani deputy directors of the director-ate general of military operations (DDDGMO) ended with brigadiers from both sides trading accusations.
There were some reports of the Rangers holding their fi re in the wake of the strong Indian response but by and large the Pakistanis responded in kind to Indian action in Arnia, Ra-ghubir Singh Pura, Ramgarh, Samba, Akhnoor and Pargwal.
“While India has no intention of escalating situation on the Jammu
India Hits Back with Vengeance, Strikes 37 Pak Posts, 15 Killed
NEW DELHI (HT): The Indian security forces unleashed “massive retaliation” on Tuesday all along the 200-kilometre long International Border (IB) in Jammu against what they termed unprovoked fi ring by Pakistan Rangers that began on Oc-tober 1.
The Indian attack targeted 37 Paki-stani border posts, resulting in around 15 deaths, more than 30 injured and serious damage to outposts manned by the Pakistani Rangers, intelli-gence sources told HT.
India has lost six people and sustained 13 injuries in Pakistani fi ring in the Jammu sector, part of a fi ve-fold increase in cease-fi re violations on the IB this year to 41. The incidents have perplexed military analysts who are more ac-customed to fi ring across the Line of Control (LoC) to facilitate infi ltration of terrorists.
border, there is no question that the Pakistanis will be allowed to go with-out punishment,” said a senior South Block offi cial.
South Block sources said the Indian side was forced to open up after the Pakistan Army fi rst violated the Line of Control in Poonch followed by their Rangers, who let loose with heavy machine guns and mortars in the Jammu sector.
The fi rst incident happened on Oc-tober 1, when the Pakistan Army tar-geted an Indian Army border outpost (BoP) under Mandi sub-division of Poonch sector. On October 3, the Pakistanis again fi red at a BoP in Mandi, killing a 17-year-old girl and injuring four Indian civilians.
On October 3-4 night, the Pakistan Rangers decided to escalate fi ring to the IB and targeted an Indian BoP in
Nobel Peace Prize for Malala and Satyarthi Binds India, PakistanNEW DELHI (HT): Child rights
activists Malala Yousafzai of Paki-stan and Kailash Satyarthi of India were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in what is being seen as a highly symbolic push to end a decades-old rivalry between the nuclear-armed nations that have been locked in a deadly standoff along their disputed border over the past week.
Little known in his own country, Satyarthi has been heading a more than three-decade long campaign for child rights, pushing for their education and fi ghting against child traffi cking and bonded labour.
Pakistan’s Malala Yousufzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi, who’s a child rights activist, share the 2014 Nobel Peace prize.
“This award is recognition to all activists fi ghting against the exploi-tation of children and slavery,” said the 60-year-old activist, the second Indian to win a Nobel Peace prize after Mother Teresa who was given the award in 1979.
“I am thankful to Nobel committee for recognising the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age. It is a huge honour for me.”
Yousafzai, now 17, is a schoolgirl and education campaigner in Paki-stan who was shot in the head by a
Taliban gunman two years ago. The Nobel jury said the prize was
going to the two for “their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”
Signalling a larger intent behind jointly awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee said it “regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for educa-tion and against extremism.”
The rivalry between India and Pakistan is among the world’s most intractable border disputes, one that is seen as a major source of for instabil-ity in South Asia. The two countries have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
Over the past week, Indian and Pak-istani troops have exchanged heavy fi re across their Himalayan border in one of the worst escalation of vio-lence in recent years that killed some 17 people on both sides. The fi ring is said to have stopped on Friday.
Oslo’s focus on South Asia was also signalled in a recent meeting of top Norwegian diplomats in Delhi that dwelled on the impact of Nar-endra Modi’s electoral win on the
region, according to top Norwegian sources.
While regional consultations among ambassadors are a regular diplomatic practice, such a meeting on South Asia days assumes signifi -cance given Oslo’s involvement in brokering peace in India’s neighbour-hood – Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Norway’s investments in India are around USD 10 billion; 90 Norwe-gian companies work in the country and in the fi rst six months of 2014, the Norwegian embassy issued almost 10 percent more business visas for Indian citizens than in the preceding year.
Pointing to child labour, however, is embarrassing for India, where mil-lions of underage workers are em-ployed as domestic help or made to work at stone quarries, embroidery units, mines, carpet-weaving facto-ries and restaurants and hotels.
Satyarthi’s organisation, the New Delhi-based Bachpan Bachao An-dolan, has been at the head of the fi ght against child labour, creating domestic and international consumer resistance to products made by bond-ed children as well as with direct legal and advocacy work.
Data from NOGs indicated that child labourers could number 60 million in India, or 6% of the total
population. The father-of-two, who is an elec-
trical engineer by training, has res-cued some 80,000 children sold to pay their parents’ debts and helped them fi nd new lives.
Last month, based on a complaint fi led by his organisation in a Delhi court, the Indian government was forced to put in place regulations to protect domestic workers who are often physically and sexually abused and exploited.
With the prize, Yousafzai, 17, be-comes the youngest Nobel Prize win-ner, eclipsing Australian-born British scientist Lawrence Bragg, who was 25 when he shared the Physics Prize with his father in 1915.
Yousafzai was attacked in 2012 on a school bus in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan by masked
Arnia sector. A Pakistani mortar shell landed in a house in Kaku de Kothey village in Arnia as a result of which two civilians sustained serious inju-ries. This was just the beginning.
On October 4, an Indian Army jawan was killed in an improvised explosive device blast and two others were badly hurt. The border action team of Pakistan-based terrorists had planted the device near Tiba forward post in Mendhar in Poonch sector.
Two days later, the Pakistan Rang-ers again opened up at the IB and targeted Indian BoPs in Arnia with heavy mortars, killing five civil-ians including a minor, and injuring 30 others. Since October 1, Indian BoPs in Mandi, Mendhar, Arnia, Khour, Ramgarh and Rajouri sector have been targeted by the Pakistani forces.
gunmen as a punishment for a blog that she started writing for the BBC’s Urdu service as an 11-year-old to campaign against the Taliban’s ef-forts to deny women an education.
Unable to return to Pakistan after her recovery, Yousafzai moved to Britain, setting up the Malala Fund and supporting local education advo-cacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya.
In New Delhi, shortly after the announcement, joyous celebrations broke out at Satyarthi’s modest offi ce in a southern neighbourhood.
“This is not about simply poverty and rights of children. It is more than that. The fi ght has to continue,” Sat-yarthi told reporters.
“We are happy that the issue has been recognised globally now. I will continue my work.”
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
October 17, 201442
Diwali: Festival of LightsDeepawali or Diwali is certainly
the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of lights (deep = light and avali = a row i.e., a row of lights) that’s marked by four days of celebration, which literally illumines the country with its brilliance, and dazzles all with its joy. Each of the four days in the festival of Diwali is separated by a different tradition, but what remains true and constant is the celebration of life, its enjoyment and goodness.
Diwali can be traced back to an-cient India, when it was probably an important harvest festival . However, there are various legends pointing to the origin of Diwali or ‘Deepawali.’ Some believe it to be the celebration of the marriage of Lakshmi with Lord Vishnu. Whereas in Bengal the festival is dedicated to the wor-ship of Mother Kali , the dark god-dess of strength. Lord Ganesha , the elephant-headed God, the symbol of auspiciousness and wisdom, is also worshiped in most Hindu homes on this day. In Jainism , Deepawali has an added signifi cance to the great event of Lord Mahavira attaining the eternal bliss of nirvana . Diwali also commemorates the return of Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen year long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and burst crackers.
These Four DaysEach day of Diwali has its own
tale, legend and myth to tell. The fi rst day of the festival Naraka Chaturdasi marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama. Amavasya , the second day of Deepawali, marks the worship of Lakshmi , the goddess of wealth in her most benevolent mood, fulfi lling the wishes of her devotees. Amavasya also tells the story of Lord Vishnu, who in his dwarf incarnation vanquished the tyrant Bali, and ban-ished him to hell. Bali was allowed to return to earth once a year, to light millions of lamps to dispel the dark-ness and ignorance, and spread the radiance of love and wisdom. It is on the third day of Deepawali — Kartika Shudda Padyami that Bali steps out of hell and rules the earth according to the boon given by Lord Vishnu.
Rangoli is a major part of Diwali celebration. Diwali is a celebration of lights and a time to spread har-mony. A time when people should forget all differences and restore peace and harmony. There is a saying in Indian tradition, ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’. It means, ‘a guest is as good as God’. A wide spread to beautiful rangoli, is the best way to welcome your guest and portrays your good feelings about them. Rangoli is a necessity of this festival because it is believed that on this occasion, Goddess Laxmi comes at everyone’s home and blesses them with prosperity. It is also believed that rangoli, invites all the positive powers into the house and drives away all the evil, which resides in our heart.
Diwali Rangoli and it‛s Signifi cance
Diwali Sweets Recipe:
Besan Laddu
Ladoos are one of the most liked Indian sweets. Be it a fes-tive occasion or any pooja at home, any happy moment in an Indian family is incomplete without a ladoo. On the occa-sion of Diwali, ladoo is of special signifi cance because it is consid-ered auspicious to offer ladoo to Lord Ganesha at the Lakshmi-Ganesh Poojan. Though ladoo is of various types- the ‘Motichoor Ka Ladoo’, ‘Sounth Ke Ladoo’, ‘ Nariyal ka Ladoo’, ‘Aate Ka Ladoo, ‘Til Ka Ladoo’, the most loved and relishing of them is the ‘ Besan Ka Ladoo’. Even if you are in love with the scrumptious ‘ Besan Ka Ladoo’, here is the easy to make recipe.
Ingredients 4 cups Gram Flour 1 cup Pure Ghee 2 cups sugar 1 tsp Powdered Cardamom 1/2 cup chopped Almonds and RaisinsMethod • Heat the ghee in a pan. • Add the gram fl our and fry it on a low fl ame stirring
continuously till brown. • Once it is browned, let it
cool. • Add powdered cardamom
and sugar. Mix well. • Add chopped almonds and
raisins. •Shape into ladoos and serve.
-festivals.iloveindia.com
The fourth day is referred to as Yama Dvitiya (also called Bhai Dooj ) and on this day sisters invite their brothers to their homes.
The Signifi cance of Lights & Firecrackers
All the simple rituals of Diwali have a signifi cance and a story to tell. The illumination of homes with lights and the skies with fi recrackers is an ex-pression of obeisance to the heavens for the attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace and prosperity. According to one belief, the sound of fi re-crackers are an indication of the joy of the people living on earth, making the gods aware of their plenti-ful state. Still another possible reason has a more scientifi c basis: the fumes produced by the crackers kill a lot
of insects and mosquitoes, found in plenty after the rains.
The Tradition of GamblingThe tradition of gambling on Di-
wali also has a legend behind it. It is believed that on this day, Goddess Parvati played dice with her hus-band Lord Shiva , and she decreed that whosoever gambled on Diwali night would prosper throughout the ensuing year. Diwali is associated with wealth and prosperity in many ways, and the festival of ‘ Dhanteras ‘ (‘dhan’ = wealth; ‘teras’ = 13th) is celebrated two days before the festi-val of lights.
From Darkness Unto Light...In each legend, myth and story of
Deepawali lies the signifi cance of the victory of good over evil; and it is with each Deepawali and the lights that illuminate our homes and hearts, that this simple truth fi nds new reason and hope. From darkness unto light — the light that empowers us to commit ourselves to good deeds, that which brings us closer to divinity. During Diwali, lights illuminate every corner of India and the scent of incense sticks hangs in the air, mingled with the sounds of fi re-crackers, joy, together-ness and hope. Diwali is celebrated around the globe . Outside India, it is more than a Hindu festival, it’s a celebration of South-Asian identities. If you are away from the sights and sounds of Diwali, light a diya , sit quietly, shut your eyes, withdraw the senses, concentrate on this supreme light and illuminate the soul.
-www.hinduism.about.com
October 17, 201442 FESTIVAL
-boldsky.com
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
3 4343October 17, 2014
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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