Feb 25 2011 1-24

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, FAy, FA eBrUAry 25 , 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOn: www.indO Oamerican-news.cOm

1 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

Friday, February 25 2011 | Vol. 30, No. 8 $1

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American

High court Upholds Kasab’s death Verdict

MUMBAI (TOI): The Bombay high court today upheld the death sentence to Pakistani terrorist Aj-mal Amir Kasab for his involve-ment in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 people dead. ( Read Bombay HC’s judgment )

A division bench of the court comprising justices Ranjana Desai and R V More also dismissed the Maharashtra government’s peti-tion against acquittal of two Indi-ans, Faheem Ansari and Sabaud-din Ahmed, accused of aiding the commission of the crime.

Kasab, 24, the only one of the 10 perpetrators of the attack to be

captured alive, was sentenced to death by a special anti-terror court on May 6 last year. (Read: Cop, who fired at Kasab, happy after death penalty confirmation )

Ansari and Ahmed had been, however, let off for want of ade-quate evidence by the trial court.

Kasab appeared briefly in the court through a video link wearing a white kurta with his head down.

Kasab and his accomplices had landed at Budhwar Park in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night from Karachi by sea and went on a shooting spree at vari-ous city landmarks including CST railway terminus, iconic Taj Ma-hal and Oberoi Hotels, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital and Nariman House, a Jewish outreach centre, leaving 166 dead and many more wounded.

Indians burn photographs of Ajmal Kasab, only surviv-ing gunman of Mumbai terror attacks in Ahmadabad. An Indian appeals court Monday confirmed the conviction and death sentence for the only surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which killed 166 people and derailed peace talks with neighboring Pakistan.

To beat Shah Rukh Khan’s stunt on a desi cycle-rickshaw, Salman Khan decided to perform his stunts on tuk-tuk, the Thai auto-rickshaw, on Pat-taya’s narrow lanes for Anees Bazmee’s “Ready” Two tuk-tuk’s blow up and Salman jumps into a new tuk-tuk.

Salman Khan’s

SCARY! Stunt

Book Reading by Award Winning Fiction Writers

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This Week Inside:

Book Reading by Award Winning Book Reading by Book Reading by

Students Display Proficiency in Shlokathon 2011

Pg 8Students Display

A Site Finds Love in India Pg 10A Site Finds Love

“No More Tears”- Somi Ali’s NGO to help the Abused

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Read Bombay HC’s judgment )

comprising justices Ranjana Desai and R V More also dismissed the Maharashtra government’s petition against acquittal of two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, accused of aiding the commission of the crime. “No More Tears”-

iFest Brings on The Silk Road to Houston

Pg 14iFest Brings on

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in April

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By Kalyani Kalyani K GiriHOUSTON: It is the festival

that first recognized and feted the genius of film-makers in the stel-lar ilk of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, The Coen Brothers, and John Lee Han-cock before they achieved interna-tional acclaim. This year as in the past, many an aspiring indepen-dent director/actor from over 37 nations will bring their dreams to the 44th WorldFest-Houston Inter-national Film Festival in the hope that the festival’s magic at star-making will work and earn them a place in that exalted upper ech-elon of cinema legends. WorldFest runs from April 8 – 17, 2011 at the Flagship AMC Studio 30 Theaters at Dunvale.

“We will premiere approxi-mately 60 new international and independent feature and 100 short films,” said Kathleen Haney, WorldFest’s Program and Artistic Director. “There will be six mas-ter classes in Film/Video Produc-tion and Distribution, an Opening Night Champagne Gala, A Remi Awards Gala Dinner, and a Regat-ta and Texas BBQ complete with Longhorn Steers and a sailboat race at the Houston Yacht Club,” she added.

WorldFest offers 10 major cat-egories, shorts and features, tele-vision commercials, music videos, screenplays, new media, television production, business films, experi-mental media, documentaries and

Italy’s Avati brothers, Pupi and Antonio - recipients of the 2010 Career Achievement Awards - flank WorldFest Houston’s Founder and Chairman Hunter Todd at the Opening Night festivities last year at the AMC Studio 30. Photo by Krishna Giri

Stellar Premiere Lineup Set for WorldFest 2011

student endeavors. This year, there are several cre-

ative opuses that shall debut at the festival. Houston-based film-maker Trisha Ray’s Sugarbaby, a movie set in Calcutta, will make its world premiere at WorldFest. Last year, Ray and partner San Baner-je’s searing psychological thriller Bodhisattva, directed by Banerje and starring Bengali cinema stal-wart Soumitra Chatterjee, was a runaway hit and went on to garner a Remi award and accolades at the festival.

Movies from Asia are Hong Kong’s Far Away Eyes, a suspense film directed by Stanley J. Orzel, The Floating Shadow directed by China’s Jian Donsgshuo, a Sri Lankan period-drama Theja di-rected by Nilantha Hapanweera, and Where the Road Meets the Sun by Singaporean Yong Mun Shee.

Houston made productions are the world premiere of Into the Wind II directed by Chris Page, a film that focuses on powered hand gliding; Moonbug directed by Nichola Bruce; Playing House directed by Tom Vaughn, a movie shot in Houston.

At a reception held at the La Colombe d’Or on February 23, Hunter Todd, visionary founder of WorldFest Houston announced that the Port of Houston was spon-soring the regatta.

For more information about the film festival and the calendar of events, visit www.worldfest.org.

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, FeBrUAry 25 , 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOamerican-news.cOm

2 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011

An Evening Honoring The Honorable James A. Baker III and Y. Ping Sun

Honorary Chair

Nancy C. Allen

Co-Chairs

Vijay and Marie Goradia | Albert and Anne Chao

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Cocktails: 6:30 p.m. | Dinner: 7:30 p.m.

Hilton-Americas Houston | 1600 Lamar | Houston, TX 77010

For ticket information, contact Sylvia LeBlanc Watkins, 713-439-0051 Ext. 16 [email protected]



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skipping rote memorization in Indian schoolsBy ViKas Bajaj

PANTNAGAR (NYT): The Nagla elementary school in this north Indian town looks like many other rundown government schools. Sweater-clad children sit on burlap sheets laid in rows on cold concrete floors. Lunch is pre-pared out back on a fire of burning twigs and branches.

But the classrooms of Nagla are a laboratory for an educational approach unusual for an Indian public school. Rather than being drilled and tested on reproducing passages from textbooks, students write their own stories. And they pursue independent projects — as when fifth-grade students recently interviewed organizers of religious festivals and then made written and oral presentations.

That might seem commonplace in American or European schools. But such activities are revolution-ary in India, where public school students have long been drilled on memorizing facts and regurgitat-ing them in stressful year-end ex-ams that many children fail.

Nagla and 1,500 other schools in this Indian state, Uttarakhand, are part of a five-year-old project to improve Indian primary educa-tion that is being paid for by one of the country’s richest men, Azim H. Premji, chairman of the infor-mation technology giant Wipro. Education experts at his Azim Premji Foundation are helping to train new teachers and guide cur-rent teachers in overhauling the way students are taught and tested at government schools.

For Premji, 65, there can be no higher priority if India is to fulfill its potential as an emerging eco-nomic giant. Because the Indian population is so youthful — nearly 500 million people, or 45 percent of the country’s total, are 19 or younger — improving the educa-tion system is one of the country’s most pressing challenges.

“The bright students rise to the top, which they do anywhere in any system,” Mr. Premji said over lunch at Wipro’s headquarters in Bangalore, 1,300 miles south of Uttarakhand. “The people who are underprivileged are not articulate, less self-confident, they slip fur-ther. They slip much further. You

compound a problem of people who are handicapped socially.”

Outside of India, many may consider the country a wellspring of highly educated professionals, thanks to the many doctors and engineers who have moved to the West. And the legions of bright, English-speaking call-center em-ployees may seem to represent, to many Western consumers, the cheerful voice of modern India.

But within India, there is wide-spread recognition that the country has not invested enough in educa-tion, especially at the primary and secondary levels.

In the last five years, govern-ment spending on education has risen sharply — to $83 billion last year, up from less than half that level before. Schools now offer free lunches, which has helped raise enrollments to more than 90 percent of children.

But most Indian schools still per-form poorly. Barely half of fifth-grade students can read simple texts in their language of study, ac-cording to a survey of 13,000 rural schools by Pratham, a nonprofit education group. And only about one-third of fifth graders can per-form simple division problems in arithmetic. Most students drop out before they reach the 10th grade.

Those statistics stand in stark contrast to China, where a gov-ernment focus on education has achieved a literacy rate of 94 per-cent of the population, compared

with 64 percent in India.Premji said he hoped his foun-

dation would eventually make a difference for tens of millions of children by focusing on critical educational areas like exams, cur-riculum and teacher training. He said he wanted to reach many more children than he could by opening private schools — the approach taken by many other wealthy In-dians.

Premji, whose total wealth Forbes magazine has put at $18 billion, recently gave the founda-tion $2 billion worth of shares in his company. And he said that he expected to give more in the fu-ture.

Those newly donated shares are being used to start an education-focused university in Bangalore and to expand and spread pro-grams like the one here in Ut-tarakhand and a handful of other places to reach 50 of India’s 626 school districts.

The effort’s size and scope is unprecedented for a private initia-tive in India, philanthropy experts say. Even though India’s recent rapid growth has helped dozens of tycoons acquire billions of dollars in wealth, few have pledged such a large sum to a social cause.

“This has never been attempted before, either by a foundation or a for-profit group,” said Jayant Sinha, who heads the Indian office of Omidyar Network, the philan-thropic investment firm set up by

the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Although the results in Uttarakhand are promising, they also suggest that prog-ress will be slow. Average test scores in one of the two districts where the founda-tion operates climbed to 54 percent in 2008, up from 37.4 percent two years earlier. (A passing mark is 33 percent or higher.) Still, only 20 of the 1,500 schools that the foundation works with in Uttarakhand have managed to reach a basic standard of learning as determined by compe-tence tests, enrollment and attendance. Nagla is not one of the 20.

“We are working with the kids who were neglected before,” said D. N. Bhatt, a district education coordinator for the Uttarakhand state government. “You won’t see the impact right away.”

The Premji Foundation helps schools in states where the govern-ment has invited its participation — a choice that some educational experts criticize because it seems to ignore fast-growing private schools that teach about a quarter of the country’s students, includ-ing many of India’s poor.

Narayana Murthy, a friend of Mr. Premji and chairman of Info-sys, a company that competes with Wipro, said he admired the Premji Foundation’s work but worried it would be undermined by the way India administers its schools.

“While I salute Azim for what he is doing,” Mr. Murthy said, “in order to reap the dividends of that munificence and good work, we have to improve our governance.”

Mr. Premji says his foundation would be willing to work with private schools. But he argues that government schools need help more because they are often the last or only resort for India’s poor-est and least educated families.

Mr. Premji, whose bright white hair distinguishes him in a crowd, comes from a relatively privileged background. He studied at a Jesuit school, St. Mary’s, in Mumbai and earned an electrical engineering degree at Stanford.

At 21, when his father died, Premji took over his family’s cooking oil business, then known as Western Indian Vegetable Prod-uct. He steered the company into information technology and Wipro — whose services include writing software and managing computer systems — now employs more than 100,000 people. He remains Wipro’s largest shareholder.

While the foundation has been welcomed by government officials in many places, the schools in Ut-tarakhand provide a glimpse of the challenges it faces.

After visitors left a classroom at Nagla school, an instructor began leading more than 50 fifth-grade students in a purely rote English lesson, instructing the students to repeat simple phrases: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good night. The chil-dren loudly chanted them back in unison. Another teacher later ex-plained that the instructor was one of two “community teachers” — local women hired by a shopkeep-er to help the understaffed school. Although under government rules Nagla should have nine trained teachers for its 340 students, it has only four.

Underfunding is pervasive in the district. But so are glimmers of the educational benefits that might come through efforts like the Premji Foundation’s.

Surjeet Chakrovarty, now a 15-year-old secondary school stu-dent, is a graduate of Nagla and still visits his old school regularly. The son of a widower who is a sweeper at a local university, Sur-jeet aspires to become a poet and songwriter — something he attri-butes to the encouragement of his former teachers at Nagla.

“My teachers here gave me so much motivation to write,” he said. One of those Nagla teachers, Pradeep Pandey, shared credit with the Premji Foundation, and its as-sistance in developing new written and oral tests.

“Before, we had a clear idea of the answers and the child had to repeat exactly what we had in mind,” Mr. Pandey said. “We can’t keep doing what we did in the past, and pass them without letting them learn anything.”

s o c i e t y

Dhananjay, 10, sketches during a group story-telling session at the Nagla elementary school. Within India, there is widespread recognition that the country has not invested enough in education, especially at the primary and secondary levels. Photo: Prashanth Vishwanathan for The New York Times

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5 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

www.indoamerican-news.com - Your Source for News!

Book reading by Award winning Fiction writersHOUSTON: The 2010-2011 Inprint Mar-

garett Root Brown Reading Series—the 30th anniversary season—presents a read-ing featuring two award-winning fiction writers, Gish Jen and Chitra Divakaruni, on Monday, March 7 at 7:30 pm (doors open 6:45). The reading will be held in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Perform-ing Arts, 800 Bagby Street, 77002. Tickets are $5 general admission, available online at www.inprinthouston.org. For more in-formation, visit www.inprinthouston.org or call 713-521-2026.

Chitra Divakaruni, born in India, is the award-winning author of 16 books, includ-ing novels, short stories, poetry collections, and children’s books. She has been pub-lished in more than 50 magazines, included in more than 50 anthologies, and translated into 18 languages. Her short story collec-tion Arranged Marriage received an Ameri-can Book Award, and two of her novels The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart were made into films and were na-tional bestsellers. About her latest novel, One Amazing Thing, which focuses on a diverse cast of characters trapped together during a crisis who tell each other stories to lift each other’s spirits, Booklist writes, “A storyteller of exquisite lyricism and com-passion, Divakaruni weaves a suspenseful, astute, and unforgettable survivors’ tale.” Junot Diaz calls her “a brilliant storyteller; she illuminates the world with her artistry and shakes the reader with her love.” Diva-karuni is a faculty member at the UH Cre-ative Writing Program.

Gish Jen’s work is known for its “trade-mark compassion, laser-like attention to detail, and quirky wit” (Publishers Weekly). She is the author of four novels and a book of short stories, including Typical American, a New York Times Notable Book which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, Mona in the Promised Land, and The Love Wife. Her latest novel World and Town is a humorous and moving story about starting over. Ron Charles in The Washington Post writes, “What a pleasure to read this smart, warm novel from Gish Jen [which] manages in its amiable, unhur-ried way, to consider the challenges of im-migration, the limits of scientific rational-ism, and the sins of fundamentalism.” The Washington Times calls it “a beautifully written novel of wit and insight and great

generosity. Jen’s novels do not come along often, so this is not one to miss.”

The reading will be followed by an on-stage interview, conducted by fiction writer and UH Creative Writing Program alumna Miah Arnold, and a book sale and signing, where audience members can meet the au-thors. This reading will be presented in con-junction with Inprint’s annual young profes-sionals mixer, Books & Bellinis.

Now in its 30th year, the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series ranks among the country’s leading literary showcases. The Series is presented in association with the UH Creative Writing Program, the Al-ley Theatre, and Brazos Bookstore. Since 1980, the Series has presented more than 300 of the world’s great writers, including winners of 49 Pulitzer Prizes, 45 National Book Awards, and six Nobel Prizes. The low admission cost of $5 has not changed in 30 years, thanks to generous underwriting support from The Brown Foundation, Inc., Weatherford International, and the National Endowment for the Arts, “which believes that a great nation deserves great art.” In-print also receives in-kind support from the Alley Theatre, United Airlines, KUHF 88.7 FM, and Bank of America Center, as well as support from the Texas Commission on the Arts and The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. Special thanks to the Chinese Community Center and the Organization of Chinese Americans Greater Houston for providing promotional support of this reading.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. Photo: Neela Banerjee



Writers are requested to limit their words to 500 The deadline for advertising and articles is 5 pm on Tuesday of each week. For more information, Call 713-789-6397 or email us at: [email protected]

Writers ...take NOtiCe

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By jawahar Mawahar Mawahar alhotraHOUSTON: Even though he is in

the wealth management and finan-cial planning business, David Raj doesn’t hide his passion for music, especially playing with his rock band. He has often played at fund-raisers and other charitable causes in the desi community, usually pick-ing up the tab for he own expenses.

But once a year, for the past seven years, David plays just for his cli-ents. “Its my Client Appreciation Dinner,” he said as he prepared to go onstage at the Stafford Civic Center on Constitution Ave on Sat-urday, February 13 in front of 150 of his clients and friends, a little less than the 250 or so who have come out in the past few years. Dinner was served by Dakshin and a free wine and soft drinks bar was laid out too.

The performance started with

david Plays for His Friends

some Country tunes played out for some dancing on stage, including a line dance; followed by David’s group, featuring the talented guitarist David Vargas, playing many of their own compositions and also some favorite classical rock pieces for an hour. The show closed out with local talents sing-ing Indian filmi hits for another hour.


7 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.coms o c i e t y

extravaganza of culture and culture and c celebrities celebrities cBy nand Kapoor Kapoor K

ian ChiCaGo CorrespondentCHICAGO: Chicago’s 28th Annual Lu-

nar New Year Celebration, “One Vision, Many Voices,” is all set to rock South-Asian communities on February 26, at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, 9300 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, in Rosemont, Illinois. On offer are unique blends of shows, comprising not just performance in classical music, classi-cal dance, and Bollywood, but also includes awardees and celebrities from diverse ethnic presentation.

Annual Lu-nar New Year Celebration is celebrated every year as an Asian A m e r i c a n C o a l i t i o n C h i c a g o initiative to enrich the city’s cultur-al fabric with performance of renowned a r t i s t e s from across the United States. This year Indian community is back celebrating this largest extravagan-za.

This year’s festival would open with, “A Traditional Auspicious Opening of An Event - With Diyas and Dhol Beats”. The cultural entertainment highlight of the evening are features, “Unity in Diversity: From Kathak to Bollywood,” presented by the ‘Asian American Coalition of Chicago 2011 Per-forming Artists.’ It is directed and choreo-graphed by Gauri Jog, founder of the Indian Dance Company, a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit corporation located in Schaumburg, Illinois. Approximately 90 artists will participate in the show

Every year a different Asian community takes turn playing host of the Lunar New Year gala. This year it is the Indian Ameri-can Community, which has thrice before (1988, 1995 and 2003) held the gavel for the Asian Pacific American community’s most important event of the year.

“This is the 28th Annual Asian American Coalition of Chicago Lunar New Year Cel-ebration. The Indian American Community is honored to host this Gala once again, and I am humbled to serve as Chair,“ said Nadja P. Lalvani, 2011 Chair of the 28th Annual Asian American Coalition of Chicago Lu-

nar New Year Celebration. “There are so many examples of Asian

Americans who have defied the typical ste-reotypes and risen to the top of virtually every U.S. industry, from the arts and en-tertainment to fashion to business and tech-nology,” continued Lalvani. “Our culture, family life and the unique experiences and challenges that we bring to the table continu-ally redefines American society. This year’s theme,“One Vision, Many Voices” embod-ies our journey leading to the next level of

impact – we must come together as a community to embrace, sup-port and lift up all Asian A m e r i c a n s called to pub-lic service through elect-ed office,” she said.

An event held on this grand of a scale only once a year, Lunar New Year is traditionally the single larg-est organized

annual event in Chicago’s Asian American community. According to the latest Census, the Asian Pacific American population in Il-linois numbers approximately 428,213, or 3.4% of the statewide population.

Numerous dignitaries traditionally attend the festivities, including the Asian consular corps, elected and appointed governmental officials, political candidates, top business and corporate leaders, decision-makers at Chicago’s major media press outlets, and everyone who considers himself or herself a mover and shaker in and around, or for, the Asian Pacific American national move-ment.

Tickets are available at $750 per table of ten or $75 each for this popular star-studded event. More than 1,100 people are expected at the black-tie optional gala. Reception, open microphone, exhibits and silent auc-tion begin at 5 p.m.; opening ceremonies are at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner, enter-tainment, cultural entertainment and awards ceremonies until approximately 10 pm. Tickets are available on a first-funded, first-seated basis. forpPurchase information visit www.aacchicago.org or call M. Bhaskaran www.aacchicago.org or call M. Bhaskaran www.aacchicago.orgat 630-217-6190 or email at [email protected]



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students of Vedic Heritage students of Vedic Heritage s school school s demonstrate confidence and Proficiency in shlokathon 2011shlokathon 2011s

By Cy Cy hittor rarar MaChandranHOUSTON: It turned out to be

an extraordinarily rewarding Feb-ruary the thirteenth for me and nearly a hundred others. To write about this day is very gratifying due to two reasons. One, because I belong to the generation of im-migrants who could only dream of a place like Vedic Heritage School (VHS) when we raised our children. Two, because this event proved how fundamentally vital a program like VHS is for the future of Hinduism in the western world.

The event coined Shlokathon 2011 was the annual presentation of the junior students of VHS who are enrolled in the organized teach-ing program that follows Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s “PoorNa VidyA” Vedic Heritage Teach-ing syllabus. This curriculum has been adopted by a majority of educational organizations (Hindu temple schools, Bal Vihar, Chin-maya Mission, etc.) throughout the world. This program is intended to teach Hindu scriptures and instill Hindu values in children. Shloka-thon 2011 was a competition to demonstrate the recitation skills of the memorized lines learned in class. The remarkable performance of students can be credited to the dedication of Smt. Chitra Kumar, the program director, and instruc-tors Dr. Bhavani Iyer, Dr. Venkat Prasad, Smt. Vyjayanthi Vivek and Smt. Kiran Parthasarathy.

“The children are fun to watch; in every session, they amaze us as they grasp difficult Sanskrit words,” said one of the teach-ers. Mrs. Chandan Pillai drives a long way to bring her children religiously to the temple for every class. She has great admiration for the dedicated volunteers and feels fortunate for the rare opportunity and knowledge the children gain from these classes. Several other parents expressed similar senti-ments. Kalyana mandapam turned into an extended family room, and most parents were equipped with gadgets to capture a few pre-cious moments of their children. The three-year old Rahul sitting

on his father’s lap was thrilled to prompt his sister loudly when she appeared to stumble on a word he learned from her.

It was pleasing to watch the absolute confidence in even the beginner-level students as they sat in front of the microphone. What they most likely did not know was that they were about to utter a few lines, even the great sages were un-able to fathom. When the adorable four-year old Rishi was reciting mahavakyams from Brhataran-yaka Upanishad, an exhilarating delight arose in the audience. The precise pronunciation of Priya was a sure bet in every Sanskrit word she recited, perfectly adhering to the meter (Anushtup Chhandas, a term in Sanskrit poetry to gauge the rhythmic aspects), when she sang Nama Ramayana. Her pas-sion and training in classical mu-sic helped her deliver the lines in an attractive raga taught by her instructor. While delivering the memorized stanzas from Aditya Hrudayam with ease and clar-ity in subtle Anandabhairavi, per-haps neither Shriya nor Murali truly realized the greatness of this ancient text from Valmiki Rama-yana (Yudha Kandam: Sarga 113). These are only a few random ex-amples from an aggregate of more than sixty participants. What was interesting is the fact that almost all the participants were yet to cel-ebrate their 10th birthday.

Although shloka recital by the children in this competition may appear to be similar to the way children memorize and recite nurs-

ery rhymes, there is a meritorial distinction. What is being taught at VHS has added advantages. Sanskrit is the language of mantra, the spiritually empowered sounds. One can notice that PoorNa VidyA has carefully included shlokas ap-propriate for the age group which are recognized to be the maha mantrams in praise of the divinity. Even if the children do not learn the meaning of what they memo-rize, these shlokas will give them spiritual strength throughout their life. As they continue to learn and progress to higher levels, VHS stu-dents are taught and encouraged to learn more serious subjects.

The teachers at VHS program are particular to make sure that their students pronounce each word perfectly. It is very critical that one should avoid minor errors in words especially when children learn multiple languages. Mrs. Devi Menon commented on the vital role Sri Meenakshi Temple plays in spreading the message of Sanatana dharma in the youth. She suggested that the best way for the families to thank the temple for this great opportunity is to encour-age their children to recite what they learn in the class in front of the deity.

Apart from the educational and spiritual value of learning shlokas, the excitement and self- confi-dence generated in the children by Shlokathon makes it truly a worth-while and rewarding event. More information about the VHS teach-ing program is available at http://mtsvhs.blogspot.com/.

Winners receive awards from Mrs. Sree Devi Menon


9 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

Icc Presents Annual Hindi Hasya Kavi cc Presents Annual Hindi Hasya Kavi cc sammellansammellansHOUSTON: For the past three

years ICC Houston and IHA (In-ternational Hindi Association), have brought a refreshing, enrich-ing and fun-filled entertainment to the residents of Greater Houston. Celebrity poets from India are in-vited to come and perform in dif-vited to come and perform in dif-vited to come and perform in different cities of USA once a year. The program was a huge success all last three years and is expected to be packed with excited listeners this year too.

This year the evening of April 2nd will feature poet (Geetkaar) Vishnu Saksena and Praveen Shukla. These artists are going to

make the audience reminiscence India’s political, social and cul-tural themes with a rip-roaring humor, a little satire and maybe some heart- warming patriotism, weaving their intellect and idiocy with such deft that the result is pure delightful sprinkle of poetic jokes. Both poets have performed extensively all over India, on radio and TV, and conducted kavi-sam-mellans in many south Asian and European countries and in North America. .

Chaired by the Immediate Past President of ICC Swapan Dhairy-awan and IHA Director of Hous-

ton Sangeeta Pasrija, the program will start at India House at 5:30 pm, after the social hour which starts at 4:30 pm and will continue non-stop for 3 hours. The program is made possible by the combined efforts of ICC committee mem-bers, IHA Committee members and many ICC volunteers and is sponsored by MD & Associates LLP, United Central Bank, Club 24 and Madras Pavilion.

For tickets ($50 for premium, $20 for regular each including snacks) contact Sangeeta Pasrija at 281-788-9750 or Swapan Dhairy-awan at 281-382-0348.

sri Guruvayurappan Temple Immersesdevotees in a swell of swell of s Akhanda Nama Japam

By Cy Cy hittor rarar MaChandranHOUSTON: As Houston is re-

gaining the sweater-free way of life, the God-fearing have started filling the parking lots religiously on Sunday mornings. An unusu-ally large crowd of Hindus assem-bled this past Sunday at Sri Gu-ruvayurappan Temple as early as 6pm to attend Ganapathi homam. The lustrous and lighted oil lamps, flame and the fragrance of burning ghee, incense, camphor and san-dalwood and ardent bhakthi cre-ated quite a divine ambience in the prayer hall. Verses of Bhattathiri’s Narayaneeyam were falling on the ears in the form of P. Leela’s famil-iar voice. Her Sarangam gave the same soothing bliss of Saraswathi yaamam as M.S. Subbulakshmi’s Venkateswara Suprabhatham would have.

Temple volunteers prepared for the big day of Akhanda Nama Japam- meaning uninterrupted chanting. As the meaning of Akhanda Nama Japam indicates, this is a demonstration of self-dis-cipline and a pledge that the four walls of the temple would resound with the mahamantram:

‘Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare’ for 12 hours of the day. The community of Sri Guruvayurappan devotees de-serves praise for accomplishing their pledge with sincere dedica-tion. The word ‘Hare’ has come from ‘Haran’ which means ‘to take away’ or ‘to end’. So, ‘Hare Krish-na’ means one who is requesting Krishna to take away his sorrows,

shortcomings, failures, and pains. According to Hinduism, Krishna and Rama are the two incarnations of Sriman Narayana.

Being a temple built for wor-shipping Sri Guruvayurappan (Sri Krishna), this temple follows all Vaishnavaite traditions like regu-lar Parayanam of Vishnu Sahas-ranamam, Narayaneeyam, Bhaga-vatham, and Vedam, and rituals like Sudarshana homam, archana, abhishekam, nivedyam, utsavam, etc. These are only a few of the established notable and primary pooja rituals.

A constant flow of devotees con-tinued throughout the day averag-ing 50 at a given time and a total of nearly 300 people. Each devo-tee spent an average of two hours at the temple to join the chant-ing. During the Akhanda Nama Japam, devotees strove to focus their minds on their favorite deity with sounds of the mahamantram surrounding them. Although the expectation of Akhanda Nama Ja-pam is to arrive at a transcended stage, in a large crowd of people,

much effort and spiri-tual practice is needed to accomplish it.

Sri Guruvayurap-pan Temple makes all efforts to adopt and spread several basic values of Hindu tra-ditions in everyday life. One such gesture we regularly notice at the temple is anna-danam. Many gener-ous devotees sponsor annadanam regularly.

The event on February 19 was ac-companied by sumptuous meals for all devotees throughout the day. According to Thaithareeya Upanishad, annam (food) is prana (life) because no life can originate or sustain without food. Hence, by giving food, one is giving life in a tangible form. Bhrgu Valli (a section of Thaithareeya Upa-nishad) describes how the son of Varuna, Bhrgu, obtained realiza-tion of Brahman through repeated tapas under his father’s guidance. This section describes the great-ness of donating food (feeding the hungry), as well as the greatness of food. It says that since food is the support for all forms of life, food should not be insulted (an-nam na nindat) or declined. This concept is also valued in other major religions which give much importance to charity.

As the temple will be complet-ing its first year since its inception in a couple of months, it is enjoy-ing a respectable status among several other reputed religious and cultural centers of Houston.


10 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 i n d i a

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Jilted in the U.s., A site Finds Love in IndiaBy hannah seliGson

NEW YORK (NYT): IN 2008, three young guys in Manhattan started Ignighter.com, a dating Web site focused on twentysome-things. They sought to set them-selves apart by enabling members to set up group dates: One mem-ber, serving as a point person, could arrange a date — a movie, say, or a picnic in Central Park — with a group of other people and thereby take some of the awkward edge off of typical dates.

During the company’s first year, the three founders — Kevin Owocki, now 26, Daniel Osit, 29, and Adam Sachs, 28 — hustled to get the word out, hosting parties, blitzing college campuses with fli-ers and doing a big push on Face-

book.By the end of 2008, Ignighter.

com had 50,000 registered users in the United States — a decent number, but not big enough to put it on the digital dating map, which is crowded with competitors.

“People just didn’t get right away what the site was when we told them about it. They thought it was a site for orgies,” says Sachs, who is in charge of business de-velopment and media relations for the site.

Then, in April 2009, while checking statistics about visitors to the site, Osit, who is in charge of marketing, noticed that there was a lot of traffic from Singapore, Malaysia, India and South Korea.

Sachs recalls: “We didn’t pay

any attention to it at first. “We thought, ‘That’s interesting — now let’s plan our next event in New York City.’ ”

But by June, they couldn’t ignore the traffic from Asia — specifical-ly India, which by then had more visitors than any other Asian coun-try. Ignighter was gaining hun-dreds of users a day, mainly from New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.

“In January 2010, we made the decision that we are an Indian dat-ing site,” Mr. Sachs says. And now, with almost two million users — and 7,000 more signing up daily — Ignighter is considered India’s fastest-growing dating Web site.

To put it another way, it gets as many users in a week in India as it did in a year in the United States. Next month, Ignighter will open an office in India and hire a dozen local employees. The company has stopped developing its Ameri-can site, though it remains online.

As funding heats up for Web start-ups in general, some inves-tors have taken notice of Ignighter and its potential in India. This month, the company closed a $3 million round of financing. Forty percent of its investors are based in India, including Rajan Anan-

dan, Google’s top executive in In-dia. In the United States, Ignighter is backed by Point Judith Capital, Founder Collective and GSA Ven-ture Partners, among others.

“Here we are, a few Jewish guys sitting in Union Square, and we might have accidentally revolu-tionized the dating scene in In-dia,” Sachs says of himself and Osit. They and Owocki, who is

charge of Web development and programming for Ignighter, have never been to India — though they now plan to make frequent trips there. IT’S not all that unusual for start-ups to find that their market isn’t what they intended, said Sean Marsh, co-founder of Point Judith Capital in Providence, R.I., and an investor in Ignighter. But not all entrepreneurs choose to listen to what the market is telling them, he says. Even though an Indian dating site wasn’t their original concept, the Ignighter founders decided to pivot at a crucial moment, he says: “You have to be flexible as an en-trepreneur and bend to the market and consumer feedback.”

So how did this happy accident happen? Osit suspects that young people in India read about the service on technology blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch. From there, it grew in part because dat-ing in India is still in a somewhat embryonic stage. It happens in big cities like Mumbai and Hydera-bad, but in many less cosmopoli-tan parts of India it’s still consid-ered taboo for unmarried men and women to be seen in public together. Many couples, as they have for centuries, meet through arranged marriages that their rela-tives orchestrate.

But for some in this generation — those raised on a diet of MTV and social networks — there’s a desire to find new dating scripts, or just to hang out with a coed group.

The group dynamic also makes going out an easier sell to parents, who are worried about safety and propriety. That’s what led Rohan Bhardwaj, 23, to set up a profile on Ignighter last month. He works in New Delhi at Exclusively.In, an online store that sells Indian lux-ury goods, and, like a majority of his peers, he lives with his parents. He heard about Ignighter from his boss in the United States — the chief executive of Exclusively.In, which shares office space with Ig-nighter in Manhattan — and from his cousin in Canada.

Bhardwaj formed a group with two friends and, as the point per-

The founders of Ignighter.com are, from left, Daniel Osit, Adam Sachs and Kevin Owocki. Photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

continued on page 11



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son or “ambassador” of that group, asked out two twentysomething women from New Delhi. They arranged a date at a ka-raoke bar, and their second date was at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Saket District Cen-ter. Since then, he has gone on a couple of more dates with that group.

Bhardwaj says he isn’t trying to find a wife through the site. For him, that’s a long way off. “There’s a particular age when people have to get married, which is around 26 or 27,” he says. And he is not yet sure if he will go the traditional route to find a wife, add-ing that his parents are open to the idea of a “love marriage” that is not arranged.

For people like Mr. Bhardwaj, Ignighter is filling a social niche that allows them to combine social networking and offline “friending” without the pressure of the mat-rimonial sites that dominate India’s online dating landscape. “Group dating is a great opportunity that didn’t exist before,” Mr. Bhardwaj says.

But in a culture where dating can still be a relatively new concept, Ignighter.com’s success may depend, in part, on which way the social winds blow.

“I’m seeing the change happening. There are enough people in the new generation who want to have their own identity and meet people on their own terms,” says Sasha Mirchandani, 38, an investor in Ig-nighter.com and managing partner of Kae Capital, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. “If I were 27 or 28 and single, I would go online to date,” says Mr. Mirchandani, who is married.

Ignighter, unlike the matrimonial sites, puts socializing and dating directly into the hands of young people. Matrimonial sites thrive in India. Shaadi.com and others like

Jeevansathi.com and Bharat Matrimony all have millions of users. The online matrimo-nial industry in India is estimated to generate $63 million a year in revenue and has tens of millions of registrants, according to Em-Power Research, a market research firm.

After hearing about Ignighter from friends and colleagues, Navya Shreejogi, 26, an en-gineer in Chennai who lives in an apartment with two roommates, logged on, created a basic profile and went browsing. She was a little disappointed. “It’s more teenagers who are still in college and just want to have fun,” she says. “The guys didn’t seem serious.” Shreejogi, like many in her gen-eration, isn’t that worried about meeting someone. She’ll leave that to her parents. “I don’t need to bother finding a mate,” she says. “My mom and dad have been search-ing for a husband for me for two years, and I have lots of friends and colleagues I can go out with on the weekend, so I don’t need this kind of site.” She also says she and her female friends are concerned about safety issues connected with meeting strangers through online dating.

Still, she acknowl-edges that the site could draw young people who move to a big city, like Chennai, and don’t yet have a social circle and are seeking an alterna-tive to an arranged mar-riage. Mishra is skeptical that a site like Ignighter.com can succeed. “In-dian women don’t even post their own profiles on matrimonial sites; their fathers and brothers do,” he says. “So, I can’t

imagine Indian women posting their profiles on a dating site, and to have a successful dat-ing site, you need to have women.” Still, 40 percent of Ignighter’s members are women, according to the company.

The next phase for Ignighter.com is to see whether it can be an Indian dating site based in India. All three founders agree that they can’t run the business by remote control from their office in Union Square. So each will spend a couple of months a year at the soon-to-be-opened Indian office.

“All of our decisions so far have been very mathematical,” Sachs says. Osit adds that their biggest cultural blind spot is in under-standing male-female interaction in India. “I’m sure there are a lot of subtleties there that we need to grasp,” he says.

When Mr. Osit, Mr. Sachs and Mr. Owocki go to India for the first time next month, they will set up an office, arrange for the company to be incorporated, and hire em-ployees. But they will also see how young people interact, becoming students of the Indian social scene so they can make some decisions about the site:

Should they remove the “Seinfeld” ref-erences on the site that were meant for an American audience? Should they translate the site into Hindi? If so, how do you say “group dating” in Hindi? Should they ask users for their caste? What kinds of offline partnerships, if any, should they form? And what role should mobile devices play?

They’ll also have to navigate serious lo-gistical issues. A case in point is that 70 percent of payments that subscribers try to make can’t be processed because of prob-lems with the credit card system. (Members are allowed to keep using the site free when this happens but can’t send messages.) Mr. Sachs says he hopes they can work out these glitches upon their arrival.

In India, the site works the same way it did in the United States. Groups chat through messaging, and arrange to go out on dates to movies, restaurants and clubs. The median age of users is 23.5; the average group size is four people, Mr. Sachs says.

The site is still trying to determine the best pricing; a yearly subscription fee now runs $10 to $45. On the Indian version of the site, a virtual-goods marketplace is prominent, selling virtual gifts like cricket balls and naan bread — to be sent to other users as a way to flirt. “It’s been a big hit,” Mr. Osit says. “We sell about 10,000 gifts a month.”

AS for how many group dates Ignighter.com has helped to arrange in India so far, the founders don’t know. They’ll start doing user and market research later this year. At this point, it’s not clear whether many of the group outings lead to romance, but the site is clearly striking a chord.

“Young people aren’t using Ignighter.com to get married,” Mr. Bhardwaj said. They’ll still go to the tried-and-true matrimonial sites for that.

In New Delhi, Rohan Bhardwaj, left, used Ignighter to plan group outings instead of typical dates.Photo: Daniel Etter for The New York Times

Ignighter: A dating site



“no more Tears”- An nGo to Help the AbusedF e a t u r e

By raChana sriVastaVaMUMBAI: Bollywood actress

Somi Ali has acted in about 10 hindi films. Yaar Gaddar, Aao Pyar Karen, Krishna Awatar, Aandolan, Teesra Kaun and Ant are to name some. After doing a great job in these films she suddenly disap-peared from the Industry, so I did

some digging into what she is do-ing these days. I got to know inter-esting things about her only when she came to a party organized by EEG Entertainment. Come lets hear what she has to say about her disappearance from Bollywood, straight from the horses mouth.

The temptation of Bollywood glamor lures star actors, yet you left the golden world of Bolly-wood and chose to do gradua-tion instead. What was the rea-

son behind this? I think I was not fit for the Bolly-

wood world. To be there you need a charismatic personality which I think I lacked. Since my child-hood I was a philanthropist. I was 14 when I went to India, I went there just to satisfy my hobby, I never had any passion to become

a big star or be successful in the glamor world. I felt that the face and body will fade away with time but e d u c a t i o n will remain with me for-ever. Be it Hollywood or Bollly-wood both the worlds are superficial. I have spent 8 precious years there,

did 10 films, met some very good and some very bad people, learned a lot, but what I did best was to come over here and complete my education. Today I am running an NGO “No More Tears.”

You earned a degree first for every job you did, be it jour-nalism or film making, why is that?

Rightly said... I feel whatever you do, give it your best. I am in-terested in Human Behavior and

Humanity and so earned a degree for that. At the same time I wished to do Journalism and film mak-ing so I educated myself for that as well.

You have made a documentary on teenage suicide, why did you choose this subject?

From 14 till 18 is quite a tender age, children get affected by good and the bad easily. At this age chil-dren under go lots of pressure in studies, from parents and friends, so sometime they fail to bear the burden and com-mit suicide. Its quiet a sensitive and important topic but is hardly brought into light. I wanted to bring the subject to light and create an awareness among the public, so I made this film.

How did the N o n - G o v e r n -mental Organi-zation, “No More Tears” happen?

I had a Bangladeshi neighbor, one day I saw some blood on her forehead. I realized she was a prey of domestic violence. She was be-ing ill treated by her husband for the last 10 years. His father also abused her sexually. I helped her out, took her to the police, got her divorce done, brought a home for her. I then realized if this could be

done with her I am sure there will be many more like this in Amer-ica. This thought made me start the “No More tears” organization and has been named so by my mother. I kept saying, “no more..... no more....” while deciding upon a name and then my mother said “No More Tears.” and since then it has been No More Tears. I think it is an appropriate name.

How many people have been helped by your organization so

far?I have completed my 62nd case

before coming to Dallas by God’s grace in three years. I have helped 62 children and women who were being ill treated physically men-tally and sexually.

We have served and helped peo-ple from every part of the globe. Domestic violence does not have

Somi Ali in her office, No More Tears, a Non-Governmental Organization started to help abuse victims of families around the world

nay color or religion. Wherever people are suffering and are vic-tims of abuse and pain, No More tears will help them. Whoever wants to join us can do so on our website.www.nmtproject.org

To run such an organization, finance must be necessary, play an important part?

Yes, true, money was required to start it but when I came from India I had 67 thousand dollars, they were soon finished and then

my father gave me an additional ten thousand dollars. Apart from that I have 200 volunteers who help our organization regularly. We have not taken any help from the government as yet. We are planning to apply for aid in order to make an ashram (a refuge home) for the home less .

Is it true that when you are kind and gen-erous towards the mankind you earn lots of blessings?

True, but let me tell you a truth, I am quiet selfish.

I do all this for myself, it soothes me deep down in my heart. When I go to bed at the end of the day, I feel relaxed and good, that I have helped someone in need.

Any profound message to our readers?

Yes, I will just say: “Neither be unjust to anyone nor bear injustice done toward you.”

Victims of abuse, these children were rescued from their home. Abuse happens in all types of families, Somi Ali says and it knows neither religion nor color. Somi Ali, ex Bollywood Actress is using her prowess to make this world a safer place.


13 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com e n t e r t a i n m e n t

By naMrata joshiMUMBAI (Outlook): Ruskin

Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Hus-bands is an intriguing tale of a rich woman whose seven husbands, most of them fortune hunters, die mysteriously, one by one. Specu-lation about her involvement in these deaths is offset by her many acts of kindness and charity. There’s another hint of a persua-sive idea implicit in Bond’s short story: what does a woman really want? What does she look for in a man? What drives her love for him and her impatience and hatred against him? What makes her opt for and out of relationships?

I hoped Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf , a screen adaptation of the story, would explore this aspect at length. That the seven “murders” would ultimately re-flect on the “saat pheras” of mar-riage from a woman’s perspec-tive. I clung on to that hope as one character in the film proclaimed: “Jaldi jaldi shadi karo, aaraam aaraam se pachhtao (get married

in a hurry and regret at leisure).” As Susanna’s (Priyanka, confident but made to age abruptly with bad, patchy makeup) marriages started coming undone I could sense an emerging pattern. The unbearable possessiveness, the unforgivable recklessness, the painful sexual abuse, the heart-breaking betrayal, the sheer lack of love and the bla-tant exploitation--each of her six relationships seemed to underline the problems we would have faced with the men in our lives at some point in time.

Yet these embedded messages somehow don’t reach out at large. Instead the audience keeps ques-tioning the motivations of the protagonist. Why the hell does she do what she is doing? How can she so easily jump from one rela-tionship to the next? Is she plain mad or pure evil? Ah those poor, poor men! The womanly voice gets heard only to get summarily drowned out. The shade of black in her is made to eventually find a spiritual redemption instead of

movie review: 7 Khoon maafcontinuing to (metaphorically and literally) challenge the social mo-res and morality. And men!

Right now, Bhardwaj, like his fave filmmaker Kieslowski, is the only guy in Bollywood who can imbue cinematic texts with deep philosophical undertones. How-ever, the spiritual dimension in 7KM seems clumsily shoved in as a twist in the tale to shock-surprise the audience than leave them with

any thoughts and beliefs to ponder on. It’s the reason the film itself doesn’t go beyond being a tepid thriller just as the lead charac-ter stops short of being anything more than a psychopath. Perhaps Bhardwaj loses his way in the film’s telling. He, undoubtedly, is one guy who “understands” cin-ema. He can narrate stories with a fluid, rhythmic visual flair. Yet the setting, costumes, look in 7KM get

so overwrought and orchestrated that they scream Sanjay Leela Bhansali than Bhardwaj. Here’s a film which could have played out like a simple yet profound fable, somewhat like Blue Umbrella. Instead you find the opulence of the dreamlike frames clashing un-nervingly with references to actual events like Operation Bluestar and Babri Masjid. An uneasy mix of the real and the surreal!

mmmatrimonial ad? www.indoamerican-news.com


14 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 s o c i e t y

By jawahar MalhotraHOUSTON: The Houston In-

ternational Festival has been bus-ily promoting this year’s theme spotlighting The Silk Road, the route that the ancient explorer Marco Polo took through India, China and Turkey, and brought its message to the Indian media at a luncheon arranged by two of its Board members, the renowned dancer and guru Ratna Kumar and Vale Subramanium, a former ICC President and a current Trustee.

At the luncheon held at Mayuri restaurant on Westheimer and Founatinview, the media met with the publicity, marketing and events directors and heard from Interim President Rick Mitchell explain the focus of this year’s iF-est which will be held over the two weekends of April 30 and May 1 and May 7 and 8. As in past years, the festival will be held downtown around Tranquility Park, City Hall and in Sam Houston Park.

“Ever since iFest featured the highly successful India themed celebration in 2005, there has been a resurgence of interest by attendees,” said Subramanium as he made a few comments. His re-marks were echoed by Mitchell as he noted that the India Zone had become a permanent part of the Festival’s annual lineup. “And we always count on the support and draw of Ratna Kumar,” he quipped, “to bring in a few hundred people every year!” Kumar has been a Board member for many years and

has been instrumental in bringing many participants from local desi dance schools to perform.

This year’s theme will include a China Zone featuring reproduc-tions of the Great Wall, silk and calligraphy exhibits and a tradi-tional teahouse. The India Zone will have a reproduction of the Gateway to India and arts and cul-tural exhibits and a Hare Krishna exhibit on aryuvedic medicine and traditional dress in a village set-ting. Turkey will be featured with a reproduction of the Trojan Horse and a traditional village dwelling. In a fitting homage to Polo, a re-production of a Venetian bridge and gondola will terminate the journey through this centerpiece called the Chevron Silk Road Liv-

ing Museum.The atmosphere for

the two weekends will also be infused by performances from musicians from the region, some of who are flying in on special nights just for the festival. On Friday, April 29, the Kronos Quartet fea-turing Afghan rubab player Homayun Sakhi, Afghan tabla player Salar Nadeer and Uzbek percus-sionist Abbos Kosi-mov. The Houston Grand Opera will perform two spe-

Houston iFest Brings on The silk roadcial works with Asian-American themes through funding from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Also featured on the remain-ing days will be Mayapuris, hand drummers playing devotional music; Atash from Austin; Red Baraat from New York; the Little Earth Orchestra featuring Iraqi Rahim Alhaj; David and Chan-dra Courtney; Moodafaruka; Au-dio Telepathy – a sitar and tabla group; Golden Dragon Acrobats and Bollywood Blast! Produced and choreographed by Ratna Ku-mar. Mitchell, a former music re-porter for the Houston Chronicle, showed his passion and knowl-edge for World Music by playing pieces of selected cuts from CDs

of these groups.Not to leave the international

spirit flag off during the week-days, the iFest will bring The Silk Road to local area schools through demonstrations, performances, educational activities, exhibits and a comprehensive Teacher’s Cur-riculum Guide that provides back-ground to the countries that Marco Polo touched during his travels and other pertinent details on the people and the culture. The chap-ter on India has been provided by the Indian Consulate.

For more information on the iF-est or to volunteer, contact Wendy Slaton at [email protected] or Kayler Williams at [email protected]

Houston iFest publicity and event team with iFest interim Presi-dent Rick Mitchell and Board members Rathna Kumar and Vale Subramaniam at the media luncheon. Photo: Jacob David

A rendering of the Living Village showing the China, India and Turkey Zone

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 , 2011• ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

15 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comsociety

IACF Supports Community Outreach of Avance HoustonBy Jy Jy awahar Jawahar J Mawahar Mawahar alhotra Malhotra M

HOUSTON: The Indo American Charity Foundation was ably represented at the Avance Houston 2011 Gala celebration held on Friday, February 11 at the Hilton Post Oak as Board members David Raj, Surender Talwar and Jawahar Malhotra joined President Anu Bala at the sumptuous event that featured a large silent auction and a casino night. The event was attended by nearly 400 people and featured Mayor Annise Parker as a guest speaker.

Avance, from the Spanish word “advance” or “progress”, is a nonprofit group that was founded in 1973 in Texas and serves at-risk families by promoting better parenting, school readiness, literacy, health and personal devel-opment. Avance’s current Executive Board

includes Chair Martha Rost, Vice-Chair Gloria Luna, Treasurer Rudy Martinez and Secretary Tanya Easter.

The Gala honored CHOICE! Energy’s CEO Javier Loya and his wife Lucinda and presented the Roy Barbosa Award to Octavia and Maria Avelina Garcia. Javier is also a minority owner of the Houston Texans football team. The en-tertainment for the evening was by the popular Latino band, Mango Punch.

IACF has supported Avance through a $2,000 donation this year. “This is part of our efforts to develop ties with the community at large,” said Bala, “and show that the Indo-American community is willing and able to do our part to serve the people of Houston.”

Indo American Charity Foundation was ably represented at the Avance Houston 2011 Gala celebration held on Friday, February 11 at the Hilton Post Oak as Board members Jawahar Malhotra (left), David Raj, and Surender Talwar and joined President Anu Bala.

HOLLYWOOD: After last year’s Oscar success of “Slumdog Million-aire” and “Smile Pinki” (the other Oscar-winning film about poor chil-dren set in India, for Best Documen-tary), it will be a quiet year for South Asia at this year’s Academy Awards.

The one exception is the docu-mentary, Kavi, about child slav-ery in India, produced by an American as his USC film thesis.

Nominated in the short film (live action category), the subject of the documentary is Kavi, a boy in India who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln

as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must either accept what he’s al-ways been told, or fight for a different life even if he’s unsure of the ultimate outcome.

Short Film “Kavi” Up for Oscars

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 , 2011 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

16 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.come d i t o r i a l

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continued on page 17

The Slow March of the American IdeaBy PradeeP anand

The twentieth century was a major turning point in the history of human-kind. These hundred years saw sev-eral changes in the global economic and political systems that increased the power of the masses. In many parts of the world, the major institu-tions of the nineteenth century that controlled the world economy and its people—monarchy, empires and religious organizations—gave way to democracy and secularism. Armed with democracy, capitalism scored a major victory over communism.

These changes did not come about peacefully. World economic powers, especially current members of the Organization for Economic Co-op-eration and Development (OECD), were dragged into two major world wars and several other regional “con-flicts” to shake out the old systems. More than a hundred million lives were lost during the twentieth cen-tury, to deliver a world of global prosperity that has been unmatched in history.

People of other countries made this early transition. For example, India was unique in its early, peaceful transition to this new world because of three pillars on its democratic foundation. The first was the non-violent idealism of its leaders, who fought for its independence from British colonialism. Mahatma Gan-dhi and Jawaharlal Nehru provided the leadership that made the transition could have been bloodless, except that it triggered the largest migration of people in history, dislocating tens of millions and sacrificing millions of lives. The second was an exist-ing infrastructure of governance that went all the way down to its villages, where elected “elders” ran a village council— the Panchayat. The third was India’s long history of its people of different religious pursuits liv-ing together (sometimes amicably, sometimes with violent skirmishes), which created and evolved a grass roots sense of secularism that later laws embodied. Ethnocentricity was built around culture, not religion.

Due to these transitions, today, the middle class in many parts of the world lives a quality of life that only the royalty and the landed gentry

could enjoy a mere hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, these benefits are enjoyed by populations of countries that joined the new economic and political bandwagon early. Billions of people around the world are still stuck in paradigms that ruled the nineteenth century.

However, unlike the not too recent past, telecommunications has made knowledge and information instanta-neously available, with pictures and videos. Global trade and the low cost of airtravel have allowed a greater intermingling of people and their ideas and experiences. Today, these billions of disenfranchised people are not as ignorant as our forefathers

were a hundred years ago. They have remotely experienced a whiff of democracy and capitalism and now want to own the whole package.

Today’s monarchs and dictators, even benevolent ones, have to look back at the trends of the recent past and recognize that the power of this historical juggernaut is infinite. Resis-tance to it is futile. Despite near-term victories, the outcome is inevitable. Democracy, capitalism and secular-ism will win.

The United States was the pioneer of this idea, but unlike others who break new ground, it has benefited from it, because of the collective brilliance of its founding fathers, its constitution, the three branches of its self-governance model and its adher-ence to free enterprise.

During the nineteenth century, the US resolved its own internal differ-ences with a Civil War and focused on improving its laws and the lot of its own people. It was a slow transi-tion but the trajectory was in the right direction.

Henry Ford’s mass production model and other innovations ignited

the country’s move from an agrar-ian economy to an industrial one that enriched and empowered the individual, which created the mass consumption revolution.

This consumer-powered growth pushed the US up the global eco-nomic charts but it remained inward looking. Separated from the rest of the world’s continents by two mas-sive oceans and an isthmus, with little access to timely information, it and its population remained an isolated island of prosperity, building on its military, economic and political strengths.

After its reluctant entry into World War II and the victory of the Allied powers, the US became a hesitant leader of countries that chose its win-ning political and economic models. It led one side of the Cold War that tried to stem the spread of commu-nism militarily. However, its victory came from the economic and politi-cal fronts. As the people behind the Iron Curtain— Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union—traveled abroad and learned about alternate economic and political models that celebrated the individual and self-determination, in one infinitesimal historical moment, communism dis-appeared from these countries.

Communism had already margin-alized religious institutions and mon-archy. Unopposed, democracy and capitalism marched in triumphantly.

However, more than sixty-five years after the end of World War II and almost twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, we, as a people are still inward looking, still naïve about the nature of global winds of changes that the American model has initiated.

The riots in the countries of the Islamic Crescent constitute ripples in the waves of a tsunami of a tran-sition to a political and economic system that celebrates the individual. However, unlike other historically recent movements to democracy and capitalism, this change will have to contend with a strong religious in-stitution. Secularism and “separation of church and state” are not foregone conclusions, as they were in recent examples of change in governments.

Empty WordsWords and images can change perceptions, but they also expose the

contrast between illusion and reality. Governments that do not work of-ten try to clutch at words in order to fool not only the people but also themselves. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government seems to have done just that by creating a new brand for West Bengal. On the face of it, the slogan of the new brand — “Shobar Bangla (Everyone’s Bengal)” — is meant to showcase the inclusiveness of the state’s culture and society. As such, it is supposed to attract all, especially investors, to Bengal. Mr Bhattacharjee would like to project it as a promise, but impartial observ-ers and the people themselves know this to be an illusion. The reality is a far cry from the brand’s promise. Bengal today is a deeply divided society which draws the line in every field between ‘us’ and ‘them’. This division is the result of a pernicious political culture bred and nur-tured by the Left during its three decades in power. Anyone who was not with the Left was branded an enemy of the people. The schism took root during Jyoti Basu’s long reign and Mr Bhattacharjee did nothing to change things. So deep-rooted has the division become that Mamata Ba-nerjee now uses it with a vengeance in her race for Writers’ Buildings.

This reality makes all attempts by the government to create an illusion a futile exercise. Ironically, the government’s attempt at brand-building comes at a time when it is daily losing control of things. Political par-ties, including those ruling the state, compete with one another in de-railing the administration. Not infrequently, they do so in violent ways. Its timing makes the brand’s promise utterly unrealistic. The govern-ment simply does not have the time to even initiate the reforms that are desperately needed. The elections are around the corner and even the most brazenly optimistic among the ruling Marxists do not really expect another term in office. It is even doubtful if the government has the will that can make a meaningful change possible. Worst of all, both the government and the Opposition seem to have lost their belief in Bengal. Having brought the state to this sorry pass, they probably believe that nothing much will change for Bengal. It is this collective collapse of faith that makes the reality so grim. A new brand now is worse than a cruel joke. It was the last thing that Bengal needed from an inept regime.

Calcutta Telegraph

No PM is an IslandIf this is the age of television news, then Dr Manmohan Singh clearly

belongs to another era. During the 1998 elections, we were doing a news program on a day in the life of the economist-politician. It was his first electoral battle and the reticent academic in him was clearly troubled by the intrusive nature of the camera. Already tired of being jostled by Congress workers on the campaign trail, he appeared reluctant to come out of his shell.

‘Privacy’ in the 24x7 news whirl may seem incongruous for someone in public life. A Laloo Prasad Yadav will take you to his cowshed, even brush his teeth in front of the camera, and an Obama family holiday will be splashed across the front pages, but Manmohan guards his per-sonal space zealously. Last year, we managed to get the prime minis-ter to do a Children’s Day special with his wife Gursharan Kaur on the lawns of 7 Race Course Road. The feisty lady broke into a song at one stage, the best the prime minister could manage in response was a weak smile, barely visible under the grey beard. the prime minister hasn’t re-ally done a single detailed interview in almost seven years in power. In his first term, he did two major press conferences at Vigyan Bha-van and then stopped them altogether. He did another one last year, but then again retreated behind the forbidding walls of government. May-be at age 78, it’s too late for Manmohan to transform himself from the self-effacing bureaucrat-politician to an effective mass communicator.

- Rajdeep Sardesai, Outlook India


17 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comsociety

This changeover will not be quick and easy. It will be troublesome be-cause of these countries’ ownership of a vital resource— hydrocarbons. It also controls the flow of goods between Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Wars have been fought to protect resource flow and we should be pre-pared for oil price increases and a de-cline in the quality of our lifestyles, until this transition is complete at major countries of this crescent. Laggard dominoes will fall in quick succession as they did in Eastern Europe.

More worrisome is the inevitable transformation in China. If practical wisdom prevails in that country as it did in the 1970s, a peaceful transi-tion to a new economic and political system will occur. However, if the global economy sinks into another

The Slow March of the American Idearecession because of turmoil in the Islamic Crescent, Chinese leader-Islamic Crescent, Chinese leader-Islamic Crescent, Chinese leadership will be challenged sooner than later.

Those who possess power will sacrifice others to preserve it. A common distraction is to stir na-tionalistic emotions by pointing to an external enemy, accusing them of aggression. The United States is a convenient target for distracting the Chinese population.

I hope that the match that Mo-hamed Bouazizi struck to set himelf on fire in Tunisia does not inadver-on fire in Tunisia does not inadver-on fire in Tunisia does not inadvertently set the world on fire, dragging the US into playing the role of the Fire Marshal once more.

Pradeep Anand is president of Houston-based management con-sulting firm Seeta Resources. He is the author of An Indian in Cowboy Country: Stories from an Immi-grant’s Life.

continued from page 16

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in AprilB

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in AprilB

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in Aprily n

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in Apriln

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in Aprilandnandn K

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in April K

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in Apriland Kand a Ka K PaPa oor

IanIanI Can Can hIChICh ago Cago Cago orresPondentCHICAGO: Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Ka-

lam, eleventh President of India, has graciously accepted the Indo-Ameri-can Center’s (IAC) invitation to visit Chicago in late April. “The IAC and its Board of Directors are honored to host Dr. Kalam’s visit. Chicago has a great opportunity to meet an individual whose service as Indian President was only one among a wide array of significant contributions he has made worldwide. We are eager to bring the community together in celebration of these,” said Jay Luthra, IAC Executive Director, as saying in press release.

Activities planned for his Chicago visit include the following: a public reception in his honor hosted by IAC; an essay contest for high school students addressing Dr. Kalam’s con-cerns with science, the environment, and public policy; a question and answer session with local high school students; and a collegiate luncheon for college students.

These activities are a testament to the wide-ranging influence Dr. Kalam’s work has had throughout his lifetime. From his 2002-2007 presidential terms to his continued leadership and advocacy of his 2020 vision for India, Dr. Kalam has helped pave the way for India’s emergence as a world leader. In addition to his success in politics, Dr. Kalam has achieved global stature in several other fields including science, tech-nology, and education. He has been Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology and professor at several Indian uni-versities and research institutions. Highly respected as a scientist and engineer, he is particularly known for his work on the ballistic missile and space rocket technology, which have brought India into modern space re-search. His honors include America’s top engineering prize, the Hoover medal, for his work in public service contribution as an engineer.

Dr. Ralph Nicholas of IAC’s Board of Directors expressed his excitement about the visit: “Dr. Kalam does great honor to Chicago and to the Indo-American Center by visiting us. As President of India he was known as ‘the People’s President’ who opened the doors of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to all. As one of India’s foremost scientists he has been a leading advo-cate for young people and advancing

scientific education. As an ardent advocate for protecting nature he has championed the environmental movement. He brings many impor-movement. He brings many impor-movement. He brings many important messages to us at the same time: about India’s tremendous advances, about science, about youth, and about the environment.”

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in April More informa

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in April More informa

Dr. Kalam to Visit Chicago in April-

tion about his visit, including the pub-lic reception and tickets, is available at www.indoameri-can.org.

The Indo-Amer- The Indo-Amer- The Indo-American Center is a not-for-profit com-munity service or-munity service or-munity service organization serving the South Asian im-migrant population.

The mission of the Indo-American Center is to promote the well being of South Asian immigrants through ser-South Asian immigrants through ser-South Asian immigrants through services that facilitate their adjustment, integration and friendship with the wider society, nurture their sense of community, and foster appreciation for their heritage and culture.

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18 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comsociety

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Annual Gateway- A Spiritual RetreatBy a

Annual Gateway- A Spiritual Retreata

Annual Gateway- A Spiritual Retreattul a

Annual Gateway- A Spiritual Retreata

Annual Gateway- A Spiritual Retreatgrawal

BRUCEVILLE, TX: The Hindu Students Association (HSA) hosted its annual Gateway on February 4-6 at Bruceville, TX. The location was chosen specifically to help students and young professionals escape their daily lives. Nearly 120 students from all across Texas gathered at this one campsite for one purpose, to invest in themselves. Just as the body craves food, so does the mind. While many of us ignore it, the hunger pains will soon surface. To satisfy these appe-tites, HSA brought a buffet of spiri-tual teachers that would definitely quell this insatiable hunger

As the old proverb goes, “you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”. Gateway had a similar goal in mind. Rather than just helping everyone calm their mind and grow spiritually once, HSA wants to in-spire people to carry this throughout their lives.

Satguru Bodhniathaji and Swami Senthilnathaswamiji from the Ha-waiian Monastery, Bramacharya Girishji from Chinmaya Mission attened the event. One key aspect of any intervention group is to provide its members a social network to help each other. A single pillar under the weight of the world is more likely to collapse than several pillars bur-to collapse than several pillars bur-to collapse than several pillars bur

HIndu Students Association members

dening the same weight. Similarly, Gateway provides a social network to help people grow spiritually in these troubled times. People can funda-mentally change the way they think of their religion or can apply their religion when they have a meaning-ful conversation amongst people with the same interest.

Gateway was one weekend, just a mere three days out of the whole year. Yet there were students from UT Austin, Texas A&M, UT Dallas, Uni-versity of Houston, University of Ar-versity of Houston, University of Ar-versity of Houston, University of Arkansas, Bellaire High School, Taylor

High School, Clements High School, and young professionals from Arkan-sas, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, and Maryland gathered together at one place. I, as part of HSA’s national executive board, can only hope that the effects of this Gateway extend not only beyond Bruceville or our respec-tive homes, but pervade throughout the globe. In the end, we in HSA can only provide a platform for a youth to step on. Now that the platform is laid out, I am excited to see how the youth will step up and strengthen our community!

Babulbhai

Suzie Vaswani Funds Daya at 90th Birthday

HOUSTON: Suzie Vaswani re-cently celebrated her 90th birth-day. In lieu of gifts, she designated Daya as the beneficiary. As a re-sult, Vaswani made a donation of $564 to the organization that as-sists South Asian families in crisis.

Annual Gateway- A Spiritual Retreat


19 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com motivation

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Slog. Get Your Hands Dirty to Get Ahead in LifeBy PraKash Iyer

Hw is 58 years old, bespectacled with distinguished silver grey hair. He’s spent 25 years working for one of India’s most respected corporate houses. I have learnt a lot from him. But it is unlikely you would have ever heard of him. His name is Kar-unan. And he worked with me as my driver.

Sometimes, the biggest lessons in life come from very unlikely sources. And as Karunan spoke to me one morning about his life and times, I thought young people would benefit from listening to what he has to say. Since Karunan will probably never be invited to deliver a convocation speech or a commencement address at a college, I decided to share those lessons with you. Here goes:

1. Getting a driving license does not make you a driver. “I was 18 when I got my license. But it was only after several months of driving a car that I actually learnt to drive, and became a real driver.” A license is only a permit – and not a stamp of author-ity. An MBA does not make you a manager. It is only after you spend several more years learning on the job that you truly qualify to call yourself a manager.

Many young people confuse get-ting a degree as signifying the end of their learning. Wrong. It’s just the beginning. A degree or a diploma – the licence – simply marks you out as someone qualified to learn from real life experiences. It doesn’t make you an expert.

2. The real world is very different

from a classroom. “I learnt to drive a car. But my first job required me to drive a little tempo. The steering wheel was different, and so were the gears. I thought I knew how to drive – but I couldn’t even get the tempo started.” The world outside the class-room is a very different place. That’s as true for engineers and MBAs and accountants as it is for drivers. Get ready to get surprised.

3. Slog. Get your hands dirty. “I spent nights working as a cleaner. That’s when I learnt all about the insides of an automobile. Knowing

what’s under the bonnet has made me a better driver today.” The brightest marketing professionals in the coun-try will tell you that they learnt their biggest lessons in the days they spent slogging in small towns selling soaps or colas. There’s no other way. If you want to be successful, work hard, dirty your hands – and go beyond your specific role.

4. Initially, what you learn is more important than what you earn. “In my first job, the pay was bad but the boss was good. He gave me op-portunities to learn, make mistakes. I

banged his tempo quite a bit. While the dents were quickly repaired, the lessons I learnt remain firmly etched in my mind.” In your first job – don’t worry about pay packet or the size of the organization. Get a good boss. A good mentor. That’s priceless.

5. Don’t worry about which car you drive. Focus on being a good driver. “I always wanted to drive the best cars – but rather than complain about having to drive a tempo or a school van or the city transport bus, I focused on driving well. I told myself that if I do that, the good cars will come. And they did.” Now that’s a great lesson.

It’s not about the company. It’s about you. Do the best with what you have, wherever you are. Karunan spent 15 years struggling in odd jobs before landing a driver’s job in one of In-dia’s largest companies. We could all benefit by staying focused on doing a great job – rather than worrying about the next job, or the next promotion. Do a good job. Success and happiness will follow. Inevitably.

Those then are five fabulous life lessons from an unlikely guru. Fol-low Karunan’s advice and I guarantee they’ll make a difference to your career. And to your life!

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, do anything well, work hard, go beyond your specific role, success will follow


20 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com


21 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

From Hollywood Extra to Bollywood Lead

MUMBAI (TOI): We’ve all heard of strug-glers and their dreams but this young actor takes the cake for his sheer talent and determination to struggle it out and make a name and place for himself.

New Yorker Prashant Kumar came to Mum-bai to pursue a career in Hindi films without any contacts, film funding or lineage. His credentials whilst in America comprise from acting in com-munity theatre to being a production intern to even being an extra in a Hollywood film that had Nicole Kidman in it. With little scope in the home land, he came to Mum-bai and in a span of three years, he’s gone from play-ing a cameo in Ek Vivah Aisa Bhi to a supporting role in the recent hor-ror Kaalo and now Prashant will play

the lead amongst veterans in a comedy film.Grapevine has it that a critically acclaimed

director from 2010 has also signed him as the lead in a thriller. “I’m very happy with the way my career is shaping up. From being an extra in a Hollywood film to now, it has been a great journey and I have enjoyed every second of it. I’m looking to do some great work in Mumbai and want people to look at me as a fine actor who is handworking and dedicated to his craft,” he says.

Prashant Kumar


22 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.come n t e r t a i n m e n t

A Scratched RecordRahat Fateh Ali Khan’s detention ignites Pakistan, reopens old wounds

By aMIaMIa rMIrMI Mr Mr I MI M rIrIMUMBAI ( Outllook): When news about the

detention of singing sensation Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at New Delhi’s international airport trick-led in, the people of Pakistan turned apoplectic in unison. In the collective expression of fury was forgotten the cause of his detention—he had been nabbed whisking away $1.2 lakh in gross violation of Indian laws. And those who dared to point to his transgression were coun-tered with speculative questions the white-hot anger spawned. Couldn’t the Indians have planted the money on Rahat? Couldn’t the authorities have confiscated the money and allowed him to board the flight? From there, it was only a small leap of imagination to reach the damning conclusion: it was an Indian ploy to slight Pakistan, defame its famous singer, and discourage Pakistani artistes from taking assignments in India.

Rubbish theories, typically Pakistan, you are likely to mutter. For a second, though, imagine Islamabad detaining Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan. Ordinary mortals who go into raptures at the sight of stars tend to believe their heroes are above thieving or breaking laws, even beyond the notions of good and evil. This

is also true of Pakistan’s love for Rahat. He’s no ordinary singer; his rendition of Sufi songs often has his listeners sway in ecstacy, to slip into pure bliss. And it’s he who is popularly perceived to have inherited the legacy of the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, popularising a style of singing erroneously described as uniquely Pakistani. This is why interior minister Rehman Malik was quick to contact the Pakistani High Commission to intercede on Rahat’s behalf with the Indian authorities.

Rahat may ultimately fly out of India, but his detention has brought to the surface the ineluctable bitterness that fresh attempts at India-Pakistan detente had sought to conceal. This particular incident especially rankles Pakistanis because India chose to treat harshly a singer whom it had so warmly embraced—recognising his prodigious talent, his admirable skills, and his mellifluous voice—despite his nationality.

Yet, ironically, Rahat’s popularity in India has fanned conspiracy theories. It is claimed his spectacular rise in Bollywood has prompted jealous competitors, in connivance with the authorities, to hatch a diabolic plan to accuse him of money-laundering and tax evasion. Vet-eran classical singer Ustad Badar-uz-Zaman told Outlook as much. “If some Indian artistes want him to fail, then they should do it through competition—and not by using such mean tactics.” But this conspiracy also has a political

undertone, insists Zaman. “There are elements who want to sabotage a growing people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan since artistes have done more than politicians to weave together loose threads between the two peoples.”

Socialite and music aficionado Mian Yousaf Salahuddin says Indian singers too have spir-Salahuddin says Indian singers too have spir-Salahuddin says Indian singers too have spirited away money from Pakistan in hard cash. “When Indian ghazal singer Jagjit Singh came to Pakistan, he took Rs 10 million with him the way Rahat tried to,” he alleges. Salahuddin also alludes to cut-throat competition in the world of singers to explain Rahat’s plight. “More and more Pakistani singers are going to India seek-ing bigger markets. However, their popularity ignites jealousy in Indian singers, who resent the inroads of Pakistanis in the Indian film In-dustry,” Salahuddin told Outlook.

It’s understandable why Pakistani artistes covet the Indian mar-covet the Indian mar-covet the Indian market. It provides a singer a following he or she can’t hope to command in Pakistan. And the greater the fan follow-ing, the fatter becomes his or her bank balance. A large fan following provides scope for pub-lic performance, which is becoming rarer in Pakistan because of the fear of Islamists, who consider music un-Is-lamic. Then, cutting an album in India has tech-nological advantages. To top it, payment to artistes in cash means they don’t have to pay tax in India or Pakistan. As Indian singer Sonu Nigam once alleged, “It becomes their black money.”

But payment in cash isn’t confined to Pakistanis only, argue singers, who claim Indian taxmen have made it a habit of targeting Pakistani artistes to set an example. Says music composer M. Arshad, “First, they targeted Adnan Sami and now Ra-tat Fateh Ali Khan. Why?” Adds another composer Faisal Rafi, “They should

Imagined slight? Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, an idol in Pakistan, at a concert in Mumbai. Photo: Fotocorp/Outlook

“When artistes like Rahat go to India to mint money, they must be prepared to lose respect and honour.”- Babar Awan, Pakistan Federal Law Minister

“What was Rahat thinking when he said he didn’t understand the rules? Why turn it into a Indo-Pak issue?”- Mustafa Qureshi, Film Actor

first create a system through which Pakistanis can legally repatriate their earnings home.” The Indian system allows foreigners to repatriate their earnings in India after paying tax on it.

This is why veteran Pakistani film actor Mustafa Qureshi refuses to believe in Rahat’s innocence. As Qureshi told Outlook, “What was he thinking when he said that he was a school dropout and did not understand rules and regulations? He told his interrogators that he had carried foreign exchange earlier as well, but it was never detected. What kind of defense is it? Why turn it into an Indo-Pak issue? It has nothing to do with Rahat being a Pakistani on Indian soil.” Agrees theatreperson Suhail Ahmed, “Really, there can be no excuse for violating the law of another land—anyone who does so shouldn’t expect expect special

treatment of any kind.”Contrasting views on Rahat were expressed in

the social media as well. Yet even those who are critical of Rahat believe Indians are generally prejudiced against Pakistani stars. In support of their conclusion, they cite several examples—the harassment of cricketer Shoaib Malik days before he was to marry tennis star Sania Mirza, the property tax singer Adnan Sami had to cough up, the humiliation of Ghulam Ali by Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai, and the decision of cricket bosses to keep out Pakistani players from the Indian Premier League.

The debate took a sharp jingoistic turn as federal law minister Babar Awan weighed in: “When artistes like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan go to India to mint money, instead of exploring their talent in Pakistan, they should be prepared to lose their respect and honour there.” For music lovers, though, Rahat will lose respect and honour only when he sings below par. Foreign exchange violations or tax evasions are not ele-ments to judge music and its exponents by.


23 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

By rIddhI PatelHOUSTON: The first time I heard about

donating bone marrow was at a student talent show in the spring of 2004. Dr. Vijay Mehta was promoting registering in the South Asian community.

The following week I went to the drive with a friend to register. “Why not?” I was thinking. Registration only required five drops of blood; there was a 1 in 100,000 chance of matching anyone in a given lifetime, and even if someone does match, they have the right to say no. There was no harm in just registering.

To my surprise, I received a call that follow-ing December. I was a potential match for a six year old boy suffering from leukemia. My initial reaction was sheer shock; “Did I really match someone?” “Would I be able to save another human beings life?” The aftermath was that there was a chance that I wouldn’t match. This would mean that there was someone out there who may pass. His and his family’s hopes would be bashed. I did the required blood work and awaited my duties.

A month later I still had no response from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) regarding further use of me and my marrow. I

had pushed it aside and decided that luckily, the little boy was feeling better and was not in need any longer. Not until March did I get a phone call that informed me that operation plans were in order. Since I was in school we decided to have the surgery pushed to the first week of May. I did my physical and more blood work between then while still in school. After my last final, I went home to San Antonio and the next morn-ing I was to undergo surgery. The night before, I could not sleep at all. I was scared, anxious, excited, happy, and nervous at the same time. I just wanted nothing to go wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself from having thoughts of mistakes during the operation or the boy’s body not re-ceiving the marrow healthily. Even driving to the hospital, I was very nervous about the entire procedure.

When I woke from surgery, everything felt fine. The operation ended within an hour and I wasn’t in as much pain as I thought I would be. I had heard horror stories about how painful this operation could be. I was a little sore, but it was the same kind of sore as working out too much; it was just in my back instead of my quads. Within three days I was off of my medication and I even made it to my sister’s graduation in Waco.

I sat for an actuarial exam two weeks later and a week after that, I started my internship. By the end of June, I was exercising to the same capac-ity as I had that spring. After the operation, I tried to write about my experiences, but would just end up crying. There was still uncertainty on my part for whether or not the boy had re-

Bone Marrow Donation - A Life Giving Experience

The National Marrow Donor Program showed Riddhi Patel, a quiet, shy girl in her mid twenties a way to save another life - bone marrow transplant. She donat-ed bone marrow to an ailing, about to die six year old boy. Thanks to her and the Donor program that made this possible, the boy is now eleven years old. His par-ents are thankful to Riddhi for helping save their son’s life. For Riddhi, having given life to a boy is thanks enough

covered. A month after surgery, we had heard he took the marrow perfectly, but there was still doubt. I was so worried about him recovering quickly and returning to a regular childhood.

A year later, I finally received his contact information, but before I could call or email the boy and his family, his father called me. We spent an hour on the phone sharing stories and tears.

The boy had fully recovered within weeks of the donation and was healthy and laughing on his 7th birthday. His father was extremely gratified and could not stop thanking me and God for “giving life.” Talking to the boy and his family was a very humbling experience. And through the help of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center and their work with the NMDP, I was able to meet the boy and his family in the fall of 2006. He was shy, and understandably so; I can not imagine going through what he did at such a young age. It was a very surreal mo-ment knowing that the child standing before you is here because of a small piece of your body, a piece that has regenerated in him and you at the same time.

Being the match for this now 11 year old boy is something I’ll never forget; I’m grateful that I registered when I did and went through this amazing experience. The rewards far exceeded the time and discomfort of the operation.


24 Indo American News • Friday, February 25, 2011 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com

India House Gala“Communities Coming Together”

Saturday, March 12, 20116:30 pm to 10:30 pm

Gala Chair: Gopal SavjaniCo-Chairs: Dr. Renu Khator and Dr. Suresh Khator Judge Ed Emmett and Gwen Emmett

At Intercontinental Hotel Houston (near the Houston Galleria)

DJ & Dance floor for your overall enjoyment‘Rhythm Experience’ [Taal Anubhav]‘Speed and Melody’ [Nritya Kala]‘Rama Rama’ - Fast Dance Number

Some Program Details for Entertainment..

Thanks to all our early sponsors!

Contact India House to sponsor the Gala Event:Fax: 713-772-9015

Phone: 713-929-1905email: [email protected]

Visit our new website at:http://www.indiahouseinc.org

For up to date information!

Platinum Sponsors: Brij & Sunita Agrawal Durga & Sushila Agrawal Jugal & Raj Malani Prithvi Raj & Arti Jindal

Palladium sponsors: Anil & Mukta Aggarwal Suresh & Krishna Agrawal Rajendra & Sangeeta Agrawala Anand & Bela Jain Virendra & Nalini Mathur Manish & Manju Rungta Tilak & Manju Agarwal Jiten & Shalu Agarwal Vikie & Chrisha Agrawal Ricky Agrawal

Benefactor: Paul & Stephanie Madan

Grand Patron Deviprasad & Saroj Rungta Sewa Singh & Kuldip Legha Nagraj & Shila Eleswarapu Kul Bhushan & Suman Uppal Swatantra & Bimla Jain Ramesh & Kiran Bhutada

Patron: Raj & Kanwal Bhalla Ashok & Mohini Bhambhani Hari & Poonam Kewalramani Showri & Raju Nandagiri Devesh & Namrata Pathak Raj & Krishna Syal Lachhman & Lalita Das Hindus of Greater Houston [Vijay Pallod]

Sponsor India House Today

Attendees

*Complimentary valet parking to all sponsors & attendees

$50,000$25,000$10,000$5,000$2,500$1,000

PlatinumPalladiumBenefactorGrand PatronPatronSponsor

2 VIP center tables; VIP Reception; Advertisement1 VIP center table; VIP Reception, Advertisement1 VIP center table; VIP Reception, AdvertisementVIP Seating for 6VIP Seating for 4VIP Seating for 2

CouplesIndividual

$500$275

Seating for 2Seating for 1

Documents

Feb 25 2011 1-24