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Sewa International was recognized by the Alief Independent School District at its annual Business Partners Appreciation Breakfast on April 29.

Sewa Houston president, Saroj Gupta, and Sewa AmeriCorps VISTAs, Alexis Angelo and Laura Frye, accepted a plaque in honor of “creating a bright future for Alief students” presented by AISD superintendent, H.D. Chambers.

Sewa currently offers after-school tutorials to students in the Language Institute for Newcomers program (LINC) in Alief ISD.

The LINC program is geared specifi cally towards high school students who have been in the United States for less than two years. Sewa partnered with AISD and LINC to provide further instruction in English development after school.

The students Sewa serves in the LINC program come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from refugees to immigrants from all over the world.

Many LINC students have

Alief ISD honors Sewa Houston

Alief ISD Superintendent H.D. Chambers, left, Sewa AmeriCorps’ Alexis Angelo and Laura Frye,Sewa Houston President Saroj Gupta and Delores Jones, AISD Business Partner Specialist.

received minimal formal education upon arriving in the US so in addition to learning a new language and culture they must also learn the education system and expectations.

In addition to offering after-school tutorials in Alief, Sewa also offers college readiness and future planning programs, summer academic support to students attending the Summer Language Institute, and summer immunization drives in partnership with the Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic.

In the Fall of 2014 Sewa will launch a mentorship program aimed to further assist LINC students to better develop life skills.

Sewa’s goal in AISD is to assist newly immigrated students in their academic pursuits, instill self-motivational skills, emphasize the importance of high school and higher education, and establish English fl uency.

To get involved with Sewa and programs impacting recent refugee and immigrant students contact [email protected]

Gov. Rick Perry on May 6, inducted Secretary of State Nandita Berry, rear second from right, and eight other outstanding Texas women into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. See Page 7.

Global Indians for Bharat Vikas volunteers are busy campaigning in Andhra Pradesh, in support of Narendra Modi. Houstonian Vijay Pallod, second from right, one of the several volunteers from the U.S. campaigning India, is seen at a local meeting. See Page 11.

Renowned Hindi poets Sarvesh Asthana (left), Pradeep Chaubey (center) and Aalok Shrivastav regaled Hindi poetry lovers with their wit, satire and some thought-provoking verse at the Kavi Sammelan at India House organized by India Culture Center and International Hindi Association on May 3. Photo: Aditya Shah. See Page 6

PAGE 2 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014 • PAGE 3

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Indian Music Society of Houston Presents

SAT, MAY 24 @ 7:00 p.m. Jones Hall,Univ of St. Thomas 3901 YOAKUM Blvd

Accompanied By:Harshad Kanetkar on Tabla;Vikas Falnikar on Harmonium

A 501 ©(3) Organization Promoting Hindustani Classical Music

Hindustani Vocal Concert

Programs are subject to change for reasons beyond the control of Indian Music Societyof Houston. IMS Programs are partially funded by a grant from Houston Arts Alliance.

For tickets: Govind 713-922-2501Suresh 281-935-4653 orwww.tickets2events.com

Smt. Gauri Pathare(Disciple of Smt Padma Talwalkar)

Ticket: $25

Smt. Gauri Pathare has been delivering solo recitals all over Indiaas well as abroad since the age of 12 years. Gauri’s interest inHindustani classical vocal music came from her mother, Dr. VidyaDamle, herself a disciple of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki.

She later on followed in her mother’s footsteps by receiving exten-sive taalim for several years – initially from late Padmashree Pt.Jitendra Abhisheki and thereafter from Pandita Padma Talwalkar tilldate. This training blended in her the gayaki of Jaipur, Gwalior andKirana gharanas.

Her voice is her forte - she was trained in various voice culture tech-niques by Ustaad Syeeduddin Daagar (noted dhrupad dhamar gaayak).

Gauri Pathare holds a degree in Computer Science from the Univer-sity of Pune and a Diploma in IT from NIIT.

The most prestigious Swara Baskar Puraskaar, instituted in memoryof late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi for the year 2012-13 was awarded toSmt. Gauri Pathare by the Surashri Pratisthan, Pune. Gauri was alsoawarded the equally prestigious Aditya V. Birla "Kala kiran" nationalaward for the year 2013.

By Haider Kazim

Three Indian poets known fortheir witticism, humor, pun andsatire, entertained a large gather-ing of Hindi lovers on Saturday,May 3, with their ability to provokelaughter on any subject under thesun.

The visiting poets – PradeepChoubey from Gwalior, AalokSrivastav from Lucknow, andSarvesh Asthana from Vidisha –were taking part in the annualHasya Kavi Sammelan organizedby India Culture Center and In-ternational Hindi Association’sHouston Chapter at India House.

Kavi sammelan, where poetsrecite their poetry is an integralpart of Indian literary tradition and“hasya,” meaning humor or mirth,has been an integral part of In-dian poetry and drama.

The event is organized annu-ally as part of ICC and IHA’s mis-

sion to foster Indian heritageamong Houston’s large immigrantpopulation from India. IHA is host-ing similar events in 15 other citiesacross USA. Houston was thetenth city where kavi sammelanshave been held.

Event coordinator Nisha Mirani,ICC director, welcomed the audi-ence. ICC President Charlie Patelexplained ICC activities and an-nounced the upcoming LeadersConference on June 7 and India’sIndependence Day celebrationson August 16.

IHA-Houston PresidentSwapan Dhairyawan spoke aboutICC-IHA partnership and otherIHA activities—NationalAdhiveshan, Kavita ki Shaam andHoli ke Hindi Bol – and the‘Gunjan’ online newsletter. Heannounced an additional event inSeptember.

Dhairyawan thanked the spon-sors and supporters of the event -

Mass Mutual, MD & Associates,Wallis State Bank, Paradise Gifts,Maheshwari Mahasabha of NorthAmerica, and Madras Pavilion.

Dhairyawan then invited NitaMehta and Bacchuben Bhavsarto Deep Prajvalan to commencethe program and then invited Dr.K.D. Upadhyaya to introduce thepoets.

Dr. Upadhyaya introduced thepoets with wit and humor befit-ting the occasion and set the stagefor the poets to take over. Whatfollowed then was laughter all theway. Sarvesh Asthana conductedthe program.

As Sarvesh Asthana andPradeep Choubey regaled the au-dience with their witticism, AalokSrivastav touched their hearts withhis lyrics. The poets demonstratedtheir mastery of the genre by mak-

IHA and ICC office bearers withthe three Hindi poets from India.

Hindi Kavi Sammelan: Laughter all the way

See Page 8


TOPIC OF THE WEEK

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VOICESPM was worse than a rubber stamp of Sonia

Under the UPA, power was outsourced to a ladywho was not bound by the oath of secrecy andoffice. She took the decisions, made theappointments. Manmohan Singh signed meekly.This was indirect rule at its best.

By Swapan Dasgupta

Like many of the movers andshakers of India, ManmohanSingh’s former Media Adviser(one of the very few individualshe handpicked for a job in hisPMO) presumably believes thatIndia begins and ends in Delhi. Or,at least he pretends to believe so.

A fortnight before his book, TheAccidental Prime Minister hit thestands, I asked Sanjaya Baru whyhe had chosen April 11 as the re-lease date.

He explained that because itwould be “after the election.”

“After the elections in Delhi youmean,” I retorted incredulously.

“Yes,” he replied with a know-ing smile.

The anecdote is interesting fora simple reason. Baru was cleverenough to choose April 11 as therelease date for his kiss-and-tellaccount of the UPA Governmentsbecause he wanted it to appearthat it wasn’t linked to the elec-tions. It was a familiar sleight ofhand and I can almost hear Baruasking some breathless journalistincredulously, “You mean they arestill voting in some parts of India?”

The disingenuity doesn’t washbut it is of a piece with the presentPMO’s laughable attempt to sug-gest that the Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh, was shocked,if not devastated, by Baru’s rev-elations.

The undistinguished individualwho is apparently responsible formedia communications at presenthas let it be known that Baru’s wasan “attempt to misuse a privilegedposition…for commercial gains.”

These are strong words andwould have cut ice were it not forthe fact that half of the relevantsections of Delhi know that Baruremains on the best of terms withthe Prime Minister.

And that the PM still uses himto write speeches that other offi-cials such as the National Secu-rity Adviser can’t or won’t, andthat it is common knowledge thatBaru completed the book at leastfive months ago and was merelywaiting to ensure that the massfury triggered by his revelationswouldn’t lead to Kapil Sibal beingdevastated by the voters ofChandni Chowk.

The PMO is right that the book“smacks of fiction”. It is fiction tobelieve that the book was unre-lated to the election or, at least, toManmohan Singh’s impendingtransfer of residence from RaceCourse Road to Motilal NehruMarg.

Second, I would venture to sug-gest that it is fiction to believe thatthe first occasion the PM got toknow what the book containedwas when an advance copyreached him.

Maybe we will have to wait forManmohan Singh’s own autobi-ography to know the story of theUPA Government as seen throughhis eyes.

Maybe that may prove an un-ending wait because Manmohanisn’t known to be terribly forth-coming. Pending the PM’s ownintervention, Baru’s book is likelyto be the most authentic account

of the UPA as seen from the perspective of the only Man-mohanloyalist in the Government.

That the PM does not come out in a very flattering light is to statethe obvious. Over the years he has acquired the reputation of beingexcessively malleable, a wimp, a doormat or even worse.

It has been routinely said that he lacked political spine and veryrarely stood up for what he believed was right. Probably the onlyoccasion was the Indo-US Nuclear accord. All these facets of thePM’s character are known and Baru can hardly enlighten the nationfurther. The new revelations lie in Baru’s claim that the supine conductof Manmohan Singh was directly correlated to the quantum of SoniaGandhi’s involvement in the Government. The more Sonia micro-man-aged, the more Manmohan Singh wilted.

This certainly does not show the PM in a flattering light but moreimportant it suggests that the carefully painted portrait of Sonia Gandhias a selfless servant of the party and the poor is complete hogwash.

Sonia, it turns out, was a scheming politician who put her proprieto-rial stamp on the UPA Government by overseeing all decisions andappointments. Manmohan Singh, it turns out, was worse than a rubberstamp. He was at best a sub-tenant of Race Course Road, the legiti-mate tenant had decided to stay at 10 Janpath.

Certain conclusions are in order. First, in the debate over the ‘ideaof India’ we have seen the injection of a new input: The completesubversion of the Cabinet system of Government.

Under the UPA, power was outsourced to a lady who was notbound by the oath of secrecy and office.

She took the decisions, made the appointments. Manmohan Singhsigned meekly. This was indirect rule at its best.

Second, if Manmohan Singh played no role in decision-making shouldhe be blamed for the mess India finds itself in?

In the early part of the campaign Modi directed his flak at the PM.I think it was fire power wasted. The real owner of the UPA hasalways concealed herself behind protective layers. Baru’s book hasexposed that subterfuge. With people in 400 seats yet to vote, the firepower of those interested in change should be focussed on the indi-vidual and the family who is responsible for India’s sorry state.

The implication of Baru’s book is that the person who facilitated thecoal scam, the 2G corruption and God knows what else must be heldaccountable. Let the Gandhis explain why they derailed India over thepast years. Manmohan Singh can be the star witness for the prosecu-tion. In retirement he may yet redeem some of his self-respect.

— The Pioneer

THE LIGHTER SIDE

A Recipe for DisasterThe recent violence in Assam's Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts

(BTAD) that has claimed the lives of 34 people belonging to the Bengali-speaking Muslim community highlights the volatile situation persistingin the region. Little appears to have changed since the 2012 clashesbetween ethnic Bodos and Muslims that had left 105 dead and lakhsdisplaced. The four BTAD districts of Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang andUdalguri remain flashpoints for ethnic strife with little efforts made toaddress the underlying causes of violence. Instead, all sides have usedthe situation to score political points at the cost of ordinary people.

There's no denying that the state government of Assam needs totake the blame for failing to prevent violence and provide security.Shockingly, it now plans to arm Muslims in BTAD areas to defendthemselves. Not only does this represent crude abdication of responsi-bility but also serves up a recipe for disaster with the Bodos being wellarmed themselves. Besides, similar strategies in the past have back-fired such as the disastrous Salwa Judum experiment in Chhattisgarh.Should the Assam government go ahead with its plan, it will essentiallybe lighting a powder keg and endangering more lives.

Even though Tarun Gogoi's dispensation blames the anti-talks Na-tional Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) for the latest violence,there are allegations that the Bodoland People's Front — an ally of thestate government — was behind the killings. If true, this would beeven more damning of the state administration. However, the rootcause of the problem is the perceived rise in the Muslim population inthe BTAD areas and reciprocal resentment towards Bodo politicaldomination through the Bodoland Territorial Council. This can only beresolved through a political solution involving all stakeholders. But forthat to happen, the Assam government must leave no stone unturnedto guarantee security in BTAD areas. — The Times of India

Sad State of India’s SecurityEvery man his own carver, wrote Jonathan Swift. It didn’t take

India’s political leaders too many hours to begin slicing what profitcould be had from Thursday’s train-bombing in Chennai. The BJP castthe bombing, on the basis of the flimsiest conjecture, as an attemptedattack on Chief Minister Narendra Modi; Congress politicians, for theirpart, threw about innuendo about the perpetrators’ intentions and prov-enance. Questions about the extent to which the National Investiga-tion Agency, that is controlled by the Central government, ought to beinvolved in the process of investigation within the State also quicklycame to the fore. Lost in the noise was the issue that really matters:why citizens remain so much at danger when they travel, are at theirworkplaces, or when they are just walking down a crowded marketstreet. Swathi Parachuri, the young woman whose life was extin-guished by the bomb explosion, was one of the thousands of Indianswho have died at the hands of terrorists. The killing continues thoughpoliticians have, for decades, been promising action.

The facts are simple — and make clear the States and the Centralgovernment are equally to blame. As the United States State Depart-ment noted earlier this week, India’s internal security infrastructure isseverely anaemic. In spite of the massive expansion of police man-power and large investments in technology after 26/11, training stan-dards and personnel skills are well behind minimal acceptable stan-dards. In areas involving specialist skills, like forensics, acute staffingdeficits are evident.

Last year, The Hindu revealed that the intelligence services, thecutting edge of the country’s counter-terrorism efforts, were yet to fillstaffing deficits of up to 33 per cent, a full five years after the Mumbaicarnage. The case of the Railway Protection Force, tasked with pro-tecting trains and tracks along with the State government-controlledGovernment Railway Police, is illustrative. Though the 65,000-strongforce has grown steadily in numbers over the last decade, instances ofserious crime occurring around the railway system — murder, rapeand burglaries — are all up. Even where infrastructure exists for frisk-ing passengers and luggage, it is utilised only cursorily.

The same story unfolds in cities around the country, where ill-trainedpersonnel wave metal-detectors over cars or people carrying metalobjects — and simply ignore the beeping. The situation has not changedbecause political leaders and bureaucrats simply don’t care enoughabout the issue to ensure that police forces are adequately equippedand trained to discharge their functions. The situation won’t changeuntil citizens start holding those in office to higher standards of ac-countability. — The Hindu

NEW YORK: Four Indians are among the winners of a HarvardBusiness School competition that awards prizes worth over $3,00,000to new and innovative business and social impact startups conceptual-ized by the US institution's students and alumni.

Harvard MBA student Amrita Saigal won the grand prize in the'Social Enterprise' category at the 18th Harvard Business School NewVenture Competition for her venture 'Saathi', which she cofoundedwith Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu.

Saathi provides affordable sanitary pads made from waste bananatree fibre to women in rural India.

Saigal and Kagetsu, who both hold mechanical engineering degreesfrom MIT, received a $50,000 prize at the competition, which supportsboth students and alumni launching new business and social impactventures inspired by "belief that one simple idea can change every-thing".

Saathi also got the audience choice award through an electroniccrowd vote. The winner in the business track category was the start-up 'Alfred', being launched by Saurabh Mahajan, Marcela Sapone andJess Beck.

Alfred is a concierge service individuals can use for their daily andweekly tasks, including dry cleaning, house cleaning, groceries, laun-dry, and more. The Alfred team also won $50,000. The runner-up inthe social enterprise track was 'Tomato Jos' founded by MBA stu-

For detailed game odds and information, call 1-800-37-LOTTO or visit txlottery.org. Must be 18 or older to purchase a ticket. The Texas Lottery supports Texas education. © 2014 Texas Lottery Commission. All rights reserved.


COMMUNITY NEWS

dents Mira Mehta and MikeLawrence.

'Tomato Jos' is a vertically in-tegrated tomato processing com-pany that helps small farmers inNigeria grow tomatoes that canthen be made into tomato paste.

In the business category,'Booya Fitness' founded by MBAstudent Pritar Kumar won the run-ner-up award and a $25,000 cashprize. The venture is an on-de-mand video platform featuringworkouts created by the industry'sboutique gyms and instructors.

The capstone event of theHBS's expansive offerings in en-trepreneurship, this year's compe-tition attracted 150 Harvard MBAcandidates as well as studentsfrom six other Harvard graduateschools.

In addition, HBS graduatesfrom 17 HBS alumni "hub" clubsworldwide participated in 14 re-gional competitions.

As part of the finaleprogramme, a member of eachventure delivered a 90-secondpitch to the audience, leading toan electronic crowd vote.

Over the course of the entirecompetition, which began last fall,more than 200 judges and men-tors took part.

Alumni winners were chosenby an online crowd vote by otherHBS graduates around the globe,HBS students, and a panel ofjudges in three categories - mostinnovative, greatest impact, andbest investment.

4 Indians win in Harvard contest for startups

Harvard MBA student Amrita Saigalwon the grand prize in the 'SocialEnterprise' category at the 18th Harvard Business School New VentureCompetition for her venture 'Saathi.

Dr. Shiv Grewal, Ph.D., waselected to US National Academyof Sciences and the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Scienceswithin the same week. The USNational Academy of Sciences, anonprofit society of distinguishedscholars, is charged with provid-ing independent, objective adviceto the nation on science and tech-nology.

The American Academy ofArts and Sciences, founded in1780, is the most prestigious hon-orary society that elects leading"thinkers" from each generation.The members of these societiesinclude worlds most accomplishedscholars and scientists includingwinners of the Noble Prize.

Dr. Grewal was recognized forhis distinguished and continuingachievements in original, ground-breaking research in the field ofepigenetics and his studies haveprovided critical insights into howcells control structure of the chro-mosomes.

This “epigenetic” (literally, “be-yond the gene”) regulation is fun-damentally important to humandevelopment. Disruption of epige-netic regulation contributes tomany diseases including cancer.Grewal uncovered the paradigmof molecular signatures that de-note alternative states of chromo-some structure. His discovery ofthe role of small RNAs in modify-ing chromosome structure was

Scientist Shiv Grewal elected to USNational Academy of Sciences

selected as “Breakthrough of theYear 2002” by scientific journalScience.

Three research papers byGrewal were adjudged historic dis-coveries in past 50 years by an-other prestigious scientific journalNature.

Dr. Grewal was a student at thePunjab Agricultural University(1983 to1989) before he moved tothe University of Cambridge,United Kingdom where he stud-ied as a prestigious Cambridge-Nehru scholar to obtain his Ph.D.degree. He then moved to the USNational Cancer Institute as apostdoctoral fellow and in 1998.Dr. Grewal chose to join the famedCold Spring Harbor Laboratory asa faculty member. In 2003, hereturned to the National CancerInstitute, National Institutes ofHealth in Maryland as head of theChromosome Biology Section.


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By Dr. Lakshmi Srivaths“The lives of great men remind

us that each one of us can makeour lives sublime” goes a famousadage.

A monumental example to thispopular quote is none other thanthe violin virtuoso, PadmabushanLalgudi G. Jayaraman.

Born in the sishya paramparaof the great saint Shri Thyagaraja,the multi-faceted Carnatic musi-cian Lalgudi Jayaraman enhancedand enriched the ocean ofCarnatic music through variousroles as an outstanding violinist, aninnovative and exemplary com-poser, a creative musicologist, anaffectionate and dedicated Guruand a kind philanthropist.

“Lalgudi Sir has truly revolu-tionized the violin playing tech-niques in Carnatic music; it is anhonor and privilege for his studentsto imbibe this immaculate tech-nique perfected by the great leg-end as it is the straight path to suc-cess in Carnatic violin perfor-mance”, states his direct discipleviolin vidhwan Shri Vittal

Ramamurthy.“Lalgudi Samarpanam”, a mu-

sical homage to this great legendand guru, was planned, choreo-graphed and executed on May 4at Anjali Center in Sugar Landwith dedication and musical excel-lence by his disciples, renownedviolinist Vittal Ramamurthy andHouston’s proficient Carnatic vo-calist and devoted teacher vidhushiRajarajeshwary Bhat. They wereably assisted in this role by themembers of Houston Youth Mu-sic Association (HYMA) and sup-ported by Krishna Gana SudhaMusic Academy (KGSMA) andSamskriti.

The program of Lalgudi com-positions was led adeptly byvidhwan Vittal Ramamurthy onthe violin, Rajarajeshwary Bhat onthe vocal music, and Poovalur Srijion the mridangam.

Adding to this musical delightwas the visual treat ofBharatanatyam dances for someof the compositions, choreo-graphed and executed by Dr.Rathna Kumar.

The event was eloquently em-ceed by Uma Ranganathan.

The support of innumerable vol-unteers and parents of KGSMAwho worked energetically contrib-uted to the success of the event.

The opening varnam on LordGanesha “Vallabhai Nayaka” ren-dered with a brisk tempo by thestudents of KGSMA, both youngand old, set the ambience for theevent. Followed by this was thekrithi about Goddess Durga inragam Durga, a melodious rendi-tion presented alongside their Gu-rus by the youth vocalists of Texas,Chinmayee, Thanmayee,Keerthana and Kruthi and comple-mented skillfully by the young vio-linists from various cities in theUnited States, Sujatha, Subha,Vikram, Neha, Sharada andPavani.

The pada varnam in Charukesi,an outstanding composition thatnever fails to evoke tender emo-tions, was rendered with passionand perfection by Sri VittalRamamurthy and the young vio-linists, supported by the vocalists.

This song and others weremade wholesome with ShriPoovalur Sriji’s mridangam thatthundered and caressed, echoedand reverberated in accordancewith the music.

The krithi “Then MadhuraiVaazh Meena Lochani” was anapt choice for the venue as it is inpraise of the reigning deity ofHouston, Goddess Meenakshi. Itis set in the unique ragamHamsarupini, another valuablecontribution to Carnatic music byLalgudi.

This was followed by the in-vigorating varnam in ragamGarudadhwani. Lalgudi’s devotionfor his family deity Lord Murugawas completely manifest in thekrithi “Kandhan Seyalanro” inragam Natakurinji, an earnest ren-dition by the artists.

The thillanas in ragams Behagand Karnaranjani, are two ofLalgudi’s masterpieces thatglowed like precious gems. Per-haps the navaraga malikai varnamon Goddess Meenakshi“Angayarkanni”, was written byLalgudi with our Houston God-dess Meenakshi in mind! Thisunique composition is a great ex-ample of the musical brilliance ofthe illustrious composer.

Every phrase is adorned by theprecise choice of ragam, impec-cable alignment of swara korvaiand enriched with lyrical beautyto suit the mood of the messageconveyed. The adept and capti-vating rendition of this song byKruthi Bhat was brought alive bythe spirited and skillful executionof Bharatanatyam studded with

navarasa bavas and abhinayamsby Dr. Rathna Kumar and her stu-dent Samyuktha Iyer.

Goddess Meenakshi was un-questionably brought in our midstby of the greatness of the com-poser, the melodious musicality ofthe singers and instrumentalistsand the superlative portrayal bythe dancers.

Maand Thillana sung in praiseof Goddess Kamakshi showcaseda stunning mix of Carnatic andHindustani flavors. Another illus-tration of the musical genius wasthe Grahabedam Jatiswaram, en-compassing Sindhubhairavi,Janjooti, Behag, Mohana Kalyaniand Thilang ragams. The conclud-ing song was the melodious thillanain Desh, rendered ardently by allthe artists and joined fervently bythe students of KGSMA.

The event concluded with ShriVittal Ramamoorthy sharing thememorable moments with the leg-end and felicitation of all the se-nior artists by HYMA.

An added blessing was the at-tendance by Gowri Ramnarayan,a feature writer for the Englishdaily The Hindu, a veteran writer,journalist, author, playwright-direc-tor, music critique and Carnatic vo-calist, who expressed her passion-ate thoughts about the violin mae-stro and conferred compliments onthe organizers and the participantsfor a homage well offered.

After witnessing such a heart-stirring homage, one could not failto feel the poignant emotions in-tricately woven into Lalgudi’s mu-sic and wonder what a stupendousmusician and eminent he was.

Musical tribute to Lalgudi Jayaraman

INDIANS ABROAD

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPENI welcome the opportunity to learn about your unique goals and needs. Together we can create a strategy designed to help guide you along the path to financial well-being. Call to schedule a consultation today.


Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday, May 6, inducted Secretary of State Nandita Berry and eight other outstanding Texas wom-en into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, which celebrates accomplishments of those who have made signifi cant contri-butions in areas such as busi-ness, education, philanthropy, military and public service. The ceremony took place on the Senate fl oor of the Texas State Capitol.

“The Hall of Fame exhibit is a place where we honor trailblazers, pioneers and non-conformists who rose to the challenges around them,” Gov. Perry said.”

“Like Stephen F. Austin, who was Texas’ fi rst secretary of state, I came to Texas in search of a better life and the limitless opportunities to be found across our great state,” Berry said.

“Every day, I see Austin’s pioneering spirit alive in Texas, and this great honor proves once again that Texas is the land of opportunity, both in the private sector and public ser-vice,” she said.

Berry is Texas’ 109th Secre-tary of State and the fi rst Indi-an-American to hold the offi ce. She was appointed by Gov. Perry and sworn in on January 7, 2014.

As secretary of state, Berry is one of six state offi cials who comprise the executive depart-ment of the state of Texas.

Among the offi ce’s wide-ranging responsibilities, the secretary of state serves as the chief election offi cer, the gov-ernor’s liaison on border and Mexican affairs, and Texas’

chief protocol offi cer for state and international matters.

Additionally, the offi ce man-ages the business and public fi lings for Texas.

Berry’s personal story em-bodies what is possible through hard work and determination in Texas.

Arriving from India at the age of 21 with no more than $200 to her name, she worked diligently to earn her law de-gree and become one of the most accomplished attorneys in the state.

Prior to becoming secretary of state, Berry specialized in technology transactions as se-nior counsel at Locke Lord LLP in Houston. She was for-merly in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 company, where she handled corporate and se-curities matters.

Berry has a long and distin-

Nandita Berry inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame

guished record of civic service. She was vice chair of the Uni-versity of Houston Board of Regents and sat on the boards of the Houston Zoo Inc., South Asian Chamber of Commerce, Houston Area Women’s Cen-ter, and the Community Family

Center of Houston.A graduate of Mt. Carmel

College in Bangalore, India, Berry subsequently received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. She earned a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center.

Texas Women’s Hall of Fame inductees are native or current Texas residents whose achievements have signifi cant ties to the state. The women were nominated by their peers and selected by an independent panel of judges.

2014 inductees: Business: Nandita Berry,

HoustonCommunity Service: Joanne

Herring, HoustonCommunity Service: Debo-

rah D. Tucker, AustinEducation: Dr. Ann Stuart,

Denton

Health: Lillie Biggins, Fort Worth

Leadership: Texas First Lady Anita Perry, Haskell

Military: Col. (Ret.) Kim Olson, Mineral Wells

Public Service: Hon. Sen-fronia Thompson, Houston

Public Service: Hon. Caro-lyn Wright, Dallas

The Texas Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1984, and more than 100 women have been inducted, including former fi rst ladies, astronauts, entrepreneurs and Olympic athletes.

The permanent exhibit hon-oring these women, which features biographies and pho-tographs of inductees, was established by the Governor’s Commission for Women in 2003 at Texas Woman’s Uni-versity in Denton.

Nandita Berry

Indian-American Man-ish Shah has been confi rmed by the US Senate as a federal judge in Illinois, becoming the fi rst South Asian federal judge in the 5th most populous state of America.

Shah, 40, was confi rmed by the Senate by 95-0 votes. “His experience as a prosecutor and in various leadership posi-tions at Chicago’s US Attor-ney’s offi ce will ensure Shah is a knowledgeable jurist who will provide a fair forum for the resolution of civil disputes and the prosecution of alleged crimes,” Illinois senator Mark Kirk said in a statement after the confi rmation.

An assistant US attorney in the northern district of Illinois since 2001, New York-born Shah currently serves as chief of the Criminal Division, hav-ing previously served as chief of criminal appeals from 2011 to 2012.

Shah was also deputy chief of the Financial Crimes & Spe-cial Prosecutions Section from 2008 to 2011 and deputy chief of the General Crimes Section from 2007 to 2008.

Manish Shah confi rmed as federal judge


COMMUNITY CALENDAR

or call for info.(713) 665-4665

Chandra & David Courtney Tabla and Vocal

Classes in Houston,Mission Bend,& Sugar Land

Visit www.chandrakantha.com

Classesnow ongoing

ASIE May meetingThurs., May 8 @ 11:30 a.m.American Society of Indian En-

gineers’ May luncheon meeting.At the Hess Club, 5430Westheimer. Daniel W. Krueger,PE, director of public works andengineering is the speaker. Pro-ceeds from the event will helpfund ASIE’s scholarship program.Tickets $35 for members andgovt. employees. non-members$50. For details, call ShekharAmbadapudi 281-235-9202 orShowri Nandagiri 713-294-3944.

Blood donation driveSun., May 18 @ 11 a.m.Sant Nirankari Mission is hold-

ing a blood donation drive at IndiaHouse where a Van from MDAnderson Blood Bank will beparked from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00p.m. Public is invited to partici-pate in this charitable event.

Chinmaya MissionSunday satsangs for adults,

youth and children. Unique BalaVihar program for each grade,from PreK to Grade 12. Satsangsin two sessions between 8:35 a.m.to 10:15 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. -1p.m. Bala Vihar students cantake shloka, bhajan and orchestraclasses or classes for Hindi,Telugu, Marathi, and Gujarati. At10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land(77498) New members visit wel-come desk bet. 8 to 8:45 a.m. or10:15 to 11:30 a.m. Visit www.chinmayahouston.org or contactBharati Sutaria 281-933-0233.

Arya Samaj SatsangWeekly Havan Satsang every

Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

COMMUNITY CALENDARDAV Sanskriti School Sundays 10a.m. to 12 noon. - Havan, Hindiand Naitik Shiksha classes. DAVMontessori School for ages 2 to 7years. Call Arti Khanna 281-759-3286. Free Yoga classes on Sat.Sanskrit & Upanishad classes Tue.6-8 p.m. At 14375 Schiller Rd. (betWestpark & Bellaire off Hwy 6).281-752-0100.

Vedanta SocietyVedanta Society of Greater

Houston, 14809 Lindita Drive(77083) has classes every Sun-day from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.on Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 1st& 3rd Sunday; Bhagavad Gita,2nd Sunday; on works of SwamiVivekananda, 4th Sunday; HolyMother Sarada’s Gospel, 5th Sun-day. Swamis of Ramakrishna Or-der visit to conduct retreats andtalks. www.houstonvedanta.orgor 281-584-0488.

Durga Bari TempleDurga Bari temple is open from

9 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Mon.thru Sat. Sandhya aarti at 6:30p.m. Temple closes at 7 p.m. Sun-day special from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.Puja services - Priest BishnupadaGoswami 281-597-8100 Templeis located at 13944 Schiller Rd (offHwy 6 bet. Bellaire & Westpark).Call Ganesh Mandal at 713-797-9057 / 832-423-8541.

Telugu FellowshipTelugu Christian Fellowship

meets every third Saturday of themonth at Triumph Church, 10555W. Airport Blvd., Stafford TX77477 at 6:30 p.m. Join us for atime of praise, worship and fel-lowship. Worship is in English.Call Chris Gantela 281-344-0707,

or Rev. V. Gurrala 281-997-0757.

Sahaj Marg MeditationSahaj Marg (Natural Path)

Meditation and Spirituality (www.sahajmarg.org) A natural, simplesystem of Raja Yoga meditationand spiritual practice. Weeklysatsangs held in the Houston area.Email Radheshyam Miryala, MDat meditate_ [email protected] or meditate.galveston@gmail. com.

Heritage ClassesAshirwad’s Heritage Classes in

Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land forkids 4 to 18 yrs - meditation, Yoga,slokas, stories from scriptures,Vishnu Sahasranam, bhajans, com-petitions and fun activities. Adultmeditation classes by appointmentonly. Register at www.ashirwadablessing.org or Sri Ravula 281-995-0930.

Hare Krishna DhamHouston’s original Vedic temple,

ISKCON of Houston. At 1320 W34th St. (77018). Daily Darshan& Arati Times: 4.30am, 7am,8.30am, 12noon, 4.30pm, 7pm,9pm. Sunday Festival: 5.30 pm to7.30 pm. Weekly Gita classes foradults; 281-433-1635 orharekrishna [email protected]

Gandhi LibraryMahatma Gandhi Library Book

Club: Meets 2nd Sunday of eachmonth; 12:30 PM at Arya SamajGreater Houston, 13475 SchillerRd. Join the discussion of the greatman’s autobiography – The Storyof My Experiments with Truth.Call Manish Wani 713-829-6979.

Saumyakasi SivalayaSri Saumyakasi Sivalaya is lo-

cated at Chinmaya Prabha, 10353Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77478. Temple timings: Monday toFriday: 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon and5:00 - 8:00 PM Saturday and Sun-day: 8:30-2:00 PM and 5:00 - 8:00PM. Contact 281-568-1690 or JayDeshmukh at 832-541-0059 orvisit www.saumyakasi.org.

Veerashaiva SamajaVSNA Houston is a group of

families who believe in Veera-shaiva dharma (Basava dharma).Monthly Mahamane program forprayer and discussion on VachanaSahitya followed by Prasada. Con-tact: vsnahouston@gmail. com832-545-1185 (Jyoti Biradar).

SALES HELP WANTEDWell-known Houston jewelry store is looking forsaleswomen availabe to start immediately. Must be ableto speak English and Hindi well. Call 713-789-7575

Shiv Shakti MandirSanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, 6640 Harwin. Open daily 7 a.m. to 8

p.m. All major festivals, as well as birthdays, naam karan, engage-ment and other ceremonies. Call Pandit Virat Mehta 713-278-9099 orHardik Raval 361-243-6539 for puja or other ceremonies.

Houston NamadwaarA prayer house where the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Maha-man-

tra is continuously chanted. Weekends: 8-11 AM & 4-7 PM, Week-days: 7-8 AM & 6-7 PM. Weekly “Gopa Kuteeram” children’s heri-tage classes and Srimad Bhagavatam classes. Call 281-402-6585;visit www.godivinity.org (Global Organization for Divinity).

Mar Thoma ChurchTrinity Mar Thoma Church every Sunday at 5810 Almeda Genoa

Rd. Sunday School at 9:15 a.m. Malayalam service at 9:30 a.m. on1st & 3rd Sunday. Adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. English service at10:30 a.m. on 2nd & 4th Sunday. Call 713-991-1557 or 281-261-4603.

Sadhu Vaswani CenterSadhu Vaswani Center of Houston holds regular Satsang on 3rd

Thursday of the month and daily Arti at 7.30 p.m. Call 281 463 0379or e.mail ramolaj@ aol.com

Guruvayurappan TempleHours: Mon to Fri 6 a.m. -8 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Week-

ends & Holidays: 6 a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. BhajansSaturdays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Special poojas(weekends and holidays) Choroon (Annaprasam) for kids,Thulabharam, Vahana Pooja, Nirapara. Temple is located at 11620Ormandy St (77035) Tel: 713-729-8994 email: temple@ guruvayur.us

Arsha Vidya BharatiSanskrit classes and special worship sessions for all ages. At 2918

Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479.Call 281-606-5607 [email protected]. Web-site: https://sites.google.com/site/avbtexas/classes

Preksha MeditationNew facilities of JVB Preksha Meditation Center. Classes for Yoga

and Meditation under guidance by Samani jis and discourses. Newcenter is located at 14102 Schiller Road (off Hwy 6 bet Bellaire andWestpark - 77082). Tel 281-596-9642.

Patanjali YogpeethFree Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun at Arya Samaj from 8 am to 9:30

a.m. Call Anil 281-579-9433. For other free classes, call Indra 281-537-0018. For Yoga/Herbal products, call Shekhar 281-242-5000. Web:www.pyptusa.org and www.DivyaProducts.com.

Sathya Sai centersSathya Sai devotees meet on Sundays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

at two locations in North and South Houston; Sai Spiritual Educationclasses for children, meditation, study circle, bhajans and service ac-tivities. Call Raghu Amara (North) 832-418-3842 or Ajit Paralkar(South) 281-788-4786. www.saicenterofhouston.

Gaudiya MathSri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd., Hous-

ton 77084. Satsang every Sunday 5 to 7 pm. Mantra meditation, kirtanand classes on Sanatan Dharma. Vedic Education and Hindi classesfor kids 5-14 yrs. Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wednesdays. HanumanChalisa and Ramcharit Manas on Tuesdays 7:30–8:30 p.m.info@sggm. org or 281-499-3347

ing fun of each and everything without offending sensibilities. Thetopics ranged from politics to religion, individuals to national leaders,social customs and relationships.

Pradeep Choubey recited his ‘micro’ poems which have made himfamous all over India. He has taken part in numerous kavi sammelansin India and abroad. He has several publications and has won manyawards, including one from former President of India, Dr. ShankarDayal Sharma.

Aalok Shrivastav’s poems that celebrate human relationships –mother, father, family and friends were poignant and touching. A TVjournalist by profession, he is a well-known ‘ghazalkar’ in Hindi. Hisworks have been translated in other languages and his ghazals havebeen sung by leading singers in India.

Sarvesh Asthana’s satire was hilarious and thought-provoking andshowed that the “hasya’ poetry is not a frivolous genre but carries adeeper social meaning. A journalist by profession, Asthana has re-ceived several awards and is associated with many charitable organi-zations.

Hindi Kavi SammelanFrom Page 3LEGAL NOTICE

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Tel/Fax: (212) 242-1677Dakshini R. Senanayake, B.S., LL.M.Licensed by the Supreme Court of New York

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NEW DELHI:President PranabMukherjee will dedi-cate ‘RuPay’, India’sown card payment net-work, to the nation inNew Delhi on Thurs-day, May 8.

The RuPay card isaccepted at all ATMs(1.6 lakh plus), 95 per

RuPay, India’s card payment network

cent of PoS terminals (9.45 lakh plus) and most of the eCom mer-chants (about 10,000) in the country, an official statement said.

A variant of the card called ‘Kisan Card’ is now being issued byall the public sector banks in addition to the mainstream debit cardwhich has been issued by 43 banks.

A variant of pre-paid RuPay card would shortly be launched byIRCTC. More than 150 cooperative banks and the regional ruralbanks (RRBs) have also issued RuPay ATM card.

The total number of cards issued as on date is 17 million and isgrowing at a rate of about 3 million per month, the statement added.

RuPay, a new card payment scheme, is the coinage of two termsRupee and Payment.

“This card symbolizes the capabilities of banking industry in Indiato build a card payment network so that dependency on internationalcard scheme is minimised,” it said.

‘RuPay’ is developed by National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) — a ‘not-for-profit’ company envisioned by the ReserveBank and created by the banking industry.

KALPA, HP: India’s first voter, Shyam Saran Negi, on Wednes-day, May 7, cast his vote at a polling booth in his native place Kalpa.

The 97-year-old Negi reached the polling booth at 6.55 a.m. ac-companied by his wife Hira Mani (92).

Shyam Saran Negi became the first voter of the country whenelections were held for the first time on October 25, 1951 in Kinnaur.The polling was held in phases and other parts of the country wenttothe polls in February 1952.

The State Election Commission had recently appointed him as itsbrand ambassador for the poll campaign in the tribal region.

Negi’s name was registered at serial no 123 in polling booth no 50on Wednesday. Incidentally, the booth was set up in the school fromwhere he had retired after serving for 23 years. He was the firstperson to caste his vote there, followed by his wife.

Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner DD Sharma welcomed Negi at thepolling station and honoured him by presenting a cap and scarf whenhe came out of the polling booth.

Kinnaur assembly segment falls in Mandi Lok Sabha constituencyand Negi cast his vote for the 17 th time in the Lok Sabha elections,including the Mandi Lok Sabha by-election held in June 2013.

India’s first voter Shyam Negi

In this June 2010 photo, Shyam Saran Negi, India's first voter, is seenwith the then Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla. Negi, now97 years old, cast his vote at a booth in Kalpa, Kinnaur Lok Sabhaconstituency, in Himachal Pradesh.

In a counter attack to BJP Prime Ministerial candidate NarendraModi's charge that the Congress was targeting him for his backwardclass identity, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesdaysaid a person's actions could be low-level, not his caste.

"Neech karm hote hain, neech soch hoti hai, gusse ki sochhoti hai, Krodh ki soch hoti hai. Neech jaati nahin hoti (Actionscan be low-level, a person’s thoughts can be low-level, his ideology ofanger can be low-profile. A person’s caste cannot be low)," Gandhitold reporters in his constituency, Amethi.

Modi had on Tuesday in several rallies in UP given a caste spin toGandhi's sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's "neech rajneeti" (low-levelpolitics) barb and used its reference to play upon his backward classidentity. "Sometimes they ask how a tea-seller can run the country.They wonder how a person belonging to a 'neeche jaati' can get suc-cess in politics. I have sold tea, not the country," Modi remarked inDhoomariyaganj.

His comments drew a sharp response from BSP supremo Mayawatiwho accused Modi of distorting Priyanka's comment.

Rahul hits back at Modi over caste remark

“Distressed” by NarendraModi’s mother travelling in an autorickshaw and living in a smallroom, a Congress leader onWednesday wrote to the BJP PMcandidate volunteering to look af-ter her as Modi had not providedher a “comfortable” life despitehis “wealth” and success.

“I fail to understand how youcould not provide a comfortablelife for your mother who spent herentire life trying to ensure abrighter future for you.”

“Your mother is like my mother.I have immense respect for her. Imay not be as resourceful as youare, but I would request you toallow me to provide her all the

Congressman offers to care for Modi’s mother

necessary comforts of life accord-ing to my capacity,” Rashid Alvisaid in a letter to Modi.

Alvi lamented that Modi hasbeen telling in his campaign allalong that his mother raised himsingle handedly in the most diffi-cult conditions. “You mentionedhow she had to work in theneighbouring households to ensurethat she could look after you prop-erly.”

“With her dedication and hardwork, she brought you up in a waythat you could not only rise to be-come the Chief Minister of a statelike Gujarat, but also went on tobecome the PM candidate of yourparty”, he told Modi.

At the same time, he told Modithat he was “deeply pained”when he came to know that themother of the Gujarat CM still livesin an 8X8 room.

“I was also distressed when Isaw that she travelled in an autorickshaw to cast her vote re-cently,” he said noting that in In-dian culture, when the son doeswell in life, the first beneficiariesof his success are the parents.

Over 70 % polling inSeemandhra

HYDERABAD: As pollingprogressed in 13 districts ofAndhra Pradesh on May 7, BJP’sprime ministerial candidateNarendra Modi rang up TeluguDesam Party (TDP) president NChandrababu Naidu, spoke toeach other,at least twice during theday, and enquired about the“trend”.

“Favorable,” is what Naidu re-portedly told Modi, indicatingthat the TDP-BJP combine is allset to make electoral gains as es-timated in 175 assembly and 25Lok Sabha seats where close to75 per cent polling was reported.

The TDP’s assessment is thatthe combine is well placed in northcoastal Andhra districts likeSrikakulam, Vizianagaram andVisakhapatnam. The TDP is ex-pected to put up a good show inEast Godavari and West Godavaridistricts, besides Krishna andGuntur in south coastal Andhra.

However, in Rayalaseema, theTDP-BJP combine might make amark in Anantapuram and partsof Chittoor district, but lose sig-nificantly in Kadapa and Kurnooldistricts.

Overall, the trend indicated thatthe fight would be neck-and-neckbetween the TDP and the YSRCongress for power in the newstate assembly.

INDIAPAGE 10 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014

“44 Years and Counting,

Providing Services To Generations

of Businesses and Professionals

Around The World”

1970 - 2014

Imagine getting a quarter of a million followers on Twitter - with just one tweet. That’s what hap-pens when you’re Kollywood’s biggest fi lm star.

India’s Twitter users may still be busy with the latest ups and downs of the country’s longest ever general election, but fi lm su-perstar Rajinikanth has proved a welcome distraction. He has sur-prised India’s social media com-munity by getting tens of thou-sands of followers before he’d even said anything on the social network.

While most people globally might equate Indian cinema with Bollywood - the Hindi-language fi lm industry of Mumbai - Rajini-kanth hails from the “Kollywood” industry of Tamil fi lms from In-dia’s south. He has a huge global

fan base and was the star of sci-ence fi ction blockbuster Endhiran (Robot), believed to be the most expensive and highest grossing fi lm in Indian history.

His fi rst - and thus far only - message, thanking God for his digital presence, has now been retweeted more than 11,000 times. He’s also been mentioned by the network itself - Twitter’s offi -cial India account felt moved to welcome him, and as of Tuesday evening, he had amassed almost 250,000 followers, some of whom joked that Twitter had in fact joined Rajinikanth, not the other way round.

But it hasn’t all been adulation - some have pointed out that the timing of his Twitter debut may be linked to the fact Rajinikanth’s next fi lm, Kochadaiiyaan, is due

out in the coming days. Indeed, his wallpaper is a large poster for the fi lm. “These are normal gimmicks employed by fi lm personalities before a fi lm release,” commen-tator and Tamil cinema observer Gnani Sankaran told BBC Hindi’s Imran Qureshi. “He used to make a political comment before his movie release. This time he has used one section of the media, the social media,” he said.

Business strategy specialist Harish Bijoor was one of the fi rst to welcome Rajinikanth’s entry to Twitter but laments the fact that his account is reportedly being handled by a PR company.

“This is a very negative trend. Twitter is meant to be a one-to-one medium. If it’s an agency handling it, it becomes a broadcast medium. That’s propaganda.”

The man who got 250,000 followers with just one tweet In a major victory for Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on

Wednesday declared as unconstitutional the law passed by Ker-ala in 2006, constituting the Dam Safety Authority to prevent theState from raising the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam from136 ft to 142 ft.

A fi ve-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodhaand Justices H.L. Dattu, C.K. Prasad, Madan B. Lokur and M.Y. Eqbal, allowing the suit fi led by TN permanently restrained Kera-la from interfering with the rights of Tamil Nadu from raising thewater level in the dam from 136 ft to 142 ft.

Justice Lodha, who wrote the judgment, also restrained Keralafrom enforcing its law on Tamil Nadu. By enacting the law and fi xing the storage height of the dam at 136 ft, Kerala had nullifi edthe 2006 judgment and usurped judicial power and thus interfered with the judicial functioning.

The Bench said the Constitution envisaged separation of pow-ers among the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature and one should not encroach into the domain of the other. Independence of the ju-diciary and courts alone would ensure rule of law, the Bench said.

The Bench said a legislation could be invalidated on the groundthat there was a breach of separation of powers in enacting the law, though the Legislature might have the competence to do so.The Bench said “If the court fi nds that there was transgressionof constitutional principles in separation of powers the court can declared the law void.”

The Bench said the Legislature could only amend the law butcould not invalidate a judgment or a decree passed by the court.The law enacted by Kerala legislature was an attempt to interfere with the judicial functioning, the Bench said and struck the law asunconstitutional and void. The Bench appointed a three-member committee with chairman of the Central Water Commission asthe chairperson and representatives from the States of Kerala andTamil Nadu to supervise and ensure that the water level in theMullaperiyar dam was raised up to 142 ft.

To allay the apprehensions of Kerala, though none exists, theBench said the committee should make periodic inspection of thedam, before the monsoon and during the monsoon and take all steps necessary for the safety of the dam. The Kerala governmentwas directed to allow Tamil Nadu to carry out all repairs and take all other steps for the safety of the dam.

On a suit fi led by Tamil Nadu, the apex court in 2006 permit-ted the State to raise the water level from 136 ft to 142 ft. Within15 days of the verdict, Kerala enacted a law and constituted DamSafety Authority to prevent Tamil Nadu from raising the waterlevel beyond 136 ft. In April 2006, Tamil Nadu fi led a fresh suit todeclare the law as unconstitutional.

Supreme Court strikes down Kerala order on water sharing

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7 , 2014 • PAGE 11

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Thursday, May 22 Asia Society Texas Center

5:30 pm Welcome and Networking

6:30 pm Panel Discussion

1 BUSINESS & POLICY

To purchase tickets, please call 713.496.9901 or visit AsiaSociety.org/texas.1370 Southmore Boulevard at Caroline Street | Houston, TX 77004 | AsiaSociety.org/Texas | Facebook.com/AsiaSocietyTexas

Vishakha N. DesaiPresident Emerita

of Asia Society

Barnik MaitraPartner at

McKinsey & Company

Ed EmmettHarris County

Judge

Drayton McLaneChairman of

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Patrick FrenchWriter and Historian

Adil ZainulbhaiFormer Chairman of

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Asia Society Texas Center in collaboration with McKinsey & Company

Present All-Star Panel to Discuss Book

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Featuring Leading Thinkers on India

NRIs, under the aegis of GIBV (Global Indians for Bharat Vikas), have embarked on a multi-pronged initiative to support the National Demo-cratic Alliance’s quest under Narendra Modi to form the next Government of India.

To this end, a Loka Kshema Homam was performed at the Shiv Shakti Mandir in Houston, on Saturday, April 26.

Pandit Udaykumar Ji con-ducted the function in a tradi-tional manner, accompanied by Vedic chants. He was ably assisted by GIBV volunteers VIswasankaran Kartick Ji and Vivek Natarajan Ji, who served as co-offi ciating priests.

GIBV leaves no stone unturned for getting Modi elected as the next PM

The purpose of the Homam was clearly articulated as Loka Kshema, which means “Benefi t of the world”. The belief of all attendees of the function was that “A prosperous India will result in a prosperous world and Narendra Modi is the best per-son to lead the country”.

Amidst enthusiastic partici-pation by nearly 100 people, the Homam concluded at around 1 p.m. This was followed by the chanting of 108 names of Shiva and an Aarthi inside the temple. Lunch was served for all guests, courtesy Dr Bimal Talati ji. Post lunch, GIBV volunteers par-ticipated in a Geetanjali Radio program hosted by Smt Shobha

Joshi, where they shared their perspectives on the ongoing elections in India.

Apart from offering prayers, the GIBV volunteers are mak-ing innumerable phone calls to their friends and relatives in support of NDA and also calling specifi c swing constituencies. Some volunteers are on ground in India to campaign.

A group of dedicated GIBV

volunteers from Houston & other parts of the US have para-chuted into the battleground states of Anand and Khera.

Gujarat needs no introduc-tion to Narendrabhai, but the volunteers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure a high voter turnout on election day.

Moving further South, GIBV volunteers are busy campaign-ing in the politically crucial

state of Andhra Pradesh, where elections are held in two phases.

The volunteers are campaign-ing in both Seemandhra andTelangana states, each of whichhas its own political dynamics. Their on-the-fi eld efforts arecomplemented by the reference calling efforts of hundreds of volunteers in the US and aroundthe world.

A “Homam” for the welfare of the people was held at the Shiv Shakti Mandir in Hillcroft.

Ramesh Shah, seated left, campaigns for Narendra Modi at a village in Gujarat.


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Sri Meenakshi Temple Soci-ety launched the Main Temple Renovation Project on April 24, 2014 with a fundraising kick off meeting at Sri Meenakshi Temple Kalayana Mandapam.

MTS is the fi rst traditional Hindu religious landmark in the Southwest United States; built over three decades ago the MTS facility has been attract-ing thousands of devotees on a regular basis.

What started in 1977 as a humble dream for a small group of supporters has gradually blossomed into a magnifi cent complex meeting the religious needs of the vast, growing community.

This is the fi rst such temple outside India with Goddess Meenakshi as the main deity, constructed with guidance and assistance from the original Sri Meenakshi temple in Madurai, India.

Before the main temple was built, and as the conventional custom of Hindu faith dictates, a small Sannidhi for Lord Ga-nesha was consecrated in 1979.

The main temple was con-structed in 1982 followed by the majestic and ornate tow-ers at the four entrances along with the traditional surrounding walls.

The supporters have been generous with their time, re-sources and emotions, the temple doing exceedingly well, attracting visitors and adding

more facilities such as towers, corner temples, outer perimeter wall, marriage hall, Youth Cen-ter, silver chariot and visitors center, staff quarters, as dic-tated by the needs, over the last two decades.

Sri Meenakshi Temple has become a sacred Indian monu-ment in Pearland, suburb of Houston, and recognized by the state and the city, as an at-traction for visitors.

With the steady growth of the devotee population, time has come to expand the reli-gious facilities.

The series of expansion was started last year with the Ga-

nesh Temple, the 4000 sq.feet facility with granite sanctum, gopuram and with granite fl oor.

Main Temple Renovation Project, the second stage of development of MTS, will in-clude an edifi ce for Goddess Padmavathy with an exclusive perimeter structure.

The expansion will have several other attracting fea-tures to improve the access for more devotees with expansion of the main temple to increase the fl oor area by approximately 2500 sq.feet.

This million dollar project is expected to complete by end of year 2015.

The MTRP fund raising kick off meeting on April 24th was a great success as nearly 100 devotees gathered in the Kaly-ana mandapam where the Lak-shmi sanctum on the stage was very impressive.

After the opening remarks by MTS chairman Dr. Vaduga-nathan, one of the stalwarts of fund raising, AVN Reddy host-ed the attendees with speeches from the fund raising commit-tee, as well as several promi-nent patrons and supporters.

A highlight of the evening was the presentation by Pad-mashri Muthiah Sthapathi, temple architect and builder,

who explained and answered questions relating to the ar-chitectural details of the l pro-posal.

The next milestone on the expansion will be the auspi-cious Lakshmi Puja on June 1st at 10 a.m. Devotees wishing to be part of the expansion can become Gold brick Lakshmi Sannidhi sponsors by emailing the pledge to [email protected] or visit www.emeenaksi.org.

(Dr. Venugopal Menon, AVN Reddy and Dr. SG Appan; pho-tos courtesy – S. Balakrishnan)

Meenakshi Temple embarks on expansion


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Sri Meenakshi Temple Society17130 McLean Road, Pearland, TX 77584

Invites all Devotees to the Grand

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Thirukalyana Utsavam Thursday May 1st to Sunday May 11th 2014

Thursday, May 1st

5:00 PM to 8:30 PM -Anugnai, Vigneswara Puja, Vasthusanthi & Mruthsangrahanam

Friday, May 2nd

10:00 AM - Dwajarohanam5:00 PM to 8:30 PM - Raksha Bandhanam & Yagasala Puja begins.

Friday May 2nd thru Saturday May 10th

Daily Morning 10:00 AM & Evening 6:00PM - Puja, Homam and Abhishekam for Utsava Murthis

Sunday, May 11th

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Thirukalyanam

9:30 AM – Seervarisai, Procession from Ganesh Temple

10:00 AM – Oonjal in front of Kalyana Mandapam 10:30AM - Kanyadhanam, Mangalya Dharanam,

Mangala Aarthi

Followed by Rathotsavam A magnificent procession around the temple with all

the Utsava Murthis in their respective Vahanas

Sponsorship: Kalyanam $31, Kanyadhanam $51, Kalyanam & Kanyadhanam $81 Grand Sponsor $251

Sit down Lunch on Banana leaves will be served after the Thirukalyanam For information, contact Bala at [email protected] or Vijayarajan at [email protected] or

Sriram at [email protected] or Sasidaran Pillai at [email protected] the Temple Office at 281-489-0358 Extn 100, 101. Please sponsor online at www.emeenakshi.org

Chithirai Mahotsavam Cultural Events daily: For details contact Mala Gopal [email protected]

Houston Chapter of North South Foundation (NSF), a non-profi t organization dedicated to promoting excellence in education, involved in implementing educational programs for children in North America

and India, recently conducted several contests for children at Lone Star College – University Park campus in North-West Houston.

This year, the organization is proudly celebrating its 25th anniversary.

North South Foundation promotes excellence in educationIt all started with a humble

beginning by Dr. Ratnam Chitturi, a native of Chicago, IL, who dedicated his life for the noble cause.

Money generated through contests, workshops, online coaching and from donations is given as scholarships to economically disadvantaged, but deserving children for their education in India. The competitions in US is open to children of Indian origin.

In Houston, it is the 22nd year of conducting the educational contests that include Spelling Bee, Vocabulary Bee, Math Bee, Science Bee, Geography Bee, Public Speaking, and Essay Writing. On both the days, a total of 194 children participated with 361 contest registrations. This is the highest number of registrations

so far in the past several years. Vast beautiful premises and

excellent facilities of Lone Star College have provided a suitable and appropriate venue for the contests. This is the second year in a row Lone Star College have sponsored the event and provided their facilities.

The organization is solely run by volunteers and close to 40 volunteers including some youth have dedicated their time and energy in successfully conducting the contests this year. In addition to conducting the contests Houston Chapter has organized workshops for Math and Spelling in the month of January.

NSF volunteers also conducted on-line coaching for math counts, SAT, and Spelling Bee. Recently with

the encouragement of the founder Dr. Ratnam Chitturi, a new program called Universal Values has been started and several Houston based children participated.

As part of the awards ceremony on April 26, these children and on-line coaches were ecognized.

As grand sponsors of the event, American Telugu Association (ATA) has supported the regional contests both fi nancially and at every step of theway.

Narender Cheemerla and Bangar Reddy of ATA have given away medals, trophies and certifi cates for the winners.

The event has also been sponsored by India Cultural Center (ICC). Charlie Patel, President of ICC, speaking at the awards ceremony recalled ICC’s sustaining support for the promotion of education taken up by NSF for the past several years.

The team consisting of Sai Rachakonda, Chapter Coordinator for Houston, Vijai Kumar, Technical Coordinator, the other members of the Houston team Neetha Chada and Sridhar Dadi, thanked all the volunteers, sponsors, the Lone Star College who provided excellent venue for the contests, Krishna Sounds (Darshak Thakkar) for providing the sound system, and the parents of children who participated in the contests for their contribution towards promoting educational excellence.

The Foundation believes that this world can be a better place to live if the children of today are better prepared to be good citizens of tomorrow.

Toward this end, the Foundation encourages children to endeavor to become the best they can be, by giving their best. Further, while it is self-evident that all humans are created equal, it is education that is paramount to actually realizing the rights of equality including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the Founding Fathers of this Nation envisaged more than two hundred yea rs ago.


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Sri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha celebrated its fi rst Akshay Triti-ya and Chandan Yatra festival on May 1st and May 2nd at its Temple in northwest Houston.

The importance of this day is explained by Srila Narayana Ma-haraja, the founder of the temple, as follows - “Akshya means ‘not perishable.’ Any endeavor started on this day will be suc-cessful. If you sincerely take a spiritual vow today, your bhakti will be very successful. Also, a festival is observed in Puri mark-ing the beginning of the construction of Lord Jagannatha’s Ratha (chariot)”. The parent organization of the temple, Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti was also established on this day in 1941.

This day also marks the start of Chandan Yatra. As it starts getting very hot in India, devotees apply chandan (sandalwood paste) to the Lord to keep Him cool. Temple devotees in Houston also worked tirelessly for hundreds of hours to make the sandal-wood paste by rubbing the sandalwood sticks while chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra.

On May 1st, the Deity of Lord Krishna (Sri Govindaji) was completely embalmed with sandalwood paste and decorated with beautiful colors and fl owers. Throughout the evening hundreds of people came to the temple and were mesmerized by this special darshan of Sri Govindaji.

On May 2nd, Orissa Culture Center (OCC) along with Sri Sita Rama Foundation celebrated the Akshya Trititya with the Gaudi-ya Matha devotees at the temple.

With the Vedic chanting and the blowing of the sacred conch shell, the temple room was fi lled with transcendental presence of Lord Jagannatha and Sri Radha Govindaji.

OCC President and priest, Dr. Debananda Pati recited man-tras to invoke heavenly permission of the Lord for the OCC Rath construction and passed the symbol to Madhab Maharana, the original builder of the Houston Rath in 2008. He then explained the importance of this day.

After the conclusion of all the rituals, Sandhya Aarti was per-formed with great love and devotion by over 300 devotees gath-ered in the temple. After this everyone recited Sri Jagannatha Astakam and Sri Dasavatara Stotram as Pushpanjali was offered to Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi.

On behalf of the temple, Tarun Krishna Prabhu thanked every-one and on behalf of OCC, Dr. Samal offered his gratitude and invited everybody for joining the 2014 Snana Purnima (June 14, 2014), and the Rath Yatra (June 29, 2014).

The festival was concluded with a delicious vegetarian prasad-am feast that was sponsored by OCC and prepared by the temple devotees.

The presiding Deities at the temple are: Sri Radha Govindaji; Sri Gaura Nitai and Sri Sita Rama Laksmana Hanuman. There are six regular aaratis every day. Visitors are warmly welcomed and are especially invited to our Sunday services (5 – 7 PM). Gu-rukula classes for children in grades K-12 is at 5:45. You will fi nd traditional Vedic teachings, worship and values in an American setting.

Sri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha temple is located at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd off Hwy 6 between I-10 and 290. For more infor-mation, please visit www.sggm.org or call (832) 464-4686.

Akshaya Tritiya and Chandan Yatra celebrated at Gaudiya Matha Temple

OCC President and priest, Dr. Debananda Pati passes on the symbol to Madhab Maharana, the original builder of the Hous-ton Rath in 2008 for the OCC Rath construction.

A double-fatality shooting incident in the New Territory subdivision in Sugar Land early Monday, May 5, remains under investigation.

After an emergency phone call to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Offi ce Dispatch, Sher-iff’s Offi ce deputies arrived at the scene, located in the 4800 block of Russett Lane. Deputies found a 15-year-old girl in the front yard with a gunshot wound. She had made the emergency call.

Inside the home, deputies found the bodies of adults, later determined to be Karim Kam-dar, 46, and his wife, Nikhat Kamdar, 37. They found an 11-year-old boy who had sustained gunshot wounds as well.

Detectives found a handgun inside the resi-dence, but they are waiting on lab analysis and

autopsy results to determine the shooter in the incident. Child Protective Services offi cials say they now have custody

of the children and are trying to get in contact with relatives in Pakistan and India.

Mrs. Kamdar owned a day care called American Heritage Academy and Child Care in Rosenberg. For nearly 12 years, Mr. Kamdar rented and operated the Superway Food store in Rich-mond. But about one year ago, he packed up and left.

Preliminary investigation indicates the father/husband of the household murdered his wife, wounded his two children and then committed suicide, sheriif’s offi ce spokesman Bob Haenel said on Wednesday.

Husband and wife killed in shooting

Nikhat, left (aka Chandni) and Karim Kamdar. — From Chandni Kamdar’s Facebook page.

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Gulzar, best known for penningmemorable hits like Tujhse NaaraazNahi and Tere Bina Zindagi Se besidesdirecting critically acclaimed films likeAandhi and Mausam, was chosen forthe prestigious Dada Saheb Phalkeaward for lifetime achievement in cin-ema, the highest official recognition forfilm personalities in India.

Gulzar, 79, who has directed films likeMere Apne, Parichay, Koshish,Khushboo, Angoor, Libaas andMaachis will be the 45th recipient ofthe award.

Phalke award for Gulzar

Born as Sampooran Singh Kalra in 1934 in Pakistan's Punjab inpre-independence India, Gulzar and his family were among the manyvictims of Partition. The family moved to Amritsar but Gulzar cameto Bombay and began to work as a garage mechanic while writingpoetry in his spare time.

Gulzar started his career in 1956 and as a lyricist got his first breakin Bimal Roy's Bandini and the song Mora Gora Ang Lai Le, filmedon Nutan became an instant hit.

He worked with leading music directors like Sachin Dev Burman,Salil Chowdhury, Shankar Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, Rajesh Roshan, Anu Malik, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Gulzar also developed outstanding creative partnerships with RahulDev Burman, A. R. Rahman and Vishal Bhardwaj. Along with lyrics,he has contributed to several films as script, story and dialogue writer.

Gulzar is widely known for his outstanding work on the small screenas well. He is credited with having created TV series like MirzaGhalib and Tahreer Munshi Premchand Ki.

Gulzar received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002 and the PadmaBhushan in 2004. He has won a number of National Film Awards and20 Filmfare Awards.

He won the Academy Award for best original song for Jai Ho(shared with A R Rahman), for the film Slumdog Millionaire in2009. In 2010, he won the Grammy award for Jai Ho.

Gulzar's poetry has been published in three compilations: ChandPukhraaj Ka, Raat Pashminey Ki and Pandrah Paanch Pachattar(15-05-75). He is also credited with having created a new type ofstanza in Urdu poetry named 'Triveni' (stanza of 3 lines).

Gulzar's contribution to mainstream cinema is well recognized, as-suring him a place in the annals of Indian cinema, the I&B Ministrysaid.

Gulzar is married to actress Raakhee. The couple have a daughter,Meghna. When their daughter was only one-year-old, they separatedbut never divorced. Meghna grew up with her father and, after com-pleting her graduation in films from New York University, went on todirect films like Filhaal, Just Married and Dus Kahaniyaan. Shealso authored the biography of her father Gulzar, in 2004.

With Mere Apne in 1971, Gulzar became a filmmaker and went onto make Parichay (1972) and Koshish (1972), a sensitive look at thetravails of a deaf-mute couple superbly played by Sanjeev Kumarand Jaya Bhaduri.

The Gulzar-Sanjeev Kumar partnership resulted in films like Aandhi,Mausam, Angoor and Namkeen and took Sanjeev Kumar to greaterheights in the industry. With his sensitive yet successful movies, starslike Jeetendra (Parichay, Khushboo, Kinara), Vinod Khanna(Achanak, Meera, Lekin) and Hema Malini (Khushboo, Kinara,Meera) worked with Gulzar to gain greater respectability as artistsand give some of their best performances.

Shraddha Kapoor sings for her film GaaliyaanNot many are aware that actress

Shraddha Kapoor comes from a familyof music stalwarts; she is the grand-nieceof iconic singers Lata Mangeshkar andAsha Bhosle.

And her grandfather is the veteran clas-sical singer Pandharinath Kolhapure, a firstcousin of Lata and Asha.

So it was only natural for the actor toseek her family’s opinion as she set out totry her hand at playback singing in herupcoming film.

As a child, she used to learn singingfrom Kolhapure. Before she hit the stu-dio, Shraddha practised the song Gaaliyan for a couple of days. Soonafter the recording, she requested for a CD with the rough cut of thetrack so she could get her grandpa’s feedback.

The song is a duet with singer Ankit Tiwari.Also, Shraddha had not informed her grandpa beforehand that she

would be lending her voice to a song, since she wanted an honestopinion from him.

It took a while for him to realise that he was listening to Shraddha’svoice. And when he did, he was apparently impressed. He now wantsher to start doing riyaaz daily as he feels she has the potential tobecome a good vocalist. Shraddha was elated with his feedback.

Mallya character inBhandarkar’s next

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandar-kar, who is known to seek real-life inspiration for his films, is cur-rently working on his next, Cal-endar Girls. The film will alsofeature a character based on in-dustrialist Vijay Mallya.

The plot will revolve aroundmodels who gain popularity afterfeaturing in famous calendars.Mallya is known to launch suchgirls because he commissions aswimsuit calendar every year. Hepromotes his brand and givesthese models a platform to getnoticed, and often helps them geta Bollywood film. There will bea character who will trace thejourney of these girls as well asthe character based on Mallyawhose flamboyant lifestyle mightalso be touched upon.

In the past, Deepika Padukone,Katrina Kaif, Esha Gupta and oth-ers have shot to fame after fea-turing in the calendar promoted byMallya. Auditions are under wayto find five fresh faces for thisfilm. Many examples of real-lifemodel-turned-actors will be a partof the film. The filmmaker re-mained unavailable for comment.

Bhandarkar was slated to be-gin work on a film with PriyankaChopra, titled Madamji. Its shoot-ing has been pushed to October.

Siddharth Anand’s upcomingfilm, starring Hrithik Roshan andKatrina Kaif in the lead, hassome talented names on theteam.

The director has roped in twomore directors to work on differ-ent aspects of the project.

Hrithik Roshan and KatrinaKaif shoot for their upcoming filmBang Bang in Shimla.

When asked about this,Siddharth says, "Yes, the infor-

Three directors for Hrithik filmmation you have is true.The writing departmentof Bang Bang has thelikes of Sujoy Ghoshand Abbas Tyrewala.In fact, Sujoy andSuresh Nair — theteam that wrote thebrilliant screenplay ofKahaani (2012) — iswriting the screenplay."

The film, reportedlya remake of Hollywoodactor Tom Cruise and

Cameron Diaz starrer Knightand Day (2010), also marks thereunion of Siddharth and Abbas.They are coming together afterSiddharth’s debut, SalaamNamaste (2005).

"I don’t have words to describewhat Abbas brings to the table.He is simply awesome. He and Ihad worked together in my firstdirectorial venture, so it’s just greatto team up with him again," saysSiddharth.

Mumbai police sub-mitted to court theCCTV footage of thealleged brawl be-tween actor Saif AliKhan and an NRI in2012 at a Mumbaihotel.

Cops also handedover to court theclothes that Saifwore that day.

The NRI, Iqbal MirSharma, and his fa-ther-in-law had objected to the loud conduct of Saif and his friends,which led to a brawl wherein Saif reportedly punched Iqbal, fracturinghis nose, and also beat up his father-in-law.

Charges were framed against the actor and his friends - ShakeelLadak and Bilal Amrohi - by the court of metropolitan magistrate onMarch 13,

Saif’s brawl footage handed over to court

Saif is escotred out of Mumbai police station


REVIEW/PREVIEW

Cast: Pratham Jolly, AseemArora, Manu Rishi, SandeepSinha. Director: Vijay Raaz

Sixty-seven years have passedand yet the partition is a delicatesubject for many. Perhaps a fewgenerations down, this will be anon-issue.

Now imagine being transportedback to 1948, just a year afterpartition. Tempers are still simmer-ing. People are still grieving thedeath of their loved ones; othersreminiscing their childhood spentacross the border. For most peopleat that time, the partition provedto be an irrecoverable loss, finan-cially and emotionally.

The film, then, rightly beginswith Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic‘Tryst With Destiny’ speech andshows the painful process ofpeople moving bag-and-baggageacross borders. Gulzar’s beauti-ful lines about sarhadein (borders)

Kya Dilli Kya Lahore: Hesitant, unlikely camaraderie

play in the background.Cut to two soldiers that come

face-to-face due to circum-stances. The Pakistani soldier(Vijay Raaz) has been sent by hisbullying leader to get an impor-tant secret map from the Indianarmy outpost. The hesitant soldier,the only other left alive, doesn’thave a choice. He reaches theoutpost to find the army cook(Manu Rishi Chadha) inside.

Gun shots are exchanged, soare abuses. Eventually both giveup and begin talking. The Paki-stani soldier is outside, the Indianone is inside; the window theirmeans of conversing.

And what a conversation itturns out to be. They talks aboutthis and that; the cook throwssome potatoes for the “enemy”,who then calls him ‘bhaijaan’.They’re both stuck— the Paki-stani solder cannot leave without

the imaginary map; the Indian can-not let him have it.

Eventually they’re fighting oversomething they’re not sure exists.Now that’s a pertinent, powerfulsymbol. It questions that whenwe’re so busy fighting each other,do we really know ‘what’ we’refighting over? Is it real, or imagi-nary like this map?

The story is arresting, but onewishes actor-director Vijay Raaz’sdirection was as strong as his per-formance. The storytelling isclever but falters on the pacing.As it is, the film gives us only twocentral character and two periph-eral ones. The location remainsessentially the same. It is then upto the editor and director to makeeach scene striking.

In this case, we are largely de-pendent on the writing. The heart-felt dialogue that is equal partshumorous and tragic, tugs at yourheartstrings. There are some funnylines like when the scared cooksends a message to the head-of-fice that he is all alone, the seniorofficer gives him fake support say-ing that a soldier is never alone ashe has the entire nation behindhim. ‘But right now only I amhere,’ says the cook helplessly.

The power play that keepsshifting depending on who has thegun is also amusing.

Another ace is the perfor-mances. Vijay Raaz is superb asthe Pakistani soldier who eventu-ally finds himself in an emotionaldilemma, transcending borders. Asthe Indian army cook who has topick up the gun to defend himself,Manu Rishi Chadha (also the dia-logue-writer) is first-rate.

The hesitant, unlikely camara-derie that the two develop is as-tutely expressed by the two fineactors. And through their cama-raderie, the film relays its anti-warmessage effectively, and refresh-ingly, without faux patriotic propa-ganda.

In the end the film urges peopleto have a ‘dimag mein dil’ (heartin the mind). Easier said than done,but not entirely impossible.

Cast: Tanuj Virwani, AdityaSeal and Izabelle Leite. Direc-tor: Tanushri Chattrji Bassu

Taking away from the stunningbeauty of the hill-station are theKasauli cowboys, a bunch offriends that are a melange ofBollywood cliches — a poet Sid(therefore shy, and always writ-ing in a book), a fat boy (there-fore doofus, and always eating),a guy with spectacles (thereforeno girlfriend), and a pretty girl wholights candles at the church for"true love" (therefore in short sum-mer dresses and a smile).

This film is pretty confusedabout love and flirtation. OurKasauli cowboys, especially thefat person and the bespectacledman, think it's okay to harass aforeign exchange student (callingher blondie). They actually haveKasauli cowboy vows like 'Marrya virgin' and 'Never steal anothercowboy's girlfriend.' These fullygrown men go around throwingeggs on their ex-professors andtalking non-stop.

These Cowboys are celebrat-ing because their hero and leader

Sam (Aditya Seal) has just re-turned from London.

Enter pretty architecture stu-dent Nayantara (Izabelle Leite)and there forms a love triangle.Here, they've tried adding nuancein the form of complicated equa-tions with parents, but it's half-baked.

Barring she's an architecturestudent and has lovely dimples,we don't know anything aboutNayantara's background.

Most of the female charactersin the film end up victimized.Nayantara who helplessly bearsthe brunt of two friends falling forher; another character that endsup pregnant and then cries allthrough the film, the woman whosuffers for having married a sec-ond time, and the single motherwho dies.

You barely warm up to the cen-tral characters as well. Sid (TanujVirwani) is a one-tone characterthat you don't quite understand(the story is told through his per-spective in flashback). Sam hassome depth, in that he is the suf-fering rich boy who fears people

love him only because he doesthings for them.

The film has some nice touches,although they are few and far be-tween. Sam’s relationship with hismother and step-father alsothrows up some interesting dra-matic moments.

The friends' reunion after sev-eral years is nicely done with allof them having aged and lookingdifferent (except the girl of course,who still looks like a teenager).Their regrets and love for eachother is touching.

Performances vary, and ulti-mately it is Aditya Seal who cre-ates empathy for his character.Tanuj Virwani does well, but is toounderstated. Izabelle Leite joinsthe scores of beautiful people infilms who need acting lessons.

Debut director Tanushri ChattrjiBassu gives us a film about a lovetriangle between friends. It's themost done-to-death trick in thebook.

With the cliched characters, aregressive outlook, and largelyrookie performances, there's noth-ing much to recommend.

Purani Jeans: Faded & jaded

Ne Enge En Anbe: Kahaani rejigged

Cast: Nayantara, Pasupathi, Vaibhav. Director: SekharKammula

How does one describe atmosphere in the context of cinema?Atmosphere is in the cinematography. It’s in the music, which perco-lates from one scene to the next and glues them together. It’s some-times in the staging, the way the shots are set up, the way the interiorsand exteriors are brought to life, so that the film feels like an organicwhole, from start to finish.

Without atmosphere, a movie is just a collection of scenes that fitoddly. What Nee Enge En Anbe could have been is a solid reimaginingof Sujoy Ghosh’s intensely atmospheric Kahaani, rejigged for theTamil audience. The story is more or less the same. A young NRIreturns to India in search of her missing husband. In the Hindi original,the heroine was pregnant, a development that instantly drew us to herplight and, at the end, resulted in a memorably pulpy twist.

But we cannot have a Tamil film based on a pregnant heroine (hername is Anamika), especially if she’s played by a glamorous star likeNayantara, who can’t even part with her fake eyelashes. How, now,will she earn our sympathies?

So the director cooks up a series of utterly conventional damsel-in-distress scenarios. When Anamika takes her complaint to the policestation, she’s told, rudely, that her husband has probably run away.Later, she is propositioned by a lecherous senior cop.

The peril of being female and alone in India is a terrific subject fora movie — but Nee Enge En Anbe is not that movie. It is a policeprocedural wrapped in a vigilante thriller, with mysterious hard disksand a soft-spoken assassin on the loose. Kahaani wisely folded itsfeminist inquiries into the subtext. When these layers are made thetext, we get a movie that’s stranded between ideas and action.

The revelations are dispensed with in lumps of ugly exposition. Thetwist ending is not built up to — when we look back at what happened,it doesn’t really add up. The chases are badly staged. There are manyunintentional laughs, particularly from the ineptness with which a bee-hive is written into the script. And when a great tragedy occurs, weare manipulated in the cheapest manner, with a little boy at the centre.

Still, some of this could have been salvaged had there been an iotaof atmosphere, which can sometimes be manifest even in the way thecharacters are shaped. The assassin in Kahaani was introduced to usas a boring life insurance agent used to being screamed at by a muchyounger boss. Then, this man, whom we dismissed as a baby-facedloser, surprised us by whipping out a gun and offing many innocents.

In Nee Enge En Anbe, the man has no shading, no alternate life.He’s just a killer who comes out of nowhere. It may be difficult toexplain atmosphere in the context of cinema, but it’s easy to detect thelack of it. Why fix something that ain’t broke? — The Hindu

Boy meets girl. But thegirl marries someone else.Then the boy meets anothergirl, then another….there’sno end to the tiresome se-quence of romance andbreak-ups in YennamoYedho. Directed by debutantRavi Tyagarajan, it’s a re-make of the popular Telugufilm Ala Modalaindi. It haseverything going wrong forit. A convoluted plot,unimpresive performancesand unfunny comedy.

Yennamo Yedho: Not a romance, not a comedy

While the original film banked on the sizzling chemistry betweenactor Nani and Nithya Menon, in the Tamil film the romance betweenthe lead pair Rakul Preet Singh (Nithya) and Gautam Karthik (Gautam)falls flat.

Why did a veteran actor like Prabhu agree to play such an inconse-quential role. He plays a kidnapper in the film? However, it’s his pres-ence that takes the story forward in the second half. Rakul PreetSingh’s focus seems to be more on lip-syncing her dialogues than onperformance. Anupama Kumar as Gautam’s mother is a redeemingfeature. Imman’s music is refreshing but it can’t save the film.


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MUSINGS By Gadfly

India’s print and broadcast me-dia along with pundits and peopleare speculating while awaiting theelection results. Some doubt aNaMo wave. The doubters shouldanswer the question asked by col-umnist Surjit Bhatia: (April 5, 2014)– ‘If L.K. Advani, not NarendraModi, had been the face of theBJP, what would be your bestguess about the BJP phenom-enon?’ My Sikh friend makes twopredictions; one, that BJP will getless than 200 seats in the new par-liament, and two, consequently,BJP’s coalition government willnot last a full term. My vote isABC – Anyone But Congress.

Priyanka Gandhi, campaigningmostly in the north, has been afailure, hopefully beginning the endof the Congress and esp. theNehru-Gandhi dynasty. ‘Don’tvote for ‘outsiders’, she says inAmerthi. And in the next breath,she says her mother had been “ac-cepted” by the country despite thefact that “she was not born in In-dia.” For comedy, she describedRahul as a visionary like their fa-ther Rajiv Gandhi.

Meanwhile, The Hindu reportsthat for the first time, the AndhraPradesh Federation of Churcheshas issued a ‘Pastoral Letter’ urg-ing all its members “to elect lead-ers who uphold secular and plu-ralistic character of our nation andpromote communal harmony”.Meaning ABB – anyone but BJP.In Goa, the church used to de-scribe elections as a choice be-tween communalism and secular-ism (code words for BJP and Con-gress). This time, reportedly, theCatholic leadership is calling thisas a choice between stability andcorruption (code words for BJPand Congress).

The Hindu alternates betweenanti-BJP to pro-AAP. May 5,2014 - The good old fight – byRahul Pandita – “In the last fewdays, the number of people whohave attended Kejriwal’s publicmeetings has increased ... A partof the BJP’s strategy, say insid-ers in the local party unit, was tointimidate Kejriwal and portrayhim as bhagoda – a deserter whoquit the Delhi Chief Minister’s postafter 49 days. Everywhere theywent, Kejriwal and his associateswould be confronted by abusiveBJP supporters who disrupted theirmeetings.” You get the anti-BJPidea.

Realizing there is no stoppingNaMo/BJP juggernaut, The Hindualso pontificates. “What Pakistanwants from India” by RanaBanerji (former Special Secretary,Cabinet Secretariat and VisitingProfessor, Pakistan StudiesProgramme, Jamia Millia Islamia,New Delhi. April 23, 2014) - “Ob-serving that the umbrella secularvote, normally spearheaded by theCongress, has come under severestrain mainly because of anti-in-cumbency, analysts questionwhether there will be a new ar-ticulation of ‘post-Nehruviancentrism,’ leading to an embraceof the unfettered market model of‘Modinomics.’ Doubts have beenraised (by The Hindu on behalf ofBJP’s critics) over whether thiswill lead to exclusivism or provide

a mask for religious suprema-cism.’ (Did the BJP resort toexclusivism or religious su-premacy under Vajpayee?) Thenit goes on to ask: What India needsto understand – “….try to under-stand that Pakistan has changedin the last five years.”

How many times have weheard that before? The US haslearned her lesson about Pakistan.When will India?

Pulitzer Prize-winning NewYork Times journalist CarlottaGall, who spent more than a de-cade covering Afghanistan since2001, concludes in her new book,“The Wrong Enemy: America inAfghanistan, 2001-2014,” thatPakistan – not Afghanistan – hasbeen the United States’ real en-emy. (Surprise, surprise!)

Gall said, “Pakistani leaders,and esp. former President PervezMusharraf, were “very clever”and tricked the United States intobelieving that Pakistan was an ally.They were actually double deal-ing.” Speaking about bin Laden’slocation, Gall said, “Pakistan didknow. They were hiding him, han-dling him. They had a special deskthat knew where bin Laden was.Our relations with Pakistan havegone back to the same thing, andthe thing that concerns me is thatZawahiri is still out there, in Paki-stan. He is also probably beinghidden the same way and pro-tected.”

What is frustrating is the‘Aman Ki Asha’ repeatedly toutedby India’s media. And one of its(pseudo-secularist media’s) lead-ers, The Hindu continues with theduo of J. Shivshankar and InderSud (international consultants whoserved as Directors in the WorldBank) whose column talks about:What India Expects from Modi.Less communalism, moreinclusivism in economic develop-ment. Why? Because they know(assume) that BJP and NaMoequals anti-Muslim, anti-minori-ties.

In the midst of this bleak me-dia scenario, Shekhar Gupta (witha history as a pseudo-secularist),the editor-in-chief of Indian Ex-press, suddenly, in an opinion piece(April 18) titled National Interest– Secularism is Dead, waxessecularism with a refreshing ap-proach, as if he’s pulling an MJAkbar (a recent Muslim cross-over to BJP) on us. He writes:

“Narendra Modi’s coming topower will unleash an angry flurryof obituaries of Indian secularism.Last week, some of India’s mostrespected public intellectualssigned a joint appeal to save theidea of India from Modi. I said ina television discussion on NDTV24x7 that India was not a secularcountry because only its minori-ties wished it to be secular. Indiais secular because its Hindu ma-jority wants it to be so.

“To say that only Muslim con-solidation can stop Modi….is un-fair to the Hindu majority, as if allHindus have joined the RSS andhave no faith in the constitutionalsecularism. This is rubbish. Be-cause if such was the case, Modiwould probably equal RajivGandhi’s 1984 mandate of 415

(parliamentary seats) if not betterit ... The most generous opinionpoll estimates put NDA’s voteshare @ 30% which is just over athird of India’s Hindus ... And mostof these 30-odd% would vote forBJP/NDA not because they wantto build grand temples, spank theMuslims or banish them to Paki-stan. They’re voting in search ofalternatives to the weakest, mostincompetent, uncommunicativeand incoherent government inIndia’s history. To insinuate thatthis mass of Hindus will be votingModi because they have suddenlyturned communal is unfair to them.

“India gave itself a secular, lib-eral constitution because a vastmajority of its people, in fact al-most unanimously, determined thatthis was the finest formulation fornation-building in a land as diverseand complex as ours.

“Explaining why he had joinedthe BJP now, MJ Akbar said tome that in ‘Congress/secular’view so far, the Indian Muslimshad to conform to one of threestereotypes: one, the decrepit feu-dal with sherwani fraying at thecollar, as in 1960s film socials likeMere Mehboob; second, a riotvictim like the crying Gujarati withfolded hands, or third, a petty crimi-nal in the image of Haji Mastan.The extreme and most shamefulmanifestation of this was AzamKhan’s claim that the peaks ofKargil were conquered not byHindu soldiers of our army, but byMuslims with the battle cry of Al-lah ho Akbar. This amounts tospreading communalism to the oneinstitution that remains so secular,the army… and is the most cyni-cal, anti-minority communalism.”

‘The Supreme Court, theUPSC (Union Public ServiceCommission), the armed forces,the mainstream media and thepublic intellectual class are, by andlarge, liberal and secular. We needto strengthen them… to protectand strengthen our secularism. Itis too hasty to write its(secularism’s) epitaph.’

Obviously in Gupta’s view, thejury is still out on NaMo and BJP,esp. about the Gujarat riots be-cause nowhere has he (who untilnow repeatedly talked about theso-called ‘cloud’ over NaMo’shead or his part in the anti-Mus-lim riots in Gujarat in 2002) ab-solved NaMo of his culpability inthose riots nor the BJP of its re-peatedly alleged (by the psm –pseudo-secular media) communalmind-set. Notice the mention ofRSS as if all RSS Hindus have nofaith in the constitutional secular-ism. The tone is that only 30% ofHindus are voting for the BJP,

meaning that good news is that the other 70% Hindus are NOT votingfor BJP. If an unbiased Hindu Indian reads the opinion piece betweenthe lines, its deceptive implications will surprise him/her. The underly-ing premise here is that voting for NaMo/BJP is communal and divi-sive. I’ll still take the statement that India is secular because majorityof Hindus want it to be so. Most of the minorities seem to have forgot-ten that.

First things first, though. After the election, BJP has some internalbridge-building to do to bring back the side-lined senior BJP leaderslike L. K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha.— Send responses to [email protected]

A pseudo-secularist’s back-handed compliment Why did Kejriwal sue the halwai?Because the gulab jamun had neither gulab nor jamun.

*** For the first time in Indian elections, Congress and BJP arecampaigning using the same slogan: “Congress ko vote doge toRahul PM banega!”

*** Sonia: How was the interview, beta?Rahul: Mom, all the questions were out of the syllabus.

*** At an election rally, Narendra Modi shouts he will end infla-tion, get double digit growth, beat China as a regional power, endcorruption, defeat terrorism and make India a superpower. Then heshouts out, ‘Ab ki baar...’ And the crowd shouts, “P.C. Sorcar.”

*** Modi, tum sangharsh karo, hum AAP ke saath hain.

*** Do not get irritated if you receive blank calls on your phone.It is Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh campaigning.

*** L.K. Advani virus: This virus pops up every now and then,and the only way you can continue working is by typing Jai Shri Ram108 times.

*** Modi for Vision, Rahul for Division, Kejriwal for Television,Third Front for Confusion.

*** Shall we replace all “U turn” signs in Delhi with images ofArvind Kejriwal and “No Horn” with Manmohan Singh?

*** Hey people, stop throwing ink at Arvind Kejriwal. He is onlycomplaining about ‘India Inc.’

*** Pramod Muthalik joins the BJP. Thrown out in a few hours.Dinakar Shetty joins Congress. Out in a day. Ram Sene hates par-ties. Now, parties hate Ram Sene.

*** Flash news! New opinion poll shows the Left will get ‘320’seats and Prakash Karat will be PM. Here’s how the breakup goes:Kerala 3, Tripura 2, West Bengal 0. That make it 320!

LAUGH IT OFF

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Supreme Court questions Noidaon twin 40-floor towers

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to exam-ine real estate major Supertech Ltd's plea against the Allahabad highcourt's order directing demolition of two 40-floor towers in Noida andordered the company not to sell or transfer flats in the buildings.

A bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha issued notice on abatch of petitions filed by Supertech, Noida, flat owners of the contro-versial buildings and the petitioner on whose plea the high court hadpassed the order. It also expressed surprise on how Noida (New OkhlaIndustrial Development Authority) had permitted the construction of40-floor buildings and said that if they are to be demolished then theauthority will have to face the consequences.

If the towers are demolished then money must be paid to flat own-ers by the authority as it colluded and participated in giving sanctionfor them, the court said. The bench also raised questions on how theheight was raised from 24 to 40 floors during the construction.

The bench was hearing pleas in which the petitioners had submittedthat the high court order to demolish the towers — Apex and Ceyane— be immediately stayed. The high court had ordered demolition ofSupertech's two under-construction towers in the real estate firm'sEmerald Court project.

The two towers have 857 apartments in total. Of these, about 600flats have already been sold. In its petition, the firm has claimed thatthe two towers were being constructed as per "approved building plans"and "there is no violation".

On April 11, the Allahabad high court had ordered demolition of thetwo towers and directed the company to refund money to the homebuyers. The HC order came on a petition of the Emerald Court OwnerResident Welfare Association, which had alleged that the approvaland construction of the two towers was “in complete violation of theUttar Pradesh Apartment Act.”

The association has also claimed the authority had given permissionto raise the height of the two towers, which was earlier supposed tohave only 24 floors each, “without maintaining the mandatory distanceof 16 metres from an adjoining building block,” making it “unsafe,apart from blocking air and light.”

Modi invokes Ram, EC seeks report

FAIZABAD: The Election Commission sought a report from theFaizabad district authorities hours after the BJP’s prime ministerialcandidate, Narendra Modi, invoked Lord Ram while addressing ameeting on Monday, May 5, with the god’s picture in the backdrop.

Faizabad, which went to the polls on May 7, is barely six km fromAyodhya and the BJP’s candidate, Lallu Singh, is an accused in theBabri Masjid demolition case.

“I will fight against corruption all my life, I promise you from theland of Lord Ram,” Modi said. The BJP leader said even MahatmaGandhi invoked the name of Ram. “When Gandhiji was asked abouthis idea of an ideal nation, he said there should be Ram Rajya. If youwant to imagine an ideal State, then there must be Ram Rajya.”

Soon after Modi’s address, the Congress urged the commission toregister a first information report against Modi and de-register theBJP, accusing it of using religion to win votes.

“The BJP and Modi have used the portrait of Lord Ram, which isstrategically placed behind the podium from where the speech is beingdelivered by him. The headgear of Lord Ram fits on the head of Modias can be seen in the video, when he is delivering the speech whichdeceives the gullible voter,” Congress legal department secretary K.C.Mittal wrote in his complaint to Chief Election Commissioner V.S.Sampath.

Use of religious symbols is banned during election campaigns.

BJP’s Faizabad candidate Lallu Singh (right) with Narendra Modi atthe election rally on May 5.

Omar alleges intimidation of Kashmiri studentsHANDWARA: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah

on Monday warned the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate NarendraModi against what he called intimidating the Kashmiri students at dif-ferent universities.

With reference to a recent incident in which a group of Kashmiristudents were allegedly forced to shout pro-India and anti-Pakistanslogans, roughed up and terrorised at a college hostel in Noida, Abdullahsaid at a rally in northern Kashmir that such acts of intimidation wouldonly serve to alienate Modi to Kashmiris. He alleged that Modi’s hench-men had trooped into a hostel and terrorised the students.

OBE for Ratan TataNEW DELHI: Former chair-

man of the Tata Group Ratan Tatahas received an honorary knight-hood in recognition of thecompany’s heavy British invest-ments and philanthropy, a BritishHigh Commission statement hereon May 5 said.

Tata, who retired in 2012 ashead of the group, was awardedthe Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of the British Empire, oneof Britain’s highest civilian honors.

“Tata is the only Indian nationalto be given this particular awardsince India became a republic in1950,” the High Commissionadded. Ratan Tata, who is nowTata Group chairman emeritus,was presented the award by Brit-ish High Commissioner JamesBevan.

PM cancels $400 million FDI dealNEW DELHI: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded

that the government refrain from crucial decisions and appointmentsat the fag end of its term, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “struckoff” a $400-million foreign investment proposal from KKR, a Man-hattan-headquartered specialist in leveraged takeovers of manage-ments, at the final Cabinet meet on May 1. Dr. Singh’s intervention“perhaps averted another controversy at the fag end of the election,”a source said.

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman ofthe Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the meetingthat the government could approve the deal as the Foreign InvestmentPromotion Board had recommended that the Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs approve it, highly placed sources close to Dr. Singhtold The Hindu, requesting anonymity. The Prime Minister, however,refused to listen to his Cabinet colleagues and an ‘assertive’ Dr. Singhstruck the proposal off, they said.

KKR was formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, whoseleveraged buyout of a U.S. tobacco and food conglomerate, RJRNabisco, in the 1980s inspired the film Barbarians at the Gate. “…the Prime Minister might have had the firm’s reputation at the back ofhis mind,” the source said.

The foreign direct investment policy for Indian manufacturers ofinjectables has been the bone of contention at several Cabinet meet-ings, with Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and HealthMinister Ghulam Nabi Azad ranged against Chidambaram.

Sharma has pressed for lowering the FDI cap from 100 per cent.Chidambaram favor keeping the policy unchanged to avoid sendingwrong signals to investors. Hence, the Cabinet last year decided againsta review. KKR wants to buy a 37.98 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma, which develops and manufactures genericinjectables primarily for the U.S. market, but also for India and othersemi-regulated markets. The deal involves a 29.4% share purchase inGland Celsus Bio Chemicals from an existing investor.

NEW DELHI: Under attackeven from within the UPA forseeking to appoint a judge to leadthe probe into the alleged snoop-ing incident involving the BJP’sprime ministerial candidateNarendra Modi days before theend of its term, the Central gov-ernment Monday, May 5, beat aretreat and deferred the decisionto the next government.

The announcement came hoursafter a meeting between PresidentPranab Mukherjee and HomeMinister Sushil Kumar Shinde.The minister, however, denied anylink between the meeting and thedecision.

It also came after UPA alliesNCP and the National Confer-ence opposed the governmentpush at this late stage of its term.

The Centre’s turnaround camedespite a former judge consent-ing in writing to head the commis-sion. He, however, is learnt to havedemanded a bungalow, staff, anofficial vehicle and office space,which were turned down by thehome ministry. Eventually, Shinde,who was to select the judge, islearnt to have ruled in favour ofpostponing the appointment.

Shinde had been given a list ofjudges to pick, ministry sourcessaid. However, he could not moveon it as the judges who consenteddid not do so in writing. The onejudge who gave his consent via e-mail made the demands the min-istry rejected. Shinde discussedthe issue with his colleagues anddecided to defer the move afterhaving announced that a judgewould be named before May 16.

Law Minister Kapil Sibal hadbacked the announcement, caus-ing the BJP to slam the UPA.

The Union cabinet had in De-cember approved the setting upof the commission after two newsportals claimed that a youngwoman architect in Gujarat wasthe subject of illegal surveillancein 2009 and this was done at thebehest of Modi and his aide AmitShah.

The allegations were, however,refuted by the woman’s fatherwho said in a written statementthat the surveillance was con-ducted at his request and that thewoman was aware of it.

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VARANASI: Having receiveda drubbing from the Aam AadmiParty in the Delhi assembly elec-tions late last year, the Congressleadership does not want to giveArvind Kejriwal a chance toemerge as the number one chal-lenger to BJP’s prime ministerialcandidate Narendra Modi inVaranasi.

The AAP had emerged as thesecond-largest party after the BJPin the Delhi assembly polls.

To counter Kejriwal and hisappeal among Muslims, seniorMuslim leaders of the Congresshave hit the campaign trail in thecity’s Muslim-dominated areas.

Congress leaders SalmanKhurshid, Ghulam Nabi Azad, KRahman Khan (minority affairsminister) and Nationalist CongressParty spokesperson Nawab Malikare camping in Varanasi to mobi-lize Muslim voters behind Con-gress candidate Ajay Rai.

Congress taking no chances against Kejriwal

The Congress and the AAP arevying for the support of 300,000Muslim voters, who political pun-dits feel, may vote en bloc in a bidto defeat Modi.

After Kejriwal was perceivedto have replaced Ajay Rai as themain challenger to Modi in the ini-tial phase of campaigning, the Con-gress leadership pulled out all thestops in a bid to check the AAPleader’s ascent in the temple city.

The task of weaning awayMuslim voters from Kejriwal wasassigned to Ghulam Nabi Azad andSalman Khurshid.

Azad has already met twoprominent clerics — Sheher QaziMaulana Ghulam Yasin andMufti-e-Banaras Abdul BatinNomani. Both these Muslim cler-ics have considerable sway overthe community. Azad also metprominent weaver leader HajiMukhtar.

Congress observerKripashankar Singh, an MLAfrom Maharashtra, has also ropedin Nawab Malik — the Muslimface of the NCP — to campaignin Varanasi.

The Congress has already gotthe support of Qaumi Ekta Dal for

Ajay Rai whose brother was al-legedly killed by QED leaderMukhtar Ansari in 1991. The caseis still pending in the district court.

File photo of Arvind Kejriwalwith Muslim leaders in Delhi ...

To counter Kejriwal and hisappeal among Muslims, seniorMuslim leaders of the Congress

have hit the campaign trail in thecity’s Muslim-dominated areas.

ANANTPUR: The rainslashing the 13 Seemandhradistricts during the past fewdays stopped on Mondayevening, May 5. And the 36.7million voters, flooded with pollpromises, are now warmingup to caste votes on Wednes-day to 175 assembly seats and25 Lok Sabha here. For twopoliticians — N. ChandrababuNaidu and JaganmohanReddy — these are the most

Naidu, Jagan running neck n’ neck

N. Chandrababu Naidu (left) andJaganmohan Reddy

crucial elections. One is out of power for 10 years and the other wantsto grab power for the first time. And both are vying for the SeemandhraCM’s chair.

The Congress has relegated itself to nowhere with its decision tobifurcate the state. The former CM Kiran Reddy’s plan to float a newparty also did not work out well.

Naidu, described often as a reformer and visionary, is not shy toshed that image now, promising several welfare measures, such aswaiver of loans for farmers and women, nine-hour free power forfarming, job for every family or stipend for the unemployed and 1.5lakh houses for the poor. Also, to represent the two major caste groupsof the region — the backwards and the Kapus — he promised tocreate two deputy CM positions. Earlier, Naidu ridiculed some of thesemeasures, especially free power.

But his development promises — hardware hubs, IT corridors, worldclass airports and hospitals — outwitted Jagan, who went on tellingpeople that Naidu was known as one who always changes stands andbreaks promises. He termed the polls as a fight between honest anddeceitful politics. Jagan, too, went on an assurance spree — five sig-natures on five files on pro-poor schemes, he said, would bring in abright future for them, besides six developmental projects that wouldchange the face of the state.

Both want a lion’s share of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and play a rolein national politics. Naidu has already joined the NDA and has cam-paigned along with BJP’s PM candidate, Narendra Modi. The buzz is:Jagan could also support the BJP, if it comes to power.

Other than the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, national and regionalparties have tried to cater to sentiments on either side of the divideover bifurcation. But people have seen through their “balancing act”.

In the Seemandhra region, where each party is blaming the otherfor the bifurcation mess, several locals blame both parties and havedecided to come out on Wednesday to press the NOTA (none of theabove) button, the new option provided by the Election Commission.

Modi brings up hiscaste in U.P.

Raking up his backward casteidentity for the second consecu-tive day at several rallies in UttarPradesh, where polls are due in33 constituencies, the BharatiyaJanata Party’s Narendra Modi onTuesday accused Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi’s daughterPriyanka Gandhi-Vadra of castebias and insulting lower castes.

Interpreting Priyanka’s com-ment on Monday that Modi wasindulging in “low-level politics” asa reference to his lower caste ori-gin, Modi said in Domariyaganj:“You can insult Modi as much asyou like, you can hang him. Butdo not insult my fellow lower-casteIndians.”

Countering Modi’s heightenedpitch for the backward and Dalitvotes in the State, Bahujan SamajParty leader Mayawati chal-lenged the BJP leader to disclosehis caste and reveal what he haddone for the welfare of these sec-tions. “If Narendra Modi actuallybelongs to a backward caste, whyhas he not revealed it till now?”Mayawati asked.

While the BJP demanded anapology from Priyanka, the Con-gress accused Modi of deliberatelymisinterpreting facts.

On Monday, too, Modi had saidthe criticism against him by theCongress was a result of theparty’s intolerance of a “back-ward caste leader.”


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NEW DELHI: BangladeshPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina hasexpressed concern over the BJPprime ministerial nomineeNarendra Modi's statement thatBangladeshi infiltrators in Indiamust go back to their country, tell-ing her close aides in a privatemeeting that the comment wasunnecessary and unwarranted.

Such statements do not contrib-ute to bilateral ties and could spoilrelations between the future Indiangovernment and Bangladeshi citi-zens, Hasina said in a meeting atthe prime minister's office onMonday morning, May 5, a per-son familiar with the matter toldEconomic Times on the phonefrom Dhaka.

Narendra Modi's statementcould strengthen the anti-Indiaextremist groups in Bangladeshand the minorities in the countrycould face the ire of these groups,

Modi’s ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ remark irks Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

a Dhaka-based official said on thecondition of anonymity.

However, the Bangladesh gov-ernment did not issue any officialreaction to Narendra Modi's state-ment. The Bangladesh High Com-mission in Delhi also declined tocomment on the matter.

Modi on Sunday said thatBangladeshi infiltrators allowed inIndia for "vote-bank politics"would have to go back while therefugees thrown out ofBangladesh on religious groundswould be greeted with open arms.

He had earlier spoken on theissue in Assam as well as WestBengal during campaigning.

Along with the rulingBangladesh Awami League'smembers who favour strong rela-tions with India, various membersof Bangladesh's civil society arealso worried over Modi's stand.

Thousands of Bangladeshis travelto India every year for medicaltourism, sightseeing and education.

India-Bangladesh ties hadtouched a low during BangladeshNationalist Party-Jamaat-e-Islamirule during 2001-06.

Bangladesh territory was usedby anti-India terrorist groups tolaunch an attack against India dur-ing that period. Hasina's return topower in 2009 boosted ties and shehanded over insurgents and ter-rorists to Delhi.

Her government also crackeddown on terrorist cells and infra-structure. India reciprocated bysanctioning several developmentand infrastructure projects inBangladesh.

In January, India garnered in-ternational support for the newlyre-elected Hasina's government.

Court orders Jamaatoutfit to vacate

Suchitra Sen’s homeDHAKA: A court in

Bangladesh Sunday, May 4, dis-missed a plea by a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami organisation to retain pos-session of the ancestral Pabnahome of legendary Bengali ac-tress Suchitra Sen.

A bench of Appellate Divisionheaded by Supreme Court JusticeS.K. Sinha issued the order,bdnews24.com reported.

This means that there is nowno legal bar to evicting the ImamGhazali Institute from the homewhere the Bengali screen legendspent her childhood, said Addi-tional Attorney General MuradReza. "There is no hurdle in set-ting up an archive of Suchitra Senand conserve her ancestral home,"he said.

The institute moved the Appel-late Division against a high courtorder. The HC in August 2011 or-dered the institute to vacate thehouse following a petition filed bythe NGO Human Rights andPeace for Bangladesh.

The Imam Ghazali Institute alsofiled a petition to stop the evictionwhich was rejected by the highcourt. The institute then filed anappeal against the order to theAppellate Division.

The house of the Bengaliscreen legend is located at HemSagar Lane in Gopalpur Mohollaof Pabna city. Born on April 6,1931, Sen spent her childhood inthis house before she moved toKolkata after marriage.

She died on Jan 17 this year inKolkata.

Bodies of 7 abducted persons found in riverNARAYANGANJ: Bodies of at least seven abducted people, in-

cluding a municipal official, have been found in Shitalakkha river inBangladesh's Narayanganj district sparking protests, police have said.

The seventh body, identified as driver of Nazrul Islam - an official ofNarayanganj City Corporation - was recovered on Thursday from theriver, about 35km south of the capital, Dhaka.

Islam, whose body was recovered a day earlier, was missing alongwith his four aides since Sunday.

Narayanganj's senior lawyer, Chandan Kumar Sarker's driver iden-tified as Ibrahim, who also remained missing before his body was re-covered.

Security personnel from the Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB)were deployed in the district to control the law and order situation,Dhaka based English Daily, The Daily Star, reported. The business-man husband of environmental lawyer, Syeda Rizwana Hasan - whowas also abducted - was found alive, according to reports.

The government has, meanwhile, decided to mount closed-circuitcameras at major parts of various cities across the country to avertabductions. A committee has been set up to probe the disappearanceswhile a ban on microbuses with tinted glass has been in place sincefrom May 10.

The South Asian country is witnessing a surge in abductions andmurders. Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has blamed the rul-ing Awami League party for carrying out abductions and murders "asa part of the bid to quell the opposition".

On Wednesday, the US called for Bangladesh's leaders to workthrough their bitter divisions, warning that prolonged instability wouldtake a dangerous toll on the impoverished country.

"We believe that all of the gains that Bangladesh has made in itseconomy, in its development trajectory, that all of those gains are frag-ile and unsustainable in the long term if it does not have political stabil-ity," Nisha Biswal, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, tolda Congressional subcommitte, accoding to AP news agency.

Sri Lanka thanks Australia forits ‘bold’ action

COLOMBO:The Sri Lankangovernment haspublicly thankedAustralia for its"bold" decision notto co-sponsor aUN resolution toinvestigate allegedhuman rightsabuses in the southAsian nation.

In a statementby the high com-mission, Sri Lankathanked Australia for the ‘‘bold decision of not co-sponsoring this year’shuman rights resolution on Sri Lanka’’.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and the head of OperationSovereign Borders, Lieutenant-General Angus Campbell, welcomed aSri Lanka delegation, including Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa,formally invited by the federal government.

"[The] government of Australia considers accountability and hu-man rights concerns should be addressed within an internal mecha-nism and not by any international investigation as suggested by othercountries," the high commission statement said.

"[The] Australian side indicated that they would render all possibleassistance to Sri Lanka in this regard," it said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop then met with the country'sExternal Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris. During their meeting, Mr Peirisalso thanked Bishop for her understanding of the "Sri Lankan situa-tion", and for declining to co-sponsor the Resolution against Sri Lankaat the Human Rights Council in March, the high commission said in aseparate statement.

A spokeswoman for Bishop said the meeting between the two min-isters was confidential. "The Australian Government has a policy ofengagement with the Sri Lankan Government and a constructive anddiverse relationship with Sri Lanka. We continue to work closely withthe Sri Lankan Government on a range of matters," she said.

International lawyers have strongly condemned the delegation meet-ing, saying it was a distraction to the country's gross human rightsviolations - including abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings bystate forces, land seizures by the military and oppression of politicalopponents during the 26-year civil war that ended in 2009.

“The visit shows the price this Government is willing to pay in itsone-eyed obsession to stop the boats," said Emily Howie, director ofAdvocacy and Research Human Rights Law Centre. "Not just si-lence on ongoing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, but a concertedeffort to stifle international efforts at justice for victims of war crimesand crimes against humanity,” Ms Howie said.

Ms Bishop voiced her opposition to an international investigationinto the alleged war crimes in March, saying she was not convincedthat the UN-backed inquiry was "the best way forward", refusing toco-sponsor the UN's independent investigation.

During November's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet-ing, Australia did not join other major countries that crtiticised the regime'shuman rights abuses. Both India and Canada boycotted the meeting,while the United Kingdom's prime minister David Cameron publiclycondemned the regime. In contrast, Prime Minister Tony Abbott pre-sented the government with two patrol boats.

File photo of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, hiswife and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Court grants bail to 4 Buddhist monksCOLOMBO: Four of Sri Lanka's hardline Buddhist monks ap-

peared in court on Monday accused of insulting the Quran, in the firstsuch case following a spate of religious hate attacks.

Police accused the monks, from the nationalist Bodu Bala Sena(BBS), or Buddhist Force, of making disparaging remarks against theIslamic holy book after bursting into a meeting of religious leaders lastmonth. At the meeting, the monks also intimidated a moderate col-league who was promoting religious tolerance on the Buddhist-major-ity Island, police said.

"The four priests along with two laymen were summoned by courttoday and granted bail in the sum of 100,000 rupees ($770) each,"police spokesman Ajith Rohana told AFP news agency on Monday.

"The magistrate warned them not to indulge in such activities. Wewill file formal charges when the case is called again next month," hesaid. BBS leader Galagodaatte Gnanasara said that he and the threeother monks were not guilty of any offence.

PAKISTANINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014 • PAGE 21

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government says it will set up man-datory immunization points at airports and border crossings to helpstop an outbreak of polio from spreading.

The decision comes after a World Health Organization warningthat polio has re-emerged as a public health emergency.

Pakistan has seen a rise in the disease, with immunization cam-paigns often disrupted by Taliban militants.

The virus currently affects 10 countries worldwide, and is endemicin three countries, including Pakistan. Polio mainly affects childrenunder five years old.

The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, andmultiplies in the intestine. It can then invade the nervous system, caus-ing paralysis in one in every 200 infections. It is capable of causingdeath within hours.

"Special measures will include establishing mandatory immuniza-tion counters on all airports, border crossings and seaports for all trav-ellers," Pakistani government spokesman Sajid Ali Shah said.

Officials say details of the campaign and how it would be imple-mented have yet to be worked out.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Islamabad says the Pakistani govern-ment gave no advance warning to the business community and seemsto have done little to prepare for the logistics of administering the

Polio vaccination for Pakistanis going abroad

vaccine to travellers.Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria

were identified by the WHO asthe countries posing the greatestrisk of exporting the virus.

In its recommendation, theWHO said that all residents ofPakistan or long-term visitorsshould get a dose of the vaccineat least four weeks before inter-national travel.

In case of urgent travel, it says,the vaccine should still be givenjust before departure.

But senior health official SairaAfzal Tarar told AFP that thehealth body's recommendationswould make life harder for ordi-nary Pakistanis.

"By recommending travel re-strictions on Pakistan, the WHOhas strengthened those forceswho actually banned polio drops,"she said.

Attacks on vaccination cam-paigns in Pakistan by militants -who see them as a cover for spy-ing - have allowed the virus tospread across its borders.

The WHO recorded 91 casesof polio last year, up from 58 in2012.

People traveling to Punjabfrom other provinces of Pakistanwill now have to present polio vac-cination certificates.

Health Adviser to Punjab ChiefMinister Khwaja Salman Rafiquesaid Tuesday that there was a riskof the crippling virus traveling intoPunjab.

Rafique said that polio vacci-nation counters would be set upat all airports in Punjab within thenext two days. He said that thosewho refuse to be administeredpolio drops will not be allowed toenter the province without show-ing polio vaccination certificates.

Polio vaccination teams aidedby the police will be posted at 41entry points from KhyberPakhtunkhwa to Punjab and allentrances from Sindh at the bor-der in Rahim Yar Khan.

All children entering the prov-ince will be administered poliodrops if they do not show vacci-nation certificates.

Former president and PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) co-chair-man Asif Ali Zardari expressedconcern over the travel restric-tions and requested the WHO toreview its decision.

“The travel ban will only in-crease Pakistan’s isolation and notadvance the global fight againstpolio,” said Zardari.

A health worker administers the polio vaccine to a baby in Karachi. TheWHO said Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio in 2013.

MIRAMSHAH: Thirteen militants have been killed on Tuesday,May 6, as infighting between rival Taliban groups restarted in ShawalTehsil of North Waziristan Agency.

The latest violence comes a few days after a ceasefire which themilitants claimed to have reached through mediation by top command-ers. Official and tribal sources confirmed that the clashes had startedTuesday morning between Sheryar Mehsud and Khan Said alias Sajna.

According to official sources, several other militants have also beeninjured in the Shawal mountains near the Pak-Afghan border.

The infighting between the two groups have claimed more than 50lives during the last few weeks. The death toll is likely to rise.

The TTP’s Sajna and Sheryar groups have been at odds since thedeath of Hakimullah and Waliur Rehman Mehsud in US drone strikes.

The rival factions have accused each other of grabbing power inorder to control South Waziristan’s Mehsud tribal area.

Sajna had been considered the right hand man of Waliur Rehman,whereas Sheryar was a confidant of Hakimullah Mehsud.

Their slain leaders had also been at loggerheads after the death ofTTP founder Baitullah Mehsud.

Taliban infighting claims 13 lives

London court keeps life ban on KaneriaLONDON: Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria lost his

legal challenge to a life ban imposed by English cricket chiefs at London'sHigh Court on Tuesday, May 6.

Kaneria was barred by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB),in a ban later applied globally by the International Cricket Council, forencouraging a team-mate to bowl badly on purpose as part of a spot-fixing scam. The ECB had charged Kaneria, then playing for Essex,with inducing team-mate Mervyn Westfield to “deliberately concede”runs in an English county limited overs match against Durham in 2010.

An ECB disciplinary panel found the charges had been proved af-ter a hearing in 2012 and the decision to impose a life ban was upheldby a disciplinary panel set up under board regulations in 2013.

Kaneria took legal action, claiming the panel had been wrong bothto uphold the life ban and to order him to pay ECB legal costs of£200,000.

But Judge Nicholas Hamblen said Tuesday the appeal panel hadnot exceeded its powers and that there were no grounds for suggest-ing an error of law had been made. Kaneria was not present atTuesday's hearing, with a lawyer telling the court he was in Pakistan.

The ECB took disciplinary action against Kaneria after former fastbowler Westfield agreed to “spot fix” and was jailed, the court heard.

ISLAMABAD: Former chiefjustice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Tues-day, May 6, rejected the riggingaccusations made against him byPakistan Tehreeak-i-Insaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan, terming themas 'baseless'.

The former chief justice saidthat Returning Officers (ROs) forthe 2013 elections were appointedby the Election Commission ofPakistan and not by him. Headded that the 'absurd' allegationshurled by the PTI chief did notwarrant a response.

Earlier in May, PTI chief ImranKhan had openly criticised theformer chief justice and the Jang/Geo group for their alleged in-volvement in the rigging during the2013 polls. Khan had asked thecurrent chief justice to take no-tice of how, with the support offormer chief justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, this pow-erful media house had ‘stolen’ thegeneral elections in favour of oneparty.

He alleged that when the now-retired chief justice made an un-precedented appearance at a lec-ture for returning officers beforethe general elections, it sent a sig-nal to the TV channel that declaredthe PML-N victorious when only20 per cent of votes had been

Ex-CJ: Imran’s charges absurd

counted.Speaking to the media after ad-

dressing the Islamabad Bar,Chaudhry said the judiciary hadbeen serving justice and wouldcontinue to do so.

He added that the constitutionhad defined the roles of the judi-ciary and the armed forces ofPakistan and he was sure therewould not be a clash between dif-ferent state institutions.

Iftikhar Chaudhry said both thejudiciary and armed forces werenot debatable topics.

He also demanded the pay-ment of compensation to the vic-tims of the Islamabad court attackon March 3, in accordance withJustice Shaukat Siddiqui's reporton the matter.

Iftikhar Chaudhry

Punjab tries to digitize gun recordsLAHORE: Nadra-made arms licences in the shape of smart cards

and computerization of the record of weapon manufacturing, sellingand repairing is being fast introduced in Punjab where gun running hasbeen horrifyingly easy and helped by the corrupt among governmentofficials.

Official sources said on Tuesday that rules were being amendedfor the shift to the computerized cards. The Punjab government hasalready signed an agreement with Nadra for the issuance of the cardsand computerisation of the record of all three stages -- weapon manu-facturing, selling and repairing.

The system is likely to be in place in the next two to three months inthe big cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad andGujranwala. The remaining Punjab districts would be covered in afurther two months’ time.

The officials frankly admit to Dawn the government does not haveany idea of the extent of illegal weapons in the province but they saytheir number could defy highest of projections. The most disturbingfact, they say, is the presence of countless illegal weapons licences,manually prepared by the corrupt among staff in the district govern-ments. The number again is high, showing organized gun running.

The issuance of illegal licences is a mega fraud committed rightunder the nose of the DCOs, says a senior government official.

As per the home department record, the number of arms licencesin the province should safely be 1.7 million. If all of them had beenrenewed this year at the rate of Rs. 1,000 per licence, the governmentshould have collected Rs. 1.700 billion. But it received just Rs600million meaning that only 600,000 licences were renewed. “The restof the licences were made illegally and were therefore not renewed,”a senior official inferred.

Sharif vows to tackle power crisisKARACHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday, May

6, that his government was committed to address the issue of powershortage and would encourage local and foreign investment in theenergy sector. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of PortQasim Thermal Power Plant here.

“We will eliminate darkness from this country,” the prime ministersaid. He said his government did not waste a single day during the lasteleven months and the current 660 MW project, which was the firstphase of 1,320 MW power project, reflected it’s commitment to ad-dress the energy issue.

The premier said he had no doubt in his mind from the very first dayof his government that realizing the dream of socio- economic devel-opment was impossible without addressing the issue of energy.

“The severity of this crisis required day and night work on powerprojects, so that we could replace the darkness with light,” he re-marked.

PM Sharif said the ground-breaking of this power project at PortQasim had a special significance due to importance of Karachi inPakistan's economy.

RELIGION / SPIRITUALITYPAGE 22 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014

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By Rajiv Vij

Most of us do experience life as suffering. In situations related to asignificant loss – of a loved one, a precious relationship, or a job – oursuffering seems irreparable. However, suffering and peace are twosides of the same coin; a thin line separates the two. With greaterawareness, understanding, and compassion, it is indeed possible totransform our agony into solace; our restlessness into stillness; andour adversity into a blessing.

The biggest cause of suffering is our attachments. Disappointmentwith setbacks at work is a result of our attachment to the expectationsof specific material gains from our efforts; anxiety about our children’sfuture is an outcome of our attachment with an idealised version ofourselves that we wish our children to grow up into; fear of illnessemanates from our attachment to our physical body. The keys to trans-forming suffering into peace are: Realizing that happiness is a con-scious choice. While suffering can be paralysing, we always have thechoice within us to transform it, based on how we respond to it.

A job loss can be perceived as a significant personal failure or wecan relate to it as an integral part of work life and an opportunity toreflect, retool, and engage in something more meaningful. Researchsuggests that most people regain their original level of happiness afterone year of job loss (or losss of a loved one); eventually, many evenregard the job loss to be the best thing that ever happened to them.

Secondly, developing higher awareness offers a gateway to thistransformation. For a four-year old child, the incident of one of hertoys breaking is woeful; while a seventeen-year old recognises thatit’s just a toy and very replaceable. For that seventeen-year old, how-ever, falling out of favour with his girlfriend can be devastating – whileparents can clearly relate to it as just a passing phase.

As we grow in our level of consciousness and overcome our igno-rant beliefs, we can relate to the same events from a higher groundand find greater peace. Higher awareness of our spiritual being aidsus in dealing with our physical suffering; grasping the meaning of deathfacilitates living a meaningful life; and understanding the laws of na-ture helps us not take every untoward event personally. Every setbackthen is not a new source of suffering, but merely a reminder of thelessons we need to learn in our eternal journey of evolution.

Finally, cultivating compassion dulls the sharpness of the painfulexperience. Such compassion necessitates being less judgemental, moreempathetic, more forgiving, and less of a perfectionist. If we can avoidjudging ourselves and instead learn to be more accepting of ourselvesas we are, we feel less anxious; being compassionate towards others,and empathising with their unique context, reduces our level of frus-tration, blame, and anger. Sufi mystic Rumi said, “The wound is theplace where the Light enters you.” Instead of perceiving ourselvesand others as imperfect, relating to everyone as unique creations of aperfect universe allows us to be more at peace with our reality. Fur-ther, choosing to help others who may be suffering from similar cir-cumstances supports this inner transformation.

Transform suffering into peace

By Ponni Sivaraman

Chithirai Thiruvizha (festivalcelebrated during the Tamil monthof Chithirai) is an annual celebra-tion in Madurai, India during themonths of April / May. It is oneof the longest celebrations, last-ing nearly a month.

Following that tradition, SriMeenakshi Temple in Pearlandalso commenced its 12-day cel-ebration on May 1, with Vignes-wara and Vasthusanthi poojas.

On May 2, (day 2) Sri ManickaSundara Bhattar hoisted a flagbearing an image of Nandi on theDwajastambam or kodimaram,declaring the festival officiallyopen; the flag will stay hoisted untilthe end of the festival.

Day 3 was the much awaitedMeenakshi Pattabhishekam orthe Coronation of the Queen.Hundreds of Devotees gatheredat the temple on a beautiful breezyevening of May 3, and werespeechless spectators to the glo-rious crowning of the Goddess asthe Empress. Legend has it, thatMeenakshi was born (she rosefrom the yaga Agni) to MaduraiKing Malayathuvaja Pandian andhis queen Kanchanamalai.

Celestial voices instructed theroyal couple to raise her as a sonand train her in the art of warfareas she would be the heir to thethrone. In time, Meenakshi provedherself a mighty warrior, met andchose Lord Sundareswarar as herhusband and later married him.

Hence Meenakshi Pattabhi-shekam is celebrated with greatjoy and it is also believed that thisis a transformation of power fromLord Sundareswarar to GoddessMeenakshi who will reign asQueen for four months, and laterin the Tamil month of Aavani (Au-gust / September) the power re-verts back to the Lord. To see theGoddess adorned with her crown

(a replica of the diamond crown given to Madurai Meenakshi by AppajiRayar of Krishnadevaraya’s times) and scepter was a rare sight.

In ancient times the scepter was received by priests as represen-tatives of Meenakshi. However in modern times the Chairman of theboard of Trustees of Sri Meenakshi temple receives the Scepter.

At Pearland’s Sri Meenakshi temple, this honor is given to the cur-rent Chairman of the board Dr. P. Vaduganathan, who accompaniedthe procession with his wife Nach.

An added jewel to the crown was this year’s Poo (flower) Pallaku(organized with volunteers led by Roopa Balakrishnan & DhanamThiagarajan), which was an unbelievable creation in which the God-dess was taken in a procession along with the other utsava Murthisaround the Main temple praharam.

A large number of devotees chanting slokas and songs joined theprocession. Live Nadaswaram and Thavil music in the processionadded to the spiritual vibration already emitting from a gorgeous sun-set background. The Mahotsavam event took 12 months of plan-ning,1500 labor hours, 5000 red and white carnations and over 50volunteers to help decorate the pallaku and to make the event a grandsuccess. MTS provided dinner for all devotees (coordinated by JeyamThiagarajan); the Mahotsavam continues to have an excellent varietyof cultural programs (coordinated by Mala Gopal).

Special thanks to the event coordinators, S. Balakrishnan and C.Vijayarajan, and Religious activities committee’s M. Sriram, SasidaranPillai and RAC chair S. Narayanan with all volunteers for the wonder-ful organization of the event for the devotees enjoyment.

Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Thirukalyanam will culminatethe temple’s Annual Mahotsavam on May 11.

The kalyanam will be followed by a procession of the deities in thesilver chariot (Rathosavam) and later a kalyanam style lunch on ba-nana leaves will be served to all.

Chithirai Thiruvizha at Sri Meenakshi Temple

Nothing right, nothing wrongEmpty your mind of all thoughts, says OSHOThe question is not of wrong thoughts and right thoughts; all thoughts

are wrong as far as going beyond the mind is concerned. The rightand wrong are never separate; they are always together.

Can you separate love from hate? Millions have tried but not asingle person has been able to succeed, because you are going againstthe very nature of things.

Can you separate darkness from light? Although they look so dif-ferent, scientific enquiry into light and darkness has proved somethingagainst common sense. The difference between darkness and light isonly that of degrees. Darkness simply means less light, and light sim-ply means less darkness.

That’s why there are animals, like owls and others, for whom in thenight, it is as day. They have better eyes than you have, so even lesserlight — which looks to you like darkness — is full light for them. Theireyes are more capable than your eyes. In the day, they cannot opentheir eyes, because their eyes are so sensitive that daylight dazzlesthem. In the daylight, their eyes simply close; naturally, they see dark-ness. When it is light for you, for the owls it is night. And when for you

it is night, for the owls it is day time, full light.So the difference between light and darkness is only a matter of

degrees. You cannot have light without darkness, and you cannot haveGod without the devil. It is strange that the religions who believe inGod automatically believe in the devil too. They have to, it is just alogical necessity. And the religions who don’t believe in God don’tbelieve in the devil either. For example, Jainism has no God, therefore,there is no devil. It is simply out of the question. But all the religionsthat believe in God have to accept his polar opposite, the devil.

Why this necessity? Because existence always needs a polarity.Birth is polarised by death, love is polarised by hate, compassion ispolarised by cruelty. Look around life. Everything has its polar oppo-site, and if you can take away the polar opposite then the other willalso disappear. They can exist only together.

What is a good thought and what is a bad thought? And how canyou separate them? So what is right?... If you look at different people,different traditions, you will be simply surprised. But how to decidewhat is right and what is wrong?... The question is not, you must notlet wrong thoughts continue. You must not let thoughts continue — noquestion of right, no question of wrong.

In other words: All thoughts have to be removed from your mind sothe screen of the mind is completely empty, so you have a vast skyopen and nothing moves in the mind. That is authentic Zen. — Cour-tesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com


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1111, Gessner, Suite BHouston, Texas 77055

(713) 461-8050(713) 461-4747

We speak English & Gujarati

Darshani Patel, D.D.S Sanjeev Khosla, D.D.S

CONVENIENT HOURS

Monday: 9 am – 6 pm

Tuesday: 9 am – 7 pm

Wednesday: 9 am – 6 pm

Thursday: 9 am – 7 pm

Friday: 9 am – 4 pm

Saturday: 9 am – 4 pm

(Closed one Saturday a month)

$$$$$6565656565 Exp. 09/30/2011 Exp. 09/30/2011Exp. 09/30/2011

We Speak English, Hindi & Gujarati

FLUORIDE TREATMENT (A $125 VALUE)

Exp. 06/30/2014 Exp. 06/30/2014 Exp. 06/30/2014

3rd Molar (Wisdom Teeth) Extraction

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