Issuu

Friday, September 26 2014 | Vol. 33, No. 39

Indo American erican News The Yellow Brick Road to Charity www.indoamerican-news.com Published weekly from Houston, TX

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The Board of the Indo American Charity Foundation at its Annual Gala held at the Hilton Americas, with President Ramesh Cherivirala with microphone

SLAMmed It!

Mangalyaan: India’s Race for Space Success

Rajender Singh of Star Promotion Inc. with Shah Rukh Khan during the SLAM tour concert in Houston on Friday, September 19.

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September 26, 2014

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COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

IACF Gala Stresses Contributing to Charitable Causes Where We Live BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: The emphasis of the Indo American Charity Foundation’s Gala this past Saturday, September 20, could be succinctly summed up by the event handout which featured the ad that had been making the rounds in the weeks running upto the event: “We live here …we give here” and the whole program drove home that point. In a day that featured three other Galas elsewhere in the city (this is afterall the kickoff of the Fall Gala season!), the IACF’s 24th Annual Gala at the Hilton Americas downtown was a more subdued event than previous years, which have featured elaborate stage shows and fashion shows. In keeping costs in line, the IACF instead opted this year to use home grown talent and feature presentation of checks and have a conversation with the audience of about 300 people. The Gala was tagged as the “Yellow Brick Road to Charity” and in keeping with the theme, gold-colored paper bricks marked with the names of the donors were posted on a folding partition at the lobby. Also, the aisleway floor leading to the stage was a shade of gold, partitioned to look like large pavers. The emcees for the Gala this year were Houston’s favorite DJ and showman, Sunil Thakkar and Kim Ogg, the Democratic candidate for Harris County District Attorney, who came in a bright red outfit that she bought especially for the event in Little India. Thakkar was his usual effervescent self, cracking one liners and making comments on cross-cultural conflicts as he strode around the stage and then among the guests on the floor, encouraging them to open their hearts and wallets to donate freely to the IACF.

IACF President Ramesh Cherivirala (left) with Congressman Al Green. Photos: Murli Santhana

Another radio host, and a personality himself for ad-libbing and witticisms, Dr. Nik Nikam played the role of the auctioneer for the first time, but who would have known that he was a natural for it. Pulling off the stunt with a black Stetson he bought for the occasion. He rattled off the bidding fast, like a pro, and managed to sell the five auction pieces – a diamond and 14 karat gold earrings from SB&T Jewelers; a Movado women’s watch from Karat 22 Jewelers; a modern art painting by Gopaal Seyn, a Kashmiri semi-antique rug from Abrahams Oriental Rugs and a framed Alaskan wolf skin donated by this reporter. The three Presidents of the IACF

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– Murthy Divakaruni of 2013; Ramesh Cherivirala of this year and Kamala Raghavan for next year – all came to the stage and spoke about their year at the helm and their hopes for the future. Raghavan remembered the 2012 IACF President David Raj, who passed away last year due to cancer, for his passion and devotion to charity and especially to educating the young. The three presented checks of support to two new emerging charities, PEACE and PAIR as the representatives came to the stage. Hubert Vaz Nayak, a past director of the IACF, presented a solo musical number in tribute to David Raj – “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel – accompanying himself on the guitar. The main feature of the program was a conversation that IACF past presidents Anu Bala and Sushma Bhan had between themselves on stage, remembering the achievements of the IACF and the important role that it continues to do for the community at large. They invited four people from the audience on stage to share their thoughts on charitable giving: Robert Sakowitz,

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a prominent member of the Houston business community; Councilman Ken Mathew of Stafford; Rita Lucido (who came in a sari), Democratic candidate for State Senate District 17, Sugar Land Councilman Harish Jajoo and John Healy, Ft. Bend County District Attorney. Bala and Bhan asked them several questions relating to the support that IACF can provide to the local communities in various areas of need to which each person gave a thoughtful answer. The program opened and closed with a dance by students of the Anjali School of Performing Arts, although its director, Rathna Kumar could not attend. After the dinner, which was provided by Dawat Catering, the guests broke out into dance to music pumped out by Darshak Thakkar of Krishna Sounds, which also did the sound and lighting for the event.

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

September 26, 2014

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COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

King Khan Konquers Houston

Press conference held on Thursday, September 18.

Photos: Meedu’s Fotografy

BY VANSHIKA VIPIN HOUSTON: After a decade, King Khan decides to tour North America and where does he begin? Sadda Houston. Houston got SLAMmed in a Bollywood Star Frenzy on Friday, September 19, at the Toyota Center. The galaxy of stars that shone up on Houston included Shah Rukh Khan, director Farah Khan, Boman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Malaika Arora Khan, Vivaan Shah and rapper-turned-actor Yo Yo Honey Singh. They arrived a couple of days before the show and spent their time rehearsing for the grand

concert, after all Houston was their first stop in the 6 city tour as a part of promotion of the upcoming movie ‘Happy New Year’ scheduled to be released this Diwali. This mega event was organized by Rajender Singh, the President and owner of Star Promotion Inc. Star Promotions is a popular event management company in Houston that has brought many spectacular shows over the years including Unforgettable in 2008 featuring the Bachchan Family and Madhuri Dixit, the South Asian carnival in 2009 which included Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan and now SLAM. Prior to the show, Rajender and the SLAM

team held a press conference on Thursday, September 18. Emceed by Meena Datt, the hostess of Music of India and Ghungroo Radio, each star was introduced as they arrived on the podium. The Bollywood personalities were very friendly and patiently answered all queries from the attendees comprising of newspaper, radio and TV channel personnel. King Khan said, “I think more than just coming, performing, earning money and

spreading what we do, what makes us proud is being able to serve the people who are staying away from home and doing so well. “It makes me feel very proud. It’s our way CONTINUED ON PAGE

Article contribution: Preanka Desai and Malay Vyas

Indo American News (ISSN 887-5936) is published weekly every Friday (for a subscription of $40 per year) by IndoAmerican News Inc., 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036., tel: 713-789-6397, fax:713-789-6399, email: indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Indo American News,7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036

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COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

King Khan Konquers Houston CONTINUED FROM PAGE

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of saying thank you to everyone around the world, not just in the subcontinent for making us the stars that we are.” The evening of the show saw long lines outside Toyota Center as people from far and wide were arriving to see their favorite stars in action. Once the show began, the audience was transported to a dream world as the gorgeous Deepika descended from top of the stage like an angel from heaven in a flowing white sequined outfit, perched on a flower ringed circle. Abhishek’s entry from up in the stands at the back of the auditorium, walking all the way down to the front had people hooting and cheering, and of course, crowding towards that aisle to get a closer glimpse of the star. “Make some noise, people” seemed to be his go-to phrase. Abhishek also did a fabulous Marathi-esque dance with abundant vigorous moves and lighted lezhims for a disco effect. SRK amazed everyone with a Don-like entry – rising to about 30 feet from the center of the audience seated in the floor area, and then zip-lining slowly towards the stage, arms astretch, complete with studded leather jacket. Malaika was graceful and spoke really well and Yo Yo Honey Singh stole the show with his hip-hop/Bollywood songs. Vivaan Shah opened the show with a fast dance song. The English duo, Signature featuring Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh, were also present and did a brief version of their Britain’s Got Talent act showcasing the fusion of Michael Jackson moves and Bhangra, complete with their signature “split end.” Notable amongst the performances was the song from Dil Se – Satrangi Re – with SRK and Deepika which was sensual right from when they walked on stage with her straddling atop his right shoulder, poised perfectly. Icing on the cake was Shah Rukh doing the qawwali “Tumse Milke Dilka Jo Haal” from “Main Hoon Na”. Boman Irani as usual was funny and enjoyed dancing with Farah Khan to SRK Songs. Sonu Sood appeared with bare chested showing off his jaw dropping physique displaying a perfectly defined ‘six-pack’.

In his own inimitable style, Shah Rukh invited Tejal and Dhaval Patel of Irving, Tx to the stage – interacted with them and gifted them a Harley Davidson motorcycle, an autographed helmet and an autographed life size poster of himself. Every minute of the show was a moment to remember for almost the 9000 audiences present at Toyota center. After three and a half hours of non-stop entertainment, the full-of-life-star Shah Rukh Khan kept dancing with most gusto till the end of the show – he didn’t want to leave the stage. As the show ended, the stars threw stuffed animals, lungis and hats into the audience. The show did have a few technical glitches but those can definitely be ignored. It had a nice multimedia presentation, great background visuals for each song / stage appearance, detailed lighting and laser arrangement and the most critical – a great sound system and arrangement to keep the audience entertained at all times, SLAM after all stands for Sound-Light-Action-Music. Bollywood fans from all over the Lone Star State attended the show, as this was the only show in Southwest United States. Common audience reactions included “OMG, Shah Rukh is so hot” to “When will the show start” to “I wish I could touch Sonu’s abs” to “couldn’t have done a better job” to the ultimate desi compliment “Paisa Vasool”. Rajender spoke to IAN in an exclusive interview, “I would like to thank everyone, especially the sponsors, media, my team, who worked really hard to put this show together, and everyone who came out to see the show and supported it. Also I would like to say that, if you want to see a high quality show, then you have to pay for it, compromising on the ticket price will mean compromising on the level of the show.” Rajender is open for suggestions from the audience as he feels that this will help him organize even better shows in the future. He can be reached on his cell at 281-222-4500. For further details and for upcoming shows contact Rajender Singh at 281-2224500 or visit www.starpromotioninc.com

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COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

Celebrating Guru-Purnima in the Saadhana Pariwar Pandit Suman Ghosh’s Gurukul tualized by Panditji himself. Several groups of students took turns to join their Guru on the stage to present a short repertoire. While they took their places on stage, Panditji, the remainder of his students as well as the audience continued singing. The flow was smooth and ‘akhand’ as it was meant to be. The session ended with Panditji leading his disciples in a bhajan dedicated to all the Gurus and Grand-Gurus of the Mewati Gharana and to the greatest Guru of all, the Almighty. The evening was graced by the presence of Pramod Kulkarni,

Editor in Chief of Indo-American News, his wife Jyoti Kulkarni as well as Govind Shetty of the Indian Music Society of Houston. In true Indian tradition, all disciples received blessing from Panditji and his wife, Guru-Ma Shashikalaji Ghosh. The evening concluded also in true Indian tradition, with a sumptuous dinner, lovingly catered by ‘Madras Pavilion’. Heartiest felicitations to Panditji and his Gurukul on embarking on another year of complete commitment and dedication to the cause of Indian Classical music.

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call 832-526-8700 BY SUCHETA ROY HOUSTON: Indian Classical music lovers in Houston consider it a privilege and a blessing that Pandit Suman Ghosh chose this city above all others to make his home and establish his Gurukul, Saadhana Pariwar. Enriching thousands of lives with pure Hindustani Classical music in the Mewati Gharana tradition, Pandit Suman Ghosh is adored as much by his disciples as by their families. The Gurukul has just staged, for the second year in a row, about 70 solo performers in a truly unique series titled Saadhana Samvid in various locations of this city. On September 7, under the aegis of CICMH (Center for Indian Classical Music of Houston), the disciples of Acharya Varishth Pandit Suman Ghosh had the opportunity to honor and celebrate their Guruji. The event was preceded by Panditji’s 2-hour-long live radio

interview, the previous evening, on the well-known Open Forum program catering to an audience of over 26,000 listeners worldwide. Panditji started the symbolic Guru Purnima taalim in a playful manner, with Panditji challenging his students to identify the raga if possible, guess which parent structure it has evolved from (known as a ‘Thaat’) and the notes used in the raga by listening to a short segment of a sitar rendition by the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankarji. The raga was Jhinjhoti, Thaat Khamaj. The revered Guru then taught a bandish in this raga in drut Teental (a moderately fast 16 beat cycle). This was followed by a short introduction to raga ‘Alhaiya Bilawal’. By this time, the room was charged with a positive energy that is quite impossible to describe in words. After a short break, the second session ensued with ‘Akhand Gaayan’ (meaning unbroken singing) as the core theme, as concep-

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

COMMUNITY

10 September 26, 2014

COMMUNITY

Baki Itihas by MIST; Quite a Pleasant Surprise!

Photos: Sushanta

Bose

BY SANCHALI BASU HOUSTON: The Houston Bengali drama scene has come into its own after quite a few years of successful stagings of independent dramas and dramas at the drama festival held annually at the Durga Bari auditorium. So much was the enthusiasm among some of the ardent drama buffs that it led to the creation of the group MIST (Masks, Issues, & Stages Traversed). The members decided to kick it up a notch and graduate from the amateur level to a professional level. Their current production, Badal Sircar’s Baki Itihas was enacted at the Katy Performing and Visual arts Center the past weekend Saturday, Sept 19 and 20 to sold out audiences. The audience was in for a surprise because this was the first of its kind to be ever held in Houston. Beautiful ladies welcomed all at the ticket counter and arrangements were made for wine and cheese in the lobby before the show. Professional ushers guided everyone to their seats and the shows began at scheduled time in pin drop silence. The drama is about a couple; the wife, a homemaker/ writer and the husband, a lecturer, who find out about the suicidal death of a chance acquaintance in the local obituaries. The story spins around the wild imaginative ideas of each as to what could have driven the man to commit suicide. The two angles of thought gave the audience a chance to reflect on two of the various many possible perspectives, and the twists in the plot kept the audience riveted to their seats. The poignant ending typical of a Badal Sircar play, made one search deeper into the realm of truth eventually taking one back into the history of mankind. It brought out the stark reality of life and made us ask what do we live for! The brilliant performances by the stellar cast consisting of the who’s who of the local Bengali drama scene left little to be desired. Of special note was Rahul Chakraborty’s characterization of the main character Sitanath, who made it very real and believable. The supporting cast of Manas Saha, Santasri Sen, Kousik Bhattacharya, Sampurna Kahali, Aurko Dutta, Udipta Mukherjee, Dilip Dutta, and Uddalak Bharadwaj were all very precisely effective in their own right. The rest of the production crew worked tirelessly to get the sound, light and stage to all work in seamless harmony. Thanks to the excellent teamwork, the production went off smoothly and ended up being a very fulfilling experience for all. The community will now look for such outstanding productions from MIST in future.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

New Punjabi School Building Breaks Ground at SW Gurudwara

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The volunteer teachers of the Punjabi School with the ceremonial shovels.

The Building Committee members and major donors pose with the ceremonial shovels at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The architect of the Gurudwara and the Punjabi School, Hardeepak Munday poses with a rendering of the building.

BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: Under aquamarine skies and bright sunshine that belied the downpour of the week before, many early morning members of the congregation of the Gurudwara Sahib of Southwest Houston borne witness to the groundbreaking ceremony for the new school building for children to be built to the west of the main temple building. The Building Committee members and the volunteer teachers were joined in by

young kids in their dark blue t-shirts emblazoned with the school’s name this past Sunday morning, September 21, as they posed for pictures with the ceremonial stainless steel shovels in hand. The architect Hardeepak “Harry” S. Munday was at hand, with a poster of the school rendering. On the opposite side of the temple building is the temporary classroom building set on blocks, just to the other side of the fountains. It was set there when the Punjabi School of GSSWH was launched in August 2011. Classes are held every Sunday for the 48 students who range in age from 6 years to 15 and are taught by

8 to 9 volunteer teachers, most of whom are women. \Munday was the architect for the main Gurudwara and has once again donated his time to design the new single-story, 2,700 sq ft school and administrative building, at a cost of $375,000, most of it collected from donations by Paul and Manmeet Likhari, Pashant and Nidhika Mehta, Jai and Deepa Dhodhi and Sanjay and Anjali Khanna, although the remaining funds are still to be solicited. The modern Gurudwara building with the clean, crisp lines, fountains and extra wide porte d’cochere is set on a 2.5 acre tract just west of Highway 6, north of Beechnut and next to the newer Vedanta Society building. Munday designed the GSSWH to be built in three phases, with the main building and structures completed in April 2009. The adjoining 2 acre parcel of land was recently purchased and the hope is for a recreational facility and access from Beechnut itself. Munday moved down nine years ago from Baltimore where he designed and built the renovation and expansion to the city’s Gurudwara. He is also designing the first Gurudwara in San Antonio, a 6,000 sq ft structure to be set on 11 acres near the UTSA campus and slated to open by Vaisakhi 2015.

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F O O R P

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COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

HCC Board of Trustees Chair to be Honored as One of the Top Inﬂuential Women of Houston

Neeta Sane

HOUSTON: Neeta Sane, Houston Community College Board of Trustees Chair, has been named one of the “2014 Top 30 Influential Woman of Houston” by Dmars marketing and communication firm. Sane is committed to the success of students and works tirelessly for the constituents of HCC. She and the other women honored represent the finest in corporate, civic, philanthropy, education, entertainment and community leadership that their city has to offer. Sane has had a powerful impact in the growth of the college. Under her leadership, the Board of Trustees recently selected a new Chancellor, Dr. Cesar Maldonado, commenced working on all 14 construction projects passed in the 2012 bond election, and announced the development of a RigOne lab at HCC Northeast College. “I am proud of the partnerships that Hous-

ton Community College has cultivated over the years. In fact, the name of our institution reinforces our critical mission – to serve and work with our community,” said Sane. “During my tenure on the Board, I have worked to strengthen ties between HCC and our community partners. With a new Chancellor in place, this year we plan to work even harder to achieve our objectives.” Sane, an entrepreneur, wife and mother, grew up in India with tremendous respect for America. After she migrated here, she immersed herself in the community and public service to give back some of the blessings and opportunities this country gave to her. Sane has received congressional and other noteworthy recognitions for her dedicated service. The Texas Legislature commended Sane for her efforts to strengthen the college’s capacity to serve as a pathway to higher education and workforce training. During her tenure as trustee, she worked with community leaders, public officials, and the HCC Foundation to create scholarship programs and hosted regional workforce summits. She was a driving force behind the completion and grand opening of the Alief Construction Technology Center, a hub for students to train and receive certification in heating, ventilation, air condition and plumbing. Sane and a diverse group of Houston women will be honored at a gala that will take place at the Houstonian Hotel on Friday, October 3, from 7 pm -10 pm. For ticket information, visit www.d-mars.com

“An Unforgettable Evening with Giants” Pt. Kumar Bose and Pt. Ramesh Mishra Bring Banaras to Houston

Govinda Shetty, Suresh and Usha Shenoy and Sanjay Rao with the artistes postconcert.

BY SUNIL PANGARKAR

HOUSTON: At 8.30 pm, as the audience walked out of the Jones Hall of University of St. Thomas after the Indian Music Society concert, one could see the expressions of JOY, SURPRISE, WONDERMENT and SATISFACTION. Some people were overheard saying “an impossible concert” and “a landmark concert”. As a Hindustani Music lover, I could not but have a feeling of gratefulness for being able to listen and enjoy the performance of such stalwarts – thanks to IMS. There was an inescapable sense of pining however; a desire for more of our Samskaar conscious Indians to witness our tradition in ACTION rather than learning it through passive media. Describing a traditional, extremely nuanced and a high level classical concert is not only difficult, but also beyond my capac-

ity. Without going into intricate detail, l will give you a small jhalak of the concert. The Jones Hall, is a medium sized hall incredibly well designed for the interactive nature of the Hindustani genre of music. The audience, not by design but by admiration and love for the artistes, comprised of top performing artistes and music connoisseurs. The concert started with a documentary on Pt. Kumar Bose. The documentary covered some vintage footage of Pt. Bose’s tabla accompaniment and solo performances together with comments and explanations from many eminent musicians. This was followed by a solo tabla performance by Pt. Bose with the Sarangi accompaniment provided by Pt. Mishra. The second half of the concert commenced with Sarangi renditions of Banarasi Thumri, Tappa, Kajri,Chaiti CONTINUED ON PAGE

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14 September 26, 2014

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September 26, 2014

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COMMUNITY

Inside a Carpet Mahal at Grand Opening of Abrahams Newest Location

Consul General Parvathaneni Harish and his wife Nandita and Omana Abraham. Sam and Omana Abraham at the grand opening of their new showroom on Bartlett Street in the Kirby-Rice Village area.

BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: One of the Indian community’s oldest continuously operating businesses unveiled its latest incarnations by showcasing its showroom in the Kirby-Rice Village area this past Friday, September 19 in an evening reception that brought in many of its well-heeled clientele and supporters. Abrahams Oriental Rugs had its Grand Opening event at its newest location on 2515 Bartlett Street, just a few blocks south of the Southwest Freeway and half a block east of Kirby with a Tex-Indian cocktail party that drew in over 350 guests from across the city, including many friends and patrons like members of the Austrian Royal family Princess Maria-Julia Galistine and Prince Piotr Galitzine, and local celebrities like Joanne King Herring, Richard Yates and Madeline Feijoo. “We had been at the Decorative Center on Woodway for the past 38 years,” explained Sam Abraham of this new location, “and

we have finally relocated from there to this place,” gesturing to the tastefully decorated two-story building which is literally wallto-wall rugs. Sam’s office is located on the second floor, which is laid out with a long dining table setting for 20 people. Abraham and his wife Omana started the business by importing handmade rugs from India in the 1970s and, over the years, have had other retail outlets in several locations in Highland Village or the Galleria area. They will continue to have their showroom on Post Oak and Westheimer next to Canyon Café. The event drew in many key people from the Indian community, including Leela and Nat Krishnamurthy, Mani and Anu Subramanium, Murthy and Chitra Divakaruni and the Indian Consul General Parvathaneni Harish and his wife Nandita. Meat appetizers were catered by Goode Company, which is literally located next door, and the Indian vegetarian appetizers included samosas and paneer tikkas. A jazz duo played modern

“An Unforgettable Evening with Giants” Pt. Kumar Bose and Pt. Ramesh Mishra Bring Banaras to Houston CONTINUED FROM PAGE

and a moving “Vaishnavo Jan to” by Pt. Mishra with effortless accompaniment of the Banarasi Baaj Tabla, by Pt. Bose. As a grand finale, Pt. Bose concluded the event with an electrifying solo rendition of intricate compositions, composed by Gurus of the Banaras gharana, dating back to several hundred years. Pt. Bose and Pt. Mishra are both from

the Banaras lineage where Kathak, Tabla and Sarangi have been taught at least for the past 200 years by their respective elders and passed to their next generation. In fact the Sarangi that Pt. Mishra was playing was 184 yrs old. He is the ninth generation, playing the Sarangi. The musical genius of musicians like Pt. Bose and Pt. Mishra lies not just in their

The entrance foyer to the new Abrahams Rugs showroom on Bartlett.

contemporary jazz numbers in the large showroom in the back. The Abrahams bought the building two years ago and completely remodeled it from the rafters down to the cement floor. Each wall is lined with the rich textured

and patterned rugs that Abrahams is known for while many more are piled high on the floor or rolled up by the walls. Other accessories for the house fill the niches, with high-backed chairs even hung from the balustrades.

technique, style or knowledge, but in their ability to be repositories of tradition. Their single minded dedication to tradition and their own artistry in creating ornate music with virtuosity to a contemporary audience without losing the original intent of their Gurus is indeed their remarkable achievement . When I got a chance to talk the musicians after the concert and asked them how they did this, their only answer was “performing honestly and without gimmickry what was taught by their Gurus”.

Obviously there was a little bit of modesty in their statement – for they have themselves been creators of music, but the fact that this intense feeling towards their Gurus is constantly in their vocabulary, gives one the confidence that the baton of tradition is in their safe hands. In Houston, I feel it is our duty to provide a channel for this tradition so the baton is allowed to be passed to deserving artistes of the next generation. IMS is just one such channel.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

September 26, 2014

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

18 September 26, 2014 Need for a Big Vision Chinese President Xi Jinping has left India after an unprecedented visit, especially considering the relationship-building programme in Ahmedabad personally coordinated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prior to this, the prime minister had an outstanding trip to Japan, engaging with his counterpart Shinzo Abe. Next on the agenda is the United States, and clearly, the bar has been set high by these two major international interactions. The US visit can, and must, surpass Japan and China. Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke of India and the US being “natural allies”. This has not happened. It is also unlikely to happen in the near future because of a variety of differences between the two countries. But Modi’s visit this month can be path-breaking, with a focus on relationship- and trust-building as well as renewing confidence in furthering economic relations. Achieving these two objectives will lay a new foundation for the future. India and the US are collaborating on multiple fronts but the divide that separates them is also significant. US policy towards South Asia, its benign attitude to cross-border terrorism against India, its somewhat lukewarm cooperation on intelligence-sharing, its policy of intervention in the affairs of other countries, its pressures on developing economies on climate issues, its dominance of three apex multilateral financial institutions, its surveillance policy — these are just a few of the issues that separate India and the US. Sadly, there are many more. If the potential is to be realised, mutual trust has to be built. But how? Can lecturing and talking down be avoided? Can there be understanding of the leading and managing of 1.2 billion people? Can respect be felt and shown? Can the US tune into the great new priorities to change India, such as hygiene and the girl child (or leave it to Bill Gates?) and can there be an appreciation of the end to tax terrorism and easier business processes? Can there be an understanding that India has to resolve its challenges the Indian way? As Modi has tried to address the issues with China, to build a new partnership, US President Barack Obama — the host for the Modi visit — will need to shoulder the principal responsibility to resolve the trust deficit between India and the US. His words, actions, body language will be under far greater scrutiny than those of Modi, who has shown magnanimity in immediately accepting the invitation to the US, in spite of recent history. The prime minister is conducting an amazing outreach exercise during his five-day stay, which could launch a new vision of India and the US, of Indians and Americans, together. This will need to be followed up with imagination, reach and resources to impact Indo-US relations positively and for the long term. The hope is that the national interests of India and the US will converge increasingly for the mutual benefit of the people of both countries. September 30 will reveal the way it’s going to be. IE Tarun Das. The writer, former director general and chief executive of CII, is co-chair, US-India Strategic Dialogue.

EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY Mangalyaan: Momentous Arrival

India created history on Wednesday, becoming the first country to succeed on its first Mars mission when Isro’s Mangalyaan slipped into Martian orbit after a few nail-biting moments. The country joined the United States, European SpaceAgency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers with the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM. “History has been created by our scientists”, said PM Narendra Modi in his speech immediately after the scientists declared the mission a success. “We have dared to reach out to the unknown.” “When our cricketers win a tournament, we celebrate in a big way. What these scientists have achieved is thousand times bigger,” he added. Earlier, there were some tense moments at the Indian Space and Research Organisation (Isro), which commanded a series of tricky manoeuvres to position the spacecraft in its designated orbit around Mars. The insertion started at 4.17am when the spacecraft switched over to the medium gain antenna for providing the communication link during the insertion. At 6.56am, the spacecraft initiated the process of forward rotation, reducing its speed. At 7.17am, the scientists had to grapple with the most critical moment — when the liquid apogee motor had to be fired. The motor was woken up for four seconds on Monday during a test-fire after 300 days of long sleep. The motor was fired for 24 minutes, reducing the velocity of the spacecraft by 4.2 km per second in relation to Mars. This was soon followed by moments of tension and anxiety when the communication broke as the spacecraft slipped behind Mars as the scientists waited for the good news. At 7.45am, the occult ended and after two minutes, communication with the spacecraft resumed and data

was flashed about the performance of the liquid apogee motor. Most of MOM’s Mars orbit insertion happened in the dark because the spacecraft was around the surface of the planet that did not receive sunlight. The first images of Mars will be transmitted to Isro’s Indian Deep Space Network facility at Byalalu in Karnataka in the afternoon. Mangalyaan, which relies on homegrown technology, is a remarkably low budget mission of about $75 million. Nasa’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or Maven, which reached its position around the Red Planet on Sunday has a price tag of $671 million - nearly nine times that of MOM’s. Scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had wished their Indian counterparts luck a day ago. “Good luck MOM. From your JPL family,” read the message posted on Isro’s Facebook page. India’s feat gains significane in the light of the fact that more than half the world’s previous attempts - 23 out of 41 Mars missions - have failed, including attempts by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011. “India has become the first Asian country to do the Mars mission. This also is a reflection of the growing space race between India and China as well as in the broader Asian context,” senior researcher Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan said. India has said its spacecraft is chiefly meant to showcase the country’s

high-tech space abilities. Already, India has successfully launched a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, which discovered key evidence of water on the Moon in 2008. MOM’s scientific goals including using five solar-powered instruments to gather data that will help determine how Martian weather systems work and what happened to the water that is believed to have once existed on Mars in large quantities. It will also search Mars for methane, a key chemical in life processes on Earth that could also come from geological processes. None of the instruments will send back enough data to answer these questions definitively, but experts say the data will help them better understand how planets form, what conditions might make life possible and where else in the universe it might exist. Some of the data will complement research expected to be conducted by Maven. The Isro Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) facility in Byalalu, 55 kilometres from Bangalore, along with other global centres is tracking the spacecraft. A confirmation call through a hotline from Canberra, which is the station in position to receive the first signals came in at around 8.10 am The spacecraft is expected to circle the planet for six months, following an elliptical orbit that gets within 365 km (227 miles) of the planet’s surface at its closest and 80,000 km (49,700 miles) at its farthest. HT

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

COMMUNITY/HEALTH The Healthy Dose - Viruses

BY PARTH DWIVEDI Viruses ﬁnd themselves all over the news and in our lives. Measles returned from near eradication in large urban areas due to the misguided anti-vaccination movement and Ebola outbreaks have been stirring up a frenzy in Western Africa.

Please note, while Ebola was supposed to be the topic of this installment, I saw a discussion of it less meaningful before properly understanding some basic points about viruses in general. Let’s jump right into it. Viruses are difﬁcult to categorize; they represent a grey area when it comes to being alive. They are not quite living things, since they do not have the ability to sustain their own lifecycles and depend on other living things to do so. However, they have at least one characteristic absolutely necessary to be considered

living—the tendency to protect and spread the information needed for them to operate. Wait, life requires information? This is beginning to sound like computer programming. Let’s talk about it some more. Viruses contain nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. These molecules are ways for cells to store and transfer information. DNA is what tells the cell how to create the machines that allow it to function, but such valuable information needs to stay protected and is therefore difﬁcult to access and cannot be moved anywhere else. This problem is solved by DNA copying its information into RNA, which can be moved and accessed. If DNA is a computer’s hard drive then RNA is a ﬂash drive. Nature has found very clever ways for viruses to transfer their own viral information into a cell, essentially hacking into it. Once inside, they use the cell’s own machinery to produce viral material. There is a reason that dangerous selfreplicating computer programs were named after these biological hackers. Some of these hacking mechanisms can be fairly simple, like eating through a small portion of the cell before injecting nucleic acids into it. Others can be much more elegant: many viruses are known to coat themselves in proteins that resemble host proteins. These viruses become virtually invisible to the host’s immune system by disguising themselves. The most dangerous bad guys are the ones that make no noise while they work. Once inside, viral DNA can be incorporated into host DNA, making it harder to discover; viral RNA can be converted to DNA for longterm effects and replicated for quicker effects. After hijacking the cell, virus particles either

September 26, 2014

Parth Dwivedi has a B.A. in Neuroscience and an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences. He likes reading non-ﬁction and still watches I Love Lucy.

burst out from it or slowly bud outward—if you have ever seen small bubbles coming together to form a larger bubble, then it is the opposite of that. Thus, we can see that viruses use the cell to destroy itself. Join us for our next installment, when we discuss Ebola.

Gandhi Darshan Exhibition at Lone Star College Library

Exhibition at Downtown Public Library

HOUSTON: Lone Star College is displaying “Gandhi Darshan Exhibition” in its library from Monday, October 6 through Friday, October 31. This is in celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday as 1000 Lights For Peace on Saturday, October 4 at The Jones Plaza, 600 Louisiana, Houston, TX 77002. The exhibition will kick off on Monday, October 6 with storytelling by Victor Schill of Professional Storytellers Guild of Houston. It will be followed by a short narration of Salt Satyagraha by Atul B Kothari, Trustee, Mahatma

Gandhi Library of Houston. For further information visit www.gandhilibrary.org. The “Gandhi Darshan Exhibition” is a collection of some characteristic photographs of Mahatma Gandhi prepared by National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, Bharat (India). It was donated to Mahatma Gandhi Library Houston in 2006 by then Consul General of Bharat (India) Shri Skand Tayal. Gandhiji is a great ﬁgure, respected and worshipped all over the world. He was born in Gujarat, but the whole world became the realm of his action. These pictures show some of the principal and signiﬁcant facets of his personality; a unique reference from his childhood, his studies in England, his activities in South Africa, his struggle for Indian independence and incidents involving many leaders. For additional inquiries, contact Namita Sutaria, Media Coordinator, Mahatma Gandhi Library at (281) 773-8009 or email at namitasutaria@hotmail.com

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20 September 26, 2014 BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: It was the proverbial six degrees of separation that had brought out the meeting with the ﬁrebrand activist in Delhi who struck the holidaying Houston family this past July with his devotion, prodding them to visit the Gurukul or safe haven where hundreds of discarded and destitute people were being cared for. It wasn’t on their itinerary but Jasdeep Lamba’s father, J.P. Vedi who is a retired engineer in Delhi, had urged her to visit the camp located just behind the giant Shiva statue on the Delhi-Jaipur highway and see for themselves what the activist, Ravi Kalra, had built to save the lives of the destitute in the city. They were overwhelmed by what they saw and experienced and vowed to help him in his cause. This past Thursday, September 18, Kalra was standing, hands folded, in front of a group of friends of the Lambas, packed into their living room, relating his life story and what urged

COMMUNITY

Inner Urge to End Suffering and Help Humanity Changed Ravi Kalra’s Life Forever

Dr. Susan Lair, the Headmistress of the St. Francis Episcopal Day School spoke about her experience when she visited the Earth Saviours Foundation shelter in Delhi.

him to leave a comfortable existence to take care of the least fortunate in his hometown of Delhi. He had taken up the Lambas on their invitation

Ravi Kalra, the founder and Director of the Earth Saviours Foundation, with Jasdeep and Dev Lamba at an awareness and fundraising event held at their house.

and come to the Bayou City to build awareness for his work in tending to the poor and forlorn, and also made stops in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta to spread the word. Many of those at the Houston gathering wrote out checks of donation to the Earth Saviours Foundation, the tax-exempt charity that Kalra has formed to help fund his work. What struck many the most is how candidly Kalra reveals the details of his journey, which can be said to be akin to that of the Buddha when he witnessed the mass loss of life after a battle and turned his own existence around. In a modern day version, Kalra recalls being horriﬁed to see a

• • • •

young child eat from the same garbage heap as a city dog and feeling the urge to do something about it. “I had several martial arts schools and had taught the armed forces in unarmed combat,” said the strongly built Kalra, who is 45 and is a 4th Dan (level) Black Belter in Ta Kwon Do and is president of the Indian Association of Ta Kwon Do Professionals. He also had a recruitment company, sending workers to jobs in the Mid East. “I was making between $2,000 and $3,000 a day from my business activities while I played golf,” said Kalra, “but when my eyes opened to the appalling conditions that people were I threw in all my life savings

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into helping them.” He opened up his shelter in 2007 and dove into it fulltime, much to the dismay of his wife who is a French teacher, who left him and took his children, going to the Netherlands to work. “I have vowed to help the destitute and have cleaned their vomit, changed their diapers, helped to rid them of maggots,” described Kalra of his daily routine. He related stories of how he has gotten calls from people as far away as Dehra Dun to say they are dropping off an elderly, only to learn later that it was their own aged father. “Among the unwanted are a retired judge who graduated from the London School of Economics and other professionals who simply have no place to go. Kalra does not take beggars or drug addicts as the Indian government’s policy is to detain them. The present shelter suffered great losses when a fire broke out in April of this year and Kalra has already bought 3.5 acres of land on the Mehalpur-Faridabad road with hopes to build “the world’s biggest charitable temple of humanity” there that could accommodate 600 to 800 people. His website breaks down all his current expenses, which amount to Rs 1,000,000 or $17,000 a month. Most of the income to his Indian registered non-profit (the equivalent of the US 501(3)(c) non-profit) comes from donations, with just a little bit of subsidy by the state and local governments. The Headmistress of the St. Francis Episcopal Day School, where the Lamba’s children study, Dr. Susan Lair, attended the event and spoke of the opportunity she had to visit India to coordinate on a poverty and over population project her school is doing with a sister school in Delhi and visit Kalra’s shelter. She was at once awed by the number of destitute people that were there and the care that they were being given by the staff of 20 paid young women. She related how she had seen volunteers from other countries also tending to these people. A 15-minute video made by the IBN TV channel on the Earth Saviours and Ravi Kalra that is available on Youtube was played, showing in vivid detail the experience that Lair was referring to. Kalra continued on to explain how he goes out at night to bring in those people whom he sees in plight, adding that the local police know of his work and are very supportive, as is the Ganga Ram Hospital, which sends him medicines to use. He can accommodate 165 people at present, “but every day, 8 to 10 people die in my arms”. In the 7 years he has run this shelter, Kalra has cremated 4,750 people, some whose bodies were decapitated or dismembered due to a suicide or train or car accidents. He personally takes the ashes of each one to Hardwar to immerse in the waters of the Ganges. “I try to honor them in their forward journey,” he said, “when no one else did on earth.”

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

EDUCATION

September 26, 2014

Safety is Our No. 1 Priority for Students

Unwanted, aggressive behavior through bullying and cyberbullying can be very difficult during adolescence and is especially disruptive in an academic environment. With school in session, Best in Class has compiled key tips on recognizing signs that a student is being bullied and how to prevent this type of behavior. Noticing behavioral and emotional changes in a student is the first step to addressing the problem. Many kids don’t ask for help when being bullied, so it’s important to look for signs. Warning flags can include: • An unexplained loss of belongings such as toys, school supplies, clothes, or lunches • A decrease in enthusiasm to go to school, hang out with peers, or ride the bus • Changes in typical behavior or personality — appearing moody, anxious, or depressed. If you notice any of these signs, let students know that parents and teachers are always available to listen to their concerns and that you will be on their side. Additionally, talk to the student’s teacher and communicate with tutors and social workers to see if they’ve noticed a problem. According to iSafe, a nonprofit program dedicated to educating students about the safe and responsible use

of technology, more than 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied through their cell phone or on the Internet. Here are some signs a student is being cyberbullied: • Social withdrawal and a fear of technology — children or teens might stop using their cellphones, social media channels, or gaming devices. • Anger or frustration after using the computer or cell phone. With the case of cyberbullying, addressing the importance of what is appropriate online behavior and what is crossing the line is key. Sitting down with your children and having an honest chat about their lives can lead them to open up about online interactions and the difﬁculties they are experiencing. It’s important to remember that bullying and cyberbullying can continue to escalate if no action is taken. Be sure to maintain open lines of communication between students, teachers, tutors, and coaches to understand if there is a larger problem that needs addressing. Best in Class offers a variety of customized, supplemental enrichment courses and tutoring options to ensure your student is equipped with the tools they need to exceed their academic goals this school year. For further information about Best in Class services for your stu-

Best in Class Education Center offers tips for both dealing with bullying and cyberbullying and keeping kids safe and motivated in school dent, or about current franchising opportunities, visit www.bestinclasseducation.com or call toll free at 1.888.683.8108. Best in Class is targeting the addition of 20 more units in 2014. The state of Texas has been identiﬁed as a key state for growth. The current team behind Best in Class is looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join this premier franchise family and ensure our youth will excel academically.

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

22 September 26, 2014

COMMUNITY

Maharashtra Tourism : Diwali at Times Square NEW YORK: The stars aligned for an explosive performance to a packed audience over the weekend in Times Square, New York, September 22. After months of anticipation, Maharashtra Tourism Diwali At Times Square brought to you by Event Guru, ﬁnally kicked off on Saturday. The festival began with a Ganpathi procession with Dhol Tasha led by Maharashtra Tourism, Ms. Neeta Bhasin, CEO of Event Guru, and prominent dignitaries such as Consul General of India, Dnyaneshwar Mulay, Congressman Joseph Crowley and Councilman Paul Vallone plus visiting dignitaries from India. From 12 pm to 6 pm, the sponsors and vendors displayed their products and services. Mouth-watering food, free attractions for the kids, complimentary henna, turban tying demonstrations and much more. The title sponsor had an impressive booth display which showcased artifacts from Maharashtra, handicrafts, souvenirs, a photo booth and much more to attract the audience. Apart from the busy Diwali Bazaar, thrilling traditional Maharashtra acrobatic performers were invited to show us the ﬁrst female Dahi Handi and Malkhamb. The main stage had traditional performances by local dance troupes and well known singers and stars like Shaan and Shalmali.

Shaan and the Crowd (left) and Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur Performing Live on Stage. Photos: Vijay Shah

The evening show kicked off with the Wells Fargo sponsored pre-show, wherein famous choreographer, Marzi of the Shiamak Dawar Dance Company, kicked off the segment along with Culture Shock. The NASDAQ screen was used to display the Diwali smiles of the festival goers taken by Wells Fargo’s team of photographers throughout the day. The full on concert was kicked off with the interactive diya lighting on the Thomson Reuters Screen at 6 pm. After that, star after star graced the stage at this year’s Diwali At Times Square concert. Names like Shaan, Shalmali, Aditya and Pankhudi, Sunny Brown, Mickey Singh, DJ Baba Kahn, Arjun, famous choreographer Marzi and the headliners – Aditya Roy Kapur and Parineeti Chopra lit up Times Square

with their amazing performances all through-out the evening. They enthralled the audience with their melodious voices, exciting dance numbers and Bollywood glamour. Lights, camera, action all came to life on this one stage shared by so many talented performers. Aditya and Pankhuri of Pyar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyara Pyara (A popular soap on Star Plus) did a romantic dance sequence. Sunny Brown, DJ Baba Kahn, Mickey Singh and Arjun energized the audience and they unveiled their new Diwali song which they composed specially for this event and can be downloaded on Gaana.com – another sponsor of this event. The highlight of the program was the performance by the Consul General, Dnyaneshwar Mulay and

his poetry written specially for Diwali at Times Square. People from the audience got a once in a lifetime chance to come up on stage and interact with the hero and heroine from the new Yash Raj Films movie, Daawat-eIshq. One lucky audience member had the opportunity to be chosen by Parineeti Chopra as her Mr. Universe. The Air India sponsored autograph / photograph booth was a hotspot for all the stars and gave the fans the ability to interact with their favorite stars. Fans were able to take pictures there with their favorite stars. Event Guru and its dynamic team did a tremendous job organizing and managing this event. Neeta Bhasin, President and CEO of Event Guru and ASB Communications, said “We wanted to show the world the beauty

of Diwali and the dynamic and exciting culture of India. As far as the eyes could see, there were people packed into every inch of Times Square that evening. It’s a great feeling to have produced another successful show!” Event Guru is an event management and PR agency servicing clients around the world. We specialize in delivering unique and modern experiences through various types of concerts, banquets, press conferences, and much more. Using our experience and relationship in the market, we are able to provide our clients with superior service at an affordable price. ASB Communications is a fullservice international multicultural advertising and marketing organization. ASB provides integrated marketing solutions to companies looking to target the ethnic market, including the Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and African markets in USA, UK and Canada. Since its inception in 1997, ASB has nurtured deep roots in the ethnic communities in North America. The company has taken part in over 3,000 events on behalf of its clients. For further Information about Diwali at Times Square email at info@diwalitimessquare.com or visit www. facebook,com/DiwaliTimesSquare.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

COMMUNITY

September 26, 2014

MMNA Organizes the 7th International Maheshwari Rajasthani Convention

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From left: Parag Bajaj - President MMNA, Poonam Bhutada- Convener 2014IMRC, Ram Gopal MundraVice-President-Akhil Bharatvarshiya Mahasabha,Vinod Ajmera - Commissioner Industries-Rajasthan, Jugal Malani - Guest of Honor, Mahesh Rathi - Co-Convener, Sushma Pallod - Chairperson-BoD-MMNA, Ramesh Chandak - Guest of Honor, Krishna Taori - Guest of Honor, Keshavlal Rathi - Midwest Chapter President, Govind Chandak - Guest of Honor, Anurag Bajaj - Guest of Honor.

Maheshwaries who got beneﬁted from education scholarship shared their experiences. Third from left: Vikas Bhutada, Chair - MMNA Education Committee.

BY KRISHNA MAHESHWARI MICHIGAN:TheMaheshwariMahasabha of North America(MMNA) finished the 7th International Maheshwari Rajasthani Conference in Grand Rapid Michigan beginning on Ganesh Chaturthy and ending on Labor day (Aug 29-Sept 1). The conference was attended by 700 people and included 50 sessions organized in 6-parallel tracks to cover a range of topics across Culture, Education, Youth, Women, Business, a nightly Bollywood style song & dance extravaganza which involved people of all ages (3-70) and a themed party (different each night) that ran into the early hours of the next morning. Attendees brought a lot of excitement and energy and made the conference feel like a mega-family gathering rather a gathering of strangers who share a common jati. This was also the first conference that leveraged eMarketing (with video contests leading up to the conference) and mobile phone app for both iPhone and Android. Abhishek Soni, one of the app’s authors said, “I created the app to make it easier to navigate the conference—especially for the mobile first generation.” The culture track included Rajasthani culture related skits, themed food, singing of Marwari songs, a talent show for both kids and adults, Hindi comedians, chanting of Ra-

mayana, lessons on Transcendental Meditation and reenactments of famous events from Rajasthani history. The education track included presentations on Shastra from members of the community representing Hindupedia and the Vedanta Society, health issues and solutions through Ayurveda and allopathy, discussions on college, retirement and investment planning. Roli Mandhana, a recent graduate of Northwestern University, found the Hinduism tracks helpful as she had “never had any formal education on Hinduism. My knowledge was limited to the festivals we celebrated at home and some random stories I heard from my family.” The community recommitted its pledge to support education and raised $125,000 in an hour after seven current and recently graduated students came up on stage to discuss what the MMNA Education fund had enabled them to achieve. “The education fund became ‘real’after we saw our friends come on stage” stated Annu Maheshwari. The youth track focused on the needs of those under 34—speciﬁc to young kids, teenagers and young professionals. One session was a social simulation how inequitable distribution resources in Rajasthan have impacted social harmony. Sarish Kasat, a co-founder of the Maheshwari youth group said “…the

group with the least resources and support ended up rioting! This helped us better understand the causes of social inequality.” No gathering of the Maheshwari community can be complete without spending time on developing & supporting the business aspirations of the community. This gathering was no different—there were sessions which included tips and considerations when starting a new business, how to decide whether it makes sense to start a business, a CEO round-table and plenty of business networking. Aditya Chandak, a second year MBA student stated these sessions allowed him to “connect with industry veterans and build a network that he could leverage and learn from.” The food at the conference was unrivaled by any other event and involved over 200 unique vegetarian dishes (no meat, ﬁsh, eggs, or alcohol) over 3 days many of which are not available in the US outside of this event. The late night parties were also alcohol free. Krishna Maheshwari is the founder of Hindupedia.com, an online encyclopedia of Hinduism and works full-time as a product strategist at a large software company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters and a BS in Computer Engineering and Science from Cornell University.

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Mama’s Punjabi Recipes Khichdi (Rice & Lentils)

Khichdi is a dish found all over India and its pronunciation varies in every state as do some of its ingredients. It is basically made from rice and dal (lentils) and is commonly considered an easy to cook comfort food, although in some instances it is served as a main course. My son reminds me of the time he went to a Rajasthani wedding in Bombay and was served khichdi as a dish on the Sangeet night. While in some parts of India, khichdi is served for dinner perhaps once a week, among Punjabis, it is served only rarely and especially when someone suffers from stomach problems as it is easily digestible or it is made for the elderly. It is also the ﬁrst solid food that babies are introduced to. In Punjabi families, if khichdi is served, unwaveringly, the question will be asked, “Why khichdi? Is someone not well tonight?” Among Punjabis, who are accustomed to hardier meals, this rather bland dish, usually made with running rice and moong dal with little or no spices, does not have a prime position among culinary delights. Still, it can be made tastier by adding lots of butter and eating it with some achaar (pickles), especially aamb (mango) or mitha (sweet) and sometimes some yogurt. There is one other time that khichdi can be savored slowly. That is when the weather has just turned cooler and – at least in North India – you can sit in on a charpai (string cot) in the sunshine and eat it in peace. Ingredients: • 1 cup basmati chawal (Basmati rice) • 1 cup dhuli moong dal (skinless split moong lentils) • 5 cups pani (water) • 2 tbspn olive oil • 1 tspn jeera (cumin) • 1 tspn garam masala • Spices: namak (salt) – to your taste Directions: 1. Place the dhuli moong dal in a bowl and wash it thoroughly in cold water then let it soak for 30 minutes. Do the same with the rice. 2. Bring the 5 cups of water to a

boil over high heat. When it starts to boil, drain the water from the dhuli moong dal and pour it into the pot. Repeat the process with the rice. 3. Add the salt, cover and let the mixture boil for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to low. If you want thinner khichidi, then add another cup of water. 4. When the rice and dal appear to be nicely mixed together then turn off the heat, cover and let it sit for 10 minutes. 5. If you use sabad moon dal (whole moong dal), then pour in the dal ﬁrst, let it become a little tender, then add the rice and repeat the rest of the steps. 6. In a small karai or wok heat the oil, add the jeera (it helps in digestion) and brown it a little. When roasted and the smell of the cumin starts to come through, take off the heat and drop the masala into the pot of cooked khichdi and

7. Sprinkle the top of the khichdi with garam masala and serve while still hot. This dish tastes good with aamb ka achaar (mango pickle). Some people prefer to eat it with some plain yogurt too. (For the sick, elderly and babies, skip the jeera tarka and garam masala) Shakuntla Malhotra is a skilled cook of Punjabi dishes made in the old-fashioned style that she learnt as a young woman in her ancestral home in Lyallpur, India before it became part of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. People have often admired her cooking for its simplicity and taste that comes with each mouthful. Even in her mid-eighties, she continues to cook daily and agreed to share some of her delectable Punjabi recipes.

MAMA’S TIP OF THE WEEK USE WARM OR HOT WATER TO THIN OUT CURRIES & DALS

Invariably, in Indian dinners, there are leftovers and these are usually stored in the refrigerator in plastic containers. One of the most used are the empty, white yogurt or ricotta cheese tumblers – every Indian household has tons of these for storage!

But later, when the leftovers are taken out to be reserved, the curries and dals have become thicker, despite being warmed over the range or in the microwave and usually people add a little water to thin them out. But using cold water changes the consistency and taste of the dish. It is better to heat a little water and then add it slowly, stirring constantly, into the curry or dal preferably before heating it on the stove or in the microwave. You’ll be able to taste the difference.

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STOCKS • FINANCE • SOUTH ASIAN MARKETS • TECHNOLOGY

Alibaba Boost for Indian E-commerce BY SHRUTIKA VERMA & MIHIR DALAL NEW DELHI/BANGALORE: When Alibaba.com raised $21.8 billion in the biggest ever initial share sale on Friday, the Chinese Internet company made a strong case for its emerging market counterparts, convincing investors globally that the next set of large e-commerce companies will come from markets outside the US. Among these markets, India is considered to be the most attractive after China, and local e-commerce ﬁrms such as Flipkart and Snapdeal are likely to continue attracting large sums of capital from investors, at least over the next two-three years, experts said. “People who have missed this degree of value creation in China would now spend more time and invest more money in emerging markets to ensure that they don’t miss this opportunity in future and this has already begun to happen,” said Aashish Bhinde, executive director, digital media and technology, Avendus Capital. India with more than 200 million Internet users has the third largest user base in the world, according to a November 2013 report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB International. It still trails behind China with more than 600 million and the US with more than 250 million. Still, access to the Internet, especially through smartphones, is rising rapidly in Asia’s third largest economy, spurred by the availability of cheap devices. Online retail, which is worth $3.1 billion, or just 0.6% of the overall retail market in India, is expected

to surge to $22 billion over the next five years, according to a November 2013 report by brokerage CLSA. The lead-up to the Alibaba initial public offering (IPO) had already contributed to turning investors’ sentiment on Indian e-commerce companies after a two-year dry spell when most firms struggled to raise money. This year, investors have poured more than $2 billion into e-commerce in India and they are likely to pump in an additional $1 billion before December, according to Mint research. “A $230 billion valuation certainly validates that a company of the emerging markets and for the emerging markets can deliver mega-billion-dollar exits to VCs (venture capitalists),” said Vishal Dixit, a partner at Mayfield Fund’s India advisory team, MF Advisors Llp. Most of the investments in India’s e-commerce have come from VCs such as Tiger Global, DST Global and SoftBank, which owns more than 30% of Alibaba, that were already betting on China’s burgeoning middle class through investments in companies such as Alibaba.com and second largest e-commerce firm JD.com (previously known as 360buy). “Investor interest is only going to get more solid. This IPO will give investors some confidence that these are truly meaningful markets and that most action on the Internet front is actually happening in the Asia Pacific after the US,” said Ankur Warikoo, head of Groupon APAC Emerging Markets and an ex-venture partner at Rocket Internet GmBh. Online marketplace Shopclues. com is seeing strong interest

The lead-up to the Alibaba initial public offering (IPO) had already contributed to turning investors’ sentiment on Indian e-commerce companies after a two-year dry spell when most ﬁrms struggled to raise money. Photo: Bloomberg

IPO makes strong case for emerging market counterparts; investors see India’s potential next only to China’s from VCs and others who have not yet invested in e-commerce, said Radhika Aggarwal, cofounder and vice-president. Investors and analysts also expect Alibaba to make strategic investments in India— which could mean long-awaited exits for investors in e-commerce companies. “We now have a very proliﬁc buyer likely to come on the table and that is going to enthuse entrepreneurs and investors,” said Sanjeev Aggarwal, managing director of Helion Ventures Pvt. Ltd, referring to Alibaba.

However, some investors said that though Alibaba’s IPO will boost investor sentiment on India, VC firms that have been present in India over the past few years are unlikely to hand over money to every other e-commerce business. “You will see an increase in exuberance toward India and there will be some irrational investments, especially by some fly-by-night funds who will want to get in to India just because it’s the flavour of the day,” said Sasha Mirchandani, founder of Kae Capital, an early-

stage investment firm. “But the smart money is not going to be that easy to come. Firms that have been present in India will continue to bet selectively.” Helion’s Aggarwal, among others, has concerns that Indian e-commerce companies may be overvalued. “Valuations have run up very high, so a lot of money will be lost. India is overpriced now and very expensive,” he added. Alibaba generates most of its $9 billion in annual sales from two marketplaces—Taobao and Tmall. Alibaba’s engines are its logistics and financial services, which manage five billion shipments a year and handled $519 billion of finance under AliPay, according to the share sale documents filed by the company. In India, too, most firms now operate as marketplaces rather than direct retailers, partly because the country bans foreign investments in online retail. Flipkart and Snapdeal both have announced ambitions to become the Alibaba of India. But no Indian firm has yet made a serious attempt to become an integrated conglomerate such as Alibaba—Flipkart shut down its payment gateway last month. Experts also pointed that India is a much smaller market than China and that e-commerce and related businesses such as logistics, payment technologies and thirdparty sellers are likely to take much longer to achieve tens of billions in sales that Chinese firms already generate. “Whether there will be a company as large as Alibaba in India is a question that still remains to be answered,” Avendus’s Bhinde said. -Livemint.com

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28 September 26, 2014

CLT20: Super Kings Secure Big Win in Run-fest BY RACHNA SHETTY

Chennai Super Kings 242 for 6 (Raina 90, McCullum 49, Jadeja 40*) beat Dolphins 188 (Chetty 38, Mohit 4-41, Bravo 2-17) by 54 runs A stunning 43-ball 90 from Suresh Raina was the cornerstone of Chennai Super Kings’ 54-run win over Dolphins in Bangalore but the contest, at least for the early part of the Dolphins chase, was far more closely matched than the eventual victory margin suggested. Dolphins captain Morne van Wyk had opted to bowl and said his decision had been influenced by the reputation the Chinnaswamy Stadium had for aiding sides batting second. For 20 overs of Super Kings’ innings, however, van Wyk could only watch from behind the stumps as Raina, Brendon McCullum, Faf du Plessis and Ravindra Jadeja plundered runs at will, powering Super Kings to 242 for 6. The Dolphins response was equally explosive at the start. Van Wyk and Cameron Delport raised the side’s 50 in 15 balls. By the end of the Powerplay, Dolphins had raced to 85 for 2, bettering the CLT20 record set by Super Kings earlier in the day. As is typical in big chases, the breakthroughs came when the Dolphins batsmen kept playing for the big shots, but they were also left to rue a poor decision from umpire K Srinath, who adjudged Van Wyk lbw when a ball from R Ashwin had pitched several inches outside leg stump. The dismissal came in an over where the Dolphins captain had smacked two fours and a six off the bowler. After van Wyk was dismissed, Dolphins’ hopes rested on Delport who swung and swiped his way to a nine-ball 34. All but two of the deliveries he faced had raced to the boundary and his bustling innings had threatened to play out the same way as Andre Russell’s a few days ago before Mohit Sharma ended it with a slower ball. After Delport was out, the pressure of keeping pace with a spiraling asking rate was squarely on Cody Chetty. He tried with a

Suresh Raina hammered eight sixes, Chennai Super Kings v Dolphins, CLT20, Group A, Bangalore.

gamely 37 off 28 balls but his dismissal gave Super Kings an opening to stifle the scoring rate for a couple of overs and the bowlers responded. The target left Dolphins with no room for quiet overs and when those did come, especially during Bravo’s tight spell filled with variations of slower balls, whatever little hope they had left slipped away quickly. In sharp contrast, unburdened by a target hanging over them, the Super Kings innings motored along at top speed. MS Dhoni had some concerns at the toss about how the track would behave due to the presence of a few patches but there was little to worry about for Super Kings once they began. After Dwayne Smith fell early to the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj, Raina and McCullum set about dismantling the Dolphins attack, matching each other almost stroke for stroke during a relentless 91run stand that came off 45 balls. The Dolphin pacers, including Kyle Abbott, had few answers to the fearsome shots McCullum unleashed either side of the wicket, harking back in some ways to the whirlwind century he played during the first game of the Indian

Premier League. The pair led Super Kings to the second-best Powerplay score of the season, smashing 70 in the first six overs. Raina got off the mark with a four and after that, kept carving out sixes effortlessly. The scoring rate barely suffered a hiccup when McCullum was out for 49 - caught at deep midwicket off a mis-timed shot - as Raina took over the lead role. He marched to a fifty off 27 balls and in a thirdwicket partnership of 65 with du Plessis, contributed 53 runs. The gaps between the landmarks showed how effectively Super Kings had negated the Dolphins attack as the side progressed to 50 to 100 and 150 in 25, 28 and 26 balls, respectively. Sixty-four of Raina’s 90 runs came in boundaries and by the time his top edge settled in Delport’s hands at point, Raina had become the first Indian batsman to move past 5000 runs in T20s and was one short of 200 sixes in the format. Dolphins’ relief over quick wickets at the end was also short-lived as Jadeja smashed 40 off 14 balls to produce a big flourish. Abbott came back and bowled a couple of quiet overs but by then the total

had swelled to 242, equalling the tournament record set by Otago Volts last season. Rachna Shetty is a senior subeditor at ESPNcricinfo

McCullum’s Fosbury Flop

McCullum kept his eyes on the ball and the boundary line while trying to get under a straight slog from Robbie Frylinck.

SPORTS

Malinga: Ankle Surgery

COLOMBO: Lasith Malinga has suggested Sri Lanka would be wise to groom another bowler as a World Cup failsafe as he prepares to undergo surgery on Monday that will keep him out for around 16 weeks. Malinga consulted his orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne on Sunday, and decided his longterm ankle complaint had degenerated to an extent that it required surgery. If there are no complications during the arthroscopic procedure or recovery, Malinga is expected to return to full intensity at training in mid-January, giving him around a month of practice before Sri Lanka play the World Cup curtain-raiser against New Zealand on February 14. Sri Lanka’s selectors remain hopeful that he will be available for at least some of the seven ODIs Sri Lanka are scheduled to play against New Zealand in January. Malinga will undergo a threedimensional CT scan before going under the knife on Monday and is wary that the surgery could put his World Cup plans in disarray. “I will do everything I can to be back for the World Cup,” Malinga said. “But I think it would be good for us to give a young bowler a few opportunities in the meantime, so that we can at least have someone prepared.” The surgery will aim to “clean up” a joint in his ankle, Sri Lanka physio Steve Mount said. “It has been a long-term issue for Lasith, and he’s had chronic pain there for some time,” Mount said. “It’s a regular complaint for fast bowlers, but it has reached a stage where his ankle didn’t respond how it previously has done to methods like cortisone injections and load monitoring. “If everything follows the normal recovery time, he could be a chance to play in some of those New Zealand one-dayers, but we’ll also be careful not to rush him back.” Malinga will recover for around 10 days in Australia before returning to Sri Lanka. He had been expensive in his last two ODI series, against Pakistan and South Africa, when he was also clocked at consistently lower speeds than he had been bowling at in the past.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

INDIA

September 26, 2014

Why Allan Sealy’s …Pagoda Took Eight Years in Writing?

Indian author Irwin Allan Sealy’s “The Small Wild Goose Pagoda” has been hailed as yet another masterpiece in which the protagonists are three ordinary, nay extraordinary workmen and a 433 square-yard piece of land. Four months into the release of his …Pagoda, Sealy is still basking in the glow of the unmitigated appreciation and rave reviews that have come his way. …Pagoda is the seventh milestone in Allan Sealy’s quarter-century-long odyssey as a writer. In a one-on-one interview with IAN India Correspondent RAJ KANWAR Sealy tells him how he became a writer and the other options that he has had in his life. In his not-so-long writing career, Sealy has established a unique niche for himself among the fraternity of writers. In 1988 Sealy, then 37, had astounded the literary world with his very ﬁrst novel “The Trotter-Nama: A Chronicle”. It was not only con-

producing something that might approach (if not match) those standards. Naturally then, you take your time, but nothing inferior gets through the gate. If I hadn’t turned to writing I might have ended up quality controller for a pharma company and driven them to bankruptcy. St. Stephen’s alumni, by and large, opt for civil or foreign services, even though there have been a few authors among them too. Did you not then think of joining the civil services? I’m not sarkari material; I work too hard, and only for myself. You had once said at a book release function that you did not read newspapers or even watch news channels. Have you since become comfortable with print and electronic media? I have no interest in this thing called “news”. There’s nothing new under the sun: just look at the front page of a newspaper from the sixties (when I came of age) and you’ll see how little has changed. There’s never been a TV in this house, but I do browse the net and trawl the world’s media from the New York Times to the Hindu. As a young man I was what you might call “political” but nowadays I generally click on a human interest story. The internet is a great gift to someone living in a mofussil town, and unlike TV, you’re in control. What really motivated you to write ...Pagoda? Had you conceptualized it in its entirety from the very beginning or did it gradually evolve as you began constructing it? It’s a book about labor, the labor of building and the labor of writing. It most certainly evolved, but I did have a rhythm in mind from the start, like

that of the seasons. Our old mali, who is one of the chief characters in the story, and a kind of example for me, embodies this change and constancy. I hope to attain something like that equanimity some day. Your …Pagoda has won universal praise. Has that been translated into sales? Which of your books became “a best seller” by Indian yardstick? Does your writing pay enough to make a comfortable living? I have never written a bestseller, though The Everest Hotel was actually pirated back in 1998. Both facts leave me unreasonably pleased. My books sell poorly but then I write for a thousand people at most, not ten or a hundred thousand. I’m middle class, well off by any local measure. Live too comfortably and your writing suffers. Most people ﬁnd in you an interesting and lively conversationalist. Do you interact socially? Please name a few of your friends with whom you are on visiting terms? I have a small circle of valley folk whose friendship I greatly value; as you get closer to the centre of that circle the talk gets freer and wilder. It’s very good for example to have a poet like Arvind Mehrotra just up the road, and thanks to email I’m right next door to the most far-ﬂung friends. I understand you don’t have a regular writing routine. Even then you must have some preferred writing hours when you are in the midst of a writing frenzy? On a good day, what is your average output? Pitiful, my output, especially lately when I’ve turned into wardboy-cummali. Prolonged physical work leaves

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you drained and unﬁt for writing, but I’m still making notes. The raw stage of writing is in any case far more pleasurable than the ﬁnished. Writing hours vary widely depending on the circumstances: certain books were night-owl music, others dawn birds. During the day there’s housework and general upkeep. I sleep four hours a night. Has your writing career given you, what is called, “job satisfaction”? Have you reached whatever thresholds you had set for yourself? The satisfactions of writing are immense and to my mind immeasurable; I’m convinced that they, not your royalties, are your earnings. The thresholds are reachable, crossable; the ceilings you can’t hope to touch. Chekhov is one ceiling, Calvino is another, Babel a third, and so on; all those idols I spoke of earlier. Have you taken in your stride the widespread praise that has come your way following the release of the ….Pagoda? What next? The praise is gratifying when it zeroes in on details you yourself were pleased with; it’s recognition of that kind that matters, things you were hoping wouldn’t go abegging. Next is a long poem, and also a book of essays, and lately the glimmerings of a novel, of a kind altogether new for me. Raj Kanwar is the India Correspondent of Indo American News.

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Author Irwin Allan Sealy Photo: Samimitra

sidered remarkable for an unknown writer then to have been published by Knopf, the most reputed of the international publishers but it had also received critical accolades from the literati. Glowing reviews too appeared in the mainstream newspapers and magazines. The Trotter… was hailed by many critics as Sealy’s ‘magnum opus’. It was thus not surprising that the Trotter won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1989 for being the “Best First Book” by a writer in Europe and South Asia. Over the following years, Sealy came out with five more books with diverse themes that only helped further enhance his reputation as an ingenious writer of unusual merit. His fifth book “Red: An Alphabet” came out in 2006. Seven books in a quarter-century, including his latest sensation …Pagoda, is certainly not a prodigious output. His writing is essentially intuitive, and not measured or labored; writing is not a routine ritual with him that would necessitate a daily output of 1000 or 1500 words. It is the urgings from his heart that guide his fingers and thus his writings are by and large ‘dil se’. No wonder then that Sealy didn’t produce books with calendar-like regularity. From “Red”, it took Sealy a good eight years to construct his replica of … Pagoda. But it has certainly been worth the wait. If you had not become a writer, what would you have been today? What or who actually inspired you to take to writing as a career? The inspiration comes from the writers you revere, your idols. In that early glow of worship you dream of

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