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1 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

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Vol. 29, No. 34

American

Aarti Sequeira Wins “ The Next Food Network Star”

Government Plans toReintroduce Cheetah in National Parks

Graduation Ceremony at Chinmaya Mission Story on Pg 18

continued on page 19

this week Inside

In a Day of Solidarity, Hindus Vow Not to Forget

How the West Was Won: Among First Immigrants to America Story on Pg 34

Consul General Sanjiv Arora unfurls the Indian flag at his residence last Sunday. Pho-to: Bijay Dixit

Houston celebrates

India’s 63rd Independence

day

Story on Pg 4

Didi Maa Mesmerizes Audience at India House

Story on Pg 9

Story on Pg 38

Story on Pg 40

HOUSTON: This year the ICC observed its annual India Fest 2010 celebrating India’s 64th In-dependence Day on Sunday, Au-gust 15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

An unusually large turnout of over 7,500 at the India Fest 2010 can be attributed to the free entry and also it being a Sunday, a day when general parking in the down-town area is free.

A grand cultural extravaganza scheduled for the late afternoon was a blast for entertainment: Passage to Bollywood – A Pas-sage from the Golden Era of 50s to Modern Cinema, was featured through dance, music and fashion

show. Jasmeeta Singh, Event Co-Chair and Chief coordinator of the evening cultural segment did a phenomenal job capturing the es-sence of Bollywood.

Equally exceptional was the morning segment entitled Heri-tage India – A Tribute to Tagore on his 150th Birth Anniversary, that enthralled the audience with a life sketch, his works in art, music, education, literature, poetry and prose.

The ‘Spirit of Tagore Award’ in his honor was awarded to individ-uals excelling in poetry, painting education, writing and music. Atul Vir, heading the Awards Commit-tee, announced the winners.

The morning segment was put together by Nimmi Vale, ICC Sec-retary, in collaboration with Tag-ore Society of Houston President Raja Banga who also organized painting, drawing and essay writ-ing competitions on the occasion.

Rajiv Bhavsar, Event Chair, ap-preciated the continued support of the Office of Indian Consulate, all the Indo-American organizations and the local dance schools for the magnificent show.

“ICC has been managing the fi-nancial resources very diligently and without dipping into our past reserves,” said Swapan Dhairy-awan, ICC President in his mes-sage.

crowds Flock to Invigorated I-day celebration

Chief Guest, Consul General of India, Sanjiv Arora in his mes-sage commended ICC’s dedica-tion, “India Fest 2010 so aptly en-titled ‘Heritage India’ is a befitting tribute by the ICC and the Indian community to the great country of their origin.”

Among the distinguished dig-nitaries present were Members of Congress Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee; Harris County Judge Ravi Sandill, Sugar Land Mayor

Jasmeeta Singh (center) in a dance sequence she cho-reographed. Photos: Bijay Dixit

Surender Talwar (left) co-organized the entertainment and sang in the qawalii along with ICC President Swapan Dhairayawan (right).

for awards information, and morepictures, see page 19

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Scary SeductressDebutant Indian Bollywood actress Sheena Nayyar promotes her upcoming Hindi Horror film ‘Mallika’ at a press conference in Mumbai

August 28th: Black & WhiteIndo-American Association presents a walk down memory lane of the golden era of Hindi Cinema 1948-1965, 8pm at Wortham Center

IAccgH thinks India, thinks Houston

CG Sanjiv Arora (left), IACCGH President Madhukar Prasad and Congressman Al Green with proclamation from the US Congress.

By Pramod KulKarniKarniKHOUSTON: The Indo-Ameri-

can Chamber of Greater Houston (IACCGH) celebrated its 11th An-nual Gala with the theme “Think India, Think Houston”. The sold-out banquet featured India’s Con-sul General Sanjiv Arora as the chief guest and included a pre-sentation of the chamber’s annual awards. The event took place Sat-urday night at the Westin Galleria Hotel.

The award winners were Sanjaya Sood, VP of Geothermal Services at Schlumberger as the Outstand-ing Businessperson of hte Year. Juuhi Ahuja was the recipeint of the Outstanding Businesswoman

continued on page 3

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2 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010

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Shell employees attending the gala gather around the Special Recognition Award the IACCGH presented to Shell for its continuing support for the Distinguished Lecture Series and other events.

CG Arora presented IACCGH 2010 awards to Sanjaya Sood (left), Sanjay Ramabhadran and Juuhi Ahuja. Photos by Bijay Dixit

IAccgH Fetes outstanding 2010 Businessperson, young Businessperson, Businesswoman

A special award was presented to Dallas Chamber of Commerce President Ashok Mago.

of the Year. Ahuja is the President and CEO of Wise Men Consul-tants, an IT and executive search firm. Outstanding Young Busi-nessperson of the Year was Sanjay Ramabhadran, Vice President of CP&Y, a Texas based infrastruc-ture and environmental consulting firm. The awards

In his keynote speech, CG Arora lauded the achievements of the IACCGH in encouraging trade and alliances between US and India. He also urged IACCGH and other community organizations to make themselves heard against the high service fees instituted recently for H1B and L1 visa applicants, a rule that affects Indian IT companies doing business in the US.

The emcee for the gala was Son-al Bhuchar, President of the Fort Bend ISD and the banquet was catered by Madras Pavilion and Daawat, its catering company.

The special guests at the gala included Congressman Al Green, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator.

The IACCGH received congrat-ulatory messages from US Senator John Cornyn, Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar, Houston City Mayor Annise Parker.

IACCGH officials who made welcoming remarks and took part in the presentations included Pres-ident Madhukar Prasad, President-Elect Mona Parikh, and Chair of the Awards Committee Somesh Singh, and Executive Director Jagdeep Ahluwalia.

For additional information about the chamber and its upcoming events, including the golf tourna-ment, visit www.iaccgh.com


4 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 s o c i e t y

continued on page 5

In a day of solidarity with events of Partition ...

The organizers and panelists of the Hindu Memorial Day observed last Saturday, August 14 at India House. From left, From left, Rudranath Talukdar, Dharmendra Dargan, Dilip Mehta, Bramh Mishra, Jay Shah, Sugoto Chakravarty Subrato Gangopadhya and Pradip Parekh at the Hindu Memorial Day event at India House last Saturday. Not in Picture : Rajiv Varma, Sanjeev Jaiswal, Aneeta Chakravarty, Thayalan Reddy and Sunil Fotedar

Survivors of the Indian Partition spoke of their personal ordeals during that time. Two stories of the Punjab were by Shakuntla Malhotra (far left) who hailed from Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) and became a refugee in New Delhi and T.K.Rana and wife (left) who ran from their home in Lahore to come to New Delhi.

HOUSTON: The Hindu Mahasabaha of America, Houston chapter held an all day conference in observance of “Memorial Day”, a day to ensure and pledge that Hin-dus do not forget the past lest it may only come to haunt us again. It was also a day of tribute to those who sacrificed their lives on this day in 1947

The conference opened with homage paid to those heroes of the Indian Partition who fled but failed to survive while crossing the newly formed border that cut off a limb of Bharatvarsh to accommodate the Muslim state of Pakistan.

Some of the speakers at this event shared their experiences with the audience and re-lated their precarious and perilous journey to freedom leaving behind their home, busi-ness, land and often some family members in the hope that they would meet again (see page 13). Many never did.

These eye witnesses could not stand the horror of violence perpetrated against Hin-dus in Punjab, Sindh and East Bengal. One speaker said that he and the male members

of his family had chosen to shoot their fe-male members first to save their honor and dignity at the hands of attackers before fighting began.

As fires raged and people were killed by the dozens it was not hard to choose to leave behind their centuries old home and culture and travel to a new land in the expectation of a peaceful life, but only to meet extremely poor conditions of life in refugee camps.

Conferees agreed that the two nation the-ory was a blunder of the highest order as Muslims were given freedom to stay back and live in India while the Hindus and Sikhs were either systematically forced to leave the country, were converted or were forced into marriage or even killed. They noted that the violence of the Partition is still continu-ing in Kashmir and elsewhere.

One of the speakers Tapan Ghosh also gave a touching testimony of actual expe-riences today in West Bengal and Assam. He included the systematic kidnappings of young Hindu school age girls and young women, rapes and even gang-rapes. This

was a fitting message for Hindus living outside India to realize the realities on the ground in the Motherland on the eve of ob-serving the 63rd Independence of India.

The organizers noted that the today the

objective to protect the rights of the majority community and democracy in India is very uncertain, while a concern to also maintain the rights and privileges of the minority has to be borne in mind. The minority is quick-ly expanding while the majority is slowly shrinking. A direct result of blind and faulty state government policy based on hunger for power at any expense.

Demographics for West Bengal show what has happened over the years since Indepen-


5 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

... Hindus in Houston Vow not to Forgetcontinued from page 4

More survivors of the Indian Partition with personal stories to share. Clockwise from top left: Mr. Duha from Calcutta saw violence at his college, St. Xaviers; a recent refugee from Bhutan, now a transplanted to the US; Bhagwan Dev Hingorani from Quetta, Baluchistan left by ship from Karachi; Tirat Kushaldasani from Sindh left by train to settle in Ajmer. Photos: Jawahar Malhotra

Partition survivors share their storiesdence and also calls for an immediate and urgent realization by the com-munity in America.

The census reveal that between 1981 and 1891 the number of Hindus rose by 21.5% while the number of Muslims rose by 36.67% a difference of over 15%, and be-tween 1991 and 2001 the number of Hindus rose by 18.36% while the number of Muslims rose by 25.9% a difference of over 6%.

For the organizers, this data suggests that such an alarming rate of growth is not sustainable and can only lead to a civil war scenario in the next 20 years.

For more information on the Hindu Mahasabha of America, Houston Chap-ter, contact Brahm Mish-ra at 832-868-5656

By Jawahar malhotraHOUSTON: The oral history of the

events that immediately preceded the Partition of India in August, 1947 and the tumultuous changes that occurred in the lives of the people who were uproot-ed was recalled by several people at the Hindu Memorial Day conference this past Saturday.

Most of them are now in their late 70s and early 80s, but they spoke, sometimes with great emotion, with memories of the upheaval that were still very vivid.

The oldest among them, Shakuntla Mal-hotra, 82, mother of this reporter, recalled how she had left her ancestral home in Lyallpur (now called Faisalabad) as an 18 year-old newlywed. “When we got to Lahore railway station, it was so crowded that my uncle Mohan threw me through a window into a compartment.”

The Ranas, a couple who lives here with their children, recalled how she felt when she was able to visit her family’s home in Lahore 63 years later. “The whole mahala (neighborhood) came to see us, offered us tea and when we went in,” said Mrs. Rana, “we discovered that nothing had been moved, it was just the way we had left it.”

Most stories of the Partition deal with

the situation in the Punjab, which saw the bloodiest of the conflict. However, among the speakers were three from Sindh and Baluchistan, now part of Pakistan, who related their stories. One, Mr. Arjun, had left Karachi 20 years after the Partition, and said that Baluchistan actually wants to separate from Pakistan and that the lo-cals felt more affiliated with Hindus than the majority Muslims there.

Mr. Duha, on the other hand, spoke about the violence he saw as a student at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta. Bhagwan Dev Hingorani spoke of the day when he was 13 years old and had to flee with his family from Quetta, Baluchistan to Sindh and then Karachi where they boarded a ship bound for India. Tirat Kushaldasani remembered how his neighborhood in Sindh, “about ten times the size of India House” was attacked by a gang, but only one person was killed.

The last speaker was a young man who recently immigrated to the US from his native Bhutan, after being denied entry to India and being attacked by people in Assam. He said in flowing and flawless Hindi, that the Bhutanese were forcing Hindus to convert to Buddhism and the Indian government would not allow them safe passage and stay in India.

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, August 20 , 2010 • Ay, August 20 , 2010 • A onlonlo Ine Ine I edItItI ItIt on: www.IndoAmerIcAn-news.com


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VISIT THE HOUSTON ZOO THIS WEEKVISIT THE HOUSTON ZOO THIS WEEK

By rohit moharirUpon my return home after five days that

took a lifetime to pass, I leaned back on my soft leather sofa. Reclining further into it than I thought possible, I scan the dam-age those five days had done to my system. Extreme irritation of the throat and vocal chords, dangerously lowered standards of hygiene upkeep, major declivity of brain and motor functions. Overall, that’s a small price to pay for the fun-filled time I had the

privilege of spending at Hindu Heritage camp this year.

The 26th annual Hindu Heritage Camp, hosted by Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Amer-ica, was held from July 27th through Au-gust 1st with 167 attendees from ages 7 to 18 at the JCC Gordon Campsite. This has been my 8th year to attend camp and the first time I endured it from the side of the 33 full and part time counselors.

I’m not aware of the exact moment when my pre-camp jitters vanished, but the shift in my nervous mindset probably occurred some time between watching the hall be-ing filled with excited kids, to hearing the building flood with laughter from over a hundred new and returning campers ready for a great week.

Director Kavita Pallod took a leap of faith and decided to make a change to what felt like a long standing tradition of camp: changing the camp song to Har Har Bam Bam. Although the transition was sketchy at first, after a short time, the campers were singing and bouncing along to the new an-them on a nightly basis. Also, a fourth edu-cation was added to our evolving schedule so we counselors could come up with more aspects of Hinduism we wanted to teach. There was a wide range of educational topics this year with some focusing on the more traditional storytelling teaching like following the accounts of popular figures in the Hindu stories. However, this year,

we also focused on protecting the integrity of Hinduism for our generation today. To quote from the education summary of Rani Ramchandani and Rosch Wadera, two fel-low first year counselors, “In this vastly di-versifying world, many young Hindus are barraged with questions about their faith that they are largely unprepared for...Over-all, this lesson strives to enlighten youth so that they may serve as better representatives of Hinduism by having a more profound

understanding of the religion as a whole.” To make sure that all campers could instill a sense of pride in their religion by being able to defend their faith, we even sent home to all the campers the article which inspired this education.

The entire group was lucky to have been visited by a few, unique guest speakers in-cluding Arjun Mathur, a young man who raised over a hundred thousand dollars for Ekal Vidyala, Swami Nikhilanand, a return-ing speaker from Barsana Dham who in-formed the kids about Hinduism, and Sita Mutyala, a renowned author of children’s books.

After their educations, campers made use of the entire campsite during free recreation for two hours. I particularly enjoyed this time because campers of all grades, ages, and hometowns interacted while swimming at the pool, paddle boating on the lake, re-laxing with healthy snacks on picnic tables, or while playing on the football, soccer, vol-leyball, and basketball courts.

Camp had a few evening activities like talent show, skit night, and garba, which was made a success thanks to our very own counselor/DJ, Nalin Verma. Every year it seems, camp has been faced with a prob-lem. What should we do for our Wednesday night activity? Without the help of Arpan Amin, who took it upon himself to coordi-nate the logistics of an Elementary/Middle

Youth attending morning shakha at the Hindu Heritage Camp 2010

continued on page 7

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continued frpm page 6School Dodgeball tournament, we would not have had what in my opinion was the best Wednesday night activity ever. Further increasing the camaraderie between ages and grade levels, teams consisting of thirteen kids from 2nd to 8th grade were formed and each launched their campaigns to become the championship dodgeball team (which incidentally was coached by yours truly).

Campers are already forming the initial bonds that will soon become long-lasting friendships, as they have countless times in the past. Kids who have just met have made their connections with one another online and are even beginning to make plans for next year’s camp. High school sophomore, Rohan Shah states, “As camp ends, there is a definite sense of what you are about to lose when you leave camp. The great learn-ing experiences, close friends, and obvious-ly the food. Those are the sole reasons why every camper makes it a point to return to camp the following year.”

On the surface, we simply are a large group of young people who come together every year to have a healthy dose of summer fun. Looking deeper, we are all individuals who share a common desire to strengthen Hindu-ism and our culture by keeping the roots in our youth strong and by attending the camp we help protect the vision of a proud Hindu society for the future. To take from our new-ly beloved camp song, “Hindu bankure hai hum” (We are brave Hindu youth), and our

identity shall remain secure.The camp was sponsored by Vishwa Hin-

du Parishad of America, HoustonChapter, in cooperation with other local

Hindu organizations. For more information or to register for camp, go to www.hindu-camp.com.

Rohit Moharir graduated from Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, Texas and is heading up to Boston to be a Freshman and study Business at Northeastern University. In this, his first year of being a counselor, Rohit was responsible for a group of 8th graders, leading bhajans and Aarti, and creating the counselor skit.

Camp co-director Kavita Pallod ad-dressing closing ceremony

... recalling Fond memories

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, August 20 , 2010 • Ay, August 20 , 2010 • A onlonlo Ine Ine I edItItI ItIt on: www.IndoAmerIcAn-news.com

8 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010

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In champaran, “Face-to-Face withchamparan, “Face-to-Face withcgod, Ahimsa, truttrutt h”ruth”rut

stoRy of MahatMa Gandhi

The annual meeting of the Con-gress was held in December 1916 in Lucknow. The Congress was divided. There were the moder-ates and there were the extremists, but at Lucknow the Congress met without tension between the two wings.

The President, Ambika Cha-ran Mazumdar, spoke in terms of Swaraj, which previous leaders had demanded. A resolution was passed appealing to His Majesty’s Government and demanding that a definite step should be taken to-wards Indian self-government by granting the reforms contained in the scheme prepared by the All- India Congress Committee and adopted by the All-India Muslim League.

In Lucknow the Congress and the Muslim League came to an agreement. This was later known as the Lucknow Pact. For the sake of the unity of India the Congress conceded many points demanded by the Muslims.

For two years Gandhi had trav-elled extensively in India and had talked at different places. He now wanted to start some work con-nected with labor. His interest first centered on the problem of indentured labor, the system under which poor, ignorant laborers were enticed away from India to work in the British colonies. He had fought this system in South Africa and he wanted to see it abolished.

The Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, an-nounced that His Majesty’s Gov-ernment had agreed to abolish the system’ in due course. Gandhi, however, wanted a definite date before which the system would go.

So now Gandhi started a great agitation on this issue. He went to Bombay and consulted all the Indian leaders there. They fixed May 31, 1917 as the last date for the abolition of indentured labor. He then went around the country to get support for this view.

Meetings were held in all impor-tant places. Everywhere there was a great response. Even Gandhi said that he had not expected so much public support.

As a result of the agitation, the Government announced that the system of indentured labor would be stopped before July 31,1917.

Gandhi had heard about an ob-noxious system of agricultural la-bor prevailing in Bihar.

In the Champaran district of Bi-har, the cultivators were forced by Europeans to grow indigo, a blue dye, and this imposed on them untold sufferings. They could not grow the food they needed, nor did they receive adequate payment for the indigo.

Gandhi was unaware of this until an agriculturist from Bihar, Raj-kumar Shukla, met him and told

him of the woes of the people of Champaran. He requested Gandhi to go to the place and see for him-self the state of affairs there.

Gandhi was then attending the Congress meeting at Lucknow and he did not have time to go there. Rajkumar Shukla followed him about, begging him to come and help the suffering villagers in Champaran. Gandhi at last prom-ised to visit the place after he had visited Calcutta.

When Gandhi was in Calcutta, Rajkumar was there too, to take him to Bihar.

Gandhi went to Champaran with Rajkumar early in 1917. On his ar-rival the District Magistrate served him with a notice saying that he was not to remain in the district of Champaran but must leave the place by the first available train.

Gandhi disobeyed this order. He was summoned to appear before the court. The magistrate said, “If you leave the district now and promise not to return, the case against you will be withdrawn:

“This cannot be,” said Gandhi. “I came here to render humanitar-ian and national service. I shall make Champaran my home and work for the suffering people.’

A large crowd of peasants was outside the court shouting slogans. The magistrate and the police looked nervous.

Then Gandhi said, “I shall help you and calm these people if you let me speak to them.”

Gandhi appeared before the crowd and said, “You must show your faith in me and in my work by remaining quiet. The magistrate had the right to arrest me, because I disobeyed his order. If I am sent to jail, you must accept that as just. We must work peacefully. Any vi-olent act will harm our cause.”

The crowd dispersed peacefully. The police stared at Gandhi in admiration as he went inside the court.

“That day in Champaran was an unforgettable event in my life ..... It is no exaggeration, but the lit-eral truth, to say that in this meet-

ing with the peasants, I was face to face with God, ahimsa and truth,” Gandhi wrote later.

The Government withdrew the case against Gandhi and allowed him to remain in the district. Gan-dhi stayed there to study the griev-ances of the peasants.

He visited many villages. He cross-examined about 8,000 cul-tivators and recorded their state-ments. In this way he arrived at an exact understanding of their plight and the causes.

He came to the conclusion that the ignorance of the cultivators was one of the main reasons why the European planters could ex-ploit them. Gandhi set up volun-tary organizations to improve the economic and educational condi-tions of the people. They opened schools and taught the people how to improve sanitation.

The Government realized Gan-dhi’s strength and devotion to his causes. They themselves then set up a committee to enquire into the grievances of the cultivators. They invited Gandhi to serve on that committee, and he agreed. The re-sult was that within a few months the Champaran Agrarian Bill was passed. It gave great relief to the cultivators and land tenants.

Gandhi could not stay longer in Bihar. There were calls from other places. Labor unrest was brewing in Ahmedabad and Gandhi was re-quested to help settle the dispute.

Gandhi hurried back to Ahmeda-bad. Before taking up the labor dispute Gandhi wanted to move his ashram. The Satyagraha Ash-ram was in a village near Ahmeda-bad, but the surroundings were not clean and plague had broken out. It had spread there from Ahmeda-bad.

A rich merchant of Ahmedabad, who was closely associated with the ashram, volunteered to procure a suitable piece of land. Gandhi went about with him looking for land and at last they chose a place on the bank of the Sabarmati river, near the Sabarmati Central Jail. The land was purchased and there the famous Sabarmati Ashram was started.

In Ahmedabad there were many textile mills. Prices had gone up and the mill workers were de-manding higher wages. The mill owners would not agree. Gandhi sympathized with the workers and took up their cause. He launched a struggle and resorted to peaceful resistance. The workers proudly followed Gandhi and pledged their full support to him. They paraded the streets with large banners, and said they would not go back to work until a settlement had been reached.

— To be Continued

continued on page 9

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didi maa mesmerizes Audience at India Housemesmerizes Audience at India HousemBy yatindra Batindra Batindra hatnagar

HOUSTON: She made India House reverberate with vociferous Jais for Bharat Mata and Vrinda-van Bihari Shri Krishna and the audience replied with Didi Maa Ki jai as Sadhvi Ritambhara started on her 45 minute speech that mes-merized her listeners, in Houston, August 12.

Her emphasis was on shunning all negativity from our lives and positive thinking that was echoed through those slogans of Jais, of victory and not defeat, of courage and not cowardice.

Speaking mainly on Hindu Uni-ty, Sadhvi Ritambhara, popularly known as Didi Maa, reminded the audience about the rich heritage of Hindus, India, and the lofty ide-als of the Vedic Sanatan religion that has always believed in the world as one family, declar-ing the mantra,Vasudhaiv Ku-tumbakam.

The meeting was organized by Hindus of Greater Hous-ton in coopera-tion with Param Shakti Peeth of America and various Hindu organizations.

Didi Maa was as eloquent as ever, as persua-sive as before and as emotion-ally inspiring as always. Her address was in-terspersed with many Sanskrit shloks, popular sayings and cou-plets to forcefully bring home the essentials of unity, cooperation and the much- needed Hindu awaken-ing. She said Hindus, irrespective of their ways of living, places of worship and chosen gods and god-desses, should uphold the ideals of strong Hindu community, the glo-ry of Hindi language and the love for the Motherland (Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan.)

Stressing the importance of collectivism, Didi Maa said the Vedic teachings are for coopera-tive endeavor and working for the mission together to achieve maxi-mum results. In that context she applauded the efforts of Hindus of Greater Houston who have set up the tradition of celebrating Hindu festivals collectively. She espe-cially mentioned the upcoming Janmashtami festival at George R. Brown Center, in Houston, where all Hindu organizations under the banner of Hindus of Greater Hous-ton would celebrate the grand event from morning till midnight with various religious and cultural activities.

Didi Maa said the essential ele-ment of humanity and positive progress is the realization to avoid

jealousy, unnecessary and selfish competition with others, and van-ity but, instead, to join together for the greater good of the entire people. She reminded that India’s cultural heritage is for joining the hearts, and not dividing the people on the basis of language, place or way of life.

She said that Hindus are basical-ly united with the undercurrent of the deeper philosophy of spiritual, cultural and traditional oneness. They only have to positively iden-tify and show that oneness.

Giving examples from daily lives, Sadhviji said that people keep money and valuable in safes which are cheaper than the value of their money, and use a lock that is still cheaper than the safe; but a still cheaper key opens the safe

easily. A hammer can break the lock but only the key can open it. The moral of the story is to be like a key that can open the hearts of people, not break them, she said.

Making a vital difference be-tween Uniformity and Oneness (Ekroopta and Ekatmata) Didi Maa said in ancient India also the emphasis was not on uniformity, but oneness, reaching out and touching the hearts of others. That lofty ideal was not confined to hu-mans, but extended to the animal life and even stones which were carved and put up as idols to be worshipped and beautiful carvings to be appreciated.

Making a strong pitch for Hindu unity she said Hindus should real-ize their glorious heritage and work unitedly to restore old glory and collectively achieve greatness and progress. She stressed on sharing and enjoying together all the fruits of nature, hard work and coopera-tion to make the community, state, nation and the whole humanity a better place to live happily.

Did Maa also shared her expe-rience of the Vatsalya Gram, the unique ‘Family Home’ that she has founded to not only shelter

the ‘unwanted, abandoned and needy’ children and women but to give them family, training, work and make them useful and better citizens. She said we are making groups of Yashoda Maa in modern times to raise numerous Krishnas.

Pradip Raol explained that the first Vatsalya Gram Center is fully functioning in Vrindavan; five oth-ers are in Delhi, Solan (in Himachal Pradesh) two in Madhya Pradesh (Omkareshwar and Chhatarpur.) These are the centers of divine love and affection. Ultimately Did Ma wants such Vatsalya Grams with the help of he community, in at least 22 states.

On the occasion a slide show was presented depicting vari-ous facets of the pioneer Vatsalya Gram, its inhabitants and various

activities. There is a fully equipped hospi-tal, school, vocational training center, play-ground, and hostel on the sprawling 50 acre Vatsalya Gram cam-pus that has its own cowherd for milk and other dairy products for the people living in the Gram.

In the beginning Partha Krishnaswamy made a presentation about last year’s Jan-mashtami celebration by Hindus of Greater Houston at the George R. Brown Center. This year it’s again at the same place on August 28 with more activi-ties, décor and a new Band.

Girish Naik the President of Hindus of Greater Houston welcomed the distin-

guished speaker and the audience. Didi Maa, prominent community leader and philanthropist Ramesh Bhutada, Bhagwan Bhutada, and Pradip Raol helped the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. The pro-gram started with Sanskrit prayer by Smitha Prahlad, and melodi-ous bhajans by Vijaya Verma and Krishna Shant Juneja, (who travel with Did Maa.) They were ac-companied on tabla by the noted local musician Hemant Bhavsar. Bhajans (such as Mere Ram dena mujhko sahara, kaheen chhoot na jaye daman tumhara) were very much appreciated.

Many among the audience were vocal in admiring the impact Did Maa made on the listeners. Kirit and Indira Modi said Didi Maa is very impressive and whatever she spoke touched the hearts. She is extremely convincing in her ad-dress, they said.

Many said the goddess of learn-ing and knowledge (Saraswati) re-sides on the tongue of Didi Maa, a sentiment echoed by both the Modis and Jagdish Suman, who never misses an opportunity to at-tend Sadhviji’s meetings; Molina Gidwani too admitted that.

Sadhvi Ritambhara speaking on Hindu Unity at India House on August 12.



Feedback on our Anniversary IssueHappy Anniversary to all of you. It was very interesting to read about every one of you

in the latest issue and put faces to all your names. Congratulations and best wishes for many many more years of uninterrupted ticking. - Nisha Giri

My heartiest congratulations on your publication Indo-American News completing yet another glorious year. Your combined dedication and commitment to presenting accurate news for nearly three decades is historic not only for the Asian American media but the community at large. Along the way you have each touched thousands of individuals in some very special ways. Today, the Indo-American News is a household name among the South Asian families and I’m proud to have been a minuscule, yet most cherished part of this whole endeavor. Wishing you success on all your future ventures as well. -Shobana Muratee

I enjoyed reading about the 29 years of newspaper publishing at Indo-American News and all community coverage over the years. The layout was pleasing and it was very easy to read as compared to some other publications.

- Lachman Das


12 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 c o M M u n i t y


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14 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comIndo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 R e L i G i o n

Did you know? why do we do namaste?Indians greet each other with namaste.

The two palms are placed together in front of the chest and the head bows whilst say-ing the word namaste. This greeting is for all - people younger than us, of our own age, those older than friends, even strangers and us.

There are five forms of formal traditional greeting enjoined in the shaastras of which namaskaram is one. This is understood as prostration but it actually refers to paying homage as we do today when we greet each other with a namaste.

Namaste could be just a casual or formal greeting, a cultural convention or an act of worship. However there is much more to it than meets the eye. In Sanskrit namah + te = namaste. It means - I bow to you - my greetings, salutations or prostration to you. Namaha can also be literally interpreted as

Self or the Lord in me is the same in all. Recognizing this oneness with the meeting of the palms, we salute with head bowed the Divinity in the person we meet. That is why some-times, we close our eyes as we do namaste to a revered person or the Lord – as if to look within. The ges-ture is often accompanied by words like “Ram Ram,” “Jai Shri Krishna”, “Namo Narayana”, “Jai Siya Ram”, “Om Shanti” etc - indicating the rec-ognition of this divinity.

When we know this significance, our greeting does not remain just a superficial gesture or word but paves the way for a deeper communion with another in an atmosphere of love and respect.

“na ma” (not mine). It has a spiritual significance of negating or reducing one’s ego in the presence of an-other.

The real meeting be-tween people is the meet-ing of their minds. When we greet another, we do so with namaste, which means, “may our minds meet,” indicated by the folded palms placed be-fore the chest. The bow-ing down of the head is a gracious form of extend-ing friendship in love and humility

The spiritual meaning is even deeper. The life force, the divinity, the

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2010• ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

15 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com

continued on page 16

society

World’s Toughest Sum CrackedLONDON: An Indian-origin com-

puter scientist based in the US claims to have solved one of the world’s most complex mathematical riddles.

Vinay Deolalikar, who works with the US multinational information

technology corporation Hewlett-Packard in California, believes he has solved the problem of “P versus NP”, Daily Telegraph reported. The Massachusetts-based Clay Math-ematical Institute has categorised the “P vs NP” as one of the seven millennium problems.

It is considered the “most difficult” one to be solved. If his claim is proved correct, Deolalikar stands to earn a $1million prize. Many maths

calculations involve checking a large number of possible solutions and that could be beyond the current capabil-ity of any computer.

P vs NP looks at the possibility of whether there is a way of arriving at

the answers to the calculations faster in the first place.

Deolalikar’s paper that was posted online claims that P, which refers to problems whose solutions are easy to find and verify, is not the same as NP, which refers to problems whose solutions are almost impossible to find but easy to verify, the report said. Mathematicians Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin formalised the problem in 1971.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

16 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.come d i t o r i a l

®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. The deadline for advertising and articles is 5 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 7457 Harwin Drive, Suite 262, Houston, Texas 77036. Tel: 713-789-NEWS or 6397 Fax: 713-789-6399, email: [email protected], website: indoamerican-news.com

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By Gautam ChikermaneIn the intellectually-heavy week

preceding Independence Day, I met four of India’s top economists who are simultaneously driving and observ-ing a changing India. My question to all of them came in the context of how economic growth has been turned into some form of evil by a pseudo-literati that is rightly concerned about growth not trickling down but lacks the rigour to explore the phenomenon accurately. If growth doesn’t reach the poor, what’s the point of having it, goes the argument that’s turning popular, pandering to rabble rousers and broadly reducing growth as an idea worth pursuing in our 64th year of Independence and further. I’m not sure where this argument is leading us and I pray that it is not towards this: if high economic growth cannot be equally distributed, let’s not have it at all.

It would be criminal if this argument gained popular political support.

The 9 per cent growth we have been experiencing, and the 10 per cent growth aspiration we harbour, has brought prosperity to the rich, the middle classes and a large chunk of those living in metros, no doubt. That it has not trickled down in the same proportion to the villages in general and to agriculture in particu-lar is also true. But certainly, rejecting the growth momentum the Indian economy has gained after decades of economic somnolence is not the way out. What do the worthies push-ing for distribution over growth push — poverty?

Besides, the contention that growth has not trickled down at all is incor-rect. I have heard complaints from three different rural constituencies about the way in which NREGA is changing the economic landscape there. An extremely rich farmer told me that he doesn’t get labour to work his farm. A wealthy entrepreneur who has turned his fort into a tourist resort told me that he doesn’t get hands to work his business — all of them are busy “destroying the environment through unplanned NREGA work”. Poor farm labourers in the Nainital hills I regularly visit told me that

Growth: Create It, Don’t Condemn Itister, told me last week. “Too many countries have grown strongly for decades, only to stagnate,” he writes in Fault Lines, a book that you must pick up right now and read. His warn-ing: to assume that growth can come automatically is wrong, a lot of work still needs to be done.

“It would be a mistake to take high growth for granted,” Planning Com-mission Deputy Chairman said. “We have the ‘potential’ (his eyebrows stressed the word) to achieve high growth.” The growth challenges he identified were to make agriculture more productive and expand infra-structure. We need to solve these problems he said, but if we gave up growth, we are doomed to fail.

“Growth in itself cannot reduce inequality,” C. Rangarajan, chair-man of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council said in his book-filled room at Vigyan Bhawan. “The trickle down effect will work as the economy grows. But for it to be ef-fective, the economy has to grow at a strong rate.” High growth, he concluded, helps the government to launch distributive schemes.

“Short of political turbulence, it is reasonable to expect that we will be on a sustained 8.5 per cent growth path,” said Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu over an extremely lively discussion in his North Block office. “Even if we do not have com-passion and morals, a better income distribution is in our self-interest. Otherwise political instability will come home to roost.”

I look forward to the next decade as one of high economic growth that simultaneously trickles down. I think the economic model India is follow-ing — racing towards free markets to deliver growth (something the markets are best at) and simultane-ously inching forward on distributive justice through government interven-tion — will work well to balance the two. We need to push the government to deliver more efficiently, where projects like UID will help.

But for India’s sake, let’s stop stall-ing economic growth simply because it’s not omnipresent today. Create it, don’t condemn it. HT

they find it better to work as construc-tion workers because NREGA has forced contractors to raise the rates they offer.

Growth is trickling down, please don’t waste your precious tears on that movement. Instead, go to the rural areas and see for yourself the change it’s bringing — the “poor” have mobile phones, cable TV, and are rich enough for insurance agents to dump ULIP policies on them.

Has this growth reached each and every poor citizen of India? Of course not. But I can see it marching ahead at a faster pace than ever before. Also, I am excluding the Maoist-controlled tracts, where leave alone economic development, even the presence of the state through a workable law and order is missing.

“Don’t take growth for granted,” Raghuram G. Rajan, professor at Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Economic Advisor to Prime Min-

More is MoreIndo-American News congratulates the Indo-American Cha-

meber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) for its suc-cessful gala last Saturday night. The sold-out event is the result of the dedicated leadership, including President Madhukar Prasad and Executive Director Jagdeep Ahluwalia, Office Administra-tor Mondira Tyagi and corp of additional staff and volunteers. Initiated by the Indian Consulate to provide a forum for visiting trade delegations, the IACCGH has taken form of its own with its Distinguished Lecture Series, Small Business Programs, Career Programs, golf tournament and annual awards.

The awards program was enlarged this year to include business professionals, according to Somesh Singh, Chair, Annual Awards Committee. This is certainly praiseworthy. There are, however, two issues associated with the awards program. First is that the awards are based on nominations. As such, the pool of potential award winners is limited. Instead, the IACCGH should conduct its own search of deserving candidates of its own members. There could be special awards to recognize those outside its member-ship, if needed. Secondly, there should be separate categories for entrepreneurs and professionals. It requires a different skillset to create a business enterprise than to manage a division of an exist-ing corporation. It is a disservice to place both types of achievers into one pool. It seems the whole group of nominated individu-als were highly deserving. The IACCGH should present more awards. After all, spreading the wealth is good for everyone.

If growth doesn’t reach the poor, what’s the point of having it, goes the argument that’s turning popular. It would be criminal if this argument gained popular politicalsupport.

Festival for AllIndia Fest 2010 last Sunday was also a praiseworthy effort.

There were lots of booths, plenty of people and Bollywood mu-sic and fun for all. It helped that the India Culture Center did not charge admission. A few years ago, the ICC had become a little listless. Now the organization has lots of vigor and enthusiasm. Congratulations to ICC President Swapan Dhairyavan, Event Chair Rajeev Bhavsar and Co-Chair Jasmeeta Singh. The ICC also presented its Tagore Awards for achievement in various creative arts disciplines. Pramod Kulkarni

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and suc-cess. She said that ‘achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Suc-cess is being praised by others, and that’s nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.’

Helen Hayes

Quotable Quotes


17 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com Financial advice

India Not Taking American Jobs: US ChamberWASHINGTON (PTI) : Slamming

the critics of H-1B, a US think-tank and corporate America have sug-gested removal of Congressional cap on this popular work visa programme and allow markets to determine num-ber of skilled foreign workers eligible to work in the country.

“The best policy for the United States is one that sides with freedom and innovation, not restriction. It is a policy where the H-1B cap is either eliminated or set high enough that we can let the market decide on the number of new skilled foreign nation-als who work in America each year,” a report said.

The 81-page report titled “Regain-ing America’s Competitive Advan-tage: Making our Immigration Sys-tem Work” has been jointly prepared by US Chamber of Commerce, which is the top representative body of the American businesses, American Council on International Personnel, an eminent think-tank.

US PresidentBarack Obama on Friday signed into law a new ‘Border Security Bill’ proposing a steep hike in some categories of H-1B and L-1 visa fees which is expected to badly hurt Indian IT firms which may have to shell out an additional USD 250 million annually for the next five years.

“The best policy would ease the way for employers to sponsor high skilled individuals for green cards by exempting from labour certifica-tion and current employment-based immigrant quotas many who now languish in 6 to 20 year queues,” the report said.

“Allowing top talent who graduate from US universities to gain a green card directly will help US employers retain the world’s leading future in-novators,” the report said.

The report has come out with some very interesting finding about H-1B visa programme, according to which popular foreign work visa has been a key factor in US’ competitiveness and its economic growth.

Who is in a better position to de-termine which employees are most likely to make Apple, Amazon or other US companies successful? Is it critics of immigration, government bureaucrats, or the companies them-selves?” the report said.

Findings of this report show that leading US companies cite the role played by highly educated foreign nationals in the success of the or-ganisation.

Noting that the critics argue US has too much talent entry of high skilled foreign nationals should be blocked, the report says real immigration-related problem is that many talented

people have not been able to stay in US after graduation because of low quotas for H-1B visas and employ-ment-based green cards.

“H-1B visas are a large source of scholarship money for US students, with H-1B training and scholarship fees levied on each petition (and renewal) having funded more than 53,000 math and science college scholarships for US students through the National Science Foundation,” it said.

“There is little evidence high skilled foreign nationals on H-1B visas are in general paid less than their American counterparts,” the report said.

The report said critics who insist H-1B professionals are hired to “save money” fail to note that in addition to legal requirement to pay H-1B visa holders higher than prevailing or actual wage paid to US workers, employers must pay significant legal and government fees.

The American Council on Interna-tional Personnel estimates combined H-1B and green card sponsorship costs (government/legal fees) can exceed USD 35,000 for one person.

“Critics also ignore that the labour market is global and if US employers were interested only in lower labour costs they would shift all their work overseas,” it said.

By raman ParekhHOUSTON: On the150th birthday

of Rabindranath Tagore, The Tagore Society of Houston decided to confer awards to people who have made contribution to Poetry, Music, Educa-tion, Painting and Writing. At India Fest 2010 Independence Celebra-tions, Dhirajlal Shah was given The Poetry Award. He is ninety years old and began writing poetry only after the passing away of his dear wife in 1997. Though he started writing poetry at the of age seventy seven he has been successful in publish-ing one book in English and two in Gujarati. His poems have been pub-lished in Indo-American newspapers and in mainstream magazines. He

is a founding member of the Indian Senior Citizens Association Houston and is a silent worker, working behind the scenes and was a board member. He believes in simple living and high thinking. Dhirajlal Shah is an inspira-tion to the other seniors on what can be achieved if you set your mind to it even in your golden years.

Another member of The Senior Citizens Association Houston, Navin Banker was awarded the ‘Spirit Of Tagore’ Writing Award. Navin Bank-er is a well-known Gujarati novelist and short story writer. He has pub-lished twenty novels and around two hundred and fifty short stories. One his collection of short stories ‘Paraai Daalnu Pankhi’ is well known. He

has been writing since 1962 and has written two hundred and fifty short stories published in mainstream Gujarati magazines and newspapers. He has also written thirteen novels in pocket book format and some of them were very popular. Many are not aware of his talents as an actor in amateur three act plays. He has taken diverse leading roles in so many plays and performed them well. He has participated in activities of The Indian Senior Citizens Association Houston regularly and his help in musical programs is recognized.

Navin Banker deserves to be rec-ognized for his various talents writing acting and musician and as a news correspondent.

Spirit of Tagore Award Given to Indian Seniors

Got community news to share?Send us the news: [email protected]


18 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comsociety

By Uma aggarwalHOUSTON: Twenty-seven

twelfth graders graduated from Chinmaya Mission Houston on June 14th 2010. This graduation had a special meaning for Stu-dents, parents, children and audi-ence. This was a graduation from their Bala Vihar classes, where they learn from Pre K through 12th grade, how to raise their standard of Life, not just standard of living. They are taught Hindu scriptures and their true import, to make them better citizens of the world and give them tools to deal with ups and downs of life. How much they actually learned over the years was evident from their testimony which they presented in form of a video. Each student spoke with an attitude of gratitude towards their teachers and their Acharyas Sri Gaurang Nanavaty and Smt. Darshana Nanavaty.

The whole festivities started in the Sri Saumyakasi ivalaya with a special Puja by temple priest Sri Ganesh. Thereafter the students entered the Smrti Hall, dressed up in beautiful Indian outfits. Acharya Sri Gaurang Nanavaty gave the tra-ditional message of “Tatttiriya Upa-nisad” reminding the Graduates of their duties and offering practical advice. He said that life is rarely black and white, but it is all shades of grey. They will have to face many chal-lenges, and now that they have the freedom, they will be responsible for all their actions. One more advice that

Graduation Ceremony at Chinmaya Mission

he gave which even the parents loved was, not to turn off the cell phone, and read the scriptures every day. He also said the students these days are bombarded with texting, twittering and face booking, due to tremendous material progress in the world. With the results, mind is cluttered with too much information and they need to learn to make their mind quiet, which is necessary for material as well as spiritual progress.

The chief guest was Judge R. K. Sandill, who is an elected judge of

Indian Origin in Harris County Civil Courthouse. He gave a truly inspiring speech and talked about his personal life, and the ups and downs he had to face. His advice was that, there are opportunities every day, and faith ultimately is doing what is right, and their agenda in life should be, “you and your duty”.

After the uplifting speech, a lamp was lit on the stage by both the Acha-ryas signifying passing of spiritual knowledge from Guru to students. Thereafter each student was intro-

Graduates from the Chinmaya Mission Houston at the ceremony. Photo: Nilesh Shah

duced by Alumni, and each student also lit a lamp of knowledge, and received their plaque from Acharya Gaurang Nanavaty. The sumptuous dinner served to all the teachers by the students, and rest of the audience was served ice cream to celebrate the festivities. The program ended with lots of hugs and good byes.

Any child who would like to join Bal Vihar can do so, and benefit from this invaluable knowledge that is imparted there. For more information visit www.chinmayahouston.org

Desi Sangeet Radio to Hold Radio-Thon to Raise Money for

Pakistan Flood ReliefHOUSTON: Houston’s desi

hit music station, Sangeet Radio, a production of Rajput Media Services, is to host a fundraiser radio-thon Friday, August 20, 2010 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on KBRZ 1460AM to help raise money for the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund. The pledges will be made

payable to the listener’s charity of choice. Listeners must write “Pakistan Flood Relief Fund” in the memo section of their checks. In the past, Sangeet Radio has partnered with charities, such as UNICEF, EDHI Foundation, The American Red Cross, Islamic Relief Fund and Helping Hand, for its fundraising and disaster relief efforts. “Sangeet Radio encourages the

entire community to participate in this special fundraiser radio-thon Friday, August 20th, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on 1460AM, as we come together to help the victims of this devastation,” says founder and CEO of Rajput Media Services and Sangeet Radio. Listeners can call the Sangeet

Radio studio during the radio-thon with their pledge amounts at (281) 983-9292 or toll-free at 1-800-786-0788


19 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com society

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HOUSTON: Himalayan monk, His Holiness Swami Vidyadhis-hananda returns to Houston on 21st August 2010 for a series of public lectures on Sanskrit philosophy and Vedic tradition encompassing the fields of education, wellness and health.

In the spirit of promoting Vedic fine arts there will be a Classical Dance and Spiritual Banquet named as KalāRashmi at the Old Stafford Civic Center on August 27th. The banquet will include a message by His Holiness followed by fundrais-ing for the Nonprofit’s projects.

A Peace Mass will be held on September 11, 2010, named as SwastiKalpanam offered to the greater community for healing and harmony, which will include nearly ninety minutes of synchro-nized intonated Sanskrit chanting. The venue for this special event is India House located in the southwest part of Houston.

His Holiness has been invited to speak at Rice University, University

Swami Vidyadhishananda Returns to Houstonof Houston, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He will begin the series of discourses on Sunday, August 22nd at the Hindu Worship Society Temple at noon followed by the India House

at 5 pm. He will also be speaking to the Bellaire High School students for the first time.

Houston is one of a few privileged cities that are part of his nation-wide tour this year that began in April with lectures in Santa Barbara and ends in September with the healing Peace Mass after which he returns to his

home base in Santa Barbara, Cali-fornia, and prepares for his annual retreat to the Himalayan mountains scheduled for October 2010. His Holiness is a saint of the Kriya-yoga tradition, hailing from the lineage of Paramahansa Hariharananda and Paramahansa Yogananda, the au-thor of Autobiography of a Yogi. He teaches spiritual philosophy with exquisite clarity and guides sincere seekers in the practice of Himalayan meditation techniques.

Houstonians have known His Holiness since the WAVES confer-Holiness since the WAVES confer-Holiness since the WAVES conference in 2006 which is also the year in which he was awarded one of the highest awards conferred through the university system in India, the degree of Mahamahopadhyay (Great Ordained Teacher), due to his medita-tive insights and ability to articulate Sanskrit philosophy.

His Holiness is the head monk of the U.S. based Nonprofit, Self En-quiry Life Fellowship, dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge of ancient Sanskrit heritage.

Awards at Independence Day Festivalcontinued on page 19

Mayor pro-tem Thomas Abra-ham and Fort Bend Trustee Sonal Bhuchar.

The 26 high school students who participated in the 2009 Youth Lead-ership Development Program, initi-ated by ICC two years ago, graduated

on the occasion, under the Director-on the occasion, under the Director-on the occasion, under the Directorship of Sushma Kaul Bhan.

The day long program included a wide variety of stage performances and 78 booths and were looked after by Col. Raj Bhalla, Ramesh Cherivi-rala and Charlie Patel.

Also available was the ICC sou-

venir Tarang wasproduced by ICC Tarang wasproduced by ICC TarangTrustee and Editor Shobana Muratee and Kesava Chakka.

The Grand Sponsor for this event was New York Life Insurance. For a full report and pictures of the event visit www.icchouston.org.

• Dhirajlal Shah for Poetry. Shah is 90 years old and is an active poet living in Houston since 1982. He has published one book in English and four in Gujarati language.

• Dr. Mohan Kuruvilla for Educa-tion. He is currently the Dean of the School of Business, Houston Baptist University and is also a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Man-agement Accountant, and a Chartered Accountant. He is currently a Direc-tor of the Texas Society of Certified

Public Accountants. • Navin Banker for Writing. Banker

is a well-known Gujarati novelist and has published 20 fiction books and about 250 short stories. His most well known work is Paraai-Dal-Nun-Pankhi. He is also a journalist/ free-lance correspondent for Gujarat Sa-machar, Naya Padkar, Stree, Mumbai Samachar and Janmabhumi Pravasi.

•Pandit Suman Ghosh for Music. Ghosh is an accomplished Hindu-stani classical vocalist/singer. He

is 90 years old and is an active poet living in Houston since 1982. He has published one book in English and four in Gujarati language.

tion. He is currently the Dean of the School of Business, Houston Baptist University and is also a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, and a Chartered Accountant. He is currently a Director of the Texas Society of Certified

has won many awards including the Presidents Award by All-India Radio, Sangeet Research Academy award, and the Dover Lane Music Conference Award (Calcutta). He teaches at his “Center for Indian Classical Music of Houston”.

•Piyali Dasgupta for Painting. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Viswa-Bharati University and Shantiniketan. She has also exhib-ited at Bering & James Gallery, Winter Street Studio, Art Crawl and Museum of Fine Arts.

Recipients of the Tagore Awardshas won many awards including

Recipients of the Tagore Awardshas won many awards including

Left: The awardees for the Tagore Heritage Contest. From left: Atul Vir, ICC Event Chair; Dhirajlal Shah for poetry; Dr. Mohan Kuruvilla for Education; Piyali Dasgupta for painting; Pt. Suman Ghosh for Music; Indian Consul General Sanjiv Arora who gave out the awards; Navin Banker for writing; and Swapan Dhairayawan, the ICC President.Below: The 2009 graduating class of Youth Leadership Development Program along with the class Director, Sushma Bhan (sixth from right) received certicaftes onstage.


20 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com


21 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com society

India’s Carpet Industry Plagued by Child LaborBy Sy Sy iddharth karakarak

UTTAR PRADESH (CNN): The “Carpet Belt” of north India spreads west from the city of Alla-habad, east through Bhadohi, over to Varanasi along the banks of the Ganga River.

There are literally thousands of carpet looms concentrated in this region. Many are no more than small village huts with a single loom and a few workers inside. Others are large shacks that may posses up to twenty looms and thirty or more children.

I have visited this region several times, and each time I find similar circumstances. The carpets are be-ing woven in wretched conditions by bonded laborers (usually dalits or “untouchables”) or even some trafficked boys as young as six years old.

Bonded laborers are individuals who have borrowed money or assets for a wedding, funeral, medicine, home repair, or other reason, and are forcibly held in servitude to work off this loan at paltry wages and exploi-tive interest rates.

Most prized by the carpet produc-ers are young boys. Their nimble fingers are perfectly suited to carpet weaving, and being children, they are more easily coerced to work sixteen to eighteen hours a day.

Child labor in Bangladesh’s shrimp industry

Young boys like the one I met at a shelter for rescued child trafficking victims near Allahabad, are locked

inside carpet shacks in cramped quar-inside carpet shacks in cramped quar-inside carpet shacks in cramped quarters, beaten regularly, given meager allotments of food, suffer respiratory ailments from the high level of thread dust, and are force-fed stimulants to keep them working. They suffer deformed spines, malnutrition, vision ailments, and severe cuts from the sharp claw tool that is used to pull the thread down the loom.

The young boy said he was told wild dogs were in the forest outside the loom and would eat him if he tried to escape. He was also told that if anyone ever knocked on the door, he and the other boys should not say a word or the guards would kill them, and their families.

India’s child labor problemExploiting children in this way al-

lows carpet producers to keep profits up and prices down. Carpets made in this region are routinely exported to the EU, U.S., and beyond.

A few brave souls work in this area and put their lives on the line to raid the carpet shacks and free the chil-dren. The shacks are almost always guarded by armed men. There is significant danger in this work, and I know more than one person who has been severely injured. In my most recent trip to the region, I also met my second child trafficker - “Sanjay.”

Sanjay claims he is routinely ap-proached by parents in search of a deal for their children. He says he takes the children from villages throughout the Carpet Belt to Vara-nasi, where an agent allocates the boys to carpet looms and the girls to brothels. He said he is paid between $90 and $100 for boys and $150 or more for girls. Of this sum, Sanjay pays about 20% back to the parents, along with the promise of remittances from future earnings.

Send us your comments to IAN.

AUSTIN: The Bel Cuore Quartet, a graduate saxophone quartet from The University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music, will perform a free concert at Houston Baptist University’s Mabee Teaching Theater on Friday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m. Presented by the Butler School of Music, The concert is the first in a series that will also take the quartet to Austin and Helsinki, Finland. T h e H o u s t o n concert is free and open to the public, and no advanced reservations are required.The members of the

quartet are soprano saxophonist Rami El-Farrah, alto saxophonist Sunil Gadgil, tenor saxophonist Spencer Nielsen, and baritone saxophonist Michael Hertel. The four doctoral students met at

The University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music and have been playing together for over two years. The group was recently featured on the Naxos/Longhorn Music recording Over the Rainbow and Bach Again, and they recorded Concerto X2 by Baylor composer

Scott McAllister with the University of Texas Symphony Band.The saxophone quartet, based

on the model of the string quartet,

is one of the most colorful and exciting chamber music groups. It has exploded in popularity among composers and audiences for its ability to perform an incredibly wide range of music. The Bel Cuore Quartet (BCQ)

repertoire includes jazz, pop, classical, and rock arrangements as well as exciting music from contemporary composers.This concert has something for

everyone, from the Little Fugue in

UT Butler School of Music’s Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet to Play Free Concert in Houston

Alto saxophonist Sunil Gadgil (left), baritone saxo phonist Michael Hertel, tenor saxophonist Spencer Nielsen and soprano saxophonist Rami El-Farrah (right)

G minor by J.S. Bach and a string quartet by W.A. Mozart to Short Stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.

Music lovers of all sorts will not want to miss the Saxteto by Venezuelan-born composer Victor Marquez-Barrios. Per formed in four movements, Saxteto takes listeners on a journey around the Caribbean. The piece contains C u b a n - s t y l e ragtime (with a wink and nod to Scott Joplin), a Venezuelan beach parade, and an emotional lullaby. The work

concludes with Dominican dance bands taunting American soldiers with a too-fast merengue. The piece is a hit with audiences of all ages.F o l l o w i n g t h e H o u s t o n

performance, The BCQ will play Austin in December, before traveling to Helsinki, Finland with Butler School of Music Professor of Saxophone Harvey Pittel in February as part of a cultural exchange with the Helsinki Conservatory.


23 Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com

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