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OBAMA PUSHES FORMYANMAR REFORMSDetails on page 7

Details on page 5

'All those bornin Burma arewelcome back'

YANGON: PresidentBarack Obama hasurged Myanmar to has-ten its "remarkable" re-forms on a historic visitduring which he wasfeted by huge crowdsand met Aung San SuuKyi at the home whereshe was long locked up.

The trip, the first toMyanmar by a servingUS president, came asthe regime freed dozensmore political prisonersto burnish its reform cre-dentials and after theUnited States joinedother Western powersin relaxing its sanctions.

On his first tripabroad since his re-elec-tion earlier this month,Obama got a warm wel-come in Myanmar, hug-ging long-time opposi-tion leader Aung SanSuu Kyi and lauding heras a personal inspira-tion.

After a red-carpetwelcome for Air ForceOne, Obama metMyanmar's reformistPresident Thein Seinand called on the formergeneral to speed up thecountry's march out ofdecades of iron-fistedmilitary rule.

HISTORIC VISIT: US President Barack Obama waves as he embraces Myanmar’s opposition leader

Aung San Suu Kyi after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi’s residence in Yangon,

Myanmar, November 19. Obama became the first U.S. President to visit the Asian nationDetails on page 5

Aung San Suu Kyi

India big part ofhis plans,Obama to Singh

Ami Bera callsIndia strategicpartner of US

Lights, feastingand prayers atFremont Temple

Banga, Kochharamong Fortunetop 50

Sunita Williamsreturns toEarth from ISS

Will Obama relent onoutsourcing?

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Bollywood:Fleeting phaseAnushka Sharma thinks 10-15 yearsdown the line she would be married anddriving her kids to school.

1Cover Story:Obama in Myanmar

16Community:Diwali greetings

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Obama urges Myanmar to hasten its "re-markable" reforms during a historic visitwhere he was feted by huge crowds.

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The death of Bal Thackeray, founder of the regional political party, ShivSena, in Maharashtra brought to fore what many in the Indian media andintelligentsia always knew but did not openly acknowledge - his massive

base of ordinary, working class Maharashtrians. Clearly catching cynics un-awares was the nearly 2 million people turn out for the funeral procession andcremation of Bal Thackeray over the weekend in Mumbai. The unprecedentedoutpouring of the masses for a man known more for notoriety than fame, morefor fear than respect, more for communalizing and destroying the ethos of Mumbaithan for building a great city, is one for socio-political analysts to work on overthe next several years.

But for today, Thackeray's death leaves a void, not for the nation - because,despite his massive people's following, he never rose in stature beyondMaharashtra - but for the ordinary Maharashtrian who ostensibly credits himfor his Marathi identity and Marathi pride.

In the mid-90s when the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh N.T. RamaRao died, this southern Indian state felt a similar void in its politics as well as thestate's sense of identity. It was NTR (as he was popularly known) who had giventhe people of his state their Telugu identity and given the state its due space on themap of India. But interestingly, his death gave rise to another leader, ChandraBabu Naidu, who gave the state a completely different identity and pushed thestate as an Information Technology hub on the global map.

So, I would guess, Maharashtra has hope for a different future, if only thatmassive base of Shiv Sainiks find it in themselves to move out of the Thackerayshadow and not follow Bal Thackeray's heirs to leave the status quos unchallenged.

Also, the city of Mumbai which lost its identity not just in its changed name(from Bombay) but also in its cosmopolitan ethos because of Bal Thackeray, nowhas the opportunity to rebuild its stature as the global city which it once was. Asthey say, the end of an era is the harbinger of a new and hopefully a better era.

India PostNovember 30, 2012 5

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Cover/Top Stories

Obama pushes for Myanmar reformsYANGON: President Barack

Obama has urged Myanmar tohasten its "remarkable" reforms ona historic visit during which hewas feted by huge crowds and metAung San Suu Kyi at the homewhere she was long locked up.

The trip, the first to Myanmarby a serving US president, cameas the regime freed dozens morepolitical prisoners to burnish itsreform credentials and after theUnited States joined other West-ern powers in relaxing its sanctions.

On his first trip abroad sincehis re-election earlier this month,Obama got a warm welcome inMyanmar, hugging long-time op-position leader Aung San Suu Kyiand lauding her as a personal in-spiration.

After a red-carpet welcome forAir Force One, Obama metMyanmar's reformist PresidentThein Sein and called on theformer general to speed up thecountry's march out of decadesof iron-fisted military rule.

"Over the last year and a half,a dramatic transition has begun,as a dictatorship of five decadeshas loosened its grip," Obamasaid afterwards in a major addressat Yangon University during hiswhirlwind visit.

"This remarkable journey hasjust begun, and has much furtherto go," he said. "The flickers of

progress that we have seen mustnot be extinguished. They mustbe strengthened."

Over the past few decades, "ourtwo countries became strangers",added Obama, who is on his for-eign trip since winning re-election

this month."But today, I can tell you that

we always remained hopefulabout the people of this country.About you. You gave us hope.And we bore witness to yourcourage."

Speaking to a national audiencefrom the University of Yangon,Obama offered a "hand of friend-ship" and a lasting US commit-ment, yet a warning as well. He saidthe new civilian government mustnurture democracy or watch it, and

US support, disappear.The visit to Myanmar was the

centerpiece of a four-day trip toSoutheast Asia. Obama seemed torevel in the history of what he waswitnessing in Myanmar a nationshedding years of military rule,and a relationship between twonations changing fast.

"This remarkable journey hasjust begun," he said.

In a notable detour from USgovernment policy, the presidentreferred to the nation as Myanmar,the preferred name of the formermilitary regime and the new gov-ernment, rather than Burma, theold name and the one favored bydemocracy advocates and theUnited States government.

Crowds swelled at every inter-section, yelling affectionately forObama and his secretary of state,Hillary Rodham Clinton. In onceunthinkable scenes, Obama's mo-torcade passed tens of thousandsof flag-waving supporters - somechanting "America" - lining thestreets of Yangon, the backdropfor several bloody crackdowns onpro-democracy uprisings.

"You are the legend hero of ourworld," one banner read.

Obama acknowledgedMyanmar's many democraticshortcomings but said: "TheUnited States of America is withyou." -AP

Suu Kyi voices caution on reformsYANGON: Democracy icon

Aung San Suu Kyi sounded anote of caution over Myanmar'srapid political reforms after talkswith US President Barack Obama,warning of the risk of a "mirageof success".

"The most difficult time in anytransition is when we think thatsuccess is in sight," she said ather lakeside home alongsideObama. "We have to be verycareful that we're not lured bythe mirage of success."

Obama said the goal of his tripwas "to sustain the momentumfor democratization".

"That includes building cred-ible government institutions,establishing rule of law, endingethnic conflicts and ensuringthat the people of this countryhave access to greater educa-tion, health care and economicopportunity," he said.

"I want to make a pledge to

the people of this country that Iam confident we can keep, andthat is, if we see continuedprogress towards reform our bi-lateral ties will grow stronger and

we will do everything we can tohelp ensure success."

Obama arrived by limousine fortalks with his fellow Nobel Peace

Prize winner at the lakeside villathat was her prison for decadesunder the former junta.

Suu Kyi, dressed in a tradi-tional sarong-style skirt, greetedObama who clasped his handstogether as the pair approachedeach other with a small bow andshook hands.

They were joined by US Sec-retary of State Hillary Clinton,who shared a warm embrace withSuu Kyi, and other senior USofficials.

The once-dilapidated villahas been spruced up since theveteran dissident's release fromhouse arrest in November 2010,just days after a controversialelection swept by the military'spolitical allies.

Now she regularly welcomesvisiting dignitaries and foreignmedia there, and the WhiteHouse press corps set up theirequipment in the garden. -AFP

The once-dilapidatedvilla has beenspruced up since theveteran dissident'srelease from housearrest in November2010, just days aftera controversialelection swept bythe military'spolitical allies

'All those born in Burma are welcome back'KRISHAN SHARMA

India Post News Service

VIKAS PURI, NEW DELHI.Myanmar's pro-democracy leaderAung San Suu Kyi addressed anaugust gathering of more than 500Burmese political refugees andover 50 NRIs from Burma at a func-tion organized by them at OxfordInternational School in Vikas Puri.

She chose to speak in Burmeseas most of the attendees were from

Burma and are comfortable in theirlanguage.

Beside paying tribute to sev-eral supporters during her yearsin prison she thanked all thosewho stood by her and the people

of Burma. She told all Burmesestudents not to lose their resolveand continue working forstrengthening democracy inBurma.

While answering a few ques-tions, she said "Anybody who isborn in Burma, you are all childrenof Burma and are welcome to yourmotherland anytime. You are like afamily." She further said, "We areworking to evolve a constructivesystem for their return." She re-

quested her supporters to keep aclose watch on the developmentsin Burma and not to lose hope.

Suu Kyi said that sometimesthe majority has to look at thingsthrough a minority's eyes "When

I came to India, I felt that I wascoming to a friendly country witha long tradition,' she said. "All the[Burmese] people living in Indiaare like our family members: broth-ers, nephews, nieces and children.So I want you to look on [them]as family members. I want to saysolemnly that our country is a'union.' "

She said that the Burmese liv-ing in India nowadays are fromvarious ethnic origins. "The ma-jority [Bamar or Burman] becamea minority in India," she said. "Ithink that is very good. Some-times, a majority needs to look atthings through a minority's eyes."

Some Burmese residing nearthe Indo-Burmese border traveledmore than 2,000 miles to hear SuuKyi speak.

"I want our country to be a se-cure union where all people canlive peacefully," she said. "But weall need to make an effort to buildthat kind of union. Different eth-nic groups have different cul-tures, different hopes, differentlanguages and different religions.Despite these differences, weneed to bring about unity.

"To bring about unity we need

She chose to speak in Burmese as most ofthe attendees were from Burma and arecomfortable in their language. Beside payingtribute to several supporters during her yearsin prison she thanked all those who stood byher and the people of Burma

to have mutual understanding andmutual respect. To achieve that,one has to listen to what anotherperson says. A person should nothighlight only the things hewants. One must listen to voices

from both sides."We entered into the pro-de-

mocracy movement in attempt toachieve national reconciliation,"she continued. "To achieve rec-onciliation and to get mutual un-

derstanding, we should not haveone-sided views. We need to con-sider the opinions of both sidesand the situation of the entireUnion.

The Oxford Senior Secondary

School where Suu Kyi spoke ac-cepts Burmese children; many ofwhom are able to attend the schoolfree of charge. The school is situ-ated in the Vikas Puri Quarter wheremany Burmese people live.

Aung San Suu Kyi at the Burmese political refugees’ gathering


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Suu Kyi saddened by India's ties to junta

'India looked at its own greatergood, not Myanmar's'

BANGALORE: India adopted apolicy of pragmatic politics to-wards her pro-democracy move-ment keeping in mind New Delhi'sown interests rather than peopleof Myanmar, Nobel Peace Laure-ate Aung San Suu Kyi said here.

During an interaction with stu-dents of Indian Institute of Sci-ence here, she, however, said shehas warm feelings towards India,adding, some of her best and closefriends are Indians.

On India's stand towards hermovement back home, she saidshe is practical, remarking "poli-tics is politics" and it has to bepragmatic. India looked at its owngreater good rather than the

greater good of another country(Myanmar).

"This is something I accept",the champion of democracy has-tened to add. "But I am very con-fident that relations between ourtwo countries will improve be-cause there is certain affinity be-tween our two people".

Suu Kyi defended her peacefulstruggle for democracy in Myanmar,saying violent ways would inflictmany wounds which would take along time to heal. "I believe in peace-ful transfer of power".

She said she draws strengthand courage from her commitmentto the cause. "Cause comes aboveevery thing else".

Suu Kyi also pitched for pro-motion of science among theyouth. "Science promotes healthycuriosity. Science teaches you toask 'why'".

"Teaching of science in mycountry has deteriorated greatlyduring the last few decades. Notjust teaching of science but edu-cation in general", she said, add-ing, the standard of educationneeds to be raised in Myanmar sothat the country takes its "right-ful place" in the world.

"...and there have been timeswhen I regretted the fact that I didnot choose science rather than lib-eral arts, humanities if you like",Suu Kyi added. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Myanmar's de-mocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyiin a first in recent times from apublic forum expressed disap-pointment over how India drewclose to the military junta after ini-tially supporting the democracymovement there.

Even as she suggested that shewas no longer impacted by expec-tations and disappointment, theNobel laureate said she had been"saddened'' by the fact that Indiahad drawn away in her country's"most difficult days''.

Suu Kyi made the remark whiledelivering the prestigiousJawaharlal Nehru memorial lecturehere. Myanmar's main oppositionleader added that she had not lostfaith in India because she believedthat relations between the two coun-tries were based on friendship be-tween the people. "I was saddenedby the fact that India had drawnaway in our most difficult days butalways had faith in our lasting rela-tionship,'' she said. Friendshipshould be based between peopleand not governments; govern-

ments come and go.''Her remarks came at the end of

the lecture during which she re-called her struggle for democracyeven while under house arrest for21 years and her father GeneralAung San's friendship with Nehru.Suu Kyi reached out to the peopleof India, saying, "We hope that inthe last phase of our struggle,people of India will stand by usand walk by us on the path thatthey were able to proceed on manyyears ago.''

Asked about her expectationsfrom India as well as her disap-pointments on her visit to thecountry. "I have thought about itcarefully and realized that expec-tations and disappointment arenot something we can indulge in,"she said, before adding that shehad indeed been saddened byIndia's conduct.

As she invited her to deliverthe Jawaharlal Nehru Memoriallecture, Sonia Gandhi describedher as "one of the most remark-able figures of our time" sayingshe had imbibed the best of the

East and the West."She exemplifies all qualities he

(Nehru) most admired: fearless-ness, integrity, moral and intellec-tual courage, perseverance, free-dom from anger and bitterness andunqualified devotion to bettermentof the life of her people throughthe path of dialogue and nationalreconciliation," Sonia said.

She said Indian people revereSuu Kyi for the sacrifices she hasmade. Sonia recalled how on re-ceiving the news of the assassina-tion of Suu Kyi's father, Nehru hadwritten to her mother saying he hadlost a friend who was looked at withhope by Burma and Asia. "You arethe worthy inheritor of a noblefather's legacy," she said.

Her inspirationDuring her meeting with Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh, SuuKyi discussed a variety of issues,including the national reconcilia-tion process under way in hercountry and the process of de-mocratization in this context.

At the half-hour meeting, Dr.Singh expressed his happiness inreceiving Ms. Suu Kyi and appre-ciated the progress made by herand President Thien Sien.

Dr. Singh praised Ms. Suu Kyifor her "indomitable" courage andunwavering resolve for democracyin Myanmar. "Our good wishes are

with you as indeed with yourstruggle for democracy. We admireyou for the indomitable courageyou have shown," he told her.

At the meeting, which was held

without the presence of aides, theleaders agreed for need to havegreater cooperation between theparliaments and judiciaries of thetwo countries.

Giving details of the meeting,senior government officials saidthe Prime Minister and Ms. SuuKyi also agreed that people-to-people relations were important.

Later in the day, delivering theNehru Memorial Lecture on the123rd birth anniversary of theformer Prime Minister, Suu Kyi

spoke about the influence of In-dian leaders, including MahatmaGandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, theprinciples that guided India's free-dom struggle and how they in-spired her as she continues tostrive for a democratic Myanmar.

"These past few months have

given me many opportunities tothank people, governments, andorganizations for support to thedemocracy cause in Burma. TodayI wish to thank you for theJawaharlal Nehru memorial prizethat was given to me in 1995 whenI was released from the first termof my house arrest," she began.

Dressed in a yellow and purpletraditional Burmese dress withyellow flowers arranged in herhair, Ms. Suu Kyi said thethoughts and actions of leadersof the Indian independence move-ment inspired the movement inBurma and that their pro-democ-racy movement was firmly basedon non-violence.

Reflecting on her memories ofJawaharlal Nehru, she said sheremembered him more as a fatherfigure to her parents and little as astatesman. "To my infant mind hewas the kindly old man who pro-vided my father two sets of uni-forms, the smartest that he had,"she said, narrating the story ofhow her father Aung San hadstayed with Nehru as his personal

guest while on his way to Lon-don to negotiate Burmese inde-pendence.

Throughout her speech, Ms.Suu Kyi linked Nehru's experi-ences to her own and reflected onthe part of their lives that werespent as political prisoners.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi claps after felicitating Myanmar’s opposi-

tion leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who delivered the

Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture in New Delhi on November 14

Aung San Suu Kyi along with MoS for HRD Shashi Tharoor listening to

a song being performed by college girls during a visit to Lady Sri

Ram College (LSR) in New Delhi

Dr. Singh praised Ms. Suu Kyi for her "indomi-table" courage and unwavering resolve fordemocracy in Myanmar. "Our good wishesare with you as indeed with your struggle fordemocracy. We admire you for the indomi-table courage you have shown," he told her

Aung San Suu Kyi interacts with women during her visit to Papasanahalli

village in Ananthpur district of Andhara Pradesh


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India big part of his plans,Obama tells Singh

PHNOM PENH: "India is a bigpart of my plans," US PresidentBarack Obama said here as PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh con-gratulated him in person on hisre-election.

Singh, who came face-to-facewith Obama on three occasionshere after he was re-elected Presi-dent in the November 6 polls inthe US, told him: "Congratulationson your re-election."

The two leaders, who attendedthe East Asia Summit and the re-treat in the Cambodian capital,shook hands and exchangedpleasantries.

After Obama's re-election,Singh had said he looked forwardto continuing their "friendship"and "rewarding association" asmuch more can be done togetherto further strengthen the bilateralpartnership.

In his congratulatory messageto Obama, Singh had referred tothe association between the twoleaders over the past four yearsand recalled that cooperation be-tween the two countries had notonly been advanced across thefull spectrum of ties but engage-ment had been deepened.

"Dear Mr President, it gives megreat pleasure to convey to youmy warmest congratulations onyour re-election as the President

of the United States," Singh's let-ter had said.

Meanwhile, National SecurityAdvisor Shiv Shankar Menonheld a 90-minute meeting with hisUS counterpart Tom Donilon here

and discussed bilateral relationsand other issues of mutual inter-est.

Sources said it was a very fruit-ful interaction on several issuesof mutual interest. -PTI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama shake

hands at the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on November 20 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with Chinese Premier

Wen Jiabao during a Bilateral Meeting

“This is possibly the last meet-ing between us in my remain-ing tenure," 70-year-old Chi-nese leader said, while refer-ring to the change of leader-ship in China under which hewill demit office in March

Japan to give fresh infra loan of $22.6 bnPHNOM PENH: Japan will give

a fresh loan of about USD 22.6billion for the second phase ofDedicated Freight Corridor and aninfrastructure project in South In-dia, Prime Minister YoshihikoNoda today told his Indian coun-terpart Manmohan Singh as theymet here, making up for an oppor-tunity lost a few days ago.

Singh, while welcoming theannouncement of loan, empha-sized to Noda that India's prioritywas investments by Japanesecompanies in infrastructureprojects like Delhi Metro Rail,which was a "fine example" othercities want to emulate.

The two leaders were to meetin Tokyo on November 16 duringSingh's scheduled three-day visitbeginning November 15 for an-nual Summit. However, the visitwas cancelled just a day ahead inview of sudden political develop-ments in Japan with Noda decid-ing to announce elections.

During the meeting on the side-lines of East Asia Summit, Nodaexpressed happiness at being ableto meet Singh to underline theclose Strategic and Global Partner-

ship between the two countries,sources said.

He told Singh that he wantedto discuss the next steps in therelationship since they could notmeet in Tokyo for the Annual Sum-mit due to domestic developmentsin Japan, they said.

Noda informed Singh that Japanwill be announcing the second

round of loans under Overseas De-velopment Assistance (ODA) forthe second phase of the DedicatedFreight Corridor and a thirdinfrastructural project in South In-dia, where Japanese companieshave a good presence, the sourcessaid. The fresh loan amount is ex-pected to be 184 billion yen, ap-proximately USD 22 billion.-PTI

Manmohan Singh at the bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister

of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda

New China leadership to giveimportance to ties with India

PHNOM PENH: China's newleadership will accord great im-portance to relations with India,outgoing Chinese Premier WenJiabao told his Indian counter-part Manmohan Singh during ameeting here.

Wen said he cherished work-ing with Singh over the lasteight years during which theymet for 14 times.

The new Chinese leadership

will give "great importance" torelations with India, ForeignSecretary Ranjan Mathaiquoted Wen as saying.

"We established good work-ing relationship and friendshipbetween us. This is reflection offriendship between our two greatnations," Wen told Singh on thesidelines of the ASEAN Summithere in the Cambodian capital.

Singh and Wen have met 14times earlier andthe Chinese Pre-mier said thismeeting could bethe last as hewould be demit-ting office inMarch.

"This is possi-bly the last meet-ing between us inmy remaining ten-ure," 70-year-oldChinese leader said, while refer-ring to the change of leadershipin China under which he will de-mit office in March.

Wen is expected to be re-placed by Li Keqiang as Premier.

Singh hailed Wen's personalendeavor to make the bilateralrelationship "stronger, widerand deeper".

He specifically referred toWen's two visits to India in 2005and 2010, saying these helpedmake the ties "stronger".

"I personally value workingwith you," Singh told Wen.

Trade imbalanceSingh invited Chinese invest-

ments in the infrastructure sectorwhile conveying India's concernsover trade imbalance to his coun-terpart Wen Jiabao, who said thiscould be addressed "gradually".

India and China will be hold-ing the second Strategic Eco-nomic Dialogue (SED) in Delhilater this month with an aim of

enhancing business engagementbetween the two of the fastestgrowing economies, significantlyat a time when the western worldis facing crisis.

After the SED, a date will bedecided for the next round of talksbetween Special Representativesof the two countries on boundaryand other issues, to be held inChina shortly.

Singh emphasized that he was

committed to working for realiza-tion of "full potential" of economiccooperation between the twocountries, Mathai said.

Singh referred to Indian exportsand "emphasized the need forgreater market access for Indian ex-ports particularly in areas of Ser-vices, IT and Pharma", Mathai said.

"The Prime Minister also wel-comed Chinese investment in in-frastructure sector which he saidwould help create employment andhelp bridging trade deficit be-tween the two countries." Mathaisaid. -PTI


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India an important strategic partner of US: Ami BeraSACRAMENTO: California-based phy-

sician Ami Bera, who created history bybecoming only the third Indian-Americanto get elected to the US House of Repre-sentatives, has termed India as an impor-tant strategic partner of the US.

"I travelled to India. India is the world'slargest democracy, and one of the world'slargest economies. It's an important strate-gic partner to the US and the two countrieshave a history of collaboration on manyregional and global issues," the Congress-

man-elect said in an interview.Bera asserted that New Delhi should

continue with its strategic partnership withWashington and the country should remaina market destination for US goods and ser-vices.

In one of the most competitive races inthe country, Mr. Bera defeated Republicanincumbent Dan Lungren to representCalifornia's seventh congressional district,in suburban Sacramento.

Mr. Bera, a 47-year-old doctor who haslobbied for better public healthcare, wasborn in California to parents who emigratedfrom India in the 1950s. He is married andhas a daughter.

On the state of affairs in his own coun-try and the debate over outsourcing of jobsto countries like India, Bera said lawmakersin Congress must first focus on rebuildingAmerica, restoring economic foundationand sparking development of industriesand good jobs that are not easilyoutsourced.

"Next, we must strengthen ourworkforce, and eliminate tax loopholes thatreward companies for sending jobs over-seas. Most critically, we must revamp ourtrade strategy. We need trade rules thathelp facilitate moving American productsinto new markets, creating jobs here. If donecorrectly, strengthening our trade relation-ship with India will create jobs here inAmerica," he said.

47-year-old Bera is only the third Indian-American to have been elected to the USHouse of Representatives after Dalip SinghSaundh in 1950 and Bobby Jindal in 2005.His campaign benefited from the financialsupport of Indian-Americans in California,a state where this community has a signifi-cant presence. This was the second timeMr. Bera ran for office, after Mr. Lungrennarrowly defeated him in 2010.

Of the six Indian-American candidateswho stood for election in the Novemberelection, Mr. Bera is the only one who se-cured a congressional seat.

Replying to a message of congratula-tions from FIA chairman Dr Romesh Japra,Ami Bera said, "To the hundreds of folkswho worked so hard and volunteered theirtime and the thousands whom I have nevermet but shared their faith and belief in me;thank you. We Did It. I am deeply humbledto be your next Congressman. We will moveforward in the same way that we got here.Together. This is a victory that we can allshare in and be proud of.

"On behalf of myself, Janine, and Syd;thank you for believing in what is pos-sible."

The 47-year-old doctorwho has lobbied for betterpublic healthcare, wasborn in California to parentswho emigrated from Indiain the 1950s. He is marriedand has a daughter


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BALASAHEB’S SENA: Crowd gathered to attend funeral of Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray at the Shivaji Park in Mumbai on November 18

Jindal, other Republican Govs to accept ObamacareWASHINGTON: After a hard-

fought campaign against'Obamacare' during elections,many Republican governors, in-cluding Indian-American BobbyJindal, are reluctantly opening thedoor to the controversial legisla-tion, aimed at reducing the over-all costs of health care in the US.

Jindal, the Indian-Americangovernor of Louisiana, Rick Perryin Texas, John Kasich in Ohio andScott Walker in Wisconsin, amongothers, are to invite the federalgovernment to set up a health in-surance exchange in their statesunder the law they derided as'Obamacare' not long ago.

"These Republican governors,and more than a dozen others inred states around the country,have decided it's better to have'Obamacare' forced on them thanto legitimize it by setting up theirown exchanges, even if thatmeans empowering the federalgovernment at the expense of thestates," the Politico said.

The Patient Protection and Af-fordable Care Act (PPACA), com-monly called 'Obamacare', is aimedprimarily at decreasing the num-ber of uninsured Americans andreducing the overall costs ofhealth care. It provides a number

of mechanisms, including man-dates, subsidies, and tax creditsto employers and individuals inorder to increase the coveragerate.

Jindal, 41, a health policy ex-pert by trade, was quoted by theHuffington Post as saying that

while he's not going to set up anexchange, he hopes that Obama'ssecond term will bring more co-operation between the federalgovernment and the states on arange of health care issues.

"We are certainly going to goto the president and give him a

chance to actually be bipartisanand give him a chance to give usthe flexibility to bring more mar-ket-based competition and ideasinto health care programs, and Ihope he'll work with us to do that,"Jindal said.

It's a stick in the eye of a just

re-elected President, whosehealthcare plan is still opposed byabout half the country and an in-dication that some Republicangovernors have no intention ofbacking down just because Presi-dent Barack Obama won anotherfour years. -PTI


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INDIAN LUNCHEON: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and President UNGA and Indian Ambassador to UN Hardeep Singh Puri along with the World Ambassadors during a

luncheon hosted by Ambassador Puri at Permanent Mission of India on 14th November. -Pic Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia

Obama inducted record numberof Indian-Americans

WASHINGTON: The small In-dian-American community - con-stituting just about one per centof the US population never had itso good as under the Obama Ad-ministration, with a record num-ber of community members beingroped in to head top administra-tive positions.

President Barack Obama recog-nizing the immense talent and po-tential of this community number-ing about 3.1 million, not only ap-pointed a record number of Indian-Americans to his administration,but also there is hardly any majorwing of the US government rang-ing from his own White House todepartments of State, Treasury,Defense and Commerce that someof the key positions are not beingheld by an Indian-American.

While there is no official or un-official figure of the number of In-dian-Americans appointed byObama in his administration in thefirst four years of his Administra-tion, it is estimated that the list couldeasily be at least a few dozens oreven touch the half a century mark.

This is a far cry from the ReganAdministration when the first In-dian Americans was appointed toa senior administration post to hisadministrations. In 1987, Reganappointed Joy Cherian to EqualEmployment Opportunities Com-mission. He later on went on tobecome its Commissioner from1990 to 1994.

And in 1990, Sambhu Banik, aBethesda psychologist, was ap-pointed as executive director ofthe President's Committee onMental Retardation.

Indian Americans have come along way since them and havetraveled quite a distance under

the Obama Administration.Obama, who four years ago

became the first African Americanto have been elected as US Presi-dent, appointed Raj Shah, as ad-ministrator of USAID the highestranking Indian American in anyadministration.

Vinai Thummalapally, the USAmbassador to Belize, became thefirst Indian-American Ambassa-dor in the US history.

Highly talented, Vikram Singhin his capacity as the Deputy As-sistant Secretary of Defense for

South and Southeast Asia (SSEA)is the highest ranking IndianAmerican official in the Pentagon.

The anti-terrorism and anti-Wall Street crusade of PreetBharara, the US Attorney, who isanother Obama appointee, is wellknown. Subra Suresh in his capac-ity as Director of the National Sci-ence Foundation, the agency re-sponsible for promoting scienceand engineering through researchprograms and education projects,overseas billions of dollars in sci-

entific research.Towards the fag end of the first

term of the Obama Administrationat least two dozen Indian Ameri-cans were working at senior posi-tions in the Obama Administration.

While Nisha Biswal, is Assis-tant Administrator, Bureau for Asia,in the USAID; Islam Siddiqui hav-ing the rank of an Ambassador isChief Agricultural Negotiator atthe US Trade Representative(USTR); Priya Aiyar serves as theDeputy General Counsel for Envi-ronment and Nuclear Programs inthe Department of Energy.

Among other Indian Ameri-cans currently holding importantposts in the Obama Administra-tion include Mythili Raman (De-partment of Justice), SubhasriRamanathan, Counselor to theSecretary, Department of Home-land Security; Sri Srinivasan, Prin-cipal Deputy Solicitor General inDepartment of Justice; KiranAhuja, Executive Director of theWhite House Initiative on AsianAmericans and Pacific Islanders(AAPI), Nealesh Kemkar, DeputyCounselor to the Secretary in theDepartment of Interior; and LopaP Kolluri, who is Deputy Chief ofStaff, Operations and Strategy inthe Department of Housing andUrban Development.

Taara Rangarajan is Special As-sistant to Susan Rice, the US Am-bassador to the UN; Atman Trivediserves as Senior Advisor in theBureau of International Securityand Non-Proliferation (ISN); JeremyBernton is Priority Placement Direc-tor; Rachana "Ruchi" Bhowmik isthe Deputy Assistant to the USPresident and Deputy Cabinet Sec-retary in the White House Office ofCabinet Affairs.-PTI

There is hardly anymajor wing of the USgovernment rangingfrom his own WhiteHouse to depart-ments of State, Trea-sury, Defense andCommerce thatsome of the keypositions are notbeing held by anIndian-American

Sunita Williams returnsto Earth from ISS

International Space Station crew member US astronaut Sunita Williams, right,

smiles shortly after landing in a Soyuz capsule outside the town of

Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, November 19

A L M AT Y / H O U S T O N :Record-setting Indian-Americanastronaut Sunita Williams alongwith two fellow cosmonauts hassafely returned to Earth from theISS, touching down on thesteppes of Kazakhstan, afterspending four months in orbit.

Williams, who commanded theInternational Space Station's Expe-dition 33 mission, and two astro-nauts, Flight Engineers YuriMalenchenko and Aki Hoshide,touched down in the dark, chillyexpanses in the town of Arkalyk onboard the Russian Soyuz capsule.

NASA spokesman Rob Naviassaid during the landing commen-tary, "The crew is home."

Williams, 47, Russian cosmo-naut Malenchenko and Japaneseastronaut Hoshide sported broadsmiles after being extracted fromtheir capsule.

They sat in reclining seats un-der thick blankets to stay warm inthe frigid cold before being movedto an inflatable medical tent forpost-landing checks.

The crew's physical conditionwas "normal" after the landing, amission control spokesman was

quoted by RIA Novosti newsagency as saying.

Some of the Soyuz's landingactivities occurred a few secondslate, causing it to overshoot itslanding site, but Russian recov-ery teams were able to compen-sate for the change during thedescent, Navias said.

The return of Williams, Hoshideand Malenchenko wrapped up a127-day space journey, including125 days spent aboard the ISS,since their launch from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July15 this year.-PTI


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GENERAL BOOK: Arunachal Pradesh Governor General J J Singh's autobiography "A Soldier's General" was released at Indian Consulate in New York

on November 14. (From left) Ajay Banga, President and Chief Executive Officer MasterCard ,Mrs JJ Singh, Consul General of India Prabhu Dayal,

General J.J. Singh, Tejinder Bindra, President of the Sikh Art & Film Foundation, Sant Singh Chatwal and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Chief of

Staff Vijay Nambiar. Pic Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia

Florida city namesKashmiri HinduHeritage Day

WASHINGTON: A Florida cityhas declared November 17 as the'Kashmiri Hindu Heritage Day', inrecognition of the resilience ofKashmiri Hindus who were dis-placed from their homeland twodecades back.

The proclamation in this regardwas issued by Andre Pierre,Mayor of the City of North Miamione of the largest cities in SouthFlorida.

"We in North Miami, which hassuch a wonderful diversity, areglad that we are part of this func-tion that showcases KashmiriHindu culture," Pierre said as hehanded the proclamation to thecity's Kashmiri community.

The proclamation noted that500,000 Kashmiri Hindus were dis-lodged by acts of terrorism andmany of them migrated to the USAand today 22 years later, a majorityof them have not returned to theirplace of birth due to fear but haveretained and preserved their 5000year old art, culture and cuisine.

A function in this regard wassponsored and organized by au-thor Chandramukhi Ganju, with thesupport of Kashmir Hindu Founda-tion and North Miami Library. -PTI

San Antonio Mayorto lead tradedelegation to India

WASHINGTON: Mayor of theTexas city of San Antonio, JulianCastro - considered a rising starof the US Democrat Party - wouldlead a trade delegation to Indiaearly next year.

The nearly two-week trade del-egation being organized by AlamoAsian Chamber of Commerce be-ginning January 21 would takeCastro and his accompanyingbusinessmen to Hyderabad,Chennai and New Delhi.

The Chamber manages sistercity relationship between SanAntonio and Chennai.

Some 20 people representingvarious city and government bod-ies, trade bodies and corporateleaders are expected to travel withthe San Antonio Mayor. -PTI

Pak-trained al-Qaeda operative sentenced to lifeNEW YORK: An al-Qaeda op-

erative, who on the direction ofthe terror group's leaders in Paki-stan conspired to bomb the city'ssubway systems, Times Squareand New York Stock Exchange inone of the most serious plotssince the 9/11 attacks, has beensentenced to life imprisonment.

Queens resident AdisMedunjanin, 34 and his accom-plices came within days of execut-ing a plot to conduct coordinatedsuicide bombings in the New YorkCity subway system in September2009, as directed by senior alQaeda leaders in Pakistan, US At-torney for the Eastern District ofNew York Loretta Lynch said.

He also discussed with his co-conspirators possible target loca-tions in Manhattan, including thesubway system, Grand CentralTerminal, the New York Stock Ex-change, Times Square and movietheaters.

Assistant Attorney General for

Julian Castro

National Security Lisa Monacotermed Medunjanin's plot as "one ofthe most serious terrorist plotsagainst the US homeland since 9/11".

Lynch said when Medunjanin'sterror plot was foiled, he at-tempted to commit a terrorist at-tack by crashing his car on a New

York expressway to kill himselfand others.

Medunjanin was sentenced tolife imprisonment for multiple fed-eral terrorism offenses here.

"Medunjanin sought martyrdomfor himself and death for innocentNew Yorkers as part of al Qaeda's

plan to spread terror within ourshores. Instead, he will now spendthe rest of his life where he belongs,behind bars," Lynch said.

According to thegovernment's evidence at trial,Medunjanin and his co-plottersNajibullah Zazi and Zarein

Ahmedzay traveled to Afghani-stan in 2008 to join the Taliban andkill US military personnel abroad.

They arrived in Pakistan in lateAugust 2008 but Medunjanin andAhmedzay were turned back at theAfghanistan border. Within days,Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay

met with an al Qaeda facilitator inPeshawar and agreed to travel toWaziristan for terrorist training.

In Waziristan, they met alQaeda leaders Saleh al-Somali,then the head of the group's ex-ternal operations, and RashidRauf, a high-ranking al-Qaedaoperative, who explained that thethree would be more useful to alQaeda and the jihad by returningto New York and conducting ter-rorist attacks.

They received al Qaeda train-ing in Pakistan on how to use vari-ous types of high-powered weap-ons, including the AK-47, machineguns and rocket-propelled gre-nade launcher.

During the training, al Qaedaleaders continued to encourageMedunjanin and his fellow plot-ters to return to the US to con-duct a "martyrdom" operation andemphasized the need to hit well-known targets and maximize num-ber of casualties.-PTI

Queens resident Adis Medunjanin, 34 and hisaccomplices came within days of executinga plot to conduct coordinated suicidebombings in the New York City subwaysystem in September 2009, as directed bysenior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan

Shaheen says will not visit Facebook, 9 held for vandalismMUMBAI: One of the girls held

for posting comments on'Facebook' questioning the shut-down in the city for Shiv SenaChief Bal Thackeray's funeral saidshe will never again visit the so-cial networking site while policearrested 9 Shiv Sainiks for van-dalizing her uncle's clinic.

Shaheen Dhada and Renu werearrested for posting commentsopposing the Mumbai shutdown.However, they were granted bailafter they furnished personalbonds, police said.

"So far, we have arrested ninepersons in connection with ran-sacking the clinic of Abdul Dhada.

We are looking for some morepeople," SP Thane rural RavindraSengaokar told PTI.

Shaheen said police was politeto her and she had no complaintsagainst any police personnel." Ihave apologized for the post," she

said adding that whatever hap-pened was unfair.

However, Shaheen said shewould never use the social medianetwork henceforth. She had nocomments to offer on whether shehad done anything wrong. She

Shaheen Dhada and Renu were arrested forposting comments opposing the Mumbaishutdown. However, they were granted bailafter they furnished personal bonds, policesaid. Shaheen said police was polite toher and she had no complaints

described Thackeray as a "greatguy" whom she "truly respected".

Shaheen had allegedly com-mented on Facebook that oneshould not observe bandh forThackeray's funeral. "We shouldremember Bhagat Singh andSukhdev," the post said.

Her friend Renu, who was ar-rested for 'liking' the post, felt thatshe was "wrongfully" arrested.

Renu said, "I regret what I did.This should not have happened.I never dreamt that I would be incourt. What we did was not acrime. Now I will think twice be-fore posting anything onFacebook." -PTI

www.indiapost.com12 India Post November 30, 2012

Health ScienceHealth Line

California health board OKs planfor insurance exchange

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: Theboard overseeing California's ef-forts to establish an insurancemarketplace for providing afford-able health care has approved itsoperational blueprint, an essentialstep toward meeting a key dead-line under the federal health carereform law.

The governor's office is expectedto forward the plan to the Obamaadministration. The deadline forstates to submit an operational plan,as California is doing, has been ex-tended to mid-December.

``We don't need more time,'' saidPeter Lee, the board's executivedirector. ̀ `We've been working fe-verishly over the past year, we'reexcited about going forward, andthat blueprint is a big deal.''

The action by the CaliforniaHealth Benefit Exchange board,which changed its name last monthto Covered California, kicks off asprint toward the Jan. 1, 2014, dead-line for states to have health insur-ance exchanges up and running.

In 2010, California became thefirst state to authorize a health in-surance exchange after passage ofthe federal Affordable Care Act. Itis expected to offer affordable careto some 3 million uninsured Cali-fornians, although Lee said a real-istic coverage figure by 2017 iscloser to 2.3 million.

Another 1.2 million to 1.6 mil-

Louisiana tells HHSwon't run insuranceexchange

BATON ROUGE, La.: Gov.Bobby Jindal's administration hassent formal notification to federalofficials that Louisiana won't cre-ate its own health insurance mar-ket as provided by the nationalhealth care overhaul.

Health and Hospitals SecretaryBruce Greenstein mailed the lettertelling the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services thatLouisiana will leave it to the fed-eral government to run the state'shealth insurance exchange.

The exchanges, scheduled tolaunch in January 2014, will al-low people and small busi-nesses to shop for private cov-erage from a range of compet-ing insurers. -AP

Beebe: Medicaidexpansion canspare nursing homes

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.: ArkansasGov. Mike Beebe has said that ex-panding Medicaid eligibility underthe federal health care law wouldbe the best way to avoid remov-ing thousands of people fromnursing home care, but he's opento other ideas.

A day after state officials de-tailed a series of proposed cutsunder a plan to fill a $138 millionshortfall in the state Medicaidprogram's budget, Beebe said hewanted to find a way to avoidthe nursing home reductions.Department of Human Servicesofficials have proposed eliminat-ing the lowest level of nursinghome care under the state pro-gram, a $35 million cut that wouldaffect between 10,000 and 15,000seniors. -AP

been re-elected, because Republi-cans had vowed to repeal thehealth care overhaul if they hadwon the White House. ``At leastsome of the uncertainty that wefaced is now behind us,'' she said.

Covered California's chief mis-sion is to expand coverage by pro-viding low-cost but affordablehealth care using federal tax sub-sidies and credits. The marketplaceit is establishing will allow con-sumers to compare plans andprices online.

Under the federal law, consum-ers will be required to have insur-ance or pay a penalty, the so-calledindividual mandate. By 2016, thatpenalty will be $695 a year per fam-ily member, or $347 for dependentsunder age 18.

In addition to initiating the ex-change, California has taken somekey steps under the federal healthcare law. They include banninginsurers from refusing coveragefor children with pre-existing ill-nesses and allowing young peopleto remain on their parents' plansthrough age 26.

The board also approved aplan for Covered California to befinancially self-sufficient by Janu-ary 2015, partly through assess-ments on insurers. It is seeking afederal grant of about $706 millionto cover its expenses over the nexttwo years. -AP

lion Californians are expected tobe covered under expanded Med-icaid provisions.

Small-business owners whofind it difficult to provide healthcoverage to their employees alsoare a prime target of the comingmarketplace.

``This is a big moment for Cali-fornia going forward,'' Lee said,shortly before the board unani-mously approved the blueprintand an application for more than

$700 million in federal grant money.One of the five members of theexchange board, Dr. Robert Ross,was absent.

Some states may opt out, mean-ing the federal government willstep in and operate their insurancemarketplace, while others will cre-ate an exchange in conjunctionwith the federal government.

Until open enrollment beginsnext October, Covered Californiawill hire staff, set up the exchange,begin educating the public abouthow it will work and select healthplans to participate from the 33

that have indicated they intend tosubmit bids.

Diana Dooley, the board's chair-woman, said the state has madegreat progress so far in creating ahealth care marketplace, but said theupcoming year will be fast-paced.

Board members noted that Cali-fornia has more uninsured resi-dents roughly 7 million than theentire population of some states.One of the exchange's key chal-lenges between now and the time

open enrollment begins is to ex-plain to Californians how they willbe affected by the reforms and howthis new part of state governmentwill work.

California's ethnic diversityalso will be a challenge in gettingout the message. The exchange'smarketing effort will provide out-reach material in 13 languages.

``It's still a very heavy lift,'' saidDooley, who also is the secretaryof the state Health and HumanServices Agency.

She and Lee expressed reliefthat President Barack Obama had

EPA report troublesOhio cancercluster families

CLYDE, Ohio: Soil samplesshowing high levels of a chemicalbelieved to increase the risk ofcertain cancers were found at aformer park in an area of northernOhio where cancer has sickeneddozens of children for more than adecade, according to environmen-tal regulators.

The U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency report on the find-ings, though, doesn't link the con-taminants with the cancer clusterthat has been under investigationby state and federal agencies formore than six years. Nearly 40young people have been diag-nosed with cancer since the mid-1990s in the area. -AP

New Mexicomoves ahead withhealth exchange

SANTA FE, N.M.: Gov. SusanaMartinez's administration is mov-ing ahead to establish a state-runclearinghouse to help small busi-nesses and tens of thousands ofindividuals find affordable healthinsurance they currently lack.

Details on page 14

One of the exchange's key challenges be-tween now and the time open enrollmentbegins is to explain to Californians how theywill be affected by the reforms and how thisnew part of state government will work

Over 50 million Indians suffer from diabetesDUBAI: There are now more people

living with diabetes in Asia than else-where and India is among the list of topfive countries with the most diabetes suf-ferers in 2009, organizers of World Diabe-tes Day have said quoting World HealthOrganization (WHO) figures.

According to them, more than 347million people suffer from diabetes world-wide. Since diabetes can be silent andsymptoms can easily go unnoticed, earlydetection and good management canprevent complications.

International Diabetes Foundation in-dicates that the top five countries withthe most diabetes sufferers in 2009 were:India 50.8 million, China 43.1 million, USA26.8 million, Russia 9.6 million and Brazil7.6 million.

World Diabetes Day raises global aware-ness of diabetes, its escalating rates aroundthe world and how to prevent the illnessand how it is managed.

Started by the International DiabetesFederation (IDF) and the WHO, it is cel-ebrated on November 14 to mark the birth-day of Frederick Banting who, along withCharles Best, was instrumental in the dis-covery of insulin in 1922, a life-saving treat-ment for diabetes patients.

Long-term effects of diabetes can in-clude blindness, gangrene, renal failure andheart disease. Globally diabetes is consum-ing an ever greater portion of medical costs,accounting for approximately 10 per centof all health care spending according tothe journal Diabetes Research and ClinicalPractice in 2010. -PTI

It is predicted that the number of adults affectedby diabetes will almost double from 32.6 million to51.7 million in 2030 in the Middle East and NorthAfrica (MENA) region.

India PostHealth Science Post 13

www.indiapost.com

November 30, 2012

New meningitis vaccine can bestored at room temp

"Our findings show that thebacteria causing meningitisA have disappeared fromthe noses and throats ofthose too old or too youngto have received thevaccine, resulting from aphenomenon known as'herd immunity,'' saidMarie-Pierre Preziosi,director of the MeningitisVaccine Project.

In a remarkable breakthrough that couldbe a major blow against meningitis inpoor countries, researchers say that

WHO has given the green light to a keyvaccine which can be transported or storedfor up to four days without refrigeration.This is remarkable keeping in mind thatcountries like Senegal and Ethiopia wherethe deadly infection often breaks out hasno electricity, especially in rural areas. Thiswill allow the vaccine to be stored for longstretches without losing its efficacy.

The vaccine called MenAfriVac whichwas made by the Indian company SerumInstitute costs less than 50 cent per doseand can be stored at temperatures as highas 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 deg C) forfour days.

'Reaching the millions of children in lastmile communities like those in rural Africacontinues to challenge us,' said Dr OrinLevine, director of vaccine delivery at theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

'The potential for some vaccines to re-main safely outside the cold chain for shortperiods of time has been widely known forover 20 years,' said Michel Zaffran, directorof a nonprofit collaboration with the WHOaimed at improving immunization systemsand technologies.

He expected this announcement will lead

to other vaccines being tested so that theycan be stored without refrigeration. Thefindings, from a study of the vaccine car-ried out by Health Canada and confirmedby the World Health Organization Vaccines

Pre-Qualification Program and the DrugsController General of India - were unveiledat a conference in Atlanta.

Another research showed that the vac-cine has been effective in reducing men-

ingitis in Burkina Faso, the first countryto introduce the vaccine in 2010. Not onlywas the disease not noticed in the vacci-nated children but those that hadn't re-ceived the vaccine it also didn't have thedisease.

Just two years later, the bacteria thatcauses meningitis A had been eliminated,not only in those who received the vaccine,but in others around them. "Our findingsshow that the bacteria causing meningitisA have disappeared from the noses andthroats of those too old or too young tohave received the vaccine, resulting from aphenomenon known as 'herd immunity,'' saidMarie-Pierre Preziosi, director of the Men-ingitis Vaccine Project.

'And we can also show that after intro-duction in Burkina Faso, we saw the low-est level of epidemic meningitis in 15 years,'added Preziosi, the lead author of the study,which will appear in Clinical Infection Dis-eases.

Meningitis A is a bacterial infection thataffects the membrane of the brain. It cancause brain lesions and has a 50 percentfatality rate when left untreated, accordingto the WHO. Viral meningitis is generallyless severe, with most patients fully recov-ering on their own within a week or two.

-health.india.com

Blame it on lifestyle,diabetes risingamong children

COIMBATORE: Kushboo V, a class 12student of a city school, became diabeticwhen she was just 9 years old. Her crav-ing for soft drinks, doctors told her, wasthe main cause for her health condition.Kushboo is not an exception. Accordingto doctors, the number of children diag-nosed as diabetic in the city is fast rising.

November 14 is not only children's daybut also World Diabetes Day and accord-ing to doctors' a number of children withdiabetics are reported from the city.

Dr V Sekar, chief consultant at theCoimbatore Diabetes Foundation, says ev-ery month they get around 10 to 15 freshcases of diabetic children below 15 years."Recently, we even received the case of aone-and-half year-old baby boy with dia-betes. His parents would always give himsoft drinks, and here he was," he says. Toomuch fast food and soft drinks to a seden-tary life style doctors say that there areseveral reasons for the surge in the num-ber of cases.

Experts say that the worrying trend iswhen earlier diabetic children had diabetestype I, now many are coming with type II.While the exact reason of diabetes type I isunknown and cannot be prevented, type IIis preventable.

Cont’d on page 15

New Mexico moves ahead with health exchangeSANTA FE, N.M.: Gov. Susana

Martinez's administration is mov-ing ahead to establish a state-runclearinghouse to help small busi-nesses and tens of thousands ofindividuals find affordable healthinsurance they currently lack.

A fight over the exchange,however, could break out in nextyear's Legislature.

Attorney General Gary King'soffice is reviewing whether newlegislation is needed to implementa health insurance exchange orwhether it can be done as the Re-publican governor plans, withouta change in current law or legisla-tive involvement.

The exchange is envisioned asan online shopping center for theuninsured to buy health cover-age from a selection of plans of-fered by insurance companieswith benefits tailored to NewMexico. It's to be ready to enrollpeople starting next October andunder federal law must be fullyoperating by January 2014. Thatyear, an estimated 55,000 NewMexicans may use it to enroll inan insurance plan.

Some states waited for the out-

come of the presidential electionto make a decision, but NewMexico has been working sincelast year on an exchange plan.

``Overall, we never really wa-vered from the idea that it needsto be a state exchange,'' HumanServices Secretary Sidonie Squiersaid in an interview.

Under a 2010 law championedby President Barack Obama toexpand health care coverage,states can run an exchange, leavethat task to the federal govern-ment or partner with federalhealth officials.

``We wanted to build some-

thing that we think is unique toNew Mexico and works for NewMexico,'' said Squier.

A fifth of the state's populationlacks health care, and it's estimatedas many as 250,000 New Mexicansmay become eligible to buy healthinsurance through the exchangebetween 2014 and 2020.

Under the federal law, unin-

sured individuals and families canreceive subsidies to reduce theamount they pay for insurance.Small businesses can be eligiblefor a tax credit to help providemedical coverage for workers.

Martinez doesn't plan to estab-lish a new agency to run the ex-change. Instead, the exchange willbe operated by the New MexicoHealth Insurance Alliance, a non-

profit public corporation estab-lished in 1994 to provide accessto insurance for small businessesand some individuals. The allianceis funded by an assessment on in-surance companies.

The state received a $34 millionfederal grant for an exchange, withalmost $24 million earmarked for acomputer system that will be used

by uninsured New Mexicans toshop for health plans in the mar-ketplace. The alliance plans toaward a contract for the computersystem in early January.

Squier said the administrationdoesn't believe legislation is nec-essary to implement the exchangebecause it can be handled throughthe alliance.

However, the attorney general's

Martinez doesn't plan to establish a newagency to run the exchange. Instead, theexchange will be operated by the NewMexico Health Insurance Alliance, a non-profit public corporation established in 1994to provide access to insurance for smallbusinesses and some individuals

14 India Post Health Science Postwww.indiapost.com

November 30, 2012

office is reviewing whether theLegislature must authorize an ex-change and approve changes inlaw for the alliance to operate it.

``We do have some serious con-cerns,'' Phil Sisneros, a spokesmanfor King, said.

Martinez vetoed an exchangeproposal approved by the Demo-cratic-controlled Legislature lastyear. She said the measure waspremature.

Sen. Dede Feldman, an Albu-querque Democrat, said thealliance's governing board needsmore consumer and employee rep-resentation rather than being tiltedin favor of the insurance industry.There also are questions whetherthe alliance's current mission fo-cuses on a much narrower segmentof uninsured individuals than theexchange must handle.

Most of the alliance's board isappointed by the governor.House Republican Leader TomTaylor of Farmington saidMartinez can fix any problems byselecting more consumer repre-sentatives for the board.

``I think we're in fine shape,''said Taylor.-AP

Gov. Susana Martinez

Congress slams US health officialson tainted drugs

WASHINGTON: US lawmak-ers slammed federal and statehealth officials for failing to prop-erly police a pharmacy whosetainted drugs caused a deadlyfungal meningitis outbreak.

"This tragedy could havebeen avoided," said Congress-man Cliff Stearns, who chairsthe Energy and CommerceCommittee's oversight and in-vestigations panel.

The Florida Republican cited alitany of complaints against theNew England Compounding Cen-tre and problems found duringinspections over the past decadethat were insufficiently investi-gated.

One such incident was whenthe Food and Drug Administrationreceived reports in 2002 that pa-tients receiving NECC steroid in-jections had experienced "adverseevents," including "meningitis-like" symptoms.

"The product in question wasthe very same product connectedto the current outbreak. In thatcase, the NECC drug was con-taminated with bacteria," Stearnssaid.

While the FDA inspectedNECC's Massachusetts facility inresponse to the complaints, thatdid not prevent more patientsfrom getting sick from the same

drugs six months later.At a 2003 meeting with Massa-

chusetts health officials - whohold primary responsibility forregulating pharmacies in their state- Stearns said the FDA made a"prophetic statement."

"The FDA stated that there was

the potential for serious publichealth consequences if NECC'scompounding practices, in par-ticular those relating to sterileproducts, are not improved,"Stearns said.

Some 461 people have beensickened - and 32 of them havedied - after receiving injections ofNECC's tainted steroids, accord-ing to the latest tally by the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Pre-

vention.The outbreak has led to calls

for tighter regulation of theloosely controlled pharmaceuticalcompounding industry.

Federal investigators havelaunched a criminal probe into thecase.

"Even though FDA was clearlyaware of the risks posed byNECC's compounding practices,the agency was slow to act,"Stearns said.

It took the agency four yearsto issue a warning letter based onproblems it found with NECC'ssterility practices in 2002 and twomore years for the FDA to respondto the company's claims challeng-ing the report. -PTI

Congressman Cliff Stearns

Spurt in diabetes cases tiedto obesity, poor diet

Samaira Khan, 32, developeddiabetes when she was only27 years old. "I used to

weigh 90kg. While genes werepartially responsible, it was mylove for eating good food thatcaused the real problem," she said.Khan, who is an engineer with amulti-national firm, said she hada difficult time coping with diabe-tes. "I could not come to termswith the fact that I had to com-pletely do away with sugar. Thefirst time I was diagnosed, mysugar levels were over 400 mg/dL(normally, the levels should beless than 110 mg/dL).

Kaushambi-resident Mridula KVerma, 24, who has had Type 1 dia-betes since she was four years old,says she has learnt how to handher sugar levels. "At school, mysugar levels would fluctuate and Ihad to be careful when I was oninsulin injections," she says."Pumps have made diabetes man-agement easy," Mridula adds.

Rising numbersOne in every five patients at

any general clinic has diabetes."Poor eating habits, obesity andlack of physical exercise are trig-gering the rise in the number ofyoung diabetic cases," says VikasAhluwalia, senior consultant, in-ternal medicine, Max Super Speci-ality Hospital, Saket.

Researchers have now identi-

fied a gene called myostatin, whichleads Indians to have more bodyfat and low muscle mass, factorsimportant for genesis of diabetes,lipid disorders and heart diseases.

"In this study, we clearly showthat there is a genetic basis of notonly low muscle but also more fatin Indians," said Dr Surya PrakashBhatt, co-investigator of the studyand researcher at AIIMS. Thestudy was published online inJournal Plos One (USA).

Rent-a-pump, momOne in 10 pregnant women de-

velops diabetes in their second tri-mester. In the past six months, apilot project at Indraprastha

"Poor eating habits,obesity and lack ofphysical exerciseare triggering the risein the number ofyoung diabeticcases," says VikasAhluwalia, seniorconsultant, internalmedicine, MaxSuper SpecialityHospital, Saket.

Cont’d on page 15

India PostHealth Science Post 15

www.indiapost.com

November 30, 2012

Booze calories nearly equalsoda's for US adults

NEW YORK: Americans gettoo many calories from soda. Butwhat about alcohol? It turns outadults get almost as many emptycalories from booze as from softdrinks, a government study found.

Soda and other sweeteneddrinks the focus of obesity-fight-ing public health campaigns arethe source of about 6 percent ofthe calories adults consume, onaverage. Alcoholic beverages ac-count for about 5 percent, the newstudy found.

``We've been focusing onsugar-sweetened beverages. Thisis something new,'' said CynthiaOgden, one of the study's authors.She's an epidemiologist with theCenters for Disease Control andPrevention.

The government researcherssay the findings deserve attentionbecause, like soda, alcohol con-tains few nutrients but plenty ofcalories.

The study is based on inter-views with more than 11,000 U.S.adults from 2007 through 2010. Par-ticipants were asked extensivequestions about what they ate anddrank over the previous 24 hours.

The study found:On any given day, about one-

third of men and one-fifth ofwomen consumed calories from

beer, wine or liquor.Averaged out to all adults, the

average guy drinks 150 caloriesfrom alcohol each day, or theequivalent of a can of Budweiser.

The average woman drinksabout 50 calories, or roughly halfa glass of wine.

Men drink mostly beer. For

women, there was no clear favor-ite among alcoholic beverages.

There was no racial or ethnicdifference in average calories con-sumed from alcoholic beverages.But there was an age difference,with younger adults putting moreof it away.

For reference, a 12-ounce can

of regular Coca-Cola has 140 calo-ries, slightly less than a same-sized can of regular Bud. A 5-ounce glass of wine is around 100calories.

In September, New York Cityapproved an unprecedented mea-sure cracking down on giant so-das, those bigger than 16 ounces,or half a liter. It will take effect inMarch and bans sales of drinksthat large at restaurants, cafeteriasand concession stands.

Should New York officials nowstart cracking down on tall-boybeers and monster margaritas?

There are no plans for that, cityhealth department officials said,adding in a statement that whilestudies show that sugary drinksare `à key driver of the obesityepidemic,'' alcohol is not.

Health officials should thinkabout enacting policies to limit al-coholic intake, but New York's fo-cus on sodas is appropriate, saidMargo Wootan, director of nutri-tion policy for the Center for Sci-ence in the Public Interest, a pub-lic health advocacy group.

Soda and sweetened beveragesare the bigger problem, especiallywhen it comes to kids the No. 1source of calories in the U.S. diet,she said.

`Ìn New York City, it was smartto start with sugary drinks. Let'ssee how it goes and then thinkabout next steps,'' she said.

However, she lamented that theObama administration is planningto exempt alcoholic beveragesfrom proposed federal regulationsrequiring calorie labeling on res-taurant menus.

It could set up a confusing sce-nario in which, say, a raspberryiced tea may have a calorie countlisted, while an alcohol-laden LongIsland Iced Tea with more than fourtimes as many calories doesn't. ̀ Ìtcould give people the wrong idea,''she said. -AP

In September, NewYork City approvedan unprecedentedmeasure crackingdown on giant sodas,those bigger than 16ounces, or half a liter.It will take effect inMarch and banssales of drinks inrestaurants

J&K to implement Drug Policy next yearJAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir

government will fully implementa new drug policy in the state afterMarch 31 next year, Health Min-ister Sham Lal Sharma said here.

"The Drug Policy which hasalready been made public by thegovernment will be fully imple-mented after March 31 next year,"he said.

He also said the Drug Pro-curement Corporation which is inthe pipeline will start function-ing simultaneously.

Sharma said all District Hos-pitals will have the facilities of

CT Scan machines and CriticalAmbulances in a phased manner."Some important hospitals havealready been provided the CTScan machines," the minister said.

On the posting of migrant doc-tors and para-medics who are pres-ently out of the state, he said theGovernment has already decidedto utilize the services of all migrantstaff to overcome the deficiencyof staff.

"The deadline for their joininghas been extended to April 30,"he said.

Sharma told reporters that the

state has secured the topmostaward in the health sector in thecountry due to the collective ef-forts of employees and activesupport of the civil society.

Highlighting the achieve-ments of the Health Department,he said during the past threeyears there is substantial in-crease in various health param-eters which are self-speaking.

"There is 53 per cent increasein the OPD, 85 in IPD, 30 in insti-tutional deliveries, 116 in UltraSound and 211 per cent increasein revenue receipt," he said. -PTI

Apollo Hospitals has treateddiabetic pregnant patients withexcellent maternal and fetal out-comes using insulin pumps.

"Considering its high cost (Rs2 lakh) and the fact that the pumpis usually required only tran-siently during pregnancy, we areletting out insulin pumps," saidDr SK Wangnoo, senior consult-ant endocrineologist anddiabetologist, Apollo Hospitals.

"We have enrolled about 12patients so far, of who aboutthree have delivered success-fully. The usual insulin shots in-volve multiple needle pricksalong with a risk of sugar fluc-tuation, which is not good for themother or the baby," he said. In-sulin pumps provide continuousinsulin delivery and also displayblood sugar levels every fiveminutes.

Curing diabetes footFortis hospital has introduced

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy(HBOT) at Fortis C-DOC Diabe-tes & Allied Disorders Hospitalfor treating diabetic foot andwounds. "HBOT is the adminis-tration of 100% oxygen to a pa-tient in a pressurized environ-ment. The combination of pres-

Spurt in diabetes cases tiedto obesity, poor diet

Cont’d from page 14 sure and oxygen increases thenumber of oxygen moleculesthat are dissolved in the bloodplasma, which is then delivered

to the tissues," Dr Ashok Damir,head, Advanced Centre for Dia-betic Foot & Wound Manage-ment, Fortis C-DOC.

Size WiseYour weight or having a wide

girth puts you at risk of diabe-tes.

While Body Mass Index(BMI) under 23 indicates healthyweight, you must make sure yourabs are as flat as possible. -HT

Excess of cholesterol-richfood, sweets, and a sedentarylifestyle with little exercise arethe reasons commonly attributedfor diabetes. Diabetes can laterlead to serious health condition.

Says Dr V Mohan, a seniordiabetologist: "Most of them de-velop serious complications intheir kidneys, liver or heartwithin 10 to 15 years.

When a 60-year-old is af-fected, he or she develops theseproblems only at 70. But whenone is affected at the age of 15,chances are they may get seri-ous complications at around 30,"he says. The cost is not just tothe patient or his family; an un-healthy youth population affectsthe productivity of the nationaleconomy.

The way to overcome diabe-tes type 2 is to control the dietand exercise regularly. DrMeenakumari Mohan, a paediat-ric diabetologist says whilethose affected with diabetesmust strictly follow the instruc-tions of physicians including aregular exercise and a controlleddiet, those who do not have the

Blame it on lifestyle, diabetesrising among children

Cont’d from page 13 disease must be careful to pre-vent the diabetes. Half an hourof exercise of walking in moder-ate speed at least five days aweek is the expected amount ofexercise. Vegetables and fruitsmust eaten more and high calo-

rie food should be avoided.But how can one avoid the

urge to have a quick bite, aburger or a pizza? "Have it oncein a while. And once means notmore than once a month," saysDr Meenakumari. -TOI

"When a 60-year-oldis affected, he or shedevelops these prob-lems only at 70. Butwhen one is affectedat the age of 15,chances are theymay get seriouscomplications ataround 30,"

"We have enrolledabout 12 patients sofar, of who aboutthree have deliveredsuccessfully. Theusual insulin shotsinvolve multipleneedle pricks alongwith a risk of sugarfluctuation

www.indiapost.com November 30, 2012

COMMUNITYACROSS AMERICA

Details on page 22

16 India Post

Desi News Roaringkick-off for

TANAfundraiser

Details on page 25

Details on page 18

Details on page 21

Indian American Democratshost Diwali & Victory party

RAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: It was a treat towatch when a good number ofelected officials at the local, Stateand Federal level came on one plat-form to offer Diwali greetings andNew Year wishes to a large num-ber of Indian Americans at Holi-day Inn in Skokie, a north sidesuburb of Chicago.

The event was organized byIndo American Democratic Organi-zation (IADO) in league with frontranking supporters of DemocraticParty on Sunday November 18. Itwas not only to celebrate Diwalibut also Idd, and more importantlyunprecedented victory of IllinoisDemocratic candidates in the lastelections held early this month.

As put by IADO presidentHarnedra Mangrola, the electionresults were in a way a great vic-tory for his organization as most ofthe candidates backed by it rompedhome to victory and that IADOwanted to offer congratulations towinners as also thanks to a numberof party workers and members forthe huge efforts that they put in toget candidates elected.

Elected officials with Indian Democrats and Indian CG Mukta Tomar (L to R) Rep Danny Davis, Rep Bill Foster, Rep

Brad Schneider, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep Mike Quigley, Balvinder Singh and Harendra Mangrola

"Many of us also desired to letthe mainstream American politi-cians get acquainted with our cul-tural heritage and the Diwali cel-ebrations really came handy. We

were all thrilled that the Democraticleaders - Aldermen, State Senatorsand Representatives, US Con-gressman and Cook County Presi-dent - should vie with each other

in presenting their complimentsand well wishes for Diwali andNew Year to 200 plus elites of theChicagoland," he told this paper.

Cont’d on page 19

Chivukula unveils Diwali measure for schoolsIndia Post News Service

TRENTON: In the season ofDiwali, the Indian festival oflights, celebrated by an estimatedone billion people worldwide,Assembly Deputy SpeakerUpendra J. Chivukula unveiled ameasure he will sponsor to urgeNew Jersey school districts withhigh Indian-American popula-tions to declare the first day ofthe five-day festival as a holiday.

Derived from the Sanskritword 'Deepavali,' which means arow of lights, Diwali is the mostpopular Indian festival cel-ebrated by a majority of thestate's Indian-American popula-tion including Hindus, Bud-dhists, and Sikhs. At about 3.2

percent, Indian-Americans are thelargest component of New Jersey'sfastest-growing Asian-Americangroup, which accounts for an es-timated 8.7 percent of the state'snearly nine million population.

During Diwali, the faithful lighttheir homes and businesses withdiyas which are decorated claylamps fueled by oil. These lamps

are kept lit throughout the nightto invoke the blessings of Laxmi,the Hindu Goddess of material andspiritual wealth and well being.This year, Diwali was celebratedthrough November 17.

"The lamps of Diwali illuminatea path to understanding andawareness of a rich heritage andalso signify the desire for spiritual

enlightenment. Closing schoolswith high Indian-Americanpopulations on the first day ofDiwali would honor an importanttradition of a growing segmentof our state's population andwould provide all Indian-Ameri-can children with the opportu-nity to celebrate this wonderfulfestival with their family andfriends," Chivukula said.

The only South Asian law-maker in the 120-member Legis-lature, Chivukula encouragednon Indian-Americans to learnabout Diwali either from theirIndian friends or by taking a walkdown streets like Oak Tree Roadin Edison or Newark Avenue inJersey City.

The only South Asian lawmaker in the 120-member Legislature, Chivukula encouragednon Indian-Americans to learn about Diwalieither from their Indian friends or by taking awalk down streets like Oak Tree Road inEdison or Newark Avenue in Jersey City

Cont’d on page 19

Gandhi Centerhosts successfulALS fundraiser

ASHWIN PATEL

ST LOUIS: Mahatma GandhiCultural Center (MGC) in St. Louis,Missouri hosted an ALS-fundraiser to spread awarenessand support the fight againstneurodegenerative disease Amyo-trophic Lateral Sclerosis/ ALS (LouGehrig's disease) on Sunday, No-vember 4.

This ALS-fundraising dinnerand live-entertainment programwas attended by over 250 St. Louisresidents of diverse ethnicitieswho came together to support thiscause. Over $25,000 was raised byMGC and proceeds were donatedto St. Louis local chapter of theALS Association - supporting pa-tient services, advocacy and cut-ting-edge ALS research.

Lights, feasting andprayers at FremontHindu Temple

RITU MAHESHWARI


FREMONT: Diwali was cel-ebrated on a grand scale at Fre-mont Hindu Temple on Tuesday,November 13. Fremont's Hinducommunity poured into the templeto pray and celebrate Diwali withlights, feasting, and prayer.

Starting early in the evening,Puja was held to commemorate theoccasion. At the beginning of thefunction, an idol of goddessLakshmi was paraded in apalanquin to the center of thetemple to be revered and elabo-rately decorated. After ShreeLakshmi Utsav, SahasraDeepalankarana lighted the templegrounds with twinkling lamps andpious hymns.

Narendra Pathakre-appointed toCounty Council

India Post 17November 30, 2012 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Guj Samaj celebrates Diwali with Bollywood Masti

Asian Media USA

SCHAUMBURG: GujaratiSamaj Chicago organized a galaDiwali Dinner and DazzlingBollywood Masti on SaturdayNovember 10 at India House Ban-quet in Schaumburg, a north sidesuburb of Chicago. The eveningwas attended by 600 plus membersand guests.

The evening started with social

hour. The event was emceed byManish Pandya. Diva lighting cer-emony was performed by ChiefGuest Harshit Patel from NY Life.

Addressing the gathering, cur-rent President Suryakant Patelobserved, "Diwali marks the at-tainment of moksha or nirvana andsignifies conquering of evil (sym-bolized by Ravan) by virtue (sym-bolized by Lord Ram.")

Outlining the objectives of the

Samaj, he said that "our goals areto encourage people to explore andlearn about rich Gujarati culture."He also dwelt on past events or-ganized by Gujarati Samaj like Sum-mer Picnic, Navratri, Masti withcolorful dresses and beautifulmusic, and Mix and Mingle func-tion for youth.

Dr. Jitendra Patel, President ofGOPIO/Chicago was introducedby emcee Pandya. He also intro-

(President), Kamlesh Shah (VicePresident), Jayesh Parikh (GeneralSecretary), Bhavesh Shah (JointSecretary), Deepen Modi (Trea-surer), Sandip Shah (Joint Trea-surer), Manish Pandya (CulturalSecretary), Open (Joint CulturalSecretary). Board Members areAshok Shah, Payal Shah, MaulinParikh, Vidha Dave, Daxesh Modi,Umang Shah and Past PresidentMukesh Shah.

duced Bollywood Masti Group onthe stage.

Singer Sunny paid tribute toRajesh Khanna singing 'Aate JaateKhub Surat Awara.' Singer Alkastarted with 'Kanto se KhinchkeYe Aanchal.' Kalpesh sang songslike 'Ho Gayi Main Matwari.'' Col-lectively they sang many popularhits entertaining the audience.

Executive Committee for 2012to 2013 comprises Suryakant Patel

Guj Samaj new Executive Committee for 2012 to 2013

Back row: Dipen Modi, Jayesh Parikh, Manish Pandya, Bhavesh Shah, Ashok Shah. Front row: Maulin Parikh,

Sandeep Shah, Kamlesh Shah, Suryakant Patel, Vibha Dave, Umang Shah, Daxesh Modi Members and guests dancing in Diwali mood

November 30, 2012India Post18 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Gandhi Center hosts successful ALS fundraiserASHWIN PATEL

ST LOUIS: Mahatma GandhiCultural Center (MGC) in St. Louis,Missouri hosted an ALS-fundraiser to spread awarenessand support the fight againstneurodegenerative disease Amyo-trophic Lateral Sclerosis/ ALS (LouGehrig's disease) on Sunday, No-vember 4.

This ALS-fundraising dinner

and live-entertainment programwas attended by over 250 St. Louisresidents of diverse ethnicitieswho came together to support thiscause. Over $25,000 was raised byMGC and proceeds were donatedto St. Louis local chapter of theALS Association - supporting pa-tient services, advocacy and cut-ting-edge ALS research.

Dan Gray of KPLR News 11/KTVI Fox 2/ KMOX Radio was themaster of ceremony for this eventwhich started at 5:00pm with cock-tails and opening of silent auc-tions. Renowned ALS researcherand neurologist, Dr. TimothyMiller of Washington UniversitySchool of Medicine, gave an out-standing keynote speech at the

event after introductory remarksby Dan Gray, Michael Alexander(Channel 4 photographer, who re-cently lost his brother to ALS),Katie McGovern (of ALS Associa-tion, St. Louis regional chapter)and Dr. Elly Barua Bhuyan (MGC)who spearheaded this effort.

A colorful cultural program ofIndian folk dances was presented

followed by live musical perfor-mance by well known entertainerMs. Elizabeth LaKamp. Dinner forthe event was supported by vari-ous local restaurants who gener-ously provided food for this fund-raising dinner. Program ended at8:30pm with live-auctions andvote of thanks by Dan Gray andDr. Elly Barua Bhuyan.

Dr. Bhuyan honoring Dan GraySmt Vijaya Lakshmi, Dr Dasa and Vijaykumar. Pics Hema Patel

Shivalaya Center reinvigorates Diwali spiritP ADITI

CHICAGO: A grand Diwali cel-ebration was held on November 9at Shivalya Hindu Cultural Centerlocated on Grand Ave in ChicagoDowntown.

The Diwali celebration cer-emony was a huge success withhundreds of people attending.

The day started with a grand aarticonducted by Chief Pandit ShantiP Shastriji that kicked off the cel-ebration on an auspicious note.Tribute was paid to the veteranswho are fighting for the country.

For the kids, the start was diyalighting in which the kids lit up

diyas that they hadpainted the week be-fore. This was fol-lowed by a wonder-ful Bharatnatyamdance performanceby Ms. Sai, who con-ducts Bharatnatyamclasses. Next was aclassical music ses-sion by a renownedmusician in the Chi-cago area.

In addition, therewas a face paintingsession when chil-dren (and adultsalike) could get theirface painted by a facepainting profes-sional. Raffle ticketswere distributed andprizes announcedwith some luckyfamilies winning a wider variety ofprizes sponsored by Shivalya.

Lastly, there was a wonderfulbuffet dinner provided by BombaySpice. Diwali sweets includingjalebis, different kinds of barfis andother assortments were given outto all those who attended. It was agreat sight to see the Hindu com-

munity come together in this fash-ion with outpourings of devotionand Shradhha clearly visibleamongst the attendees.

Shivalya was recently foundedto serve the Hindu community inthe Chicagoland area. The Centeris a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit orga-nization. Its goal is to provide a

place of worship and learning forthe community as also to providethe current generation and nextgeneration with the tools tostrengthen their ties and roots andestablish a strong identity for theHindu population in the city ofChicago.Praying before Shivlinga

Devotees throng Shivalya during Diwali celebrations


Present on the occasion wereCook County President TonyPrekwinkle, Rep. Jan Schakowski,Rep. Danny Davis, Rep. Bill Fos-ter, Rep. Mike Quigley, Rep. BradSchneider, State Senator Silverstein,State Senator Daniel Biss, ThomasFullerton, State Rep MartinMoylan, State Rep MichelleMussman, Laurie Nowak ofDupage County Commissioner, AldJoe Moore, Ald Debra Silverstein,Ald. Ameya Powar and RajaKrishnamoorthy among others.

Ms Mukta Tomar, Consul Gen-eral for India, was a Special Guestand in her brief speech she offeredDiwali greetings to all andtouched upon the basic philoso-phy behind Diwali celebrations. "Itis victory of good over evil andlight over darkness. The celebra-tion crosses the boundaries ofrace, religion and language," sheobserved. Ms Tomar also dwelton the progress made by India inrecent years in different areas ofactivities - technology, science,and economic front -and exudedconfidence that India US relationswould get more cemented in thecoming year as both have commontradition of a democratic set up.

IADO Chief Mangrola wel-comed the guests and talkedabout IADO efforts in getting In-dian Americans more and more in-volved in mainstream politics.Congressmen Danny Davis saidthat Diwali signified victory of

Indian American Democrats host Diwali & Victory partyCont’d from page 16

righteousness over evil as wasevident "from recent election re-sults" and that we look forward tobetter days ahead.

Congresswoman JanScacokwski, a doyen of IndianAmericans, set the ball rolling lav-ishly praising IADO for its effortsin giving a boost to Democraticcampaign and also wished every-body present happy Diwali. Shetalked about Festival of Lights andmentioned about Jewish celebra-tion of Hannakua which is also afestival of light.

Cook County President TonyPrekwinkle thanked IADO for itsefforts to ensure Democratic vic-tory and singled out BalvinderSingh, a front ranking community

activist, for his committed ap-proach in this direction. Rep MikeQuigley, Bill Foster and BradSchneider also addressed the meet

and acknowledged the huge ef-forts put in by their Indian sup-porters. Ravi Villivalam, IADODirector, emceed the event very

gracefully and besides introduc-ing the guest celebrities, he alsoextended welcome to all thosewho came to attend the victory

event.The second generation Indian

Americans were conspicuous bytheir presence. Parth Mangrola

and Nirav Virani were seen promi-nently mingling with guests. Viranieloquently described the signifi-cance of Diwali as a festival as also

Indian Americans' involvement inmainstream politics. The near threehours of program ended with asumptuous dinner.

Nirav Mangrola proposing vote of thanks

A group of attendees Ms Vandana Jhingan, Ms Jan Schakowsky, Jodh Singh Rawat, Dr Parikh, Ms Kunja Parikh, Danny Davis and a guest

Indian CG Ms Mukta Tomar with Vinesh Virani, Balvinder Singh and IADO Chief Harendra Mangrola

"It is the mingling of culturesand traditions that helps us openour hearts and minds to each otherand deepens our human experi-ence. It fosters our coexistence inharmony," he added.

"Perhaps the unity in our diver-sity is best illustrated in the San-skrit verse that reverberatesthrough many Indian homes dur-ing the festival of Diwali and couldapply to people of all faiths."

Chivukula unveils Diwalimeasure for schools

Asato Ma Sad GamayaTamasoma Jyotir GamayaMrityor ma Amritam Gamaya

TranslationLead me from the untruth to thetruthLead me from darkness to lightLead me from death to immortal-ity

Under current state law, Diwaliis included in the list of religiousholidays during which students

are permitted to be absent fromschool. The statute ensures that astudent's absence on a religiousholiday will be recorded as an ex-cused absence and that the stu-dent cannot be deprived of anyopportunity for any award or ofthe right to take an alternative testor examination.

Chivukula's measure wouldurge a school district with a largepopulation of Indian-Americanstudents to close schools on thefirst day of Diwali.

Cont’d from page 16


Six Gam Patidar Samaj celebrates Diwali

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: The annual Diwalicelebration held by the Six GamPatidar Samaj of Chicago was anevent filled with joy and gaiety. Itwas held at the Meadows Clubon November 9.

Over 440 Six Gamis and guestsdressed in colorful traditional at-tire flocked to the Meadows Clubto celebrate Diwali associatingthemselves with thousands ofGuajratis across the globe. Aftera social hour filled with lot oftasty appetizers, the programstarted with the ceremonial lamp

lighting by the President, DilipPatel, Chief Guest Naren Patel andthe Board of Trustees.

This was followed by some col-orful dances by young secondgeneration Gujarati Americandancers. Some rockingBollywood numbers were thehighlights of the evening.

The dances were followed bybrief speeches by President DilipPatel and other officials of theSamaj who thanked the membersfor their whole hearted supportof the organization. Leading mem-bers of association and sponsorswere then introduced.

Med Star Chief Naren Patel (second from left) honored for his all

round help to the Samaj

Six Gam Patidar Samaj members in Diwali mood

Gaiety galore at Six Gam Patidar Diwali banquet

Diptesh Desai was the Masterof Ceremonies.

A delicious dinner followedand put the attendees in the rightspirit for a couple of hours of riv-eting entertainment from singersSamir Date and Dipalee Somaiyya,visiting from Mumbai.

The duo sang a variety ofBollywood hits spanning threedecades and had the audiencedancing and waltzing on thedance floor.

The audience rocked and slowdanced to some mesmerizingnumbers by the duo who werevery ably accompanied by JohnyJohn on the drums/percussionsand Mita Das on the keyboard/piano.

In the end, they invited NarenPatel on the stage to honor him

with a bouquet on his birthdayand Samir Date sang the famous

birthday song "Bar Bar Din YeAaye Tum Jio Hazaro Saal".


Lights, feasting and prayers at FremontHindu Temple Diwali

RITU MAHESHWARI


FREMONT: Diwali was cel-ebrated on a grand scale at Fre-mont Hindu Temple on Tuesday,November 13. Fremont's Hinducommunity poured into the templeto pray and celebrate Diwali withlights, feasting, and prayer.

Starting early in the evening,Puja was held to commemorate the

occasion. At the beginning of thefunction, an idol of goddessLakshmi was paraded in apalanquin to the center of thetemple to be revered and elabo-rately decorated. After ShreeLakshmi Utsav, SahasraDeepalankarana lighted the templegrounds with twinkling lamps andpious hymns.

One thousand lamps werelighted. Couples lined up to offer

a special group Shree Lakshmipuja for the occasion. Panditjihelped devotees in conductingabhishek and puja.

In the main temple hall, a throngof devotees lined up for darshanand prayers. Dr. Romesh Japra, thetemple founder, led everyone inSamhoooik puja. The wholetemple reverberated with mantrasof Hanuman Chalisa and LakshmiArti.

Diwali celebrations at thetemple resounded with the fervorand devotion found in Indian cel-ebrations. Diwali is a time to cel-ebrate Lord Rama's victory overthe demon king Ravana, and ofthe inevitable triumph of goodover evil. Diwali is also a day topray to goddess Lakshmi forwealth.

Cont’d on page 24

Diwali celebrationsat the templeresounded with thefervor and devotionfound in Indiancelebrations

Dr. Japra lights the lamp!Manoramaji helps parade the palanquin. Pics Niloo Kapoor Goddess Lakshmi, decorated for the puja


Roaring kick-off for TANA fundraiserANGELA LEE

DALLAS, Texas: In a show ofoverwhelming support to TeluguAssociation of North America(TANA)'s 19th Convention in Dal-las (first time), more than 600people turned up at the kick-offfor the fundraising event held atLindero Ranch in Irving.

Telugu Association of NorthTexas (TANTEX), the local TeluguAssociation is co-host of this con-vention. Manjulata Kanneganti,TANA South West Regional Rep-resentative, welcomed the gather-ing and spoke briefly about TANAactivities.

Prasad Thotakura, TANA Presi-dent in his opening remarks men-tioned that in it is for the first timein 35 years of history of TANA thatthe 19th TANA Convention will beheld at Dallas Convention Centerfrom May 24-26, 2013 (MemorialDay Weekend).

TANA attendees

A group of attendees at the TANA Convention Kick off in Dallas with Prasad addressing the guests

Also addressing the meet wereformer TANA Presidents Dr.Navaneetha Krishna Gorrepati, Dr.

Raghavendra Prasad and the cur-rent TANA Board of TrusteesChairman Dr. Chowdary Jampala.

It was announced that Dr.Navaneetha Krishna Gorrepati willserve as Convention Chairmanand Dr. Raghavendra Prasad Con-vention Advisory Council Chair-man. Also introduced were morethan 30 people Convention Advi-sory Council members.

Several donors came forwardwith contributions ranging from$10,000 to $25,000 for the successof the convention. Dr RaghavaReddy announced $50, 000 on be-half of his close friends DrPremsagar Reddy and Dr PaillaMallareddy. Chalapathi RaoKondrakunta announced a total of$75,000 on behalf his family andfriends Leelakumar Kaza andSeshagiri Rao Battula. ManjuKanneganti announced $25,000from his family. The attendeeshave risen to the occasion andhave given over $618,618 - a record

amount, by the end of the evening.Prasad Thotakura, Murali Vennamand Dr. Chowdary Jampala havethanked the entire Dallas Telugucommunity.

The attendees were treated toexcellent classical dance perfor-mances - Tribhuvani, KuchipudiFusion by Kuchipudi Kalakshetraunder the tutelage of Padma Sonti,Raasa Kreeda by NatyanjaliKuchipudi Dance School underthe tutelage of Srilatha Suri. Show-casing further the younger talentof Dallas, the Blue Flame DanceGroup performed Tollywood Mixtrained under Nirmitha Shukla andYogitha Manduva. TollywoodHeroine Pranita attended as a spe-cial guest.

Riveting and lilting songs wereperformed as a part of musical en-tertainment by Sarada Akunuri, anaccomplished singer and currentPresident of Telugu Cultural As-sociation, Houston. She wasjoined by several local singers. Dr.Alla Srinivasa Reddy's perfor-mance of rural folk songs trans-ported the audience to the memo-ries of rural Andhra Pradesh.Suresh Vuluvala entertained withhis amazing mimicry acts.Chandrahas Maddukuri andUdayagiri Rajeswari did an excel-lent job as Master and Mistressof ceremonies.

A vote of thanks was proposedby Murali Vennam.

Artsits performing at TANA kick off party

Tollywood heroine Pranita,

a special guest


FPID event raises funds and tearsIndia Post News Service

NEWPORT BEACH: It was astar studded event at the secondannual gala benefit for the Foun-dation for Primary Immunodefi-ciency Diseases (FPID). The galachose posh Island Hotel in New-port Beach as its home for the night.And what a night!

The ballroom was packed tocapacity. The evening was kickedoff with a fashion show featuringthe latest designs from up andcoming Reneta Junjhnuwala. Fol-lowing this was an array of daz-zling performances byKarmography, and Latin ballroomsensations by Ballroom DanceAcademy.

Just when you thought youhad seen it all in one night, up onthe stage appeared legendary ac-tor, performer, andcomedian, JoePiscopo. He hadeveryone laughingwith their mouthsopen with hisstand-up routine.Finally in came TheMidtown Men,four of the originalcast members ofthe Broadwayshow The JerseyBoys, singing theirclassics. Withinseconds the entireballroom was onthe dance floortwisting to their fa-vorite 60's hits.

The real star ofthe show was Jack,the now 9-year-oldboy who without atimely diagnosisby Dr. SudhirGupta (founder ofFPID) would not be here today.Jack was 4 months old and suffer-ing from a severe skin conditionat the time. He was seen by mul-tiple physicians and finally re-ferred to Dr. Gupta.

From the minute Dr. Gupta seteyes on Jack, he knew that Jackhad Ommen's Syndrome (like thebubble baby). This is a seriousgenetic defect in the immune sys-tem which some children are bornwith. These children become veryill very quickly and die withouttreatment. Jack was sent to Chil-dren Hospital Los Angeles for aBone marrow transplant just intime, as he was fading from thislife before his parents' eyes. Afterseveral tries, the transplant wassuccessful and after more than 800days in the hospital, Jack wenthome. He owes his life to Dr. Guptaand the rapid diagnosis and treat-ment for his weak immune system.

The story of Jack as narratedby his mother Aerin, who thankedDrs. Gupta and Kapoor (who per-formed bone marrow transplant)

for saving Jack's life, brought tearsand joys to the audience.

The Consul General of IndiaAmbassador N. Parthasarthi com-mented that "Geetha and I arehappy to attend this Gala eventparticularly as this is for an impor-

tant cause. We deeply appreciatewhat you (Dr. Sudhir Gupta) your-self and Dr. Abha Gupta are do-ing. Your dedication and commit-ment to help out those who are inneed is something worthy of emu-lation. I wish you every successin your efforts".

Dr. Thomas Waldmann of theNational Institutes of Health, a pio-neer in immunology, presentedThoams Waldmann Award for Ex-cellence in Human Immunology toDr. Mary Ellen Conley for her out-standing contributions to the dis-covery and understanding of manyprimary immunodeficiency dis-eases.

The Foundation for PrimaryImmunodeficiency Diseases wasfounded by Dr. Sudhir Gupta in2010 as a not for profit and chari-table organization. Dr. Gupta is aworld renowned immunologist atthe University of California, Irvine.It is his vision to create a charitythat will improve lives of people(especially children) born with im-mune defects in India and the USby providing education, diagno-sis, treatment, and research to fur-ther our knowledge of these dis-eases. Dr. Gupta emphasized thatprimary Immunodeficiencies are

not rare diseases; they are 3-4times more common than hemo-philia, 4 times more common thancystic fibrosis, and almost as com-mon as multiple sclerosis, yetpoorly recognized. There are 10million people with primary immu-nodeficiency worldwide, morethan one million in India and morethan one half million in the US;

many of them have not been diag-nosed.

The foundation funds not onlyresearch but physician educationfor improved and rapid diagnosisof these diseases. It funds patientand parent education to increaseawareness and finally it provideslifetime treatment for childrenwhich amounts to $10-20,000 for

Dr Abha Gupta, Francis Arena and Jean-Laurent Casanova

Models with the designer Reneta Junjhnuwala Award to Dr. Mary Ellen Conley

each child per year. Last year FPIDprovided treatment support for 10children with primary immune de-ficiencies in India and has com-mitted to provide treatment fortheir lifetime.

The charity (FPID) is young butwith such a unique focused mis-sion and such a dedicated founder,there will be many more stories like

Jack's in the future. FPID has avery distinguished board of Inter-national Scientific advisors, in-cluding a Nobel Laureate, mem-bers of the National Academy ofSciences, and American Academyof science and Arts, and pioneersin stem cell transplantation andgene therapy for primary immuno-deficiency diseases.

Dr. Thomas Waldmann of the NationalInstitutes of Health, a pioneer inimmunology, presented Thoams WaldmannAward for Excellence in Human Immunologyto Dr. Mary Ellen Conley for her outstandingcontributions to the discovery andunderstanding of many primaryimmunodeficiency diseases

Consul General of India Ambassador

N. Parthasarthi with wife Geetha


Diwali marks the biggest day of five-daycelebrations that started with Dhan Teras,when Ayudh Puja is performed and peoplebuy jewelry and other expensive items fortheir homes.

Anu Agarwal, a local devotee, said, "I'm


Lights, feasting and prayers at FremontHindu Temple Diwali

a regular worshipper at the temple, and theDiwali celebration is always the high pointof the year's festivities. This year was thebest one so far, with the SahasraDeepalankarana as a touching reminder ofthe victory of good over evil."

Events for the day ended with Prasadand Priti Bhoj offered by the temple.

Sahasra Deepalankarana

Samoohik Puja in the temple hall

Dr. Japra addresses the devotees

Priti Bhoj


Narendra Pathak re-appointedto County Council


SANTA CLARA: NarendraPathak of Sunnyvale, Californiawas 4th time re-appointed to theCouncil on Equal EmploymentOpportunities (CEEO) by theSanta Clara County, Board of Su-pervisors. Board of Supervisorsconfirmed the appointment onAugust 21.

Pathak was sworn into officeSeptember 10 for a term that ex-pires June 30, 2016. A native ofKaramsad, Gujarat State, India,Narendra Pathak has been a U.S.resident since 1979. He holds aB.A. in Economics and law degreesin Labor Laws and Criminal Laws.

He graduated Santa ClaraCounty Gov 101 Academy in May.

Pathak has been active in thecity of Sunnyvale as Board of Li-brary Trustees, Library Commis-sion and Santa Clara County'sCommissioner, Human RelationCommission and also Santa ClaraCounty's Commissioner, Councilon Equal Employment Opportuni-ties (CEEO) and Active memberState of California Library Asso-ciation.

His community activities in-clude as Board of Trustees, De-votional Association of Sitaram,Co-Coordinator of CaliforniaGujarat Sister State Association,India Heritage Research Founda-tion, Bay Area Gujarati Samaj, In-dia Cultural Association of BayArea and Brahmin Samaj of USA.

He has also served as Treasurer,Charitable Care Foundation.

Narendra Pathak has served onthe City of Sunnyvale as Commis-sioner, Housing and Human Ser-vices Commission.

He was Sunnyvale's Boardmember on General Plan Consoli-dation Advisory Committee andAdvisory Board member on Be-

low Market Rate Housing Pro-gram (BMR) Advisory on NewLibrary of Future Project.

The 17 Commissioners, Coun-cil on Equal Employment Oppor-tunities advices on employmentprograms and on ways to counteremployment discrimination byage, disability, equal pay, national

origin, pregnancy, race, religion,sex, sexual harassment and otherthings on existing and potentialstate, federal programs, policies,justice, social issues, peacebuilding, immigration issues, hu-man rights, criminal justice sys-tem, Jail Observer Program, DeathPenalty System, Integration Ser-vices, hate crime and hate inci-

dents and civil rights issues, do-mestic violence issues, commu-nity development programs andCoordinating with the UnitedStates Equal Employment Oppor-tunity Commission.

Pathak is married to Gita andthey have a son, Sagar and adaughter, Shruti.

eBay brings best of Indiato Indian Americans

SCE tips to avoid injuries and fire hazardsIndia Post News Service

ROSEMEAD, CA: As storeshelves fill up with holiday lightsand decorations, families andfriends are preparing to celebratethe festive season.

And as they get together tocelebrate, Southern CaliforniaEdison (SCE) has a simple mes-sage: don't let potential fire haz-ards such as frayed cords andunsafe conditions like brokenlights ruin the festivities.

"During the holiday season, it'seasy to get distracted with all thethings you need to prepare aroundyour home for your family andguests. Taking short cuts mayseem to save time, but it's impor-tant not to rush and be safe," saidWilliam Messner, SCE's manager,Corporate Health and Safety. "Wewant all our customers to enjoythe holidays, so we urge them tobe aware of potential risks associ-ated with decorating such as fall-ing off ladders, fires and electrical

hazards."Close to 83 percent of people

decorate their homes as part of thewinter holidays, according to theElectrical Safety Foundation Inter-national. And the most commonwinter holiday decorations are

lighted Christmas trees (83 per-cent), indoor decorations usingelectric lights (63 percent) andoutdoor light decorations (58 per-cent).

From 2005-2009, an annual av-erage of 240 home fires started

with Christmas trees, resulting in13 deaths, 27 injuries, and $16.7million in property damage. About5,800 people each year are treatedin hospital emergency rooms forfalls associated with holiday deco-rations. More than half of theseinjuries were caused by falls fromladders or roofs while decoratingoutdoors.

During this holiday season,SCE has offered a few helpful tips:

• Do not use decorative light-ing with frayed cords and wires,broken fuses or broken light bulbs.

• Do not use staples, nails ortacks to hang electrical cords.These can pierce the protectiveinsulation.

• Plug no more than threestrands of lights into each electri-cal cord or outlet.

• Never use lighted candles onor near holiday trees or decora-tions.

• Use wooden or fiberglass lad-ders when decorating outdoors.Metal ladders conduct electricity.

Do not use decora-tive lighting withfrayed cords andwires, broken fusesor broken light bulbs.Do not use staples,nails or tacks to hangelectrical cords


Online shopping destina-tion eBay is helping Indi-ans in the U.S. bring the

best of India home this holidayseason. eBay Handcrafted in In-dia makes it simple for IndianAmericans to celebrate the holi-days with an exclusive selectionof handcrafted products from In-dian entrepreneurs through itsmicrosite at www.ebay.com/handcraftedinindia.

eBay's Handcrafted in Indiaholiday campaign offers a selec-tion of over 52,000 unique prod-ucts from 250 Indian sellers to helpIndians living in the U.S. celebratethe holidays. Products includeethnic wear for men and women,jewelry, home furnishings,Bollywood entertainment, reli-gious and spiritualitems, health and beauty,musical instruments,sporting goods, auto,Indian art and col-lectibles.

In the spirit of theholiday giving season,and building on the suc-cess of a similar programlaunched during theHandcrafted in IndiaDiwali campaign, eBaywill donate $1 for everypurchase made to one ofthree Indian non-profitorganizations: Aseema, anon-governmental orga-nization (NGO) dedi-cated to providing un-derprivileged childrenwith a fostering educa-tional environment; Lit-eracy India, a non-profitorganization focusingon empowering disad-vantaged children andwomen through education; andJan Swa Shakti Samiti, a women'swelfare NGO that cultivates artand other skills among women.One non-profit will be featured perweek.

eBay Handcrafted in Indiamakes holiday shopping for lovedones easy. Not only will themicrosite allow buyers to shop forall their holiday needs conve-niently from their home or mobiledevices, holiday purchases areguaranteed to be delivered to cus-tomers within seven days of pur-chase. Current eBay customerswill be able to utilize their existingaccounts, and any new users mayregister on the microsite for free.Like all eBay purchases, purchasesmade on eBay Handcrafted in In-dia will be backed by eBay BuyerProtection. Customers will also beable to pay securely with PayPal,

which allows payments to be sentonline quickly and safely usingtheir credit card or bank account.

"We're thrilled to offer our cus-tomers in the U.S. with the oppor-tunity to purchase items for theholidays, directly from India," saidDeepa Thomas, Head of Partner-ships for eBay India. "Whetherpeople are looking for unique cul-tural gifts for others, or somethingspecial for themselves, eBay'sHandcrafted in India holiday se-lection will offer something foreveryone."

During eBay's Diwali campaign,$1 for every purchase was donatedto the National Rural and Devel-opment Association (NARAD) anonprofit that supports rural wel-fare in India. Because of the over-whelming customer response andpositive feedback, eBay will be

expanding this program for theholiday season.

During the eBay Handcraftedin India holiday campaign fromNov. 16 to Dec. 14, eBay will do-nate $1 for every purchase madethrough the microsite to one ofthree different non-profit organi-zations each week.

"eBay India provides a charityfundraising platform to over 70nonprofits in India. Not only dosome of these non-governmentalorganizations raise funds by put-ting their products for sale oneBay, we also help increase aware-ness for their causes," said Tho-mas. "Our Diwali partnership withNARAD was extremely popularwith our customers, and in thespirit of the holidays, we're proudto expand this program to includethree other amazing organizationsduring this campaign.

Not only will the micrositeallow buyers to shop for alltheir holiday needs conve-niently from their home ormobile devices, holidaypurchases are guaranteedto be delivered to custom-ers within seven days ofpurchase. Current eBaycustomers will be able toutilize their existing ac-counts, and any new usersmay register on themicrosite for free


Nithyananda Vedic Temple celebrates 5th AnniversaryDILIP BUTANI

LOS ANGELES: Two days offestivities were filled with Vedicrituals, Satvic food fest, bhajans,Bharatnatyam, live music, nativeAztec spiritual dancers,Paramahamsa Nithyananda's mes-sage & blessings, Mayor's visitand eNVidyalya children perform-ing unique and creative yoga.

November 9 was auspicious fordevotees and followers from allaround California who joined in thecelebrations of the 5th Anniver-sary of the Nithyananda VedicTemple in Los Angeles. All thedeities, numbering more than 100,received their abishekam or thesacred bath and alankaram i.e. fes-tive dressing with silks and jew-elry. Huge colorful garlands, closeto 6 feet, adorned these tall livingdeities; which are the only kind inUS which have been personallyenergized and installed by a livingincarnation.

Cultural programs were livestreamed across the world throughNithyananda TV which is watcheddaily by an average of 1300 peoplefrom around 45 countries.

Amidst celebrations, during thelive streaming of the Daily satsang,Paramahamsa Nithyanandablessed the devotees and follow-

ers who have been running the100% volunteer based temple andkeeping the Vedic culture alive andsharing it with the thousands ofpeople who visit every year, justto feel the intense energy andambience of the living en-lightened energy space.

Each of the sacred deitieshave received so much atten-tion from ParamahamsaNithyananda, starting withthe inspection of selectingthe granite and sculpting ofthe deities, selecting the fineclothes and jewelry, receiv-ing them in the temple, physi-cally taking part in the instal-lation, energizing and thegrand inauguration ceremo-nies.

One of the stark differ-ences any visitor noticeswhen they enter theNithyananda Vedic Temple, isnot only the intense enlight-ening energy of a living Mas-ter radiating through the dei-ties unlike anything in anyother temple, but the enlight-ened lifestyle one can easilyassimilate and become partof, being practiced and sharedwith ease and joy.

The welcoming energy, theconstant sharing of highest truthsthrough meditation, yoga, Vedicscriptures, energized Satvic foodin other words through every ac-

tion is evident not as an act of pro-tocol but as life itself. The Vedic

temple is one of the rare Hindutemples of the world, where everyday is an occasion to celebrateand share!

Paramahamsa Nithyananda is aglobal leader in the scienceof enlightenment. He is re-vered as a living saint andan Avatar or divine incarna-tion by millions worldwide.

He is the most-watchedspiritual teacher onYouTube.com with morethan 14 million views, and theauthor of more than 300books published in 27 glo-bal languages. Nithyanandahas been named among theworld's top 100 most spiritu-ally influential personalitiesof 2012. An accomplishedyogi and gifted spiritualhealer, ParamahamsaNithyananda has healed dis-eases ranging from migraineto cancer, often with a singleinitiation.

For close to a decadenow, ParamahamsaNithyananda has been work-ing with scientists and re-searchers to demystify the

yogic sciences of the Universe, in-cluding kundalini awakening, DNA

activation, brain-cell regeneration,levitation, materialization and yo-gic age-reversal.

When ParamahamsaNithyananda ascends the tradi-tional seat of teaching i.e.Dhyanapeeta MahasamsthanaAvathumvara Simhasana everymorning and starts his teachingsessions, thousands of peoplefrom over 30 countries participatelive via 2-way video conferencing.Also, people from 150 countrieswatch the streaming of recordedvideos every day on NithyanandaTV.

Nithyananda who is also apowerful exponent of Vedanta, hasalready won recognition as thepioneer of a powerful Vedic renais-sance. His live talks on BhagavadGita, Shiva Sutras, Patanjali YogaSutras, Brahma Sutras and otherpowerful scriptures have touchedaudiences of thousands, bothwithin the country and abroad.Taking Vedic culture into homes:Nithyananda has an agenda tomake enlightened living a practi-cal reality for every person in ev-ery home. Nithyananda's vision isto restore spirituality to the people,and the people to spirituality, invery real ways.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS

November 30, 2012India Po www.indiapost.com28

Anushka Sharma is pursuing a practical approachwhen it comes to Bollywood, saying acting is

not the only thing she wants to do in her life and star-dom is just a fleeting phase.

"I think 10-15 years downthe line I would not want toremain an actress. Probably

I will be married and drivingmy kids to school. Apprecia-

tion is obviously nice. Ourprofession is such that it

puts us in a trance whileworking and then we don't

realize what all we can do,"the 24-year-old said.

The 24-year-old,who won awardsfor her perfor-mances in filmslike Rab NeBana Di Jodiand Band BaajaBaraat, saysshe does notget carriedaway by star-dom.

"Stardom isnice but because Iam an outsider inthe industry, Idon't want to getsucked into thistoo much. Ihave this senseof practicalitythat this is tem-porary," shesaid.

A n u s h k asays she is wellaware of the factthat success isnot permanent infilm industry.

"I think rightnow I am gettingmany offers be-cause my filmshave done well.But it's not goingto be an ongoingprocess. I don'twant to get delu-sional about whereI am. I keep a con-stant check by say-ing that this isn't myentire life," the ac-tress said.

Vidya Balan is eagerly waiting todo a romantic film with a good

script, and she is open to workingwith any actor in it.

"I love romance. I am just waitingthat someone approaches me for aromantic, good relationship story, butnothing exciting has come my wayso far. But I am open to any kind offilm, I will be happy to do it. I am happyto romance with anyone as long asit's a good romance," she says.

Meanwhile, her real life romancewith producer Siddharth Roy Kapur

is rocking. It was reported shewould marry him by 2012-end, but the actress said: "I also

heard. I will say this, that one is not denying. I definitelywant to be married someday, but so far, I don't knowwhen. When I get married, all of you and the world willknow for sure. This is something I would want to sharewith everyone."

On the big screen, Vidya will soon be seen in comicthriller "Ghanchakkar" opposite Emraan Hashmi and "

Kahaani 2".

I love romance.I am justwaiting thatsomeoneapproaches mefor a romantic,good relationshipstory, but nothingexciting hascome myway so far

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan credits latefilmmaker Yash Chopra as a major rea-

son why she stepped into the film indus-try, and says he will always remain specialto her.

"Yashji is very special to me because heis one of the main reasons that I am in thefilm industry. He kept talking to me for twoyears before I joined the industry, to con-vince me," the 39-year-old said on the side-line of a Children's Day event in Mumbai.

"He always used to tease me, he usedto say become an architect, design my setsand then you will definitely come in frontof the camera, I'll see to it. So he is justsuch a special person even to me," sheadded.

Aishwarya, who worked in Yash RajFilms' (YRF) Mohabbatein and Dhoom 2,says she shared a very personal relation-ship with the filmmaker.

1 Apnaa Mujhe Tu Lagaa:1920 - Evil Returns2 Jiya Re: Jab Tak Hai Jaan3 Jee Le Zaraa: Talaash4 Challa: ab Tak Hai Jaan5 Laakh Duniya Kahe: Talaash6 Saans: Jab Tak Hai Jaan7 Muskaanein Jhooti Hai: Talaash8 KikliKalerdi: Luv Shuv TeyChicken Khurana9 Badla Nazara: English Vinglish10 LSTCK Theme: Luv Shuv TeyChicken Khurana

India Post 29November 30, 2012

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

When it comes to looks, Huma Qureshi looks is differ-ent from the typical Bollywood actresses and she

says she isn't trying to fit in anyone's shoes."I agree that I am different from others. I am not trying

to fit in someone else shoes. I am being honest to myself.The audience is loving me the way I am and that's mostimportant for me," she added.

Her first two films wereappreciated and she is get-ting good offers too. Con-tented with her career, theactress doesn't see herself asan outsider in the film indus-try.

"I don't feel I am an out-sider. I was already shootingfor other films even beforethe release of my first filmGangs of Wasseypur (GOW).While shooting for GOW, Iwas simultaneously shootingfor Vishal Bhardwaj's Ek ThiDaayan, and while shootingfor Luv Shuv Tey ChickenKhurana, I was shooting forNikhil Advani's D Day,"Huma, who is from Delhi, saidin an interview.

She started as a model and featured in various TV com-mercials.

She considers herself lucky to have bagged films withestablished filmmakers.

I agree that Iam different fromothers.I am not trying tofit in someoneelse shoes. I ambeing honest tomyself. Theaudience isloving me theway I am andthat's mostimportantfor me

egetarian Amrita Rao says, "InBollywood, the toughest thing is

when actors have to build their bod-ies, go gymming and they need a lot of

protein intake. Because we don't eat non-veg, vegetarians always lack that protein

element."However, she insists vegetarians can have

a great body too."Of course, there are a lot of substitutes for protein -

there is paneer, all kinds of sprouts. I would like to tell every-body, Shahid Kapoor and our wrestler Sushil Kumar, bothof them are vegetarians and have built bodies," she said.

Last seen in the 2011-film "Love U...Mr. Kalakaar!",Amrita is looking forward to the New Year: "Two of myfilms will release in 2013 - one is Jolly LLB which will re-lease in March hopefully and Singh Saab the Great, whichis releasing in August. I will start filming for it in Decem-ber-January. So I am looking forward to 2013, it's going tobe an exciting year of releases," the 31-year-old said at anevent.

www.indiapost.com30 India Post November 30, 2012

RITU MAHESHWARI


SAN FRANCISCO: World-famous singer Mika Singh was inthe San Francisco Bay Area as part of his international tour. In thepast few years, he has taken the Indian music industry by storm.

S ecrets of Mika

Mika Singh interviewed by Ritu Maheshwari

He is possibly the most popular singer in India today, with mul-tiple consecutive hit songs. His performances are sought afteracross the globe.

In an interview with India Post, Mika spoke about his popu-larity, his inspiration and his ambition to be a music director.Here are excerpts from the interview:

How did you first start singing?I have been singing for many years now. I come from a family

of musicians and my father and I would play the tabla togetherat gurudwara. Later, I began playing the guitar in shows with mybrother, Daler Mehndi. In 1998, I joined the music industry and

released my first album, "Sawan Main Lag Gayi Aag".You are an amazingly successful singer, topping

charts across the nation. What is your secret?It is by my parents' blessings and God's grace that I

am able to give hit songs. I am selective in my songchoices and am lucky to get all good songs to sing. I amalso immensely grateful to my fans who love my songsand are responsible for my success.

Who is your inspiration?My Brother Daler Mehndi, my family, RD Burman,

Kishore Da and Mukesh Da inspire me.How does it feel to be in

San Francisco?I am excited to be in the

Bay Area. It holds a specialplace in my heart as manypeople close to me live here,including my brother, HarjeetMehndi. I also began my in-ternational shows here.

If you had not become asinger, what would you bedoing?

I always wanted to be a

music director. But after releasing my first album, my fu-ture was set.

Besides singing, you also play many instruments. Tellus about this.

I can play fifty kinds of instruments. I started with theTabla when I was eight, learning it from my father.

What message would you like to give to young people?Always start with the basics and work hard. Patience

and hard work are the keys to success.Any last words for our readers?You can love me, you can hate me but you cannot

ignore me!

I come from a family of musi-cians and my father and Iwould play the tabla together atgurudwara. Later, I began play-ing the guitar in shows with mybrother, Daler Mehndi. In 1998, Ijoined the music industry andreleased my first album, "SawanMain Lag Gayi Aag".

November 30, 2012 India Post

www.indiapost.com

31

MUMBAI: In Bollywood, Rs100 crore has become the newdefinition of box office success.But actor Aamir Khan feels thatnumbers can be deceptive and theelite figure may not be the truemeasure to determine how well afilm is made or received by theaudience.

Three of Aamir's films - '3 Idi-ots', 'Ghajini' and 'Fanaa' - havereportedly earned over Rs 350crore, Rs 150 crore, and Rs 100crore respectively, scaling thetouchstone of success. Yet hedoes not believe in the numbergame.

"A large number of peoplemight see the film because a staris there. Numbers can be decep-tive. To me success means whenwe as a creative team sit togetherto watch a film before it releases...(do we) feel that we have suc-ceeded in making what we set outto do. If the team feels we havecome close, it's the first sign ofsuccess," Aamir told PTI.

"I have never looked at figures.I am the last person to look at fig-ures at the outset. I look at them inretrospect as it helps me gaugehow well a film of mine has beenreceived.

It is one of the yard sticks. Iuse them to understand how myfilm has fared, how people havereacted to it," he said.

Aamir feels even though a filmmay earn a lot of money at the BObut there are chances that notmany people may like it.

"Let's say a film had done bigbusiness but when you askpeople how did you like the film,only six or seven people out often say it was ok... then is it asuccessful film ? If another film

No 'Talaash' for 100 cr Aamir is looking forward to therelease of his suspense drama'Talaash' that hits the screens onNovember 30.

"'Talaash' is an intense sus-pense drama... so I don't want tobe talking about the film every-where. I want the suspense to bethere, that's part of the promotions.Sometimes being quiet also mightpromote it," he said.

"Mere information is not pro-motion. I can create a desire bynot being there too. The bottomline is to create a desire," he added.

Directed by Reema Kagti,'Talaash' revolves around threecharacters - Aamir who plays a cop,Rani Mukherjee playing Aamir'swife and Kareena Kapoor.

"'Talaash' is essentially a sus-pense drama. There is no socialmessage but there is an importantaspect to the story. The reasonwhy it attracted me was that it isnot only a great suspense storybut it was like journey where Ididn't know what would happennext. So in that way, it held its sus-pense for me," Aamir said.

"I found it fulfilling... the sus-pense part of it. But at its heart,it's a story about someone com-ing to terms with loss... it is a veryemotional story at its core," headded.

Aamir, who has teamed upwith Kareena and Rani for thefilm is all praise for both the lead-ing ladies.

"It's been great working withRani and Kareena. Both are greatactors... I get along well with them.It was great fun to work with them.When you work with good artiststhere is a certain chemistry whichworks... the scene comes alive,"he said.

"Both are fantastic actressesand I think people will love watch-ing them together on screen," headded. -PTI

has done half the business andyou ask people how they like it.If eight to nine out of ten likeit…then," he said.

The 47-year-old actor-pro-ducer feels filmmaking is a teameffort and the credit for the suc-cess of a film should not entirelybe given to actors but the whole

team."Film making is a team effort...

its tough. The director and writerplay important parts but along with

that there is the cameraman, thesound engineer, the song com-poser, lyric writer, actors... so whena film does well, it is the result ofthis team doing good work. The

balance is not in the hands of ac-tors alone," Aamir said.

"I am fortunate that for the pastso many years my films have beendoing well and people have likedthem. I am happy that the rightkinds of projects have come myway. I have got to work with tal-ented writers and directors," hesaid.

Aamir is known for being a mar-keting and promotion genius forreleasing his films as an actor-pro-ducer.

"I think promoting a film is animportant part of filmmaking. It isan intrinsic part of that. Filmmak-ing is story telling. The more ex-cited you are about the story youhave, the more intense will be yourattempt will be to get people's at-tention," he said.

"For me that is why it is a partof filmmaking. Marketing also de-pends on what the material is," headded.

"'Talaash' is essentially a suspense drama.There is no social message but there is animportant aspect to the story. The reasonwhy it attracted me was that it is not only agreat suspense story but it was like journeywhere I didn't know what would happennext. So in that way, it held its suspensefor me," Aamir said

Veteran actor Pran hospitalizedVeteran Bollywood actor

Pran has been admitted toLilavati Hospital in sub-

urban Bandra, hospital sourcessaid.

"He had come for a check-upwhich turned out to be a respira-tory problem. He is doing fine andstill in hospital. Nothing to worry,"Lilavati hospital spokesperson DrSudhir Dagaokar told PTI.

The 92-year-old actor is one of

the most popular villains ofBollywood and has acted inaround 350 films.

His famous films includeKhandaan, Aurat, Bari Behen, JisDesh Men Ganga Behti Hai, HalfTicket, Upkar, Purab Aur Paschim,Don and Zanjeer.

In 2001, he was honored withthe Padma Bhushan by the Gov-ernment of India for his contribu-tion to Indian cinema.-PTI

November 30, 2012India Post

www.indiapost.com

32

Life of Pi: Ang Lee's film is soulfully entertainingLife of Pi is one of those lyri

cal, internalized novels thatshould have no business

working on the screen. Quitepossibly, it wouldn't have workedif anyone but Ang Lee had adaptedit.

The filmmaker who turned mar-tial arts into a poetic blockbusterfor Western audiences with'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'and made gay cowboys main-stream fare with 'Brokeback Moun-tain' has crafted one of the finestentries in his eclectic resume in'Life of Pi', a gorgeous, ruminativefilm that is soulfully, provocativelyentertaining.

Lee combines a lifetime ofstorytelling finesse with arguablythe most artful use of digital 3-Dtechnology yet seen to bring to lifeYann Martel's saga of an Indianyouth lost at sea with a ravenousBengal tiger aboard his small life-boat. It's a delicate narrative withvisceral impact, told with an inno-vative style that's beguiling towatch and a philosophical voicethat compassionately explores howand why we tell stories.

Our playful, not-always-reliablenarrator here is Pi Patel, played bynewcomer Suraj Sharma as a teenand as a grown man reflectingback on his adventure by IrrfanKhan. As a youth, Pi, his parentsand brother set out from India,where the family runs a zoo in abotanical garden, to Canada. Pi'sfather brings along some of hismenagerie on their voyage, includ-ing a tiger named Richard Parkerwith which Pi had a terrifying en-counter as a boy.

Their ship sinks in a storm, with

Pi the only human survivor aboarda lifeboat with an orangutan, ahyena, a zebra with a broken legand Richard Parker. Survival of thefittest thins their numbers into alife-and-death duel, and eventuallyan uneasy truce of companion-ship, between Richard Parker andPi.

This could be a one-note story

- please Mister Tiger, don't eat me.Yet Lee and screenwriter DavidMagee find rich and clever waysto translate even Pi's stillest mo-

ments, the film unfolding throughintricate flashbacks, whimsicalvoice-overs, harrowing sea haz-ards and exquisite flashes of fan-tasy and hallucination.

Lee used real tigers for a hand-

ful of scenes, but Richard Parkermostly is a digital creation, a re-markably realistic piece of com-puter animation seamlesslyblended into the live action. Thedigital detail may be responsiblefor most of Richard Parker's fear-ful presence, though no small partof the tiger's impact is due to thenimble engagement of Sharma with

a predator that wasn't actuallythere during production, a taskhard enough for experienced per-formers, let alone a youth with no

acting experience.Digital 3-D usually is an unnec-

essary distraction not worth theextra admission price. In 'Life ofPi', like Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo',the 3-D images are tantalizing and

immersive, pulling viewers deeperinto Pi's world so that the illusionof depth becomes essential to thestory.

Not all of the images live up toLee's digital tiger or 3-D wizardry.Water is notoriously hard to simu-late through computer animation,and the waves crashing downaround the sinking ship or toss-ing Pi's lifeboat about have anunfinished, cartoony look. Still,Lee more than compensates witha world of visual wonders, fromthe simple image of a swimmerframed from below as though he'sstroking his way across the sky toa mysterious island populated bya seemingly infinite number ofmeerkats.

The rest of the cast is mostlyinconsequential, including GerardDepardieu in a fleeting role as acruel ship's cook. The other peoplein Pi's life are filtered through thisunusual youth's eyes, each ofthem catalysts in the developmentof his deep spirituality, whichblends Hinduism, Christianity, Is-lam and other contradictory influ-

ences into a weirdly cohesive formof humanism.

Like Martel's novel, the film dis-dains our inclination to anthropo-morphize wild animals by ascrib-ing human traits to them, and thenturns around and subtly does justthat. Friendship cannot possiblyexist between a hungry tiger and ascrawny kid alone on the openwater, yet for that boy, if not thecat, the need for togetherness,some commune of spirits, is almostas strong as the need for food andwater. The ways in which Lee ex-amines the strange bond betweenPi and Richard Parker are won-drous, hilarious, unnerving, some-times joyous, often melancholy.

Pi's story may not, as one char-acter states, make you believe inGod. But you may leave the the-ater more open to the possibilitiesof higher things in the life of Pi,and in your own.

'Life of Pi', a 20th Century Foxrelease, is rated PG for emotionalthematic content throughout, andsome scary action sequences andperil. -AP

Oscar-winning directorAng Lee says heworked hard during the

four years of shooting on Life ofPi to give the $100 million arthouse film appeal for general au-diences.

The movie based on YannMartel's imaginative book starsIndian Suraj Sharma, who playsa boy who drifts on the open seawith a Bengal tiger and a hyenaafter a ship carrying the rest ofhis family sinks.

"As an art house film, you canexplore the philosophical is-sues," Lee said at a news con-ference. "But for a popular film,we also need to make the audi-ence feel touched, and that wasthe difficult part."

Lee said initial reaction to thefilm had been positive, leaving

him to conclude that his "riskyexperiment" would be a success.

A major problem in the filming,Lee said, was coping with animalson a roiling sea - a problem Leesolved by filming in 3D.

"As a new technology, 3Dgives the film additional appeal,"he said.

Much of the film was shot inTaiwan, Lee's home. He said thatone of the key settings - a largewater tank built at a studio in thecentral city of Taichung - allowedthe 150-strong foreign crew touse its imagination freely and notbe restrained by traditional Hol-lywood production values.

"I was relieved that they en-joyed their work in Taiwan. ... Wecouldn't have made the film if itwere not for all the help we re-ceived," Lee said. -PTI

Ang Lee says 'Life of Pi'more than art film

Scientists decode why Einstein was a geniusWASHINGTON: Physicist

Albert Einstein's brain had an "ex-traordinary" prefrontal cortex -unlike those of most people -which may have contributed to hisremarkable genius, a new study hasclaimed.

According to the study led byFlorida State University evolution-ary anthropologist Dean Falk,portions of Einstein's brain havebeen found to be unlike those ofmost people and could be relatedto his extraordinary cognitive abili-ties.

Falk and his colleagues de-scribe for the first time the entirecerebral cortex of Einstein's brainfrom an examination of 14 recentlydiscovered photographs.

The researchers comparedEinstein's brain to 85 "normal"human brains and, in light of cur-rent functional imaging studies,interpreted its unusual features.

"Although the overall size and

asymmetrical shape of Einstein'sbrain were normal, the prefrontal,somatosensory, primary motor,parietal, temporal and occipital

cortices were extraordinary."These may have provided the

neurological underpinnings forsome of his visuospatial and math-ematical abilities, for instance,"

said Falk. The study was publishedin the journal Brain. On Einstein'sdeath in 1955, his brain was re-moved and photographed frommultiple angles with the permissionof his family. Furthermore, it wassectioned into 240 blocks fromwhich histological slides were pre-pared.

A great majority of the photo-graphs, blocks and slides were lostfrom public sight for more than 55years. The 14 photographs usedby the researchers now are heldby the National Museum of Healthand Medicine.

The study also published the"roadmap" to Einstein's brain pre-pared in 1955 by Dr ThomasHarvey to illustrate the locationswithin his previously whole brainof 240 dissected blocks of tissue,which provides a key to locatingthe origins within the brain of thenewly emerged histologicalslides.-PTI

Physicist Albert Einstein

Friendship cannot possibly exist between ahungry tiger and a scrawny kid alone on theopen water, yet for that boy, if not the cat, theneed for togetherness, some commune ofspirits, is almost as strong as the needfor food and water.

33 India Post November 30, 2012www.indiapost.com

TechBizTech News

Pakistan struggles in race todevelop armed drones

KARACHI, PAKISTAN: Paki-stan is secretly racing to developits own armed drones, frustratedwith U.S. refusals to provide theaircraft, but is struggling in its ini-tial tests with a lack of precisionmunitions and advanced targetingtechnology.

One of Islamabad's closest al-lies and Washington's biggest ri-vals, China, has offered to help byselling Pakistan armed drones itdeveloped. But industry expertssay there is still uncertainty aboutthe capabilities of the Chinese air-craft.

The development of unmannedcombat aircraft is especially sen-sitive in Pakistan because of thewidespread unpopularity of thehundreds of U.S. drone strikesagainst Taliban and al-Qaida mili-tants in the country's rugged tribalregion bordering Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government de-nounces the CIA strikes as a vio-lation of the country's sover-eignty, though senior civilian andmilitary leaders are known to havesupported at least some of the at-tacks in the past. Pakistani officialsalso call the strikes unproductive,saying they kill many civilians andfuel anger that helps militants re-cruit additional fighters - allega-tions denied by the U.S.

Pakistan has demanded the U.S.provide it with armed drones,claiming it could more effectivelycarry out attacks against militants.Washington has refused becauseof the sensitive nature of the tech-nology and doubts that Pakistanwould reliably target U.S. enemies.The U.S. has held talks with Paki-stan about providing unarmedsurveillance drones, but Islamabadalready has several types of theseaircraft in operation, and the dis-cussions have gone nowhere.

Inaugurating a defense exhibi-tion in the southern city of Karachirecently, Pakistani Prime MinisterRaja Pervaiz Ashraf indicatedIslamabad would look for helpfrom Beijing in response to U.S.intransigence.

``Pakistan can also benefit fromChina in defense collaboration,

offsetting the undeclared techno-logical apartheid,'' said Ashraf.

Pakistan has also been work-ing to develop armed drones onits own, said Pakistani military of-ficials and civilians involved in thedomestic drone industry, all ofwhom spoke on condition of ano-nymity because of the classifiednature of the work.

Pakistan first began weapons

tests seven or eight months agowith the Falco, an Italian drone usedby the Pakistani air force for sur-veillance that has been modified tocarry rockets, said a civilian withknowledge of the secret program.The military is also conducting simi-lar tests with the country's newest

drone, the Shahpur, he said. Anunarmed version of the Shahpurwas unveiled for the first time atthe Karachi exhibition.

The weapons tests have beenlimited to a handful of aircraft, andno strikes have been carried outin combat, said the civilian.

Pakistan lacks laser-guided mis-siles like the Hellfire used on U.S.Predator and Reaper drones and the

advanced targeting system thatgoes with it, so the military hasbeen using unguided rockets thatare much less accurate.

While Hellfire missiles are saidto have pinpoint accuracy, therockets used by Pakistan have amargin of error of about 30 meters

(100 feet) at best, and an unex-pected gust of wind could takethem 300 meters (1,000 feet) fromtheir intended target, said the ci-vilian. Even if Pakistan possessedHellfires and the guidance systemto use them, the missile's weightand drag would be a challenge forthe small drones produced by thecountry.

Pakistan's largest drone, theShahpur, has a wingspan of aboutseven meters (22 feet) and cancarry 50 kilograms (110 pounds).The U.S. Predator, which can beequipped with two Hellfire mis-siles, has a wingspan more thantwice that and a payload capacityover four times as great.

Pakistani drones also havemuch more limited range thanthose produced in the U.S. be-cause they are operated based on``line of sight'' using radio waves,rather than military satellites. TheShahpur has a maximum range of250 kilometers (150 miles), whilethe Predator can fly over five timesthat distance.

The British newspaper TheGuardian reported that Pakistanwas working on an armed dronebut did not provide details. -AP

Visitors look at Pakistan-made unmanned aircraft at defense exhibition. Pakistan is secretly racing to

develop its own armed drones, frustrated with U.S. refusals to provide the aircraft

Pakistan first began weapons tests seven oreight months ago with the Falco, an Italiandrone used by the Pakistani air force forsurveillance that has been modified to carryrockets, said a civilian with knowledge of thesecret program. The military is also conduct-ing similar tests with the country's newestdrone, the Shahpur, he said

2G scam: SC todecide actionagainst Bharti

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt of India has said it will de-cide on whether Bharti Telecomand its Chairman Sunil Mittalshould be prosecuted or not onthe allocation of additional spec-trum during NDA regime, irrespec-tive of opinions given by govern-ment law officers.

"We are monitoring the case sothe final opinion will be of thiscourt," a bench of justices G SSinghvi and K S Radhakrishnansaid when the CBI contended thatthe case has been referred to At-torney General after differencescropping up between the investi-gating and prosecution wing of theagency on the issue.-PTI

Industrial clusterbeing developedin Kandi region

HOSHIARPUR, Punjab: Togive a fillip to the economy ofKandi region of the state, thePunjab government has plannedindustrial cluster in the area andland bank was being created forthe purpose, Deputy Chief Minis-ter Sukhbir Singh Badal said here.

"To give boost of industrializa-tion to the Kandi region, the gov-ernment has planned industrialcluster, for which land bank wasbeing created," Badal said.

The industrial cluster would beconnected with rest of Punjab byexpressway, he said.

Talking to media-persons afterinaugurating Rs 5.5 crore 66 KVAsub-station at Maula Wahid here,Badal said -PTI

Land Acquisitionbill awaitingCabinet nod

NEW DELHI: The controversialLand Acquisition Bill has been fi-nalized and the Union Cabinet islikely to take it up at its next meet-ing so that it can be brought inParliament in the upcoming Win-ter Session.

"The bill is finalized. It is goingto Cabinet shortly," Rural Devel-opment Minister Jairam Rameshtold reporters here.

Ramesh, who met AgricultureMinister Sharad Pawar, expressedhope that the bill could be broughtin Parliament in the Winter Ses-sion.

He, however, refused to givedetails of the final version of thebill, which has been surroundedby controversies.-PTI

Theme hubs on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal e-way

CHANDIGARH: The HaryanaGovernment has envisaged develop-ment of theme hubs - Leisure Hub,Sports Hub and Leather Hub - alongKundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Ex-pressway in proximity to Sohna townin Gurgaon district.

The final Development Plan of Sohna, with a projected population of6.40 lakh by 2031 AD, has been notified, a spokesman of Haryana Townand Country Planning Department said here. -PTI

34 India Post TechBiz Post November 30, 2012

www.indiapost.com

Ajay Banga, Chanda Kochharamong Fortune businesspersonsNEW YORK: MasterCard's In-

dia-born CEO Ajay Banga andICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochharhave been named by Fortunemagazine among the '2012Businesspersons of the Year', anannual ranking of 50 global lead-ers who are "the best in business".

The list has been topped byAmazon founder and CEO JeffBezos with Apple CEO Tim Cookcoming in at the second place.

Another Indian giving Bangaand Kochhar Company in the listof 50 global business leaders isDeepak Narula, founder and man-aging partner of hedge fund firmMetacapital Management.

Banga, 52 ranks eighth in thelist while Kochhar comes in at the18th position, one notch ahead ofbillionaire philanthropist WarrenBuffet.

Narula ranks 36th.Fortune said investors have so

far been impressed with Banga'sperformance at the helm ofMasterCard.

"Since Banga took the helm twoyears ago, MasterCard's stock hasmore than doubled, outperformingarchrival Visa," it said, adding thatthe former Citigroup executive

wants MasterCard to be a leaderin the mobile payments revolution.

Banga's other big bet includesprepaid cards in emerging marketssuch as Mexico, South Africa andBrazil, a major reason whyMasterCard now generates 60 percent of its revenues outside the US.

On Kochhar, 51, Fortune said a

bullish outlook through the reces-sion helped her direct India's sec-ond largest bank, which has as-sets of USD 93 billion, to a"standout performance".

"Next up for the ICICI lifer:More global clients," the publica-tion added.

On Narula, Fortune said theformer Lehman trader's USD 1.5 bil-lion mortgage-focused hedge fundhas "left others in the industry inthe dust this year, posting 37 percent returns through October".

"Metacapital has outpacedother funds for years by takingpositions with near perfect fore-sight of policy change and move-ment in the housing market".-PTI

Intel CEO Paul Otellinito retire in surprise move

Ajay Banga Chanda Kochhar

SAN FRANCISCO: After al-most 40 years at Intel, Chief Ex-ecutive Paul Otellini is retiring, justas the company struggles with amomentous challenge:computing's big shift to mobiledevices.

Otellini, 62, surprised the tech-nology world by announcing thathe would retire as an officer anddirector of the chip company inMay, three years before he reachesIntel's mandatory retirement age.The board said it would immedi-ately begin a search fora successor.

During a tenure thatbegan in May 2005,Otellini established astrong track record. Heincreased Intel's rev-enue 57 percent, to $55billion, at the end of2011 and slightly wid-ened its gross profitmargin. Along the way,Otellini had to settle anantitrust suit for $1.25billion, convincedApple to put Intel chipsin its computers and cut20,000 workers. Intel, the world'slargest semiconductor maker, now

employs 100,000 people.But the company's share price

has fallen about 20 percent inOtellini's time. That is because theworld of personal computers andcomputer servers, which Inteldominated partly through a closerelationship with Microsoft, nowcompetes with a global explosionof smartphones and tablets, whichconnect to large data centers.While Intel has some presence inthese areas, it faces many newcompetitors and challenges, both

to its business and to its way ofthinking about products.

The right successor to Otellini,said Andrew Bryant, Intel's chair-man, would preserve Intel's fa-mously engineering-driven culturebut turn it into an organization thatis better able to anticipate rapidlychanging consumer tastes.

"We don't see the PC categorygoing away, but we see that themarket has changed," Bryant said."We need to figure out what themarket wants."

Otellini could not be reachedfor comment. In a statement issuedby Intel, he said that "after almostfour decades with the companyand eight years as CEO, it's timeto move on and transfer Intel'shelm to a new generation of lead-ership."

Last month Intel reported thatits third-quarter net income fell 14.3percent from a year earlier, to $3billion, largely because of poordemand for PCs. The research firmIDC said worldwide PC shipmentsfell 8.6 percent to 87.8 million unitsin the third quarter. Adding to thewoes, Microsoft's Windows 8 op-erating system, which Intel hopedwould lift sales, was released inOctober to tepid reviews.

While they are both hurtingfrom the PC plunge, Intel andMicrosoft may be the best of atroubled bunch. Advanced MicroDevices, Intel's top competitor inchips for PCs, was forced last weekto deny rumors that it was lookingfor a buyer. Its stock is downabout 65 percent this year.

SC pulls up Center for being 'casual' in 2G caseNEW DELHI: Ticking off the

Government for being "very ca-sual" in handling the 2G case, theSupreme Court of India has saidwithholding of even 0.1 per centof spectrum, licenses for whichwere cancelled, will not be accept-able.

A bench of justices G S Singhviand K S Radhakrishanan also di-rected the Centre to file a fresh af-fidavit within two days explainingwhy all the 2G spectrum was notput on auction on November 12.

"Government is very casual indealing with the matter," thebench said while turning down anaffidavit filed by an Under Secre-tary-level officer on the matter anddirected that it must be filed bySecretary of Department ofTelecom.

"This affidavit cannot be ac-cepted. It has been filed by UnderSecretary officer. Our earlier orderclearly said that affidavit must befiled by Secretary-level officer.This is a deliberate action on thepart of DoT," the bench said.

"On earlier occasion the courthad unequivocally rejected affida-vit filed by an Under Secretary. Itis unfortunate that the same mis-take has been done again. Need-ful should be done within twodays," it said.

The court said that it wouldhear Center's stand on auction but

made it clear that withholding ofspectrum from being auctionedwould not be acceptable.

"Keep in mind that withhold-ing of spectrum, even 0.1 per cent

would not be acceptable," thebench said adding that it was nevertold earlier that the entire 2G spec-

trum would not be put on auction."At no point of time this court

was informed that the auction wasonly for 800 and 1800 MHz band,"the bench observed.

It was contended before thecourt that government has notcomplied with the apex court's di-rection and it has withheld 136MHz spectrum out of 431 MHz in1800 band.

The apex court had on Febru-ary 2 cancelled 122 licenses for 2Gspectrum and directed the govern-ment to allocate the natural re-source by auction.

The government had receivedon November 12 bids worth Rs9,224.75 crore on the opening dayof auction for 2G mobile phonespectrum that drew scant interestdue to high base price. The gov-ernment was hoping to net a mini-mum revenue of Rs 28,000 crore inthe auction.

There was no bidder for pan-India airwaves for which the gov-ernment had set a base or bid startprice of Rs 14,000 crore. Demandwas concentrated in select circleslike Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (East)and Uttar Pradesh (West). .

The government contendedthat withholding of spectrum wasdone on the recommendation ofthe TRAI.-PTI

‘Keep in mind that withholding of spectrum,even 0.1 per cent would not beacceptable,’ the bench said adding that itwas never told earlier that the entire 2Gspectrum would not be put on auction.

Paul Otellini

35India PostTechBiz PostNovember 30, 2012

www.indiapost.com

Smartphone screen identifiesfingernails, knuckle touch

A computer scientist in the UShas built a prototype smartphonethat can distinguish betweentouches from the knuckle, finger-tip and even fingernail.

To open up the smartphonescreens to commands from otherparts of the hand, Chris Harrison,from Carnegie Mellon Universityin Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, hasbuilt the prototype.

A modified smartphone, fittedwith a small vibration sensor andrunning Harrison's FingerSensesoftware, listens for the acousticand vibrational differences be-tween the three different types oftouch, the New Scientist reported.

A fingertip could select an ob-ject while a knuckle tap could worklike the right-click on a computermouse and open up a submenu,for example.

"A big problem withtouchscreens right now is thatthey are very simplistic, relativeto the capability of our hands.

We could do so much more,"Harrison said.

"The more ways you have ofexpressing input intosmartphones the better," said Jo-seph Paradiso at the MIT Media

Lab in Boston, who has workedon similar technology.

Harrison said the sensor is astandard piece of electronics thatcan be added to the main circuitboard of any smartphone, and he

is already in talks with majorphone manufacturers to do justthat.

"The real magic is in the soft-

ware, this artificial intelligencethat lives in the heart of thephone," he said.

Harrison has just launched acompany called Qeexo to sell hisdevice.-PTI

University Hospital doctorsconcerned after merger

LOUISVILLE, Ky.: Doctors atLouisville's University Hospitalworry that Catholic health rules willaffect patient care under a newpartnership with KentuckyOneHealth.

KentuckyOne's majority owneris Denver-based Catholic HealthInitiatives. KentuckyOne and theuniversity have said that thehospital's policies for reproductiveand end-of-life care will not be af-fected by the new partnership. Butstaff and physicians are beingasked to ̀ `respect'' Catholic healthdirectives.

The exceptions are thehospital's pharmacy and it's Cen-ter for Women and Infants, whichremain under the management ofthe University Medical Center.

Sheila Reynertson, who trackssecular-religious hospital merg-ers, told The Courier-Journal,

``We're glad to see the Center forWomen and Infants and hospitalpharmacy will be independent ofthe directives. That's great. Butfor the rest of the building, thatlanguage about respecting the(directives) puts doctors in a dif-ficult position.''

For instance, cancer doctorsmay wonder about prescribingbirth control to prevent preg-nancy, she said.

Catholic directives include aban on sterilization, abortions, andeuthanasia and say Catholic healthinstitutions can't ̀ `promote or con-done contraceptive practices.''

Asked whether Catholic direc-tives must be followed in non-UMC-controlled areas of the hos-pital, Dr. David Dunn, U of L ex-ecutive vice president for healthaffairs, said ``it's not a yes-or-noanswer.'' -AP

GM launches Chevrolet SailU-VA in Jammu

Ashwani Muppasani, VP-Sales, Marketing & After sales, GM India , and P Balendra, VP-

Corporate Affairs, pose with the newly launched SAIL U-VA car in Ahmedabad on Nov 17

JAMMU: General Motors Indiahave launched the all-newChevrolet Sail U-VA car here.

"We have launched the Sail U-VA hatchback in Jammu and it isbuilt on a new global small pas-senger car platform created espe-cially for fast-growing emerging

markets, including India", VicePresident, Planning Program Man-

agement and New Business De-velopment, General Motors India,Sastry Vempati told reporters here.

Engineers at the GM TechnicalCentre-India in Bangalore spentnearly two years adapting the plat-form for India to ensure that itwould meet the requirements of the

Indian market and Indian car buy-ers, he said.

"The much-anticipatedChevrolet Sail U-VA hatchback isan important addition to GM'ssmall car portfolio in India,Vempati said.

"It brings a new sense of vital-ity to the largest, fastest-growingand most competitive segment in

the domesticpassenger carmarket," Vempatiadded.

He said thatthe Sail U-VAhatchback's exte-rior exudesC h e v r o l e t ' ssporty styling.The front viewf e a t u r e sChevrolet's sig-nature designcues, including adual-port grilleadorned with agold bowtie.

The car isavailable inseven exteriorcolors includingSuper Red,Switchblade Sil-ver, SummitWhite, Caviar

Black, Linen Beige, Sandrift Greyand Misty Lake, he added.-PTI

India Post November 30, 2012www.indiapost.com

Real Estate36

Realty Tidbits

Despite plunging sales, demandfor luxury homes booming

MUMBAI: Driven by new of-ferings, greater influx of NRIs andchanging lifestyles, the demandfor luxury and ultra-luxury homeswith a price-tag in the range of Rs1-20 crore, or even more in somecases, is again making a comebackin metros, according to a report.

Despite sluggishness in over-all real estate sector, a few luxuryresidential projects were launchedin Mumbai, Pune, Delhi andChennai in October, according toa report by real estate consultancyfirm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

"Demand for luxury housing isgrowing gradually mainly due tothe rise in the number of highnetworth individuals (HNIs), rapidpace of urbanization, influx of glo-bal lifestyle trends and an increasein the number of NRIs," real es-tate consultancy firm JLL researchhead Ashutosh Limaye said.

For instance, the per unit priceat under-construction World OneTower by Lodha Group in CentralMumbai has a price tag of up toRs 50 crore.

Also, the recent fall in thevalue of rupee in global financialmarkets boosted buyers' interestin investing in luxury housing andencouraged developers to launchluxury and super-luxury housingprojects priced from Rs 1 croreand running up to Rs 20 crore,Limaye said.

The total value of luxuryhomes, launched in 182 luxury resi-dential apartments, offering a to-tal of 25,570 units across the topseven cities of NCR-Delhi,Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai,Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata in2008-2012 was around USD 30 bil-lion, the report said.

Aiming big, Punjab to incentivise skyscrapersNEW DELHI: With land re-

sources shrinking and propertyprices shooting, Punjab is all setto lead India on the path of greengrowth by subsidizing high-riseand energy efficient buildings inthe state.

The state government hasplans to attract massive sky-scrapers in its cities andincentivise high rise and energy-efficient constructions throughits new Real Estate Policy to beunveiled by mid-December.

"We will incentivise high-riseconstructions in our new real es-

tate policy. But Punjab must havethe tallest building in the coun-try," said state deputy chief min-

ister Sukhbir Singh Badal.Sources in Punjab government

said that the move was rooted inrapid urbanization and lesser avail-

ability of land in urban areas whichis why the state was keen to pro-mote high-rise buildings to make

optimal utilization of urban spacesand employ modern, energy effi-cient technologies in such con-structions.

The move was rooted in rapid urbanizationand lesser availability of land in urban areaswhich is why the state was keen to promotehigh-rise buildings to make optimalutilization of urban spaces

The new policy for the real es-tate sector, currently being finetuned, will incorporate measuresto promote the use of green mate-rials to create sustainable build-ings and thereby boost the emerg-ing concept of green growth withlow carbon emissions.

"The state wants to encour-age modern technology and en-ergy-efficient housing materials.For this, we are working on pro-viding incentives to green andsolar powered buildings," a topstate government official toldPTI. -PTI

Details on page 37

"The value of luxury homes willbe fuelled by the presence ofaround 1.53 lakh HNIs whosenumbers are growing at a fast rate,people who inherited wealth and

have dynamic lifestyles, as well asthose in the newly rich segment,"Limaye said.

Lodha, Sunteck, Kohinoor De-velopers, Sobha, DLF, Hiranandaniare some of the players wholargely cater to the luxury residen-tial segment.

Demand for luxuryhousing is growinggradually mainly dueto the rise in the num-ber of high networthindividuals (HNIs),rapid pace of urban-ization, influx of glo-bal lifestyle trends

Mysore govtreclaimsencroached land

MYSORE: The Mysore UrbanDevelopment Authority (Muda)has reclaimed the prime land atHebbal II stage which it had ac-quired two decades ago, but waslater encroached upon by one ofthe land losers.

The urban body has now de-cided to man its prime propertiesregularly and initiate disciplinaryaction against officials in case itsproperties are allowed to en-croach. The urban body will file acase with the police in a move tosend out tough message to landgrabbers.

During the drive to reclaimthe three-acre property, therewas tension as it was opposed.However, the intervention ofpolice brought the situation un-der control.

"I've directed the officials thatthey will face the music in casethe land acquired is encroached.There are instances wherein theprime properties are not pro-tected. There are examples whenthe officials have misrepresentedthe facts," Muda commissioner CG Betsurmath said.

Unitech Q2profit declines47 recent

NEW DELHI: Real estate firmUnitech has reported 46.80 percent fall in its consolidated netprofit at Rs 49.19 crore for thequarter ended September 30.

The company had posted a netprofit of Rs 92.46 crore in the cor-responding period last year,Unitech said in a statement.

The consolidated net incomeduring the second quarter alsowent down by 20.54 per cent toRs 539.83 crore from Rs 679.35crore in the year-ago period, itadded.

As on September 30, Unitech'sconsolidated net debt stood at Rs5,566 crore, the statement said.

"Net debt to equity ratio as ofSeptember 30, 2012, was 0.47, oneof the lowest in the industry," itadded.

The company further said it re-ceived sales bookings of 1.55 mil-lion sq ft, worth Rs 836 crore dur-ing the July-September period, up19.26 per cent from the previousquarter of this fiscal. -PTI

Relief for CWG Villageapartment buyers

India Post 37November 30, 2012 Real Estatewww.indiapost.com

Real estate investmentsremain sluggish

KOLKATA: Despite aggres-sive marketing and offers made byreal estate developers during thedays before Diwali, investments inproperty have remained lukewarmdue to high prices of houses inand around the National CapitalRegion (NCR), according to a sur-vey by industry body Assocham.

The major factors behind theslump are high prices of land andunprecedented rise in the cost ofconstruction materials, iron, ce-ment and labor, the survey said.

The demand saw a surge of only20 per cent on the eve of the festi-val compared to the normal aver-age sale per month, the survey said.

The survey was carried out inmajor cities like Delhi-NCR,Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai,Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad,Pune, Chandigarh and Dehradun,gathering information from 250

property dealers, noted 40 build-ers/ developers and 20 divisionsof housing financing.

Majority of the developers

have complained that inordinatedelays in getting necessary ap-provals from multiple regulationsand authorities resulted in costand time overruns.

The survey reportsuggested that thegovernment shouldact as a facilitatorrather than a regula-tor of the real estateprojects, particularlywhere demand ismore than supply

Relief for CWG Village apartment buyers

In a major relief to the high-pro-file Commonwealth Games Vil-lage flat buyers, the sub-reg-

istrar (Geeta Colony) has begunregistering their apartments at theoriginal purchase price. All the 20

applications presented for regis-tration before the sub-registrarhave been cleared.

The issue got mired in con-troversy when the revenue de-

partment held up the registrationprocess for calculating stampduty. The apartment ownerswanted to pay stamp duty on thepurchase cost of the flat, whichwas around R12000 per square

feet while the revenue depart-ment wanted to factor in the pre-vailing market price of aroundR20,000 per sq ft.

The legal position was that the

There was another factor at playwhich is apathy of banks in financ-ing real estate projects in the ab-sence of industry status, said theAssocham survey.

Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat said the resale or second-ary market was dull this festiveseason as there was very little re-sale going specially in the NCRand surrounding areas.

The survey report suggestedthat the government should actas a facilitator rather than a regu-lator of the real estate projects,particularly where demand is morethan supply.

Also, all approvals of real es-tate projects must be accorded ina time bound, accountable andsimplifies manner.

Process and status of all ap-provals be made on line so as tobring transparency.

The state governments shouldcomplete their land records pro-cess and make the same comput-erized and supporting infrastruc-ture; not only transportation andlogistics but also water, power,housing, healthcare and sanitationmust be taken up in tandem, it said.

According to the survey, thegovernment must grant industrystatus to the real estate sector andthe real estate projects must beclassified as infrastructure andpriority lending should be madeavailable for keeping pace with thedemand and supply scenario. -PTI

Fishing in 'secondary waters'no child's play

The primary advantage ofgoing in for a resale flatwould lie in buying a home

in a strategic location where nonew supply is coming in. If onehas personal cash resources atone's disposal and is not depen-dent on a home loan (a home loanon a very old property cannot betaken for granted), buying a homein a project that is 20 years or morein age can be a good investmentbet if the residential property is ina strategic, high demand locationwith low or no new supply. Thiswould mean that the project wouldcome up for redevelopment, ensur-ing a tidy profit to the owner.

Documentation and proceduresAll the documents that are ap-

plicable for a primary residentialproperty sale would be requiredfor a clear resale flat transaction,as well. The seller should be ableto produce all original documents.

The buyer should establish theexistence of a proper society. Theoriginal sales deed and the societyshare certificate are most important,since the transaction cannot pro-ceed without these. Also, the buyershould bear in mind that in the caseof a resale property, proper trans-fer and re-registration is necessary.

The documents required forregistration of residential flats,apart from the sale deed, include aletter from the housing societythat reflects details such as thenumber of floors in the building,the year of construction, theapartment's built-up area and thenumber of lifts in the building.

Also required is an assessmentbill to the society from the munici-pality in question, an NOC fromthe Collector if the building existson Collector's land, a copy of theproperty card, and a receipt for thepayment of registration fees. Inaddition, the buyer of a resale flatshould ask for a clear ownershiphistory if the residential propertyhas changed hands before.

The local registrar will establishthe authenticity of these docu-ments. If one is buying the prop-erty via a home loan, the bank will

run a routine due diligence.The price factorAre resale properties always

cheaper? Not necessarily. In thelarger cities, new residential prop-erty supply is scarce or non-exis-tent in many central locations. Insuch areas, there would not be aquestion of discounts on resaleproperties. Discounts are moreprevalent in areas where the mar-ket is more competitive. That said,resale properties are sold either bythe primary owners or by investors.As such, there is a higher possibil-ity of flexibility in payment terms.

Challenges and pitfallsThere are certain challenges that

a buyer of a resale flat may face.

This could include lack of properchain of documentation, especiallyin cases where the property haschanged hands more than a coupleof times in the past. If the propertyis over 18-20 years old, it is pos-sible that it was never formally reg-istered in the first place. Register-ing it at the current point in timewould put the onus of paying thestamp duty in arrears on the buyer.

There may also be additionalexpenses for repairs to masonry,plumbing, electrical wiring and fit-tings. Obtaining a home loan for aproperty which is anywhere closeto 50 years of age can also be achallenge.

Finally, one should bear in mindthat the Indian residential propertymarket is in a constant state ofevolution. One is unlikely to findthe facilities and amenities that areavailable in the newer projects onthe market in an older building.

The buyer shouldestablish the exist-ence of a propersociety. The originalsales deed and thesociety sharecertificate aremost important

stamp duty had to be charged ei-ther on circle rate or purchase cost,whichever was higher. In case ofCWG apartment owners, the pur-chase cost ( R12,000 per sq ft) wasmuch higher than the circle rate(then at R7009 per sq ft).

According to a close source inthe revenue department, "Thematter would have taken months,but once the story appeared in HTEstates, the Collector of Stamp,who is a quasi-judicial authorityin these matters, expedited thewhole issue and took a call to levythe stamp duty on the purchasecost of the apartments."

Now CWG flat buyers need toget their flats registered before thecircle rates go up.

"The circle rates of variouskinds of properties in Delhi maygo up anywhere between 30% to100% or even more than that. Incase it doubles, the apartment buy-ers will have to pay more stampduty, so they should get their flatsregistered as soon as possible."

India Post38www.indiapost.com

November 30, 2012

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India Post40 www.indiapost.com November 30, 2012

Khajjiar town in Himachal Pradesh is known for its manymeadows and ethereal beauty and is a very popular tour-ist destination and hotspot. Nestled amidst green sur-

roundings, it is located at an altitude of around 6400 feet abovesea level. This picturesque town has a rich heritage, and manykingdoms have influenced its culture through the years, includ-ing the Mughal and Rajput kingdoms.

While in Khajjiar, you can visit the huge golf coursethat is located in the town, and take a walk through thegreen meadows. It is a nine-hole golf course, and golfenthusiasts can catch a game in the course. You canalso visit the Khajjiar Lake during your trip to the re-gion. The lake and its surrounding forests have a magi-cal look and feel, and the Khajjiar Lake is a very fa-mous tourist hotspot in the region.

The famous Khajjinag temple is located near thelake, which is a very important destination for pilgrims.There are also options for horse riding in the town ofKhajjiar.

Khajjiar LakeThe Khajjiar Lake is one of the prime attractions of

Khajjiar, located around 20 kms from Dalhousie. Thisperennial lake is fed by small streams and is panorami-cally situated amidst the cedar forests and hills. Thelake is located at a height of 1950 mt above sea leveland is ideal for picnicking.

Golden Devi TempleThe Golden Devi temple in Khajjiar adorns a golden

dome and is scenically located in the middle of the

golf course.Khajji Naga ShrineOne of the oldest and holiest temples in Himachal

Pradesh, Khajjinag Temple is dedicated to Khajji Nag

(serpent god). The temple is known to have beenbuilt in the 12th century and has been beautifullycarved out of wood. The highlight of the temple isthe mandapa where one can see the images of thePandavas and the defeated Kaurvas hanging fromthe roof.

Tourist Attractions

Cont’d on page 41

The lake and its surrounding forestshave a magical look and feel,and the Khajjiar Lake is a veryfamous tourist hotspot in theregion. Located around 20 kmsfrom Dalhousie, this perennial lakeis fed by small streams and ispanoramically situated amidst thecedar forests and hills.

Khajjinag Temple

India PostNovember 30, 2012 41Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Khajjiar: Known for its many meadows & ethereal beautyHorse RidingHorse riding is one of the most

common means of travel inKhajjiar. This activity can be en-joyed around the lake. Pony and

horse rides can only be enjoyedduring the summer season.

TrekkingThe scenic village of Khajjiar

is best explored while trekking.The hills surrounding enclosingKhajjiar offer some of the most ex-otic and breathtaking views of thesurroundings and these hill tops

can be reached only via trekking.Khajjiar also serves as the base

for trekking excursions forDalhousie, Chamba and KalatopWildlife sanctuary. The trekkingroutes in Khajjiar are categorizedas easy and can be undertaken by

people of all ages.ZorbingZorbing is an upcoming sport

that is gaining immense popular-ity in India. Zorbing can be en-joyed on the huge slopes ofKhajjiar meadows. Touristsshould expect to pay anywherebetween Rs 200- 300 per person.

This sport can be enjoyed onlyduring the summer season.

How to reachBy Road: Khajjiar is well con-

nected with most of the cities ofthe state with well developed andsophisticated roads. This place iseasily accessible by road and is

hardly about one and a half hoursdriving from Dalhousie andChamba. Himachal Road Trans-port Corporation operates busservices, connecting Khajjiarwith the major cities in and aroundthe state.

By Train: The nearest railway

station for Khajjiar is Pathankot,80 kms from the hill resort.

By Air: The nearest airport fromKhajjiar is Gaggal which is situ-ated in Kangra and the other oneis in Pathankot in Punjab, situatedat a distance of 180 km and 80 kmsrespectively.


Group playing ZorbingHorse riders

India Post November 30, 201242 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Omar stresses preservingKashmir's natural beauty

Abu Dhabi to conductroad shows in India

Nepal to organize tourism martsto attract Indian visitors

JAMMU: Tourism develop-ment should not disturb local ecol-ogy and environment of touristspots in Jammu and Kashmir aspeople visit them for their naturalbeauty, Chief Minister OmarAbdullah said here.

Chairing the sixth meeting ofPahalgam Development Authorityhere, Omar said revival of tourismindustry would open up economic

opportunities for people and helpin the growth of economy.

He, however, added that whileplanning tourist infrastructure,maintenance and conservation ofenvironment and ecology shouldbe made the top most priority.

"People visit us for the naturalbeauty and scenic splendor God hasbestowed on the state. It shouldbe our prime duty to protect and

preserve this novelty and specialtyfor present and future generation,"the Chief Minister said.

Eco-friendly tourism should bepopularized and mass awarenessneeds to be spread in this regard,he said.

The meeting was attended byTourism Minister Nawang RigzinJora, Minister of State for TourismNasir Aslam Wani, MLA Rafi AhmadMir and other senior officers.

The meeting discussed mattersrelating to upgradation of watersupply and electricity facilities inPahalgam and adjacent areas.

It also discussed issues relat-ing to drainage and beautificationof Beetab Valley, development ofadditional picnic spots and camp-ing sites, disposal of garbage, de-velopment of walk-ways, registra-tion of ponies and creating skiingslopes in Aru. -PTI

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi Tourism &Culture Authority will conductroad shows in five India cities aspart of efforts to create destina-tion awareness.

"Within India, the road showprogram (next November) will bedone in five cities, includingAhmedabad, from which Etihadthis month will commence dailyflights to Abu Dhabi," Abu DhabiTourism and Culture Authority(TCA) International PromotionsManager Mubarak Al Nuaimisaid.

The authority will mount des-tination pavilions at 16 trade fairsin 13 countries, it said, addingnext year TCA will stage 19 roadshows across eight countrieswith focus on emerging CIS coun-tries, India, China and SouthAmerican markets.

"This is aligned with our ownpromotional development strat-egy which foresees, early nextyear, an on-the-ground TCA AbuDhabi representational officewithin India, which is now thedestination's second most pro-ductive international source mar-ket for hotel guests after theUK," he said in a statement re-

leased by UAE's official newsagency Wam.

TCA will lead a pavilion anddelegation for the first time to theWorld Travel Market LatinAmerica in Sao Paolo, Brazil nextApril.

"Our aim at this particular

show will be to spread destina-tion awareness within the Brazil-ian market and forge a networkof trade partners in this increas-ing important region," Al Nuaimisaid.

TCA's road shows will be spreadacross China, Korea, Japan, SaudiArabia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan,Australia and India. -PTI

The authority willmount destinationpavilions at 16 tradefairs in 13 countries, itsaid, adding nextyear TCA will stage19 road shows acrosseight countries

KATHMANDU: Nepal plans toorganize tourism marts in threemajor cities of the country nextyear to attract Indian visitors tohelp the nation's ailing tourismindustry.

The tourism marts will be orga-nized in capital city Kathmandu,popular tourist destinationPokhara and Lumbini, birth placeof Lord Buddha, in 2013 to pro-mote Indian tourism in the coun-try, Tourism Secretary YagnaGautam said during a program or-ganized in the capital to mark 14thanniversary of Nepal TourismBoard.

Nepal had a major setback inthe tourist arrivals last month,which saw the number of touristscoming by air to the country downby 7.3 per cent with Indian touristarrivals registering a 30 per centdecline.

The number of Indian visitorshas declined from last October's9,727 to 6,798 in October this year.

The number of Indian touristsdecreased mainly due to the anti-India campaign launched by CPN-Maoist, breakaway faction of theMaoist party led by hardline leaderMohan Vaidya.

The party had launched amonth-long campaign to restrictentry of Indian number plate ve-hicles and screening of Hindifilms in Nepalese cinema halls inSeptember.

Nepalese Tourism Ministry hasalready initiated discussions withthe officials of Indian Embassy inKathmandu for organizing thetourism marts, secretary Gautamtold PTI, adding necessary prepa-rations will soon be made to orga-nize the event. -PTI

Nepal had a majorsetback in the touristarrivals last month.The number of Indiantourists decreasedmainly due to theanti-India campaignlaunched by CPN-Maoist, breakawayfaction of the Maoistparty led by hardlineleader Mohan Vaidya

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Tourist inflow in Kanha & Pench halved

Ropeway a new attraction in Digha

Forest department brings outbooklet on Ranthambore

JAIPUR: The next time youvisit the Ranthambore NationalPark, you needn't depend on thetourist guide to help you iden-tify the tiger you just spotted.

Tiger lovers at the reservealong with the forest departmentare set to bring a handbook withinformation on everything in andaround the reserve.

"The book titled 'Face to Face- Tigers of Ranthambore' whilegiving minutiae about tigerswould also briefly mention otherspecies, flora and fauna in the ti-ger reserve. Besides being ahandbook for conservationistsand tiger lovers, it would alsohelp tourists identify the tigersthat they spot," said Bina Kakminister of tourism and forests.

Ranthambore boasts of 27adult tigers and 25 cubs. "Thebook would specify the tigerzones besides giving left andright side (stripes) profile pic-tures of each tiger and the cub.

For instance, if a tourist spotsa particular tiger, he can quicklymatch the stripes with the saidtiger in that zone and know forsure if that's the same tiger," saidKak, a wildlife enthusiast. Theguide would then not be able to

mislead a tourist, the ministeradded.

The handbook will be updatedevery year. "The book would alsochristen all the tigers for the tour-ists to have an emotional connectwith the big cat. While the forestdepartment would have the tech-

nical numbers for the tigers, for avisitor T-17 could simply be'Sundari' or T-28 'Star Male', a fa-ther to six cubs," she said.

The book would also have in-formation on the weight, age ofthe tigers as well as contact de-tails of NGOs, hospitals, a mapof the town and ways to reachthere.

Ranthambore boastsof 27 adult tigers and25 cubs. "The bookwould specify thetiger zones besidesgiving left and rightside (stripes) profilepictures of eachtiger and the cub”

NAGPUR: At a time when parksin the world are integrating con-servation with economic develop-ment of locals and nurturing envi-ronment, premium tiger reserves inMadhya Pradesh seem to be head-ing the other way.

The main focus of ecotourismpolicy framed by the National Ti-ger Conservation Authority(NTCA) is to benefit locals butcurtailed tourism in reserves likeKanha and Pench in MP after theSupreme Court judgment has badlyhit stakeholders.

Both Kanha and Pench have cutdown the number of vehicles al-lowed in by half, directly affectinglocals who work as guides, oper-ate Gypsys and run small busi-nesses near reserves. The move isset to render many locals who workin private resorts unemployed.

In Kanha, until last season, thecarrying capacity was 280 vehiclesper day from two gates Khatia andMukki. Now it has been reducedto 140 - 83 in the morning and 57 inthe evening.

Similarly, in Pench, 130 vehicleswere allowed earlier but now num-ber been cut to 51 - 30 in the morn-ing and 21 in the evening from threegates Karmazari, Turia and Jamtara.

The carrying capacity has beencalculated by first measuring thelength of the route that the vehicleswill take, a visibility factor of 50yards on each side of the road, anda distance of 500 yards betweeneach vehicle to arrive at a number.NGOs working for tiger conserva-tion with the help of locals aroundthe parks ask whether conserva-tion can succeed if communitiesliving near parks are alienated andharmed monetarily.

"Conservation of tigers is fac-toring our progress by way of live-lihood. We feel alienated as our live-lihood has been hit. Such insanepolicies will lead to socioeconomicdestruction," said Alim SheikhRashid (name changed), a Gypsy-

owner and resident of Khatia.Deputy Director of Kanha S M

Mohanty justified the move. "Weare following the NTCA guidelines.Earlier, 47% core area of the parkwas opened. As per the revised

guidelines we have brought itdown to 20%," Mohanty said. Simi-lar is the situation in other parks inMP, he added.

"The arguments went on forthree months and stakeholderswere asked for their viewpoint. If

they still have any problems, theyshould take it up with the govern-ment," Mohanty stressed.

According to rough estimates byNishikant Mukherjee, a retired pro-fessor who works with Baiga tribalsin Kanha, income and revenue loss

due to curtailed tourism comes toaround Rs 30 crore, and close toloss of 4 lakh man hours of employ-ment of locals around Kanha.

Mukherjee called for a debateon the track record of NTCA.

"What has been the track recordof NTCA? 40 years ago at the startof 'Project Tiger' there were 2,500tigers in India. Now there are 1,706tigers left. What is their greatachievement," asks Mukherjee.

Pench Jungle Lodges Federa-tion secretary Sandeep Singhagrees. He says with curtailed tour-ism, local Gypsy owners are sittingidle and guides who used to earnRs 200-400 daily are now deprivedof sustained income.

Singh informed around 250youths from villages around Penchwork in resorts. These youths areon the verge of losing their jobs as,with occupancy down, most resortowners are planning to withdrawthem. Singh said Pench has alreadybeen booked during December butoccupancy of resorts is dull.

Tourism has also hit local shop-owners from whom purchases aremade by resort owners. Hundredsof visitors, unaware of the new rule,had to return without a safari afterparks reopened in October. "Un-der such circumstances, whywould resort owners pay the man-datory conservation fee to theparks," Singh adds.

KOLKATA: Finally, Digha isgoing to have a ropeway for tour-ists. The ropeway, to be around 150to 200 meter long, will be set upover Amarabati Park in Digha.There is also a plan to have a rope-way parallel to the beach betweenNew Digha and old Digha, but thatwill require coastal zone clearance.

After inviting the expression ofinterest, pre-bid meeting, presen-tation and financial evaluation, anagency has been identified whichwill set it up. The ropeway will movealong the Lake in Amarabati Park.The length of the ropeway hasbeen estimated to be of 150 to 200meters and tourists will also be ableto get a larger view of Digha from

the ropeway. The government is intouch with the coastal zone au-thorities to work out the modali-ties of the bigger ropeway project,which will move over the beachbetween Old and New Digha.

Following chief minister MamataBanerjee's instructions, the stategovernment has been working todevelop the coastal areas of Digha,Shankarpur, Tajpur and Mandarmanias attractive destinations.

The Digha Shankarpur Devel-opment Authority (DSDA) wasworking at sprucing up the overallcivic infrastructure of the area likesetting up roads, keeping thebeaches clean, revamping thedrainage system and having a solid

waste management program inplace. A beautification programwas also under way.

Among some project plans thatthe authorities were working onwas setting up a mega tourismhub, an ayurvedic health centre, anaqua hub and a deer park. A landuse and development control planis under preparation for the areaand the government is also work-ing on the World Bank-assistedcoastal zone management program.Not only the coastal areas, thestate is also working to developother areas like Gangasagar as aspecial tourism destination. About20 tourist guest houses are beingset up in the area.

Around 250 youthsfrom villages aroundPench work in resorts.These youths are onthe verge of losingtheir jobs as, withoccupancy down,most resort ownersare planning towithdraw them.

India PostNovember 30, 2012 43Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

44 India Post November 30, 2012www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationComprehensive immigration

reform soon: ObamaWASHINGTON: US President

Barack Obama plans to give newthrust to a comprehensive immi-gration reform in the country onethat would not only address theissue of illegal immigrants but alsohow to attract and retain highlyskilled manpower from countrieslike India.

At his maiden White Housepress meet following his re-elec-tion, Obama said he is very confi-dent that they can get immigrationreform done.

Noting that there has been bi-partisan support to this effort,Obama said there is need to seizethe moment.

"My expectation is that we geta bill introduced and we begin theprocess in Congress very soonafter my inauguration. In fact,some conversations I think are al-ready beginning to take placeamong senators and congressmenand my staff about what wouldthis look like," he said.

"When I say comprehensiveimmigration reform, it is very simi-lar to the outlines of previous ef-forts at comprehensive immigra-tion reform. I think it should in-clude a continuation of the strongborder security measures thatwe've taken because we have tosecure our borders.

"I think it should contain seri-

If you've got a PhD in physics or computerscience who wants to stay here and starta business here, we shouldn't makeit harder for him to stay here

Support soughtfor immigrationmuseum

WASHINGTON: A coalition ofethnic and minority groups is ask-ing President Barack Obama tocreate a presidential commissionto consider establishing a mu-seum to explore the history of im-migration and migration thatformed the nation.

In a letter, the group called onObama to appoint a commissionto study the creation of a NationalMuseum of the American Peoplein Washington. The group wrotethat such an effort would serve asan ``act of reconciliation'' in thewake of the election.

In 2011, the coalition workedwith members of Congress to in-troduce legislation calling for themuseum. -AP

our flag, want to serve in our mili-tary, want to go to school and con-tribute to our society, that theyshouldn't be under the cloud ofdeportation, that we should givethem every opportunity to earntheir citizenship," Obama noted.

And there are other compo-nents to it, he said.

"The business community con-tinues to be concerned about get-ting enough high-skill workers,and I am a believer that if you'vegot a PhD in physics or computerscience who wants to stay hereand start a business here, weshouldn't make it harder for him tostay here; we should try to encour-age him to contribute to this soci-ety," Obama said.

The agricultural sector obvi-ously has very specific concernsabout making sure that they've gota workforce that helps deliver foodto tables.

"So there are going to be abunch of components to it, but Ithink whatever process we haveneeds to make sure our border se-curity is strong, needs to deal withemployers effectively, needs toprovide a pathway for the undocu-mented here, needs to deal withthe DREAM Act kids.

And I think that's somethingthat we can get done," Obamasaid. -PTI

Fed judge OKs SClaw allowingimmigration checks

COLUMBIA, S.C.: A federaljudge has ruled that a South Caro-lina law allowing police to checkpeople's immigration status can gointo effect during a lawsuit but keptin place a ban on other parts ofthe state's tough new legislation.

Chicago Aldermenurge licenses forimmigrants

CHICAGO: The Chicago CityCouncil has passed a resolutionurging Illinois' General Assemblyto pass legislation requiring immi-grant drivers to be trained, tested,licensed and insured.

Alderman Danny Solis says theaction shows Chicago supports``sensible and reasonable legisla-tion'' to protect ̀ `Illinois highwaysand families.''

The resolution was approvedwith 28 votes.

A statement from aldermenwho backed the resolution saysapproximately 250,000 immi-grant drivers in Illinois currentlycan't get a driver's licenses. Andit notes 42 percent of all fatalcar accidents in the state lastyear involved unlicensed driv-ers. -AP

Details on page 46

President Barack Obama answers questions during a news conference in

the East Room of the White House in Washington

ous penalties for companies thatare purposely hiring undocu-mented workers and taking advan-tage of them," Obama said.

Taking about DREAM Act thatwould provide conditional perma-nent residency to certain undocu-mented minor immigrants, hesaid," Obviously, making sure that

we put into law what the first stepthat we've taken administrativelydealing with the DREAM Act kidsis very important as well.

"One thing that I'm very clearabout is that young people whoare brought here through no faultof their own, who have gone toschool here, pledged allegiance to

Obama wins and so does immigration reformGARY ENDELMAN & CYRUS D. MEHTA

Since President Obama'sdecisive re-election vic-tory, there has been a

growing realization, mainlyamong Republicans, that theparty will continue to be deci-mated in future elections if it doesnot take action on reforming thebroken immigration system.

It is clear that Romney's com-ments on self-deportation, alongwith his embrace of Kris Kobach,the architect of the anti-immi-grant laws of states like Arizonaand Alabama, hurt him terriblyamong Hispanic voters in hisquest for the White House.

Recently, House majority

leader John Boehner has pledgedto work with the President and theSenate, which is controlled by theDemocrats, to reach a deal on im-migration. This would have been

unthinkable before the election re-sults on Tuesday, November 6 andis like music to the ears of immigra-tion advocates who have beencomplaining for years about the

need to fix the immigration system.This bonhomie among GOP

leaders and pundits for positiveimmigration reform may be shortlived. Rancor may soon set in, as

it is already happening, with re-gards to preventing the "fiscalcliff." The country is still dividedevenly, and a foreign newspaper,the Times of India, after the 2012

House majority leader John Boehner haspledged to work with the President and theSenate, which is controlled by the Demo-crats, to reach a deal on immigration

elections, astutely called us "TheDivided States of America."

We still ardently hope thatCongress can bring about com-prehensive immigration reform(CIR), which would include anexpansion of green card catego-ries and temporary visas, alongwith the legalization of the 12million or so undocumentedpeople living here and contrib-uting to the US. In order to pre-vent a buildup of the undocu-mented population in the future,reform must also allow for visasthat would facilitate future flowsof legal workers.

Cont’d on page 45

Colo. illegalimmigrants hopingfor exemption

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.:About 200,000 young illegal immi-grants in Colorado may qualify foran exemption under a federal pro-gram that provides temporary re-lief and work permits for immi-grants who entered the country aschildren.

Immigrants from Mexico, East-ern Europe, Honduras, Colombiaand Guatemala attended meetingsin Grand Junction recently to learnabout the program.

According to the Grand Junc-tion Daily Sentinel, many youngpeople waited until after the elec-tion to see if the federal programwould continue. -AP

India Post 45November 30, 2012 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

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* Cyrus D Mehta, may be contactedat 212-425-0555 or

[email protected]

In his stirring victory speech Obama said,"We believe in a generous America, in acompassionate America, in a tolerantAmerica, open to the dreams of animmigrant's daughter who studies in ourschools and pledges to our flag"

Obama wins and so does immigration reformWhile all this is achievable, and

a deal can be struck, it could alsocome apart if the bottled up en-mity between the two parties flaresup again. Notwithstanding thelikes of Sean Hannity moving overto the side of CIR, there is boundto be rebellion in the rank and fileof the Republican Party, whichconsiders CIR anathema.

In his stirring victory speechObama said, "We believe in a gen-erous America, in a compassion-ate America, in a tolerant America,open to the dreams of animmigrant's daughter who studiesin our schools and pledges to ourflag." But Obama still has the abil-ity to deliver his promise to theHispanics, Asian Americans andothers who voted him in androuted Romney in the event thatCongress enters into another

stalemate. He has a powerful cardup his sleeve, and this is his abil-ity to provide relief through ad-ministrative action.

Administrative action is not aperfect alternative, as the Presi-dent does not have the power to

give green cards without Congres-sional authorization. But he doeshave the power to defer the de-portation of large groups of un-documented immigrants, as he didthrough the Deferred Action forChildhood Arrivals (DACA) pro-

gram, which we have shown canwithstand judicial scrutiny.

He can expand DACA to abroader group of undocumentedimmigrants who have lived in theUS for say 5 years, and have notbeen convicted of a felony or three

misdemeanors. As we have shownin our prior blog, Issues Ripe forRulemaking: Some Modest Pro-posals, there is no prohibitionanywhere that would bar USCISfrom allowing the beneficiary of anapproved I-140 or I-130 petition to

Cont’d from page 44 apply for an employment authori-zation document (EAD) and ad-vance parole. No action by Con-gress would be required.

This could be done purely byact of regulation or even througha policy memo. For those who wanta statutory basis, the USCIS canrely on its parole authority underINA 212(d) (5) to grant such in-terim benefits for "urgent humani-tarian reasons" or "significantpublic benefit." This we have ex-plained previously in Comprehen-sive Immigration Reform ThroughExecutive Fiat.

Knowing the power of the Presi-dent to take action on his own,Congress will want to remain rel-evant and protect its institutionalprerogative by enacting legisla-tion so as to avoid creating theopportunity for the exercise ofpresidential initiative. That is why

Obama might want to enlargeDACA to other groups, not as analternative to CIR but to make itmore likely.

If he announces broader initia-tives, he can use them as a bar-gaining chip to withdraw if andwhen Congress acts. The Presi-dent remains the First Officer ofour Government and, as the Re-publicans are beginning to realize,the political saliency of the immi-gration issue can no longer bedenied or deferred. By keeping thepressure on through the sustainedbut disciplined assertion of execu-tive initiative, the President makesit more likely, not less, that CIR willmake the bumpy transition fromrhetoric to reality.

Immigrant whose family killedfaces deportation

WICHITA, Kan.: A legal immi-grant who claims her family waskilled in Mexico following her mari-juana bust in Kansas will face de-portation proceedings eventhough a judge ordered her releaseon charges related to the drug case.

Norma Quintana fled the U.S.following the deaths of her rela-tives, and by doing so skipped her2010 federal trial for possession ofmarijuana with intent to distribute.Her attorney said she and her hus-band were quickly released follow-ing their arrest in that case, andthat Quintana believes the own-ers of the seized drugs assumedthat meant the couple was coop-erating with authorities and at-tacked her family in retaliation.

Quintana, who has been in cus-tody since she was arrested in Aprilwhile trying to return to the U.S.,was sentenced to time served af-ter pleading guilty to failing toappear at the trial. In exchange forthe plea, prosecutors dropped themore serious drug charge.

However, Assistant U.S. Attor-ney Brent Anderson told the courtthat immigration authorities would

immediately arrest Quintana uponher release. Although she is a le-gal U.S. resident, she can be de-ported because she has been con-victed of an aggravated felony.

Her attorney unsuccessfullytried to convince federal officialsnot to file an immigration detainer,

to allow her to be free while fight-ing her deportation.

``She has been a legal residenthere since she was a young child,''defense attorney Charles O'Harasaid. ̀ `But because she didn't showup in court, they want to send herback to Mexico where members ofher family were killed and abducted.''

After the hearing, Andersonsaid the government agreed todrop the more serious drug chargebecause of what happened to herfamily. But he said she will stillhave to face the consequences ofthe conviction on her immigrationcase. He said many drug traffick-ing cases in cases are connectedto violent Mexican drug cartels.

``Our fear is that, absent moreaggressive enforcement on bothsides of the border, it is only amatter of time before this type ofviolence shows up in the UnitedStates,'' Anderson said.

Quintana and her husband,Hector Hernandez-Valdez, were ini-tially charged in state court afterauthorities found 160 pounds ofmarijuana hidden inside the wheelsof the Chevy pickup truck her hus-band was driving in Pratt Countyin February 2010, O'Hara said.

The couple was quickly releasedon bond in the state case, and thecharges were later dismissed be-cause federal prosecutors had filedtheir own drug charges a monthlater. Hernandez-Valdez also neverappeared in court. -AP

After the hearing,Anderson said thegovernment agreedto drop the moreserious drug chargebecause of whathappened to herfamily

Fed judge OKs SC law allowing immigration checksCOLUMBIA, S.C.: A federal

judge has ruled that a South Caro-lina law allowing police to checkpeople's immigration status can gointo effect during a lawsuit but keptin place a ban on other parts ofthe state's tough new legislation.

In a ruling, U.S. District Judge Ri-chard Gergel said that he would dis-solve an earlier ruling that kept thecontentious provision from goinginto effect. But Gergel also noted thatboth sides in an ongoing lawsuit overthe issue will now have time to makefurther arguments in court.

Last year, the federal govern-ment and the American Civil Lib-erties Union sued to challenge theconstitutionality of SouthCarolina's new law, which wasmodeled on similar legislation inArizona and considered amongthe toughest in the country.

Some parts of the law went intoeffect Jan. 1, including a require-ment that businesses check newhires' legal status through a fed-eral system. Businesses thatknowingly violate the law couldhave their operating licenses re-voked.

In December, Gergel put the

lawsuit on hold while the U.S. Su-preme Court considered litigationover Arizona's provisions. He alsoblocked sections of the SouthCarolina law, including the statuscheck provision and policies thatwould make it a state crime not tocarry immigration paperwork or forillegal immigrants to transport orhouse themselves.

Under the judge's new ruling,Gergel also continued to block thepaperwork provision, saying thatonly the federal government hasauthority over keeping track ofpeople in the U.S. who aren't citi-zens.

In a statement, South Carolina'stop prosecutor claimed victory inthe decision to let the status checkprovision go into effect.

``Giving law enforcement thisability will make our state a better,safer place for all South Carolin-ians,'' Attorney General Alan Wil-son said.

Civil liberties groups challengingthe law weren't sure if they wouldappeal Gergel's decision. ACLU at-torney Andre Segura said his orga-nization was happy the judge keptsome of his prohibitions in place and

said monitoring of the law's imple-mentation would continue.

`Ìt's important for everyone toknow their constitutional rights,''Segura said. `Àll individuals,

even if they lack status, have con-stitutional rights, and that in-cludes the right to remain silentand the right to ask for a lawyer.''

Detaining motorists

During the hearing, Attorneysalso argued over how long motor-ists may be detained on the road-side while police check their immi-gration status under SouthCarolina's new law.

The answer seems to be thatwhile 38 minutes may be reason-able, 90 minutes violates 4thAmendment protections againstunreasonable search and seizures.

Gergel asked state AssistantDeputy Attorney General EmorySmith how long a motorist could bedetained while his immigration sta-tus is checked without violatingconstitutional protections. He notedthe U.S. Supreme Court has indi-cated that 90 minutes is too long.

Smith responded that, in a caseheard by the federal 4th CircuitCourt of Appeals, the circuit thatincludes South Carolina, 38 min-utes was found to be reasonable.He said the amount of time woulddepend on the circumstances but``we certainly don't dispute whatthe Supreme Court said.''

`Ì'm very concerned if the attor-ney general gives an opinion thatofficers can detain people until theirstatus is verified,'' Gergel said, add-

ing that local law enforcement looksto such opinions for guidance inhow they should enforce the law.

Gergel, who said he would is-sue a ruling in a few days, said thelaw was clearly crafted becausestate lawmakers didn't think thefederal government was being ag-gressive enough in enforcing im-migration laws.

`Àrizona is a resounding con-firmation of the role of the federalgovernment in immigration,'' hesaid, noting, however, that thestates did get something. ``Theyget the right to make an inquiry''about someone's immigration sta-tus, he said.

Gergel said South Carolina hastried to go its own way beforewhen it didn't like what the federalgovernment was doing.

He quoted CharlestonianJames L. Petigru who famouslyquipped when South Carolina se-ceded from the Union in 1860 thatthe state was ``too small to be arepublic and too large to be an in-sane asylum.''

``We went down that road be-fore,'' he said. `Ìt didn't work outas well as we had planned.'' -AP

India Post46 November 30, 2012Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Univision working to createimmigration archive

“Arizona is a re-sounding confirma-tion of the role of thefederal governmentin immigration,'' hesaid, noting, how-ever, that the statesdid get something.``They get the right tomake an inquiry''about someone'simmigration status,he said.

NEW YORK: The Spanish-lan-guage media company Univisionand one of its top advertisers areencouraging Hispanics to sharetheir stories about establishingnew lives in the United States foran immigrant archive.

The Univision network will kickoff the effort, called GeneracionAmerica, during the telecast of theLatin Grammy Awards.

Univision and its affiliated net-works will help collect stories fromcelebrities and average citizens tobe part of the Immigrant ArchiveProject, an independent effort tocollect the stories, and show snip-pets of them on TV. The advertiserProcter & Gamble is helping tofund the effort, although neithercompany would say how much isbeing spent.

Univision Networks PresidentCesar Conde said the kickoff wasintentionally timed for after Elec-tion Day so it wouldn't become apolitical issue.

The election itself, where theLatino community played a keyrole in President Barack Obama'sre-election, may actually help todrive interest in the project,Conde said.

``We're seeing an increasedamount of interest by Hispanicsand non-Hispanics in the pathsthat have been taken in the UnitedStates,'' he said.

Thirty-two stories have beencollected so far. In one, a busi-nesswoman and Mexican immi-grant named Mercedes Ruiz talksabout how she took an English-as-a-second-language courseand began working as a liaisonfor the company that offered thecourses.

Fernando Espuelas, aUnivision radio host of Uru-

guayan descent, talks about howpeople can actively choose tobecome Americans.

Stories are being collected inboth Spanish and English.

For Procter & Gamble, makersof Pampers disposable diapers,Gillette razors, Tide laundry deter-gent and Duracell batteries, amongmany other products, the incen-tive is clear: Increasing visibilityin the growing Hispanic market isa key to increasing sales. -AP

ACLU-NJ files suit overimmigration detention

NEWARK, N.J.: Thegovernment's policy of subject-ing immigrants to mandatory de-tention before they've had an op-portunity to show they're not be-ing held on a deportable offenseis unlawful, according to a fed-eral lawsuit filed in New Jersey.

The American Civil LibertiesUnion filed the class-action suitin federal court in Trenton on be-half of hundreds of immigrants indetention in New Jersey.

``Mandatory detention really isan outlier across our legal system,''said Michael Tan, a San Francisco-based attorney with the ACLU'sImmigrant Rights Project. `Ì'mhard-pressed to see where else inour legal system we lock peopleup before they're given a hearingto decide if they should be lockedup, and spend taxpayer money ontheir detention, when there areother ways to make sure they willshow up for hearings.''

U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement Spokeswoman Bar-bara Gonzalez said the agencydoesn't comment on pending liti-gation. ICE has recently instituteda policy of ̀ `prosecutorial discre-tion'' that directs agents to con-sider how long someone has beenin the country, their ties to com-munities and whether thatperson's spouse or children areU.S. citizens.

But immigrant advocates saythe current system unduly pun-ishes many immigrants in deten-tion who are low-risk cases, say-ing they don't need to be lockedup to comply with court obliga-tions.

The lawsuit is seeking to giveimmigrants relief from mandatorydetention if they have a legitimateargument that they're not being

detained for a deportable offenseand pose no danger or flight risk,Tan said.

The suit cites as an example 59-year-old Jamaican national GarfieldGayle, a U.S. green card holderwho works as a union carpenter inBrooklyn. Gayle has lived in theU.S. for 30 years and has twodaughters who are U.S. citizens.He has been in immigration deten-tion in New Jersey for eightmonths while facing deportationfor a decades-old attempted drugsale charge. -AP

ICE agent settlesharassmentlawsuit with govt

WASHINGTON: A senior agentfor Immigration and Customs En-forcement and the governmenthave agreed to settle a discrimina-tion lawsuit, according a courtrecord.

In a two-sentence notice, a law-yer for ICE Agent James T. HayesJr. said the ``parties have come toan agreement in principle'' to settlethe case for $175,000.

Hayes' attorney in Maryland,Morris Fischer, wrote that alongwith the money, `à formal settle-ment agreement will be executedwithin the next several days'' thatwill include other conditions, in-cluding Hayes keeping his job. Itwas not immediately clear who willpay Hayes, who is currently incharge of the agency's New Yorkoffice.

Hayes filed the lawsuit in Mayand described a ``frat house'' en-vironment at ICE that humiliatedmale employees under former ICEchief of staff Suzanne Barr.

After Hayes' case was filed,additional employees came for-ward with other allegations of sexu-ally inappropriate behavior towardemployees. In one complaint, Barrwas accused of calling a male sub-ordinate ̀ `sexy'' and asking a per-sonal question about his anatomyat an office party. -AP

Fernando Espuelas, aUnivision radio hostof Uruguayan de-scent, talks abouthow people canactively choose tobecome Americans.

Immigrant advocatessay the current sys-tem unduly punishesmany immigrants indetention who arelow-risk cases

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November 30, 201248

NEW YORKUpcoming

ILLINOIS

Upcoming

Sat Dec 01• Singing Bowl: Sound Healing

& MeditationVenue: The Community of Saint John Baptist,82 W Main St, Mendham Borough, NJ 07945Time: 1:30 pmContact: 9082772120

Sun Dec 02• Grand Dulhan Expo 2012Venue: Garden State Exhibit Center, 50 AtriumDrive, Somerset, NJ 08873Time: 12:00 pmContact: 7327541894

Fri Dec 07• Unravelling the Poetry of Kabir

- A Talk by Pandit Divyang VakilVenue: Taalim School of Indian Music, 25Gibson St, Piscataway Township, NJ 08854Time: 8:00 pmContact: 7328982252

NEW JERSEY

Upcoming

November 30, 2012 India Post 49

www.indiapost.com

Datebook

Mon Dec 03• Bruno Groening Circle of

Friends: Spiritual HealingVenue: Unity West, 4750 N Mayfair Rd, Mil-waukee, WI 53225Time: 7:00 pmContact: 414-375-4131

Fri Dec 14 & 15• Sita RamVenue: Harris Theater, 205 E Randolph Dr,Chicago, IL 60601Time: 7:30 pmContact: 312-334-7777

Mon Dec 31• NYE SOIREE 2013 w/ Stache Hyatt

Chicago Magnificent MileVenue: Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile, 300-310 S Federal St, Chicago, IL 60604Time: 10:00 pmContact: 5122319226

ATLANTAUpcoming

Fri Nov 30• Runway Princess - the Super

Model pageantVenue: Manhattan Center - Grand Ballroom,311 W 34th Street, New York, NY 10001Time: 7:00 pmContact: 3479222006

Fri Nov 30• Shine and Sparkle with Sunny

LeoneVenue: Pranna, 79 Madison Avenue (Corner of28th Street), New York City, NY 10003Time: 10:00 pmContact: 7777777777

Mon Dec 10 & 11• Childrens Film Festival:

Celebrating Children's movies

from BollywoodVenue: Plainview Old Bethpage, Public Library,999 Old Country Road, Plainview, NY 11803Time: 5:30pmContact: 516-349-7119Highlights: Festival Starting with the moviecurated by Award winning Producer and Di-rector Mr. Tirlok Malik (Little magician).

Fri Dec 14• Just For Humanity

Anniversary PartyVeune: The Alley NYC, 500 7th Ave, New York,NY 10018Time: 6:00 pmContact: 831 709 4404

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

Sat Dec 1• DYFC Invites You to Christmas

KickOff PartyVenue: Norwalk Presbyterian Church, 11345Rosecrans Ave, Norwalk, CA 90650Time: 6:00 pmContact: 8053283932

Sat Dec 01• Last Bollywood party -

Candyland theme party!Venue: Infusion LA, 1000 Universal StudiosBlvd, CA 91602Time: 10:00 pmContact: 323-205-5594

Tue Dec 04• Katie Garibaldi Plays SLO's

Linnaea's CafeVenue: Linnaea's Cafe, 1110 Garden St., SanLuis Obispo, CA 93401Time: 8:00 pmContact: 6505923536

Mon Dec 31• Fantasy Ball 7 - New Years 2013Venue: Sheraton Gateway Hotel, 6101 W Cen-tury Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045Time: 7:00 pmContact: 3232055594

Mon Dec 31• New Year' Eve Party 2013 -

Bollywood Musical/Entertain-

ment EveningVenue: Royal Delhi Palace, 22323 ShermanWay, Canoga Park, CA 91303Time: 8:00 pmContact: 805-404-9836

Mon Dec 31• NYE 2013 - Desi Dhamaal 3Venue: Crowne Plaza Hotel Anahiem -Disneyland, 12021 Harbor Blvd, GardenGrove, CA 92840Time: 7:00 pmContact: 9512173604

Fri July 20 to Sat Dec 15• Turning Rumi: Singing Verses

of Love, Unity and Freedom Part-

2 : The Art of Salma ArastuVenue: Dominican University of California, 50Acacia Avenue, San Rafael, CaliforniaTime: 2:30pm to 4:30pm (Artist Reception on SatSept 15at Community Gallery, Alemany Library)Contact: 415-482-2453

Fri Nov 30• A Musical ExtravaganzaVenue: Chandni Restaurant, 5748 MowrySchool Rd, Newark, CA 94560Time: 7:00 pmContact: Peter Sahjani, 510-673-0153

Fri Nov 30• Weekend Sanskrit Workshops

& Chanting ConcertsVenue: San Francisco Yoga Society, 2872Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110Time: 7:00 pmContact: 4156906675

Sat Dec 1• Disha - Unforgettable MelodiesVenue: Schultz Cultural Arts Hall, 3921Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303Time: 7:00 pmContact: 5107985440

Sat Dec 15• Christmas Celebration at Christ

Church of India, San RamonVenue: Church on the Hill, 20801 San RamonValley Blvd, San Ramon, CA 94583Time: 4:00 pmContact: 9253645247

Sat Dec 15• Ayyappa BhajansVenue: Maha Kaleswar Mandir, 2344 WalshAve, Santa Clara, CA 95051Time: 5:00 pmContact: 4847278424

Mon Dec 31• A New Year's Resolution 2013

(5th Edition)Venue: Westin Perimeter, 7 Concourse Park-way Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30328Time: 9:30 pmContact: 864-907-2003

Your Weekly FutureNOVEMBER 30TH to DECEMBER 6TH

by Pandit Parashar

November 30, 2012India Post50 Horoscopewww.indiapost.com

(March 21 to April 20)

In order for you to implement your plans, you will need to confront

someone you like very much. Luck is on your side and as a result

you will accomplish a lot this week. Journey will be fruitful. No harm

in going for a new venture in partnership. You will receive a very

interesting phone call. Expenses will stay under controls.

(November 23 to December 22)

There will be few positive developments at work. You will be in line

for a dream assignment or promotion. An overseas or long dis-

tance trip is also in the air. Health issues will continue to bother.

Ongoing legal matters will take a favorable turn. You will get a big

check from an insurance company in near future.

(December 22 to January 19)

If you play your cards right and ready to accept the challenges, you

will be rolling into big money soon and for a long time thereafter.

You may also visit a holy place with family this week. Plans to buy a

property for investment purpose will need to be put on hold. Some

one who was close in the past will try to come back in life.

(January 20 to February 18)

You are really going to enjoy this week. Choice will be in between

opportunity poles apart in benefits and risks. You will have few

other reasons to celebrate this week. You will hear from an almost

forgotten friend. Some of you will start a new relationship with a

wonderful person. Bank balance will shot up suddenly.

(February 19 to March 20)

Do not feel disheartened if things do not happen on time. If you

stay focused and have patience, you will accomplish a lot soon.

Planets help you make money through stocks. You will get to meet very

old friends this week. You will be studying some very useful material.

Spouse may feel little exhausted and need extra rest for few days.

(May 21 to June 20)

Try to deal with issues diplomatically rather than getting frustrated

and angry. You will try to stay focused on real issues and try to

forget about past incidence. Few issues involving children will get

resolved. You will be in touch with a fatherly figure for some advice

and encouraging words. Keep an eye on credit cards.

(July 23 to August 22)

People prone to litigations should be careful for next few weeks.

Running around will increase and the results will come very slow.

It is a favorable week for job seekers as strong planets in sixth can

help them achieve their goals. You will meet a very interesting per-

son this week. There will an addition in the family soon.

(September 23 to October 22)

Presence of helpful planets in fifth will bring big relief. Issues stuck

for some time and giving big headache will clear and once again

everything will start moving in correct direction. You will make few

intelligence choices in career. Expenses will come under control

finally. You will finish some important paperwork.

(April 21 to May 20)

You will not only receive good advice but also get a chance to

learn little diplomacy. You will attend an interesting get together

and win a small bet too. There will be tension at work but you will

continue to stay strong and keep doing your job right. Spouse may

feel exhausted and need extra rest. A long distance trip is in the air.

(June 21 to July 22)

You may have to settle for lot less than what you really deserve.

Some one from distance will call to give you some good news.

You will travel to a nice area with family to meet few old friends.

People on the other side will respond quickly to your mail. Spouse

will continue to give good ideas. Bank balance will grow suddenly.

(August 23 to September 22)

You will try to dodge unnecessary stress at work as well at home.

You will be working really hard to obtain a new assignment. You

may need to use some part of your reserves to meet your commit-

ments. It's not a bad idea to contact the person who was always

helpful in the past. You may decide not to go to the party and focus

on work.

(October 23 to November 22)

You will have couple of chance to make some easy money. Ex-

pect less pressure at work. Boss will appreciate your work and

send a favorable report. You will make new friends and enjoy a small

get together this week. It will be a wise idea to get rid of money

making stocks. You will hear good news from distant places.

Pandit Parashar, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA is also available for individualconsultations. He can be reached at: [email protected]

510-886-4370 website: www.parashar.com

52 November 30, 2012India Post

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NETWORKING BIDDERS CON-

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Response Due Dates by 2:00

pm as follows: RFQ 901068 -

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India Post 53November 30, 2012

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Nothing whatsoever is

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less for God.

- Sr Ramakrishna

On the destruction of a

jar, the space therein

unites with all space.

In myself and Shiva I

see no difference when

the mind is purified.

- Avadhuta Gita

Stop talking and think-

ing, And there is noth-

ing You will not be able

to know.

- Sosan

You don't throw off your

burdens even when

you go to bed; you are

busy with illusions.

- Yakusan

In all things under

heaven the female

overcomes the male by

her stillness, and be-

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lies below.

- Lao Tzu

Meditation is to under-

stand every thought

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Philosophy

Ego-self can never experienceIts own true nature

TIMOTHY CONWAY

It's crucially important to mar-vel over a basic miraculousfact: how can Absolute Real-

ity, the unmanifest Source or Ca-pacity for all manifestation, won-drously emanate this dream-likecosmic appearance of "some-thing" out of original No-Thing?

And, further, and no less miracu-lous, how can this phenomenalmanifestation, arising out of thepurely Unmanifest, Unborn Aware-ness, include a felt-sense of me andyou and all these selves whom wecall her and him and them?

That is to say, how can therearise out of Single Source-Realitythese various distinct viewpointsor persons or sentient beings orsouls or "jivas," to use the oldSanskrit word, which each thenbecome more-or-less narrowly as-sociated with a sense of "mybody," "my mind," "my self"?

These limited personalities areactually appearing and vanishing,appearing and vanishing, momentby moment by moment.... The Su-pra-personal Source is Real, butthese personalities are only "rela-tively real," that is, they are experi-entially vivid but not Absolute.

As the Buddha declared 2500years ago, such personality forma-tions are fleeting or impermanent,therefore insubstantial or intrinsi-cally "not real as self," and hencenot worth clinging to for any senseof satisfaction or fulfillment or ulti-

CHUCK HILLIG

When Consciousnesspretends that there's aseparation between

what It says It is (the I), and whatIt says It isn't (the not-I), then theworld mysteriously reappears. ButIt's not really going anywhere. Re-member that the purpose of a songis not to arrive at the final note.The purpose of a song is found inthe joyous singing of It. So it iswith Consciousness. In otherwords, It's just singing!

Because Its simplicity is abso-lutely complete and pure, It canonly manifest Itself by pretendingto be complex. In other words,when the indivisible Conscious-ness pretends to be divided intoparts, It creates an illusory worldof polarities. And you already arethat very Consciousness, Itself!

This "you," (the illusory ego-self that you think you are), cannever personally experience Itsown true, fundamental nature.You can only be what It already is(i.e., It). In other words, you willnever be able to get It simply be-cause It already is It! Or, to put Itanother way, how can you everarrive at a place where you are al-ready dwelling?

Believing that you're not reallythere, however, provides the cos-mic momentum for It to, seemingly,go out looking for Itself.

It's this purposefulmisidentification that sets the en-tire drama of your life into (e)motion.

You can't use It (this philoso-phy) in everyday life because, ac-tually, It will only be using you. Atone level, though, you can stay

more aligned with It by con-sciously choosing exactly what Itappears to be choosing for you.

In other words, practice sayinga resounding Yes! to whatevershows up for you. And, even whenyou feel like saying no, then justsay yes to the fact that, at least forthat moment, you're saying no.

It's best, though, to always make

Yes! your default position in life.Don't reject anything, not evenyour own rejections!

Remember, however, that you,(the historical ego-self) are onlypretending that you're able to ma-nipulate or control It. Conscious-ness will always get Its own wayin the end, simply because, nomatter where you think your ego-self is going, It is already there,

waiting for you.By definition, there can't be

some of It here and then some moreof It around the corner, too. Thatwould be implying that It could,somehow, be divided from Itself.But, if It's absolutely simple andcomplete, then It can't really haveany parts at all. It can only pre-tend to have parts. The you that

you think you are is only one ofthe many parts that It is pretend-ing to have.

So whatever is in your expe-rience at this very instant is ab-solutely all of It. There's reallynothing and nowhere else. Or,to put it another way, throughIts own I's (your I's), It sees 100percent of Itself, 100 percent ofthe time. None of It is ever miss-

ing simply because none of Itcan ever be left out.

The idea of God doesn't comeinto It at all. God actually comesout of It. It is simply the ego'sattempt to give a more formalname to the unnamable.

Chuck Hillig is a modernspiritual teacher, author and li-censed psychotherapist

mate meaning. (These are theBuddha's "three marks of existence"- anicca, anatta, dukkha.)

One afternoon in Feb., 1971,within several days of returning tomy school routine, I felt that myphysical energy was really sag-ging because of the recent illnessand lack of exercise. So I went outinto our back yard, did some of myusual callisthenic exercises (jump-ing jacks, running in place,pushups, etc.) for about 10 min-

utes or so, and then I just stoodfor a while gazing out over thebusy valley below and out to thedistant mountains and especiallyup into that blue sky - as blue as itcould be for a Los Angeles day.

And suddenly this life of "mine,"without having done any spiritualpractices or questing or anything,was just opened wide and drenchedwith a shower of pure, powerfulgrace. It literally felt like the "me"was instantly replaced by an over-flowing surge of unearthly blissfuljoy and radiant good cheer, extreme

well-being rooted in a solid senseof unshakable Being, and the mostunspeakable Love.

This was a formless, shapeless,spiritual affirmation from within.And I instantly felt that "my life"was entirely and irreversiblychanged.

Everything had just instantlyshifted from being "all wrong" toall right, from being "incomplete"to quite complete. It was clearly anawakening from a "2-dimensionally

flat" type of intolerably mediocreexistence into an unbelievably rich,deep sense of full aliveness.

At this point it was entirelyclear to me that we are made ofGod's Love, Joy, Peace, Holiness,and Power. We are nothing in our-selves, but as appearing, feelingpersons we are sourced in andentirely composed of the DivineSupra-Person, the Divine Being.

This was no mere concept, butthe most vivid Reality I had yetexperienced to that date.

This was primarily a nondual,

formless intuitive realization thatflooded through as an all-engulfing,all-pervading oceanic bliss-peace-love feeling, to use a common term."Radiance" might be a better word.

In addition to the earthly scen-ery on display arising withinAwareness, there was in fact asubtle vision that appeared veryrapidly after this flooding-awaken-ing. The vision, which came from"on high" as I turned a bit to lookup to the eastern sky, was subtle

and ethereal, not occluding myvision of the neighbor's high fenceand shrubbery.

There was a tangible visualsense of all our gorgeous spiritualfriends and guides in the Light, ourguardian angels, kindly ancestors,the ever-blessing saints and sages,Mother Mary and Jesus, all of themintermediaries of Grace from theinfinite Divine Source, all just show-ering down Grace for whomevermight be open to this Grace.

Timothy Conway teaches spiri-tuality at California colleges

Chuck Hillig

The experience that irreversiblychanged 'my life'

Timothy Conway

And suddenly this life of "mine," without havingdone any spiritual practices or questing oranything, was just opened wide and drenchedwith a shower of pure, powerful grace

The purpose of a song is not to arrive at thefinal note. The purpose of a song is found inthe joyous singing of It. So it is with Con-sciousness. In other words, It's just singing!

54 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

November 30, 2012India Post

India & Myanmar

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ad-mits the strong influence that Indian leaders like Ma-hatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had on her life and

her views. Considering also that she had most of her higher edu-cation in India and had close friends here, this country shouldhave been among the first she would have visited after her re-lease from incarceration. But that did not happen, as she franklydisclosed during her Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture, becauseshe was saddened that India was drawn away from her country inits "most difficult days." The National League for Democracyleader, who was under house arrest for over 15 years, was refer-ring to the period when India established diplomatic relationswith the military junta in the 1990s. Initially India had supportedthe pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.

The reasons for India reaching out to the Generals in Myanmarwas that India was being isolated in that country and China mean-while, which had no compunction in dealing with dictators, wenton strengthening its influence in the resource rich country. In theabsence of any contact with the rulers in that country, India foundit had no way to influence events in that country. It was India'smove to start talking to the Generals that encouraged the US alsoto reach out with an olive branch, suggesting that the sanctionscould be diluted if the generals start loosening the authoritariancontrol and introducing reforms. It was the opening provided bysuch carrot and stick policy that persuaded the Generals to letSuu Kyi and her party participate in by-elections most of whichthey won and by virtue of which she is now in Parliament. Wouldthat have happened had India continued it's hardline of not en-gaging with the Generals? The Generals have also indicated atsome point that they would prefer dealing with India than withChina. It has also given them an alternative to bargain with theChinese which position they did not have earlier. India's balanc-ing act therefore is an exercise in expediency. It does not meanthat India has lost its enthusiasm for the democracy leader andher struggle. The visit of President Obama to Myanmar is alsoproof that this policy is succeeding.

However, as Suu Kyi also said, the struggle for democracy inMyanmar is far from over. And she made the distinction betweenthe support of governments and support of the people to achievethat goal. She emphasized that friendship between countriesshould be based on "friendship between people and not friend-ship between governments. Governments come and go, but, peopleremain."

She expressed the hope that "in this last battle, the people ofIndia will stand by us and walk by the path they were able toproceed many years before."

Suu Kyi has already visited Norway, where she belatedly ac-cepted the Nobel Peace Prize. She has also visited Britain and hada meeting with President Obama and Secretary of State HillaryClinton when she was in the US. She explained there that democ-racy in Myanmar is not going to follow the example of the US orany other country but it would learn from all the functioning de-mocracies. Ultimately it will have its own kind of democracy. Butthe closest perhaps she feels is to the neighboring Indian democ-racy which is tending to be anarchical but represents the freelyexpressed views of different people.

India can definitely play a role in Myanmar as a counselor toboth the military junta and democracy leaders to bring about aconsensus on how to return power to the real representatives ofthe people and put an end to human rights violations there. Indiaalso needs to facilitate the rehabilitation of the many Myanmarrefugee leaders in India and make it possible for them to be withtheir people in their struggle for democracy.

Fragile cities: Karachi & DetroitLIDIA LEONI

The definition of the conceptof "Fragile City" encoun-ters certain challenges. Just

as the term "Fragile State", "Frag-ile City" lacks an authoritative andcommonly accepted definition andterminology. Contrary to "FragileState", however, its relative nov-elty makes it largely under-theorised.

Despite this general lack ofconsensus on what a fragile cityis, a path can be recognized in thestress allocated to the functionalrole of the city as the central spacefor economic, political and socialdevelopment of a country, and ofboth the local and central govern-ments as providers of the basicservices necessary for the fulfill-ment of this role.

Yet, while some definitions lookat fragile cities primarily within theframework of fragile states and de-veloping countries - even as a mir-ror for state fragility itself - otherssee the phenomenon in broaderterms and associate it to urbanconditions present in both thedeveloping and developed world.Nevertheless, some general char-acteristics can be drawn.

These are a lack of security andhigh crime rates. Violence can de-velop on different grounds, but itusually has a group-related char-acter. Economic downturn, as a re-sult of both internal and externalfactors, can also be connected to aprecarious security situation. In afragile city, moreover, inefficientmanagement or a lack of fundsavailable with the local or centraladministration, challenges an effec-tive deliverance of public services.

Two Case StudiesPakistan has become a stan-

dard bearer of the term "FragileState" in recent years, and its eco-

nomic capital and largest city,Karachi, seems to reflect this de-velopment. The city's main issueis the spread of ethnic violence,especially between the Mohajirs,the descendants of the immi-grants from Northern India, andPathans.

At the same time, it is not im-mune to a growing influence oforganized crime and to otherforms of group grievances suchas religious violence. Whilegroup-related violence is the mainimpediment to Karachi's stability,the city has increasingly been ex-periencing problems with the ef-fective deliverance of public ser-vices and an ill-managed popula-tion overload.

This has prompted the creation

of slums plagued with problemsof lawlessness and inadequate liv-ing conditions. The city's devel-opment has been largely uneven.Karachi is home to some of thecountry's richest, while parts of itspopulation live in extremely poorand unsustainable conditions.The general imbalance addition-ally, threatens the city's economicperformance, which is central toPakistan's economy itself.

The US, as the world's largesteconomy, is usually not associ-ated with fragile conditions. YetDetroit, once the heart of theAmerican automobile industry,significantly bears the character-istics associated with those of afragile city.

The downturn of the automo-bile industry and the outsourcingof manufacturing jobs haveshrunk the size of the city, whichwent from nearly two millions toless then one million, while entireareas of the city lie abandoned andare "returning to the prairie".

Poorer areas of the city are char-acterized by a high crime rate - De-troit constantly figures among themost dangerous cities in the US. Theuneven development of the cityhappened along ethnic lines, withthe Caucasian population living inbetter-off suburbs and the minori-ties, especially African-Americans,in poorer neighborhoods.

While the unemployment rateis not the highest of all Americancities, it generally doubles the na-tional average. The near-bank-ruptcy experienced in recent yearshas caused a progressive erosionof public services such as illumi-nation and transportation, espe-cially in poorer areas.

The Need for a DefinitionThe term "Fragile City" is yet

to find a universally ac-cepted definition. Never-theless, it can be charac-terized as an urban spacewhere high rates of crime,economic downturn linkedto both internal and exter-nal factors and, a lack ofcontrol by the local andcentral administrations ondifferent grounds persistresulting in a difficult se-curity situation.

These general condi-tions as well as poor man-agement by the city's ad-ministration, make for ahighly erratic and corrodedsystem of deliverance ofpublic services.

While a majority of cit-ies that would qualify asfragile are located in devel-oping countries, the phe-nomenon is not limited tothe so-called "Global

South", but is also visible in somecities in developed countries, asprojected by the case of Detroit.

While the situation in Detroitmay not reach the critical levels ofa city in an unstable country, as inthe case of Karachi, it still bearscharacteristics of a fragile city.When put in the context of citiesin the so-called "Global North",moreover, Detroit gives ample rea-sons for concern.

The capacity of fragile cities asa phenomenon, to span across re-gions and countries worldwide,and the central role that urbanspaces play in both developing anddeveloped countries, make these acritical issue in need of universalrecognition in order to safeguardcities against fragile conditions. Atthe same time, it could also be afruitful starting point for academ-ics to look beyond the traditionalidentification of fragility as a state-related problem.

The writer is former ResearchIntern, IPCS

Karachi Detroit


November 30, 201256

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