Indo American News
Friday, May 27 2011 | Vol. 30, No. 21 Published weekly from Houston, TX
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Indo American News Takes Green Initiatives
This Week
Inside
Baylor Spreads its Horizons with Max Hospital Pg 5
From Kolkata’s lower-middleclass to Harvard Business School to the head of international consulting firm McKinsey, Rajat Gupta’s ascendancy in global business was a feat of smarts and determination.
“You can never underestimate the seductive power of three or more zeroes added to net-worth numbers,” Connelly told Bloomberg. “You can be successful, but if you’re in hedge fund managers’ circles and you’re not rich like them, you can start asking, ‘Why can’t I get that? I’m every bit as smart.’”
The Rise and Fall of
1.5M Wrongful New York City Pg 10
Chicago Trial Headley Nails ISI
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Rajat Gupta
By Bernice yeung NEW YORK (Bloomberg): But oh, how the mighty have fallen! The philanthropist who has raised millions for Indian education and healthcare charities, is now facing a civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for passing confidential information to Raj Rajaratnam, the disgraced Galleon hedge fund billionaire convicted of insider trading earlier this month. (Gupta’s SEC hearing will take place in July, and he could face a monetary fine and could potentially be barred from serving on the boards of public companies.) And what’s more, according to Bloomberg, Gupta’s questionable business behaviour didn’t stop there. In direct violation of the consulting firm’s policies, Gupta secretly ran consulting businesses on the side—which often involving Indian companies—while still at the helm of McKinsey.
• Gupta and Anil Kumar (another Rajaratnam co-conspirator who pleaded guilty in the Galleon insider trading case) set up a consulting company in 2001 called Mindspirit LLC under their wives’ names. One of Mindspirit’s clients, database company InfoGroup, paid the consulting firm with 200,000 stock options, which was exercised for an undisclosed amount, according to SEC filings. •While on McKinsey’s payroll, Gupta also advised Genpact Ltd., a General Electric spinoff based in Gurgaon that manages business processes. Gupta served as an advisory director for Genpact from 2005 to 2007, and was granted more than 81,000 stock options, valued at 93 cents each in 2008. (SEC filings show that Gupta hasn’t yet exercised the options, which are currently trading at nearly $17 per share.) McKinsey has since conducted an internal investigation and has implemented stricter rules to
make it more difficult for these kinds of conflicts to occur in the future. Overcome by greed? What’s baffling is why Gupta, the brilliant businessman and regarded philanthropist, went so far astray. What happened to his moral compass? Bala Balachandran, dean of the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai and a long-time friend, told Bloomberg that urgent desire to live a flashy lifestyle may have driven him to make questionable choices: “He wanted a billionaire’s life and the question for him was how could he become a billionaire in a short time,” Balachandran says. Meanwhile, Terry Connelly of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco told Bloomberg that Gupta may have been motivated by a desire to keep up with the super-wealthy.
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Body Found in sunken s car is missing m owner of Pavani o
CLUTE, TX (KHOU): Clute police have a mystery on their hands. On Monday, they received a call from a nursing home in the 600 block of Plantation. An employee noticed a car partially submerged in a pond on the nursing home grounds. When police pulled out the car, they found the body of a woman inside. The woman has been identified as 42-year-old Padmaja Kudumula of Katy., who had owned Pavani restaurant in southwest Houston and Pavani Express in Katy. Her husband had filed a missing person’s report with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office on Friday. In it, he noted that the couple had had an argument over their business that morning and Kudumula had left. When she did not return that night,
her husband called police. On Saturday morning, he noted some activity on her credit card at a Citgo station in Houston. On Monday, her body was found inside her partially submerged car in the pond. What puzzles Clute police is that the woman had no apparent ties to Clute or the nursing home. The pond is set back on the property, so it appears that someone would have had to deliberately drive onto the grounds. Clute Detective Lt. Diane Turner, said the police department is investigating this as a homicide, but that it is routine when someone is found dead without a clear explanation. According to Turner, the medical examiner has not finished its investigation, but the initial signs do not show foul play or a catastrophic health issue, like a heart attack. “The medical examiner didn’t find anything overtly suspicious or any type of injuries or signs of a struggle or anything like that,” Turner said. She is survived by husband Narayana Reddy and two children Pavani and Vasu and mother Pullamma. Funeral and memorial service are pending.
s soham mehta’s ‘Fatakra’ w m wins Award
LOS ANGELES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Fatakra, directed by Soham Mehta, is one of three films to win a Student Academy Award in the Narrative Category. 12 students from nine U.S. colleges and universities and three students from outside the U.S. have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. The student filmmakers will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industryrelated activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 11, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. It addition to the Academy Awards, Fat-
akra has also been having a terrific festival run. This past April, it received the Audience Award for Best Short at the Sarasota Film Festival, it also won the Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. In the coming months, Fatakra will be screening at
the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma, at the New York Asian American Film Festival, and at the Palm Springs Shorts Fest in Los Angeles.
By Manasi Gokhale Bavadekar HOUSTON: On Friday, May 20, a packed audience at the Arena Theater was entertained to their heart’s content by one of the best singers ever in Bollywood, Sonu Nigam. The show was presented by the most famous and trusted name in event promotion/management, Rajender Singh of Star Promotion Inc. The show kicked off with an appearance by the extremely talented USbased singer Gunjan. Gunjan started hthe show with a rendition of the hit Bollywood classic ‘Bahon mein chale aao’ from the movie Anamika. It was followed by a string of hits which included golden oldies like ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’, ‘Duniya mein logon ko’ and recent blockbusters like ‘Beedi’ and Sheila ki Jawani’.. She was rewarded by a huge round of applause from the knowledgeable audience. As she finished her performances, she introduced the star of the evening Sonu on stage and he was greeted by a standing ovation by the fans who were waiting anxiously for him. He made a dreamy entry while singing his famous hit, the title song of the movie ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’. He acknowledged the cheers of the crowd and proceeded to churn out a succession of renditions that included ‘Shukran Allah’, ‘Mera rang de basanti chola’, Don’t say alvida, and Saathiya. He then sang what he thought was one of his favorite songs, ‘Tere bin na dekhu main subah’ from the movie Dil To Baccha Hai Ji. One of the highlights of this show was the way Sonu interacted with the audience, talking with some of the fans and making funny comments in between. For instance, he gave an example of how a Bollywood song can be composed by various music composers using words which can be as mundane as even names of vegetables. His mimicry of famous music directors like Nadeem Shravan, Bappi Lahiri, Himesh Reshammiya and Anu malik had the audience in splits and they responded by giving him a big round of applause. There is hardly a better entertainer in showbiz than Sonu and he decided to mix it up by performing the Eric Clapton masterpiece ‘Wonderful Tonight’. He even showed his linguistic talents by singing a few verses from
a Kannada hit which he had sung in the past. He mixed his songs well by performing romantic songs like ‘Mere haath mein’ from Fanaah, interspersed with peppy hits like ‘Zoobi Doobi’ from 3 Idiots, which he sang as a duet with Gunjan. Once his lineup of songs was completed, he started taking in requests from the audience for his songs. He was pleasantly overwhelmed by the number of requests from the fans, or ‘Farmaaesh’ as we call it. Some of the numbers which he sang were not only from his Bollywood hits, but also from his private album chartbusters, like his first big hit ‘Tu’. The other requests included ‘In lamho ke daman main’ from Jodha Akbar, ‘Bijuria’, ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’, ‘Tees Maar Khan’, ‘Deewana Tera’, ‘Tanhaee’, ‘Main Hoon Na’, ‘Ye dil diwana’ from Pardes and All ij Well from 3 Idiots. He then signed off by thanking the organizers, the sponsors and of course, each and every individual member of his band of musicians. One can’t help but admire the talent and ability of this young star, an artist who was on stage for nearly three hours without taking any break for even a single minute. Every moment of the concert was a moment to remember for the appreciative crowd.
Photos: Touchofcolorstudio
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Baylor s spreads Its Horizons with max Hospitals in India By Jawahar Malhotra HOUSTON: In another sign that globalization promises to make the world a much smaller place, Baylor College of Medicine unveiled its latest steps in that direction by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Max India Group, a private hospital chain based in India with eight private hospitals in the New Delhi metropolitan area and three more planned to open this year. This is yet another step in leveraging the considerable knowledge base and reputation of Baylor College of Medicine based in the Texas Medical Center. It comes as an initiative of the new Center for Globalization formed at the college this March with a donation from BCM Trustee Wallace S. Wilson, who was in the audience at the news conference held this past Monday, May 23 at the BCM. “We know that the biggest problem worldwide is physician capacity, with an estimated shortage of 4 million,” said Dr. Paul E. Klotman, the President and CEO of BCM in his opening remarks. “The biggest challenge is to train physicians so that they can be catalysts for change in their communities.” The Center is headed by interim Director Dr. Navneet Kathuria, who was recruited from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Klotman was named to his new position in June of last year and worked with Kathuria on a similar initiative at MSMC. This Center is a continuation of their work (see IAN, May 20, 2011, page 19). “I came to the US from New Delhi, have moved to Houston and now have connected back with Delhi again,” quipped Kathuria as he marveled at how the process of connecting the dots can sometimes work. “This initiative reflects the outcome of a chance meeting and discussions several years ago in New York.” Since then, Kathuria joined the BCM administration last fall and began focusing on developing a broader base for the college’s main field of educating tomorrow’s medical professionals. BCM is a nearly 70-year-old institution at its current location at the TCM, but has much older roots that stretch back to humble beginnings as a medical school started in Dallas in 1900. To survive and grow, the school developed an alliance in 1903 with Baylor University in Waco and was the only private medical school in Texas in 1918. In 1943, the M. D. Anderson Foundation
From left: Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Globalization Interim Director Dr. Navneet Kathuria; Analjit Singh, founder and Chairman of Max India Group; BCM President and CEO Dr. Paul E. Klotman and Dr. Pervez Ahmed, the Managing Director of Max Healthcare at the news conference to sign a MOU between the two organizations. Members of the Indo-American community, including the IACCGH, attended the event at the BCM auditorium at the Texas Medical Center last Monday, May 24.
invited the Baylor University College of Medicine to join the newly form TMC and moved into its present building in 1946. In 1969, the College separated from Baylor University to become an independent teaching institution and formally changed its name to Baylor College of Medicine. BCM is still the only not-for-profit private medical school in the Southwest and has an endowment of $1.77 billion. It has been ranked as the best for the lowest tuition among private medical schools in the US. Klotman signed the MOU with Analjit Singh, founder and Chairman of Max India Group to form an academic affiliation between the two organizations and emulates the way that Baylor itself grew over the
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past century. Singh outlined the plans that Max has for developing a private medical school in India, presumably attached to one of its existing hospitals and said “here was much scope for many such institutions in India. We need many more AIIMS (All India Institute for Medical Sciences in New Delhi).” Max’s new initiative will be headed by Dr. Pervez Ahmed, who has practiced as a cardiologist for 35 years in New York City. He is the son of India’s fifth president, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974-1977) and was lured back to India by an offer from Singh about 5 years ago. “In conversations with Kathuria, we realized that collaboration with another institution would be essential to developing
our vision for a medical school,” said Ahmed, “and none that we met had the reputation like Baylor.” Max India started in 1985 as a manufacturing business and in 2000 transformed itself into a service sector enterprise dealing in insurance (through an affiliation with New York Life), healthcare and education and has a current turnover of $1.7 billion. “Max Healthcare is the new face of India,” said Chairman Singh. “Previously, 80% of healthcare spending was by the Government, and 20% was private; now the case is reversed. Max will have 1900 beds by the end of 2011 and we have reshaped the trend of care in India.” Globalization in education is the mantra that many professionals in the field have latched onto as they scramble to add more outlets for their organizations across the globe, like the new facilities in Abu Dhabi for New York University and the Paris-Sorbonne University and the Michigan State University in Dubai while others travel the world to identify and attract students to their home campuses. While satellite campuses in emerging countries cut the costs down for the students in the region, they deny the home campuses of income from foreign students. Klotman believes that the arrangement will be revenue neutral and will provide training and opportunities for BCM students and physicians to learn treatment procedures with diverse populations that could be used in the Rio Grande Valley, for example, as well as to undertake clinical trials in India. Singh said he was very pleased with the new alliance with BCM and was confident of its success. “We know how to make jointventures and partnerships work in the different business landscape in India. Together, we aim to bridge not just the shortage of healthcare professionals in India, but also redefine health science education standards.” health science education standards.” Indo-American News (ISSN 887-5936) is published weekly every Friday (for a subscription of $30 per year) by Indo-American News Inc., 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036, tel: 713-7896397, fax:713-789-6399, email: indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Indo-American News, 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036
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environment
Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
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Indo American n news takes Green Initiatives, Joins n new Print House
By JacoB david HOUSTON: Indo American News, going on its 30th year, has entered a new phase of becoming more eco-friendly and conscientious toward leaving a smaller carbon footprint in the weekly world of publishing. It has teamed up with Value Press to help make this happen. Value Press, a division of News Span Media has been in business for 12 years. It opened its new facility in 2008 at South West Plaza, and prints Semana, Solo Auto and Hola among other publications and is led by General Manager, Armando Molinares, who developed the floor plan, and meets the daily complicated requirements of the print shop. Account Executive Ken Hoffmann believes there are too many variables that have to be balanced to get the end result just right. “Printing is an art, a craft of sorts that takes into account science and statistical analysis.” he says. Adept in the printing industry, this former COO at Bertelsmann AG (a German based conglomerate) is experienced in the sheetfed and web-fed printing, plus full bindery. Molinares and Hoffman believe that there has to be a solid commitment on both sides to help produce the best news product! With better technology and infrastructure in place, Indo American News has taken big and bold steps in going green. Six new and faster 24 inch monitor iMacs have
A cleaner, more efficient press and other green initiatives helps Indo American News stay ahead of its competitors while serving its readers a quality news product each week
replaced older versions cutting At the office, the Indo Ameridown production time and elec- can staff use eco-friendly meatrical energy spent in layout and sures even while appointing news design of the newspaper. The old- coverage assignments to its staff er models have been safely recycled since. Better software help streamline and design ads faster. Indo American News recycles every sheet of paper, our distributors operate their routes based on a selected distribution list Soy based ink has no volatile organic which are zoned in a man- compounds or solvents that could harm ner for faster delivery and the environment enable less consumption of fuel. Indo American News cov- based on where they live. ers 120 distribution locations in The common notion that printHouston and its surrounding ar- ers are killing valuable forests is eas. being disproved daily at the of-
fice. From saving time in covering news, production time in layout, sending files to the printers, Indo American News has excelled at speed with T1 lines to download large files from ad agencies in just a matter of seconds rather than even two years ago. “Internet speeds this fast are a game changer for businesses,” says Bill Stemper, President of Comcast Business Services.” Indo American News performs large file transfers daily while downloading and uploading files daily. Going green is a daily job, not a once in a blue moon affair. It has a related cost, makes things indirectly a bit more expensive, but it’s ultimately for the good of mother Earth. Value Press, our current printer has the newest machines on the block which uses a chlorine free process. They use a cold set press that does not use heat plates or light to dry up the inks on the paper. The cold set allows the inks on the paper to dry up naturally. Heat set printers release harmful VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) into the air. The newsprint used for printing vary from virgin print to 30% post consumer recycled content. For printing, Indo American News insists on using vegetable based soy inks with zero VOC solvents or compounds. The used photo plates for printing is recycled each week at the press. The
solvents and inks left over are recycled. While distributing each week, our distributors make sure to collect any left over, few and spare, unread copies at each location, and recycle them. “Even before eco-friendly was ever a concept, we were careful to be earth friendly in all aspects. We are now more committed than ever to stay green. We know there are plenty of our readers out there who share and applaud our views of being a green company. My partners, Pramod Kulkarni, Jawahar Malhotra, and I would like to make sure that the rest of our readers also understand that we take these green initiatives very seriously,” says Krishna Giri, Marketing Manager of Indo American News. We encourage our readers to recycle each copy of our newspaper once you read it.
Large rolls of newsprint wait to be used; most have 30% post consumer recycled content
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culture
Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
How do You Inculcate Culture? Let Them Dance! the groups – the Desi Divas and the Bhangre Diyan Raniyan showed the moves that they had learnt, with as much vigor, even in their party clothes. Later, the dance floor was opened to all and it was heartening to see it packed with kids young and older, dancing to Punjabi
Top: Akash Singh in front with Bhangre diyan Raniyan dancers at the awards.
Center: (from right) Jawahar Malhotra, with the Board of Directors Amarpreet Kaur, Gurprit Bhusri, Jasmeeta Singh, Hardeep Kaur, Sukhpreet Kaur, Manohar Singh Mann, Pritpal Singh, Bhai Amar Singh,Sampuran Singh and Aman Singh Sidhu
Bottom: Platinum Sponsors Mr. and Mrs Bawa and Mr and Mrs. H.S Mangat. Photos: Jasleen Kaur
Rajat & Sonam Chopra
By Jawahar Malhotra HOUSTON: The performances were over just a month ago and the hard work that went into making them happen was done. A lot of the rehersals had taken place here, in just this same ballroom at Hotel Preet tucked away in the corner of West Little York and 290 on the northwest side where many of the city’s Sikh community lives and has its businesses and gurudwaras. But tonight was an occasion to celebrate the success of the Vaisakhi celebration held last month at the University of Houston and organized by the Punjabi Culture Society (see IAN of May 1, 2011). Then, a packed Cullen Auditorium had seen how a community had reveled in the nearly twenty dance performances of the Sikh youth – mostly based on variations of the bhangra – with groups from the Bayou City and as far away as Dallas and San Antonio. Overall the show was a success and the community enjoyed the performances, but many felt that the contracted technical director Arif Memon, had let them down.
Now it was their turn to let loose and most of the local performers and mainly the 150 younger ones, came to receive awards for their individual efforts from the PCS committee that had put the whole event together. There they were, many with their parents and other relatives there to witness there achievement as their names were called out and they received their trophies this past Sunday, May 22. As Jasmeeta Singh, the lead choreographer and coordinator for the Vaisakhi event called out their names, each group came forward to the podium, with a bhangra dance riff played out by DJ Mani from his booth on the side. “We really appreciate the hard work and brilliant performances that these kids have put in,” said PCS President Manohar Singh Mann, as he took the mike, surrounded by his organizing committee. “They made the Vaisakhi program a huge success.” And then, just before a buffet dinner catered by Gourmet India restaurant, two of
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beats, and cutting loose, arms in the air, hips swinging, feet moving as their moms joined in and most of the men and many of their elders looked on in amusement. If music is a key to the culture that it came from, then these kids had certainly got it, it seemed, so let them dance!
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Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
Society
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w western Union celebrates c 160 y years of Innovation Core strengths drive company’s move toward future
ENGLEWOOD, CO: The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, today celebrates 160 years of innovation, renewing its focus on developing new ways of moving money for better. With 455,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories, in 2010 the company performed an average of nearly 1.7 million transactions a day, or about 19 per second. Western Union’s vast network supports a
tinued to innovate with new technologies, from ticker tape to commercial satellites. Western Union Today Western Union today is unique. While the world’s financial services industry is built for those with credit, plastic, stable income and access to the Internet, Western Union focuses on making it possible for millions of people to go places, prosper and build better lives. Western Union is creating new possibilities for small business owners who
host of promising financial services, including prepaid cards, bill payment, in-country transfers, and account-based money transfer. And with a position at the center of the emerging cross border mobile money transfer infrastructure, Western Union is poised to stay ahead of the evolving needs of consumers. “As I look back at Western Union’s history, I am amazed by the company’s incredible evolution, from our pioneering of the telegraph business to our position today as a global leader in money transfer solutions for individuals and businesses alike,” said Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek. “Our longevity is an interesting fact, but it is our legacy that really makes us proud. The money we help people send home changes lives and builds economies. It is a virtuous cycle, when people pay for education or for starting a new business,” said Ersek. A History Rich in Innovation Western Union, founded in 1851 as a telegraph business in Rochester, New York, added its money transfer service in 1871 and has since grown to become a global leader in the money transfer industry. The company’s founders, Hiram Sibley and Samuel Selden, set out to unite a haphazard web of telegraph lines into a unified network, resulting in an efficient, growing business. The birth of the telegraph industry in the 1800s reflected society’s growing need for connections between friends, family and businesses. In the 1900s, the company con-
compete abroad and for everyday consumers with financial needs and few others to whom they can turn. Thanks to its consumers and Agents, Western Union continues to prosper, reporting $5.2 billion in revenues in 2010. Its business model generates strong cash flow which will aid growth strategies going forward. The company also leverages its expansive global network to identify opportunities in developed and emerging markets where giving back can make the most impact. Since 2001, the Western Union Foundation has awarded more than $73 million in grants to more than 2,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in over 100 countries and territories.
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Announcement Consulate General of India ,Houston will hold an INFORMATION EVENT on it’s Consular Services at 2.30pm on June 11 at India House,8888 West Bellfort,Houston,TX 77031. This session will provide updated information on services provided by the Consulate and is open to all Indian Nationals and Persons of Indian Origin.
About Western Union The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. The Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of approximately 455,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2010, The Western Union Company completed 214 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $76 billion of principal between consumers, and 405 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, A mAy Ay, A 27 , 2011 • Online editiOn: Ay On: www.indOamerican-news.cOm O
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Society
Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
Vaishno devi Guffa Yatra in Houston
RICHMOND, TX: After a long 5 months effort by Ravi Shakar and Savita Puri, a spectacular event; Mata ki Chowki was organized on May 14 at the Richmond residence of Sachin and Radha Sharma. The nine day long event was open to all and was attended by more than 150 people every day. The entire journey from Katra to Maa Vaishno Devi’s Bhawan was recreated to give feeling of India, yet being thousands of miles away from it. They faced many obstacles , however by Mataji’s blessings, those obstacles became a learning curve and they are proud to have presented this one of a kind experience in USA. During the journey through “Guffa”, devotess passed through Banganga, Charan paduka, Ardhkuwari, Vaishno-Dhaba, Sanjhi Chhat and Charan Ganga before entering the Bhawan. Lots of props were placed along the way to bring the feel of the actual yatra. At the end of the yatra, at Charan Ganga, devotees Ravi Shankar Puri stepped in a small section of icy cold water. Safety was their number one priority, while building the guffa. The entire yatra was made of wooden studs and PVC pipes and utmost care was taken to maintain structural integrity for safe passage through it. The Ardhkuwari (Garb June) was built to a level that was not too tight and carpet was placed underneath to accomodate people crawling through it. There was also a Bypass created for elderly and for those who decided not to crawl through the cave. Many dedicated volunteers were present at different stages of the Guffa to help and guide devotees. “We were truely blessed
that our vision came to life and was well appreciated by all Mata ke bhakt”, Said Ravi Shakra Puri, the main organizer of the event. For more information about this event, visit http://jai-maa. webs.com or call Ravi Shankar Puri at 713-480-7284
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Indian diplomat’s daughter Files $1.5m Law suit Against new york y city Govt
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law as well as state and city law. Batra said that neither Debashish Biswas, father of the girl, nor the Consulate General of India, Prabhu Dayal, were informed of the arrest. Batra also claimed that Biswas, 18, had diplomatic immunity
ly sent the emails. “I don’t know why he wasn’t arrested... the principal pushed for my arrest.” Biswas said that a cop told her that if she didn’t confess, she would have to spend time in prison with prostitutes and persons with HIV. “I was sitting there (school) with handcuffs on,” she said. The handcuffs, Batra added, were so tight that “they were like a torture device.” The New York Police Department did not respond to calls and an email seeking a response. Batra lashed out at principal Howard Kwait and the teacher Jamie Kim Ross, who was the recipient of the emails. “They did not do the due diligence before getting her arrested,” he said. “They were dead wrong.” Krittika said that she couldn’t drink water from Krittika Biswas, an Indian diplomat’s daughter who claims she was a water fountain because falsely arrested for sending obscene emails to her teacher, is suing it had another person’s New York City for $1.5 million. vomit, and although it was really cold, she could not Krittika Biswas, daughter of the that prevented her from being use the blanket because it was revice counsel at the Indian Con- arrested. But the Consulate Gen- ally dirty. Dayal said that Krittika desulate in Manhattan, Debashish eral said that US authorities inBiswas, also claims that she was formed him that the immunity served compensation from the did not extend to family mem- government. “She has undergone ill-treated in prison. Biswas alleged that she was not bers of the diplomat. “That did mental torture and physical torture,” he said. “This has scarred allowed to use the bathroom for a not cut any ice,” said. It later emerged that Biswas her mind for the rest of he life. long-time when she was in custodid not send the emails and the Dayal stressed, however, that dy at the 107th precinct. “Evenschool authorities eventually althe incident has no bearing on tually, I had to go in front of evlowed her back to the school afaf Indo-US relations. “This is an eryone,” Biswas said, referring aberration... a wrongful act of loto a small toilet that was in the ter the real culprit was found. “They based it (the arrest) cal officials,” he said. cell occupied by other persons. Batra suggested that Mayor Her lawyer Rajiv Batra said on basically nothing,” Krittika that her more than 24-hour ar- Biswas said, adding that the Michael Bloomberg give Biswas rest on February 8 was a viola- school did not suspend or arrest “a key to the city” to “unruffle tion of international law, federal the Chinese student who actual- some of the ruffled feathers.” NEW YORK (TOI): An Indian diplomat’s daughter is suing New York City’s government for $1.5 million for what she claims was a wrongful arrest on the suspicion of sending obscene emails to her teacher in Queens’ John Browne High School.
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Gayatri mahayagya by Houston Gayatri Pariwar HOUSTON: On Sunday, May 22, 24 Kundi Gayatri Mahayagya was performed successfully by Houston Gayatri Pariwar under the guidance of All World Gayatri Pariwar’s (AWGP’s) headquarter, Shantikunj located in Haridwar, India. A lot of people think that yagya is yet another meaningless, time consuming religious ritual. But is Yagya merely a ritual? Recent scientific studies say it is not. Sacrificing and sublimating the havan samagri in the yagya fire with chanting of vedic manman tras is only the physical process or ritual of Yagya. Yagya has much wider and deeper meaning. Yagya is a philosophy about how to live life. The central theme of Yagya is - Vision, courage and sentiment of keeping the least for self-joy and sharing the maximum possible for the welfare of the society as a whole is the core of perper forming Yagya and adopting its philosophy in human life. Apart from Yagya’s message of selfless service, scisci ence has proved its beneficial effect on both personal health and surrounding environment. Yagya renews the brain cells, revitalizes the skin, purifies blood and prevents growth of pathogenic organisms. Air enriched by negative ions through Yagya is proved to be exceptionally good for mental and physical health. The potency of the medicinal herbs and other healthy substances amplifies million times after sublimation in Yagya, destroys the germs and eliminates the toxic particles and pollutants. The Yagya-vapors clustered on clouds are enshowered on soil and water bodies. This purifies and enriches the water-resources with vital elements and eradicates worms and germs. AWGP was founded by Vedmurty Taponishth Pandit Shriram
Sharma Acharya with the aim of the transformation of era by changing people’s thoughts. Under the guidance of his Himalayan guru, pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya performed a very intense tap (penance) of yearly chanting of 2.4 million gayatri mantras until 24 years with daily diet of small cup of buttermilk & two chapattis. With such a big task o f changing the
world back to the Golden Era at his hand, h e wrote 3200 books and started Akhand Jyoti, a monthly magazine containing articles on scientific spirituality. He fought for the freedom of India, travelled across the whole country, established 2400 centers including “Shantikunj” (the global headquarter for thought revolution movement), went to Himalayas three times for Tap and fought against evil social customs. In spite of strong opposition Pt. Shriram fought against the dogma preventing chanting of Gayatri mantra by females and non-brahmins. He said everybody is born shudra but becomes a brahmin by his karmas (actions). Today, because of him one can openly chant gayatri mantra regardless of their caste, sex, religion etc. Gayatri Pariwar’s motto is “
Hum Badlenge, Yug Badlega.. Hum Sudhrainge, Yug Sudhrega” If we change ourselves with good thought & actions, we can change the world to be a better place. To achieve this we need to follow 3 things: (1) Upasna – gaining virtuous qualities and inspiration from one’s ideal, which could be God or any other great personality like Swami Vivekananda (2) Sadhna – controlling our senses and our resources both physical and mental (3) Aaradhna– serving our soso ciety and the underpriviunderprivi leged with the inspirainspira tion, idea and the energy gained from Upasna and Sadhna. AWGP has initiated seven movements to help bring about a complete and lasting transfortransfor mation in the world. These movements are: 1. Self RefineRefine ment 2. Health 3.Education 4. Self Reliance 5. Environment Protection 6. Women Empowerment and Awakening 7. Deliverance from addictions and Eradication of evil customs. 2011-2012, AWGP is celebrating 100 years of the birth of Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya worldwide. It is being celebrated as the birth centenary of thought revolution. Just like millions of people took part in India’s freedom struggle, we call upon people to take active part in this world changing event. Now is the time to think - am I a part in this revolution or not? For more information about the science of yagya please refer to the book: Reviving the Vedic Culture of Yagya -http://literature.awgp.org/englishbook/ GayatriYagya/yagya_abhiyan/. For more information about AWGP and the Thought Transformation Movement please visit www.awgp.org
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dAV montessori school s celebrates Graduation day c ay
HOUSTON: May 15 was a memorable day for the little graduates of DAV Montessori School (DAVMS) as they walked across the stage in their sky blue graduation caps and gowns to receive their graduation certificates from Chief Guests Jugal and Raj Malani. The entire Arya Samaj Greater Houston complex was teeming with students and their parents and grandparents to celebrate the graduates and the eleventh anniversary of Dayanand Anglo Vedic Montessori School in Houston. DAVMS, as it is fondly called, constantly strives to make its students aware of India’s Vedic heritage and culture. A conscious and concerted effort is made every single day to highlight and focus on this glorious heritage and culture. The children are taught Hindi, yoga, naitik shiksha (moral education), and shlokas in addition to celebrating both Indian and American holidays. As the name suggests, the Montessori curriculum of teaching is adopted at DAVM to introduce these kids as they make their way through early years of learning through to 1st grade. Arti Khanna, in her annual school report, gave us an overview of how DAVMS students have not only excelled in academics but also in extracurricular activities and community outreach. During the 2010-11 School year, the students had two
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DAVM Graduates with Chief Guests Jugal and Raj Malani
community outreach fundraisers – first collecting donations for the Houston Food Bank between Diwali and Christmas, and then in spring they raised $2,200 in a bike-a-thon to support St. Jude, a pediatric cancer and research hospital. She highlighted the fact that on academic front, and in the national standardized tests conducted by the school each year, DAVMS’ KG and first grade students have consistently scored 2-3 grade levels higher both in language and in Mathematics. Khanna also credited DAVMS’ success to the hard work and selfless dedication of its extremely talented and qualified teachers and in equal part to its energetic parent volunteer team. The parent volunteers have led not only the fundraisers men-
tioned above, but also raised over $2,000 in a book fair to build out classroom libraries and resources, have organized the Talent & Fashion show and a Halloween carnival, and have been the silent force behind producing the School’s Yearbook. This year a few of the parents shared the MC role and also gave testimonials as to the quality and care that is built into the DAVMS’ teaching philosophy that weaves the Vedic philosophy seamlessly into the Montessori approach to imparting learning to young children. However, the cultural program that followed and which was comprised of several dances by the different classes, really stole the limelight. The poise and confidence exhibited by the students in their performances was a sight to be-
hold. DAVMS children have a multitude of opportunities to perform on stage in front of audiences throughout the year, and this gives them an edge by building their self-confidence and a foundation for future success. The program started off with a dance by 2½ to 3½ year olds of Green Class, followed by a performance by Red class which left the audience awe-struck. More was to follow as the Blue class upped the ante in their dances based on the song “Made in India” and interplay between Krishna & Gopis. However, KG & 1st grade students of Yellow class were the icing on the cake as they danced to the tune of “Des Rangeela” and then delivered a befitting and imaginative cap to the program by celebrating in a song & dance the Indian Cricket Team’s lifting
of the World Cup. The hall was brought to its feet by these scintillating performances, and the children in their colorful costumes and handling pressures with self-confidence were a sight to behold. Every performance was enacted as a labor of love, the music, the colorful costumes, and the makeup were simply breathtaking. The entire program was presented flawlessly. Khanna thanked the management committee members, Acharya jis, parents, and reminded everyone that, though only a few were mentioned, she has had an army of soldiers, by way of teachers, volunteers and others who are always in our hearts. The day concluded traditionally with a beautiful Shanti Path by Acharya Praveen Gulati ji.
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Lavanya Ananth’s recital r replete with Impeccable movement, Arresting Poses r
By kalyani Giri HOUSTON: With a performance born of soulful spirituality and an intrinsic understanding of her craft, accomplished young awardwinning dancer from Chennai, India, Lavanya Ananth enchanted a capacity audience at the Kaplan Theater, Jewish Community Center, with an outstanding Bharathanatyam recital. Jointly hosted by three local organizations Bharathi Kalai Manram, Samarpanam, and Silambam on May 22, the presentation, Nrithya Samarchitha, which means An Offering Through Dance, bore testimony to Ananth’s prowess as a choreographer of note and was a study in the adherence to tradition, lyrical grace, and eloquent facial expression. Ananth’s visit to this city was part of her nationwide concert/workshop tour; traveling with her was a formidably gifted live orchestra, also from Chennai, whose artistic cohesion with the dancer made for a culturally enriching experience. A disciple of luminaries in the exalted ilk of S. K. Rajarathnam Pillai, and Dr. K. J. Sarasa in the Vazhuvoor style of dance, Ananth also came under the expert tutelage of the doyen of abhinaya, Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan. Swathed in an orange and pink costume, Ananth began with Nrityanjali followed by the Amba Sthuti that described the goddess Devi in all her majestic beauty and incarnations. Replete with arresting poses, and meticulous hand and foot movements, the Amba Sthuti accorded the dancer a broad landscape to showcase her finesse at abhinaya, or facial expression. Ananth’s next piece, Swami ye Azhaithodi Vaadi, an exacting varnam penned by the storied mae-
Local dance teachers with Lavanya Ananth Photos: Navin Mediwala
A critically acclaimed dancer, Lavanya Ananth ranks among India’s dance-elite today, a status very tough to achieve in the competitive field of the arts. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award from the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2007, among many other honors. stro K. N. Dandayuthapani Pillai, told of a maiden’s yearning to be united with her beloved Lord Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer. Through a complex vocabulary of expressions and hand gestures, the heroine cajoled, begged, and scolded her friend to hasten her on her way to bring Lord Nataraja to her. Interspersed with interludes of pure dance in impeccable rhythm, and excerpts of elaborate storytelling, the dancer drew parallels between the heroine’s longing for her celestial lover and the soul’s yearning for salvation. The dancer’s poetic interpretation of the varnam drew attention to the hypnotic timbre of vocalist Murali Parthasarathy’s voice as he segued through the garland of ragas effortlessly and
empathetically. The Devar Nama was an engaging composition by poet Purandara Dasa telling of the gopis’ many questions regarding the divine child god Krishna. Was he really a child, they pondered. How could that be when he flirted with them and asked impertinent questions that discomfited them? Perplexed, the gopis discuss Krishna, telling of his mischievousness and oftentimes risqué behavior. Then one of the gopis reveals that Krishna appeared to her as Lord Purandara Vittala, the deity of the village and a form of Lord Vishnu. The tower-
ing Ardhanarishvara Sthuti vividly displayed Ananth’s felicity for conveying moods and emotions through the whisper of a smile or the errant lift of a brow. In her portrayal of the composite androgynous form of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati, Ananth dramatically articulated the glowing, scented, melting grace of Parvati in contrast to the vigor, energy, and ash-smeared Shiva. A critically acclaimed dancer Ananth ranks among India’s danceelite today, a status very tough to achieve in the competitive field of the arts. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award from the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2007, among many other honors. Her inordinately gifted accompanists along with vocalist Parthasarathy included nattuvanaar S. Srilata, violinist R. Kalaiarasan, and mridangam vidvan M. S. Sukhi who created the music arrangements for the performance. Seated proudly in the audience was Ananth’s older sister, also a gifted dancer, Houston-based medical doctor Shobana Chandrasekhar; back home in Chennai, the sisters often performed together. For more information about Lavanya Ananth, visit http://www.lavanya-ananth. com/home.html.
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Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
Advice
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Life Lessons from a Glass of Water!
By Prakash Iyer (CTS) A chemistry professor decided to teach his students a different lesson one day. Holding a glass of water in his hand, he asked the students, “How much do you think this glass of water weighs?” “500 grams!” came a voice from the back. “600,” said another student. “I don’t really know!” said the professor, holding the glass up to make sure everyone could see it. “And unless we weigh it, we won’t know.” With the glass still in his outstretched hand, the professor continued, “What will happen if I hold it like this for a few minutes?” “Nothing!” came the reply. “Right, and if I hold it for an hour like this, what might happen?” “Your hand will begin to hurt,” said a student. “Indeed. And what would happen if I held the glass in my hand like this for 24 hours?” “You would be in tremendous pain,” said one student. “Your hand will probably go numb,” said another. “Your arm will be paralysed and we’ll need to rush you to the hospital!” said a student on the last bench. “True,” said the professor. “But notice that through all this, the weight of the glass did not
Not worrying too much about the problem is the first step to solve it. change. What then causes the pain?” The class went quiet. The students seemed puzzled. “What should I do to avoid the
them for a while and nothing happens. But think about it a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralysed
pain?” asked the professor. “Put the glass down!” said a student. “Well said!” exclaimed the professor. “And that’s a lesson I want you to remember. The problems and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about
– incapable of doing anything. It’s important to remember to let go of your problems. Remember to put the glass down!” We may not have been in that classroom that day, but it’s a lesson we would all do well to remember. Put the glass down!
Always. It’s not just problems and worries. Sometimes, we feel hurt and betrayed by a friend. And we carry that grudge through our lives. It grows and causes us anguish and pain. Learning to forgive – and forget – is not just good for the other people, it’s great for you. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail and when he was finally freed, you can understand how angry and vengeful he must have felt. But guess what? When he became President, he invited his jailers to be present at the inauguration – in the VIP seats! If he could forgive after 27 years of suffering, surely we can too. It is the same with our fears too. A failure or an incident in early childhood becomes a deeply entrenched fear over time. Fear of public speaking, fear of Maths, fear of rejection. You name it, and chances are, we have it. Someone gave us that glass to hold when we were little kids – ‘you are
Indo American News • Friday, MAY 27 , 2011 • Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com
clumsy, you are no good, you can’t do it’ - and we have faithfully held on to it all our lives. ‘I can’t’ - becomes a thought that stays in our mind and grows – leading us to complete paralysis. Time to put the glass down! The story goes that there was a hardworking man who lived a contented life with his wife and children. Every evening when he returned from work, he’d follow a ritual. Outside the door to his house were three nails. On the first one, he’d put his hat. On the second he’d hang his coat. And on the third nail, he’d unwrap an imaginary turban from his head and ‘put’ it there. A friend happened to see this and enquired what he was putting on the third nail every day. “Those are my problems, my worries and my anger,” said the man. “I have lots of that at work, but when I come home, I remember to take it off – and leave them outside. I don’t take them home with me.” Maybe you should learn to do that too. Starting today. Put the glass down. And see the difference! Prakash Iyer is MD, Kimberly-Clark Lever and Executive Coach. For more inspiring life lessons, read Mr Iyer’s new book The Habit of Winning.
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Rabindranath Tagore Samman for Utpala Dubey NEW DELHI: On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of poet and Noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Utpala Dubey, a native Houstonian, was awarded the prestigious Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Samman. The ceremony took place in New Delhi on May 7 on 150th birthday of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. The award was presented byJusticeGanendraNarayan Ray, Chairman Press Council of India and Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, Former Gov-
OBITUARY Prafulla Pillai (Thankam), Senior Technical Advisor in the Electrical Engineering Dept. of KBR, Houston passed away on Sunday, May 15 in Austin. Pillai (65) is survived by her husband, Nalina Pillai, son Dr. Deepak, daughterin-law Dr. Padmam Sriram and daughter Maya Pillai. During her lifetime of distinguished achievements, Pillai was associated with several professional, social and cultural activities especially, IEEE, the global professional organization of electrical and electronics engineers and the Malayalee Engineers Association of Houston. A “Celebration of Life� ceremony was held at VPSS Haveli on Sat, May 21 at 2pm.
The award was presented by Justice Ganendra Narayan Ray, Chairman Press Council of India and Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, Former Governor and Union minister.
ernor and Union minister. This award was presented to Dubey in recognition of her outstanding services, achievements and contributions. Earlier this year on the eve of India’s Republic Day at the 30th International Congress of NRIs in New Delhi. Dubey was also awarded the “Hind Rattan Award� by the NRI welfare society of India for her contributions, services and achievements and keeping the flag of India high. Dubey is a bright, upcoming project management professional and currently works for BHP Billiton in Houston.
IAMA Fund Raiser for Charitable Health Clinic
By Nand Kapoor ELMHURST, IL: Indian American Medical Association (IAMA) held fundraising dinner on Saturday May 15 at Waterford banquet, in Elmhurst, Illinois. It was attended by approximately 500 people including imminent doctors, philanthropist, politicians (including former senator and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun). The program started with the national anthem of America followed by the Indian national anthem. The gathering was welcomed by Dr. Annita John, President, Indian American Medical association of Illinois who thanked the audience for generously supporting the charitable cause for humanity. She mentioned that their target for fundraising of that event was 200,000 dollars. Dr. Sanjay Amin, chairman IAMACF explained the activities of the charitable foundation including outpatient care which included 3,000 patient visits last year, who were provided with medical care, basic labs, diagnostic services like x-ray, medicine etc. He also acknowledged the support of the community and the important role of volunteers including Doctors and others in running the clinic. Dr. Rajinder Gupta, Adjunct Professor, Kellogg School of Management introduced Ricardo Estrada was the guest speaker of the night. Estrada’s accomplishment among others
Dr. Annita John, President, Indian American Medical association of Illinois
include appointment as member of board of trustee of university of Illinois and member of transition team of Hon. Rahm Emanuel, Mayor, City of Chicago. Estrada in his address to the audience appreciated the work done by the foundation and the free clinic. He said that he himself when young had used services of clinic’s like this one. Honorable Senator and ambassador to New Zealand, Carol Moseley Braun expressed her happiness and thanked the Indian doctor and community at large for their efforts towards humanity and service of less fortunate. The function started with a cocktail reception and sumptuous dinner was catered by Waterford banquet hall owned by Dinesh Gandhi. The program concluded with a musical program “Suhana Safar� by orchestra Saregama.
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Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
The Numbers Game
Tell any Indian politician that only non-performers resort to superstitions, and they will probably bring before you an array of believers who are performers too. So there’s probably no inverse link between being superstitious and being good at work also or vice versa. Yet no one can deny that Indian politicians — cutting across party, region and language lines — are uniformly great believers in numbers, dates and everything that falls in between. Many have been known to be close to godmen, which India’s never short of. Take the case of newlycrowned chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha. The Queen of Poes Garden, who has been the chief minister twice before, chose May 16, the root number being 7, for the swearing-in date. She also inducted 33, which when you add her, adds up to 7. So it is highly probable that many underperformers may have slipped into the cabinet only on the virtue of being a ‘number’. Bengal’s giant-killer Mamata Banerjee also seems to have been bitten by this bug. Ms Banerjee seems to have taken a liking to Friday since she defeated the CPI(M) on May 13 and took over on May 20. Of course, Didi won’t be found wanting in connecting this to realpolitik too. She also loves Friday because it’s auspicious for Muslims, who form 27% of the state’s population. But there’s no point blaming politicians alone. We all are a bit superstitious one way or the other. Some of us wouldn’t cross a road if a cat crosses our path or walk under a ladder or have certain kinds of food on certain days. All this when probably there’s nothing earth-shattering for us to look forward to. Neither is any money riding on us to hit a last-ball six and make a neat packet for that. But taking a cue from cricketers and politicians, we must also figure out lucky colours and numbers since the appraisal season is still not over. Maybe a couple of letters to the name could help add some zeros to the figure in the letter. Now let’s keep our fingers crossed. Hindustan Times
editorial
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Transparent Labor
By Pradeep Anand Recently I had an interesting experience with AT&T’s customer service department. I needed help in getting a voice mailbox for my daughter’s smartphone. She had done something quite unique for someone of her generation— moved from an iPhone to a BlackBerry Torch, but that’s another story. I called upAT&T’s service department. I was provided good service in creating the voice mailbox. The process took some time but I was quite satisfied with the outcome. It was only when the call ended that I discovered that when I was put on hold, instead of listening to muzak or AT&T commercials, I heard cackle of a call center. I distinctly remember being curious about the language being spoken in the background, to get clues to the country where the service was outsourced. I heard only indistinguishable gibberish in the background. This simple task of adding a voice mailbox took an inordinately long time, yet at the end of the task, if AT&T had surveyed me, I would have given a kind and cheerful rating, contrary to how I rationally felt about this simple task taking so long. Two days later, I read about a connected research by Ryan Buell and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School. It revealed that waiting during a service-call becomes more tolerable when there is an appearance of work being
done on a customer’s behalf. Additionally, customers will value the service more than they would without this transparency. Moreover, the labor illusion can also be effective in increasing customer support scores for the same time spent on that service. However, this
transparency of customer-oriented labor is valuable when results are acceptable; it does not overcome poor results. “Aha!” I went as I quickly made the contextual connections. On one hand, I was impressed with AT&T’s subtle method of wanting to increase customer satisfaction without actually improving their operations but my inner consumer was repelled by the concept of “labor illusion”. Customer satisfaction is about managing the buyer’s expectations and exceeding them. The call center cackle while waiting
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helped me manage my own expectations. Consequently, I was more than satisfied with the service. I now realized why I did not mind waiting at my favorite pizzeria, where I could see Antonio performing, tossing up a pizza behind a transparent glass wall. Similarly, the wait at the plush Khyber Restaurant in Mumbai was mitigated by similar aero-histrionics in the making of “Roomali Roti”. I began noticing this “wait experience” first at food establishments, such as Starbucks—each order is processed individually with the added drama of steaming each cup. Personalization by writing the customer’s name on the cup was an added contribution to the overall “customer experience”. I also noticed the trend while I was shopping in my neighborhood, especially at automotive service establishments—car washes, oil change, tire stores. At these places, customers could see the action. I was quite astonished to see how many men watched and followed their cars as they went through the car washing process behind a glass window. Now that the benefits of “labor transparency” are visible to the commercial world at large, I expect it to grow in popularity. However, care should be taken to assure that customer’s don’t think that it is a “labor illusion”. Most customers, like me, do not take kindly to being taken for a ride, especially in the drive to improve customer satisfaction scores rather than real productivity.
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By ashis ray home’.” LONDON (TOI) : Tata group chief Stating that things were different Ratan Tata has said he is surprised back home, Tata added, “If you are in why fellow tycoon Mukesh Am- a crisis (in India), it means working bani wants to live in the opulence till midnight, you would do it. The of a billion-dollar home in south worker in JLR seems to be willing to Mumbai. do that; the management is not.” He “It makes me wonder why some- said earlier, JLR’s entire engineering one would do that,” Tata said in an in- group would be empty on Friday terview published on Saturday in The evenings. But that had changed. Ratan Tata Times newspaper of London. “The “The new management team has put person who lives in there should an end to that. They call meetings at be concerned about what he sees 5 o’clock.” a year. The first thing you (the JLR around him and (ask) management) will say is, can he make a differ differ‘It can’t be done, that you ence,” Tata said when will need a court order asked about Antilla, or police cover.’. Yet we the 27-storey Ambani did it.” home on Altamount His comments come Road. “If he is not, as Tata Steel proposes to then it is sad because close part of its plant in India needs people to the UK, putting at risk allocate some of their 1,200 jobs. enormous wealth to Tata said the UK had finding ways to mitia high level of despongate the hardship that dency about itself. “I have people have.” Exa greater degree of bullpressing concern about ishness about the UK and the rich-poor gap, Tata what it stands for. But said, “We are doing so nobody seems to want to little about the dispar disparmake the effort to make ity. We are allowing it the UK truly competitive to be there and wishing or bring it back to the it away.” glory that it was. I think The tycoon, who there is a feeling that there bought steel maker is no innovation—there Corus and car manuis great innovation in the facturer Jaguar Land UK. There is great techRover in 2006 and nology,” he said. 2008 to become the Tata, who is a member biggest manufacturing of British Prime Minister employer in Britain, David Cameron’s busialso questioned the ness advisory group and work ethic of British co-chairman of the UKmanagers, saying they India CEO Forum, said did not “go the extra The 27-story house of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India was lucky to have Reliance Industries, in Mumbai mile” unlike their InBarack Obama in the US dian counterparts. “It’s and Cameron in the UK. a work ethic issue. In my experience, Tata also spoke about having had “Both of them are open to ideas; they in both Corus and JLR, nobody is to shift Nano’s 85% installed plant are very pragmatic in their views. willing to go the extra mile, nobody. from Bengal to Gujarat following Each of them feels that India is a land I feel if you have come from Mumbai Mamata Banerjee’s opposition. “In of some opportunity for themselves. to have a meeting and the meeting the dead of night, you had to start I think he (Cameron) is doing somegoes on till 6pm, I would expect that taking tools out of that factory, build thing quite far-sighted because we you won’t, at 5 o’clock, say, ‘Sorry, another factory, deliver a car from really have long traditional ties with I have my train to catch. I have to go an interim factory; and do all this in England.”
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roommate is Arraigned in rutgers r r s suicide case By richard perez- peNa Na & Na Nate schweBer NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J (NYT): Eight months after he was accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate encounter with another man, a former Rutgers University student on Monday stood in court for the first time to answer criminal charges. By itself, what prosecutors call an invasion of his roommate’s privacy, motivated by antigay bias, would have drawn no attention beyond the Piscataway campus where the defendant, Dharun Ravi, shared a room with Tyler Clementi. But three days later, Mr. Clementi, an 18-yearold freshman, stepped to his death from the George Washington Bridge, prompting a national outcry over cyberbullying, prejudice and suicide among gay young people. According to the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office, Ravi raised the stakes in the case by trying to per persuade a witness not to cooperate with investigators, erasing text messages and changing a Twitter post related to his webcast of Mr. Clementi. He was indicted last month on 15 counts, including tampering with evidence, witness tampering and bias crimes. Looking somber in a dark gray suit, Ravi, 19, made a quick and wordless appearance in Superior Court here on Monday, not even speaking to plead not guilty to the 15 counts. His lawyer, Steven D. Altman, did the talking, and the two left without speaking to reporters. Ravi remains free on a $25,000 bond he had posted. In a sign of how much attention the
Dharun Ravi, center, a former Rutgers University student, at his arraignment on Monday.
case still commands, the lawyers’ statements in the packed courtroom could barely be heard over the clicking of several press cameras. The arraignment signaled that the case was unlikely to reach a conclusion any time soon, since Mr. Altman asked for time to review the case files, and Judge Glenn Berman set the next appearance for July 25. No trial date has been set. “I’m in a difficult position,” Altman told the court, explaining that he still must go through 88 computer discs, 1,600 pages of records and the accounts of 125 witnesses, and that he had not yet received the grand jury transcript. Ravi’s co-defendant, Molly Wei, made a deal with prosecutors this month in which the charges against her could be dismissed if she performs 300 hours of community service, undergoes counseling and testifies truthfully in Mr. Ravi’s case. On Monday, Clementi’s parents, Joseph and Jane, sat expressionless in the back row of the courtroom, and later Joseph Clementi read a brief statement to reporters, without making any direct reference to Ravi. “We are
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eager for the criminal justice process to unfold,” he said. His comments were more pointed when.Wei appeared in court earlier this month. At that time, Clementi said, “Wei’s actions, although unlawful, are substantially different in their nature and their extent than the actions of Tyler’s former roommate.” Ravi has not been charged with playing a direct role in the suicide of Clementi, a shy aspiring violinist from Ridgewood, and the authorities have not said why Clementi killed himself. Ravi has been accused of setting up a webcam on Sept. 19, 2010, to view Mr. Clementi without his knowledge, then going to the room of Ms. Wei to turn the camera on remotely and watch. Ms. Wei and Mr. Ravi were high school friends from Plainsboro, N.J., and lived in the same dorm at Rutgers. “Roommate asked for the room till midnight,” said a message posted that night on Twitter that the authorities attribute to Ravi. “I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” He is accused of setting up the camera again two days later, and urging others to watch. Posts on a gay chat site, believed to be by Clementi, show that he learned of the spying and decided to report it to a resident adviser. “I feel like it was ‘look at what a fag my roommate is,’ ” he wrote on Sept. 21, adding that Ravi’s friends seemed more upset about his having a gay roommate than about his spying. The next day, Clementi killed himself.
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Binny Bansal: The Flip s side of an e-Venture By rahul Jayaram (Mint) We are at The Oberoi in Bangalore and the previous night’s rain has brought to life the garden overlooking the lobby. It also seems to have energized the 28-year-old man I am sitting with. Binny Bansal, COO and co-founder of Flipkart, initially comes across as shy and reserved. Clad in a T-shirt and a pair of denims, Bansal is far removed from the suit-and-tie image I had of the chief operating officer of a company whose 2010-11 turnover was Rs75 crore. But Bansal’s online retailing company is somewhat like him and its co-founder Sachin Bansal (not related to Binny)—there is more to the duo than their unassuming and low-profile public personae. Three and a half years into becoming one of InIn dia’s fastest growing e-commerce outfits, known particularly for books, Bansal cannot forget his company’s first customer. Or the way he delivered the goods for his first sale. “After two weeks of the launch, we left messages on a lot of blogs about Flipkart. One of those was on the blog of a Hyderabadbased person named V.V.K. Chandra. He came to our site searching for a book which he had been looking for for the last two years. It was Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood, and he placed the order. Next day, we went to several distributors in Bangalore, but most of them didn’t have it. Finally, we traced the book to a store in the Indiranagar area of Bangalore. I went there to pick up the book, then found out I didn’t have my wallet and called a friend who worked nearby to give me money. Then it started raining heavily. Somehow, we packed it and shipped it to the customer. We informed Chandra about the delay. He said he had waited for it for two-three years and could wait for three more days,” Bansal recalls. “We were clear from the beginning that the focus of our firm would be totally customer-oriented while having a strong technological base.” Since that first customer (who went to order at least 50 more books in the coming months), there has been no looking back. Both the Bansals did their software programming from the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Before getting into the “technology of selling books”, Binny Bansal joined the US-based Sarnoff Corp., a firm that is into high-end automation projects for the defence and automobile industries, in Bangalore in 2005. In the year and a half he spent there, Bansal developed a lane sensor for cars—a mechanism enabling a camera in the car to detect road lanes. If the driver moved from one lane to the other without giving a signal, it would beep automatically. “There are lots of accidents in the West when people doze off on long drives and unconsciously move lanes. I was always into cool technology and working on this was fun.” Today, Bansal has no qualms about being described as India’s Amazon.com. “Our vision was always to be the Amazon of India,” he says. Flipkart has around 1 0
millions books on its catalogue across different genres and is now moving into selling other products s u c h as mumu sic and movie CDs, electronic goods, computers and peripherals. Every month it gets about six million visitors online. Both the Bansals have worked for Amazon in the past. Sachin joined Amazon in January 2006, followed by Bansal in January 2007. Both quit in September 2007. “While at Amazon, we realized we should do something on our own since the scope for e-commerce was huge,” Bansal says, emphasizing: “I never wanted to go abroad unlike most IITians. I wanted to be in India but create something on the Internet using technology that we can create at home, hoard up and make millions of dollars.” However, in late 2007, soon after
the company’s launch, it still seemed a risk. “We were lucky since neither of us was married and didn’t have much family responsibility. Sachin and I put in Rs2.5 lakh each and started with seed money of Rs5 lakh.” They began working from a twobedroom apartment in Koramangala. One of the rooms was converted into an office. They tied up with all the distributors of major Indian publishers in Bangalore. Every day, one of them would go on a bike and buy books to make their own catalogue. “We would sit down on the floor and make the packages to give to the courier agencies for shipment. This went on for three months, with just two people running the whole show,” he says. Flipkart, headquartered in BanBan galore, now has around 120 emem ployees. Initially, few distributors or publishers took them seriously. So what has been the key to the comcom pany’s sudden rise? From a turnover of a few lakhs in the first year (2007-08) to Rs2.5 crore the next (2008-09), Rs25 crore in 2009-10 and Rs75 crore now (201011)—what was the real catalyst? “We needed to build a slick website that was fast, and where the discovery of the product was easy. Also, the payment delivery systems had to be easy and smooth,” says Bansal. An important change took place around 2010: the payment mechamecha nism. It’s a feature of Flipkart’s modmod el that is distinct from Amazon’s. “We looked at how Chinese companies—where e-commerce is huge—did retail online. The US has an established credit card culture, while China (like India) is a cashbased economy with lesser credit card penetration. So looking at ecommerce models in China, we put in place a cash-on-delivery system.” Today, more than 50% of their orders operate on a cash-on-delivery basis, Bansal says. Most importantly, on nearly each book a consumer buys through Flipkart, the price is “1535%” cheaper than the cover price. Though Bansal says Flipkart has transported books to “nearly every pin code in India, and definitely every pin code in Kerala”, 50% of their orders come from the metros: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The remaining buyers are from other parts of the country. Each day, Flipkart ships 1,000-odd items “through the government book post as so many villages don’t have courier facilities”. According to Bansal, the most saleable categories are fiction, trade paperbacks and Indian writers. More
than 60% of Flipkart’s customers are working males between the ages of 25 and 35. With the iPad and the Kindle, what is the future of books and booksellers such as Flipkart? Bansal thinks e-books are advantageous for outfits such as theirs. “It depends on which economies we speak of. In growth terms, India will be behind the West by four-five years when it comes to e-books. The projection for the US
is that 50% of books will be e-books by 2015. In India, it will be by 2018 or 2020, not before that.” He says the demand for the normal paperback or hardcover is still high in India. “The e-format will dominate in India too, but not before the entire structure for it to take off has been set up,” he says. The distribution model for e-books is online, so that’s a transition Bansal is waiting for.
A Divine Encounter in America, to air on Houston PBS (KHUT, Channel 8) at 10 pm on June 1. From yoga, meditation and marital arts to the actual practice of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, the documentary looks at how these influnence everyday life in America
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arts
Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
Poet, Transfigured
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A new Tagore meets the world: painter of images that are non-verbal, and full of querulous lines
By Arpita Basu KOLKOTA (Outlook): “I like his drawings better than his poetry even,” Amrita Sher-Gil is said to have exclaimed, intently studying the paintings around her at a debut exhibition in Paris in 1930. As the poetry she talks about was canonical—it earned India (and Asia) its first Nobel—it offers a benchmark to judge the art works that were, at the time, little more than tentative experiments. The object of her appreciation was Rabindranath Tagore: a man of letters first, whose art existed, for the layman, only as a footnote to an overwhelming oeuvre of prose, drama, music and poetry. That ‘footnote’ is, in reality, a surprising corpus: over 2,000 doodles, sketches and paintings. Though it has taken 70 years to mount this massive canvas—to mark Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary—it’s been worth the wait. The paintings are now being photographed with special cameras and published in four volumes put together by R. Siva Kumar, art history professor, Vishwa Bharati, as the Rabindra-Chitravali. The first volume was released in Delhi last week; the other three will be out in June. Categorised by themes that range from fantastical animal forms to human faces conceived as masks and portraits, landscapes and more, they hint at a ‘modernist’ turn: a movement away from the classical traits of balance and harmony towards an unpredictable aesthetic. Tagore’s art started from scratch, literally, as he crossed out words and lines, then joined them in his manuscript of Purabi (1924), developing the erasures into decorative, often grotesque doodles that gradually became more than a mere indulgence of his love of line and form. The journey from here to his first dated painting in 1928, as a 67-year-old, was one of experimentation and self-exploration; through all of it, Tagore was gripped by a nagging self-doubt about his artistic merit.
Part of that could have stemmed from his lack of formal training in art, though, ironically, that very absence of acquired skill enabled him to express himself freely. “So far, only a few hundred of his art works
and somewhere on that graph appear male and female nudes—a sure sign of someone studying the anatomy and trying to master the art. “Also, faces become more complex (many reminiscent of his sister-inTwo women Hitherto unseen, colored ink and pastel on paper, Volume 3, 1934
have been seen and discussed. In this treasure trove, which includes 1,450 previously unseen works, we discovered that while he started without baggage—and that helped him take the modernist plunge—he taught himself, deliberately honing the craft,” observes scholar-critic and editor of Chitravali, Samik Bandyopadhyay. There is a clear line of evolution in his works right up to 1940 (the year before his death)
law Kadambari Debi) and colours get darker. But he uses sudden illuminated spaces, as if offering a window,” he says. Though Tagore preferred to keep quill and paintbrush separate, rhythm and structure permeate his art just as they do his writings. This, for artist Jogen Chowdhury, is the outstanding quality of his art. “He was interested in German expressionism, but while its thrust is outwards, he made it his
own, giving it an inward turn, in keeping with Indian spirituality,” says Chowdhury. Artist Shuvaprasanna points to a clear demarcation between Tagore’s art and writings. “The essence of his writing is ananda (joy), while that of his art is sorrow,” he contends, citing its dark, brooding quality. “Tagore established a language for himself, and opened up avenues in art that inspired us.” Nor was it a self-propagating gene. Ganesh Pyne, who confesses to being influenced by Tagore’s art early on, describes him as an artist “who can never be imitated, but only adopted and internalised”. If Tagore saw himself as a painter by accident, he honed his talent obsessively (his nephew, the artist Abanindranath Tagore, referred to it as a volcanic eruption) until, towards the end, it became his chosen medium of expression. “With World War I, Tagore’s faith in civilisation got a battering. People thought mankind had learnt its lesson; instead, it rushed into WW-II. It was during this time that he felt the inadequacy of words and turned to images,” analyses Bandyopadhyay. His notebooks thinned out in the ’30s, while he prodigiously produced as many as five paintings a day. And by the time he writes about the radiant Chitrabhanu—or the sun of images—in 1937, Tagore knew he had found his passion: painting. So deep was his disenchantment with words that he insisted on keeping all his art untitled. If he was a reluctant artist, contemporary reception to his art in India reinforced his misgivings. “His works met with indifference, except from Nandalal Bose, whom Tagore brought in to run Kala Bhavan (the art wing at Shantiniketan), and Abanindranath,” says Bandyopadhyay. But after his shows earned him praise in Europe, Tagore’s self-
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confidence grew, though he was still hesitant about offering his art to the public. “He felt his contemporaries in India were not used to his kind of art, but believed his art would outlive his literary works, because it rose above the limitations of language,” reveals Siva Kumar. Having thrown open his world of images, Chitravali could well offer grounds for a genuine revision in our appreciation—and popular acceptance—of Tagore’s art. In scholarly circles, his position has long been determined. As art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia says, “He brings in modernity in the same way that Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy did. Like Amrita, he was trying to combine the east and west to push modern Indian art forward.” Why, then, was so significant a body of work hidden away, with only a handful of exhibitions in seven decades? Security, says Bandyopadhyay, is a reason for his art being locked up in the safety of vaults, besides concerns of preservation. “Exposing them to the elements, especially light, could damage the works,” he says. Siva Kumar adds another reason: funds. “It was when the ministry of culture decided to come out with the volumes that this project got its momentum. Besides, art publications are a recent phenomenon in India.” Perhaps this is what Tagore would have wanted: that his art be ratified and vindicated before the curtains went up. Even in Chitralipi (1940), the only publication of his art during his lifetime, Tagore tellingly propped up each drawing with a poem. It was as if he could not assert himself as a painter without having the written word for a crutch. That Rabindra-Chitravali stands on his art alone is a testament to Tagore as a major artist in his own right: something he himself was never entirely convinced about.
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Unity in Militarism
The security establishment would like India to project its power more forcefully abroad. But to position this as an exercise in protecting the nation’s internal unity stretches the imagination, writes Firdaus Ahmed. By Firdaus Ahmed over India’s caNEW DELHI (IT): Remempability to do ber the old primary school lesa ‘Geronimo’ son about India’s unity in diver(the operation sity? Well, Nitin Pai is offering a to kill Osama new twist on this. His candour is bin Laden in revealing. In an article with the foreign terrihonest title Projecting Power to tory) has, in the Protect Unity, he argues that “Inwords of the dia must project power abroad Pakistani forto stay united at home.” For eign secretary, those not familiar with him or ‘catastrophic’ his work, Pai is editor of Praportents. If this gati and a geopolitics Fellow at is the case now; the Takshashila Institution. His once power blog, The Acorn, reflects and grows it would furthers the conservative-realist make India India has been status quoist so far, but that does not mean it will always remain so. perspective on security. insufferable. The article is an excerpt of his Indeed, being able to project power abroad would necessarily tend to make us more Noting that the inclined to abandon status quoism. speech at a conference at the US exercise of Army War College, Mhow, which power has little to commend it, we suggests that this perspective has growing economy. These aspects in warding of the ‘threats’ posed should recognise that power is not a keen following where it matters. in themselves do not suggest that by the ‘Other’, even if the threat necessarily a useful acquisition. What does this mean for regional India’s growing power needs any arose due to this very creation of Lastly, India’s power projection power. worrying about. security? capability and intent needs to be There are several problems with seen in relation to its association India has been status quoist so India’s rising power is sold as a ‘benign’ development, particu- far, but that does not mean it will this. The more obvious ones are with the US. The European allies larly when it is contrasted ad- always remain so. Nitin Pai argues disposed off here first. of the US stand exhausted. The There are other more revealing US is therefore seeking military versely with China’s ‘hegemonic’ for ‘reform’ using the logic that rise. Its democratic credentials, India’s internal unity demands an indices of national arrival, such as partners for continuing its global record as a non-expansionist state, external orientation of its growing education, gender balance, poverty stewardship, in particular with and strategy of restraint are taken power. His thesis is that India’s figures etc. There is nothing to sug- relation to controlling terrorism as indicators that new-found In- strategic culture needs changing gest that a growing felicity in the and access to oil. dian power on the world stage is in light of its growing power cre- creation and use of power would India is being prepared for this a non-threatening development. dentials. This would enable Indian lead to a corresponding change in role, as indicated in the statement the socio-economic indices. Sec- of Condoleeza Rice when she was Besides, India is increasingly in- unity. ondly, there is no guarantee that Secretary of State, that the US What he does not say, but is imclined towards the West, and since the power gained would be able to intends to make India into a great plicit, is that creating an external the West holds the levers of the strategic discourse, the country is ‘Other’ would be a useful national offset the combined power of the power. Clearly, this was to serve easily projected as a useful coun- enterprise since it would lend India ‘Other’ so created, China and Paki- a purpose of the US. Refutations cohesion and national identity. stan. It may be hurtful if the nuclear of alliance notwithstanding, India ter-weight to China in Asia. But is India’s rise really an un- This means an adversarial equa- backdrop to the conflict-oriented would therefore lend itself to the qualified benefit for security, as is tion with China and with Pakistan, relations was to come to the fore- US agenda, believing this to be an seen as China’s proxy, would help ground for some reason later. made out in such reasoning? exercise in its own interest. The Thirdly, the connection between distinction between strategic auIndia is a nuclear power in search India stay united internally, help of a ‘triad’. It has been the larg- it create and sustain power neces- external power projection and in- tonomy and external manipulation est importer of military hardware sary to wrestle with these external ternal unity is not readily estab- will be hard to discern. The impliglobally over the past half a de- challenges. This argument is as lished. In the Indira-Rajiv period cation for the region, such as in the for instance, there was consider- short run in AfPak and in the long cade. It is set to retain this position subtle as it is self-serving. able Indian muscle flexing such term for the neocolonial embrace Conservative realists such as Pai well into this decade as it is gearing as against Sri Lanka, with no ob- of West Asia, is amply clear. who form the dominant strain in up to spend US $100 billion over vious effect on internal unity as India’s strategic community use the period. It has the third largest But more importantly, what realmilitary in the world, and is look- innovative logic for the growing the outbreak of trouble in Punjab, ists fail to perceive, even if their ing to dominate the Indian Ocean. militarisation of India. To them Kashmir and in social harmony logic is driven by a look at internal It is seeking a place among the this would create power and the indicate. politics, is that Indian power can Fourth, the recent exchange of be harmful to itself and its region permanent members of the UNSC. culture to use power appropriately. It has political stability and a fast Power so created would be useful words between India and Pakistan if in the wrong hands. They are
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unmindful of the possibility that by creating the ‘Other’, India would be reshaping its own identity in contradistinction to it, rather than celebrating what it already has. The emphasis on ‘unity’ would steamroll the diversity that defines India. The harmony imposed by such unity, which is itself selective in its basis, will lead to internal disruptions that will neither help the creation of power nor its external projection. Of greater consequence is the possibility of dominance of majoritarian extremists over the power structure. The conditions of external and internal strife created by the process of imposing ‘unity’ would be fertile for their ascent to power. Given that the power levers that they inherit would be stronger, India would cease to be the ‘benign’ power as is currently imagined. It would certainly not be ‘benign’ to those not of the persuasion of these forces within India. It would be equally problematic for the immediate neighbourhood. Realists in their external focus can be forgiven two mistaken beliefs. One is that they take India’s democratic credentials as a given. Instead these need to be constantly recreated, worked on and preserved. Conditions that degrade these need being guarded against. The second is their belief that even if majoritarian nationalists were to come to power, this would only be democratic. The cultural trove of the religion would ensure that India stays benign. This is to miss the ugly face of cultural nationalism and neglect the fact that it would get uglier the closer it gets to unbridled power. It is for these reasons India’s growing power is not necessarily a blessing for India or its region. India is embarked on power acquisition with the intent of making Pakistan irrelevant. This has risks, largely unimagined for the internal political domain. The extant thesis of India as a benign power may also prove very short lived.
horoscope
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WEEKLY HOROSCOPE
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LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23: Affairs of last week will continue to be an important part this week too. You will develop a deeper interest in spiritual and metaphysical matters, and will try to gain a deeper insight into life. You are now calmer and meditative. You will find the solutions to work-related matters. Stay open-minded. Don’t burn the midnight oil, or you may feel fatigued. You will find yourself propelled towards water bodies - rivers, seas, lakes. Take care, it’s safe! SCORPIO Oct 24 - Nov 22: You will spend more time with family as they are demanding. It could be anyone from parents to distant relatives. You may have to make a lot of compromises at work. Remember, there is more to life than just work. It will also serve to divert your attention from the single-track rat race at the workplace. There are domestic duties and responsibilities to be carried out, carry them out cheerfully. You will realise that work and money are just a means to an end, not the end itself. SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22: After an intense and hectic week you slow down your pace of work now. You make better decisions, and also reach out to family. At work, there will be new partnerships, and the focus on team-work. You will show an inclination for advanced studies. Spirituality also attract you. You are in a mood to take charge of your life, and want to spend some quality time with your family and friends. CAPRICORN Dec 23 - Jan 20: As your mood matures, you tend to do some retrospection, and look at past events dispassionately. There is a hint of love, but you are in full control of yourself, and will not get carried away. You could have health issues. Emotional outbursts can adversely affect your health. You can become oversensitive to other peoples’ opinions, and trivial, nagging troubles can upset your peace of mind. You will meet like-minded people with whom you can share your vision of a better future. AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19: You are well known for your wild mood swings. But control them, as this is a particularly explosive phase, and you could get emotionally upset about some aspect of your life. These are testing times and could even spin out of control. Maintaining harmony in family life should be your top priority, but you will have to make serious efforts towards it. There will be needless misapprehensions, and you could be forcefully drawn into ugly situations regarding inheritance matters and other issues. Stay calm, and delay responding at such times. PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20: This is a period of completion, and you completing all your work at home and office. Your labours bear fruit and you experience pure bliss. You will feel full and contented with your life. You will be appreciated for your talents and will enjoy all the glory. All good things of life are yours for the asking. Though you will not make any tangible progress at work, there is happiness in simply accepting life as it is. You are as calm and composed as still water, and even though there is no cause for jubilation, you are in a kind of ecstasy. Just enjoy yourself! www.indoamerican-news.com Our Electronic Full Version of the Newspaper is now available online! Visit our website today! IAM News
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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20: Amid a flurry of activities, you are confused about how to prioritize fun and frolic with friends and finances. As far as work is concerned, you do not lose focus, but take it easy and slow down the pace. You are more attentive towards spiritual activities. This would see you making trips to temples and holy places, and performing rites and rituals with enthusiasm. Believing in a spiritual guru may give a direction to your life. ‘Take light and enjoy life’, seems to be your mantra TAURUS Apr 21 - Endless work and ceaseless efforts are likely to make you the star employee of your organization. There may be a few technological changes in the office during the last week of May. This would make you more efficient and your work much easier. Going by the adage ‘work while you work and play while you play’, entertainment too seems to be on your cards. Call up your friends and cherish all the good times spent together. In search of peace, you may develop an inclination towards spirituality. Questions of death and salvation may get you thinking. You will have a harmonious home front and loving family members. GEMINI May 22 - Jun 21: Distracted and disturbed with relationship issues, you are likely to lose focus on work. A rough patch in a relationship and lack of commitment at work, both will have unfavor unfavorable consequences. This may have adverse effects on your health as well, and have stress and tension. Other varied interests and hobbies too keep you occupied. You will be left with very little ‘me’ time. But, with the help of your family members, you will be able to cope with the pressure of work. You are filled with gratitude for them. CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 23: Familial matters are going to take up most of your time and energy. You, being wise and mature, your family members fall back on you for your support and advice. You are likely caught in an emotional turmoil, eventually getting philosophical. During this time, it’s important for you to put yourself in others’ shoes. Treat others the way you want to be treated by them. People will only remember, how you made them feel. It’s time for family bonding and a get-together. LEO July 24 - Aug 23: Think out of the box, is necessary this week. Besides being innovative and creative at work, you gain knowledge about the new technologies and software at your work place. This will see a lot of improvement in your work. Your family members may be miffed about something. What could that be? Perhaps, the fact that you are missing out on spending quality time with them. But all’s well when they see you reaping rich dividends for the amount of hard-work that you put in. Finally, they are in a ‘no complaints’ mode. VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23: Outshining your colleagues has become your forte. Just like in the past, this time too you are likely to garner compliments as you achieve your targets. You are inspired to do great things and success is likely to follow you. In your personal life, you Virgins are going to spend some cherish-able moments with your beloved. Bouquets of flowers, perfumed candle-lit dinners and long drives with romantic music in the background will work wonders for you. Being successful and celebrating it with your loved ones makes you feel on top of the world.
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Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011
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