Saathee Charlotte January 2024 by Shukla Entertainment

Bridging America and the Indian Subcontinent

Saathee.com

January 2024

IN THIS ISSUE Cricket Capital - Morrisville, NC: pg 28 Beauty Standards, 21st Century: pg 52 Nutrition: Cruciferous Veggies: pg 52 Recipe: Gujarati Dal: pg 74

Hello Readers New Year happiness and contentment to all! Check our latest Upcoming Movie Releases on page 34. Read the longform article on page 28. Some of the healthiest veggies you can eat are cruciferous veggies. Read the Personal Finances column for details on Estate Plans and the need for regular reviews. We bring a diﬀerent recipe in Saathee every month. Read the new column “Kismuth and the Way II“ on page 50. The election primaries kick oﬀ in January. Go to page 88 for our Elections article. Looking for a life partner, a job, or a new business? We have a new puzzle section called “Tune Your Brain.” Find it on page 98. Check our classifieds section beginning on page 108. We are thankful to you for being an avid Saathee reader. We ask that you share Saathee with friends and family. We would be happy to add anyone in the Carolinas to the Saathee subscription base at no charge, simply visit saathee.com/subscription. Stay warm. Don’t forget to visit our website, Saathee.com for the latest in movies, events, classifieds and more. We welcome conversations. Connect with us via email: saathee@saathee.com.

“Bridging America and the Indian Subcontinent.”

January 2024 Issue # 308 - Saathee.com Editor Samir Shukla (Samir@Saathee.com)

Publisher & Advertising Divakar Shukla 704-527-7570 or saatheemag@hotmail.com

Digital Media & Marketing Jennifer W. Allen

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.”

Ad Design / Layout DSJ Graphics & Manimaran

- Steven Spielberg

Contributors for this issue: Kirit Shukla, Dr. Maha Gingrich, Dipika Kohli, Taige Shukla, Parul Kharod, Mo Vidwans, Balaji Prasad, Shyama Parui, Ketu Desai, and Jalendu Vaidya. Mission: Our goal is to be a valuable source of information for the South Asian community and to be a vital advertising tool for businesses.

- FOUNDED 1998 -

Saathee Magazine

Cover: Kee Gompa, Himachal Pradesh Kee Gompa (monastery) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelugpa sect located on top of a hill at an altitude of 13,668 ft, in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is a training center for Lamas (monks). Photo: Adobe Stock

P.O. Box 11468 Charlotte, NC 28220

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January 2024

In This Issue

Page 18 Events around the Carolinas

Page 28 Morrisville, NC has become an International Destination for Cricket

Page 36 Film Clips: Pankaj Tripathi Stars in Main Atal Hoon Opening in January

Page 74 Recipe: Gujarati Dal

Content The Editor’s Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 14

Nutrition for Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 52

Tune Your Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 98

Upcoming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 18

Spot the Differences . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 56

Quiz Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 100

Cricket in Morrisville . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 28

Namaskar Y’all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 58

Pop’s Puzzles and Jokes . . . . . . . .pg. 102

Upcoming Movie Releases . . . . . . .pg. 34

Personal Finances . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 62

Festivals and Holidays . . . . . . . . .pg. 104

Film Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 36

News Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 64

Puzzle Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 104

Dances of India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 40

Thinking about Thinking . . . . . . . .pg. 72

AstroScope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 106

Mirror, Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 44

Recipe: Gujarati Dal . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 74

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 108

Eye on the Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 46

Road to 2024 USA Elections . . . . . .pg. 88

Index of Advertisers . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 112

Kismuth and the Way II . . . . . . . . .pg. 50

Lunar Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 94

Saathee.com

January 2024

January Jams—

The Editor’s Desk by Samir Shukla

Review: Vandana Vishwas Kabeera - The Thinker Canadian singer and vocalist Vandana Vishwas has once again released a lovely new recording, this time paying tribute to songs and poetry by Indian saint-poet and mystic Kabeer Das. The recording, Kabeera – The Thinker, includes the previously released single “Mann Lago” along with other compositions sung with her expansive vocals and flowing music wrapped around Kabeer’s poetry. She is a trained Sangeet Visharad (equivalent to Bachelor of Music in Indian Classical Music) and a former All India Radio artist. Vishwas specializes in what is called Sugam Sangeet, an Indian music genre that channels folk, bhajans (spirituals), classical geet (songs) and other musical styles. It is emotive and gentle music. Her vocal style makes the words come alive, accompanied by light pop, folk, and Indian musical styles, along with a haunting spirituality reminiscent of kirtans or bhajans. Poetry can bloom introspection, longing, or celebration of life, especially when sung so eﬀortlessly and accompanied by mood music. This album evokes those feelings and more. Several songs, “Mann Mast Hua,” “Rehna Nahi” and “Tadpe Bin Balam” could also easily fit into a romantic Bollywood film. Vishwas also interpreted words and poetry of the legendary Krishna devotee Meera Bai in her debut album Meera – The Lover, released in 2009. Her other recordings include Monologues (2013) and Parallels (2016). She is a former architect and is now a full-time musician. Grab a cup of hot chai and listen to Kabeera – The Thinker for some mystical meditation. For more info, visit vandanavishwas.com. Saathee.com

Unwrapped Humans have an instinctive need to mark the passage of time, where our calendars stabilize and tabulate our lives, give a sense of things that need to be done. Schedules, celebrations, disappointments, memories good and bad, beginnings and ends, among myriad other things, are tagged to specific days and years, even exact moments of days. We need these time markers, lest we amble through the forests and deserts of life in a blend of days and nights intermingled without any sense of their purpose. This of course makes us singularly unique species on this planet. All other life forms simply need instinctive actions for survival. Winters, summers, rains, droughts, food supplies and a place to curl away for rest until another day or night are instinctively inbuilt in their genes. Surviving and reproducing are their only pursuits. We think we are time tamers. Here we are once again. The swirls of time have handed us another year. This one begins as does every year with a highly marked and celebrated day, New Year’s Day. Editor’s Desk continued on page 84 14

January 2024

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January 2024

Upcoming Events NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Weekend: Charlotte, NC (January 18 - 21, 2024) The NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 Induction Ceremony will take place on Friday, January 19, 2024 during induction weekend. Donnie Allison, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus make up the Hall of Fame’s 14th class. The NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Induction Weekend will host a variety of events and special programming for fans, family and friends to enjoy. Details: Nascarhall.com.

Speedway Lights: Charlotte, NC (Through January 7, 2024) The 14th season of the Southeast’s largest drivethrough holiday light show, Speedway Christmas features more than five million lights on a four-mile course that includes the legendary oval, pit row and infield road. The show is open 6-10 pm rain or shine through January 7, 2024 and features synchronized lights-to-music on 101.3 FM plus drive-in movies on the gigantic Speedway TV every Thursday through Sunday night. Info: Charlottemotorspeedway.com.

Greenville News Run Downtown 5K (January 20, 2024) The 45th annual Greenville News Run Downtown 5K will be conducted on Saturday, January 20, 2024 and is one of the oldest, largest and mostpopular 5K runs in the state. The run/walk is presented by The Greenville News. Bring the family for the run. Info: Runsignup.com/race/sc/greenville/rundowntown.

Charleston Half Marathon & 5K: (January 20, 2024)

NC Chinese Lantern Festival: Cary, NC (Through January 14, 2024)

The PNC Bank Charleston Half Marathon & 5K is a certified course that runs through the historic and scenic city of Charleston, SC. The 2024 race will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2024, with new routes, participant shirts, medals, and a post-race party at The Park (The Joe). Proceeds from the event will benefit Engaging Creative Minds. Info: capstoneraces.com/charleston-half-marathon. Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre will once again welcome the NC Chinese Lantern Festival when it returns this winter and runs through January 14, 2024. Chinese artisans will craft more than 40 all new displays, each one comprised of hundreds of parts, and thousands of LED lights. These larger-than-life lanterns will captivate visitors at every turn with amazing craftmanship and artistic beauty. Cultural arts performances will take place each night on the main stage. Get the full details about the lantern festival at: Boothamphitheatre.com/events. Saathee.com

South Asian Bridal Expo: Raleigh, NC (January 21, 2024) Uthsaav presents the 2024 South Asian Bridal Expo on Saturday, January 21, 2024 from 12 noon to 5pm at the Marriott Crabtree Valley Hotel in Raleigh, NC. As a one stop shop for your wedding, the event will feature vendors, a fashion show, and raﬄe prizes. Check out all the necessities for a grand wedding as the new year starts and the another wedding season kicks oﬀ. Free registration is available at the website Uthsaav.com/expo2024bride-groom-registration. 18

January 2024

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January 2024

Upcoming Events Blowing Rock WinterFest: Boone, NC (January 25 - 28, 2024) The annual Blowing Rock WinterFest will take place between January 25 - 28, 2024 in Boone, NC. The fest features arts & crafts, holiday themed activities, cork and canvas, concerts and performers, a polar bear plunge in Chetola Lake, ice-carvings, chili cookoﬀ, wine tastings, silent auction and raﬄe. The fest is also a fundraiser for various local charitable causes. Travel & Leisure magazine named Blowing Rock “one of America’s Prettiest Winter Towns.” Get all the cool details at Blowingrockwinterfest.com.

Wine & Chocolate Festival: Greensboro, NC (January 27, 2024) Wineries and wine enthusiasts from across the region will gather on Saturday, January 27, 2024 at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex’s Event Wing A for an unlimited sampling of dozens of North Carolina wines of all styles and tastes. Bottles will be available for purchase. Everyone gets a free souvenir tasting glass. Enjoy food, chocolates, cheeses and sweets. Also enjoy a stroll through the Candy Bar and boutiques. Details: Wineandchocolatefestivals.com/events/greensboro-nc.

February 1-3, 2024 and includes winery dinners at the Triangle’s top restaurants, wine tastings at area wine shops, and trade events. The weekend culminates in a Grand Auction, which features a selection of diverse wines and food. Info: Trianglewinefood.org.

North Carolina Jazz Festival: Wilmington, NC (February 1 - 3, 2024)

Enjoy one of the largest traditional jazz festivals in the Southeast from February 1-3, 2024. This musical weekend starts on Thursday evening and then continues Friday and Saturday night with four-hour concerts featuring 15 sets with six or seven musicians per set (each with a diﬀerent leader). Come experience some fantastic musicians from around the globe. Get the details: Ncjazzfestival.org.

Hilton Head Marathon: (February 10, 2024)

Aag Ki Raat: Columbia, SC (January 27, 2024)

Aag Ki Raat is a premier Bollywood-fusion dance competition hosted by the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. AKR aims to celebrate South Asian dance and culture by attracting teams from all over the country in the spirit of competition. All of the eﬀorts made by AKR are in pursuit of helping our local charity, the Carolina Survivor Clinic. AKR will be held on January 27, 2024 at the Koger Center for the Arts. For more details, write to uscakr@gmail.com or visit the AKR page on Facebook or InstaGram.

Triangle Wine & Food Experience: Raleigh, NC (February 1 - 3, 2024)

Queen City Brewers Festival: Charlotte, NC (February 10, 2024) Queen City Brewers Festival brings together the Charlotte region’s craft beverage producers, celebrates their contributions to the Queen City and serves an organization that helps to improve the quality of life of

The Triangle Wine & Food Experience is an event with all proceeds benefiting the Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center. Winemakers and celebrity chefs from all over the world, as well as thousands of donors and supporters, will participate. The three-day aﬀair between Saathee.com

The Hilton Head Island Marathon returns on Saturday, February 10, 2024, for another fun day of running through Hilton Head Island. Join thousands of runners across three distances (marathon, half, and 5k) and experience this scenic race that’s one of the premier running events in the region. With all races finishing at the same after party, you’ll celebrate your accomplishments with an after party featuring beer, free food, great tunes, and some race swag. Info: Hhmarathon.com.

January 2024

Upcoming Events individuals of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds. In 2024, the festival will benefit Envision Charlotte, a Charlottebased non-profit organization that looks to make the city a more circular economy by building a sustainable future for generations to come. Join the festivities the day before Super Bowl on February 10, 2024, from 1-4pm. Info: Qcbrewfest.com.

Bharat Ke Rang Ekal Ke Sang: Carolinas (February 18 - 24, 2024)

Ice Skating at the Whitewater Center: Charlotte, NC (Through February 11, 2024)

Ekal Vidyalya presents their annual fundraising concerts with the show “Bharat Ke Rang Ekal Ke Sang” slated to take place on these dates in the Carolinas: February 18, 2024 (Columbia, SC), February 23, 2024 (Fayetteville, NC), and February 24, 2024 (Charlotte, NC). For more details, visit Ekal.org.

Every year, the Upper Pond of the whitewater system converts into a unique ice-skating experience open to all ages and experience levels. The Whitewater Center’s ice rink consists of over 24,000 sq ft of unique skating space split into four distinct skating areas, including two ice trails and two free skate zones. Centered in the converted pond is an on-ice Airstream serving hot and cold beverages when guests need a skate break. Enjoy skating through February 11, 2024. Details: Center.whitewater.org/activity/ice-skating.

Wilmington Marathon: (February 24,2024) This is the perfect Boston Marathon qualifying event. The course starts in Wrightsville Beach and makes a straight shot into downtown Wilmington. The back half of the marathon is in beautiful Greenfield Lake and will finish at Live Oak Bank Pavilion. Come span the Cape Fear Coast and run from destination to destination at the Wilmington Marathon on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Details: Wilmingtonncmarathon.com.

Hot Chocolate Run: Charlotte, NC (February 17, 2024) America’s sweetest run is back with another indulgent Hot Chocolate Run season in Charlotte on February 17, 2024. With 5K, 10K, and 15K distances and a post-run party that’ll make participants go cocoa crazy, enjoy running and a chocolate celebration. It takes place at First Ward Park 301 E 7th St, Charlotte, NC. Races start at 7:30am. Gear check opens 60 mins before start time. There will be an expo the night before on Friday, February 16, 2024 at Charlotte Convention Center, Richardson Ballroom, 501 S College St. The chocolate expo is free to the public and runs from 11am – 6pm. Details: Hotchocolate15k.com/city/charlotte.

An Evening with Dan Buettner: Charlotte, NC (February 27, 2024) Dan Buettner is an explorer, a National Geographic Fellow, an award-winning journalist and producer, and an author. He discovered the five places in the world – dubbed blue zones hotspots – where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He will give a talk on “Unlocking the Secrets of Happiness,” on February 27, 2024, 7pm, at the Sandra Levine Theatre, Queens University of Charlotte. Science shows that where we live — not education, marital status or wealth — is the biggest, controllable factor that determines our happiness. Learn more at this talk with Buettner. Get the details and tickets at: Queens.edu/learningsociety.

Dog Days of Winter: Charlotte, NC (February 17, 2024) Celebrate winter with your fourlegged friends at the Dog Days of Winter on February 17, 2024, from 9am – 7pm with a variety of activities ranging from a 5K trail race, 1 mile walk, adoption events, ice rink access, dog yoga, doggy vendors and more. It will take place at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte. Details: center.whitewater.org. Saathee.com

Maha Shivaratari Celebrations: Charlotte, NC (March 8, 2024) The Hindu Center of Charlotte presents the annual Maha Shivaratri celebrations on Friday, March 8, 2024. There will be activities running through the night. For more details, Call 704-535-3440 or visit Hcclt.org. 22

January 2024

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January 2024

Upcoming Events Neil deGrasse Tyson: Charlotte, NC (March 11, 2024) Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will guide the audience through cool and occasionally scary things in the universe, such as Black Holes, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Diamond stars, Gamma Ray bursts, White Holes, Worm Holes, and Multiverses. The talk takes place on March 11, 2024, 7:30pm at Belk Theater, Charlotte, NC. For more details, visit Blumenthalarts.org.

Nuv Yug India Fest: Raleigh, NC (March 23, 2024) The 22nd anniversary Nuv Yug India Fest will be held at the Jim Graham Building at the State Fairgrounds, Raleigh on Saturday, March 23, 2024. Registration is free for performers and admission and parking are free. Enjoy myriad dance and cultural performances along with food, vendors, arts and crafts at this popular festival featuring the cultural experience that is India. Nuv Yug India Fest is an annual event that has become one of the most popular India-related events in North Carolina’s Triangle area. For full details, visit Nuvyug.org.

Keep up with all the events happening with your ever present companion, Saathee. Upcoming events in our area include Amjad Ali Khan, TGA Holi, MerleFest, Hasan Minhaj, Dances of India, and many more. The best way to find them is in these pages or online at our regularly updated events section:

Saathee.com/events. Saathee.com

January 2024

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January 2024

How Morrisville, NC Became a U.S. Cricket Capital

With a booming South Asian population, a world‐class pitch, and a growing network of teams, the sport has put a Raleigh suburb on the international map. By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, The Assembly Around 7 p.m. on a cool October evening, Babar Baig is standing at one end of Church Street Park staring into one of the three screens in front of him as he livestreams the final bout of a tournament between two top-ranked teams. “There are thousands of people who watch this live on YouTube,” he said—12,000, to be exact, plus several hundred watching the contest in person. The batter is in his position as a fast ball comes down the line. The batter swings and misses the swirling, dipping ball. He needs to hit the next one or his shot is over. He swings harder and connects this time, and the ball goes sailing outside the park. It was World Series season, but it wasn’t baseball people were gathered to watch here in Morrisville. It was cricket, and Church Street Park has become a U.S. and global hub for the sport. “When I first started making cricket videos in the area and uploading them on YouTube a couple of decades ago, there were no grounds in Morrisville and we used to play on the streets and parking lots, similar to gully cricket in Pakistan,” said Baig, who was born in the United Arab Emirates to Pakistani parents and moved to North Carolina in 2000. Saathee.com

Babar Baig broadcasts from the Triangle Cricket League championship game at the Church Street Park cricket field. (Photo by Cornell Watson for The Assembly) Baig, 42, is the production manager for the Triangle Cricket League (TCL) and previously served as the league president. The league has been around since 2009 and moved to Church Street Park in 2013 after locals of Indian subcontinent heritage—who now constitute almost half of the suburb’s 30,000 residents—pushed for its creation. 28

January 2024

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January 2024

How the Game is Played The game is played on a pitch, with two teams of 11 players who take turns batting and fielding. The bat is wider and flatter than a baseball bat, and while the ball is similar in circumference and weight to a baseball, it’s made of leather and has a seam of string running through the middle. The TCL, like other leagues, also has a separate hard tennis ball competition, which uses a much lighter ball. Batters and the catcher, called a wicketkeeper, wear gloves, but outfielders aren’t allowed to; they field barehanded. The batters also wear leg pads and grilled helmets. Batters can score runs by hitting the ball out of the boundary or by running between two sets of three wickets placed at either end of the 22-yard pitch. The bowler—what baseball fans might call a pitcher—makes six deliveries in an “over” and wants to minimize the number of runs the other team scores in each. A bowler can dismiss a batter by hitting the wickets or if a fielder catches the ball. Once 10 batters are dismissed, the inning ends, even if not all allotted overs are bowled. These are high-scoring aﬀairs; the average score per inning in the most popular version of cricket, 20-over or T20, is a little more than 150 runs. In the last decade, Morrisville has made it onto the world cricket map, and Church Street is a place where top cricketers come to make a name for themselves. The TCL now has over 600 oﬃcial teams and more than 3,000 registered players. And in 2021, USA Cricket launched Minor League Cricket, a group of 26 teams that includes the Morrisville Raptors. The Raptors finished second in the Southern Division in the first two seasons of the league. There’s also now a Junior Championship, with five age categories beginning at under 11. “When I first came here, we had to go to other states to play any competitive cricket,” said Baig. “Now people from all over North Carolina, and America, are coming here to play the game.”

Former Morrisville mayor and cricket-convert Mark Stohlman at an indoor cricket facility in Raleigh. (Cornell Watson for The Assembly) Cup-winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has retired from international play, but still plays in the Indian Premier League. “Being an M.S. myself, I have been rooting for the old guy!” he added with a grin. Stohlman, who was wearing a Morrisville Raptors jersey, also happens to be the former mayor of Morrisville, under whom the town council approved the pitch at Church Street Park. The city was looking to add four fields for baseball and softball, he said as we talked on a park bench. “If you were a serious baseball player as a kid, you would go to a bigger town, Cary or West Raleigh, to get really good competitive baseball,” he said. “So baseball was falling out a bit here.” Cricket, though, “was taking off at the time.” The town decided to slightly increase the size to make it a multipurpose field, where soccer, volleyball, softball, and other games could be played. In the middle, the town designated a cricket pitch. Two years later, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the official governing body of the sport, visited Church Street Park to evaluate the field’s potential for international contests. West Indies cricket legend Alvin Kallicharran, who now coaches young cricketers in Morrisville, was instrumental in bringing the ICC officials to see what North Carolina had to offer. While the United States has been an ICC associate member since 1965, it has only become visible on the international cricket stage in recent years. Central Broward Park in Lauderhill, Florida, has hosted international matches featuring top-tier teams such as New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and India since 2010. But Church Street Park’s initial bid faced a stumbling block. “The pitch was garbage,” Stohlman recalled. For starters, the soil did not have the right composition for a cricket pitch and needed clay from another part of the country. The sod had to be brought in line with international standards. “There was a lot of work put in on the pitch to get international recognition.” Indiana clay was brought in, along with worldrenowned pitch curator David Agnew from Australia to

A Growing Sport The popularity of cricket is growing across America. The number of people who regularly watch cricket increased from 30,000 in 2006 to 24 million as of last year. While the sport is still mostly played by immigrants from the subcontinent or the Caribbean, there is at least one prominent exception in Morrisville. Mark Stohlman, who plays for the TCL’s Chikky Chikky Boom Boom, grew up playing baseball. His interest in cricket grew with its rise at Church Street Park. In the first few years, Stohlman used to just watch the game and ask about the rules while chatting with the fans. He started playing six years ago. And before an arm injury reduced his game time, the 64-year-old was a regular feature in the league’s leather and hard tennis ball competitions. “I can no longer hit a six over long-on or long-oﬀ, but I can hit behind the wicket. I quite enjoy the reverse sweep,” said Stohlman, referring to the cricket shot that requires quick, unorthodox footwork, often catching the bowler unaware. Stohlman watches the Indian Premier League every season and is a big fan of Indian superstar and former World Saathee.com

Cricket continued on page 80 30

January 2024

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Upcoming Movie Releases January 12

Hanu Man (Director: Prasanth Varma) Cast: Teja Sajja. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, and Vinay Rai

Merry Christmas (Director: Sriram Raghavan) Cast: Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif

January 19 Kalki 2898 AD (Director: Nag Ashwin) Cast: Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani, and Amitabh Bachchan Mean Girls (Directors: Arturo Perez Jr & Samantha Jayne) Cast: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Tina Fey, and Jon Hamm Guntur Kaaram (Director: Trivikram Srinivas) Cast: Mahesh Babu, Jagapathi Babu, and Ramya Krishna Main Atal Hoon (Director: Ravi Jadhav) Cast: Pankaj Tripathi

Lift (Director: F Gary Grey) Cast: Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jean Reno

January 25 Fighter (Director: Siddharth Anand) Cast: Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, and Anil Kapoor Sometimes I Think About Dying (Director: Rachel Lambert) Cast: Daisy Ridley, Parvesh Cheena, and Marcia DeBonis

February 2 Argylle (Director: Matthew Vaughn) Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, and Samuel L Jackson

The Beekeeper (Director: David Ayer) Cast: Jason Statham, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, and Jeremy Irons Role Play (Director: Thomas Vincent) Cast: Kaley Cuoco, David Oyelowo, and Bill Nighy

Section 108 (Director: Rasikh Khan) Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Regina Cassandra Orion and the Dark (Director: Sean Charmatz) Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, and Werner Herzog

The Book of Clarence (Director: Jeymes Samuel) Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, Alfre Woodward, and Benedict Cumberbatch

The Promised Land (Nikolaj Archel) Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, and Gustav Lindh

Saathee.com/movies has the latest info on where the movies are showing or streaming. All dates subject to change. Saathee.com

January 2024

p s m i l C l F i Guntur Kaaram Director Trivikram Srinivas’s new film tells the tale of Guntur Karam, the king of the underworld of Guntur city, as he falls in love with a journalist working to expose the illegal activities in the city. The film, slated for release on January 12, 2024, stars Mahesh Babu, Sreeleela, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Jagapathi Babu, and Ramya Krishna.

Kalki 2898 AD Kalki 2898 AD, directed by Nag Ashwin, is the story of a modern-day avatar of Vishnu, a Hindu god, who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces. The movie casts including superstars Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Disha and Amitabh Patani, Bachchan. It opens on January 12, 2024.

Main Atal Hoon This is a biopic chronicling the extraordinary life and political journey of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s 10th Prime Minister. The film captures his multifaceted persona as a poet, a gentleman, and a statesman. Pankaj Tripathi stars in the film directed by Ravi Jadhav. Look for it on January 19, 2024.

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Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Shot extensively in Mumbai, the film features Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar and Shantanu Maheshwari. Writer and director Neeraj Pandey’s 6th film Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha!, a musical love story, is set for release in theatres on April 26, 2024.

Bob Marley: One Love This biopic tells the story of the life of legendary Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, film stars Kingsley BenAdir, James Norton, and Lashana Lynch. Get set for some fantastic music and the story of one of the most influential musicians in history, February 14, 2024.

Double Ismart When a dead police oﬃcer’s memories are transplanted to his brain, an assassin assists the authorities. Sanjay Dutt stars in Double Ismart, written and directed by Puri Jagannadh. Set for release on March 8, 2024.

Hatak a Patel had a Actress Ameesh ith Gadar 2. ar ye w smash hit last k set to begin wor ly She is reported ch hi w in , ak , Hat e on her next film lice oﬃcer. Th po a ys ra rt po she g tin oo sh to begin film is expected d an n ha st ja in Ra in January 2024 orth India. No N other parts of d. been announce s ha release date January 2024

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Dances of Lord Shiva and His Family Dances of India by Dr. Maha Gingrich As we celebrate the 21st anniversary of “Dances of India” production on Saturday, April 6, 2024, I decided to showcase how Lord Shiva’s entire family are dancers. That sounds funny but I can relate to it. If a mom or dad is a dancer in any family across the world, children are most likely to learn some dance style. I have seen this with friends and also know 3 to 4 generations of Ballet, Russian, and Indian classical dancers. When it comes to classical Ballet, classical Ballroom dances like Waltz and of course Indian classical dances, they are very diﬃcult to learn. We will showcase the connections between these dance styles. Thanks to the students and parents who are dedicated to these classical dance forms and are eager to teach their children about Hindu religion and the stories from the scriptures. Saathee.com

In this era of “Instant Gratification,” where people just want to see their children on the stage quickly, it is very humbling to see many parents following the path of cultural education, and a long-term commitment to these classical dances. It is so wonderful to see hundreds of people still showing up to see our shows filled with classical dances, dance dramas, folk traditions, international dances connected to India and cherishing these unblemished arts. This year we will highlight diﬀerent aspects and dances of Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvathi, and Lord Ganesh’s Thandava dances. The most popular, mystic, and beautiful Lord is Shiva, also known as Mahadeva. We will depict stories of Lord Shiva protecting his devotees called Shiva Leelas. He is one of the most dynamic representations in Hinduism. Dances of India continued on page 92 40

January 2024

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Beauty Standards in the 21st Century The Ever-Constant Struggle for Perfection

state of flux. Physical features that are seen as popular today may come across as utterly grotesque in the future. Yet, with the resurgence of cosmetic surgery and the charisma of some by Jennifer Allen internet influencers to look a certain way, these trends are more unpredictable than ever. “The thing about perfection is that it’s unknowable. It’s impossible, Even still, it was only a few short years ago when it but it’s also right in front of us, all the time.” seemed body diversity had become much more accepted. - Kevin Flynn (Jeﬀ Bridges), Tron: Legacy People of all sizes, skin tones, gender expressions, ages, and abilities had become more visible in fashion, beauty, Here we are… the ripe beginnings of yet another year entertainment, and music. This visibility was so gratifying with mentalities sharp as we seek the age-old concept of new as these industries seemed to finally accept and welcome year’s resolutions. The ambitious reasons for said lifestyle more than the 0.5 percent of human population looks like. changes can be just as plentiful as the decisions themselves. We even witnessed a Miss Universe pageant with not Some even go in a rather quirky direction and note that their only two transgender women in the running, but also the resolution is to not make one. absolutely stunning Jane Dipka Garrett from Nepal. “As a The most popular one by far today is the aspiration to woman who is curvy and who does not meet certain beauty lose weight either by changing one’s diet, taking up more standards, I’m here to represent women who are curvy, who exercise, or a combination of the two. This goal is so often struggle with weight gain, who struggle with hormonal chosen that (as expected) many fitness businesses oﬀer issues — I believe that there is not only one type of beauty special introductory pricing in January for potential new standard but every single woman is beautiful just as she is,” members. I’ll admit I did such a thing when I returned to said the 22 year-old nurse upon winning Miss Nepal in martial arts six years ago, joining up shortly after the new September. While none of these ladies did make it to the year at the time. final rounds, their presence alone was enough to spark The most common denominator in why so many choose dialogue and shed more positive light on beauty pageants this peculiar course of action is not to specifically take on a in general. healthier lifestyle, but instead to achieve a more desirable body type. The true dilemma is that this ideal is in a constant

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror continued on page 96 Saathee.com

January 2024

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Higher for Shorter Eye on the Markets by Ketu Desai Initial jobless claims, the most real time measure of the employment market, have been up since mid-October. The It’s remarkable how in just one month we can have such number of industries increasing a significant shift in the narrative. employment has gone from 61 percent The Fed looks like it is done with rate to 52 percent in just one month. The hikes for this cycle. Multiple times unemployment rate has now risen half Fed rate cuts during this hiking cycle, markets a percent since April. now seem likely have tried to price in the end of hikes The commentary from the latest and the start of cuts. Each time was PMIs said, “businesses cut employment for premature. the first time in almost 3 1/2 years in response to concerns about For the first time since the start of the hiking cycle, rate the outlook. Job shedding has spread beyond the manufacturing cuts now seem realistic. The Fed would lower rates for two sector, as services firms signaled a renewed drop in staﬀ in reasons - if the economy weakens or if inflation moderates November as cost savings were sought.” (causing onerous real rates). Both reasons are pointing The Citigroup economic surprise index has started to toward no more rate hikes at minimum, and likely rate cuts move lower in recent weeks, indicating that economic data next year. is coming in below expectations. Just in November, we have The strength of the employment market was one of the seen important misses on ADP employment, ISM Fed’s strongest arguments for raising rates and keeping employment, nonfarm payrolls, PMIs, Michigan consumer them high. Several data points that came out in the last expectations, new home sales, durable goods orders, retail month indicate that the employment market is quickly sales, and many regional Fed PMIs. deteriorating. Eye on Markets continued on page 90 Saathee.com

January 2024

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January 2024

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Tea in the Morning

Kismuth and the Way II by Dipika Kohli It’s fifteen to eight and the mood is of a specific sort of bustle, which is the kind you see on the south side of Phnom Penh’s at morning traﬃc rush. It’s not too much noise like the relentless moto honks in Ho Chi Minh City, nor too little, like if you were to spend a couple of days away from the capital over in, say, Battambang or Kampot. I’m on a side street, at a place I come almost every day at this hour. Across the street is a school that’s got big yellow walls, kids idling about in front of it, a broken bench that no one ever sits on, and a bicycle repairman who sets up his shop every day, except holidays, on the corner. He helped me fix my bicycle about a week ago, when I decided to try it again. That’s because the rainy season has ended. Cooler weather. (This used to be tourist season, by the old, precovid metrics.) It’s a good time of the morning to come, before the next batch of regulars. They meet friends, they talk for a long time or hang out with phones, like in the old days when people used to read the papers in public squares around the world before Internet was always on, and always on everywhere. Maybe part of the reason I wound up in Cambodia was because there was, at the time when I first showed up, a slower pace that made me enjoy a particular mode of being, a feeling like it was completely normal to enjoy slowness. Not be rushed, not be busy for the sake of being busy, not getting lost in ‘productivity.’ Just being. It was a good feeling, being here. It still is. It felt like I could really slow down, and I have, and I did, and I’m a little surprised ten years have gone by, but I’m also well aware I’m not the only one who shares this same story. I have been asked often why I chose not to stay ‘in your country’ but honestly, when you look at how the cards have fallen since 2014, and you’ve been outside of the borders since then, something shifts, internally. You’re not wanting to go there. It’s not ‘yours.’ The longer I’m away, the more I see it. What Thomas Wolfe meant, when he wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. Kismuth continued on page 84

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January 2024

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Cruciferous Vegetables Nutrition for Life by Parul Kharod As we start the new year, most of us are bound to start thinking about new year’s resolutions, and what we can do to improve our health. We know that we all should be eating more vegetables. It is recommended to eat a minimum of three servings of vegetables per day. Ideally, it is recommended to eat 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables, with the ratio of more vegetables than fruits. Of course, individual needs vary depending on your medical history, but there is no denying that vegetables are very important for our health. Every group of vegetables has important benefits, and each color can give you a diﬀerent set of antioxidants and nutrients. There is one group of vegetables that is more potent than all the others! The cruciferous group of vegetables has been shown to give the most bang for your buck. Let’s learn more about these, and why we should include them in our diet regularly. Cruciferous vegetables belong to the Brassica family of plants. These include: Arugula Bok choy Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Collard greens Horseradish

xxxx

Kale Mustard Radishes Rutabaga Turnips Watercress Wasabi

Cruciferous vegetables are rich in nutrients, including several carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin); vitamins C, E, and K, folate, and minerals such as calcium and iron. They are also a good source of fiber. Nutrition continued on page 86

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January 2024

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Spot the Differences

—

See if you can spot the 15 diﬀerences between the original photo below and modified photo on the right.

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January 2024

— Answers are on page 104.

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January 2024

An Abundance of

Entertainment

Namaskar, Y’all by Shyama Parui Happy New Year! Welcome the Year of the Dragon, 2024, according to the Chinese horoscope but my prediction is that it will be the Year of Entertainment. In 1984, daily entertainment for the average kid in Mumbai meant watching shows on Doordarshan, the sole national TV channel, in the evening. On good days one would find something interesting for about 30 minutes and wait for a grand treat on weekends – a full length movie. Other sources of amusement included occasional cinema in rather sad theaters well past their prime and a few analog games. Remember “Waterfuls”? Video rentals and games came much later, at least at our house. 2024 could not be more diﬀerent. Every seemingly busy person manages to pack in two to three hours of entertainment a day. Often, they do not even have to step out of the house, and if they do, shows, music, sports and shopping outlets all travel along with them in pockets and purses. I recently started tracking the time that I spend on the new age handheld device that rules our lives these days. It is embarrassing in terms Saathee.com

of its length, but the minutes spent on social media and other apps is perhaps no diﬀerent than I would have spent as a woman in her 40s about three or four decades ago. Thirty minutes of gossiping with the neighbors would be like being on Facebook. Sixty minutes spent checking on parents or relatives about their health would be the equivalent of WhatsApp chats and 15 minutes of consulting your “Doctor Aunty” about weird health symptoms after binging on pav-bhaji was the old counterpart of browsing through WebMD. Most people were also likely to spend about 45 minutes perusing the newspapers just as we skim through several news related sites. After my analysis, it doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Is it my fault that the cellphone houses all these valuable resources? Books, audio, music, shows, “shorts” (short films) or jokes created by professionals, novices and celebrities alike provide copious amounts of diversion from whatever people are trying to procrastinate or avoid altogether. Folks bored of conventional forms of art have moved on to viewing other individuals who are traveling, cooking, and playing video games. As absurd as it sounds, living vicariously through others has become a way of passing time. Namaskar continued on page 96 58

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other documents. They all have their individual specific purpose and need to be executed with some thought behind it. Some families use living trusts if they have a need to manage their assets long after they pass-on. But whether your estate is simple or multi-layered, my strong suggestion would be that you should review all such documents every three to five years or perhaps more often when you experience a major life change. Below is a list of items to check on just for such purposes.

- Estate Plans There are Many Good Reasons to Review Them Periodically

Designation of Beneficiaries This used to be an ignored area, I will say, about 25/30 years Personal Finances ago. It was astonishing to me that such an important piece of information was missing from many documents only by Mo Vidwans because we didn’t have the knowledge to insist on it and the institutions didn’t care much at that time. I am happy to tell you this is not the case today. But it still behooves you to The title assumes that you have one. I would imagine make sure that, no matter what financial document it is, that you have given it serious thought since I have urged beneficiaries are seriously considered and jotted down. many times here in these articles to take it seriously, and get an estate plan on paper, sooner than later. If you have an estate plan, that is not the complete story. Just like everything else in life, you must go back and review your plans to make sure that they reflect your intentions today and not what they were years ago when you first wrote the plan. Times change, circumstances change and more importantly we change as we grow and our family dynamics and, hence, our outlooks on life change. Relatives pass on, new friends come on the horizon and our ideals and philosophy change. Everything, including our lives, is always in flux. We need to and we do react to that but even more importantly it should also be Review documents reflected in our at least every 3 - 5 years. estate documents and plans as well. Say you have a Will and POA and all other necessary documents including beneficiary designations, but your heirs could still find themselves in a morass. Worst yet, some of your estate could end up in the hands of wrongful heirs, especially if there are divorces and sudden deaths involved. You may have noticed that hardly a month goes by when we learn that a celebrity died without a Will. An example is the legendary musician Prince, who died suddenly in April 2016 without a Will. Because of that his estate was litigated for years and just got settled finally within the last few months. Compare that to Michael Jackson, who died in June 2009. He had iron-clad documents, and everything was settled within six months. I do not even wish to bring out the mention of Howard Planning Checklist Hughes, who was an eccentric billionaire, and his estate was As I mentioned above, here is a checklist to follow to contested for many years. Reviewing and updating your determine if you need to review and reconsider your estate documents, Will, POA etc., regularly is an important activity documents. and needs to be done with all the seriousness of taking a test. • Have you recently moved to another state for your job? The question that needs to be asked and answered is what • Have there been any new marriages or divorces recently is in the documents, and does it still mirror your wishes and because of which your family is aﬀected? For that matter current thoughts? The basic components of an estate plan include at the have there been any deaths in the family? minimum a Will, a POA and healthcare authority and a few Personal Finances continued on page 92 Saathee.com

January 2024

News Notes US Masters Chess Championship in Charlotte

Ram Mandir Ayodhya Pran Pratistha

Chess tournament (top), Antipov (bottom left), Fang (bottom right) Photos Courtesy Charlotte Chess Center

The Charlotte Chess Center hosted the 2023 US Masters Chess Championship along with the 2023 North Carolina Open. Collectively these events fielded over 550 players from 35 states and 36 countries. More than 150 titled masters competed in these events including 35 grandmasters vying for a collective $37,000 prize fund and national championship title. The US Masters is an annual national championship. Players compete in nine rounds over five days for $22,000 in prize fund, as well as for international and national rating points. The 2023 edition, held from November 22 – 26, hosted 202 players, featuring 35 Grandmasters and 40 International Masters. The US Masters is part of the FIDE Circuit and Candidates/World Championship cycle, and many players earned credentials towards their Grandmaster and International Master titles. Alongside the US Masters, the NC Open are open to players of all ratings and ages. 362 players from 23 states competed in many rating categories. Participants compete in six rounds over three days. In addition to the main event, participants enjoyed free side activities including lectures, commentary, and instruction with a VIP Grandmaster, and a blitz (speed chess) tournament together with players from the US Masters. Winners: US Masters: Grandmaster Mikhail Antipov (MO), International Masters Justin Wang (TX), Bryce Tiglon (WA), Gleb Dudin (Hungary). NC Open: Thomas Fang (NC), International Master Ronald Burnett (TN), Emmanuel Carter (NC) The Charlotte Chess Center is the recipient of two national chess awards: Chess Club of the Year and Chess City of the Year. For more details, visit Charlottechesscenter.org. Saathee.com

The Ram Temple inauguration Pran Pratistha (consecration ceremony) in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh in Northern India will take place on January 22, 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are among prominent personalities who will be attending the grand inauguration of the Ram Temple. “In the third week of January 2024, the idol of Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) will be installed at its original place at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri Maharajsaid told reporters in Thane, Maharashtra at a press conference in 2023. The foundation stone of the temple was laid by Modi on August 5, 2020. Details: Rammandir2024.org.

India Conference at Harvard 2024 The India Conference at Harvard has been a critical voice for over twenty years in India-US collaboration. The two-day event is designed and developed by graduate students from across the university, bringing 50+ speakers and more than 1000 attendees to Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. This year’s theme, “India Rising,” will unpack India’s rapid ascent as a global powerhouse and build insight into India’s current landscape and promising future. The conference will take place February 17 – 18, 2024 at Harvard Business School. For more details about the conference or to purchase tickets, list of speakers and other information, visit Indiaconferenceharvard.com. January 2024

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Air India Unveils New Crew Uniforms The airline’s cabin crew to don Manish Malhotra-designed ombré sarees and bandhgalas

Air India, on December 12, 2023, unveiled its new collection of uniforms for cabin and cockpit crew, marking the arrival of a new age of inflight couture. Crafted by Indian celebrity couturier, Manish Malhotra, in his Mumbai atelier, the new uniforms feature an array of colors and designs. The collection mirrors a rare, harmonious blend of rich Indian heritage and aesthetics with 21st-century style and elegance. The new uniforms will be introduced in a phased manner over the next few months, starting with the entry of service of Air India’s first Airbus A350. Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Oﬃcer & Managing Director, Air India, said: “Air India’s crew uniforms are amongst the world’s most storied in aviation history, and we firmly believe that Manish Malhotra’s innovative ensemble will script an exciting new chapter for Air India’s future narrative. It perfectly captures the essence of our new identity, service principles, and our pursuit of setting new benchmarks in global aviation.” Manish Malhotra said: “I am honored to have been given the opportunity to design the uniforms for Air India. It is a privilege to be able to contribute to the national flag-bearer and showcase the elegance and charm of Indian fashion. My aim was to create uniforms that capture the essence of India’s diverse culture and traditions while also embodying a modern and sophisticated look. By incorporating quintessential hues that are symbolic to India, I hope that these uniforms not only make the crew feel proud but also leave a lasting impression on the guests, representing the warmth and hospitality that India is known for.” The cockpit crew’s uniform features a classic black doublebreasted suit with a print inspired by the Vista. Malhotra has also crafted uniforms for ground staﬀ, engineers, and security personnel. Air India was founded by Indian industrialist JRD Tata on October 15, 1932. After 69 years of operating as a governmentowned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were welcomed back into the Tata group in January 2022. Air India is currently navigating through a major five-year company-wide transformation roadmap. Saathee.com

Garba of Gujarat Inscribed on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List On December 6, 2023, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO inscribed “Garba of Gujarat” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity during its 18th session, taking place in Kasane, Botswana in December 2023. The inclusion of Garba now makes it India’s 15th inscription on the list. A ritualistic and devotional dance performed throughout the State of Gujarat, and across India, Garba is celebrated for nine days during the festival of Navaratri. The festival is dedicated to the worship of feminine energy or Shakti. The cultural, performative, and visual expressions of this feminine energy are expressed through the Garba dance. The performative and visual celebration of Garba takes place within homes and temple courtyards, public spaces in villages, urban squares, streets, and large open grounds. Garba thus becomes an all-encompassing participatory community event. “I oﬀer my sincere congratulations to India, its people and the teams that worked on the nomination dossier. I hope this inscription helps ensure the viability of this tradition and inspires the community, particularly young people, to continue with the knowledge, skills and oral traditions associated with Garba,” said Tim Curtis, Director of UNESCO New Delhi Regional Oﬃce for South Asia and UNESCO Representative for Bhutan, India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

United States, India, and Taiwan Collaborate on Cybersecurity Representatives from the United States, India, and Taiwan met in New Delhi on December 11-12, 2023 to deepen operational expertise and shared best practices on cybersecurity issues during a joint workshop convened under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF). January 2024

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U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, Taiwan’s Representative to India Baushuan Ger, former National Cyber Security Coordinator of India Lt. Gen Rajesh Pant, and the United Service Institution of India co-hosted this event, which represented the first in-person GCTF program held in India, under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF). Ambassador Garcetti said, “The United States is committed to working closely with partners like India and Taiwan to enhance cybersecurity and protect our shared interests in the digital space. When we connect, protect, and detect with technology, instead of fearing what it can do to divide or oppress us, we can take full advantage of the nearly limitless potential that these advances will bring.” Taiwan’s Representative to India Ger highlighted GCTF’s importance as a platform to utilize Taiwan’s strengths and expertise to address issues of global concern. India’s former National Cyber Security Coordinator Lt. Gen Rajesh Pant said for India, with over 800 million internet users and 1.2 billion smart phones, cybersecurity is a major part of national security. Since its launch in 2015, the GCTF has held 70 international workshops with participation from over 120 countries to strengthen connections among experts on such topics as public health, supply chains, humanitarian assistance, digital health, and other regional issues. The United States, Taiwan, the Australian Oﬃce, Taipei, and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association jointly administer the GCTF, which serves as a platform for Taiwan to share its expertise with partners around the world. Details: Gctf.tw/en.

Cabinet Approves Declaration of Surat Airport as an International Airport The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 15, 2023 approved the proposal to declare Surat Airport as an International Airport. Surat Airport will not only become a gateway for international travelers but also facilitate seamless exportimport operations for the thriving diamond and textile industries. This strategic move promises to unlock unprecedented economic potential, making Surat a key player in the international aviation landscape and fostering a new era of prosperity for the region. Surat, a rapidly growing city in India, has demonstrated remarkable economic prowess and industrial development. With a surge in passenger traﬃc and cargo operations, the airport’s international designation will provide impetus for regional development.

Indian Players Vijay Amritraj and Leander Paes in Tennis Hall of Fame Class of 2024 First Indians Inducted Former doubles world No. 1 Leander Paes, broadcaster and promoter Vijay Amritraj, and renowned journalist and writer Richard Evans have been elected to receive the Ultimate Honor in Tennis – induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Amritraj and Paes become the first two Indians to receive tennis’ Ultimate Honor, and the first Asian men to be elected in their respective categories. Paes, an 18-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles, has been selected in the Player Category. Amritraj and the United Kingdom’s Evans are inductees in the Contributor Category, which is considered for election every two years. The Contributor Category recognizes true pioneers, visionary leaders, or individuals/groups who have made a transcendent impact on the sport.

Akshay Kumar Steps into the Cricket Arena

Veteran actor Akshay Kumar has taken a leap from the silver screen to the cricket field by acquiring ownership of Team Srinagar in the upcoming Indian Street Premier League (ISPL). The ISPL, a T10 cricket extravaganza, is scheduled to take place from March 2 – 9, 2024. Kumar shared the news with his fans on Instagram, saying, “From cinema to the stadium! Proud to announce that I will be coming to @ispl_t10 as a Team Owner of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir). A chance to play in my team awaits.” Meanwhile, on the film front, Kumar has a slew of films “It has been my life’s honor to play for my country for over three slated for 2024, including Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Sky Force, decades in a sport that has given and taught me everything. This Welcome 3, Khel Khel Mein and a Hindi remake of the Tamil acknowledgment is indeed the ultimate accolade for every tennis player. Induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame hit Soorarai Pottru. Saathee.com

January 2024

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belongs not just to me, but to our billion-plus Indians. Receiving this honor culminates a professional journey of a lifetime, standing on the shoulders of greats and sets the tone for other youngsters in Asia and around the world.” -Leander Paes, Class of 2024 Inductee

Reaching for the Stars: A Conversation with NASA and ISRO

“This is truly a blessing, and an honor to be included in the history of tennis, among the greats who have played and served the sport. Acknowledging the culmination of a career that started with illness and now to be inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, is making impossible dreams come true. It is a gift from above for me and my family and an honor for India.” -Vijay Amritraj, Class of 2024 Inductee The Class of 2024 will be officially inducted into the NASA Administrator Bill Nelson interacting with students at International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 20, 2024 “Reaching for the Stars: A Conversation with NASA and ISRO,” event in Newport, Rhode Island. Paes, Amritraj and Evans will held at the Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum in join a group of 264 inductees from 27 nations – with India Bengaluru on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. set to become the 28th nation represented in the Hall of Fame. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson encouraged over 200 Tickets for the 2024 Induction Ceremony and full students during an event entitled, “Reaching for the Stars: Enshrinement Weekend experiences will go on sale in A Conversation with NASA and ISRO,” at Visvesvaraya March. More info: Tennisfame.com/enshrinement. Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM) in Bengaluru on November 29, 2023. “NISAR is a great example of the strong U.S.-India partnership,” he said. The event, jointly organized by the U.S. government and India’s Finance Minister on Forbes’ VITM, aimed to foster a spirit of curiosity and exploration among the students. Most Powerful Women List During the engagement, Nelson motivated the students, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, perseverance, and passion in the pursuit of knowledge. Highlighting the evergrowing collaboration between the US and India in the space sector, he said countries can achieve more when they join forces to explore outer space. “Students across the world are deepening their passion in science and technology, preparing them to be the future innovators and pioneers that help humanity soar to new heights, traverse previously untouched terrain and unlock more secrets of the universe,” said Nelson. “It is an honor to be in Bengaluru where it’s clear that NASA and ISRO’s Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Finance Minister, has been work together will create possibilities that benefit members ranked 32nd on Forbes’ “World’s 100 Most Powerful of the Artemis Generation in both our countries – and Women” list, highlighting her role in shaping the country’s around the world.” Addressing the students, Former Indian Astronaut economic strategies. She took office in May 2019. The list Rakesh Sharma said, “As a signatory of the Artemis Accord, features women from diverse sectors. The rankings, I now look forward to a convergence of India’s cultural according to Forbes, are determined by factors like financial influence and impact, women’s rights, reproductive ethos with NASA’s motto- “For the Benefit of All”.” Nelson also noted how the upcoming joint NISAR autonomy, and climate policy. The other Indian women on the list include HCL Technologies chairperson and (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, scheduled industrialist Roshni Nadar Malhotra (60 in the technology for launch in 2024 is just one example of how the U.S. and category), Soma Mondal, CEO of the Steel Authority of India’s partnership in space is helping people on Earth. Data India, (70 in the business category), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, from NISAR will help people worldwide better manage an entrepreneur (76 in the business category). The US VP natural resources and hazards, as well as provide Kamala Harris and Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela information for scientists to better understand the effects Bajaria are women of Indian origin also included in this and pace of climate change. select group. Saathee.com

News Notes continued on page 110 70

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The Truth, the Hole-truth and Nothing but to Soothe

wrong – a lot of the time. Our decisions based on our “truths” are often good enough for the day-to-day things we need to deal with. And why is it that we are often wrong? Because we have a technology that we use all the time to discern our “truths”: a technology that we are barely aware of unless we pause and reflect a bit.

Thinking About Thinking by Balaji Prasad “Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.” ~ Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

Words: Our hole-ridden technology Since the universe of things that we encounter far exceeds our cognitive capacity, we are compelled to shrink the world so that it fits into it, and so that we can make decisions that keep us alive and on our feet. We may not usually think of words as a technology, but it can be helpful to see this. Otherwise, we might labor under the strange (and, sometimes, dangerous) misconception that the gymnastics we do with words and word-based “logic” have anything to do with the real world. There are probably too many – way too many – things we get wrong. It’s a miracle that we even survive, with our penchant for word-based “reasoning” that often misses the world by a mile! Why are words so fraught with trouble? Words are abstractions. They are proxies for the real thing. Or, impostors, if you like. They are like fingers that point to the moon, and, if we are sloppy, we engage with our fingers instead of the moon. Our brain’s capacity can get taxed and confused at having to deal with two very diﬀerent kinds of things: “things” and things. It is challenging when both of these look and feel the same

The truth generally lies. The statement above is a strong one. And troubling. Let’s examine it a bit closely. What is the Truth? We may never be able to fully know any truth in our lives. Reality is far more complex and richer than what our senses – let alone our words – will ever be able to access. Even with all the fancy technologies such as telescopes, microscopes and other such devices designed to augment our senses, a large part of the universe is still dark to us. And, while human brains are powerful too, as can be seen with AI technology struggling to catch up with us in tasks that feel eﬀortless to us; our brains fall short, though: they are not up to the task of fully grasping and properly piecing together even the little that we can directly see and what we can indirectly “see” through our technological “eyes”. Fortunately, we never need aspire to that degree of truth. We are remarkably resilient beings who can get by even though we may be wrong – even grievously Saathee.com

Thinking continued on page 90 72

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Saathee RECIPES

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Gujarati Dal

Happy New Year Saathee Family! Thought we could kick off a brand-new year with a timeless classic, dal! More specifically, traditional Gujarati Dal. I know most of us try to stick to the healthier side of things at the start of the year, whether we’re committing to new resolutions or trying to find some balance after a week of eating Holiday sweets and leftovers. So naturally a protein and fiber packed soup is the way to go. For those who may not know, dal is a lentil soup filled with Indian spices and typically served with rice or roti. Gujarati dal is a staple in our household and the best comfort food, especially during these colder months. One of my favorite ways to enjoy this dal is in a Gujarati thali (or platter) which consists of an assortment of food, including the dal, at least one type of shak (spiced vegetables), rice, roti, chutney, and often some sort of sweet! A go-to meal in most Gujarati homes. Time to stick to our healthy New Year’s resolutions in the most delicious and comforting way.

Ingredients

1 cup toor dal (split yellow pigeon peas) 1 medium tomato (diced) 2 tbsp jaggery (or 1-2 tbsp sugar) 1/2 cup lemon juice ¼ cup cilantro (ﬁnely chopped) Spices: 1-2 tsp salt (to taste) 1 tsp dhana jeera (coriander cumin powder) ½ tsp turmeric 1-2 tsp red chili powder ½ tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 1 tsp rai (mustard seeds) ½ tsp methi (fenugreek seeds) ½ tsp hing (asafoetida) Saathee.com

Servings: About 3-4

Directions

Prep Time: 30 minutes Special thanks to Amma (Charu Shukla)

Rinse dal 2-3 times under warm water, drain, then place into a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water. Let cook until pressure cooker fully releases, about 10-15 mins or 3 whistles. The dal should be softened. Whisk until well-blended. For a soupier dal add about 2-3 more cups of water and bring to a boil. For a thicker dal do not add as much water. Mix in tomatoes, jaggery, lemon juice, salt, dhana jeera, turmeric and red chili powder, turn heat down and let simmer for at least 5 minutes. In the meantime, temper the remainder of the spices. Add about 1 tbsp of ghee or oil to a small pot along with the jeera, rai, methi seeds and hing. Heat the spices until they begin to pop and turn slightly brown. Mix the tempered spices into the cooked dal and turn off heat. Garnish with fresh cilantro. Feel free to adjust the level of spices, lemon juice, jaggery added to the dal until it meets your taste. Serve with rice or roti. 74

January 2024

HINDU CENTER Support Hindu Center Expansion Leave a Lasting Memory on HC Wall.

Sponsor Plates for $1001, $5,001, $10,001, $25,001 or more Expansion project update: Work Completed: Grading, Parking Lot , foundation, stone work inside and outside. Work Continues: Main Shikhar and electrical.

2024 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Annual Membership: $101, Students & Seniors $31 Become life member for $1001!

Upcoming Hindu Center Events & Activities: Lohri: January 13th, Saturday Pongal / Bhogi Pallu: January 13th, Saturday Makar Sankranti: January 14th, Sunday Republic Day: January 27th, Saturday Vasant Panchami: February 14th, Wednesday Maha-Shivratri: March 8th, Friday Holika Dahan: March 24th, Sunday Dhuleti Color Playing: March 31st, Sunday Ugadi / Gudi Padava / Vaishakhi / Vishu / Cheti Chand in Temple: April 9th, Tuesday Chaitra Navratri : April 9th Tuesday thru April 17th, Wednesday

HINDU CENTER OF CHARLOTTE

7400 City View Drive, Charlotte, NC 28212 704-535-3440 email: administrator@hcclt.org Fax. 704-535-6923

OF CHARLOTTE Lohri

January 13, 2024 Puja: (Saturday, 7 pm)

Pongal / Bhogi Pallu:

January 13, 2024 (Sat., begins at 5 pm) Abhishek/Pooja with Bhajan/Shlokas. Followed by Kari/Bhogi Pallu & Mahaprasad Kari / Bhogi Pallu: Parents / Grandparents will Bless & Shower their kids with fruits, candies, coins, cranberries etc., supplied by Hindu Center. Please bring kids and don't miss this unique event. Dress up in Indian tradition outfits if possible.

Makar Sankranti Kite flying: January 14, 2024 (Sunday, Noon to 5 pm) Weather permitting, Nirav Pandya 570-205-2636 or HC 704-535-3440

January 27, 2024 Saturday at 11 am Vihar Hall Cultural Show and General Information: Anitha Gowtam: 704-206-9348; Poonam Rojra: 704-682-1388; Archana Shah: 980-220-3098 For Vendor information: Nirav Pandya 570-205-2636

Hindu Center Contacts: Anju Jain 704-620-4503; Reena Roy: 704-607-8412; Nikita Mittal 732-586-6075 or Hemant Amin 704-258-3588

HINDU CENTER MAHA-SHIVRATRI March 8, 2024 (Friday)

Lord Shiva Abhishekham all day

Maha Shivaratri will be celebrated by performing Pooja all night long including Rudhrabhishekham. Evening Puja Abhishek, Bhajans, Aarti and Prasad

New Vedanta Bhavan

Donate generously and etch your name forever by opting with one of these options: Brick for $1001, Marble plaque 5x7" for $5001, Marble plaque 8x10 " for $10001 (brick can have only two names and plaque can have multiple names and/or larger message) Contribution can be paid with check or credit card. Login and donate today by going to

hcclt.org or mail the check to

Hindu Center 7400 City View Drive, Charlotte NC 28212

OF CHARLOTTE Holika Dahan

March 24, 2024 (Sunday) Puja & Aarti 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Dhuleti: March 31, 2024 (Sunday at 12:30 pm) COLOR, MUSIC & FOOD

Ugadi / Gudi Padva / Baisakhi Vishu / Cheti Chand: In Temple on

April 9, 2024 (Tuesday) Lord Balaji Archnas all day every hour

Chaitra Navratri

April 9 (Tuesday) thru April 17 (Wednesday)

Cricket

Opening season featured six teams: the San Francisco Unicorns, Washington Freedom, Seattle Orcas, MI New York, Los Angeles Knight Riders, and Texas Super Kings. The latter four are aﬃliated with Indian Premier League franchises. Over 70,000 spectators turned up for the games in the two cities, while the live coverage was broadcast in 87 countries, generating a total revenue of $8 million for the inaugural season of the league. “The MLC is absolutely on point,” said Wiggins. “It is at par with franchise tournaments of international recognition around the world.” The games in Morrisville featured global superstars and served some nail-biting contests. The MI New York versus Seattle Orcas game yielded almost 400 runs between the two sides, with South Africa’s power hitter Heinrich Klaasen scoring a mammoth 110 runs oﬀ a mere 44 balls. Klaasen continued his all-out attacking display during the World Cup in India, where South Africa were one of the four semifinalists. Lance Brown, who was hired for the maintenance of the pitch at Church Street Park, first heard of cricket during his job interview. “My first three days at the job I was like, wow, I can’t believe the amount of work that goes into maintaining the field,” Brown said as he sat on a roller, which he was moving up and down the pitch. But the atmosphere and festivity of cricket captivated him. “It was like other American sports in terms of competitiveness.”

continued from page 30

oversee construction. The bid paid off, and Morrisville was picked to host the 2018 regional qualifiers for the ICC World Cup. But days before the matches were scheduled to start, Hurricane Florence hit, dumping 20 inches of rain on Morrisville. The entire field was flooded, and volunteers affiliated with the TCL worked day and night to ensure the games went ahead as planned from September 20—which formally put Church Street Park, and Morrisville, on the world cricket map. A Draw for Elite Players Hosting international contests gave the TCL a major boost, and a growing number of residents from the region began taking up cricket. The league now has four formats: a 40-over called the Premier League, a 20-over league known as T20, a 10-over, and a hard tennis ball format. There are three tournaments each year across the formats, in spring, summer, and fall. “We also have a winter tournament if the temperature stays above 40. That’s for the crazy cricket enthusiasts who want to play even in the winter,” said TCL President Vinod Katragunta as he gave a tour of Church Street Park. The growing enthusiasm for the sport has meant fast expansion. Right across the street from the main ground is Shiloh Park, where coaches train aspiring cricketers. In addition to Kallicharran, other Caribbean cricketers have moved to Morrisville to coach young kids and participate in Minor Cricket League. Among these is Ryan Wiggins, who plays for the Raptors and coaches school-aged players. Wiggins has also played in the Caribbean Premier League, a top-tier franchise league hosted by the West Indies. “Morrisville is on the right path as far as cricket is concerned,” Wiggins said. “We just need to keep working on the kids and help them grow.” Wiggins is holding a session with fellow West Indian Andre Dwyer, whose coaching pedigree includes coaching global superstar Andre Russell when he was first starting off at Clarendon College in Jamaica. “I produced a lot of national players back home. My ultimate goal here is to produce national players for the U.S. team,” said Dwyer. Both Dwyer and Wiggins believe that cricket is poised to take off in the United States thanks largely to the launch of Major League Cricket (MLC) in 2023, which features many cricketing superstars. The league was founded following a $120 million investment from big names in the tech and media industries, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas and Church Street Park jointly hosted the inaugural season, and seven of the 19 matches took place in Morrisville, which can hold up to 3,500 fans. Saathee.com

The Next Generation The major league games drew capacity crowds, and for young fans like 11-year-old Harsh Vardhan, it was a chance to see international superstars in action. The sixth grader is a student of Dwyer and Wiggins and watched all the major league games. He can rattle oﬀ stats, particularly when it comes to his favorite cricketers, Heinrich Klaasen and Trent Boult. The latter, from New Zealand, took the most wickets in the league this year. “He got 22 wickets in seven matches in the MLC,” recounts Vardhan with nonchalant accuracy. Vardhan started playing leather ball cricket two years ago. Like many kids of Indian heritage, his parents introduced him to the game at an early age. His father not only was an avid watcher but also played, and now Vardhan competes in the Minor League Jr. He has lofty ambitions for the sport. “My goal is to score 1,000 runs in the junior league,” he said. “I want to play in the MLC, at least, and for the USA.” A number of young TCL players have already graduated to the major leagues, including Sanjay Stanley, who has been the vice captain of the national under-19 team, along with Abhiram Bolisetty, Aditya Gupta, and Rohan Phadke. The women’s league has done even better, with Bhumika Bhadriraju and Geetika Kodali playing for the U.S. women’s national team. Cricket continued on page 82 80

January 2024

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Not being named a World Cup venue was a major disappointment for Morrisville, but TCL oﬃcials acknowledge why Church Street Park did not get the final nod. While the field and pitch are undoubtedly of a global standing, the same cannot be said of the infrastructure around them. For one, there are no media facilities to properly broadcast international contests. “I had to learn camerawork on my own and have taught others the same way as well,” said Baig, the production manager. “Even the camera that we use for our livestream on YouTube is placed at an angle and not right in front of the pitch as it should be.” Even more critically, there aren’t dressing rooms or even practice pitches. “When the MLC teams came to play here, they could not practice on the ground and had to play straight away,” said Katragunta. “The only practice they had was in grounds in other parts of the area.” Stohlman concedes where they fall short. “We don’t have 30,000 seats here,” he said, nor does it look as big and dramatic on TV as other venues. “However, I will plead like anything to get a few practice matches played here before the World Cup.” Eisenhower Park also lacked the facilities, but a 34,000seat stadium is under construction. Grand Prairie and Broward are also undergoing major development ahead of the World Cup. “They could have done the same here,” said TCL executive committee member Swethan Srinivasan. “We already have much infrastructure in place, and a world-class cricket field.” Proximity to cricket fans of Indian subcontinent heritage may have also tilted it toward New York, Miami, and Dallas. But North Carolina fans hope the World Cup is just the first opportunity to show that the U.S. is a player on the international cricket stage. The Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 will also be the first to include cricket. Last year, Major League Cricket announced it was making a $110 million investment in eight cricket venues across the U.S., including Church Street. Work has already started on natural turf nets, which would allow players to practice on pitches resembling those on the cricket field, increasing spectator capacity, and more parking. As we spoke beside the pitch, Srinivasan said that he’d passed a plot of land similar in size to Church Street Park earlier that day on his way to an appointment in Cary, which had been leveled for new playing fields. The town hasn’t finalized plans for it yet. But that was also the case in Morrisville a decade ago. “Who knows, maybe in a year and a half we might have a facility like Church Street Park, which is really good for more cricket.”

Cricket

continued from page 80

Kodali, a 19-year-old all-rounder and former captain of the national under-19 team, began playing cricket at the age of 11 in California, but moved to North Carolina in 2019 to take the next step in her cricketing career. “This was the main reason for my move,” she said. “It has helped me build my skills through training programs and coaching sessions offered on Church Street.” She cites the youth training offered in Morrisville, and the fact that it draws teams from all of the United States, and the fact that TCL offers separate competitions for young women. “With the increasing diversity in the United States, where cricket is more popular in certain immigrant communities, more girls from those backgrounds are taking up the sport,” Kodali said. Still, a lot more can be done to promote cricket, she said, such as reserving grounds for youth cricket, launching more youth training programs, and introducing cricket in schools. Kodali believes that while traditional American sports, especially baseball, remain popular in the region, cricket is fast catching up. “Cricket is widely followed,” she said. “If introduced into schools with a good program structure, it will appeal to a diverse population.”

Young cricket players practice at indoor cricket facility SAMP Army Sports Complex. (Cornell Watson for The Assembly) The World Stage Cricket will get another big boost in 2024 when the United States co-hosts the T20 World Cup with the West Indies. When the ICC first announced the hosts in November 2021, there were concerns about U.S.A. Cricket’s viability, ranging from a financial crunch—the organization is reportedly $650,000 in debt and in a funding dispute with the ICC—to a lack of facilities. But the ICC confirmed in July that the United States was on deck. And in September, the council announced the three American venues where the matches will take place: Central Broward Park in Florida, Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas, and Eisenhower Park in New York. Saathee.com

Reprinted with permission from The Assembly. Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a Pakistani journalist who writes about politics and culture for a number of global publications. The Assembly publishes deep reporting on power and place in North Carolina. Visit: theassemblync.com. 82

January 2024

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things. What’s changed now? I like what I like, that’s the same, but now, I know what I like, too. “Good morning, Dipika.” Personally, I like ‘third places’, which are neither home, “Well, hello. How are you? Ah, that’s good to hear she’s nor work. They serve a need for inclusion, welcome, and okay, now. And, good morning to you, too.” comfort. I like this. Tea and a bit of craic, Cambodia-style, too. I like it a lot. To sit in the morning, with tea, getting comfortable with a piece of paper and a pencil and making Dipika Kohli a mark on a page. Or rereading things that I will have is an author who is based in Phnom Penh. Discover her written in earlier moments when the mood struck. In this books at kismuth.com and other projects at way, I understand better what it is that makes me who I am dipikakohli.com. becoming. It’s not who am I, in this phase of this journey. Not anymore. It’s who am I going to be, next. Editor’s Desk Here feels good. It’s okay to simply stop in, sit down, and continued from page 14 not say anything, because someone will know, ‘That’s the person who comes here all the time. Give her the discount. Diﬀerent cultures and religions around the world mark Give her the nice teacups.’ I’ve made a few friends out of a new year with their own days sprinkled through the year, acquaintances who do what I do, coming here. We watch the depending on their traditions and religious markers. In the street. At this hour the bicycle repairman is putting up his meantime, through conquests and colonization, the first day great tarps, and getting ready for a wave of people who need of January has won the global battle as the universally to get things stitched up to get going. There’s no franticness; accepted turn of the yearly counts. everyone gets a turn. Human ambitions are illuminated, softened, abandoned, This is how it’s come to happen. This is how I’m renewed, smacked into reality by the tick tock of time. The ambiently part of the community, here where I am right first day of a new year often awakens a sense of purpose and now. So, over time, you shift from one place to begin to realignment in many people. The proverbial resolutions. For belong to another. You become known. Perhaps elsewhere, others it’s just another day, another year. you will have been forgotten. You let go. You move forward. In this incoming new year, the two most consequential I think those of us who have been gone too far for too long democracies of the 21st century plow forward with their can relate to each other when someone brings it up. The achievements, stumbles, dreams, and their evolutions, to sail plain fact that there is no ‘back’ to go ‘home’ to. Remember the waters into the future. Both United States and India will the last scene of the third movie of Lord of the Rings? hold massive elections in 2024, this newly minted year. The The truth is, I’m still on the road. But, parked for a bit, world’s most important and essential democracies will work I’m also home. to hold fair and transparent elections, an exercise where If you’re not a new reader of this magazine, you may even the most common, unsung citizens can make their know that the last time I wrote for Saathee was at the voices heard. No other countries come close to this beginning of the pandemic. Kismuth & the Way sort of went endeavor. on a long tour, inward, reflecting and going, ‘What the’. A Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard cynics and blowhards complain lot. Circumstances being as they were, I wound up staying about elections, and elites, and the downtrodden and the in Vietnam for twenty months. Waiting, mostly, for the seemingly downfall of democracies for years. pandemic to ‘end.’ Ignore these self-defeating negatives. Participation in the So here I am. I relax a lot, but today is also a relaxing day. electoral process is the most citizen thing one can do. Just being here now, in this awakening city. Maybe readers India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting to of this magazine can relate. What’s fascinating to me is that win his 3rd term. President Joe Biden of course is also I can now finally understand ‘the look.’ It’s the look that I’ve running for reelection. seen often that members of a diaspora get, when they will Several Republican candidates are sparring to win the talk about it and open up and share and will become mistynomination from presumptive nominee Donald Trump. eyed and sing the praises of ‘home.’ That is a big presumption. Anything can happen as the year To quote the Irish singer/songwriter Christy Moore: progresses. Bring it on. Clasp hands instead of making fists. Plow In the City of Chicago deep. Another year is here. Grab shovels and bricks, not to As the evening shadows fall build buildings, but construct consensus and There are people dreaming commonalities. Plowing deep is for growing, not just Of the hills of Donegal digging holes. This possible building of consensus and sunny dispositions is in our hands, unwrapped and ready Maybe it was Ireland where the pubs were the third to roll. places. In Ireland I got to know ‘the craic,’ the music, the food, the gatherings, the people who are the funniest in the Samir Shukla world, the landscapes of green and greener, and the oceans is the Editor of Saathee Magazine of southwest County Cork. Three years there. I think it was Contact: Samir@Saathee.com way back then, the first time going abroad for an extended Twitter: @ShuklaWrites time, that I felt this was right, for me. To unlearn the too-fast Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com

Kismuth

continued from page 50

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January 2024

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Nutrition

● Collard greens Patra – use collard leaves to make patra

continued from page 52

instead of the traditional Colocasia leaves

Cruciferous vegetables contain a group of substances known as glucosinolates, which are sulfur-containing chemicals. These chemicals are responsible for the pungent aroma and bitter flavor of cruciferous vegetables. When these vegetables are cut, chopped, or chewed, the glucosinolates are broken down to form biologically active compounds, including a potent phytochemical called sulforaphane. Research has shown that this phytochemical has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown a link between intake of cruciferous vegetables and the risk of cancer, specifically reducing risks of prostate, colorectal , lung, and breast cancer. In addition, some studies show that eating vegetables high in sulforaphane causes reduction in depression, improved pain management, reduction in obesity and improved conditions related to liver health and cardiovascular disease.

● Kale salad or added to soup or baked kale chips ● Horseradish or wasabi sauce ● Root vegetable roast with turnips and rutabagas ● Arugula salad or put arugula on a sandwich or homemade pizza

● Add thinly sliced cabbage to traditional kanda poha or batata poha made with onions/potatoes

● You can make any traditional sabji or daal with any of these vegetables using desi masala. Other traditional recipes include muthia, handvo, tikkis, koftas or kebabs made with these vegetables In short, try to incorporate many varieties of cruciferous vegetables in your diet. Start your new year with color and eat a rainbow. Wishing you all a healthy and harmonious New Year!

Crucifers can be harder to digest The very compound that makes these veggies the healthiest is also the one that can create gas. Cooked cruciferous vegetables may be easier to digest than raw. However, there is a caveat. The glucosinolates in crucifers need the enzyme myrosinase to form sulforaphane and other health-promoting compounds. Cooking the vegetables can destroy the myrosinase, which means the glucosinolates don’t get converted to make sulforaphane. So, while this makes the vegetables easier to digest, it can reduce their nutritional potency. But the good news is that there is a work around solution. The trick is to chop the vegetables and let them rest for at least 30-40 minutes before cooking them or eating them. This helps the conversion process, and then the cooking doesn’t destroy the enzymes. So, prep the veggies ahead of time rather than cutting and cooking them right away!

Parul Kharod is a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist and works as a Clinical Dietitian. She can be reached at parulkharod@gmail.com

Ways to add cruciferous vegetables to your diet: Fortunately, we don’t have to look far to be able to able incorporate these vegetables into our diet. A lot of our traditional recipes already use these vegetables. Think of aloo gobi, sarson ka saag, cabbage poriyal or sambharo, mooli koshimbir / paratha / bhurji etc. Here are some other ways to add these vegetables on a routine basis:

● Broccoli / cauliflower soup ● Asian style noodles / rice stir fry w/ broccoli & Bok Choy ● Roasted Brussels sprouts – roast Brussels sprouts with low sodium soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Thinly sliced or shaved Brussels sprouts can also be added to stir fry

● Thai style peanuty salad with red cabbage and other vegetables

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January 2024

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The R ad t

2024 Electi ns

Your Guide to Election News and Upcoming Dates

North Carolina Lawmakers Codify Semi-closed Primary System In early November, North Carolina lawmakers changed the state's election law to give unaffiliated voters the right to participate in partisan primaries, creating a semiclosed primary system. Previously, state law permitted but did not require parties to allow these voters to participate in their primaries. North Carolina is one of five states that have opened their primaries to unaffiliated voters or begun allowing parties to do so since 2000. Colorado and Maine passed laws allowing unaffiliated voters to vote in the primary of their choice in 2016 and 2022, respectively. Maryland changed its laws in 2003 to permit parties to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in its primary elections. West Virginia did the same in 2011. Source: Ballotpedia.org

Presidential Primary Election Dates 2024: January 15, 2024: Iowa Republican caucuses February 3, 2024: South Carolina Democratic presidential primary February 6, 2024: Nevada Democratic presidential primary February 13, 2024: New Hampshire Republican presidential primary February 24, 2024: South Carolina Republican presidential primary March 5, 2024: Super Tuesday (includes NC, TN, VA) May 21, 2024: Georgia presidential primary

Two More Republican Presidential Debates in January

National Conventions: May 24 - 26, 2024: Libertarian National Convention (Washington D.C.) July 15 - 18, 2024: Republican National Convention (Milwaukee) August 19 - 22, 2024: Democratic National Convention (Chicago)

CNN has announced the network will host two Republican presidential primary debates this month in Iowa and New Hampshire. The first debate will take place on January 10, 2024 at 9 p.m. at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, just before the Iowa Caucuses. CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate. The second debate will be January 21, 2024 in New Hampshire. The location and moderators were not announced at press time. It is not clear which candidates will qualify or attend. Check CNN listings for updates.

State Election Boards Websites: North Carolina: Ncsbe.gov South Carolina: Scvotes.gov Georgia: Sos.ga.gov/state-election-board Virginia: Elections.virginia.gov

Upcoming Dates:

Useful Websites Republican Presidential Debate: January 10, 2024 in Iowa (hosted by CNN) January 21, 2024 in New Hampshire (hosted by CNN)

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Federal Election Commission: Fec.gov Factcheck.org Ballotpedia.org

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is likely to drive meaningful returns in the sector. In the coming weeks, the market will focus on the Fed meeting, economic data, and geopolitics.

Eye on Markets

continued from page 46

The inflation numbers also have moderated. CPI is now down to 3.2 percent, and monthly CPI was zero. PPI (producer prices) shows outright deflation on a monthly basis. Unit labor costs were down last quarter, showing outright deflation. There is more cooling of inflation in the pipeline when market rents and used car prices are factored in. Autos and housing make up over half of the CPI index. The latest Manheim Used Car Index was down 5.3 percent. Oil prices are also down significantly since the end of September. While certain OPEC-plus members are cutting production, non-OPEC members are producing at record levels led by the US with over 13mm bpd. The global supply chain index hit a record low, which means there is less pressure on businesses to raise prices. We have seen inflation decline meaningfully across the world, which should spread to the US. Walmart’s CEO said on its earnings call, “in the U.S., we may be managing through a period of deflation in the months to come.” Yields have started to reflect this with the 10YR backing oﬀ 5 percent. It is likely that the long end remains anchored at higher levels driven by the fiscal deficit, quantitative tightening, and a supply/demand imbalance. The front-end is likely to move lower as the market adjusts for Fed policy. The result is that the yield curve likely steepens and will move back into positive territory in 2024. The market internals tell the same story. The month showed a clear bifurcation and rotation out of the inflationoriented sectors and into the deflation-oriented sectors. There was an over 15 percent spread through the last month between technology and energy highlights the rotation. As inflation and rates moderated, for the first time this year, we saw meaningful breadth expansion. Beaten up areas such as small caps, biotech, regional banks, medical devices, industrials, international equities all participated. A few large cap tech stocks have been responsible for nearly the entire rally this year. As breadth expands there is meaningful upside in all these other beaten-up areas. One that stands out is financials. According to Goldman Sachs, hedge fund positioning in financials is the lowest since they started recording such data. Flows all year have been negative out of financials. Financials are one of the biggest beneficiaries of the yield curve steepening. Their balance sheet and income statement are levered to improvement in the rate environment. They trade at just 10x cash flow, compared to 14.75x for the S&P, over a 40 percent discount. Despite all the turmoil, financials have grown both revenue and earnings this year. They are expected to finish 2023 with the second highest revenue growth of any sector. Earnings growth was up 20 percent in the third quarter. The growth is expected to continue in 2024. Capital markets and M&A are not likely to remain this depressed for much longer, which further supports earnings. The market value of all banks in the S&P 500 is less than 10 percent of the index’s market value, an all-time low. The ratio was previously depressed in the late 1980’s, only for financials to outperform throughout most of the 1990’s. A lot of bad news has been priced into the sector, with very little positioning, any marginal fundamental improvement Saathee.com

Read Eye on Markets every month online at Saathee.com

Ketu Desai is the principal of i-squared Wealth Management Inc. (www.isquaredwealth.com), an investment management firm based in New Jersey. ketu@isquaredwealth.com

Thinking

continued from page 72

inside the human brain: there are no clear demarcation lines between what our imagination and linguistic creativity concoct versus the real-world things that matter. So, we can spend an entire lifetime believing in things that don’t exist, never existed, and will never exist. Alongside things that do. We should be thankful for the latter, because the living thing inside us will never outsource everything to our conscious scrabble-playing brain that could otherwise play mischief with the things that really matter, such as our instinctive abilities that protect us from lions, tigers, humans and other predators. And, so, we see the world, hazily, through our words, numbers and other symbolic substitutes. There are lots and lots of holes in what we see. The only thing that can save us from our hole-ridden “truth” is some modicum of humility, so that we stay open to the possibility, at all times, that we could be wrong in some important and impactful ways. But … There is something that is even more dangerous to our existence than words. An I for an eye, a soothe for a truth We like to feel safe. Soothed. Our eyes see, but the desires and fears of the I inside can be motivated to warp and distort things, unless we put it on a leash. Our words and “logic” can be the puppets of this puppet master, endorsing and providing a “rational” basis for everything that we would like. The truth in the universe cares little about our feelings or our words. It goes on. Like a juggernaut. It can crush us under its weight as it pushes ahead on its relentless march unless we seek to understand it and align with it. Wouldn’t it be good to monitor our integrity at least every so often? Can we be sure that our words inhabit the real world? Can we be sure that our fears and desires aren’t making us blind? Are we superstitious beings? Could it be that our animal brethren are less superstitious than us because they don’t have the technology of words with which they can make up stuﬀ, and blind themselves? The New Year beckons! Here’s to a year of integrity: a year in which fears, desires and words will be a distant second to the glorious universe out there. Here’s to a year of humility and self-awareness!

Balaji Prasad is an IIT/IIM graduate, a published author, SAT/ACT Online and in-person Coach, and K-12 Math Tutor at NewCranium. balaji.prasad@newcranium.com. 90

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There are three aspects of Lord Shiva’s Thandava dances, namely: The Destructive, The Yogic and The Gift giving. In the first aspect of Thandava, He dances on the burning grounds, with ten arms, denoting great power, celestial and miraculous. Shiva dances as the destroyer of illusion. The burning grounds symbolize the hearts of humans, cleansed by the fire of knowledge to destroy ignorance. This dance is very invigorating and powerful. It requires tremendous agility and great stamina as it is choreographed with diﬃcult Karanas or poses demanding flexibility and strength of the dancers. The second aspect of Shiva’s dance is the Yogic-evening dance performed on Mount Kailash. It is known as Sandhya Thandavam. This dance reflects the calm and beauty of a gorgeous sunset in the mountains. As we experience this yogic evening dance, it allows us to surrender the worldly ambitions, sorrow, ego, fear, and pride. The music is usually very relaxing and very rhythmic in nature. The third aspect of dance is the Gift giving. Lord Nataraja represents the third aspect. This is the mystic dance of Lord Shiva, danced before the golden assembly in the Golden Hall of Chidambaram or Thillai in Chennai, South India. The very meaning of the Chidambaram is crucial to understand its significance. Chit means the heart or consciousness. Ambaram means universe, the heavens, or hall. At age five, this is where my dream to become a classical dancer began. There is a famous dance called Natanam Adinar in Bharatha Natyam style that describes the Ananda (Happy) dance of Lord Nataraja in this Golden temple. Some of the 108 Karanas or poses as shown in the temple are often used to choreograph this powerful dance. Learning the Karana movements is part of every dance student’s syllabus. Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam has made a tremendous contribution to the dance world by studying all the sources describing the Karanas and reconstructing and documenting them. Lasya Thandavam is the dance performed by Shiva’s wife Parvathi in response to Shiva’s Thandava in which the movements are gentle and graceful. Many devotees and Gods assembled on Mount Kailash to witness this cosmic dance. This dance represents the love of Lord Shiva for his wife Parvathi. His smiling face, reflecting love, and compassion represent his dual personality of God and Goddess, who is the gentle gracious entity with powerful nobleness. Such dance dramas truly immerse audiences and take them back in time. I just wanted to share these mystic stories with my ardent readers. If you are planning to visit India this summer, try to visit some of these thousands of years old temples. These amazing archeological sites may become spiritual sites for all dancers. My sincere thanks to all of you and hope to see you all on April 6, 2024 in Charlotte.

Personal Finances

continued from page 62

• Since you drew up your documents, have there been any Federal or State laws changes? There have been many changes in the last 3-4 years and there is a possibility of more after 2025. • Do you need to update your Will and Power of Attorneys for financial or health reasons, especially if your documents are more than 10 years old? • The individuals named as beneficiaries and fiduciaries in your documents are still the right people to handle your aﬀairs or do you see a need to change those assignments. • If you have promised your special furniture or jewelry or heirlooms to someone and it is not recorded yet in documents, then it needs to be done. Vacation homes, especially on a lake or oceanfront are notorious for struggles. • Have you documented all your assets and its access details in one place somewhere for fiduciaries to reach? Do they know where they are, and have you discussed it with them? • Have you rethought your ideas about your medical conditions and what should happen under what circumstances? All this needs to be conveyed to the right people and documented or updated in your existing documents. Adult Children When children cross the magic threshold of 18 (or 21 depending on the state) many things change and you may not realize it, especially if they are going to another state or even to another town in the same state for their schooling. Not only do they need to have their own set of similar documents as we have been discussing but you need to have HIPAA permission from them to access their medical information, otherwise it will be denied to you. This always has an element of unpleasant surprise to many parents. It does take some time to sink in that they are not the children we would have liked them to be forever, but they live, or would like to live, their own lives now and it may not be by your standards and/or rules.

Mo Vidwans is an independent, board certified financial planner. For details visit, VidwansFinancial.com, call 734-476-0579 or write to: mvfinancial@yahoo.com

Dances of India

continued from page 40

The most famous of Lord Shiva’s family dances are the Thandava dances. These dances are used to direct mortals on the path of renunciation of the ego to gain true knowledge and salvation. As you may know, according to Hindu religion, the Supreme Lord of the dance is Shiva, third of the Dr. Maha Gingrich Hindu trinity. Shiva represents that aspect of God who For questions or comments, contact via email at creates good (true knowledge) and destroys evil (ignorance). GingrichMaha@gmail.com He is the source of cosmic harmony and rhythm. Saathee.com

January 2024

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Watch the Video Here: India’s Obesity Time Bomb

Go to Our Film Guide Here: Streaming and theatrical releases are listed and updated regularly.

Nutrition for Life: Read about winter foods in an essay here.

Go to our Recipes Page Here: Lots of delicious recipes found in Saathee are gathered here.

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January 2024

Scientists and Space Agencies 5 Essential Reads on Modern Lunar Missions

By Mary Magnuson The year 2023 proved a big one for lunar science. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed near the south pole of the Moon, a huge accomplishment for a country relatively new to the space scene, especially after its Chandrayaan-2 craft crashed in 2019. At the same time, NASA’s been gearing up for a host of Moon-related missions, including its Artemis program. In 2023, the agency gained nine signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international agreement for peaceful space exploration, for a total of 32 countries that have signed so far. As Georgia Tech’s Mariel Borowitz explains, the U.S. now has widespread bipartisan political support for spacefaring – for the first time since the 1970s – and returning missions to the Moon is the first natural target. Here are five stories that The Conversation U.S. has published over the past year about lunar exploration, including why people want to go back to the Moon, what Chandrayaan-3 found during its initial foray across the lunar surface and the ever-growing problem of lunar space junk. 1. Why shoot for the Moon? Missions to the Moon hold potential benefits for a variety of sectors, including commercial, military and geopolitical. “Ever since humans last left the Moon in 1972, many have dreamed about the days when people would return. But for decades, these eﬀorts have hit political roadblocks,” wrote Borowitz. “This time, the United States’ plans to return to the Moon are likely to succeed – it has the crosssector support and the strategic importance to ensure continuity, even during politically challenging times.” While some of these potential uses are incredibly far oﬀ – from mining the Moon for resources to sending out military satellites to orbit around the Moon – missions to the Moon in the near term will help inform scientists and stakeholders of future possibilities. 2. Searching for sulfur India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the Moon’s surface, just a few miles away from the lunar south pole, in late August 2023. Its rover, called Pragyan, took measurements of the lunar surface and found the soil near the south pole contains a surprise – sulfur.

Saathee.com

As Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote, future Moon missions or a future Moon base could use lunar sulfur as an ingredient in everything from fuel and fertilizer to concrete. 3. Water in ice But sulfur’s not the only resource the lunar south pole could have to offer. For several years, scientists have predicted that the lunar south pole might have water in the form of ice. And Chandrayaan-3’s sulfur discovery gives scientists more insight into how and how recently ice might have formed on the surface. Comets or volcanic activity could have brought water to the Moon years ago. If volcanic activity is the culprit for water’s appearance, scientists would also expect to see sulfur in higher levels, wrote Paul Hayne, an assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. A host of future missions to the Moon, including NASA’s VIPER mission planned for 2024, will continue to investigate where ice could be hiding on the Moon. 4. Moon debris With all the Moon missions, both current and upcoming, some experts have raised concerns about the increased space junk in the “cislunar space” – or the space between Earth and the Moon and around the Moon. NASA doesn’t currently track the space junk left behind from its missions, and this lack of oversight has many people worried. One team at the University of Arizona has started building a catalog of debris left in this space. Team members started off by identifying a few large objects, and as their methods got better, they were able to see objects as small as a cereal box. The team hopes this work will one day improve the sustainability of future lunar missions. “While there is still a long way to go, these efforts are designed to ultimately form the basis for a catalog that will help lead to safer, more sustainable use of cislunar orbital space as humanity begins its expansion off of the Earth,” writes Vishnu Reddy, a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.

January 2024

are Shooting for the Moon

5. Future flyers

Crew members of the Artemis II mission are NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. NASA

Early this year, NASA announced who will make up the crew of their Artemis II mission. Set for late 2024, Artemis II will fly by the Moon and test the technology and equipment planned for use in future missions. It will also mark the first time people are close to the lunar surface in over 50 years. Three of the four crew members have spent time in space, with the fourth having spent lots of time in spaceflight simulations. Each started their careers as a military pilot, just like all the astronauts of the Apollo missions. But this crew represents more racial and gender diversity than the astronauts of the Apollo era. “Unlike the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, with Artemis, NASA has placed a heavy emphasis on building a politically sustainable lunar program by fostering the participation of a diverse group of people and countries,” wrote Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor of strategy and security studies at Air University. This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. Article courtesy of The Conversation theconversation.com

Saathee.com

January 2024

Mirror

Namaskar

continued from page 44

continued from page 58

Additionally, watching a movie or any nugget of performance available at your fingertips is not enjoyment enough, critiquing it with passion has become equally important. My guilty pleasure is flipping through digital ads. The annoying advertisers follow me like the chanawala (snack seller) on Juhu beach who wouldn’t let visitors enjoy their walk or relax until they bought a handful of chanas filled in a paper cone. Ads have adopted the same strategy, although the products cost much more than peanuts. Interestingly, we are more than consumers of entertainment, you and I, my friend, are also entertainers. Funny videos of kids’ goof ups, dances or songs by amateur performers, or lip synching to movie lines are mostly tolerable because those artists are friends or family members and truth be told, the “loves” and “likes” for the videos demonstrate aﬀection for the person rather than admiration for their talent. I can’t help but marvel at the variety of newfound talent and I don’t even have TikTok. What can be dismissed as a waste of one’s time can be useful, too. Watching old Yash Chopra film hits can be a boredom buster while loading the dishwasher and I can increase the IQ of a mindless task such as folding laundry by listening to informative podcasts. On some days I am eager to get on the treadmill, because it’s the perfect excuse to catch up on the audio version of the novel I am reading. As I have mentioned in one of my previous articles titled “A Vitamin Called Fiction”, reading literary fiction can be therapeutic and I often turn to books when my mind is in turmoil. Nevertheless, the abundance of fun and games is not leading to a population that is devoid of stress. Folks aren’t smiling from ear to ear all the time but are rather grouchy. If you have any doubts, read a few comments on public posts. It was an episode from my favorite podcast series Hidden Brain that helped me understand this puzzling outcome. On the show titled, “The Paradox of Pleasure,” psychiatrist Anna Lembke shared how innocuous activities such as reading romance novels can become an addiction due to easy access, abundance, and variety of the “drug.” Once a person becomes addicted, their sensation of feeling high is short lived and sadness emerges if they do not receive the next dose quickly. Unfortunately, the convenience of online shopping, high speed internet, and aﬀordability of mobile devices, have come at a cost. Contrary to popular belief, having limits, fewer choices, and in many cases, ignorance may lead to greater happiness. Expecting joy all the time may be a fallacy, but we can introduce more balance in our lives by taking breaks from constant entertainment. On a rainy afternoon this past December, I put my phone away and spent the afternoon decorating the Christmas tree and those hours filled me with contentment. As the year progresses, I hope that we can mix fun and responsibility in just the right amounts.

Even in South Asian cinema, we witnessed a larger shift with films such as Chhatriwali, Farhana, Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway, and My Name is Shruthi as their female leads were given much more to do than to simply be a love interest. While the actresses in these portrayals are still held to a certain standard as far as their physical appearance (skin color, hair color, and body type specifically) this is a step in a more positive direction. Polite Society from writer/director Nida Manzoor took this a step further with a story that focuses on two BritishPakistani sisters: Ria (Priya Kansara), who dreams of being a stuntwoman, and Lena (Ritu Arya), whose artistic aspirations have been recently crushed. They support each other’s “unconventional” goals, even when the rest of the world doesn’t. Hijinks then ensue in an entertaining mixture of action, extravagance, and laughs. It is an underrated comedy gem I suggest you seek out when you have the chance. In a somewhat ironic twist, however, 2023 also ushered onto us the “Year of the Girl” - a social trend whereas some women tapped more into their feminine side and stepped away from a more “girl boss” attitude. The worldwide success of the Barbie movie helped boost this mentality by adding fuel to the fire of “reclaiming” the concept of being a girl. Beauty standards from 10 and even 20 years ago have resurfaced with slimmer cuts, pastel shades (especially pink), and tons of sequins to give consumers a more youthful façade. All the glitter, bright colors, and girlhood wasn’t enough for influencers on streaming platforms either. Unrealistic beauty filters, a never-ending plethora of videos educating us about 20-step skincare routines to prevent wrinkles, and the sudden popularity of diabetes drug Ozempic as a means of quick weight loss have littered many a social media feed. Various presentations by these online celebrities are depicted as moments of sincerity, but in truth are just masquerading as sponsored materialistic fodder. The constant focus on superficial goods obviously stereotypes how women post online in general; that every posted picture or video must be about something they wear, eat, or decorate their living space with. In so doing, this idealistic approach is meant by proxy to channel that person’s inner psyche. An oxymoron to the highest degree: showing how authentic you are by means of aﬀectation. Parading around like a peacock in designer jeans and a $300 handbag does not make one relatable. It makes you a hypocrite. So, what is the solution to this problem? That, like beauty standards themselves, will always be in flux. The only new year’s resolution I can recommend is this… choose something that makes you happy. If that includes a newfound obligation to lose weight, then go for it. Just remember that we as people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and so forth. Perfection is simply a word… and its definition is ultimately up to your own interpretation.

Jennifer Allen works at Saathee and is also a Podcaster, Blogger, Photographer, Graphic Artist, Gamer, Martial Arts Practitioner, and an all around Pop Culture Geek. You can reach her at Saathee@Saathee.com

Shyama Parui is a long time North Carolina resident and an ardent writer. You can reach her at: shyamashree_parui@hotmail.com Saathee.com

January 2024

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January 2024

Tune Your Brain Solve these brain teasers - Solutions on Page 110

Saathee.com

January 2024

Quiz Corner

Who wants to be a Scholar?! Answer the ones you know and research the rest. There is only one correct answer! 1. Arrange these India’s freedom fighters from British rule chronologically by birthday. (a) Bhagat Singh (b) Mahatma Gandhi (c) Mangal Pandey (d) Bahadur Shah Zafar 2. Music director of 2020 Hindi film: 83. (a) Pritam (b) Sanjay Leelā Bhansāli (c) A. R. Rahman (d) Anu Malik

Word World By Kirit Shukla

N N

3. A & B sleep on their back. Both are on left of each other. If B is South of A, in which direction the head of A is? (a) North (b) East (c) West (d) South 4. Achluophobia is the fear of (a) Heights (c) Noise

A A

5. Our Moon orbits the Earth approximately every (a) 1 Day (b) 15 Days (c) 27 Days (d) 30 Days

6. The volume of the space between two spheres of radius = 7” & 14” is approximately (a) 6.82 Cubic feet (b) 5.82 Cubic feet (c) 4.82 Cubic feet (d) 2.82 Cubic feet

Make words using 4 or more letters. The central letter must be used in each word. Plural words are not allowed. Use all letters for the subject word (underlined in solutions below)

7. Melting point of Tin (Symbol Sn) is about (a) 292º C (b) 272º C (c) 252º C (d) 232º C

12+ words = Excellent; 8 to 11 words = Good; 7 or less = keep looking. Some words we found are in solutions below.

8. This game of Indian origin is widely played around the world. (a) Kho Kho (b) Kancha/Lakhoti (c) Chess (d) Parcheesi/Chaupar

Brain-Train

9. A Sonnet poem has __ lines. (a) 4 (c) 10

Here is a fun quiz. See if you can solve it. No peeking! Match the number in column 1 with letter in column 2 Games or Puzzles 1. TV Show - Jeopardy 2. TV Show - Wheel of Fortune 3. Game - Chess/Checkers 4. Game - Shoots & Ladders 5. Game - Scrabble 6. Tic-Tac - Toe 7. Pops Puzzles Word Find 8. Parcheesi 9. Game - Monopoly 10. Rubik’s Cube

(b) 8 (d) 14

10. The highest peak in North Carolina is Mount (a) Craig (b) Chapman (c) Mitchell (d) Carolina

...Number of Squares

Answers are on bottom left. No Peeking. Scholar: All correct; 1st Class: 8 Correct; 2nd Class: 7 Correct; 3rd Class: 6 Correct; Need to improve: 5 or less

A. 9 B. 40 C. 52 D. 60 E. 64 F. 84 G. 96 H. 100 I. 144 J. 225

Key Word Search Fill in blanks of these clues, then take the first letter of each word and unscramble them to find this month’s Key Word.

Saturday and ___. A bird’s home ___. Large river flowing through Egypt ___. Spring, Summer, Autumn, ___. September, ___, November Reply to a question. ___. Long-distance foot race (26 mi, 42 km). ___.

Brain Train: 1-D, 2-C, 3-E, 4-H, 5-J, 6-A, 7-I, 8-G, 9-B, 10-F Scholar: 1.c, b, d, a 2.a 3.c 4.d 5.c 6.d 7.b 8.c 9.d 10.c Word World (Solution)ANNA, ARIA, AVIAN, INVAR, NAAN, NAIRA, NANA, NIRVANA, RAIN, RANI, RAVIN, VAIN, VAIR, VARA, VARNA, VINA Saathee.com

(b) Itching insects (d) Darkness

Answers on page 104 100

January 2024

12/31/24

PUZZLES & TOONS

Clues Down: 1. __ __ King, Jr. American civil rights movement leader. 2. An exceptionally large profit in a business enterprise. 3. The enlarged part of the abdomen behind the pedicel in hymenopterous insects, like ants. 4. Makar Sankranti; Northward movement of Earth 5. Internet Explorer. (*) 6. Recombinant Deoxyribonucleic Acid. (*) 7. The quality of being certain or definite . 8. A light-emitting diode . 9. A domestic bovine mammal. 10. “Nathuram ___,” Gandhiji’s assassin. 12. An authoritative determination. 15. Symbol for chemical element of Silver. 17. A country in western Africa, Capital: Abuja. 18. ‘Giver of life’; The Goddess Parvati. (Sanskrit word) 21. Symbol for chemical element Tellurium. 23. Collection of Old Norse wise sayings. 24. Before. 28. London Youth Support Trust. (*) . 30. A city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. 31. An elaborate outfit. 32. Summer solstice. 34. A rod passing through the center of group of wheels. 36. A loathsome person. 39. Indian Standards Institution. (*) 41. Luxembourg. (*)

By Kirit Shukla

Note: * denotes abbreviation of the word or phrase

Clues Across: 1. Nuclear power plant near Charlotte. 7. A shoe or a sandal having a thick typically wooden sole. 11. The bulbous posterior portion of the metasoma found in hymenopterans. 12. A relief plate printing process on nonporous substrate. 13. An interval of silence of a specified duration. (Music) 14. The aquatic larva of a dragonfly or stonefly. 16. The main railway station of city of Jamshedpur, India. 18. Bachelor of Science. (*) 19. International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. (*) 20. 10% of a person’s income given to a church. 22. A large stone structure of Sardinia built in shape of a truncated cone and held to date from the bronze age. 25. The hot Darjeeling beverage favored in India. 26. Low Pressure. (*) 27. Annually. 29. Virtual Memory. (*) 31. “Steve ___”, American professional baseball player. 32. Lebanese-American University. (*) 33. Adult tapeworms in the intestines of carnivores. 35. A definite quantity of work assigned. 37. Haskell XML Toolbox. (*) (Computing, Software) 38. Cell division of the nucleus and division of the cytoplasm without spindle formation of chromosomes. 40. The 12th month of the civil year in the Jewish calendar. 42. A bronze coin of the ancient Roman republic. 43. Ampere-Hour. (*) 44. January 26: When India’s constitution came into eﬀect. Saathee.com

(solution on page 104)

102

January 2024

WordFind

Math Magic Fill in the empty squares to get = the final given answers. Use any number from 1 to 8 only once: Note: Follow the order of operation per basic math rule: ×,÷, +, The multiplication or division is done before addition and subtraction. (solution on page 104)

Find & circle the words in the puzzle.

EZ-BZ

Subject: Travel and Leisure CAMPING

ROAM

COURSE

SAIL

CRUISE

SEAFARING

DRIVE

TANGA

EXCURSION

TOUR

EXPEDITION

TOURING

FLIGHT

TRAVERSE

GLOBETROT

TREK

GO ABROAD

TRIP

JAUNT

VISIT

JOURNEY

VOYAGE

MOVE

WALK

RAMBLE

WANDER

TEST YOUR IQ The common letters are “EK” - Fill in the blanks)

1. A small short-billed black and white auk. _ _ _ EK _ _ 2. The tea made from young leaves. _ EK _ _ 3. The middle of the week. _ _ _ _ _ EK 4. The 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. _ _ _ EK _ 5. To fake (an opponent) out of position. _ EK _ 6. Endurance training in which a runner alternates periods of sprinting with periods of jogging. _ _ _ _ _ EK 7. A town in Carter County, Montana, US. EK _ _ _ _ _ 8. Twice a week. _ _ _ _ EK _ _ 9. An expert in a technological computer field. _ _ EK 10. Small baking dish for cheese/bread crumbs. _ _ _ EK _ _ 11. A prune butter used as a pastry filling. _ EK _ _ _ 12. A very thin translucent porcelain with a lustrous pearly glaze produced in Ireland. _ _ _ _ _ EK 13. The basic monetary unit of Israel. _ _ EK _ _ 14. Excessively submissive. _ _ _ _ _ _ EK 15. California's state motto. _ _ _ EK _ 16. Katina; wife of the late Sergei Grinkov, 1988 and 1994 Olympic Russian figure skating champion. EK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 17. Saturday and Sunday. _ _ EK _ _ _ 18. Active aquatic swimmers in a body of water. _ EK _ _ _ 19. Natural stream of water smaller than a river. _ _ _ EK 20. Currency of Equatorial Guinea from 1975-85. EK _ _ _ _ 21. A wild shrill or scream. _ _ _ _ EK 22. A furnace for reducing shells to lime. _ _ _ EK _ _ _ 23. Trimmed with eyelet embroidery. _ _ EK _ _ _ _ 24. A white-headed Australian shelduck. _ _ _ _ EK _ _ 25. A native of Greece. _ _ _ EK

RIDE

The unused 11 letters spell another way to say “Journey Modes” (answer on page 104)

(Puzzle solutions are on page 104. NO peeking!) Saathee Puzzle Master

Kirit Shukla kiritsshukla@gmail.com Saathee.com

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January 2024

Festivals & Holidays - Puzzle Solutions Spot the Diﬀerences Solutions from page 56/57

JANUARY 2024 Jan. 1 - New Year’s Day (2024) Jan. 1 - Kwanzaa Ends Jan. 2 - Putradā / Vaikuntha Ekadashi Jan. 6 - Epiphany Jan. 11 - Darsh Amas (New Moon) Jan. 11 - Hanuman Jayanti Jan. 12 - Swami Vivekanand Jayanti Jan. 12 - Youth Day (India) Jan. 14 - Maaghi / Lohri Jan. 15 - Uttarāyan / Makar Sankranti Jan. 15 - Martin Luther King, Jr Day Jan. 15 - Pongal Jan. 16 - Religious Freedom Day Jan. 17 - Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti Jan. 17 - Uzhavar Thirunal Jan. 23 - Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Jayanti Jan. 24 - International Day of Education Jan. 25 - Shakambhari Jan. 25 - Pausha Purnima (Full Moon) Jan. 25 - Tu B’Shevat Jan. 25 - Mahāyāna New Year Jan. 25 - Hazrat Ali Jayanti Jan. 26 - Republic Day (India) Jan. 30 - Gandhi Punyatithi

1 Removed small Nandi 2 Removed window 3 Removed a tree 4 Added flower petals 5 Removed a pillar 6 Removed a step 7 Added kite 8 Removed tail of monkey 9 Added turtle 10 Added a tower 11 Added dolphin 12 Added leaves in water 13 Added a person 14 Added another monkey 15 Removed the shikar

Puzzle Solutions from page 102-103

Key Word Search Answers from page 100 Sunday Nest Nile Winter October Answer Marathon Key Word of the Month: SNOWMAN

Math Magic from page 103

Saathee.com

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January 2024

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Astroscope

JANUARY 2024

Aries (March 21 – April 20)

Libra (September 22 – October 20)

The ﬁrst half of the month could be very positive for you. Your creative work may get recognized. Good health and cooperation with family can also boost your conﬁdence. You may see your downfall during the last week of the month, but your partner could teach you tactics to handle such adverse situations. Try to avoid any legal matters, as well.

After a sluggish start, the month should take a very positive turn. You may experience some competition but come out of it victorious with the help of your partner. Avoid listening to advice from friends. Don’t get involved in legal matters and be prepared to travel. A digestive-related health issue may bother you during the middle of the month. A misunderstanding with your partner is possible due to a latent fear within your mind.

Taurus (April 21 – May 20)

Scorpio (October 21 – November 20)

You may have to compromise with your morals this month. Your skills should bring in extra money. You could get terribly busy at work, but this is a good time to make new friends and possibly a marriage-related decision. You should earn a name for yourself due to your creative activities. Take extra precautions for your health and avoid enemies. Destiny is on your side.

Remain focused on your health this month as this time is fairly positive. Your efforts or ideas may not work in your favor at ﬁrst, but you’ll feel more conﬁdent by the end of the month. Surrender to destiny otherwise you may develop enemies with your inner circle. Respect your elders to receive their blessing. Travel should be avoided and be sure to drive carefully.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

Sagittarius (November 21 – December 21)

Even without conﬁdence and proper perspective, you should do well. Your reputation and education can come in handy so be sure to rely on both to move ahead in life. Appreciation of your skills may even bring in some extra income. You could make mistakes and feel lost, but as long as you avoid compromise luck should protect you every step of the way. Enjoy a long-distance journey.

Now is the time to get back to daily routines. You may receive a promotion at work, but the workload will no doubt increase along with your status. Your child may achieve respect within the community. If involved in business, this is a good time to expand your ventures. Avoid investments in land. Your family’s reputation could help elevate your social status.

Capricorn (December 22 – January 21)

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)

Effort put in the ﬁrst half of the month will produce results during the second half and said results will not be entirely promising but satisfactory. There will also be disturbances in your day-to-day pursuits. Don’t overload yourself with too many tasks at the same time. This is a good time for a vacation or a change of career. A religious or social ceremony is also possible within the family.

Life should progress very smoothly, without any major obstacles. A minor health ailment could bother you this month. You should be able to maintain a steady ﬂow of income. Spiritual power may boost your conﬁdence and guide your life in a positive direction. You can enjoy respect at work during the second half of the month. Enjoy good times and have fun.

Aquarius (January 22 – February 18)

Leo (July 23 – August 22)

A very stressful month is shaping up for you. You may be forced to juggle between a busy schedule and enjoying time with family. Added responsibilities along with said aggressive schedule may cause you to make mistakes. Listen to your partner before taking on these new obligations. Any long-term decisions can wait, so be sure to slow down and control your anger. You may also not enjoy good health.

After a slow start, you should see a powerful and positive turn. Be prepared to make quick decisions. A business deal is also possible with potential ﬁnancial risks. Don’t involve your partner in career or business-related ventures. Minor family problems could be there, but you should ignore them for the time being. Good health and self-conﬁdence can help you.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20)

Virgo (August 23 – September 21)

A hectic schedule and unexpected travel may affect your longterm plans. This is a good time to cash in on a real estate deal. Avoid your nature and work practically. A misunderstanding at work could lead to a heated argument which may not be possible to avoid, so just remain calm. Improvements to your health are clearly indicated. Bad news from your partner is possible during the second week of the month.

You may have to go against your instincts and listen to your competitors. Minor ups and downs are also possible. Your partner could be your only support. You must learn to compromise and go with the ﬂow; otherwise bad decisions could negatively affect your health. You may receive a business offer, but it’s best not to get involved for now. The ultimate mantra for this month is to slow down and relax.

Jalendu Vaidya (973-223-5047) Saathee.com

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January 2024

Call today to get your kundali chart reading and numerological consultation and find way to happier self.

CLASSIFIEDS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

For Immediate Hire: Accounting manager (must have experience). Hotel GMs - Wyndham, Choice, and Hilton brands (must have experience). Front Desk (multiple locations). Pay rates higher than the competition. Contact 704-649-6833 or abcone@abcinns.com

C-Store for Sale with Private Gas in Smithfield, NC. Heavy Traffic. 1.5 total gross approx. $1,130,000. $5k month. Owner Finance. No Interest for 3 years. Contact Randall: 919 626 1821 or maxx.noboss@yahoo.com. Gas Station Help Needed. Multiple C-Stores for Sale: Forest City, NC Positions for Cashier / Manager at 3 $179,000 + Inv, Annual $641,906, no Locations in Charlotte area. Call 717gas; Jonesville, NC $850,000, Leased, 368-8728. Reduced!; Winston Salem, NC $229,000 Hotel Help Wanted: Front Desk / + Inv, Annual $1,500,000 Fuel Gals Manager, Night Auditor & 374k; Contact: County South: 704-440- Housekeeper (Single / Couple) for 4433 or Countysouth.biz. franchise hotels in Charlotte, Gastonia, C-Store for Sale in Dunn, NC (Sitting on I-95). Approx. $2mil total gross. $285k Business, $4k month lease. For details, call 919 626 1821 or e-mail maxx.noboss@yahoo.com. Tire Shop for sale: Monroe, NC $545,000, Annual Sales $872,122; Call for details:704-440-4433.

High Point, NC & Columbia, SC. Accommodations provided. Call 704460-0379 between 6-9pm. Cashier Wanted for Convenience Store in Belmont, NC. Fluent English required. Family friendly establishment. Text / call 980-225-3341 or 704-807-6519 between 7am & 9pm.

Looking for Live-in Nanny for 1 yearold in Myrtle Beach, SC area. Call 954850-8724. Manager / Front Desk needed for Franchise Hotel in Rock Hill, SC. Accommodations Provided. Call 803517-4662. Cashier Wanted for Convenience Store near Kannapolis, NC. Very attractive salary! Accommodations provided. Text or Call 704-701-9482. Front Desk Manager Wanted for franchise hotel in Columbia, SC. Accommodations provided. Fluent English required. Text / call 704-701-9975.

NOW HIRING Experienced Eyebrow Threaders

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Gas Station / C-store Help Needed at stores near Huntersville & Northlake areas. Must speak English. Family friendly oriented people. Call 704-402-4661. Looking for GM to operate franchise motel in Rock Hill, SC. Legal status & fluent English required. Can provide accommodations. Call 864-694-6299 and leave message. Immediate Live-in or Live-out Nanny needed to take care of 6 year-old along with cooking & light housework in South Charlotte/Fort Mill area. Please call 704-460-0108. Hotel Help Wanted: Front Desk / Manager, Night Auditor & Housekeeper (Single/Couple) for franchise hotels in Charlotte (Airport Area) & Winston-Salem (Near Hanes Mall). Accommodations provided. Call 704-626-4849 between 4-8pm.

Front Desk Help & Laundry needed for Franchise Hotel in Concord, NC. Accommodations provided. Call 704-772-5554. Manager/Cashier Needed for Convenience Store in South Carolina. Please call 856-275-8966 / 803-574-3939. Sales & Marketing person wanted with college degree in related field for manufacturing company. Must be fluent in communication , familiar with MS office & computers, possess great personality & be able to work in team environment. Willing to sponsor if candidate is suitable to requirements. Contact Raj 336-5583410 or rajm@amerifabintl.com.

Need live-in or full-time Hindi/Punjabi speaking companion in Fort Lauderdale, FL for 77 year-old lady with slight memory loss to help with household chores. Female preferred. Decent compensation. Call Now Hiring. Full-time Cashier Wanted or text 919-448-5433. for Convenience Store in Charlotte Help Needed at Perfume Stores in metro area. Legal status required. Charlotte & Pineville. For details, Please call 704-241-4499 for details. please call Veer Singh at 415-265-8686. Autobody Shop hiring now! Auto Crew Member Wanted for Firehouse Body technician needed in Charlotte / Subs at Whitehall location (South Mooresville, NC. Great pay! Willing to Charlotte, Exit 1 on I-485). Full-time. sponsor a Visa for well qualified $12 to $15 per hour plus tips. Also applicant. Call 704-663-0032 or email: opportunities for shift leads. Please text VS@ColorMasterPremium.com. 980-837-2888. Saathee.com

108

Beautiful iBrows in Carolina Place Mall. Full-time or part-time available. Hourly pay plus tips. Call Hashim 202-213-5227. PROPERTY FOR SALE / RENT Property for Sale with Restaurant Structure in Smithfield, NC. Heavy Traffic. $790k. $390k down, $2k month for 5 years. All terms flexible. Owner Finance. Contact Randall at 919 626 1821 or maxx.noboss@yahoo.com.

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Gujarati Priest: Devendra Dave Independent priest. Ganesh, Randal, Navratri, Diwali's Laxmi & Sharda Pujas, Satyanarayan Katha, Weddings, Vastu, Baby Shower, Funeral Seva. Call Daveji 704-780-3563. God Blessings to All. Travel Passion: International & Domestic Air tickets. We process India Visa, OCI, Indian Passport Renewal, Hotel bookings & Tour packages. Call 509-550-9076 or 509-550-9034 or Email: travelpassion24@gmail.com Priest Available for Shree Satya narayan katha, Shanti hawan, Vastu shanty, Weddings, Baby shower, Bhumi pujan, Mata ki chowki pujan, Funeral, all types of karmakand. Please call Viral Bhatt 704-438-6334. Saathee Classified ads: Sell your business, or property. Find the perfect job, hire the perfect employee. Get more customers. Get great adversting results with Saathee Magazine, weekly email newsletter and Saathee.com. Call 704-527-7570. Neeta's Beauty Parlor: Open 7 days a week. Full service. Located near the Hindu Center of Charlotte. Call 704968-0270 for an appointment.

Gujarati Priest in NC & SC for Ganesh, Randal, Laxmi, Sharda Pujan, Satyanarayan Katha, Wedding, Vastu, Baby Shower, Hawan, Grah Shanti. Kishor Trivedi: 336-774-0597 Cell: 336486-7925 E-Mail: kishor7@juno.com. Pari Beauty in Matthews: Threading, Waxing, Facials, Massage for newborn & mom & other services. 34 years of experience. Special Deals & Great Service. email: gescpl@gmail.com or call: 704-846-7912.

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or email: saathee@saathee.com Business ads are $25 Personal ads are $15 Upgrade to RED for an additional $10 or a BOX for $15 Saathee.com ads posted daily We accept all major credit cards. Ads up to 25 words. Deadline for print is the 20th. Web ads daily.

FOR SALE C-Stores & Property These and other business available now! Call 919-626-1821

C-Store for Sale with Private Gas Heavy Traffic. 1.5 total gross approx. $1,130,000. 5k mo OWNER FINANCE No Interest for 3 yr Smithfield NC

C-Store for Sale

Property for Sale

Sitting on I-95, approx 2mil total gross. 285k Business, 4k month lease Dunn NC

with Restaurant Structure

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Heavy Traffic. 790k. 390k down 2k mo. 5yr All terms flexible. OWNER FINANCE Smithfield NC.

maxx.noboss@yahoo.com 109

January 2024

body image concerns and thus possible targets for prevention and intervention. The South Asian Body Image (SABI) Study, researchers are recruiting adults (ages 18 years or older) of South Asian descent who live in the United States. Participation is not limited to one gender identity or to only young adults to help make the study as inclusive as possible. Participation in this study involves completing an online survey (paper survey available upon request) expected to take 25-35 minutes. The survey focuses on body image and eating patterns, but will also cover topics such as demographics, stress, acculturation, and social media. This study has been approved by the UNC-Chapel Hill Institutional Review Board. For more info, interested individuals should go to: Tinyurl.com/SABIStudy. For more details, write to SABIStudy@unc.edu or call 919-843-0974.

News Notes

continued from page 70

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit

Tune Your Brain Solutions from Page 98

India hosted the three-day annual Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) summit between December 12 – 14, 2023 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Summit on December 12, 2023. GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative with 29 membercountries, which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities. India is the lead chair of GPAI in 2024. As one of the founding members of GPAI in 2020, the current incoming Support Chair of GPAI, and the Lead Chair for GPAI in 2024, India is hosting the Annual GPAI Summit from December 12 – 14, 2023 Multiple sessions on diverse topics like AI & global health, education and skilling, AI and data governance, and ML Workshop, among others were organized during the summit. Other attractions in the summit included Research Symposium, AI Gamechangers Award and India AI Expo. The summit hosted 50+ GPAI experts and 150+ speakers from across the countries.

South Asian Descent Research Study The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is conducting a study focused on South Asians, through which researchers hope to better understand the experiences with body image and eating patterns and related factors experienced in this community. Individuals of South Asian descent are vastly understudied in psychological research, which limits what we know, including which factors are associated with positive body image and which may be associated with Saathee.com

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January 2024

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Advertisers Index for Charlotte, South Carolina & Atlanta Region 360insureall.com (Maqsood Khan).....................55 Aag Ki Raat......................................................19 AmeriFab International .....................................47 Anand, Versha (Real Estate) ...............................61 Bala Sure (Broker / Realtor, NC & SC)................11 BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Charlotte) .....16 Bashyam Global LLP - Immigration Law Group..38 Bhindi Jewelers .................................................2 Blooming Buds .................................................39 Blooming Smiles Pediatric Dentistry...................61 Blumenthal Performing Arts (Events)..................10 Bombay Grille (Charlotte)..................................60 Botiwalla by Chai Pani (Charlotte - Optimist Hall)13 Brijal Shah (Keller Williams - Real Estate) ...........97 British International School of Charlotte ..............9 Brown Immigration Law (Rishi Oza, Partner)......54 Carolina Asthma & Allergy Center.......................87 Carolina Law Group .........................................26 Carolina Medical Partners..................................67 Carolinas Pediatrics (Uma Periyanayagam, MD, FAAP).71 CaroMont Medical Group (Bankim Patel MD) ....89 Charlotte Chess Center ........................................4 Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat .......................32 Chess Klub (Klub Ventures) ................................63 Chiro-Carolina .............................................81 Classifieds ................................................108-109 Color Master Collision Center.............................85 Concha, David (Immigration Attorney) ...............85 Concord Children's Clinic .................................23 Copper Restaurant (Charlotte) ...........................65 County South Realty & Business Brokers............111 Countywide Commercial (Pavement Solutions) ....73 Desai & Mehta CPAs PLLC .............................111 DJ Lalit (Lalit Hemnani)..................................105 Dosa n' More (Fort Mill, SC)..............................27 Eesha Realty, LLC ........................................42-43 Elite Motors .....................................................25 Four Points by Sheraton (Myrtle Beach) ..............45 Geological Resources, Inc. ..................................97 Global Mall / Legacy Jewels .............................115 H2 Laser & Skin................................................33 Harish Bhasin (Independent Insurance Agent) ......23 Health Markets (Medicare, Health, Life, Supplemental)53 Hindu Center of Charlotte (Events)................76-79 Hitch Hiker's Guide to College............................29 Hitesh Rathod (Real Estate) ...............................29 HX Imports (Smoke Shops, C-Store, Vape Shops).37 IndusTreks .......................................................24 Insurance - Tushar Barot, Supreme Insurance Serv....105 Insurance Shopping (Sonal Patel - Independent Agent).93 JVC Realty (Balaji Tatineni Realtor / Broker) .......59 Kasarla, Gopal (Mortgage & Real Estate)............17 Kaur, Karamjit (New York Life Insurance).............6 KB Zaveree (Atlanta) .........................................21 Khanna & Sons Jewelers.....................................15 Kumar, Kokila (Real Estate - Allen Tate)...............69 Lead Designs LLC.............................................47 LearnBhangra.com ...........................................19 Maadhurya Photography .................................113 Maharani Indian Cuisine (Charlotte)...................87 Malak Jewelers ..................................................35 Malani Jewelers ...............................................116 Malaya Kitchen.................................................69 Mathur, Gitanjali (Allen Tate Realtors)................33 Maxim Tours .....................................................47 Meenakshi Creations LLC ..................................23 Meghana (The Vedic Power Astrologer)..............107 Mehta & McConnell, PLLC (Injury Lawyers).....114 Mint MedSpa & Laser Studio..............................67 Saathee.com

Neeta's Beauty Parlor ........................................71 North American Bancard ....................................7 NRS PAY Credit Card Processing..........................5 NSD Tax & Accounting Services ..........................41 Om Tours & Travel..............................................41 One 2 Entertainment .........................................91 Osho Meera Mediation Center ............................19 Osian Softcon ...................................................51 Patel & Samatova, Law ....................................105 Patel, Mrugesh (Law Offices)..............................91 Patel, Tony (Real Estate).....................................31 Pathak, Atul (Real Estate) ..................................39 Persis Indian Grill (Fort Mill, SC).......................27 Pramukh Mandapam.........................................55 Queen City Smiles (Dr. Kanupriya Tewari) ...........89 Queens University - Dan Buettner Event 2.27.24 ..29 Ram Mortgage (Mayank Patel)...........................51 Randall Maxwell (Business & Property for Sale)..109 Ryan Shah (Tabla Lessons)..................................31 Saathee.com......................................................83 Saffron Restaurant and Catering.........................81 Shah & Associates, CPA, PLLC ...........................91 Shah & Trivedi CPA, PLLC.................................51 Shah, Anish (Real Estate)..............................48-49 Sheraton Chapel Hill (ATMA Hotel Group).......101 Shukla, Kirit (Music Lession & Band)..................71 Sona Realty (Venkat Suryadevara).......................99 SP Orthodontics (Matthews) ..............................69 Technone LLC (Securtiy Systems)......................113 The Blue Taj......................................................65 Travel Passion ...................................................51 Union Family Eye Associates (Dr. Keshav Bhat) ....85 Uniworld Travel...............................................113 Uthsaav (Wedding Planners) ................................3 VAS Realty LLC (Ashwani Dalal) ..................41/93 Vema Mortgage LLC (Chirag Rachhadia).......31/89 Vimal Realty (Vimal Patel - Realtor) ..................75 Worldwide Travels..............................................39

Index for Raleigh (Triangle), Greensboro (Triad) & Virginia Bhindi Jewelers .................................................2 360insureall.com (Maqsood Khan).....................55 Aag Ki Raat......................................................79 Allstate (Krish Parlikad)....................................11 AmeriFab International .....................................47 Apna Bazar (Morrisville)....................................63 Aura Skin & Laser (Dipan Patel).........................13 Bashyam Global LLP - Immigration Law Group..38 Bharath Bazar and Café (Cary) ...........................16 Bhat & Associates (General Dentistry)..................33 Blooming Buds .................................................39 Bombay Central (Grocery & Take Out Food)........83 Brijal Shah (Keller Williams - Real Estate) ...........97 Brown Immigration Law (Rishi Oza, Partner)......54 Cary Internal Medicine & Diabetes Center, PA......67 Cary Medical Clinic ...........................................69 Chandni's Beauty Salon .....................................73 Classifieds .......................................................108 Club-Z! (In-Home Tutoring) ...............................77 Concha Law......................................................81 Corner Stone Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine .....75 County South Realty & Business Brokers............111 Countywide Commercial (Pavement Solutions) ....73 Crescent Dental (Dr. Kavita Ghai).......................61 Darji, Iyer, Joshi & Patel (Accounting &Tax Services).29 Desai & Mehta CPAs PLLC .............................111 DJ Lalit (Lalit Hemnani)..................................105 Eesha Realty, LLC ........................................42-43 Elite Motors .....................................................25 Four Points by Sheraton (Myrtle Beach) ..............45 Geological Resources, Inc. ..................................97 112

Global Mall / Legacy Jewels .............................115 Grand India Mart (Groceries).............................76 Health Markets (Medicare, Health, Life, Supplemental)53 Hindu Center Charlotte .....................................85 HX Imports (Smoke Shops, C-Store, Vape Shops).37 Inchin's Bamboo Garden......................................9 IndusTreks .......................................................24 Insurance - Tushar Barot, Supreme Insurance Serv. .105 Insurance Shopping (Sonal Patel - Independent Agent).93 International Community Church .......................75 KB Zaveree (Atlanta) .........................................21 KDP CPA.........................................................61 Khanna & Sons Jewelers.....................................15 Lead Designs LLC.............................................47 LearnBhangra.com ...........................................19 Liberty Real Estate & Mortgage (Sunny Sebastian)31 Maadhurya Photography .................................113 Malak Jewelers ..................................................35 Malani Jewelers ...............................................116 Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley ........................65 Maxim Tours .....................................................47 Meghana (The Vedic Power Astrologer)..............107 Mehta & McConnell, PLLC (Injury Lawyers).....114 NC Dermatology Associates................................78 North American Bancard ....................................7 NRS PAY Credit Card Processing..........................5 NSD Tax & Accounting Services ..........................41 Nunna Realty (Shiva Nunna)..............................11 Nuv Yug (India Fest - Raleigh)..............................4 Oh' Calcutta (Restaurant Winston Salem) ............10 Om Tours & Travel..............................................41 One 2 Entertainment .........................................91 Osho Meera Mediation Center ............................19 Osian Softcon ...................................................51 Patel & Samatova, Law ....................................105 Patel Brothers (Cary) .................................26 & 87 Patel, Mrugesh (Law Offices)..............................91 Pathak, Atul (Real Estate) ..................................39 Pramukh Mandapam.........................................55 PreJuve Medspa & Wellness (Neelu Agarwal MD)..69 Prism Lending (Madan Khatri) ..........................13 Rajeev Devgon, CPA .........................................67 Ram Mortgage (Mayank Patel)...........................51 Randall Maxwell (Business & Property for Sale)..109 RB Realty Group (Ravi Bheemarao)....................59 Real Triangle Properties (Joe Mathews)................33 Rupa's Spa & Threading .....................................27 Saathee.com......................................................60 Sapna Hemnani (Real Estate)..............................89 Satyam Primary Care (Amit Sharma, MD) ..........27 Shah & Associates, CPA, PLLC ...........................91 Shah & Trivedi CPA, PLLC.................................51 Shah, Anish (Real Estate)..............................48-49 Sheraton Chapel Hill (ATMA Hotel Group).......101 Singh, Manny (Real Estate) ................................23 Smile Forever Family Dentistry (Dr. Narender Dudee)71 Sona Realty (Venkat Suryadevara).......................99 Spectrum Family Medicine (Sujatha Sajeevan, MD) ..29 Spices Hut ........................................................32 Stylish Me.........................................................19 Taaza Fresh Indian Bistro...................................23 Technone LLC (Securtiy Systems)......................113 The Montessori School of Raleigh........................9 Travel Passion ...................................................51 Tutoring (Nirmala Koripella - A+ Tutoring)..........6 Uniworld Travel...............................................113 Uthsaav (Wedding Planners) ................................3 VAS Realty LLC (Ashwani Dalal)................41 & 93 Vema Mortgage LLC (Vipul Hapani)...........29 & 71 Vimal Realty (Vimal Patel - Realtor) ..................17 Wake Spine & Pain ............................................79 West Cary Medicine (Dr. Kareem M.D.) ...............13 Worldwide Travels..............................................39 January 2024

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January 2024

Mehta & McConnell INJURY LAWYERS

For workers, For the Injured

Practice Areas: Workers’ Compensation Auto Accidents Truck Accidents Wrongful Death Personal Injury General Legal Matters

Mehta & McConnell, PLLC Injury Lawyers

980-326-2270

●

mehtamcconnell.com

Charlotte, NC

Viral Mehta

Jason McConnell

MANAGING ATTORNEY Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law vmehta@mehtamcconnell.com

MANAGING ATTORNEY Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law jmcconnell@mehtamcconnell.com